"I Love You" (Book Three In The "I Promise" Series)

Alone

This is a (LATE) birthday present to my online BFF- JuliaTheOtakuFangirl!!!!! Happy fifteenth, gurl!

Before he and his robots could "escort" me out of the school, Jack had placed a hood over my head and knocked me out.

Later, though I don't know how how much later, I woke up, but the bag was still over my head. I heard Jack arguing with someone, and I nearly started crying. Jack had been my friend, I'd practically dumped Katie for him! And why? Because he looked almost exactly like a fictional character I'd had a crush on since I first read about him?

What about Rose? Had the team found her in time? Were they alright? Or did Slade have another trap for them, to keep them away from me?

I swallowed to keep down a sob, and gasped as the coarse-feeling sack was ripped off my head, chafing the skin on my neck so that it burned.

I was strapped to a chair. My hands were trapped behind the back of the chair, locked in thick handcuffs. I tried to squeeze my fist, tried to use my powers to feel through the Earth, find out where I was, try to escape, anything, but it was no use.

Sighing in defeat, I looked up to see Jack inches from my face.

"Heya, Rachel." He grinned at me with that stupid, toothy grin. I spat in his face.

Jack didn't stop grinning. His hand shot out and pressed against my forehead, pushing my head back so that I had nowhere to look but up, at him. "Too little, too late." He whispered, wiping the spit off his cheek with his thumb.

"Jack, enough of this childish nonsense!" A eerily calm voice commanded from the shadows.

Jack looked over his shoulder, where the voice had come from. He seemed absolutely disgusted to be taking orders, but when he turned back to me he was grinning again.

"It had stopped being fun, anyway." He shrugged. Letting go of my head, it fell down so quickly I was terrified that my neck would snap. I tucked my chin in, taking deep, heavy breaths.

Jack wasn't dressed like Natsu anymore. Instead, he wore an orange and black armored outfit that resembled Rose's current costume, the one that I'd seen Slade wearing when he robbed the bank to get the attention of both Titan groups.

I was looking at the floor, and I could only see Jack's feet. He took a step back, to catch his balance from something, and then he dumped a uniform similar to his own at my feet. 

I kept staring at the uniform, still taking deep breaths in and out. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Jack's feet walk off to the side and behind me. There was the sound of metal clanking, and my hands dropped to my sides. I was free.

Instantly, I spun around raising my fists at Jack to demand him to let me go, but he held up his hand.

"No use. When I knocked you out, I gave you a  dose of Slade's newest "Anti-power drug." You can't do anything unless he wants you too." He smirked.

I glared at him, desperate to prove him wrong, but he was right. My fists weren't glowing their usual, warm, yellow color. My vision wasn't overtaken by that same light it did when I used my powers.

I was helpless.

Take away my powers, take away the one thing I'm good at, the one thing that makes me special, and what am I?

Nothing.

Jack kicked at the pile of clothes on the floor. "Slade and I are going to leave you now. Might as well get changed. You're on a new team now." He tapped his chest, and I saw a circular "S" symbol on the left side, kind of like Cardinal's "C" symbol. 

He walked out of the circle of light that came from the fizzing lamp hanging above my chair, disappearing into the shadows. then, one single eye popped out at me from the darkness.

Slade.

My breath caught in my throat, and I struggled to continue breathing evenly. He'd blackmailed my mom into nearly destroying the entire city before, and now he was trying to do the same to me.

Correction: he was doing the same to me. 

After a moment of staring at me, the single eye vanished, and I heard a door close.

With nothing else to do, I knelt down by the pile of orange and black rags. Finding the neckplate for the suit, I held it up to look at just what I was getting into.

It was made of kevlar, the same stuff most of our uniforms were made of. In addition to the neckplate, there were also metal elbow and knee pads, adding gray to the color scheme of orange and black. Slade must have upgraded his standard costume since we found Rose. The color scheme wasn't terrible, but orange definitely wasn't my favorite color.

Painful realization stabbed me through the chest as I fingered the "S" symbol on my own costume. I looked down at the "T" symbol on my belt buckle, and pressed it.

"Galatia to Titans, can you hear me?"

Static.

I pressed it again.

"Galatia to Titans, come in Titans!"

Nothing.

"Swift! Crow! Hex! Cardinal! Nightstar! Come in Titans!"

I choked, watching dark spots appear on the orange material.

"Ravager, anyone! Come in! Please!" 

I sobbed as the static intensified. Even though it hurt my ears, I didn't have the strength to turn it off. My arms failed to hold me up, and I collapsed in a ball on the floor.

I was completely, utterly, and truly, alone.