^^^JOHN DELUCA, AKA KARR...❤️😍
For the LAST time, I DON'T KNOW WHEN ELEMENT WILL BE UP, LET ALONE TYPED! Leave me alone!!!
***
"Are you sure this entire place has been debugged?" my fiancée questioned the Cypher team on site.
I dragged her away from them. "Blossom, they've already checked the whole house four times under my request. It's clean."
"I'm just so angry! We don't even know who that woman was and who she works for. For all we know, she could be working for Black, which means that monster has been watching my dad the whole time," she said angrily.
"I can guarantee you that we're going to figure everything out. Right now your father is down at FBI HQ to try and see how much has been compromised. Franco has confirmed that what we saw when your dad first told us about Margaux was in fact a video and not a live feed," I informed.
"I don't understand. How come he saw the real Margaux then, and didn't recognize her this time round?" she questioned.
"He doesn't remember us coming to talk to him. He remembers that you'd been kidnapped, but that part of his memories has been tampered with," I explained.
"Just like with me," she said in realization.
I nodded. "There are definitely some things coming together, which I think we should see as a win for now, but there's obviously still a lot that we need to figure out, but I promise you that we will figure everything out," I said strongly.
"I believe you. What happens now?" she asked.
"Now we're heading to HQ. Your stepmom is luckily out of town, so we don't even need to lie to her about Nick. Your dad thinks Nick is in St Barts with everyone else, so it will stay that way. They'll be moved to a new safe house, so we don't need to be around for that. Would you like to see him before we leave?" I asked her.
"No! Let's just go. The quicker we figure things out, the better," she replied.
I was in agreement with that alright.
We left the Cypher team there and headed back to the airport after we'd gone past my house for some stuff. Karr and Mordecai had been on their devices since we'd found out about Margaux's imposter, so I was keen to find out what they had put together.
"What are we looking at here?" I asked once we were in the air again.
Jetlag is going to be our new best friend.
"We need to get Ayah to crack. We all know that she's under her own special oath to Margaux, but we need her to break that oath and tell us the real truth about where Margaux has been," Karr said as he clicked away on his laptop. With his glasses on, I knew this was a truly serious matter.
"That's if she even knows anything. For all we know, she's protecting something that she too knows nothing about," Zuri pointed out.
"I'm with Zuri on this. From what I've gathered from you guys, Margaux isn't even supposed to be off the grid to begin with. What if Ayah doesn't even know where she is?" blossom asked.
It's definitely a strong possibility.
"Ok, I think we need to back track for a moment here. When was the last time any of us saw Margaux in person?" Mordecai asked.
"Xander, Nigel and I last saw her when Xander went to confront her about Elle's kidnapping," Aziel replied.
"Alac and I had seen her way before that, and Karr hasn't seen her in over a year, which means that was the last time probably any of us saw her. What we can try and get out of Ayah is when Margaux was actually last present at HQ," Mordecai responded.
"That sounds like an idea. The last time I spoke to Ayah about Margaux, she told me that Margaux had been panicked about blossom's kidnapping. She put on a show for Aziel, Nigel and I, but as soon as we left, she made finding blossom her priority. I don't know if that's anything worth looking into," I informed them.
"At this point in time, everything is worth looking into. However, the two of you aren't going to be of any use to us if you don't rest. You haven't slept in almost three days. Get some rest and we'll fill you in when you wake up," Zuri told blossom and I.
My fiancée turned to me. "I hate it, but she's right."
"Alright! Wake us up at least an hour before we land," I told them.
"We promise," they concurrently responded.
Blossom and I headed to one of the rooms on the jet and changed into comfortable clothes before getting into the bed. We didn't sleep immediately as I pulled her into my side. She laid her head on my chest and we lay in silence.
"I love you times infinity Xander. Never forget that," she said lowly.
"I love you times infinity Noelle. Never forget that," I replied just as lowly. Soon her light snoring filled the room and I followed suit.
***
"Xander, you can't sit here and tell us that this doesn't look the least bit suspicious to you," Mordecai told me.
"I'm pretty sure I know my own girlfriend, and I highly doubt she would shoot herself just to prove a point, or whatever the fuck you think she did it for," I replied.
"This memory thing she has going on doesn't sit well with me. It's shady if we're being honest," Nadia commented.
"You're just mad that Xander isn't interested in you anymore," Aziel told her. I inwardly laughed at the look on her face.
