I woke up with a start. My mind was surprisingly clear as I turned my head to survey my surroundings.
I was chained to a severe stainless steel chair with strange contraptions attached to it. And I realized as I continued to look around, I was in a strange laboratory.
"Good morning your highness," The same mysterious voice murmured. I whipped my head around but couldn't find the source of the voice. "So I see you haven't yet figured out who I am."
"Spare me the pointless wonder and tell me already." I muttered angrily.
"Oh, now Your Highness, where's the fun in that?" I felt a tugging at the chains that kept me in the chair. "I hope you realize that these chains are unbreakable. Even for Phantom Phoenix."
"You certainly are very thorough."
"I'm glad you appreciate the measures and precautions we took to make sure that you would not escape." And even though I could see nothing, I felt a strange presence in front of me. "I've always wondered what it would be like," The voice whispered, "To kiss the woman that put most of my thugs behind bars…"
I turned my face away. "Forget it, asshole."
"Tsk tsk. Is that any way for a young queen to speak?" There were a few moments of silence, then he spoke. "My dear, I must be heading off. Now be a good little girl and stay still while I'm gone. It won't do you any good to try and escape." He chuckled quietly to himself and with that, he was gone.
I was alone in a strange laboratory, kidnapped by a man that I couldn't even see. Not to mention, I was bound to an extremely uncomfortable and menacing chair with unbreakable chains.
How the hell was I gonna get out of this one?
So I did whatever I did when there was a sticky situation that I couldn't find a solution to get out of: I took a deep breath and meditated.
And while I meditated, my mind was cleared and the solution came to me like a bullet from a shotgun.
I never went anywhere without the charm bracelet that my father had given to me on my sixteenth birthday. Not only was it a fancy and sentimental token of my father's love, it had been implanted with a tracking device, should I have ever gotten lost or kidnapped. I took my right wrist and carefully maneuvered the whale charm over the edge of the arm rest. If I managed to pull the fin in just the right way, the tracking device would automatically turn on. As I gently pulled on the bracelet, the bracelet started to glow a soft red light.
Now all I had to do was wait for Lilly to come and find me.
I closed my eyes and waited. So many different scenarios ran through my mind when Lilly found me. Most of them included her bringing Michael, him confessing his undying love for me and taking me away to live with him forever.
Ha. I wished.
"My, my. We have a clever one here." I woke up with a start and looked up to see the source of the voice.
Edward!
He was dangling my broken charm bracelet in front of me. "My dear, do you think you could have set off a homing device in my own laboratory without me noticing? Do you really take me as a fool?"
"Edward, you two-timing son of a—"
"Love, as much as I would delight in a heart-warming exchange of nauseatingly cute pet names, I have business to attend to." He crossed over to a panel of brightly colored buttons. He pressed a sequence of them and the chair I was seated in started to recline.
I watched a menacing set of larger than life screws begin to descend upon me. I had to stall. Somehow.
"Why, Edward? Why?"
He stepped away from the control panel and came to my side. He gently stroked my forehead in mock tenderness. "Darling, I may care for you, but as much as I would like to have you in my bed, I would much rather be the king of Genovia."
"But we're not married yet."
"Oh, don't worry my sweet. Your lawyer has already taken care of that in your will."
"You're never gonna be able to pull this off! I'm the queen of Genovia! The people will revolt!"
Edward gave a haughty smirk. "What will they do? Be mad at us? Mia, the only people with any real power here in Genovia are the Parliament and myself, soon after we kill you." He gave me a cheeky smile that I once thought sweet and amusing. "One last kiss, love. Before your imminent death."
He slowly lowered his lips to mine. I twisted every which way to avoid his kiss, but his mouth still found mine. And he placed upon me the harshest kiss that I had ever experienced in my life.
"GET YOUR FILTHY BRITISH LIPS OFF OF HER!"
The raping of my oral cavity paused as Edward looked up. Standing in the entry of his laboratory was Michael Moscovitz. My heart began to pound and that seemingly ridiculous scenario I dreamt of earlier didn't seem so ridiculous after all.
"Why Mr. Moscovitz, this certainly is a surprise." He leered as he straightened. He turned to briefly and said, "Hold that thought love."
"Get the hell away from her," Michael growled angrily.
"And a Jewish Oxford graduate is going to make me?" He sneered.
"You son of a BITCH!" He screamed. He ran at him and started punching every part of Edward he could lay his hands on.
I watched as they sparred. Michael went for a roundhouse kick, but Edward blocked it. And the stalemate fighting continued: Edward made well placed move that would be blocked by Michael, and Michael would attempt to bring Edward down, but Edward was always prepared.
Needless to say, the two were well matched and the fight was going nowhere.
I glanced upwards and watched the set of screws continue its slow descent to rip at my innards. I estimated I had about ten minutes before it reached me, but I wasn't exactly willing to test my theory.
Michael must have been reading my mind because after throwing Edward to the ground, he shouted, "Mia, hold on!" He ran towards me pulling out a ring of keys as Edward started to get up. He quickly unlocked me from my chains for my right arm.
