When I woke it was not what I had expected? I figured I was headed back to some medieval castle and being locked in a dungeon. What I actually woke to was bright sunlight shining down on me through a big bay window with bars. My head felt fuzzy, but as I got my baring's back, I found that I was in what looked to be a very nice upscale penthouse or something. I was also laying on one of the most comfortable beds I had ever been on, I really couldn't figure out what in the heck was going on. I slowly sat up and found if I took it really slowly my head didn't hurt as bad. There was a table over by the window and I slowly made my way over to it. On the table was a big glass of what looked to be water and a bottle of unopened Tylenol. I figured if they went to the trouble of getting me an unopened bottle of Tylenol the water was more than likely fine too and I really needed something to help with the pounding in my head, so I took two and headed to relieve myself.
When I came out of the bathroom, I tried the bedroom door and it opened with ease. I walked out into a sitting area where Dane and Corrie appeared to have just walked into also. I ran over to Corrie, "Oh thank God you're ok!" and threw my arms around her. I looked over at Dane, "Dane what is going on?"
Dane looked at the girls with a sad smile. "It's them. The Restorers have us again."
I fell into the couch, I was afraid that is what was going on, but was still holding out a shred of hope. Why didn't I put up a barrier around Corrie and I as soon as I felt something was off! "Why?" I pleaded, and laid my head in my hands.
Corrie sat with me, "Dane I think you should explain what you know, the only door out of here is locked so we have some time." she said.
Dane sat across from the us and took a deep breath. "It was Rick."
Corrie just shook her head, "we kinda figured that. He is the one that drew us into a setup to get tranqued."
Dane shook his head, "Figures. When we split up earlier Rick was acting really weird, and it wasn't even a day and he had me caught by the Restorers."
I finally lifted my head from my hands and said again, "Why?"
Dane gave me look of pity, "it's his sister. They have his sister."
I gave Dane a look of understanding, "oh, I see." Then a look of complete horror crossed my face, "Oh Shit! What about everyone back at the cabin. They could all be in danger if they haven't been caught already."
Corrie's hands flew to her mouth in a look of shock, but Dane shook his head no.
"They don't know where it is. Doesn't mean they won't soon, but right now they don't know where it is." Dane took another deep breath, "also I am pretty sure this room is probably bugged, so if they didn't know there was a cabin, they kinda do now."
I got a look of utter disbelief, on my face. I need to pull my shit together. I am better than this! "Oh crap, what have I done.?!"
I got up and told Corrie and Dane, "I think I am going to go lie back down. My head is still fuzzy and I need a clear head for this."
Dane just said OK, but Corrie gave me a knowing look and shook her head yes.
I walked back to the bedroom I had come out of and immediately tried to contact Aidan. "Aidan, oh God, please Aidan."
It seemed like forever, but Aidan finally answered me. "Kenna it sounds like you are whispering, must be the distance. What's going on?"
"Aidan you guys need to move. Talk to Jake and see if he has another place you can all go."
"Kenna what is going on?" Aidan said and I could hear the worry in his voice.
"Rick turned on us. As far as I know he hasn't told where you guys are at, but you need to get out of there before he does."
"Kenna, are you ok?"
"I am for now. Corrie, Dane and I have been captured. Rick turned us over to the Restorers because they have his sister."
"God Dammit Kenna, where are you? I am on my way."
"Aidan NO! You need to get everyone at the cabin to safety. Right now, we are all fine, I am not sure what is going on, but I need to know you all are safe."
"Kenna, you can't do this again. You can't sacrifice yourself for everyone else."
"Aidan, I am not doing that. I was captured and we need to make sure everyone else is safe. Your job is to keep everyone else safe. They already have me; do you want them to have the rest of you too?"
There was a long pause, "ok, your right. I will make sure everyone is safe, but once they are I am coming to get you."
I almost started crying, I was having an extreme case of déjà vu here. "Aidan I can't stop you from coming, but if we are lucky, I will be out of here before you are settled with everyone else."
"Kenna be careful, I love you."
"I love you too Aidan."
