Chapter 68 - An Unknown Variable

The two parties had their guns aimed at each other, the other unrelated people in the area making a run for it into the buildings around them—  most notably the large structure at the far end of the street that had seemingly been abandoned.

To those who were unaware, this may seem like simple bystander chaos and panic to get away, but from the information Lily had about the abilities of the girl, this was actually all part of her controlled plan.

Her plan was to make it seem like the chaos was outside of the control of herself and her mother so that her mother could safely slip away.

And like clockwork, the girl came running down the street. Swiftly, one of the gunmen grabbed her, gun pressed against her temple, wielding her as a bargaining chip and as a shield against the Agents.

"Stand back or she gets it!"

The man yelled aloud as he made his demands; his English wasn't the best, but the weapon in his hand aimed at the head of the young girl made that obsolete.

The Agents hesitated on what to do because of the sudden hostage situation. Agent May stepped forward when the situation had reached a tension that could break at any moment. 

A mix of emotions guided her decision-making. 

Despite the turmoil within her, her call was measured and rational, rooted in the dire need to defuse the situation before it spiraled into a deadly confrontation.

"Lower your weapons, everyone."

She ordered the Agents to lower their weapons, trying to defuse the situation so a gunfight doesn't begin in the middle of the alley, or worse yet, an innocent child gets killed because of it.

As far as she was aware, that is.

During this chaotic situation, their original target for the mission, Belyakov, slipped away into the back building alongside the crowd of people, going undetected by the Agents because of their shifted focus.

But Lily wasn't worried about the gunmen to begin with, allowing her to keep a keen eye on the situation around her, with unhindered limitations, making note of the movement of each of the key figures of this interaction.

Her scrutiny was focused on Agent May, the elusive Belyakov, and the little girl that was currently the cause of this messy showdown. Each of them played an important part in the scene from what she remembers, and each of them would play a part in her scene.

The tension slowly shifted as the Agents did what May had commanded them to do, lowering their weapons, and thanks to this, the Gunmen were able to quickly lip into an abandoned building behind them, keeping the little girl as a hostage for their plans.

Or so it seemed.

"What now?"

Belyakov had gotten away during the showdown, and now they were left with a hostage situation that May felt her responsibility to solve. Plus, Belyakov was also inside that abandoned building, and they needed her.

"Should I attempt to go in?"

Lily offered as Coulson and May gathered together to discuss the next course of action. Going it would be very easy; with her shown capabilities, they would not be able to stop her.

"No, I know you can deal with them, but they have hostages. If they were to feel threatened by you, they may harm the hostages, or they may get hurt in the crossfire."

Coulson explained to Lily as he turned to May.

"The best course of action would be a strike force that is swift and silent, get in and eliminate them before they have a chance to notice they are being attacked."

They called in the Calvery, troops armed in heavy armor, guns, and dark vision, specializing in missions just like this. They would be the ones going in and killing the people, or rather, that's what Coulson and May hoped would happen.

In reality, Lily already knew this would fail, but that was exactly what she wanted because after they went in and failed, May would go in, and she could slip in alongside May.

As Lily was about to speak, something completely unexpected happened. It was something that Lily couldn't have possibly seen coming, as it was not supposed to happen to begin with.

Everyone around her froze; no, it was just the people, but everything froze; the wind and air stopped flowing, the sky stopped changing, the earth stopped moving, and everything stood completely and utterly still.

Everything but Lily.

And that's when it happened: a figure appeared before her.

She momentarily panicked as she felt her connection to the rest of the Hive suddenly cut off; she was alone, something she hadn't been since arriving in this world.

It felt empty, she felt incomplete once more, like how she was before coming here.

But she had been in this world long enough to know panicking wasn't the answer; she shifted her view to the figure that had appeared, a blinding light overtaking her eyes as the figure simply stood there.

He was seemingly a being made out of pure light; hell, he wasn't even the gender of the being. It was simply the gender Lily assigned to the being to try and get a grip on this situation.

One thought came to her mind when she saw the figure before her.

'Run.'

It was a deep, ingrained feeling, one that all prey and predators would have, a feeling driven by pure instincts to survive. Fighting the being before her was absolutely impossible; she would die.

No, she wouldn't even have the chance to try and fight the being; she would be erased before she could even try to do anything to it.

"Who-"

Lily tried to speak by drawing what little bravery she could from within her, but her words were cut short by the being speaking.

They spoke a single line, but within that line, she could hear other voices saying it as well. It was as if the being was speaking through many beings, or rather, the being was not a single being, to begin with.

"Still young."

As it spoke, the brightness within Lily's vision vanished, and her eyes slowly adjusted, by the time it had returned to her, time had once again resumed.