Woolwich, London

Just before the First Witching Hour

Her shop wasn't much, but it was home. A peaceful place to relax in the evening breeze, as the wind chimes hung from the eaves swayed gently and played their calm melody.

Evelyn wouldn't trade it for the world. Unlike the rest of the sibs when they grew up and left the house, she enjoyed the slow life. Most of them hadn't looked back twice, seeking to make their mark on a world that had been rapidly changing. As the Cold War finally came to a close and Domain magic quickly became a bigger and bigger part of everyday life, it fell to her to inherit the Chao family home and business.

It suited her fine, really. She'd never felt the call to adventure that had taken the world by storm, but that didn't mean she was upset by the decision her brothers and sister had made for themselves. Everyone needed to choose their path for themselves eventually, and it just so happened that hers was here and theirs was elsewhere in the world. So, she took care of the family roots, and whenever one of them decided to swing by for an afternoon, an evening or a weekend, she was more than happy to welcome them back.

Tonight was one such evening, as a matter of fact. Her eldest brother Ren had been in London for a business conference, and now that the proceedings had more or less wrapped up he had made sure to make time to get back in touch with her, before his flight left the next day. On the flat roof of the building, they relaxed under the moonlight, each enjoying a steaming hot cup of herbal tea from her own personal stash while her brother excitedly talked about what he'd been up to the past few years.

"…And so we found that, if you're willing to sacrifice on the amount of power on the first go, you can actually modify the crystalline structure to significantly increase its capacity to hold Domain mana and even prevent the sublimation process that happens normally! Isn't that exciting? We're on the verge of inventing a renewable mana battery!"

Evelyn didn't follow most of the technical details, but she was glad that her brothers mage engineering project was taking off better than he could possibly have hoped for. Ever since he'd graduated college, he'd been practically obsessed with using magic as a means to push today's materials to their absolute limit.

Although, the reason he'd dedicated himself so hard to that path was very… well, it was a very Ren reason.

"Feeling like that giant robot plan is getting closer and closer?", she smirked back at him knowingly. "Don't pretend like you've outgrown it, I know you haven't."

Ren sighed dramatically. "It's not fair, you know. You spent nearly your whole childhood nose deep in one novel or another about immortal cultivators, and nobody bats an eye. Meanwhile, I mention that I thought gundam was cool one time…"

"If it was just the one time, then why did your college essay mention it? Or your graduate's thesis? Or your company's mission statement?"

Ah, sibling banter. It wasn't often that they got to go back and forth like this. Phone conversations made it a little difficult to get that same feeling. She chuckled a bit at her older brother's embarrassment, and took another sip from her mug.

"Okay… maybe it was more than just one time…" Ren admitted sullenly, downing the rest of his cup in one go. "Great tea as always, Ev. Where'd you get this batch, anyway?"

"It's a blend. Grandfather's old recipe. Wanted to give you a taste of home while I could."

"You managed to crack his recipe finally?!"

"Oh, you have no idea how much of an ordeal it was to figure out his handwriting. But… I think it was worth it."

"...Huh," he replied with a hint of surprise. "Can't argue with that."

A tinny, two-tone beep echoed from Ren's digital watch. Taking a quick glance down at it, he realized that time really had flown while they had fun.

"Oh, shoot! I got to get back to my hotel and get ready for tomorrow. It's almost midnight already!"

"It is? Shame we couldn't sit around and chat for longer, then…"

"Oh, don't worry, sis! Mr. Cavendish said he was a big fan of my project proposal, so I'll probably be back down in a week to negotiate the contract properly. We can catch up more then!"

"I suppose… would you like some tea to bring back with you on the flight?"

"Oh, yes please. Your stuff is always the best, hands down."

Their plastic deck chairs scraped against the roof as they stood. The two exchanged a few more pleasantries as they made their way back inside, chatting about nothing particularly important but enjoying the company nonetheless. While Ren searched around trying to find where he'd misplaced the keys to the rental car he'd used to drive here, Evelyn pulled a tin off the shelf by the window and took a brief glance outside.

Odd. She hadn't noticed before, but the streets were absolutely rolling in fog. London weather at its finest, she supposed. Going from cloudless sunny days to dreary rain and then back again at the drop of a hat was just par for the course, sometimes.

"Hey, Ren?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful on the drive back tonight, the roads might be a little hazy."

