As the casket carrying his dad was lowered into the ground, Gabriel turned away unable to look at it. He lay his head on Chiara's shoulder, their hands intertwined. She was sobbing quietly, which was expected as she had always been the silent but deadly type. Now she was anything but deadly just quiet. 

He remembered the look on her face when he told her that his dad was dead. She immediately ran to hug him, but he just stood there, and all of a sudden began to laugh painfully as tears fell down his face. Their family never took the loss well. An example was his mom who was on the floor crying and screaming madly. No one moved to get her up as she had already broken a man's nose when he tried to do so.

His aunt Alona was in a much better state, but her husband his uncle Graham wasn't, as she was hitting him as she cried. He looked remorseful as well but for a completely different reason. The ceremony ended after Gabriel was told to give a speech. He couldn't do it and asked Chiara to do it instead.

She did it perfectly. But then again, she had always been perfect. Sighing, Gabriel stood up from his seat and went to the buffet table eager to eat for some reason. He picked a paper plate and scanned the spread on the table.  There were latkes, burgers, lekachs, sandwiches, kugels, mandlach, punch, and Miltz. His aunt had always loved American food but his mother wanted traditional food for the funeral. They finally came to a compromise to the relief of everyone present that day.

He reached for a lekach when he heard a group of middle-aged women all wearing similar clothing talking about his family.

"Poor child has to take over the family business now that Abdiel is gone." siad one of them who had a large amount of makeup plastered all over her face.

"If you ask me, it looks like Eliana has moved on, " another one with a conspicuous wig said as she pointed at his mom who was talking to her friend Caleb. They were laughing and his hand brushed hers causing the women to shake their heads disapprovingly. Gabriel had disapproval all over his face as well, but for a slightly different reason, he was happy his mom had moved on but did she have to do it at his dad's funeral. 

How did she even get cleaned up so quickly? She was still on the floor some seconds ago.

" At least it's someone in her league, I heard Caleb owns an orphanage. He even takes them into his home!" she continued. The others gasped surprised and excited at this piece of juicy gossip.

" Yes, Eliana does the same thing except she helps...disabled children, " The one with the clown makeup said spitting out the last two words with venom.

 Gabriel bit into his lekach angrily, calming down as the warm honey oozed into his mouth. He picked a few more and a bottle of orange juice and went to sit down next to Chaira who had been on her phone anxiously waiting for a message from the Luna Academy about her application. She picked up a lekach from his plate and bit into it, smiling as the honey melted in her mouth.

"These are delicious, your mom really outdid herself." as she turned to face him.

He smiled and kissed her cheek" Thank you."

She raised her eyebrow amused "For complimenting your mom's lekach?"

 "No,..well yes. But for being here even if you would miss your flight."

"That's what best friends are for right?"  He felt a pang in his chest as she said this. It saddened him to see her and Noam together but he couldn't destroy their friendship or his relationship with his cousin because of a crush. 

"Yes".

Gabriel hated this, he hated killing genites just because the Exocorsits were afraid of them. But he couldn't do anything his hands were tied. One wrong move and his family could be blown up it was better to lay low until he could get his revenge. Besides, his father died doing this and he probably will too. So he might as well get used to the guilt. He walked into the van and waited for the rest of his team, playing games on his phone to while away time. 

The door opened and Iqbal walked in his face bloodied and with a bruise on his eye. He was a new recruit so he had less experience but didn't complain.  He nodded at Gabriel and brought out a medical kit from his duffel bag. He also didn't talk much. 

Hathavan came in next, she smiled at Gabriel and patted Iqbal on the back. She sat next to Gabriel  and shouted " Adriano, Kalia quit making out, and let's go."

Adriano came in pissed that Hathavan had ratted him out, Kalia was holding his hand red as a tomato. Iqbal just shook his head and continued wrapping his hand. Hathavan saw this and took the bandages from him then begin tieing them instead. Iqbal blushed, surprised at this.

Kalia whispered to Gabriel, making sure Adriano could hear as well " Iqbal has had a crush on Hathavan since he joined. If you didn't notice it you must be blind."

Adriano smiled shaking his head" He is such a chicken when it comes to girls but an eagle on the battlefield."

Gabriel smiled, watching  Hathavan and Iqbal, Hathavan caught him staring at her and winked. He looked away quickly before she got any ideas, not that she wasn't pretty or anything. Gabriel didn't feel ready for a relationship yet after Chaira had gone to Newtownsville to stay with Noam who had fallen sick. She called him yesterday to announce that they were getting married. Gabriel had made some excuse about poor signal and hung up.

He was feeling guilty about that now as they entered the camp gates. He went out first making sure that everyone had got off before he drove the van to the garage. He arrived at the mess hall, the smell of fried chicken tickling his nose. He sat down with a mountain of chicken and a glass of watery milk and began eating, ignoring the stares he got from his teammates.

Gabriel stood outside the commander's tent for a while before eventually going in. He stood in front of her as she looked up to meet him. She smiled "Gabriel, it's nice to see you again."

"Oh cut the crap Kiara, what do you want?"

She stared at him as she bit her lip, "You know what I want Gabriel."

"Not happening."He shivered disgusted and terrified. Kiara scared him.

"What I need, however, is a different matter."

"And that is?"

"I'm assigning your team to a new district, there has been an increasing rate of genites lately"

"Where?" Gabriel said annoyed that he would have to move so quickly. He didn't like this and he felt Kiara had something to do with it, he just had to figure out how she did it. As for why he had already figured that out. She was going to her sister's wedding next week. She mentioned it some days before but didn't say where it would take place.

"Kloaksville." Looks like he just found out. But did it have to be his old neighborhood? He wasn't looking forward to seeing his old friends again. If they were still alive, that is.

"Well, shit!"