R:Ultra Evolution

by Primal WolfBlood

Follow the Renegades as they continue their quest for fixing the world, taking on all comers, including fellow revolutionaries Junction 7 led by their unhinged leader Rhydian, and the sinister Style Council, led by the devilish Caprice. To survive in this cut-throat world, they will have to evolve their power even further beyond. It's a battle for success and survival.

8. Shedding of Self

R: Ultra Evolution

Book 8: Shedding of Self

In the Condo, Toronto

Rhydian was raging at the end of the previous event. But it wasn't the loss of Tee that annoyed him. 'They outsmarted us, they… actually outsmarted us despite everything, despite being led by an absolutely pathetic worm, despite everything, having their Alpha, retiring their Godfather, attacking them repeatedly, and despite all of that, they… still got one over on us. Well this will just have to be the last one.'

He then found who he wanted to blame - Lukas. 'It's his fault all of this, if you'd have just been paying attention, then she would never have got in.' 'It isn't me, it's that dumb bimbo of a girlfriend you recruited, she just stood there and let the distraction happen, she was closer than me anyway.' 'That's rubbish, Maddy's not even slightly at fault, she's more loyal than anyone else. Aren't you?' 'Yes Master Rhydian' was the dreamy reply, her highlights stretching into her ponytail by this point as the spell was over halfway through draining her. As he walked out of the room, Lukas gave Maddy an evil look, a look which didn't go unnoticed by Belle.

At the base

Tee was lay in a dark bath, but it wasn't brainwashing but brain cleansing that she was undergoing. While this was going on, Caprice was watching Rio work the computers for it. 'So what's going on?' 'I can't exactly tell you because I don't understand a lot of this, but currently the bath is removing any trace of the spell she was under. It should also give us some idea of what's been controlling her, which might help with Maddy.'

'How long is this gonna take, I've got places to be, like the spa, I presume you do have spas up here.' 'Probably be a few hours yet, whatever this is, it's pretty tight.' 'But you can sort her?' 'We're yet to find an issue we can't sort when it comes to this. I'm pretty optimistic that she'll be sorted within a few hours. If you don't want to be here, you can go back to wherever you're staying, and we'll send you a message when it's sorted.' 'It's fine, I'll just come back tomorrow. I'm trusting you won't do anything funny until then.'

Rio then appealed to Caprice's logic. 'We literally signed a contract a few days ago promising to work with each other, I'm not about to ignore that just for pettiness.' 'I'd never put it past you lot.' 'Well when we don't, you'll have to acknowledge that you were wrong. All we're asking is that you bear with us and let us handle all this technical work. Then we can discuss arrangements after.' Caprice responded by flicking her hair into Rio's face, and walking away.

That night, in the condo

All was quiet and peaceful in the Condo, with everyone asleep and focused on the next day. The exception to that was in the kitchen, where Lukas was busy beating Maddy to a pulp, while reiterating his rhetoric. 'This is all your fault, everything was going fine until you arrived! You're the one who's responsible for her leaving, you're the one who could have stopped it. It's all your fault and the sooner you're rendered brainless the better!' He then continued beating her for almost half an hour, before landing a final devastating shot to the stomach, grinding his knuckles in before leaving. Maddy for her part, didn't make a sound, but the pain was able to overcome her lack of feeling.

The next morning, at the base

Caprice walked in, and found Tee sat in the dark bath room. 'So she's ok?' Caprice posed to Rio, who responded in the affirmative. 'Completely free and cleaned up, I explained about you coming to us to help her.' A sheepish Tee then spoke. 'I… just want to thank you both for everything. Being under her spell was torture.' Caprice then gave her a hand up, and stated 'Thanks for your help, but I… just really don't care about your little buddy. So we're going to be off now.'

As Rio looked on unimpressed, it was Tee herself who provided the opposition, refusing to move. 'Come on.' 'I'm not going anywhere. Rio's shown so much kindness in helping me despite everything I and Lukas and Akiza have done to them, I just have to help them and help Maddy, because what she's going through is… I'll explain it all later, there's a lot to go through. Can we… actually talk Rio? Just you and I?' She responded with a polite nod. 'The office is free.'

As they made their way into the office, Rio laid out the need. 'Right, how much do you remember about what happened to Maddy?' 'All of it, give or take. Obviously I wasn't there for everything, but I've been there for most everything. I can detail everything for you.' 'I think it's best, with your agreement, that you talk to us and tell us everything, nothing gets lost in translation then.'

