-- Mansion Security Room --

In a room, located in a mansion in An Le Notre, a group of 8 men are staring at a panel of monitors. They are attempting to figure out exactly, what had happened earlier that day. When It all began, everything was a jumble of finger-pointing and blaming to the point no one knew what had really occurred. When everything was about to boil over, they decided the only way to solve this was to check the tapes.

On a center screen, they watched the path leading into the museum waiting. Then all of a sudden a person shaped night sky moved into frame. From the pace it set, they could tell that this person just simply walked up the path toward the mansion, right out in the open.

"Did they really just walk up the path?" One of the men asked.

"It looks like it. Let's check the gates camera." They cut to the front gate just before the person appeared. On the screen, they saw people walking by and the gate nothing else. Then a bird landed in front of the camera, and the only thing they could see was the gate open and close.

"He must have a Ranger helping him." One of the men commented.

The man controlling the cameras switched back to the screen with the thief. They all watched in disbelief as it simply walked down the road.

The video continued, as the guard controlling the footage, jumped between cameras following the intruder, until he was finally spotted and stopped by one of the guards.

The controller pause the screen and turned to one of the men asking. "This is where you told them to halt?"

"Yes."

"Wow, they really do. I thought you were exaggerating or something." The man admitted.

The other man looked vindicated, finally being believed by his superior.

The screen continued, as they all watched the infiltrator and guard talk, then the burglar sat down on the bench, showing the appearance of one who was patiently waiting for the guard/ The man in question was now talking to one of his superiors trying to figure out what to do. When his head suddenly jumps up to something.

The screen paused again.

"This is where you heard the noise?" The head guard asked.

The man nodded "Yes. I still don't know what it was."

"Let's find out." They rewind the tapes looking through all the different feeds until they finally spot the source of the disturbance. They see a cat walking casually across the roof until it looks to slip.

The guards looked at each other in disbelief. "A cat?"

"I guess that's why I didn't see anything, with it happening so fast." The guard shrugged.

"Got to up the training." The head guard grumbled.

"What was that?" one of the men asked nervously.

"Don't worry about it."

The camera continued to play as the intruder calmly stood, and began walking over to the door. It was like they were waiting for the distraction, as they simply pulled the door open, stepping through.

The guard paused the screen and this time when he asked there was an edge to his voice. "How did they not set off the alarm?"

"Someone didn't arm the door."

"I said I was sorry." A man shrank as he whined.

"Just shut it." The leader yelled.

The guards continued to watch the footage of the intruder. The thief moved with purpose through the halls, and looked to know exactly where to go, not an ounce of hesitation in his steps as he made his way to their first target. The men watched from as it looked like the criminal just waved their hand over it as it disappeared.

"Does that not have an alarm attached?" One of the men asked.

That caught the head guard by surprise. He answered unsurely. "Let me check." The man pulled a log scanning through it "Sonic ax common artifact of the keeper era. We have multiple on back up and was deemed not worth-added security."

"Why would they want something common then?"

"I don't know, looks almost like the ax was an afterthought though." The leader commented.

The group continued watching the screen, as the person began to run through the compound. They all could see him making a b-line to, what they knew was his true target. The runner came to a sudden stop, right before entering his target aisle, almost running into one of the guards.

The man patrolling could be seen conversing into a receiver, as the intruder waited patiently. When the man's conversation ended, he continued his patrol moving away from the display. This prompted thief to move, shooting down the hall right up to the glass case waving a hand over it, as the contents disappear. The patrolling guard turned at the sound only to see the intruder vanish right in front of him.

The watching men were all shocked at seeing the thief just poof out of existence. Shaking themselves out of their stupor they began to search frantically through the footage, to catch a glimpse of the burglar. After some careful searching on of the men finally spotted something. "There."

Looking like a blur, the man constantly appeared and disappeared all throughout the mansion, never staying in one spot for more then a second.

"Just how fast is he?" A guard asked in disbelief.

"Fast." One of the men said unhelpfully.

"And we all know the rest from there." The head guard said turning the playback off as he turned to ask. "How did he get out?"

"He jumped the fence." One of the men commented.

"How? That fence is impossible to jump." The head responded.

"He jumped and landed on the other side. They did leave some pieces behind." The man cringed a little as he mentioned the bits of organs strewn in the wires.

"Can we use that to find him?" One of the men asked.

"I wish. The field completely destroys anything that passes through." The leader explained.

"Well, obviously not."

Frustrated the head almost shouted. "Look the fall out of this is going to be complete shit. I don't need added sarcasm I need...."

"Wait." One of the men interrupted him with a thoughtful expression.

What?" He snapped.

"What if we sell the footage?"

"Yes, what if we sell the footage?" The entire room froze at the voice as an old man walked into the room with a gleam in his eye.

