A/N: a lot of stuff is gonna happen in this chapter. Think of the Beatrix reveal in the first book. This is like the same kind of chapter
"What's going on?" Valerie asked.
"What isn't going on, at this point?" she responded. "These are busy times."
"Cut the bullshit," I replied angrily. "Tell us the truth. Why did the guards let Hayley go when she said she was you? What are you hiding from us?"
"When you say us, do you mean the three of you?" Evianna asked. "Or the whole group? 'Cause if you wanna understand anything, you're gonna need the whole story."
"Then tell us the whole story," Valerie said. "Tell us everything."
"Well, I guess the gist is up. I was hoping my secrets wouldn't come out today, but I guess I should have expected it," she said. "Alright, let's start at the beginning. That's how all good stories start. And we have a lot of time. Shall we sit down?" Valerie looked over at me. I looked back at her. Beatrix was busy filing her nails with the nail file she'd found in the drawer. No one said anything. "Fine, you guys stand, then. But I'd rather get comfortable. Mind if I borrow this?" She grabbed a folded up chair from the wall, and sat down on it. "Hmm, where to start," she murmured. "I was born. Everything went to shit after that."
"Meaning?" I asked.
"You know my parents are addicts. But you don't know the whole story. Pluto and Olivia think they do. But I didn't tell them everything. My parents have been slowly killing themselves for as long as I can remember. I grew up having to take care of them, when it should have been the other way around. When I wasn't hiding from them. I had an older brother, probably the only reason I'm still here, but that piece of shit abandoned me when he was old enough to leave."
"That doesn't explain anything," I snapped.
"Patience," Evianna sighed. "I'll get there. When I was ten, my dad overdosed. He survived, more or less, but it brought attention to the fact that my parents weren't the best caretakers for me. So they made some weird deal with child services, I only got to see my parents on weekends if they promised to go to rehab, and on weekdays, I lived with my dad's brother, who lived in the city too, but in a different district. Rehab didn't work and when my mom died of an overdose, I started going to a different school. I met Olivia, and then Pluto."
"What happened then?" Valerie asked in a hushed voice. She was getting invested in the story.
"This is the part Olivia and Pluto don't know. My uncle was a worse caretaker then my parents. He was an addict too, I guess it runs in the family. He tried to force me to take drugs too. Not just any drug, but this shit he was hooked on, some new experimental drug that you couldn't get just anywhere. Some mix of psychedelics and medicines I can't pronounce, no it really fucked him up. It turned him into a monster. My escape was Olivia's house. It fell apart. Our escape became Pluto's."
"I'm really sorry you went through all of that," Valerie said softly.
"But it doesn't explain what happened today," I said.
She rolled her eyes, any trace of emotion gone. "I'm getting there. Jesus, you people are impatient. One night, I was sleeping at my uncle's house. I was eleven, I think. I heard voices, and I was curious. I snuck downstairs, and listened to my uncle talk to a man in the kitchen. Any guesses to who that man was?"
There was a short pause. "Thomas?" I guessed. It was the only possible answer.
"Got it in one," she replied with a grin. Valerie pulled her phone out of my pocket, scrolling through it with trembling fingers. "I'm gonna call the others, and you're gonna tell them what you just told us."
I looked over her shoulder, and watched her open a video call with Pluto, who picked up. "Val? Did you find her?" they asked. I could see Olivia and Hayley in the background.
"More like she found us," Beatrix replied, leaning so far back in her chair that I was afraid it would topple over.
"Hey!" I heard Sean say as he entered the frame. "We're parked behind some trees-"
"Tell us later," I said. "There's something you need to hear."
They grew silent, and Valerie pointed the screen towards Evianna so they could see her. "Tell them," she said firmly.
Evianna rolled her eyes. "Relax, blondie. You think I won't call the guards on you if I have to?"
"You think I won't kill them?" I demanded. Beatrix grinned.
She raised her eyebrows, looking at me with an expression that was almost impressed. "Fine." She turned back towards the camera, and started talking. "Okay, so you know how I told you guys that my parents suck and I'm supposed to be living with my uncle?" She waited for them to nod, then continued. "Well what I didn't tell you, is that he sucked too. Also, he's friends with Thomas."
"Sounds more like Thomas is his plug," I commented. "I guess he was playing the long game in killing your uncle."
Evianna glared at me, face flushing with rage. "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. He didn't know it was going to mess up my uncle so much."
This all caused an uproar through the phone. "You know Thomas?" Olivia said, sounding horrified.
"And you didn't say anything?" Sean said in disbelief.
"He's kind of a family friend, as it turns out," Evianna continued, ignoring them. "Thomas loves his test subjects."
"That's so fucked up," Valerie said in disbelief. "You're helping him after what he did to your family?"
Evianna shrugged. "It is what it is, I guess. If anything, Thomas is my only family. He was bringing me food and stuff like that, before I started living with Pluto and Olivia," she continued. "Sometimes he would drink with my uncle. And when he got drunk, he talked."