I don't know how long I laid on the bed, but I was devastated and needed time to myself. I trusted the wrong person, and it felt like just yesterday the Restorers had me and amazingly everyone had gotten away from them, and now I have been captured by them again.
Finally, I resolved that lying there would help no one, so I got back up. Corrie and Dane were still in the sitting area, but someone had brought food.
Dane looked at me with a tight smile, "are you ok?"
I halfheartedly laughed, "no, but we will figure out what is going on. Can either of you access your powers?"
Both Corrie and Dane shook their head no. I tried, and I couldn't either. Not a single one of my powers, this is not good.
"I can't either." I said, I didn't mentioned I couldn't access all my powers because if they room was bugged I didn't need to let them know so easily I was the one with all four powers.
Dane and Corrie both looked at me in shock. Corrie was the first to find her voice, "you can't access your POWERS either." Corrie put major emphasis on the word powers.
I shook her head, "no Corrie I can't."
I saw the oh shit look pass over both Corrie and Dane's faces at the same time. Looks like they were counting on me to have some of my powers. Things just got more complicated.
All three of us stopped talking and just ate. We don't have out powers anyway and we need to keep our strength up.
In the middle of eating the only locked door was finally unlocked and in stepped a man in what I could only assume was an Armani suit or at least some fancy tailor-made suit. He scanned the room and addressed Dane. "Good morning, Dane, I trust your accommodations are to your liking."
"My accommodations would be more to my liking if I was allowed to leave." Dane said with a vicious smile.
"As such," the man said as he walked the rest of the way into the room, making sure the door was secured behind him. He looked to me and Corrie, "Good morning, ladies. My name is Trevor McMillan," he said with a charming smile. Making me want to gag.
"I am the head of the Mid-western region of the Restorers, and I have a few questions for you." Trevor said as he sat down in a chair across from us.
I looked at Trevor quizzically, "why would we answer your questions?"
Trevor just smiled, "if you do or do not is irrelevant. I will get the answers I want regardless. I will start with telling you a bit of a story. Not that long ago Michael Phillips..."
I looked up sharply.
Trevor laughed, "I see you know who Michael is, anyway back to my story. Michael's daughter, Julie, was dating a young man who was studying in Hawaii. When this young man decided he was in love with Julie, he told her a very big secret about himself. He told her he could control fire."
After my last reaction I was not about to give anything else away so I kept my face a uncaring mask, but Trevor is wrong Aidan can't just control fire. He can create it.
Trevor continued, "what this young man didn't realize was Julie is part of a very special faction of people whose goal is to cleanse the world of evil such as this young mans."
Corrie and Dane both shot up from their seats, "HE IS NOT EVIL!" They both shouted at the same time.
Trevor smiled again, "Thank you, I wasn't sure you knew this man, but that does confirm you do."
Corrie and Dane looked stricken at each other, but I spoke up. "Don't worry guys. He wouldn't be telling us this story if he wasn't relatively sure we knew what he was talking about."
Corrie and Dane both sat back down.
"As I was saying," Trevor continued. "This young man didn't know who Julie truly was and when she found out about it, she did the right thing and reported him to her superiors and her father was able to capture him. But Julie also told her father that this young man's long-lost sister had shown up, so Michael knew there was another he needed to capture. But as fate would have it this young man was able to escape before Michael could catch his sister. However, Michael also had leverage. He had this young man's parents"
I signed exasperatedly, "Trevor, since you already know that we are aware of this young man, can we skip to you point?"
"Oh, dear girl, we will." Trevor said with a smile. "I will oblige and skip ahead for you. This young man's sister traded herself for his parents and the girl was sent to our main headquarters in Scotland. Now to pause my story. I know who Corrie and Dane are, they had been with us long enough that we have extensive files on them. But you, young lady I am unsure of. You see, there is a file of this young girl that was captured, but they never uploaded a picture of her. So, are you the Kenna that was captured by Michael?" Trevor looked at me expectantly.
I laughingly replied, "why on earth would I ever tell you my name if you don't already know what it is?"
