Chapter 41: Xain
When I wake up, I just see a lone light. I’m tied up and sitting in the middle of a dark room. All I remember is being knocked out by some gas that Kain threw at me. I managed to knock off his mask, but his hood covered his true face. I try to wiggle out, but it’s no use. I’m tied to the chair and to the ground. I grunt in frustration as I pull on the ropes.
“I would be still if I were you,” a voice comes from a speaker somewhere inside the dark room. I know it’s Kain’s. “You don’t want rope burns.”
“What’s it matter to you?” I say into the darkness. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to suffer,” Kain answers. “I want you to sqffer as I have. I want you to know the pain of being alone in the world with no one around to help you. But to be fair, I want to give you a choice.”
I laugh. “You want to give me a choice? Now that’s interesting.”
“You can join with me and tell me all about the rebels and I can let you free, or you can die without ever seeing the light of day again.”
“I guess I’ll take the death,” I spit out. “I would never betray my friends, and I would never join the likes of you.”
There’s a jolt of electricity running through my body through my arms and legs. I barely am able to scream in pain because of the vast amount running through me. When it stops, I can only feel my heart-beat pound harder. Kain is probably expecting for me to be screaming, but instead, I laugh.
“The ropes are a special blend,” Kain says to me. “They are able to conduct electricity, very useful for some cases.”
“Must not be working,” I laugh out, “I’m still not persuaded to join you.”
The jolt comes again, this one seeming to be a little stronger. “Don’t be arrogant, Xain,” Kain says while the current still runs through my body. “I still hold your life in my hands.”
“Then…what…are…you…waiting for?” I struggle to say. The electicity finally cuts off.
“I’m not simply going to just kill you,” Kain answers. “If I wanted you simply to be dead, then I would have killed you when we were in the town. I actually would rather show you your past before I end you. But then, I’m certain that you will be swayed to join me.”
Before I can even say anything, a jolt hits me. It’s weaker, but still hurts and hinders me. It stops about ten seconds later and I realize I’m wet, probably from my own sweat.
“Where am I?” I ask out of breath.
“Where you and I were born,” Kain answers me. He hits a switch somewhere and the whole room lights up. I am in some form of research room. There are moniters and lab equipment everywhere. I look around as each one flickers to life.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Kain says from the hidden room. The door behind me opens and some one walks in. I know by the sound of the footsteps that it’s probably not Kain, and I’m right. It’s Vice.
Vice is dressed in a tight, all black outfit with her blood red hair neatly put into place. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but she looks like a very beautiful young lady. I actually smile at her. Scary thing is she smiles back.
“Don’t try anything stupid, Xain,” she says, “I actually like you, be a pain if I have to hurt you.”
“No flirting with the prisoners, Vice,” Kain yells through the speaker.
“Relax, Kain,” Vice scoffs at what looks like a camera, “He’s dead anyway, and it’s not like we’re together.”
That shuts Kain up. I have to laugh at that, which makes Vice smile a sharp-toothed smile at me. I can’t help but think she is flirting with me. She kneels down and unties my feet and then goes around and unties my hands.
“Remember, nothing stupid,” she reminds me as she lifts me out of the chair. She walks me over to another chair—wheel chair—and straps me in. Before she starts to push me, Kain comes on and speaks.
“Bring him to the secret room,” he says. “No need for a blind-fold, this is our home.”
Vice just pushes me without a word. We go out of the doors and into a hall way that looks vaguely familiar. We go up a ramp and through more doors that leads to an outside tunnel. This looks scarily familiar. It’s not until I’m brought to an abandoned storage room that I realize where I am. The shelves in the far cabinet slide away when she places her hand on one of them, and we step into an elevator. We go down and light floods my eyes. When we’re down, Kain greets us.
“Welcome to your place of birth, Xain,” Kain says as he approaches me. “I assume you can’t walk, so I guess Vice will have to keep you company.”
Vice give a low growl as she pushes my chair.
“What are you talking about?” I say as I try to put pieces together. “I was born in A-12, not C-5.”
“Welcome to the place of your rebirth, then,” Kain says as we continue to walk. “We are the true pioneers of the ultimate fighters.”
“So what,” I say, “we are the ones who made the games popular in C-5.”
“We were part of an experiment for the games,” Kain says to me, “We were selected as guinea pigs for a project. A project so revolutionary, it would have made anyone involved very powerful and very rich.”
“And what might that have been?” I ask uninterested.
Kain stops and looks at me. “It’s in your—our—blood.”
Now I’m paying attention. I remember when Dr. Ken brought me down here last and showed me tiny black dots in my blood.
“They called it ‘rebirth’,” Kain continues. “It almost instantly heals and mends you when you are injured, making you stronger and healthier than any other fighter, but after many failures—the hosts died from the particles, went mad, had to be killed, simple cuts would cause the hosts to be eaten alive by the particles—the project was shut down. However, six of us survived and were perfect—three boys and three girls. We were the first successful human carnagions.”
Kain opens a door and Vice pushes me through. Once we’re in, he turns on a light and has me pushed to a table.
“The boys,” Kain places three folders in front of me, “and the girls.”
Vice removes my restrictions and allows me to grab the folders. I pick up a girl’s file and flip it open. It’s a brunette girl with tan skin with a big red “DECEASED” stamped on the page. Her death is listed as “knife through heart”. Her name was Mona, but it didn’t matter to me. The next girl nearly knocks me unconscious: Xania A. Austin. She has the same “DECEASED” stamped across her page, listed as “spear through abdomen; beheaded”. It lists me as a kin. The next one has her real name blacked out, but has another name: Vice. I look over at her and she chuckles scarily. I only catch “UNSTABLE” and “EXTREMELY DANGEROUS” before I shut up her file.
The first file for the boys is me. It has my name, my progress, Xania, and “ADAPTIVE” written in, but I look at the next. The next one is Brutus Merikh. I have a flash back of Alestra driving her sword through his back and ending his life. His file looks much like Vice’s, but with the addition of “Total disregard for life” and “UNCONTROLABLE”. Last file opens my eyes: Derrick Luther. His file is marked with “CONTAINED” and “CONFIDENCIAL”. It’s now that I realize the true identity of my assailant.
“Derrick?” I speak. Kain, or Derrick laughs.
“And now you know your true identity,” he says and leans forward. “You want to know why I chose ‘Kain’?”
I don’t answer, but he goes on any way.
“It’s because we are brothers,” Kain says. “We once were brothers in arms, but we remained brothers by our pasts and ties.”
“Nice speech, Derrick,” I say, “but I still pick death over betrayal.”
“I thought you might,” Derrick says, “that’s why I’ve come up with a different proposal. Join me and your loved ones will be safe, or don’t and they will each suffer the fate of precious Tanzi.”
I leap forward and knock Derrick into the wall. I expect Vice to throw me off, but she just stays in her place. Derrick just laughs.
“You’re too weak to fight me,” he says as he throws me off of him and I collapse. “There is one more file I should show you.”
Derrick brings one more file over to the table as Vice gently helps me up. I open the file and there’s no photograph. The name Arlem Kendrix is typed on it. He’s one of the Capitol’s top chemical engineers, top Carnage Island scientist, and was also a very skilled Doctor. He’s also the head of the Rebirth project.
My eyes shoot wide open. I now know why Honey and Tanzi are dead, and I know how the capitol knew to look for Jason and Prosper. It’s all in this file.