They are among us (PRS)

The pain pulsed from her knuckles, making its way to her brain. There were some blood stains on the trunk of the tree, but Regina didn’t care. She was angry at everything. She was angry with herself, for not getting to the park earlier. If she had, she might have seen, and been able to prevent, what had happened to Sean. She was angry with the Kehrseite, for being idiots about Wesen and mutants. She was angry with whatever had killed Sean. She was also a bit angry with Sean himself, for getting killed.

Regina sat down on the ground, not caring about the damp grass. She leaned towards the trunk of the tree, looking up in the sky. She was positioned so the moonlight made its way to her face. She took a deep breath, taking in the beauty of the forest. She had been here so many times; before she fled her home, she had used the forest as her running trail. It had been beautiful to run through the trees in every season, watching the trees and leaves change. Now, it was filled with fear, anger and desperation. It definitely wasn’t what it had once been, and Regina missed it.

She tried to think over what had just happened. She had actually met with a group of Kehrseite, that probably more than wanted to kill her at the spot for being what she was. They hadn’t, most likely because they also had to figure out what had killed Sean. That meant that whatever killed him, did also threaten Kehrseite. Regina couldn’t help but think that maybe now they knew the feeling of being persecuted. She wondered how many this being had killed, and if Sean was the only Wesen. Not all Wesen had fled to camp, but most. There was still some hiding in plain sight, or they had been taken by the army. Regina had no idea. She had heard that when taken by the army, a few were kept alive. She wondered why that was. Pictures of horrible experiments came to mind, and she shook her head, trying not to think about it.

An howl reached her ears, and told her that Vega had been successful in her grieving hunt. Regina wondered what she had killed. She had, hopefully, not been stupid enough and killed a Kehrseite. But grief did something to people, it changed them. Regina had been devastated when her parents had been killed, but she had forced herself to keep herself together for Serena’s sake. Vega didn’t have anyone left, and she was close to fall apart. The grief could be the push she needed to do so.

”Thanks,” Elijah said to the taxi driver as he handed him a couple of bills. “Have a good night,” the taxi driver replied before Eli stepped out the front seat and Lyra stepped out from the back. Samuel had jumped off a minute earlier at his apartment building.
“See you tomorrow,” Lyra yawned before giving him a tired smile and a wave, turning around to walk towards her apartment. Eli waived back before slowly dragging his feet to the nearby apartment building where he lived, hands in his pockets where he tried to feel where he left his keys.

As he closed in on the building, he noticed a man rummaging through one of the big grey garbage bins at the side of the building leading into an alley. Eli didn’t really care, one man’s trash was another man’s treasure, and fished up the keys from his pocket that made a slight sound as the metal keys hit against each other. This apparently grabbed the garbage man’s attention and he looked up and threw Eli an annoyed glare.
“Piss off,” he snapped, and at the same time his ears rounded up, nose pointed out, and eyes turned a darker shade. Oh great, a Wesen. Eli slowed down for a step or two, looking at the rat-like man staring back at him. The dark eyes of the rat man opened up and his face dropped as he looked into Eli’s eyes in a short moment of shock. “The rumors were true,” he said, slowly woging back into his human self, now grasping the corner of the garbage bin with whitened knuckles.
Eli let his gaze linger on the fidgety Wesen. He only knew that as a Wesen, it was not a pleasant thing to look into the eyes of a Grimm. Something about their true Wesen nature was reflected back, which apparently was quite disturbing for most, if not all.

“I don’t want any trouble with you, Reinigen,” Eli said, continuing his pace slowly to his door, eyes fastened on the other man. The Wesen didn’t move and instead held his place, comfortably shielded behind the garbage bin. To be honest, Eli had had enough action for today to start up anything with this Wesen. He saw as himself as officially off the clock at the moment, and nothing would come between him and a good night’s sleep. He could deal with the Reinegen at some other point, if he could find him again.

Eli opened up the front door and halted for a moment, giving the Wesen man a last long look before stepping inside, just making sure he did not follow him. After walking up a couple of stairs he was finally at his floor, opened the door to his apartment, and closed the door behind him with a big exhale. Finally home, he thought and rested his back against the door for a moment, closing his eyes. If he would have known this morning what a day it would be, he would have slept in a bit longer.

