Grave Matters

[tsukikoko]

After Cassius sent further texts, the seconds ticked by, soon turning into minutes. There had been no reply from the shifter. Nor was there going to be, but she did have a response, albeit not the one likely expected by any in the hospital room.

A loud thunk signalled something smacking against the window in Koji's room, but should either of the inhabitants look around to see there source, there would only be a smear of blood and perhaps the disappearing flash of a crocodilian tail. Flight had never been a strong point of Sara's and in her distressed state those skills were even worse, causing her to descend too quickly to avoid collision.

It was a wonder she didn't knock herself out on impact.

Instead, the stunned animal careened across to the next window, transforming again as it floundered. Now, should Cassius look towards the commotion outside, he would see first a frantic ermine, claws scrabbling against the glass. Then the shape reformed into a gecko, it's tiny body clinging half to the sill, other half the glass. It skittered up the window, changed into a beetle halfway up that slipped through a tiny opening and into the hospital proper. From there, a snake, falling into the tiled floor and writhing upon the ground as though pained.

Every single one had a familiar crocodile's tail and more than a few sported flashes of ginger along the head or back of the neck. It wouldn't take long to know that Sara had made her way inside rather unceremoniously.

Finally, Sara's form settled on a Jack Russel, deep red pouring from her nose and down the front of her face. She gulped blood, the metallic, cloying liquid settling heavy in her already churning stomach.

With a whine and a few staggered steps, the shifter finally vomited, her small canine body quivering as she hacked up the contents of her stomach. Nose bleeding, vomiting, almost certainly concussed and still reeling from the revelations, the horrific potentials, surrounding her fiancé, Sara was not in a good way.

[beastly]

'sure'

Simon rode to medical, agitated slightly the whole way. Something smelled bad. Not like spoiled milk. Bad. Wrong. It wasn't easy to explain. It made him even more nervous. He made a note of it, and temporarily counted it as just a visiting super's effect, although he kind of doubted it. Not now. Talk to Fao before you freak out. Dont get in your head.

When he got out of the elevator and found Aaron's scent left too, he was puzzled. Aaron went to Law Enforcement. Did he go pay a visit to his pal...? But he hadn't smelled him on the button for medical... Simon stood outside the elevator for nearly a minute trying to sort it out in his head. He wasn't exactly trained to use his nose to find things, it was just something he picked up by living with lycanthropy for the past six years. He trusted his nose, though. It rarely steered him wrong. Well... two Aarons, right? He felt nauseous. He needed Fao's opinion. He needed to bounce this off someone else.

He continued on his way to Fao's office feeling sick, probably looking a bit distressed. He mused, in a dark part of his mind, that it was fitting as he was heading to talk to the doctor.

[qhostqrowls]

Faolan scrolled through document after document, each one as normal as the last. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Some of the newer files he'd written himself, so there was no point in even looking at them again. He clicked the final page closed with a sigh. Looked like he'd have to do digging elsewhere.

As the mouse hovered over shut down, Faolan noticed the red dot of a notification in his inbox. He clicked on the email, and inmediately felt his stomach drop.

"Oh jesus." Faolan stared at the screen in shock. Reread it. Aaron Telmore, it said plainly. Autopsy report. He slumped back in his chair, too stunned to properly process it. He'd spoken to Aaron this morning - their usual brief greeting as they passed eachother. Everything had been so normal. 

The doctor blinked back his grief as he opened the report, a terrible sense of dread settling over him. None of this made sense. Surely they'd made a mistake. Someone that looked like him, had similar dental records, was the same height. Please let it be someone else, he thought, steeling himself for the details. Please let it be a mistake.

[MP]

[Simon]

Aaron's scent had dispersed compared to the confines of the elevator, but Simon could tell it didn't lead to Faolan's office. It turned long before that, leading down another corridor with no sign of stopping. There was still something off about it, all the more perturbing for how faint it had become. The agent's scent didn't pool in crevices or cling in spots like footsteps. Rather, it permeated the air, uniform and placeless. The same sickly trace as before hung around it, mingled with it.

The smell brought a pang of wolfish instinct. Of earthen places, rotting leaves, and the reek of carrion. Carrion. The other smell, sickening and pervasive, suddenly clicked into place. It was muted and incredibly faint. But the other scent, whatever it was, had been a corpse.

[jarahamee]

Cassius stood outside, waiting impatiently, crossing his arms after staring at a blank screen. He felt his ears straining against the silence, and then realized… He could not hear Lin, because Lin was not speaking out loud. He was signing. Then what cue should be he be waiting for? As he waited, staring towards the door, it occurred to him that he should keep watch, stay alert.

