LEGACY ─ marvel

XXIII. F.E.P

Chapter Twenty-Three
Soroya

A couple times a day a nurse comes in to check on my leg, which is healing well from the knife wound I got from John. The nurse is very quiet, he doesn't try to make any conversation with me or Alex. I don't know if this is because he's been ordered not to or he's too scared of us to. He always smiles at me when he leaves, that one speck of kindness has become the best part of each day I've been forced to rot in this cell. Criminal, psychopath, monster. All of these are terms that have been spat our way by guards and agents who pass by. As if we aren't already being tortured enough being in here, they have to go out of their way to make things worse.

If there's a silver lining to this, it's that I have Alex here with me. My kids may have the same powers we do, but we're not all the same, as clearly established over the past couple weeks. Alex is the only one who will ever understand how it feels to be trapped inside your own mind, not even Bucky has experienced that. He forgot who he was, his identity was stripped away and a new one created in it's place. I was pulled into the darkest corner of my mind, completely helpless, forced to watch a demon control my body and hurt the people I love. I've spent a majority of my life in prisons, being tortured, but this was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Alex and I have been left speechless, motionless, numb by the experience. We haven't really talked about it, but we don't have to. It's too painful to put into words anyway.

"Do you think they are aware in their minds?" Alex asks softly, his head leaning against the wall, his knees bent against his chest. "T'Challa, Shuri, Khari..."

I shrug. "I don't know. I hope not. When we first shifted we didn't remember anything in our animal form, hopefully they're the same way."

Alex shakes his head, a silent tear streaking down his cheek. "My husband is just sitting in a cell in animal form...he's all alone."

I don't respond, because what is there to say? Having half our family in cages is agonizing, not knowing where they are, what's happening in their minds, what the government is doing to them...

"I miss them." I whisper. All of them. Bucky, Livy, Stevie, Jo, Khari, Zy, John...everyone.

"Me, too." Alex replies.

The sound of the door opening startles us, it's not the time of day that the nurse comes to check on me, this visiter is unexpected. A man middle aged man of Chinese descent, wearing fashionable clothes under a crisp white lab coat strolls in, an eagerness to his expression that puts me on guard. Something about this man looks familiar, though I'm positive I've never met him before.

"Who the hell are you?" Alex asks, sitting himself up on his bed. I do the same, trying not to move my injured leg too much.

"Ah yes, where are my manners? My name is Theodore Fai, I think you know my brother Daniel."

That explains why he looks familiar, now that I know his relation to the Secretary of State, I can see a resemblance between them. Alex lets out a groan, staring up at the ceiling as he mutters: "Great, there's two of them."

"Whatever you're here for just get it over with." I say, bracing myself for what Dr. Fai has in store for us.

"Right to the point, I like it," Dr. Fai says with a grin, snapping his fingers together twice. Less than ten seconds later, heavily armed guards come in with thick metal chains and muzzles, real muzzles, the kind you put on feral dogs. I try to move away from them, but the moment I put pressure on my my bad leg I fall to the ground, allowing the guards to pick me up and chain my hands and feet, beginning to drag me across the floor back towards Dr. Fai. I claw at the ground, digging my nails into the stone floor, trying to use all my strength to get away, to where I don't know, but somewhere, anywhere. It's no use though, I'm too weak, too drained, too exhausted to escape.