'Thanks. Just a little thing, I know you've got some contingency money here, would you be able to pay for a little room or bedsit nearby? I just' 'Don't want to stay here, totally understand, there's probably a lot of memories here. We've got a safe house about 15 minutes on the bus from here, you can stay there until we get Maddy back, and then we can look at peacefully cutting ties afterwards.' 'That makes sense.' With a sense of purpose, Tee left the room to recount the information, while Rio got on the tannoy. 'This is a Red Alert, all Renegades to come to the war room, that's all Renegades to the war room immediately.'

Meanwhile, in the condo

Rhydian was brushing out Maddy's slick and long ponytail, while updating her on his plans. 'So soon you're going to be joined by some of your old "friends", not that you'd recognise them as that now, let's face it you don't remember anything, do you?' 'I only remember that you are my Master and Boyfriend and I must obey you and Akiza. You are my only family.' He smiled, and kissed her on the back of the head.

'So soon, we're going to pick up your little Jana, bring her in here, and entrance her. Then when we've finished you off, that little viking Astrid is going to be so broken, she's going to join us of her own will, and beg us to enslave her. Then I can sell Jana to our friend Alexander, and I'll have two slaves for the price of one. One for my wife, and one as a little play-thing on the side. And the world will be ours.' 'And the world will be yours Master.' He cuddled her tight, and kissed her gently again.

In the Renegades' war room

Nearly the entire club (with the exceptions of Lydia and Denny) were crowded around a long table in the war room, when Tee walked in, hair down and wearing a Renegades shirt that was lying around in a drawer in the dark lab. 'How are you feeling?' 'Still a little bit fuzzy in some ways, but most of all I think I'm just anxious. I just need to check you want everything.' 'Why?' A suspicious Blair asked. 'Some of the details are really not nice.' 'We'll just see what comes up. I'm sure we can handle this.' 'Ok, well I'll begin with how she was brainwashed.'

As Akiza completed the ritual, she held up the rose cross, and Maddy's eyes started wavering, flashing gold, then red, then gold, then red. Soon, she started to forget everything she was leaving behind. And sure enough, her eyes started to glow a solid deep red. So Akiza walked over to her. 'Is there something you want to say to me, my rose?' Quietly, Maddy stated 'I will do as you tell me, I am your rose.'

Akiza then passed her two hair bows, one white, and one black. 'Tie your hair into a high ponytail with these. These signify the death of Maddy the revolutionary Wolfblood, and the birth of Maddy, the obedient rose.' Maddy took the bows, and immediately pulled her hair up high, before tying the bows in together. She then turned around, and her eyes went from glowing red, to going a completely blank and lifeless hazel. 'Rhydian is your master, and your boyfriend.' 'Yes mistress, take me to my love.'

In the base

Reacting to this, Rio responded 'So it is a Faustian? We're fucked then.' Phil though had noticed a detail. 'You're saying she was being beaten up before drinking the blood?' 'Yeah, I mean does that matter?' 'Hugely, it means it's a Non-Con.' This drew a hugely relieved reaction from Rio. 'So we've got a chance?' 'Absolutely, if she didn't drink it totally of her own volition, then it's Non-Consensual, you can't consent when you're being forced to by an outside force if you will, even if it's just being beaten up. That's just how it works.'

'And if it's a Non-Con, it can be broken, right?' 'Yes, now we know that it is one.' Tee though, still had a concern. 'What if the Faustian's combined with another spell?' 'Then it can still be broken, although a lot depends on exactly what else is influencing her. It shouldn't make a significant difference, but the truth is that we won't know exactly what's going on until we get her back here, because we can't say for certain if they are working together, or working against each other, or acting as an independent double lock. So you were saying?' 'Yeah, so a few days later, Rhydian was being released from prison, he got early release for good behaviour.'

Flashback: 26 days before

With Maddy having now been under control for three days, Akiza was finally confident enough to let her out to see Rhydian, who had earned himself an early release from prison. As he walked out, he was shocked to see Maddy stood there, smiling, hair in the same ponytail it had been, wearing a red flared dress with a pink bow around her waist, the absolute polar opposite of what the t-shirt and jeans-wielding Maddy would normally be sporting.

'What's she doing here?' Rhydian posed, to which Akiza pushed the entranced teen forwards. 'I love my Master Rhydian and am ready to be his loving girlfriend.' Smiling, he grasped her in a vicious hug. 'You don't know how long I've been waiting to hear that. I'm never going to let you out of my sights now that I've got you, you know that? We're going to do everything together, just you and me, forever.'

He then turned to Akiza. 'Seems like you did a proper job there.' 'I've also been in touch with your link at Segolia.' 'Oh Alex, yeah, what did he say?' 'He said he should have what we asked for within a week, it's going to be in the form of an injectable serum, and within weeks it's going to render her totally blank, ready for you to recreate her as whatever you want to see. In fact, after that we can even turn to new targets.'

