"Jacen, thank goodness I found you! I need help, you need to sneak me out of here." Frostbite begs Dark Void. Dark Void places his hand on the back of Frostbite's neck and pulls him in closer.
"I don't need you anymore." Dark Void whispers into his ear.
"No, please no!" Frostbite begins to beg, and tries to escape, but can't break away from Dark Voids grasp. He screams as he feels his life slipping away as Dark Void pours energy into his body and his brain begins to fry.
"I've been looking forward to this." Dark Void whispers into Frostbites ear. The pain for Frostbite was nothing like he has ever experienced. Blood begins to drip out of his eyes, ears and nose. Death comes slowly for Frostbite, for Dark Void wants the torture to endure. Finally the sweet release of death came to him as he fell limp, the back of his neck was chard and black from Dark Voids hand. Dark Void gets up, satisfied with his work. He thinks back to a time where Frostbite trained him, and beat him, just for it to lead up to this moment. He walks out, but not before looking back thinking he heard someone.
Tak runs out not wanting to get caught, but not fully understanding what he saw since he could not hear what was said. Dark Voids then appears behind him.
"What did you see?" Dark Void asks him.
"W-what do you mean?" Tak asks back.
"You saw nothing unless you want to end up like him." Dark Void tells him, Tak nods and walks away. He makes his way back to the freshman dorms to speak to the teachers. He runs wanting to get away from Dark Void. When he walks into the dorms, he sees Saxon talking to Eight.
"Thank you for saving me." Saxon says to Eight trying to suppress his excitement.
"No problem." Eight replies looking around making sure everyone was okay and the tainted were being taken into custody.
"I just wanted to ask; how did you know to come, and why did you come?" Saxon asks
"Because he's my husband." Anima says walking in.
"What?!" Saxon yells out.
"What are you shouting for?" Tak walks up
"Professor Anima is married to Eight!' Saxon answers.
"What?! Hey everyone..." Tak shouts out, but is cut off by Eight grabbing him.
"You say one more word and you'll regret it." Eight tells Tak firmly before releasing him.
"Okay, my lips are shut." Tak replies.
Eight looks over at Anima and she looks back.
"Rachel you can go home, I'll handle things from here." Eight tells her through her telepathy.
"Ron you know I can't, it's my job, my duty to stay here." Rachel replies.
"You don't need to see this, I can handle it." Ron says trying to change his wife's mind.
"I am trained for this I can handle it." Rachel says firmly.
"You're right, I'll be here for you when you need me." Ron replies.
"Thank you." Rachel says to Ron.
"Saxon, find Frostbite, Anima I'll need your help questioning the few tainted that are still conscious." Eight states, giving out orders.
"Uh, sir." Tak says trying to get Eight's attention.
"What do you want." Eight replies.
"Frostbite is dead in the gym." Tak says.
"How did he die?" Eight asks.
"No idea, I just saw that he was dead." Tak answers with a slight hint of fear on his voice.
"There is no need to be afraid of me. But it's a shame that he's dead it would have been great to know what was inside that head, but at least that's one more fade we don't have to worry about." Eight replies back. (Fade is a derogatory term for a person who is a tainted. They're called that because when someone is tainted they say that it blackens or darkens their aura, because originally to take someone's aura and transfer it it would cause the death of the person whose aura is taken.) He walks over to one of the criminals and drags them to a secluded study room with Anima walking in behind them.
"Who do you work for, fade." Eight asks. The man doesn't answer he just smiles. His smile was one that would cause nightmares. Eight gets frustrated and looks over at Anima. "Anima, look into his mind. Pull out what we need."
Anima walks forward and begins to look into the man's mind, then runs over to Eight and tackles him out of the room yelling, "Get Down" right before and explosion destroys the room.
"What happened" Eight asks.
"The man had a bomb in his tooth and set it off so I couldn't get any information out of him, but when I looked into his mind I was able to sense it before he could blow us up." Anima answers.
"Thank you." Eight replies. " Did you get any other information."
"Yes, but I only got two pieces of information." Anima answers.
"It's alright, what do you have?" Eight asks.
