CHAPTER 74
INTERROGATION
December 11, 2010
9:51am
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
Aaron, Andros, Mike, Maddie, Jeremiah, Lissa, and Greg slid out of their chairs in a dead faint.
"Jesus," Marc gasped and ran over to the seven unconscious Black Files. He was followed by the rest of his group. Jake reached out and touched Aaron's arm but quickly drew his hand back as though he had been burned.
"Toby go get Will and the others," Jake ordered Tobias. Tobias nodded his head and left without argument as Jake and the others tried to wake the younger Files without touching them. Tobias returned moments later Will, Alley, Jen, Jarod, Morgan, Lex, Julia and Sam in tow.
"What's going on?" Jarod asked Jake.
"They just fainted," Jake answered as Sam bent down to brush Lissa's hair out of her face. "Don't," Jake warned. "She's hot. They all are." Jen's eyebrows shot up realizing what Jake was saying.
"We need ice and lots of it. Marc, Cassie, Terra and Tobias go and run me five tubs of ice cold water. Get Amy and the boys to help if need be," The four Black Files set off quickly not waiting for an expiation from Jen.
"Jen what's going on?" Morgan asked her sister-in-law.
"Alex," Will lifting Mike into his arms. Alley doing the same with Maddie. He and Alley were the only ones who were capable of touching the unconscious children thanks to their pyrokinesis. "Katie went full out, encased her whole body in flames, while they were all connected to her. It drained all of them. Alex, Air and Andy are okay because their bodies were meant for this. They can take the heat. Jer, Lis and Greg maybe okay as well because they are borrowers. But Mike and Maddie..." Will trailed off as he and Alley carried Mike and Maddie to the waiting tubs. The two files were striped down to their under garments and placed in the cold water.
Will and Alley then ran back to gather Greg and Lissa. Despite the heat radiating from Jeremiah, Sam carried his son to the bathroom, submerging Jeremiah in the water. Aaron, and Andros were the last to be placed in tubs of water.
"Are they going to be okay?" Keegan asked in his refined English accent. He, Jack, Amy and Jason were stationed out in the hallway next to Adam, Allen and Benny.
"I'm sure they'll be fine, lad," Allen said to his fellow Englishman.
"They're strong. Just like Alex," Benny reassured the four younger children.
"Come on you four lets go check on AJ and Matty," Adam said he, Allen and Benny leading Amy and the boys to Will, Jamie, Alley and Jeff's room.
December 11, 2010
10:43am
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
The seven children began to wake thirty minutes later. They found themselves in the Black Files bathroom. The room was equipped with fourteen claw footed bathtubs six on one side eight on the other side. There was a divider that was able to separate six of the bathtubs from the other eight in order to give the girls privacy from the boys and vise versa while they were showering. In the center of the room were seven sinks the formed a circle. If one said that the sinks resembled the sinks from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secretes they'd be correct. The Black Files had made the sinks themselves, modeling them after the bathroom sinks in Harry Potter.
Aaron groaned realizing two things. He was wearing nothing but his briefs and was submerged in ice cold water.
"Where are we?" Greg asked groggily from across the room as he sat up, sloshing around the water in his tub.
"In the bathroom baby," Jen said walking over to her son a towel in hand. Aaron looked up to see Will approaching him a towel in hand.
"Hey little bro how are you feeling?" Will asked as he knelt next to Aaron.
"Like Katie's in trouble," Aaron replied. He tried to get to his feet only to stumble, he would have fallen and hit his head on the rim of the tub had Will not caught him.
"Careful, Danny," Will said softly. Aaron was vaguely aware that something was wrong if Will was calling him Danny. Aaron was only Danny when he was sick, hurt, or something very bad had occurred. But his attention was focused on something else entirely for Aaron to be fully aware of what Will had called him.
"C-cold," Aaron said teeth chattering.
"I know, we had to get your core temperature down," Will apologized as he helped a very wet and very cold Aaron out of the tub. Will wrapped a large, fluffy towel over Aaron's narrow frame and helped his brother dry off. Once Aaron was situated, Greg and Maddie were sitting on either side of him, they too were wrapped in towels, Will set off help Andros.
With the children out of the tubs, hot showers were soon running and the divider was drawn giving Lissa and Maddie privacy to shower.
"Will, what happened to us?" Lissa asked, she and the others had been dressed in warm dry clothes and were back in the Black Files room. Amy was sitting on Lissa's lap, Lissa's arms firmly wrapped around her baby sister. She knew Amy and the younger boys had been frightened by what had happened, Lissa had been as well.
"You all were connected to Alex when she went full out with her PK. She should have been too weak to do so but she was linked to the seven of you she was able to draw upon your energy," Will explained.
"We weren't borrowing Air, Andy, and Alex's bond," Jeremiah stated. Jake and Will's eyes met realizing the impact of Jeremiah's words.
"It could be the cause," Jake said looking at Will.
"They are more directly related to Katie and the boy's than Mikey and Maddox are," Will muttered.
"In a word...'huh'?" Greg said confusion etched on his face.
"Jake and I believe that because you and Lissa and Jer borrowed Air, Andy and Alex's bond, it awakened the natural bond that already existed between the six of you," Will answered.
"I don't give a damn about our bond," Aaron said harshly. "I just want to know what caused Alex to go full blast with her PK."
