Dominari in Timore (BrOhm)

Chapter 23

(Ohm's POV)

My father stood in the middle of the base, speaking to his followers. I tuned the speech out as I sat against a wall near the back, just waiting for it to end. It looked as though he was riling them up, preparing them for something. I didn't want to know what it was. Suddenly they began to move, going out another door that led into the forest. My father stayed on his pedestal, waiting until everybody was out, and then he grabbed me and pulled me up.

"Son, I want you to stay with me, so you can witness what is about to happen." I glanced at him with worry.

"What is about to happen?" I asked. He grew an evil smirk, his eyes shining with malice and knowing.

"Just wait and see my boy, just wait and see."

(Bryce's POV)

I raced up the stairs and as soon as I reached Adam's door I flung it open, making a large banging noise as it hit the wall. Adam looked up as I walked in, a partially shocked look on his face.

"Careful there, Bryce, or you're gonna put a hole through the wall," He chuckled, "now what can I do for you?" I glared at him, and something must've shown in my face because he seemed to get serious real quick.

"Don't play dumb with me Adam; I know what you've been doing." Adam's eyebrow raised in confusion.

"And what would that be, exactly? I'm a very busy man you know, and I do many things," he replied. I walked u ok and slammed my hands on his desk, making him jump back slightly.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the experiments you've been running down near the training room! I though that we were a group whose intent was to stop things like that from happening! But now I find out that you've been doing the exact same thing as the people we are trying to stop. Why the hell are you doing this?" I demanded, anger seeping through my voice. Adam looked slightly taken aback by my outburst, but then let out a long, quiet sigh.

"I guess it was only a matter of time before you finally found out about it. Look, I want you to understand that I am against the experimenting, really, but if you think about it, it's for a good reason." I gave him a skeptical look.

"What possible reason could you give me that constitutes this?"

"Look, I want the MA gone as much as you do. But looking at it from a logical stand point, there's no way we could ever have enough people to take them on. They are just too powerful, and have too many loyal people. Then I thought: what if I could take the amount of people we have now, and make them powerful enough to equal the amount of people the MA has and then some. So my goal was to try and see if forcing people to have fears would develop elemental powers within them. If I could manage to give people that already had a power an element on top of it, think of how unstoppable they could be. So for the past week or so, I've been hooking up our recruits to those tables and putting them into a simulation of some sorts. The simulation was designed to put them into scenarios that could potentially cause a fear to develop, and from there see if they gained an elemental power. Double the power, double the amount of damage they can do, and then we'd have a small army's worth with just a few people." I stated at Adam in shock. Was he really willing to go so far for this? I wanted the MA gone just as much as he did, but this was taking it too far. If we lost, then so be it, but this was no way to go about it.

"Are you out of your mind?" I exclaimed, "you know just as well as I do that this is horrible. I agree, we do need to defeat the MA, but this is no way to try and do it. Adam, you have to realize that you are messing with people's LIVES, for god's sake. You should know just as much as I do that that kind of thing ruins people. I couldn't use my powers for months because I was too petrified to even attempt it. You can't tell me that you're willing to do that to other people for this. This 'war' will only last so long, but that kind of thing lasts for a life time." Adam looked to he thinking, as though he were analyzing what I was saying.

"Bryce, you think I don't know that?" Because I do; I was the same way for so long after I got my powers. But I don't see any other way we are going to be able to win this," Adam replied, his voice sad. I stared at him, refusing to so readily give in.

"We will find a way, Adam, but this isn't it. If you do this, then you are no better than the ones we are fighting. And we cannot let that happen. We cannot become what we are trying so hard to destroy. Because if we do, then who's to say who the real enemy is?" I tried again, persistence clearly evident. Adam looked at me, and I knew that I had won.

"You-you're right Bryce. God I just... I just wanted to have some way of being sure we could win this. But I know that it isn't right. I swear, I swear that I'll stop this, and that we'll find a better way of doing things. I'm so sorry Bryce. Thank you." I gave him a sad look.

"I understand what you were trying to do, but how do I know that I can still trust you? As for right now, I think it will take a while for you hate us to redeem yourself, but I still believe you to be a good person. Goodnight, Adam." With that, I left the room to go to my own.