Regina had nothing else to get out of this night, really. She stood up, her mind starting to work out what she had to do to figure out what had happened to Sean. She started walking back to camp, and went through the invisible wall. She turned left and got into her tent. She heard the heavy, slow breathing of her sleeping sister as she quickly undressed and made herself ready for bed. She crawled up in the bed next to Serena, putting a protective arm around her sister’s shoulder. Serena automatically curled up her body as close to Regina as possible, still sleeping. Regina stroked her hair, listening to the breaths of her sister, and falling asleep with her hand still in Serena’s hair.

The next morning, Regina had figured out what to do. She wouldn’t stay in camp knowing there was another threat out there. She got out of bed, and put on her clothes.
“Where are you going?” Serena asked sleepily, and looked at her with her big, brown eyes.
“Nowhere. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine” Regina said and nodded, meaning that this was not something that was up for discussion.
“I don’t like it when you leave” Serena muttered and turned around in the bed, her back facing Regina. Regina shook her head. Neither did she, but she had to.
“I love you” she said before exiting the tent. She walked up to the border, and Vega where nowhere to be seen near the watch tower. Not that anyone could blame her.

Regina didn’t know why she hadn’t been thinking about this before. There was a Wesen bar hidden in the outside of Maidstone. It was down in a basement, and there was only one kind of ID acceptable; woging. If there was anywhere information could be gained, it was there. It was usually most active at evenings and nights, but considering the current times, it was probably quite busy even now. It didn’t take very long to get there, but Regina made sure to take the long way so she didn’t run into the wrong people. She bit her lip and put her hair up in a high ponytail as she was walking. She had been to the bar many times when she was younger, and even done some bad stuff there, too. She knew the owner pretty well as well as the bartenders. They would hopefully know something that was valuable for her, or at least have heard something.

Regina turned left and walked out on the street. She kept herself on the pavement, she didn’t want to almost get run over by a car again. She looked around discreetly, as if she was worried that the entire army squad had marked her and was following her. Could they do that? Probably, but she would have smelled them if they did. Plus, the camp was still intact. She shook her head, smiling at herself for being so damn ridiculous.

Elijah bit into the sour, green apple as he hurried down the street, almost stopping to grimace a bit. Whoah, that hadn’t been as ripe as he thought it would be. While chewing the sour piece he beeped himself through the gates to their base office and gave the familiar security guard a little wave. After being let through all doors he went up a floor to the cafeteria, throwing the apple into one of the recycling bins on the way.

Some of the people he knew were sitting at one of the cafeteria tables chatting together. He quickly went up to the cashier and bought a banana. At least that would not be sour enough to paralyze his taste buds.
“Eli, over here!” Maya called, waving him over to their table. He walked the few steps needed to reach them, sitting down at the bench in a spot that the others cleared for him. “I heard you were called out on a mission last night?”
Eli nodded and paused long enough to peel half of the banana. “Non-violent thankfully. We went to the woods. Wesen casualty apparently,” he said and peeled the other half of his fruit. Mentioning Regina crossed his mind, but was nothing he felt was needed to say. Her secret was safe for now.

Maya leaned her head in the palms of her right hand, frowning slightly. “Before you got there? Who killed it?” she asked, the others following the discussion.
Eli frowned and shrugged his shoulders before taking a bite, fastening his gaze onto a little crumb on the table. “Unclear,” he mumbled after he swallowed the piece of fruit. “That’s what the briefing is going to be about I think.”

The others nodded before a familiar face made his way to their table, snatching a chair on the way.
“You all went down unarmed against two Wesens yesterday?” Colin exclaimed before even managing to sit down. Eli chucked with a new mouthful of banana, shaking his head before finally being able to answer. “We had weapons, we were just never given orders to arm up,” he said. Funny how rumors spread quickly. Colin laughed before slowly scratching the base of his own neck. “Samuel made it sound much more hardcore,” he grinned before suddenly frowning. “Why would you not meet Wesens weapons in hand? I swear, I would not pull that same trick with mutants,” he said. Eli nodded. It was true that it seemed completely senseless. Four humans against two strong Wesens or even one Blutbad would be suicide without weapons.

