I felt a single jolt in my stomach and my head ached to an extreme. Drops of blood from my temple, dripped down on my shirt. Slowly opening my eyes, the next thing I saw was Tyrell sitting beside me, his hand upon my shoulder. Then everything came back to me-Where I was and how I fell in it.
"Are you okay?" Tyrell asked, fearfully.
I noticed his hair was totally messed up and there were scratches everywhere on his face.
"I am fine," I said wiping the blood out of my sight. "You?"
"Good I guess. Where are we?" he asked looking around.
"In a prison," I said sarcastically sitting beside his knee, "And I won't tell you I told you so."
"I am sorry, okay," he said quickly, "But I don't want the girls get hurt."
"Tyrell, don't you see what is happening? We were deceived. It was an entire plan to trap us here."
"But why? Who was that man we met earlier? First of all how did he know your name?"
"I don't know and here is a news flash for you-I can never know who he was because -We- Are-Stuck- In- A- Prison."
"Alright, I admit I made a terrible mistake. Now will you please stop shouting at me and help us get the hell out of here?"
"Yeah, sure," I said mockingly, "I have visited the place like a thousand times and I know everything about it."
Tyrell went and sat on a bench placed at the corner disappointingly. I tried to stand and noticed the floor. It was damaged as if there was huge rumble from beneath the ground. I looked up from the crack we fell in and to my surprise it was blocked again. It was dark down here and completely closed but that didn't stop the chilly weather that was making my nose red. I moved towards the prison gates and peeped all across it, but there was nothing except darkness.
"Hayden?" Tyrell sat up straight.
"What?"
"We have a problem."
"You just noticed that?"
"Celina and Leena are really not in here!"
I looked at him in disbelief. Is he talking for real?!
"Don't look at me like that!" he shouted.
"Shut up Tyrell!" I said and that was not for what he said. "I think I heard something."
"What?" he said slightly stunned.
I tried to hear it very closely.
Thunk...Thunk...Thunk...
The rhythmic sound of tap of boots caught our attention. Looking at Tyrell's expression I realized he was able to hear them too. We watched outside intently into the dark and suddenly an outline of an old man appeared. As he came closer we couldn't feel happier ever.
"Doctor!" said Tyrell, standing up enthusiastically.
It was Dr. Krishant Veer. He stood outside the cell, his both hands folded backside. He wasn't holding his stick anymore. He was looking at me shrewdly with his watery eyes and I was so relieved to see him.
"Thank god," I said dropping my shoulders, "Doctor, where have you been? You asked me to search for Pruthvi and I think I found him. But before I can tell you anything, can you let us out of here? There is a man, this very big man and he tricked us. We fell in his trap and we landed in this prison. I think it is dangerous out here. So we have to get out of here as soon as possible."
I stopped there but doctor didn't move an inch. He was still staring at me. Tyrell walked and stood beside me nervously.
"Doctor, are you listening?" I asked, "Please let us out of here."
He didn't say anything but only shook his head giving me a slight smile.
"What do you mean?" I asked, my temper rising, "Don't you see we are in prison. Let us out of here."
Doctor, smilingly, walked to the other side. I could hear Tyrell's breathe filled with terror behind my back. There was definitely something wrong with doctor.
"Eight years," muttered the doctor, his tone very greedy, "For eight years I have been waiting for this moment."
"What?" I asked.
"I had been calm, patient and full of not myself just to meet you here Hayden. And I had to go through a lot to bring up these kids and make them capable to find you."
I kept quiet, I just wanted to listen but Tyrell limped forward to face him.
"Doctor," he said, "I don't understand. Why are you..."
"We already had enough time together Tyrell," he said still looking at me, "It's now the time to spend on your new friend."
Tyrell's head moved to and from me to him, frowning, unable to understand the situation and I was doing nothing better than him.
"Hayden Mackay is your name, isn't it?" he said, "or should I say The Fire of Vengeance?"
He burst out laughing. I glowered. I couldn't say anything. I didn't know what he was uttering. I just clinched my fingers and watched him. The fire of vengeance? Is that what he called me? What on earth I could be called something like that!
Doctor was still laughing when Tyrell broke, "Stop it Doctor. I have never seen you like this before."
"Have you been listening to me, Tyrell?" he said, "I told you I was not myself. I had to pretend like someone I despised the most throughout my life. I had been in this body for these many years just to find this boy. And now that he is right in front of me, I cannot resist."
Doctor hissed and before he could speak anything else, there was loud manly but helpless cry in the air.
"Shut up!" Doctor shouted looking other side, "Wait for one more day I will release you from this world."
There was some else in the adjacent cell, someone crying for help. This wasn't the situation I was hoping for. I wanted to use my stone and use my power but I wasn't so sure. Doctor was not behaving like I had heard about him. He was nothing like Tyrell and others told me.
