Fenix had a plan and by God, no one was going to stop him from enacting it.
He waited outside the meeting room and the moment the door swung open, revealing Hyunwoo, Bella, Leon, and Risále walking out, he was in action. Without even hesitating, he reached out and grabbed his older sister's arm, pulling her away from the group and shouting back to the remaining three, "Sorry, guys! I'll give her back to you soon!"
"Fenix? What's going on? Is something wrong?" Bella asked, letting him drag her along, "Are you alright?"
"That's the problem!" Fenix turned around, "I'm completely fine, but you're not! You've been taking charge of this mostly on your own, and you're stressed as hell! I'm not going to sit back and just let my sister be overwhelmed by work, not when I can do something about it. Besides, there's a damn wedding coming up, and at least that warrants a break!"
Bella looked surprised by this, "Fenix, I…No, I think I owe you more than just comforting words. I won't lie, it has been stressful for me, but I'm used to it. It kind of comes with the 'Leading a Rebellion' territory."
"Yeah, but you deserve a break! Which is why I'm putting you on a forcible break!" Fenix grinned.
"Oh? What are we doing, then?" Bella asked, her voice taking a tone of amusement.
As he pushed the doors to the building open, he saw that Nia, Val, and Lumina were waiting for him. Lumina waved, the car keys swinging on her finger, "Hey, took you long enough. We ready to go?"
"Yeah!" Fenix yelled back, before turning to Bella with a grin on her face, "You and Lumina have been stressed as hell, you with whatever the hell is going on over there," He vaguely gestured at the building, "And Lumina has taken this entire wedding on herself, even though Owen has been trying to help. So, Nia, Val, and I are intervening."
Bella raised an eyebrow, "Intervening how?"
He grinned, "We're getting you your dresses for the wedding!"
As they got to the store, their small group split up, Bella and Fenix going off on their own while Nia, Val, and Lumina went off on their own. As they looked through the clothes, there was silence between the siblings. Finally, Bella sighed and turned to look at him, a hand on her hip, "Alright, you have questions. You can ask, you know."
Fenix hesitated, "...I don't want to push it. I'm just happy to have you back, I don't really need to know everything in between," He said, carefully.
"You don't need to know, but you want to know, don't you? Fenix, I let you think I was dead for so long, you're allowed to ask questions. Hell, you're allowed to be mad at me for it," Bella said softly.
He shook his head at this though, "I'm not mad. I just…What happened, Mira? The last time I saw you, our uncle was trying to bludgen you to death with a metal pipe and now you're a rebellion leader? One with presence in every sector? And you somehow ended up with Leon's boyfriend, and knowing his sister and her husband? There's just…I feel like I missed a lot."
"I'm sorry, Fenix," She murmured, "I know, it's a lot. I…I feel the same way. The last time I saw you, you were a round-faced excited kid, and you followed me around like a little duckling. And now you're…I feel like I missed seeing you grow up."
"I…Yeah," Fenix looked down, "Um, you said I could ask you questions. How did…What happened after Owen and I escaped? How did you…" He couldn't bring himself to ask it, honestly.
Bella was quiet for a moment, her eyes trained on the dress in her hand, "I almost didn't. It's surprisingly much more anticlimactic than you'd expect. For the fact that he's a scientist, our uncle is really an absolute buffoon when he's angry," Her laugh was dry, "I just pretended to pass out, and at some point, he thought I was dead. I don't know why he didn't check, but when I stopped moving, he just…Left. I think he was too panicked trying to get to the both of you. He certainly was angry, that much was clear from the yelling."
"Oh, yeah. He was pissed off as all hell. He almost got to us after but we barely managed to make it away. It was actually kind of funny to me, he was more angry at me for 'stealing his experiment away' rather than anything else," Fenix chuckled, "It doesn't bother me, the bastard's opinion about me doesn't concern me."
The taller woman chuckled a bit, "Good. Although, I think I should apologize about the next part," She sighed, "The rebellion wasn't something that I started after you and Owen had left. I planted the seeds of it even while you were still with me."
"What?" Fenix was taken aback by this.
"Well, I met a couple of people. Do you remember Auntie Li and Uncle Gong? They used to watch over us when our uncle was too busy with his work to make sure we didn't die," Fenix nodded his head, "I actually told them the idea of going against the White Lotus. I came up with the idea when I was around nine or so, obviously, I couldn't act on it. So they did most of the work. I…also met Chaewon and Elliot a lot earlier than you might have thought. I don't…" Her face scrunched up a bit, "I don't remember why they were there or where they came from, I mean, I knew they were scientists too but…It was years ago, so I don't remember the details. All I know is that at some point, I met them, and found out they didn't trust the White Lotus Scientist Branch as well. It really was because of them that I managed to put together parts of the rebellion beforehand. Obviously, no one was going to listen to a child, but they were willing to listen to well-established scientists like Auntie Li, Uncle Gong, Elliot, and Chaewon. I lost track of Chaewon and Elliot for a while after what happened, but they found me again a few years later. So, with them doing some inside work, and Auntie Li and Uncle Gong leading the rebellion until I was fifteen, I had some people looking out for me. They got me out of there after our uncle attacked me and patched up my bleeding head."
Fenix blinked, "Wait, if Chaewon and Elliot visited, then why don't I remember it at all?"
At this, Bella seemed a bit sheepish, "You did meet them once or twice, but you were pretty young. On top of that, it really was only in passing. At the time, I wasn't sure to trust them, so I didn't really let them near you before. It was only when I saw them again a couple of years later that I realized I could trust them."
"Oh. That explains how you knew them. Did you know about Leon though?" Fenix asked.
