“You don’t know what they did to me. To us.” (a continuation of an abruptly deleted thread)

Another flash of annoyance crossed Charlie’s face as she stopped flipping pages. “I’m not the one lying either, b-tch. You are in the much more suspicious position here, don’t you think?”
August, confused and almost scared of Charlie’s aggression, gripped her arm. “What are you doing? This doesn’t have to do with-“
The look Charlie gave her confirmed her thoughts, and at the same time shut her mouth.
Charlie looked back at the book, then said firmly, "Желание."

The women in the room did not seem to have heard him. Malachi’s hands curled into fists. “I should’ve mentioned the book in my statement,” he realized. “I should’ve mentioned the book in my statement, I should’ve mentioned the book in my statement…” a wave of regret washed over him.

Charlie wasn’t fazed, and only continued. "Семнадцать.”
August’s heart pounded in her chest. She absolutely no idea what to do. Kali may have kidnapped their leader, but she had clearly been controlled by the aliens. Then again, Charlie may have a point. Maybe Kali was still being controlled. How could they know for sure?
"Ржавый." Charlie’s voice was smooth and monotonous. She stared at Kali with a blank expression, except for a strange look of expectancy and anticipation in her eyes. "Рассвет."
There was a pause and August finally heard banging on the door. Her head snapped to Malachi, who made a fervent gesture for them to stop. "Печь," Charlie said, causing a spark of fear in Malachi’s heart.
“Charlie, what are you doing? You have to stop this, you can’t control her!” He finally cried.
When Charlie turned her face to him, Malachi almost wept. Her fear matched his own, and yet the anticipation that had once burned in her eyes was now replaced with hope. The belief that she was truly doing the right thing.
“I can, I know I can,” she said. “I have been given control over her.” She turned to Kali. "Добросердечный."
That’s when clarity suddenly pierced Malachi’s mind. He looked down at Quin. “It’s going to be alright, chaton.” Looking at Emery, he said quickly, “You need to get them out of here. Take them to a safe, sheltered place. If this isn’t stopped, it will be disastrous.”
Emery looked rightly afraid, but the orders from their leader gave them something to focus on. They bent down and touched Matteo and Quin on the shoulders. “You need to come with me, now.” Emery took the boys’ hands and led them quickly down the hall.
When Malachi looked back, August was in front of him, quickly unlocking the door between them just as the word "Возвращение на Родину," drifted into his ear.

Malachi burst into the room, only to hear the word, "Один," followed by "Товарный вагон." Charlie closed the book.
He locked eyes with Kali, sharing the fear and terror between them. But all too soon it was gone. The light in her eyes seemed to dim, and suddenly he wasn’t staring at Kali anymore. He was staring at a puppet.
Luckily, he was quick to adapt this time. He dodged her attack, sidestepped and quickly moved to grab hold of the handcuffs around her wrists. He tried to keep from panicking. With the handcuffs, she was much less powerful than before. All they needed to do subdue her before she hurt anyone, and they could figure out a way to bring her back.
Charlie looked utterly shocked, but she was able to recover soon enough. ’Солдат,” she boomed, ”мне нужно, чтобы ты прекратил атаковать нашего лидера и вернулся на свое место, сейчас же!”

( @imNOTdenki)

Malachi didn’t understand what was being said between them, but he saw that it made Charlie quite distraught, and yet he could sense a layer of triumph underneath it.
He managed to dodge Kali’s attempt. Keeping his eyes on her but addressing Charlie, he said, “Charlie, what is going on? What did she say?”
“I was wrong…” her voice was hollow with shock. “I can’t… I was fooled. I can’t control her. I see that now. She is trying to kill you, Malachi. She is.”
“That’s because-“ Malachi fumed, cutting off to dodge Kali’s swipe by moving backwards. “That’s because she’s under someone else’s control! She is not acting of her own accord, she said that because her mind isn’t her own at the moment. Don’t you see?”
“But…” Charlie stared blankly ahead, not moving an inch. Malachi dodged another attack, his face contorting with rage. “EASTWOOD. Don’t just stand there! Help me!”
That got her moving. But before she reached them, Malachi saw Kali being shoved to the ground. Before he realized what happened, August revealed herself on top of Kali, having used her invisibility to take her by surprise.
“Is there any way to get her to snap out of it?” She asked, her limbs shaking with effort.

August had just managed to cry, “The cuffs—!” before the room was submerged in shadow. Malachi cursed loudly in French. They had both lost sight of Kali. Charlie, now quite spooked, managed to catch a glimpse of her before she vanished. She felt something grab her arm, crying out when it was twisted and her body was thrown. She lay slumped against the wall, stunned, as Malachi came over due to the noise. After he shook her a bit and called her name, she managed to pull herself together and summon balls of light to illuminate the room. They casted strange shadows as if her power was actively competing with Kali’s.
August’s pupils had to adjust to the increase in light, but it allowed her to dash over to the table they had been sitting at and grab the recording device, still recording, and the electronic sphere, which had stopped projecting Kali’s files. The light all so allowed the other two rebels to see Kali.
“Arden!” Malachi called, stepping into the open. “You want to kill me so bad? I’m right here!” Charlie, seeing what he was doing, dimmed the light near her and attempted to move stealthily behind Kali so she could catch her by surprise, effectively giving her a taste of her own medicine.
Meanwhile, August had gone invisible and was backed into a corner, murmuring into the recording device and pressing buttons on the sphere. Then she spoke to the sphere, calling other rebels to come for back up.