"There is a mole on the school, and one word, Xoloti." Anima Replies.
"Anyone could have guessed the mole, but what does Xoloti mean?" Eight replies.
"I don't know, but we need to keep a closer eye on the school." Anima answers.
"I agree." Eight concurs.
"We need to tell the principal." Anima tells Eight.
"I agree let's go." Eight says.
They walk over to the main administration building, teachers and students are running around trying to clean up, and help out. There's a group of parents and family trying to figure out what happened. They walk up to Timothy Rogers, the principal.
"Hello Tim." Eight says.
"Hi." Tim says half distracted with trying to coordinate everything.
"We have some information from the criminal we interrogated." Anima says.
"What do you have?" Tim asks giving them his full attention.
"There's a mole in the school." Eight answers.
"I could have said that." Tim answers. "The comms were destroyed and there was a radio frequency jammer in place. Not to mention the bombs throughout the school. And the commutation center was attacked, Professor Rhetker was killed along with the whole support staff for the information center. And the secret identities and powers of the students were taken. They knew exactly where to strike and how to strike."
"Professor Rhetker! He was one of the best fighters we had!" Anima says in shock.
"I know and that's what worries me." Tim answers. "We also lost 78 students, mostly freshmen and sophomores." Anima lowers her head trying to keep her composure when she hears that.
"The second price of information we took was just a name, Xoloti." Eight says trying to change the subject.
"Hmm, the Aztec god of death. Interesting." Tim said.
"You knew what it meant?" Eight asks.
"Yes." Tim answers.
"What do you think it means?" Eight asks.
"I don't know, but that is not the pressing issue right now. Right now we need to find the mole and stop him from doing any further damage." Tim says.
"I agree, but how?" Anima asks.
"I don't know but we need to keep our eyes open." Tim answers.
Across campus in the hospital Aio, bruised and bloodied, is unconscious in a hospital bed with Aren by his side. Aren is sitting with his head down, he blames himself for not training him enough and not being there to protect him. He starts planning in his head the best training regimen for Aio when he gets better. Raquel walks up to give Aio for another healing session.
"Oh, Aren when did you get here?" She asks.
"About a half hour ago, Lisa called me and told me what happened." Aren answers.
"I'm glad, she was really worried about him when I found them." She says.
"She was with Aio?" Aren asks.
"Yes, she got there just moments before I did." Raquel answers.
"Oh, I'm glad she was there." Aren says. Aren continues to think and make small talk throughout the healing session.
Aio wakes up about an hour later and sees Aren asleep. He still is hurting all over, but the healing sessions have sped up the healing and is better than he would've been without them. Aren then wakes up.
"I see you're awake, how are you feeling?" Aren asks.
"Like a pickup truck landed on my head, and drove over my body." Aio answers. Aren chuckles a bit. "It wasn't a joke. By the way I'm surprised Lisa isn't here with you. Where is she?" Aio asks.
"Oh she's helping coordinate the investigation into the attack." Aren answers.
"Man I feel bad for the guys under her." Aio replies.
"Haha, I know what you mean, she's got a temper." Aren says laughing.
"I thought you were avoiding her because you like her." Aio says. Aren immediately stops laughing and looks at Aio.
"I don't." He says firmly.
"Sure." Aio says sarcastically.
"Whatever." Aren replies, then gets serious. "Aio, I need to talk to you seriously for a moment."
"What is it." Aio asks.
"I'm so sorry this happened to you, it's my fault. I should've prepared you better and been here to protect you. I adopted you and it is my job to protect and prepare you and I failed in that." Aren says almost in tears.
"It's not your fault you did your best to prepare me, and it kept me alive and you couldn't have known that this would happen. Don't blame yourself." Aio replies.
"Regardless I'm going to train you in fully mastering the first layer and train you in the second. It's time you learn, so this will never happen again." Aren says.
"Really? finally." Aio says excitedly
"Really." Aren answers. "Now get some rest, you'll need it to heal." Aren then hugs Aio softly taking care not to hurt him, Aio, although shocked, accepts the hug. Aren then says goodbye and walks out.
Next Time, Chapter 17 The Second Layer