16 15: Serenity

With me having a concussion that was more severe than either of us being prepared for, Axton refused to let me help with anything. He promised the last move was mine, but for now, he wanted to take care of everything else while I rested.

My light sensitivity only worsened as days bled into weeks that Axton chased after where the Underground was based at.

Which led to now, where we were driving with me curled up in a ball in one of his oversized hoodies to where only darkness met me. We did our best to go only at night, but we had to reach the next town soon so we weren't forever chasing justice for my parents and everyone who had died at their hands.

"Little warrior, we're at a stop for the next few days. Do I need to carry you inside or do you wanna try to walk?" he asked, I felt his hand grab mine in an attempt to gain my attention from whatever was going on in my head.

I moved my head slightly to look up and the lights made me feel like my skin was burning with just the slightest touch of them. I hissed and hid my face back under the hood and in my knees. I heard a sigh.

"Serenity, I think we have to call it quits, your condition is only getting worse as time goes on. I hate to do this to you, but I care too much-"

I raised my hand up to stop his words and quickly retracted it back into the safety of my darkness.

"Fine, but I'm getting you evaluated by a meta doctor tomorrow, no debates, okay?" The feeling of his hand on my head relaxed my nerves. He knew I've hated going to the doctor since the last time when I was younger and they wanted to test what my powers were.

~~~~

My excitement had me wanting to bounce out of my chair between my parents. I could feel their nerves but it didn't do anything to curve how I was feeling. My first time going to a meta doctor, ever. My parents had only ever taken me to the normal doctor, but this was a place where I was going to get to be myself. I can discover what my powers were and what I would be able to do.

"Serenity Alacritas?" a nurse came out and asked. I jumped up excitedly and bounced on my feet over to her. She smiled down at me and I saw the silver of her eyes that made me feel secure and know that I wasn't alone in any of this.

"Hello, sweet girl! How old are you?" she asked as we walked towards an exam room. She let me grab her hand as I skipped next to her.

"I'm six, but Momma says I'm super smart for my age!" I said, humming to a song I heard on the radio.

"Is that so?" she said as we finally got to a room. I turned to see my parents but only then realized that they didn't follow behind us. The door closed behind the nurse and I noticed the glass that showed a man standing behind a computer, he was typing something before he looked up at me.

"Hello, Serenity. I'm Doctor Ares. We're going to be evaluating you over the next few days, okay?" he asked, putting his hand against the glass. I stepped forward and put my hand against his through the glass. "I'm going to take that as a yes. We're going to start with the first thing, okay?"

It was up until this moment that I didn't realize just how dark they had the rooms around me, most likely for my comfort. The lights burned me and I screamed as loud as I could, but that didn't make them stop. Darkness eventually surrounded me and I could feel the pain, but it was dulled as my mind tried to reason this. It had to just be one experiment that would hurt me, maybe the rest would be better.

"Serenity experiment one complete, shadow shield achieved."

The cold robotic voice made something in me feel empty.

"Serenity experiment two will commence when shield is removed from the subject."

I felt something stab straight through my shield and the pain hit me in waves as the intensity grew. I felt my shield shy away and collapse after a while.

"Serenity experiment two commence."

The lights blared on again and I felt the heat of them suffocating me. Unconsciously, I threw my shield up again to make the pain dull.

"Serenity experiment two failed. Recommencing after shield is removed from subject."

They weren't as gentle this time. I let out a tiny yell from the pain.

"Serenity experiment two commence."

The blinding lights were bright and painful this time. My mind did the next best thing to avoid the pain, I made my friends into armor. I made them into strength to help carry me through the pain. I wanted them close to me if and when I finally snapped.

"Serenity experiment two complete, shadow armor achieved."

These mindless experiments lasted days. It felt like forever to a six-year-old who had never been away from her parents before. Every time I failed an experiment, the pain I experienced would intensify until they got whatever reaction they were looking for.

