Sparkle (KOTLC) {Completed}

1

Janessa woke up on the bottom bunk of a bed in a concrete room with a tiny window by the ceiling, a large mirror, and a heavy-looking door. Sighing, Janessa stretched, then yelled out in pain, clutching her shoulder that hadn't been completely healed and must have been aggravated during transportation here.

Looking in the mirror, she found that her scar was slightly paler on her cheek than before, though still prominent, her hair was slightly longer and weighed down by sweat, and she was slightly skinnier than before.

The door opened silently and Fintan entered, holding a plate full of strange looking fruits that made Janessa's mouth water and some elixirs.

"Good afternoon, Janessa. Hungry?" Fintan held out the plate to her. Janessa stared at it mistrustfully. Fintan rolled his eyes. "If we wanted to hurt you we would have done it before."

Janessa reluctantly took a spiky magenta fruit and nibbled at it, finding it quite delicious and struggling to stop herself from gobbling the entire thing in one bite. Sniffing the elixirs, she recognized them as the ones Physic used for her shoulder.

"Are you doing this because you want me to join you or some other reason?" Janessa wondered.

"We're not as bad as the Black Swan makes us out to be." Fintan said darkly.

Janessa rolled her eyes. "So what? I've never pretended to understand your organization, but that doesn't mean I'll ever agree with your methods. The end doesn't justify the means."

Fintan raised an intrigued eyebrow, having expected her to be much more firmly against them.

"What? You thought the Black Swan brainwashed me to think you guys are completely evil and everything you're doing is bad and for power?" Janessa huffed. "I mean, sure, you're probably just power-hungry villains, but I can't pretend I know anything about your organization other than what you've done, so there's no way I can understand your motivations as a whole."

Fintan smiled in a way that seemed almost genuine. "You're very insightful. I'm sure once you do understand our motivations, your view of us will be much clearer and less... negative."

Janessa's face fell into an almost emotionless, cold expression. "Even if I think the reason behind everything you've done is the best thing I've ever heard, I will never consider joining you after what I've seen you do."

Fintan's smile didn't fall. "We'll see."

The door opened again and another blond man with piercing eyes entered.

"Ah, Gethen. Right on time." Fintan's smile widened and a glint in his eye caused fear to trickle down Janessa's spine as she realized where she knew this name from. He was the Neverseen's telepath.

Janessa stumbled back to her bed. "Don't you dare pick through my brain!"

Gethen and Fintan both smirked at that, knowing she must know a lot about their rivals.

Gethen approached her and put his hands on her temples; Janessa could feel him picking through her brain as memories came up one by one in her mind. Finally, he arrived in Exile.

A groaning alarm sounded, causing her to stumble backwards in shock. Right into the waiting claws of one of the ogres she'd angered.

Janessa screamed as the claws sliced through her right arm, face, and hip and pulled her closer to the bars. Keefe came running back first, the others having gone further ahead.

"Janessa!" He yelled just as the ogre's pointy teeth latched onto Janessa's left shoulder, breaking through the bone.

Janessa felt her shoulder bones being crushed all over again and the horror of the moment coursed through her body as she began shaking and sobbing, mumbling with tears streaming down her face, "please stop" repeatedly. Gethen did not go any further after finding that memory, as it was the one she'd hidden deepest, besides the Black Swan secrets he would never find.

Fintan looked on curiously and, strangely, sympathetically. "That's enough, Gethen. Report whatever you found to Brant."

Gethen nodded and stepped out of the room as Janessa wrapped her arms around her legs into a fetal position.

"What memory was that?" Fintan wondered softly.

Janessa didn't answer.

"I'll find out from Gethen later anyways." Fintan reminded her.

After a few moments, Janessa met his gaze. "In Exile, I was eaten by an ogre. It's how I got my scars. It's not exactly a good memory. I can't say I enjoyed reliving it."

Fintan sighed. "I'm sorry. You're too young to have suffered that, especially with everything else you've had to endure."

Janessa looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

Fintan's eyes were somehow both sincere and angry. "You've been hidden from our world for your entire life, even when you found out about it, because you wouldn't have been accepted, just because you were a pyrokinetic. I made a mistake allowing the Council to ban pyrokinesis, and now you're paying the price. I need to fix my mistake."

Janessa looked down at her hands confusedly. Everything he said had sounded the opposite of evil, not quite good either, but he was just someone trying right a wrong, at least in this particular case. "I never really realized how much it bothered me that I didn't go to the Lost Cities until I met Sophie. The Black Swan gave me a choice, but..."

"The Council took it away. I took it away all those years ago."

Janessa nodded.

Fintan waited until they made eye contact once more before speaking again. "Even if you don't join us, I am very willing to teach you to control our ability. You deserve the training even if you don't want to be one of the 'power-hunger villains' as you put it."

Janessa glared softly, unsurely, before nodding. "Thank you, I guess. I appreciate that."