I Will Always Save You

by DragonPhoenix16

AU and Canon Divergence - Zhalia betrayed them that day. Dante Vale was dead. Sophie Casterwill and Lok Lambert were captured by the Organization. The Huntik Foundation crumbled in the wake of tragedy. A month later, the truth is revealed and all is not as it seems as a war comes to an end.

4. What Have You Done

Chapter Three: What Have You Done

Lok

The steel doors slid open with an unnatural hiss that had become so familiar in the last few weeks. Or at least, it's felt like weeks. To be honest, I've lost track of the days I've spent out of that holding cell with Sophie.

There's a clock in my new room, but sometimes, I'm not even in there overnight. So, I can't tell how many rounds the hands have gone. During those "sometimes", I'm just thrown in some sort of lightless holding room after running the gauntlet, left to sleep on a cold ground. It's always some sort of Suit doing it, sneering that I wouldn't be missed before locking me in the dark.

Well, he wasn't wrong. No one really cared. Not Rassimov, not Klaus... not Zhalia.

I used to see her in the room at the start of all this.

When Rassimov was interrogating me, running whatever burning spell though me, she was there, in the corner of the room. I never saw a look of concern in her eyes or even a flash of worry every time I turned to her. She merely stood there, letting them rip into me- spell after spell after spell.

I mean, I knew she couldn't do anything else, couldn't show weakness. It wasn't like we were at some mere Organization safe house. From the halls they forced me to walk through on the way to interrogation, I had guessed we were back at Vienna in Klaus's lab under that decrepit bookshop filled with all those unnatural traps. That meant we were buried deep in wards and technology strong enough to repel a simple rescue mission. That meant... it would be incredibly difficult for three people and a tiny Titan to bully our way out of here.

Yet, through all of that, I refused to think she was truly against us and I held onto that belief for a long time. The belief she was an ally at heart despite whatever dark things she would have to do in order to maintain her appearance. Though Sophie called her a traitor and believed her to not care for us, I denied it for a long time.

Her betrayal. I doubted it as much as- his death. It's just- that thought never sat well with me... that Zhalia could actually kill him. No, it couldn't be. I didn't care whatever video Klaus had taken with a micro-cam showed- I believed it was faked.

At some points during my interrogations, I tried to test Zhalia by lying over something I knew she had knowledge of, hoping that maybe- just maybe she would justify my faith in her. Maybe, she would tell them that I was telling the truth. If she did, I would know for sure whether or not she was an ally- even if she were actually working with them. If she lied with me, then she was still on our side. I didn't care whether or not she believed in the Foundation's code and principals... just that she was here for Sophie, Cherit, and me. I just wanted to know that she cared.

When she gave up my lies at the start, I accepted it as her not wanting to give anything away. What if the Organization found out somehow? What if they were able to crosscheck the information I gave them and that she confirmed? If that happened, we'd all be in trouble and nothing good would have come of it. In fact, things could have only gotten worse.

However, as the days passed- back then, I could definitely tell the change of time with Sophie- my lying made it hurt much worse for me. Eventually, I wasn't lying to test her, I was lying because they were starting to get to sensitive information. Asking about the wards around Dante's house, where the Council members were located... some of the information I actually didn't know and those were my honest answers, but that didn't stop the pain from hitting hard.

Sometimes, I would look at her, silently begging her to help me in any way. She always held my gaze until I broke it because I couldn't look into those unfeeling eyes anymore. Those eyes were once caring- nervous when I was in danger, happy when we were all in a group together just the five of us, but now, I couldn't find any of that anymore, not a trace.

Maybe, she doesn't really care. Maybe I'm wrong. I found that the thought crossed my mind more often than not with each passing interrogation and experiment. She even started ignoring us even though we were shouting in the background against the pain. She looked at her phone more and more, busy most likely moderating communications, never looking up unless she felt like it or someone called over to her.

However, it wasn't until the day Sophie and I were separated that my faith in Zhalia crumbled. It took me a moment to realize it, but she was the one who the Suits were listening to that day.

I fought like hell once I was dragged outside of that warded room because once out of that boundary, I had access to whatever energy I had left and could channel it into my powers. Sophie had had the same idea. As they were distracted trying to restrain me, she had tried to push past the two men guarding the doors and with Cherit's help was easily able to knock them aside and out of the way. I don't exactly remember how- but the men had recovered fast and knocked out Cherit before restraining Sophie with a binding spell, keeping her in the room- and unable to help.

