Kaidon
The enemy of your enemy is your friend.
But now, I am not sure who can even be trusted.
"Why in the world did you meet with Lancelot Ford?"
They were targeting Alice. Fords were the only people I could turn to for help; for leverage.
"Isn't he your grandfather? Why are you referring to him by his name?"
"You don't just become a grandfather because you are related. You ought to do stuff that would make me call you family."
He would have done it. He would have protected Alice if he knew she was family.
"He didn't know. If only I had paid more heed to the way he stared at Alice-"
"Wait, come again?"
"He wasn't aware that-"
"You made my sister meet with them?"
I didn't. His sister is a thickheaded moron.
...
was a thickheaded moron.
.
.
.
.
.
Why didn't Lancelot Ford tell me that day that Alice looks exactly like his grand daughter Ariel?
.
.
.
The thoughts kept spiralling in my head as I unlocked the door I always dreaded to enter through. Her presence still lurked in there, her lingering scent tantalizing my senses, perhaps even mocking me. The glittering rays of the setting sun through the window blinded my vision for a second. As my eyes adjusted to the light, memories flooded my thoughts. I took a step in, and then another forward, sounds of her laughter echoing in my ears. There were pictures of her everywhere; pictures that I had snapped and then framed them in this room to torture myself. It all felt so real, so spine chilling that I almost expected her to walk through the door behind me.
"Kai-"
My eyes widened in disbelief.
That voice... that name... How could-
At that moment I felt like I was living a dream. When you are unconscious and lost in that other world, you tend to forget reality. You don't remember what is the present and what is the past, what is real and what is fake. You just trust in what is right before your eyes.
This is why I want to fall asleep once and then never wake up again.
Right at that moment, my mind denied everything I knew and just wanted to believe in what it saw before its eyes, what it heard with its ears. Her face, her voice. My Alice.
I didn't realize I had teared up until her image blurred before my eyes.
"Kai-"
Alice.
Alice..
I had voiced out that name already. I must look so pitiful.
"Kai...don..."
Please don't take my name in that voice of yours. Please. It's painful.
I half expected her to scoff or turn around and leave. Why should she care? I am nothing to her. Hell she is no one to me.
She proved me wrong as she took one daring step in my direction, then another, and then another one. She stood before me, her eyes laced with a weird emotion that I couldn't interpret.
Not pity.
Not mockery.
Why would she look at me like that? Why is this look so familiar? Why am I feeling this way... again?
She pulled me in for a gentle hug; her arms wound behind my neck as if hiding my face in her chest, silently asking me to let out my emotions.
My hands instinctively held on to her back. She's so warm.
My yearning heart suddenly started hoping again. Even all the countless failed attempts at finding the truth didn't give me the closure I was seeking. Why didn't her grandfather say something when he met Alice?
I held on to a few locks of her crimson hair.
Could it be?
***
"Red Phoenix what?"
Bewildered, I barked on my phone as I paced about in the living room. I couldn't meet eyes with her yet. However she kept acting like nothing happened which saved me a little from the embarrassment.
"He's missing God dammit! Hear it the first time I say!"
"Shut up, punk. That was a rhetorical question. What happened exactly?"
He narrated to me how he found the nurse sleeping on the bed under the influence of some sedative while the man in question went AWOL.
"And what about the tracker we inserted in his body?"
"Carved out and thrown in the garbage can," he sounded grim and concerned. Even if he was unhappy with all the things he hid from the kid, he still worried about his old man.
"Signs of struggle?"
"None."
I sighed. I wanted to help him but I couldn't dispatch any of my team members on his trail. Red Phoenix was supposed to be dead.
"Alex, I-"
"I am not worried about him." He interrupted. "I am just curious if he knows something and is hiding it from me again."
Knows something? What could he know? He was confined to his room for the last five years.
"Anyway," he continued, "Just let him be. If he doesn't want my help, he won't get any. We'll probably hear from him in a few days."
What the hell? Is that how a son is supposed to react?
Well, you are one to say, Kaidon.
"What are you-"
"Sey told me about the day they attacked our place. Do you know how they found him?"
It was the biggest regret of my life. I left her unprotected, and then I did the same again. Why couldn't I ever learn from my mistakes?
"He defeated all of them singlehandedly. There was only one enemy standing, who was half dead himself and scared shitless. My old man may have been a lame dad, but he was an exceptional assassin. So, no, we don't need to worry about him."