“Sergeant Conner had either a new strategy or some new orders higher up, it was just pure intel reasons. I guess they needed information, and I’m pretty sure no one cooperates when being pointed at with assault rifles,” Eli shrugged and ate the last of his banana, folding up the peel as he chewed.

Regina looked around once more before she went down the stairs. At the bottom, a big guy stood, looking at her as she walked down the steps.
“ID” he said with a dark voice, his brown eyes scrutinizing her. Regina woged, and the guy nodded.
“Not everyday you see a Balam around” he said before he opened the door for her. Regina retracted her woge and walked into the bar. It was quite big, and quite cosy for being a Wesen bar. There were quite some people there, sitting around in the booths, chatting. Some of them turned their heads as the door opened, as if they were afraid a Grimm would walk in or something.

Regina walked up to the bar, sitting down on one of the barstools. The bartender turned around, and looked surprised.
“Well, well, well. Look who’s alive” he said, grinning.
“Hey, Eric” Regina said, leaning back. Eric shook his head and picked up a glass and filled it with beer. He slid it across the bar.
“It’s on the house. How have you been doing?” he asked, and Regina shook her head.
“Not good. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Sean Fisher died yesterday” she said, and Eric looked surprised to hear the news.
“I heard that a Wesen had died, no one could miss the howls last night, but I had no idea it was Sean. Was it the Kehrseite?” he asked, and Regina shook her head.
“They claimed they didn’t do it. They’ve had the same death happening to their own” she said, and Eric arched an eyebrow.
“You talked to them? I assumed they’re all dead by now then” he said with a grin, and Regina shook her head. She told him what had happened.
“….So now we need to now if people have heard anything. We can’t have yet another threat running around killing us off, it’s enough with the Kehrseite and their awful weapons” she finished, and Eric shook his head.
“I’ve actually heard something, but you’re not going to like it” he said, leaning towards the bar.
“There is a Grimm in town. Or at least, so they say”. Regina frowned. A Grimm? That wasn’t very good news.
“It’s not good, but why would a Grimm kill Kehrseite?” she asked, and Eric shrugged.
“I guess he or she wouldn’t. Which means that you’ve now got two threats” he said and Regina groaned. A Grimm. She sure hoped the army didn’t know that. They would scoop up the Grimm quicker than ever.
“How do you know?” she said, and Eric pointed in the direction of a man sitting in a booth.
“Jason. He’s a Reinigen. Claims he saw the Grimm yesterday, but apparently he let him be” Eric said. Regina felt confused. A Grimm that didn’t kill a Wesen and maybe even killed Kehrseite? What the hell was happening?
“If you dare, you can go and check with Victor and Liza. They might know something, but it’s not cheap to get them to talk. It wouldn’t surprise me if you had to kill the Grimm for them” Eric continued and Regina cursed. Why couldn’t they just live in peace?

Regina sat there for a while, theorizing with Eric what the threat could be. Unfortunately, she didn’t get much more information than she had had when she walked in. Except that there was a Grimm somewhere in Maidstone. She finished her beer and walked out of the bar. She walked upstairs and stopped. Her plan had failed, and now she was empty handed. She had to go and see what Victor and Liza had to say, but it was dangerous to go alone. Those two were vicious Skalenzahne who were known to kill both Wesen and Kehrseite, just for the fun of it. Unfortunately, they usually sat on quite some information, but you had to pay them to get it. And usually you couldn’t afford what they wanted. Regina kicked a pebble out on the road and turned around. Eric had told her where Jason had met the Grimm the day before. Maybe she could start there. She sighed and started walking, hoping that she would understand more about what was happening.

Maya was about to say something before doors to the lecture hall opened up. They quickly got on their feet, and Elijah took his peel to the nearby trashcan before sliding the backpack he had on off his shoulders. With it in one hand he followed the others to the lecture hall that was slowly filling out with people.
The hall was somewhat like an auditorium with steeping rows down to maximize the view for everyone. Eli took a seat next to Colin and placed his backpack between his feet, leaning back into the dark chair. Colin looked around what kind of people had entered the hall. “They’re apparently briefing all different units,” he mumbled to Eli before leaning back himself. Eli took a look around the audience as he pressed his lips together. It was true – there was quite a lot of different people joining in, some that he had never seen before from the regular army units as well. Either they had the whole SCU here and let the other leaders brief their own troops afterwards, or then there would be more of these briefings during the day for others who couldn’t fit into this one.

