At Harbour (Amedot AU)

Officer - 0100

Officer Esther Ben-David drove into work tired. Again.

Apparently, Zhang had gone home sick from bad fast food and the Universe boy's guardians had a new problem. In addition to not being able to find the kid with the jewel on his stomach, someone else was gone as a reported result. Therefore, this was Esther's job by default — even if she hadn't slept for twenty-six hours, even if Dea had her martial arts tournament tomorrow and Esther had promised to see her fourteen-year-old daughter kick the crap out of people. But duty called.

And it called her immediately to a disused farm property in the south end of the county, where news crews and curious civilians had begun to flock.

Taking a swig of coffee, she pulled up the gravel drive, parked on the outskirts of the mess, and gathered her gear. The first place she went from there was the barn. Nelson was already here, and passed her a condescending look as she approached — just last month, he had been chosen as the new chief of the county department, and held it over her head. Everyone knew why Nelson had the power when Esther had been clear in line for the position, as the more experienced and educated officer, but nothing could be done about it.

"Hey, sweetheart, why don't you talk to the witnesses," Nelson drawled as she approached him. "They're hysterical. Leave the hard evidence to us."

Too bad we're both cops, or I'd push you off a high place, Esther thought.

"Yes, sir," she managed instead. She made sure, as she walked away and pulled a notepad from her pocket, to flash her gold wedding band in Nelson's direction. Just as a reminder.

Yawning, she turned the corner of the barn to the witnesses — the two guardians, a baby-faced young man she recognized from the small town's fry shop, and three bewildered teens — who were sitting on a haystack in varying states of distress. The older guardian, Garnet, gripped a cell phone tight enough to break it.

As soon as she rounded the corner, the young fry man jumped up. "Officer, something supernatural happened here tonight," he blurted, but she put up her hand and turned to Garnet and Pearl.

"I'm sure you've made some conclusions of your own," she said politely, "but I'm required to speak with those who saw the victim last. Ma'am — " (she could never remember what to do when there were multiple ma'ams, but this wasn't the first time the two women had had to do this) " — I need you to tell me everything you know."

Garnet glanced at Pearl, who was bent over her lap as if sick, but then Pearl shook her pale orange head. "Well," the petite woman began, her voice wobbling, "yesterday — or — two days ago — when Steven went missing, Monday, that is...you heard her stories. Going on all about aliens and the like."

Esther jotted down Monday's date and nodded. "Yes, continue."

"Well...she left that night and didn't tell us that she had until she returned the next morning, and didn't mention where. I suppose I should have asked, but she still seemed upset about Steven and I didn't know how to approach her. She slept most of the day, so I suppose she must have been up all last night. I only got back at eight because I was putting up Steven's signs, and I made a dinner for Amethyst, and went up to check on her, but she wasn't in her room. Her car wasn't in the garage either, so I reasoned that she must have gone out again. I told Garnet and we tried calling her, but she didn't pick up."

"The service is very poor out here," put in Garnet, and Esther nodded in affirmation as she noted that too.

Pearl continued, folding her thin hands in her lap. "We...we tried contacting her friends next, these three young people. Ronaldo showed up later. They told me that Amethyst has been visiting the barn, so we drove down and...she wasn't here. Just her car and a sleeping bag."

"Do you know why she's been visiting this place?" asked Esther.

"Um...ma'am, we do," said one of the teens timidly, a pretty black girl with big gold earrings. "Last night she called us up and wanted to make a crop circle, to find her brother."

"We didn't think it would, like..." added one boy.

"...That it was legit," finished the shorter one. Esther frowned.

"What do you mean by 'legit'?"

The fry man — apparently, Ronaldo — cleared his throat and stood up again a little too fast. "What this young lady means is that there is something strange about this case," he relayed, clearing his throat with all the zeal of a new recruit ready to beat up bad guys. "There's something...unnatural. Two nights ago, when Steven Quartz Universe went missing, Amethyst and I observed an interesting phenomenon over the beach. From the town, I saw it as a yellow-green glow and a bright flash, and it left a diamond-shaped mark exactly like the one in that field — which is a replica. We made it to possibly draw the unidentified vessel back to this location, giving us an opportunity to contact the beings who probably kidnapped Amethyst's brother."

Esther sighed, but on the inside because she wasn't that mean. She didn't like to think this way, but it was pretty clear what might have happened. Local girl gets ideas about aliens, tells all her friends that she's camping alone somewhere, someone takes advantage of the knowledge. If she'd posted it on her blog or other social media, even worse. That would have to be her next area of investigation, but Ronaldo's voice was getting more excited and she couldn't stop him now.

"There were no results last night when I was with her," Ronaldo continued, "but tonight I believe there were. Unfortunately, I couldn't come with this time, but when I was taking out the trash I witnessed another green light from this direction — and when I checked Amethyst's Snapchat story, we found...well, it might be better for you to just see it yourself."

The officer's attention had been on Ronaldo, so she was surprised when Garnet stood up and handed her the phone she had been holding. "I can't figure out how to save a video. You will just have to play the whole story," said Garnet quietly.

Confused, Esther opened the story named Amethyst and clicked past a few bored selfies and video clips of a pink cat. When she reached a snap seemingly taken inside the barn, Garnet said, "There," and Esther stopped clicking.

It only took ten seconds — ten seconds and a scream — to make Esther nearly drop the phone.