Nina Vale: Reminder that they are in Velos, not on Sutos.

Guest: She does love him.

D.N.S Akina: Glad you love it. Here's the update.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Huntik."

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Chapter 16: The Past Two Years

Wilder was released from the hospital an hour later.

Renee had wanted to rip apart the doctors who had tried to kill her father, but they didn't remember trying to pull the plug due to the Simplemind, so she was allowed nothing more than a few death glares. Lok, Den, and Harrison woke up from their naps, a little disoriented at first, but they shook it off. Sophie questioned Grier's men about why they were there. They told her that Dante had called Grier, telling him that Renee had successfully bonded but that it would take her a while to get back, and he might want to send someone to help if the doctors tried anything while she was gone and to Simplemind any non-Seekers who saw the Titan. Grier had sent the soldiers to Velos to wait for the girls. When the two had flown past them on their way to the hospital, the soldiers had followed.

Zhalia had been at the local grocery store during all the chaos, so she missed it. Sophie and the boys gave her the basics on what had happened, but she still wasn't happy about not being present.

While she was interrogating the boys on why they could hold off Titans and enemy Seekers, yet couldn't win against doctors with needles, Renee walked out of the hospital with Wilder. Both of them were smiling big.

"Can't believe I'm saying this," Lok began, "but I'm actually glad to see you, Wilder."

"Same here," Den added. "We thought you were a goner." Zhalia smacked him upside the head. "Ow!"

"Nice to know you care," Wilder said to the boys before turning to Sophie. "Renee told me you helped her find Alicorn. Thank you." Sophie nodded. "So you two are really sisters?" Wilder asked, looking back and forth from Sophie to Renee.

"Yes," Sophie said, "but don't think that just because your adopted daughter is my twin sister you can act like my father. Lucas already tries to do that and it's irritating."

"Who's Lucas?" Renee asked.

"Our older brother," Sophie answered. "I thought he was dead, but he revealed himself to me almost a year ago, just before we encountered the Blood Spirals for the first time. He tried to make me give up being a Seeker and go into hiding. He might do the same to you if he finds out you're alive."

"I'd like to see him try," Renee said with a mischievous grin on her face. Wilder chuckled.

The group went back to Sutos, where Grier was waiting for them on the dock. He didn't look happy.

"Are you disappointed that I survived?" Wilder asked as the group walked off the boat.

"No," Grier answered. "I'm glad to see you up and about, but something else has happened."

"It has to do with Carter, doesn't it?" Renee asked.

"Perhaps you should tell us more about where you've been and who exactly this man is," Grier answered.

Renee looked like she really didn't want to talk about it, but she nodded. The group walked back to the house where the Huntik team was staying and sat around the living room. All their attention was focused on Renee, who had to take several deep breaths before starting her story.

"I'm sure you've all figured out by now that I was kidnapped," she started. "I was taken by a secret branch of the Organization, one that only the Professor knew about, aside from the actual members of this branch. Their purpose was to experiment with the bond between Titans and Seekers and try to strengthen it to the point where the Seeker would actually gain the abilities of the Titans. For example, if the Titan had the power of flight, the Seeker would gain a pair of wings. If the Titan was a warrior, the Seeker might gain armor and fighting knowledge. I thought I might become a real-live Maximum Ride in my time with them, since I was bonded to Pegasus, but they gave me the Night Mares to see what abilities I would gain from my bond with them.

"Unfortunately, the bond between Titans and Seekers is a delicate thing. Any meddling of any kind could have disastrous consequences. Most of the experiments ended in a horrible death. There was a girl I befriended who had a Titan with fire powers; she burned up right before my eyes. There was boy, no older than ten, who had a Titan with ice powers; he froze, turning into an ice sculpture. The scientists put him out in the hot sun and made us watch as he melted. I could write a whole series of horror books based on my experiences from just that first month.

"Carter was one of the scientists. He took a 'special interest' in my case." Renee put her fingers up to make air quotations around those two words. "He was with me practically 24/7. Even when he wasn't supposed to be working with me, I would see him out of the corner of my eye, standing there and watching me. I'd never had a stalker before, but I knew one when I saw one." Wilder's hand clenched, as if he was imagining himself strangling Carter.

