Celestial Fragments

Triggered

Relax, my Dearest. Relax and let me show you what I can do when I take it slow.

A loud groan filled the room, as the door opened. Angelique turned her head towards the source of the sound, blinking confused as if she had forgotten she was not alone. The hologram screen closed, as Grimes got up as well, and made his way to the middle of the room, watching his mates take their seats back.

"This is getting a little out of hand." Grimes broke the silence.

"Well, he did tell us that cell won't hold him back from doing what he wishes."

"Indeed. But that doesn't mean we should let him do so. We need to find something to restrain him." His attention switched to Ioelena who was silently browsing a magazine, advertising her curiously pink eyes from the man.

Ioelena was even more peculiar looking than the boulder called Grimes. Her skin had pretty shades of hot pink and pastel lilac, with long silver lines, patterning her skin, starting from her face and snaking all the way down under her clothes. Her hair was short, a pastel green color, cut to her chin, with wavy texture, and tucked behind her ears. She was an Asaith, a powerful alien race, who had a peace treaty with Earth for about a couple of decades now. If you walked around on the streets you would meet plenty of these tall and slim figures, roaming around like everyone else, living their life in peace and prosperity among humans. The Asaiths had plenty of treasures, their power relying on wealth and medical discoveries, quite helpful for a decaying Earth. Ioelena was a walking medical encyclopedia. She knew everything about almost every race in the universe, and the team relied on her help at every alien encounter, just as they did this time.

Uncomfortable, she eventually looked up at the green eyed man in front of her, puffing her cheeks childishly.

"I don't know!" she whined and leaned her head backwards covering her face with her palms, as she sighed deeply. "I know nothing about them! They were not alive until a month ago! We never bothered with something that died before any of us where even born!"

"But we have to do something about him." Came another comment, making Ioelena get up in frustration.

"Then do it! I don't know. Shoot him! Cuff him! Gag him! Drown him! Give him a box to sit in, maybe he acts like a cat, and that will calm him!" the woman turned around to face the one that spoke to her posing like a cat with her hands around her face.

From the information Angelique had, the one who Ioelena was snarling at was Raine Tenebris, a witch of some sorts. Truth was, she did not really understand the power Raine wielded or her origins and she did not bothered to try. Something was very not appealing about her, so Angelique decided to stay away from the witch.

"Maybe we should cuff him." Kai spoke.

"With what? Bondage rope? And it's not like any of us can go near him. He tries to kill us every time we approach him." Ioelena muffled as she started to walk away from the sofa she sat on earlier.

"He did not try to do that with our new recruit." Kai muffled, crossing his arms on his chest, turning his gaze towards Angelique, who for a moment seemed to be very far away from their conversation.

When she felt everyone switch their attention on her, Angelique blinked a few times, regaining her focus on the conversation. She pressed her lips together into a thing line, her eyes switching from one person to another.

"What?" she muffled, as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Don't be foolish, Mordekai." sighed Grimes as he walked to sit into the armchair. "Angelique has no possible connection to him."

"How can we be sure? We have no idea where her powers originate from and let me tell you, something is quite similar between these two."

"We are not having this conversation again!" roared Grimes, silencing everyone who would have dared speak again. " She is part of our team and she sticks with us, no matter what your damn gut is telling you!"

As the tension between Kai and Grimes grew, everyone started to get up and leave the room without another word. Angelique found herself trapped in her seat, gazing at the two, frozen in her spot, as she was too afraid to get up and draw any attention to her in this moment. After a few minutes of silence, Kai sighed and gave up. He pushed himself up and walked out of the room, without a single word addressed to any of them. Grimes followed him with his gaze, visibly angry and in some sort of discomfort.

"I think I'll head to my room as well...maybe grab my stuff and move them to my new room."

Angelique slowly rose to her feet, taking in a deep breath.

"Don't worry about needing to move your stuff. I already asked someone to bring everything here."

"You allowed someone to invade my intimacy?!"

"Yes. And you should be happy about it. We did not get you on our team to slouch and carry luggage for three days." Grimes got up and walked towards the door. "Come on. There's plenty of stuff I need to show you and something a little special I need you to do."

"And that is?"

"It was clear he showed some sort of interest towards you. He never did so with any of our staff members. Maybe you can get him to talk to you about what he wants, what he knows."

"And how can I do that?" muffled Angelique, a wave of anxiety washing over her as she followed behind Grimes.

"You will find a way to do it. I'm sure of it." reassured Grimes with a calm expression, as he lead the way through the hallways, to help her familiarise with the place.

Uneasy and insecure, Angelique followed close by, her eyes taking in her surroundings, trying to memorise and map the hallways in her mind. Everything was quite complicated, and walking beside this mountain, this rage and anger filled boulder, was even worse. All she wished to do was run away as fast as possible, but there was a voice in her head, repeating over and over that he will catch her if she dared to turn around and run away. So, she did what she had to, and stood put by his side. The hallways were dimly lit, everything was rather large and spacious, a group of at least seven people could walk by without having to break their line. The walls and the ceilings were made out of smoky glass, while the ground was paved with something similar to marble. Despite the cold materials, the air was rather warm and just a little humid, making it quite pleasant.

