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It was evening. Layla and Amber's dorm room remained silent as they sat around their living room, both eyes on Blake and Weiss. Blake had her eyes closed, as if deep in thought as Weiss continued to sleep against her shoulder. Earlier in the evening Layla had given Weiss a blanket to cuddle in so that she wouldn't feel cold so Blake could slowly adjust herself without disturbing Weiss' peace.
"We can't just be doing things all willy-nilly anymore like we have been for the past few months," Amber broke the silence. Layla nodded in agreement as Blake grunted her acknowledgement.
"But the problem is that we don't really know what we can do," Layla voiced, "We can't just leave school whenever to save a danger that most people wouldn't believe to be true. We're just high-schoolers. Not only that, the social reputations that everyone has now is making it harder for us to do things in secret. People might become suspicious of us soon enough."
"True. I've found it harder to run away from fans recently," Blake added nonchalant as Layla glared into her. Amber sighed. She too had recently become some sort of romanticized prince for a lot of the girls at school after shielding Layla from harm in public near the campus. Amber shuddered at the memory of dragging Layla to the janitor's closet to get away from fangirls chasing her and trying to kill her best friend in jealousy. God damn, Amber thought to herself, awkward vibes resurfacing from that very explicit memory. After all, she had to run away mid-change into her gym clothes, flinging her bag onto her back in a rush out of the locker rooms as Layla was dragged close behind in the same manner of dress. Long story short: both girls felt blessed that none of the faculty or staff noticed two half-naked girls running into the janitor's closet to run away from bloodthirsty fangirls.
"What about Ryne and Maria? Can't they help us out?" Layla suggested. Blake shook her head, "I wish, but since they're helping with a majority of the hordes here in the city and outside of it, they can't be there all the time. They may be powerful but even hordes are time consuming."
"Plus, we're running low on excuses we can dish out to ditch school," Amber added, twiddling her thumbs, "Mr. Barnes in Math class is starting to get suspicious of us. I can tell." The three girls fell silent again. They wanted to continue protecting their city, but at the same time this wasn't some small secret they could keep under wraps for very long. They needed to think of a way to balance everything... and fast.

Daniel remained in his room for what he felt like as long enough. For a month now he had been considered missing in the news, the murder of his parents still making headlines across the nation. He ground his teeth in frustration; he wanted to act now, but he still needed to wait. Sebastian returned, this time opting not to quip at the man standing before him, unless the Ire wanted a quick trip to the afterlife of its kind.
"S-Sir," Sebastian greeted meekly, sensing the wrathful aura Daniel emitted. Daniel turned his head and saw Sebastian before facing away once more.
"What do YOU want, Ire? I don't have time for your games," Daniel responded curtly. Sebastian gulped. Its new sense of emotions were now going haywire, and it deemed to remain silent in order to choose its words carefully. Daniel took to the silence as an irritation and spun around, "Well, Sebastian?! What do you want?!"
"A-A-Apologies Sir! Sir Drew wishes for a few more days before the next implementation of your powers are to be completed," Sebastian squeaked. Daniel growled in protest, but remained steadfast. It was only a few weeks ago that he had obtained the ability to use and fully control his gray aura, granting him the power to actually see Sebastian. With the new shots of chemicals Drew was making to augment his abilities further, Daniel knew that he would be able to stand against Blake and prove his worth. He gripped the letter in his hand, the words reverberating through his mind.
"Whoever this 'D' is needs to go. As soon as possible," Daniel snarled impatiently, "And since even Blake is seen as beneath him, then I need to become stronger than Blake to do this properly. And that isn't going to happen unless Drew HURRIES UP!" Sebastian reeled at Daniel's outburst. It had seen Daniel in his "anger spikes" almost frequently now. It knew where this was going - either it was going to be frozen solid for two days again or it will become a torture victim of Daniel's aura testing for another week. Sebastian sighed; either way, what it was going to go through was yet another dance with Hell.
"There isn't much time! Who knows when 'D' will act! I need this finished NOW!" Daniel shouted again, sending his aura exploding everywhere throughout the room. bright gray comets scattered throughout the room, freezing everything it touched as it ricocheted every surface until the entire room was frozen solid, to include a certain Ire standing by the door. Drew finally stepped into the room holding twelve shots on a tray and sighed. Yet another aura outburst, he grumbled inwardly.
"I see you've been rather patient with my work," Drew greeted sarcastically, looking to a frozen Sebastian. It still boggled his mind on how the sentient Ire came to be. The same went with how Daniel knew of it before ever seeing him until recently. Daniel calmed his nerves upon seeing Drew, greeting his friend with a smile instead of baring fangs.
"Can you blame me when I want to use this power as soon as I can?" Daniel asked in return, taking a seat in his chair and snapping his fingers. Within seconds the entire room, once completely white in ice, melted away to return to its original form. The only difference this time was that Sebastian didn't defrost with the rest of the ice; Drew figured that Daniel was just not going to take any of Sebastian's antics today.
"How many more shots will I need before I'm even ready to do this, Drew? I'm sorta running low on patience, if you couldn't tell," Daniel prodded, eyeing the shots. Drew placed the tray down on the table besides Daniel and began to sterilize each pointed end. Daniel had done this multiple times before as he himself decided to begin sterilizing his arm and prepping to take each of the twelve shots. Drew smiled as he prepped the first shot, testing to see small drops of liquid spill from the sharp metal point.
"Oh don't worry; these are the last twelve," Drew replied with a maniacal giggle, "Then you're free to go mad, my friend."

