Chapter 347: Too many questions, too few answers, with the Captain

Now that Rhys had been told that there was someone or something trying to break onto this floor of the Guild building, Rhys felt his blood cool. His mood darkened, and he felt his powers swell dangerously. This was not going to fly.

Rhys wouldn’t approve of it, nor would Dina, Kellen’s parents, and least of all, Kellen. If Rhys knew his partner, his fiancé, he had to have noticed that something was wrong a while ago and was either making his way up to Rhys and the others, their apartment to get weapons, or escorting people out of the building to safety.

Rhys clenched his teeth. Well, Theo wasn’t here, and he had an obligation to protect the others right now. No one would get mad at him for ’over reacting’ would they?

Rhys made sure that the Guides got to safety before he acted. They were his priority first, because that is what Kellen would want, and then dealing with the threat came second. As soon as he confirmed that they were behind a locked door, the door of the research room, Rhys spun on his heel and moved towards the slamming, rattling, shaking door that connected their floor to the stairwell the next few floors.

Rhys wondered how much of the building they had invaded, and then got even more angry as he considered it. Rhys, with very little patience, grabbed the handle of the door and sped up time. The door groaned, bending, folding in on itself as time advanced and rust and other conditions began to form. Once it was advanced enough, Rhys ripped it off of its weak hinges and tossed it at the people on the other side.

They were wearing tactical gear, all black, with masks, goggles and weapons that Rhys recognised in between the two seconds of shock on their faces before Rhys had them frozen in time. They didn’t even have time to raise their weapons, and Rhys scowled. Five. Five members and they were causing this much noise.

That only worried Rhys more.

First thing first, he stripped them of their items, their clothes, their everything before he gathered them up, humming as he carried the group like damn dress up dolls and tossed them into a closet. He was going to ask the Guides to help tie them up once he confirmed that the other floors were safe.

After all, you couldn’t do much if you were frozen, much like how the others were right now. That part didn’t sit well with Rhys. He didn’t like thinking that there was either someone just as powerful as him in the E.A.G. or they had developed items to take advantage and amplify his powers. He didn’t like either thought because they hadn’t been able to make any items that could use and store his powers without a great cost to the Time Esper.

There was a reason that Rhys had been kept the way that he had been, and why they had been so interested in him and his S Class abilities. When they found out that they couldn’t manipulate him as a Time Esper, that was when he started being viewed as an actual threat. Rhys was just thankful that Tom wasn’t around to find out that Kellen had awoken as a Time Esper. Fuck. He hated even thinking about how that creep would have tried to take advantage of him.

It was not a pleasant thought.

Rhys gathered the fuckers into the closet, leaving the clothes on the floor and headed down the stairs. He wasn’t quiet, he didn’t need to be. They could shoot him, but it wouldn’t matter. Even if it was fatal. As long as he had a mere second of thought before it happened, he could turn back time. There were some kinks he’d have to work out later, but they always worked out just fine.

For him, at least.

The floor below it was quiet, and Rhys was thankful to find that there were no dead bodies, even though this floor was a rather busy one. That told Rhys that there were quite a few groups who had made it to the safe rooms that Dina had told them about in passing, not thinking that they would actually need them.

The floor below that was when Rhys ran into a few more of the fuckers, but Rhys didn’t hold back. If they shot at him, they were dead. No questions asked. They didn’t seem to get the memo as the whole group shot at him so tragically, they all had to die.

Sorry, he didn’t make the rules, he just enforced them. He did find a few people unconscious on this level, tied up, and battered. They had been clearly trying to interrogate them, and from their bloody state, it had either been successful, or they were rather loyal to Dina.

Rhys was betting on the latter.

Rhys left the bodies where they were, carrying the injured unconscious members up to the upper floor where the Guides were waiting for him. Once there, he made sure that the intruders were frozen still, and knocked on the door where the Guides had locked themselves inside.

"It’s me, Captain Rhys. I just did a check of the bottom floors and I have some injured Guild members here. Can you open up for me?" Rhys asked. The door slowly creaked open and the scared, frightened sky blue gaze of two Guides stared back at him. When they realised the ominous glowing yellow gaze above them was Rhys, they relaxed.

"The intruders?" They asked and Rhys smiled.

"We can talk about that in a second." He explained, and they opened the door wide to let Rhys enter.

They appeared to not be the only ones in here, but much like the others in Rhys’ room, the others were frozen. Locked in a loop.

