However they were expecting that night to go, it certainly wasn't like this. When Risále woke up, she wasn't expecting to see Veronica with her hands centimeters away from her neck. Before she could even make a sound, suddenly her window was broken in and a figure stood up, a lump of a person by her feet.
Then, without a word, she ran over and dragged Veronica away from Risále and flung her over her shoulder and off the balcony.
When Risále finally turned on the light, the familiar face of the beautiful woman from the grocery store earlier filled her vision.
Oh fuck, she's standing in my room and she just judo-flipped my attacker out the window, what the fuck—
"You didn't have to follow me, you could have just asked for my number," Nailed it. The woman rolled her eyes, flipping a blade between her fingers.
She kicked the lump on the ground next to her, which Risále had just realized was a man after hearing him groan in pain. How she had dragged him in, Risále wasn't sure, "You might want to get your companions. They'll probably want to do something with him. Found him aiming an M24 at Alexander Liu."
Minutes later, everyone was standing at the door to Risále's room only to see their friend sitting on a chair and a woman sitting on her bed, one foot resting on the mattress, arm draped lazily over her knee as she spun a knife in her hand.
"I think it was only a matter of time until our paths crossed, no?" She said, smiling in a way that seemed almost dangerous, but her gaze softened when it landed on the two youngest boys of the group, "Owen. Fenix. It's been too long. I'm sorry, I would have contacted you earlier but…There were many complications after your escape and by the time it was safe for me to contact you both, you'd already disappeared."
Fenix stared at the woman, his face completely pale.
"Bella?"
She looked at him, her eyes soft, "Let's catch up later. I've got something to take care of but I promise, I'll be back, alright? You should probably deal with this guy though," She looked at Xander, "Found him trying to snipe you. Good luck."
And with that, she got up and walked to the balcony, climbing over and jumping off. Fenix finally unfroze, running to the balcony.
"Wait, Bella!" He yelled, seeing the woman walking away from the bottom of the house, "Just—Just wait a second!"
She turned back to him and smiled, "I'll be back, Fenix. I promise," And with that, she was off.
Owen's hand on his shoulder was what helped drag him back to the situation at hand, "She'll be back, alright? She promised. Come back inside. Nia, get Risále, the poor girl almost got choked."
In the other room, Leon, Mina, Xander, Lumina, and Kaedan waited for the man to wake up, and Xander was surprised as he managed to put a finger on who it was.
He flicked open a switchblade, "Oh, now you've all done it. I want answers, you bastard. Who sent you?" He growled, walking straight up to the man tied up in the chair, flipping the knife over his fingers and holding it to the other man's throat. The man in the chair grinned as he finally got to make eye contact with Xander once again.
"Hm, I forgot just how good you were with your hands, Xion, even if they're a killer's hands. Though I guess some people are into that," The man grinned and there was a crack as someone's fist connected with the man's face. It took Xander a moment to process that Kaedan was suddenly in between them.
Xander didn't miss a beat, "If you know so much, then you probably know that I'm not patient, Absinthe. I never have been. Who sent you? And you better tell me the truth, I left you all alive then, I can't say I would do the same anymore," Xander growled, spinning the switchblade between his fingers.
"Oh, just like you killed your lover's family?" Absinthe said mockingly. Xander froze, "We know the rumors, Xion. Do you think we wouldn't know what happened? We were there. The entire White Lotus organization knows what happened in that tower."
"If you fuckers had stayed out of it then he wouldn't have," Kaedan growled, "Besides, what is your problem with this? It ended up exactly the way you wanted it. They made him choose who to kill, Xander tried to save both Wyran and my mom, and they killed them both. Either way, they're both dead. So, what's it to you?" He added.
Absinthe looked genuinely surprised by the sentence that had come out of Kaedan's mouth, and he turned to look at Xander.
"You didn't tell him the truth?"
"...Oh God, are you kidding me? He's really going to do this now?" Lumina muttered under her breath, covering her face with her hands. Mina and Leon both looked at each other, worried.
"No, no, this is fucking hilarious. You really must be a fucking masochist, Xion, I didn't know that about you. I'm a little upset I never saw this side of you back when we were fucking. After all these years, I would have thought you'd tell him," Absinthe laughed, almost maniacally.
"Babe… What is he talking about? What does he mean by you didn't tell me the truth?" Kaedan asked, but his voice was stern, and demanding an answer. Xander sighed and clutched his hair with one hand before his eyes turned dark and he grabbed the handgun off the table. Before Kaedan could move to stop him, he began to thrash the man's face with the handle.
"Don't." Thrash. "Fucking." Thrash. "Bring." Thrash. "That." Thrash. "Up." Thrash. "Again."
And finally, someone caught Xander's hand.
"Trust me, we can do this later. You can have your revenge, but right now, we need him for information. Please, Cheng-Ge. He still hasn't told us who sent him," Lumina said slowly. It took Xander all his self-control not to rip his hand out of his sister's clutch and go at the man again. But he resisted.
"Let me deal with him," Leon said quietly but sharply, and Xander recognized the fear and uncertainty that flashed in Absinthe's eyes. He also recognized the cold, dead anger in Leon's eyes.
