Chapter 149: Aftershock: Part Two
Albedo's Trauma
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Ben 10 Or Any Of The Characters. I Don't Own The Rights To Nathan Black Or Any Associated Characters, The Rights Go To annihalator2015
Author's Note:
* Hello and welcome to Chapter One Hundred and Forty Nine!
* This is going to be a pretty big chapter, that's all I'll say. With that said, let's get into this chapter!
Earth-Prime
Four Weeks Ago – Wednesday, February 6th, 2019
The Forever Knights' Main Headquarters
Rojo
My eyes fluttered open after I had been out for an unprecedented amount of time.
"Ugh," I groaned as I slowly sat up. "What the hell? What happened?"
As I my vision cleared, I was greeted with the sight of our operation leader, Nathan Black, on one knee, in front of me.
"Don't move around too quickly now," he said. "You took a hell of a hit. You could have a concussion for all we know."
I shook what he said to me away, as I continued to adjust myself now that I had regained consciousness.
"What happened?" I repeated.
"Don't know. Do you remember anything before you lost consciousness?"
I struggled to think, but eventually images did pop into my mind. I sighed as I tried to push the pain in my head away, but to no avail.
"I remember that we were working our way through the tower like you had told us to," I finally broke my silence. "and eventually we ran into a squad of guards wearing jet black armor that covered their entire bodies. I think one of them took a baton to me and that's all I can remember."
Before Nathan could respond, one of the members on my team, Albedo spoke up.
"She was hit over the head with a baton. After she fell unconscious, we were grouped up while one of those bastards carried her, and they eventually moved us into this room, where they had us all gagged and bound together."
"Right." Nathan said. "You needn't worry about them anymore. They've been taken care of by our new associate."
I looked back at him with confusion as my head continued to hurt.
"New associate? What are you talking about?"
He gestured to his right and I turned to see a figure wearing armor with a purple and jet black color scheme. I thought the figure looked familiar, but I couldn't recall where I had previously seen him.
"Who's he?" I asked.
Before Nathan could say anything, Ben spoke up.
"You should know who he is. He's another former employee who Enoch wronged. That's pretty much all you need to know."
I racked my brain to remember, but my memory was pretty hazy.
"What he said." Nathan finally replied, before turning his head back to me, with a serious look on his face. "He also cleaned and stitched the wound on your forehead."
I turned back to the man in armor.
"Um, thanks?" I replied.
He nodded at me without a word, but hardly moved otherwise. I was kind of put off by the man, so I just did my best to avoid looking at him.
Ben
After Rojo was tended to and it was made clear that Team Two was generally okay, I approached Nathan to get information on what our next move would be.
"Nathan, what's our next move?" I asked him.
"We proceed with the mission as planned." He simply said.
Proceed as planned? Even after everything that's happened?
As my confusion became apparent, I spoke once more.
"But what about Rojo? Wouldn't it be best to take five minutes so that—"
All of a sudden, in a moment that I hadn't expected, Nathan's face grew a bit red and he spoke in an angered voice.
"Leave mission decisions to me, Tennyson, and just do your part!"
I quickly backed up from Nathan and put my hands up in an effort to surrender (and hopefully to calm him down).
"Easy, Nathan! I'm not trying to start any shit with you! I just wanted to know if anything changed after what happened just now. That's all."
After standing there without a word for a few seconds, he breathed sharply through his nose and the look on his face relaxed ever so slightly.
"I'm sorry. This operation, it's just—"
"I get it. The mission has been a disaster since it started, especially with what just transpired and that's not even mentioning my actions. And seeing as we're on a time limit—"
How come I failed to remember that when asking if we can take a short break?
"—it's probably best that you debrief us now so that we can move out."
He nodded.
"Right. Come along, then."
He turned and approached the rest of the group, as I moved to join them.
"Everyone, form up! We're going to reorganize the teams in light with recent events. Albedo and Sunny, you will now be assigned to Team One. Rojo and Cooper, I will move to Team Two to escort you."
"What about SixSix?" Albedo asked.
"Mr. Jones will be assigned to Team One, as well. As for Team Two and myself, we'll be following closely behind you as you move through the rest of the building. That's about it. Let's move, people! We don't have time to sit around!"
