Alrighty, so here we have the chapter following "A Portside Patrol: Need a Hand?" And in this chapter, I hope things start to develop enough to get you guys into the story a bit and also a switch in perspective to help adjust things and see how you guys like the new guy. That being said, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and look forward to the next!

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A Loving Sacrifice: A Missing Window to the Soul?


Austin felt a massive ache in his head as he felt himself come to, as he struggled to open his eyes, he let out a sharp breath between his teeth as his vision was assaulted by a bright light. He blinked a bit until finally his eyes adjusted enough that he could see the ceiling, it looked so cold, just unyielding pale stone with a few lights studding it’s rough surface every few yards or so. As he struggled to sit up, he quickly let out another hiss of pain and applied pressure to his temples with the base of his palms as a white-hot flash of pain hit him hard enough to leave him seeing several colored lights in its wake. Once he finally got the pain to subside, he looked around, careful not to move his head too quickly lest he unleash the sleeping beast of his headache once more. All he could see was more stone, iron bars, and just the basic essentials like a toilet, sink, and the cot he was laying on now. Austin groaned, a jail cell, just great. As he tried to look around, Austin kept feeling like something was…off.

As he looked around more to try and find it, Austin went to rub the space between his eyes…and that’s when it hit him, there was something over his left eye. He went to the mirror to check and froze stock still as his mouth fell open in horror…there, over his eye, was something that looked like a cross between an eye patch and goggles, and under it, was something that looked like an eye, but it was not his. He pulled off the cover to look more closely at his eye, feeling his hands shake more than they have in his entire life. He leaned in for a better view and could barely believe what he saw, this eye, it was…it was mechanical. It seemed to be made of something that replicated the feel of an eye, but inside it had several small mechanisms working away, and the iris seemed made of some material that was colored to match his other eye’s blue colors. It seemed accurate to a point, but it was very dark grey instead of white…lending a disturbing appearance. Austin felt his breathing become heavy and fast and his body shook harder before he gripped the sides of the sink with all four of his hands and let out a scream filled with confusion, pain, and fear leading the vocal charge. He sank to the floor and got into a corner as much as he could as he hyperventilated in the midst of a panic attack, his breathing becoming choked with sobs and tears. He was scared, legitimately scared for his life. What had happened to him? Why did he lose his eye? What else were they going to do to him? All he remembered was fleeing through the crowds, fighting that officer, saving the kids, turning himself in…and then…He started tearing up as the memory hit him, the other officer that had dove in…she had attacked his eye. Why? Why would she do that? He had been turning himself in…so he should have been okay, right? So…why?

He was still trying to figure all of this out when he heard the sound of a door close in the distance, catching his attention. Austin grabbed the pillow from the bed and covered his face, he was scared right now and just wanted to hide from whatever was coming his way. He heard the footsteps stop and the sound of someone clearing their throat. “Ah, you’re awake.” He heard a voice that was surprisingly familiar. “I had worried that you might have been unconscious for a lot longer” Austin pulled down the pillow and felt his eyes widen, the voice that had been speaking belonged to the very officer he had fought earlier. Austin got up and, shakily walking up to the officer, gripped the bars that stood between them until his knuckles turned white. “Wh-Why? Why did you do this to me? I…I turned myself in…why did you attack me?” He said, his voice shaking before panic set in and he started to shake the bars wildly. “What did you people do to me?!” He screamed, desperate for an answer, any answer. The officer looked at him calmly, standing back a bit to avoid getting attacked or grabbed at. “If I tell you, will it help you calm down?” He replied.

Austin tried to get himself under control as panic still came in waves. After awhile, he had himself to where he was shaking, but he was able to focus. He nodded a little bit, hoping that he would be able to calm down with a bit of understanding. “Y-Yeah, at least I hope so.” He saw the officer nod before the reply came. “If you remember the attack, then we’ll start there.” The officer took a deep breath before he began. “After one of my cadets struck you down, you were rushed to the nearest hospital, where a team of doctors found that your eye was damaged beyond healing, and so they had to remove it and, with the aid of a magitechnology expert specializing in biomagitechnology, made a replacement eye for you.” “So…my eye’s gone.” Austin said sadly as he slumped onto the cot. “I’m going to have this forever…” “Not necessarily.” The officer said. “That same magitechnology expert proposed a theory to use a specialized machine to help regenerate your damaged eye, and, once it has healed completely, should be able to reattach it through nanotechnological means.” Austin blinked blankly for a bit, his jaw hanging open a bit, he did not understand a lot of that. Once he finally thought of something to say, his features settled back to their normal expression. “So…it’s really possible? To fix my eye I mean.” “That is the theory.” The officer responded. “But it is as of yet untested. However, the evidence and test runs so far have been optimistic so far. So odds are that it may be possible, but will be quite difficult.”

