On the first floor of the flight deck, Anders lifted his flight goggles off of a nearby hook and fastened them over his eyes. He turned toward the departure platform. He blinked at the sudden alarm and voice message from his wrist watch.

"Backup requested."

Anders lifted his wrist gadget into view and pushed the goggles above his eyes. The voice was familiar, but it surprised him to have come from Ghost in Sector Four. He frowned. "On my way," he responded. Then he fiddled with the device until it beeped and a woman's voice tuned in.

"Yes?" the voice came through the static.

"I'll be late to Sector Two," Anders explained. "Please ask your senior recruit to stay an extra fifteen minutes on their shift." He took a step toward the departure platform and began to fasten his jacket shut in the front with his free hand. "You can send the junior recruit home."

"Ho-ho, did the teaparty with your pet run long?" she inquired. "Or should I say, did you and your pet get carried away with something else-"

Anders raised his voice. "Please respond. This is Anders in command of Highrose, paging for Cecilia in command of-"

"For f**k's sake, roger."

Anders clicked to close the connection to Cecilia. "What I would do to understand the point of having a sibling," he muttered to himself. Two steps later he spread his wings and dove. He scanned the surroundings as he descended below the clouds and toward humanity. He noticed a shinigami on the ground that seemed familiar from a distance. He planned a plunge attack with low accuracy.

...And then cursed silently as the shinigami backed away from Ghost. Anders dented in the earth below with a landing technique that sent a magic shockwave into the ground and kicked a dirt cloud up. It drew an approximate line between the shinigami and ally, and it gave Anders time to think of a move with higher accuracy.

He stood up from his couch. "Ghost, what is your mission here?" he asked, though he kept his focus on the enemy figure on the other side of the cloud. "To disband? Or execute?"

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Silas stared. Save them? he thought. And Jason...

Before he realized what he had done, he was across the table and practically nose-to-nose with Arael. "How?" he half-pleaded, half-demanded. "You have to tell me. Jason was everything to me and I still failed him. Please. I-.." an ache in his throat cut his words short. He managed a whisper. "I would do anything for a chance to do it right."