"Where is Pruthvi?" I asked instantaneously, "You kidnapped him, didn't you?"
"That's a funny story," he said, "Still being the not-myself- poster boy, aren't you?. But I don't realize why you didn't ask me the same question when I told you about Pruthvi being kidnapped by the same person who killed you parents, the same person who killed your mother."
Tyrell asked impatiently, "You are an imposter. You cannot be the same humble guy I met ten years ago."
"Of course I am not Krishant Veer," he said finally. Tyrell's mouth fell. "DO you want to see who I am? DO you?"
We watched him when he moved backwards from the cell and said aloud, "PSYCHE SHIFT FORMATION!"
As soon as he said that, the so called doctor's face crooked, his features began to change and his height shortened a few inches. The cry from the other cell erupted again but my eyes were fixed on this changing man that was making me sick to my stomach.
"It feels so good to be back to my original form," he said.
His voice was different; his dark black hair touching his shoulders, his robes turned into black, covering his whole body but I could see only his naked broad arms that was completely unlike Doctor's. His expression was dreadful but his face was one of most handsome face I had ever seen; handsome, yet terrible.
"Psychenokenisis," whispered Tyrell to me, "It's one of the powers that doctor can do. He told me once about it. But I didn't know others can do it too."
"Doctor didn't tell you that, you fool," he said, "I did. Only I can perform this formation. I can change to anyone and anything. This is the real, supreme formation that I can perform."
Then it struck to me. The tiger I had seen in his cabin on my first day was not any kind of hallucination. It was him. He was the tiger.
"Who are you?" Tyrell asked, his voice quivered.
"Shashi Thribhuvan," he said proudly, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"What do you want?"
"His blood!" he said grudgingly pointing at me, "and yours and every Samagraha's blood. I want to be powerful. I want to the king of the kings. I could have sucked yours long back ago Tyrell but I didn't. I couldn't. I wanted a pawn. I wanted a careless person who could bring in every other Samagraha and Hayden to me. But I was determined. I wanted to meet Hayden first before I could get to you. Crush him to the fullest and then enjoy the sweet smell of his blood."
That cry stopped its grievance, a really painful one that I wasn't able to afford anymore. One thing I was sure that this man, who claimed to be Shashi Thribhuvan, wanted us dead. He planned all this. He planned all along to bring us down here.
"That's why you craved for Hayden these many years," said Tyrell, "You never were happy when I brought any Samagraha to the academy but you were otherwise when Hayden arrived."
Tyrell always kept telling me that doctor was not being himself for past few years and now he must have known why.
"Smart theory," he said nodding, "See, I could have done whatever I wanted in the academy. But I wanted to bring you back to where you belong. I wanted to bring you back to Dakshinpur so that everyone can know that you are nothing, but a small pawn before me."
"But why?" Tyrell asked. I strain in voice grew stronger from which I understood he was feeling betrayed. "For whom are you doing this?"
"For my very dear brother," he said, "Harsh Thribhuvan. He challenged me. He cursed me that I cannot be the most powerful till Hayden is breathing."
"But..."
"That's it," he shouted lifting his hand, "Enough talk. I cannot wait anymore. Hayden, get ready to see yourself dead once and for all."
"I don't think so," I said realizing I was calm for so much time. I felt my stone in pocket, clasped my palms, without minding the girl in my mind, I cried, "FLAME EXPLOSIVE FORMATION."
A huge flame burst between the cell and Shashi. He hopped back to escape from the burns. Tyrell pulled his head away from the huge explosion that I created.
"LIGHTNING FORMATION!" Tyrell cried out as soon as he settled in a place. A bolt of lightning hit Shashi and he yelled. I was glad Tyrell was successful in striking him. When the lightning disintegrated he fell on the other side, his head lolled and he stayed calm for a while.
I and Tyrell exchanged looks, making a plan in our minds. Positioning our hands towards the prison bars and we commanded our stones aloud-
"Lava Rage Formation!"
"Cutting Light Formation!"
If this wasn't a serious situation, I could have hit myself for not thinking of this before. A thick reddish fire and a bright white light fell on the prison bars at the same time. I wished Shashi stayed there for few more minutes till we tried to break the bars. The heat I created was too much but I hung on and prayed to not let myself hit by Tyrell's intense lightning. The girl in my mind appeared again trying to tell me something. But I focused hard on the situation. In about a few minutes the bars melted and we successfully created a gigantic hole. We were about to run to other direction when I heard.
"PSYCHE SHIFT FORMATION!"
Shashi stood before he said that. His body was changing again and my mouth dropped to the floor watching him turn. He transformed himself into a giant three headed snake. It was almost ten feet in length and its hood reached double my height. I and Tyrell gasped when a long forked tongue from the hood on the right slithered out towards us.
