This is set in AU: nations being ruled by royalties (but it's a modern day setting too). All the characters are human. There are minor changes in details (things they wear, extra alchemist accessories, how things went) but it's all to match the story. Characteristics aren't exact either I know, don't eat me! It was suppose to be a short one, like, really short but things got out of hand and I kept typing. It's not wow or anything but I hope you guys like it :D
The summary: After their Palm Springs mission, Sydney disappeared leaving Adrian's bed with only a note in explanation. Lissa calls in a meeting to discuss the rebels and safety plans that include Sydney and The Alchemist, only to be shocked when Adrian says that Sydney no longer works for them, but that's only the beginning to the wild meeting.
...
One of the disadvantages of being a royal is that you have to attend meetings called in by the Queen, even if it's 9 in the morning. It didn't matter that you were feeling like shit because your artwork seems to look like a 5 year olds idea of a masterpiece lately or that your girlfriend hasn't called you in forever, because at that moment you were a subject of the Queen's.
Forcing myself out of bed and to the bathroom was enough movement to make me want to go back into bed again. After a quick shower I pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a green shirt, did a little something to my hair and headed out the door. I might not like waking up early, but I still have to look good.
Forming thoughts wasn't something I was capable of doing when I was functioning on three hours of sleep. I felt a nagging in my stomach and decided that a stop at a coffee shop near by wouldn't harm anyone. After all, if they wanted me to be part of the discussion I had to be fully awake, and that wouldn't be possible unless I had something to fill my stomach and maybe a cup of coffee.
When I walked in late to the meeting room, coffee in a hand and a bagel in the other, no one looked surprised or gave me a second glance. Lissa Dragomir – the Queen – sat at the head of the table. On the right sat her half sister, Princess Jill, and on the left sat Christian Ozera, the royal boyfriend. Rose Hathaway, the Queen's best friend and guardian stood close by with Dimitri Belikov and Eddie Castile, two other guardians. All six of them seemed to be deep in conversation. The only other guardian stood by the door, not inside.
"Well, it seems like you already started without me so I think I'll just go back to bed," I said making a show of spinning around and heading back out.
There was an exasperated sigh before Rose called after me, "Adrian don't be ridiculous, come back. This is a serious issue."
I spun on my heels with a witty comeback on the tip of my tongue but it died when I saw the serious looks on their faces. I took a deep breath and silently moved to take a seat next to Jill. "What is it?"
Lissa sighed and slumped into her seat, "As you might have noticed, there has been civil unrest lately. People don't want to be ruled by a Queen, they think it's unfit for their country to be lead by a female. They want another family to rule, preferably a king who's above his fifties. Some want the royals to be completely wiped out. We've asked for extra help, and we need you to be here when they come."
Other than the "need for extra help" none of this was new to me. Ever since the royal scandal between the Ozeras and the Ivashkovs, no one has slept in peace and the people seem to think it's time for a change. Even though the royal line has moved to the Dragomir family, some are still unpleased; especially that an Ozera might be their new king sometime in the future, even more so that he was so close with his aunt.
Natasha Ozera, Christian's aunt killed my aunt and former queen, Tatiana Ivashkov, and if this wasn't bad enough, my own mother had done her own part in this claiming it was to protect me. So to say that the royal scandal was my least favorite topic to discuss would be an understatement. I also wasn't a fan of politics to begin with so I was surprised, if not a little nervous, as to why I was here.
I tried to relax in my seat, sipping coffee from my paper cup before replying, "What kind of help would require my presence?"
Lissa glanced quickly at Jill and Eddie before looked back at me, "I know that Sydney works for the ASSA, The Alchemist Security and Safety Agency. We had to contact them because they are currently the best agency that could provide safety for us abroad. There has been an attack last night on Jill and me and we think it's best if she was taken to somewhere safe, again. I know you had joined them on the last mission when I first took the throne and I couldn't think of anyone better to accompany her now. Eddie of course will be there and we are hoping that they let Sydney accompany you as well since all of you seem to be on good terms with the agent."
I was shocked, unable to form a reply; and it wasn't because it was too early for me. I sat upright staring at everyone on the table, waiting for someone to burst into laughter and say that this was a joke. Clearly it wasn't.
I blinked once before running a hand through my hair, "well sorry to burst your bubble but Sydney isn't working with them anymore." And her and I were on more than "good terms" but I wasn't going to add that.
"What do you mean she's not working with them anymore?" this came from the Russian warlord and Eddie's idol, Dimitri.
