The members of the Council take their seats, and the meeting starts on time. The President of the United States is not present today.

“Report, please.” Edward asks.

“Their memories are gone. We’ll try a new approach starting tomorrow,” Marianne says.

“Are you telling me that after several days of work, there’s nothing usable there, Marianne?”

“Yes, sir, I-”

“Actually!” Aymee gets up behind Marianne, whose light, blue eyes turn darker, “if we want, we can have access to the deviants’ forum. Maybe there’s something there.”

“Deviant forum?” Edward’s eyebrows raise.

“Yes, sir. It’s an online platform that the terrorists and deviants who support them use.”

“Laurence, why was I not informed about this forum earlier?” Edward faces him.

“This is news to us, sir. I’ll look into it with Ms. Ortiz.”

“News to us… we can’t afford any surprises.” Edward sighs, “Laurence, find me something useful in that forum. Saif, keep circulating the van around. Miss Ortiz, wonderful job.”

Their meeting ends and Padma asks for Saif to go with her so they can talk.

“Sir, I was thinking, Ikubor is really looking forward to working full time with us in this lab too.”

“Padma, Edward doesn’t want ‘the retard anywhere close to what we do’. His words. Not even Marianne can hire him. Our orders are to erase his memories after he finishes this.”

“But, sir…”

“Padma, there’s no room for discussion. Maybe we can get him a nice financial settlement. I can ask Edward for it and see if he’d be open to it, but that’s it.”

A few days later, the Council meets before lunchtime, once again without the participation of the president. They take their seats and begin the meeting.

“Laurence, what can you tell us about the forum?” Edward smiles at Aymee.

“The oldest posts date back to the beginning of the Great War. Stephanie Williams is likely the one responsible for this work. Considering the ability of En Nagoyan, it isn’t that farfetched that she’s continuing to improve it.”

“Én truly was talented. Such an over-achiever!” Madeleine adds.

“Madeleine, people like her are dangerous. The Institute failed there. She was radicalized and joined the terrorists. You have to make sure no one else does the same. You have to pay more attention to your students.” Edward says.

“Edward, considering the number of the students that we have, one having joined the movement is not significant. There’s no failure there, but I’ll keep an eye open and see what I can do about it.” Madeleine asks her advisor to devise a plan.

“May I continue, sir?” Laurence asks.

“Go ahead, Laurence.”

“We have compiled the available data, downloaded everything. Our computers are running it nonstop. However, nothing can pinpoint a location of the hideout. But-”

Edward slams the table.

“But-”

Edward slams again.

“Stephanie Williams developed a code that we couldn’t reach. The Five were so well hidden that Thomas here couldn’t find them,” Edward gets up and stomps around the table, placing his hands on Thomas’ shoulders, “the mental controller,” he goes around again and places his hands on Aymee’s shoulders, “the Williams’ boy, like mother like son, erased his memories so well that our mental controllers can’t find them. We have an entire institute filled with deviants with abilities,” he places his hands on Madeleine’s shoulders, “and the one that could actually do something useful now, this Chinese girl, is with the terrorists. At least, the retard is still with us. Imagine if he had left too. We wouldn’t even have our guests.”

“Sir, if I may?” Laurence looks at him.

“Sure, Laurence. Go ahead.” Edward takes his place again.

“We are aware of the profiles belonging to terrorists on the forum. We could set a trap.”

“Explain.”

“We can post there showing the location of their friends. We’ll show them videos of them being taken to the factory. We’ll show them the amplifier, too.”

Padma skips a breath.

“Laurence, none of us are following you,” Saif says.

“Ok, I’ll explain it to you. We’ll show Rachel Moore, the Angel of Death and Nagoyan, that they are there. They’ll come. We’ll show her the amplifier because Nagoyan was friends with him. She’ll tell Moore exactly what he can do. She’s obsessed with being the world’s most powerful. When she knows that he’s an amplifier, she’ll make mistakes trying to overpower it. We’ll use that to our advantage.”

“Why would we put our location on the internet?” Thomas asks incredulously.

“Because we’ll remove everyone’s access to the forum, everyone but the profiles linked to the terrorists.” Laurence adds.

“Laurence, what if the terrorist movement posts on social media that we have abducted deviants and the address to it?” Saif asks.

