The Five Dimensions Part 1: Shadow World

Chapter 46: Ash

"You will receive your assignments in a moment. We are still waiting on updated information from the scouting Locators," Leo said. He gave them a nod, his eyes revealing just how troubled he felt, and left the room. There were more and more dimensional breaches each day, and Leo was under a lot of pressure from the Order. For some political reasons the Order decided that it was in everyone's best interest to keep these breaches confidential, instead of alerting the general public as well as other species in this Dimension. Ash didn't pretend to understand politics, but he didn't like this secrecy either. Nevertheless, he wasn't planning on disobeying direct orders either.

They were sitting in the equipment storage room with a large part of Team Beta. Nix wasn't here yet, but she was on her way. Zech wouldn't be coming because he had some political issues to deal with, which was not unusual with his father being the Order Leader and all. Brid, Max and Jane were talking about Brid and Max's kids in the kitchen down the hall. Mar and Brooke were helping each other find new ways to hide knives in very creative places. Which left Ben, sitting across from Ash, impatiently bobbing his legs up and down.

"Did you get any good ones lately?" Ash asked conversationally.

"Not really," Ben answered, without looking at him. "I got a hellhound last Tuesday, but other than that, mostly demons." He ran his hand over his short, dark hair.

"Seriously?" Brooke complained, still with a smile on her face. "A hell hound is in my top three of creatures I want to kill. Could you not have taken me along?"

"We came across it by surprise. We were tracking a Jolgal demon, and it was suddenly there." Ben gave Brooke a fake look of sorrow to show he wasn't feeling sorry for her at all. Ash chuckled. Brooke was always extremely cheerful, especially about hunting down demons and such, and he had to admit it was contagious. With her being so small, her enthusiasm to kill surprised him when they first met, but he was more than used to it now. He also learned not to underestimate her.

"Well, next time I am going with you, because this is the second time you got one out of my top three," Brooke said with a determined look that assured Ash she would get Leo to assign her and Ben together as soon as she got the chance. After Ben rolled his eyes, he did give the girl a nod of approval. Which she was happy enough with, so she turned back to Mar to continue complaining about their siblings.

"I just think that Matteo should move out. He is twenty-five and all he does is hang around our parents' house all day," Brooke said, while jamming another knife in her boot.

"You know that I am twenty-five as well, and I do live with my parents also," Mar replied, her eyebrows slightly raised, but she was clearly not truly offended.

"It is different for you, though," Brooke said quickly. "You only just broke up with Hudson, and we are not home a lot anyways, especially with the big mission going on."

Ash turned back to Ben, not feeling like talking about siblings or relationships. Since neither of those topics brought up any happy memories at the moment.

"The same happened to Nix and me last week. We were sent out to deal with a water demon in Violetwall, but we came across a bunch of Sirens," Ash said, thinking about what the last time was they got incomplete information from their scouts, but he couldn't remember if that had ever happened before.

"Nix must have loved that," Ben laughed. Apparently, he wasn't too worried about scouts being wrong.

"Actually, I had a hard time snapping Nix out of their trance."

Ben let out a loud laugh and shook his head. "It is hard to blame her."

Despite Ben's large grin, Ash spotted a shadow passing over his eyes. Coming close to Sirens was no joke, and not everyone recovered completely. They could show you things that you desired without you even realizing you wanted it. Ash didn't even think about asking Ben about his previous experience with Sirens, that was much too personal. Really, there were no secrets in the Team, but Ash also didn't feel the need to unnecessarily bring up potentially painful memories.

He was just about to come up with another conversation topic when Nix and Leo walked into the room together. Nix immediately walked towards her locker and started putting her gear on. Leo patiently waited for Jane, Brid and Max to come and join them. Brooke jumped down from the bench she was standing on and bounded towards Leo, who was not surprised by her excited behavior.

"I would like permission to partner with Ben for this assignment," Brooke said in an official manner.

"Permission granted," Leo replied, without much delay. "I have a specific assignment that is best suited for Runners."

Ben nodded in agreement. Ash imagined that Ben was at least a bit excited to be able to use his full abilities as a Runner, instead of having to adjust to the other Team members. He was always edging for a running competition with anyone who actually posed a challenge. With them being in the second highest Team of the Order, there weren't many options.

Leo quickly handed out the assignments. None of them were too far away, which was somewhat a relief from having been travelling all over Conficturion the last week, but mostly concerning, because the breaches were getting closer to Soul Hunter inhabited areas.

Ash was partnered with Nix. While he waited for her to finish putting on her gear, the other Team members left. Everyone except for Leo, who gestured to Ash to come and talk to him in the kitchen. Ash followed and Leo closed the door behind them for privacy. Ash waited for Leo to address whatever was troubling him, but he seemed to be deep in thoughts. His eyes reminded Ash of storm clouds, betraying just how exhausted his brother was.

"So, what did you want to discuss?" Ash asked, after feeling that Leo might not start on his own otherwise.

"I wanted to ask about the general status on Hailey," Leo said, in an indifferent manner. Ash could see that Leo tried to appear neutral about the circumstances, but he couldn't hide his look of concern.

"I have not seen her much, as I have tried to avoid her a bit." Ash knew that Leo was aware of this. He was curious about the true nature of Leo's inquiry.

"That is sensible," Leo acknowledged. "She is unusually observant for a human, and she appears to be especially perspective to any lies you tell."

Ash nodded in agreement. This was the main, although not exclusive, reason why he avoided her so much. There was too much on the line.

"What happened with Belle was disconcerting," Leo prompted, it seemed that he was getting close to what he actually wanted to say. "I do feel that it is dangerous to have her become too separated from the Team. From you."

Leo gave him a meaningful look, trying to convey to Ash what he meant without actually saying it.

"She has grown close to Alex in a way. But I see the potential danger, and I am trying to take care of it. Carefully." Ash wasn't sure what else to say. He was walking such a thin line between pushing Hailey away beyond return and allowing her to be too close. And there was no coming back from that either. Every strategy that he came up with was faulty and anything he tried never worked out in the way he expected.

"I hope that you know what you are doing," Leo said finally, making it clear that there was no more to be said on the subject.

"I hope so too," Ash said, in a voice that betrayed too much of the vulnerability that he felt.