At the crack of dawn, I wake up and see the gentle rise and fall of Elane's breathing. Her back faces me. I've become most familiar with seeing her that way. Last night didn't go so well but I swore to her that we would spend more time together. She may not believe me in this moment, but after this mission I'll make sure nothing gets in between us. Quietly, I ready myself for battle and kiss Elane's forehead like I always do before leaving. Almost like in a faith of good luck to returning home again.
The freezing air bites at my cheeks, already feeling like slices from a knife. A few teams are assembled outside huddled close together, relatively smaller than I had imagined. Then again, Farley did say this prison wouldn't be as large as Corvium. Mare stands further away with her own team. I see a couple of Newbloods with her, best for taking control over the situation and stealth. Her team must be in charge of the initial contact. They will be the ones to lead my team in, Cal and I in charge of the metal bars holding in the prisoners. As well as apprehending any guards who come close to stopping us. Teleporters are scattered evenly and commonly between groups. The main goal being to retrieve and rescue. Only a few magnetrons were necessary hence why Ptolemus is still sleeping soundly in his bed. I asked to stay behind instead but Father and Mother are still upset at me over yesterday. There will be a battle inside, whether Farley wants one or not.
"Ready?" Farley asks the teams. It's a somber morning. Everyone nods, taking the mission very seriously. Cal glares at me when I yawn, and I shrug. This will be an easy mission.
We fly to the base by jets, hidden by some of the Newbloods' abilities to shield us from view. Their skills almost remind me of the House of Haven's powers of manipulating light except these Newbloods make us invisible, light or no light. It's hard not to be impressed, almost envious of some of their skills and how naturally it comes to them. Cal flies our jet, and his leg won't stop shaking. Mare's jet flies ahead of ours. He must be worried about her safety though she's perfectly capable of handling herself. I've seen that lightning girl in battle, and though I would never admit it to her, she can hold her own.
Our jets land a reasonable distance to the base where Farley uses her binoculars to scope out the area. The base appears small, and much less guarded compared to others, but she never lets her guard down.
Turning to Mare, Farley warns, "Be careful. They have Silencers posted at the top of the towers."
Mare nods. No wonder why she has so many Reds on her team. Arvens have no effect on them.
Farley turns to the rest of us. "This prison holds 100 Reds and Silvers total. Silvers are kept underground, Reds kept on ground level. Silencers are on the outside but there is Silent Stone inside the cells. Nothing we're not used to. The goal is to get in and get out as quickly as possible. Mare's team has a Silk going in first to neutralize our control. Everyone take this."
Ear pieces with mics are handed out so we can remain constantly in contact with one another. I begrudgingly put mine on.
"We'll be waiting for you guys on the inside," Mare states. In a flash, the Silk is gone, and Mare's team of Reds move out first. The rest of us are to stand behind until the Silencers are pulled from the towers, and a signal is sent out.
Cal wears a constant expression of agitation which doesn't help as he paces back and forth. Farley is as still as a rock; the rest of our teams waiting for an order.
"You know," I say. "You could always go in after her to make sure she's okay. Your pacing around is making me antsy."
Cal stops. "I'm not worried about Mare. I'm expecting the unexpected."
"Which is?"
"The idea of Maven showing up. Something going unexpectedly wrong. Losing more members than we thought for a small rescue mission."
"Shh," Farley hushes him. "My members are more qualified than you'd think. Have some faith in your team."
"Yes, Cal," I mock. "Have some faith in your team of Reds."
He groans. "Evangeline, why are we even on the same team?"
"Because you can't handle working with Mare effectively."
A cannon suddenly fires from the base into the distance. Mare's static voice comes through.
"We've got control of the base. Move in the rest of the teams."
Farley speaks first. "On it. Let's move."
No need to tell me twice. Our teams move quickly and stealthily to the inside of the prison. It looks just like all of the other prisons, gray and dull. Less space to move around in as compared to other prisons though. Judging from the number of corpses on the ground, it appears Mare got to them in a timely manner. Impressive, lightning girl.
"We're going down," Cal orders. I lift the metal bars to the staircase with ease, allowing us to hurry downstairs to free the Silver prisoners. Half of Farley's team comes with us, but Farley disappears to where she belongs; with her Reds. There will be more security down below than above but maybe she hopes we'll be killed in the process. That way the Scarlet Guard won't have to see Cal on the throne.
We move efficiently. Cal takes down a lot of the guards swiftly, subduing them with purely physical techniques. He's soft, refusing to use his flames unless to melt the metallic bars of the cells. I work more aggressively, bending the bars of metal to free the prisoners AND knock out the guards. I hit each cell with speed, wasting absolutely no time. The other magnetrons do the same. We are stronger than these guards, and my magnetrons enjoy their deaths. Cal looks away at every sickening crunch of a skull meeting death by metal.