When they came to a stop, Angelique could not help but wonder where they were. Sitting in front of a double door, with multiple security systems, made her shift her weight uneasy, from one leg to the other, and cross her arms on her chest, her nails digging in the leathery material of her uniform. Was this the room where they held him? Was this what Grimes had planned? Toss her in the lion's Cage? Her stomach twisted, her eyes moving upwards to look at the man, as the doors opened and he stepped inside. She hesitated to follow, but noticing the doors were about to close, she hurried after him, a low wince escaping her throat and her arms untangling from under her breasts.

The room light up, a bright white light showering the room. When her eyes finally adjusted, she came to understand Grimes had other plans for tonight. They were now into a lab, from what she could tell, it was his own lab. He was so very familiar with it, there was no other explanation. There were multiple weapons disassembled in the room, on different tables, or suspended via magnetic fields. Grimes was a mastermind when it came to anything related to the battlefield, wether it was strategies or weaponry, he studied and built his own mechanisms, weapons, shields, vehicles, high security cells and from what she could tell, he built everyone's gear. He was a genius in mechanics, making her wonder if he was human or alien. And if he was human, how much did this man study, how many Phd's did he own and what was his IQ level?

Grimes walked to an empty table and gestured for her to approach.

"As you know, I like to study anything weapon related, especially anything that's not human made." the light on the table was turned on, the table now glowing and holding a magnetic field. "I have heard about the one you master and if you allow me, I would like to take a look at it until tomorrow."

Angelique stopped in front of the table, a little unsure of what she was supposed to do. She watched Grimes turn on a switch and get the desk ready, as he explained what his request for her was. A wave of relief washed over her whole being, as she came to understand he was not about to toss her in the same room as the An'ekd as she supposed he would. Her face was suddenly adorned with a silly grin, as she slowly, elegantly, almost rehearsed, waved her hand in front of her, conjuring the staff out of thing air, her finger wrapping delicately around it, hitting the floor with its end. The black scepter was a little taller than her, the milky white sphere shining dimly beside her face, carefully encapsulated between what seemed to be claws. Four claws, carefully wrapped around the sphere, barely touching each other at the top of the scepter, offering the shining orb enough space to float perfectly still between them. At a close look, the close resembled armour, dragon scaled armour, but with long lines and sharp angles, making it unsure if they were claws or not. The claws and the scepter itself were a pitch black color, adorned with rose gold accents at the bottom and right under the claws that were holding the sphere.

Grimes watched mesmerized, as she conjured the weapon, and held it gracefully at her side. It felt like that scepter was an extension of her. Like it was always there, but the common eye was just missing it.

"Where do you conjure it from?" Grimes voice broke the silence, gesturing for her to lay it on the table.

"I can't really tell. Not because I don't want you to know-" the scepter was set on the table, the magnetic field immediately catching it and suspending it, but as soon as she removed her hand from it, a roaring beast like growl filled the room, stopping her from talking, and immediately vanishing right under their eyes.

The lights from the room flickered uneasy, while both of them covered their ears, Grimes slouching forward a little, as if he tried to protect his head.

"-But I really don't know too much about it." Angelique's soft voice was eventually heard, when the silence became still.

Grimes removed his hands from around his head and straightened his posture.

"What was that?" his voice was filled with skepticism.

"I assume you wanted to see for yourself, since Blanche tried this before and surely told you about it. The scepter is not a common weapon. It is not something I just use as I want to. It seems to have a consciousness by its own." The black staff appeared once again in her hand. "And sometimes it does not want to cooperate with anyone else, but me. Well, most of the times." she corrected herself.

"Can I hold it?" the man extended his arm forward towards her.

"It is not advised to try. Last time someone tried to hold it, they went mad, but you can always give it a try." She extended the scepter towards his hand, but as soon as the man touched the scepter with his fingers, his mind was immediately filled with blabbering voices, roars, screams, undecipherable mess.

Grimes pulled away, his eyes wide, and a maniac smile drawn on his face.

"Fascinating! How can you wield it then?!"

Angelique pulled her weapon back slowly admiring the slight color change of the sphere.

"I was taught to." she whispered, her eyes closing for a few moments before the staff disappeared. The woman turned to face Grimes, who rushed to his desk to grab something. "But I would like to talk about this tomorrow." the shift in her mood was obvious, as her face dropped into a neutral expression, and her eyes darkened a little.

Grimes paused behind his desk, watching Angelique unsure.

"Are you alright? Are you tired?"

"I just need some time to myself. Quite a lot of changes happened in such a short time." her voice sprung back to a fake cheerfulness. "You should also rest!" Angelique turned on her heels and walked to the door."Goodnight, Grimes!" and with that she was out of the room, leaving the man alone and baffled.

Finding himself alone, Grimes took a seat with heave, starring at the shut door. That was both odd and intriguing. What was this scepter? What origins did it had and what connections did she share with it?

Angelique was truly a fascinating woman.