“He's been gone for a while,” Sky voices, looking down at the watch strapped to her wrist. “One of us should go check up on him right?”
Sky notices the strange interaction between Neith and Casey, especially from her best friends; her gaze lingering the longest before coming out with a response. “You think?”
Sky flutters her eyelashes, unconsciously straightening her posture. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“Well we all know what he's like.” Neith replies, continuing to wrap her short curly hair around her finger. “When things get rough he pushes people away.”
Well there's not much to say to that, partly because it's true, but mostly because she doesn't feel comfortable discussing his shortcomings without him being present to defend himself.
Topher clears his throat before speaking up, twisting the silver rings on his index and pinky finger. “We've been here for quite a while and I doubt there'll be any good news soon.”
“Giving up already?” Neith asks.
“No,” he replies, going on to correct her before they start to get the wrong idea. “No, but it's getting late and we're all hungry. Right?”
“I can help with that.” Sky voices, reaching below her feet to pull out a ginormous carrier bag.
Neith shakes her head knowingly. “Did you bring the entire supermarket?”
Sky rolls her eyes before shifting through the bag, going over everything she packed. “I have sandwiches, drinks, water, fruit, biscuits, granola bars, a half eaten baguette for whatever reason-”
“-i'll take that.” Neith chimes, stealing it right from her hands.
“I bought yogurt too but they've gone warm which, admittedly, was a small oversight, not going to lie.”
Casey lets out a huge sigh of relief. “Oh thank god, I thought I was the only one.”
“Only one?”
Before Sky can question him further on his meaning, Casey opens his unusually long trench coat, revealing an entire shelf's worth of sugary contraband taped on the inside.
Neith snickers, tearing off small chunks of the baguette and throwing them into her mouth. “Okay, no, this is weird Greyson one point zero, even for you and you're like the third weirdest person I know.”
“Thanks for that,“ Casey scoffs, feeling the need to explain further, briefly closing his jacket when a nurse passes by. “The thought of eating anything that was made in this place makes me physically want to hurl.”
“You're applying an irrational fear onto something because of one bad encounter you had years ago.” Topher remarks, standing on his feet to stretch his legs. “It's, well, irrational.”
“How long did it take you to come up with that one boy genius?” Neith snickers, her amused grin only growing when left uncontested.
“It's called evolution!” Casey yells, ignoring the turning of heads in his direction.
“Wait, are those Nerds?” Neith asks, doing a double take to confirm her suspicion. “Toss them over here.”
“Not so weird now, am I?”
“Nope, still weird.” Neith retorts, playfully winking once she has her hands on what she desires.
Sky smiles fondly as her friends bickering amongst themselves, catching herself when her mind lingers onto past memories that feel like world's ago.
In her experience looking back on things only causes unnecessary pain and so she chooses to keep looking towards the future.
She notices Cloud before the others do, springing to her feet once she see him sprinting towards them, almost barreling into a patient being transported to surgery.
“Cloud?”
Seconds before he reaches them, Sky is swept off her feet, looking up from the ground to see the air rippling with a strange energy.
Soon enough everything is coated in a cold blue hue that slows things down until time seems to stop.
Well that's not exactly true, instead of time stopping completely, it's more like everything is suspended in place bar the Initials and any other extraordinary being that is unfortunate enough to find themselves trapped inside the Church of Babylon’s range.
She gasps, the sudden surge of added pressure killing her shoulders and making it harder to breathe. “What was that?”
Sky takes his hand when Cloud offers it, dusting off the stray pieces of gravel stuck in the collar of his fleece jacket.
“We gotta get out of here, like now!”
“Uh, guys,” Casey calls, looking over his shoulder from the window ledge. “I don't suppose the hospital is having some sort of free rock concert?”
“What the hell are you talking about Greyson?”
Casey moves out of the way to make room for Topher to have a look, turning to the girls to explain what he just saw. “Well they got some creepy guys in capes standing outside.”
Neith and Sky lock eyes before running towards the window to have a look whilst Casey messes with the old guy who was particularly rude to him earlier by taking one of his fingers and sticking it up his nose.
When Cloud raises a brow questioningly, Casey simply shrugs his shoulders.”He had it coming.”
Topher points out the window at the symbols that temporarily appear on the walls of the forcefield tent the Red Cloaks have built around the perimeter. “I've never seen any magic like this before but those symbols must work similar to runes.”
“You think you could crack it?” Sky inquires, counting at least ten Red Cloaks on this side of the hospital alone.
“Sure I could, but there's someone better suited for the job.”
