Chapter 50: A Century of Lies

  "Slava, wake up!" Dizzy… That was all he could think of. His vision was blurry, he could feel some foam dripping from his mouth. As he focussed, he saw Sasha's worried face leaning over him. Where was he? "Hey! I know you can hear me!" The Prophet… chaos… Serena… Nick? Nick! He abruptly sprung up from the soft bed he was laying on, surprising Sasha.

  Following his abrupt movements, a soft chirp was heard. The Phoenix that was on his lap took flight, hovering in front of him. He couldn't believe it. He extended his hand, the vines that were attached to it, falling off.

  "Kolya…" he whispered, his hand shaking. To his gesture, the animal lowered its head. As his hand came into contact with its feathers, he felt a warm tingle spread through it.

  "I see you've woken up." At the sound of the newcomer's voice, the bird cried out, rushing toward the balcony. He knew that tree, everything around it was different, but it was the same. Kolya's tree, the same as the one in her memory. This view, the white petals, it was definitely it.

  "I'm sorry." Serena had materialized from a breeze of leaves, Nick rushing to land on her arm. She smiled as he snuggled his head against hers. "I tried to help you recover while showing you my memory, but it seems like it was too much," she said, her voice neutral. Her new appearance was even more striking now that he wasn't in her head. Her hair had black stripes running through it, and her body was covered in a deep black dress, covering some of her sizzling green skin.

  "You're crazy! Are you using him as a test subject?" Serena slowly turned her head from Nick. Sasha didn't flinch, staring at her angrily. What happened? Did they argue? "It's fine," he said, swallowing the last of his frothy saliva, a hand on Sasha's shoulder. He would've done the same. Sweeping his hair away from his face, he took some time to look around.

  From the wooden bed he was lying in, to the door frame, this room looked like it came straight from a fairy tale. Everything was made of wood and leaves. Mixed with the light of dusk seeping through the white tree standing on the balcony, the room gave off a mystical nature. His eyes stagnated on the balcony, where he thought back to his friend's confession. Yeah, his friend was gone, he wasn't stuck in some bird or coming back. What would his life be like if he hadn't been here, what was he like in the future they saw?

  "Kid… You know what I'm going to ask, don't you?" Serena's eyes didn't change as they moved onto Slava. She slowly walked forward, forcing her pet to take flight. "Are you fucking serious?" Sasha abruptly stood up. "I thought you said you'd changed!" Her fists were clenched. "Slava would never do anything that would've put him in danger!" Her respect for Serena was completely gone. There was no longer a glint of admiration in her eyes. She…

  "Can you really be sure of that?" She asked coldly. Sasha tried to stop her from getting closer, but Slava grabbed her arm. "What do you have to say? Sla…va." It was his first time hearing his nickname coming out of her mouth. Her gaze was colder than it'd ever been. He'd felt it, her pain, her sorrow, and now he was facing the brunt of it. Her attacking them, her memories, their interactions since he came here, it was all a test. As he came to this realization, he began to laugh, burying his face into his hand.

  "Isn't this enough?" He gazed at her through his fingers. "Don't you have enough evidence?" From what he knew about her, if she'd found even the slightest bit of evidence against him, he would've already been dead. He respected her dedication and methodology, but it wouldn't get them anywhere. He sighed, spreading his arms, "I am even more clueless than you are. I have no idea who that 'chaos' person is or what I have to do with The Prophecy. Although…" He gazed out the window. To his words, Sasha lightly shivered and Serena slightly squinted. "Since I awakened a few months ago, my whole world changed." His mind wandered. "My nightmares, my research… it's like…"

  The air was suddenly taken out of his lungs. What the fuck? He turned toward Sasha who'd just smacked him. "What's your problem?" He exclaimed, glaring at her. "What's my problem? What's your problem? You want me to give you a beating?" Her eyes pierced him like daggers. He'd never seen her this mad at him, even her domain was fluctuating. "You were ramping it up like you were about to reveal some big thing." She turned around, throwing her hands in the air. This was about more than what he'd said. "No shit, your life changed after you awakened! It did for all of us! Jesus, Slava! This isn't some grand revelation!" She was gesticulating so much he couldn't follow, so he just stared on, dumbfounded. "What?" Their gazes locked in an awkward moment, as realization flashed in Sasha's eyes.