After that, the reorganized teams moved out. I followed the new Team One, as we looked for a new way out of the Observation Deck. As I followed them, Nathan suddenly called out to me.
"Tennyson!"
I turned to look at him, standing ahead of Team Two and as I looked at him, a serious look came to his face as he spoke in a stern tone.
"Remember, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
I narrowed my eyes, as I felt a slight heat in my head.
Don't do anything I wouldn't do? As in "don't let the voice take control of me and jeopardize the mission"? Yeah, right. As if he cares about the voice overtaking me. All he cares about is not missing his shot to kill Enoch. Well, worry not, pal. I wouldn't break my promise.
I waved the voice away as it got to be annoying and responded to Nathan.
"Right. Wouldn't dream of it."
I then spun on my heel and hurried to catch up with my team.
Sandra Tennyson
The Tennyson House
Present Day – Wednesday, March 6th, 2019
I walked down the basement stairs, holding my sleeping daughter in my arms. Once in the basement, I turned on the lights and walked over to the door to Albedo and Sunny's bedroom, which was closed. I knocked on the door, knowing that Albedo was home from school, seeing as he hadn't gone to school since that night. A few seconds followed after my knock and I didn't get any kind of response. No speaking, no footsteps, nothing.
"Albedo, I know you're in there." I said as I continued standing there. "If you continue to give me no response, I'm coming in whether you want me to or not."
As I expected, I got no response still. I let out a sigh as I grabbed the doorknob, twisted it and pushed the door open. The room was pitch black, save for the little light that crept into the room from the big room. The room may have been dark, but I could tell that Albedo was in there, from hearing him breathing heavily. I turned on the light and saw him sitting on the edge of the bed, hunched over with long, shaggy silver hair, blocking one side of his face from view.
"Albedo?" I said his name.
He didn't respond in anyway. He didn't even move. I stepped closer to him and he again showed no response.
"Albedo?" I said his name once more.
He breathed sharply through his nose and let it out through his mouth in the form of a sigh. I was beginning to grow tired of standing here and listening to his silence.
"Albedo, I understand that you've been hurting. We all have. But you have to return to your life at some point. Starting tomorrow, you need to go back to school."
He said nothing in response once more. I let out a sigh of my own.
"Okay, then." I said at last after standing there for several seconds.
I turned around and began towards the open door. I walked out of the room, not even bothering with shutting off the light or closing the door. As I was walking towards the stairs, I just barely saw the lights shut off in the bedroom, followed by the door being slammed shut, waking my daughter. She started crying as she woke up and I let out a sigh again. In an effort to calm her down, I began to quietly shush her, as I gently rubbed her back.
"Shh, it's okay honey." I whispered to her as I walked up the stairs. "Just go back to sleep, everything's going to be okay."
Ben
The Forever Knights' Main Headquarters
Four Weeks Ago – Wednesday, February 6th, 2019
From the Observation Deck, my reorganized team and I began to move through the next floor up. If the blueprints that I had seen were to be taken seriously, we were currently in the Weapons Development, Laboratories and Offices area. Most of the offices were upstairs, along with Enoch's private office, but a few of the scientists who weren't involved in big projects and only did general research were given smaller, more cramped offices down here. As we walked through the area, something occurred to me.
"Stop." I replied as I stopped in my tracks. "Hold position here."
They did as I said, but all of them turned to look at me with questioning looks.
"What are we doing?" Albedo asked.
I put up my hand.
"Just wait for Nathan to catch with us. I'll explain it to him once he gets here."
And so, we waited for him to arrive, which barely took any time at all, less than a minute, in fact.
"What's going on here?" he asked in an annoyed tone upon reaching us. "Why have we stopped?"
Nathan didn't sound aggravated this time, but he didn't sound particularly pleased, either. I stepped up to him to voice my intentions.
"Nathan, we're in the Laboratories area. I keep thinking about the rig that they used to trap me in the simulation and how you said that you'd be more than happy to destroy it if you see it. I want to go find it. Besides, we have until midnight to erase the doctored footage and we still have a few hours, I think we're making pretty good time. The only problem is that I'm walking in unknown territory and I'd like someone to watch my back."