Unfortunately Edward got up and kicked Michael before he got the chance to free my left arm.
As the screws continued their menacing descent, I frantically looked around for something to help me escape the chains.
BANG!
I felt the blood drain out of my face as I whipped my head back around and found Michael staggering to the floor, clutching his arm. "Michael! NO!" I screamed.
Edward dropped the smoking handgun, making a loud clatter as it hit the tile. "My dear, you haven't been cheating on me, have you?" He walked to the control panel and pressed another sequence of buttons that accelerated the descent of the screws. "Well I just can't stand for that darling. Betrayal is something that I cannot condone." He blew me a soft kiss. "Goodbye, love."
I looked up in horror as the rotating screws approached menacingly. I pulled fruitlessly at my chains wishing that they somehow would break free.
"Mia!" Michael called out to me weakly. "Catch." And with all the strength left in his arm, he tossed the keys to me.
Edward made a lunge to catch the keys before I did, but the adrenaline was coursing through my veins. As he crossed in front of me, I drew my leg up and kicked him to the side with all my might.
As he was thrown into the other side of his lab, he crashed into one of the control panels. I caught the keys in my outstretched hand and quickly freed my left arm just before the screws reached the top of my head. I watched as they completely annihilated the chair.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I suddenly remembered Michael. But before I could reach him, I saw a huge pole about to knock me in the head. I ducked just in time. "Mia, why don't you just stop the charade," He grunted as he swung the pole again. I nimbly dodged it. He threw the pole to the other side of the room and lunged at me. Before I had a chance to get him off me, he tore my clothes off to reveal my Phantom Phoenix suit. I threw him off of me. "Why can't you just admit that you are Phantom Phoenix, my dear?"
I pulled him off the ground and punched him as hard as I could in the face.
He ripped off my sleeve. "Admit it."
I kneed him in the crotch and he doubled over on the ground. I walked away, but then I was swept off my feet by well placed roundhouse kick. While I was momentarily on the ground, he ripped off the rest of my clothes and pulled the folded mask tied to my belt. "You have mistakenly made yourself into a legend. And in order to do so, you had to isolate yourself from all you hold dear. Even those whom your truly love. But what you never realized was the kind of reaction the revelation of your little secret would illicit." He nodded in Michael's direction.
I turned around and found Michael's white face and wide eyes staring at me in shock and disgust. "Michael," I cried desperately. "Michael, look I—" but before I could finish my thought, he staggered into standing position and ran away.
"Michael, wait! MICHAEL!" I cried out.
"Too late for an explanation, my dear," Edward sneered. "Much too late."
Suddenly I felt a pressure deep in my abdomen. And that pressure turned into a fiery, unrelenting rage. I launched myself at the sneering, backstabbing son of a bitch. "You ASSHOLE!" I roared.
Somehow, my anger cleared my senses. I had only one goal in mind. I had to take this guy down.
Every punch he threw, I ducked. Every kick he made, I dodged. I parried every move he tried to lay on me and with one swift move, I kicked him in the stomach. He fell to the ground and I kicked him on the side of his head, effectively knocking him out.
"Mia!"
I turned around, hoping that it was Michael. Instead, it was Lilly, standing there with her jaw nearly to the ground. I suppose it must have looked quite strange, me standing there over my knocked out fiancé in my Phantom Phoenix suit nix the mask.
If she had any strange thoughts running through her mind, she chose not to voice them and ran towards me, looking me over. "I saw the tracking device on your bracelet in the lab went off. What happened? Why is Edward lying on the ground? Are you hurt? Why aren't you wearing your mask?"
Suddenly all that had happened in the last twelve hours began to break me down. I crumpled to the floor in the middle of a hi-tech, yet completely destroyed laboratory and bawled my eyes out.
Lilly wrapped her arms around me and tried to comfort me, but it was no use. I should have known this would happen.
I should have known that Michael would have reacted like this. I should have known better than to have played with his emotions like that. He was a good man. And I had lost him. As Phantom Phoenix or Mia.
I should have known about Edward. He and Parliament were probably conspiring against me since the beginning. Why else would Parliament want to help me out? How else could they have snagged one of the most desirable bachelors in all of Europe as my fiancé?
Lilly continued whisper soothing consolations in my hair as I sobbed into her shoulder. My life was in shambles.
IMPORTANT A/N! PLEASE READ!
A/N- So yeah, remember those cliff hangers that I said were coming? This is it. Don't worry, this is not the end.
Now, I finished writing this story (but I haven't finished updating). The thing is, I finished writing this story with a sequel in mind. If you guys want me to write a sequel to this, I certainly will do so, since I was planning on doing so anyway. If you don't, I won't and I will just have to rewrite everything...which would be somewhat of an inconvenience.
Please keep in mind the pros and cons of me writing a sequel:
Pros:
-If you liked this story, there will be more
-More action and adventure
Cons:
-If you don't like this story, there will be more
-If I write a sequel, the ending to this story will be less than satisfactory
So please review and tell me if you would like a sequel.