Once I realized that, my mind had switched gears to knocking out these six guys and then, getting her to safety. I slammed all of them with a Forceblast knocking most of them away and ran through them out into the open with my back against a wall. That's when I started my assault. I threw one spell after another, dodging whatever I could, saving my energy for offense, reserving some for defensive measures.

I had taken down most of them only because they hadn't expected the force of my power. Then, there were only a couple of Suits still attempting to stumble back to their feet. I was just about to get Sophie when I realized the Suits had sealed the room with the warded glass meaning the only way I could get in there was if I knew the code.

I remember Sophie telling me to run and leave without her, but before I could tell her I would rather get caught and tortured than leave her behind- that's when I realized the Suits' boss had stepped in. Zhalia was rushing at me from the shadows and luckily and I dodged her Bristlevine. I knocked some Suits in her direction, but she easily dodged it before flying into the air above me, out of my reach and just amplifying the chance I had to miss her if I myself retaliated with spells.

She fired one spell after the other at me. I threw up a guard, but spells at her full force felt like it was kicking me in the gut as I tried to keep the guard up. She wasn't holding back. She could have though... if she had cared about us.

She's not on our side! My mind was screaming at me. I need to fight!

But I couldn't return anything. I needed to stop each and every one of her spells while she just needed to land one to take me out.

I tried to outlast her barrage. I waited. Blow after blow I let her strike, hoping that it would stop for just one moment. But it didn't. And then, one hit.

I just couldn't bear the weight of it and a Forceblast knocked me into the ground, shattering the spellshield I had cast and sending spiraling me into a black out.

I don't remember what happened next, only that I woke up in the room I was in now, on the bed in the corner- all alone. No Sophie. No Cherit. Not a friend in the world.

That was weeks ago.

I closed my eyes when I heard the door hiss and I found myself praying that it wasn't Rassimov or Klaus because I didn't have the strength to tolerate whatever either of them had planned for me. The pain in my arm, my tired eyes and limbs, and the dizzying headache that was making me nauseous was too much for me to undergo any more interrogation for Foundation locations, tests of strength in the gauntlet, or laboratory experimentation. I would black out for sure.

Though I know it would have been a lot less painful for me right now if I had given up some locations, I didn't really give a damn nor would I have ever done so. I was never cracking to them. They are gonna need a lot more than just chemicals, needles, and whatever magic that can burn someone inside out if they wanted get any compromising information like that outta me. So, I kept whatever secrets safe, whatever information they wanted to glean from me, they never did, and I would make sure they never would.

But right now, days after everything, it felt as if I had gotten hit by trucks and had the bad luck to be awake after, unable to lose consciousness and unable to die. Left to live with the pain.

I quickly tried to think of something sarcastic to say if it were either one of the men. Tried to get my mind working out something- anything...

Should I call Klaus Dr. Doom? Wait- no... I already did that. Maybe- Actually, I can't really think of another evil doctor's name. And I don't even know what to call Rassimov... as in there were so many crazy-

I saw the person in my peripheral and I looked towards my visitor, ready with a quip... and saw a familiar face I hadn't seen in a while.

"Zhalia! Oh, thank God!" I whispered as I walked up to her, relieved.

How long has it been since I-?

I froze halfway towards her and realized what had just happened, what thoughts had just run through my head: I momentarily forgot that she was my enemy.

Yep, sleep deprivation was definitely getting to me.

I had seen a kind smile on her face, but the moment I froze, it dissipated and her expression became unreadable.

Recently, I haven't seen much of her. She was no longer present at the interrogations nor experimentations- she managed to show up for five or ten minutes a couple of days after stating that she was sent to check up on me. But still- usually, she was angry, more sarcastic even. I've actually noticed, however, recently that she didn't return my anger like she usually did with some sort of scowl or biting remark. Instead, they were sometimes kind and greeting words...

"Nice to see you, too, Lok." she said as she walked up to me and undid the manacles on my wrists and ankles, the magical binds no spell could touch.

It had to be put on by hand and removed by hand. I was only put in the braces while in transport, to make sure I didn't make a break for it... not that there was anywhere I would go without Sophie. Lately, everyone's just kept them on me even though they started to irritate my wrists and I could swear one of them had cut into my wrist since there was dried blood around the cuff and all over my hand. Though people had seen it and I had brought it up, no one had even bothered to check my hand, much less undo the manacle in the past few days. I was wondering why all of a sudden she was doing so.

