Twists of Fate [Part 5]
Nov. 5th, 2014 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: Nakida’s a hacker in the middle of a job to find some information. Except they’re not the only one breaking into the building that night - there’s a silver-haired guy walking around like cameras don’t exist. If he wants to get caught, it’s not their problem.
Huian’s on guard duty to protect the information they’re after. Usually it’s quiet - all she has to do is enter the system, keep an eye on the camera feeds and patrol around the clusters of data to make sure no-one gets to them.
Their pasts connect them, even if they don’t remember. And the past does tend to come back.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Genre: General.
Word count: 1,833
Total word count: 10,612
Status: Work in progress
They settled down in their bed with a few sandwiches and drinks within reaching distance for when they remembered to eat, opened up the first document from one of the clusters and started reading.
* * *
Nakida squinted at the windows around them, the headache behind their eyes not changing. They slumped back, reaching over a bottle, but when they picked it up it was empty. Damn.
When was the last time they moved? Going by the numbness in their ass, probably a couple of hours.
It had been a couple of days since they'd started reading but other than finding out how the company was planning to upgrade their technology (which was useful, but not what they needed right now), they hadn't found anything that could point to there something being off about the company.
They had a few more clusters left to read, and they blinked at the next one they opened. It was the list of all employees in the company; that was standard to be protected, seeing how it listed all the data about the person. There was also a tab for another list, and Nakida opened that.
At a glance it was just another list of employees. A much shorter list, and Cheung Huian was at the list. …Huh.
It had been updated a few days ago, after their break-in, and when Nakida clicked on their profile, they saw Huian had been promoted. That was interesting. After what had happened? Nakida clicked on the other people on the list and those people were the same – they'd all been promoted.
The list was too small to be all the promotions though and promotions were usually kept in the profile, not keeping the people separate.
An uneasy feeling started swirling inside Nakida's stomach. They might have found what they had been looking for. The discrepancy, something that didn't quite fit right with everything else.
Pulling up a number of fresh windows, Nakida began opening up more of the profiles and double-checking when they had last been active.
Huian was still around, having bought something about lunch (and Nakida had to get something to eat; it was past dinner now, the sky dark through their curtains) so they left it.
The next name had transferred to another country and… Nakida frowned. His bank account hadn't been touched since they transferred, and there hadn't been a house saved in his name at the time of transfer.
Shit.
The third name in the list transferred to another country, her bank account hadn't been touched since, and there was no record of a house being saved in her name.
It was the same with the fourth, and the fifth, and the same story kept repeating over and over as Nakida went down it.
It took Nakida a while to realise the list went back decades, not months or years. It was barely one every few years; not something people would really notice, especially if there were other promotions going on in between them.
Moving to another country meant no-one would question if that person didn't keep in touch with the different time zones. Especially if they'd just gotten promoted. They would have been too busy getting used to their new responsibilities.
Was it a kill list or kidnappings?
And with how long it had been going on, was it institutionalised in the company or…
They sighed, chewing their lip. How long was there between the person being promoted and then disappearing? Nakida still had the windows up and… Less than a week. Which made sense, with how fast they were usually processed. And with a prestigious company that looked after its employees, that would smoothen and quicken the process if the victim had thought everything had been 'taken care of'.
And nearly a week had passed since Huian's promotion. Shit. She was either going to be (or already had been) picked up today, or it would happen in the next few days.
Huian had been active a few hours ago but that didn't mean she still was.
They had to find her fast before she was picked up. Getting the police involved… Nakida didn't know if the police knew what was going on and wasn't doing anything, if they would be wasting precious time trying to convince the police if they weren't involved. The police would have to read and verify what had happened to the 'promoted' people and would question how the data had been gotten.
By the time the police were willing to listen to the evidence, it could be too late for Huian.
But there was one person who seemed to already know what was going on and could believe them straight away. Who might be able to reach Huian in time.
Could they trust Kang-dae though? He had seemed concerned about their safety – or he was doing that to keep them away from the company's secrets?
Nakida squeezed their eyes shut. They would find out soon enough. Making sure Huian wasn't added to the list was the priority now.
Kang-dae's details were... There. They dialed his number and started a different search, telling the console to tell them if the promoted people had anything in common, if there was something there they could use.
It didn't take Kang-dae long to pick up, and he didn't look as pissed off, studying Nakida more.
"…Why are you calling…?"
Definitely different this time. Maybe he'd had a chat with whoever he was connected to or something. "I've got a couple reasons – one being more trustworthy than the police." They hoped.
He snorted, his lip twisting up. "You don't know that."
And if he was trying to warn them away about that rather than agreeing and trying to gain their trust, that meant he was more trustworthy than the police. Even if he didn't believe it himself.