"Ok, so maybe we need to look at this from a non biased view. She showed up shot, she can't remember anything, and her recent activities are questionable. That doesn't necessarily mean that she's guilty of all these crimes," Nigel pointed out.
"I've met the girl. Hell, I spent a whole day with her, and even I agree that what she's being accused of is a bit out of her reach," Malachi defended.
"Are we all forgetting the glorified fact that Xander taught her how to fight, and it only took her a day to learn everything? The girl is dangerous and you're all being blind!" Nadia said in frustration.
I shrugged. "She's a fast learner. I don't get what you're so worked up about."
"What is it about this girl that makes everyone doubt that she could possibly be a murderer?" she asked.
"Have you even met her? Because you seriously sound bitter more than anything," Malachi told her.
"I don't need to meet her. I know enough," she snapped.
I got off of the table I was leaning on. "Look Nadia, you're honestly picking at straws, and it's clear that you don't like Noelle much, but I would highly suggest you stop accusing her of all this shit because she's innocent and you're starting to piss me off."
"She's guilty and I'll prove it!" she said determinedly.
I was about to say something when the door to the operations room flung open, revealing Margaux. "Alright, listen up! You have a new mission."
"Finally! What is it?" Aziel asked.
She smirked slowly. "It's simple really. Forget everything you thought you knew about Noelle Solano."
Fuck my life!
***
"XANDER!"
I shot up, drenched in sweat, with my heart threatening to jump out of my throat. "What?"
"You were having a nightmare. You kept saying 'she didn't do it'. What were you dreaming about?"
I looked at her and all I could see was concern and love on her face, except I couldn't tell her what I had dreamt about. They say that dreams say a lot about what you're going through internally, and I just couldn't look at her and tell her that clearly some part of me doesn't trust her.
One side of me doesn't trust her, while another defends her.
"It was nothing," I lied.
She didn't look like she bought it for even a second. "I'll take your word for it."
"Just go back to sleep blossom. I'm sorry I woke you up," I told her.
"Actually, you were so locked into your dreams that you haven't heard a single thing I said. We tried to wake you up, and when you weren't waking up, we had to resort to strapping you down while the jet landed. We're here," she informed.
I nodded and got out of the bed before getting dressed. I was still very unsettled by my dream, or nightmare rather. It's a scenario I don't ever see playing out, but then again, it could play out like that, with just the little differences like the fact that blossom is actually my fiancée.
It's the little things that have me unsettled.
"Are you sure you're ok?" blossom asked me before we left the jet.
I pulled her in by the waist before kissing her. "I promise you I'm fine. I love you."
"I love you too weirdo," she said with a smile.
We left the jet and joined Karr, Zuri, Aziel and Mordecai at the SUV. We headed on our way to Cypher Headquarters when a beep interrupted the song we were listening to on the radio. Mordecai clicked on the button that connected us to the incoming message.
"Cypher is under attack! I repeat, Cypher is under attack! If anyone can hear this, we need help. Cypher is under attack!"
"Jayme?" blossom called.
"Elle? Is that you?" he asked. He was the one transmitting the message.
"What's going on?" I was the one to ask.
"We're under attack and they've killed off all our tech. I'm only able to get this message to you because I'm on the roof. I was coming to check on the satellites when I saw the men enter the building. It's a war downstairs. I figured I should get the message out before I go and help. Where are you guys?" he asked.
"We're on our way. We'll be there in five minutes," Mordecai replied as he stepped on the gas. Aziel's phone went off then.
"Am I hearing correctly? HQ is under attack?" Malachi's voice came through the speaker.
"Yeah! Are you guys still in St Barts?" Aziel asked him.
"We're actually on our way to HQ now. We landed an hour ago and had to make a stop. We were going to meet up with you guys later," Malachi informed.
"What about our friends?" blossom asked.
"They're in Greece with the E's. They're safe," Nigel responded.
"And my brother?" blossom asked.
"No idea! He left with Franco, but Franco did say to tell you to trust him," Malachi told her.
"What's the plan here guys? It looks like this is a serious attack," Zuri replied as we drove through the first, barely standing gate. They'd blown right through it.
As well as the second and third gates.
"The plan is simple. We go in there and defend our organization!" Malachi said as we parked the car. They'd also just arrived.
By the looks of things, whoever was attacking us didn't care about the outside because we were able to grab our weapons without being attacked. We headed into the building and were immediately launched into a fight.