"Another duel?" I asked, suspicious, as I was ready to summon a Bolt Flare to my left hand, but a glowing green hand was at my shoulder before I could even summon the spell.

"Don't even think about it." she cautioned as she caught sight of the blood on my wrist. "How long?"

I looked at her, confused. Was she really asking?

She scowled as she scratched at the dry blood against the manacle. "How long have you been bleeding?"

Yep, she was.

"Since the gauntlet." I answered her, "Some Suit was a sore loser, twisted my arm and smashed it against a door."

I saw the muscles of her jaw twitch for a moment before they tightened, and she focused her attention on the cuff.

"Summon a spell and I'll send you to a dreamworld." she said as she held the unlocked manacle closed.

For a moment, I debated whether or not I would actually listen to her, but I figured, if she were going to do what I think she was going to do, it would be a good thing. More energy that I can store.

I nodded in reply to her as she took off the manacle to reveal an open and ugly gash right across the top of my left wrist. I could only guess the friction had ripped through my skin and further irritation widened the wound. I felt the bile rise to the back of my throat, but forced it back in order to keep a hold of myself. There was no way after all this torture and shit I was gonna throw up over a really nasty looking gash.

"They're little bitches if they can't handle losing to a kid." I heard her mutter as she examined my wrist of the bruises, and the comment made me laugh a bit. "They slack off so much and then they can't deal."

She looked up at me with a smile. "Good job in kicking their asses."

I found myself smiling back, feeling a sense of nostalgia tickle in the back of my mind.

She covered my gash with her hand and squeezed, I yelped in pain, but she held my other shoulder bracing me. "Everheal," I heard her whisper.

And I watched as a golden light emanated from where her hand had grasped my wrist. The gash had been so wide she attempted to cover the open wound with her entire hand and had done so at the cost of my pain.

I could feel fire at first spread through my hand and arm and I let out a cry, it hurt so badly. If I could take a guess, the heal was burning through whatever infection I had contracted as it started to spread through my body. But as fast as the fire had spread, it was replaced with a refreshing cool feeling and I could feel some of my energy returning to me as well.

I looked up at her, wondering if she was doing this on purpose.

When she released my wrist, I looked down to see that the gash was closed and the only evidence of a wound was the blood on her hand and mine.

"Thanks." I said, feeling new energy flow through me. The pain I had felt was little more than a faded feeling and even my drowsiness had abated.

I wonder.

I grabbed her wrist. Attempting to twist her arm while I was at it, I maneuvered myself around her side, trying to pin her arm to her back. But she was faster than me. She twisted out of my grip, whirling around me and following my momentum, spun behind me. Her free arm caught me in a headlock and she had broken from my hold, catching my wrist and pulling me down against her other arm holding me up, effectively keeping me in place.

"Stand down, Lok!" she warned and I could hear the severity in her tone, sense the urgency.

Something was wrong.

"Fine." I relented as I held my free hand up in a gesture of peace. "No fighting."

She let me go and stepped away, one hand glowing green and purple. I knew the spell well. Her signature spell... Venomhand.

"It's been what, days since I saw you? Five? Six?" I asked her, when she seemed not to talk as if gathering her words. "Last time I did, Klaus dug those needles into my neck trying to amplify my powers. Then, he made us fight-"

"It was three." she cut in.

"What?" No. There was no way. That wasn't- No.

"It's only been only three days, Lok." she said solemnly, "The pain. It makes it seem longer, the fact they never let you sleep makes it worse."

Did she know that they just throw me into a holding room?

"I could never find you." she told me, and for the first time I've seen in weeks, she looked as if she were sad... as if she felt sorry for me, but something in me could care less.

It was so goddamn late for her to show any feelings when Sophie and I have been through hell- and she watched it happen. Replied to us with sarcasm, met angry accusations with biting remarks. And yet, I felt a sense of curiosity to ask her why she tried to find me. It dulled though when I saw she still kept her spell up, as if still wary of me... When it should be the other way around!

"What do you want?" I snapped, dropping the subject, as I moved away from her and towards the soft twin bed that had been set up against the wall. It was the only good thing that was placed in my room and after three days of cold tile, would feel so good.

"Klaus is done toying with just you." I could feel my blood freeze. "He's taking Sophie in, now."

