Part Three
Invincible
Don't be afraid
what your mind consumes
You should make a stand
Stand up for what you believe
And tonight we can truly say
Together we're invincible
- Muse
Chapter 23
I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but I could hear voices. They were a little muffled, like they were behind something, but I could still hear them pretty well. I couldn’t tell who they were, but I knew I’d heard the voices before.
“It looks like she’s starting to wake up,” someone said. “How long has she been out?”
“Since we got her yesterday afternoon,” someone else said.
“So she’s been out for more than twenty-four hours?” the first asked.
“We had to use a higher dosage of the sedative since her body could have kicked it out within a few minutes if we used the regular amount. We got most of our information about it from Bailey. She was quite useful with it.”
Bailey. I felt my hands form into fists at the name. How could she have done that? She was obviously behind all of this. I knew something was up when she’d had that messenger on the jet going over to Division Five. She must have also had something to do with the helicopter screwing up. But how? And who was she working with?
I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying on a cot in a cement room. There was a metal door that led out. On one wall was what looked like a mirror. My vision cut straight through it, though, and saw that there was another room on the other side of the glass. Whoever was holding me probably thought that I wouldn’t be able to see through it, but they were wrong.
I jumped up fast and stood. I looked down at myself and saw that I still actually had everything. Well, except for my knives. My sheath on my thigh wasn’t there. I could probably do more damage without them, though. Now all I needed was whoever was keeping me to come in here and they’d be dead within the second.
I looked up into the corner of the room and saw how they knew what was going on with me. There was a camera mounted on the ceiling and pointed straight at me. I walked slowly toward it, a smile – not a very nice one, though – spreading across my face. I jumped up and grabbed hold of it, ripping it from the ceiling. All that was left were some of the wires connecting it. I threw the camera against the wall and it shattered into pieces.
I heard a low moan coming from my right and I looked over. There was another glass wall, but this one was the entire wall. There were holes in the glass near the top, but I didn’t know what for. Probably just for ventilation. And in the next cell over from mine was another person. When they turned over, I recognized who it was. Orion.
I switched my ring over to my right hand and walked toward the wall that separated us, and then swung my left hand at it, aiming at breaking the glass. When I did, though, it only cracked. But then that crack seemed to repair itself until it was perfect again. I hit it again, but the same thing happened.
“What is this?” I asked to no one.
I heard Orion moan again and sit up. He looked around for a second, and then his eyes fell on me on the other side of the glass.
“Rayney?” he asked, standing up slowly. His hand went to the back of his head and his winced. “What happened?”
“Bailey,” I said through my teeth. “That’s what happened.”
“Her?” he asked, his eyebrows going up.
“I didn’t know about her either,” I said. “And I kind of liked her. Not anymore, though.”
“Who do you think she was working with?” he asked. “I didn’t see who got me.”
“I don’t know, but I’ll try and message Kade or Roth. It’s not like they’re not looking for us.”
I tried to turn on my interface. My vision blurred for a moment, and then red letters came up. Disconnected.
I hit the glass wall again and it just repaired itself. “They disconnected me,” I said through my teeth.
“Who are these people?” Orion asked, walking up the glass wall. He put his hand up to it. “Headquarters has this kind of glass. If it gets damaged, it just repairs itself. Kind of like you.”
“There’s got to be a weak spot,” I said.
“There are no weak spots,” he said. “Again, like you. You can try to break it, but it’ll just keep on repairing itself. The mirror behind you is probably the same.”
“It’s one way glass,” I said. “I can see straight through it.”
He shook his head and smiled. “Of course you can,” he said.
“Hold on,” I said, cocking my head to the side. “Someone’s coming.”
“Do you know who has us?” he asked.
“Shh,” I said, and listened again.
Footsteps were coming down a hallway. The metal door going into my cell started to unlock. It sounded like it was on an electronic lock. And when the door swung in, I saw who was standing behind it. I let Nash come in and the door shut behind him before I was in his face.
“So this is who has us,” I said through my teeth, my face just inches away from his. “Division Sixteen.”
“Rayney,” he said, his gaze locked with mine.
