The After Kingdom: UnOrdinary (Arlo x John)

Chapter 43

Isen was successfully able to hack into John's files, and everything progressed too smoothly- with Arlo being able to bring John on a hidden place that Seraphina helped him acquire.

Other than the tracker that Arlo used on John, Remi also wasn't able to detect any electricity flow or hidden devices on his body. The authorities had nothing attached to John for them to track him back, but still, Arlo was anxious.

He had the vehicles checked- and there were also none.

It was too unbelievable no matter how Arlo looked at it. For them to just dispose John...

He wanted to know why, but he also wanted everything to be over.

He should be viewing the files and finding out what it was they did to John, but Arlo could only hold his hands, and gaze at his bruised and wounded body, unable to do anything.

Elaine's abilities still aren't working on him.

If he lets his hand go, he was afraid that his heart would stop beating at any minute.

So the whole night, until morning comes, he just held and stared at John.

Even if he was unconscious, he looked like he was in so much pain, and Arlo knew that he is.

The pain that John have felt, it was nothing compared to him, so what right does Arlo have to let his tears fall?

Arlo was afraid, that if he sleeps or shuts his eyes for awhile, John would leave him.

If only Arlo was faster... If only he just escaped with John the moment he found out that the authorities are after him... If only he didn't left John alone on that hotel...

Then maybe, everything wouldn't result like this.

Blaming himself won't do anything, but his thoughts couldn't stop thinking about what ifs.

"Arlo, the files-- aren't you... Going to view them?" Isen asked.

"Have you viewed them yourself?"

Isen gulped, "I- I did skimmed through some of them. I watched one of the clips."

"What did you saw?"

The other man wasn't able to immediately respond, but his expression told Arlo that it wasn't good, "I think, it's best for you to watch it yourself..." Isen said, placing the USB on the table.

Arlo squeezed John's fingers tighter than before.

He should watch the clips and view the files, but John...

John was still unconscious.

"If you're worried about John, I can look after him."

Arlo frowned at his suggestion.

"Then, uh, I'll call Seraphina to look after John. She's already awake now-"

Isen hurried to the other room, and moments later, Seraphina arrived. It took Arlo awhile before letting go of John's hands, kissing him on his forehead before bringing himself to dig through his files.

As suspected, his hunch was correct.

The authorities were slowly giving him drugs during John's time at 'The Bar'. They increase the dose everytime, and they gave it to him mostly through drinks given by his 'customers'.

Apparently, Experiment No. 4314, John, was meant to be retrieved at the day Arlo's team infiltrated the bar, but thanks to the blond asking John to leave, the authorities weren't able to get ahold of him.

They intended to take him that day, as their experiment was near completion, but since they weren't able to get a hold of him, they have to 'attack' John.

That was the day when they injected the supposedly final drug, one that would make John immune towards other abilities and retain them permanently. It was why Elaine wasn't able to heal him, but since John was wounded when he came home, Arlo assumed that they were able to inject him the final drug in the middle of the fight, or it could be possible that the drugs didn't immediately took effect.

However, the reports stated that John was affected the flames and gust from the people they sent to test his abilities, and with that, they concluded that he only wasn't affected by abilities lower than 4.

The reason that John was able to be' free' for a longer period of time was because they haven't perfected the drug yet.

But they were always watching him, in a form of an unsuspecting customer from the coffee shop where John had worked before, or a civilian that he'll come across on a daily basis. A lot of things were reported, even the fact that Arlo lives with him.

Then, they've tasked Isen to do the observations instead, since he was the closest to Arlo from the team.

The authorities killing William was part of the plan, so that John would have 'nothing'. They intended to break him, slowly, since they have already perfected the drug.

What went wrong was, Arlo injecting John with the ability dampener.

And once they've gotten ahold of his ability level, they intended to immediately remove the effects of the dampener on his system, but they didn't succeeded.

John was able to get his abilities back again, but the infusion of the drug reacted with the prior drugs given to him, causing John to be imperfect. They injected him with more enhancers, but his body was already rejecting them.

It was all that the document contains, but there are a lot of clips and videos of John.

John was uncooperative on the first clips, but they were hurting him, seeing if John was still immune from the attacks.

As expected, he wasn't affected by any of those. They also tried getting him to attack some prisoners, but John never obeyed.

After Arlo visited him, they started using knives atack, as a way to get him to use his abilities.

John still wasn't compliant.

Finally, Arlo watched the last video on the files, and the blond was pained from what he saw.

John was just alone on his room, when he suddenly started moving as if he was fighting someone, then, as if he was being restricted on the ground.

Soon enough, he started using his abilities, producing flames on his hands- hurting himself.

A group of guards have to interfere. John wasn't affected by other people's abilities, but he was affected by his own, even by the offensive ones.

It was a major flaw, along with his ruined mind.

They attempted to tranquilize John, but John was too strong. He displayed more than ten abilities, almost killing the guards restricting him.

Eventually, one of them was able to stab John, and it gave them the opportunity to hold him down. An unknown drug was then injected on John's neck, and the dark haired man fell, trembling on the ground.