In the med bay, Malcolm managed to treat everyone’s wounds. Some of the search party, like Vixen and Evan, were asleep, resting since their injuries were the most severe. Alister refused to leave Evan’s side, even dozing off beside him a few times. They were now covered in bandages instead of flowers, but their sleeping mats were covered in wilted flower petals.
Meanwhile, Noel sat at the holographic table with Trent and Malcolm, chatting and catching up.

Charlie's orbs of light grew bigger in response, intensifying the brightness. As a result, it was as if someone took a photo of the scene and turned up the contrast, the shadows getting darker and the light getting brighter.
The high-contrasting environment messed with Malachi's vision, unfortunately. Normally he would be able to gauge how far he would have to move in order to avoid an attack from someone a certain distance away, but now it was easier to miscalculate. He saw Kali coming, but he must've not moved far enough. A sharp pain pierced his side as the dark blade touched his exposed midriff, causing a yell to leap from his lips. Not for the first time, he was struck by how both healing and destructive Kali's power was. He stumbled out of the way.
Once Charlie heard the yell, she realized she was too late. But better late than never. Immediately she let the room surge with light, revealing Kali's location as she was about to cut Malachi again. Charlie dashed over and tackled her from her behind. The light in the room dimmed. Kali was clearly more powerful than Charlie was, and so she couldn't sustain the light for as long as she would've liked.
At least Kali was small. Charlie wrapped her arms around the petite figure, pushing her to the floor. She tried to hold down Kali's arms in an attempt to disarm her. "солдат," she grunted, "прекрати это. Я не позволю тебе больше причинять ему боль."
The light and shadows in the room began to flicker. Malachi crawled away from the two, pressing a hand to his side. Upon pulling it away, he caught the sight of crimson on his fingers. He didn't think the wound was deep though. At least, not deep enough to puncture any internal organs.

Noel stared at the bandage wrapped around her arm. Even Malcolm was better at wrapping bandages than her; it was almost nice to look at. As she stared, tiny blooms formed across her arm beside her bandages. Buttercups. She sighed, then turned her attention to the boys again.
“Did you see Talon or Evan at all while you were in captivity?” Malcolm was asking Trent. He leaned against the holographic table, occasionally glancing at it and tapping someone’s profile to check their vitals.

"Weird," Malcolm agreed. "All I can say is that they must have found something in your DNA that they didn't find in Talon or Evan's, so they separated you. You could've been put in the same place I was."
"Are you saying the aliens have some place were they specifically experiment with humans and animals together?" Noel tilted her head.
"I mean, it makes sense," Malcolm shrugged. "Since your combining the DNA's of different species. In your case, it was between individuals."
All four of her arms stiffened involuntarily. His words made her think of Willow, no matter how hard she tried to turn her mind away from it. Malcolm caught the change in her expression.
"Ah- my apologies. I don't mean to be so cold." He rubbed his neck nervously.
Noel nodded. "Your fine. It's not your fault, I just get…" she shrugged helplessly.

"ты правда думаешь, что ты все еще контролируешь меня? все еще останавливай меня? ты можешь быть больше … но кто, по-твоему, тренировался больше?"
Kali stared back at Charlie, her face blank, her fist opened and the darkness grew with the light fading around them.
Her darkness blade disappeared, and a claw type hand appeared behind charlie, and picked her up stabbing into her as it picked her up and tossed her across the room into the wall.
She moved swiftly to get back up, searching for Malachi and moving towards him as he crawled away, the hand had vanished and the blade appeared yet again, she threw it like a spear to punctures one of his leg and hold it in place as she approached, good thing though was she was distracted so someone could attack her while she was on her way to Malachi.

”тогда кто тебя контролирует?” Charlie asked desperately, the dimming light making her anxious. With her mind in this state, it was difficult to fight Kali’s power.
Before she could get an answer, she felt something stabbing into her gut. She gasped, her grip loosening on Kali when she was brutally thrown. She hit the wall, and didn’t get back up. With it, all of her light went out, the only light now coming from the door.
Malachi’s gazed was fixed on Charlie. He was aware of Kali coming toward him but for some reason he couldn’t tear his eyes away from his unconscious friend. What was her deal? She had been acting so strangely before, nothing like he remembered. Were Kali and Charlie connected somehow?
His thoughts were swiftly cut off when the dark blade pierced his leg. Malachi cried out, then cursed loudly again, his eyes watering from the pain. In front of him, Kali’s figure was shrouded in darkness. He could barely see her except for the glint of her blade and the light from outside softly illuminating her face. Dang, if only his indestructible skin would work today.
”Chat noir…?” he couldn’t keep the whimper out of his voice. Maybe it was just the pain and the darkness messing with his vision, but Kali looked almost beautiful when she was about to kill him. All he could do now was wait, focus so that maybe the indestructibility would kick in and any attack would just bounce right off him.
But then for the second time, Kali seemed to be pushed to the floor by someone who wasn’t there. She pushed onto her stomach, and Malachi realized it was August again, though this time she stayed invisible. Malachi took the opportunity to rip the blade out of his leg, crying out in agony as he did so.

