Revolution (Book 3 of POE Chronicles)

Chapter 19 Traitor

"I am part of the Apocalypse." Diego said, and for a second my brain was in utter confusion. But then everything seemed to click into place. His appearance at the hotel, his odd behaviour and generally the way that he had been acting lately.

"Hey." I scooted closer to him. Despite what I just head, I didn't feel any different towards Diego than I did before. Sure, there was a weight in my heart from what I just learned, and it was squeezing my heart so tight that I could feel myself shaking. But then I reminded myself that I knew this guy; and he was the kindest person I had ever known and I knew that must be a reason behind what he did.

"You are supposed to scream at me." Diego tried to joke, but I could hear the nerves in his voice and his hand was trembling. He pushed his head further forward and he was now almost doubled over on himself and this sight had sent my heart into an ache. Whatever he had done, he was feeling all the guilt. The pain.

"Diego," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully and staying exactly where I was next to him. "I know who you are, and you wouldn't do it without a reason."

Sighing, Diego buried his face deeper into his hands. "You are not making this any easier." He sighed, running his hands through his hair so much that it was all messed up. "I never meant for anyone to get hurt. I just wanted to make the world better, and I thought I was all these time."

We fell into a silent for a while, both of us deep in thought. I didn't know what to think, or what not to think as I waited for him to tell me his story. So I concentrated on stopping myself from trembling, which was a hard task.

"I, Iago and I discovered our powers when we were five." Diego began, and I immediately notice the five year gap that separated his enrolment to the Academy with the time of his power emergence.

"Our parents, well, they freaked out." He continued, still not looking at me, but instead rubbing his face with his hands. "They couldn't understand what was happening when we began to show our power, and they were afraid of what the hospital and the government would do if they turn us in. So they decided it was the best thing to do was to get rid of us."

My jaw dropped at that point and I couldn't understand what kind of parents would do that to their children. The fear of mutated children was severe, it's true; I remembered how scared I was at the possibility of being discovered. However, getting rid of your kids because you were afraid of how it would affect you? That's insane. I shuddered at the thought of what my parents would have done had I not kept my power to myself, I would like to believe that they would have protected me, but the truth was that I really didn't know.

"I would like to defend them by saying that our Citybase had stricter regulations, but it was heartless of them. We were smuggled to an organisation that wanted to sell us to the black market for human experimentation. We were saved when the Apocalypse stormed their base just outside the Citybase. They saved us from those monsters, and took us back to their headquarters."

My ears perked up at the mention of the Apocalypse's headquarters, which was something that we weren't even sure existed. It was a topic that had occasionally popped up in our conversation, the secret lair of the Apocalypse and where it could possibly be. Unfortunately, Diego carried on with his story without elaborating on the location.