*Trigger Warning: This chapter may contain strong language and scenes that some readers may find either offensive and/or uncomfortable. You have been warned.*
[Eight Days Later]
"Y'know...I'm really going to miss these talks of ours." Hannah said to Cyrus in a disturbingly sweet tone of voice. "You're actually a really good listener."
"Urgh..." The young 'tree magic' user could only grunt as the woman affectionately stroked his head while tracing the scars that now lined his forehead.
"My bad, I forgot that those drugs I put in you should be working right about now. Honestly, you probably can't even understand what I'm saying right now, can you? But hey, at least I finally let you off of that exam table, right?"
True to the 'ice magic' user's words, for the first time in the last few weeks, Cyrus wasn't strapped down to the woman's exam bed. Instead, the young man was currently lying on the cold tile floor. Of course, his wrists and ankles were still held together by mana-suppressing cuffs and shackles, but his head was uncomfortably resting in the woman's lap.
"Don't worry, though." Hannah continued. "I'm sure that we'll have a chance to be together again in the future. After all, you're much too valuable to just leave alone."
In her own sick and twisted way, Hannah was being completely honest here. She did genuinely enjoy the last few weeks she spent tormenting the young man to high hell. Most of her previous toys had been much less resilient when receiving her affection, but Cyrus was different. Not only was he still alive and kicking, but he was also in relatively good shape.
Alas, their quality time was about to come to an end. Hannah had already harvested more than enough of Cyrus's DNA to satisfy the Boss's needs. And she was certain the payday she was going to get from this would leave her bank account looking good for quite a while. However, as they say, all good things must come to an end.
It wasn't all bad, though. Hannah made sure to take plenty of pictures of Cyrus over the last few weeks. Pictures that she was going to use during her personal time whenever she started to feel the itch again.
The woman had never bothered to do such a thing before with any of her previous victims. But Cyrus, however, was special. She couldn't really put it into words, but seeing him like this ignited something in her that she never knew she had.
Yes, Hannah Donovan was more than capable of acknowledging how psychotic and creepy all of this was. But at the end of the day, she didn't care. In all honesty, all she cared about was the next time she would have this freckle-faced boy under her control. And she eagerly awaited the day when her leader told her to snatch him up again. The mere thought of which made her begin to salivate as a faint blush appeared on her face.
Before Hannah could say another word, a forceful knock came from the door of her "playroom". And the woman didn't hesitate to unceremoniously push Cyrus's body off the side before standing up and grabbing the bathrobe that she had hanging on the nearby shelf. However, unbeknownst to Hannah, she was unaware of the critical mistake she had just made.
Despite the drugs that were currently coursing through his veins, Cyrus was still very much conscious. And although the 'tree magic' user was completely unable to manipulate his shivering body in any meaningful way, he still had the wherewithal to look through the subtle opening of his blindfold that came slightly undone after his captor had dropped him on the ground.
'I can see...?' Cyrus briefly thought to himself as his blurry vision began to focus on the single source of light that was in front of him. 'I can actually see....'
The young man took a second to take hold of his surroundings. And his head was perfectly positioned in a way that made him able to see the woman who was now walking toward the doorway. Despite the fact that it was still pretty dark, Cyrus could just barely make out the woman's strawberry-blonde hair that fell evenly behind her head. But more importantly, he had a good view of the man that the woman was talking to.
"How much longer do you need with him?" Aaron said in his usual stoic tone of voice.
'Wait...don't I know him?' Cyrus wondered as his vision began to clear up a bit. 'Wait...yeah...I do..... He's that Aaron guy. The one from the beach. Mikayla's friend. What's he doing here?'
"Just a few more minutes." Hannah replied in a cool tone while tying her hair into a messy ponytail. "I'll have him ready for transport in about half an hour."
"Alright, I'll get the truck ready."
And just like that, Aaron walked away before Hannah quickly shut the door behind her. The 'ice magic' user then turned around and made her way back over to Cyrus. Once the woman was barely a couple of feet away from him, she took one last chance to give the 'tree magic' user a once-over to inspect her work. Luckily for her, she did, otherwise she wouldn't have noticed that his blindfold was starting to come undone.
