Moko-chan: Well erhm, somehow I wanted to write about Kamael first but it was a bit difficult so I'm avoiding that for now. haha…. (Edited because pika318 pointed out some details in vol 15 that I missed out.)

Chapter 3: Suspicion

Ah, what beauty, what grace.

A lone man stared into the distance as he turned a corner. He was planning to make his way somewhere else but that intention had been completely forgotten as he laid eyes on what he would consider true beauty.

That form, that luscious hair. Can she be considered my goddess? Maybe, not yet, she's almost there.

He started making his way closer to his target, ever careful to be sure that he walked in the most gentlemanly way possible. His target seemed to notice him. She turned to face him and seemed to have a perplexed expression on her face.

Those features, that delicateness, it's more beautiful than I imagined.

And then he made his move.

The man grabbed his target's hands and ignoring the surprised squeak from his target, he started speaking.

"In an accursed place such as this, I have thought there was nothing but a bleak future before my eyes. But you, you appeared before me. Someone to cleanse the shadows of my soul, someone to bring light into my life! THIS MUST BE FATE!"

The target's face turned bright red and she opened and closed her mouth a few times, each time trying to get a word out but stopped short as though she was so befuddled by the situation that she could not even put a proper sentence together to protest against such a treatment.

"If it's not too much trouble, I must insist that you join me fo…owch!"

Suddenly a hand that did not belong to either party came down on the head of the man who continued to spout nonsense that his target did not understand.

"Sariel…leave her alone already…"

The short man called Sariel clutched the top of his head in pain, finally releasing his target, and with tears in his eyes, he wheeled around to face his attacker.

"Sataniel! What do you think you are doing?! You're interrupting…!"

Sariel raised his fists in protest but he got ignored. The one called Sataniel turned his head to the young woman.

"Abigail, you better go. I have something I need to speak to Sariel about."

Abigail gave a confused nod, still trying to understand what just happened in the past five minutes. Then she quickly walked off, leaving the two men alone in the corridor of the medical wing.

"How dare you, Sataniel?! Are you getting in the way of my eternal happiness?!" Sariel demanded, glaring at the taller party.

"Seriously, first Lailah, then Cassie and now Abigail. I thought you learnt your lesson when Cassie, despite being well known for her patience, threatened you with a scalpel." Sataniel said with an eyebrow raised.

"Ah, I underestimated her. Lailah was gentler but she rejected me brutally."

"By saying she was not into shorter men."

"How did you know that?"

"She told me."

"Wha…life is so unfair. Why do all the tall guys get the luck?!" Sariel bowed his head, dejected.

Then with a shrug, he spoke and declared his next course of action.

"I must say that I am more interested in these medical angels, but it seems like most of them are not interested in finding romance."

"Who would be at this kind of time?" Sataniel rebuked immediately.

It was already surprising that someone like Sariel had also realised the dire straits that they were in but unlike other people who have experienced such a situation, he still decided to continue with his flirtatious actions. Perhaps for him, it was a form of relaxation.

"I should try one of the beauties from the research department. There are beautiful girls as well aren't there?"

"Seriously, Sariel…" Sataniel started shaking his head.

"Ignora is admittedly beautiful despite that icy demeanour of hers….and I don't think she will reject me the same way as Lailah…." Sariel grinned in a lecherous manner as he thought about the head of the research department.

"Don't you dare."

"Huh?" Sariel's smile slid from his face as he thought he heard the other man mutter something.

Sataniel turned his face away, looking embarrassed.

"Nothing. Enough with the idle chatter. I need your help."

Sataniel's serious look was enough to dissipate all kinds of snarky remarks that were going through Sariel's mind.

"Alright, alright. So what do you want?" Sariel asked, resigned.

Sataniel passed Sariel a large thin envelope.

"I need you to check up on those two kids that you brought in."

"Huh? Why, what's wrong with Kael and Shakeena?" Sariel raised an eyebrow, looking doubtful as he took the envelope.

Kael and Shakeena were the two young interns sent from their home planet to help out with the research on the cure for the disease outbreak ravaging their home.

