Thief's Theme: A Love Story
Chapter Thirteen

The Keeper Elite return to their ship through the cold, lifeless void of space, somber and silent at the events that had just transpired. A mistake was made, a huge mistake that hasn’t been made in a long time, a mistake that couldn’t be undone even with all of the advanced technology that the Keepers possessed. With that thought in mind, the Keeper Elite make their way back to Earth, not speaking once the entire way, as they know they’ll have a tough explanation to give upon mission report. The Keeper Elite reach the Keeper Headquarters in seemingly no time at all and make their way into the building, slowly, dragging their feet and trying to delay what is to come.

Despite their attempts, the ten Keeper Elite find their way into a large room, each standing in front of the higher-level Keeper that sent them on this mission. The team of men have their weapons sheathed and their heads down as silence takes the room. No one is willing to speak, to volunteer their voice to try to explain he misgivings that passed. The higher-level Keeper can sense the tension in the room. He instantly knows that something is off, the mission went wrong somewhere and no one wants to talk. He sighs deeply and attempts to find out what that is, as he opens his mouth and speaks.

“Keeper Elite, report.” He commands in his distorted voice. No one moves to talk. He waits a few more seconds before speaking again. “I notice the thief isn’t here, so the mission obviously went wrong somewhere. As Keeper Elite, that is surprising, but I know what you were up against and I won’t hold it against you. Failure happens, especially with Merc involved.” He explains. “I do need you to speak however as we need to know what happened.” The ten Keeper Elite all look at each other, exchanging silent cues to figure out who will be the unlucky person that has to speak. After about ten seconds of motioning, one of the Keeper Elite sits up and answers.

“Sir, we located the target in a far-off system, the Sephiroth system, where a blue hypergiant was going supernova.” Begins the Keeper Elite in a voice that’s even more distorted than the Keeper norm. “From our intel, the thief was collecting all types of supernovas, one of each kind of star, and this was the last one he needed: the biggest and hottest of all stars.” He explains, hesitating for a moment.

“And this is where the mission went wrong?” Asks the higher-level Keeper, leaning forward in intrigue. The Keeper Elite shakes his head.

“No, not yet. I was just gathering myself sir, my apologies.” He responds. “By the time we reached the area, the star was already gone and the thief had already made it back to his ship. We boarded his ship immediately, excited to have finally caught this…aberration that we were trailing as he had lost us every other time, taunting us as he escaped.” Describes the Keeper Elite as the higher-level Keeper looks on in interest.

“I see, and then?” Prompts the higher-level Keeper.

“Then we followed protocol as normal, with a little overkill. First we tried to capture him with ten simultaneous pocket dimensions folded onto one another. He broke out.” This startles the higher-level Keeper as he jumps in his chair a bit.

“He what? That’s impossible!” Exclaims said Keeper, as the Keeper Elite shakes his head in response.

“That’s what we thought too. Even one of those is supposed to be impossible, but ten? Nothing less than the gods could even hope to contend. And yet, he escaped. Seeing what we were up against, we all began wracking out brains for a solution, and being as coordinated as we are, we all went for the absolute zero beams. All ten of us simultaneously.” He pauses for a bit, as if thinking it over. “He broke out of that too. Seemingly stepping out of the frozen block that held him. It didn’t make any sense to us.” The higher-level Keeper nods in understanding. He too couldn’t comprehend how someone could simply ignore absolute zero.

“I see…is this when he escaped then?” Inquires the higher-level Keeper, still in shock at the tale of the impossible escapes orchestrated by the thief in question. The Keeper Elite shakes his head in denial of said statement.

“No, unfortunately…no. From there we had to think once more on what to do. We knew that the gravity setting wouldn’t do anything as last time we saw him, he was standing in the middle of a neutron star, unscathed.”

“A neutron star?” Asks the higher-level Keeper, incredulous. The Keeper Elite only nods.

“This also ruled out the heat setting on our weapons and the force setting as well.” He then takes a deep breath, heard through his head piece. “So we decided to use the Time Freeze setting. If he could get past absolute zero and a pocket dimension, it was the only option.” The Keeper Elite speaks in a more somber tone.

“And he escaped this as well?” Says the higher-level Keeper in disbelief. The Keeper Elite nods once more.

“Yes, that…that is where the problem lies.” Speaks the Keeper Elite. The higher-level Keeper shakes his head.

