United As The Ten- Part One Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter Twenty Four

Max's POV:

Bryce promised he would let Nine go. He just never stated when.

The Mogs unchain Nine and push him deeper into the cell with me. Bryce grabs the Xitharis stone from my hand and examines it, smirking widely. He puts it in his pocket and turns back to me. He takes his Mogadorian sword off my neck and instead wraps his left hand around my throat and presses the back of my head against the wall. He doesn't choke me, but it's definitely a warning.

"If this doesn't work, we know where you are, Jackson," Bryce warns me then lets go of my throat and walks out with the other Mogs, closing and locking the cell door behind him.

I fall to my knees next to Nine, who's avoiding my gaze. "You shouldn't have done that, Max," Nine tells me, finally looking up at me. I shake my head.

"He swore he would let you go alive if I charge it. He never said anything about charging it with resurrection."

Nine looks confused at first but he quickly understands. "Which one did you use?" He asks me, smirking his cocky smirk again.

"Telekinesis, and Bryce already has that," I reply. Nine's smirk widens and he automatically embraces me in a tight hug. I hug him back but he squeezes me so hard I almost running out of breath.

"Okay, too hard," I tell him, patting his head. He mutters a quick apology before letting go of me. We both wait for Bryce to be far away enough that we'll get our legacies back.

"Max. The Mogs said something...about you," Nine tells me, avoiding my eyes again.

"What is it?" I ask, a little nervous. What'd they tell Nine?

"They said that they..." Nine takes a shaky breath before finishing. "That they experimented on you." He looks up at me but I'm completely frozen. Only Percy, Ivan, and Jason know about that, and with Jason and Ivan, it wasn't even by choice. I feel lost and hopeless, and I don't even know why.

I look down and slowly nod my head, my hands starting to slightly shake.

Nine doesn't hesitate. He immediately embraces me in a tight, protective hug. Not nearly as tight as last time, though.

"Max, you're like a little sister to me. If anything happens to you, please tell me. I don't want to keep finding out by force, or by someone else telling me," Nine says, placing one of his hands on my stomach where my burns used to be. I hesitate, remembering the reason my eyes changed color.

"And that includes what happened to you to make your eyes change color," Nine adds in as if reading my mind. I freeze up then start shaking again, even worse than last time. Nine holds me tighter, softly rubbing my back in a soothing way. The thing is, it's not what they did that was so awful, even though it was pretty bad. It's what happened to me while they were doing it that makes me so afraid of talking about it.

I can't keep this in forever. I can't, and I won't.

"Okay," I reply, pulling away from Nine. "Okay."

Nine softly grabs my shoulders and turns me around so my back is facing him then pulls me closer to him and lets my head rest on his chest. I focus on everything but what I'm about to say- the soft beating of Nine's heart, the way he takes my hand in his, and how he holds me so I'm not so afraid anymore.

Nine gives me a soft, brotherly kiss on the top of my head and I feel so safe around him. Why doesn't he always act like this? It's so comforting and amazing, how gentle and caring he is.

I take one last shaky breath before finally starting.

"It's not what happened to me that scares me so much. It's what happened during it," I start, my heartbeat quickening with every word I say.

"What'd they do?" Nine asks me gently and patiently, tracing random lines against the palm of my hand.

"The same thing they did to me the last time I was here. They experimented on me, tortured me. They tried to take all the Loric power out of me so they could use it for themselves," I explain and I can't help myself. The memories come flooding back to me- how painful it was, the experiments, and that one Mogadorian who was the reason it all happened.

"But how? You were dead when they did it," Nine asks, still not letting go of me. I bite my lip as I feel a lump forming in my throat. I shake my head, tears threatening to form.

"What do you mean?" Nine questions, now sounding confused but still highly concerned for me.

"There was..." I choke off, tears now streaming down my face. Nine wipes them away with his free thumb, softly whispering comforting things into my ear, and honestly, that seems to make me cry even more. I still can't believe that Nine, one of the most tough people I know, would destroy his wall of strength to comfort me.

After I've calmed down, I continue my horrifying story. "There was a Mogadorian, the only Mogadorian with legacies. He-He had a resurrection legacy, just like I do. They...They killed me and brought me back over and over again. Each time they would try something new to me- a new experiment, a new tactic for torture. When I killed the Mogadorian with resurrection, they killed me again, and whatever resurrected me again brought me back. That's when I left the base, when I found the demigods. During one of the experiments was when my eyes changed color," I explain, remembering everything that happened to me in vivid detail.

Nine is silent for a few moments before hugging me again, kissing my head a bunch of times and mumbling random apologies and comforting words.

"It's okay, Nine. It-It wasn't your fault, anyways," I tell Nine, giving him a sisterly kiss on the cheek. He nods his head, still hugging me tightly.

"I still remember it. I still remember every single detail, every bit of it. Every time someone brings it up, it all comes flooding back to me," I whisper and it's true. Everyone would ask me what happened tons of times, like it's not that big of a deal, but I can feel it now. I can almost feel all the pain and torture they did to me. Just talking about it makes me want to curl into a ball and cry the rest of my life away.

"It's okay, Max. I won't tell anyone, and I'll tell them to back off and not ask about it," Nine tells me but I shake my head.

"No. They have a right to know," I reply. Nine hesitates but nods his head, giving me another kiss on my head.

Suddenly I feel it- all my power and legacies filling me again. Bryce is far enough so that we have our legacies back.

It's time to get off this dam warship.

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