After my explanation, the look on his face slightly eased.
"I see. Aye, I'll go with you and watch your back. Probably better that way, anyway."
Probably better that way? Did he really think that I was that incapable?
As I gave what he said some thought, he began to speak again, but this time to the group.
"Alright everyone, listen up. You all will hold position here for the time being. Mr. Jones, I want you to stay behind and see to it that everyone stays safe. Also, make sure that no one tries to do anything stupid. Sit tight, Tennyson and I will be back before you know it."
Leon acknowledged his orders and Nathan turned back to me.
"Let's go and get this over with, then."
He started walking down the hallway without saying other word, forcing me to follow after him.
Sometime Later
After doing a bit of room searching, Nathan and I came to the next room in our path.
"Let's try this room, shall we?" Nathan asked as we came to a stop.
"Okay." I replied, as I began reaching to open the door.
He instantly cut me off.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked as he cast a glance of disapproval my way.
"Um, getting ready to open the door?"
"I don't think so." He said with a shake of his head as he got in the way. "Remember what happened last time? You showed zero caution when it came to the room we did with Lucky Girl."
"There weren't even any hostiles in that room!"
"And what if there had been? Now, I'll go first and let you know when it's safe to come in."
I let out a sigh as he slowly and cautiously opened the door and proceeded with checking the room.
Why does he have to be like this? I make one little mistake and he treats me like I'm an idiot!
A minute or so passed of him searching the room before he called out to me.
"The room's clear, Tennyson."
I entered the room after he told me it was safe to do so and I almost immediately noticed Nathan examining a motionless body, that had an empty syringe poking out of its arm. He was feeling the body's neck for a pulse.
"Is he—?" I began to ask a question, but Nathan interrupted me, as if he were reading my mind.
"Dead? Aye."
After confirming that the man slumped against the wall was dead, Nathan began to look around the room, so I decided to do the same. It was a pretty basic room, it looked life one of the less desirable offices that I'd heard about. I came to a table with a piece of paper on it. The paper had been written on, drawing my attention to it even more. I picked it up and began to read it. It was only seconds into reading it that it became apparent that I was reading a suicide note.
To Whom It May Concern,
It's over. The end is near, but I won't be here to see it, as I have a syringe full of a lethal poison that can kill in under a few minutes. You see, when I first came to work for Enoch and his company, I was really impressed. The work that they were doing here was dynamite, light years ahead of any other organization on the planet. But that was before the experiments started. The twisted, inhumane genetic experiments.
Splicing unwilling test subjects with alien DNA to create the ideal super soldier. The only thing we ever succeeded in doing was breaking their mental state and making it impossible for them to ever be rehabilitated. And it only got worse once Ulysses Enoch took over for his uncle, David. Before him, at least we had the decency to subject some of our own disobedient scientists to these experiments, but after he took over, he had us kidnapping innocent people, even kids, off the street!
How does such a promising organization turn into this? I'm ashamed to have been involved in all the pain that the Forever Knights have caused. I can't do it anymore. I'm too ashamed of myself to keep going. I'm far too ashamed to face the impending lawsuits that will follow once our misdeeds are inevitably revealed to the public.
I can't bear to stay to watch the future unfold. Only God can forgive me for the sins and atrocities that I've been a part of here now, because I can't forgive myself. Lisa, my love, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't be the man that you needed me to be. Please darling, keep the kids safe. I will love you always.
- Thomas Parnell
I put the paper down after reading, feeling worse than I had before entering this room.
"Nathan." I quietly called out to him.
"What is it?" he asked without looking back at me.
I picked up the paper from the table again.
"Come take a look at this."
He walked over to me and I handed him the piece of paper, where he took the time to read it. After twenty seconds or so, Nathan spoke.
"Hm, poor bastard didn't know we were getting the people who wanted out to relative safety. Probably took himself out not long after the shooting started. Nothing we can do for him, and nobody's going to be around to read his note once Enoch's dead."
He sighed and placed the note back down on the table.
"He mentioned a lethal poison at the beginning." I replied. "What could it have been?"
