Salient Secret 2

38

Vada

"Vada this better good or so help me I will-" I understand Imelda's frustration, I'd also be pissed if someone dragged me out of bed this early.

"Oh trust me it's good," I say cutting her off. 

"What is it?" sleepy Lorenzo asks. 

"Look," I say turning to the board, "Their names spell out CYNTHIA, Clover, Yvonne, Niko, Tasia, Heska, Idris, Ambrose," I explain pointing at their names. "They're not her children, she is them."

"That's not possible," Palmer says. 

"I agree with Palmer. I know we've been through a lot of possibles that we thought were impossible, but a person being able to split themselves into seven different people seems a bit far fetched," Mel adds and by the look on everyone's faces, it's clear they all feel the same way. 

"Think about it you guys, I read every single one of these books, nowhere does it mention Cynthia giving birth or even having a partner. None of the pictures are with Cynthia and her children and there's no timeline of  her their lives, everyone thinks Cynthia died, but she didn't. Their names lining up to spell Cynthia can't be just a coincidence," I continue. 

"I'm not saying you're right, but for arguments sake let's say you are, how did she manage to split herself into seven different people?" Kai questions. 

"I don't know, but with everything that has happened, I don't believe it's impossible," I respond. 

"This somehow makes sense," Cassian comments and I mentally sigh in relief that not everyone thinks I'm crazy. "If it is true, that means she will have seven different strong abilities."

"And together we have eight different strong abilities," I confidently say. 

"Our abilities can't stop tsunamis and earthquakes and tornadoes and stor-"

"Okay I got it Rik," I snap. "We might not be able to stop what she does but that doesn't mean we can't stop her."

"I think we should be more focused on what she wants with you Ave," Palmer says, I'd be lying if I said her calling me Ave doesn't bother me, but I brush it off. 

"She obviously needs me to teleport someone or something for her, which I won't do, not even if she takes me-"

"She's not taking you," Kai firmly says cutting me off. 

"She's been around for over 100 years, I think we're underestimating her," Imelda comments. 

"And I think you're all underestimating my ability not to die," I bark back. 

"Vay we all know you can't die, but we also know that you'll do exactly what she wants if she threatens one of us," Tanith explains, she's right, I will do anything to protect them.

"Let's not forget that she hasn't merged yet, she is still seven people. My guess is if we separate them from each other, she can't become one person," Palmer explains and that triggers my memory of Tasia asking Tanith and Rik to find the others because she wanted them with her until the 'finale'.

"I say we try to kill them," Mel says and Rik nods his head in agreement. 

"They can't be killed," I reply. 

"Bullshit. I can bet that if we behead them and burn their bodies into ash, they're not coming back," Rik says.

"What if they just take over another body?" Cassian argues. 

"If they were body hoppers, how come they all look similar to their portraits in the Electus archives?" Palmer asks. 

"Yeah there is no way at least one of them hasn't died over all this time," Lorenzo adds. 

"Okay," I say and Mel's eyes widen. 

"Okay?" she asks. 

"Okay, go ahead and behead one and burn the body into ashes so that we can see how they come back," I continue knowing there's only one way to find out what we're dealing with.

"That's suicide," Kai says. "What if they can't kill one? One is going to kill them or take them hostage." 

"Are you seriously doubting our ability to kill?" Rik asks as if he is offended. 

"Clearly you don't know us very well," Mel adds. 

"Avery," the fact that Kai still calls me Avery just shows me that he still hasn't accepted the fact that Avery is dead and I am nothing like her. "You can't seriously be considering this?" Avery wouldn't, but as I said, I'm not her. 

"I'm not considering it Kai, my mind is made up," I say leaving no room for a debate, I do not appreciate the way he constantly doubts my leadership. "Mel and Rik, and anyone else who wants to, go ahead and kill one or, kill all of them if you can," I continue knowing that the last part will piss off Kai. 

"I'll come," Tanith says and the three of them teleport away when no one else volunteers. 

"I'm glad you didn't volunteer, can you please work on costumes for our 3 newbies," I say to Cassian. 

"Sure thing, I'll get started right away," he says leaving the room. 

"Really?" Lorenzo says when everyone else is gone, clearly siding with Kai. 

"What?" I ask rudely. Can you see what I'm talking about? These three keep treating me like I'm the same weak girl  who was afraid of Dane and died in a tragic bomb accident, I could tolerate it at first, but in times like this, my team needs me to be in full battle mode, and that's not going to happen if they keep on reminding me about Avery Shaw.

"What? You just gave them a kill order and if they're not successful they die. How can you put your teams lives at risk like that Avery?" Kai asks judgmentally. Did you hear that? 'Avery'. I have to set them straight now before the real battle starts, I've had enough. 

"For starters, they didn't train at kiddies camp like you guys did. When I first met them they were top class murders, I trained them into fearless, unbeatable warriors. We single-handedly took down all ten of your precious bases and stopped anti-fulminares with powers you couldn't even imagine, so don't doubt my leadership and my team because yours failed," I aggressively say. 

"Avery!" Palmer scolds. 

I'm so tired of them seeing me as someone who doesn't exist anymore, they've had more than enough time to adjust, this is outright refusal to accept me for who I am now. So I walk up to the three of them with my head held high and say my last words before I teleport away.

"It's Vada."