Child Control

What Happened?

Torana's POV

I woke up to see Yov standing over me and crying. I had heard everything she said to me in the darkness and it made so much sense.

"You were her." I breathed. "You were the girl I talked to through the vent. No wonder we became fast friends, we had been friends before."

"What are you saying?" She asked, her red eyes widening.

"I am the girl you knew in the Facility. I was the one who was moved into solitary confinement and spoke to you through the vent, desperate for human contact. When I disappeared it was because they ripped my tongue out, for the first time." I mumbled the last part as she swept me into a bone-crushing hug. I gasped in pain and she instantly let me go.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I forgot you're injured. You'll have to fill in more of your side of the story later, but first I need to let others know you're awake." She called Annita and the triplets through her Comm device and as soon as she ended the call Annita burst into the room.

"Torana!" She said, rushing over. "Are ya alright? We were so worried. What happened?" She asked.

"I'll tell you when the triplets get here, I don't want to have to repeat the story, especially since it's not a pretty one," I said and tried to sit up but cried out in pain. Pain bloomed across my side and black spots swam in my vision from the pain.

"Oh don't try to sit up lassie! You've been badly hurt. Ya have some broken ribs that need to heal so rest!"

"I was in a coma." I wheezed. "I'm tired of... resting." I knew my argument was falling on deaf ears because Annita just huffed and fluffed the pillows behind my head while Yov glared at me. I forgot I was hurt and didn't know my ribs were broken, but that explained my difficulty breathing and pain.

While I tried to catch my breath the triplets came in with grim looks on their faces.

"What happened?" Yov asked and quickly wiped her face on her sleeves. Fia's face contorted in concern and she looked between the two of us but didn't press the issue. Instead, she sighed and took a seat in one of the brown straight-backed chairs in the corner. Taylor leaned against the wall and slid his hand down his face while Zax stood near Annita.

"Alexi and Grievous have betrayed us," Taylor said.

"Well, I could have told you that," I said and everyone looked at me. "No no, keep talking I wanna hear what happened and then I'll tell you my story."

He nodded and continued. "I had my suspicions about Alexi and Grievous so I tracked their Comm devices to the very place Torana escaped from. We found them there in a lounge and followed them straight to Alan's apartment. The fact that they were not only comfortable in the anti-guilds headquarters but that they were concerned about Alan's safety from us confirms that they double-crossed us."

"Once they left we got Alan to stop using his power on Torana to keep her in the coma and I found this," Fia said and held up a rectangular object. It was smooth and had one door on the top.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It is a memory-erasing device. You attach the wires inside the box to a person's head and set the time their memory is to erase from and boom- it's done. Of course, we used it on him and made him not only forget us being there but made him forget he stopped using his powers on you. I have no idea if it works so we need to run some tests."

"Ok," Annita said. "I'll have it sent to the lab and they can run some tests and get back to us. Now Torana, what did you see while you were there?" Everyone's eyes turned to me and I suddenly felt apprehensive to relive the memory.