'Like?' 'I'm thinking of Blair Flannigan, brainwash her and the Renegades are totally dead in the water, and then I can finally get some revenge for the way that she changed them and got me kicked out.' 'Now you mention it, there are a couple of girls there that I wouldn't mind as… pets, so to say. But our priority is retaining Maddy and keeping her safe.' 'And the title?' He thought about it, and nodded. 'Take all their titles, remove their source of finance, even Daddy's bank account runs dry sooner or later. And all this was possible due to me getting out of here.' 'How did you get out so quick anyway?' Rhydian then went on to explain.

'So I was in there, and I managed to get in to the in crowd there after a few days, I think I just convinced them that I was a stupid kid at first, someone they could take advantage of. Telling you now though, I'm never going back in there, nothing's horrible like prison is.' 'Did they do anything to you? The inmates that is.' 'No, but you see people being carted out, and the people who do avoid the worst look broken in there. Everyone's given up, just waiting for death pretty much. Be better than spending another minute in there.'

'So I managed to get in with the right crowd, especially when Kieran managed to smuggle that phone in.' 'Why did he have to smuggle it in in one of my old teddy bears?' 'Because it's pretty much the one luxury we're allowed in there. Even then I had to convince the wardens that I was basically a scared kid and Kieran was my brother.' 'But it worked?' 'Fell for it like nobody's business, that alone got me in with the big boys. Meant I could communicate with you, I don't need to panic because nobody likes a grass, and meant that everyone else could arrange what they needed to.'

'And then they found out about the phone, another one of them turned on me, so they brought me in, but I was too smart and hid it under another guy's pillow. I told them that it was there, he got taken into solitary, and I got my parole hearing. Turns out prisoners don't like a supergrass, but the parole board do, and they agreed to let me out halfway through.' 'And the others?' 'They didn't know it was me who did it, they were all pointing the finger at each other. Nobody suspects the brooding Welsh kid in the corner. And then I come out, and I see this - what I always wanted all along. And now, there's nothing ever taking it away from me. Now are we going?'

'About that, I've been renting a little condo in Toronto, I think we could use that to keep Maddy in while her spell matures. Kincade already knows, he's set up a little base of operations nearby to there, and it means that we're safely away from any interference while we're waiting for the serum to be administered.' Shrugging, he replied 'Sounds good to me.' 'Good, we've got a private flight booked from an airfield not far from here in 45 minutes.' He then stared at his new girlfriend, before commanding her. 'Let's go.'

In the base

'Why does it not surprise me that the snake did snake-ish things to get out of there?' Dakota moaned, as Blair nodded along. 'So we know that it's Rhydian pulling all of the strings.' 'Akiza thinks she's got the same power, but in reality she basically has none, that's why she and Claude have been plotting against him, but I should really talk about that in context later.' 'So what's with the whole black and white thing' Blair then questioned. 'Because it really doesn't suit her, and it seems really telegraphed, even for him.' 'Simple - death and rebirth.' Tee then continued explaining.

In Toronto

When they got back to the Condo, Rhydian immediately tested Maddy. 'Maddy, strip all of your clothes off.' She responded by pulling off her customised hoodie, and then throwing it to the ground, before Rhydian stamped on it. She then removed her grey shirt, to reveal her bare flesh. He laughed to himself, and started stroking her, with no reaction in response. 'In just a few short weeks Maddy, this is all going to be your life. Akiza.'

The Black Rose looked up when she heard her name said. 'Yep?' 'Give that hoodie to Shannon, tell her to wear it for her duel tomorrow. After that, we're going to wait until Maddy is finished, and then she's going to burn it.' 'Why not just burn it straight away?' He smiled, and stated 'Because then Maddy can't do it, at least not in the way I want her to. That's going to be her saying goodbye to what she used to be, and picking me over anybody else. Now get the clothes out for her.'

Akiza then produced a long-sleeved shirt, black on the bottom and white on the top, split diagonally, with a high collar line. As he commanded her to raise her arms, he slid the shirt on, before forcing a pair of thick skintight black tights onto her legs, completing his desired look with a miniskirt, and a pair of sparkling silver ballet shoes. Having dressed his princess, Akiza took some pictures for him, and then explained the colours.

'In many cultures, black represents death, whereas white is purity and rebirth. That's exactly the message I wanted to send out - the old Maddy is dead and gone forever, and the new Maddy has been reborn in her purest self.' 'Almost as if the Maddy who disappeared has been resurrected.' 'Exactly like that. And now she's reborn, she's never going to leave.' That's when Akiza called her other slave. 'Oh Jess.'