A lone man walked the streets near Cor Fortium High in the middle of the night. A full moon is present tonight as the rest of the city sleeps peacefully. The man takes out a piece of paper and a pen and begins to scribble into it. The man's face is hidden away by a hood over his head, his body covered in a dark black coat. He continues to scribble onto the paper, and when he finally finishes his work, he begins to walk towards the school campus. He enters the building with no problems in security, trespassing the premises as if he had done this all before. He takes careful measure into making sure the school's security system doesn't go off as he steps into the main entryway where students usually tend to their lockers. The man takes his time looking through the halls of the school, examining each and every locker he comes across until he stops at one certain locker. Smiling as he had found what he was looking for, the man takes out a beige envelope and takes out his scribbled paper from earlier. He looks at the paper as if examining it carefully and then folds it up and places it inside the envelope. The man seals the envelope with a black sticker and slips it into the locker before him, smiling in satisfaction as the envelope makes a soft thud inside. The man exits the school the way he entered and quietly left the scene. The man walks for a few minutes until he arrives at a graveyard not too far from the school. There, standing in the light of the moon was Melody, leaning against a tree near the graveyard entrance. She looks up from her spot and greets the man with a smile.
"I see everything went well?" she asked the man. He replied with a curt nod, to which Melody's grin faded away. This time, instead of being happy to see the man, she became terrified.
"I see. Th-then does that mean you'll l-let me go now?" she asked, cursing inwardly at the quaking of her voice. The man remained still for a few moments. All he did was face in her direction, taking note of the girl shivering in her blue sweatshirt and skinny jeans as she awaited his answer. For a while, Melody remained still, trying to get a grip of herself. She cursed at her shaking form, as she was too terrified at what this man could do. She had been walking along the streets while thinking of ways to retrieve Blake once more when the man had approached her. She could remember how he had creeped her out by just remaining silent and looking at her. She brushed him off at first and began to walk away, hoping to forget about the entire first encounter. However, as the night went on, she began to see him everywhere she went. From a convenience store around the block to just outside of a public restroom at a park, Melody soon began to feel scared for herself. None of her typical lackeys were with her since they had all been rescued from her ever since Blake and those other girls had put her in jail after her incident with trying to persuade Blake into being with her. This continued on for a full hour into the night when Melody finally couldn't take it anymore and just shouted at the man, asking what he had wanted out of her. The man approached her slowly, backing her against a wall in an alleyway. Melody thought that she was going to die, and was morbidly surprised when she opened her frightened eyes to a picture of Blake walking home from school in front of her. She became confused, to which the man flipped the photo and showed her the back. All that it said was the word "where" with a question mark at the end. Melody had eventually figured out that the man was looking for her, and so informed the man of Blake's whereabouts with Cor Fortium High since she didn't know where Blake was currently. The man nodded and began to leave, but stopped and turned to face her once more. He approached her again and brought out another paper, telling Melody to wait by the graveyard, which brought her to her present moment.

