Black Equation - The Forgotten Ones

Black Equation - Chapter 21*

“Hudson? You mean Jared?” she asked in disbelief. He wasn’t making any sense, for crying out loud!

He drawled, “It was Steve Hudson who paid me.”

Atty. Steve Hudson? As in Jared’s father? He hired Falcon? “I don’t understand.”

Falcon watched her with a cruel grin. “He hired me with his filthy money, because you called him one night telling him you are friends with his son, and that was impossible. That squirt got himself in a traffic incident four years ago. Jared Hudson’s long dead –”  he smirked “– and the one you know is a fake.”

What… did he say?

The ground trembled, shook like an earthquake, and she clutched on the stone bench for support. She wasn’t managing it. Blood was pounding on her ears; the whole world became suddenly quiet, except for the crashing and the broken sobs that seemed so distant. Her eyes were looking at everything that didn’t have Falcon on it. He was still standing in the same place, an amused expression on his face.

The quake and those sounds… it was just her. All her.

At that moment, the sounds of hurried footsteps were carried towards them by the breeze.

“Falcon! Let her go! She has no part in this,” his familiar husky voice shouted in anger. Faye looked up to him, and saw a different man, though he didn’t change at all. The same man she loved, and still loves, but somehow, right now, she didn’t know what she exactly feels. Which was more dominant, love or pain? Anger? Hate?

He had lied to her. She trusted him and yet he lied to her. Everything about him was a lie. Was his identity the only lie he had told her, or was there more?

“Mr. Look-alike finally arrives.” Falcon was suddenly between the two guys and Faye. “I thought you ran away. Took you that long to find our tracks?”

The blonde guy in dirty torn shirt stared past him. “Are you okay, baby? Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be all right.”

He was waiting for a response from her, but she simply stared back at him, sitting motionlessly, as pale as sheet against the black night.

Nothing’s going to be all right… 01.

*****

 “Mikhaela?”

This wasn’t just an illusion, was it? He hoped not, because he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. After all those years of searching… Finally, he had found her. His throat suddenly went dry. It was her. Certainly her. Standing in front of her was Mikhaela, his long lost twin sister.

“Why did you leave me alone, brother?” she spoke in clear Russian, her voice gentle and sad. Her eyes were glass orbs, reflecting his image, yet not seeing him. He knew why. It was because she was not seeing the present. They both recalled a painful memory they both stashed away in the back of their minds. The haunting memory that brought them to where they are now.

He remembered that fateful night a decade ago. Back in the mansion, where they resided, where everything was normal. It was snowing, and as everyone knew, winter up North was terrible, deadly even.

Duke Ivan and Duchess Mikhaela Ilyinsky.

They were royalties; their great-great grandfather was a Czar. They were spoiled, pampered and loved. Everything was perfect until that night.

Men in white uniform suddenly appeared out of nowhere and took her. Their parents and servants didn’t even fight back. The men dragged her, away from home, away from her family, away from him. But he wouldn’t let her go. She was his beloved twin, a part of him, always together since birth.

For reasons their young minds couldn’t comprehend back then, the adults refused to let them be together.

We only need the girl. Only she is special. We don’t have a place for you, kid, one of the men said.

They left with her, gone to somewhere faraway, where they said they would never meet again. No one interjected. Only he fought, but he was just a child then. Weak and powerless. No one listened to him.

The people around him acted like nothing happened, like his sister didn’t even exist at all.

After half a year, she abruptly returned in the dead of the night. He barely recognized her. She was all bones and skin. Bruises and wounds enveloped her young body. Her beautiful white blonde hair was cropped short, like a boy’s.

Ivan! Ivan, I missed you. Let’s escape from here. I don’t want to go back there. They also didn’t want me back here. Ivan, please come with me. Brother, don’t leave me alone.

He agreed, he did, and he told her to wait on one of the ancient trees in the backyard while he prepared some money and food for them. She waited patiently, but he didn’t come for her. They did, and captured her. He came to their rendezvous too late, and witnessed all as they took her again.

She never came back after that.

“Mikhaela,” he whispered, flames of agony and heavy regret burning his chest, “I came that night, but I was too late.”

“You left me alone, brother.” Her soft voice was cold, emotionless, devoid of life. It was as if she wasn’t there. A bland shadow of someone who used to live, who used to exist.

He swore. It was all because of their stupid power. It was because those men – who were actually soldiers from the Russian secret militia – discovered that Mikhaela has a Gift that this thing happened. They wanted to use her as a weapon in war. Those filthy sons of a bitch. They did this to her!

He slowly approached her. “I searched for you. You’re the reason why I joined Creed. I wanted to find you. I used their intelligence and the license to go anywhere to locate you.” He wanted to touch her. “I missed you so much.”

When he became an Equation, he discovered that she escaped again, and her whereabouts became unknown. The next thing he knew, she was reported as one of the assassins working under Falcon.

“I was alone…”

“I am here for you,” he half-cried, “your older brother is here for you. You will never be alone. Even if the world has forgotten us, we still have each other.”

“Really?”

“Of course, sister.” He tenderly stroked her face. “We are going to wipe the slate clean. We are going to start anew. We’re going to live a life and have fun, the way we should be. It's never too late for us.”

“Yes, brother,” she smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’ll start over again. I’ll erase everything from the past. Including you.”

He was thrown off, no, repelled from Mikhaela as she switched her Gift on. She sent him flying a few meters away from her. She prepared to launch an attack, tossed her rifle aside and pulled a golden handgun from her waist. She accurately targeted his two guns on the floor so that they became chunks of twisted metal. She then fired towards him with the precision of a cold-hearted assassin.

He quickly defended himself with his power, and sent the bullets away from him.

“Mikhaela! What’s wrong with you?”

She was furious. “Why only me?! Why was I the only one who suffered? We both have Gifts! So why only me?!”

She negated his powers, sending him the exact opposite of his pole so that his power was rendered useless. He dodged each and every bullet with only an inch to spare.

“Why are you just defending yourself? Fight me, brother. Fight me! Didn’t you want me to start over? Why won’t you let me? You just need to die. Just die, Ivan, and I’ll be able to start my life anew.”

Something in her had died. She was no longer the Mikhaela he knew. He was aware he couldn’t keep on running forever. He needed to fight her.

But could he?