“Nash,” I said, and put my hands on his chest. I shoved him so hard he flew back into the door and crumpled onto the ground.
I started toward him again as he was standing up. I wrapped my hand around his throat and hoisted him up in the air, slamming him against the door again.
“Why did you guys do this?” I asked.
He looked at me with wide eyes, gasping for air. His fingers tried to pry mine off of his neck. He gasped again, trying to say something. I let go of him, making him fall to the ground again, and took a step back.
“Go ahead, tell me,” I said.
“We’ve been planning to break you out for the past two weeks, ever since the day we saw you at Keenan’s,” he said, coughing. “Bailey planned to go to Division Five with you so she’d be able to get you out and we could bring you here.”
“You do know they’re going to be coming for us, right?” I asked. “And who knows what’s going to happen to all of you. And where the hell are we? This can’t be Division Sixteen.”
“It is,” he said, leaning back against the door.
I turned and walked toward the back wall. And when I turned back to him, I noticed his eyes scanning over me. I walked toward him and knelt in front of him.
“Do you like what you see?” I asked. “The outfit’s a bit much, don’t you think? It’s surprisingly comfortable, though. So are the boots, even with the five inch heels.” He turned his eyes away from me. I grabbed his face in one hand and made him look at me. “You haven’t answered my question.”
“I’d answer her question,” Orion said, watching with excitement in his eyes. “I’ve seen her kill thirty Guards and it wasn’t pretty. Entertaining to watch, but not pretty.”
“And that was in one minute and twelve seconds,” I said. “That’s one Guard every two point four seconds.”
“Really?” Nash asked.
“I’m better than what I used to be,” I said, and shoved his face away from me. I stood and walked back to the wall again. “I like the way I am now.”
I paced back and forth, both Orion and Nash watching me. I saw Nash glance at Orion and back to me.
“Who’s he?” Nash asked. “Are you with him now?”
“I wish,” Orion said, laughing. “But no, she’s mar…”
“Shut up, Orion,” I said, glaring at him.
“Okay, then,” he said, and sat down on his cot.
“What was he going to say?” Nash asked, looking at me.
“Nothing,” I said. “Now why did they send you in here?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to come and talk to you,” he said. He slowly stood up and walked over to sit on my cot. He just sat there, looking at me like he’d been doing ever since he came in.
I started pacing back and forth again, crossing my arms over my chest. “How long have we been here?” I asked.
“Over twenty-four hours,” Nash answered.
“So it’s probably dark outside now,” I said, still pacing. “You do know that someone’s going to be out there looking for us. They’ll find us also. There’s no telling what they’ll do to you.”
“You wouldn’t let them hurt anyone in here,” he said. “You might not be ‘with’ Division Sixteen anymore, but you’ve got people here that you wouldn’t want anything to happen to.”
“Like who?” I asked, laughing. “No one cares about me anymore. For all I know, you’re going to destroy me right after you leave.”
“You honestly can’t think of anyone who still misses you? Well, everyone misses you. But there’s one person who misses you the most, besides Rowan. Can you think of her name?” he asked, standing up and walking toward me. I stopped when he stood right in front of me. He was so close I could feel his body heat even through my leather jacket.
“No, I can’t,” I said, looking at him with narrowed eyes.
“She’s nine, but she likes to say she’s nine and a half.” He put a hand out, indicating height. “She’s about this tall now. She’s grown about an inch since you were taken, so she’s not as short as she was before. She hasn’t been the same lively little girl we all knew and loved since you were killed and taken away. You should have seen her the first few days after you were killed. Actually the first few weeks. She would barely even eat and she would never come out of your grandma’s room.”
“Do not talk about Lyric,” I said. “She’s better off without me.”
“No, she’s not,” he said. “All she talks about now is everything that you taught her. About some time when you were back at that house near Chicago and you finally let her throw one of those knives of yours. She said that you had been so proud of her when she knocked one of the knives out of the tree.”
“Stop talking about her,” I said through my teeth.
He still didn’t stop. “She’s just now starting to be a little happy again,” he said. “I just don’t know how seeing you alive and different are going to affect her.”
“You mean she doesn’t know I’m here?” I asked.
He shook his head. “We had all of the kids with McKenna when we brought you two in,” he said.