Austin sighed, though in relief or sadness, he was not sure. “So, how long is my sentence here in prison?” He asked, knowing that it really did not make a difference in the end how long, he was already here. The officer seemed to think on it a bit. “That all depends on you really.” Austin eyed him suspiciously. “What do you mean?” He asked, expecting something underhanded going on. The officer almost seemed to flash the faintest ghost of a smile. “I mean there’s a chance you will not be staying here at all.” Austin sprung up and gripped the bars with all four of his hands, this officer had his full attention. “What do you mean I won’t be staying here? As in I’m being transferred, or like I’m being released?” “A bit of both.” The officer responded. “You would be required to go to another location, but it’s also a new opportunity.” Austin shook the bars a tiny bit, feeling anxious and excited at the same time. “A new opportunity? What, you mean I’m being put in community service?” “More like serving the people.” The officer held out a hand. “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Lieutenant August Sinclair of the Velques Police, and I would like to offer you the chance to come work as one of my cadets, at least for a time.”

Austin took a step back out of shock, then stepped forward again to shake the offered hand with one of his upper hands. “Er, nice to meet you and all, Lieutenant Sinclair, but, why offer me a position? I’m a criminal…” He said the last part quietly, letting his voice trail off. Lieutenant Sinclair’s face became more serious. “You were willing to take several knives to your back just to protect two children alone. Based on that alone, I’d say you have it in you to be a fine officer, or perhaps there is another position more suited to you. Either way, we won’t know if you’re behind bars, so, I’m giving you the chance to earn a new start.” Austin felt his jaw drop. Him, an officer? His heart was racing, he could really turn things around. No more stealing, no more hitting people up for protection money…but… “I appreciate the offer sir, I really do, but..I don’t think I can. It’s not that I don’t want to have a new start, but my family…they need me to do this.” He saw Lieutenant Sinclair raise a brow and elaborated. “The stealing and stuff was originally to keep myself alive, along with my family. But now? Now I do it as a job with my…er, boss, he wouldn’t be happy if I just up and left, especially for the police.” After a few minutes of thinking, he saw the Lieutenant look him in the eye. “Where do you live, and what is the proximity to your boss from there?” “Bucaresti.” Austin responded. “And it’s hard to dodge him there, seeing as he’s one of the guys that runs the place.” The look on Lieutenant Sinclair’s face told him that apparently he had just told the Lieutenant something important from that alone. He was surprised to hear the sound of a door unlocking and his cell door sliding open. “Wait, you’re letting me out?” “No time to talk much more Austin, you and your case just became one of our top priorities.” “R-Really?” Austin said as he was quickly led out of the jail by the Lieutenant, the latter stopping only long enough to grab a folder of papers from an office on their way out and leaving a few notices with some of the clerks at the front desks as they were leaving.

Austin squinted against the harsh sunlight that assaulted his eyes once they were outside. As he raised one of his upper arms to shield his eyes, he found that his mechanical eye managed to adjust fairly quickly, especially compared to his other eye. He had to pick up the pace to catch up to the Lieutenant, who was already heading to a motorcycle-modeled mana glider that was definitely police issue. Austin had just enough time to catch the helmet tossed to him by Lieutenant Sinclair in his upper arms as the officer slung a leg over the vehicle. “Get that on and let’s go!” He barked out. “Time’s slipping away more than we can afford now!” Austin quickly nodded and, getting the helmet on, quickly joined the officer on the glider and, once they were ready, were off to their next destination. Austin was genuinely wondering what was going on now. “I wonder what the big hurry is?” He said out loud, only then realizing that it was quiet enough in his helmet to hear himself talk. “Simple.” He almost jumped and yelped as the Lieutenant’s voice responded in his helmet. “You just became a key person of interest in helping us accomplish something once thought impossible.” He heard a chuckle follow. “And by the way, these helmets are equipped with headsets, so we CAN talk if need be.” Austin nodded, suddenly realizing that he would need to be more careful. “Got it. By the way, what is this impossible thing you guys are wanting to do?” “That is also simple.” Lieutenant Sinclair said, his voice filled with honest excitement for the first time since Austin had met him. “With your help, we may be able to retake Bucaresti!”

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Well, there we have it. Where is Lieutenant Sinclair taking Austin? What kind of place is Bucaresti, and why is Austin's boss, one of the supposed leaders of that country, ordering him to steal and intimidate the people of Velques for money? Perhaps the next chapter will tell, or maybe it's further down. Either way, I hope you guys look forward to the next installment of my little tale. ^^

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All writing done by me