"It means exactly what it means. Sydney realized that the aims and ideas of the Alchemists don't line up with hers. She had a little trouble with the higher authority and she left."
Everyone on the table looked at me like I grew a third head. No one, other than me, knew that Sydney left her job. Eddie and Jill knew she had been thinking about it, but it was almost impossible leaving the job considering it involved top secrets and security programs of the nation and every important person in the country.
Rose looked perplexed, "but – but why wouldn't she tell us or me? And since when did Sydney have issues with authority?" It wasn't surprising that Rose couldn't wrap her head around the idea, the Sydney she knew was different from the one I knew. The Sydney from then didn't question her superiors, she just went a long but the Sydney I knew was different, she was her own person.
I was about to reply but a knock on the door interrupted me. Angeline walked in followed by at least 7 ASSA agents. All of them stood straight, arms behind their back with an expressionless face, in black suits. Their presence made me uncomfortable, there was a reason Sydney left them, and whatever it was it must have been bad. I didn't trust them one bit. Lissa, ever the graceful queen, welcomed them and waved for them to have a seat. Eddie moved behind Jill, Dimitri stood near Christian and Rose fixed herself next to Lissa.
After introductions, in which the surnames Sage and Darnell caught my attention, everyone went right down to business. Talking about when we will be leaving tonight, the schedule of the new security guards that will be standing at the royal family doors and following them at all times, where we'll be heading and even more boring information. I tried to focus but I couldn't keep my eyes off the two men who sat at the other end of the table. Jared Sage and Tom Darnell, you would have never guessed from the looks in their eyes or the way they spoke about their work that they had children who went against them.
Sydney Sage, the love of my life and the daughter of the heartless man sitting on the table, had left her job, which was against all protocol, disappearing from the face of the earth two months after our mission in Palm Springs. We'd met during that mission with the aim to keep Jill safe, developing an unlikely friendship which slowly turned into something more. During the last few months in our stay at Palm Springs, Sydney sought out an ex-alchemist agent, Marcus, who told her all about their dirty little secrets.
There were plans of running away before our romantic relationship and it broke both our hearts, but she changed her mind and came to be with me. After the mission was done however, she seemed to be more at edge during work and when we talked or met. Eventually she told me she had to go, didn't tell me where or for how long or with who. She spent the night with me and asked me to trust her. The next morning she was gone with a note telling me she loves me, that this will all be explained soon and two words: Centrum Permanebit.
Tom Darnell was the father of Sydney's co-worker, Keith. He was with us the first month of the mission at Palm Springs. Everyone believed him to be the golden agent, the perfect example of how young alchemists should be, but Sydney and I caught him spilling secrets to other governments and rebellious groups. Sydney reported him and he was taken away, to be punished and to deal with the consequences of his actions. We never heard from him again until Sydney was called in for his trial as witness. She said, that even though he should be punished for what he'd done, they were too harsh and the things they did to him made her green. I shuddered at the thoughts.
If Sydney gets caught the same would happen to her, that's why she left without you.
Even though it pained me to admit, I was glad that Sydney ran off without telling me where she was. If I knew, I would buy the first ticket to be by her side. She was doing it to be safe and I admired her strength, but I'd be damned if I said it didn't kill me everyday. I missed her laugh, her smile, the way she'd go off like a walking talking encyclopedia, her addiction to coffee and the way she'd crinkle her little nose when I get a slushie, telling me how sugar wasn't healthy.
God I just missed my Sydney.
Someone nudged my leg, bringing me back to my Sydney-less reality. I blinked a few times before focusing on Jill who looked at me with a concerned expression before motioning towards her sister with her eyes. I shifted my gaze to the elder Dragomir who was apparently waiting for me to say something.
"Did you say something cousin?"
Lissa seemed to be trying hard to not roll her eyes on me, but that was okay because her blue-eyed boyfriend did it for her. "I asked if you had any issues with the plans we had made? Does it interfere with anything important?"
Other than my art classes and my life, not really was what I wanted to say, but serious words like this weren't expected of me. So I gave them what they wanted, "well I would have preferred if the location was somewhere like Las Vegas, Miami maybe even Barbados but since you already made a choice, I can't say that I do really."
There was a collective sound of sighs and he's never going to be serious and other familiar words muttered under breaths and I tried not to let it get to me. They finished things off, talked about how we'll get to the airport and the timings and soon enough, everyone was standing up to bid the alchemist farewell and to get ready for the flight.
