You Again

Ch. 18

It was silent as the five pulled up their chairs to the group. I smiled inwardly at the group of twenty six crammed into Uncle's diner. The nine men in front of me were looking at the new group with looks of distrust, shock, and anger.

Kayli leaned forward in her seat. Her eyebrows were scrunched together with confusion. "Does someone want to start to explain? I mean, I didn't even know that Wil was Volto."

Wil looked down while facing his sister. "I didn't want you to know. It's not something that I am proud of now that we know the whole truth."

Victor spoke. "Can you start at the beginning?"

"Yeah," Gabriel spoke. "How the fuck do you guys know about the Academy?"

Karen laughed before looking at the Blackbourne team. "All of us were either tried to be recruited or are related to someone in the Academy. My cousin was part of the Academy until he disappeared. He later resurfaced with a bullet in his brain. I dug into his murder and discovered that he was part of the Academy and was undercover in a drug ring before his identity was revealed and murdered. If it wasn't for the Academy, he would still be alive."

Mike spoke before anyone could ask questions. "I was actually part of the Academy when I was thirteen but left when I was faced with a mission I knew that I couldn't be apart of. The Academy liaison tried to talk me into it and even threatened to pull back the protection on my younger sister from our abusive father. I knew that the Academy was not to blame but how could they let someone so mean as my Academy liaison in their midst. I decided to leave them and never looked back."

Derrick was next. "Several of you know that recruiters tried to talk me into joining but I denied. I saw that Nathan and sometimes Kota would come back home bruised and bloody. That wasn't something that appealed to me so I refused."

Jay was next. "My father was Academy. He had met Jade and my mother on a mission and saved her. When I was seven, a man appeared in our house while my father was away. He was someone who was trying to get revenge for what my father and his team did to his family. He beat my mother until she couldn't breath without moaning. He beat my sister and me. By the time that my father appeared, we were all bloody and injured. Jade changed due to an injury to her head. She went insane and caused this scar on my face. She takes medication to calm herself down but she hasn't been the same. Every time I see my face, I see what the Academy had done to my family."

Everyone's attention went towards the last person. Wil fidgeted in his seat before speaking. "I discovered the Academy when my sister met the Toma team. She had disappeared and I didn't know where she went until I saw her with them. I looked into them and discovered who they were." He turned towards his sister. "You didn't even care to look for me by yourself. I saw your boyfriend come to my school to check up on me yet you couldn't come yourself. I hated the Academy because if they didn't show, we would still be close."

Everyone was quiet at the information. Kayli was shocked at the revelation of her brother's deep dislike for her boyfriends. The toma team tried to comfort her but she withdrew from their touches. The Blackbourne team was shocked as well. They didn't know how the Academy affected the people around them.

Karen picked up the conversation in the silence. "When you guys showed up at our school, we knew immediately who you were. Then Sang appeared and we saw that you were trying to recruit her. All of us had our reasons and we couldn't let someone as innocent as her go into that group. But our plans backfired. She didn't leave you and was adamant about it."

Sean frowned. "Which one of you was in the hospital?"

Jay raised his hand. "That was me. I knew that Sang was in trouble because I overheard Greg with a bunch of his groupies saying that he was going to the hospital to finish Gabriel and have some fun with her. I arrived just in time to pull her out of Greg's view in the basement."

"Who was the person that hacked into my dragon desk," Victor asked.

Wil blushed. "That was me. I didn't expect Muriel to go crazy."

"So what was your job?" Kota motioned towards Karen.

Karen sat back in her chair. "I became Sang's friend in hope that she would talk about what you guys were doing, but she didn't speak that much about you."

"I was the one who kidnapped her from the hospital." Mike spoke calmly as if he said that every day. Wide eyes looked at him, and he threw his arms up. "What? I mean, I returned her to you guys unharmed."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Mike."

North growled. "How can you be so comfortable with the people who stalked us?"

I shrugged. "I understand their motives, and they didn't know about the abuse I suffered at the hands of my family."

Mr. Blackbourne stood up and started to pace behind their chairs. He whirled towards us. "Why did they reveal themselves to you?"

Jay spoke although the question was directed at me. "We thought that since Sang wouldn't leave you, we would try to make you leave her. We made trips to California and started some activity. We posed as an Academy team and called for help. We made sure that you stayed away from her. Then a year after we left and you followed we received a call from Sang. She said that she knew who we were and wanted us to face her to explain." He chuckled, shaking his head. "She had hacked us and was able to discover who we were. She's smart."

Derrick smiled. "I agree. We weren't that smart. We know that now. When we met her back here, she revealed her abuse that her mother did to her and that you guys were trying to protect her. We decided to bury Volto and we haven't resurfaced him."

"What about the text to us that came from Sang?" Silas spoke softly.

"Text?" Wil spoke. "What text?"

Nathan scoffed. "The one you guys sent saying that she was dumping us."

Looks were exchanged between the five of them. Mike's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "We didn't send any text like that."

Corey spoke up. Eyes went to him and he fidgeted in his seat from the many stared. He turned towards the Blackbourne team. "Where there any times that you left your phones with the women in your previous mission?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah. What does that have to do with this?"

Kota spoke slowly as if he was trying to understand. "There is a big possibility that they went through our text messages and saw our conversations with Sang. They became jealous and sent pictures with us to Sang. Then they deleted the messages so that we wouldn't see."

Corey smiled. "Yeah. It's not that hard to copy a phone if you know how. One of the girls could have copied Sang's phone and sent you messages, posing as Sang."

Mr. Blackbourne turned towards the Toma team. "What are you saying, Mr. Henshaw?"

Axel answered. "What we are saying is that those bitches are the reason you and your team broke up with Sang."

Gabriel stood up. "Wait hold up. So let's get this straight. You are saying that those bitches stole our phones and sent a text to Sang saying that we breaking up. Then deleted those messages then copied Sang's phone and posed as her.

He pointed towards the Voltos. "And you fucking assholes thought that we were trying to use Sang and tried to make her leave us. But when that didn't happen you made it so that we would follow you to the other side of the fucking country. Then after a year we left you learned that we were trying to protect her from her family but you didn't tell us what happened and let us flounder away the next two years searching for a fucking ghost trail through Europe."

And he pointed towards me and my team. "During that time while you were reeling from the break up we didn't fucking know, you joined the Academy and found your brother who is gay and has two partners. Then you got a boyfriend and became friends with Volto." He huffed. "Did I leave anything out?"

Ryker looked around. "Nope."

Gabriel fell back into his seat and crossed his arms. "This is so fucked up."

Cian smirked. "For once, I agree with him."