“No, you can’t blame yourselves for that. This…thief appears to have extraordinary abilities that exceed time itself. Him escaping isn’t a slight on you. If he’s capable of that, then no one—“

“It’s not just that he escaped.” Explains the Keeper Elite, cutting off the higher-level Keeper, causing him to close his mouth and nod, waiting to hear the rest. “I…we…didn’t expect him to be moving during the Time Freeze. Nothing is supposed to be moving during the Time Freeze, except us. And yet…he jumped out and he scared us.” He stops to swallow. “And we killed him.”

“You…you what?” Questions the higher-level Keeper in shock. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“He jumped, we jumped too. Only our jumper involves an itchy trigger finger and the deadliest training in the world, as you know. We all had the same reflex: switch to the Anti-Matter setting and blast. Nothing was left, not even his ship.” He says the last part quietly, looking down. The rest of the Keeper Elite also look down when he mentions it. The higher-level Keeper brings his hands up to his mouth.

“I see…so the thief…is dead.” He says aloud to himself. He then sighs as he lies back in his chair. “This...could be a problem.” Silence reigns once more as he sits back and thinks. “Not with what you did, I’m referring to someone else.” He speaks, thinking about Sharia. “There’s nothing wrong with what you did, and I understand your trepidation, I really do. You haven’t failed anything in a while and it was jarring to be forced into a mistake by the very target you were after.” He explains. “It’s rare for agents on your level, but it happens. Sleep it off and you’ll recover.” He states confidently. “You’re dismissed.”

The Keeper Elite nod towards him and all exit the room, eager to get out of there. As they leave, the higher-level Keeper sits back and ponders Sharia and how she’ll handle this. More importantly, he ponders how he’ll handle her. His eyes immediately drawn to her as she moves through the facility and he can only look at her with pity as he thinks of the situation: Her very own employer killed her best friend. Tragic.

A month passes before the Keepers work up the nerve to tell Sharia. First the higher-level Keeper deigns to keep the information to himself, but eventually as time passes, he opts to share the information with other higher ups in the Keeper organization. The information continues to travel and eventually it makes its way to the two Keepers who recruited Sharia in the first place. Both Keepers feel responsible for Sharia and feel that they have an obligation to tell her. So at the start of the first month, the two call her into a random room and ask her to take a seat.

“Sharia, we wish we didn’t have to have this conversation, and I’ll say ahead of time that I’m sorry.” Speaks the first of the two Keepers. This confuses Sharia.

“Sorry? For what exactly?” She asks, unsure of what’s going on.

“It’s about Merc.” Starts the second Keeper. This causes Sharia’s heart to jump in excitement and then drop as it likely means something is wrong with him.

“M…Merc?” She asks, feeling her lips get dry as she gets nervous at what the news can possibly be. The second Keeper nods.

“Yes, we know you had some kind of relationship with him. It seemed you two were close.” Explains the Keeper. Sharia nods, feeling her throat tightening up as she notices that the Keeper is referring to Ji in the past tense.

“What happened?” She asks, forcing her voice not to waver or falter. The first Keeper looks at her in pity as he cuts in.

“Last month Merc had a run in with the Keeper Elite due to some…problems he was causing. His stealing had evolved to a whole ’nother scale.” He stops to swallow. “During his encounter, he escaped from several of their most advanced constraints, pocket dimensions, and time freeze among them, but…he also managed to scare the Keeper Elite in the process and…they got jumpy…” He trails off.

“And what?” Questions Sharia, fearful of what the answer might be. She tries to wipe the fear out her mind as she thinks on all the impossible things Ji has done. She knows he’s alive and can survive anything. She just knows it. The first Keeper’s shoulders drop as he responds.

“Anti-Matter.” He whispers out. Her heart sinks, like a rock, all the way to the core of the Earth and beyond, going on for eternity. Anti-Matter was…overkill. Nothing can survive it. Literally. Luckily she’s already sitting down as her legs feel weak, wobbly, and her vision starts to blur, becoming unfocused. Despite her grief, she doesn’t cry. She’s just…empty. Numb. Thinking about how she’ll never see him again and how she never even got a chance to say goodbye. She waits there, staring into the ether for what seems like eons before she comes to her senses and realizes that the two Keepers are waiting for her, concerned about how she’ll take the news. She tries to force a smile, but she just…can’t. Instead she nods solemnly and addresses both men.

