After they had fresh clothes, a warm shower, food and left them on the mattresses and beds in Rachel and Megan’s room, the group gathers in the basement. Ánh, Abigail and Emily stand next to the computers, Diego and Alex face them and Rachel stands in the corner.
Oh, oh, oh, Rachel … you really outdid yourself now. Diego is about to explode and you even pissed off Ánh. Alex waves at Rachel, who rolls her eyes in response.
“Was Marianne Olsen there?” Ánh breaks the silence.
“We… were blindfolded the entire time. Don’t know.” Diego taps his foot and looks at Rachel.
“But we have some names. Your friend, Ánh,” Alex smiles, “told us about some of the people that work there. Madeleine Clark.”
“If Madeleine is in it, so is Jessica,” Emily says.
“Saif Ahktar.”
“That’s… Aminu’s boss at the Institute. He heads the lab there.” Abigail says.
“Aymee Ortiz.”
“Who’s that?” Rachel asks.
“Ortiz Hotels rings a bell? They own a huge chunk of the real estate in the capital! She’s their only daughter. A mental controller. I remember reading a profile about her.” Emily replies.
“For the amplifier to know her, she was probably the one he amplified and accessed my mind there.” Rachel takes a deep breath.
“And the mastermind. The head of it all…” Alex simulates a drum roll, “Hall.”
“Hall?” Abigail asks and Alex nods.
“I’ll search for Hall, see if we can find whoever that person is.” Ánh types on the keyboard and the computers run the search.
“Rachel. The truth now. The amplifier told us about the white light.” Diego takes a few steps toward her. “Did you know?”
“Of course she knew. She absorbs powers.” Ánh scoffs and keeps focusing on the screen.
“Did you know?” He faces Alex now.
“No. This was a secret that I’ve kept from all of you,” Rachel takes a deep breath, exhales slowly and looks up, facing everyone’s stares, “please, take a seat. I’ll tell you everything.”
They all sit down and she grabs a chair and sits while facing them.
“I was 16. Wandering around town, focusing on everyone’s powers. Training my focus. Making sure I could see it faster and absorb it straight away. Walking around town, with my little notebook, writing down which powers I saw,” Rachel smiles, “I saw this black figure on one night and my heart immediately skipped a beat. That deviant had three powers.”
“Isso es impossivel!”
“Diego,” Alex puts his hands on his, “hear her out.”
“Impossible. That’s what I thought too, Diego. I followed her, brought her here, and that’s when I realized something else.” She looks at Alex.
“I couldn’t read her mind. It was all blank with her.”
Everyone stares at him. Emily scoffs and crosses her arms.
“Has that ever happened to you before?” Abigail asks Alex.
“Not before, my dearest, and not after. Only with her.”
“And that’s not all…” Rachel continues, “she doesn’t have side effects.”
Emily laughs and looks at everyone around the room. That’s a lie.
“And her powers are the hardest for me to absorb… they are extremely unstable.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that the light was her?” Diego gets up and moves toward Rachel. Stopping in front of her.
“You want to know who ordered the kill of your family, Diego. Megan doesn’t know. Marianne Olsen might. Megan’s secret could never see the light of day. If one of you were caught, if someone finds out, what do you think it will happen to our kind?”
“Embuste!” Diego kicks the chair and points his finger at Rachel, “you are nothing but a liar.” He slams the door on the way out.
“Unless Megan destroyed everything. Everyone. We’ll find out soon enough what will happen to our kind once the word is out that deviants can have more than two powers. If people already feared us. If they said already that the fatal flaw is an invention of the devil. Just imagine.” Ánh shakes her head and focuses on the computer.
“Ánh…” Rachel tries to go near her.
“Don’t!” she snaps and gets up, facing Rachel, “we are a team! This is something we should’ve discussed together!”
***
Megan finally reaches the building. She sees the bodies of several unconscious people lying on the floor, their guns lying next to them. The white light surrounds her. Only her breathing cuts through the silence.
Where are you? She looks around the lobby. Everything is the same as before. New colors painted on the walls. Newer furniture. Fifteen years had gone by and as she takes another step forward, her mind reminds her of all the times throughout the years she did before.
They’ll be downstairs, surely. On the levels below ground, she used to train. If someone is hidden, that’s where they would be. But you won’t. She takes a left turn and opens the door, slowly walks up the stairs.
