Mina and Lumina watched as Bella and Fenix sped up, following behind Owen and Leon, "Keep looking behind us, we've got to make sure they don't get to the kids," Mina said, and Lumina looked over her shoulder.
"We're fine, they're still a while away from us. I think Bella's bazooka really did us a favor. Just keep driving straight, we're almost at the exit anyways—" Lumina's arms tightened as Mina slammed on the brakes, the motorcycle skidding slightly as they came to a halt, "What? What is it—Oh."
In front of them stood a wall of guards with a few scientists mixed in between, "Lumi, what are the odds we can just drive through this?" Mina asked, "Because I'm willing to run over a few people if needed."
Lumina shook her head, "No, we can't. Too many people here and I'm sure they could probably wreck the bike. No, we're going to have to fight our way through this one. Sounds like a fun time, doesn't it, Princess?"
Mina grinned, her hand reaching towards the compartmentalized axe in her pocket, "You know it, darling."
Before either of the women could do anything though, they immediately stopped as they watched a group of people move to stand in front of them. Judging by their clothes they had to be…
"Normal civilians?" Mina murmured, confused.
When the two people leading, a man and a woman, turned back to look at them, Lumina couldn't hold in her gasp, "Ma…Baba…" She said, so softly that Mina almost didn't hear it.
But she did, and her jaw dropped.
The older woman, who now that Mina looked closer, did bear a strong resemblance to Lumina, spoke, "You freed us. You freed us all. At least allow us to repay you, Both of you get out of here."
"But…Ma…" Lumina said, her eyes still wide.
The woman smiled, "Go, A'Li. It's alright. We'll see you again."
Lumina watched them for a few moments before the fighting broke out. Just as Mina was about to put a hand on her shoulder, the older woman seemed to shake herself out of her trance. She quickly swung her leg over the back of the motorcycle, wrapping her arms around Mina's waist.
She looked back at her girlfriend, "Hey, Lumi, are you—"
"I'm…I'm fine. I'm fine. We can talk about it later, right now we just…Let's go. They're waiting for us," Lumina let out a deep breath, "I'll see them again. She said so. Now drive, Minnie."
Mina didn't know what else to do. So, she drove.
Thankfully, it seemed that some of the people controlling the large gate were civilians, and after the chip had been deactivated, they began to open the gates again. Looking up, though, Leon saw some of the guards running towards the people opening the gate, and slowly, the movement of the gate reversed, instead of opening, it was shutting.
"Owen, how much faster can you go?" Leon asked, looking over the other boy's shoulder at the speedometer.
"It's not about how fast," Owen replied, "It's about if I can actually keep this thing under control and not swerve—Woah!" Just as he said that, he swerved as a few guards jumped in their way, "Oh, fucking—" Owen cursed under his breath, "Stay on the motorcycle," He muttered, jumping off of the bike and pulling out his scythe as it slid open to its full size, spinning it around his hand easily.
Leon grumbled, "It's not like I can go anywhere."
The younger boy spun the scythe one last time before gripping it tightly. As the guards rushed at him, Owen swiftly dodged them and hit them with the flat part of the scythe, seemingly not wanting to kill them. However, he noticed very quickly that these guards were moving to kill him, and with that realization, his moves turned sharper. His blade sliced through the armor and skin easily, and within a few seconds, most of the guards were down.
Leon hadn't even noticed the guard sneak up behind him until it was almost too late. He heard the footsteps just in time to turn back and pull out the compartmentalized sword he'd been given to fend off the blade that was swinging down at him. He grunted as his injured arm strained under the pressure. He knew he couldn't fend it off for long but Owen was already dealing with some of the guards by himself, "Owen, I might need some—"
Suddenly, the guard tensed up and fell to the ground, revealing a person standing behind him holding a knife. The last person he would have expected.
"Arsenio?" He asked, the disbelief in his voice clear.
"I wasn't quite sure you'd escape," Arsenio said, "Though I suppose a part of me thought you would make it out of that. You've always been intelligent. And stubborn."
Leon was still confused, "I don't—I don't get it…Why…Why did you—"
"Because it's different this time," Arsenio said, crossing his arms and resting his chin on his hand, "And I'm interested in seeing where this goes. I have no stake in whether you succeed or not, I couldn't care less. However, I can't deny something is different this time around, and I'm interested in finding out what it is. So, Leon Song. Give me a good show, would you?"
As Bella and Fenix came to a stop next to them, Arsenio gave Leon a cryptic smile before walking off. Bella got off the bike, easily taking down the two remaining guards before running over to Leon, as Fenix ran over to their boyfriend, "Hey, are you okay?" Bella asked, checking him over, "Did he hurt you?" Her eyes were burning with hatred as she looked in the direction Arsenio had walked off in.
