Chapter Twenty-Three: Simon Says 'Jump'
"Kae," Siem made me feel very small. "I will make things very clear. I will not hesitate to kill you if you do anything that threatens my people. It has taken over a decade for us to build what we have and anything that jeopardises it I will deal with it without any reservations. And I won't lose sleep over it either."
He really makes me feel right at home. "I got it," I mutter. What else could I do?
I see a smirk form on his lips, "On the flip side, I will protect you as best I can. Now," that smirk disappears as his eyes linger on my fingers that I wasn't able to fully hide, "show me." He holds out his hands and I make no move towards him. He must have realised how threatened I felt as the sharpness in his eyes soften. "I promise not to hurt you as long as you cooperate."
I felt like growling, my lip twitches as I hold out my arm.
His hand is rough and big as he takes my hand while the other forces the sleeve up.
I hear Mist's sudden intake of breath and I look away as the onyx-scales are exposed.
"Hanna has explained to me that you said that you did not gain this arm or..." he pulls on my hood to expose my face, "appearance until you made contact with the Queen."
I look back at him in the eye, unable to completely hide the bitterness from my face.
"So you know what they really are," he muses, letting go of my arm.
I take a step back, pulling the sleeve and hood back to hide myself.
"I'll agree to your terms...but you have to follow mine. Are we clear?"
I feel like someone pulled a rug from underneath me. "Huh?"
"You are looking for your siblings and require our assistance. In exchange, you'll give yourself up...to me. Well, to our cause more specifically. It'll be interesting, I have to admit. Especially with your cat-friend. It is rare to find a Miasmic-Beast not trying to maul us to death. For you to have tamed one...perhaps that shows promise that we may yet be forgiven."
"Forgiven?" I frown.
"Yes," and he doesn't bother elaborating. "Now then, Hanna. You said that there was something interesting you wanted me to see."
"Yep. A recording." Hanna grins, going over to his desk and fiddles with something that brings up a weird holographic screen in the centre of the room, making me jump back from the carpet. "It's only about ten seconds long...it's been damaged rather strangely."
As she hits a button, the blue screen becomes a weird colour before it flickers over to what looks like the room they had me cooped up in when they first caught me. ...And there I was on that table thing, laying down like a corpse....is that seriously what I look like? I look like someone decided to drag me through hell -ass first- and my hair was a birds nest. I couldn't stop myself from reaching for my hair...yep still sort of a mess...Did my bones really stick out like that?
Suddenly, the 'me' on the holographic screen had the eyes wide open and sitting bolt up. I notice the markings moved and pulsed along my body like a snake and actually seep into the eye as it blackened and the iris became yellow and snake-like itself. Where that 'me' sat, ice began to crackle along the ground, growing with the groaning snap of deep-water ice. Then that 'me's eyes flick to what I imagine to be the camera as the yellow eye pierces through my bones before the video suddenly stops with a snap.
"The recording ends here and there has been no way to put it back online since. I was barely able to save even this much of the data." Hanna reverses the recording and freezes it on the 'me' that's staring directly at the camera...and it's really spooky.
I look at the three pairs of eyes now staring at me. The silence is killing me.
'Two Dreamers. One scary and harsh but gentle and sad. Me like the waking Dreamer. Not as scary...but still gentle...still sad. Why do two appear?' Lady's question makes me look over at her.
'That was a picture that shows the past...but I do not know this 'other me'.' Lady's inner thoughts were still confused but she accepted my explanation anyway. I guess whatever I try to say, it does sort of transmit my meaning as it is raw thought and emotion.
"Start talking," Siem's voice felt really loud in the still, tense air.
"He has no recollection of this. This was in an unconscious state. His mind felt a threat and responded." Hanna walks over to the hologram.
"What was the threat?" Siem asks.
"...At a best guess, it was a dream."
This just sounds stupid. "I've never been able to do anything like this before."
"That is most likely because your mental state has never been this unstable before." Hanna looks at me keenly. "Whatever interactions you've had in the hours after you had lost your siblings may have triggered all your dormant abilities for survival. Before such a time, there hasn't been a proper opportunity for your abilities to manifest. Triggers are required for the accelerated adaption to occur. Before this, I believe you had your eldest brother and younger siblings manifest their abilities and yours, strangely, remained dormant."
Well ain't that a kick to the gut. Don't even know half of what she's saying. But everyone else here seemed to understand just fine and I felt a bit too hesitant to raise my hand and ask questions in the class.
