♊︎ Year 5067, Month 8, Day 13, Time 7:56 pm ♊︎
︎︎︎☯︎︎
Kurenai kicks the back of the chair Isla is tied to which stirs the Meister awake. The older woman groans as she comes to, lifting her head slowly as her eyes adjust to the single bright light hanging from the ceiling. She takes in her new surroundings, looking at the damp walls and smelling the putrid stench of the mold that clings to everything.
"Where the hell did you guys take me?" She questions with a groggy voice. No one answers. "If you think you can bring me here without people getting suspicious you're wrong. One of the other Meisters will find me and bring me back. And when they do, you'll all be--."
"Alive." Kurenai cuts her off from behind which startles the meister. "We'll all be alive because no one will be coming to find you anytime soon. Right now you're boarding a flight out of the country for personal reasons you cannot disclose." Kurenai places a firm hand on the Meisters shoulder and giving it a squeeze that's strong enough to make the older woman squirm under her grip. " We even took extra precautions and got rid of your coat and phone to not get tracked. Besides, this place is made of complete concrete and heavily insulated. No one will find you any time soon no matter what you set off."
"Ooh, I'm terrified." Isla sarcastically responds, trying to get a feel for who else and what's in the room with her.
"It wasn't meant to scare you." Kurenai turns on her heels walking over to a table a few feet away where Isla spots two more human forms that come together as her eyes adjust further to the singular light in the room. "We just wanted to have a chat."
"If you wanted a chat you could have scheduled a meeting with me like a normal person," Isla scoffs at the tattooed woman.
"But we're not very normal, are we?" Another voice enters the conversation, footsteps following before his face comes into the light. Hongjoong stands straight with a cold gaze directed at the woman in the chair. She had never trained him before, only seeing him in action on missions through replays. Now that she sees him in person she understands why Evan trained him.
"No, you're not." She replies, jutting out her chin and studying his lax but confident posture. "Still, that's no way to treat a Meister."
"We needed an even playing field." The second of the two forms she spotted speaks up and she instantly recognizes it, scowling. "This is as even as it gets for us." Wooyoung struts to where his leader stands, resting an arm on his shoulder and using the other to wiggle his fingers at her. "Hi, Auntie. Did you enjoy your lemonade? I added a little extra, you know, to make it exciting."
"You little prick! Of course, you freaking drugged me! When I get my hands on you, you're gonna--!"
"He's gonna nothing because your hands won't be going anywhere near him to harm him." Kurenai cuts her off. "You on the other hand will tell us exactly what we need to know."
"Like what?"
"Like what you were doing with a USB in your jacket's pocket that contains sensitive MALUS information that I can't seem to access and what you were planning to do with it?" Hongjoong demands to know, going back to pick up a tablet from a distance table that had god knows what else on it.
Isla hangs her head and then stretches it slowly to one side then the other then front and so forth until she stops back at her original position. She can feel her adrenaline rush as she speaks again, knowing what it means for her if she does at this.
"Look, it might you surprise you to hear this but I was on my way to strike up a deal with you for information, Hongjoong." This takes both subject and the blacklisted woman by surprise.
"Liar." Kurenai accuses walking up to the Meister and getting in her face. "You would never." Kurenai presses and Isla rolls her eyes, ignoring the tattooed woman with a slight pain in her chest at hearing her call her that. She focuses on Hongjoong.
"I'm not lying. The USB contains information on this project and all other projects your team members have been a part of going back about 5 years along with information on Candy which I was going to hand over to you. If only you hadn't—,"
THWACK!
The sound reverberates across the empty room as soon as Kurenai's hand came into contact with Isla's face. Isla keeps her face turned away feeling a metallic taste settle in her mouth. She spits some blood to get it out.
"Liar!" Kurenai presses, grabbing onto the older woman's sweaty hair to make her look at her. "You're only saying that to get off easy with us. You were about to betray the Meisters but we intercepted it and so you've decided to make it seem like you're helping us. But as soon as we let you go, you'll go running right back to the hand that's fed you all these years and cry about how we extorted you. That's ur plan isn't it? Isn't it?!" The tattooed woman searches for an hint in the older woman's eyes that she right desperately but finds none. She tightens her grip on Isla's hair making her grimace.
"You're wrong, Kurenai. You're thinking too hard into it."
"Oh, don't give me that load of bull. I'm not your student anymore. I don't need lessons."