"Will do, Ev!"

Once her brother finally got his things together, they walked side by side through the storefront and out to where he'd parked around the back. Saying their last goodbyes, Ren clicked the key fob he'd been given and a thin burst of lime-green Tech Domain magic struck the panel of the rental's door, unlocking the driver's side from afar.

"Well, as always, I'll keep in touch," he said to her. "Call you when I touch back down?"

"That would be wonderful," she replied. "And share some of that tea with my in-laws this time! I want to know what they think of-"

The sound of bell chimes interrupted her final words, booming out across the streets from some unknown point of origin. Familiar bell chimes.

"...Big Ben?", she blurted out in confusion. "We shouldn't be able to hear that from here…"

The bells tolled a total of thirteen times. Combined with the late night darkness, the full moon overhead, and the blanket of fog covering their feet, it was enough to make her skin crawl and hairs stand on the back of her neck. Glancing back at Ren, it would seem he was feeling equally creeped out.

Which, of course, was when something heavy thudded against the far side of the dumpster, barely visible from its position in the back alley. Both of them jumped, startled, but Evelyn quickly came to her senses.

"Oh, that scared the lights out of me," she said half out of breath, before giving an explanation to her brother. "We've had a few homeless drifting around recently, and there's a frequent visitor in that spot in particular... I'll just go quick make sure they're alright."

Ren nodded, but Evelyn continued to rattle on a bit longer.

"The time there was one back there, I had to call an ambulance because they had some sort of bacterial issue-"

"Okay, okay," Ren interrupted, ever the germophobe. "I don't need to hear the details. I'll just be over here, in the car. Away from the potential rabid hobo."

"Don't be like that! That's no way to talk about someone down on their luck."

He winced as he realized he'd put his foot in his mouth again. "Sorry, sorry…" he muttered.

She let out a slight huff, but otherwise let it slide as she headed off to investigate. Mist swirled around her in ripples as she walked off, leaving a wake behind her like a sailboat on calm waters. As she got closer, she definitely heard someone… but it sounded like they were either gargling roofing nails or choking on their own spit.

Not that she'd admit it out loud, but maybe Ren's crass remark about rabid homeless people hadn't been too off the mark. Cautiously, she peered around the corner of the dumpster…

Only to find a pair of eyes glowing solid yellow staring back at her. Curled up in the corner behind, was a lupine head on top of a shaggy, humanoid body. Had it not been for the matted black fur covering it from head to toe, its body would have looked as if it were sculpted from marble, showing muscle definition underneath that would have made Jackie Chan jealous.

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As it stared directly at her, it went perfectly silent. Evelyn froze in shock at first, then in fear.

Then the beast growled, and she barely had time to take a step back before it pounced at her.

Jagged cuts raked across her face, and in an instant the entire left side of her vision blurred into blackish-red blobs. Her thoughts went into a frenzy, first from the sudden appearance of the word threat in blazing white letters somewhere in her hindbrain, then from the intense pain when she was unable to take more than a few steps back before stumbling and falling onto the pavement. Searing hot pain crushed her leg just above the ankle, the jaws of the monster clamping down around it and mangling everything inside its jagged maw. She screamed. It was all she could think to do.

But, despite everything, she couldn't help but gaze on in astonishment with her remaining good eye at the beast. It was huge – barely smaller than the metal box it had hidden behind. Big enough to shake her around like a dog pulling on the end of a rope. It growled like one, too, flailing her about this way and that as her foot was slowly torn into finer and finer ribbons.

One word immediately came to mind to describe this… creature. As inconceivable as its existence was, that one word reverberated through her thoughts, the only coherent picture Evelyn could hold onto as the pain reached excruciating levels.

Werewolf.

With a sickening crack, the thin remnants of connective tissue and bone snapped, sending her flying away onto the pavement as the momentum of the wolf's shaking took hold. Ragdolling limply, she rolled along the ground before coming to a halt, pain making it hard to think but still allowing her one final, grim thought.

I'm going to die here, she realized belatedly.

Blood flowed freely from her open wound. She wasn't the doctor in the family, but it didn't take one to understand she wouldn't last long at this rate. And that was even before factoring in the wolf, who was still pacing nearby and eyeing her hungrily. Deciding whether to finish her now or save her for later.