“She’s not going to know anything about me,” I said. “Do you hear me? Don’t tell her or Lilah a thing.”
“I’m not the one to decide that,” he said, and backed up toward the door.
“Who is?”
“Someone will be here in a few minutes,” he said, ignoring my question. He knocked on the door and it unlocked and opened. He stepped out and looked at me once more as the door closed.
“So,” Orion said, his eyes gliding from my door to my face. “I could sense that something has happened in the past between the two of you.”
“Shut up,” I said, and started pacing again.
He laughed. “I’m right,” he said. “And probably more than a kiss on the cheek.”
“I said, shut up!” I yelled.
“Fine!” he said, still laughing. He sobered up and looked at me with a serious look on his face. “So…”
“What now?” I asked.
“So,” he said again. “Who’s Lyric?”
I paced back and forth a few times before I answered. “She’s my little sister,” I said.
“I didn’t know you had a little sister,” he said.
“Yeah, well, now you do,” I said.
“I bet she’s just like you,” he said. “And looks like you.”
“She’s like a mini version of me,” I said, still pacing. “Well, the old me.”
He was about to say something else when my door started to unlock again. He and I both watched as the door open slowly. Someone walked in, dressed exactly like I used to – leather jacket, pants with a handgun strapped to her thigh, and boots like the ones I used to wear. The door shut behind her as I stood still on the opposite wall with my arms crossed over my chest.
“I don’t want you in here,” I said.
“Well, I want to be in here,” Rowan said.
I saw her eyes tear up as she looked me over. I kept my face blank and stood still as I looked her over also. She at least looked good, a little thinner, though. And when our eyes met again, I saw her tears start to fall down her cheeks. And when I saw that, all I wanted to do was run up to her and wrap my arms around her, but I couldn’t.
“What happened to you?” she whispered.
“You know what happened to me,” I said. “I died and came back a better version of myself.”
“I know you died, but I don’t think this is a better version,” she said. “You were perfect before.”
“No, I wasn’t,” I said.
She just stood there as her tears streaked down her face faster.
I saw Orion stand up and walked toward the glass wall that separated us. “You know, I knew you had a twin sister, but I guess I just didn’t think that you’d look so much alike,” he said.
“That’s what identical twins means, Orion,” I said.
“Who’s he?” Rowan asked, looking over at him. “You were with him when we got you.”
“A friend,” I said.
Rowan looked over at him. “Sorry about knocking you out,” she said.
“That was you?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “That was some hit. I’d never been taken out that fast before.”
Rowan smiled a little. “I learned from the best,” she said, looking back at me.
“Can you just get out?” I asked her. “I’d rather not have you here.”
“You know, at first, when you were gone, I would have given anything to see you again, no matter what you looked like or how you were. You could have been one of the most horrible people in the world and I would have still wanted to run up and hug you,” she said.
She took a step toward me from where she’d been standing the entire time.
“And then we saw you at Keenan’s and watched as you kill him without any emotion at all.” She stepped closer. “I knew you were one of them, but I still wanted to hug you. I still do.”
“If you even touch me, I’ll kill you,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her.
“No, you won’t,” she said, taking another step.
She was right. I wouldn’t do it. I was just trying to keep her away so that I didn’t break my façade. Because if she hugged me like she wanted to do, I didn’t know what I would do. Probably break down. But if she did get to me and hug me, I would try not to.
“I’m going to leave now,” she said, but took another step toward me.
“Then why are you still coming toward me?” I asked, taking a step back.
“Because,” she said, and then rushed toward me.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tight. I stayed perfectly still with my hands in fists at my sides. I closed my eyes, willing the tears that were welling up behind my eyelids to go away. But then she let go of me and left. I still had my eyes closed as I heard the door close behind her.
I opened my eyes and walked toward my cot. I sat down near the top of it and leaned back against the wall. I pulled my knees up to my chest and put my head against them. I let a few tears fall since Orion couldn’t see me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“No, I’m not okay,” I said. I quickly wiped my face of tears and looked over at him. “I think they’re just torturing me with them, trying to get me to break.”
He looked at me sadly. “I think it’s working,” he said, quietly.
