Standing up straight, arms crossed, the police officer studied every detail of the room through the glass. From the cute pink decorations that weren't supposed to be there and the against protocol heels of the pathologist inside, to the white hair of the body (strands draping over the edge of the steel table). The body of the once living, breathing, child truly was beautiful. Pale skin that seemed to glow whenever the lights were dimmed, flawless aside from the gaping wound where her heart had been.

Just looking at her disgusted him.

To think that even children were used by the dark lord. Horrendous. Though it was true Kalvin was a child who worked with them, he was never in harm's way. All he did was advise their scientists because he wasn't even let near the chemicals. If anything happened to him, the entire department of espionage, and the boy's mother, would be angered. That of course included him.

Autopsies like this usually had more supervision, and always more than a single person. Not only because that was much more practical, but also to make sure that even if some villain's influence had infiltrated to the deepest depths of their government there would at least be someone not under their control. Of course there were always exceptions.

This woman worked alone. No assistants helped her aside from her AIs and machines and the advanced robot aids of this era. Not because she was hated, no. Even if people did hate her they could still work alongside her ignoring it. Anyway, she had her admirers too. Sure she was annoying and insulted people and was an overall horrible person who wasn't in prison only because she hadn't been caught for her crimes yet (everyone suspected her to be planted by some villain or another), but she was also pretty. Her red curls bounced with her steps, also against the dress code, and that attracted people. So did her features. Small and cute and so very expressive.

He didn't see her appeal, her personality ensured that, but others did. The real reason nobody worked with her was because of her fits. Though she had been examined, and had weekly check ups, they hadn't been able to tell why she had them. Nor could they estimate when she would. It was too dangerous for both her and her colleagues to work together, so they didn't.

She went to the corpse, about to touch her face. He didn't know whether it was to examine her, or simply because she was breaking another rule (she could just be doing it because she thought the girl was pretty, it wouldn't be the first time) but-

"Aris. Gloves. Wear them."

Aris paused, listening to the head com she was wearing. She giggled, "Sorry~ I'll wear them now."

He sighed knowing that she wasn't the least bit apologetic. As she pulled a pair on, he closed his eyes for a moment. Aris couldn't do anything she wasn't supposed to in that short a time, and he was right. She couldn't.

With her back to the body she didn't notice the pale fingers of the body twitch, and so she, like the man, certainly couldn't have expected the ensuing explosion.

Not when it was silent.

Both of them were thrown to the walls like ragdolls, heads hit hard. The shards of glass piercing into the man's body pained him, but not as much as the sound of the shattering glass had, or the fearful crack of Aris' head that had rung out so loud, so clear, that for the moments before he managed to stand and seen her on the floor of the lab, easy even despite everything being everywhere now, he had thought there had been a gunshot.

Not that the rectification relieved him. She was bleeding profusely, and though he too was injured, it wasn't severe. Her on the other hand... he feared her dead, or near it.

Though he wanted to run down to check on her, he couldn't, not with the girl standing down there.

She looked up at him (and though he couldn't make out the colour of her eyes, he knew they were cold. so very cold to the point that her freezing stare terrified him even though she wasn't glaring), but it felt more as if she was staring through him. As his vision went down to her chest, realisation led to silent horror. The hole was still there. Her heart still missing.

Almost as if trailing after his sight, she raised her hand to the wound, letting it be stained with blood. It seemed that the sensation wasn't what she expected because she looked down but, instead of showing terror, she wrinkled her nose in annoyance. Then she ignored it.

The nonchalance to what should be a life threatening wound, how she seemed to have raised from the dead, the pale deathly visage she held, all of it only confirmed his suspicions. This girl (no, not girl, woman. despite her appearance she was much older than one could fathom. or at the very least, she was several good decades older than his and Aris' years combined. and yet she was human) was not a mere soldier of a dark lord, but one of the Generals of the Empress of the Dark Empire. The public simply referred to her as the Dark Empress (it was annoying how their way of identifying villains was to just tack on 'dark' to the beginning of everything. there were times that he felt as if it wasn't even an actual word because of how often it was uttered).