"Something. Anyway, you're the one who brought them in and took care of them for a while, I'm sure this should be a walk in the park for you."

"I brought them in under orders. What's with this sudden nonsense?! Though I don't know the details, Ignora said that if not for those kids, your research wouldn't have made such breakthrough!" Sariel gripped the envelope tightly, causing it to crumple.

"I'm fully aware of that." Sataniel nodded, his arms crossed.

"In fact, it's not much of a stretch to say that they saved us! Why do you want to do this?"

"Don't you think it's strange that interns, barely fresh out of college, are asked to take on such an important research and they happen to be highly knowledgeable in gene research and gene therapy?"

"Don't tell me you are jealous…"

"I am not jealous. I just find it very odd that they have knowledge on gene therapy for non-genetic illnesses which only had two small scale studies and no meta-analysis." Sataniel retorted angrily.

Sariel gave a blank look as Sataniel started saying technical terms which sounded like a foreign language to him.

"I have a Bachelors in Law, not a PhD in medical genetics."

Sataniel stared at Sariel for a moment, let out a tired sigh and continued talking.

"I am fully supportive of them but I get this feeling that there's more to then that meets the eye. It's as though they were sent here just to lead us in the correct direction."

"And that's a bad thing….in what way?"

"It's not. Not for now at least. I just don't like the feeling that we are just like puppets being pulled along by them."

"..."

"My instincts could be wrong but there is really something off about them. They are so close to Ignora and I keep thinking of the worst-case scenario. And that recent incident isn't helping at all…."

"Okay….?" Sariel tilted his head trying to make sense of what Sataniel was saying.

"It sends chills down my spine just imagining that they might manipulate Ignora, she's never been careful when it comes to handling other people…"

"Sataniel…. It's alright. I understand." Sariel walked closer to the other man and patted him on the shoulder.

"What?"

"There's no harm in me looking this up and if I don't do this…"

"?"

"You'll probably lose sleep worrying about Ignora every single night."

"Wha… what?!" Sataniel sputtered. For the first time in a long while, his calm facade was broken.

"Sataniel. I can tell when a man is in love." Sariel grinned again.

"I am not in-"

"Though I never imagined that someone as easy going as you would have feelings for someone who seems emotionally constipated"

Sariel cut off Sataniel's chance to retort mercilessly.

"Sariel, if you don't shu-"

"Yes yes, I get it. You are not in love but you are just showing your utmost concern and care for her because if any harm came to her, you won't be able to live with yourself."

"I swear I'm going to get angry if you don't stop talking."

"I'm giving up on Ignora."

"SARIEL!"

"Though I can't say that I'm too fond of doing things like this, I'll see what I can find out." Sariel tucked the envelope under his arm with a sly smile as he watched Sataniel regain his composure.

"...I'm counting on you. Thank you."

"You're wel-"

The polite pleasantries were then interrupted by an angry shout.

"SARIEL!"

The two jumped at the sudden loud voice. The owner of the voice, a tall and lanky man with a weird explosive Afro hairstyle, skidded in the corridor the two were in. He was panting and he gave a glare at Sariel that made it seem like he wanted bloody murder.

"Where the hell were you?! Skiving from your work?!" The man took two quick steps to Sariel and grabbed the smaller man's collar.

"Raguel! Fancy seeing you here…." Sariel gave a weak laugh. The laugh was then followed by a squeak as Raguel started dragging him off.

"You told me you were on break and you disappeared for two hours, do you know how much paper work there is…."

Raguel started grumbling but after taking a few steps, he still turned his head to give Sataniel a brief wave.

"You done with him?" Raguel jabbed a finger at Sariel.

"...yes?"

Raguel gave a nod when he heard Sataniel's confused reply before continuing his journey with Sariel as his baggage to their office.

Sataniel stood where he was, shocked by the abrupt closure of his conversation with Sariel, and watched as the other two left quietly.

A few days later, Sariel had dug out as much information as he can about the two interns. He never thought it would be so difficult just finding anything. After all, it was written on their resume which schools they went to, where else they have done an internship and it even had a home address.

With all the telephone transcripts and other information he could gather stuffed in an envelope, he briskly walked to the research department asking whoever he met on the way if they had seen his requestor.

