(Boom. Sorry I'm naked.)

Flying much quicker than he normally would, Mannik fought with his SociPad. He finally was able to open the damn thing, and pressed buttons quickly. The first call was a wrong number, and ended with a few curse words thrown into the phone for waking the owner.

More buttons were pressed quickly, and this time a voice heavily accented in the manner of Below answered. Mannik explained the situation quickly, and, though it took a while to convince the man on the other side of the device, an agreement was reached.

So far, his emotions had been laid to the side and forgotten, but as he drew near, barely taking time to be stealthy, Mannik hooked unto the bottom of the city. He set a good pace once he hit the streets, and he arrived at the small house Adelmar lived in at the same time as a group of workers. They were all clearly from Below, and had been brought here and forced to do a variety of work.

Between the stealthy, small group were an assortment of tools. Mannik led them to the woman’s backdoor, testing the lock. He assumed Adelmar wasn’t in the best frame of mind, since it opened easily.

The group followed him inside. Despite being a group, they barely made a sound, and in under a minute they were all in Adelmar’s foyer. The body was easily seen, and the group moved to it. They set to work, intending to hide all evidence a crime had been committed. It all seemed a bit too practiced for someone to believe that this was the first time the group had done this.

Unsure whether to go to Adelmar, Mannik debated, watching the men work for a moment, before letting his emotions win out once more. How did she have this affect on him?

With a slight hesitation, Mannik moved to the room Adelmar had hosted him in, and knocked gently on the door frame. “He’ll go missing, but it won’t lead back to you. Someone has already agreed to confess. It’ll seem like a robbery gone wrong…” The soldier’s face twitched slightly, like he wanted to say more, but all that left his mouth was, “Can I do anything? For you, I mean. Not this. You.”

~<3~

Sarah tilted her head, unable to keep a flush from her cheeks. Everything else was explainable. Even the room, the dress. While it was beautiful and required some though, Zenon had actually put serious thought into this gift. While it was gorgeous, it also had some very serious uses.

Her chest felt a bit tight, and her eyes felt like they were stinging. The Commander blinked quickly, holding her hands out to gently take the necklace. Her blue eyes seemed shiny as she turned the babble around, examining it.

When she raised her eyes, and after her throat was cleared, there was a glimmer of something that hadn’t been there before. “Thank you…” Sarah finally managed. She shifted, holding the necklace out to Zenon, turning her back to him. She raised her hands, lifting her fiery hair away from her neck, and glancing back, waiting for him to place it on her.