The first floor up has a long hallway. She opens the first door, and it’s only a bunch of computers. Fried because of the energy surges she caused. She opens the archives, and they consist mostly of some old files, from the late 90s and early 2000s. Some of these deviants are probably dead by now.
She’s about to leave the room but turns around instead and fires the white light against the computers and archives, turning it into dust. She enters the next door and repeats the process. Over and over again. When she leaves to the floor above, she sees a blonde woman running.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Stop!” Mum! Using her white light, she uses it to make the woman trip. Megan goes nearer and sees the woman crying. It’s not Marianne. The woman gets up and runs. This time, Megan lets her.
She finally reaches the level at which the members of the Council and their advisors gathered before. The computers that still work are wiped clean. No information there. Completely useless. The screens that they used to see her are broken, like the windows. The chairs and desks are on the floor. She notices some blood on the floor.
Finally, she reaches the floor where she once trained. It’s still the same. Upper balconies with glass on it for everyone to watch. Stronger walls surrounding the room to withstand the abilities. Her hands curl into a fist and she takes a few deep breaths. The white light destroys every glass surrounding her and the white light protects her from the falling pieces.
As she leaves the room, she sees herself, years before, younger, and her sister running toward her. They smile, laugh even. Sofie hugged her tight and Megan always made sure not to let go until her sister did. A tear falls from Megan’s right eye, slowly. Those moments are long gone. Never to come back.
When she reaches the room that Alex and Diego were kept in, she notices the bracelets on the floor, the damaged doors. You made it. She destroys everything and leaves. Sees the garage and grabs a helmet, pops in the motorcycle and drives off.
The ride goes smoothly until Megan’s heart begins hurting. Softly at first, nothing she can’t handle, but after a few minutes, it’s like a sharp knife piercing through. She falls off the motorcycle and rolls on the ground until stopping. The motorcycle takes a swirl and hits a wall.
She lies on the floor, grabbing her heart and trying to control her breathing. The pain keeps getting sharper and sharper. Her heartbeat is faster than ever and her stomach is heavy. Her right hand raises, and she looks at it. It’s not turning blue.
Calm down. Just take a deep breath. Just like death before, she can’t activate life. Her breathing grows rapider and shallower. Save me. She closes her eyes and focuses on the white light. Protect me. The light is gone.
Megan crawls and puts her back against the wall. She starts counting back from 100, curling and opening her hands. The face of the woman with red shoes, her dark, brown eyes, her long, dark hair, appears in her mind. Eventually, her breathing slows down and the pain in her chest becomes lighter.
Where are you? She closes her eyes and focuses on the light. Focuses on life. Focuses on death. Darkness only. She knows she won’t make it to the house of the movement. It’s too far away and without her abilities, she can’t take the risks of stealing any car or motorcycle. She gets up with difficulty and starts walking.
***
There’s no need to sugarcoat it. It has gotten to the point where Megan is making a world of an effort every time she has to take an extra step. It’s already close to two in the morning, it’s freezing outside, it reminds her of that day when her parents abandoned her. How cold she was. How cold she is now.
She finally arrived at a street in downtown. The same street she visited countless times throughout the years. She’s about to cross the street when her legs give in and she falls to the ground. Unable to get up.
Is this it? Is this how I die? Much more peacefully than I deserve.
She crawls a bit further. There are no cars now passing by. She can make it. She crawls through the floor all the way to the other side of the road. Finally, she makes it to the front door of the building. She rings the bell, number nine, third floor. She rings it several times in a row.
“Yes?” a voice in the intercom asks.
She has no strength to answer it. As she closes her eyes, her head falls to her shoulders. A few seconds later, the woman with the red shoes, sneakers now that she put on a rush to come outside, shows up. She checks Megan’s pulse and puts her hand on her forehead, shaking her head. She grabs her slowly, puts her in her arms, and goes all the way to the third floor, back to her apartment. She puts Megan in her bed, runs to the kitchen of her one-bedroom-apartment, and puts water boiling, takes off Megan’s clothes and puts on new ones in her, much warmer than the ones she had.
The water stops boiling, and she puts two cloths in Megan’s head. She takes the temperature with the thermometer and Megan is in a hypothermia state.
“Why aren’t you healing?! Use your ability!” Her brown eyes focus on Megan’s, but she’s unresponsive.
The woman with the red shoes keeps pacing around the bedroom. A few hours later, Megan regains a bit of her colors. The woman grabs the cloth from her forehead and goes to the kitchen to change it. She takes another cloth from her drawer and a phone.