Nathan walked back over to Parnell's body and removed the needle that stuck out of his arm. After examining it for a few seconds, he spoke again.
"Well, whatever it was, it was clear. Though that doesn't really tell us much. There are a bunch of poisons that can kill under a minute when injected directly into the bloodstream, using one that takes a minute or so is a little unusual though. Just hope it can't be turned into a gas."
He dropped the syringe and let it fall to the floor before crushing it under a single booted heel.
"We should probably go now, we got the information from the databanks, and I got some good stuff from the hidden safe in Enoch's office. Let's move so you can blow up the machine, and Cooper can transmit the password into Enoch's computer to blow more stuff up."
Nathan then walked around the table and past me, while I remained standing there, looking down at Parnell's suicide note. When I didn't follow him, I heard Nathan turn around.
"Tennyson, come on! Let's go find this bloody machine of yours!"
I ever so slightly turned my head.
"Yeah, right behind you, Nathan." I replied.
I turned back to the table and grabbed Parnell's suicide note, folding it up before taking off my backpack and putting it inside. I then turned around and followed Nathan out of the room.
Sometime Later
Afterwards, we continued searching and eventually stopped at another door. Same drill, Nathan entered before me and saw that the small room ahead of us was void of any life.
"Come." He spoke after a few seconds.
I entered the room right behind Nathan and looked around as he did the same. The room looked akin to that of a hospital room, which didn't exactly fit in with the rest of the building. In fact, I felt like I'd been here before...
"What the hell kind of room is this?" Nathan asked.
"Looks like a hospital room." I replied.
"Thanks, I think I could have figured that out myself, Tennyson."
I noted audible sarcasm in his voice.
"I meant more of why is this room here?"
I shrugged as I stepped forward to examine the hospital bed.
"Tennyson, what did I tell you about showing caution?"
Lecture, lecture, lecture!
And so, I ignored him. As soon as I touched the hospital bed, something interesting happened. It's very hard to describe what happened. It was like the room began to glitch. The entire room's texture began to change, from the hospital room look to the look of a room that matched all of the other rooms in the tower. Eventually, the phenomenon ceased and the room now looked just like the rest of the labs in the tower.
"What the hell just happened?" Nathan asked.
"I don't know. The room must have been camouflaged with some kind of hologram technology."
"I see." He replied as he approached the machine to join me in front of it.
The machine itself, there was more to it than just the headset that I wore while I was in the simulation. It was much bigger and seemed like it was cover my entire head, and was attached to a bulky machine. It looked somewhat like an old computer, only bigger. Maybe it was used to control and run the simulation? There were also a few more wires that ran to a couple of monitors attached to the wall, which were inactive. I could only speculate that the monitors displayed the simulation from the point of view of the person hooked up to the machine.
"So, this is the infamous machine, huh?" Nathan asked. "Doesn't look like much."
"Yes, this is the machine that destroyed my already fragile mental state."
He shrugged before taking out three charges of plastic explosive from his bag.
"Well, time to blow it up!"
He spoke rather cheerfully as he placed the three charges, one on the bulky machine that the headset was plugged into, one onto the console that was below the monitors and the last one on the metal slab that that headset was also attached to. He then took the time to link them up to the detonator that he had.
"You want the honours, Tennyson?"
I looked at him with confusion.
"No way we can detonate this in here, right? This can't be safe distance!"
"Oh, definitely not in here. We'd be turned into red paste splattered across the room. I was just asking if you wanted to be the one to blow it all up once we get to the entrance to the sewers."
He responded to my question as he finished up wiring the last charge, looking at the detonator and seeming satisfied once he saw the light turn green.
"Absolutely." I replied, before walking over to a nearby desk.
I began searching it, looking for something in particular. After going through the desk drawers, I finally found what I was looking for: The schematics for the device.
"S.E.C.T. aren't white knights by any means, but I think that they may be able to repurpose it into something better."
I put the schematic into my backpack along with Parnell's suicide note. Afterward, Nathan seemed satisfied with what we've done.
"Right then. We've done what we set out to do. We should return to the group and continue on with our mission. Let's go, Tennyson."
"You won't get any argument from me." I said, before following him out of the room.