But I understood this much, "So I can freeze things." I don't particularly like the cold...and now I'm stuck making ice-cubes. Excuse me while I'm not exactly thrilled here. Cody can at least 'hulk-smash' his way through things.
"No. That isn't what you have done."
"Then what's all the ice?"
"You manipulated the state of the elements that make up the atmosphere. You caused them to take solid form."
Isn't that ice? I may not be a chemistry expert but nitrogen and oxygen need extremely low temperatures to be solids.
"Reality manipulation," Siem whispers, I think he was talking to himself. His eyes then fell on me. "You are certainly something." I think I'd rather go back to being the 'Oddball' right now...
"It's not like I can do it right now," I protest back at him. I don't even know what the hell's going on. I apparently wasn't even conscious when it happened.
He lets out an amused breath, "And I'm grateful for that. Though I have to wonder what you can do. You're probably almost as bad as X."
Was that a backhanded compliment or a complete insult?
I must have made a face as he grins at me, "Ah, you're right Hanna, he is a character. Tell me...what was it that calmed that state down?"
"Curiously, X seemed to have been able to drag him out of that state. However, I haven't been able to work out the mechanics of it." Hanna continues.
"Not everything needs to be figured out, Hanna. If X can potentially calm any triggers that may occur within Kae, leave it at that."
"The reverse may also be true," Hanna states quietly.
"...Even more curious..." He then step back up his desk and shuts the hologram off. "Kae. I will help you find your siblings. But you are going to help me."
"And what exactly am I helping with?"
He grins, "World peace."
I just give him a deadpanned look.
A chuckle escapes from him, "Well, sort of. We are a sort of secret police and I'm going to need your help with certain cases. Can I trust you?"
I glance at Mist who was quiet the entire time. "...Do I have a choice?"
"You always have a choice."
"But not if I want to find my brother and sister." And if I wanna come out of this room still breathing.
"...No."
"Alright. Fine. But as long as you help me find them."
"Of course. Now, since we've got that out of the way-"
"Sorry Chief, this is urgent!" Someone in a mask and gloves came racing into the room, making us also stand there in shock. "I heard that Hanna is here- There you are! It's an emergency. The procedure isn't going well-"
Hanna's eyes harden and she nods, "Tell me the details on the way." She immediately rushes for the door, following the medic person.
"Do not think I'm done with you, Hanna." Siem growls. "You're going to explain exactly what you've been up to and why I shouldn't lock you up in your lab for good this time."
"Sorry. I'll come back to hear you whinge, later." With that, she disappears out the door in a rush.
Siem sighs, "She's going to run herself into the ground one of these days."
I look back at him. But whatever he was thinking, it disappeared from his face as something flickered on a smaller hologram that appears on his desk. "And so it continues," he mutters. "It seems duty calls. Mist please show the new addition and his pet around would you?"
Mist slightly bows, "Yes sir."
"Oh and Kae?" The way he calls my name made me pause. "Be careful not to wonder out into the city."
Like I could go anywhere anyway! I follow after Mist and just as Lady's tail makes it out, the metal door slides over and the light on the touchpad changes to a yellow.
"Must be serious," Mike states as I find him sitting on the floor.
I look between him and Mist, "The touchpad turns yellow when it's 'serious'?"
"It's a type of lockdown. Yellow means that he's placed the room on soundproof and disabled sound in the camera recordings. There is also no way for us to get in unless we use the emergency codes," Mist explains quietly.
After some silence, Mike gets to his feet, "You're gonna show it around now?"
"Don't be mean, Mike," Mist's voice is actually a little harsh.
"Yeah-yeah-yeah, whatever." He then points his fingers at me, almost ready to strike my eye, "I'm watching you, Outsider. Any funny business and I'll kill you." With that, he turns his back on us and struts down a corridor. Lady growls after him but he completely ignores her.
Well, isn't he charming?
"I'm sorry...Kae," Mist apologies meekly, she even hesitated to use my name. She is really skittish isn't she? "Please don't take it personally..."
"It's probably the same for us," I put my hands into the front pocket of the hoodie. "The hatred my family has felt towards those who made it inside the Fence's in time."
She looks up rather shocked. "Oh-um...of-of course...sorry."
I couldn't stop my head from tilting slightly, taking in the apology but then let out a breath and smile, "Let's take the tour. There's nothing better to do, right?"