"I am part of the Apocalypse." Diego said, and for a second my brain was in utter confusion. But then everything seemed to click into place. His appearance at the hotel, his odd behaviour and generally the way that he had been acting lately.
"Hey." I scooted closer to him. Despite what I just head, I didn't feel any different towards Diego than I did before. Sure, there was a weight in my heart from what I just learned, and it was squeezing my heart so tight that I could feel myself shaking. But then I reminded myself that I knew this guy; and he was the kindest person I had ever known and I knew that must be a reason behind what he did.
"You are supposed to scream at me." Diego tried to joke, but I could hear the nerves in his voice and his hand was trembling. He pushed his head further forward and he was now almost doubled over on himself and this sight had sent my heart into an ache. Whatever he had done, he was feeling all the guilt. The pain.
"Diego," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully and staying exactly where I was next to him. "I know who you are, and you wouldn't do it without a reason."
Sighing, Diego buried his face deeper into his hands. "You are not making this any easier." He sighed, running his hands through his hair so much that it was all messed up. "I never meant for anyone to get hurt. I just wanted to make the world better, and I thought I was all these time."
We fell into a silent for a while, both of us deep in thought. I didn't know what to think, or what not to think as I waited for him to tell me his story. So I concentrated on stopping myself from trembling, which was a hard task.
"I, Iago and I discovered our powers when we were five." Diego began, and I immediately notice the five year gap that separated his enrolment to the Academy with the time of his power emergence.
"Our parents, well, they freaked out." He continued, still not looking at me, but instead rubbing his face with his hands. "They couldn't understand what was happening when we began to show our power, and they were afraid of what the hospital and the government would do if they turn us in. So they decided it was the best thing to do was to get rid of us."
My jaw dropped at that point and I couldn't understand what kind of parents would do that to their children. The fear of mutated children was severe, it's true; I remembered how scared I was at the possibility of being discovered. However, getting rid of your kids because you were afraid of how it would affect you? That's insane. I shuddered at the thought of what my parents would have done had I not kept my power to myself, I would like to believe that they would have protected me, but the truth was that I really didn't know.
"I would like to defend them by saying that our Citybase had stricter regulations, but it was heartless of them. We were smuggled to an organisation that wanted to sell us to the black market for human experimentation. We were saved when the Apocalypse stormed their base just outside the Citybase. They saved us from those monsters, and took us back to their headquarters."
My ears perked up at the mention of the Apocalypse's headquarters, which was something that we weren't even sure existed. It was a topic that had occasionally popped up in our conversation, the secret lair of the Apocalypse and where it could possibly be. Unfortunately, Diego carried on with his story without elaborating on the location.
"They treated us like we were family. They cared for us, provided for us, and they told us what would happen to us if we were to fall into the black market. It made us appreciate how lucky we were that they saved us. Sometimes I still wondered what would have happened to us if they didn't come that day. Probably already dead."
I shuddered at the thought of my worst nightmare happening to Diego and Iago. It was something that no one should really be subject to. But we can't help what happened to us, we could only make the best out of it.
"We were raised by the inner circle of the Apocalypse." Diego continued after a while, looking vulnerable as he took a deep breath as if trying to collect the courage to speak. "Alongside were dozens of kids just like us, who were cast out by their parents because they were different. Most of them were orphans, only a handful of us were POE and we were given special lessons. They showed us how bad the world is, how badly it needs to be cleansed and fixed by the will of God, and that we must do it to prevent others who will suffer the way we do."
A shiver ran down by spine at the thought of little children being brainwashed like that. Especially when what they told us were half-truths. The world needs to be changed, yes, but not in the way the Apocalypse intended. My mind briefly wandered to how the SMS team were doing with the reveal of POEs, and I hoped that it was successful because we really didn't need more Iagos and Diegos in this world.
"When we were ten, they told us that they had a special mission for us." Diego's hands were visibly trembling now and he laid them on his legs. "The Commander came to us and asked that we helped him to get to other children who he wanted to protect but couldn't reach. He wanted us to come to the Academy and learn everything about it. And to find if there are other enlightened children that would be happy to join our cause."
I involuntarily flinched when he mentioned a Commander, conjuring up the image of a big, imposing guy putting up a sweet façade to get two little boys to do his bidding. "We were thrilled to be given such an important task." Diego carried on, "They dropped us off at an orphanage in Madrid Citybase and had us discovered through a false roof collapse. Nobody questioned where we came from or whether we were really from there because of our powers and lack of family. We were whisked straight to the Academy."