Before anyone could go anywhere, Jared Sage cleared his throat loud enough for everyone to stop and look. He faced me with a forced smile and said, "you are the young Ivashkov lord right?" he didn't wait for my answer and kept going. "I know you were in the Palm Springs mission with my daughter. You don't happen to still be in touch with her do you?"
His question surprised me as well as confused me. Aside from being completely out of the blue, I figured this might be a test or a way to get information. Other than having immoral ways of getting things done, the alchemists also forbid any relationships between young alchemists and other people, let alone royals. It was one of the things that made Sydney against the idea of us in the beginning.
"No," I studied his eyes, looking for an explanation to the reason behind the question. There was no care or concern for his daughter, just anger and disappointment. And because I felt a surge of distaste towards this man because of the pressure he put Sydney through and the unattainable level of perfection he compared her to, I decided to press on the buttons, have a little fun. "Did something wrong happen to her? Or is she missing?" I stared right into his eyes. If he said that she was missing, it will show that their system has faults, and if he said no … well he'll be a liar.
The man took a step back and cleared his throat, "nothing is wrong. She's as well as one can be, I was just checking." I mumbled a very nice word under my breath that luckily no one heard. He actually lied. "Anyway, this was a very productive meeting. I am sure everything will go as smooth as planned."
As he said this, his eyes flickered to the door and to Tom Darnell. It was so fast, I wasn't sure if I had imagined it or not. His tone was too practiced, almost fake. Something felt wrong. From the look on Dimitri's face, he could feel it too. Before any of us could say or do anything, the door swung wide open and at least a dozen men covered in black streamed in.
There wasn't time to panic. Eddie shoved Jill towards me, yelling to keep her safe, as he went into combat mode with an assailant. Christian and Lissa stood close by while Dimitri and Rose turned on their kickass mode, taking down attackers in record time. Angeline stood close by, a protective barrier between the rebels and the royals.
Or at least I thought they were rebels. After a close inspection of a fallen opponent that Angeline took down with two kicks to the stomach and face, I noticed a faded lily mark printed on the left side of his top. It made me stand in place. The lily was the official logo for the alchemists. The first time we met Sydney, she had a golden lily pin on the left side of her suit jacket as well as a tattoo on her cheek. I looked at my friends to see that they noticed it the same time I did.
The alchemists from earlier were still in the room, looking unfazed by what's happening. They planned this I realized. They used Lissa's trust to get what they want. Was this what Sydney found out? Shit! I yelled at Christian to keep Lissa behind him, as I did the same for Jill. Out of nowhere an alchemist showed up, one who'd been sitting with us on the table just earlier, and held Angeline in place with a cloth to her mouth. In a matter of seconds, she collapsed.
He turned to us with a malicious grin, "you know what's wrong with your Queen? She's too naïve. This mission was just too easy, lack of guardians by the door, giving us all the plans of the palace, best way to get in and out unnoticed. Royals, yeah right." He spat the words like it was venom in his mouth. "You can barely keep your hands to yourselves up here, what are you going to do with your people? Why don't you go back to Russia you little piece of s-"
Before he could finish his words, Christian swung at him. "How about you keep your mouth shut you slug."
I snorted at the insult thinking there were much more appropriate ways to describe him. The alchemist "slug" heard me. He narrowed his eyes at me, "what are you laughing about Ken boy? You'll be going back home with them as well." Realization seemed to dawn on his face as he gave me a once over and he snarled, "you are that guy who was with Sydney in Palm Springs aren't you? She didn't go with me for you? I can't believe she dropped her level to someone like you." My hands on my sides were in fists, as I looked the guy over. I nearly laughed when I recognized his face. Ian. "But Sydney's gone now isn't she? She left you all alone; you think I don't know about you and her? Why do you think she freaked and ran away? I found pictures, and damn, if you weren't with her in them I would have really had f-" again he was interrupted with a punch to the face, but this time it was from me.
He fell to the floor and I swore at the pain that went through my hand. "Don't. Don't you ever talk about Sydney and next time get your facts straight, I'm Romanian not Russian."
Dimitri showed up, nodding at Christian and I like a proud father would when his sons follow his steps after taking in the sight of the two alchemists on the floor. He frowned at Angeline's limp body before lifting her up and swinging her over his shoulder like she weighted nothing. "We need to start moving, stay close."
We started running out but before we could escape, more alchemists poured in. Jared Sage was nowhere in sight. Dimitri disposed of two alchemists by banging their heads into each other and flung them away. He was about to reach for another when the sound of glass breaking and gunshot made us all freeze in place.