I whirled around to face her, anticipating to duck under a spell because I had summoned a Boltflare under my breath and had thrown it. It was a reckless motion, but I figured if in that fraction of a second that I took to react to her- I put up a fight maybe I could change things. Maybe prove to Zhalia my strength. She'd report it to Klaus and he'd think to put me through some more tests instead of shifting his attention to Sophie.

I would have to speed up thinking of a valid escape plan even though I wasn't sure of how exactly to navigate our way out of here.

There was though, one thing I was certain of right now and I would not let them touch Sophie... and if I needed to get my ass handed to me again and endure more chemicals being pumped through my body then I would.

I would do anything.

But, I wasn't strong enough... not to take on Zhalia. She had already raised her hand towards me with a Boltflare of her own in hand and it clashed with mine, and it was no surprise when her spell swallowed the force of mine.

The blast sent me flying into my room's back wall and I hit it pretty hard, feeling something crunch not knowing whether it was in my body or in the wall. I could feel the air get knocked out of my lungs on impact and I couldn't catch myself when I felt ground under my feet again. Everything collapsed under me and I fell on my knees and hands, unable to keep my balance standing upright. My body wanted rest. My head was pounding hard again and my heart was racing. I was in no condition for a fight.

"You-" I panted, trying to ignore my hurting body, "You need to stop it! Stop them! Please! Do something!"

She was about to reply, but she stopped herself. I could see a thought crossing her mind... but maybe it was just wishful thinking. After all, she hasn't done anything at all to help. To help us keep our sanities- most likely yes. To help us escape... hasn't lifted a finger.

"There is nowhere to go, Lok. Nothing to do." she said and I hung my head. "I can only warn you of what's coming.

"I'm not your ally." She said the last word emphatically. Just a slight change in her tone that I noticed.

Is that a message?

"But you do check up on me. And Sophie." I groaned as I pushed myself up to my feet and walked over to my desk on the other side of the room, throwing the drawer open. Pencils and pens that were haphazardly stored flew around.

"To make sure you're not going insane." she answered.

Eh, that kinda confirmed my thoughts.

But at the moment, I didn't buy it and went on, "You gave me notebooks, sketchbooks, pens, pencils, an iPod even... you-"

It didn't escape my notice that when I looked back at her, she looked panicked, tense. But why? I quickly scanned the room and then saw the red light in the corner. I had forgotten about the camera, and no doubt about it, it was most likely AV.

Shit. I probably shouldn't have said that...

I figured she wasn't allowed to give me those things.

"You don't really care." I finished as a cover, making my best efforts at sounding sad, "Or else, you'd be helping me."

I don't know why I was technically helping her instead of getting her in trouble. Maybe what I heard wasn't really a message and I was just grasping desperately at straws. There was no way she could possibly be my ally. Even if she was "nice" to us- on Organization terms. No doubt, her visits disquieted people and my words would make it ten times worse for her if someone really wanted to take her down, which is most likely why she had been so rigid. But a part of me still wanted to help her if I could, and thus, I covered for my words.

"Look, Lok," she started, "I'm sorry that things turned out this way."

I turned away from her. Another dead end- Sophie was-

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" she ordered, and ever reluctantly, I just turned my face to her so that my eyes met hers. And I realized it was the only way I was going to see what she meant. "There was no other path to take that day."

'Understand me?' She mouthed the words after she spoke.

I struggled not to smile in relief.

So, I wasn't hearing things. She did try to help! And I kind of blew things out of the water... Eh, I'd apologize to her later.

"Uh huh," I said trying inject sarcasm into my words, hoping she would understand I was replying to her silent message as well as trying to upkeep a conversation, "Sure there wasn't."

"I will always do what I have to... to survive."

'Find a way out...' or was it 'Fight a way out?'

I couldn't actually make out the words this time since I'm really no expert at it, but her statement however, didn't get away from me. She had added a pause before the word 'survive'.

Survival? I knew what happened that day at the castle. I saw the footage Klaus had taken using some sort of camera he had pinned on himself or his glasses. He had insisted that Sophie and me watch because he stated that that would be the beginning of our end. It had been meant to demoralize the two of us.

However, I know for sure... there was no threat of survival to her. Not really.

I interpreted it as a message she meant for me to hear... telling me to fight to survive.

"But you chose the wrong side." I said, locking eyes with her intently. Maybe she would understand what I was saying, too.

