Holly crap! 114 hits? I feel so loved! I just wish I had more reveiws. Oh well. Anyway, here's the next chapter to Protection!

Chapter 5

The moon was full and the stars bright, but neither could be seen within the brightly lit city below. Cars came from every direction, bringing to the building the richest and most powerful people in Japan, all to attend the formal gathering. The men of Schwartz stood around the magnificent room filled with both men and women who wore expensive dresses and suits that looked more like something suited for the 18th century and butlers. Schwartz preferred the regular three piece white suits and that was basically it. Something they could wear comfortably and still look good in. Not to mention be able to fight in if the situation so required it.

Currently, nothing had happened so far. They were there to keep an eye on their employer and get to the necklace if anyone were to enter the safe room. The information given to them explained all about the safe in which it was stored in. To get to the safe you had to press a certain combination of floor numbers on the elevator buttons. There, the elevator would take you to the deepest part of the building where the necklace was stored.

Once off the elevator, there were only two steps before a series of infer red sensors beamed across the hall. Included with that were the tiles. You could only step on the white tiles, while the black tiles would trigger alarms. If anyone were to get through that, they then had to get the necklace. Locked within a crystal glass case, the necklace was surrounded by yet another set of infer red beams. Should any alarm be tripped, the vault would bolt shut and the room filled with toxic gas while Schwartz's pagers went off. It would be impossible for any normal thief to attempt, but these weren't any normal thieves.

The whole safe was completely secured. But before the party began, Crawford had a vision while in his study. He knew that all of those security devices would be nothing to the thieves and devised a plan, one that would show them just how skilled these women really were and allow them to observe their style, all without risking their assignment.

They, however, had yet to show up, even though Crawford's predictions insisted they would arrive. Their employer was uneasy about the plan, but went along with it anyway. He would do anything to make sure that his valuables were safe and sound, and that his life was also intact. Crawford stood by him to make sure no one tried anything funny. Nagi remained home, wanting to get through as much of the database security as he could. Shuldig remained on the outside of the crowd, watching from afar. Farfarello preferred to watch outside the building. There was no way they could miss them.

"Ah, Tokishino!" Crawford looked up as a man looking to be from an Italian background approached their employer. Following just behind him was a young woman, no older than Nagi. Her hair was a deep green, near black, color while her eyes were the opposite, the brightest green Crawford had ever seen. He would've thought her to be a very nice young girl, had her expression not thrown that idea out the window. Cold, emotionless, and lifeless, and yet her eyes still shinned with something. Hope? Crawford couldn't tell. Her dress was a pure white that didn't seem very much like her color, nor her style, long, down to her ankle with long sleeves that clung to her arms, covering every inch of her body from view. Gold hung from both her ears and her neck, tacky and distasteful jewelry. This was nothing a normal teenage girl would wear. She followed close behind the man who approached Tokishino with open arms.

"Domenico, so good to see you again my old friend," Tokishino greeted as he hugged the Italian man.

The man couldn't have been any older than 35 or 40, long dark hair pulled back into a loose hair tie with a few strands of hair falling out here and there. His dark eyes were cold and heartless, though his face showed signs of a mask of kindness. This man looked friendly, but it was easy to tell that he was nowhere near friendly.

"You too, old friend. I'd like you to meet my daughter, Emeralda," the man known as Domenico said, gently bringing the young woman forward. So this was Emeralda, the mysterious girl who none of them had even seen. Suddenly this just got a bit more interesting.

Shuldig. It seems we may have found our missing woman.

Shuldig looked towards Crawford, picking up on his telepathic message. Looking towards him he saw the woman shaking hands with Tokishino. So that's Emeralda? Well, at least now we know she actually exists and is alive.

True. I want you to take a look inside her mind. Find out what you can about her.

Will do. Shuldig replied as he sipped his drink. He let his mind wonder once more, searching for Emeralda's mind. Slowly he parted the crowd of minds, removing the unknown ones until he could pick out the one he was searching for. A set of walls remained closed around her mind, but those walls willingly crumbled once they felt his presence, almost like she wanted someone, anyone, to know something. If that was what she wanted, might as well give her that at least. He slowly slipped into her mind being careful not to disturb anything. Her mind was mostly dark, having blocked out most of her emotions and memories for some reason. There was only one part of her that remained lit, though most of it was being limited by something, whether it was memory loss or something else that prevented her from giving him all the information she could.

Walls, solid cold walls that let no light in. A single door with no window. Computers, several computers linked to one another in endless wires. Numbers, letters, codes. Emotions of fear and loneliness. The feeling of hope. And a child, no more than two years old. All of these things rushed towards Shuldig, and he quickly tried to make sense of it all, taking all the pieces and putting them together like a jigsaw puzzle. This is normally what happened every once in a while when he came across some of the more complicated minds. He concentrated hard on putting the pieces together, trying to decipher what it was she wanted him to know. After what seemed like quite a while, he finally was able to put all the information that he could gather together.

Seems our Mr. Domenico isn't who he says he is.

Crawford glanced towards Shuldig, having heard his voice inside his head. What did you find?

I couldn't find too much. Something's blocking me from some of the more vital pieces of information. What I can gather is that she was taken from a group of people very dear to her. She's being held in was seems like a cell that has a bunch of computers in which she is forced to operate. It's like an underground organization so to speak. She hacks into databases and creates security codes and such for Domenico. What for she couldn't tell me. But there is one other thing.

And what is that?

Shuldig opened his eyes a bit to stare down at the sparkling liquid within the glass. A child. She's caring for a small child, no older than maybe two. She feels a great need to protect this child, a duty to someone.

Crawford frowned at this. What is Domenico doing with a child?

I'm not sure, but neither the child nor Emeralda are his kids. Both were kidnapped it seems.

I see, Crawford replied, looking back at Tokishino and Domenico. I think this just got a little more interesting.

Shuldig nodded before glancing up as he sensed something coming, or someone. And it's about to get even more interesting. She's here.

Dark was the hallway that led through the safe. It was illuminated only by the dim lights above that kept the infer red beams from being seen. But this was no challenge for the dark figure that stood at the beginning of the hall, a sapphire held within the slim, gloved fingers.

The figure looked towards the necklace, a small smirk played across her lips as her shadowed eyes landed on the target ahead. "Hello my beauty. Time to come home."

Ok, so now we know a little bit of what happened to Emeralda, but why is she there? And who is this child she's taking care of? And even better, will the guys catch this Jewel Thief, or do they have something else planned for her? Read the next chapter and find out!