"Fine, but I'm not lying. And using me as a punching bag won't change that." Isla sharpens her glare. "If you believe me, check for it yourself. The code to the USB is BENITEZ. All caps."
Kurenai nods over at Hongjoong and quickly punches in the code into his tablet, multiple files popping up with each member's name going back up to 5 years.
Isla was telling the truth.
Hongjoong nods right back at Kurenai, letting her know Isla was right. The tattooed woman scoffs, not believing him fully and let's go of Isla to walk right over to him and Wooyoung. She rips the tablet out of his hands to see for herself.
"This doesn't prove anything." Kurenai shoves the tablet back to Hongjoong. "If anything it only proves my theory right. She's wants us lower our guards."
"So what?" Wooyoung speaks, pointing at the tablet. "We have so much information here and even more she's willing to share."
"Information that will come at a price." The tattooed woman speaks through her teeth. "We don't even know why she's 'helping' us?"
"Because I saw what Ursula tried to do your friend." Isla utters to her defense. "She almost killed Candy. If I hadn't stepped in and given Seonghwa a different vial she would be dead and I—," Isla pauses, "I couldn't bear that."
"You have no right to feel sorry." Kurenai stated pointedly with such an icy tone it makes both Wooyoung and Hongjoong shiver. "Especially not if you knew what was going to happen and did nothing to warn any of us. Especially not after I was held and tortured by your fellow partner!" The short-haired woman's voice rises until she's basically screaming like a mad man. Hongjoong is about to set a hand on her shoulder to keep her from losing her cool but she slaps it away, walking off to the table herself.
The men hear her kick it and curse, sharing a knowing glance.
"I'll take the interrogation from here." Hongjoong mutters, scrolling through the iPad. Wooyoung follows suit. "What were the Meisters planning to do with Candy?"
"They were going to kill her. With poison. That same poison used a while back your teams first mission I believe it was." Isla sits in silence as Hongjoong and Wooyoung read through the first missions summary and see the poison she was talking about.
"Arcadia?" Woo young claims.
"Right. It's a synthetic plant created by The Chemist and one of his understudies."
Dr. Amy Greenberg, Kurenai thinks to herself trying to remember what the woman had reveled to her before she died. Now that she looks back on it, she can't believe she had handed the very drug that would be used against her team right into the hands of MALUS. She had been so blind then.
"What exactly is the purpose of the flower? How is it used?" Hongjoong digs in deeper, pulling up the file on it to make sure Isla isn't lying to them.
"The flower has a special property that causes the host ingesting it to enter a catatonic state where the brain is active but the body is not. That coupled with another drug is enough to kill the person but keep their brain fresh enough to study it which is what Ursula needs."
"To do what exactly?" Wooyoung crosses his hands, curling his lip in disgust.
"To mold it to your liking." The words create a thick atmosphere in the room that stops the men from asking further questions. "By severing the connection between the living body and the brain you can edit it as much as you please, snipping away until you have whole chunks of people's lives cut out or erased from them completely. You then return the brain to it's original or a clone of the original's body and restore the connection and 'revive' the person. After all, the brain is what really makes our bodies work."
"How do you know all of this?" Hongjoong questions, continuously scrolling through the files when he comes across a few familiar folders— the ones he decoded for Kurenai a while back.
"I'm Ursula's second in command. I hold all of your profiles and mission stats. I ha— have access to information the other Meisters don't."
"So then you have access to Candy?"
"Yes." The three subjects all look at each other from their different positions in the room. Hongjoong continue to lead the interrogation.
"You said there was information on her in the files stored in the USB but I can't find any. All I can find are video of what was done to her by Seonghwa and other workers." The dark blue haired man states grimly, clenching his jaw as he digs through the horrific images held of not only their dear friends and teammate but of other subjects he's never met. Hongjoong lifts a head to motion to Wooyoung who grins sinisterly causing a shiver to go down Isla's spine.
"W-What are you doing? What's going on? I gave you the information!" Isla begins to panic seeing Wooyoung being out a switch blade from his pocket nearing it to her skin. That unsettling feeling she'd get at the out in her stomach when reviewing torture interrogation tapes conducted by her nephew return ten fold now that's she's at the receiving end of the blade. "Wooyoung, please."
He digs the blade into her cheek. A prick.