I sighed and put my head back on my knees.
I was really hoping no one else would come in here to talk to me. I didn’t know what would happen when that did happen, what I would do. I was already ready to break and someone else would just send me over the edge.
A movement caught my attention behind the one-way mirror. I didn’t look straight at the mirror, but they were in there – Luke, Eli, Logan, Rowan, Nash, Dane, Xander, and Peyton. But the door opened again and Dominic, Caspar, Abrielle, and Milla walked in. Dominic was watching me with narrowed eyes. He looked like he wanted to go in and kill me.
Peyton had walked up to the glass next to Rowan, who still had tears streaming down her face. She put an arm around her shoulders.
“What are we going to do?” Rowan asked, turning to look at Luke. “We can’t keep her in there forever.”
“I say we destroy her,” Dominic said through his teeth. “Both of them, since he was there when she killed Keenan.”
“Now, we’re not going to do either of those,” Luke said, walking up to the window.
They didn’t say anything then. They were all quiet as they watched me just sit there.
“So why do they have me here also if they just wanted you?” Orion asked. “It’s not like they could have just left me knocked out in the woods.”
“Don’t ask me,” I said.
I stood up and walked toward the mirror. I watched as everyone in the room behind it start to look anxious as I stood in front of it. I was right in front of Rowan and could see her clearly. As she looked at me, tears streamed heavier down her face. I reached up with my left hand and placed it on the glass. She reached up and put her right hand over mine.
“She can’t see us, can she?” Rowan asked. “Because it’s like she’s looking right at me.”
“She can’t see anything except the mirror,” Eli said. “We know her vision’s good, but she can’t even see through this.”
“She shouldn’t be able to hear us either,” Luke said. “This glass is three inches thick and the walls are three feet thick. There’s no way.”
“Still,” Rowan said.
I kept my hand on the glass for a second more, and then turned away. Orion was looking at me with a weird expression on his face. I narrowed my eyes and smiled evilly. Orion’s eyes widened.
“I’ve never seen that expression on your face before,” he said. “And it’s not a very pleasant one either.”
“That’s because these people,” I said loudly, and turned back to the mirror. I punched it with my left hand, right where Rowan was standing. She backed away when my fist hit the glass, cracking it so it looked like a spider’s web. It didn’t break fully, though. “They think that I can’t see them through this mirror, which I can. And they think I can’t hear them because the walls are three feet thick.”
I watched as all of their eyes widened. “Yeah, I can hear and see everything you’re doing in that room,” I said. I looked through the window at Dominic and smiled. “Hello, Dominic. I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon.”
“I say again,” Dominic said with a sneer. “Let’s destroy her.”
“Let’s stop this,” Luke said, putting a hand on Dominic’s shoulder. “She’s not the same, but she’s still Rayney somewhere inside.”
“No, she’s not,” Rowan whispered.
“You’re right,” I said, looking at Rowan. “I’m not.”
Another tear streaked down her face as everyone left the room. She stayed, though. She didn’t move as I started pacing again. I waited for her to say something, though, but she never did. She just stood there watching me.
But after ten minutes had passed, I saw her look to her left at something. I couldn’t see what, though. She nodded, and then looked back at me.
“What?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
“Who are you talking to, Rayney?” Orion asked as he lay down on his cot.
“The only person in the other room,” I said, staring at Rowan.
She just continued to look at me. When she didn’t answer me, I sneered and turned away from her. But once I had walked back to the far wall, I stopped, hearing my door unlock again. I stood in place as I heard it open and then close.
“Rayney Diana Cooper, what did you do to that mirror?” Grandma asked from behind me.
I saw Rowan continue to watch me as I heard Grandma come closer to me. She was looking a little worried, like I’d do something to hurt her. I just stayed right where I was, though.
“I didn’t want anyone else in here,” I said quietly. “Especially not you.”
“I wanted to be in here with you,” she said. “I wanted to see you for myself. See if you were really here, alive.”
“Of course I’m alive,” I said, turning toward her. “You knew what was going to happen to me. You can’t say that you were surprised not to see me.”
“Well, you being alive wasn’t the case five months ago,” she said quietly. “But even though you’re different now, you’re still the same to me.”