“Stay seated,” a man’s firm voice suddenly called over the room. It was sergeant Conner who had entered the room and continued to step down towards the lectern in front. The audience quieted down, eyes on him now, ready to hear what they were there for.
“This will be a short briefing. We are still investigating the matters and will therefore fill you in with more information as it comes,” he said, pressing the little screen in front of him that dimmed the room ever so slightly. The projector kicked in and projected a picture on the larger white screen behind sergeant Conner.
A pale corpse, eyes half closed lying on the grass with three clear points in a triangular matter on its neck. Eli could feel the audience move a bit as some leaned in closer in their chairs to scrutinize the picture. Conner sure did jump straight into business.

The sergeant changed the picture. Another corpse, this one from the morgue with the same neck marks. Then another one, and another.
“We have stumbled upon something of a mystery,” sergeant Conner continued, eyes gazing over the quiet audience as he took a short silent break. “Something is killing off both men and women in the same fashion. No or limited physical violence, but the same three marks on their bodies,” he said, pointing up to the screen.
“Our pathologists have not yet figured out if it’s some kind of poison or power,” Conner said, and nodded towards one of the people in the front row who lifted their hand up. “Could it be some sort of gang or cult tattoos?” she asked.
“We believe victims differ too far from each other to be part of some kind of cult,” Conner replied. “The first killings were noticed a couple of months ago with only a very limited number, but they’re increasing. New to the story is that it’s not just targeting us,” he said, changing picture again to a regular looking woman at the morgue.

“We revisited some of the corpses and did DNA tests. From our 18 confirmed victims, two were actually Wesens, and no conclusions yet on mutant victims. Yesterday our third Wesen victim was confirmed in the field,” Conner continued, closing the screen behind him, resulting in the lights slowly getting back on again. Eli blinked a few times to adjust before crossing his arms lightly over his upper body, a frown growing between his amber eyes. So this was the case with yesterday's Blutbad.

Regina stopped in front of the building where Jason had claimed he had seen the Grimm the previous day. She didn’t know what she had expected, but was quite disappointed when she didn’t find anything. It was as if she had thought the Grimm would just stand outside, waiting for her. She shook her head and walked down the street, thinking. There must be someone else who knew what was going on. It had just been a couple of hours, if she was lucky, Eric would know more tonight. She decided to try again tonight, and see what came up. She didn’t want to face Victor and Liza if she didn’t absolutely had to. Sure, she wanted to know what caused all this, but she sure didn’t want to put her life on the line too much.

She came to the city centre, and stopped. She watched the people walk around, going on about their day. She headed to the park, when she suddenly heard something. She looked to the left, and saw a Kehrseite who stared at her. It felt quite unsettling, but she switched focus to where she was going. In the corner of her eye, she saw that he was following her. She prepared herself mentally, and wondered what this guy wanted.

As she walked into the park, he was a few metres behind her. She decided to risk it, and partially woged. Her eyes turned amber, and she could hear things much clearer. Lucky was that, because she heard the electrical sound of a taser. She turned around just as the guy fired his taser, and she moved to her left.
“You’re not very subtle, to be honest” Regina said before fully woging. Right now she didn’t care if this guy was a Grimm; she was being attacked, and had to defend herself. The guy aimed the taser towards her again, and Regina quickly ducked, and ran up to him, punching him in the face. As he was reacting to her punch, she kicked him on his shins, making him fall down on the ground. As he lay on the ground, he kicked her legs, but she managed to keep her balance. He aimed his taser towards her again, but this time she kicked it out of his hands. He got up to his feet quicker than she had anticipated, and punched her in the face. She growled, and used her claws to scratch his arm. He kicked her in the stomach, and she turned around, giving him a back kick on his shoulder. She heard something crack as her kick broke something in his shoulder, and he screamed in pain. Well, this was sure attracting attention very soon. Regina ducked, but the man came at her will full strength, slamming into her and forcing her to the ground. He was lying on top of her, punching her in the face again and trying to hold her down. He punched her again. She growled again, and managed to wriggle a leg out. She kicked him and bit his arm, feeling the taste of Kehrseite blood. She stood up, and grabbed him by his arms. She took all the strength she got, and flung him across the park, several metres, before he landed on the ground with a thud. He scrambled together before hurrying away. It was as if he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

Regina retracted her woge and felt her face with her hand. Her nose was bleeding, and she felt a throbbing pain in her right temple. That was sure to become a bruise. She still felt the taste of blood in her mouth, and some of it was around her mouth. Her stomach was hurting, but at least she was alive. She looked at the taser on the ground. Who the hell had that been, and how did he know what she was? He hadn’t been a Grimm. She held her hand under her nose as an attempt to stop the bleeding, hoping this fight hadn’t attracted too much attention.