"S-so I'm done here, right?" Melody spoke again, "You did what you wanted, right? I already told you everything I knew. Please, just leave me be." The man continued to remain silent. Soon, Melody noticed a smile grace the man's features. This is bad, she thought in a slight panic, why is he smiling? Why doesn't he talk? Am I done? The man raised his hand into the air and snapped his fingers. To Melody's horror, she noticed an Ire appear beside the mysterious man. It donned something similar to a bow-tie and a top hat, something she didn't expect to see. She also found herself surprised when she noticed the Ire bow to the man in greeting.
"At your service, Master," the Ire spoke. What the hell, Melody's mind was going crazy with questions, a talking Ire? And what exactly did it mean when it called that man Master? The man didn't utter a single phrase, instead pointing towards Melody while keeping the grin on his face. The color on Melody's face drowned as she slowly figured out what that meant. The Ire was now looking at her, its crimson eyes and crooked smile sending alarms ringing throughout her body. Melody immediately took off in the opposite direction, cultivating her aura to move faster through the city through the rooftops.
"Gotta move, gotta move, GOTTA MOVE!" Melody repeated to herself as she used her aura to augment her physical abilities. Adrenaline flowed through her veins on full blast as she quickly tried to distance herself from the man and that Ire. She turned back to see if the man followed her. To her dismay, the man didn't follow, but the Ire did, pursuing her with blood lust in its eyes. Not only that, but it was fast. Really fast. She ducked around buildings and wove her way through the city like a needle with thread as she tried to get the Ire off her trail. For what felt like an eternity, Melody continued to circle the city grounds with all that she had until she finally hid herself away at the Cor Fortium High campus. She made her way into the building, taking extra precautions to make sure the Ire wouldn't find her. Eventually, she began to calm down as she wandered the dark halls near the back of the school, the strange Ire no where to be found. She collapsed onto the ground and leaned back towards a classroom door to catch her breath. She collected her thoughts, wondering what on Earth had just happened over the course of what appeared to have been three hours.
"Holy cow," she breathed in relief, "I can't believe that just happened."
"Yes, I agree. I mean, I was searching for you for hours," a voice in front of her responded. Melody's eyes flew open. She snapped her head up and had no time to scream as Ire claws ripped her apart in a matter of seconds.

Amber groaned as she rubbed sleep out of her eyes to prepare for school once again. The break had finally ended, which meant that she had to once again wake up early in order to return to her hell known as classes. She got herself dressed in her uniform, being careful with the bandages wrapped along her torso. The injuries she sustained onto her face, arms and legs healed completely, so the only thing she really worried about was now just her chest and torso. She didn't like the feeling of the bandages wrapped around her, but at the same time at least she didn't have to explain it to teachers. She exited her room to the smell of eggs and bacon permeating from the kitchen as she noticed Layla cooking some breakfast for them both.
"Morning, sunshine," Amber greeted Layla with a yawn, "Up and early, I see."
"Good morning to you too," Layla giggled as she watched Amber slump to the couch. She felt her heart swell with happiness at the sight of Amber's usual antics. It reminded her of normalcy, a more peaceful side of Amber that used to be more frequent than they were now. With Amber being a Guardian and Layla fighting alongside her with all that she could, moments like these that were once taken for granted were now things she cherished deeply. Amber looked over to their clock on the wall above their TV and was pleased to see that it was only seven o'clock. That meant that she and Layla had a full hour to enjoy breakfast and head to school with no worries. She reached for their TV remote and turned it on. When Layla finished breakfast, she joined Amber at their couch and enjoyed the peace of the morning before classes as they ate together and watched whatever program was on. Layla finished up first with Amber right behind her, heading towards the kitchen to wash up the remaining dishes. Frantic knocking suddenly permeated their peaceful silence. Layla put down her plates and let Amber take over the dishes as she answered the door. She opened it to find Blake breathing heavily and Weiss clinging to her in fear. Blake looked pale and concerned, blood completely drained from her face.
"Blake? Weiss? What's wrong?" Layla asked, with Amber appearing right beside her, showing equal concern. Blake regained her composure and relaxed herself. She looked as though she was wondering what to tell them both.

"School's out indefinitely for now," Blake said morbidly, "They found Melody dead at school this morning."