Sometime Later
As my group and I continued moving through the facility, we began to hear screams. My group and I began jogging, searching for the source of the screams. Eventually, we found the source and unfortunately, it was worse than I could have imagined. There was a woman, outfitted in a scientist's garb, cowering in a corner. And it was Clancy, approaching her like he was closing in on a kill, his talons extended on both hands.
I'm stopping whatever this is right now!
"Clancy!" I exclaimed.
Every person in my group pointed their weapons at Clancy, but I couldn't be sure that they would really do anything to him. Plus, I wasn't fully convinced that the woman wouldn't be harmed in the crossfire. When I called out to him, Clancy only continued in his advance towards the terrified woman. I was going to have to take matters into my own hands. I fired my web shooter at the wall next to Clancy and yanked myself forward. The force sent me flying toward him and I stretched out my leg, kicking him in the back once I reached him. He let out a snarl of pain as he recoiled. I took that opportunity to call out to the woman.
"Lady, you can get out through the lobby of the building! Get out while you still can!"
The woman took my advice and bolted from the area, hopefully heading for the lobby. Once she was gone, it didn't take long for Clancy to turn his attention onto me. He ran at me with his talons, shrieking with anger as he approached. He prepared to attack, but I spoke, cutting him off.
"Remember! You can't be free if you're dead!"
He ceased in his attempts to attack and looked to the side, to see everyone in my group still pointing their weapons at him, ready to exterminate him should he step out of line. He then looked back at me and I narrowed my eyes, which didn't really do anything, as I had my mask on still. He then did something that I hadn't anticipated. He let out a shriek of rage and then ran past me, eventually reaching the end of the hallway and jumping out the window, shattering the glass in the process. I walked over to the shattered window and when I looked outside, I was unable to discern where he had gone. Albedo came to join me at the window.
"Should we try to go after him?" he asked.
I shook my head.
"We can't spare the time. We need to proceed with our mission. Besides, Nathan was right. I was a fool to recruit him."
"Don't blame yourself! You thought that he'd want revenge on Enoch for changing on him!"
"Let's agree to disagree. Come on, let's go."
Kai Green
Madison High School
Present Day – Wednesday, March 6th, 2019
I was walking through the halls after lunch, trying to get to my next class when it happened. A random guy approached me and started talking.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Who are you?" I asked.
Instead of introducing himself, he asked me a confusing question.
"Are you available?"
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, come on! You should know what I'm talking about! Do you still, you know... offer your services?"
My services? What is he—
That's when it hit me. Before I found out who Ben really was, I had a certain reputation at Madison High. I had since tried to bury that reputation, I had tried to forget about the things I had done. Unfortunately for me though, Madison High didn't easily forget some things. I cleared my throat before speaking again.
"I don't do that anymore. Now, leave me alone."
I began to walk away, however he surprised me by reaching out and grabbing my hand as I tried to walk away from him.
"Now, hold on! Just wait a minute! How much do you charge?"
I whipped my head around to face him again, with a look of anger on my face, as well as feeling offended.
Just what do you think you're trying to get away with, pal?!
I tried to yank my hand away from his, but he had a firm grip on me.
"Let go of me!" I angrily exclaimed.
We—no, he—was beginning to make a scene and it was really embarrassing.
"I told you to let go of me!" I repeated myself.
"Come on, now!" he persisted, his eyes lighting up. "I'll give you whatever you want!"
I could tell that from the way his eyes lit up, I was just fueling his fantasy.
Wait a minute. I'm not some frightened little girl! I can get myself out of this!
I allowed my free arm to go limp at my side, which caused my purse to slide down from my shoulder and into my free hand, where I caught it. I then whacked him across the face with my purse, giving it as much force as I could. He finally let go of my hand after that, but I didn't stop there. I hit him a good three or so more times before I finally stopped, with him having been knocked to the ground after the last strike.
"What the hell?!" he asked as he held his face. "You crazy—"
"I'm not that kind of girl anymore!" I exclaimed, interrupting him. "So don't you dare for a second think that I can be smooth talked into... into doing favors for guys!"
He slowly got up as he continued to hold his face.
"Okay, okay, I get it. Message received!"