"Whoops!" The woman said before crouching down and fixing the black cloth back over Cyrus's eyes. "That could've been bad. You almost saw something that you weren't supposed to see, cutie! If that had happened, I would've had to freeze you on the spot."
Cyrus simply did nothing. Then again, it wasn't like he could've done much anyway. His throat was still sore, and his limbs ached to no end. The young man was still unsure whether or not what he saw was even real. With all the drugs and sedatives currently coursing through his veins, it was impossible to determine what was real and what wasn't at the moment. And the fact that he was beginning to fade into unconsciousness certainly didn't help him either.
Suddenly, Hannah then gripped both sides of Cyrus's face with her freezing cold hands before bringing his head up to meet hers. The woman then took a moment to place her lips onto his before shoving her tongue into his mouth and wiggling it around in a way that made it seem like she was trying to reach each and every crevice.
"Until we meet again, cutie." Hannah whispered with a smile on her face. "I'm so looking forward to the next time we get to play together."
That was the last thing Cyrus heard before everything, once again, faded to black.
-(o)-
The next thing that Cyrus registered was the familiar hum of a car engine and the subtle jostling of asphalt beneath the tires.
For the first time in God knows how long, Cyrus actually felt some semblance of warmth around his body. It wasn't exactly hot, but it was nowhere near as cold as it had felt over the last few weeks, either. Even in his delirious state, he could tell that he was no longer trapped inside that hellhole that Frost called her "playroom". But even so, he still had no clue as to where he was now. Or, where he was going.
The last thing that the young man felt before everything once again went dark was a set of hands grabbing him by the shoulders and legs. Followed by the feeling of grass and dirt beneath his face.
"See you around, Tree Boy." The somewhat familiar voice of Aaron said to him in a cold tone as the 'fire magic' user began walking back to his van. "Try not to die until someone finds you."
-(o)-
[Chandler Residence, October 2022]
Valerie McKenna's eyes fluttered open to the warm glow of the morning sunlight spilling in through the crack of her bedroom curtains. Her body, which was still wrapped beneath her soft cotton sheets, felt unusually rested for once. A rare luxury given how the last few weeks of her life had gone.
The tall blonde was happy that she had decided to take a day off from her flying training with Evan yesterday. As it turned out, her body needed the rest more than she had realized. And although she was grateful that the genius 'wind magic' user had donated so much time out of his life to help her devise and train a workaround for her issue, she was even more grateful for the fact that she had gotten a full night's sleep for the first time in nearly a month.
After taking a moment to stretch her limbs out and enjoy this brief moment of comfort, Valerie quickly rolled herself out of bed and began preparing for the day ahead.
The next twenty minutes or so were spent going through the woman's usual morning routine. A routine that included a light bodyweight workout consisting of one hundred pushups, one hundred situps, one hundred squats, and fifty wide-grip pullups to get her blood flowing. After that, the woman brushed her teeth, took a quick shower, and tied her hair into her family's signature ponytail that fell all the way down to the small of her back.
Once Valerie was done, the young woman made her way down to the kitchen. As she walked down the stairs, she took a moment to look over at the large digital clock that hung on the nearby wall.
It was 7:30 a.m., she was actually ahead of schedule for once.
In the dining room, Lionel was halfway through a bowl of cereal, leisurely swinging his feet beneath the table. The boy's jet-black hair was a sleepy mess, and his cartoon-themed t-shirt was already stained with a drop of milk.
"You almost done, champ?" Valerie asked her favorite cousin just before grabbing one of her shaker cups out of the cabinet.
Lionel gave the tall blonde an exaggerated shrug after swallowing his food. "Almost. But the marshmallows keep hiding."
Valerie smiled and ruffled the boy's hair as she passed. "Tell them I said they better stop."
The boy giggled in a way that only a child could make seem adorable.
After she was finished making her morning fruit smoothie, Valerie moved to the living room and sank into the sofa. They still had a bit of time before Lionel needed to be at the bus stop, so the woman decided to turn on the news to see what was going on in the city. Now that Lucas was back in Massachusetts, it was her job to make sure that the boy got to where he needed to be.
