Chapter Seven: Captured

Nuru

I came to in another bright room, but I knew it wasn't the one I was knocked out in. I had been moved in my sleep and I was now lying down on my back spread-eagled while being held down with some sort of shackle[1]1 around all of my limbs and one around my waist. There was a large lamp directly above me. I pulled at the restraints as hard as I could to no avail. I wasn't strong enough

I closed my eyes. I was practically living in my perpetual nightmare. The only difference was I was still fully dressed, although my armor was gone. That was of little condolence to me though, it didn't change the fact that I was still probably about to be prodded under bright lights in a government base in some undisclosed location with no hope of anyone coming to rescue me.

I was in pain too. My entire body hurt more than it ever had before. I remembered the burning when I had been wrapped in the net. I looked down at my arm. Sure enough, there was a whole lattice of burns decorating my skin. I was sore too; they had apparently left me in the cocoon for a long time. I didn't know how to heal soreness, but I had done burns before. I gathered my magic and targeted the burns. Nothing. I gasped and tried a smaller area. Still nothing. What had they done to me?

Despite the fact that I was effectively crippled, there was only one thought in my mind at the time: I needed Kat. Not for her healing powers (although that would be useful right then) but for her. I wanted my fiancée. I tried to reach out to her with my mind, but I couldn't. I couldn't sense any sort of life at all. I started panicking even more than I already was. Many questions flashed through my mind. Was she bleeding? Was she still unconscious? Had she managed to escape while I was knocked out? Was she getting help? Was she trying to find me? Was she- was she… dead? I then came to a grim conclusion: it didn't matter; I was alone and going to stay that way.

I started turning my head, the only mobile part of my body from side to side, trying to find something, anything that could help me get out of this white hell. I saw nothing, the only things in the room other than my restraints and me were the plain white walls and the only noise was my heart's insane beat. I don't think my heart could go any faster. I felt the blood drain from my limbs and concentrate in my organs. I started sweating and calling for somebody anybody to help me. I seriously felt like I was going to die.

I heard a door open. My head instantly swung around to look in that direction, and I stopped yelling. There was a woman in a threshold I hadn't seen before.[2]2 The woman had short silver hair that was so smooth and stiff looking, even in my panicked state, I wondered if her hair was possibly actually some sort of metal. Her eyes were an icy blue. She wore a crisp white lab coat and actually looked quite like a surgeon they show in all the movies. I hoped for a moment that maybe she would let me go, but then I saw her pocket. Inside were several medical utensils including a scalpel. Despite my earlier theories, my heat beat even faster. Was she going to cut me open and dissect me while I was still alive?

Once she entered, she closed the door behind her. It fit perfectly into the wall and left no trace. No wonder I had missed it. She turned back around and seemed to notice me for the first time. She gasped and her eyes widened in shock. She walked closer to me. I noticed that the surface I was lying on was about the same height as her waist. She scrutinized me suspiciously. She was looking mainly at my body and occasionally placing a hand on me. She was ungodly cold, or maybe my body was ungodly warm because of my panic attack. She did a whole lap around my table before finally looking me in the face. I had started hyperventilating by that point.

She pressed a button next to my head and I jerked myself as far away from her as I could. It appeared to be an intercom, because she then lowered her head to it and spoke.

"The male has regained consciousness," she said. Her voice was as icy as her eyes and had the hints of a Scottish accent.

"What is its condition?" said a deep voice on the other side. His voice was thick and might have been described as chocolaty under normal circumstances. It came in crystal clear, they had great reception.

"It is in a completely panicked state. It doesn't seem to be taking the after effects of the sedatives well. It seems more aware of the circumstances and possibly more intelligent than the female, we'll get the information out of him."

My ears perked up. The female? Kat? KAT? My heart began to slow down, I was almost sure she was still alive. But it sped up again as I realized that she was in the same situation I was in. Also, if they were getting this 'information' out of me, what were they going to do to her?!

I found my voice and screamed, "Where is she?!"

The woman gasped and turned to me.

"What happened?" came the deep voice.

"It spoke…" she said, as if she hadn't expected me to be able to. "I had no idea they could talk!"

I began to calm down. If this woman didn't know that I could do something as easy as talking, I might be able to worm my way out of this. I started to open my mouth to try my luck, but was interrupted by the man on the intercom.