Your perfume from Angel came to my house instead. When can I give it to you? She sends the text message to an unnamed number. Puts the new cloth in the boiling water, goes back to the bedroom and puts the cloth on Megan’s forehead again.
***
Edward ordered everyone to meet in the Ortiz five-star hotel in the main road. Even in the early hour in the morning, everyone arrived on time, including the President of the United States of American.
“Have a seat,” Edward orders.
“Mr. Hall, I see your plan has failed miserably. Another one. First the massacre at the Institute, now this. Are you still fit to lead?” the president asks.
“Ma’am, our plan wasn’t flawed. We worked with the information we had. There was no way of knowing that the Angel of Death, a specimen that we lost on the day of the massacre of the Ariston community, has three abilities and not two. That’s unheard of,” Edward begins.
“But you can agree, Edward, that provoking Rachel Moore and the Angel of Death, having them meet us at the factory instead of anyplace else, was a misjudgment?”
“I won’t admit such a thing, because it wasn’t. There we had the upper hand. We can’t forget that Rachel Moore absorbs abilities. Having her in our play field was the best solution. And it almost worked. Our brilliant mind controller, Aymee Ortiz,” Edward smiles at Aymee, “gained access to her. If it wasn’t for the third ability from the Angel, now we’d be celebrating.”
“And instead, we are counting our losses. Shall we do it all together?” The President looks around the table, “No lab!” she laughs, raises one finger and looks at Saif, “no specimens to test on!” she raises another finger and focuses on Marianne, “the guns… gone!” she raises another finger and looks at Thomas, “all that money… wasted,” she raises another finger and looks at Madeleine. “How will we financially recover from this?”
“Money isn’t an issue. With the millions of the Parkers alone, we’ll have a new lab,” Edward reads a text message he received and smiles while replying to it.
“I’m sorry, have I got your attention here?” The President slaps the table, making the glass of water of Laurence Pierce spill.
“Of course, madame president, please, go ahead!” Edward smiles.
“This is a disaster!” She shouts.
“We are focusing too much on the negative. What about the positive outcomes?” Edward's smile grows.
“What positive outcomes?” The President laughs loudly.
“We have a video showing the Angel of Death’s third ability! That will grant, get it?” he laughs and everyone forces a smile, “the results we are after. Also… we captured the Angel of Death.”
Everyone focuses on Edward now. All but Padma, who focuses on Marianne instead.
“You have?” the President asks.
“Yes, it’s in our possession!” He says and most advisors clap.
Aymee Ortiz takes a deep breath and exhales loudly. Padma notices how controlled Marianne is. You don’t care about your own child.
“Madam President, the Angel of Death isn’t just the greatest weapon we have had and sadly lost. That thing is also unique. Three abilities. No side effects. Mental controllers can’t reach it.” Edward drinks a glass of water slowly.
“Edward, last time you had it, you lost it. It was 15 years old back then. Still, you couldn’t control it. Why do you think you will now?” The President smirks.
“Well, we’ll do it against its will now. We’ll gain its trust until the new lab is built. Then, we’ll try to use it. If it doesn’t cooperate, we’ll just test on it. Get rid of it whenever we feel like it. Speaking of getting rid of, let’s end the terrorists once for all. Laurence-”
“Yes, sir?”
“I want the forum gone. Jessica-”
“Yes?”
“Release the footage of the thing using its third ability. Make sure that everyone comments online how deviants deceived us. Fabricate anecdotes about seeing it happen around the world before. Also… the Chinese girl-”
“Chinese girl, sir? I’m not following.” Jessica says.
“The girl that is with the terrorists… the international student from the Institute.”
“Én Nagoyan, Edward, she’s Vietnamese.” Madeleine says.
“Jessica, show the world she’s a member of them.”
***
Back at the apartment, the woman with the red shoes goes to the bathroom and sees the response on her phone soon. I’ll let you know when. Take good care of it for me, please. She brushes her teeth, takes off her contact lenses, showing her ocean blue eyes. She makes a ponytail out of her black hair and goes back to the bedroom and sits next to Megan.
Megan slowly opens her eyes and Sofie reaches the bedside table to turn off the lamp. Next to it, there’s a photo of her, Megan and Erik, taken by the lake.
She goes out of the room, closes the door and lies down on her couch.
M, why did you come here? Her blue eyes close finally.