"Alright, so you'll have to wear three braces at all times," Charybdis explained gently to Evelynn.
Evelynn, now back to human form, Charybdis, and Io were situated in a small room just big enough for the three of them to stand comfortably. It was not unlike a doctor's office – there was a small bench where Evelynn sat, and a desk counter and chair where Io said with the braces. Charybdis stood, leaning against the dark grey, almost black, wall.
"There will be a back brace and two leg braces. You may take them off when you shower, of course, but otherwise they must be kept on. They will change their form when you transform to suit your new body posture. It's imperative that we keep the spine in your human form properly aligned so that your spine stays aligned when you transform. As for the leg braces, they are to keep your posture steady when you're in your Lykan form. They will enable you to walk and stand upright."
"I'll teach you how to put them on and take them off," Io told the small girl sitting shyly on the bench. Her voice was reassuring and calm, and Evelynn couldn't help but relax, if even for a little bit. Without Axel, she felt much less safe, but the two monsters' cool tones and warm smiles told her that she was in good hands.
Evelynn slowly took off her giant fur jacket and her fleece, leaving a mocha-colored undershirt. Even though both monsters were female, she still felt shy revealing her bare arms and shoulders to them. When she did so, however, Charybdis laid eyes on the oddly shaped black mark on her shoulder. Her eyes widened in utter surprise.
"No…" she gasped. "That's a Mark, a Mark of the Chimera."
"A what now?" Io asked quizzically.
"That's our mark. A secret mark to register you as an operator for PSEF. Why would a human work for PSEF? Why haven't I heard of it? That… that explains everything, from the RimTech daggers to her weapons training… and now she has no idea, because of her memory wipe. Oh my goodness,"
Charybdis drew her hands to her mouth.
"We might just have a link… we have a link to their identity, and who they really are… oh, but I suppose that the other kids won't be too happy to hear this news…"
"I… used to work for you guys?" Evelynn interrupted Charybdis' frenzied mutterings. Her face broke into complete shock, her eyes brimming with tears, the first display of emotion that she'd had today. "I… used to kill humans?"
"I can't say that for certain," Charybdis assured her hopefully. "After all, I've never killed a human..."
"…Directly," Charybdis added in her mind.
"Listen. Whatever happens, you mustn't tell any of your companions, not even Axel. Not until we figure out exactly what is going on and how you came to be. And for that, you must wait until I establish contact with the only other known human alive, Dr. Huxley. He might know who you are. In the meantime, you must lay low and do as I say. Do you understand?"
"I… understand," Evelynn said solemnly. A secret. A massive secret to keep from Axel. What would he say when he found out? Evelynn couldn't bear to see the look of betrayal that would show on his face. She steeled himself and took a deep breath. She had to trust Charybdis. She had to trust them all if she had any chance of surviving. They had the key to her identity, her purpose. She had to take the risk.
The atmosphere of the room changed from a gentle and lax training session to a rushed, tense one. Charybdis and was just as kind as ever but there was a brisk movement to their voices and actions. They wanted to get done as quickly as possible. Io hurried through a short tutorial, and Evelynn practiced transforming back and forth with the braces equipped. She then started to work on her walking, and after she got the basics down, Charybdis eagerly wrapped it up.
"Looks like we're done here. Let's check back up on Axel with Hydra and Scylla," Charybdis said silently praying that they hadn't done anything rash to the poor boy.
Meanwhile, Hydra and Scylla were delighting in torturing Axel. They had been hanging him out of the window for so long that Axel's neck and shoulders had gone numb, His eyes were filled with tears, but still he refused to cry.
"Cry, dammit," Scylla ordered, shaking him rapidly and violently.
"N-no," Axel managed to puke out. "P-piss off."
"Insolent filth," Scylla snarled. Hydra shook him harder.
"I can't hold you up forever, boy. I think my hands are just starting to… slip," Hydra taunted him. Axel balled his fists in anger and determination. His sheer stubborn will began to finally overcome his fear. He choked back his tears and grit his teeth, refusing to play their games.
"Oh well," Hydra said in a singsong voice. Axel was about to bite back with a strained reply when suddenly he found that Hydra's claws were no longer around his neck. Panicking, he felt the wind rush suddenly against him and a terrible sensation cut through him as he fell straight from the upper floor of the PSEF headquarters. Only after he'd been falling for a second did he realize he was plummeting straight towards the ground below. His eyes widened in shock before being blown shut by the sheer force of gravity and the wind rising up to meet him.
His surroundings spun and everything shot past him in a dazzling cacophony of howling voices. The tears that he had been trying to hold back were forced out of his eyes by the sheer force of his momentum.
Panicking, he tried to use his air magic, but to no avail. There was nothing underneath him to use to propel him backwards. He only knew how to push himself or others in relation to a surface. He needed something to rebound off of. He was completely and utterly helpless as he fought desperately against the unrelenting law of gravity.
Suddenly, he found himself jerked up again halfway through the descent. The force that stopped his motion hit him so hard that he keeled over with the wind knocked out of him. He choked as he finally came to a halt.