"Of course it can. Don't listen to it, though. We're pretty sure it's some of their bizarre abilities on the human consciousness. Don't be fooled, it's still not human. It is a monster whether it can speak or not."

I swore in my head. The initial shock was gone, now I needed to outwit them if I wanted to live. I spoke quietly and forced myself to stay calm. It probably wasn't good for my mental health, but I couldn't care less. Anything was healthier than being dead.

"Where is she?"

"It would probably be better if I spoke to it face to face," he said, but not through the intercom. I turned my head to the sound of his voice. There was another door apparently, and I hadn't heard this one open. Once he stepped through it, it slid closed without any sort of command from the man.

He was a really big guy. That was the first thing I noticed. He was probably larger than any man I had ever met. He had huge muscles and broad shoulders. His skin was nearly literally black, it was so dark. His head was shaved and he had on sunglasses. He wore a black three-piece suit. He was the sort of person who got respect, whether you wanted to give it or not.

"You may leave, Veronica," he said to the woman, even though his eyes never left me.

The woman nodded and left the room. I almost gulped. I was in the most vulnerable position a humanoid being can be in, and I was alone with a guy over three times my size. That wasn't good.

The man opened a control panel near the door and punched a combination of buttons too fast for me to see. I heard the sound of a motor and the surface I was on began to move. I rotated ninety degrees and then tipped up before being raised so that I was level with the tall man. My neck was forced forward so that there was a space behind my head. I realized that I wasn't able to move it anymore. While all that was happening, the man walked up to me.

I forced away all of my fears, which were coming back despite my noble efforts, and faced the man as calmly as I could. There were more important things at the moment, "What have you done with Kat?" I asked, relatively smoothly.

"She's really important to you, huh?" he asked levelly.

Instead of answering, I repeated, "What have you done with Kat?" glairing at him the whole time.

"You're speaking of the female?" he asked.

"Who else?" I thought angrily. I decided, though, it would be better not to be quite that rude. "Yes. Where and how is she? I know you want information. I refuse to talk until I know she's alright."

He sighed, lowered his head, and rubbed his temple. He muttered something under his breath, but I didn't catch it. He looked at me again and said, "She is unharmed. We didn't know when or even if you would wake up, and we were able to rouse her first. We had been trying to interrogate her, but she said nothing, only hissed and spat. I knew we wouldn't be able to get anything out of her and doubted that you would be any more cooperative, so she is our bargaining chip."

"What?!" I screamed.

"If you behave, she will be returned to the outside world unharmed. If not, let's just say that there'll be no more hissing from her. Ever."

I gulped. "Alright." I said, "As long as she goes free, I'll tell you anything." I doubted the large man would follow through on his word, but it was better than not taking a chance at all.

"Good."

"But, can I ask you some questions first?"

"Fine."

"Where am I?"

"That's confidential. You have not left the United Kingdom, though."

"Who are you?"

"I don't need to tell you that. You will call me 'Sir.'"

The part of me that wasn't totally freaked out wanted to gag. I repressed it, though. I needed to be as nice as possible if I wanted to make sure Kat would survive. Besides, the freaked out part was defiantly in the majority.

"Who is holding me hostage? I know you are not alone, so what is this organization?"

He smirked "We are known as SALEM. Short for State Arrant and Logical Elimination of Monsters, also named after the city infamous for its witch trials."

"Then why am I not dead?"

"Simple, only so much can be done without the aid of information. You freaks breed like plague rats and there's no way we can track you all down without help." I glared at him. "Besides, I can't kill you."

I blinked. That was unexpected. "Why?"

He sighed and pulled out a small familiar-looking wallet from his pocket and opened it. Inside was my ID, fully displayed. "You're a legal citizen. We're a branch of the government. To kill you would arouse suspicion. I know that your kind don't like to work alone. There must be people who know where you went. They'd arouse the populace, and Des'ew have a way of organizing people in a way that we wouldn't be dealing with a riot, but a full-scale civil war."

I almost laughed, but decided it was best not to. He was presuming too much, but that had saved my skin. "I think I just have one more question," I said, trying to get off the subject, "Why? Why do you want to kill us?"