Jessica then walked in, a vacant look plastered across her face. 'Now something we do need to discuss - this one was with the Renegades for a while. She was my sleeper agent, and then they managed to breach her spell, bring her home. So I don't know what they know. There is a way, but it's going to require a little bit of good old fashioned torture to your little Maddy.' Looking at her for a moment, Rhydian shockingly consented. 'It makes sure we're starting ahead, so do it.'

Two hours later

Rhydian was stood watching on, while Maddy was strapped to a chair. Two electrodes were then placed on either side of her head, and Akiza started to direct the electrical pulses into Maddy's brain to find out the information she wanted. 'Tell me everything that happened with Jessica after she had her mask removed.' Maddy tried to resist, but then Akiza started shocking her brain, and under cries and screams, she told everything.

'Jessica came back to the base everyone tried to figure out what had happened to her. We discussed what she remembered and she only remembered that she was invited to a cafe to reconnect with me.' 'I want more!' Akiza shouted, before turning the voltage up and the screams and tears intensified through the brutal pain. 'She then remembered being knocked out and remembered nothing else until the mask was removed, Phil said he thought it was a non-consensual Faustian which can be broken, Jess had some kind of spell tied to her mask whereby if the mask was removed she'd lose all her memories.'

After turning the voltage up to a maximum of 300 Volts, the sobbing stopped, and she lay, totally wide eyed and talked. 'Hannah did some hypnotherapy with her to retrieve the memories that were lost, she said she was taken by someone called "Aki", they bound her feet together, there was a cold wind, oh god the wind was so cold, they showed her a watch, told her she'd be a martial artist, then put a mask on her fact she remembered nothing.'

This was enough for Akiza, who stopped the process. 'Looks like we got everything we need.' 'I'm thinking she's going to be too much of a risk to keep around this Jess.' 'So what do we do then?' 'Well, she's already under again isn't she, so what's stopping us just using the spell to get rid of her?' 'What, break her mind?' 'No, I've got a much better idea. Where did you take her initially?' 'A warehouse, about 10 minutes down the road.'

In the base

It was at this point that Tee suddenly stopped. 'Why have we stopped talking?' Freja questioned, but Tee had a reason, and looked sick. 'Look, before I continue, I just need you to know that we were forced to do this, like me and Maddy didn't have a choice. I was blinded by Akiza for so long, and Maddy's so tight under control that she doesn't even know right from wrong at this point.' Rio though, reassured her. 'Whatever it is, we need to know. So in your own time.' The next part really started to get people going.

At the warehouse

Tee, Maddy and Jess were all stood in a line, with Rhydian inspecting them, looking up and down, before coming to his judgement. 'Jess, for your final mission, you're going to commit suicide. You are going to walk into the middle of Highway 401, and walk in front of the largest vehicle you can find. Then Maddy and Tee are going to bring your body back here to me. Do I make myself clear?' 'Yes master' the three replied, none with any hesitation.

They were then sent out on their mission, with Maddy driving them both to the middle of the highway, and then pulling over. Still totally entranced and with eyes half shut, Jess waited for several minutes, watching the traffic race by. As a large eighteen-wheeler truck then steamed across, Maddy pushed Jess, who walked right into the path of the truck, which absolutely mutilated her.

As people stopped to look at the carnage, Tee and Maddy rushed in, both wearing blank masks, and picked Jess' mangled body up, before throwing her into the car and driving away, as people looked on in utter shock. Worse was to come when they returned though, as Rhydian had new orders. New, disgusting orders. 'Now you're back with her body, we need to get rid of the evidence. You two are going to cut up Jess' body, and then Maddy, you're going to eat your best friend.'

She nodded obediently as Rhydian gave them a butcher's knife each. 'Leave the spine and the head, but remove the brain. Everything else, you can eat.' The two brainwashed teenagers then got to work, slowly chopping apart what remained of Jess' body… that is, what wasn't on the carriageway of the highway. They quickly removed the head, and also the feet, and then meticulously sliced, chopped and battered the remains ip into a pile of human organs, tendons and skin.

Maddy was then sat down in front of them. 'Let each part of this drag you closer and closer to me.' She started to eat Jess' remains, with each bite, each chomp, each part eaten slowly destroying more and more of the girl's humanity, as her eyes went more distant, and she soldiered away, following her master's orders, unable to form any kind of resistance to him. As Tee had suggested, it was as if her very sense of right and wrong had been quashed.

It was over four hours until she finished, by which time there was nothing remaining of Jess aside from some limbs and her severed head, which Rhydian bundled into a bin bag. 'Tee, throw this bag into Lake Ontario, and then return straight here. Akiza, you can drive her, I don't want my girl driving after her big meal after all.' As they left, Maddy sat there catatonic, the humanity draining from her.

