23: Serenity

My vision was going in and out as I blinked myself into existence. The room around me was blurry. I could almost feel the eyes on me as I tried to peel my own open for longer than a second at a time.

I sat up in the horrible bed and felt how bright the room was around me. It was kinda small as I looked around. I froze as I recognized the glass in front of me. One way glass. Someone on the other side was most likely observing my every move. I couldn't remember how I got here or the most of the day after meeting up with Kelsie. What happened after we walked out of the gym? For some reason, my mind couldn't place it.

I reached for the shadows in the room through the glass and heard the voices.

"Someone tell her that the girl has woken. She most likely will want to know."

I pulled back and scanned the room again before my eyes registered how bright the light was in the room.

It gave me an idea on how to get someone in here with me.

~~~~

Axton sat on the window seat with Naya by his side. He was running his hand through her fur, watching for Serenity to arrive home. If she would be able to on her own. She had been missing for days, and he knew that the Underground must have had something to do with it. He couldn't tell where she was, no matter how much he pushed for her to reach out to him.

In his mind, it was like a spiderweb, weaving between them. If she was happy, it was as if he felt it twofold. When she laughed, it was like fireworks were bursting through him. He knew that if she was truly in any sort of danger, he would feel the magic bursting from his chest like it would from her own.

But everything was numb and dull in his mind, as if her absence had taken a toll on his mental and emotional states. Nothing was the same as he remembered it to be, and he missed it.

He missed her.

He laid his head down on Naya's back and let her fur fly up into his face. He heard the wolf whine a bit from beneath his ear.

"I know, girl. It doesn't look like she's coming home today either," he said, feeling the disappointment clouding them both. Axton wished that she could just come home.

A knock on the door silenced his thought and made his entire body freeze in anticipation. There were only three people in this town that knew where this house was. Well, three people and a wolf.

A cadence on the door made him unfreeze and step to the door.

A man stood outside, his eyes searching the house for anyone there to overhear their conversation.

"No one but Naya and myself. Any news on Serenity? And please don't tell me you don't have anything and didn't go back there, I can see those fresh scars."

Marin smiled and stepped inside when Axton moved to the side.

"I knew I wouldn't be able to hide it from you, but I don't have much time," Marin turned back to Axton quickly. "She plans to break her down from the inside out and have that girl rule the Underground by her side."

Axton felt the numb of Serenity's own emotions fade enough for him to feel his own anger grow.

"She's going to break her and rebuild her up just as Mortem has done to her. She's already beginning to become more like him, she's the reason I'm covered in scars, not the other members," Marin seemed to have his own anger in his eyes.

"It was her this time?" Axton knew that his partner was undergoing horrible treatment in the Underground, but he insisted on continuing being their inside man and spy.

"Listen, she has a tracker on me, she knows this location. You need to move this house before she gets too curious and comes here and finds where you and Serenity have been living. We're waking her up tomorrow and that's when she plans to start. I'm going to help her escape, but you need to be ready to get her back here safely at ten thirty tomorrow night. I'll meet you outside the main hideout, okay? I'll have her with me. Remember, you will be Incarus."

Marin started on his way out before Axton finally snapped out of his trance. He ran to the door and yelled after his partner.

"Raziel!" Marin paused and turned back around. "It's time we wrap this up. Tomorrow, you shed Marin and go back to Raziel, my partner. A man who had his parents killed by them along with mine. We have a new partner, and she would love to meet you."

Marin's eyes softened.

"Okay, but not yet. I have a few more things to do before we go home. I want to save her, but I'm not sure if I can anymore. Just give me a bit more time," Marin paused and turned back towards the direction his car was in and opened the door before turning around to Axton one more time. "Give me more time to save Kelsie before we abandon her to this monster."

~~~~

I sat myself in the middle of the room and closed my eyes. I reached down into the pool that traveled through my very being full of the darkness in my body and I pulled it out. I could feel the lights in the room dulling at the sheer purity of the darkness I was after.

I could hear the voices of panic from the other room, it was bleeding through the walls. I opened my eyes and heard the screams of terror from my captors. I hoped the creepiness i was aiming for had hit. I could see the streams of pure darkness leaking from the walls and felt the lights flickering on and off.

I felt the icy streams of the same darkness running down my cheeks. The pure darkness that was leaking from my very essence. I could almost feel my soul fading the longer I kept this up. I let the darkness begin to travel towards me and create a small pond underneath my feet as I stood up.

I barely registered my own mumbling as the darkness began to form into shadow beings around me. I reached out into the shadows in the next room and let them form themselves into a huge wave over those people before my head tilted and my arms flew up in front of me.

"Lights out."

The entire building's hum that was so loud in my ears before suddenly stopped. I heard a click as the door flew open. I could hear the screams of the people trapped in my ball in the next room and felt that bright light trying to pierce through. Anger filled me and I closed it up even tighter and closed every hole. The burning went away and I could hear someone starting to panic. She was hyperventilating.