By the looks of things, it was an equal fight, so we weren't losing too many people. We fought our way through to the elevators, before encountering a very awkward ride up to Margaux's floor. When we got there, it looked a whole lot worse than it did downstairs.
"There's Ayah," blossom pointed out as we watched two guys going in for the kill.
Ultimately activating my fiancée's psycho super soldier side.
I didn't even see her leave my side. I only heard the one guy scream and that's when we all saw that my lovely blossom had sliced his arm clean off. We got over our fascination real quick and joined the fight.
The people we were fighting were all dressed in charcoal clothing. They didn't have any brand or logo on them, and their fighting style isn't something I can say I've ever encountered. In fact, I was pretty sure that we had never fought these people before, and it didn't help that we couldn't identify where they come from.
The fight was long, even with super soldier blossom on our side. We very quickly picked up that the more of these people that we killed, the more appeared. It was borderline ridiculous, and yet it was happening. We were surprised when they suddenly stopped fighting and instead ran out of the building.
"Follow them," I instructed a team of agents who were uninjured.
They nodded and left in different cars, following the retreating SUVs and trucks. Up on the roof, I could see Jayme shooting at the cars, and I knew he wasn't shooting bullets. He was shooting trackers that would hopefully lead us to whoever was behind the attack.
"How many casualties?" I asked as we surveyed the building.
"So far, we have fifty two confirmed deaths, including twenty new agents," Nigel informed.
"The off location medical team has been alerted and they're on their way here," Malachi added.
"Where's blossom?" I asked.
"She told me to tell you not to worry about her and that she's doing her job as an agent. She left with the team tracking the attackers," my best friend informed me.
I was about to lose my shit but the twins stopped me. "Trust her."
"Fine! Where are Ayah and Zuri?" I asked.
"Upstairs with Nadia. They went looking for her to protect her," Nigel replied.
"We need to get up there," I said.
We went back up to Margaux's floor using the stairs since the elevator was officially broken. The whole of HQ looked like a mess. There were broken tables, chairs and office appliances everywhere. When we got to Margaux's floor, people were trying to get themselves and the place sorted. We headed towards Margaux's office and that's where we found Ayah with Zuri and Nadia.
Nadia was awake.
"Nadia," I called to her. When her eyes landed on me, they filled with tears before she ran into my arms.
"Take it easy would you? You just woke up," Aziel told her.
Not that she listened.
She was sobbing in my arms. "It was horrible Xander. It was so horrible."
"Shh. You're safe now," I told her.
"Promise me you'll never let me go anywhere alone again," she said, her voice cracking.
"I promise," I found myself saying.
"Nad, can you remember anything from your time in Spain?" Mordecai asked her.
I guess now's as good a time as any to ask her.
She looked very confused. "I was ready to leave for Hong Kong. They took my tech team out and they got me while I was on the plane. They drugged me and I think they knocked me out for a couple of days. When I woke up, I was in a dark room. They tortured me, wanting to know things about our team. I wouldn't give in. They, they..."
She was having a panic attack. "Hey, breathe."
"They said they would kill you Xander," she whispered.
"Look at me. I'm alive," I told her with my hands cupping her face.
"You're alive," she said, sounding like she was convincing herself of that fact.
"How did you know that Xander had to get out the cabin?" Zuri got right to it.
Even in this state, Nadia still spared her a glare. "I heard them talking about the whole plan to kill him. I knew I had to do something, and I managed to knock a guard out and use his phone to call Xander. They found out and they kicked my torturing up."
"You had the chance to get yourself some help, and instead you chose to save Xander's life?" Malachi asked her in confusion. Looking at the rest of my friends, I could see that they were just as confused as he was.
"I will always protect Xander," she said fiercely.
Uh, okay?
"Xander!" Jayme called behind me.
"Yeah?" I said as I turned to face him.
"Elle got one of the guys. She's bringing him back here. She sounded different though," he told me.
"Different how?" Ayah asked.
"I can't explain it. You guys will hear what I'm talking about when she gets here," he replied.
"Who's Elle?" Nadia asked.
Remember that awkward moment when Sunny asked Franco why he left Cypher?
That moment was mild in comparison to the moment we were in now.
"Why isn't anyone saying anything? Who's Elle?" Nadia asked again, this time sounding panicked.
I was about to answer, when we heard a thud and turned to see my fiancée throwing a guy into the room. "You're lucky I let you even keep your knees you piece of useless human meat."
Her voice was deeper, angrier.