"You're also pretty fast on your feet." Were they going to have to dance the issue? Nakida had modified their new communicator so calls couldn't be listened to, but they couldn't blurt out what they knew, not when they didn't know how Kang-dae would react.
Kang-dae's shoulders tensed for a second before relaxing. "What about it?"
Nakida exhaled, calming themself down. "I found some information about the security company." Their console blipped, telling them it had finished the comparison. They glanced at it, looking over the results.
"Yeah? What did you find?" His tone was sharper, demanding, but Nakida ignored it as they read over the results.
When they looked back at him, Kang-dae was leaning towards his screen, his jaw clenched. He wanted the information, that was for certain. His eyes were dark though, shadowed, not bright and eager for it.
"There's a list of people," they said, still watching his reactions, but a bit of their wariness was gone, "that disappeared since they were promoted." They continued when they paused for a second and it didn't look like he would interrupt. "They were all in a special program when they were young-"
"Shit!" Kang-dae shoved himself away, a snarl ripping from his throat.
So…he knew what that meant, then.
"They were all only children, weren't they?" He was glowering, a deep crease between his brows, but Kang-dae wasn't focused on them, his breathing harsh.
So there would be less chance of someone trying to look for the missing people? "No." Nakida shook their head. It would have come up if that had been true.
Surprise flashed across Kang-dae's face and Nakida decided to humour him. He knew something, so if he thought the people would be only children…
They clicked over the profiles and – he was right.
"Not only children." They saw his focus snap to them again. "Some had siblings, but they died one way or another so they're only children now." There didn't seem to be a common factor with them – some had died before the person had been accepted into the special program while others died after. And there had been different deaths, from illness to the rare malfunctioning car and running the sibling over.
"Fucking-" He started swearing under his breath in a couple of languages Nakida didn't know.
"There's one person on the list who hasn't disappeared, but she probably will soon."
"Who?"
"Cheung Huian," Nakida told him. "She's-"
"Okay." There was something about that tone. Final. "You have to stay out of this."
What. Nakida narrowed their eyes at him. "Because it's dangerous?" He'd already said that.
"Yes," he hissed. "You haven't gone up against something like the Union before."
"The Union," they repeated in disbelief. Kang-dae grimaced. A slip? "They don't exist." The Union was some old myth to scare people, an organisation that controlled everything from the shadows. If they really did exist, Nakida would have heard something about them by now.
"Because they're – it doesn't matter."
"Of course it doesn't." Nakida clenched their jaw, glaring at him. "I'm not walking away from this."
"Even if it gets you killed? Or worse?"
"And the people who already have?" they shot back.
"Tao-" And there was that tone again, frustrated but expecting that Nakida would obey him with no complaint. "-you can't-"
Nakida's temper flared. "Are you really wasting time arguing about my safety over someone who could be getting kidnapped right now, Kang-dae?"
They saw his eyes widen before they closed the call.
"Fucking asshole!" So much for getting help from him.
They had to direct their energy into finding Huian. There still hadn't been any transactions from their account, but maybe they could get a lead from the list itself.
Who was the last person who edited the list? It only took a few taps to find out: Jocelyne Flores. Who was the only editor of the list. Dammit.
Concentrate. Calm down.
Nakida closed their eyes and took in a deep breath, holding it until their buzzing thoughts settled a little. They exhaled and opened their eyes again.
They shoved what had just happened with Kang-dae to the back of their mind and got to work, trying to find Huian.
* * *
Huian watched everyone around the table, relaxed and smiling. She saw Joyce coming over, holding two cups in her hands.
"There's a lot of people here," Joyce murmured, holding one cup out for Huian to take.
"I think it's mostly people who wanted to go out," Huian said as she took the offered cup. She didn't mind; she would have done the same.
"I guess." Joyce flicked a hand towards Huian's drink, indicating to drink, smiling. "Drink, drink! It's your leaving party. So celebrate your promotion!"
Huian sipped whatever Joyce had given her – all she could tell about it was there was alcohol in it, with some fruit.
"Don't worry about getting home tonight," Joyce said as Huian took a deeper gulp of it, "I'm driving."
If that was the case… Huian smiled at her, raising her glass for Joyce to clink. Joyce knew where she lived; she would get home fine.
__________________________
I talk about the time skips in Noblesse being nonsensical, but I'm also doing this for my fic. Because I know it's still needed.
If people's details were entered via database form or something, the extra tab wouldn't have been seen that often.
There was supposed to be a scene where Nakida checks how Huian was doing after they met, oops.
I had the second last scene plotted out one way. This morning, I spent some two hours thinking about how the scene would go now that I am close to it. Then when I reached it, it went its own way. Of course.
