I walk into Richard's office. Him calling me in so soon after my meeting with Serenity is no coincidence. Mikel had rushed through the Underground until he found me which was not hard.
...
He ran into our common area where I sat talking to Marin.
"So you're telling me you're going to start running around at night with these two people you don't even know?" He asks in a hushed tone.
"Only when I need to." I whisper back. "Richard will become suspicious if I'm always disappearing and Dagger shows up more and more."
Footsteps approach and I immediately fall quiet. Marin looks at me oddly but as soon as he sees Mikel realization crosses his face. "Be careful what you say. I'll try sneaking in after you." He whispers.
"Mi-Miss Kelsie. The Demon Lord would like to see you in his of-office." Mikel stutters.
"Thank you, Mikel." I grab my coffee cup and drink the last little bit in there.
Not wasting any time I stride out of the common area and hurry down the halls. A slight brush of something against my hand let me know Marin is right by my side.
Slamming the door to Richard's office open, I ask, "What did you call me in here for?"
He doesn't even look up from his computer screen. "I see Mikel managed to find you. I thought you'd be out with your little shadow."
My body slightly freezes but I relax it before Richard is able to notice it. "Please clarify what you mean by shadow?" His use of shadow could mean a million different things. It could mean he knows Marin is in here with me. It could mean he knows about Serenity. But it could also mean he knows about my one night expedition as Dagger. The latter seems highly unlikely but it is still slightly possible.
"I think you know what I mean. That girl you've been meeting with. I believe she is the one you started hunting about four years ago?" He slides a picture across his desk.
Picking it up, a breath catches in my throat. It's from when I first met Serenity. The panic is clear on my face along with the confusion on her's. Even though it seems to be taken from far away, it is still quite clear that we are twins.
"Where did you get thi- HOW did you get this?"
"How do you think I got it," his words came out more a statement than a question. "There is almost always someone tailing you and these past few days have been no exception."
"So what do you want me to do with her? Kill her like we originally planned?" This pissed me off. His next move is going to be threatening her so I do what he wants. "If we kill her, we will never find out why Takeshi did what he did."
Richard stands up from his chair and begins circling me. "Why are you protecting this girl? You barely know her."
I'm careful not to make any movements that might tell him anything about what I'm thinking or want to do. "She's my sister. I have a right to know her and what she can do. We know she's a meta and one who can manipulate shadows at that. So far she hasn't told me anything about her powers. Only vague things here and there about how she can form things with them."
The next words Richard says come out with a slight growl to them. "Then you're to get her to tell you what her powers are. You have seventy two hours to get back to me with an exact answer. And I expect a recording of her confession. Got it?"
"Yes, Father. I won't let you down." My hand twitches for the dagger I have stashed on my leg. It would be so easy to end him here and now. The Underground's reign of terror could finally be over and I could tell Serenity everything about myself and what happened with her parents.
'Would she forgive me? Or will she just see me as a murderer and never talk to me again?' Thoughts keep racing through my mind at a million miles a minute.
"Good. Now get out of my office. I have to deal with one of our agents in Japan."
I quietly walk out of his office and a hand latches around mine. Marin appears beside me and we walk silently down to our room.
"I know what you wanted to do." He says. "Why didn't you do it?"
"Why do you think I didn't?" I fall onto the bed. "He could've gotten out of there before I even landed a hit."
"So? You could hit him from behind. If you end him we'll finally be free!"
'Maybe you'll be free. I'll be stuck as the leader of this place,' I think.
"But what if I fail? We'll live on the run for the rest of our lives," I tell him. "And that won't be very long."
"They'll be plenty long!" Marin insists.
I let out a sigh. "Do you know who trained me?"
"Richard?"
"Ding ding ding. He's the best in the world. No matter how well we hide we will never be safe."
"Then how did your sister manage to evade the Underground's capture for so long? You can't just tell me it was pure luck."
I stand straight up and stick my finger right between his eyes. "There's no such thing as luck." I snarl.
Marin has the nerve to let out a laugh. "What about those metas who have the actual power of luck?"
"They have nothing more than the power to be barely missed by anything. That's not luck. It's just chance. Serenity only made it this long because we found evidence that suggested she was dead."
"Some people would say otherwise."
'I swear. If he says one more thing…'
After remaining quiet, Marin finally takes notice of my silence.
"So you finally ag-" He's cut off by my fist hitting him square in the nose.
"If one more word," I step towards him and he at least has the good sense to start stepping back. "Comes out of your arrogant mouth. That punch will be the lightest hit you've ever felt in your life. Now GET OUT!"
He grabs one of his jackets off the back of a chair and practically runs out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
"That jackass really thinks he can outdo me. If he says one more FREAKING thing about luck and how I'm just so lucky about being here." I pace back and forth around my room. "I swear I'll kill him! He thinks he knows sooo much more than me about the Underground. I'll show him! I've lived here my whole damn life! No one knows more about this place than me. I grew up here for shits sake!"