He then got up and took off, fleeing the scene. I continued standing there, taking a few breaths, before the reality of the situation at hand set in. A crowd of people had appeared all around me and all of them were staring. No one was clapping or cheering me on. No one was grinning at me in response to what I did. They all looked just looked on with shock. None of them looked impressed.
That's when I felt the burning sensation. Nausea. As I began to feel sick, I dashed forward, into the crowd and began working my way through it. Was I going to be sick? That I didn't know. I made it through the crowd and began running away from the scene, desperate to forget that this had ever happened.
Ben
The Forever Knights' Main Headquarters
Four Weeks Ago – Wednesday, February 6th, 2019
My group and I continued through the floor that we had been on for some time now. We came to a stop in front of a set of big double doors, doors that looked like they slid inward, not opened inward. We came to a stop right outside of the doors and Albedo spoke to me.
"Should we wait for Nathan and the others to catch up to us?"
I shook my head.
"No, they're right behind us. It shouldn't take them long to catch up."
"Whatever you say. What's in the next room ahead of us?"
"According to the blueprints that I found, it's Science Bay Two, one of the big rooms that we found their performance enhancer in."
The same enhancer they injected Ken with, I thought.
"Are you sure that we shouldn't wait for them?"
"We'll be fine. Let's go."
I opened up the doors, which did slide inward, revealing a gigantic room ahead of us and we all walked in. It looked identical to the Science Bay that we were in the last time we were here and at the far end of the room, though he had his back to us, was Mr. Enoch. And standing next to him was an older man in a white lab coat and light brown slacks, with his white hair pulled back into a ponytail. I felt like I recognized him, but from this angle I couldn't tell. They seemed to be interacting with some kind of machine.
"Are you sure that this will work?" Enoch asked.
"Of course." The man said.
"Are you absolutely sure? I need a sample of that DNA for the catalogue!"
"Ulysses, please! I'm a scientist, I know what I'm doing!"
"It's 'Mr. Enoch'. You never call me by my first name. Do you understand?"
"Whatever you say, sir."
It seemed that they were done speaking, so I spoke up.
"Where are your guards at?"
He turned to look at me and once he saw me, he turned back to help the other guy with whatever machine they were tinkering with.
"Most of my guards are either dead or have left me. You and your group saw to that, Tennyson. As for the ones that are still alive, I called them off. I won't need them unless you and your group drastically step out of line."
Drastically step out of line?! We'll show you what "drastically stepping out of line" looks like!
"Are you sure about that?" I asked.
He didn't answer me this time. I looked at Albedo.
"Go see what they're up to. We'll back you up if something happens."
He nodded at me and started to slowly approach them. As he got closer to them, the older scientist turned his head ever so slightly and I got a bit of a look at his face. I still think that he looked familiar, but yet again, I couldn't tell you where I had seen him before. Unfortunately, that's when things began to go wrong. Very, very wrong.
"You've got to be shitting me!" Leon exclaimed in an aggravated tone. "It's you!"
I turned to look at Leon with surprise.
What was he talking about?!
Neither Enoch nor the scientist said anything in response. Seeing this, Leon called out to them again.
"You with the ponytail! Turn around now!"
The scientist that Leon was yelling at turned around to look at us and I finally got a good look at his face. And you know what? I still couldn't tell you where I knew him from. But Leon clearly knew him.
"Who are you?" the man asked.
"Don't even try to pretend that you don't recognize me or my voice!" Leon exclaimed as he allowed his helmet to retract. "You're the one who killed my wife and son, Animo!"
Did he just say Animo?!
Now that I heard his name, the guy did fit Animo's profile, down to a tee even. But there were a few problems with Animo being here. One, the last time I had seen him, he was in his crazed Savage Animo form. So, how can it be that he's in human form again? And two, he's supposed to be held in cryostasis by S.E.C.T. right now. How is it that he can be here and in a normal form? I wanted answers to my question and I intended to get them.
"Animo, how did you get out of S.E.C.T. custody and—" I began to speak until I was interrupted.
"Stay out of this, Tennyson!" Leon angrily exclaimed. "This has nothing to do with you!"
