For once, I have nothing to open this chapter with lol.
Anyways, this chapter is dedicated to Awoderu for the amazing comments and for encouraging me even at a short time. She's such a friendly person!
~Zana
Chapter Sixteen ~ The Original Plan
"What are you doing in this room with the lights switched off?" Eva asked, confusion mixed with anger in her voice.
"Clearly having so much fun," she replied, rolling her eyes, which was unseen by Eva since her head was still resting on the table.
"Can I have ice cream now?" Max commented in the mist of all the confusion after he had settled down from his cries. Initially, as Eva put him down on the table he stared through his blurry vision from the tears at Pandora, amused by her frustration. He had patted her once as if attempting to console her, remembering what his mother used to do. He would have asked about his mother again but felt it wasn't the right time. He noticed Eva would momentarily frown every time he mentioned her.
"In a minute," Eva answered, waving off his request.
Pandora lifted her head up, knitting her eyes together as she gazed at Eva, careful not to stare into her eyes. She settled on the bridge of her nose.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were heading in another direction."
"Darren brought me here, telling me that Jett was here and so were you. He told me that you found him. Well?"
"Well, one thing is for sure is that you're dumber than I thought you were. Jett might well be here, but I haven't seen him. You just brought a little kid into danger. Well done you!" Pandora mocked, angry at the thought of being imprisoned again, as if seven years wasn't enough.
"Don't get snarky with me or I will use the Crest on you!" Eva threatened, placing her hand in her coat pocket and rummaged for the little silver device.
"I'm not so sure it'll work in here. Why do you think I'm moping around in this room? Do you think I would be in here if my powers work? Every time I tried, I was left feeling all drained and weak, just the way I felt in the ice sector and..." Pandora trailed off, realising this was the first time she was able to mention where she was all this time when Eva thought she abandoned her. There was no screeching call she could hear with the indication that Fox was calling her down to the earth's core in an attempt to prevent her from telling Eva anything about the way of living for her kind.
"Ice sector, what's that?" Max asked. Both Pandora and Eva had forgotten that Max was in the room because he was so silent for a few moments.
"Why can't you use your powers in this room?" Eva attempted to change the subject, however squinted at Pandora while she gritted her teeth to say that the conversation hasn't ended; that they will speak of it later without Max in their presence.
"Some guy I used to know created this so everything is prevented!"
The sound of the door unlocking caught their attention and in walked Jax, his golden hair messier than Pandora perceived it to be earlier. He had two glasses in each hand, one with a red liquid and another clear liquid.
"Some guy you used to know? You were a little friendlier just before," Jax answered with a smirk.
Another guy, neither Eva nor Pandora recognised, walked in with a glass of water in his hand. He was covered all in black apart from his face: black boots, black trouser, black long-sleeved top, black gloves and a black woolly hat. That's not suspicious as all, both Pandora and Eva thought, placing the man outside in public in their heads.
"Yeah, well, you made it clear what you think of me!" Pandora rolled her eyes at him
The man in black approached Max and spoke to him, "here, this is for you. If you come with me, you can have some ice cream." The man had a deep, accented voice. He sounded European.
"You're not taking him anywhere!" Eva jumped to his protection. She pulled out the Crest.
"Now, now Eva, Max will be back. I just thought we could have an adult conversation for a while," Jax commented.
Hesitantly, Eva put the Crest back into her pocket as the man lifted Max up and exited the room. He shut the door behind him. Max did not protest in the slightest, excitement over the thought of ice cream consuming him. Eva took a seat on the chair Max had vacated.
"Now, where were we?" Jax continued. "Oh yes. These are for you."
He placed the glass containing red liquid on the table in front of Pandora and the one containing the clear liquid in front of Eva. Pandora knew hers was blood and gulped it down without a second thought. She sighed as she was filled with comfort and relief. Eva was more cautious but, then, she took a sip of hers and found it to be merely water.
"What do you want, Jax?"
"I'm not here to fight, I'm here to propose something to you," he simply answered, taking a seat opposite the two, on the other side of the table.
"Look, I just want Jett. He is a valuable asset to me. Just tell me whether you have him or not." Eva became impatient. She missed Jett so dearly.
"Yes, we have him and you will see him again but that depends on whether you cooperate or not. You hear me?"
"You were never this cruel before," Pandora commented.
"You gotta do what is necessary to get what you want. I learnt that a long time ago, as I am sure you have too," he replied. "Will you listen to me or do I have to walk out of here and come a few days later? That means no food or drink until then!"
"What's your proposal?" Pandora asked bluntly. She could have easily stared into his eyes and ordered him to do so, but can she do that to someone who was once her dear friend? What's more, will it even work in this cave?