I grab a water bottle I have sitting on one of the counters in our small kitchen and chuck it at the wall.
A yell escapes my throat and I finally let myself collapse on my bed. I kick off my shoes and curl up, falling asleep.
…
I dream of something strange, something new. A place I have never seen lies before me. Almost like I'm watching from the shadows of a nursery.
I see two baby's lying in twin cribs. Walking over to them I peer into the right crib and see that the baby's eyes are open. Looking carefully at them I notice that they are meta eyes. I don't recognize them but they still seem familiar in some way. A Japanese man walks into the room with who I guess must be his wife.
Pulling away I see they make no movements towards me. It's as if I'm invisible. Carefully, I move towards them and hear the couple speaking.
"Benjiro, do you worry about them?" The lady asks in heavily accented Japanese.
He bends over the crib I was just at. "Only about how this world will treat them. They're like you, Amy." The man, Benjiro, picks up the baby. "You've told me how you were treated before you met the Mortem's. I don't wish that on them. They're so little and no one in the world needs to have that kind of prejudice put on them."
I freeze at the mention of the name I took on when I was adopted. This woman, whom I guess must be my mother, knows my adoptive father. That can only mean one thing: I was just looking at either mine or Serenity's eyes.
"The Mortem's took care of me because I was a valuable asset and that's it. As soon as I left the Underground, I no longer became valuable because they can no longer control me." She picks up the other baby. "Nanako and Kitiara won't have to grow up with the fear I had. If I had the chance I would never take them over to America but they need to know where I come from, where their family is buried."
At this I pull away and double over. The nursery fades away and their voices turn into mumbles.
...
I wake up gasping for breath.
"What was that?" I say to myself. "Obviously I needed to see that but why? Why now?"
Laying in bed I try to make sense of the whole dream. Nothing about it made sense and yet the room felt familiar. Based on what I learned from the dream, that was my home. Those people are my parents. I look over at the clock and notice it's nine o'clock at night.
"I need some air," I mumble.
Dragging myself out of bed, I go to the closet and pull on Dagger's outfit. I cover it the same way I did the first time I went out and start making my way down to secondary base, phone in hand.
Looking at my tracking app, I see that Marin is a few halls over from me in the communal barracks. Many of our members sleep in there just because it is easier than transporting everything they need for a full room.
I turn off my phone and break into a light jog to make my trip down to secondary base. Arriving I take the elevator up to the suite. Running a scan on the system to make sure no one is near the room, I pull my mask over my chin and slip out the window.
Tonight is not a night I want to run around. Instead, I opt to sit on the roof and just be. Eventually I hear footsteps behind me. Turning around I see that it's Icarus and Shadow.
Shadow turns to Icarus and asks, "Can you leave us alone for a while. I'll let you know when you can come grab me."
He silently nods and leaves the roof of the hotel.
Shadow sits down beside me. "So what has you out here?"
"Just some troubles with life. My dad's causing some chaos and my boyfriend and I got in a fight."
"Sounds like you've had an interesting day." I can't see most of Shadow's face through her mask, but the tone of her voice sounds very upset, almost like she wants to do more for me.
"Yeah, you could say that." We sit in silence for a few moments. "So how are your powers feeling?"
"They actually feel almost back to normal." Her voice gains a very happy tone. "I haven't used them yet because of what you told me but I can't wait for them to be okay."
"I'm so glad to hear that!" I exclaim. "If you wait a little while longer you should be able to use them. Next time we see each other, however long that may be, you should be okay to use them but I don't want to risk anything until I'm absolutely sure you'll be fine."
"Okay! I never got to ask you this the other day but how did you know that the antidote I was given doesn't work very well?" Shadow looks at me with curiosity in her eyes, almost like she's trying to get information from me.
"Someone I grew up with was involved with them and it eventually killed them. I know they were able to get one of the first versions of the antidote to meta doctors in the area but they were killed before the final product was completed."
"I'm so sorry, Dagger. I know how hard it is to lose people close to you," She quietly says.
"If you don't mind me asking, how many people have you lost?"
"Three but I'm worried I could lose one or two more. You know how dangerous this line of work is."
"I do. I haven't lost as many people as you have but I don't want you to lose those people you're worried about."
"Thank you."
We remain on the roof for a few more hours, quietly chatting before Icarus comes back. Everything Shadow said was well thought out as if she was trying to make sure too much information was not given.
"Hey Shadow, we need to head back to base now."
"Okay. Just give me a second." She turns back to me. "It was nice talking to you. I hope we can see each other more often."
"Me too. And thanks for listening to my craziness."
She just laughs and pulls me into a hug. We separate and she goes over to Icarus.
"Bye Dagger!"
"Bye Shadow, bye Icarus." I wave while jumping off the roof to throw off any suspicions/ Carefully lowering myself to the next building, I wait until they are out of sight before going back to the window I left open.
Slipping in, I lock it and change into a pair of pajamas I stashed in the closet. I hide my suit under the bed and fall asleep.