It started with the protection, but it eventually got to things like me creating humanoid shadows to protect me or perform certain functions to shut off the lights. Then it got to creating tools and weapons to their specification. Every single time I failed something, they would turn on the lights and raise their power up every time they had to punish me. Every single time.

~~

"Why can't we go get our daughter ourselves?" Dal asked, exasperated with the nurse who refused to let them to their daughter to check in on her.

"She is fine, Mrs. Alacritas. It's agaisnt our policies to allow the guardians back with the patients. It can cause them to become shy or fearful of using their powers," she responded back again for the millionth time.

"Please understand, our daughter has never been without one of us, we're scared for her. Other kids are scared of her," Takeshi responded before wrapping his arm around his wife's waist and maneuvering her towards a seat. They both sat quietly and Dal rested her head against her husband's shoulder.

"Our baby is without us, Takeshi, how can you not be as scared as I am?" she asked him, closing her eyes and trying to get rid of the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

He pressed his lips to her forehead, trying to reassure her, even for a split second. "Dal, I'm horrified. Of course I'm scared for her, but I know that our warrior will get through this. She always does."

A scream was heard ripping through the office and Dal jumped up, feeling in her bones exactly who the scream had come from.

"Serenity...my baby..."

~~

Numb. I remember everything feeling so numb after all of the pain I had endured. I knew that my skin was probably covered in burns.

Screaming invaded my senses. The voices were muted and quiet, muffled to me. I felt hands, who was holding me?

I opened my eyes and my vision was blurry. Momma?

She looked like an avenging angel in my eyes. Pure beauty and wrath. Momma was my favorite person. My protector. MY avenging angel.

I remember being home again, but everything seemed dull again. Nothing was the same. The once bright colors and bright sunshine of Arizona was bad to me. When Momma and Dad left for work, I made it a habit to close every blind and curtain. We had bought blackout curtains when I first developed my powers to keep me from hurting myself accidentally while I was still healing from the first burns.

Now, a year after that day, I would always draw the curtains closed. The burns had scarred over and healed. I couldn't stand the light anymore. I couldn't be around the brightness anymore. I hate the world. How could they do this to me?

I remember the tear down my cheek. How could they have managed to destroy me?

When Momma and Dad came home later that day, they opened the blinds again and I made it a game to see how fast I could run and close them behind their efforts without being seen or them figuring out it was me. We had gone around about five times before they realized it was me.

"Serenity," Momma has started as she sat me down. They let the blinds stay closed this time, but the curtains were open, allowing a small amount of the summer sunlight to filter through the windows. "You're already healed up, little warrior, why do you want to hide?"

"It still hurts," I replied after flinching at the familiar nickname. I didn't feel like a warrior.

"Little warrior," Dad started, knowing that they both had to do this to get through to me. I could tell they were lost and didn't know what to do with me. "You can't hide forever."

"Please don't call me a warrior," I said, hiding my face against my knees. "I definitely don't feel like a warrior..."

"Serenity..." Momma started, pulling me into her body.

"Little warrior-"

"I said do not call me that!" I yelled, feeling the shadows around me blasting out.

The last thing I remember of that day was falling to the ground as the world started fading away.

~~~~

I gripped Axton's arm for dear life. The beeping of heart monitors and voices scared me to no end.

"Miss Alacritas?" a nurse called and I immediately tensed. Axton rose and tried to help me up but I was frozen to the seat.

"Little warrior, we have to back now, okay?" he asked, patting my head. I nodded once and slowly crept over to the door. The nurse opened the door and I froze again, gripping onto Axton.

"Please don't leave me alone," I whimpered out. I could feel him tense up before he slightly tilted my head up.

"I won't ever leave you, my little warrior."

His words caused everything in me to relax. I turned to the nurse again and took a deep breath and went from my grip on his whole body to just holding his hand. I tugged him along as the nurse moved throughout the halls.

We couldn't have sat in that room for more than five minutes in complete silence waiting for a doctor to come treat me before I broke the silence.