“He's talking about me.” Casey interjects, slinking his arms over their shoulder with a cheeky grin.
Neith scoffs. “You?”
“Don't sound so surprised baby, I'm not just a pretty face with baby blues.”
Neith chuckles, shrugging him off. “That's a stretch.”
“That's right, you're also a Ward Weaver.” Sky recalls, knowing that if his skills are anywhere near that of his infamous parents then he should be able to take down the force field.
“Are we really going to let this goofball handle it alone?” Neith argues, clearly not placing her confidence in the expanding plan as the rest of them are.
“Just let me do what I'm best at.”
Neith folds her freckled arms across her chest. “Which would be?”
Casey makes a crunchy crackling sound as he cracks his fingers, stretching his arms out in front of him before rotating his head in tight circles. “Breaking into stuff!”
“But this time we're trying to break out.” Topher adds, whipping his blonde curtains out of his face.
“Right, duh.”
Sky clasps her hands together before firing off commands, placing each of the in positions that would best suit the plan based on her brief knowledge of their skill sets.
“We should stick in pairs.”
Topher concurs, nodding his head as he pulls out a homemade smoke bomb. “Agreed.”
“You should go with Casey. You have the most experience together so your teamwork will be invaluable.”
“I also agree, but what will you be doing?”
“Well we're going to need a distraction to buy you some time.” she replies. “Might as well be us.”
“Channelling without permission?” Topher muses. “What would they think if they knew one of their Princesses broke their strictest rule?”
“I don't know about you but those guys out there don't look too friendly.” she remarks, keeping her cool. “Exceptions are always made during life and death situations like the one we're in.”
“I'm sure they are.”
The gang prepare to split off in their pairs but Cloud blocks their path, holding his hands up in the air, channelling just enough heat to keep them at bay.
“Stop, there's no need to put yourselves in danger,” Cloud voices, licking his lips as he considers if this is the correct choice. “They're here for me.”
Sky softly shakes her head as she lightly treads towards him. “Cloud…what's going on?”
“I…” The words get stuck in his throat but Hunter's encouraging nod persuades him to finally dish it all out. “...A month and a bit ago I was kidnapped by the Church.”
“Kidnapped?” Casey echoes, shaking his head like a confused golden retriever. “For real?”
Neith rolls her eyes. “Casey does he look like he's joking?”
“A bunch of people died…they were murdered actually by Hunter, and a guy called Helel Ben Sahar.”
“Wait, I know that name.” Casey utters, thinking back on their heist of the academy library. “The nursery rhyme, that's what that was about? This guy?”
“He's not just some guy…I think he's my dad, my real dad, I mean my biological dad, which is why I was at the Academy in the first place. I wanted to get my hands on the Apothecary to prove it.”
“You wanted to use one of the millennium items that records everything that ever was…for a paternity test?” Neith deadpans.
“I guess you could put it like that.”
“You're unbelievable Jefferson, and no, that wasn't a compliment.”
“Let's get back on track shall we?” Sky interjects. “Why was the Church after you in the first place? Why did they kidnap you?”
Cloud faces Hunter, finally letting his guard down. “Because…Ben Sahar also means Morningstar doesn't it? That's why everyone has been tiptoeing around me, because I'm a Morningstar?”
Hunter tightens his jaw once Cloud starts backing away from him, calculating his next moves if he is forced to go up again five gifted Initials. “He'd kill me if I said anything.”
“We're all going die in about two minutes anyway, might as well air out all the dirty laundry now or take it to the grave.”
“Neith we've talked about this. There's a time and a place.” Sky scolds, shooting her a disappointment look.
“Again, two minutes.” she retorts, rolling up her sleeves.
Cloud tilts his head back, noticing the flickering of the lights like last time before the generator goes out, sending the entire building into complete darkness. “Actually, I think times up.”
A loud crash forces the group to turn and squint into the dark, catching the movement in the sliver of light coming from the light posts outside.
Casey chokes up with tears once the back-up generator kicks in, immediately recognising the girl standing before them. “Freya?”
Neith holds her arm out when Casey tries to get closer, immediately recognising that all is not what it seems. “Look at her clothes!”
“What!” Casey exasperates. “What are you talking about?”
“She'd never wear a leather jacket with gold zips. Trust me, that's not Freya.”
Freya, the Fury, rises from the ground covered in shattered glass with heavy mascara around her eyes and her wet blonde hair slicked back.
With her cold blue eyes trained solely on Cloud, and an apathetic gaze, she rises, and the battle begins!