What the hell? Nero thought as he tried sitting up. He instantly regretted that decision. Everything hurt, apparently I'm still alive he thought. Death couldn't possibly hurt this much. He lay there on his back looking up at the ceiling while his mind went a million and a half directions. Where was he? How was he still alive? Where were Jess and Vi? Did he actually learn a new power? Who was the other Demon Brick spoke of? What was that dream about? Was it actually a memory because it sure felt like one? Or was it some sort of weird drug and trauma induced vision? He had no idea.
Thankfully his boredom was soon gone when the door to the room opened up and Cole walked in with Kuo. This time he forced himself to sit up, while all his muscles complained. Kuo rushed over and helped him up. "Hey take it easy tiger. You almost died."
"Where's Victoria and Jess?" he asked, still groggy. He looked at Cole and saw pain and sadness there.
"Glass has them." Rage sped through Nero; it was so potent that shadows erupted from him coursing over his body. Within a few seconds he was on his feet completely healed. He looked at a broken mirror and saw he had new scars from his encounter with brick. There was a new, nasty scar along his ribs on his right side. A good chunk of meat had been taken out with that swipe. On his left hip there was a new scar and along his jaw on the right side. Dead center in the middle of his chest was a long vertical scar, where Brick had planted Nero's scythe. He sighed and grabbed his shirt and coat.
"Nero. We're going to find them." Kuo said as she stepped up to try and comfort him. Her hand jerked back as the shadows surrounding him erupted into spikes, almost acting like armor.
"Where's John and where's Hank?" He asked, his voice catatonic and calm. On the outside he looked neutral and fine, but he could snap someone's neck in this state without even blinking. Even Cole.
"Nero…" Cole warned. Nero spun around and gazed into his eyes. He tore into Cole's past and saw the events of Empire city. He saw the blast that had leveled six blocks, his best friends betrayal, and the love of his life plummeting towards her death. Nero saw all the chaos Kessler had wrought. What surprised him was Kessler's final message, Cole was supposed to kill the beast, but instead he went with John White to cure the plague. But for all the memories haunting Cole, the death of his best friend, Zeke, haunted him the most. He dug through the memory.
The RfI roles out of Nix's lifeless hand and Zeke picks it up. He holds it in one hand and brings his revolver up in his other hand. Cole looks at him sadly and states "Half as long."
"Twice as bright." He says. Zeke sighs and meets Cole's gaze. "I gotta try."
"I know." Cole says softly. Zeke fires one shot, hitting him in the shoulder. Cole hisses and brings hiss hand up and fires a bolt of lightning at him. Zeke falls back a bit, but raises his gun again. Cole fires another and this time he's on his knees. He tries again but Cole fires the final bolt and Zeke stays down.
When he came back out only a second had passed. "You should know how I feel Cole. You were in love at some point too remember?" Cole stiffened at his response. "What were you willing to do once you found out Kessler had Trish. What were you willing to do Once he killed her huh? What about Nix? What about Zeke? There was nothing you wouldn't do to reach your goal!"
"NERO!" Kuo shouts. "That's enough!" Though she's looking at Nero quizzically, wondering how he knew all of that.
"How did you know that?" Cole asks through clenched teeth.
"Glass injected me with something. Made me see my worst fears and my worst memories over. Kinda like a bad acid trip. Somehow I snapped out of it and managed to get inside Bricks head." Cole put his hand to his chin and thought hard. He looked haunted.
"The power you're describing is what Victoria's sister had. She could get inside peoples heads like you just did. What did she inject you with?"
"Don't know. Shot a dart at me and it was filled with black liquid." Cole thought about it some more.
"Well John did say they ran experiments on Alexandria. Maybe they managed to weaponize her powers without her physically having to be present." Nero nodded and told him about the vision he'd had.
"So you're telling me that she's alive? And probably brainwashed?"
"Probably." Nero confirmed.
"Son of a bitch."
"Now. Where is John and where is Hank?"
Nero looked at the pathetic mess that was John. Suit torn to shreds, hair still a mess and he looked like he hadn't slept in a week. He walked in and John turned white.
"What's the matter John? You look like you've seen a ghost." Nero states and he takes the chair opposite from him.
"I-It's just that, I thought Brick killed you."
"He almost did." Nero says, not hiding his contempt nor the new scar he wore on his jaw. "Now you're going to tell me why you betrayed us."
"It was always the plan Nero. I was always supposed to find you and gain your trust and then foil your plans. But they were supposed to talk you into joining them and saving the human race and coexisting. "
Nero lets out a bitter laugh. "We can't save the human race. The plague is killing everything and this is the only way." John stays quiet. "Now I'm going to ask you again, why did you betray us?" John closes his eyes and says nothing; Nero can still hear him whimpering. "Dammit John!" Nero shouted and lunged to him. He picked him up by the front of his shirt and tore through his memories.