"No. I chose the right time to fight." The last words were emphasized ever so slightly. I'm sure to everyone watching us it would just be words. She would just merely be replying to me, but I've spent enough time with her to realize when she changed her tone and words. It was slight, but I heard it, because I've heard her do it before. She was deliberately staring me down and communicating with her eyes like I've seen her do on missions in the past... but usually, this sort of communication was between her and Dante.

'I will tell you soon.'

Choose the right time to fight. Find a way out and choose the right time to fight. I will tell you soon.

That was her message.

An escape plan!

She was going to give us information?!

"Is he starting today?" I had to change topic or else for sure I wouldn't be able to keep up a show, "Is he taking Sophie today?"

My voice shook at the thought of it. I tried my best to shut out the terrible images that came to mind. "Will he start soon?"

"I don't know." she answered curtly, her tone was harsh though her eyes softened. She was playing her part again.

'She will be delayed.' She had mouthed those words right after. 'We've three days.'

A thought that I had buried in the back of my mind came to the forefront, and I could feel my mouth wanting to run before my brain screened my actions, stopping me. If there's one thing my time here has taught me, it was to be very deliberate with my actions. I focused, tried to think of how I should be reacting to her, what I should do to maintain a normal antagonistic behavior. However, I was too focused, trying to run through everything mentally all at once, my head hurt so much that it pounding reverberated in my ears. I winced, bringing my hand to massage my temples.

"Do you need a medic, Lok?" she asked as she stepped forward, but I backed away and turned from her.

"How is she?" I didn't answer her. "Is she okay? Is she-"

"She'll be having Tersely as her roommate for a while before the move."

I suddenly felt a pang of jealousy. Not to be mean, but I wasn't jealous of Tersely himself or as a person. I was envious of the fact that he was going to be with Sophie when all I wanted was her comforting presence right now. She was usually so hopeful. So encouraging.

My mind drifted back to the first couple of weeks that we were imprisoned together. After Klaus had Suits drag us here, we did everything we could to blast the door open. Sophie and I used all the spells we knew of to try to break the glass, but it had been warded so well that we eventually gave up, exhausted. Those first, I'm guessing, two weeks were better than the rest of the month that I had spent here as a lab rat. The only moments of reprieve I had were when I was able to fall asleep with music in my ears and, as much as it's hard to admit, when Zhalia came to check up on me for a couple of minutes. Those were only nice moments because then I wasn't left alone.

But with Zhalia, there was no familiar conversation. This was the first time for it. Her presence, I usually saw as some sort of support. Though she could only provide paper and pens and trivial items to help me relax, I would give it all up for just some time with Sophie... and Cherit, too.

I missed them.

It was only however amount of days or weeks ago, that Sophie, Cherit, and I would talk about school, about all the summer work we- err, I- would miss. We reminisced about our missions before Transylvania, but if I remember right- our conversation would always manage to find its way back to Dante and his death. Sometimes it would drift to Zhalia and her betrayal, other times we would talk about whether or not we believed the rumors.

I remember those nights when Sophie had cried and started punching our cell walls cursing that she had been so caring even when she knew Zhalia was a traitor.

"If I had just fired," she had said as tears coursed down her cheeks, "we wouldn't be here. Dante would be alive and Zhalia- she'd be gone."

I held her and comforted her as I assured her that there was nothing that she could have done. "You're not that person. You wouldn't hurt anyone." I told her to make her stop crying, but she didn't. "You wouldn't hurt anyone."

I remember those were the nights when we would then share the bed, she'd be in my arms and I would hold on to her, hoping that Dante was secretly alive- that he had outsmarted Zhalia and Klaus and was coming to rescue us. I would stare up at the stone ceiling and imagine Dante trying to track us, getting frustrated that he couldn't, and then getting everyone we knew to help him scour the world.

He would do that. I remember myself thinking. But as the days wore on, I began to lose hope. I began to think that Dante truly had fallen for the trick, just like the whole Foundation had. It wasn't his fault that he hadn't seen through Zhalia, but I knew that, out of all of us, he fell the hardest.

"Lok?" Zhalia's voice broke through and I realized that I had zoned out, looking past her. She was throwing me a curious glance, waiting for an answer.

"Sometimes," I whispered loud enough for her to hear, "I hate you."

"Oh, c'mon! Just because I decided to let Sophie have Tersely as her roommate and not you-" Zhalia started innocently.

