Blindly Faithful

I knew there was trouble the minute I walked in the room. It was nothing all that new. Four stark, white walls, five long, stainless-steel tables arranged in an open octagon, Black, marble flooring, and fifteen highly polished men and women sitting three to a table dressed to the nines. No, while usually there weren't as many people, that wasn't what worried me. What worried me were the people not seated. Two small groups of young people stood on either side of the room. To the left, a group of six, four men and two women, stood startlingly straight. Their feet were shoulder-width apart with their hands clasped behind them and their chins tilted just a tad too far up to meet anyone's gaze. Even if they were not in their uniforms, I knew instantly who they were: Warriors. Six out of the seven. The right group had one less person with three women and two men that stood... well, not really stood, more slouched... provocatively. Impossibly beautiful and obviously arrogant, the air around them alone identified them. The five Beauties. As I examined the people around me carefully but quickly, the leader of the Beauties, and my least favorite, caught my eye with a vicious little smirk. No, I didn't like this at all. Almost immediately, Jasper and Kimberly fanned to my sides, facing each group directly, as I stopped just inside the double doors. I knew my team had the same bad feeling as they rolled to the balls of their feet, adding just enough tension to their legs that movement would be swift and powerful if needed. The Warriors were the obvious threat. They were all quite large, even the women, and heavily trained in all forms of combat and weaponry. The Beauties, however, were my biggest concern. They had training in the finer, less honorable forms of combat. If they got close, you were dead. In a quick, silent conversation, we had a plan. Kim and Jasper would face the Warriors while I took on the Beauties. If we were quick, they would be down before anyone had a chance to react, but any hesitation would level the playing field. "Rangers," ordered a woman a split second before we were in action, and the three of us directed our attention to her, "Stand down." Instantly, we obeyed, and the pit in my stomach grew dramatically. Things were worse than I originally thought if they wanted us to work together. Never before had every member of every group been under the same roof... well, almost every member. Hell, there were usually never more than half of us on the same continent, but here we all were, and we were to work together? I felt my mouth flatten just a bit at the raw cold that dance down my spine. The Beauties and the Warriors were fairly used to working together as they were often paired up, but us? The Rangers worked alone, and neither of the other groups cared much for us. We didn't really have much of a problem with the other groups, especially the Warriors, but they despised us. The woman who had addressed us was standing at the center most table. She was blonde, her hair straight and ending harshly at her chin, skin was pale with pink cheeks, mouth was full, eyes large and brown. All in all, her face was inviting, especially set into that small, warm smile, but I knew she wasn't my kind of person. She wore a cream-colored blouse tucked into a bright blue pencil skirt under a matching blazer. It was clear she was a Beauty representative. Each table held a representative for each of the groups, and we were not allowed to know names, wearing only a single letter and number. In fact, the only time we saw representatives of the groups that we did not belong to, were during training if we were trained in that field. However, outside of this room, they were not our representatives, they were our masters. Distinguishing each rep's group was easy, even without the letter distinguishing their class. Beauty reps were pretty in bright colors looking at the room as if they would never wish to be any other place, but there was an edge to their smiles, a glee that came from the power they had. Warrior reps were as stiff as the members of the group they represented. They sat up straight in their seats with harsh looks, usually frowns on their faces as they stared towards the middle table. Our representatives looked rather lazy next to the others. They seemed only half awake, and their faces were smooth, virtually free of emotion, but there was an undeniable awareness about them. They tracked nothing and everything at the same time, and I pitied anyone that earned the intensity of their full attention. "I'm sure you are wondering what you're doing here," the blonde said with a smile that seemed apologetic until you noticed the joyful glint to her eyes. I examined her fully, carefully. I honestly wondered what she was doing at the main table. She looked tremendously weak, but then again, the Beauts weren't known for their strength. They were known for their ability to spin people around their pretty little fingers. Lies and manipulation. I wondered what she'd done to earn the number 1 designation as I eyed the plaque that gleamed before her. I remained silent until realizing that she was looking for some kind of response. I cleared my throat, hoping I still had a voice, with a bit of frustration. It had been a while since I last spoke. One of our most important qualities was our ability to go for extreme lengths of time without making a sound. We were often placed in situations that even the smallest, lightest breath could possibly compromise our mission. It might have been a year since I last voiced anything. Usually, in this room, speaking wasn't required, and I had to admit that I didn't much care for the way my voice sounded. "I imagine," I started, slightly startled by the simultaneously foreign and familiar sound that came from my mouth, "it has something to do with the missing Warrior." She blinked, her smile slipping off her face in surprise, "The leader," I continued as I glanced back over the Warriors faces more closely, "Axel, I believe." Irritation flashed over her face, marring her features as she glared towards the dark woman lazily sprawled in her chair, our #1 rep, "You briefed them," she accused darkly, and the panther of a woman bared her teeth in a deadly smile. "I did no such thing," she said in the same manner she sat, lazy, a bit sultry, and entirely alert, like liquid velvet with the hint of claws just under the surface, "My Rangers are just that good." Pride colored her tone as those dark eyes looked over us approvingly. I knew Kim's face had probably stretched into a matching grin, and Jasper was more than likely giving the blonde rep his infamous bored look, but I kept my face free of as much emotion as possible. I was a weapon, cold, detached, and built to obey. The pleased feeling in my chest that made me want to preen would only earn me punishment for not being able to control myself. Jasper and Kim were free to react. I was not. I was their leader. "It wasn't that hard to figure out," Kim pointed out as she unsheathed her dagger to pick at her nails, causing nearly everyone in the room to shift uneasy. They were right to feel that way too. She could easily kill half the room before anyone else had a chance to draw their weapons. Her voice, though it too was raspy, held a strength mine simply didn't have. It was lower, richer while mine was lighter, airy in a way that irritated me to no end. "All of us are here," Jasper cut in, his smooth voice entirely unaffected by a lack of use, "except him." A moment more of still confused silence followed before he went on, his tone still bored with an irritated edge to it, "It's the only logical explanation to gather us here." "Alright," the blonde said, her embarrassment fueling her irritation, "then I suppose I should just skip to the mission, huh?" The question was meant to be rhetorical, and I knew it, but her explanation of the mission would simply waste time, so of course, we cut in. "You want us to track him down," Kim said smartly, her tone amused at the blonde's embarrassment. However, her irritation was quickly becoming anger, so I carried on, explaining the comment. "It's the only reason you'd summon us," I informed her with a shrug, gesturing to the Warriors, "They would not be here if they hadn't done everything in their power to find their Leader." I then gestured to the Beauties, "And the Beauties are no trackers." "But we are," Jasper carried on, irritation now entering his voice at the time this was taking, "So," he continued before the blonde could respond, "where do we start?"