Trevor smiled again, "you are all right this room is bugged, but unfortunately, none of you ever used your name. But if you are this young girl, there are questions that need to be decided. You see according to the record on Kenna. She is the one we have been searching for. But she also has something that the Restorers would very much like back. A journal she made sure went with her when she left."
I kept my face blank, but thanked God I left the journal back at the cabin. She contacted Aidan. "Aidan?"
"Kenna is everything ok?"
"Yes Aidan, but I left Halaina's journal at the cabin. It is under my mattress. Please make sure you take that with you. We cannot let the Restorers have it."
"I will."
"Sorry I have to be short, just needed to make sure it was protected. Oh, and maybe this will be helpful. The man I met introduced himself as Trevor McMillan."
While I was talking to Aidan I kept her eyes on Trevor. He had continued talking as I spoke to Aidan.
"This journal is from the original start of this abomination. If not for her, our world would not be tainted as it is."
I was getting tired of this, they weren't really getting anywhere. "Trevor what is it you want?"
"Dear girl, the head of the Restorers wants this girl, but he also wants that journal. It would seem he wants both equally as badly, and whomever is able to bring him one or both will be greatly rewarded." Trevor said with a malicious smile. "So I have a dilemma. You see I believe you are this girl, but have no proof and Rick is being very stubborn in supplying that information."
"What?! He finally figured out that no matter what you say you aren't going to release him and his sister?" I asked sweetly.
"Yes," Trevor said sadly. "Someone, who is no longer part of my team, tipped our hand before he should have."
Corrie and I shuddered. There was no doubt in either of our minds of what happened to someone no longer on Trevor's team.
Trevor continued uninterrupted, "you would think I could continue to use his sister against him. But I am not a monster. That girl is one of us and I will not torture her to get information from her brother."
That actually surprised me, Michael would have done whatever he needed to find out.
"Also," Trevor said, "there was no journal on your person when we captured you. So, are you Kenna or are you someone else?"
I looked at Trevor as if he was crazy, "why would I tell you that? What would I possibly have to gain by telling you that?"
Trevor just looked over at Corrie and Dane. "I will not torture Rick's sister, but I have no problem hurting those dear to you whom are also abominations to this world."
I looked strickenly at Corrie and Dane, but Corrie shook her head. "Don't tell him anything. Dane and I have both been tortured by these monsters before, we will take it, even if it kills us."
"You see," Trevor addressed Corrie, "there is no doubt in my mind that what you say is true. But can this young lady take it upon herself to let us when she knows she can do something to stop it?"
I was worried, but I still had one card I might be able to play. "I don't want you to hurt them, please."
Trevor looked back at me satisfied. "Tell me dear girl, are you the girl I seek?"
I put a look on my face I prayed looked innocent and honest. "I am not, but that is not a reason they should be hurt!" I looked over at Dane and Corrie and just prayed they wouldn't give my secret away accidently.
"And why would I believe you aren't Kenna? There is no other record of anyone else." Trevor said.
"There is no other record because you have never captured me. I know of what happened to that young man because of who I am." I said quietly.
"Oh, lets end with the mystery. We know his name is Aidan, you might as well use his name. Pray tell, if you are not Kenna, then why do you know who Aidan is and his story?" Trevor said gleefully. Almost as if he was a cat playing with a mouse.
I took a deep breath, "because I am also Aidan's sister, but not Kenna. My name is Raine."
Trevor looked taken back, "I don't believe you!" He bellowed. "You are the girl I seek!"
"I am afraid I am not. If you could please calm down I also have a story I can tell you." I said meekly.
I knew Trevor had no reason to believe me, but he also had no proof I was lying if Rick wasn't talking anymore.
Trevor took a minute, but finally got himself under control and sat back down. He nodded for me to continue.
I decided that sticking as closely to the truth as possibly would be the best, "as I said my name is Raine. Up until a few days ago I had no idea that I was Aidan's sister or Kenna's for that matter. Kenna found me doing a performance on Freemont St. I do a water dance there daily for money. It is how I scrape by. When she first approached me, I honestly didn't believe her. I know what I can do is crazy, but what she was telling me was ever more so. I did not have a good childhood and was bounced from place to place, so not big on trusting strangers."