"...No," Leon said, slightly dazed, "I think…I think he saved me.
"Huh. Wait, what?"
"Hey, Bella!" Fenix called over, "I think that's our ride!" They pointed at a shuttle that was waiting for them outside the gates, which were still continuing to close, "We should probably get moving!"
Bella nodded, "You and Owen take that motorcycle, Leon and I'll take this one. Let's go!"
Owen turned back as he swung his leg over the motorcycle behind Fenix, "What about Lumina and Mina—" He was cut off as a motorcycle raced past them, leaving them in the dust. As they squinted, they could hear a familiar voice.
"Are you guys coming or what?!" Lumina yelled.
Bella scoffed a little, but her expression was fond, "Yeah, yeah, we're coming," she called back, before taking Leon's arms and securing them around her waist, "Hold on tight, pretty boy," She said, and chuckled a bit as Leon buried his face in her shoulder, nodding shyly.
They were the last two to make it onto the shuttle, racing up the ramp. Bella parked the motorcycle and carefully helped Leon off of it. As he began to walk, she clicked her tongue, sweeping him up into a bridal carrying in one swift motion, "H—Hey, I can walk!" Leon protested weakly.
"I'm sure you can," Bella hummed, "But just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Besides, I want to take care of my boyfriend a little bit," She pushed open the door to see the others waiting for them in the main area of the shuttle, which was being flown by Carion.
"So, how did it go? Did you get what you need? You mentioned something about a tracker," Carion asked, and Bella looked over to Leon, placing him down on a chair by a table.
The boy grinned, "We couldn't find the tracker—I'm sure that they either hid it really well or destroyed it. But we got the information we need either way. Someone get me a map to Sector 4 so I can show you all exactly what is where. There are two important places we need to focus on," As Bella helped him over to a large white table and pushed a few buttons, opening up a holographic map, Leon stared at it. Then, he moved over and pressed down on one part of the map, putting a marker there, "That's where the Twin Blades of Misery are."
Bella looked and seemed to be thinking about something. Then, she spoke, "Carion, note down the coordinates: 34.5199° N, 105.8701° W. That's about the area that Leon's pointed out, we'll start our search there. I'm sure we'll find something around there."
"How did you—There aren't any coordinates on this map, though?" Mina asked, stepping closer to look at the map.
"It's a cyborg thing," Bella shrugged, "Specialized to me though, Risále and Leon's guess wouldn't be as accurate as mine, Owen, Kaedan, Chaewon, and Elliot could probably get a close idea but it wouldn't be as hyperfocused as our guesses—" She noticed something out of the corner of her eye, "Hey, Lumina. Are you alright?" She asked, concerned.
The older woman was staring out the window, looking down on the Sector walls, disappearing into the distance, "...What's going to happen to the people there?" She asked softly, "The people that were freed from the microchip?"
"Our ground team is going in to help," Carion responded, "With the mob growing the way it is down there, I'm sure that some people are probably going to have at least a mild dislike of the White Lotus. Those people, we're going to recruit to the rebellion. Of course, only if they're willing and know the sacrifices they may have to make."
Lumina nodded, "...If…If someone named Minri Liu or Yize Liu joins, could you let me know?"
They were all silent as they realized who those two names may have referred to, and Carion simply nodded, "Of course, I'll let the ground team know as well."
Mina walked over to her and placed her hand on her shoulder, which Lumina gently covered with her own, "They'll be fine, love," She said softly, "They're going to be alright," Lumina simply let out a shaky breath and smiled.
"Sorry, guys, I got a bit distracted," She said, turning back to the others, "Leon, you said two important places, right? What's the other?"
Leon smiled, "It took me a while to connect the dots, but here," He put another point, much closer to the border of Sector 4, compared to the first point which was much deeper in, "I'd been wondering why Apocalypse seemed to know where the formation was, and why she thought the White Lotus knew. It makes sense," He leaned back as Bella called out the coordinates to Carion, "It's in the ruins of her castle. Of course, she knew."
"That's it. That does make sense," Bella nodded, "It is quite strange though. So much of this, she already seems to know so much about. Ah, wait, speaking of things that people seem to know about—" She pulled a couple of files out of her bag, and handed them to Leon, "Owen and I found these. Yours was empty but Risále's…"
Leon flipped through the file and his eyes widened, "Oh. Oh, fuck," He said softly. Looking up at them, he asked, "Did you guys read it?"
