that day she didnt switch and so she just focused on memorizing the list and convincing everyone to meet and be civil about it. specifically asha and dolu. she sighed and went to bed as soon as dinner was over. she needed a long night. and then she couldn't sleep. she sighed and asked sage to convince lui to front. lui liked nothing better than sleeping. she went to the inner world as the body slept and realized somebody ought to be fronting. lui was actually critical for once, and the only person who didn't have to be there was clare. unfortunately she would be next to impossible to get to sleep. she decided to get something that would put her to sleep, so she went to the inner world town for the first time. she knew they could have lives, but until then she hadn't realized to what extent. also none of them were adults. she shook herself and left for the drug store, pointedly avoiding looking at the pet store and the temptations inside. she found some kind of powder, and used it to coat a candybar. she felt a little bad, but she didn't see an alternative. she feed it to clare and carried her to the front, where she woke up lui and announced they were having the first system meeting minus littles and to meet at the common space. lui rolled her eyes and trudged over. aube flew to the border of the darkness. she walked in hasitantly. dolu didn't like her. suddenly a wall of obsidian shoot up in front of her, and she heard a voice behind her say, or rather snarl, "what do you want?" she whirled to see dolu in wolf form. she forced down the panic bubbling up her throat like bile and tried to speak in a confidant tone. "dolu, hey. i wanted to have a system meeting i did some planning but i need to talk to everyone at once. except clare, fr her own protection." dolu glared. "and why do i care?" "because we need you for the plan to work. if you want to find those humans you cant do it alone. and ill try and get asha to be civil if you will." dolu growled. aube realized she had been an idiot. she had thought dolu was tame, and that she could befreind her. she could clearly tell dolu wasn't evil, just hurting, but she was also not some puppy having a tantrum. she was actually very dangerous, and very angry. "and since when do you make bargins with me?" aube leaned back a little. she felt like she was close to being bitten. "common sense is, if you attack, physically or verbally, asha, than shes obviously going to fight back. and we cant catch the humans if the whole system is in chaos fighting itself." dolu nodded, but was still clearly angry. "and in the future don't walk into my space and invade my privacy." aube cocked her head, carefully. she sensed she was not in immediate danger, but either way it would be disrespectful to treat dolu like a dog. "ok. how else can i contact you then?" dolu sighed. "sand sage to get me." aube rolled her eyes, determined to show dolu that she was strong to. "yes, because sage would love to have her time constantly taken up being treated like hedwig or something. shall we suggest she change her name to pigwidigeon?"dolu rolled her eyes. "what, should i make a mail box?" "like you want to check it all the time. besides, what if its urgent. like the meeting. what if you have a pressure plate or button at the edge of you domain to let you know someones here?" dole sighed. "for now. lets go." "k, ill go get everyone else." dolu scoffed. "you come get me and yet you arent even ready yet?" "well, you arent the last person. i might be a while arguing with asha. but i don't think you've met lui and shes already there." dolu shrugged. "like i care." aube took flight and landed in front of sages library. she knocked and sage came out. "hey!" "hey! im setting up a system meeting, dolu and lui are there. dolu has all but agreed not to bite off ashas head. f course, she almost bit off mine in that conversation." sage smiled. "ill be there." aube thanked her and left for ashas fire. "aube!" "asha, hey! im starting a system meeting, can you please come?" asha nodded. "'bout what?" "the humans who killed clare. oh, and dolu will be there, she wont fight if you wont. and ii mean physically and verbally. clearly words hurt more than talons." asha glared. "since when do i answer to you? just being the host doesn't make you my boss. dont overstep it." aube realized she had been looking at the system wrong. everyone and everything was just a game, a bunch of little pet friends in her head with her. clearly she had made a mistake. she was dealing will wild, independent, strong people. asha wanted to protect her and be something like her friend, sage wanted to take care of her, dolu was her little play villain in a perfect storybook and lui wasn't a threat. actually, lui was the only person who wasn't wild. excluding clare. but even if these people meant her no harm, she was treating them like toys. and if she kept it up she would have troubles down the road. oops. "im sorry, asha. but if we want to function as a system, we need to work together. im notsaying you have to like dolu, or be nice to her. techniclly im not and cant make you do anything. but if you want us to survive, you need tobe at least civil. please?" asha rolled her eyes. "so, you've only just realized that were real and dangerous? good for you." dang it how did she know? "ahh yes... but about dolu, will you please keep a civil tongue? or, you could just ignore her. actually that would probably be the perfect solution." asha nodded. "alright. but just so you know, its my job to protect you, and if that littlegirl eating wolf is going to hurt you or the body, i will try to kill her. and that is a promise." aube nodded, glad asha hadn't seen the previous conversation. "oh, hey, by the way do you know what happens if somebody dies in the inner world? is that even possible?" asha shrugged. "no clue." aube shifted and they flew together to the common area, where everyone was waiting. she outlined her plan and they all agreed, even lui. aube left happy to check the time. they had all agreed to give her half the day at least to spy, altho because asha had bigger wings and was faster she would get them to the shifter border. then aube would be conspicuous. she also had 5 sets of clothes on hand, ratty dirty torn clothes, less so, less so and so forth. she would wear her own in the capital, they were on par with humans fine clothes. good, it was morning. she would ponder during ashas flight about sage. what were her boundaries? aube felt like she had always treated her as a normal friend with only a little bit of dominance. and only if she was honest. but maybe she was wrong and had been disrespectful.

