Lilah sat in the cell with her son and the real President in silence. She had slept, she had dreamed, she had insulted the men there with her. She had done everything short of breaking herself out in the last five hours. She saw that night was coming when Zartan came down, gloating and being his usual cocky self. Lilah stood as he came near the cell, putting herself between Zartan and Aron.
Aron stood up too, but he seemed ready to fight Zartan off with as much aggression as an eight year old could have. He wasn't afraid, and Lilah knew it to be a quality he got from his uncle. She'd be having a conversation with Hibiki when she got out. The door opened, and they grabbed Lilah. She allowed them to take her, motioning for Aron to stay where he was. Lilah stood in front of Zartan, staring straight in the eye. She saw that the President was being taken away for the time being. Probably some type of torture.
"You are a great actress, Lilah, truly." Lilah rolled her eyes. "You would have done such a better job if you hadn't said your son was dead. Now I can't trust anything you say." He snapped his fingers, and Lilah watched as a needle came near. "Tell me, Lilah, would you rather go through the intense pain that's the Prototype Project, or put your son through the pain?"
"Hmm..." Lilah pretended to think about it. "Considering that it probably won't hurt him to watch me go through it, other than cause him a lot of trauma, I'd rather go through the Prototype Project." Lilah stepped closer. "But I want you to know, Zartan, when I get the full strength that those stupid little parasites give, I will com eafter you with everything I've got."
"The parasites also control the brain. You'll think I'm a friend, or maybe a father, or maybe a lover. You are quite beautiful."
"Leave her alone!" Aron yelled. Lilah turned to her son, giving him an eye to back down. Aron swallowed, but seemed to get the idea. At least he got that from her.
"And your son... Oh, your son." Zartan entered the cell, getting closer to the child. Lilah jerked towards him. "I could put him through it too. We've subjected enough teens to know he has a probability of surviving with a sixty three chance of losing his memory. He wouldn't recognize anyone, even if he saw them only three seconds before. The parasite can keep certain people in his memory."
"Fuck off my son," Lilah said. She had no chance of protecting him with the amount of muscle in this room. But she wouldn't mind dying.
From behind Zartan, a familiar figure came into view. Lilah was released, and she rubbed her arms, popping her neck and knuckles. She knew what Firefly wanted, and she would give it to him.
Her leg struck out, aiming for his rub cage. First caught her ankle, and Lilah fell backwards in a back bend, her other foot coming up to kick his wrist. A curse left his mouth, and Lilah landed really, standing up straight. She used speed to her advantage, faking a right punch to the gut before going left to break his nose.
Firefly grabbed her wrists, twisting them around to between her shoulder blades in a way that made the blonde gasp. She twisted and struggled, attempting to get away. She was pushed to the floor, looking up at her old friend. Lilah was breathing heavily at the end of the barrel. "Is this the part where I beg for mercy for the sake of friendship, Firefly?"
"No. This is the part where I blow your face in and laugh. Sweet dreams, bitch."
The door opened, and Lilah's attention was diverted. She pulled a gun off one of the guards, shooting Firefly as the guard went down. She hit his shoulder, and Aron ran towards the stairs. "Hurry up, sis!" Lilah made her way up the stairs as shots came all around. Hibiki took a shot in the leg, and Lilah took half of his weight, going in the direction of the plane.
There were more shots fired, and Lilah covered Aron's body with her own, around the corner of the building. Hibiki jerked again, and fell down. "Shit! Hibiki, let's go." Lilah was picking him up when he took the gun from her, pushing her away. "Hibiki!" She moved towards him again, and he pushed her away again, shooting at the guards coming.
"Go!" Lilah swallowed back tears, knowing her hardheaded brother. Aron was looking between the two, and Hibiki put something in Lilah's hand. The blonde blinked, and picked up her son as he yelled and kicked. She ran, hearing another few shots before a certain one stopped his. She let out a violent sob, letting her son down so she didn't fall and let her brother...
He wasn't dead. Shut the fuck up, Lilah.
She continued running, thinking that Storm Shadow would get him out for her. "Get in!" She threw her son inside. "Buckle up." She hopped into the cockpit, getting ready to take off. "Are you buckled?"
"Yeah!" She pulled up, and they were off, leaving behind Cobra and her brother.
"Aron!" Hillary pulled the boy into her arms tightly, Lilah sitting a bit off with her shades on. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you? Scratches, bruises, broken ribs, anything?" More questions were pelted off from Hillary, and Aron was white and shaking. After a thorough inspection, Aron trying to break the news, her attention diverted to her sister. "Annabelle?"