And within that moment, a great deal happened at once.

Something hit the window, and then she shifted in a flurry of shapes, before sliding through the window and settling on a Jack Russel dog. Cassius began to move to open the window, but all too late. He stared stupidly at what happened before him. She was already here, and pouring blood out her nose before vomiting. Sara. She must have heard the news, whatever terrible news this is.

He crouched on his heels awkwardly as he leaned down towards the dog that had just joined them, then leaned his weight forward on his arm as he tilted towards the shapeshifter. He had always been bad at sympathy, but his expression was as somber as it could be. He at least understood this, grief. Though he considered himself a happy man, he had his share of sadness in his life.

Admittedly, he did not have a face meant for empathy, compassion or civility, but he was trying all the same. He reached out across the floor with a hand, as he might with a real dog, his hoarse voice gentle.

“Sara…”

He said slowly, as if to ask if she was in a state to respond coherently. In his other hand, he shifted his potions around. Maybe he should give one of the two to Sara now, if she had injured herself. He waited for a response first.

[Sharei]

Aaron was... dead?

The Genasi stared at Lin, and though the hostile glare had been wiped from his face, the new expression wasn't any better. It was oddly deadpan, the slight widening of his eye and the sudden burnished color of the iris the only true indicator of his thoughts. Sparks snapped between them, popping and crackling in the too-warm air. The runes of the fire ward shimmered in the far corners, threatening to activate. The heat built.

And then it cooled. Koji took a slow, shallow breath. Aaron couldn't be dead. He thought of the way the agent hadn't been able to meet his eye, about the way they'd parted. You couldn't fake that.

With that certainty came calm. There was a solution to this. Think. What were they missing? But Koji didn't have all of the pieces of the puzzle and the agents seemed to be less than forthcoming.

"Human remains can be faked," Koji said, lifting his hand to his mouth thoughtfully, gaze turned downward. The color had settled into peaceable again. "And if they aren't faked, there is likely to be some kind of explanation." Six weeks... That had been about the time that Atol had taken him on the mountain. He and Aaron had had an argument. "What tests have you done? Genetics? What did you use to ID the body and where was it-?"

And maybe it was the conversation or his raw nerves, but the Genasi jumped when something slammed into the window. Koji whipped his head around just in time to see the tip of a feather and the leftover blood smear. A bird? He cleared his throat slightly awkwardly, embarrassed to have been caught startled. He never startled.

[beastly]

As he registered the scent, Simon made a short half strangled noise. It clicked. The six weeks the agent had mentioned. That must be how long the body had been dead for. Thats why the scent wasn't behaving right, there would be no walking for that body. That body that had Aaron's scent. It would make sense. Oh god. Aaron could be dead.

He struggled to breathe normally and not spiral into what-ifs, the scent didn't help. He needed to shelve the wild speculation that wanted to burst forth. The anxiety. He couldn't start re-examining every interaction. The implications. The what happens next. Not yet. Keep a cool head.

Simon walked very, very quickly to Fao's office, he needed help. He needed another person to help him sort through this. He needed to get away from the smell of what might be his dead friend. He desperately hoped it wasn't.

Simon knocked at the door and then walked in without waiting. He greeted him, voice wobbling slightly as he tried to keep his nerves. He closed the door quickly behind him, talking without looking at the other.

"H-hey doc. Fao. Gotta talk. There's- Aaron might- I," he fumbled for the words,"I got concerns."

[MP]

[Faolan and Simon]

The contents of the file were just as grim. The general appearance identified nothing beyond gender and the antemortem condition of the body. It had been out for weeks before it was discovered, and advanced decomposition and signs of scavenging had destroyed any chance of visual identification. Evidence of physical trauma - homicide, the document ruled - only complicated matters.

Evidence of exsanguination, the findings listed. Minor blunt-force and etheric injuries of head and trunk. Internal stress consistent with etheric burnout. Multiple stab and incised wounds to head, neck, trunk, and upper extremities consistent with defensive injuries. The list went on. Despite the cumulative injuries, most of it was minor to moderate, defensive in nature and dated to a single span of time - no more than half an hour from first to last, the addendum noted. Cause of death had been a single incision across the neck, nicking the carotid.

But despite obscuring factors, little details lined up. The height, toxicology, discernible scarring, and even trace fabric materials were consistent with Agent Telmore. Judging from other trace evidence - dust, earth, and local plant matter - the death had occurred somewhere at the base of Mount Tonitrui. Beyond that, it was difficult to draw any hard conclusions.


