The Winter Ball (12.7)

In the main hall, Fenix and Owen were supposed to be looking for Leon and backing him up. Of course, as they had learned from the previous time they had been in this castle, absolutely nothing goes the way they planned.

"...Matthew…?" Fenix's voice was in disbelief as he came face to face with one of the hooded figures. The man in front of him didn't hesitate, lunging at him with a grin on his face. Fenix almost didn't dodge out of shock, barely being pulled back by his boyfriend.

"Ah, dear nephew, has our relationship become so strained that you even refuse to call me 'uncle'? After I raised you and everything?" Matthew Callahan laughed, and Fenix stepped back, his hand tightly grasping onto Owen's. The insanity in the man's eyes was clear.

Fenix gulped, "What uncle attempts to murder his own niece? Or do you think I forgot? You almost killed Bella with your bare hands, we saw you," He said darkly.

"We? Ah, you mean the test subject that she helped escape. As much as Mirabella may have been my niece, the White Lotus doesn't allow for traitors, and by letting that boy out, she proved her loyalties were not with us. She had to be disposed of. However, as you can see, your sister is…Stubborn," Matthew responded.

Owen stiffened from next to him, and Fenix didn't hesitate to step in front of him, "You don't get to talk about him," He growled.

Matthew looked around him, and his eyes widened, "I almost didn't recognize you, 0034. You've gotten a new eye since I saw you," He laughed,

"No thanks to you, of course. Pretty sad that a fourteen-year-old managed to do a much more precise surgery than you did, although Bella was always much more talented than you could ever think to be," Owen responded.

Matthew bared his teeth, and Fenix was hit by just how inhumane his uncle seemed, "I wasn't trying to be careful. You were disposable. You were only useful until we couldn't use you for experiments. Then, you became a liability. Honestly, if my cyborg monstrosity of a niece hadn't helped you escape, I would have killed you myself—"

Fenix rushed at him, pushing him back with the sword against the metal pole, "Don't you dare finish that sentence or else I swear, I will kill you."

Matthew threw his head back and laughed, "I don't know about you, but if a child who had just lost his eye couldn't take me down in a fit of rage, I wouldn't think it's that easy to take me down. After all, children have the capability to be monsters, no?" As he said this, he looked back at Owen.

"What are you—" Owen's eyes widened, "No…No, that didn't—It was just a nightmare, I didn't even know Risále back then—"

"Oh…You haven't realized it yet, have you?" Matthew asked, leering at Owen, "Did you really think it was a nightmare? No, you really did attack her like that. Although you didn't manage to kill her in the end, she got away. We had to put you on much stronger sedatives after that. It was quite sad though, out of all of us, she was the only one trying to help—"

Owen clutched his head, shaking it, "No, no, shut up. That wasn't—That couldn't have been real, there's no way it—If it was real then this, all of this can't be—It has to—" None of his words were making sense but he didn't know how to make sense of his realization.

"Owen? Babe, are you alright?" Fenix asked cautiously, approaching the smaller boy. He put his hands on Owen's shoulders, but in an instant, Owen was clutching at his shirt looking up at him with teary eyes.

"Risále. I…I thought it was a dream but I—Back then, I almost killed her. She…She almost let me…" Fenix felt a pit growing in his stomach as Owen's words reminded him of something. It was a hazy memory, as if he had been drugged when it had happened but he remembered it.

A young girl on the ground, and a young blonde boy, younger than the girl with his hands around her neck, sobbing and screaming for her to let him out, to stop hurting him. The girl didn't fight back, silent tears streaming down her face, as if she had accepted that she deserved it.

But Risále wasn't at the facility they were in. At least, not at that time.

Fenix stumbled back, almost crashing into Owen, "What the hell is he…Owen, what the fuck does he mean by—"

"It means this, all of this, everything we know, it's—" Before Owen could finish his sentence, a hand covered his mouth. Fenix was about to attack but quickly recognized who it was.

"Don't say it. You know you can't say it," Val said, their voice quiet but forceful, Nia right next to them, "We'll try and talk about it more later but right now you both need to calm down."

Another figure was behind them, "Get them both out of here. I'll take care of this one," Kaedan said, making his way in front of the four kids, "They can't be fighting right now, and besides," He turned back to glare at Matthew, "This fight is almost over anyways."