For a moment there was an awkward silence, until something popped upon the holographic table. It was a recording of August, her face flickering as the shadows and light changed rapidly in the room, the sound of fighting in the background.
“The interrogation with Malachi’s kidnapper has gone awry,” she said urgently. “The suspect is now acting violently against us. Calling for backup in room #007, ASAP. Lewandowski, some of us will need medical attention-“
Just then a loud cry could be heard. It caught August’s attention and she disappeared from the screen, and then the screen went dark.
Malcolm’s widened. He immediately grabbed a first aid kit from under the table and faced the others. “I’d hate to put you in a situation where you’d get hurt again. But, if you feel well enough, follow me.” He marched out of the med bay, Alister stirring awake as he passed.
Noel quickly motioned for Trent to follow, then went after Malcolm, her mind racing.

August stumbled backward as she felt herself and Kali being pushed upward. She honestly didn’t know what or who to believe now. Charlie, or Malachi. All she could do know was keep those she cared about from getting hurt, and that meant acting as if Kali was doing this of her own free will.
She vaguely saw that her opponent was armed again, but it was easy to dodge the attacks when Kali didn’t know where she was. Then an idea lit up in her mind. She backed up, heading in the direction of where Charlie lay, still unconscious.
“No can do, Kali Arden,” she said, hoping the girl would follow her voice.
Charlie had that book… and somehow thought she could control Kali with it… so maybe if the book got them into this situation, it could get them out of it…

Malachi leaned against the wall, breathing heavily and exhausted. Somehow he could not get that moment with Kali out of his mind. How she paused at the sound of his nickname for her. In that moment she looked… like her. Like herself. Malachi was starting to miss that. Kali was honestly easier to deal with when she wasn’t trying to kill him.
As quickly and carefully as he could, he took off his shoes and socks, and wrapped the socks over his wounds in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

Alister tried to blink the sleep from his eyes as he sat up, careful not to disturb Evan. The sound of hurried footsteps had caused him to wake, and he thought he heard something earlier, like a scream. Though, was it real or not? He wasn’t sure if he was being honest. But just in case…
“El?” He murmured. Noel froze in place, then turned and went to his side. Malcolm glanced at them for a moment, but then hurriedly continued out of the room.
“Um, hey,” she said, a bit awkwardly at first. “Something’s happened. The girl who kidnapped Malachi- she’s gone rogue. We have to check it out.”
Alister’s eyes widened. “Okay. Do you need me? My injuries weren’t that bad.”
Noel bit her lip. “No, it’s alright, you need rest.”
“But I want to help, if I can.” His brow furrowed with concern as he grasped his sister’s wrist.
“Ali…”

“Well, someone has to tell him what’s going on,” she retorted, turning to Trent. Glancing back at her brother, she said, “but yeah, what he said. It’s… your decision whether to come or not, but just so you’re aware, that’s where we’ll be.”
Noel gave him a small nod, then followed Trent out of the room.
Alister watched them leave. He wanted to be somewhat useful to the rebellion… was the search mission enough for now? But perhaps he should simply be there in case Noel got hurt, if no one needed him for another purpose.
He turned to Evan beside him. Disturbing his sleep wasn’t an appealing idea to Alister, but at the same time he didn’t want to leave him there.
He sighed, then nudged Evan awake. “Evan, something’s happened. They might need me, but you need to stay here, okay?”

Alister set his hands on Evan’s shoulders and gently pushed him back down. “I’ll stay safe, but you have to rest in return. You don’t want to end up in a wheelchair again, do you?”
He paused. For some reason, it felt weird to just… leave. Evan looked so soft and gentle, laying there. This was his soulmate. How was he supposed to act around him? Towards him?
Alister sighed. He simply combed his fingers through Evan’s hair before pulling away and standing up. “I’ll… I’ll be back.”

Malcom quickly led Trent and Noel down the hall. A few other rebels they saw seemed to be headed in the same direction; August didn’t just send the recording to them.
“El!”
She turned to see her brother coming up behind them. Motioning for him to keep up, she simply waited until he had come up beside her.
“This has happened before,” she said. “The main goal is to subdue the enemy and keep them from hurting anyone or anything, or escaping and giving us away. Only thing is…”
“What?” Alister panted.
“No one has ever called for backup like this. It’s usually pretty cut and dry, but that girl really must be that powerful.”
“… I see.”
Part of his mind was still back in the med bay, when Evan caught his hand as he was getting up. Alister almost decided to stay when that happened, but after a moment he carefully removed his hand from Evan’s grip and left anyway. Now he shook his head, forcing himself to focus on the task at hand.