"Sir." All the men straightened looking nervous.

"I've been listening for a while, and while I agree that this was a complete shit-show." The old man gave a pointed look to the head guard. "I might be able to drum up some more business with this."

"But sir."

The old man interrupted whatever objection the guard had. "We'll have to doctor it up, but imagine the merchandise. With a showing like that they're bound to make a name for themselves."

The room went silent with disbelief at the idea. The owner either didn't notice or care as he kept eying the screens continuing to talk. "You guys did the right thing not going after them. They probably had a whole team waiting, and then the entire place might have even been raided."

"Why would they do this?" The head asked, then adding. "Those items aren't worth that much."

The old man smiled. "If my guess is right. That was a shadow."

All the guards suddenly straightened with unseen hatred. "How could that be? No crystals went off, and these are the most sensitive possible, they go off if a rogue steps foot beyond the gate."

The rest of the men agreed.

"That is true," the owner relented "But when you are skilled as they appear to be, you can easily hide it."

This seemed to mollify most of the men but one asked. "But why do you think he's a shadow?"

The old man looked amused. "Sometimes we are targeted for a rank-up test with them. Hasn't happened in a long time but it happens."

"So we were just a test?" A guard snarled.

"Most likely part of one at least." The owner became thoughtful before replying. "I think we would be used for a rank 10 test, normally."

The entire room was shocked, as that was the highest rank one could achieve.

"If that's the case..."

"Exactly!" The old man said excitedly. "You didn't stand a chance. Even your ridiculous bumbling could be explained away if it's for that. They must have been studying you all for months to pull off perfect timing like this."

That seemed to be a load off of the team.

Still looking over the screens the old man continued. "He must be especially skilled, and we have footage of the theft. We just need to wait. A new rank 10 is going to do a lot more to prove themselves and start taking risks. Especially since the bounty is gone."

The group nodded in agreement.

The head guard smiled. "I bet they're celebrating like crazy right now."

-- Aster 9 Days Ago --

"What was that wire?" There were no visible wounds on my body, but I could feel chunks of my organs missing. It felt like someone blended up my insides, but somehow I was able to stumble my way into the city. My only thoughts were to get as far away as possible, from the mansion before they started to track me.

I moved through the alleyways barely conscious, using any energy I could gather to keep myself moving. If I didn't I was not confidant I wouldn't just fall where I stood. I even debated just stopping the flow to my dimensional pocket, but knew that would be a bad idea in the state I was in.

I found my mind drifting between just holding myself together, and forcing my body to move. At some point, I must have realized I wouldn't make it home, finding myself laying down inside a cardboard box with bags of trash covering the opening.

'I guess I found a place to collapse. I hope they lost my trail.' Laying down, I attempted to move but found the effort too much. 'Maybe I didn't have a choice but to stop. What is it with me and dirty boxes?'

I had a vague memory of seeing this box in an alley with a bunch of other junk I couldn't make out. "I just hope it's not trash day."

Laying in relative safety I let go of my dimensional pocket, and the gun and ax shot out, falling to either side of me. Releasing the skill felt like letting out a long pent up breath, I immediately felt an increase in the amount of power I was pulling in. Finally, I could start putting my insides to rights. I focused inward and lost myself fixing my body.

After losing myself for what felt like hours, I suddenly felt pressure in my chest, growing. It continued until I could no longer take it forcing my damaged body to roll to the side, as I vomited a combination of bile and blood . "Ah come on."

I had forgotten I was in a box just a little bigger than myself. The vile mixture sprayed all over me and the container. There was no escaping the fluid forcing me to lie in my own mess, and the worst part was there was still more to come.

The ruptured organs were leaking bile and other contaminates into the rest of my blood making it essentially poison, since I couldn't reabsorb it my only real option was to isolate it, and expel it. If I had tried to just heal without removing the waste, any new blood would quickly turn, making everything worse.

I looked down to the artifacts I had stolen, as they sat in the the polluted mixture, feeling mildly annoyed they were getting dirty. "Ok step one complete. Get the items. Step 2 figure out how to use them to level. Step 3 figure out step 2...that makes no sense." I rolled back over into the wetness 'This is already gross might as well finish healing.'

That's how I spent the next couple hours, healing, and expelling out tainted liquid making the little safe haven smell like iron and rot. I repeated the process until I finally patched up all the internal bleeding, and expelled everything. I may have stayed longer than I needed to get myself to 100%, but it was a long day.

When I exited the box, it had grown dark, and the blood had begun to congeal onto my clothes. "Gross."

Exhausted to my core, but now back in one piece, I made my way home too exhausted to care about the people eying me and holding their noses. "I'm gonna take the longest shower."