Matthew shrugged, "We got what we wanted. The rest of this is just decoration. This fight is over."

"Not for us," Kaedan growled, but before he could even move, two people stepped in front of him, "Who are—"

It was a woman and a man, both of them probably in their fifties or so, "My name's Changying Li," A strict looking woman said, before pointing to the man next to her, "This is my husband, Chun Gong. We're part of Bella's team. You and your group get out of here, we'll take care of clean up," The woman had a spear in her hand while the man had a sword.

"Are you sure?" Kaedan asked carefully.

"Yes, yes, we'll be fine, boy. Now go!" The woman urged him as Matthew rushed at them both. Kaedan looked back only once before easily picking up Fenix in a bridal carry. Next to him, Nia was helping Val move Owen onto their back.

They sighed, "Of all the times they could have found out, it had to be in the middle of battle."

Kaedan shook his head, "Matthew triggered it the way seeing you triggered it for us. Of course, you weren't actively trying to hurt us and the same can't be said for this bitch. Anyway, who else do we need to find? Just Risále, right?"

"Yup, counting off, Chaewon, Elliot, Xander, you, Lumina, Mina, Hyunwoo, Bella, Leon, and then the four of us, just Risále," Nia listed, "From what Leon said, she should be in the side room connected to the ballroom."

"That's where we're headed then," Kaedan said, adjusting Fenix in his arms a bit, before starting to make his way through the debris. Most of the doorway to the area Risále was in had been destroyed, which meant he had to put Fenix down for a moment to try and clear the path, managed to move most of the pieces of debris except for the length of the column that was almost three times his height. He hopped over it, and Nia carefully lifted Fenix over one side and practically shoved him over towards Kaedan.

Val seemed to be struggling with Owen, "Listen, the kid has some muscle on him, and I am but a weak maiden—" Nia smacked their head to shut them up, "Aw, come on, Nia, I thought that was funny!"

"The funniest thing here is that Fenix is draped over that column like wet laundry and I'm very tempted just to kick him to the other side," Nia muttered, "Now, come on, hand Owen over."

After passing the two boys over, they finally managed to make it through the rubble and Kaedan squinted, looking for a head of blue hair anywhere. He barely managed to spot her, buried under what he would think was probably a part of the wall. He left Fenix slumped against the column before running over to her, "Risále!" 

Said woman groaned as she heard her name being called, "Roll call? Yeah, I'm here, what's up?" She said dazedly.

"Girl, did he damage your brain or something?"

"Him…Oh! That bastard! We fought for a while but then he said he had to go and couldn't risk being killed here by me, and then he hit the wall behind me and it fell on me. Next thing I knew, you were waking me up!" Risále explained, and groaned as Kaedan moved the large piece of debris off her body, "That definitely crushed something, that's for sure. I think that something is called my leg."

Kaedan groaned audibly, "Jesus Christ, woman, you are a wreck. Alright, come here, hold onto my arm. Now, I'm going to drag you out, and it's gonna hurt because I have to do this with only one arm."

"Alright, I'm bracing myself—Ow!" Risále yelped as she was yanked forward, crashing into Kaedan as he let the large debris fall, covering her head so that the rising dust wouldn't bother her, "Are you alright, Kaedan? That has to have hurt—Woah!" 

"Your leg is hurt, right? I'll carry you until we get back to the group, then we can find someone who's not as injured as me to hold onto you until we get back to base and can take a look at that injury," Kaedan said, lifting her easily.

Risále stared at him, "I'm about to be really fucking honest but that was kinda hot. Literally, how are you still able to carry me after throwing a literal piece of the wall off of me?" She asked, looking at him in awe.

Kaedan shrugged, "Honestly, I'm running on pure adrenaline and spite against God because whoever God is, they certainly think I should not be standing, and to that, I say, fuck you, no, I will keep standing even if I was crushed by a pillar only a few minutes ago."

"Kaedan, I'm starting to think you might actually just be God."

"That would make Xander sacrilegious."

It took the young woman a moment to understand what he meant by that, and when the dots clicked, she smacked him on the shoulder. Kaedan laughed as he walked back towards Nia, Val, Owen, and Fenix, "Did you really have to?"

"You gave me the opportunity," Kaedan shrugged. As they approached the four teenagers, he noticed that Owen seemed to have regained some clarity, "Hey buddy, how are you feeling? A little better now?"