Pandora was always quite special; she was far more powerful than any of her kind. The others with her eye colour could only sense danger, even if it was a long distance away, then attack that being through the sense from that distance and hit the target. However, Pandora can do much more. On top of sensing danger, she can look into their eyes and cause them to instantly fall in love with her, which then can be used to control them. Aside from sensing danger, she could sense other emotions of the person she chooses to feel and she could locate them if she wished to. Every being of her kind could teleport from one area to another. Pandora was easily the most powerful of her kind and, at one point, very respected. Everything changed when she broke the biggest law of their world; handing the Crest over to a mere human being.
"Well..." Pandora's thoughts of her life prior to jail were broken when Jax spoke up. "I want our original plan to go into action. The one before you were taken in and --"
"What is all this stuff about being taken in and ice sector? Why is this the first time I'm hearing this?" Eva interrupted him as she stood up with a stomp. Frustration began to build as it was apparent there were a lot of things they knew that she didn't. Eva needed to know everything. She felt in control when she did. "I need to know it all."
In unison, both Pandora and Jax nodded at each other. They agreed it was probably time to tell her.
"I committed the biggest crime many years ago when I handed you the Crest. It's the most powerful weapon ever created. There is nothing that can kill my kind apart from that and up until recently." This is where Pandora turned to Jax before continuing, "I was unaware we had any weaknesses. Anyways, for handing you the Crest I was sentenced to eight years in prison in the Ice sector. I was supposed to be in a bath full of ice for those eight years straight. Come to think of it, if I used my powers there, I would become weak. So they know we have a weakness."
"But they took her out seven years later due to all the destruction you were causing," Jax continued the story, feeling she went off track, but also to stop the two from thinking about the weaknesses just yet until they agreed to play a part in their plan. "For years they sent our kind after you to retain the Crest but it remained unsuccessful. That's when they took Pandora out of prison and --"
"And they told me to retrieve the Crest within three months or they'll put me into the burning sector next," Pandora butt in, screwing at Jax for taking over her story.
"And do you know why they sent you, Pandora? It's because they don't care about you and want you dead after you complete the task anyway. They plan to kill both of you and restore our place, where our kind were oblivious to the lives on the surface of the earth, when the only ones paying trips to surface are the ones working with authority; back to the time where we only followed without rebelling. We just can't go back to that! I haven't been working on all I have for the past few years for nothing!" Jax slammed his right fist onto the table, anger boiling up inside.
"What?" Pandora was outraged. She knew she couldn't trust Fox, so how had she let herself believe that they would help her; that if she had brought back the Crest, they will respect her and give her more power.
"Why did you give me the Crest?" Eva asked after she was silent for so long. She had been seeking for the answer for several years, yet when the chance came she was filled with anger and bitterness towards Pandora to begin with, that she hadn't asked earlier. Then one thing after another happened and she had forgotten by then.
Pandora took a deep breath in and let out a hiss of a breath out.
"When I became the Keeper of the Crest, I was granted permission to go to the surface of the Earth. Before that, Jax and I would sneak up here. I made several pointless rounds until I came across your screams from a little house in the distance. Everywhere else surrounding you in neighbouring houses were filled with laughter but yours was filled with fear." She paused for a moment and the others just listened intently
She continued, "I watched you days, weeks and months even. And I saw how you became braver and stronger each time your father, you know, did all those things to you. That's when I decided it was time that you were strong enough to handle the Crest; I'd been looking for someone to hand it to for a while. The conditions we lived in below, well not me, but others of my kind became horrible and I needed to do something to catch everyone's attention, to cause them to rebel and become brave enough to attempt to overthrow the new system. I thought you knew what to do, only torture your father not kill anyone. It would show our authority that someone outside of our kind was capable of controlling such as power and cause them to fear a little. I knew they'd take me in but I had faith you would do the right thing but recently I found out my plan went sour. I was hoping that after my eight years of sentence was complete, it would have been easier to overthrow all these people but everything backfired. I was taken out early and when that happens, due to the new system, you're in debt with the authority and I knew I was being constantly watched. I had forgotten my original plan though and only focused on returning the Crest."
She finally let out a breath as she finished.
"What? Why didn't you tell me that back then? If you had, I could have helped to make it happen. I could have guided her! I thought you were just being silly and testing their patience," Jax questioned, incredulously.
"Because if I told you, you'd think it was stupid anyway!" Pandora retorted as if they were young again.
"So what was the original plan?" Eva interrupted the two's squabble.
"We get rid of Fox and all his team. I know a few good ones who can replace them and our kind will live the lives the way it was supposed to be where everyone had a chance," Jax instructed.
"I'm in," Pandora replied immediately.
"What do I get out of it?" Eva shrugged.
"You could live a free life; one where you don't feel trapped." Jax purposefully forgot to add that she had to give up the Crest after all of it was completed.
Hesitantly, Eva replied, "Okay."
A/N ~ Just a heads up, the next chapter will be of Jax's and Pandora's past so I hope that won't confuse you. Thank you all the support and amazing comments :)