Her dark hair had more gray in it than the last time I’d seen her. There were a few more lines on her face, but other than that, she looked exactly the same to me. The same Grandma that I had missed so much.
“So you didn’t see me when they brought me in here?” I asked. I backed up to the cot and sat down on the edge.
“No, I didn’t want to see you like that,” she said, coming to sit beside me. “It would have been like seeing you after Kade…well, you know. I didn’t want to see you out cold.”
I stayed quiet and looked at the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Orion had fallen asleep on his cot. I could feel Grandma looking me over, and then her hand came up to my face, touching my tattoo.
“This is really pretty,” she said quietly, tracing it with her finger. “What does it stand for?”
I swallowed hard before I answered, still not looking at her. “It shows people who we are, even though everyone already does. The three dots…they represent me, Kade and Roth. We’re the future leaders of the Directrix. The ink has little microchips in it to connect me to the Directrix’s networking system. But I can’t right now, since you guys cut my connection.” I looked up at her finally, locking my eyes with hers.
“So that’s why you’ve got the red line in your eye,” she said.
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s my interface eye,” I said.
She smiled a little, tucking a curl behind my ear. “You don’t know how happy I am to see you,” she said quietly.
“Not many people are happy with me here,” I said. “I wouldn’t be either.”
“Rowan’s happy,” she said. “You don’t know how hard these past few months have been on her.”
“Yes, I do,” I said. “I’ve been watching you guys.”
“How…?”
“It’s not that hard to hack into the security system of Division Sixteen,” I said, and tapped under my right eye. “I’ve seen a lot that’s been happening around here. Or should I say not happening? Well, besides that one day when you guys were discussing the raid.”
She smiled. “That was you who sent those messages,” she said.
“I tried to warn you guys, but you didn’t listen,” I said.
“They would have gone anyway,” she said. “Which they did.”
“I know,” I said. “Because I saw them at Keenan’s and at Division Four. They were a ways away both times, but I could hear every single word they were saying. That’s one advantage of what happened to me.”
Her eyes stayed on me. “Why did you have to kill Keenan?” she asked quietly.
“He was my assignment,” I said. “Just like Kade was. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to do it. You don’t know how hard it was after. And it was the day after the gala.”
“Gala?” she asked.
I nodded. “It was in honor of me, Kade and Roth. And I actually wore a dress and heels,” I said, laughing slightly.
She looked down at my boots and smiled. “Looks like you’re wearing heels now,” she said.
“They’re surprisingly comfortable,” I said. “I don’t really have any say in my outfits, just like the dress I wore to the gala. Do you remember that on Mom wore when she and Dad had that party to go to for his work?”
“The blue one?” she asked.
I nodded. “It was just like that one,” I said. “It matched my necklace perfectly.”
She reached for my necklace then, and held it in her hand. “I’m glad you still have this,” she said. She took my hand in hers and looked down at my ring. “This is pretty. Who gave you this?”
“Kade,” I said, sighing. I might as well tell her what’s happened. I pulled my hand out of hers and took it off my finger, putting it back on my left hand, where it belonged. “This is the hand it goes on, though, on this finger.”
I looked up at her. Her eyes were starting to tear up as she looked at me. I looked over at Rowan, where she was still behind the glass. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open.
“It happened two weeks ago. That’s when we got married,” I said, looking back down at my ring. “It wasn’t like a real wedding, but Arianna – Kade’s mom – did plan another huge gala for us.” I smiled a little. “I did where a white dress, though.” I looked back at her. “Even though I’m in the Directrix now…I’m happy. I hadn’t been, not until everything happened with Kade. I love him. I love him so much.”
“I know you do,” she said, cradling my cheek in her hand. “Even in your situation, you still found happiness with the person you were meant to be with. I am happy for you. And knowing that you’re alive and happy, that makes me happy.”
I let go of her hand, stood up and started pacing back and forth again. She stood and caught my shoulders, turning me to face her.
“What’s going to happen?” I asked. “With me, I mean.”
She shook her head and pulled me toward her, wrapping her arms around me. I hugged her back. “I don’t know,” she said.