Summary: Nakida’s a hacker in the middle of a job to find some information. Except they’re not the only one breaking into the building that night - there’s a silver-haired guy walking around like cameras don’t exist. If he wants to get caught, it’s not their problem.
Huian’s on guard duty to protect the information they’re after. Usually it’s quiet - all she has to do is enter the system, keep an eye on the camera feeds and patrol around the clusters of data to make sure no-one gets to them.
Their pasts connect them, even if they don’t remember. And the past does tend to come back.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Genre: General.
Word count: 1,833
Total word count: 10,612
Status: Work in progress
They settled down in their bed with a few sandwiches and drinks within reaching distance for when they remembered to eat, opened up the first document from one of the clusters and started reading.
Nakida squinted at the windows around them, the headache behind their eyes not changing. They slumped back, reaching over a bottle, but when they picked it up it was empty. Damn.
When was the last time they moved? Going by the numbness in their ass, probably a couple of hours.
It had been a couple of days since they'd started reading but other than finding out how the company was planning to upgrade their technology (which was useful, but not what they needed right now), they hadn't found anything that could point to there something being off about the company.
They had a few more clusters left to read, and they blinked at the next one they opened. It was the list of all employees in the company; that was standard to be protected, seeing how it listed all the data about the person. There was also a tab for another list, and Nakida opened that.
At a glance it was just another list of employees. A much shorter list, and Cheung Huian was at the list. …Huh.
It had been updated a few days ago, after their break-in, and when Nakida clicked on their profile, they saw Huian had been promoted. That was interesting. After what had happened? Nakida clicked on the other people on the list and those people were the same – they'd all been promoted.
The list was too small to be all the promotions though and promotions were usually kept in the profile, not keeping the people separate.
An uneasy feeling started swirling inside Nakida's stomach. They might have found what they had been looking for. The discrepancy, something that didn't quite fit right with everything else.
Pulling up a number of fresh windows, Nakida began opening up more of the profiles and double-checking when they had last been active.
Huian was still around, having bought something about lunch (and Nakida had to get something to eat; it was past dinner now, the sky dark through their curtains) so they left it.
The next name had transferred to another country and… Nakida frowned. His bank account hadn't been touched since they transferred, and there hadn't been a house saved in his name at the time of transfer.
Shit.
The third name in the list transferred to another country, her bank account hadn't been touched since, and there was no record of a house being saved in her name.
It was the same with the fourth, and the fifth, and the same story kept repeating over and over as Nakida went down it.
It took Nakida a while to realise the list went back decades, not months or years. It was barely one every few years; not something people would really notice, especially if there were other promotions going on in between them.
Moving to another country meant no-one would question if that person didn't keep in touch with the different time zones. Especially if they'd just gotten promoted. They would have been too busy getting used to their new responsibilities.
Was it a kill list or kidnappings?
And with how long it had been going on, was it institutionalised in the company or…
They sighed, chewing their lip. How long was there between the person being promoted and then disappearing? Nakida still had the windows up and… Less than a week. Which made sense, with how fast they were usually processed. And with a prestigious company that looked after its employees, that would smoothen and quicken the process if the victim had thought everything had been 'taken care of'.
And nearly a week had passed since Huian's promotion. Shit. She was either going to be (or already had been) picked up today, or it would happen in the next few days.
Huian had been active a few hours ago but that didn't mean she still was.
They had to find her fast before she was picked up. Getting the police involved… Nakida didn't know if the police knew what was going on and wasn't doing anything, if they would be wasting precious time trying to convince the police if they weren't involved. The police would have to read and verify what had happened to the 'promoted' people and would question how the data had been gotten.
By the time the police were willing to listen to the evidence, it could be too late for Huian.
But there was one person who seemed to already know what was going on and could believe them straight away. Who might be able to reach Huian in time.
Could they trust Kang-dae though? He had seemed concerned about their safety – or he was doing that to keep them away from the company's secrets?
Nakida squeezed their eyes shut. They would find out soon enough. Making sure Huian wasn't added to the list was the priority now.
Kang-dae's details were... There. They dialed his number and started a different search, telling the console to tell them if the promoted people had anything in common, if there was something there they could use.
It didn't take Kang-dae long to pick up, and he didn't look as pissed off, studying Nakida more.
"…Why are you calling…?"
Definitely different this time. Maybe he'd had a chat with whoever he was connected to or something. "I've got a couple reasons – one being more trustworthy than the police." They hoped.
He snorted, his lip twisting up. "You don't know that."
And if he was trying to warn them away about that rather than agreeing and trying to gain their trust, that meant he was more trustworthy than the police. Even if he didn't believe it himself.
