How did this happen? It wasn't supposed to end this way! Why?!
These were the thoughts that ran though Arthur's head as his eyes skimmed the battle field. All his friends and loved ones were on their hands and knees in pain.
"Arthur..." Iain croaked out. "Stop... please..." he painted the forest floor with his blood as he spoke. Pain rocked though his body as forced himself to speak.
Mentally Arthur was crying out, pleading with whoever was controlling his mind and body to stop this madness. But the only reply he got to his cry was his hand moving and sending Iain face first into a tree painfully.
Iain grunted in pain as his back hit the ground.
Iain! Arthur screamed in his head but his scream was met with a soothing 'shh...' in his mind. Why? Why! Why did we have to join that stupid team?!
"Arthur, be a dear and round them up will you. Le Boss wants them all to be together when he gets here. He said something about a 'special treat'" Francis said dramatically as he used air quotes for the words special treat.
Arthur's body reacted to Francis's demands. Arthur watched in horror as his loved ones were all placed in a large energy cage.
As energy bars sprung up around the cage, he desperately tried to move towards his teammates. He could hear each person's thoughts careening through their minds as if they were screaming them at him.
"What's up with Iggy?! Why is he doing this to the amazing hero; this is so not cool!" Alfred Jones grasped the bars with both hands; not even his strength could affect them.
"After all we've been through together, and mah own little brother turns on me. Who does he think he is?! It's a good thing I'm in this cage, or I would be beating the living fire out of him!" Shawn Kirkland stood trembling with anger, and the ground trembled underneath his feet.
"Why, Arthur? We are your family and friends…how could you do this to us?" William Kirkland leaned on the bars as if he would faint without their support. Only a keen observer would have noticed the trickle of water flowing beside him.
"Ah've failed him. Ah was supposed to protect him…I wasna prepared to protect the lad from himself." While everyone else's thoughts felt like shouts to Arthur, Iain Kirkland's were a small whisper. Blood streaming down his face and body from multiple wounds, Iain looked barely conscious. Until that moment, Arthur had never been afraid for his oldest brother. Now, he could barely see a flicker of the flame that Iain possessed.
There was one set of thoughts that stabbed Arthur's heart like a knife above all others, however.
"I thought you loved me. Can't you hear my thoughts, Arthur? Please stop; I know this isn't the real you!" Sara Leon's soulful brown eyes stared into his emerald ones, tears streaming from them in torrents. That gaze, along with his family's agonized thoughts, was more than Arthur could bear.
"Why can't they hear my thoughts?! I love you all so much, forgive me for this!" His mental screams still went unheard. Tears run Arthur's face. "I'm sorry", He was allowed to whisper, but it went unnoticed.
Not long after, a large plane could be heard landing not too far away; everyone's ears perked up at the loud noise. They mentally and physically prepared themselves for what was coming next.
"I see you did as ordered. Good! It will make the next step in my plan so much easier." spoke a large cloaked man with a deep voice as he slid out from behind the trees. Two people stood behind him. One of them was Gilbert, Ludwig's older brother, whose lust for power had sent him down the wrong path. Gilbert's blood red eyes stood out from the rest of his pale body and black clothes. The second man was not familiar to Arthur or his loved ones.
"Now that the main brats have been rounded up it should be easy to grab the rest," remarked the deep voice that came from the hooded man. "Fang! Go and tell Antonio that he and the others may retrieve the children form Dr. Roosevelt's 'School of Mutants'."
Sara gasped. Everyone's eyes turned towards her. But she did not pay them any mind as she ran up to the front of the cage and screamed, "Shade! Is that you?!"
Said person turned around and glared at her harshly. "My name is Fang. I do not know this 'Shade' of yours." He said coldly, then turned his back to her and returned to the forest.
Sara's distressed look mirrored the lightning that flashed through the sky as she watched the mysterious man go. She sank to her knees in shock as thunder rolled through the air. Arthur, meanwhile, could not repress the feeling swelling up inside him at the scene.
Who could that have been to cause that reaction? A long lost brother, or an ex-boyfriend?
Jealously began to run hot through his veins, before he remembered who had put everyone in this situation. He wanted to hang his head in shame, to release all his friends and family, to beg for their forgiveness; anything but what someone forced him to do: watch all he ever cared for be destroyed at his own hands.