"Elliephant, are you ok?" Malachi asked.
"I caught that son of bitch trying to take a shot at me, but other than that, I'm just peachy. Is everyone ok?" she asked.
"You..." Nadia said with wide eyes as she stared at my fiancée.
"Hi! Who are you?" blossom asked her.
"You! You were there! You were there!" Nadia said, suddenly extremely panicked.
"Nad, calm down," Malachi said, trying to hug her, but she thrashed.
"She was there! She was there with him. They were angry. She was there!" Nadia thrashed around.
I put my arms around her. "Adi, you're ok. You're safe."
"She was there Xander," she insisted.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but she wasn't there. That's not who you think it is," I told her.
"Who is she then?" she asked me.
"That's Noelle, my fiancée," I said.
Silence.
Do you know how in cartoons, when a robot looks like it's malfunctioning from the information it was given? We watched that happen with Nadia as her face changed emotions like five times in five seconds. She looked like she truly couldn't comprehend what I was telling her.
And then she fainted.
"Well, that went way better than I expected," Malachi was the first to comment.
"I'm guessing that's the infamous Nadia?" blossom asked, her voice back to normal.
"Yup! And your fiancé has probably just sent her into shock," Mordecai said as he took her from me and carried her back to the bed.
"Man! I'm just glad I got that moment on camera," Ayah said with a laugh.
Jayme smirked. "That's just mean."
"What did she mean when she said Elle was there?" Zuri asked.
"That's what I'm curious about too," Nigel replied.
"I have never met that girl in my life if that's what you're wondering about," blossom defended.
"No one is saying you have blossom," I said softly.
I watched something flash in her eyes. "You believe her. You actually think I know her. You think I was there."
"Your memories have been manipulated before," I argued.
"Yeah, and none of them involve me torturing anyone!" she spat before she stormed out of the room.
"Great going with that," Jayme said before following after her.
"We're going to look into it definitely, but I believe her. There's something else going on here," Karr said just as the sound of an elevator went off. We looked in that direction only to see the last person I would've ever thought.
I thought the elevator wasn't working.
"Mom?" I called to her. She walked into the room, clutching her shoulder.
"They've got her," she said breathlessly as I rushed over to her.
"They've got who?" Aziel asked her as he helped me.
"They've got Margaux. I tried to protect her, but they took her. That's what this attack was about. They took her and I don't know why or how we're going to get her back," she replied.
"What do you mean you tried to protect her? What's going on?" I asked.
"She called me a few weeks back, frantic about the kidnapping of someone but she wouldn't say who. I agreed to help and I came back to fetch her. However, we weren't looking for a kidnapped person, and she wouldn't tell me what it is we were looking for, so I don't know why they took her," she explained.
"The kidnapped person was Noelle Solano, your daughter," I told her.
"Noelle? I don't have a daughter," she said, baffled.
"Does the name Serena ring any bells?" Ayah attempted.
"Serena Solano? My niece? What does she have to do with anything? She died in a fire eleven years ago," Silver said, clearly getting more and more confused.
She didn't know.
"How do you not know this?" I asked, I myself getting confused.
"How do I not know what? What are you talking about?" she asked me.
"Serena didn't die in that fire. She's the person I was with at the island. She's my fiancée," I informed.
"What?" she whispered.
"Who is Sergio Solano to you?" Mordecai asked her.
"He's my older brother, Serena's father..." she trailed off.
"What is it?" Zuri asked at the faraway look on her face.
"It makes sense. It all makes sense!" Silver said to herself.
"What makes sense?" I asked her.
"Why Margaux was so panicked by Serena's kidnapping," she told me.
"We're lost here, just for the record," Malachi pointed out. I shot him a glare, which he shrugged to.
"Serena is Margaux's daughter. She was looking for the file," Silver told us.
"What file?" we asked.
"The file on the projects Cypher conducted thirteen years ago," she replied.
"Did these projects include Zero?" I asked.
"Yes! I don't know how far that project went since the twins were kept away from Cypher," she said.
"So we were right? Tyler and Tyson are Zero!" Nigel exclaimed.
"What? No! My nephews are part of a different project altogether," Silver corrected.
"Hold on! If they're not Zero, then who is?" Mordecai asked.
"I knew it," Karr said to himself, but apparently Zuri, Ayah and I heard him.
"Knew what?" we asked.
"I don't know about Zero being a set of twins, but I am sure of one thing. Nicholas Solano is Zero."