The rumble of an engine interrupted that thought. Before the wolf had time to react, Ren's car came speeding through the empty lot aimed squarely at the monster's chest. Plowing into the beast from the side, the hood of the vehicle crumpled only moments after her older brother bailed from the car, rolling with the motion to break his fall.

Tumbling to a halt, he definitely did not come out of it unscathed. Scrapes lined his elbows and shins and tore parts of his clothes, but the wolf came out of it much worse. Aluminum metal shards perforated its skin, causing it to emit a bloodcurdling howl as it strained against the literal ton of metal pushing against it.

It was pinned, seriously maimed, and temporarily stunned, but it was still very much alive. And angry.

Fortunately, Ren wasn't one to put faith in half measures. When he wanted something done, he went all out to make it happen.

A bright flash of lime green filled the engine compartment, reflecting off the sheer black for of the wolf from underneath, before the creature was engulfed in a ball of roiling flames and alchemized petrol. The front of the car exploded violently, sending debris and mana particles every which way as Ren staggered to his feet and rushed to her side.

"Oh my God, EV! Evelyn, stay with me!"

She wanted to. So, so badly. But, it was… so… hard… to… keep her eyes open…

< -|- -|- >

"Oh, thank God! Hey! Hey, over here! My sister, she's very hurt! She needs to get to a hospital!"

…

"Unfortunately, it's either the leg or her life. It's started to become gangrenous. We need to amputate now or-"

…

"You owe us for saving your worthless sister's life, Chao! Either you pay that debt back, or we rescind our services, and take our dues. Understood?!"

"O-of course, of course! What makes you think I'd cross the Gentleman's Club, anyways?"

…

< -|- -|- >

Evelyn awoke to a dim light in the corner of a dark room. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep, but… she felt weak. Lighter, even. Her mouth felt dry. Water. Where could she find a glass of-

Her eye. There was something covering her eye.

Reaching up fearfully with one hand, she felt a thin band of cloth wrapped around her head over the socket. When she pressed her fingers to the surface, they came back stained red from blood. Her blood.

It was real. It was all real. None of it had been a dream-

"Evelyn! Oh, thank God you're awake!"

A familiar voice resounded from somewhere behind where she lay. Rushing to her bedside was none other than her older brother, Ren.

"W-what are you doing here?", she asked confusedly. "You missed your flight…"

"Never mind the flight, Ev! We need to get out of here, now! Come on, I'll explain as we go!"

Pulling off the covers, she looked down and saw the true extent of the damage wreaked on her. Aside from the handful of bruises where she'd tumbled… some time ago… Her right leg was…

Replaced.

Thin struts of scrap metal, hastily welded together and inscribed hastily, powered by a Tech Domain crystal in the center of where the thigh would have been, were all that were left. Her breath hitched at the sight, and her heart nearly skipped a beat as she was pulled to her feet in a rush by her older brother. She worried at first that the flimsy-looking struts wouldn't hold her weight, but surprisingly it took to the task admirably.

"You've been out of commission for three days. A lot's changed since then."

"W-what do you mean? And where did… this-" Evelyn gestured towards her makeshift prosthetic in bewilderment. "-come from?"

"It was the best I could do with what I had. And, unfortunately, I overpaid. Now hurry! We need to get out of here before-"

The sound of a loud, metal door groaning on the floor above could be heard from where they were.

"...Shit," was all Ren said before grabbing her by the hand and running for the exit.

< -|- -|- >

"There they are! Don't let them get away!"

The distant crackle of single-shot gunfire sounded awfully close when the bullets pinged against the concrete at your feet mere meters from where you stood. Evelyn's heart was skipping beats left and right as she ran behind Ren, still dragging her along down the alleys of Woolwich hoping to evade their pursuers.

"We can make it! Keep running!"

She did. With all the energy she could spare, she did.

But it wasn't enough for either of them. She saw the ambushers too late to react, and a singular, heavy bolt tore through the air where Ren stood. A spray of red mist, and he collapsed to the ground bonelessly.

A few stray rounds managed to clip her, too, one punching straight through her lower jaw while another smashed the crystal that powered her leg. With no magic to sustain it, the metal bent and twisted under the weight of what it couldn't have normally supported, throwing her to the ground in a heap.

Looking into the very dead eyes of her brother. Soaking in his blood, as the pool seeped out from the crater between his eyes.

