The Elite

Forty-Five

Tass

My mind was wandering, wondering how many people Vili could possess at a single time. He was controlling my entire squad — minus Julian, but plus Aza and Aubrey — and had been for twenty-four hours now. That was impressive.

There wasn't much do to besides think when I was stuck inside my own brain, just waiting, not being able to take my body back from Vili. I knew exactly what was happening, but I had no control, and no way to assert control.

When Vili was actively controlling me, I could feel his thoughts. He seemed unable to stop me from knowing, which I made sure to keep in mind. Right now, though, he was basically as bored as I was, doubting Julian was going to take the bait and come and rescue us.

I, on the other hand, was positive Julian was going to show up in Toronto. He was just the sort of person who would want to come help us no matter the cost to him, especially being friends and all. He was just that stupidly nice. Vili was merely a possessor, not a reader of minds, so he didn't get that, though.

Lost in my thoughts, I nearly missed him, but Vili didn't, turning my head to stare directly at Julian. Despite walking into a trap, he walked way too confidently, like he was in perfect control.

"Target's in Toronto," Vili spoke through my mouth into my comm bracelet. "All members receiving this, mobilize and get to the rendezvous point as soon as possible."

Julian turned his head to give me a smile and a wink. If I had any control of my body, I probably would have laughed, especially when Vili got annoyed that he had been spotted.

Swiftly, Vili had me descend the rope on the side of the building into the small, narrow alley between the squat buildings. It was a cloudy day, so only a faint trickle of light was available, painting the alley gloomy, barely illuminating the grime.

"I'm going to kill your friend," Vili announced suddenly.

There was no one around, so I suspected he was using my voice to talk to me. It seemed like a dumb thing to do, lest he give something away, but Vili wasn't the brighest. To me, it seemed like he relied on the fact that he could possess people way too much. I could feel his confidence and swagger. His thoughts swirled chaotically around me, telling me his fears that Julian was too smart, and therefore he had to kill him. Julian knew just short of too much, and Vili didn't intend to let him — or any of us — live to figure it out.

Obviously, Vili was trying to play mind games with me, trying to make me feel scared for Julian's life. It wasn't working very well. I was too busy wishing Vili would think about exactly what we didn't know. If I was going to die, didn't I deserve to know what I was going to be killed for probably going to figure out?

But if Vili was going to think of it, his mind suddenly changed thoughts as a boy stepped out of the shadows. Upon recognizing him, my thoughts took a hard turn as well.

It was Ciprian.

"Let Tass go," he commanded.

"Young Ciprian. Come to fight us again?" Vili commented.

I knew Ciprian was now an Offender who fought Elite, but I was still stunned to see him here. After so many years of no contact, this was the second time I'd seen him in only a few days. It was enough to shock me.

"I'm not sure," Ciprian replied. "I'm here to help Mimic help Hakim."

"I'm not either of those people," Vili pointed out.

He didn't seem at all curious why Ciprian was doing such a thing, but I was. I'd already noticed that Mimic cared about Julian, but that didn't explain why Ciprian was helping. I supposed they were both Offenders, but Julian wasn't.

"No, you're Vili," Ciprian said. "You took over my friend's body, and I want you to release her."

Ciprian was here for me? I was pretty sure he stopped caring about me. As far as I knew, we weren't friends, and I never thought we'd be again. He left me and joined the Offenders.

"I'm guessing the Yeuven Patriciate didn't approve this side mission," Vili said.

"No. They wouldn't even approve of me and Mimic being here."

I wasn't sure what to focus on — the fact that Ciprian apparently worked for aliens and knew it, or that he was going against their wishes to help me and Julian. Both thoughts were absolutely mind-blowing. To think that my old friend might come back for me after leaving me was something I'd never considered. I thought they were gone forever, but maybe they weren't. Julian had come back after he died, and now Ciprian was back. It was like the world was telling my friends wouldn't leave me forever.

I supposed it didn't really match up to the fact that it seemed Ciprian took orders from the same aliens as Aubrey, but it was still important to me. To have Ciprian come back flipped my view of the world upside-down, saying things weren't really like I thought. I could have friends that would stay.

"You're quite the rebel, aren't you?" Vili said.

"Not really," Ciprian replied. "Mostly I just used to do what I was told, but that changed when I saw Tass again. She reminded me of the worthiness of friendship, and I knew I had to help her."

That was super touching. Gooey feelings weren't really my thing, but it gave me a wonderful feeling to have someone say they cared about me. Alone most of my life, having too many friends leave me, it was nice to have someone.

It took me far too long to realize that it wasn't really Ciprian I was thinking about. He was being nice and all, but I was thinking about Julian, who'd always been there for me. He was the different one, very much deserving of my friendship. He had come back for me, even after me being an absolute bitch, and even after dying. He would be there for me. Always.

"It's about time you told them your secret, Vili," Ciprian said. "They're so close to figuring it out already. Black Queen and Nefarious were right. It's time for this all to change, and Mimic and I know it's time to bridge some gaps. We want to help Lagos-16 change the world."

I wondered how close a person could get to giving away a giant secret without actually giving it away. Ciprian must have been close, for he was saying a lot of stuff, but he was talking around the big issue. It was driving me insane. Usually it was more Julian's thing to care, but whatever all this was about was swirling so thickly in the air I couldn't not take notice of it.

"We're not seeking peace," Vili snarled. "You'll still be our enemies no matter what."

"That's the issue, isn't it?" Ciprian asked. "No one wants peace. No one wants to reconcile. Everybody just wants to keep fighting until they win, but no one is ever going to win. We'll just fight until we destroy everything."

"That's your fault, isn't it? Your people are the slaves that rose against their masters and sowed discord among us! You created this ongoing conflict!"

"Mimic and I want to fix that!" Ciprian argued. "We want to stop the conflict between Elite and Offender — between yoleur and revae."

Wait... the Offenders weren't yeuven? I thought that had been pretty straightforward, but now Ciprian was speaking like the yeuven were some third party that created this conflict.

I wanted to say it made no sense, but it actually did. Why else were people like Julian's parents so insistent that they weren't Offenders? In fact the only issue was that we were told the Offenders were led by aliens — the yeuven.

Then, all of a sudden, it suddenly made sense, just in time to let out a shocked "oh" as Ciprian activated a power restrictor and Vili fled from my head.