"MOVE!" shouted Tyrell pushing me to other side, "Don't let anything of it touch you."
Its tongue smashed the ground between us creating a pit. It hissed aloud and I noticed the hood on the left oozing out a navy blue liquid.
"Hayden, its poison," shouted Tyrell, "Be careful when it sprays on you."
How does he even know that! - I thought. But it didn't matter right now. I obeyed him. The snake's tail zoomed at us, trying to hit both at a time. We ducked again, trying to be very careful. I almost panicked when the snake's tail missed Tyrell's chest.
"ELECTRIC CHARGE FORMATION!" shouted Tyrell and the twinkling light erupted out of Tyrell's fingers and swiftly hit its tail. The snaked growled and slithered its tail trying to hit Tyrell. We struggled with it for a while till it distracted me and caught Tyrell, whirling down around his torso from its tail. Tyrell shrieked and my heart hammered. I was scared the poison might hit him but I was keen enough to not let it happen. Suddenly something struck in my mind. It was using both of its left and right hoods but the middle one was calm holding still.
"Tyrell," I shouted at him, "try the same command one more time and this time right on its middle hood."
He was pretty much sure he nodded at me and we commanded our stones.
"ELECTRIC CHARGE FORMATION!"
"FIRE BALL FORMATION!"
Trying hard not to think about the girl anymore, I created the fire ball which amalgamated with Tyrell's electricity and it knocked at the snake middle hood. But we felt like hitting bull's eye when our fire-electric ball worked and the snake withered. It slacked Tyrell slowly and he walked away from it without discontinuing his command. I looked at the snake burning down and turning completely black.
We let go our commands, watching the black snake slid on the ground. For a minute nothing happened, but suddenly the ground shook and the snake hissed as loud as it could.
We cupped our hands onto our ears unable to hear the loud shriek. The snake's three hoods stood again, this time shedding its burnt skin off. The middle hood sparkled with a liquid oozing out which looked completely gross.
"Is it bleeding?" I shouted at Tyrell.
"Blood is better than its poison," he said, his voice still shaky.
The snake's tail charged again. We ducked on it either side but I wasn't successful this time. Its tail reached me and whirled me tight, lifting me up.
"Hayden!" Tyrell shouted in fear.
My bones were crunching and my ribs were squeezing. I wasn't able to take up the pain. I thought I might die this instant. The tail still whirling me tight and I was face to face with the snake's left hood.
"Fire of vengeance!" the snake whispered with cold husky voice, "This is your end."
I slowly opened my faint eyes and looked straight into its. All the pain all the struggle at once drained away when I saw my mother's picture on one of its eyes. The other eye was showing me the Indian king I had seen in the paintings in the training room of the academy. My brain jammed. I couldn't understand what was happening.
"Remember them?" asked the snake. The pictures suddenly shook and its green eye ball came into existence. "Give me your blood, so you live. Or I take it and you die."
Seeing my mother after a long time brought all the memories of her, her touch, her love towards me, the feel of hers. This made all clear that my mother was definitely murdered by none other than this man who turned into the giant snake. My pain came back but I didn't bother. I was angry now, I was filled with retaliation...vengeance.
"Neither!" I said and then said it again this time only louder, "NEITHER!"
Sparks flew out of me. The huge ball of fire surrounded me and it caught the snake's both of its hoods. The girl came into my mind again. I was totally surprised when I heard her this time very clearly, for what she was trying to tell me.
"Save me!" she was saying. "Please! Save me!"
The snake hissed again and shrieked. Its grip loosened and I fell on the ground making my thoughts divert away from the girl. Tyrell came running towards me and pulled me away from the snake. I watched it burning. It was withering with much intensity this time. With a loud thud, it again fell on the ground awakening the pile of dust. We waited for a while for it to move again and when it didn't, we almost decided that it was dead.
"Is it over now?" Tyrell said, his chest rising and falling tremendously.
"It better!" I said furiously.
Tyrell looked at me with concern and I was positive he guessed there was something wrong with my tone.
It was serene now; only thing I could here was Tyrell's hard breathe. Suddenly my stomach started hurting. I chided myself for feeling hungry at this instance.
"You were brilliant out there by the way," he said adjusting his cap.
"Thanks to Celina," I said trying to stand still.
"What happened up there?" he asked, "You looked like someone ate your chilly-dog."
I sighed hearing the same thing Celina always said to me. "I don't want to talk about it right now."
I was glad he respected my decision of not pouring him with the details. There was again a loud cry and this time we longed to see what that was about.
I said, "We should check out what's going on in other cell and get out of here before anything crazier happens."
-x-