Well, he does have a point.
"Could it be related to the "special" mission that Sey received?"
Gilaan surfaced. Sey got a new mission. Red Phoenix went missing. Was it all linked? Maybe they did know more than they were letting on.
"I don't know, to be honest, Kaidon. I don't know if I know anything at this point." He growled lividly as he continued, "It's driving me crazy."
I couldn't blame him. Humans are bound to get frustrated when things don't go as they expect. More so for a curious soul like Alex. He did take a lot after his sister.
Instinctively my eyes glanced at Ariel who stood gazing before a picture of Alice, her stare intent. It was as if a subconscious part of me believed that it was her in flesh. I put my hand in my pocket and curled my fingers around a few strands of her hair I pulled when I hugged her.
Why did I take these?
I shook my head, deciding not to go through with it.
"Kaidon!"
His growl snapped me out of my daze.
I got lost again.
"What?"
"I think we should see your father once more."
Yes. I was considering the same, and more. I wanted an audience with his grandfather as well.
"Remember? I asked you about a woman named Riannon?"
***
A few days ago
"Tell me, Kaidon, do you know Riannon?"
I gave him a side glance while my fingers steadied on the hand break.
Hmm...? What's up with that? Riannon? Who is that?
"Huh...Who? Rian...non? Let me think."
My puzzled expression must have given away my confusion because he sighed and looked away outside the car window as he mumbled, "No one."
I stepped on the gas, pulling away from Rihanna's university. The atmosphere dropped a whole two degrees a few minutes before. I had an inkling that the little guy would be furious with me, but to be all out for revenge? That was something I wasn't expecting.
Or maybe I was?
He joined them for the same reason as I did.
Answers.
If I can be of any help to calm the frustrated heart of her little brother, she might forgive me a little in her afterlife.
"We can't be in this together if you don't share with me the intel you have already gathered."
"Shut up!" He growled. "I am already considering if it would be fruitful to tell you."
Maybe he doesn't trust me yet.
"At least you are adept at one of the lessons taught in the academy. Never trust anyone."
He pressed his lips together, his expression laced with grimness.
"It isn't about trust. You wouldn't know a damn thing even if I did tell you about her. Nobody remembers her."
That was an unusual choice of words- Nobody remembers her?
"Do you..." he continued, "Do you ever feel like you have a hole in your memory?"
A hole? What kinda hole?
"God, I am going crazy." Frustrated, he ran his fingers through his hair. "Was she just a dream? Why am I the only one who..."
"Stop speaking in riddles and spit it out!"
"There was someone... a woman... that we are supposed to remember, but I am the only one who does."
What the hell in the world is that?
"Riannon Cross. In my memory she was your cousin and Rihanna's elder sister."
Rihanna has an elder sister?
Wait...Was? He speaks as if this person is dead already. Is she?
"Where is she?"
He let out a sigh as he covered his eyes with the heel of his palms. "That is what I want to know, idiot! Where the hell is that woman and why the fuck in the world doesn't anyone remember her except me!"
***
He told me that in his memories, I took her under my wing and protected her sister. That wasn't how I remembered stuff. Dad was the one who brought Rihanna to us. She was the only child of his brother who had died. There was no mention of an elder sister.
I did look through my old pictures and other photos from the academy. To be honest, I didn't even know who I was looking for, what she looked like. I just kept browsing through for a strange face that I couldn't recognise.
Could it be that Alex's memories were tampered with? But... why would someone plant a strange woman in his memories? How is Alex even significant in all of this?
Alex told me that her powers included memory manipulation. If Alex's story was true, it was highly likely that she manipulated memories on a large scale. But how in the world would she have managed to manipulate other traces? Pictures? Videos? Documents?
Riannon Cross...
Riannon Cross...
Tsk. I slammed my fisted hand against the table. There were no records about someone with that name in the archives. I kept browsing through more pictures, and my eyes settled on this one particular one. It was a picture of our batch. I joined the academy a little late, and the batch picture ceremony was delayed for the crown prince.
I zoomed in on the picture. There I was, in the centre alongside Seydon, who had no light in his eyes. Seydon had been an introverted child when I first met him. He only ever opened up to me. It was only after he made his first kill, his caretaker, did he become his present self.