"You better hurry unless you want to die!" I call out. The prisoners scurry like rats, in their torn clothing and dirty faces. Suddenly, a fireball flies past me, hitting a guard who was trying to creep up on me. I lock eyes with Cal, nodding thanks. We go through each cell thoroughly to make sure our area is cleared once the fight has calmed down. There's a hidden cell in the corner that we missed earlier. Grabbing hold of the bars, I bend them until they make a path clear enough. It's a little Silver girl in the corner. I gasp. Her legs are bloody, and she is unable to walk.
"Hey," I state. "I'm going to hand you this metal plate to climb onto." There's no way I'm going into a cell filled with Silent Stone. I absolutely refuse. I form a metallic plate and push it towards her. She is shaking, afraid. "You're going to have to move faster if you want to get out of here alive."
Hesitant, she grabs onto the metal, dragging herself on top of it. Cal appears next to me. "Really Evangeline?"
"There's Silent Stone in there," I hiss at him. Cal glares at me and waves me off. Without hesitation, he walks into the cell, cringing. His legs buckle under the weight and I wonder just how much Silent Stone they thought they needed for this little girl. Cal picks her up, and she clings onto him for dear life. What a noble king. Sacrificing his own safety for her wellbeing.
All of a sudden, I feel a bullet heading fast towards my head. With quick reflexes, I stop the bullet in midair. It's one of the magnetron guards under Maven's rule. He's bruised but not dead yet. He reshapes the cell I've undone back into what it used to be, trapping Cal and the little girl in the cell. Fools.
"I've done it!" the guard announces. "I've captured the exiled prince of Norta."
He reaches into his pocket to grab a communicator.
"Oh no you don't," I growl. Forming a spear from my outfit, I race toward him, intending to stab him.
"Team 3, where are you guys?" Farley's voice comes as a squeak as the guard counters my spear with his own metallic shield. They clash and clang, as I relentlessly drive my spear at him.
"Ran into some trouble with a stubborn guard," Cal responds. "Send reinforcements."
"Ha!" I laugh, amused. "I don't need any reinforcements!"
The magnetron is significantly weaker, barely able to keep up with my constant attacks. I throw knives, bullets, sharp metallic pieces at him while he constantly has to reform his shield. It's a deadly dance, where I am the expert and he is the amateur. His mistake costs him when I send a small knife whistling past the hole he missed in his shield at his communicator. It falls from his hand, and he scrambles to grab it. I grin. You never turn your back on an opponent. That's the first rule in battle.
"Evangeline!" Cal shouts. "You don't have to kill him, just free us and we can go!"
I grasp the sharp knife I formed in my hands tightly, irritated at Cal's mercy for his opponents. "Because of you, we're in this mess! You need to learn to show no mercy for your enemies!"
"Behind you!"
I turn and see Mare, full of lightning running down the stairs. "Are you guys okay?"
The floor suddenly gives out below us, the magnetron deciding not to have gone after his communicator. He grins triumphantly, as he rides on a piece of metal further away from us. The floor begins to shake violently, and I stumble. Mare topples into me. The floor starts to give in, unfurling until there's nothing to stand on. I try to create a sheet of metal to stand upon but to no avail.
"What?!" I exclaim. Immediately, Mare grabs onto my back and I hold onto Cal's cell bars.
"There's Silent Stone on this side of the room!" Mare yells. She clings onto my back, afraid to fall below us where churning water lies. Underneath the water must be where more Silent Stone was built into. They must have known we were coming. The magnetron laughs at our dire situation and forms metallic bars between us and him, trapping us on the side with the Silent Stone and difficult waters.
"But how?" Cal asks. "How is there Silent Stone when there wasn't?"
"Backup security measures," Mare mutters. "They have them upstairs. We got to them in time though."
"Sorry, Mare, but you're going to have to get off of me if you want me to do something about this," I inform her. Mare latches onto the bars next to me. The magnetron creates a swarm of bullets to kill us. We have to move quickly, but how?
Mare starts to scramble to the magnetron, moving from cell bars to cell bars, facing death head on.
"Are you stupid?!"
"I have an idea," she says. "If the bars are where the Silent Stone ends, can't you reach your hand through enough to do something?"
Rolling my eyes, I tell her, "I mean I can try."
"Then try!"
I follow her movements, seeing what crazy idea she has for a near impossible situation such as this. Mare clings onto the bars he made to keep us away from him. Except, he crafted the individual bars too wide and far too close together to actually be able to shoot through them. Clumsy. I can smell his fear at the sight of me.