  "Pfft." A soft laughter coming from the side broke their intense stare down. "Alright, Alright. Stop, you're killing me." They both turned their heads at the same time. Serena was smiling, wiping a tear from her eye. She looked far more relaxed. "I believe you. Follow me, I've got something to show you." Turning around, her bare back shone. A black feathered flower glowing with neon green undertones, dark green vines spreading to cover her limbs. Her sigil was mesmerizing. He couldn't remember its previous appearance, but it was definitely more eye-catching now. It looked almost… Alive? As he followed its shifting movements, the flower abruptly bloomed, and its petals materialized, spreading to cover her entire body. In the blink of an eye, she'd transformed into a flowery storm.

  Seeing the phoenix follow through the doorway, Slava glanced at Sasha. Their eyes met and they nodded. He stood up from the bed, rolling his shoulders, he looked at his hand. Good as new, huh? He raised an eyebrow as his eyes scoured through the interface presented in front of him. His suit had automatically performed a full body check while he was unconscious. The strain his body experienced from him trying to spread his domain to Sasha, Serena's pheromones messing with his psyche, it was all there. It had even fed and washed him. He'd expected some backlash from all the fucked up shit his body had been through recently, but aside from some numbness, he was fine.

  "Take a seat!" He was brought back to reality when he heard Serena's voice echo throughout the somewhat spacious room. In contrast to the previous one, this room looked like a laboratory, no doubt recycled from an AITF facility. As he took a seat, he peered through the holographic screen that stood before him. On the other side, beyond a tinted glass wall, right beyond the door, stood a familiar pillar of light constantly moving upwards.

  "I know what you came here for," she materialized before the screen dressed in a white lab coat, "You came for answers." Wait, this wasn't a lab. Wasn't this a dynamic conference room? "So I'll give you some." To her words, the room wrapped around them, the light dimming, the screen overtaking their entire vision. "They may not be the answers you were looking for," the world distorted, "but they will show you the true nature of the enemy you're about to face." They were now sitting in the middle of an endless hallway, rows of familiar large vertical glass pods surrounding them. "Have you ever wondered where the suits came from?" He knew the first suits were made by the person inside Sasha's head. His was modified by Jack and himself, but…

  "No!" Hearing a devastated whisper, he turned to see a dumbfounded look on his friend's face. Her eyes glowed as she stood up, reaching out to one of the pods. Seeing this, he focused his eyes. What could make her come out like this? And that's when he noticed what was inside the glass pillars. "Oh? I didn't realize we had a guest." That's right, those two had never met. Sasha grabbed her head, grunting as one of her eyes stopped glowing. "Shit! She's fucking annoying." Hmm, did she remember something or someone? "Don't mind me, just continue," she said, covering her glowing eye.

  "I see, you must be the outcome of Project Rebirth." To her words, Sasha froze and the surrounding scenery changed. Before them now stood a large room filled with machinery, an empty pedestal at its center. "We've met before," she swiped her hand and a scrolling list appeared before them. "You're all over the city's encrypted files." A flurry of pop-ups opened, a few words being highlighted out of a series of censored documents. 'Project Rebirth', 'Expance', 'Embryo', 'Arissa'...

  "Well, that's not why we're here," she glanced at Sasha who was biting her lip. Not letting the scene linger, she twisted her hand and the scene returned to what it had been. It slowly zoomed in on one of the pods as Serena commented, "Using Arissa Expance's suits as a template, what would eventually become the S series, they were able to capture and use Awakened as batteries to create new types." The sight before them was almost revolting. The giant tube held a person, a brown hue emanating from its back. Could he even call it that? He couldn't even recognize if it was a man or a woman. Skin and bone, that was all he could see. An exosuit-covered body, floating, connected to numerous pipes.