"I didn't know what was going to happen to me – if I would end up like the others who had died or if I would find some way to escape – but I would never find out. There was an agreement made between the Professor and the scientists: if he were to somehow be defeated, the scientists were to terminate the experiments and any witnesses who might reveal what they had been doing. That, of course, meant that any and all Seekers they were experimenting on were to be killed." Everyone in the room gasped. "I would have ended up just like the rest of them, except Carter came to me and gave me a choice: I could either stay and be killed, or he could take me away and I could live with him. I thought my chances of escape were better if I was alive, so I agreed to go with him.

"I lived with him for about eight months. During that time, I discovered that it was going to be a lot harder to escape than I had originally thought. Carter had plenty of traps around his house in an effort to keep me there, but I was patient. I learned where every trap was, what it did, and how to avoid or work around it. I had my escape all planned out. On the night I had prepared to run, Carter came into my room. He hadn't tried anything the whole eight months I had lived with him, but, on that night, he tried to rape me."

The whole room gasped again. Wilder looked ready to jump out of his seat and go slaughter Carter. Grier pinned him down with a glare.

"He never actually did anything to me," Renee continued. "I didn't give him a chance. I fought him off, knocking him out at one point, and ran. I collected the supplies I had put aside for that night, made my way through the traps, and got the heck out of there. I thought I was home-free, despite the fact that Carter's house was in Russia, right by the Pacific Ocean, and I had one heck of a walk back to Prague ahead of me, but I was wrong. Carter was tracking me. I thought he might have me micro-chipped, but I was able to disprove that theory.

"I headed down into China, passing through Mongolia at one point, down and into Nepal and India, visited a lot of the countries ending in 'stan,' through a lot of the Middle East, actually, and into Africa, mainly Egypt, but I was in Libya for a while. At that point, I realized that I was close to the resting place of one of the Titans I had researched – the Hippocampus – so I decided to take a little side trip. I still had my locket with me, and, when I read the clue on the stone, I thought it might be a good way to leave a clue for my dad, in case he happened to visit the cave. It was still hard to leave it behind, though." Renee paused for a few seconds before continuing.

"I moved around so much and traveled to so many different countries in an attempt to throw Carter off my trail. I didn't make contact with any people, though. I had asked a couple one time directions to the Czech Republic, and a few days later I learned that they had been killed in a horrible accident. I knew it was no coincidence, and no accident. Carter had killed them because I had spoken to them, because they had seen me. I stayed away from humans so that no one would suffer the same fate. I would go to a town here and there, but only for supplies. The rest of the time, I stayed away from any form of civilization."

Renee was silent for a minute, her head down, catching her breath. The others were also silent, going over her story in their minds, marveling at the strength of the girl sitting right there on the couch, to face such horrors and to travel so far on her own. Finally, Renee looked up.

"That's basically it," she said. "That's my story." She looked over at Grier. "Now, what happened to Carter?"

"He's dead."

Renee's expression was one of shock, relief, and anger: shocked that Carter was dead, relieved that she didn't have to worry about him anymore, and angry that she hadn't killed him herself.

"How?"

"He must have been doing some of those experiments on himself," Grier answered. "I went to go interrogate him, and he tried to invoke a Titan with fire abilities, despite the fact that he was still wearing the cuffs that neutralize Seeker powers. I guess it didn't matter, because the cuffs shattered as he tried to invoke the Titan. Just like that girl you mentioned, he burned up right in front of me. He's nothing but a pile of ashes now."

Renee didn't say anything for a few seconds, trying to accept the fact that the monster who had tried to rape her and then pursued her halfway across the world was dead. Finally she said, "Good riddance," and stood up and walked out of the door. She walked down to the beach and stared out at the water, unknowingly standing in the exact spot where Wilder had been standing when the team had first arrived.

Everyone else watched her through the windows, waiting to see what she would do. After a minute, Renee screamed, loud and long. When she was finished, she sank down in the sand and pulled her knees up to her chest.

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Another chapter done. More stories and explanations in the next chapter. Please review this one first.