I frowned; it wasn't like Mr. Andrewson to neglect any details. However, that was eight years ago and it was probably completely different back then. In fact, I didn't think he was the headmaster yet.
"The first year or so, we had been collecting information about everything and everyone in the Academy and sending it back." Diego's voice shook as he revealed what he had done. "And slowly I began to see that things were exactly what the Apocalypse had told us. The people in the Academy genuinely cared about us, and a lot of the students have family who knew of their power and didn't abandon them. There were a few exceptions, of course, like Veronika."
In a sense I was glad to hear that Veronika was in on this too, because Iago and her were inseparable and it would be a shock to hear that he had been hiding so much from her. On the other hand, the news sent a chill down my body – if Veronika was part of this too, then how many more were there?
"Did Megan..."I began to ask, but then trailing off because I knew what the answer was. Diego had never told anyone, that much I was sure.
"No. At first I was keen to recruit some more people, but then I started to realise that everything wasn't what it seemed. The students at the Academy were safe and well cared for, with teachers who were here to help them grow and mature. It began to dawn on me that what happened to us was a rare event, and that the government isn't as bad."
His words brought memories of Akram back. His distrust in the government was what caused the rift between him and the Originals. It was strange to see how history tends to repeat itself, first in him, then now Diego. However, the young man in front of me was taking a different path.
"The longer I stayed here, the more I could see that what we were taught wasn't the right way." He was starting to become louder now, and I could see that getting everything off his chest was helping him. "But I still didn't know what the Apocalypse had for planned, I thought the Commander just had it wrong and I could explain things to him, let him see reason."
"Iago had become the point of contact ever since I had taken a more withdrawn role, and he didn't tell me about what was going to happen at the test until it was too late." Diego sighed. "By the time I realised what happened, it was too late. The only thing I could do was to make sure no one was hurt, but it turns out that I was worrying about the wrong thing..."
My heart sank at his words and a foreboding feeling tugged at the pit of my stomach. "I was brought back along with the others, and no matter how much I asked Iago wouldn't tell me anything about why we were kidnapping our friends against their will, except that it was for their own protection. The truth is I don't think he know what was going to happen to them either."
"What happened to them?" I asked, now sitting at the edge of the table. My hands were gripping the edge so hard that my knuckles were starting to turn white.
"I don't know." Diego sighed again. "They wouldn't let us get close to them at all. That's when I finally realised that something wasn't right, that this so called cause that I had been fighting for wasn't the one that I thought I knew. But Iago... he wouldn't listen to me."
Now I could finally understand why Diego was acting so weird. His world had just turned upside down. The family that he had had for the past thirteen years were lying to him all along.
"I knew that I couldn't just sit there and watch it goes on. So I snuck into the document room one night." He continued, then turning to look at me and gave me a smile. "And I saw reports, reports that I shouldn't be seeing. It talks about mercenaries, secret uprising, wars, and you."
It was like someone had drenched a whole bucket of ice water all over me and I looked at Diego, wide-eyed and wondered if my hearings had gone mad.
"Me?" I stuttered, not sure if I heard it right. But Diego nodded.
"Yes, you." He said, "Only that they didn't know it was you. They had a description of a girl who could do everything you could do, and more. And they found you in the Ganesh family guard only to have you slipped away. There was a grainy shot of you with blonde hair, but I could tell that it was you."
"What, how?" I spluttered, my brain at a complete loss trying to come up with an explanation for this. It made sense that the Apocalypse had co-ordinated an attack, but having a photo and a report of me was something else entirely. In fact, I was starting to get goose bumps at the fact that I was on humanity's worst enemy's radar.
"I wish I know." Diego answered, his face falling slightly and his shoulder dropped. "There is so many things that I haven't got a chance to find out. And even though I now know what they are doing is wrong, they rescued me and take me in when I most needed them. And Iago and Veronika are still with them. I don't know what to do."
Diego looked at me in defeat, having gotten everything off his chest. He was breathing heavily and I felt like I was finally seeing the real Diego in front of me. He might not be the perfect boy that everyone thought he was, but in truth who is perfect really? I knew that some would judge him for what he had done, but none of it was ever his fault. He didn't choose to have powers and have his parents abandoned him, or for the Apocalypse to show up and rescue him. He did what he thought was the right thing which lead him to be right in front of me, trying to do the right thing even though it was tearing him apart.