"He should be at the canteen. I saw him buying food there a short while back."

Finally, someone had a more concrete response.

Augh, the canteen? At this time?

Sariel let out a groan as he thought about how crowded the place was at this point of time. Giving other party a quick nod to show his acknowledgement, Sariel made for the canteen.

Just as he stepped through the double door opening of the canteen, an arm raised in front of his face.

"Your ID sir."

It was one of the security guards. From his tone, he sounded bored.

"Guh, forgot that you guys are here now." Sariel muttered in an annoyed manner.

"Can't help it, man. Increased security and all." The guard gave a nonchalant shrug.

Sariel dug out his ID and showed it to the guard. The guard took the ID, looked at Sariel and back at the ID again.

"You can go." The guard then returned the ID and motioned with his hands for Sariel to carry on walking.

"Thanks."

Where is he? Why must this place be so crowded?

With some tiptoeing and small jumps, he finally caught sight of a group of about twenty scientists, easily recognisable by their white lab coats and multiple files placed on the table with their food, seated together. Flanking this group were some more security guards. One of the scientists there was Sataniel. A tall, lean man with glasses and neatly styled hair seemed to be having an agitated conversation with him.

As Sariel inched closer to the table, he could hear the conversation more clearly.

"…working so hard and those morons think it's wise to drag us back so they can claim rights to the discovery?!"

"I agree with you Kamael. Maybe hiding our results would be a good idea…." Sataniel said.

"Don't be naive. Even if we tried to hide it, there's someone among us who would leak it out."

"Yeah, who's there to trust anymore? Everyone's so stressed out to the point that we're trying to kill each other."

The scientists who were nearby listening nodded in agreement, muttering among themselves.

"Kamael, I heard that you got attacked by..."

One of the scientists started asking and then stopped himself as he glanced at the security guards standing around them.

Kamael shook his head, giving a look that clearly stated that he did not want to discuss anything. That was when he noticed Sariel standing behind Sataniel. Kamael shot Sataniel a glance and pointed behind him.

Sataniel turned his head.

"Oh hi, Sariel."

"Sataniel, a moment please." Sariel said, feeling awkward as the whole table of scientists seemed to be staring at him, with exception of Ignora, who he just noticed sitting in the corner with her nose buried in a thick book, with the interns were sitting opposite her, busy eating an unusually large amount of food.

"Sure." Sataniel stood up from his seat. One of the guards shifted uneasily. That guard looked at another guard, seemingly his superior, and asked.

"Should I go with them?"

The other guard waved his hand dismissively.

"It's fine. Sataniel can take care of himself."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Gabriel."

The guard waved his hand dismissively again.

Sariel then led Sataniel out of the busy cafeteria.

"It does not look good."

Sariel and Sataniel had managed to find a place in the research wing that had very little traffic. Sariel opened the envelope and passed the documents to Sataniel.

"Basically, I can't dig up anything about them. I called the school which they supposedly graduated from, the company which they supposedly worked with for a couple of weeks and the apartment they supposedly lived in. Nothing, zilch. No one knows them."

Sataniel's eyes widened and he started skimming through the documents.

"Well, that is strange indeed."

"Yes it is. Anyway, that contains the information of the people I managed to call. Perhaps it would better if you spoke to them yourself. There's no way for me to interrogate them fully for more information after all. Also, maybe you would also like to speak to this person." Sariel pointed at the last sheet of paper.

"Who's this?"

"He's supposedly the one who arranged for those two kids to come here. Maybe he knows a bit more."

"I see. Thanks a lot Sariel."

"You're welcome…sigh." Sariel suddenly sighed.

"Now what?

"It's just that...in dramas, when someone digs too deep into finding the truth, nothing good happens." Sariel gave a wry smile.

"I have to agree with that…it would be good if it turned out to be nothing serious."

"I hope so too. Good luck Sataniel."

"Thanks buddy."

Moko-chan: In the midst of writing this chapter… I somehow realised how I can write the one about Kamael.

pika318: Sariel teasing Sataniel is so funny. And poor Raguel, having to be Sariel's babysitter.