Except I'm pretty sure it does, I thought. I was there the night you tried to kill him in revenge for what he did to you, so I am certainly involved!
"We bailed him out and cured him." Enoch replied. "I needed his help on a project."
Really? With all of your scientists and influence, you needed him specifically?
"Shut up! I wasn't speaking to you!"
Leon is really pissed off about this whole thing.
"Oh, now I remember you!" Animo spoke with glee. "You're that poor sap whose family I mutated!"
I heard Leon begin to growl with anger.
"And the funniest thing is that you don't even know the full story behind that night!"
"Shut up! There's nothing that I need to hear from you!"
"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, dear boy. You have yet to know the most delicious details of that night."
"Stop. Talking!"
"Ignore him, my friend." Enoch said. "Please, by all means tell him as much as you want."
Animo looked at Enoch as he spoke, then looked back at us with a giddy look on his face.
Enoch is egging him on. I don't like where this is going.
"You want to know the truth? The whole truth? The truth is that I cloned your wife and child, dear boy."
"Stop!"
"But that's not all there is to it. I cloned your wife and child but I also abducted the real things."
"No! No more talking!"
Animo ignored Leon's demand and persisted.
"After the clones of your wife and child had matured, I abducted the real ones. I then exposed the clones to an alien energy, which mutated them into the monsters that you later killed."
I was surprised – but given what I had seen of Leon recently, I shouldn't have been – when Leon pulled a handgun from a holster on his right hip, an M9 Beretta, to be precise.
"Shut your fucking mouth!"
Before Animo could say anything else, Albedo spoke up from his place ahead of us, as I approached Leon from behind.
"Hey, I'm coming back. I don't like the look of this."
I nodded at him. I didn't blame him. I wouldn't want to be in front of this, either. I put my hand on Leon's shoulder.
"Leon, let it go. This isn't what we're here for."
"Let go of me, Tennyson! I'm going to kill that son of a bitch for what he's done!"
I kept a firm hold on him.
"Leon, please. Hear my words."
Before he could say anything, Animo spoke up once more.
"The truth is that you put down the clones of your wife and child, while the real things are still alive. They're still living in that house and your wife probably assumes you just went crazy and left them."
The entire room went silent after that. It seemed like no one wanted to say anything in response to what Animo claimed to have done.
Leon's family is still alive?! Like seriously, no foolin'?!
Just then, Leon flipped out.
"You son of a bitch! I'll kill you!"
"Leon, no!"
I tightened my grip on him and tried to pull him aside, hoping to throw off his aim before he had the chance to fire.
"Damn it, Tennyson! Let go already!"
Unfortunately, my attempts to keep him from shooting were in vain. A gunshot echoed in the room, followed by a single shell casing clattering on the floor thereafter. Leon had missed Animo, who was currently checking himself for bullet wounds, of which he didn't have. I took the opportunity to fire a web line at Leon's handgun and disarmed him.
"What is wrong with you?!" I exclaimed as I tossed his handgun across the room, with no regard for my safety. "Can't you just put aside your issues with him for just for one night and focus on the mission?!"
I expected him to yell back, but he never got the chance to, as that's when we heard the sound.
Drip.
I turned to look at Albedo, who was still standing in between us and the two men at the other end of the room. There was a very small red droplet lying at his feet and it was just barely visible.
Drip.
Albedo lifted his hand and felt his face. When he brought his hand back, his fingertips were red with blood. He turned to look at us.
Drip.
The left side of his face was stricken with red. Blood was trickling from his left eye socket. His eye socket itself was a mess. As for his eye, if there was anything left of it, you couldn't tell it was there. If he managed to make it through this, the upper left side of his face was going to be noticeably scarred, that was for sure.
Drip.
"Ben?" he said my name with audible fear able to be heard in his voice.
Author's Note:
* And that's it for this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed.
* So, what did you think of this chapter and how it ended? What do you think will happen with Albedo? I'm very curious to hear any theories that you have.
* Anyway, that's going to do it for me. I'm going to go though, so have a fantastic day and bye.
Next Chapter: The raid slowly draws to a close. Albedo adjusts to life after his inferno has ended. Interesting develops arise in the aftermath of the raid.