"I see," Trevor said skeptically. "And what made you believe what she was telling you?"
I looked over at Corrie and pointed to her, "she helped. She showed me her waterpower's also. I had figured I couldn't be the only one, but to have siblings out there is crazy to me." I paused for a minute and continued, "But Kenna had a great upbringing and so did Aidan." I put as much venom in her words as I could. "Why them? Why were those two so damn special that they had loving homes. What is so wrong with me that no one could LOVE ME!" By the end I was shouting.
Corrie and Dane were looking at me in shock, which I hope meant I was doing a good acting job. Hopefully Trevor was buying it too.
For the first time Trevor's mask fell and pure hate and loathing was all I saw. "You are not meant to be loved, none of you are. You are a taint on this world that we will eradicate! But we shall see if your story holds true, I am not entirely convinced." Trevor took out his phone and took a picture of me. "It shouldn't take my superiors long to let me know," and he walked out of the room, locking the door behind him.
Corrie leaned in and gave me a hug and whispered in her ear, "we don't have much time. They will know within the hour."
"I know," I said. But I had no idea what they were going to do and with the room being bugged we can't really brainstorm. I was feeling helpless, I had spent most of my life without any powers, but that part of my life was pretty mellow compared to now.
We didn't know how much time had passed, but before Trevor came back in, we had all double and triple checked every door and window. Looked under and around every piece of furniture for anything that could help us escape to no avail. The only thing we could determine was we were on a second or third floor of what looked like a very large estate. We could see what looked like a fence off in the distance surrounding at least the side we could see.
Trevor came in with two others, well I would describe them as goons. "Hello again all. It would seem we have a dilemma." He said with a smile. "You see I received a response back from the main office and they do believe you are Kenna, but there is also a chance because Kenna does have sister, two to be exact, that you could also be Raine. I am told family resemblance in your line can be very very close. So, they are flying Michael here to help me determine, but in the meantime they give me free rein to run test to see if I can determine who you are." Trevor snapped his fingers and both goons produced guns that they pointed right at me, Corrie and Dane. "If you three would please follow me."
I looked over at Dane and Corrie and just shrugged my shoulders. At this point what choice did we really have, at least we were leaving this room. We all got up and followed Trevor out the door with his goons following behind. As I followed I paid close attention to everything around me, but there was nothing to give away our location or to help us escape before we stopped in front of a large steel door painted white to blend better with the surrounding building. I watched Trevor push a section of the wall next to the door and a panel slid up to reveal a keypad, but Trevor didn't push any numbers, he placed his thumb in a spot next to the keypad that I could only assume read his thumb print and the steel door swung inwards. I looked through and all I saw were stairs leading down into the dark, but I knew we were a few stories up from the windows in their room, so how were they heading down into what I guess was some type of basement?
As we walked down the stairs lights came on as they descended. I was pretty sure we only went down maybe half a story and then reach the bottom and lights flickered on down a fairly large hallway with doors on both sides and another door at the end of the hall. As they walked down the hall, I saw that all the doors had big block numbers on them from 1 to 16. When they reached the door at the end of the hall it didn't have a number on it, but there was another keypad with a thumb print reader.
Trevor took them all through this door and it opened into what looked like a research facility. There were different rooms with see through walls that looked to have different experiments in them and some that were currently empty. The doors to these rooms looked like they vacuum sealed the room to make it secure. There were beakers and test tubes, and all sorts of scientific equipment around them.
"How do you like our facility?" Trevor said as he turned to them. "This is one of the many places the serum we use to block you magic comes from. We have developed one serum that seems to have great promise. We used it on all three of you and none of you seem to have use of any of your magic. Normally we would have to use different serums for each of you, but I believe we have finally made a breakthrough and developed one that blocks them all no matter what power you have" Trevor was almost dancing around with glee as he finished explaining. "We have been pushing to finish the development because of what happened back in Scotland."
Last time I had been captured they couldn't stop all of my powers, now it made sense why I didn't have any of them, but that put them in an even worse position.