Tears streaked her face, trickling down her ruined mouth and staining the cloth that wrapped her gouged eye. Despite everything else about that eye being ruined, the tear duct, apparently, still worked just fine. The men responsible ran up to where they had fallen, inspecting their handiwork.

"Damn it, why'd he have to go and run off like that... If he coulda just kept his mouth shut and made weapons like we asked him to, none of this woulda happened," one grumbled. "Now we're down perfectly good bullets and short a grease monkey. Downright 'spensive, that was."

"What about the missus?", the other asked. "Should we do something about her? She's still breathin'."

"...Nah. Save the ammo and let her bleed. Wolves'll get her soon enough."

Without another word, they left her on the foggy streets.

Alone.

< -|- -|- >

Meter by meter, she'd crawled away from where they'd been. At first, she'd wanted to return home, to the tea shop, but the futility of that had sunk in over the course of the several hours it had taken her to get even this far.

Right now, she was resting in an abandoned storage lot, away from the prying eyes of the gangs roaming the streets or the howls of the wolves. Away from the light of the full moon that still hung overhead tauntingly, unmoving from where it had been days before.

Where it had been when Ren…

She didn't want to think about it. If she did, she thought for sure she would break inside completely.

Though, what am I now if not broken…

She nearly erupted into tears once again right there. So… so much had been lost to her in such a short time. Frustratedly, she kicked a stack of cardboard boxes next to her with her good leg, sending the contents toppling to the floor as she tried to convince herself that she wasn't as helpless as she felt right now. It didn't work.

The topmost box fell open. Completely ordinary, empty box, there should have been no reason to investigate it further. Despite herself, she did, not that she could explain exactly why. It was almost a... compulsion.

Shaking the box upside down, the item that would change her life even further fell to the floor.

It… looked like one of those Domain crystals that Ren spent so much time slaving over, but this one was… pure black. Purer than black, even. Practically neon-black, greedily drinking in the light around it and giving off an anti-glow.

Each Domain had a respective color. Black was not one of them. She'd never seen something like this befor-

Like a magnet to a lodestone, the crystal flew straight at her, and the next moments became hazy.

< -|- -|- >

The whine of the turbines in her wings wound down, and Evelyn touched down in front of her next target.

She took a moment to get a good look at him. Unkempt, wearing a tie in the loosest sense possible and with a strange blue crystal protruding just below the collarbone. That in particular seemed to be the source of his power, much to her frustration as she tried to reclaim that which was in his hands right now.

Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined that the last piece of Ren's work remaining in Hallow London would literally take on a life of its own. She would do anything to ensure it came home with her. Anything.

She'd already grown numb to killing. It had started with the two men that had killed her brother, but from there had extended to their associates, then their associates' associates, until eventually she had been declared a public enemy of the entire Gentleman's Club. The Harpy of Woolwich, they called her.

They were afraid of her. Perhaps more than the werewolves and the vampires, they feared her.

And it served them right. They deserved far more for desecrating her brother's memory.

Something she looked to better preserve, now. Starting with the artifact in this ruffian's hands.

"I will kill you if I must," she warbled through the synthetic voicebox of her mask. "But that which you hold in your hands right now does not belong to you."

He had nowhere to run, but that didn't stop him from looking around. Little good it would do him. He was in a dead end alley, and even if he somehow managed to slip past with the artifact in tow, it wouldn't be long before she caught up to him again.

"I will give you five seconds to decide," she declared after the scrawny man continued to choose silence. "Five… four… three…"

She never got past that. An intangible spike, like a white hot iron, pressed against the base of her skull in that moment. Wrestling for control with her, she realized too late. Tooth and nail fighting inside the confines of her own mind ensued, only to be countered at every turn as she struggled to maintain control, dropping to one knee. The kid ran off the second he saw his chance.

Just when the pain felt like it would last forever, it stopped. And with it, she found that she couldn't move a single muscle, synthetic or otherwise.

The sound of leather shoes on pavement echoed out from somewhere behind her in the alley. After what felt like another eternity, a bald man with a goatee and a raven's head cane walked out in front of her, examining her closely as she remained motionless.

"You have caused my organization great pain," he said simply. "We shall have to put you to work for quite some time to atone, I'm afraid."

She wanted to scream. But her mouth had been gone for a long time.

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