The man tied to the chair scoffed, "You're really going to leave me with him? Really, this fucking abomination is the biggest monster in the room—"
He was cut off as Leon punched him in the face, "Try and talk about that again and I will put a bullet through your head. I thought I recognized you. You were also part of the scientific branch of the White Lotus, weren't you? Don't act like you were any better than me."
Absinthe laughed, "Oh, I certainly wasn't. But tell me, did you ever come back for your pretty boy? What was his name, Hyun—"
Leon made a sound of anger, something that none of them had ever heard make before, "Don't you dare say his name, you motherfucker—" As he rushed at the man, he felt two arms grab him from under his arms and lift him, holding him back, "Let go of me!"
"I can't, not right now. Leon, I get it, I want him dead in a grave as well but we need him right now. If he ends up being useless, then I promise you, feel free to torture him in the worst ways possible," Kaedan said firmly, keeping a strong grip on Leon.
"I'll keep an eye on him," A voice called out. Risále was leaning on the wall, and she picked herself up, making her way to them, "Nothing he says can hurt me if I don't know what he's talking about."
They all looked at her, and Leon stopped struggling, "Risá, are you sure?" He asked quietly.
She smiled at him, "I'll be fine. You guys go ahead and figure this out. I can handle myself."
With that sorted, Kaedan grabbed all four of them and dragged them into a room. He locked the door before turning around and glaring at Xander.
"What have you not told me?" Kaedan said, and the atmosphere was tense. Mina, Leon, and Lumina looked at each other, and it was apparent that they all were almost tempted to shove Kaedan out of the way and bolt out the door.
"Kaedan, it's not that simple. I just—I really can't right now—Not while all this—" Xander made grand gestures with his hands, "—Is going on. I can't focus on anything else. I—If the White Lotus is tracking me, then all of us are in danger and I can't let them—" Mina put a hand on his shoulder.
"Xander, if there's something you haven't told him...He deserves to know," She said quietly.
"Mina…" Lumina said in a quiet voice, not looking at her but her voice still had the tone of a warning, "Don't. You don't know what you're getting into," Xander ran his hands through his hair and gripped it tightly.
"It all happened in an instant. It wasn't meant to turn out that way. There was a lot of panic and havoc and he…Wyran—I tried to save him, I really did but—I couldn't have predicted that. There was no way I could have…" Xander took a deep breath and Kaedan was beginning to get worried.
"Xander, wait, don't. I don't think this is a good idea, especially not now. It's too much right now, even for you," Leon said quietly, looking at Mina and Kaedan, shaking his head. Xander had his head in his hands, fingers tightening in his own hair.
Mina made eye contact with Kaedan, and she seemed just as startled, just as worried. Her eyes widened when she saw Xander's shoulders shaking, and she heard his little gasps. At this, Kaedan looked helpless, not sure whether Xander wanted him nearby or not. Lumina looked at him, though, her eyes telling him to go to the taller man.
"Fuck—Baobei, I'm sorry, look at me," Kaedan quickly scrambled in front of the taller man, prying his hands away from his face, "Look at me, love, it's okay. It's okay, we'll do this some other time. I'm so sorry for pushing you, honey. Listen to me, come here," Kaedan quickly enveloped Xander in a hug.
Leon was back with a glass of water within seconds, and Xander seemed to have calmed down substantially.
This was tricky. Leon knew they had a whole life separate from what he knew, but he didn't realize it ran this deep.
Whenever anyone brought up how the White Lotus knew Kaedan's parents, Xander always froze up and told them not to worry about it, so Kaedan left it alone, assuming Xander didn't want to talk about it. He thought Xander had talked to someone.
"Xander, have you actually talked to anyone about what happened with Wyran?" Kaedan asked, slightly deflated as Xander's face and silence seemed to show the answer to that question, "Oh God, Xander. Seven years. Almost seven damn years, you've kept this to yourself. How did you—Baby, why?" Kaedan said sadly, shaking his head.
Xander was about to say something when he heard quiet sobs. He turned to see that Mina was covering her face with her hands, "Whatever it is you were hiding...That's why you went, isn't it? The video...That was because of this, wasn't it? Everything you said...Something happened that no one would believe you about, so you just...You gave up and turned yourself in at the White Lotus…" She said shakily.
Leon's eyes widened, "Oh God. Oh God, Xander, you—You weren't lying, were you?" He whispered, the pieces clicking in place, "You really did kill Wyran Hernandez's murderer. Xander, why didn't you say?"
"What does he mean by you really did kill...? Xander, what's going on?" Kaedan asked, completely lost at this point.
"Ge, he deserves the truth," Lumina smiled sadly.
Kaedan turned to him, his eyes begging, "Please. Please, I need to know. I promise you, I'm not going to do anything. I won't get angry, not…I know you don't have a reason to trust me after what happened back then, but I promise I won't get mad. I just need to know."
Xander took a deep breath, "Alright…" He started off shakily, "The first thing that I should clear up is that contrary to what everyone has thought and what I have said for the past six years. The choice to kill either Wyran or your mother wasn't given to me, Kaedan. It was given to your mother. She could either kill him or kill herself, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was a punishment for me, I had to watch it happen," He looked at Kaedan's wide eyes, taking in a deep breath.
"What…" Kaedan whispered. Ignorance was bliss, but in the end, he wanted to know, needed to know.
"Your mother chose to kill your brother. Then, out of anger, I killed your mother."