  "Series H, B, N, R…" Following her words, the image moved, showing different people each time. "Hundreds if not thousands of people are held in this state all over the world in secret locations to power not only the suits but some of the city's infrastructure as well." So this is what he'd felt back when he first encountered the suits… the sources were actual domains, they felt artificial because they were being siphoned, but how? A domain could only be used by its user…

  "By now, you're probably asking yourselves; How could they extract the domains out of them?" She snapped her fingers and the world accelerated. So it was a playback… The place was swiftly overtaken by vegetation. At some point, a familiar figure approached one of the pods. It was Serena's previous form. "I had my suspicions, so I went to confirm them myself." Serena in the playback put her hand on the pod in front of her, and it instantly turned red. That's when everything slowed back down. The glass of the pod shattered, and the tubes disconnected, letting the body inside fall into Serena's vines. They delicately dropped it on the ground in front of Serena, taking its place.

  "These people are part of the city." The past Serena crouched down, reaching for the back of the laying person's neck. Following her gesture, the person's head was unveiled as the suit retreated. A gaunt face, dead eyes staring into the ceiling, and a hectic breath. "They are merely empty shells." The world accelerated again, and a hasty Serena could be seen administering medication, releasing her spores, but to no avail. "And once they get disconnected, they eventually…" All of a sudden, the brown hue around the victim intensified, before exploding into flames. "That's not all, there's something else." While one Serena controlled the flames, the other one continued. "They have completely lost their sense of individuality, they've been brainwashed into releasing their domain." She moved her hand, rewinding the image. At the same time, it zoomed in on Serena's patient's eyes.

  "Look at their eyes," she said, crossing their confused gazes. "If you look closely, you can see it." The eyes were cold and lifeless, but also glazed, emanating a light blue, almost grey hue. "When I was there, I felt it." The scene zoomed out, showing her covering the victim's eyes with her hand. "A calm, soft yet cold aura seeps out from them." A domain? It was definitely a domain. "There's only one individual I could think of when I felt this." A window appeared in front of them, showing a shrouded figure. "The AITF's boss, Black Hydra." The name appeared next to the silhouette. "I've met him before, but never in person." She carefully read through the file. "Back when I worked with him, I never would've thought that the ones we captured would end up in such a state." That's right, her betrayal… he wanted to know, but it wasn't the right time to ask.

  "So we face an enemy with the power to control the mind…" Slava whispered, trying to distract himself from his thoughts. "Indeed." Serena turned around, smiling at him. So, an enemy who had power over the mind. Slava looked at her pensively. Even the minds of Awakened weren't exempt. "Are you saying Henosis…" Her smile grew even wider. "Perhaps," she looked up, grabbing her chin. "I did have an anonymous informant on the inside when I left… but I never discovered who he was."

  "Wait… what happened to the others?" Sasha was still staring at the scene before them. Both Serena and Slava turned to face her, their expressions turning serious. They didn't say a word, both of them understood, but… "You said they were part of the infrastructure." Her hands were shaking. "From what we saw on our way here, most of it is offline, so…" She looked at Serena with boiling eyes. "So… where… are… they…" Serena's gaze remained unmoved. She glanced at Sasha's shaking fists before answering. "Terminated." Her voice was cold and lifeless.

  "You bitch!" She screamed, her eyes lighting up. "They were innocent people! How could you?" Seeing her takeout her weapon, Slava's eyes glowed a vivid white. She was still too naive. Moving fast, he reached toward her wrist. Shit! Before he could grasp it, it vanished. He looked up, and he saw Sasha's blade aiming right for Serena's neck, but for some reason, she stopped inches from it, frozen in place.

  "I'm glad to see that one of you has a head on her shoulders." Arissa was holding her back. "Let go!" She whispered through gritted teeth. "Sasha, hold on," he sighed. He still couldn't believe he had to explain this. "Fuck off Slava! Stay out of this!" Her whole body was shaking as Serena calmly said; "it was necessary, most of them would've died eventually. Controlled termination was the best option." If she wanted, Serena could've stopped her blade, but she didn't, "you…" and that in itself showed how much she believed in Sasha. There was no way to know how much control Black Hydra still had over them. "And I know you know this." Her gaze softened, and Sasha's blade slowly vanished.

