Diluted (NaNoWriMo14)

Prologue

Three people -- two men and one woman -- stand in a small room. There is nothing in the room except a small folding table with a laptop placed on it. The rest of the room is a startlingly blank expanse, complete with gray concrete walls, gray concrete flooring, and a gray concrete roof.

The building around them creaks in the wind. The woman, a lithe, tall, beautiful platinum blonde, jumps as a particularly strong gust of wind causes the whole building to shake. She knows how old it is, knows that it could come crashing down on them at any second, and would prefer to leave right away. But her personal ties to the topic of discussion keeps her here, albeit a bit of a nervous wreck.

"Angela," the taller of the men snaps. He gestures to her to come closer.

With one last anxious glance at the walls around them, Angela turns her wide, strangely colorless eyes back to the faintly glowing screen and tunes back in to the conversation.

The screen has put two people on display: One girl, one boy. Underneath images of them -- images taken that they weren't aware of -- is all their personal information.

The girl has the same platinum blonde hair as Angela. Their face structure is remarkably similar; they share everything but their eyes. While Angela's are a startling clear that reflect the world around her like twin mirrors, the girl's are a deep, deep iridescent black that seem to vacuum in all the light around them, like two deadly black holes.

The boy has pitch black hair, almost as dark as the girl's eyes, and the brightest orange eyes Angela has ever seen, second only to the boy's father. He has a somewhat narrow face and a chiseled jawline with a shockingly straight nose for someone in his line of "work." Everything about him makes Angela's stomach twist itself into disgusted knots; he is like a clone of his father, besides the fact that he inherited his mother's midnight black hair.

Angela tries to take in all the information she can about the two, but her eyes have zeroed in on the girl. Her clear gaze crawls greedily across the words underneath the picture, relishing each one as if it were her last breath.

"As we all know -- at least, now we know -- Angela has a bit of a... Responsibility for the existence of one of these two." The taller man stops talking and the two turn to glare at Angela, who refuses to break under their stare. He clears his throat and continues. "Both of them break our laws simply by being born. Not only that, but they could bring on the downfall of our civilization." The three of them collectively wince at these words; though they all know it, it pains them to admit that two teenagers could destroy everything they've worked for.

"We... We have to keep them apart," the shorter man says.

Angela gives him an incredulous look. "How do you suppose we do that, Cavier? They're born enemies. Their families fight all the time. There is guaranteed to be at least one occasion that they encounter each other."

"Well... We have to hope for the best," Cavier says, looking down in despair.

"Xander?" Angela asks the taller man. Both Angela and Cavier turn to Xander, waiting desperately for his final verdict.

Xander takes a deep breath and looks at his colleagues, his expression forlorn. "If they fight, it won't be a big deal. It won't be world-ruining. But if they find out what they can do together and decide to take us down, well..."

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Word Count: 612