Owen shook his head, "Bella glanced through it but none of us have looked through it. Didn't feel right."
"That's…Okay, that's good. Or well—I don't really know what to say," He said flipping through them, "Oh, fuck, okay, Bella, she cannot find this file. At least, not yet."
Bella nodded, "I know, that's what I thought as well. From what we talked about earlier…I don't think she's ready to know that. But Leon, she does deserve to know everything else. Everything that she's done…" She trailed off as Leon paused on one page.
He took a deep breath, "If we're talking about who deserves to see what…" He looked over to Owen, "You should probably come see this."
"Me?" Owen asked, stepping forward.
"You…Remember that Risá was…In charge of watching over you for a while when you were taken by the White Lotus, right?" Leon began, "Well, let's just say that we were just as much experiments as you were. They…They documented your interactions and the, um…" He took a deep breath, "And the time when you…Hurt her."
Owen stopped. He seemed to be considering something and then slowly, he shook his head, stepping back, "No. I'm sorry, I just—I don't think I want to know that information right now. Maybe later, when I'm ready. But not now. I don't want to know now."
"Alright," Leon said, letting out a deep breath, "Alright, you don't have to if you don't want to. I just wanted to give you the choice," He looked over to Bella, "Do you think you can make a copy of this file, except leave out…The coma part? You know if she realizes that she never escaped when we were sixteen and that they'd had her in a coma until she met Lumina and Mina—"
"She'll be devastated, I know," Bella sighed, "But Leon, she'll find out one way or another. You know that."
Mina stepped in, "I don't have the whole context…" She began, "But I'm assuming this has to do with Risále's loss of memory. All I can say is that I don't think you need to overthink it, especially not now. If she was in a coma for the three years in between whatever happened and when she met us, that means she would have no memories of that time. She wouldn't be missing anything important."
Leon bit his lip, "It's not that…That's not entirely the problem. It's the implications of what her not having escaped could mean. It would mean…A lot of sacrifices that were made would be worthless, and currently, she's having a hard time with some of the things she's remembering, and I just…Don't think it's a good idea for now."
Lumina spoke up, "Alright, how about we just leave it for now? We need to focus on helping the other team now anyway, so we should get some rest. It'll take us a few hours to get there, so it's enough time to recuperate—Not you, Leon, I'm sure your bones are still suffering—"
"I'm fine, seriously!" Leon complained, but then paused, "Oh, right! I was meaning to ask," He pulled the bag on his back off and looked over to Owen, "You wanted me to hold onto this, right?"
Owen smiled and took the bag, "Yeah, thanks!" He opened it, sighing in relief, "It seems to be completely, alright," At the expectant looks he was getting though, he sighed, "Are you guys sure you want to know?"
"Obviously, dude, you said it was fragile. What fragile object could you possibly be keeping in there?" Leon deadpanned.
"Alright," Owen sighed, "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Not a single person could have predicted what Owen pulled out at that moment.
There was silence, and then—
"Owen. Is that a fucking eyeball."
The boy nodded, "Yup," He popped the "p".
"And, you know, might be strange to ask," Lumina said, struggling with her words, "But why—Why exactly do you have an eyeball with you?"
"Whose eyeball is it?" Mina asked, a little bit concerned about the answer.
"Oh!" Owen exclaimed, "It's my eyeball!"
More silence.
"Again, why do you have it? Where did you get it? Just, why?" Leon asked, not knowing whether to cackle or to have a mental breakdown.
"Okay, so," Owen started, "When we were running around, I kind of happened to come across a room where they kept the parts of the bodies they had harvested from some of their subjects to experiment on, and I got kinda mad because 'Hey, who the fuck were they to keep my eye, huh?' And so I kind of…Stole it?"
Leon processed it for a moment, "Okay, but…Why though?"
"I don't know, I just think I deserve to have my eye more than they do."
"I don't think we can reattach that eye for you, we can do some amazing things but I'm not sure we're quite at that level yet," Bella said, struggling to hold back her laughter.
Owen shrugged, "Oh, it's fine! I kind of like the eye I have now!"
Leon wheezed, finally letting out his laughter, "Okay, then why did you steal your goddamn eye if you're not going to do anything with it?!"
"I don't know?! Maybe I'll just keep it on a shelf or something!"
Fenix moved over to wrap their arms around Owen, cackling without any restraint, "God, your mind, babe," They laughed, "I love you so much, you wonderfully ridiculous boy."
"Says you," Owen muttered, but he was smiling as well.
"I think we can find a shelf for that somewhere," Lumina teased him.
"Shut up, Lumina!"