~ chapter 7 takes off few weeks after the events of chapter 6 ~

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  Siyeon drove through gloomy woods, only moon’s light was illuminating the road. She was driving without headlights to not to attract any attention. This setting was making it hard to see the way but she was careful. At least she thought she was. These days Eden was bleak, it wasn’t like how it usually was. And the town was making everyone in it sullen too.

  She didn’t like to find meaning to the natural things, but it felt like the calm before the storm. She knew the town was alive, in a literal meaning, it was. Eden had a heart, according to what she learned. The town was feeding on the natural cycle, like what happened on the first day she came here. She offered the town a life, and Eden took what belonged to it. Now, that heart seemed like it was broken. It seemed like it was waiting for something bad, so bad. That can change the balance of the world. Maybe it was just to change the weather. But as far as she lived here, when it was god’s garden, she was able to sense when things were going wrong.

 Eden’s atmosphere reminded her the times of The Great War. A war between heaven and hell. She was on heaven's side at that time, she wasn’t wake as much as today. And she hated that side of herself just like how she hated that time too. If she knew what a ‘hell’ heaven was before…  All hail to the Great King Michael! What a lie! Little bit they know how corrupted their king was, how senseless, how cruel…

   It was all over now, thankfully!

 She slowed down as she saw the familiar silhouette. She sighed deeply, her precious time was going to be wasted by her supervisor. As much as she had respect for her, they had a completely different personality. Only their goals were the same. Even though they wanted to win so badly, the way and how they achieve it was divergent. Siyeon was patient, she knew when to stop and when to move. In Handong’s case, she didn’t like waiting, she wasn’t someone silent. If she was going to do something she wanted everyone to know it was her. Because of this, she had as many enemies as the people who respected her.

  Siyeon stopped in front of Handong and reached for the door to open it for her commander. She pushed it a little, allowing Handong to open it. So her commander got in, silently. She didn’t even look at her soldier’s face. Something felt off.

   Siyeon glanced at Handong, her commander’s expression was hard to see in this darkness. But she was able to see a dark stain on her neck. As she paid attention, she found out what the stain was. Handong openly showed that she was uncomfortable with Siyeon’s eyes on her.

“You have blood on your neck.” Siyeon whispered as she opened the glovebox. Handong didn’t let her give her the napkin. She took it swiftly. Was Handong on duty before she was coming here? Was she in a rush so much that she forgets to clean the blood on her? 

“Get back, drive me to the town.” Handong sais in a cold tone while wiping off the stain on her neck. But Siyeon stayed still with a confused face. It was risky for someone to see her with Handong. And it was unnecessary too.

“I thought I was going to give you a report. Not a tour to the town.” Siyeon turned the steering wheel to the left but she didn’t move yet.

“Are you against my orders?” Handong faced her with a cold eyes and an angry tone. She was almost hissing. So Siyeon only nodded while making the car move. She drove slowly as much as she can. She was wishing her commander to change her mind before they arrive. But Handong was seeming stubborn.

“Isn’t it risky? Someone from the town can recognize you.” She cleared . “Sometimes angels are staying in Eden too.” she looked at Handong cross eyed. There wasn’t any sign of emotion on her face. There wasn’t even a worry.

 “I know what I am doing. I am not a newbie nor an inexperienced soldier.” Handong said and for the rest of the road no one opened their mouth again.

****

 Siyeon couldn’t help but glance everywhere. Her eyes were examining every part of the café while hoping she won’t see any similar face. She was tapping the table with her fingers reflexly, if she could run away she wouldn’t think twice. Handong’s silence was making her want to scream, not knowing what she’s up to was making Siyeon crazy. As the waiter brings their coffees she took a big sip while allowing the hot liquid to burn her tongue. Gladly because of her kind, the pain didn’t take long.

“You are getting on my nerves.” Handong said and grabbed Siyeon’s hand which was tapping the table. “Just stop it.” She let go of her hand slowly.

“I am nervous too, what are we doing here?” Siyeon frowned her eyebrows. Even though she liked the danger a lot, this was a bad timing. She was on the most important mission of her life. 

“I am here to make an observation.” A light smile formed on Handong’s lips. She looked at her soldier without taking her glance away. “I am here because of personal reasons. And you have to help me.”  She took a sip from her drink. Her eyes were still locked on Siyeon.

“And why is that?” Siyeon added in a sarcastic tone “I don’t have to take your personal job’s order.” At this point, Handong’s gaze was getting minacious. Whatever she is planning wasn’t sounding good.

“Michael is missing.” With Handong’s words, Siyeon got caught like a deer in the headlights. At the first second, she forgot how to breathe. It was impossible, the king of heaven; the most powerful angel wouldn’t leave his responsibilities without a word. But wasn’t it impossible for someone to take him down? That would be the first time. Handong’s giggle brought back to her life.  “I am positive that he is missing. I am trying to find who did it.”