In the base

Everyone was disgusted by what they'd heard, none more so than Astrid. 'I swear this is going to turn me vegan if nothing else does. I mean how could he do that, she's a real fucking human being, not some animal to be fed human remains to.' Tee provided some insight though. 'He's not trying to make her into an animal, he's trying to destroy any sense of belonging or loyalty. He knows how strong Maddy is, and that nobody else could keep her under a spell, so he's got to destroy her mentally so she can't resist.'

She then told them the truth about his intentions. 'He's become twisted while he was in prison, he wanted the real Maddy back, but the person he wants now, she's not the real Maddy, he wants this perfect idealised version of her, but the thing is, that version never existed. He wants to remove every flaw that makes her unique because she's become an obsession for him, a status symbol. He doesn't love Maddy, he loves what he's decided Maddy is.'

The subject then moved on to the rose. 'So then Maddy got taken to Segolia's lab in Canada, and they Alex' 'Just to confirm' 'Alex Kincade, real creep if you ask me. So yeah, we took her over there, and he had this serum, it sort of looked like this dirty milky colour, not quite a gel but not proper liquid liquid either. He just took out this syringe, and injected the serum into both sides of her head. And I just remember this blood curdling scream, like she was being tortured again.'

At this point, Rio stopped Tee, to check on Blair. 'B, you ok? You look real sick.' Trying to keep it in, she blurted out 'I think I need a bucket', before running off to the toilets briefly to throw up. After this she pushed her hair back and returned, as Tee continued sharing what she knew. 'I recall that Akiza said the serum was psychically manifesting a rose in Maddy's brain, I didn't quite get it myself but I think I'm starting to.'

She then shuffled through her pockets for a moment, before pulling out a flyer. 'I forgot Akiza put this in my trouser pocket for storage - this is something which Rhydian was given to explain how the spell works. So let's see… it says that the rose is going to drain Maddy's mind to the point of making her unable to do anything for herself. It feeds on the brain like a parasite, it grows by feeding off her. What does it say now… oh yeah, in 5-7 days, the personality is deleted, then all their memories are deleted.'

This revelation became too much for Freja, who terrified at what her friend was going through, ran away and hid in her bedroom. 'Hit her hard huh?' 'Don't know the half of it, her two best friends are gone, and now hearing this. So you were saying?' 'Yeah, the memories are deleted after around 2 weeks. Then their sense of independence is drained, and finally, their entire mind is sapped.' 'So how long do we have before that happens?' 'Theoretically about three weeks, but she's strong, and the spell's not working as quickly, so it's hard to know.'

'So what are their plans?' 'Well Akiza wants to rent Maddy out to' Before she could even finish, she noticed the struggling look on Blair's face, and remembered about her ordeal with Claude. 'Erm Blair, you might not want to listen to this bit.' Reluctantly, she agreed. 'Yeah, I should… erm… go and check on Freja, you know, just in case you know… yeah.' She then walked away quickly, with Tee respectfully waiting until she was well out of earshot to continue.

'So Akiza basically just wants to rent Maddy out, she's been in contact with various people about it, but so far nobody's done anything about it because Rhydian won't let anyone get close to her. You literally would not believe how close they are, he only lets her out of his sight when he goes to the toilet or when he's in bed, because she's unable to sleep due to the pain of her brain being destroyed. But the thing is, Rhydian really doesn't want her to be harmed. I don't know if it's love or lust or obsession but it's all just so weird.'

'So do you know what happened with Dan and Emma?' 'I wasn't there, he insisted on going alone with Maddy. But I know that they injected the rose into Donna as well, Rhydian's sold her to Kincade as a lab assistant. She's made some new cards which are supposed to keep Maddy's spell locked in, but I don't know how they work exactly, and I've not seen any of them.' 'So Donna's also totally spellbound by them?'

'Yeah, Maddy was forced to inject her with the serum.' At this point, Astrid was starting to get extremely cross over the situation. 'Yeah, just force Maddy to do everything, she won't mind, it's not like she's a real person is it? No, she's just some little piece of scum that we all get to take turns manipulating, isn't that right?' At this point Tee had to defend herself. 'It's not everyone, since Rhydian came out of jail it's mostly been him. Akiza had all these plans for what she was going to do with Maddy, but he's gone back on pretty much all of them since he actually got out of prison.'

'Did he tell you anything that happened in the incident?' 'What, with' 'Yeah.' 'Not really, just kept saying that he didn't want it to happen, but they knew what would happen when they made him angry and tried to take Maddy off of him again, I really think he just meant to do enough to warn them off, but I don't know if he lost his temper, or if he couldn't control Maddy, all I know is that he didn't go there with the intent to kill them. He might own it now, but it wasn't deliberate, I'm certain of that much.'