"You're also pretty fast on your feet." Were they going to have to dance the issue? Nakida had modified their new communicator so calls couldn't be listened to, but they couldn't blurt out what they knew, not when they didn't know how Kang-dae would react.
Kang-dae's shoulders tensed for a second before relaxing. "What about it?"
Nakida exhaled, calming themself down. "I found some information about the security company." Their console blipped, telling them it had finished the comparison. They glanced at it, looking over the results.
"Yeah? What did you find?" His tone was sharper, demanding, but Nakida ignored it as they read over the results.
When they looked back at him, Kang-dae was leaning towards his screen, his jaw clenched. He wanted the information, that was for certain. His eyes were dark though, shadowed, not bright and eager for it.
"There's a list of people," they said, still watching his reactions, but a bit of their wariness was gone, "that disappeared since they were promoted." They continued when they paused for a second and it didn't look like he would interrupt. "They were all in a special program when they were young-"
"Shit!" Kang-dae shoved himself away, a snarl ripping from his throat.
So…he knew what that meant, then.
"They were all only children, weren't they?" He was glowering, a deep crease between his brows, but Kang-dae wasn't focused on them, his breathing harsh.
So there would be less chance of someone trying to look for the missing people? "No." Nakida shook their head. It would have come up if that had been true.
Surprise flashed across Kang-dae's face and Nakida decided to humour him. He knew something, so if he thought the people would be only children…
They clicked over the profiles and – he was right.
"Not only children." They saw his focus snap to them again. "Some had siblings, but they died one way or another so they're only children now." There didn't seem to be a common factor with them – some had died before the person had been accepted into the special program while others died after. And there had been different deaths, from illness to the rare malfunctioning car and running the sibling over.
"Fucking-" He started swearing under his breath in a couple of languages Nakida didn't know.
"There's one person on the list who hasn't disappeared, but she probably will soon."
"Who?"
"Cheung Huian," Nakida told him. "She's-"
"Okay." There was something about that tone. Final. "You have to stay out of this."
What. Nakida narrowed their eyes at him. "Because it's dangerous?" He'd already said that.
"Yes," he hissed. "You haven't gone up against something like the Union before."
"The Union," they repeated in disbelief. Kang-dae grimaced. A slip? "They don't exist." The Union was some old myth to scare people, an organisation that controlled everything from the shadows. If they really did exist, Nakida would have heard something about them by now.
"Because they're – it doesn't matter."
"Of course it doesn't." Nakida clenched their jaw, glaring at him. "I'm not walking away from this."
"Even if it gets you killed? Or worse?"
"And the people who already have?" they shot back.
"Tao-" And there was that tone again, frustrated but expecting that Nakida would obey him with no complaint. "-you can't-"
Nakida's temper flared. "Are you really wasting time arguing about my safety over someone who could be getting kidnapped right now, Kang-dae?"
They saw his eyes widen before they closed the call.
"Fucking asshole!" So much for getting help from him.
They had to direct their energy into finding Huian. There still hadn't been any transactions from their account, but maybe they could get a lead from the list itself.
Who was the last person who edited the list? It only took a few taps to find out: Jocelyne Flores. Who was the only editor of the list. Dammit.
Concentrate. Calm down.
Nakida closed their eyes and took in a deep breath, holding it until their buzzing thoughts settled a little. They exhaled and opened their eyes again.
They shoved what had just happened with Kang-dae to the back of their mind and got to work, trying to find Huian.
Huian watched everyone around the table, relaxed and smiling. She saw Joyce coming over, holding two cups in her hands.
"There's a lot of people here," Joyce murmured, holding one cup out for Huian to take.
"I think it's mostly people who wanted to go out," Huian said as she took the offered cup. She didn't mind; she would have done the same.
"I guess." Joyce flicked a hand towards Huian's drink, indicating to drink, smiling. "Drink, drink! It's your leaving party. So celebrate your promotion!"
Huian sipped whatever Joyce had given her – all she could tell about it was there was alcohol in it, with some fruit.
"Don't worry about getting home tonight," Joyce said as Huian took a deeper gulp of it, "I'm driving."
If that was the case… Huian smiled at her, raising her glass for Joyce to clink. Joyce knew where she lived; she would get home fine.
I talk about the time skips in Noblesse being nonsensical, but I'm also doing this for my fic. Because I know it's still needed.
If people's details were entered via database form or something, the extra tab wouldn't have been seen that often.
There was supposed to be a scene where Nakida checks how Huian was doing after they met, oops.
I had the second last scene plotted out one way. This morning, I spent some two hours thinking about how the scene would go now that I am close to it. Then when I reached it, it went its own way. Of course.