"Now these other rooms, they are for testing subjects." Trevor said with way too much excitement that made me pretty nervous for Corrie and Dane. "These are what we will be using today." Trevor looked right at me. "You see, from what I am told of Kenna, she puts others above her own safety. So, if you truly are Kenna and not Raine, hurting you will not do us any good. But hurting them should prove beneficial." Trevor said as he pointed to Dane and Corrie.
"What do you mean hurting them?" I asked.
Trevor just smiled, "please let me see your arm," as he pulled a syringe out of his pocket. "You see we don't have any of that truth serum here like they had back in Scotland, but this will counteract the blocker we put in your system so that you can access your powers. But before you think of anything heroic, remember we have your friends here and we still have Rick and his sister. I know you are probably pretty upset with Rick about betraying you, but what kind of person would willingly hurt a little girl?"
I hung my head and held out my arm. I didn't want Trevor to see the eagerness in my eyes to have my powers restored. I didn't even look when Trevor injected me with the serum.
"Boys please take the subjects to the rooms." Trevor said as he finished injecting me.
"What? What are you doing?" I said as I started to struggle.
Trevor had a few more goons step up and hold me as I watched them put Dane and Corrie each into their own see-through experiment rooms. Then the goons placed me in front of the two rooms.
"Now I do not know this Raine, but you did say her affinity was to water. Corrie's is also water and Dane's is earth, so let's see how this experiment works." Trevor said as Dane's room began to fill with water.
I ran forward and watched Dane in panic. "What are you doing?" I screamed at Trevor! "How long will it take your damn injection to take effect?"
"It is relatively quick; you should be feeling it soon." Trevor said nonchalantly.
Trevor was right, I could feel my powers stirring.
Dane just looked at her and said, "Raine it is ok, this is not your fault. It is not your fault if someone won't believe you."
Already the water was up to Dane's hip when I turned back to Trevor. "What the hell do you want me to do. I told you my thing is water!"
"This one is simple, just move it away from him." Trevor said calmly.
I huffed and turned back to Dane. I felt for my water and sure enough the serum had fully removed the block. There was no harm in using my water power when I had already said I was Raine, so I slowly moved the water away from Dane.
Once all the water was moved away from Dane the room stopped filling up. I turned back around and looked at Trevor as he said, "well that confirms you have the water affinity, now on to the others."
As Trevor said this Corrie's room had little fires starting up all over the floor. It had Corrie jumping all over just to stay away from the flames.
I concentrated and began to make it rain slowly inside Corrie's room. She allowed the water to fall until an inch covered the floor, which she figured would keep the flames out. When I turned around Trevor was staring at her in shock. "What?" I said in response to his look.
"You just created water in that room!" Trevor said. "You didn't just manipulate the water, you created it all on your own!"
"Yeah, and?" I said flippantly.
Trevor looked at her with unabashed curiosity. "How is that possible?"
"I will answer your question with some information Kenna imparted to me before we split up if you will answer a question for me?" I said.
Trevor looked skeptical. "What is your questions?"
"As you said, what kind of person would hurt a child, so now that you have us and Rick are you going to let his sister go?" I questioned.
Trevor shook his head no and said, "Rick was ignorant to believe we would ever let her go. I keep her well taken care of, but as long as Rick thinks we will harm his sister he will do whatever I asked. There is no way we will ever let her go. Well, that is until Rick is no longer of any use and then we will eliminate him. Hopefully by that time we can help his sister see the light and she will choose to help us in our cause."
They are trying to convert Emma. From what Rick had told Kenna chances of Emma ever being converted are slim to none, which means they will never let her go and once Rick is no longer of use, Emma won't be either. "I want to see her." Is all I said to Trevor.
"Why would I let you see her?" Trevor questioned.
"Because it will hurt nothing to allow me to see her." I stated.
Trevor thought for a moment then nodded to one of his goons. I watched as the man walked back through the door they had come in. It wasn't five minutes, and the man was back with a young girl. Which means Emma is being kept in one of the rooms down the hall they came through.
Emma kept her head down as she was walked over to me. Trevor looked to me and said, "here she is."
I knelt down in front of her, "hello, my name is Raine. What is yours?"
