Dog Fights

Chapter 27; Singularity

((When running out of chapter title ideas just steal some from your abandoned stories))

It didn't take long for Ezra's nerves to start going wild.

Amelia had surprisingly agreed to let him tag along, but had said he wouldn't be allowed into the room while the interrogation was actually happening. She did say, however, that once it was over, he could do whatever he wanted besides let the man go.

"I won't let him go," Ezra had said, looking down at his hands, "I don't want to see him walk free again."

Amelia drove him to the S2 herself, watching out the window from the passenger's seat. The woman had turned on the radio, playing music from whatever station it was already on. The speakers pop and crackle, but still the words play through.

"Music has changed a lot in the last five years," Ezra murmurs absentmindedly, raising his hand to the glass. The sun had begun to set on Amelia's side, but he still tests his luck by tracing his fingers along the edge of where the sun casts a square on the inside of the door.

"It has," she says, watching the red light in front of her, "I don't understand many of the lyrics anymore, but I guess I listen to it anyway."

Ezra tips his head down, fixing the glasses on his face. The police still have a reward out for him to the public, as well as Orgon's fifty thousand dollars online, so traveling through the city in a normal car probably isn't the best idea. They decided to do it anyway, and just dusted up his lenses and tucked his hair back under his hood. No one will recognize him. No one will look for him.

The buzz of his escape had died down, but the huge money signs plastered to every surface he touched still remain.

"Amelia," Ezra starts, hesitating as she glances over with only her eyes, "were... were you ever a fighter? Before you became the leader of S1?"

Amelia looks back at the road as the light turns green, smiling to herself. "I was," she says, "I was retrieved by S1 when I was twenty four."

Ezra looks over at her, watching her bright eyes scan the road before shifting back out the front window. "How long has S1 been around?" he asks, "who led it before you?"

"I was a worker in S1 for about twelve years before I took the title of 'leader'," Amelia explains, "and I was apprenticed by a wizard named Henry. He was very strong, but very strict. I couldn't breathe in the correct way for the first two years of my shadowing, and I never did anything good enough for his taste. He ran the base well, but always wondered why the rescues we housed left as soon as they got on their feet."

Ezra hums, watching cars pass by. How many people glance at him as they go home to their families, and how many don't even look at him once? It's strange to think there are people out in the city that don't know his name, or what he's actually done. What he was forced to do.

"I almost did the same thing," Amelia says, smiling sadly to the cloudy sunset. "I couldn't stand that man, and no one enjoyed his presence. As soon as he stepped down from the throne he created, I changed things. I don't want to sound like I'm praising myself, but people enjoyed my reign a lot better. Our numbers went up, yet he still hated the way I ran things."

"...I know we had our differences when we first met," Ezra says, unable to smile at the memories, "but I know I like you a lot better now. You treat your people well."

The witch glances at him, smiling as he avoids her eyes. The lines and wrinkles in her cheeks and by her eyes show her age, but her eyes look younger. Wiser than a child's, but younger than a stress-worn woman.

"I'm glad to hear that," she says, watching the street again, "I swear, I try my greatest."

-:*:-