  "Shit!" She turned around, pacing from side to side, before suddenly stopping. "The mind…" she whispered, a glimmer of hope flashing through her eyes, "you said that Hydra whatever guy has power over minds… does that mean… my uncle…" Slava didn't know what happened between her and her uncle, the last time they saw each other. And that girl, what was her name again? She'd told Sasha something about him before they left. A man who helped build up the AITF, he no doubt had a strong connection to their leader. Whether it was voluntary or not was another matter completely. That girl had definitely told Sasha something that had made her confirm her doubts.

  "It's possible…" Slava didn't agree, he had his suspicions. He never liked that man, he was too… perfect. He had to be over a century old, and yet he looked no older than 30. Even in this day and age, that was exceptional. The way he used his nieces to solidify his political power. He was far too cunning. Arissa's disappearance wasn't a coincidence. Neither was her reappearance through the scythe. There was something more there that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

  As they pondered in silence, a darkened figure materialized in his vision. This… How did he know where to call? "Jack," he mumbled, answering the call.

  "Hey! So I know what you're gonna say," he grunted, beads of sweat running down his forehead. "The key is encrypted, it does not give out your location." He didn't look well. He could see signs of blood on his face, mainly below his nose. "I…" hearing him struggle to speak, Slava interjected. "What's going on?" His expression grew serious. Sasha turned her head to look his way. "Ah," he coughed. "Well, you see, we're in a bit of a pinch." He laughed, frowning. He was clearly fighting on the other end.

  "Henosis is under attack," Slava concluded. "Haha! Sharp as ever," Jack laughed. "Could I…" before he got the chance to finish his words, Slava cut in, "we're on our way." Not giving him the time to retort, he ended the call. Sasha was looking at him wide-eyed.

  "So it finally happened…" Serena sighed. "Without The Prophet…" Sasha continued. If the AITF had spies inside Henosis, then the disappearance of their leader would've been the perfect time to attack. He glanced at Sasha, nodding, before turning his head toward Serena. Meeting his gaze, she smiled.

  "You know I can't come with you." He still wanted to ask. He knew that if she left this whole city would turn to dust, but he thought she might be able to… "I'm already having a hard time keeping this place from crumbling." She waved her hand and the holographic scene in front of them zoomed out showing an immense holographic map of the city, before vanishing. Hearing her words, Slava was about to turn around when…

  "Although," Serena suddenly said. "I can still offer some help." To this, Slava's eyes lit up with intrigue, meeting Serena's that glowed a sinister green. She extended her palm and from her vines, a feather appeared. She looked at Sasha. "Take it. You'll know when and how to use it." Sasha took the feather. It gradually vanished, leaving no trace behind. Seeing this, Sasha closed her palm. "Thank you," she said, looking right into her eyes. They stood there for a second before Serena finally spoke.

  "I need to speak with him alone." They stared again at each other for what seemed like an eternity. "Okay," she glanced at Slava, "I'll be waiting for you downstairs." Seeing her leave, he turned toward Serena. She watched her disappear past a wall of vines.

  "What is it?" He asked seriously. To the gravity hidden in his words, she simply chuckled. "I just want to give you something," she said, extending her palm toward him. "I know what you came here for." His eyes landed on the small seeds in her hand. "She's not really interested in The Prophecy, but I know you are." His eyes widened. He extended his hand. "Whenever you're ready, find a safe and calm place, bite on them and inhale it all." He grabbed the seeds when she abruptly grabbed his hand. "Whatever you see, don't let it go to your head." He quietly nodded, removing his hand from her grasp. What could be so shocking? His suit quickly absorbed the seeds, storing them. "Now I need some rest," she said, signaling him to leave. At the same time, Nick flew through the thick branches blocking the entrance, burning them. Slava was already on his way when Serena called for him one last time.

  "Oh and," he turned to see her crumbling face. "When you find out who took away our happy ending, let me know." The last of her chilling words echoed as the last of her body turned into leaves. His gaze grew cold. He would never forgive the one who did this. The one who took away his friend's happiness, who took away his life. As Slava exited the room, we wondered; how would he react once he discovered the truth.