Master of the Storm

Chapter Twenty Five: Doomed

A/N: don't get attached to any characters, no one is safe. And I mean NO ONE. I will be elaborating 😊

"How do we know she's even telling the truth?" I demanded, as Beatrix paced the kitchen, whispering to herself urgently. "I mean, she seemed kinda evil the last time we saw her. For all we know, she could just be trying to fuck with us, make us scared," I continued.

"Evianna isn't evil," Pluto said. "And she's obviously scared herself."

"The only obvious thing here, is that we're gonna die!" Beatrix said, momentarily stopping in her pacing to glare at us.

"Don't say that!" I said. "We can fight this!"

"The others, maybe," Beatrix said. "But not us. Our powers are too... too much."

I pulled out my phone, fingers brushing over the severely cracked screen, as I opened Valerie's contact, and sent her a quick message, telling her to come back.

"Valerie's coming in a bit," I told them. "Should we call Hayley and Sean and Marcus?"

"Get Marcus over here," Beatrix said. "I need to talk to him."

"You need to talk to Marcus specifically?" I asked. She nodded curtly. Why did she need to talk to him? Did she like him? No, she was a lesbian, that wouldn't work. Did he like her? Was that what they needed to talk about?

I needed to calm down. We weren't even together, not really.

"How do we know what Evianna is saying is true, though?" I asked again. "I mean, why would she betray Thomas? What's in it for her? We have to lay all the options on the table, and one of them is definitely that this is a trap."

"She's not a bad person," Olivia said. "And she obviously feels bad about what she did. I mean, she doesn't want you guys to die, she doesn't hate you or anything. And maybe she's having second thoughts about taking the serum now that she's realized how dangerous it is, especially taking it now. I personally would not take something still in it's experimental stage, and she's smarter than me."

"The genetic enhancement seems more straight forward, but what do we actually know about the serum?" Beatrix asked.

"Approximately nothing," I said. "Everything about it in the journal is either some sciency mumbo jumbo or written in some weird code, or it's just like his diary entries. But from what Evianna said, it sounds like there's some psychedelics and different meds in it."

"You got that as a baby, and you're still alive?" Pluto asked, sounding impressed. "Shit, I took shrooms once and I felt out of it for like, a week."

"I think I'm one of the only ones who got the serum that's still alive," I replied.

"Well, that doesn't help at all," Beatrix said. "How are we supposed to beat something we can't understand?"

"Maybe you don't have to beat it," Pluto said. "Maybe you just need to learn to live with it. It can't be that hard."

"Easier said than done," Beatrix replied, heading for the door. "And you don't get to tell me that's it's easy to have dozens of people's thoughts and emotions in your head every second, when you've never experienced it." She turned on her heel and headed for the door.

"You're leaving?" I asked. "Come on, stay, we can talk-"

"No, I can't talk," she hissed, her voice shaking. "I can't even have an opinion about anything, I don't even know what emotions are mine! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to Marcus, goodbye!"

And she left, slamming the door behind her.

"She's not doing too good," Pluto commented.

I sat back at the table. "I think we need to go back underground," I started. "We need to talk to Evianna, I mean, we need to ask for some kind of proof! For all we know, this is a trap."

"Go... go back?" Olivia whispered.

"It's just an idea," I said quickly. "You don't have to go."

She didn't seem to hear me, and there was a far away look in her eyes. She shook her head desperately. "I can't go back," she said. "Don't make me go back."

"You don't have to," I promised. She shoved her shaking hands in the pockets of the hoodie she had put on. I was pretty sure it was Pluto's.

"I can't do this," she said, standing up. "I'm sorry. But I don't want to be a part of this anymore."

"Liv, come on," Pluto said. "Just-"

She shook her head. "Aren't you listening? I said I can't!"

"Cant or won't?" I asked, which I realized too late wasn't a good thing to say in this situation.

Olivia turned to me, glaring. "I have done everything you've asked, and more. I uprooted my entire life to help you, even though you've barely told me anything about what we're up against. I'm barely passing school because of everything I've been doing for you! I'm hiding out in a hotel while an evil organization is after me because of what I'm doing for you! I was kidnapped, drugged, imprisoned, tortured for what felt like years because they wanted information on you. They told me no one was coming to get me, and eventually I started to believe them, but I still didn't tell them anything. Half the time I was barely conscious, almost dying from starvation, all I knew was pain, I could barely think, and I still didn't tell them anything. And now you want more from me? I've given you everything I have."

At this time we were all in tears, as she stood shivering in the hallway and we watched, not knowing what to do. "I'm so sorry," I said. "I wish you had told them. I would have understood."

"No," she said. "I would never have. I don't blame you, Damira. Or any of you. And I do want them to be taken down. But I'm useless to you."

"You're not useless," I promised.

"I don't believe you," she replied. "And I'm going home. If you guys ever need food or money or supplies you can come to me, but I'm staying there until this all blows over."

She headed for the door, and Pluto hugged her tightly and kissed her head before letting her go. "I love you," they said. "Call me when you get home."

"I will," she said quietly, before leaving the building. I listened to the door close, and her distant footsteps outside. Then, it opened again. For a moment I thought she'd forgotten something, or changed her mind. But it wasn't Olivia coming inside, it was Valerie.

"Why is Olivia leaving?" she asked. "What happened?"

"She's gonna be staying at my place for now," Pluto said. "She needs some time away from all of this."

"Oh," Valerie said. "Well what was urgent?"

"Evianna called Olivia and told her that some of us with powers might die if they're too much for us to take. Then Beatrix left because of something with Marcus. Then I suggested we go back underground to talk to Evianna, and Olivia got upset and left, which I can't blame her for. We also discovered that we know practically nothing about the serum, the next week will be absolute hell for us, and we're all pretty much doomed."

Valerie just blinked for a moment.

"That's not a very positive mindset," Pluto said. I ignored them.

"I don't wanna die," Valerie said in a small voice. "And not... like this."

"What do you mean?" I asked. She pulled her hands out of her pockets, and my heart dropped.