It was sudden. In a heartbeat, all I felt was rage. I'd felt it before. Every time I remembered that each happy moment we spent as a team was a lie, every time when Rassimov hurt and threatened Sophie and Cherit while Zhalia stood by with not a word of defense, and that time when Klaus had told me that Dante was dead and lying on the battlements of Castle Dracul... every time, all I felt was pure rage. I'd held back all the anger, all the hate in those moments, but now, I couldn't control my emotions... didn't want control. Everything broke though the surface and I lashed out at her.

"No!" I screamed as I whirled around to face her, again.

The headache subsided. I could feel something well up inside me and ripple through my body. There was new energy source there. I had... Power.

"I hate you for what you've done!" I continued, "What you've done to Sophie, what you're letting happen to us! For..."

My voice dropped and it almost hurt to say it aloud, "For killing Dante."

I rarely said his name. I didn't like to. It just reminded me that I would never see him again. And it hurt to say it... hurt when I said the truth.

"You don't know my whole story." she said defensively, her eyes reflected a sort of pain. I could tell she wanted me to stop this, but I truly didn't care. I felt like a powder keg that needed to explode and though my powers were contained to not go beyond these cell walls, it didn't mean I couldn't use it here and now at its full potential.

I had, of course, noticed her demeanor had changed the instant I had raised my voice. She was suddenly in battle mode, ready for a fight. And I wanted to give her one.

"I know enough." I snapped, words for me to throw at her just popped into my head and I spat them out, "I know that you took on this assignment. That you chose to lie to all of us... to sabotage us!"

I threw a spell at her, but she flipped to the side and dodged it effortlessly.

"You were told to take him down!" I just kept throwing out spells with every sentence, with all of the energy I could muster behind it. "Then take us all when we became a threat!"

She wasn't fighting back though.

Fight me! I wanted to scream at her.

"I know that you were supposed to kill him-" She blocked my Augerfrost and then, rolled to the side to dodge the Forceblast. "First, you got him to trust you and then, once you were there, you took your orders."

Another spell. And then another. None of them ever hitting her.

"I know that you killed him under an ambush and that you're cold-hearted enough to hand us to Klaus for his experiments!" I could feel my energy fading, my rage subsiding... because all I could feel now was despair- sadness as I thought of it.

I couldn't help but think of that entire time we had been a team, the four of us. We had all been friends. We had each others' backs. We were so close... and she ended all of that. She not only killed him... but she left us to suffer in hell being used as experiments.

With the last of whatever I had left, I ran towards her, "Dragonfist!"

"Honorguard!" she cried as she raised her hand towards me. I landed against the force field and thought I maybe had the will enough to break through it.

I was almost right.

I saw a crack in the shield, but that wouldn't have been enough for me to take any advantage. She called down the shield and sent a Forceblast rippling at me.

I was propelled backwards and the spell was so weak it only sent me rolling across the floor, not crashing into the other side of my room. It was harder this time to push myself off the ground because this time I had no energy left, but I forced myself up and held my arm, which felt numb right now after I landed on it.

"You didn't even try to stop him." I said, as I looked to her. She knew I was talking about Klaus.

I saw how far she was from me. My spells had forced her back, all the way to the door. However, she wasn't tired, not by a long shot, and I realized how stupid it was of me to engage her in any fight because she could have countered harder and faster than me. She would've been able to floor me in a minute, but she didn't.

She had let me vent.

"He's like a father to me." she answered, "What does your father mean to you, Lok?!"

I hesitated to answer and tried to will my mind to think of an excuse- of a reason for her to not listen to the man, but nothing came to my pained mind.

Though she remained tense, her fists unfurled so that her fingers stretched out. My father meant a lot to me and she knew it- But, I had a hard time believing that that was what Klaus meant to her. Because why the warnings and the efforts to help us if so... I didn't fully buy it.

"Do we mean nothing to you?" I couldn't help but asking.

Her lips parted and she was about to answer when she clamped her jaw shut and grit her teeth. "If you did, you would have been free a very long time ago."

Fair enough. I saw her point. Even if she was helping us now... something must have changed her thoughts to suddenly do so...

"Goodb-" she started as she turned about to leave.

But I didn't want her to go. Not yet, not without telling her everything of that day... of what she really threw away and ended.

A part of me said it wasn't very wise seeing as how I couldn't predict the possible ways that this could end in the long run, but I couldn't really contain my thoughts anymore. When it came to mind, I spat it out. Control was something I seem to have only recently lost, and right now, I wanted to see if I could hurt her with the truth.

