Salient Secret 2

52

Vada

"Palmer, it's me," I say backing away, not wanting to hurt her as she moves closer to me holding up a gun. I turned my suits intangibility on so that even if she does shoot, it will go straight through me. All of a sudden, the sky is all I see until a sword hits the ground next to me, Imelda. She pulls it out and carries on trying to stab me with it but I keep rolling until I teleport away. 

Everywhere I go they find me, I can't do this for much longer. Cynthia disappeared to who knows where and my team is trying to kill me. This would be easy if it was 3 against 4 or something like that, but it's 1 against 7, snapping them out of their trance one by one is a lot harder. They are literally mindless zombies with one goal, to kill me.

I'm trying to steer clear of Tanith and Cassian because their powers are the most challenging to counter. 

"Hey Lorenzo," I say calmly as he approaches me with electric eyes, he is alone, this is my only chance to bring him back to my side. I lock eyes with him, and use my hallucikinesis to create a snippet of him and Tanith together living a happy life. When it's over I study his face to see if it brought him back, it takes a few minutes but when he looks at me and smiles I know it's him. 

"What happened?" he asks. 

"Cynthia happened, you have to help me get the others back. But be careful, they want to kill." 

"Okay, I'll take Tanith and Palmer," he says and I smile at his not so obvious crush. 

"Shut up," he says when he notices me smiling and then teleports away. 

If I can get Rik/Mel back, the other can bring the other back. I teleport to wear I last saw Mel but she isn't there anymore. Just as I'm about to teleport away, I notice an arrow flying toward me, I dodge it and look where it came from... Rik. How do I bring Rik back?? The last time Mel brought him back, maybe I should use her. I lock eyes with him and make him see the memories in my head from the first day I met them, you know, when him and Mel were killing people in that barn. 

"It was a really good day," he says and I sigh in relief and hug him. 

"It's good to have you back. Now go find Imelda and bring her back, I'll take care of Kai and Cassian," I say and then teleport away. 

I run into Kai, this should be easiest considering, well, you know. I lock eyes with him and make him see us on a date at the beach on a hot day, playing in the ocean, laughing, just being happy together. 

"Avery," he says and then panics when he realizes what he just said, "Sorry, Vada."

"It's okay, I'm just glad you're back," I say with a warm smile on my face. "Go find Enzo and Palmer, I have to deal with Cassian."

As I turn around Kai grabs my arm and says, "Come back to me okay." I smile and nod then teleport away to find Cassian. 

"I was expecting that to take a bit longer," Cynthia says standing with Cassian who is staring into the abyss. 

"It's not that hard when people actually care about you," I spit. 

"Caring about people is what destroys you," she says clearly remembering someone who hurt her, I don't blame them, she is a top class psycho. 

"From my experience, caring about people is what makes you stronger. After all, what's the point in fighting if you have nothing to fight for?"

"You see, that's the problem, you don't think yourself is enough to fight for. After all these years, the one lesson that proved to be the most valuable, is the one that showed me that you have to put yourself first because all other people do is drain you to fill themselves up, after a while, it gets tiring."

"Well then again, you've clearly never had someone to love you as much as you love them," I reply. 

"Oh I did," she says reminiscing. I honestly don't care, I just want Cassian back. I slowly start walking towards him hoping she doesn't notice but she does. "I thought we were having a moment," she says like she's hurt. 

"We can have all the moments you'd like when you release my friend from the hold you have on him," I say referring to his zombie-like state. 

"Let's say I don't," she says, "And he dies right here, right now. You have 6 other friends, I'm sure you'll live without him." Can she hear herself? 

"That's because you've never understood the concept of family," Aurelia says from behind her mother. 

"You're not supposed to be here," Cynthia says to her, evidently frustrated. 

"Where mother? Here, in an abandoned realm??? Or here with you?" she asks, I think I'm missing something. 

"Don't be dramatic Aurelia, I made you stronger," Cynthia responds. 

"There were other ways to do that. You didn't have to lock me up in hell because I didn't support your lunatic tendencies!" she yells. 

"Don't you move," Cynthia says snapping her head to me after I try to move toward Cassian. "Listen you ungrateful brat, firstly, you were a mistake. One day you proved to actually be useful, and then you tried to keep me from using your usefulness for myself, so, I believe I went easy on you."

"I loved you mother, from day one, even after you tried to kill me! You are a horrible person, and I realized that too late, if I had known who you'd turn out to be I would have never created imperium in the first place!" Aurelia shouts with tears streaming down her face. I can't imagine how she must be feeling, her mother is literally a monster. 

"Can you see how weak she is because she cares?" Cynthia turns to me and asks. "Trust me, I'm actually doing you a favour," she says drawing a blade from her side and motioning it to kill Cassian. 

Before I know it, I look down, and feel a blade piercing my heart. 

Cassian snaps out of his zombie state and fear takes over his face. "You shouldn't have done that Vada," he says with tears pooling in his eyes. 

I use my last breath to reply, "You would have done it for me."