[Cassius, Sara, and Koji]

We've run the blood work, dental evidence, fingerprints - forensics even turned up etheric traces of photomancy at the scene. Lin looked increasingly nervous, the pupils of his beady eyes narrowing.

Koji, I shouldn't be - I'm only telling you this because Aaron would. The slight flutter of Lin's hands betrayed him. Would have, he'd almost signed. But Aaron wasn't dead. The great tail lashed, leaving scuff marks on the floor. Aaron wasn't dead until they proved otherwise.

He glanced over his shoulder unconsciously. He couldn't disclose the details of an ongoing investigation. Not even through signing. But...he couldn't help if Koji inferred it, right?

If I could ask you one more question - Lin bobbed his head at Koji. I understand the two of you argued shortly before your abduction. May I ask what happened? Did you resolve the conflict before you left?

Lin jolted as something struck the window. His neck rose to its full height, nostrils flaring. But when nothing showed at the window beyond a few tufts of down and a small streak of blood, and no one but Cassius spoke in the hallway, he relaxed and resumed signing.

Would Aaron have had any other reason to follow you?

[tsukikoko]

The shifter's own name drew her attention with a soft, startled yelp. She couldn't smell through the stench of her own blood clogging her nose. There was a blurriness to her eyes and a confusion in her head from a painful, pounding ringing. Her forelimbs ached in the shoulder and still she felt cold, even after her mad exertions.

But the voice was familiar.

Sara's head turned towards Cassius, eyes slightly unfocused, but looking at him all the same. She whined again, a sound so utterly defeated and miserable yet still unable to capture the turmoil she felt inside. Being an animal helped to temper her emotions, but even that did little for her this time.

She limped towards the Gold's outstretched hand. Collapsed onto his arm a moment later. Her chest heaved as she panted, tried to catch breath, her distress evident. Still she didn't shift back. Even though Sara didn't know if he could understand the whines, a sound rising in volume until it was a terrible wailing reserved for those who are dying, she didn't turn back. Perhaps he'd hear the thoughts, pounding so loud in her head, it felt as though the world should be able to hear it.

A body. They found a body. Aaron. They found- Not my Aaron please- a body. They found a body. Why him? Aaron. A body theyfoundabodythey-

While her nose was no longer bleeding quite so heavily, she'd left splatters of red across the floor and now it oozed onto Cassius' sleeve. Metallic blood mingled with the acid of her vomit, creating a terrible taste within her mouth that made her wretch once again.

But then she was reaching out, tiny body pushing against Cassius as if somehow she could make him move, paw outstretched towards Koji's room, trying to reach it.

[jarahamee]

Cassius picked up Sara’s and stood up, holding her in his arms. She was in no condition to speak. Not at all. He was not sure what happened. Perhaps this means that Aaron had died? But that could not be true, unless. No, he knew too little, he would need to learn much more to put any pieces of this puzzle together.

“Shh, shh, it’s ok. It’s ok.”

He spoke to her in the same way he had spoken to his son, so many years ago, his harsh voice a raspy whisper. The response was so automatic. Maybe it was her size, or perhaps, it was the way she fit into his arms. It was probably demeaning, honestly. He pushed it away and realized what he was supposed to do.

Holding Sara under one arm, he raised himself up, and knocked hard on the door to Koji’s room. He had heard a voice within, but had not heard what it said. Still, it did not seem like a violent outburst, whatever had happened. He was going to take a risk, for this was the person that she wanted to see right now.

“…Dust, Agent Lin, Dr. Summers is here. Can we come in?”

He felt awkward standing out here with Sara in his arms, but honestly, it was all he could do. Wait and see if others wanted to have them come in. Wait for information.

[Sharei]

Would Aaron have had any other reason to follow you?

Wait, what?

Koji's eye narrowed suddenly. Human remains found six weeks ago, right around the time of his kidnapping? And now Lin was asking about why Aaron might have followed-

"You found it on the mountain," he said suddenly, knowing he was right even before the confirmation. "In the same place that I - of course."

The revelation was troubling. If Koji hadn't been convinced that the Aaron who had been so tentative with him was the real one, he might have been more upset. The implications of what had happened to those remains, and by whose hand they must have been created, was not lost on the Genasi. His frown deepened, once again glad that Aaron hadn't followed him that day.

"Prior to the argument," he said slowly, his gaze flickering back to Lin as he came back to himself, "Aaron and I were involved in a confrontation with a hunter. I was lead to believe you are investigating him in connection to the Soundless. At the time, I suspected him of Zramek activity in the area. Call it paranoia, but I was worried. Aaron wouldn't share the details of the investigation. Despite our friendship, he's usually very lean with any real information on active cases."