Trying to regain some order, Rio changed the topic. 'So what's going on with Belle?' The rather unhelpful reply was 'I wanted to ask you all the same thing, all I know is that she randomly turned up, it was I think the same day that Donna was injected, said something about not being able to live without Maddy because she was the only person who wanted to keep Belle in the club, she was the only one to give her even half a chance, and because of that she wanted to join. Rhydian put her under a trance, but it's only a very light one because we got interrupted by some random thugs turning up to attack Rhydian. They said that they were there to take Maddy back.'

Rio immediately recognised what this was about, but despite being very keen on revealing the plan, opted to withhold the information in the end and play along. 'Any idea where they came from?' 'I think one of them had a Mancunian accent, but not other than that. To be honest I presumed you sent them.' Rio replied legitimately with 'I don't have a clue, I didn't even know you'd been involved in a home invasion.'

'Maddy destroyed all three of them, I mean they all survived… I think they did anyway, they were all alive when Rhydian got rid of them.' 'Got rid how exactly?' 'Got Akiza to drive the three of them to a quiet street near the hospital and then throw them out. Figured that if they survived, they wouldn't be coming back in a hurry.' Playing along with the story, Astrid then provided some additional context for them.

'I think I heard something on the news about them, the last I knew one of them had brain damage, but I don't know about the other two other than they were at least alive. Phil keeps putting these weird international news channels on, I don't get it myself but I think it's just helping him to take his mind off everything that's happened. I can't blame him honestly, I wish I could distract myself sometimes.'

Just as they were starting to discuss Akiza and Claude's plans, Hannah's phone started ringing. 'Hello, this is Hannah Robinson, how can I help you? Yes, that's the surname I'm going by, we discussed this weeks ago. Ok, just give me a minute and I'll be back with you.' She then turned to Astrid. 'This one's kind of for you from the WDC.' 'Me? The hell do they want with me now, they already ripped up my contract.' 'Could we just… you know, vacate for a couple of minutes?' Astrid was unsure at first, turning to Rio.

'It's fine Astrid, we can talk about everything again when you get back, I could do with having a drink anyway. Right now I think we just need to take a break, because Tee's going to need to take some time as well probably.' She just nodded, and responded 'Yep, I'd like some time to write down anything else I can think of. Because I know what Maddy's gone through, and I want nobody to ever have to go through that. Also you've all been so kind to me, the least that I can do is help you with this.'

As everyone else split up briefly, Caprice started remonstrating with Tee. 'You know we don't have to do all this don't you? They don't hold any power over you, they've never done anything good for you, so at this point, why even bother helping? All you're doing is making yourself a moving target and giving everyone here the opinion that you're some kind of soft touch, you'll just give them whatever they want just if they do one tiny little thing for you, and you don't want that do you?'

This was very different to how Tee saw it though. 'All of this? This isn't being a soft touch, this is me repaying them for one huge thing they've done for me - get me away from Akiza, give me my mind back. If anything you should be grateful as well, you know that I want to join up with you and with Sara, you know I do, but I also want to help everyone here, because I saw what they were doing to Maddy, and honestly, I don't want her to go through it for a moment more, because I think even if she does keep her mind, she's in real danger there. You're not changing my mind on this one.'

Upstairs, Blair knocked on Freja's bedroom door. 'Hey, can I come in?' A quiet voice replied 'Don't let me stop you', so she followed the orders and let herself in, finding Freja sat on the floor, having clearly just stopped crying. And it was at this moment that Blair looked at her, and decided that it was time for them to both let out everything that they had been holding in, not just now, but for a long time. Sitting next to her, she started to tell.

'I know that you don't see how this situation is affecting me, but I just want you to understand that it…' Blair's hand then started shaking, noticed quickly by Freja. 'Your hand' 'I can't help it, it's a twitch that I get when I'm angry. You don't know how hard it was for me to hear all that in there, because I was the last person with Maddy before she went for that duel with Akiza, I should have just stopped her, I had the opportunity and I blew it, I just let her pass me by, give me that DVD, didn't even question it. She would have had someone to block Akiza, someone to stop her walking straight in there.'

'But it wouldn't have stopped anything, you would have just got destroyed like she did.' 'Not if I stopped her going out there, but that's the thing I just keep doing, I just keep going through everything in my head, because I'm just desperate to find something that was my fault because everyone's been blamed by someone apart from me, and I just don't get it, there must be something I could have done because I'm the one who's supposed to be mature, supposed to be looking after everyone, but nobody's blaming me.'