When she turned on the TV, Valerie immediately adjusted the volume before focusing on what the news anchor lady was saying. She really wanted to know what traffic was looking like right about now, but the 'fire magic' user just so happened to tune in right when a breaking story hit the station. So, without any other options, Valerie simply leaned back in her seat and listened to what the woman had to say.
-(o)-
"Breaking news this morning out of South Charlotte." The female news anchor said in a professional tone after briefly looking down at her notes. "Early this morning, shortly after six a.m., a group of joggers making their way through Freedom Park discovered the body of a man who was severely injured and wrapped in a thick blanket lying on the ground near the northern entrance of the park. Authorities have confirmed that the man found this morning is eighteen-year-old Cyrus Moore, a junior agent with the Department of Homeland Security who disappeared earlier this month following a deadly incident in the southern part of the city that ended in the deaths of several people."
The male news anchor was the next to speak.
"Details are limited as of right now, but emergency responders did tell us that the young agent was unconscious and in very poor shape at the time of their arrival. They described him as unresponsive, with visible signs of physical trauma all over his body. He was transported to the nearest hospital just before sunrise, but we don't yet have an official update on his medical condition. There has also been no mention as to where he's been or who might've been holding him."
"A representative of the local DHS office was able to give us a statement regarding the situation. She said, quote: 'We are relieved that Agent Moore has been found and is currently receiving the medical attention that he needs. The Department is cooperating fully with local authorities on the matter; however, our office will be taking over the investigation as is within our power as a federal agency. No further comment will be made at this time.'."
"Truly shocking stuff." The male news anchor then said. "We will do our best to deliver any more updates that come from this. Until then, thank you all for watching."
-(o)-
[Boone, North Carolina]
"Well, Boss..." A short, muscular man with fair skin, short red hair, and blue eyes said after looking up from his phone. "As of this morning, Cyrus Moore is officially in the hospital."
"Is that so? Excellent." The Boss said with a slight grin as she looked at herself in the large mirror that was placed near the door of her office. "Thank you for letting me know, Quintin."
"I guess it's time for us to make our move, huh?"
"Yes, Nick, yes it is."
"So, when do you plan on approaching him?" Nicholas Chapman asked the woman from his spot on the sofa. Even though he already knew the answer, he just wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page.
"Immediately." The woman replied while buttoning up her sweater. "Now's our best chance to do it while he's still vulnerable."
"You're taking me and Nick with you, right?" Reyna Chapman, Nicholas's wife, inquired after sitting on top of her husband's lap. The woman was of average height with an athletic physique, sand colored skin, medium-length dark hair that was tied into a messy bun, and dark hazel eyes. The woman appeared to be in her late twenties, and her most striking feature was the abnormally long canine teeth that sat within her mouth. "With both of our powers, we can have him healed up in no time."
"I am."
The now blue-haired Michiko Honda was the next to speak. "Man...it's finally time, huh? Kinda crazy, ain't it?"
Elaine MacNamra paused as she took a moment to observe the thick scar that covered the entire circumference of her neck. Every day for the past nine years, she's had to look at this grotesque imperfection that still remained on her body. And although the 'wind magic' user went to great lengths to cover it up every time she stepped out of the house, the mere sight of it made her want to vomit. However, every time she looked at it, she was reminded of why she had chosen to go down the path that she was on now.
This scar was a reminder that every choice she had made over the past decade were the correct ones. Choices that would soon lead her to achieve her ultimate goal. A goal that would soon be realized once she secured the final two critical pieces of her plan. And as luck would have it, the first of those two critical pieces was finally ready to be snatched up.
After letting out a brief sigh, Elaine turned around to face her friends and fellow Iznana operatives. The woman now had a bright smile on her face, a sign that she was truly satisfied with how things had played out thus far. "Well then, everyone...let's not keep the boy waiting. It's time we go pay our new friend a visit, don't you think?"
[Elaine MacNamara: Eighth Branch Head of Iznana (North America)]