“Saif, Jessica’s team monitors all the social media. Yes, Nagoyan could overpass it momentarily. Yes, she could post it. Let's all be ready to move out if needed. I don’t think that’s a possibility.”

“Why?” Thomas asks.

“They aren’t stupid. Of course, that it’s a trap, but they want to have them back. Even Matthew Moore wouldn’t let one of the Five rot away. Eventually, we’ll crack the specimens’ heads. Rachel Moore knows this. Coming to get them is the smartest move. Trying to end us in the process as well.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Laurence, Rachel Moore is an element controller. If the Angel of Death tags along, she can use the ability of death. She can, as you just put it, try to end us all. Or worse, end us all.” Saif faces him.

“Marianne, you have used the machine on the specimens. Any progress?” Edward asks.

“No. The machine keeps malfunctioning. Engineering has seen it and can’t understand why. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. There’s no new information. We’ll try again today.”

“Jessica, prepare the drones. I want the best technology. If there're drones around, I highly doubt Rachel Moore would kill anyone. Also, with the amplification, our firing squad, our elemental controller, Aymee, here, I don’t think those girls stand any chance. We can relocate everything if needed. And if that’s the worse that can happen, and the best is finally catching Moore, end the movement, and return to us what is rightfully ours, the specimen that got away, the Angel of Death. Then, let’s do it. If today’s session with the specimens doesn’t give us anything useful, Marianne, this is it.” Edward says.

A mix of emotions fills the room. Some of the advisors wonder if they have to be there on that day. Aymee Ortiz wishes the test later works this time. Madeleine and Jessica share a glance, both remembering the ability of death and what it did to the Ariston community.

There’s no one else in the world that hates you more than her, Marianne. Aren’t you afraid of what she’ll do to you if we don’t stop her? Saif looks over to Marianne, notices that she just focuses on her wristwatch.

Later that day, an armed team takes once again Diego and Alex out of their cells and leads them to the elevator to Marianne’s center of operation.

“Put the first specimen in the room,” one of Marianne’s assistants orders.

Alex is blindfolded and led to a room with a glass window and nothing inside it. One of the workers takes out his necklace, and he starts screaming. Nothing can be heard because his screams are muffled by a piece on his mouth.

“Ready to run!” Another assistant announces.

“Turn it on.” Marianne tells them.

The assistant turns the machine on and an electric discharge goes through Alex. This forces him to activate his abilities and because of the bracelet on his wrist, more and more electric shocks happen. It’s an ongoing loop.

“Next level.” Marianne orders.

All the assistants see the veins on their necks and foreheads. Suddenly, it stops and Alex's head turns down.

“Turn it on!” Marianne goes nearer to the assistant.

“Dr. Olsen, it is on.”

“Again? Every time it gets to the next level…”

“Dr. Olsen, we’ll try again.” Aymee tells her.

“No. That’s enough. Take them back. Aymee, have the rest of the day off. I’ll inform the Council.”

***

Alex no longer understands the concept of day and night. The hours pass by but he can’t count them. His eyes are always blindfolded. He lies on the mattress on the floor, reliving the memories that he can remember. The ones he didn’t erase, the ones that he can recall. Without his ability, most of it isn’t as easily accessible. Amy’s face lacks the details that he can usually picture.

His door opens and closes. Silence continues to fill the tiny room. Steps approach him, tender, soft. These aren’t from the armed guards. A soft hand reaches his face. He flinches, but the hand pulls the blindfold right away.

He sees her, for the first time, in person. Marianne Olsen. She’s older than the picture that Ánh showed. Her eyes are kinder than he’d imagine they’d be.

“Lovely house that you have,” Alex coughs and smiles in the end.

“Mmm, I see you know who I am.” She smiles back and sits next to him on the floor. “I also know a few things about you, Alexander Williams.” She takes his necklace from her pocket and puts it in his hand.

“I know what you want, my dearest,” he laughs weakly. “You won’t get it.”

“My dearest… where have I heard that one before? Without your ability, Alexander, you can’t possibly know what I want, which is why I’ll tell you instead. Once I’m done talking, you’ll see that we have some aligned interests.” Marianne smiles.

***

It’s almost midnight when a user posts on the forum the videos of Diego and Alex’s abduction. The video follows the SUV, and it parks in the factory. Ánh sees it and goes upstairs, grabs Emily, Abigail, wakes Rachel up and takes Megan out of the gym.