"Did he tell you about the powers?" I asked.
"He told me all the bad things he did, the good intentions he'd originally had before power and money took over. And he told me how he was gonna save the country by turning a bunch of children into government weapons. And his plans to sell some of you to other counties," she said.
"That's so fucked up," Valerie repeated.
"So what, are you a spy, or something?" I demanded.
"I met him years before any of us met you, how could I be a spy?" she asked, which was fair enough. "He was thrilled when we befriended you, though. It was so convenient for him."
"You know he's manipulating you, right?" Beatrix said. "He doesn't care about you, he's just using you."
"Oh shut up Beatrix!" Evianna spat. "Who the hell are you to talk about manipulation? Like you haven't been feeding your own agenda this entire time! You're a double agent!"
"You're a dumb cunt!" Beatrix shot back, since she wasn't really able to argue against that.
Evianna turned back to us, and started talking again in a calmer tone, even as rage still simmered in her eyes. "I went back to my uncle's house a few weeks ago," she said. "I had stuff there I wanted to pick up. There's an old well behind the house. I suspect you'll find a body in it, if you were to search it." We all went into a shocked silence. She laughed at the looks on our faces. "I didn't murder him. He attacked me, I just fought back. It was him or me."
"I'm so sorry," Olivia said. "That all of that happened to you. I wish you would have told us."
"I'm not," she replied. "It made me who I am."
"And who are you?" Beatrix asked.
Evianna looked past the screen, and over again us. She was positioned on the flimsy chair like it was a throne, and she was looking at us like we were peasants. She tilted her head to the side, watching us through her eyelashes. "I'm the person who's gonna end up more powerful than all of you, and I don't just mean metaphorically," she said with a small smile.
"This isn't a fucking game!" I said angrily. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"
"You were all given an advantage," she said. "And maybe... maybe if I'd had that, I could have stopped some of the shitty stuff that happened to me. But it's not too late for that."
"You know, I hesitate to call a woman crazy, but you need to be medicated because Jesus-fucking-Christ, do you even hear yourself?" Beatrix asked.
"That's what he's promised you?" I asked. "Powers like ours? Evianna you can't take that serum, you would die, just like Cashlin."
She glared at me. "Is that really what you think? You think I can't take it? I'm not weak, like your little friend."
I don't really know what happened next. All I know is that I actually saw red, and the next moment I was throwing myself at Evianna. Valerie grabbed my arm, pulling me back. "Don't!" she cried. "She'll call the guards!"
Beatrix didn't move as she watched the scene unfold, she just held Valerie's phone and set her feet up on the desk. "I think you're gonna need to plan another rescue mission," she said.
"We'll get you out," Pluto promised, sounding scared but determined.
"I can't believe this," Olivia said in a trembling voice. "This is Evianna, we know her! She's our friend!"
She started to say something else, but the call suddenly ended. "Your phone died," Beatrix told Valerie. "This might make our escape a bit hard."
"You won't be escaping," Evianna said cooly. "I've already called the guards."
I stepped back from her. "Don't do this," I said.
"It's already done," she replied. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? Just cooperate with them, and they won't hurt you."
"Please, just think about this," Valerie said. "You're making a huge mistake!"
"She's already thought about it," Beatrix said. "She's been thinking about this for a long time."
"Are you guessing, or do you know?" I asked.
"Both," she replied. "She was always a little bit too nice, a little bit too helpful, asking a little too many questions."
"You would do this too, if you could," Evianna told her.
"Not like this," she replied. "Not to aid him."
Before I could respond, the door burst open, and four guards appeared, heavily armed. The grabbed Valerie's arm, practically pulling her through the door, before grabbing me as well, marching us through it.
One reached to grab Beatrix and she put her hands up. "Relax," she said. "I'm not gonna try and run, I'm not stupid."
"Those two have working phones," Evianna said, pointing to Beatrix and I.
"Snitch," I said, as the guards took them from us.
We left her in the room, and they walked us through the hallway, and they took us down the stairs. No one spoke. I glanced over at Valerie. She looked like she was suppressing a panic attack. Then I glanced at Beatrix. She looked calm and collected, which was unbelievable.
They walked us down a flight of stairs, into what looked like a technological dungeon. I guessed this was where Olivia had been kept. There were see through glass cells along the walls, all beside each other, with a little number board on the front.
The guard behind me went in front, and pulled his keycard from his belt, and used it to open three cell doors. "Go in there," he instructed. We walked inside the cells, each going into a different one. I was in the middle one, with Valerie on my left and Beatrix on my right.
"So what, you're just gonna leave us here?" I demanded. None of the guards answered, they just walked away.
"What are we gonna do?" Valerie asked, tears running down her face, mixing with the dried blood. "Evianna betrayed us, we're all alone down here, we have no means of communication with the others, and we can't get out of these cells without a code!"
"Don't worry," Beatrix said, laughing. "You guys would honestly be lost without me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"It means that I have a plan."