Rhys paused, worried suddenly. Why were they free when the others weren’t? He wanted to question them, but decided now wasn’t the time.

"Do either of you know first aid?" He asked and one of them gave a nod. "Perfect. They’ll need it. They were beaten by some of the intruders, probably to interrogate them to learn more about the building. We won’t know what information they passed on, if any, until they wake up. That is probably going to be a while yet from their injuries. Help me clear a space on the table for them." The Guides rushed to do that, and Rhys gave a small shudder as he heard the other people in the room, frozen in time, repeat the same lines over and over. "I need to figure out what that’s all about." He muttered quietly as they worked.

When they finally had a space free so that the injured members could be laid down properly, Rhys laid them down carefully. The Guides, caring in general, gasped and fussed over the badly beaten members.

"The poor dears. Are the people who did this going to be held accountable?" They asked and Rhys chuckled.

"Yes, they will be." Rhys didn’t need to tell them that he’d kill them. Now was not the time. "I left weapons, clothes, masks and goggles out in the hallway. I would appreciate it if you carried it into this room or an adjacent one. I have to go check on one of the safe rooms on these bundles of floors to make sure that they are okay." Rhys explained. The Guides seemed to be more calm now that they had Rhys around and he was bossing them around. Rhys felt a little conflicted about it, but he was happy to have two willing and helpful assistants at the moment.

"Of course. We’ll have it cleaned up by the time you get back." They promised, and Rhys felt confident leaving them to it. He did take one weapon as he passed the pile again, just to be safe, as he headed for the safe room.

Thankfully, his powers were working for locating the safe room because Kellen wasn’t involved in it, so he was able to see the code, who had input it, and have a rough guess of how many should be inside. The room was hidden in the back of a closet in the back of one of the office spaces. Truly tucked away and it was a good thing. Rhys had no idea how long they had been on this floor and had access.

As the door opened, someone raised a weapon to threaten Rhys, but they froze when they spotted his face. Rhys smiled, scanning the area and noting that the image he saw was correct. The right number of people were in this safe room, even if they were terrified.

"W-Who-"

"We’re not safe yet. They did something to affect our floor and only I, and two Guides seemed to be able to break free of it. However, I’ve cleared out the floors below us, and secured those who were going to break onto my floor and kill us. You are free to stay here if you’d like, or you can join the Guides on the floor above. The elevators are still down, same with the power, so it’s fully your decision. I just wanted you to know that I am aware of what is going on, and I’m assuming that there are others who are aware as well." Rhys told them seriously.

He watched as a few of them broke down, the range between weaker Espers, civilians and Guides an almost even split. They were normal people, who worked for a Guild but not as traditional Guild members. Rhys didn’t push them off when they asked for hugs, the Captain in him not about to let them live in fear. It took a while to calm them, but in the end, most stayed behind in the locked safe room, while a few of the Espers came upstairs to see if they could help. They weren’t S Classes, more D and C Classes, but help was help.

Rhys let them know that he was grateful for their help and that they were doing something brave, which seemed to make them glow. It was honestly a little reminiscent of when Rhys worked with Kellen. A sweet moment in amongst all of the hell that he was sure he was going to encounter.

One of the Espers, the C Class, paused as they were on the threshold of the floor that the others were stuck in time. He blinked, going pale, and Rhys caught him.

"Items. Items." He repeated, shaking, and his friend turned and frowned, but he looked worried. Rhys watched as the man’s eyes surged to a silvery blue of a Telekinetic and Rhys wondered what he was doing? What he was feeling?

His friend seemed confused as well, until a light seemed to go off.

"Captain Rhys, my friend is able to use his powers to locate things. He can’t move items like the others, but he can find items, especially items made with monster parts, when others can’t." Rhys tightened his grip on the C Class.

"That sounds like exactly what we need right now." Rhys said softly. "Let’s get him upstairs, and maybe we can find the item that is causing this problem." Rhys said. His friend, still shaking and scared, nodded and helped Rhys with guiding his friend to the upper floors.

It did feel a bit too convenient that an Esper who had the powers to find such items was only a floor below, but Rhys wasn’t going to make any assumptions yet. He would only do so if something bad happened. After all, they might think that they could mess around with Rhys because he was a Time Esper, until they were aging and growing younger and then aging again, unable to die at a rapid pace.

That tended to break people quite easily.

Maybe there was a reason Theo made him make that promise. He needed to be back near Kellen. He felt far more human around his sweet fiancé.