'Because you didn't do anything wrong.' 'And when I heard about what Akiza wants to do to her, I just had flashbacks… I just get so many flashbacks, that nobody knows about.' 'Because you won't tell us anything, you think that it's your job to carry everybody else's issues, yet you went through something most of us could never imagine, and nobody saw how it was affecting you because you just dust yourself down and get on with things again. But the way they were talking, that's not going to happen to her, because Rhydian's so selfish that he's not sharing her. I just feel like I never… really appreciated her as a friend. Like she doesn't know the real me.'

'I don't think Maddy knew the real her before she left, but she will do when we get her back.' Freja then looked up to her. 'Do you really think she's coming home? It just seems impossible, it feels like every time we get near she's just pulled further away, and now we know that they're systematically deleting everything about her, I really just… I don't see how we're ever going to get her home. And I just… really miss her.'

'I know you do, we all do' Blair responded while holding Freja close. 'But we will get her back, because that's what we do. I believe it more than ever now that we know what we're dealing with. We can do this, we just need to hold steady because the timing needs to be perfect. We'll know when the right time is because the opportunity will appear, but we'll have one shot, and when we take it, we have to hit the bullseye. But we will get her back Freja. We need your help though.'

'Why would you need me?' she asked, clearly depressed about her abilities. 'Because you're brave, you're dynamite, and you have your morphing, that makes you unique and makes you a key part of whatever we do. We need you, but we need a proper you, we need a you that believes we can do this, and will do anything in order to get her back. We can't do this without you, you're more important than anybody.'

'So just calm down?' 'No, get angry, get so angry that you want to scream at somebody, get so angry you could take somebody's head off with a single punch, get so upset that you just want to shout at the sky. We need you to get going, we need everybody to be in absolutely top form. So how about we go back down there soon, and we find out exactly what else Tee has to tell us?' Freja responded with a smile. 'I don't know how you do it.'

'Do what?' 'Always say the right things.' 'I really don't' she blushed, before getting a hold of herself. 'I mean I try to, I don't always but I just try and be supportive. Believe me I've had my doubts, I've spent so much time blaming myself, but that can wait until after, because every moment I'm blaming myself is a moment that I'm being selfish, I'm not helping us fix this, I'm not taking down Rhydian and Akiza, I'm just wasting time.' Freja and Blair then continued to chat, well after Tee, Rio and Kris had regrouped.

'So you were saying about Claude earlier?' 'Yeah, Claude's been real creepy about all of this, he's been at the condo a couple of times because he and Rhydian have some sort of deal on where he's promised that the Regiment will deal with you lot in exchange for a load of money and a night with Maddy, which he really isn't going to get, because as I said before, Rhydian's not letting anybody have that, never mind someone he doesn't even trust.'

'Why are they working together then?' 'Because Claude wants to get closer to the power he wants, and Rhydian wants someone who will deal with all of you because every moment he spends doing that is a moment that he's not making sure Maddy's safe from anyone else's clutches. Well, "safe" anyway, obviously she's not but I'm sure you know know what I mean.' 'Absolutely' Rio replied, attentive to it all. 'But what does Claude want with Akiza? Obviously Akiza wants extra security.'

'Akiza actually wants him for backup, because her idea's turning Maddy into the Wolfblood Witch, she thinks she can make her a weapon to destroy everyone who's ever upset her by somehow transplanting her own powers and mixing them with Maddy's own primal powers.' 'The same powers that are being suppressed and destroyed?' 'Which is why she wants someone to back her up. She's working with Claude because she's going to have him take all of you out, then take Rhydian out and give her all the power, give her Maddy and then she'll rule her.'

'So she's just a bargaining chip?' 'Kind of I suppose, but Akiza knows she has to do it before the rose completely drains Maddy. So she's been feeding Claude just what he wants.' 'And that is?' 'You're not going to like this at all.' 'Go on.' 'She's… she's…' Eventually after several attempts, Tee managed to force herself to say it. 'She's been selling Claude photos of Maddy naked in exchange for stacks of money. I don't know how much, but it's a pretty good amount because the Condo isn't cheap, and I keep seeing Akiza come home with envelopes containing stacks of money.'

'Well we've got Akiza on money laundering then.' 'We can't turn her in, because the moment we do, Rhydian's just going to do a runner and go into hiding.' 'I'm amazed he hasn't done that already.' Rio though, was more concerned about the pictures. 'How's she even getting away with that?' 'She's taking pictures of Maddy while she's being dressed by Rhydian, usually she'll hide behind the other side of her body, because he has this thing Rhydian, where he takes ages to dress her because he likes just walking around and admiring her, it's really weird but I guess it's some kind of fetish?' 'If I was Rhydian, I'd be taking Maddy and just going into hiding rather than being somewhere people will see you.'