“You have to see this!” she shouts, while running back downstairs.

They run after her and all see the videos.

“Is that…?” Emily gasps.

“That’s your friend, Ánh, right? Aminu?” Rachel crosses her arms.

“They are probably using him,” Abigail’s tone drops.

“What’s his use?” Rachel faces Abigail.

“He’s an amplifier…” Ánh refuses to face Rachel.

“Aminu would never agree to this!” Emily kicks one of the chairs out of her way. “They tricked him.”

“If we could reach him…” Abigail grabs Emily’s hands, “this isn’t him.”

“Reaching out to him is not an option. An amplifier…” Rachel puts her hands on her forehead.

“Why show us where they were taken? Why give away that they have Aminu? You have, supposedly, an army of 120. Aren’t they afraid that you’ll march in?” Abigail asks. “This has to be a trap. A fake location. This isn't it.”

“They know we aren’t 120,” Ánh goes around the room, “for them to have access to the forum… they are accessing their minds, Rach. They want us to go there, but it’s only a matter of time-”

“Until they are here.” Rachel bites her lower lip.

“Also, they removed everyone else from it. All the members of the forum are gone. It’s just our profiles and this new one.” Ánh shows them the data and types to find out more about the location, “it’s a factory, it opened one month after the war started. It could be real.”

“How can we be sure?” Abigail asks, “we drive by and see if it seems suspicious? Order a pizza to deliver there and see if they try to execute the delivery person?”

“I know how,” Megan says softly across the room.

Everyone turns around to face her. She stares at one of her paintings of the northern lights in Tromsø.

“How?!” Emily asks.

It’s time for me to face my past.

Megan leaves and goes to the bathroom. She runs the hot water and fills in the tub, turns off all the lights, takes her clothes off and enters. It’s very hot at first and she takes a deep breath, imagines herself on Norway. Slowly she feels colder and puts her head underwater for a minute.

She slows down her breathing and tries to focus on her childhood. She goes back to the house she grew up in with Sofie, Erik, and Marianne. The only house she calls home. She tries to focus on Sofie, her blonde hair, her ocean blue eyes that she inherited from her father. She tries to focus on her but her face keeps vanishing.

She tries to focus on Erik’s laugh instead, how he made jokes that no one understood and laughed on his own, how he asked her to dance with him, to play chess with him, how he hugged her. His dark blonde hair, the ocean blue eyes that showed only kindness, his dark sunglasses he wore in summer and she begged him to use, so he’d give them to her. How she broke them one time, and he laughed instead of shouting. She focuses on his face, but it keeps vanishing. He has Sofie in his lap, and both faces are indistinguishable.

Only one face is clear enough, Marianne’s. Fifteen years younger than today, with her beautiful blonde hair with fewer gray hairs, fewer wrinkles weighting on her face, the eyes that she once thought that could never hurt her, how she trusted her, loved her. Her face doesn’t vanish.

It’s time to go, Megan.

Every day, Marianne would say it. Time to go. Megan is seven years old. She enters the car and Marianne smiles. It’s time to go. Megan loses focus and comes back to the present time.

No, I have to.

She closes her eyes and goes back to the car. She’s ten now. Marianne starts the engine and drives. Megan looks around and sees the lake she once loved to go to, the road with the beautiful trees. They slowly enter the industrial part of town. Megan loses focus again and comes back to the present time.

She hits her hand on the tub repeatedly, bruising it.

No, I have to.

She goes back to the past. She’s back in the car, but in the driveway still, she’s fifteen. Sofie and Erik are on the front door, waving, smiling, and they disappear completely. She passes by the lake, the road with the beautiful trees, enters the industrial zone, they pass by several heinous buildings, all gray, all filled with people that aren’t happy to be there. Megan remembers thinking it.

Marianne stops in front of the perfume factory, shows her ID to the guard and enters. They reach the elevator and go down several floors. It’s the testing floor, one that she has for herself. When she gets there, she sees herself, throughout the years, training there.

Megan gets up immediately, quickly dries herself and heads back to the basement.

“That’s the place,” she says while water drips from her hair.

“How do you know?!” Emily faces her.

“Marianne Olsen took you there.” Rachel focuses on Megan.

She took me out of there. Megan focuses once more on one of her paintings.