She would be unconscious within seconds.

"Serenity, I need you to listen to me," a new voice said next to me. "I'm an ally of Axton, and I'm here to get you out. My name is Raziel. I need you to trust me, okay?"

I nodded and the vision I had that was starting to fade away as I felt the darkness I let out start returning to me.

I remember someone carrying me and handing me off before I felt my control on my bubble fade away and I tried to breathe, only for it to be leaden in my lungs. I let myself slip back into the darkness that beckoned me in.

~~~~

Richard Mortem was furious. More furious than he was the day that Amy ran off with her husband and the unborn children that were going to grow to some of the strongest beings in the world.

His daughter had been overpowered by the very girl meant to be her equal. He had watched the security film from before the power outage on loop. The girl was horrifyingly powerful. Takeshi had done well in hiding her. Once he could worm his way in and break her down, she had the potential to truly rule the Underworld after him.

Her hatred of the very organization he wanted her to rule was the only troublesome thing left that could stand in his way.

He just had to break her down. Break apart her very morals and rebuild them to fit what he needed. He needed a cold-blooded killer willing to do anything to take down his enemies.

He also didn't think that Kelsie was going to be the one able to do that.

After all, she had let the person that she was tasked in taking care of go. So easily too.

He sat silently in his office as the clip rolled again. The girl's eyes had turned completely black with some kind of goo leaking out. He had been trying for hours to decipher the words that the girl had mumbled to herself, but he could definitely tell they were another language different than English.

All that he had gotten from following her lips was "To kako tha niniseki prin apo tis dynameis enos pou apokaloun theo."

He had gone through every language he thought it could have been. English, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic had all checked off the list. He had searched every inch of that traitor's house for any trace of which language it could have been, but those were truly the only ones there were records of them having taught their daughter.

He couldn't understand where the child would have picked up another language from.

A knock sounded at the door as his daughter walked inside. She seemed tense as she looked everywhere but her father.

"Do you have anything to say about what happened tonight, Kelsie Caitlyn Mortem?"

He watched her suppress a flinch.

"She was more than we anticipated. She completely smothered us in pure darkness, not even my light could have gotten through. It was more pure than I had ever seen before, as if she had been saving it up for years before this. This proves that she's dangerous, Father. We have to destroy-"

"No."

The single word had a certain ring to it as Kelsie stared at her father.

"She is powerful, yes, but no one is indestructible, Kelsie. Not even someone who bends your own weaknesses around you to stop you." Richard stopped to breathe for a second. "Showing weakness in the Underground is bad, especially to the enemy. You will sit in the room for the next forty-eight hours. Under no circumstances will you be allowed any light filtered in and you will eat whatever scraps we lay out for you."

Kelsie only nodded before spotting the paper on the desk.

"Are you learning Greek, Father?"

Richard paused and turned and stared at his daughter for a second.

"What did you say?"

"The paper on your desk, it's in Greek and roughly translates to 'Evil will be defeated before the powers of one they call a god.'"

Richard paused and turned and stared at his daughter for a second.

"What did you say?"

"The paper on your desk, it's in Greek and roughly translates to 'Evil will be defeated before the powers of one they call a god.'"

Richard felt like he wanted to stop breathing. How did his own daughter know it was Greek before he did?

"Thank you, Kelsie. You now only have to be in there for thirty-six hours. Leave."

He plopped down in his seat and put a hand to his forehead. Amy's family before she joined the Underground was from Greece. They had never taught their daughter the language under the logic that it wasn't widely used in America. She had said something about when her powers matured, Greek seemed to flow naturally even though she had no past experience and exposure to the language.

Could this be a sign that Serenity had grown fully into her powers? It would make her more difficult to handle, but it wasn't impossible.

Besides, there was more than one way to break someone.

~~~~

I woke up with a splitting headache and a ball of fur next to my head. A tail was in my face and hair getting into my mouth before I finally complained.

"Naya, your tail is in my face, pretty girl."

"Serenity?" I heard before I felt my pillow raise up and I plopped back down onto the soft mattress. The bed was so comfy and my body felt so heavy.

"Serenity, my little warrior. If you can hear me, please say something."

"This bed is so comfy."

"Oh thank the gods!"

I felt wet drops hitting me as I felt myself drifting again. "I thought I had lost you, my little warrior. I did. Sleep some more, when you're feeling better, I'll make sure I have some soup for you. You used your own essence to fight in the absence of darkness. You're gonna hurt until you build that back up, okay? You've been asleep for a week since you got away…"

I tried to hold on a bit longer, but the exhaustion began pulling me back down and I gave back into the dark warmth that promised it's protection and erasing of my pain.