Koji shifted uneasily. He wasn't very proud of this part.

"I... snuck into the records room to look it up myself. At the time, I felt action was necessary. If Zramek was in the area again then speed was of the essence. I thought I was doing the right thing, and rather than allowing the acting agents to go through the protocol, I jumped the gun. Aaron caught me by happenstance and we argued. He was angry at me and I said some unfortunate things and stormed out." Koji said. "I was also wrong, as it turned out. But I don't think he would have followed me. He doesn't typically chase me if I'm in a mood."

Koji shrugged helplessly, the creak of his shoulders making him wince. But he couldn't explain more, because Cassius was suddenly at the door - when had it gotten closed? The spike of adrenaline was tempered by what the agent said next. Sara? She must have gotten away from that other agent.

"You can come in," he called.

[MP]

[Cassius, Koji, and Sara]

Lin nodded understandingly at this. Aaron never said a lot about his personal life or his cases - even to his team. But it had been obvious to Lin, by the Genasi's unusual absence that day and by the agent's stormy silence, that the argument had been an ugly one. But at least now he knew Aaron hadn't had cause to leave. That might narrow down the possibilities. And Koji had gotten the hint.

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. Lin's head whipped guiltily around, even after Cassius' voice registered. Broad nostrils flared, taking in the scent of dog. Scales too, and - blood? Bile? The great horned head swayed uncertainly. But he didn't smell any other waiting bodies out in the hall. And Koji had already called them in. 

Lin huffed a worried breath. But his heavy tail uncoiled, the narrow tip roping with surprising dexterity around the edge of the door before flicking it fully open. A text pinged at the same moment, and he glanced between the bleeding dog and the source of the sound in some consternation. The text might be important.

Lin patted nervously at his coat pocket and drew out a large flip phone. The buttons were senior sized and printed with absurdly large numbers. Even so, Lin had to squint at it as he laboriously, carefully, began tapping out a response. Even a large phone was dwarfed by his hand, and any one of his claws could have crushed it with a careless movement. When that was done, he made a hasty scribble on his chalkboard and held it up, craning forward. 

DR. SUMMERS? WHAT HAPPENED?

[jarahamee]

Cassius wiped Sara’s face with his white shirt carefully. It would have to do; he closed his jacket over the blood spot it created. No one would know but him. He petted Sara’s neck gently, holding her in his arms like a child as he caried her inside, tucked into the crook of his arm, and looked at all the others as if measuring the aura of the room.

“Dr. Summers wants to come in and talk. My apology for the interruption, gentlemen.”

He spoke calmly, evenly, though his gruff voice trembled a little. His expression was uncertain. He admittedly looked awkward being a figure of comfort, but he was one now, none the less. The uncertainty did not seem at home in his normally intense face.

He was not sure what had been said between them all .

What was the news?

Why did they think their Aaron may not be the real one?

He asked the first question first;

“I…admittedly… need to ask. Dust, do you want to drink both potions, or do you want to give Dr. Summers a drop or two of one? She…injured herself on the way here.”

He did not want to explain further for now, it was not his story to tell.

[qhostqrowls]

Faolan jolted at the knock on the door, tearing his eyes away from the grisly autopsy details just as Simon pushed his way into the room. He tried to smooth his expression, but there was still a crease between his brows and a tearful sheen to his eyes.

"Hey, Simon. Are you okay?" His tone was tight with concern. A gentle hand on the werewolfs shoulder guided him to sit. "Aaron, yes. I um - I also heard..." the surgeons voice wavered as he made a helpless gesture towards the computer, a crack in the remains of his attempt at a professional demeanour. The screen was hidden from view but it was evident he'd received bad news.

Simon knew something about this. Nothing good, judging by how shaken he was, but they'd only find out if they talked. Faolan smoothed a hand over his hair and took a deep breath. They couldn't both freak out.

"What's going on?" He asked, in a steadier tone

[tsukikoko]

For a while, as he soothed her and knocked on the door, the dog within Cassius' arms stayed relatively still. She shivered, pawed gently at his arm and winced as he touched the tenderness of her injured muzzle. But, all in all, she remained still.

Until the Gold entered Koji's room and she caught sight of the Genasi through her still admittedly blurred vision.

At that point, the shifter began to squirm and whine, pushing against Cassius' arms in her attempt to reach Koji. One of her paws pushed the man's arm at mention of the potions, an attempt to tell him she didn't want them. She still refused to turn back, not wanting to experience the debilitating despair that threatened even with her emotions currently tempered.

If and when she was released, the dog limped her way closer to Koji.