Owen nodded, "It's a little hard to wrap my head around this whole thing but I think deep down, a part of me always had an idea about what was going on but I just didn't want to accept it—" Then, he saw Risále in Kaedan's arms and stopped speaking abruptly.

She looked at him and waved, "Hey, Owen, you doing alright—" She didn't get to finish her sentence before Owen rushed at her and hugged her as best as he could while she was being carried, "Hey, hey, you alright? Is something wrong—" She cut herself off, "You're crying…"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," Owen sniffled, "I didn't—I wasn't thinking and I just…I thought you…"

Risále stroked his head, looking at Kaedan in confusion, "I—I don't think you did anything to hurt me but even if you did, it's okay. I forgive you," She said. Kaedan shook his head, signaling that he didn't quite know what was going on either.

Owen looked at her, "You don't remember yet. When you do though, just know that I'm really sorry and I didn't mean to do it."

"Alright, Owen. I won't forget. We need to get out of here though, from what I can tell, this castle is nowhere near structurally sound anymore. In fact, I'm surprised it's still standing right now, they blew out a lot of the foundations with the explosions. We probably have…Four minutes at most before this place goes down," Risále explained.

"Wait, you're telling me this place could collapse at any minute?!" Kaedan looked at her, eyes widened.

"I thought you knew!"

"Well obviously not, my cyborg bullshit doesn't do its bullshit as good as yours does! I literally brought four kids here with me, do you really think I'd risk them?! Alright, Owen, can you carry Fenix? I'm going to need Val and Nia to clear the path since Miss Concussion here is practically useless," Kaedan called out.

The young woman smacked him on the shoulder again, "I may have a concussion but I'm still conscious enough that you don't have to insult me when I'm awake, besides, isn't there a thing where you have to ask a person questions to see if they have a concussion?"

"What the fuck is going on between you, Leon, Hyunwoo, and Bella?"

Nia was practically cackling as Val called back, "Come on, Kaedan, you have to ask her stuff she knows!"

"I don't like any of you. You're all mean," Risále muttered before promptly shoving her face into Kaedan's shoulder. 

As they made their way through the decimated ballroom, they all felt their hearts drop as an audible groan could be heard throughout the castle, one that could only really mean one thing.

"Go for the main archway, it's the quickest way out!" Kaedan yelled, and the four of them began sprinting, Nia leading the group with Val right on her heels, Owen with Fenix on his back behind them, and Kaedan with Risále at the end. Cursing under his breath, Kaedan muttered, "Risále, don't move."

"What—" Kaedan shifted her and threw her over his shoulder as Risále screamed, "What the fuck are you doing!?"

"Sorry, you're in the way, I can run faster like this. Just relax and don't move!"

"What makes you think I can move right now?!"

They finally made it to the archway, and Nia, Val, and Owen had just made it through and were waiting for Kaedan. As he skidded through, he could feel the archway of the main entrance collapsing right behind him. Crouching, he tucked Risále's head under his chin before cradling her to keep her safe from the falling chunks of the castle. He grunted as he felt something heavy against his shoulder. Distantly, he could hear a voice yelling, "Kaedan! Risá!" It was Leon's voice.

"You alright, Risále?" Kaedan asked.

She coughed a little bit before looking at him, worried, "I should be asking you that, you're hurt."

"It's fine, it just got my back. Although, I don't think I can move right now, so we're both a bit stuck," Kaedan chuckled. Suddenly, he felt a weight lifting off of his back and almost fell forward, barely avoiding crushing Risále by someone else catching him.

"Alright, come on, Your Highness. That's about enough risk-taking for you, or your boyfriend is going to kill us when he finally wakes up," Kaedan heard a woman's voice from behind him, and he relaxed in her arms.

He smiled, tilting his head back to look at the older woman, "Hey, Chaewon. It's been a while. And drop the "Your Highness" thing, you know that isn't even accurate anymore."

Chaewon rolled her eyes, "Argue with me when you're not half-delirious. Time to get you two out of here. We've got what we came here for, thanks to Miss Manon over there."

"Just Risále," The younger girl responded, "And it wasn't much. We're not done yet, are we?"

Chaewon smiled, "Of course not. But you've done enough for now. Rest. We'll handle what we need to later."

And with that, both Risále and Kaedan let out a sigh of relief.

It was over for now.