This Empress was among the worst of villains, and so, the fact that this was a General of hers elicit a fear in him that burrowed into his bones. The Grim Reaper. A position held by a certain line. For some reason, they would not die. Would not be pained. Would not feel.

And she was here.

The girl woman made her way up slowly, with a calm that contrasted his panic. Even as she walked nearer, and nearer, the shards of glass on the floor piercing her bare feet, leaving trails of blood in her wake, he didn't move. All he could do was curse internally at the men who had brought her here.

They had said it was a simple field operation where the military had had a skirmish at the border and only managed to get their hands on the enemy's dead. That they thought she had been enhanced and wanted to examine the Empire's techniques. That nothing would happen. Well they were wrong (he knew it wasn't any fault of theirs. that a General was of much higher ranking than any they could deal with. and he knew she had probably been planning this from the very beginning to trick them. it didn't stop his bitterness).

When they were face-to-face (not really because she was a shorter than him. though that shouldn't matter much when he's about to die so he didn't know why he thought that) she tilted her head to stare at him. With the dread coiling around his neck, almost choking him as if to kill him to, he awaited his demise. And yet she just continued to stare at him.

This was actually more terrifying than her killing him straight away. Now he knew that she had brown eyes (the normal dark brown that so many had. it wasn't special. even thought the rest of her was strange with the pale skin and hair) and that she was tall, but short enough that his neck was starting to ache from looking down.

As the fear on his face shifted to discomfort, she stared. The woman didn't even blink. There was absolutely no movement, heat, anything, that could indicate she was alive, definitely not, he thought wryly, a heartbeat. If he hadn't witnessed everything he would have brushed her off as a statue.

She continued to stare. Now his feet were starting to hurt and he shifted. Was Aris okay? The Grim Reaper hadn't reacted to his movement so maybe he could go check on her?

Of course he couldn't. That was just wishful thinking.

Smiling, expression awkward, so very unnatural, he asked, "Could you stop? Usually people only stare this much when they want a date."

The woman tilted her head, still staring at him, and he started to wonder why he said that. All he'd meant to do was ask her to stop and maybe leave if she wasn't going to kill him (he really shouldn't have followed protocol and removed anything of use before entering. it's not like Aris did. then again, even if she did she still had weapons at the ready) but now she most definitely would.

Again he waited, and waited, and waited, until finally the woman gave a nod. "Yes. I'll take you on a date. Make sure you're free on... always."

And then she left.

He was stuck, watching her leave through the door as if nothing had happened. A date? He wasn't paid to have relationships. Especially not with the enemy. Ah wait, no. Yes he was. That was part of espionage.

How exactly did he get another task while overseeing an existing one. And how did he get it instead of dying? The Grim Reaper... was probably playing with him but he would need to report this.

First though, he rushed down. The area was a mess. Still he could make his way through easy enough and kneeled, checking on his colleague's injuries. Despite how she looked, she wasn't that bad off, and her bleeding had already stopped. She would live, even if she did need to be treated. Carrying Aris, he stood.

"Aw Yuri... you're so lucky," she murmured, her eyes fluttering open. She stared up at him through blurred eyes, as if she couldn't see properly. She probably couldn't.

"Lucky?" He didn't stop moving to converse, continuing to the nearest infirmary. Hopefully it hadn't been destroyed, though everything did seem to be fine. Everyone was just.. missing for some strange reason. He dreaded to think of what had happened to them.

"A cute lady asked you out. I'm kinda jealous you know."

Sighing, Yuri pushed open a door. "Said lady probably is planning to get my guard down and gain information from me without torture. It's not a good thing."

"Mmm," Aris just hummed, before giggling, "'kay!"

She still didn't understand why Yuri was so against the idea, the lady had been as cute as a doll! But if he didn't like her that was fine, maybe she could set one of her babies up with her! If she was only interested in men anyway, if the lady was interested in women too...

Aris giggled more.