"Where is Candy?" Hongjoong closes his device, his attention trained on Isla and Wooyoung. Isla looks back and forth between a sadistic Wooyoung and a vigilant Kurenai that's lurking in the background. When she doesn't answer, Hongjoong signals and the blade goes deeper causing a blood curdling scream to rip through her chest. "Where is she?"
"She's being held! She was taken!"
"Where?" Hongjoong demands.
"I don't know!" Wooyoung being the knife down in her thigh and twists eliciting louder screeches of pain. Kurenai and Hongjoong flinch a little regaining their composure. "I SAID I DONT KNOW! I REALLY DONT KNOW! BUT I KNOW WHERE TO LOOK!" Isla cries out desperately, her tears that have begun to pour down her cheek bones mix in with the blood from the slice on her cheek, stinging from the tears' traces of salt. Hongjoong holds up a hand to stop Wooyoung's next move.
"Where would that be?" Isla has to regain her composure to answer, her throat already aching and her vision blurry.
"There's a place called the grand file room! It's under the MALUS extension in Light District! That's where Ursula keeps all paper files which will include anything on Candy's whereabouts." She almost chokes on her saliva towards the end. Kurenai squints at the woman in the chair speaking up next.
"MALUS extension? That's Ursula's penthouse." The men tilt their heads in confusion. "What's the catch? We'll show up and Ursula will get us all there? Is that the plan?" Isla shakes her head.
"Ursula doesn't keep it heavily guarded with personnel to not attract suspicion but the alarm system is far too sensitive for break ins. You'll need to program a key card which I had included in a file labeled GFR.adg. If you set off any alarms, the files will be destroyed."
"How are they destroyed?"
"No one knows. No one's been there but her. I just know of it because she let it slip in a meeting once and I did the rest of the digging." The woman has begun to pant, her tongue itching for water.
Hongjoong nods over to woo young to joint Kurenai at the table and they all group back up to discuss in hushed voices that Isla can't hear.
"Should we trust her?" Wooyoung whispers first.
"She hasn't lied" Hongjoong reasons, bringing his tablet back up. "Everything she's said is backed up by files here. Including the information not the Grand File Room."
"Are you crazy?!" Kurenai hisses, still refusing to believe the Meister that had been the absolute cruelest to her is now trying to help.
"We have to try something, don't we? We need to get Candy back. For Yeosang." Hongjoong shoots back
"And then what? We fall into a trap and show up, get caught red handed and then murdered by Ursula who could be waiting for us even right now?" The tattooed woman argues. "I can't even believe you're considering this!"
"He's considering it because it the closest we've gotten to the truth, even with your pink-haired, insider-spy buddy." The bleach blonde male retorts deciding to wipe off the blood on his knife on his shirt. "We don't have to act on it right now but if we verify it we can get candy back and who knows what else."
"I can't believe it." Kurenai laughs humorlessly, crossing her arms over her chest and looking back and forth between the tattoo artist and the hacker who seem dead set on following this trail. "You're gonna get us killed."
"Fine," Hongjoong shrugs, having won the argument for now when they all hear the Meister begin humming a tune. It goes unnoticed at first but when they seen Kurenai tense up like a startled cat they begin to worry and fall silent stating at the woman's reaction.
The silence grows thicker with only the sound of her humming reverberation g off the walls in the room. creating an angst in the subjects' bodies that is only cut short when they hear some shuffling coming from Kurenai. Hongjoong and Wooyoung stand idly by as they feel Kurenai storm passed them and kick Isla as hard as she can in one swift motion, causing the older woman to fly back hitting her head on the concrete floor as her chair tips over. Isla gasps for air, in shock at the fact that she just did that.
"Where did you learn that?" Kurenai demands to know through gritted teeth, a seething edge to her voice. She kicks the chair over so that Isla lies on her back, dark spots coming in and out of sight from how hard her head hit the floor. The tattooed woman stands above her, crouching down to grab her collar. "Answer me!"
"You remember," Isla smiles with her bloodied teeth, causing Kurenai to curl her lip in disgust. "It's Ben so long, I thought you'd have forgotten."
"I said where did you learn that lullaby!" Kurenai shakes her Meister's collar harder, growing impatient a furious with every passing second she doesn't get an answer. Tears of frustration form at the corners of the tattooed woman's eyes as she remember the nights she's rock herself to sleep humming the tune never being able to remember where she learned it but always using it as a form of comfort. "Tell me where you learned that tune." Kurenai demands one more time.