"I don't hate you." I finally said, lacking other words to describe what I really felt. I knew that if Mr. Andrewson or Akram were here they would have said the same thing. "And I am sorry that I can't make this decision any easier for you."
Diego laughed and then huffed, wiping his face with the back of his sleeves. "No one can." He replied, rubbing his arms absent-mindedly. "But I hoped that you of all people would understand me, and you do."
We shared a smile just as the door was burst back open, and a fully healed Vulture came charging in with Iris hot on his tail. He stopped when he stopped the two of us and began to make a tsk sound.
"I heard your school is about to get razed and here you two are having a little heart to heart. A bit of a waste of time don't you think?" Vulture teased, but I could sense that something was different. He was, somehow, nicer. Then a very grumpy looking Saralisa appeared at the door, her footsteps clicking loudly against the floor.
"Abigail," She ignored Iris and Vulture, the latter waved at her rather brazenly and addressed me, "We need to get to the front gate, now. The fight is about to start."
An un-describable feeling spread through my body when she said the word fight, and I knew that the real deal was about to start. I gave Diego a glance, hoping that he knew I wasn't mad and that we would continue the conversation when the time is right. Giving me a meek smile, he nodded and lifted himself off from the table.
The four of us walk briskly towards the front entrance in silence, with Vulture making a comment here and there about the Academy as we go. I was glad that the rest of my team had the sense to go to where they were needed and I hoped that everything was ready. I didn't know how long Diego and I had been talking for, but it seemed that we had missed a lot of action already.
"How is the second barrier holding up?" I asked as we entered the main foyer, heading towards the front door that was partially closed with a girl standing next to it. As I got closer I realised it was Amery. She was still wearing her safety goggles and had a huge pile of metal parts next to her.
"Hey Gail!" She squeaked, lifting her arm, then putting in back down awkwardly. "Everyone is already outside! They tell me to tell you to go to the second catapult immediately when I see you, so that's now!"
Smiling at her cuteness I thanked her and made my way out of the door. Amery gave us another wave behind shutting it firmly behind her. I could then hear the sound of metallic clinks – she must be sealing the door. We had no way back in now.
Somehow the realisation made me feel more at ease, and I looked up to see that the second barrier had now started to resemble more like a thin film and was constantly folding and drifting around as though being blown by the wind. We were no longer soundproof against the outside world either – the sounds of shouts, screams and attacks could be heard through the rapidly deteriorating barrier. I could sense Diego stiffened next to me and gave him a reassuring smile. He was afraid of seeing Diego in the group outside, but I doubted the Apocalypse would be as bold as that.
"Gail!" A voice shouted and I turned around to see Casey and Viktor gesturing to me frantically. I tried to look around as I jogged towards them to see if I could spot any familiar faces, but there were simply too many things going on.
"The barrier should be collapsing in any moment now." Ivan announced as he juggled the explosive bomb in his hand, making Aulia and Orla winced next to him. "Bradly assigned us to this catapult and told us to maim first, and only to launch into full attack when they try to breach the wall."
I nodded, Bradly was a sensible person and I 100% agreed with his plan. I said hello to the rest of the team and started to climb up the catapult for a good look around, and my breath caught when I saw the masses of people outside.
"I know." Grace whispered next to me, joining me on the high point. "I don't know how we are going to get through this."
I gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. However much the odds seemed to stack against us now, I knew that somehow things wouldn't be as bad as the last few times. Because this time, I was ready. It was finally time that I stop running, and start fighting.
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Hey guys - I am updating this at a Starbucks with my friends talking next to me haha :) hopefully the Wi-Fi won't glitch!
I hope this doesn't count as a cliffy - although I am probably going to end in cliffy a lot in this book - too many plots are coming to the surface and I am beyond excited.
Aren't you glad that Gail is ready to fight now? There are still so much we need to get to - for those of you asking about Tom, he will be back, just you wait!
Anyway - who feels sorry for Diego? He really is a sweet guy and I wish him the best with all my heart, he had a difficult path and it's still going to be pretty bumpy.
On a side note - @scikick is running a competition for giving out a critic when we hit 500 followers - so go there and check us out! I had also done an interview with them recently where you can read about my writing tips etc.
Also, this chapter is dedicated Kriss - thanks for the good chat :)