"You meant a lot to him, you know." I said loud enough for my voice to echo in the room. Loud enough that it was picked up by the camera.

She hesitated and turned to me, her eyes were suddenly so easy to read. So many emotions flashing by made it almost impossible to separate, but the easiest to recognize was shock.

"What did you say?" she asked as if she didn't hear me.

"You meant a lot to him." I reiterated emphasizing each word and watched as those many emotions flashed through her eyes again.

I saw confusion mixed with surprise and for a second, I caught a glimmer of pain. There it was... just the reaction I wanted to see. Enough to tell me that she felt something at what she had done-

I should stop. The thought did cross my mind. However, I didn't want to stop, and it wasn't because I wanted to hurt her more but because maybe I could use it to my advantage. Maybe, just maybe, I could break through to her on some sort of level. I didn't have a particular goal in mind... I just wanted to get it out there, breach her emotions. Maybe something good could come out of it.

I pressed on. "There were a couple minutes where it was just him and me at that booth on the train- you know, the one to Dracul's castle. Sophie went to the corner of the train to talk to LeBlanche and Santiago.

"He wasn't talking because he just kept staring at the door you went through. I told him to go talk to you. But he said it wouldn't be a good idea." I stopped to gauge her emotions, but it was still too hard to read right now and Zhalia didn't say anything.

"I knew something was wrong so I asked him. He said it was complicated, but I told him to uncomplicate things. To tell me. I'll skip a few details for you," Because he was talking about Sophie and me and you don't need to know that. "because it took a while to get to the point. But what he kept saying was: Things aren't that simple. In fact this could be pretty dangerous-

"I kept asking until he finally told me the truth..."

"Lok, enough." she said rather quietly, making this the one time I've ever heard a lack confidence in her voice- in my entire time of knowing her.

"The truth was... that he had feelings for you."

I watched as the color drained from her face and her eyes dulled so much so that they were close to lifeless. "That's it, Lok. Shut up." she said as she turned around and started to type in the code for the door.

My mind was telling me to stop. I knew that I'd get burned for this. She'd lash out. But I wanted her to hear the truth. I pressed on.

I wanted her to know.

"He thought he was falling in love with you!" I shouted at her, making her freeze. He didn't actually say those words that day, more like I mentioned them in the conversation and he confirmed it with a nod.

I couldn't help but smirk knowing the conflict that was growing within her. If she didn't care, she would have stayed to hear the whole story and then throw it back in my face with a laugh and some crude, sarcastic remark. But she didn't. That's how I knew she cared, because she didn't want to hear it. It was something.

"I told him to tell you because he might not get another chance to."

"Lok, I'm warning you." she looked back over her shoulder at me with such a venomous glare.

But I wasn't listening. "He was hesitant at first- kinda nervous."

"Shut up!" She turned away, was dialing the numbers on the keypad again as the first run hadn't gone through for some reason.

"I reminded him that he's nearly died several times, that telling you a simple truth wasn't going to be so hard. You know, I was sure you felt the same, but I didn't tell him that."

"Stop-" The glass door was sliding open and the metal door hissed.

"Eventually, he decided to go and talk to you. I can only assume it was to tell you."

"Lok!" I could hear it in her voice, she was furious now.

"Tell you that he cared about you more than he should for a friend, for a teammate." I knew and at the same time, I didn't know what I was doing. For certain, I knew that it was agitating her and I hoped that I was loosening her grip on that vise she had over that Organization façade. I just kept pushing, knowing that this would probably end with me flying through the air again. But this was the only way to compromise her, emotionally, and as an agent. Get her to face the truth... the truth about him and the truth herself.

"Tell you that he was falling in love with you."

"Shut up!" she screamed as she turned around to confront me. Her eyes were smoldering, silently warning me, but I didn't let them intimidate me.

"He loved you, Zhalia!" I screamed back at her. "And I bet you stared him in the eyes when you killed him, and didn't even see it then!

"He would have never hurt you! He loved you so much that he let you ki-"

"SHUT UP!" her voice was so loud, so shrill, but I didn't hear a single word uttered other than that.

And that was the strange part, because I guessed right about me ending up in the air. When she screamed, I went flying back, as if having been hit by an invisible force. I crashed into the corner of the room and landed with a thud on the stone floor by my bed, which was lucky because I had been so close to crashing into it and the bed posts.

As my head pounded furiously, I recognized that I felt as if I were hit with a Forceblast, but I had never heard another word in that scream.