He slowly began to rise, accelerating until he was falling… the opposite direction. He shot upwards, the momentum of his descent being completely reversed. By now he was so disoriented he couldn't tell whether he was still heading to the ground below or if he was headed to the clouds above.
Eventually he reached the very window that Hydra and Scylla had dropped him from. But Hydra and Scylla's hateful faces were not waiting for him when he arrived. His ascent paused as soon as he reached the window, then he was propelled back into the room, pushed by a giant invisible hand.
Charybdis was waiting for him, pure worry etched deep into her face, along with so many other emotions that Axel couldn't register. Her eyes were glowing a fierce color, much bright and sharper than any color he had ever seen before. She stood with her arms stretched straight out and caught Axel as she flew into him. She stumbled backwards, wrapping her arms tight around him like he was the most precious thing in the world. She spun around and gently let him down behind her.
Axel tried his best to stand, but his legs were too shaky from the trauma, and they had gone numb long ago. He collapsed into Charybdis' chest and she held him dearly.
"How dare you touch him," Charybdis whispered. Hydra and Scylla stood with their arms folded on the other side of the room, indignant fury in their gazes. But their hate was nothing compared to the pure anger that radiated from Charybdis at this moment. It was so hot that Axel could feel it burning and singing the air around him. She was trembling just as much as she was.
"You have the audacity to do such terrible things to him behind my back?" She continued, her voice dangerously low. It was so much quieter than how she usually spoke, but it cut through every atom in the air like it was butter.
"We weren't going to kill him, obviously," Hydra said, waving a dismissive hand. "I was going to levitate him back up way before he would have hit the ground. Just like you did."
"Face it, Charybdis. You know he's filth, just as much as we do. Just because he's 'valuable' and 'an interesting topic for research' doesn't mean he doesn't deserve this," Scylla added.
"The only filth I see is you two!" Charybdis exploded, her voice so loud it threatened to break the windows. Hydra and Scylla's eyes widened as they found themselves lifted off of the ground by Charybdis' magic. Charybdis reached her arm out and brought them closer towards her so that she could look their pitiful faces in the eye.
"How do you live with yourselves? You're so obsessed with the past that you're willing to torture an innocent child because your immaturity and inability to accept reality has deluded you to the point of insanity!" she spat, her voice ringing in their ears. "I can't believe you two."
"You've lost precious loved ones to humanity. To HUMANITY. Not Axel Ford. He hasn't harmed ANYONE. He hasn't killed ANYONE. He doesn't even know who you are. Meanwhile, how many families have you destroyed? How many fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, have you assassinated, Scylla? How many uncles, aunts, grandfathers, grandmothers, have you tortured, Hydra? These are living beings!"
"Furthermore, if you continue to hold this hate in your heart, how can we ever eliminate it? Do you think you'll be happy when every last human is dead? You probably tell yourself in your head that everything will get better as soon as the humans are gone. But I know the truth, Hydra. I know the truth, Scylla. It won't. You'll be just as mindlessly angry even then. Even when you've had your 'revenge,' your thirst for it will never go away. You know why?"
Charybdis pointed at Axel with a vehement finger.
"HE is not the problem. YOU are. You are so delusional that you will never get better even if you take out your anger on everyone until there's nobody left. Because the problem was never the humans. The problem was hate. It was vengeance. You try and justify it by saying you're better than humans, that you're not inherently greedy, that you deserve power because they've stripped it from you all throughout your life. But in reality, us monsters are just as bad as humans. Because of monsters like you."
"You are everything that I hate about this world. From now on, neither of you will be permitted to even lay eyes on Axel Ford or ANY of the humans ever again. You are barred from participating in experiments, and I never want to see you again unless you are begging us for an apology. Until you change, you two are both dead in my eyes. After all, after the crimes you've committed, you should be. And it's only because I've been so much of a coward up until now that you aren't."
Io and Evelynn stood in absolute shock as Charybdis dropped Hydra and Scylla roughly on the ground. They stumbled before righting themselves and grabbing their necks after Charbydis had held them up like they had just done to Axel – only with her magic.
Charybdis held Axel's hand gently and turned back towards him.
"Don't worry, you're safe with me," Charybdis murmured, guiding him back towards the hallway as he leaned on her with shaky legs. Evelynn ran up to Axel and pressed her arm against his back, supporting his other side as they exited the room together. Io followed suit and closed the door swiftly on Hydra and Scylla, who looked at each other with guilt and embarrassment in their eyes. "It's all my fault. I should have never left you with those two."
But Axel wasn't angry at all, in fact, his cold and bitter demeanor was completely evaporated in this moment. Despite his constant shaking, he felt warm inside. He felt safe, and he was eternally grateful to Charybdis for saving him. Perhaps he could find enough hope to trust another person other than Evelynn. Perhaps this insane world wasn't full of enemies after all. He smiled quietly to himself as Evelynn and Charybdis comforted him from his trauma. He gave himself up to them and they supported him all the way to Charybdis' office.