Emma hesitantly looked to the group around her, "um my name is Emma. Have you seen my brother?"
I shook my head, "not for a few days. When is the last time you saw him?"
"They are using me against him. Are you the friends he had to turn in to keep me safe?" Emma asked.
I looked up in shock.
"We did not feel she needed to be kept from her brother and he has told her." Trevor said.
"I am afraid we are Emma." I said quietly.
"He should not have done that." Emma replied.
"He was just trying to keep you safe. Are you safe Emma?" Of course I knew that was relative. Emma wouldn't be safe until the Restorers no longer had her.
Emma thought for a moment. "I am being well taken care of if that counts. I don't believe I will ever be truly safe, but they treat me nice. I have a nice room down the hall over there. When I first got here my room was pretty small, like a cell. But now they moved me to room 13 and it is like an amazing hotel suite."
I made sure to hide my triumph. Now I know exactly what room Emma is in also. "I am very glad they are treating you so well."
"That is enough." Trevor stated as the goon grabbed Emma to take her away.
"Please, please just let me go. I haven't done anything wrong." Emma said as they drug her back to her room.
"You do know what you are doing to that girl is just as damaging as physical harm?" I snidely remarked.
"It is for the best for her in the long run, now it's your turn." Trevor said.
I looked at Trevor with disdain, "Kenna told me that all of us are born with different abilities and we all have different levels of power. The further from the original bloodline you are the more diluted your power. The closer to the original bloodline you are the stronger your power. From what she has told me, we are direct descendants of the original ones like us, so we have the most power."
"Interesting, so the direct bloodline can not only manipulate their element, but they can also create it. I wonder, can you also destroy it in others?" Trevor asked with a look of pure hope.
Crap, I thought this was going to be a safe conversation, but he immediately jumped to destruction. I did know I have the power to take a power away from someone, but it is like taking part of their soul. "I don't know. I have never thought of anything like that. I know Dane has earth power and Corrie water. But I cannot feel Dane's power it is unknown to me. Corrie and I can sense the water in each other."
"Oh, how enlightening." Trevor said. "That would mean in essence, that if we have Kenna, at the very least she would be able to pick out any others of your kind."
"Possibly, but she would never do that. She would rather die than help you." I stated.
"Oh, we know, but as I said before, it is others' lives that she values." Trevor smugly said. "Now back to our little experiment." Trevor turned back to the rooms Dane and Corrie are in with an evil smirk on his face.
When I turned around Dane's room had started filling with more water and Corrie's room was filling with dirt. "What are you doing?" I screamed at Trevor.
He just smiled, "Well if you are just Raine I am afraid one of your friends will likely die today, but if you are not, I do believe Kenna would have the power to save them both."
"I hate you." I replied as I turned back to the rooms. I focus on Dane's room and made all the water dissipate.
Trevor gasped, "you are truly extraordinary."
I looked at Corrie's room and wasn't sure what to do. "Please stop this, I can't help her. Please." I begged.
Trevor just looked on as if I had not spoken.
I could save Corrie, but then they would know who I was. I didn't see a way to save her using water, but I couldn't just stand there and watch my friend die.
Corrie looked at me with a look of peace on her face, "Raine, this is not your fault, and it is not your place to save everyone. Some people you must let go."
I shook my head, "NO Corrie, I can't. There must be something I can do."
"Keep everyone safe. Help your brother and sister. They all need you to be around and get out of this mess. No one needs me." Corrie said.
"Yes, they do, Corrie I need you. I am going to figure this out." I reached out with her air and made a pocket of air around Corrie. You couldn't tell that the dirt wasn't touching her, but I didn't know how to continue to allow Corrie to breath once the dirt covered her face without them being able to tell. I then tried adding water trying to block the dirt. I knew it wouldn't work, but it needed to look like I was trying something.
Corrie just kept repeating to me that is was ok and this was not my fault. But I watched in horror as the dirt continued to fill Corrie's room. I can't do it, there is no way I can sit here and watch Corrie die to protect me.
Just as I ran up to the glass to start using my earth power something big rocked the entire area. I looked in shock back to Trevor, "are earthquakes common here? We have to get them out!"