"Simple. You're too strong. You pose a threat. We need to start small and work our way up, which is why we need information. There are over five hundred clans on the surface of the earth, but none have armor-" he bent down and grabbed something out of a drawer on the whatever I was on. He pulled out the armor I had worked all day on. "-Quite like this. As you know, clans are identified by their armor colors. The closest recorded were the Akiras, and they died almost thirty years ago.[3]3 So tell me, what clan are you, what country are you from, and who sent you to us?!" he demanded.

I hadn't expected him to come back and ask me that question, but I had to answer honestly for Kat. "I am from the Sahaara clan. We live in the heart of London itself. I sent us."

He laughed and dropped my armor. It was actually a good laugh. I had expected to be given a cruel laugh, but it was as if he had heard a great joke. "That's so obviously untrue, it's funny! Sure, a clan long dead lives in the heart of our greatest city and its king is a nineteen-year-old!"

"It's true! I swear!" I yelled. Then I tagged on under my breath, "and I'm twenty-one…"

He stopped laughing suddenly and stared at me. He yanked off his sunglasses and fixed his eyes directly at me, as if he was staring into my soul. "What is your relationship to the girl?"

"S-she-she" I couldn't tell him that we were going to be mates in a matter of months, or less depending on how long we were out. "She's my twin sister!" I lied.

"Really? Then why do you look nothing alike?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're different sexes, so we're fraternal. She takes after Mom and I take after dad."

"Liar!" he yelled.

"Why do you say that?!"

He got so close to me; I could feel his breath on my face. For the record, he smelled like coffee. "Because we know the Sahaara line well. No one has ever had green eyes!"

I gaped like a fish. "Well… uh… erm… you see…!"

He held up a hand and silenced me. "Don't waste your breath," he said, "Especially when I know who you are, and who your father was."

I gasped. "You do?" even I didn't know that.

He nodded, "You're an Akira, boy!"

I was shocked. The Akiras were supposed to have been wiped out about twenty years before. "A what?! No, you've got it all wrong! That's impossible! I can't be a-"

"But you are! Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You are the spitting image of anyone from that clan! Don't lie to me!" He had been shouting for a while, but he had gotten very emotional. "You're exactly like a textbook case! The hair! The eyes! The build, even though he didn't have that! I'll bet you even have the mark to prove it!"

"Mark? What mark? Listen, I've seen every inch of my body at least once and I have no marks whatsoever!"

"Oh really?!" he demanded.

He pulled a hairpin out of a pocket and moved the longest hairs on the back of my neck to the side. He then grabbed two hand mirrors and held one in each hand. He positioned them so that the reflection of the soft spot on the back of my head was clearly visible. He attached the one behind me to the table-thing.

I gasped. There was no way it was possible, but there it was. Clearly on the back of my head was a tiny birthmark, no bigger than your thumbnail and shaped like a rose.

"Alright," I said, trying to come up with an explanation. "So what if I have a birthmark? Plenty of people do! It proves nothing."

"If it were really a birthmark, that would be true. However, it's not."

"Well I certainly didn't do it," I growled, "And I don't remember ever getting a rose-shaped cut there. It has to be a birthmark!"

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?! It is a testament to just how inhuman you are!"

He then attached the mirror that was behind me to the surface behind me so that I could still see the image. I saw him reach for his pocket, but because of the angle I was at, I couldn't see what it was. I kept and eye on his arm though. He moved faster than I thought possible. I saw a flash of metal and felt a large gash across my arm. I didn't expect anything to happen, so I was surprised when the cut healed. Maybe it was just the injuries I got from the net that I couldn't heal.

I couldn't understand what the point of that was at first, he already knew I was a Des'ew. But then, I saw the mark begin to glow. It became obvious without a doubt that it was a rose. The blossom on the top glowed golden while the stem turned a dark green.

Well that was unexpected.

"You see?" the man asked calmly, "That mark is on one person and one person only, the last living Akira."

"But they're all dead!"

"All but one, same as the Sahaara. Because the last went through a loophole in a spell."

I blinked. A loophole in a spell? Was there such a thing?

"The final killing happened before his- or should I say your?- genetic code had even been established. Even with a spell that systematically destroyed one gene, it wouldn't be able to find you."