This was when Tee made an incredible revelation. 'He can't.' 'What do you mean by "he can't"?' Rio questioned, drilling for more answers. And it was at this moment that a stressed Tee realised she was about to give the Renegades their biggest hint of all. 'Rhydian can't just run away with Maddy because he can't afford to. The whole reason he returned to duelling was because he needs the money from the WDC title, £10,000 for a successful defence, £25,000 for winning it. And without that, he's basically broke, Akiza's paying for most everything.'

'What's happened to the rest of his money?' The following proclamation was shocking in both its content and convenience. 'The company screwed him out of it. When he got arrested, they immediately cancelled all payments to him, that was almost £100,000 he was owed in appearance and victory fees. I mean it's not like he's got no money at all, but he's probably only just got enough to pay for flights to the UK, but he can't just lay low. Besides, so many people know his face that unless he became a total hermit he wouldn't be able to avoid detection. He said he's moonlighting away when she's brainwashed. I think he's got a plan but I don't know what it is.'

'None at all?' 'No, not aside from getting out of Canada, he's talked about moving to some quiet tropical island somewhere, but I think that was more fantasising than any actual plan. All I know is he's not staying in Canada longer than he has to, it's way too busy for him. He's starting to lose it, Belle's presence has made him really paranoid. And the worst thing is, he's not even the biggest danger to Maddy immediately.'

'I mean Claude's always lurking, so' 'Lukas is the threat. He's had these fantasies for months about beating Maddy up, and I mean REALLY beating her up, I don't know why, Akiza's spell wore off him a while ago because she's struggling to keep control of him, it was only me standing in front of Maddy when she was tied to that fucking cross that stopped him destroying her there and then, and'

That was when Hannah came back in, interrupting her. 'Hang on, did you just say a cross?' 'Yeah, she was tied to a rose cross when she was first captured by Akiza, is… is that important?' Desperate to confirm her suspicions, she asked a very probing question. 'Did the Faustian get completed on the cross?' 'How would I…' 'Ok, Maddy drunk Akiza's blood, right?' 'Yeah.' 'Was that when she was tied to the cross?' 'Yeah, it was.'

With that critical information in hand, she got her phone out. 'Phil, quickly, drop what you're doing… just to check, you're not feeding' 'No I'm not, I'm doing the washing.' 'That can wait a minute. I just found out, the symbol that was used for Maddy's Faustian contract was a rose cross. Tee, do you remember what it looked like?' 'Um… it was sort of a light brown, it had a white rose at the top right above where Maddy's head was' 'Were Maddy's feet on the floor?'

'Yeah, or just off the floor anyway. There was probably about a metre between the rose and the top of the cross.' Quickly, Hannah recounted the information. 'Light brown, about 7 metres tall, single white rose just short of 6m off the ground.' She then sought any more information. 'Anything else you remember about the cross?' 'No, just that.' 'Ok, did you get that? Fantastic. Love you, bye.'

Just then, Blair came down, and Hannah, seeing her, hailed her over. 'Blair, I need a word with you outside, right now.' 'Can I just' 'Unless it's the toilet, this is really important.' Understanding, she pushed back her hair which stretched just below her shoulders at this point, and rushed outside, expecting carnage. What she found instead, was Astrid holding a phone, still looking shocked. 'What's going on?' 'Just listen to this.' Astrid then pressed play on a very important message.

'Hello Astrid… Ms. Hofferson, this is Michael Grey Adams, I need your help. I was the one who insisted on Rhydian coming back, I let Bolton make corrupt deals with him, but that was clearly a mistake, and now… we need you, otherwise the company's going to be destroyed. If you're willing to come back, I want to reinstate you immediately, just… promise that you're going to stop he and Akiza from destroying everything. I need you, thank you.'

As the message cut off, Hannah explained her ultimate plan. 'This is the most difficult scenario this club has ever faced. So we need the ultimate nuclear option, something even more powerful than the M18 Connection.' 'Is there anything like that?' Blair questioned, but the truth dawned in her mind just as it was said. 'We need the ultimate team - Blair Flannigan and the one person nobody would ever expect her to team up with, Astrid Hofferson. This is the final option.'

After taking a look at Astrid's determined face, she offered her a handshake. 'Maddy needs us, so how about we let everything be a bygone, and show people what two girls with bad attitudes can do?' A stern look on her face, the Norwegian replied 'Let's do this, it's time to stand up. Together, united.' As they did, Hannah christened them. 'They might be able to hold most things off, but let's see how they deal with the ultimate team - the Varsity Club.'

Next time: Blair and Akiza clash in a bitter duel, Emma makes a dangerous realisation about Maddy, and when Ally is caught up in danger, will it lead to a shocking breakthrough? R: Ultra Evolution Book 9: Phenotype: Varsity