December 11, 2010
4:43pm
Carthis, Scotland
The New Centre
Alex awoke her hands cuffed to the table before her, her ankles chained to the legs of a metal chair. She winced in pain realizing the full repercussions of what she had done. She had gone full blaze with her powers resulting in her body being encased in flames. Her clothes had been burned off as had her stitches.
Raines had actually done Alex the favor of giving her new stitches as well as new clothing. Not that Alex was extremely appreciative of her new clothes. Granted she wasn't wearing the standard Centre uniform of a grey shapeless tunic and pants, but she was still wearing Centre clothing. A black long sleeve shirt and grey and black camouflage pants, over her heart was a gold emblem embroidered on her shirt. The emblem was composed of fifteen gold stars forming a circle in the center of the circle were the words 'Black File S-263.'
'S-2' stood for the fact that Alex and the other Files were the next prodigy generation after Phoenix. The six meant that Alex was in the six Black Files group and the three meant that she was the third born in the sixth group. There had never been a combination of letters and numbers Alex hated more.
Alex frowned at her attire, she knew it was just Raines and Cox's way of trying to break her. Turning her attention away from her clothing, she began to study her surroundings. Aside from her metal chair and the metal table there was another chair across from her and a naked lightbulb dangling above her. And of course there was the camera in the corner of the room. All in all it was a standard Centre cell.
Alex was brought out of her thoughts as she winced in pain from her gunshot wounds. It would seem that though Raines had patched her and clothed her he did not deem it necessary to give her a pain killer or two. But no matter, Alex liked being able to think clearly. Muddled thoughts would not help her out smart Raines and the others. Alex pushed the pain back, she had been trained to do so since she was a small girl.
The door to Alex's cell opened and the girl looked up to see Cox and Raines enter her cell. It didn't go unnoticed by Alex that Raines's wheelchair squeaked. A grin crossed the girl's face.
"I've got to ask Raines. Did you alter your wheelchair so it would squeak?" Alex asked coyly.
"Good, Alexandra you're awake," Cox purred sitting across from Alex.
"You have a gift for stating the obvious," Alex retorted.
"It has recently come to my attention that you possess a bit of knowledge we wish to obtain,"Cox said ignoring Alex's comment.
"Well you always were a bit slow on the uptake," Alex smirked. A vein in Cox's temple twitched and Alex knew she was pushing all the right buttons. "So tell me what it is you wish to know." Alex said, no intentions what so ever of giving Cox anything.
"Where are the children. And I'm not referring to Gabriel, Zane, and Keegan but Amy, Logan, Katherine, Katrina, Kaleb, and Shane?" Cox questioned. Alex's heart leapt into her throat, but she did not allow for her fear to show. It never occurred to her that though the Centre knew of Jason and Jack that they would know about Alex's younger cousins. Her younger, powerful cousins.
"I have no idea where they are. Hell for all I know they've been moved since I've been here," Alex lied smoothly.
"She's...lying," Raines wheezed.
"Yeah...but it was fun, and guess what bitch. I'm not tellin' you jack. You're never going to get your sodding hands on my cousins. 'Cause you might be powerful, but in the real world, you're an idiot." Alex said in a cockney accent, a grin on her face. Her grin then faded. "I guess it would have been funnier if you fellas ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eh, oh well I tried."
"You're humor won't protect you Alexandra. We will be told the location of the children," Cox told Alex not fazed at all by her lightheartedness of the situation.
"I'll die before I tell you where my cousins are," Alex stated.
"We...aren't going...to kill...you," Raines said laboriously.
"But we will cause you a great deal of pain," Cox continued. "Tell me Alexandra do you know what the five basic forms of torture are?"
"Yeah I saw that episode of Angel. They are as followed; blunt, sharp, hot, cold and loud. Your point?"
"If you don't tell me where the children are you will slowly experience every basic from of torture as well as the few lesser known forms of torture," Cox threatened.
"I won't tell you anything," Alex said between gritted teeth.
"Once I'm through with you Alexandra you'll want to tell me everything. Every sordid detail of your past. Your hopes, your dreams, your regrets...everything."
"You want to know my hopes, dreams and regrets I'll tell them to you right now. I hope that you will die a slow painful death. And I dream that once you and the rest of your kind are truly dead I can have the whole white picket fence deal. You know the two and a half kids and a minivan. But like I said I dream because I know that will never happen for me. My only regret is that I won't be able to do everything you ever did to me directly or indirectly," Alex hissed.
"I won't be able to take away your hopes and dreams, I won't be able to destroy you childhood haunt your nightmares. But I promise you my face will be the last one you see as you look up dying in your own pool of blood."
Cox frowned, this was not going as easy as he hoped. He thought that he had broken the girl earlier but now it appeared that she had found a new source of inner strength. Cox didn't realize that Alex could care less what happened to herself, all that truly mattered to her was the safety of her family. And Alex was willing to take on whatever pain was necessary to protect those that she loved.
"I wanted to do this the easy way Alexandra. But you have just proven to me that you are going to make this difficult," Cox frowned. From his inside breast pocket of his jacket Cox brought out a letter opener.
"You will have one chance to tell me what I want to know, once chance to tell me where the children are before I plunge this through your hand," Cox threatened.
"Go to hell," Alex said and spat in Cox's face. Cox wiped away Alex's spit with his handkerchief. Five seconds latter Alex let out a blood curling scream that was heard throughout the New Centre.
Up Next: Peter questions the chairman. Aaron and the other's fell more of Alex's pain. And Bane introduces Peter to a few people.
Please Review