asha saw some random person flowing, so she sped up. she wasn't sure whether to tell aube, but she decided not to bother her. then again, that person could be dangerous. should she take care of her now? no, she had a job. she got to the border and stopped, looking back in for aube. they switched out quickly and aube shifted to a sparrow and flew in. it was hideous in the poor state. she stared at the children with dirty faces wearing literal rags running past. when was the last time they eaten? she flew back quickly and exchanged all the money she had on her, totalling at only 300, and shifter money was worth more she only really had about 75$ on her. she handed out money left and right, it was really depressing seeing these children. a few of them took it, but most of them ran. she wasn't dirty enough. so she just gave all her money to the poor kids and flew to the capital. besides, that was the only place she could learn anything. sheflew in and found the place she was sure had the answers she needed, but apparently the expected shifter spies. she could hardly see any real wildlife, and a bunch of people tried to chase her away. she did see pets. to bad nobody was a dog or cat.... she thought about dolu and almost laughed, but that would blow her cover. if they even asked dolu to pretend to be a dog shed probably try and kill them all. she had heard about how alters ar what you need, but she really doubted it would work like that. she flew onto the windowsill, which had closed curtains and was soundproof, and heard some muffled nonsense. she flew down, hid, and shifted to a human. for some reason, she had some of sages formal, conservative clothes, that made her look older, almost professional, so she changed into them. she could swear it was a business suit. why did sage have a business suit for casual wear? regardless. she walked confidently inside and wandered around, listening for anything promising. nobody questioned her. she went into the empty bathroom and quietly shifted, then squeezed under the door. someone opened a door to an office. she heard shifter and child. that was all she needed. she flew in and quickly hid against some random brown and gray human thing. it was probably some kind of thing to ward of shifters, as if that would work. "yes. so, how many shifter children do we have now?" "alive, 20. 7 were killed when we tried to take them. all because we were spotted." her blood boiled. how professionally, and carelessly they spoke of clare. none of these people had done it, but they probably weren't in charge either. "excellent. ages?" "1-5. all young enough to forget their lives." "excellent. how will we convince them?" "we plan to give them parental figures from the government with clear instructions." "ok. and how are the agents doing?" "of the ones who had to kill the children, only one pair were strong enough to continue. they were deployed to a town caed Maya, Larnae." they had killed clare!!!!! where were they now? "they are currently deployed searching somewhere in Filnea, i belive." great. Filnae was huge! she would never find them. "ok. tell the agents that in the future, they should kill the people who spot them, not the child. we don't want any more resigning." that could have been her that died. how did she feel about that? would she rather have died instead of clare, or was she glad clare had been spared whatever was happing to the other children? she suspected dolu would say clare, and asha would say the system. but it didn't matter what they thought, what did she think. that didn't matter either. the past was the past. "ok. when will they be ready to fight?" "we don't know. shifters probably become vicios killers by the time their 10, but we have no experience." ha! clare wouldn't hurt a flea. "ok, where are they being kept right now?" "i cant answer that here. there could be spies." she was so close! "ok. that concludes this meeting. we need to get all this to the head of the mission, before our throats are ripped out." they all laughed. aube thought. she could make that a reality. she didn't know if they had made any decisions. should she allow dolu to kill them or were they innocent? no, it sounded like they had sent the killers. and dolu was oh so close... how wrong was it to kill children murderers? she knew, if she let out dolu than she would be just as bad as what they made her out to be. but she knew who was the real villain. but... what if they would explain what they wanted the kids for? she had to decide now, or they would leave. she could ki them right now, become a murderer, and possibly save children from who knows what. was it worth sacrificing... what, her soul? she would kill anyway, when they caught up with the murderers, but that was so different. these people were confused. but they were hurting the innocent. really, it was kinda like dolu. but she was so different. and she was fighting to get outand kill them. they were heading towards the door. she didn't think, she shifted into a human and stood in front of the door, knowing she was being stupid. "nobody