If only he had met her too, he might have had a better childhood.
There were a few faces that I could recognise. Then there were other faces that had already died on missions. I scrolled and noticed our teacher at the side.
Archon Cross. He was a distant relative from one of the branch families - Probably the same age as grandfather.
"... Fall in love and you invite death."
That was his mantra. Always putting in on a constant repeat. The memories made me scoff. It was falling in love that saved me from myself. Even if my powers didn't work on her, I-
Hmm?
Wait-
Your powers don't work on your family and the person you love.
Riannon Cross -or whatever her name is... was- if she really manipulated our memories... if she used her powers on us...
The door to Seydon's study banged open and I half expected an annoyed Ariel to be reprimanding me however I was surprised to see Alex instead, exasperated, followed by a worried looking Rihanna.
"Alex-" Rihanna tried to reach out for him but he shoved her hand away and stomped towards me.
"Go back to your room, Rihanna." I asked her calmly. Rihanna was one person unaware of everything going on around us, and I wanted to keep it that way as long as possible.
Rihanna shut the door behind her while Alex headed towards me without as much as even glancing back at her. I got up my seat and rounded the table to meet him halfway.
"Look at this!" He shoved his phone to my face. I picked it off his hand, curious about what he had discovered. It was Alice's social media handle. The account was filled up with multiple pictures, the latest ones being that of her and mine together. The last picture was from my birthday we celebrated together, a day before the horrible incident.
My eyes almost watered. The memories of the night she broke up with me were etched into my mind like permanent scars on skin. The ring she gave me still housed on my finger. I was at a state where I would give away anything just to be able to see her once more.
"Not there!" Alex snatched the phone away from me and scrolled up. "Look at this"
He shoved another pretty picture of Alice's to my face. She looked really stunning that night - the night when I first took her on a mission. It was the first time I realised my feelings for her. The strong sense of possessiveness and protectiveness I held towards her stemmed from emotions much deeper than just plain old friendship.
"What about it?"
"Look closely!" He barked.
It was a picture of her in the back seat of my car. She had a cheerful expression on her face, and her fingers were held up in two victory signs on either side of hers.
"I remember the day you came to pick her up, " he continued. "I was watching from my room's window. There were three of you, including that woman Riannon."
No. I remember it as clear as day. There were just the two of us. Seydon tagged along just for the heck of it. But then this picture...
"Surely you wouldn't act as the driver for my sister and Seydon, right?" he asked.
The angle clearly indicates it was taken from the back seat.. Seydon was seated beside me. Alice was the only one in the backseat. There were just the three of us.
Then who took this picture of her?
***
I parked the car a few blocks away from the main gate and pulled the key out of the ignition. The dark of the night was good cover for us. Both of us stepped out of the car and pulled up our black coloured masks. We were all geared up in our mission uniform.
"Why are we breaking in into your own family house? Why not just walk in through the front door?" Alex asked as he adjusted the time on his watch.
I shut the door to the car and put on my ear piece. Unlocking the safety of my gun, I explained to him, "Because I want to catch him off-guard."
My relationship with my father may have started to mend but I did not trust him blindly. I trusted none. We may be related but he was still the person who killed my mother. If I alarmed him of my arrival, he could be prepared with answers. I didn't want to give him that opportunity.
We hurried towards the back side of the house. I crouched over a branch of the tree just behind the house while Alex was settled over another. Both of us were equipped with heat sensing glasses to detect any motion in the dark. There were laser alarms surrounding the entire boundary of the house, and we needed to disable those before we could go infiltrate any further.
I gave him my hand signal and he aimed his gun at one of the devices, pulling the trigger. A small chip went off and attached itself to it, and the red laser surrounding the house went off, and we hopped over the boundary and somersaulted on the lush green grass of the backyard. Collecting ourselves, both of us took our positions, hiding ourselves behind two large trees. Alex pressed a button of a remote, and the chip fell off the device, reactivating the laser. All this happened in the mere span of seconds to avoid getting caught.
The window to my father's study was directly ahead of us. There were twenty guards stationed around the house on patrol duty every night. We needed to time their movements, wait for the blind spot and make our run at that exact moment.
Who ever thought math would come in handy in one of our mission? The fu-
"What are the two of you doing here this late at night?"
Author's Notes: Who is it? Who is it? Try to take a guess! XD