Sergeant Conner looked around the room at the quiet audience. “This is something unique in our records,” he began, crossing his arms firmly. “There might be more victims than we have initially found. Maybe double, triple…“
Eli noticed how Colin next to him raised his hand, and straightened his back as the sergeant nodded to him to give him the turn of voice. “Could this be done by mutants, if you only have human and Wesen casualties by now?” he said before slowly leaning towards the back of the chair.

“It’s tricky,” Conner answered, releasing his arms and instead letting his hands rest on the lectern. “As we know, mutants are usually refraining from human cities more so than Wesens, mostly because some can’t hide their genetics from their appearance, which can be why we have not stumbled upon mutant victims yet.” Conner looked out at the rest of the audience. “Mutants have so far not been as clean in their killings either, and have no previous accounts of killing Wesens as we know of.”

Sergeant Conner took a quiet break, looking at the rows of people, before straightening himself. “SCU can stay, all others – thank you for listening,” he exclaimed, and many of the people around them started moving around to carefully exit the room and slip past the people still staying seated.
After the door closed behind the last person, Eli looked around the people still there. There were his Legionnaire friends and others from the mutant and Wesen specialized groups quite scattered around the lecture hall. The sudden voice of Conner made Eli turn his attention back to the front or the hall.
“They may be taking blood.” Sergeant Conner was now leaning towards the white screen wall, gazing over the troops left in the hall. “Not from humans, but from the Wesen casualties,” he continued, crossing his arms once again.
“The three puncture marks were done on every victim, but on our two Wesens in the morgue the marks were a bit rougher and their blood count lower. Not completely drained, but enough to be noticed by the pathologists. What this means we can’t really say,” he said, looking over the people.

Eli ran a hand through his hair, frowning slightly. Taking blood from victims sounded very next level. Colin next to him was scratching his neck, also looking quite perplexed at their sergeant.
“As of now, we stop raids for the time being.” Silence spread again in the hall. “We patrol like business as usual, but do not initiate violence against mutants and Wesens. Self-defense is allowed, but avoid unnecessary casualties.” A soft mumble spread in the hall as some of the troops whispered to each other. Colin and Eli shared a quick look. The army was really trying something different now, something he would not have guessed from the conservative leaders.
“We want to point out that this is not the army’s doing. Something is killing all sides now, leaving these trophy marks to victims. As long as the killer or killers are free, we want to open up communication channels with the other side – this is a shared problem, and if mutants or Wesens get any information, we want it as well.”

Conner fixed his eyes on one row at a time before finally meeting Eli’s gaze. “As for us, our intel says they still don’t know we have a Grimm.” Connor leaned forward and left his place along the wall and moved back to the lectern. “You can spot them,” he said, and Eli wasn’t quite sure if it was a statement or a question.
“Yes, sergeant,” Eli answered, standing up to be better heard. “But when they’re visible to me, they can just as easily see what I am.” He placed his hands in his pockets from not really knowing what to do with them as the eyes of the audience looked up at where he was standing. “That will usually trigger either a flight or flight response, and both are undesired if you want to communicate with them.” A sudden flashback came over him from the Reinigen from last night. If seeing a Grimm either made you flee or attack without any provocation, he failed to see the benefit unless it was what they had been doing until now – capture and neutralize.
“We will see how we will utilize that,” Conner said, tapping his fingers against the lecture. “You’re dismissed. New schedules will be available within an hour,” he said, giving a firm nod before walking off the stage.