"Axton, what you said-"

"Please don't, Serenity," he said, looking towards the window of the tiny six-by-seven room. "I know you don't feel the same, okay, I just-"

He stopped and we just stared at each other. I was searching for the words to voice out exactly what I was feeling but it seemed to fall short. I hadn't allowed myself to feel attraction for other people since I started this mission. I hadn't allowed myself anything since I made myself a steel warrior.

"Axton, please just hear me out-"

The door flew open and the doctor stepped in, reviewing a chart. "Serenity Alacritas, correct?" I nodded. "It looks like you got a dose of meta inhibitor from the Underground, huh?"

"A what?" I asked, feeling my head tilt slightly as I watched him pull a large needle out of his jacket pocket and pull the cap off, shooting a little out of it.

"A meta inhibitor, they created it to enhance the weaknesses of whoever it infects, therefore rendering their abilities useless to them until it either works its way out of the system or you get the antidote, which I have here for you as long as you're okay with it."

I felt my body tense and fear crept up again. The memory of the experiment involving injecting poison into my veins came back to me. They had wanted to see how fast my body would burn it off. I felt warmth then start radiating next to me as he grabbed my hand and laced out fingers together. I felt him lay his cheek against my head as my body relaxed enough. I nodded at the doctor and shut my eyes to block out the thought that the needle was about to go into my arm.

"It's okay, my little warrior. I'm here, it will be over soon."

I felt the prick and pushed myself further into his side. The feeling went away and slowly I felt my headache start to fade away enough to pull my hood off and let the light of the room touch me. I felt every part of myself start relaxing into the light and suddenly I realized how much I missed the feeling of light touching my skin.

"There we go, I believe that should be everything for today's visit, you're in top shape, Miss Alacritas." I smiled and nodded and listened to him go on about how I needed to visit at least once every year for a check up to make sure my powers remained normal. I nodded and agreed with no intention of ever going to a doctor again.

~~~~

The car ride back to the house we were renting was nice. I relished the feeling of the sun on my face as we drove.

"Serenity?" he asked and I hummed as he turned the radio off. "What was it you had wanted to say earlier?"

I thought for a second before inhaling and sighing. "Look, Axton, I've been training to do this mission for years, I haven't allowed myself to feel attracted to anyone or even allowed myself to feel normally," I paused.

"Okay, I get it, you don't have to explain anything to me, I get it. You don't feel the same way-"

I grabbed his hand, effectively breaking off his train of thought. "Listen please. I haven't allowed myself any type of emotion, but I'm willing to give it a try," I stopped as he pulled into the driveway and parked the car. "I want to try."

I had never seen his face light up so bright before I had said those words. I had also never seen him run so fast to pull me out of the car and swing me around.

"Axton," I laughed as he put me down and pulled me into him.

"I don't think you understand how happy you just made me, my little warrior," he said, pulling away so I could see his bright smile. He had his green contacts in, both hiding the silver rings in his eyes and keeping me from seeing his future. "Now that we have that out of the way-"

"Yes," I said, knowing exactly what he was about to ask.

"You have to let me ask first!" he pouted and I paused to let him try again. "Serenity Rae Alacritas, Shadow, my little warrior, would you do me the honor of officially being my girlfriend?"

"Yes," I smiled at him before getting tackled by Naya.

~~~~

I made sure I had my laptop, a few books, some of my research on members of the Underground, and my card before stepping out of the car.

"Please be careful, you're still recovering. I will be back in a few hours to come get you, okay?" Axton asked.

"Of course. I'll stay in the cafe until you finish up, okay?" I asked, rolling back onto my heels and back.

"Good, I'll see you soon, my little warrior," he said as he pulled away from the sidewalk.

I pulled out my phone and checked the time. 9AM. I'm supposed to be here until 3PM when Axton will be back so I could go shopping to get some new outfits since Dani couldn't get me new ones for another few weeks with her store opening back up and being more popular than it used to.

I walked up Roswell Road until the building came into view. I hummed quietly as I walked into Cafe Express.