"It was from a show." Isla responds in Spanish, catching Kurenai off guard. "You used to love that song. I'd always hear you hum it over the intercom connected to your room back when you were in training. All these years I hadn't heard u mention it."
"Why would you care?" Kurenai answers back in Spanish, feeling a ball tighten up in her stomach as she awaits the answer.
"I used to sing it to you. Way back before you could even start to walk. I'd put you to sleep while I sang it." Kurenai's eyes widen for a moment, her conviction faltering as she feels her stomach tighten further. It only gets worse when Isla sings the lyrics "En mi ventana veo brillar, las estrellas muy cerca de mi. Ciero los ojos, quiero soñar, con un dulce porvenir. Quiero vivir y disfrutar, la alegria de la juventud. Cada noche para mi, mil estrellas que den luz..."
"Shut up!" Kurenai snaps at hearing her sing the lyrics to a T, bringing her hand back to slam her fist into the woman's jaw prompting Wooyoung and Hongjoong into action to stop her but she shakes them of raising Isla up higher by her collar. "Why do you know that song? Who do you think you are to lie to me about singing me lullabies when all you've caused me is pain?"
"Kurenai—."
"No! shut up! Let her answer!" Wooyoung is cut off by the enraged black haired woman. Kurenai stares intensely at Isla who smiles softly, she desperately looks into the woman's dark set eyes for an answer. "Who are you?" She switches back to Spanish.
"Marisol...," Kurenai stiffens at hearing the name she's never heard in decades. "Who else would I be...," Isla drops her voice lower, "... if not ur mother?" Kurenai's stomach drops, letting go of the woman's collar and stepping back in denial to try to distance herself from the Meister. Everyone in the room besides La Femme Rouge is in shock, unable to move.
"No, liar." Kurenai's voice breaks on the last syllable, unwilling to accept the revelation. "There's no way someone as cruel and disgusting as you could be a mother. No! My mother was kind, nurturing, fair! Not a demon that has caused me more pain than anyone else among the Meisters! Not even Ursula!"
"Marisol." Isla sobs, finally unraveling before her daughter. "I never wanted this for you. For us. This life of pain. I just had no choice."
"Lies! There's always a choice!"
"Not for me!" Her mother tries to reason. "I needed a way out of the life I was living with your father and Ismael, my brother and your uncle, introduced me to Ursula who helped me flee. If I had known what she'd make us do, I'd never have joined!" Kurenai looks over at Wooyoung who looks just as startled as she does to hear what Isla is saying, trying to find ways to rationally explain the Meister's words but finding none other than what she's offering. "Marisol, even if you don't forgive me for all the pain I've inflicted on you at least take the information and save yourselves. I'm begging you to listen to me as your mother just this once—."
"As my mother?" Kurenai intercedes, an awful edge to her voice. "What mother, Isla? You aren't a mother! You're a sellout and a piece of shit excuse for a mother. You never cared for me. You never loved me."
"I did."
"You didn't!" The tattooed woman bellows? Her patience having run short. "You beat me! You humiliated me! You watched me die and be treated as a guinea pig! You were supposed to protect me but you didn't! Where were you then, huh?! Where were you when I needed you the most?!" She breaks down into cries and hiccups, unable to bear the emotional toll this has on her. She doesn't get an answer from the Meister so she stomps over to her to demand an answer when she sees the woman writhing where she lays, eyes rolled back and body twitching uncontrollably.
"Hongjoong! Get Kurenai out, she's seizuring!" Wooyoung barks, rushing towards his aunts side in a twisted attempt to help her after torturing her.
"No! Let me stay! She has to answer!" Kurenai struggles once Hongjoong begins to drag her away with much struggle.
"Kurenai, please! Wooyoung has to stabilize her or she'll die!" Hongjoong manages to pull her through the door but she's still kicking and screaming like a child throwing a tantrum. He locks the door shut from the inside leaving Wooyoung cooped up with Isla and an emotional mess of a Kurenai on the other side. "Let him help her first."
"I— I need her to answer!" The black haired woman tries once more but she sounds more defeated than ever as her tears run down her face in heaps and as her heart tears itself apart. All she can do now as Wooyoung works behind those closed doors is collapse into herself and cry. Cry raw and furious tears.
Never in a million years did she ever prepare to meet her mother. And never in a million years did she expect it to be her greatest tormentor.