Regina cursed, and held her hand under her nose. The blood was dripping on the grass, and she stood a bit bent to avoid getting it on her clothes. She looked at the taser on the ground. Who had the Kehrseite been? He was stronger than normal Kehrseite, and his blood didn’t taste normal, either. It was as if it was mixed out with something else. The throbbing pain in her temple continued, and she felt how her left cheek was red and started to swell a bit. The guy had punched her twice really hard, after all.

She saw how a man and a woman came rushing into the park. They had most likely been witnesses to the attack. Luckily, they seemed to be Kehrseite, otherwise they wouldn’t have run up to her since she had been in fully woge merely seconds ago.
“Are you alright?” the woman asked, and Regina nodded, taking a step back. She looked at them carefully, and the man held up his hands.
“We won’t hurt you, we just saw what happened. We’ve called the police, they’re on their way” he said, and Regina could have punched him right there and then. How the hell was she supposed to explain that she for one, bit her attacker deeply, and two, that she flung him several metres across the park? Sure, she looked strong, but not that strong.

“It looked horrible, you must be quite shaken” the woman said and opened her handbag. She got out a tissue, and held it out to Regina. Regina accepted it and held it under her nose which refused to stop bleeding.
“He jumped the wrong person, you looked like you knew what you were doing” the man said, and he actually looked quite impressed. Regina didn’t say anything, just trying to figure out what to say once the police arrived. Sure, she could manipulate them to leave, but that was risky. She had heard that a Grimm was able to resist her manipulation. She didn’t know if it was true, but she didn’t want to risk anything. Especially not if there was a Grimm somewhere in Maidstone. She just had to explain to the police that she was attacked unprovoked, and somehow try to convince them that she was a Kehrseite. She was probably not going to be as lucky as she had been with the army.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t call you an ambulance? Your cheek looks like it’s going to swell quite a bit” the man said, and Regina shook her head.
“I’m okay, really. If it’s someone who needs hospital it’s the guy who attacked me” she said, and looked at the tissue which was now deep red in colour. The woman offered Regina another one, and she took it. She really needed to stop this bleeding; she didn’t like having her DNA scattered around. You never knew what the Kehrseite could do with it.

”What the hell,” Lucas grunted back at the cafeteria outside the lecture hall. Some of the others were gathered as well, some on their phone to see if their schedules would be updated soon. “These lethal monsters are out there killing, electrocuting, murdering, freaking ripping our people apart, and now we’re supposed to just let them be and try to be friends?” He shook his head and rolled his eyes in protest before grunting again. “This is bullshit! We are going to lose a lot of men because of this.”

Maya shrugged, biting on the nail of her pinky finger. “This could calm down some of the more aggressive zones,” she said, examining her fingers. “But I don’t think everyone will agree with us walking up, shaking hands and asking them to spill their beans just like that.” She nodded towards Eli before switching hands. “And I don’t know what that last thing was about, but using Eli as a Wesen radar doesn’t sound very smart? I mean, they really dislike Grimms, right?” she said, biting into her other pinky nail. “I’m no Wesen expert, but that’s something even I’ve understood.”

Eli nodded, putting his phone to rest on the table. “No one has jumped of joy yet, so to say,” he said, pouting slightly with his lips. They all seemed to be confused – he sure hoped their leaders knew what they were doing.
Colin suddenly exclaimed a disappointed groan. “Maya, we’re on forest perimeter patrol for a while,” he mumbled while looking at his phone, clearly not happy with his schedule. Maya gave him a slight grin. She didn’t mind at all, especially as the patrols could vary a lot – sometimes there were nothing happening at all, and other times they could see everything from human teenagers sneaking around to real mutant or Wesen action.

Eli took his phone again and checked his now newly gotten schedule. This day was completely empty, and the weekend was pending. Either that meant he was free and could enjoy a good weekend without any catch, or that the beginning of next week would be intense on-call work. Either way, he would enjoy his time off at the moment.
“Enjoy your day, I’m heading home,” he grinned, chuckling at the groans and protests he got back. Eli threw on his backpack as Penelope muttered how unfair it was, and he gave Colin a wink that was answered with a middle finger and a smirk. The others slowly got on their feet as well and exchanged a few last words before they were going to head off in different directions.
“We’ll text you, you’ll owe us all a beer for this,” Maya exclaimed after he left their table, and Eli shot her a quick grin before he made it out the gates. Now, should he head home for a little nap or do something else?