take another step or i will let her kill you." she knew they didn't know who her was, but she was so confused right now. she needed to think. did she kill them? it all came down to that. there were motives and pros and cons and so much complicated stuff, and it wouldn't even really be her, but at core, her question was, would she kill them. would she become a murderer. and the answer to that was so oviosly a definitive no. if she killed them she would regret it for the rest of her life. they were scrambling back in fear. shenoticed they were running towards the fire alarm. next to that was a.. was that really a shifter alarm? were they crazy? she almost laughed. but aloud, she sighed and stepped away from the door. "go. i wont kill you. do stop whatever you're doing, you killed my innocent sister and you clearly don't care, but i cant kill you now. so just leave." they ran. and she followed, head hung. then she heard a loud alarm. worded alarm, actually. "SHIFTER! SHIFTER!" wow, they were crazy! she flew home as a sparrow. she saw calypso, walking in the direction she had come. she needed to talk to everyone, but maybe she should drop in to say hi? not now. then she was pulled into the inner world. she felt the body turn human and fall. she whirled on asha. "WHAT THE HECK YOU'RE GOING TO KILL US!!!" asha ra to the front but it was to late. she turned and saw why asha had pulled her in, she had possibly saved her. dolu was there, in wolf form, very angry. "you betrayed me." her voice was deadly low and calm. "no. i was just smart. in the future we may be able to learn more from them. besides. we only agreed about the murderers, and i have a lead." dolu snapped, an inch from her face. asha gave up on trying to shift back. which was probably good, they'd do better if they were limp when they fell. asha lunged at her in phoenix form. "fly, aube!" for once, she didn't try to stop it. she wasn't sure what happened if you died in the inner world, but she wasn't ready to find out. she flew up and watched as aube and dolu battled, while nobody was fronting. sage head and ran outside. when she saw what happened she just breathed "oh, no." it looked like she had expected that. then she ran to the front and shifted to owl, just as they were an inch from the ground, and went limp. they being lighter hit softly.(u can meet her soon) but she couldn't break things u,and ube was terrified. blood was pouring down dolus muzzle, and all over her, and it looked like asha was spewing lava in a couple places. then clare came out with her huge, sweet brown eyes and ran over, crying. they both instantly broke apart and she got between them, crying and begging them not to fight. then she looked over dolu and prescribed pink bandaids, and was really confused about asha. they shifted, both looking uncomfortable being shmed by aa little girl. she ran back to get bandaids, and they glared at each other with venom. all aubes progress had been lost. and she probably wouldn't agree to work together anymore either. aube just flew to her cottage, she was toafraid to do anything else. she curled up in her rocking chair and cried from fear. she also didn't realize but her cottage rose so that it was only accessible by flight, a defensive mechanism. asha had been right about dolu. she really was a monster, there was no hope. she was just going to kill them all. she heard a knock. "go away." the door opened anyway. asha came in. "ah did you realize your.... cloud thingy... is floating?" aube sniffled."no." asha closed the door softly and awkwardly patted her back. she could see her wishing sage was there. "you ok?" "I'm sorry asha, you were right. she is beyond help. she tried to kill me..." asha almost said "told you so" but thought better of it. where was sage when she needed her? shed know the right thing to say. "its ok. ill protect you, and if i have to, if i can, ill kill her. i promise." aube flinched. if one of them died, even tho that would be for the best, it would cause such a system imbalance... "but what could that do to the system? she needs to go, but if she died, what could happen to us overall? I'm sure it would cause a huge imbalance." "better her than you." aube was so grateful she had asha. wild or not, she cared about her, and aube knew she could trust her, she was safe as long as she had asha. she hugged her and cried into her shoulder. asha hugged her back, at first a little awkwardly, but she relaxed into it and they spent a moment like that. "wheres dolu now?" "in her darkness somewhere." asha peeled off a bandaid with some cartoon princess on it and continued. "i told her if she ever came out again and got anywhere near you i would either kill her or put her in a zoo where wolves belong." "how did she take that?" asha laughed. "about as well as you'd think, she threatened me back but i told her we wouldn't let her see clare if she didn't get out of there. that shut her up." aube knew this hatred wasn't right, but for the moment fear overpowered her, and she just nodded. she had given dolu a chance, she wasn't risking a second.