My heart started pumping faster again. I told myself it was impossible, but it wasn't. Now that I thought about it, that would explain a lot. Why no tribe had ever come for me. Why I had never heard of magic like mine in a living clan. Why my father was never seen again after I was conceived. It was so unlikely, but at the same time so very probable.

The man walked to and leaned against a wall and clutched his head, as if he had been hit by a sudden migraine. I saw something glinting in his pocket. I focused on it and saw that it was… could it be? The key to my shackles?

I now knew I could still use magic, so I gathered my energy. It was more difficult than it had ever been,[4]4 but I was able to do it. I slowly pulled the key out of his pocket before bringing it to me. I searched for the lock with my magic and found that there was only one. They were making my life very easy. I easily pulled the two pieces of metal together and it unlocked immediately.

Unfortunately, it was also very loud. The tall man whipped around as soon as I dropped to the floor. He let out a cry and drew the knife again. I tore the key out of the lock before grabbing the armor from the spot he dropped it. I activated one of the gems from the belt and pulled out my own knife. I ran toward him as if I was going to stab him but swung around at the last second, twirling around him.

I took off through the corridor looking for Kat. I froze as soon as I got into the main hall. I head loud marching from either side. That boded ill. I searched around, looking for anything that could help me. My spear increased my magic five-fold, but that was gone. I knew I wasn't that strong. My biggest asset was my mind. If I fought more than three humans or one Des'ew, I'd go down.

I noticed but one possibility: There was a large air duct above my head. I took a deep breath. It always works in the movies.

* * *

For once, the movies were right. Mostly, anyway. Although it was possible to crawl through most of the vents, even for someone as shrimpy as me there were some far too small. I was barely even able to squeeze through the big ones. Another thing was the noise. Even though I was only able to wiggle, there was still a loud banging whenever I moved. I kept a keen ear out for humans because I had to stop whenever they were near.

At least I was hard to spot. First of all, nobody really looks at vents. They're just there. Also, I was again dressed in black because I had found a very large area that I was actually able to move in and had pulled my armor back on. The belt was a different matter, though. It was too bulky to be able to move with, so I had thrown it around my neck. It still dragged and made even more of a racket than I already did, so I looped it around my head again. I had managed to find my spear, so now it was back in my possession.

It took me a quite a while to find Kat, and I was almost caught at least ten times. I didn't have a watch, but I knew I had been in the shaft for at least twelve hours. The place was huge. I was tired and hungry,[5]5 but I had to keep going. Besides, even if I gave up I'd have no idea how to get out.

Even so, I eventually reached the end of my stamina. I needed to give myself up, or drop into the nearest room at least. I figured that getting my throat cut was going to be less agonizing and humiliating than dying in the vents. I saw some light and went forward. Light meant vents and vents meant somewhere I could get out.

I began to slowly unscrew the fastenings from the inside, but stopped when I heard two voices. The first was a man's, but it was higher-pitched than the man who had interrogated me. The second was the voice that I had wanted to hear more than anything else in the world. It was Kat's voice. I leaned forward, not really listening. I was really just enjoying the sound of my girlfriend's words. For some reason, I still remember what they were saying anyway.

"I'm only going to ask this one more time," Kat hissed, "Where. Is. Nuru?"

"We'd like to know as much as you!" the man insisted. "He disappeared last night!"

Kat hissed again and sounded like she was about to start swearing again, but there was a beep coming from the man's side. He pulled it up and greeted the person on the other side of what was apparently a phone. He nodded periodically and made affirmative noises. He then hung up.

"I'll be back. And then you will talk."

As soon as he left, I unscrewed the vent the rest of the way. I tried to do a really awesome flip, land unruffled on my feet, and then say something smart and cool, but that didn't happen. Instead I fell, headfirst, and ended up smashing my face against the floor.

Despite her situation, Kat actually started laughing at me. I pulled myself up, rubbing my jaw. I glared at her. I noticed that she was being kept in much better conditions than I was. She had been allowed to keep her armor. She wasn't even being held down. The people had given her her own window. On top of that, she had been given a bed. My glare increased.

"What?" She asked, "There is more than one way to get a person to talk. I guessed they decided that it'd be better to keep me happy. I'm guessing they didn't do the same for you."

She took my hand and dragged me over to the bed. We sat down and I swore. It was so bloody soft! I grudgingly told her my story. When I was done she cocked her head to the side and thought hard.