Bella hummed, "You know that question is kind of complicated, with what you realized during the Winter Ball. I'll go with this: I'm like him and Risále, technically I'd be considered a cyborg. So are Chaewon and Elliot. Hyunwoo is more like Kaedan and Owen, if you get what I mean. Either way, I wasn't close with Leon and Risále before, I'd met Risále once when we were really young, probably before I was ten? I knew about Leon through Chaewon before they got separated. After they were separated, though, there was maybe a year or so in between when Leon and Risále joined the Sector 3 White Lotus branch and when I faked my death. I never worked with them directly but I did see them around. I knew more about them than they knew about me, though. After I faked my death, I kept an eye on them. I just hadn't realized they were the same kids I'd met before because they were using code names after being put into the Gifted Child Program. Chaewon wanted to look for him but she really did think he had escaped all of it, and she didn't want to drag Leon back into the White Lotus's attention. It was only when he disappeared three years ago that we found out he was Chaewon's brother. When he disappeared, we thought he was dead, honestly. Until the explosion at your first base, of course. That was when we found out all of you were alive and we could track you from there."
"That…Makes sense. And Hyunwoo? How did you meet him and when did you two…You know…" Fenix wiggled his eyebrows.
Bella rolled her eyes, "You look ridiculous," Her voice was fond, "I met Hyunwoo when we were liberating some of the White Lotus laboratories. He was in a Sector 3 lab, and he was…In terrible shape. It was like the scientists had been taking out their frustrations on him for the better part of a couple of months. Maybe longer? He doesn't really talk about it in too much detail, all I'm willing to tell you is that it was…Really bad. And that Veronica was involved."
"Oh…Oh, is that why Val…"
"Part of it, yes," Bella looked over at the cheery figure, showing something excitedly to their white-haired friend, "But Val…They have their own issues with Veronica. It was why they clung to Hyunwoo so much when we first found them. They might have been fourteen or fifteen at the time. I…Don't think you could stomach hearing the state we found them in but…The Val you know now is very, very, very different from the one we met."
Fenix seemed to be glaring at one dress in particular, as if he could make it burst into flames with his anger, "See, by telling me this, I'm basically getting that we should have just let Val kill that bitch."
"Trust me, I would have liked to," Bella muttered, "But Val wasn't the only person hurt by Veronica. I mean, I know Hyunwoo wouldn't have minded. I had…Heard rumors about Veronica's first experiment in a human's ability to endure physical and mental torment. I had been disgusted to find out that it had been her own girlfriend. And then, I found out the girlfriend had escaped, and thanks to Elliot knowing her older brother, we figured out it was Lumina," She looked over at the tall, hazel-haired woman, "I won't lie, I was taking Val's age into consideration—I don't want them to look back on themselves and see a killer, although I know it's much too late for that since they're part of the rebellion—But I think Jiali Liu deserves a chance to get payback as well."
Fenix hummed, "That makes sense. Let's…Change the subject. When did you and Hyunwoo get together?"
The smile on Bella's face was soft and warm, no matter how small it was, "It's funny actually. It wasn't really an exact moment or anything. I guess that there was always something between us when we met, something between friendship and more. We did talk about it actually, I confessed first. He told me reciprocated but he didn't want to drag me along since he was also still in love with Leon. We agreed that we wouldn't really do anything about it until Hyunwoo could see Leon again. I was…I won't lie, I didn't know if I believed he was alive. After all, he was a White Lotus escapee that left no trace, although I should have known. You guys had Alexander Liu and Minakshi Rowlock, masters of disappearing. It makes a lot more sense. It was…Also why I wasn't sure if you and Owen had made it until your old hideout was attacked."
"We almost wouldn't have," Fenix admitted softly, "If it weren't for Lumina and Mina, we wouldn't have gotten out of Sector 3. Or at least…I think I would have died. I was really badly injured, and Owen was trying his best, but the infection was bad. Lumina told me I was really feverish when they found us, which is why I don't really remember the exact moment we met. I passed out at some point and when I woke up, we were at the old base. Owen told me both of them had taken care of me the whole time."
Bella looked over at the tall brunette woman, "I suppose I owe them a great debt then. It makes me feel…A bit worse about dragging them into all of these meetings."
Fenix laughed, "Oh, if you brought that up to them, I'm sure they'd both give you a motherly glare before telling you that this definitely isn't something they'd just let you do alone, regardless of whether you were doing it alone before this or not."
"That…Sounds about right for them," Bella agreed, "So, you and Owen. When did that happen? I mean, I saw the signs, you were both fascinated with each other even as kids but…When did you both become official?"
At this, Fenix blushed red. Normally, he wasn't this shy about it but it was a different feeling, being asked by his older sister, "...A few months ago, now. Remember the time you gave Val that letter to give to me when they were trying to rescue Hyunwoo?" Bella nodded, "It was not too long after that…I confessed to him."
"Oh, come on, Fenix Callahan," Bella gave him a grin, something that was surprising to see on her face, since she always came off as a little standoffish, "I want the details. If I wasn't there when it happened, I want to know exactly what happened. What kind of older sister would I be if I didn't bully my brother about his confession to his boyfriend?"
Fenix groaned, "Do—Do the people of your rebellion know you're like this? That you're a bully?" He pouted.
"Hm, no, I think the only people aware of that right now are probably Hyunwoo, Leon, Risále, and Val. And don't worry, go ahead and try to tell them, no one will believe you," She smirked.
"I hate you."
"Love you too, Klahan."
Fenix was sure the surprise on his face was obvious, "Klahan?"
"Oh, I never asked. Would it bother you if I used your Thai name?" Bella asked, putting the dress back on the rack.
The boy shook his head, giving her a small smile, "No, it doesn't bother me at all. It's just been a very long time since someone called me that. I missed it."