Two figures, dressed in black head to toe – face included – flew in like a scene from an action movie. One of them held guns in each hand; the other held two, 1-meter length wooden sticks spinning in each hand. Great more Alchemists who want our heads on steak but their actions took me off guard. They ran close to us, fighting off the alchemists. The fighting had stopped only for a few seconds, the alchemists taking slightly more time as they'd been taken by surprise. That didn't last long either because smoke filled the room.
It was a smoke bomb, I could tell that much. I heard Eddie yelling at me, "Move it Adrian!" I took hold of Jill's shaking hand and pulled her with me as I followed Eddie, who ran next to one of the ninjas who joined. Dimitri ran with Angeline still unconscious on his shoulder, Rose followed with Christian and Lissa on her tail.
When we got out, the palace was in chaos. There were rebels and alchemists fighting guardians. A guardian moved towards us, saying something about the palace being under attack and that it wasn't safe here at all. We were still unnoticed so Dimitri took the few minutes to plan something out, but Eddie interrupted him. "Dimitri, I already have two cars waiting outside for us. You head towards the east exit with Marcus, I'll take Adrian and Jill to the other side with Sydney. Use the tunnel ways."
Dimitri nodded in understanding and without question we split into two groups. With the gun carrying ninja in the lead, we weaved between people and ran staircases until we came upon this so-called tunnel ways. Safe inside, Eddie stopped for us to catch our breaths but I couldn't think about that. The only thing on my head was Sydney. Eddie's words were spinning in my head. I moved in front of him, and tried to ask calmly, even though every vein in my body was jumping up and down, I asked, "You know something about Sydney?"
His eyes moved towards the ninja, who was looking at me. "I couldn't tell you, we had to keep it a secret. We didn't want anyone to get in trouble, and we couldn't let the Alchemists think we knew something."
"We?" my voice was a whisper. My eyes moved from him to the Ninja, who I studied. Dropping the guns, slowly the ninja began to unwrap the dark scarf that was spun over his face. Her face my mind corrected when her features came into view. My heart tripped. I felt my throat close up and my lungs stop working. I felt stupid for not realizing it. Her eyes were the only part uncovered and I couldn't even tell.
"Hey Adrian," she whispered, like I was a wild animal she didn't know how to approach or how I'd react. Hell, I didn't know how to react. I stood and stared. The black jumpsuit hugged her body like a second skin, something I never thought Sydney would ever wear. She pulled at the black beanie on her head letting her blonde hair down. It was different, all the layers were gone and it was now cut into one layer that stopped below her chin. There was a strip of black across her face, and eyes, undoubtedly part of her outfit. When she noticed where my attention was she scrunched up her face and wiped at it with her hand, uncharacteristically smudging it even more on her face. "Marcus insisted," she then used her hands gesturing at her body saying, "he wanted to live the part, even though I told him it would be in daylight. It's easier to move in bu-"
But I didn't wait for another word, in two long strides I was standing in her personal space, her face in my hands. "Oh Sydney," I breathed before capturing her lips with mine. My kiss was half desperate, half crazy; it was perfect in all the ways that a kiss can be. In other situations, I would have expected Sydney to push me away because we were in front of others, but she took me by surprise when her small hands grabbed at my shirt. My hands moved to her waist, gripping her because it felt like if I ever let go, she'd evaporate. I threw in the fear and worry that I carried with me during the time she was gone, the wild insanity that was my companion when no one was around. My need for her was answered with her own, one of her hands making their way around my neck pulling me down making my head spin around.
After what felt like forever, we pulled away but not ready to let go. I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against hers. I couldn't say anything; there wasn't anything to say. She was here; she was with me; that was enough for now.
Then I decided to comment on something so was so un-Sydney like, but which I liked very much, "I like this jumpsuit, I like it a lot." I trailed my fingers down her arms making her shiver.
She leaned up and whispered close to my ear words that made my imagination go as wild as my love for her. "I think you'll like it even more when I take it off." I might have growled at that, but I wasn't sure.
Eddie cleared his throat, "as much as I'd like for the two of you to catch up on this not so secretive anymore relationship, we need to get the move on." I heard Jill smack his hand and telling him not to ruin the moment. Sydney buried her face in my chest hiding her smile and I wrapped my arms around her, chuckling.
Waking up at 9 am felt worth it.
Thoughts? I know, it was bleh but at least it's something right? I have been dying with my CIE Exams and then Government exams, then we had our graduation, family visiting from abroad .. etc etc. Hopefully that summer started I will be able to write more but for now I'd really appreciate your thoughts on the story :3 ( Sorry if there are any mistakes, I proofread it but you never know)