"It sounds like you've actually gotten off easier than me," she said. I started gawking and sputtering. "At least you could escape."

"What do you mean?" I asked, utterly confused.

She sighed and lifted up her trouser leg so that it was half way up her calf. Around her ankle was a metal band about wide as one's thumb is long. It had blue lights flashing at an irregular pattern.

"What is that thing?" I asked.

She sighed, pulled her trousers back down,6 and said, "This anklet binds me here. I can't go out the door or the window. I tried once and well…" she held up her left hand. One of her fingers was wrapped in a bandage. "I just touched the door, but as soon as I did, the skin started peeling away. What's more, the food they gave me was laced with a truth-potion. Luckily, I sensed it before I had any, so I started dumping it out the window, which was very difficult because I couldn't touch it."

"Can you get it off?"

"No. I've tried, but it's form fitting. It has the exact shape and curve as my ankle now. Unless you amputated my foot, you couldn't get it off."

I thought hard. I struck out. I was going to tell her that there was no way out until I remembered something; I had the key in my pocket.

"I can get us out," I said.

"Really? How? Wait! You're not really thinking of…" she covered her foot protectively.

"No! Of course not!" I said. I pulled the key out of my pocket, "This'll work!" I exclaimed.

She stared at me without emotion for about thirty seconds. The she sucker-punched me.

"What was that for?!" I demanded.

"Why didn't you use that in the first place?! And where did you get that?!"

"I stole if from the guy who was interrogating me. It got me out of my lock, piece of cake." I smiled.

There was an uneasy silence. Then Kat exploded, "You thought that that would help?! The key will never fit! I swear, you can be the stupidest-"

She kept ranting and ranting. Sometimes she spoke in English, but it was mostly Desian. Instead of listening, I took it upon myself to actually do something. I pulled up her trouser leg and pressed the key into the little incision in her anklet. It popped open instantly.

She immediately looked down to her leg, up to me, down to her leg, up to me, and so on. Eventually, she stopped and stared me down. "I was just testing you," she said, "You pass."

I burst out laughing. She flushed a brighter red than I possibly could.

"Come on, let's go," she said, tugging on my sleeve, "You look and smell horrid. You need to take a shower."

She then disappeared. I stood back for a moment. I knew I was disgusting. I was covered in sweat, both from my episode before the big guy showed up and because the vents got very hot, I had a thick layer of dust all over me, and my hair was greasy and disarrayed. Funny how she only noticed all of this after I had made her look like a fool. I chuckled and followed my soon-to-be mate back home.

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[1]All right, I didn't know they were shackle-like. I couldn't see them. But usually a thick, solid, unmovable thing that's clamped on to you, keeping you held prisoner somewhere is referred to as a shackle.

[2]I was talking about the threshold, not the woman. Okay, I hadn't seen her either, but I was pointing out the part with the door.

[3]Actually, scary-interrogator-man was wrong there. Our armor is the same as the Sahaara clan's was before they were destroyed. Although I suppose that that was before they started recording armor colors...

[4] I attributed it to having been asleep for so long. The first time in the day you cast a spell, it's always difficult. As the number of times increases, the difficulty decreases. Until of course you start running out of power, but that's different.

[5] It could have been worse, though. SALEM apparently didn't see the need to clean their vents often, and as gross as it was even to me, there were a good amount of bugs to eat.

1 All right, I didn't know they were shackle-like. I couldn't see them. But usually a thick, solid, unmovable thing that's clamped on to you, keeping you held prisoner somewhere is referred to as a shackle.

2 I was talking about the threshold, not the woman. Okay, I hadn't seen her either, but I was pointing out the part with the door.

3 Actually, scary-interrogator-man was wrong there. Our armor is the same as the Sahaara clan's was before they were destroyed. Although I suppose that that was before they started recording armor colors...

4 I attributed it to having been asleep for so long. The first time in the day you cast a spell, it's always difficult. As the number of times increases, the difficulty decreases. Until of course you start running out of power, but that's different.

5 It could have been worse, though. SALEM apparently didn't see the need to clean their vents often, and as gross as it was even to me, there were a good amount of bugs to eat.

6 You know, there are lots of nasty germs in gutters. I suggest you pull your head out one of these days.