“Isn’t taking him down impossible?” Siyeon was having a hard time believing what her supervisor just said.

“I thought like that too.” She pointed out her neck. “That blood was some demons. I was investigating.” Handong took out a red, small notebook from her pocket. “Read.” She leaned forward with a huge smile on her face. She was enjoying this so much and clearly seeing this as a game.

“It’s an important case.” She took the red notebook, there were bloodstains on the cover of it too but they were dried out. “Does hell know what you are doing?” She opened the first page. There were some location names were written on it.

“Yes.” She nodded too. Handong tugged the notebook to point  a location with her fingers. Because she was taking a sip from her coffee she couldn’t tell the place’s name.

“But you said it’s a personal job?” Siyeon put the notebook down with the first page open. The location Handong showing was near Eden.

“It is. That place is where Michael had been seen for the last time. On his human form by the way.” Handong said while turning the next page, allowing Siyeon to see arrows pointing out a similar name. Yoohyeon. “They just don’t want me to pry into it.”

“Why Yoohyeon?” Siyeon said and took a look at the next pages, it was all locations, names and hours written. “And if the hell doesn’t want you to pry maybe you shouldn’t. We take orders from them. They know better than us.” She closed the notebook and hand it over to Handong.

“My precious Siyeon, if you believe every man with power to tell you what you should do and what you shouldn’t then that means you are easy to use.” Handong’s last words irritated Siyeon so badly that she wanted to punch her commander in the face. She was in hell because she was sick of getting used. Hell was giving her freedom on everything she chooses. She wasn’t someone’s puppet this time. Of course, there was a chain of command, they were soldiers other than supernatural beings.

“Take that back now.” Siyeon clenched her fist, she was ready to start a fight. At this point, she didn’t care about attention and everything. She could always find a lie to cover it up. But Handong didn’t say anything while keeping the smile on her face. “Don’t make me take it back.”

  Handong leaned back and folded her hands on the table. “I don’t care if I upset you, Siyeon. You are not a five years old so listen to me carefully.” Her smile was no longer on her face. Her gesture was showing how serious she is. “There is no time for fighting like a child. And it’s not my fault that you are way too blind to see what’s going on in your world.” Her voice was getting louder but not in a way to attract eyes to them. “The world we built and fight for is no longer the same. So sorry that happened to you but it’s not only going to disappoint you. What makes you think that we can win this war? Let me remind you that god is not on our side. And he never will be. Call it a fate I don’t care but we can never win.”

   What Handong said was making her want to argue with her so badly. How she could think things such as that? If there was no chance to win then why they were always training? Why they were trying to get stronger every day? She was about to open but Handong didn’t let her and continued to her speech. “You probably think that I am sounding desperate. Maybe you will accuse me of being a traitor but don’t you forget that we are on the same side and we always will be.” 

“What makes you think like that? Do you even hear what are you saying?” With Siyeon’s words, Handong nodded.

“Yes. Sadly, I do.” Handong tore down a page on her notebook and wrote a number and an address to it. “Lucifer is dead. I can show you a proof. He was killed by the new emperor of hell. All of this happening because of the endless want of power.” She passed the paper to Siyeon. “He will make us fight for nothing. He knows we can’t win but he is insisting on his plans.”

“What if we do? What if we win? You can’t know for sure.” Siyeon put the paper in her pocket. “You say Michael is missing and I will kill his daughter. The next owner of the throne. Do they have any chance to win anymore?” She let go of a sigh. “How do you know Lucifer is dead? He is still commanding us. He is still commanding the emperor.”

“Check out the address I gave you, you’ll find his crown and what is left from him. And for the other things you said, they still have three archangels on their sides. We only had one and he is dead now. But most importantly god wants to protect the balance between good and evil. It’s why heaven never had a chance to end us. We don’t have a chance to end them too.”

  Siyeon couldn’t believe what she was hearing but it was starting to make sense. Everything she believed and trained for was a lie. She felt her heart getting heavy, who she had to trust now? Which side she was going to stand on now if every place is the same? So many thoughts and crises were floating on her mind.

“Why are you trying to find who kidnapped him?”  Siyeon wanted to ask tons and tons of questions but she needed to choose only a few. There wouldn’t be enough time if she asked all.

“I want to know who has this much power and hiding. Hell doesn’t know who, I’m sure of it. They didn’t do that either but I think they will start the war with that.” Handong finished her coffee and put the notebook in her pocket. “Don’t you want to kill him too?”

 Without hesitation, Siyeon said “Yes.” She nodded. “I’ll help you but if I ever find out a lie I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. You know I can.” Siyeon reached out to make it into a deal. Handong hold her hand tightly and shook it. “I have one last question. Why Yoohyeon?” 

“She is here.” Handong put a smile on her face and giggled like they were talking about something funny. Siyeon turned back to see who she was talking about. As she saw the girl coming towards them she wished this night to end quickly.

  Bora waved to them with a straight face. She wasn’t seeming friendly at all.