"P-Please. Let him go." John pleads to the BCI agents. They're dragging away a young boy. 13 at the most, and he takes after John. He has the same hair and same restlessness. "Please I'll do anything!" he begs. "Just let my little brother go!"
The sound of a woman laughing comes from behind him. Allison Glass is there in all her glory. In his mind he'd imagined her differently. Here in the real world, she barely reaches 5'4. She's wearing a black business suit and has a black scarf over the lower half of her face. Silver eyes dig deep into him. "Anything? Well that can be arranged."
Nero stumbled back breathing heavily. "She has your little brother." He states as he looks back at him. He's even paler and tears are glistening in his eyes.
"Y-Y-You're just like her." He stammers. "The Wraith. You and her are the same."
"Alexandria." Nero states. John shakes his head.
"She doesn't go by that name anymore. Glass renamed her Wraith."
"I know!" Snapped Nero. "Glass shot me full of some weird drug. Gave me the Wraiths powers, though I suspect that wasn't her intentions. It made me relive my worst memory, and while that was happening Brick was beating the living hell out of me. So you're going to tell me where they have Jess and Vi, and I might consider letting you live."
John starts to sob. As his shoulders shake he looks to Nero through tears, "Thank you Nero!"
Being fed up Nero summons a dagger and holds it under his throat. "Where. Are. They." He says. John gulps.
"I don't know where they are." He starts, "But Hank does! I swear! He's the one who was in contact with them!" he adds quickly."
Nero sighs and stands up. "I should kill you." He says. "I should, but I won't. I'm going to let you live with the guilt. I haven't been a Conduit for long, but betrayal is something I know well. It's an old bitter friend, and I have always held traitors in the highest of contempt." John stares at him hopefully. Nero starts to leave, but turns around and looks at John. He journeys into his mind and finds his deepest and darkest fear and brings it to the surface. John gasps and starts to shake. "My parting gift to you John. Enjoy."
"No. No. NO. NO!" his screams start reaching a higher pitch with each scream. Nero laughs sadistically and journey's into the nightmare with him. John's reliving a memory of his parents kicking him out on the streets for being gay, then it goes to more awful memories replayed in full detail. He's reliving breakups, muggings, discrimination in job interviews, and worst of all, his love dying. Nero makes sure John spends extra time watching his boyfriend die. Such a terrible tragedy, he died jumping in front of a knife to protect John while being mugged.
After he's had his fill, Nero brings the nightmare to the surface of John's hell. In the nightmare John's little brother is killed in every way imaginable. He laughs and comes out of the screaming man's head. John's curled up on the floor and living in his own personal hell. Still laughing he leaves the room and shuts the door.
"Wasn't that a little harsh?" Cole asked from behind him. Nero shook his head.
"That was fully deserved Cole. He played a part in their capture." Nero stated without emotion. He kept moving to where they were keeping Hank.
"Fair enough but what did you learn?" Cole asked while motioning for Nero to stop. Nero let out a sigh of frustration. Jess and Victoria could be being tortured right now while he was basically twiddling his thumbs. He looked out the window of the hospital they'd made their base of operations for the time being. A better part of the city had been destroyed, but they needed to recover supplies and give the Conduits some rest. They'd just walked one hundred miles to get back. Jess had spent the afternoon before the attack getting the legion to a safe spot. Because Hank was an idiot and didn't bother to check in on whether or not the legion was still there had saved them from being captured.
Though the fucker still caught the two Conduits Nero really cared about. He looked back at Cole, "Glass has his brother and Hank is the one who was in contact with Glass. John's mission was to infiltrate and get me to turn on you."
Cole nodded. "Well it's a good thing you didn't."
"Why is that?"
"Cause I would've had to track you down and kill you." Cole states.
Nero chuckles and nods toward the infection on Cole's neck. The molten skin is creeping on his neck and his right arm is mostly covered. "With the state you're in, you wouldn't last against me."
"True but I'd put up one hell of a fight." Nero chuckled again and headed to the room where they were holding Hank. Cole followed. "What are you going to do Nero?"
"What do you think?" Nero says coldly as he reaches the room. He looks through the glass on the door and sees Hank tied to a chair; his head slumped onto his chest. The spikes are still in his leg and shoulder. Nero can't see his back but he knows the spike is still imbedded in his spine. He turns to Cole; "I'm going to need you to help me wake him up." Cole nods.
They enter the room, which used to be a storage room. Cole had it cleared out so they could put Hank in. Just a five by ten room and a chair, there was nothing special about it, but Nero couldn't help but feel a connection to it. This was where he would find out where Vi and Jess were. Nero took the spikes out of his leg, shoulder and spine while healing each wound. He wanted Hank to feel everything he was about to do.
