Chains(1.22)

Elijah sat at the edge of the ravine, worry and hunger dragging down on his strength. He thought maybe his best bet would be to turn around and head back into town, but he didn't want to end up looking out in the woods again only for Cat to be lying dead under a tree.

He stood up again, continuing to search along the ravine until he began feeling eyes on him. He wasn't alone anymore.

Elijah's eyes flashed open, he looked around and realized what had just happened. Riptide had captured him in a shadow, knocking him out completely and dragging him to Malachite's base.

Elijah tugged at the chains that held him by his arms, but he knew he didn't have anywhere near enough strength to break them. So he sat waiting for Malachite, or Reaper or someone else to walk in and beat the shit out of him.

He stared at the doorway as he heard footsteps coming his way. He braced himself for whatever Malachite would do to him, after all, the old man was nowhere near merciful.

"So you've finally returned.." The old man seemed different, he looked slightly frail, he seemed to have bruises along his arms and face and his eyes were tired. "Too bad you won't get to see your old teammates anytime soon."

"What is that supposed to mean, old man?"

"It means they aren't interested in seeing you after you abandoned and betrayed them." Malachite spat hatred, causing Elijah to flinch slightly. He was always confident, but when it came to Malachite, he would fall.

Elijah stayed quiet, his hair falling in his face as he looked away. He would rather show weakness than get on this monster's bad side.

He kept his eyes closed tight as Malachite slammed his staff into his side. He coughed from pain and looked up at Malachite, who was walking out of the room already.

"I want you to sit there and think about your idiocy." The elderly man hissed.

Elijah could tell something was off though, he could tell the old man was nervous to injure him too badly, though he didn't know why. Was he really still that valuable of an asset to the team? Was Reaper not doing well enough to lead everyone?

"We have to go and find Blue then!" Flail said, pacing back and forth with his fluffy green hair falling in his face. "What happens if the authorities hurt him really badly?"

"Are we sure we should be organising some big search when we don't even have an idea of where he could be in these woods?" Jaxon shoved his hands in his pockets. "What happens if the remaining few people with Malachite have him?"

"Then we barge in and rescue him!" Flail crossed his arms, the answer should've been obvious to Jaxon, but apparently it wasn't.

'That's not the Darkshadow I know~" Phoenix sang through Jaxon's mind.

'I don't even know who that is.' He shot back.

Elizabeth sighed and shook her head. "We need to figure out what part of the forest he could be in before we start looking."

"He should be in the same part you guys found me." Cat shoved his hands in his pockets. "He did have a tracking spell on me, but it's set to disable if either one of us enters Malachite's land..."

"Let me guess, Malachite can somehow hijack tracking spells?" Jaxon raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah.."

Malachite returned to Elijah after an hour, Riptide and Jaguar in tow. His eyes were narrowed as he picked up a carving knife and studied it for a moment.

"Have you thought about coming back willingly..?" The old man wondered.

"I could never."

Malachite frowned and lightly pushed the knife in Elijah's chest, carving out the symbol that was painted on his old mask.

Elijah screamed in agony as pain shot through his chest. He glared at Malachite with hatred in his stare as the blood trickled down himself.

"How about now?"

"Fuck. You." Elijah didn't care about being on Malachite's bad side anymore, after a day of thinking, he realized there was no being worse off than this.

Malachite picked up his staff and slammed it into Elijah's face, causing him to bruise and bleed slightly where he was hit. "Then suffer."

Jaguar unchained Elijah, so that Malachite could beat him to the ground with his staff. Beating him with the weapon, over and over again, causing him to become even weaker than before.

Elijah lay painfully on the ground as Jaguar reattached the chains that held him there.

"At least you won't have to worry about Reaper hurting you anymore huh.." Jaguar muttered after Malachite left him to keep watch.

"Why not..?"

"A large portion of us escaped.." Jaguar looked at Elijah. "I would've thought you knew by now."

"When?"

"Wha--"

"When did they escape Jaguar?"

"Uhh.. a week or so ago.." He stammered.

Elijah sighed and lay down, keeping still and trying to rest whilst he waited for Malachite to return. There was no way the others would come back for him, not now that they've found out what freedom tasted like.

That morning Jaxon took those who wanted to go to school to his school, that way they could be enrolled for classes.

Cat decided he would go to school, that way he could become more intelligent and figure out a better way to find Blue. He wanted to be able to find Blue straight away, but he knew it wasn't safe to do so alone, especially with no knowledge of the woods of which he was supposed to wait in.

Elizabeth stared at the form she needed to sign in order to enroll, it seemed Darren was old enough to help enroll them all, but that didn't help, considering neither him nor Elizabeth could read or write.

Everyone else did fine, but Elizabeth just scribbled down on the lines she needed to sign and hoped everything would turn out fine.

Jaxon stood by watching as everyone got enrolled, he didn't even know there was a way to sign up without a parent's help at his school. But he guessed it made sense since it was a school for magic users.