Lilah kept her mouth shut, not quite trusting herself. She was waiting for Hillary to realize something was missing. True to her thought process, Hillary stood up, looking for the missing face. "Where's Hibiki? Where's our brother?!"
"Mom... Uncle Hibiki..." Aron dissolved into a blubbering mess, and Hillary closed her eyes, shushing him. When she opened them again, Lilah knew she was going to get the blame again. Her green eyes were a flaming fury, an accusation. Aron wrapped his arms around Hillary's waist as she stood up, wanting nothing more than to hit her younger sister. Lilah kept a cool face.
"You've got your son back. Have a wonderful life."
"So you're going to just walk away again? You know what, I shouldn't want that, but I do. I really want to see you walk away after what you allowed to happen. You probably wanted Hibiki-"
"If you're going to make this about mom and dad, then shut the fuck up, Hillary Griselda. I don't give a fucking hell how you feel about me killing me, but I do give a damn that you make a scene in front of my son."
"The son that you haven't been around since he was five weeks old!"
"Because if I didn't leave him, then he'd have people all over him!" Joe was trying to stop Lilah before she said something she regretted. "And you know what? Had I stayed around, no one would've been able to take him away from me!"
"That's not fair."
"And you blaming me for mom and dad is? I'm so sorry that they wanted to kill your fucking nephew, or should I call him your son? You've obviously turned him against me."
"It isn't always about you."
"Bullshit. You're such a damn lie, Hillary. When we were younger, I remember you blaming me for all sorts of shit. You broke the vase, but you said I did. You took the last cookie, but you blamed me. Better yet, do you remember when you blamed me for that time you were caught with a drink? And I didn't say shit, because I took all of it for you!"
Hillary detached Aron from herself. "So fucking mature, Hillary. What're you gonna do? Hit me? Go right on ahead. Because once Zartan is dead, I'm volunteering for the fucking Proto-"
It wasn't Hillary who hit Lilah. Joe did. She stumbled back, glaring at the retired general. He gave her a disapproving glance, and she felt slight guilt. "You know better than to let your sister manipulate you like that. You shouldn't say things you don't mean in front of your son anyway." Lilah shook her head. "Even if you would, I won't let you."
"You don't control my life either, Joe. Just wait. You'll see me being the demon I was meant to be." Lilah turned to her son as he wrapped his arms around her, scaring the hell out of her. "Aron...?"
"Don't do it."
"Do what?"
"Say that you'll be in that stupid program." Lilah's slight guilt swallowed her. "They're cruel and mean and everything you shouldn't be, mommy." Lilah saw the jealous look from Hillary and knew that she had never been referred to as "mommy" in all of her years of watching the boy for her sister. "You're not like them. You can't be. Uncle Hibiki told me that were kind, protective, always there for people you cared about... Didn't you ever care about me?"
Now Lilah felt like shit over shit. She closed her eyes, taking off her shades as she knelt to his height. "I have always cared. But Uncle Hibiki was wrong about me. I know you don't want to think that, but it's true." His eyes filled with more tears. "I'll tell you what. You and I will have a mother/son day when all of this is over. I'll come pick you up and we'll go wherever you want."
"Even Disney World?"
"When summer comes around, you and I will go for a whole week... One of these days anyway. It might be a few years first." As in when he was older and Lilah gained full control of the parasite inside. It hadn't been done before, but she was good at that type of thing. "I'm going to have to pony up the dough... Hey, how about we go meet a few friends of mine? You can decide if they go with us to Disney World." His eyes lit up at the idea of spending time with his brother. "I'm going to call them, and we'll go meet up for pizza."
"No, you won't. We have a funeral to plan, thanks to you." Lilah turned to Hillary. "Or did you forget? You're so selfish."
"Leave mommy alone!"
"Stop it," Lilah said to Aron. "Aunt Hillary, mom, whatever, has the right to yell at me." She pressed her lips to his forehead. "But, we can't be sure yet. The bad guys are really, really good at getting what they want. Right now, they want me to be a test subject." She pulled her phone out, calling Jaye. "Yo, yo, yo. I need a ride. Stormy ain't comin' back. I've got Aron, so I figured we could go for pizza tonight."
"Alright... You do know that the summit was moved to tomorrow, right?" Lilah was quiet. "We're going to need your siblings to leave Joe's place. He's agreed to arm us."
"Jaye... Hibiki isn't here either." It was silent for along time on the other line, and Lilah thought that Jaye had hung up. "Jaye?"
"I'm sorry," Jaye said. "Pizza?"
"Damn right."