“Thank you for letting me know.” She says rather emotionlessly as she gets up and walks out of the room, and out of the facility. She just…needed to get away. The numbness doesn’t go away on her trip home, or even when she opens the door to her house. She walks into her house, trying to act normally, as if she had just come home from work, but finds herself moving in slow motion, as if trying to wade through molasses. Somehow she can’t get herself to care however as she’s still empty from the news on Ji. Many hours later, once she’s done with cleaning up, with cooking, with everything that needs to be done, she sits down on her bed and stares into the ether as she thinks of him. Still she doesn’t cry, still she doesn’t feel emotion, still she can’t focus. It’s too devastating.

As time passes, wounds heal. That is the natural flow of life. With those words and that idea in mind, Sharia returns to work the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that as well, and so on. Each day she works mindlessly, lifelessly, yet efficient, as she thinks about what could’ve been. Sometimes the thoughts were fantasies of Ji returning, dumb grin on his face and arms wide open, to show her that he’s fine. Other times, the fantasies have her running off with him and abandoning her duties as a Keeper in the process. On occasion, she even sees various points in her past where she chooses to go with him instead of fight him, and then they live in harmony forever. It is not lost on her that in none of these realities, even in her own mind, is he not a thief.

At the end of each of these days, she performs the same ritual from the first day of getting home, eating, cleaning, and performing other chores, before she sits down on her bed and stares into the ether. No matter how many days pass, the feelings inside of her remain the same as always, and she doesn’t recover one bit. As more time passes, she even gets through her first Movie Night without him. She tries to set up everything: the snacks, the pajamas, the movie, the blankets, but when he doesn’t show she ends up feeling emotion for the first time. The emotion in question? Depression. She’s not able to finish the movie she picked and instead goes to sit on her bed and stare, like she always did after work. The other Movie Nights went the same, except she skips the setup part and taps right into the depression, sleeping the day away.

“Sir, check this report.” Says a random Keeper as he hands a sheet of paper to the higher-level Keeper who commands the Keeper Elite. The higher-level Keeper looks over the document in shock and surprise as it details the impossible.

“Black holes being taken? Super massive black holes as well? Hypernovas, solar systems used like trinkets, and an entire galaxy disappearing out of nowhere.” He murmurs to himself as he reads the full story on the paper before him. ‘This is impossible.’ He thinks to himself. ‘That man is dead.’

“Is it him, sir?” Asks the random Keeper, snapping the higher-level Keeper out of his self-induced trance.

“Is it who, agent?” Inquires the higher-level Keeper.

“Him. Merc. He’s the only one who could—“ Begins the random Keeper, trying to explain his stance. The higher-level Keeper merely raises his hand, stopping him mid-sentence.

“Does it matter, agent? At this point, this is something we can’t handle. We’re good, the best even. But we can’t handle a man who can take an entire galaxy on a whim. Only the gods can handle someone on this level.” He says truthfully. For Sharia’s sake, he actually wishes that it is Merc. She’s been excellent in her job lately, acing every assignment, topping her class in all of her training, but he could see that the death of her friend was heavily affecting her. She’d given them so much with her good work and they’d only taken from her, taken the most important person in her life. It doesn’t seem like a fair trade. He knows she’ll get over it eventually, but the healing process is moving at a snail’s pace. If this turns out to be Merc, maybe she’ll finally feel happiness again and he can rid himself of the guilt he feels. Just maybe.

Weeks pass until one day, Sharia gets an assignment from her new boss, the higher-level Keeper. There’s a phenomenon on Earth, one that ranks above normal Keepers. That’s not what bothers her however. What bothers her is the location of the phenomenon: the old park where she and Ji used to hang out. The park brings back painful memories and she’s forced to move her thoughts to him as she wonders just how long it’s been without him. ‘It’s been a year now.’ She thinks to herself, very unwilling to go to back to that place. ‘And just when I’d made some progress too.’ She says internally, referring to her no longer staring into the ether every day as she got home from work.

She arrives at the destination quickly and stops as she sees the issue. There’s a strange white mass at the park, located right in the place that she and Ji called their own. With a deep breath to calm her nerves, she makes her way towards the white mass, ready for action. As a Keeper Elite, she shouldn’t be scared as very little can hurt her, but it doesn’t help that she can’t seem to get any readings on this phenomenon through her mask or her gun. Because of that, this is completely uncharted territory and completely unsafe. It’s the unknown. But this is her job now as a Keeper Elite, to handle exactly that. On guard, she steps into the white mass and there she sees a figure. She gets closer to the figure to try and get a good look. As she gets within ten feet of the figure, she finally sees it clearly. What she sees…cannot be. The very sight ceases her body and mind as she drops her gun to the floor and must do everything within her power not to suffer the same fate.

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