"Nero, talk to the Conduit a few doors down. His name is Ryan. He can put people into a deep sleep; tell him he can pull Hank out of his coma. Nero did just that and came back to the room. Hank was just starting to come out of it, his eyelids were fluttering and he was groaning, though he still wasn't fully awake. Cole motioned to him and gave him two metal spikes with copper wire spun around it. Cole was holding the end of the wires. "Shove these into his legs and I'll shock him." He grinned and took the cold spikes, one in each hand and walked over to Hank and knelt in front of him.
Nero slapped him a few times to wake Hank up a bit. "Hank."
"Whaaa?" He said groggily. Nero grinned and slammed the spikes, imbued with dark energy, into his legs. Hanks eyes shot wide open and let out a scream.
"It's time to wake up you piece of shit." He says over his screams of pain. "Now keep your screaming to a minimum while we ask you some questions."
"Go fuck yourself." He says through gritted teeth. Cole sends electricity through the copper wire and Hank screams again.
"Wrong choice of words. Now where did Glass take Victoria and Jessica?" Nero says getting closer to him. Hank starts to laugh like a mad man.
"What's so funny?" Nero growls
"The fact you think they're alive. Hell Brick must've had his way with them a few times already. They'll be dead soon if not already." He laughs at the look on Nero's face, "Y'know I've often wondered what it would feel like, having lil victoria under me squirming, Moaning my-" He was cut off by Nero punching him so hard his cheek bone shattered and he fell off the chair. Nero kicks him while he's down, all he sees is red and he wants his bloodlust sated. He kicks him tile most of his ribs are broken, it doesn't matter, Hank can heal himself fast enough. He props him up on the chair, while Cole electrocutes him again.
Nero leans down so he's face to face with him. "WHERE ARE THEY?" he shouts. Hank still manages to grin even when Nero presses a dagger to his throat.
"What are you gonna do? Kill me?" Hank taunts, he knows he's desperate to find the. Hank can see it in Nero's stature; he's barely holding it together. Nero puts the dagger away. Instead he tears through his mind. Though he can't find what he's looking for he finds something that can be used.
"No. I'm going to visit your daughter in that cabin in Washington." Hank blanches at that.
"You're just like her." He says incredulously.
Nero nods. "Just like the Wraith. Tell me where she's keeping Jess and Vi. I can already see why you betrayed us. They have your daughter."
Hank nods, "Then you know I can't tell you that." Nero nods and decides to force his way through Hanks mind. He sees Hanks daughter as the Chunt's take her away and he sees him begging with Glass. Deeper he thinks. Nero digs further, it isn't easy though. He's had practice keeping people out, but Nero forced himself through his defenses.
Hank leads Glass through the deserted camp the legion had set up. He looks around confused. Everyone was here when Nero left. But all the tents and fire pits are deserted. There's no Conduit in sight. He starts to sweat, he fucked up this time.
"Where are they Hank? I thought only thirty Conduits were attacking. The whole camp is gone." Glass says irritated. "Should I kill your daughter after all?"
Hank spins around and desperately pleads for her not to. Suddenly Jess flickers back into the camps and sees the Chunts. Her eyes go wide and before she can teleport out, Hank dashes over to her and shoots a ball of sulfur at her face making her pass out. It was a desperate move on his part, but he had to keep his daughter alive. Nero was going to be pissed.
"You've made up for your blunder, Hank. If it happens again, your daughter will lose an arm. Understood?" he nods. She turns to the squad, "Keep her sedated and take her to lab 32."
"You son of a bitch!" Nero snarls. "You're the one who took Jess!"
Hank nods, his wounds are healing and Nero doesn't like how his face looks without them. He places a hand on his head and sends out waves of energy that stop his healing. Hank grimaces. "Where is lab 32?" he asks. Hank shakes his head. Cole electrocutes him again and this time instead of a scream, he lets out a whimper. Nero curses and makes him hallucinate. Even Nero shudders at what he's making Hank see. After a few minutes he eases up and lets him come back to reality. He's sweating and tears are flowing freely.
"You're a sick bastard Nero." Hank says while panting.
"I know." He says, "But it's nothing you wouldn't do to find your daughter if our roles were switched."
Hank lets more tears fall and whispers something. "What?" Nero asks. His voice was barely audible.
"Oregon. Lab 32 is in Oregon, in the forest. She's got all sorts of Conduits. There's more than one Conduit that can control concrete or steel. It's a fortress Nero, you won't be able to get to her." Hank says defeated.
"We'll see about that." Nero says and punches him again, making him pass out.
Cole and Nero walked out of the room. "What do you want to do with him?" Nero asks.
"Make an example out of him for sure, but how do we do that?" Cole asks.
"I have an idea."