Bad Dreams | Newt x Reader

Chapter 38-Crank Batteries

We tied Marcus over a pit of Cranks. He hung by his ankles and watched as the Cranks below tried to climb over each other to reach him. We had blocked off a large room and trapped several dozen Cranks in it. We looked down from the second floor at the mess of bloody limbs and bodies. It smelt terrible. I tried not to think about how they had once been people. We had tied the boy—who was still unconscious despite the nearly constant screaming of the Cranks—to a pole and left him there while we worked to gather enough Cranks. Several trips later and an hour later and there were at least one hundred Cranks trapped in the room. It was dusk now, we were running out of time.

"Wake him up," I instructed my brother and he placed his hand on the boy's head. We had tied him to a chair with the back facing the Crank pit. The boy jerked awake and looked wildly around the room, his red eyes settled on me.

"Hello, Phoenix," I smirked at her. It was all fake, I had to pretend that I remembered the incident earlier.

"Little sister," the Phoenix replied finally and then her expression hardened. "Where is she?"

"The Snake? I dunno, I held my side of the deal."

"Aren't you worried I'll teleport here? You've given me a wonderful view of the room."

"Actually if the Snake is missing, I reckon you've been teleporting around all day looking for Livia. You're exhausted, you don't have the energy to come here."

"Tell me where she is, or I'll kill your boyfriend right now."

"So Wicked is currently attacking the Right Arm and you have a possessed person there. Perfect," I smirked at her again, staring at her eyes. Coralie had underestimated me again.

"Perfect?" She asked.

"Yep," I replied and slid into the boy's mind. I raised my other hand. White energy streaked from it and wrapped around the Cranks below, an illusion, in reality it was shadows, the Phoenix could not know that I was the Wraith just yet. The shadows cut through the air and started draining the Cranks. Energy poured into me and I slammed into the boy's mental barrier, breaking it. Below me, in my mind's eye, I saw a red spiderweb stretching out. I could feel the Phoenix fighting back but I ignored her. I searched the web until I found several of the possessed Enhanced in one place within a couple hours drive of here. I took a steadying breath and fourth against the Phoenix for control over one of them. Pain flooded through me and I bit back a scream. I could feel Nikolai's hands on my shoulders but I ignored that. I took control over the girl and looked through her eyes. I could see the Right Arm mostly kneeling, Vince had someone in his arms. Thomas was holding something, a bomb. My friends and Newt stood near him. Ava Paige and Janson were talking with him in loud voices. Obviously trying to convince him not to pull the trigger.

"Thomas!" She screamed as he went to pull it. I snapped my fingers and took control of the radio waves. I played the first song that came to mind. A rock song that Vince had loved. The strain settled over me and I collapsed. The energy in me surged and lightning flashed overhead. I half crawled to my knees and threw myself down as shrapnel hurtled through the air.

I looked up and saw a truck had slammed into a helicopter. Chaos erupted and I took the opportunity to scramble to my feet.

"Y/n?" My brother's voice echoed around me.

"Nikolai? Can you hear me?" I said out loud.

"Yeah, is it working? What's going on?"

"Wicked's attacking, I'm gonna try to find Alex and give him the message."

"Okay."

The familiar words of the song washed over the battle. Earlier, Nikolai and I had agreed that we would go to Mexico City, a city that had only fallen to the Flare within the last couple years. I was to find Alex and give him the location we were headed to in our secret language. I darted through the soldiers, trying to get to my friends. Something slammed into me and I went flying, I hit the ground and rolled over. An Enhanced lunged for me, a pang of recognition flooded through me. I knew this girl. Ember. I got to my feet slowly with my hands up.