"Eager to die, are we?" he laughs, pretending to have the advantage.
Mare grins back at him, boldly. "Shoot me if you dare."
The magnetron opens up the bars enough for me to slip my arm through as he aims dead and center for Mare's heart. The resistance of the bullets against my mere arm is incredible, like fighting the strong pull of a gravitron. I break out in a sweat, heaving heavily at holding them back. Never underestimate the Samos blood that flows through me.
"What?" he shouts, surprised.
"Too eager to die, are we?" I repeat sarcastically.
He reacts quick, forming the metal into a semi-cage and dragging Mare into the waters below.
"Mare!" Cal shouts, still trapped in the cell.
Good grief, that's what he gets for stepping into a constricted area of Silent Stone. I form a metal sheet, flying me toward my prey. The guard looks terrified to see me and puts up a poor defense. I use his sad excuse for a shield to pin him against the wall with a knife to his throat. A thin trickle of blood trails below his collar.
"You're going to tell me how to deactivate the Silent Stone on that side, or I'll silence you myself."
"Okay, okay, the button is right over there!"
The button is a startling, bright red that I'm not sure how we didn't see it at first. I hit it with a metallic ball. No noise and no response. I glance back at the waters and the magnetron uses that opportunity to run away. The floor hasn't reformed again, and I curse myself for believing him. A knife pierces where his heart would be in the back, and he collapses, bleeding silver.
Cal shouts at me, "Do something Evangeline, she's drowning!"
I rush over and try to undo the cage holding her down. No use. The Silent Stone is still activated. The water is dark and there's not enough light down here to see anything. I know I can't let her die, but I don't handle water well, least of all Silent Stone.
"What do you want me to do?"
"SWIM."
"Ugh." I dive into the water, being pushed all over the place. I can't see a thing. But I can feel. The water is as cold as the air this morning, and loves to seep into all the places it shouldn't. I reach in the general area of the cage and grab onto one of the bars. I pull myself closer and reach underneath, on the side of the cage he left open. I feel what I think is hair, and pull, not sorry at all to Mare for yanking her hair. She's unconscious, like a rag doll. I hold her close to my body and pull her to the surface, gasping. Dragging her to the closest cell, I hold on as the water tries to take me under.
"Mare!" I call, sputtering. "Wake up now, you're not under water."
Still no response. She's limp against me as I struggle to hold us both up.
"Is she breathing?" Cal asks from his spot.
I check for a pulse. It's faint, but it's there. "I think."
"She's probably got water in her lungs, hit her back, make her cough it up."
"You think I can do that in this position?" I frown.
If Cal wasn't trapped in a cell right now, I think he would have tried to burn me alive. In seconds, team members show up to rescue us. They push a ladder down to pull us up to safe ground. Mare and I are soaking wet, and I'm panting at the extra weight. Our team members get Cal out using brute force to bend the bars. The little girl comes with, wide eyed and shivering.
Holding Mare in my arms, we rush over to the jets where Farley is waiting. She meets me halfway when I place Mare onto the ground, exhaustion kicking in. Cal catches up behind us.
"What happened down there?" Farley demands, checking her pulse. "Is she okay? Medics!"
"Just a little problem with water," I tell her. I wring my hair at the excess of it, angry at that guard for putting me through this trouble.
Cal looks dejected. "I was trapped in a cell, and I couldn't do anything."
Skin healers hurry over to assess our wounds and Mare finally wakes up, coughing out water. Farley pats her back when she sits up.
I turn to Cal. "You really need to learn how to not let your enemies go. Because of you, we were stuck in that situation because you couldn't kill him."
Cal glares at me. "Evangeline, we knew these people. They're Silvers, they're our people."
"They're on the wrong side, your brother's side," I emphasize. "I had to get all wet because of your mistake."
Mare's raspy voice speaks up. "You saved me?"
I look at her confused expression. "Yes. I did. Be grateful. Your boyfriend was stuck in a cell."
Her face drops. "He's not my boyfriend."
Cal doesn't say anything. And just like that, they go back to not speaking to each other.
On the ride back home, my muscles ache and fatigue sets in. We finished a lot faster than I thought but I still put forth tremendous effort saving Mare. The satisfaction at killing that guard soothes me. I know how she feels about killing the Silvers at these prison breaks. I've seen her show no remorse for brutally killing them. Cal lets them go, and I know it disappoints her. He spares the very same people who oppress her own.
At some point, I drift off into sleep after a few minutes, hoping Elane is waiting for me.