Through the pain, I managed to look up at her and see that she was horrified. She looked as if she was about to say something, but, instead, she turned around and left. The metal door hissed to a close behind her and I was left alone.

I stared at the door for a long moment thinking that maybe she'd come back, but she didn't.

After a few minutes of rest, I pushed myself off the floor though my body screamed in protest and dragged myself to bed feeling the twisted ankle the fall had given me and tasting my own salty blood because my lip had split in that blast. I grabbed an old shirt that rested on the table by my bed and pressed it against my lower lip. I ignored the slight stinging and just stared up at the ceiling as I crashed down onto the soft mattress and pillow.

My mind was still replaying the last moments of our one-sided conversation as the minutes ticked by, and I watched the clock over the top of the doorway. I told her the truth. And I'm betting it hurt her more internally than it did me physically, and I was feeling like shit right now.

Maybe, this'll snap her back.

I was hoping for it to give her focus. Show her that she lost out on something important, maybe it would guilt her enough into helping us escape for sure. And after that, I'd make sure all four of us made it to a haven because she'd never be able to come back to the Organization and the Foundation if she were to help us. She would have nowhere to go but with us and-

I stopped myself.

You're a fucking idiot.

The Foundation would never take her back even if she took the risk herself of helping us. Not after all the work she had done in Transylvania only to then help us, trying to- No... they wouldn't.

And if she were to betray the Organization, get us out for certain... she'd be signing her own death warrant. It would be suicide for her.

I sat up and angrily punched the wall next to me as hard as I could with no care to the fact I could break my own bones, a wordless cry was ripped from my throat as I did so.

The familiar pain lanced up to my shoulder... fire erupting and numbing my hand.

I had just goaded the only "ally" I had into a complete emotional break even though she had just told me, via lip-reading, that she was going to try and help me.

I'm an idiot. I fucked up bad.

Now, she won't help you. You couldn't keep your fucking mouth shut, huh?

I crashed back down onto pillows and turned to the clock by the door. Silently, in pain and alone, I watched as my life ticked by. And I waited for sleep to take me away from all of this, even if it were for an hour.

I watched the hands crawl around the face of the clock, and as it made it's slow journey, I pored over details in my head with sleep never being an issue. Many of those words I had said, I didn't even mean to let slip out, both when I was uncontrollably angry and when I was talking about Dante. I didn't intend for things to turn out the way it did. Now, that I recalled it, regret crept into my mind and guilt made me feel as if I was no better than the Suits that Zhalia commanded who blindly listened to orders.

I bet you stared him in the eyes when you killed him. That had been my rage talking again, not me and my sense. That must have hurt, and I think that was what made her snap because after that and a couple more words I said after, I was being blown halfway across the room by a spell that hadn't even been whispered or even spoken.

It suddenly dawned on me that I had misread some the expressions in her eyes and misinterpreted what I heard in her voice. Guilt. Pain. Yes, that was there. But most of all, there was the one thing that was making her nice to all of us- be as nice as she could to me and probably to Sophie and Cherit, as well. I didn't need to keep driving into her emotions like that because she was already in a state where she would have helped us. That one thing that was doing all this- that made her an ally- was regret.

You can't hate me when you don't know my whole story. She had said at some point.

I wondered if part of that story contained the story of her past... or maybe, a confession of her own. Maybe she was alluding to her own feelings because I always knew that there was something there. I'd always guessed there was something between the two of them from the start. Whatever reflected in him had been reflected with her. I had been watching from the starboard bow that day in Greece when Dante had walked up to Zhalia and said that he trusted her, watched as he looked back and commended her with her work when we were in Ireland, and I saw the way the two acted when we were on that one day break and hanging out at his house. That picture...

It dawned on me. Everything I'd seen in the past and just witnessed pointed to the same thing, and I knew at that moment why she exploded- but it didn't make any sense. It doesn't fit with what happened... If she truly felt the same way, she wouldn't have killed him. There was no way.

What is the full story?

"You do have a heart, Zhalia." I whispered so low that even I couldn't hear myself. I only knew I was talking because of a low noise I could only assume was my now scratchy and weak voice.

Or you had a heart.

I couldn't help but wonder what happened. Why turn against someone she felt so strongly for and place herself here against us? Why put herself in this situation? It seems she had always seemed to be an Organization agent from the start... but only earlier she had alluded to helping, and it would be something that would get her killed. What was going on with her?

Zhalia, what have you done?