Always (29.1)

"You came back for me, Jiali," Veronica said, looking up at the woman approaching her, "I knew you would."

"You're delusional," Lumina replied, her face clearly showing her disgust, "After everything you did to me, you still think I want you?"

Veronica laughed, "You don't need to want me. I still own you. Whether you love or hate me, you will always come back to me, Jiali—"

"Stop calling me that," Lumina cut her off, "You're not worthy of calling me by that name. The only people allowed to call me 'Jiali' are my brother and my parents. My name is Lumina."

"But you'll always be Jiali to me. You're my Jiali—"

There was a flash and Veronica screamed. The whip wrapped around her tight, restraining her in place as the electric charge flashed brightly. The woman's body jerked as she felt the strength of fifty volts running through her.

Lumina smiled, somehow gentle and sadistic at the same time, "Would you like to say that again?"

"Jiali, I—" Veronica screamed again as another pulse of electric charge ran through her, "Alright! Alright, Lumina," She spat out the name as though it disgusted her. Lumina knew that the woman hated that she was slowly losing any exclusive effect that she had on Lumina, "You're still here with me. You could be anywhere else."

The brunette woman rolled her eyes, "I'm here because I needed to get Hyunwoo to go after Val and I knew the boy was not going to leave for anyone else. If there was another choice, I would have just let him take his time murdering you. Judging by what you did to me, I don't even want to imagine what you did to him."

Veronica raised an eyebrow, "You don't know? Well, he was stronger than I had expected so I did need some…Assistance. It wasn't all me. I got my hands much dirtier when it came to you. And that other one for that matter."

Lumina stared at her, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" She asked, "Val was a fucking child. Hyunwoo was barely eighteen—I was fifteen! Who in their right mind would do what you did to us?!"

"The younger they are, the easier they are to manipulate. The easier they are to break. You were my first subject and it just so happened that your age was younger than I expected. It wasn't too hard to break you, so I wondered how easy it would be to break someone even younger. That little runt had been around for a while, then I finally found a use for it," Veronica said nonchalantly. It was as if she was speaking about animals, "It was when I came across that boy that I managed to do even deeper studies. He was older, and it was much, much harder to break him. But he did break eventually. And let me tell you, he shattered beautifully—"

"Shut up!" Lumina screamed, brandishing her whip with so much force that Veronica was thrown to the ground many feet away, "Don't you ever speak about him like that again, what the hell is wrong with you?! How were you not locked up years ago?!"

Veronica shakily pushed herself up with her arms, "Because they need my mind," She grinned, "They don't care what the hell I do, as long as I get them what they need. And I have gotten them exactly what they needed."

"...Someone needs to put you twenty feet under," Lumina said, darkly, striking her whip against the ground and stepping closer to the woman, pulling out a knife, "I'd rather not get my hands dirty with your disgusting blood but if I have to…"

Veronica glared at her, but Lumina could see the slight fear in her eyes, "...You know you won't actually kill me, Lumina."

"Do you really think I won't?" Lumina laughed, "Wow, I knew you were crazy but I'm always somehow amazed by how incredibly stupid you can be. After everything, you really think I won't kill you—"

"That's not what I mean," Veronica cut her off, "I mean that you can try to kill me but I won't die, not really."

Lumina paused, before holding the knife to Veronica's throat, "Explain."

"No," Veronica grinned.

"Don't test me, woman, I will slit your throat."

At this threat and the sharp edge of the knife pressing against her skin, Veronica seemed to realize that Lumina wasn't bluffing and decided to make one of the few smart choices in her life, "If you die, it's the end for you. But for us in the White Lotus—The real White Lotus, mind you—Death doesn't mean the same thing. Think of it as almost different afterlives, even though you and I both know this has nothing to do with afterlives. If you and practically anyone else here dies, you can think of your afterlife as a dark, endless void, where you are absolutely and completely not aware of anything. For me and other White Lotus scientists, though, our afterlife would be more like an actual life after death. We would have something to fall back onto after, but you don't. So, killing me does nothing."

Lumina was silent, "...But it hurts, doesn't it?" She asked.

Veronica seemed surprised by this, "What?"

"Even if you can't actually die, it still hurts, doesn't it?" Lumina said, leaning forward, "I had a theory but it was only just now confirmed. You see, I'm not that naive idiot anymore who followed your words without thinking twice. You said killing you wouldn't accomplish anything. But I remember your face when Val almost killed you. You were scared. So, putting the pieces together, you're scared of dying even though you don't actually die. What does that leave? Well, it must hurt for you to die, enough for you to want to avoid it."

"...Fuck, I thought you were sexy when you were compliant and obedient but this side of you is attractive as well," Veronica said breathlessly.

Lumina kicked her, placing a foot on her chest and pressing down, putting enough pressure that Veronica was struggling to breathe, "Shut the fuck up, you animal. I wasn't 'compliant' or 'obedient', I was fifteen. I was a child who didn't know any better, and you liked that. You're disgusting."

"And you stayed with me for long enough that I was able to complete my experiment. Sure, I would have liked to have you for longer but I certainly did break you. I managed to turn you into someone you weren't. After all, didn't you hurt that brother of yours? You broke his heart, didn't you?"

The pressure lightened for a moment, before Lumina shifted her foot up to Veronica's windpipe, "Don't you dare talk about that. I did it because you manipulated me. He knows I didn't mean it. And in the end, he rescued me from you."

Veronica coughed before grinning, "Did you ever ask him how he felt about that? Does it still hurt him to this day? Your words were so cruel, weren't they? Especially when he was already struggling with taking care of you and trying to make himself believe he wasn't a horrible person. Did you ever wonder how much of his progress you undid with just a few words?"

Lumina was silent, but there was a pained expression on her face. She knew what she had done. Even if Veronica didn't know, Lumina was well aware of the kind of person her brother used to be. It wasn't just Kaedan's anger that had pushed Xander to turn himself in to the White Lotus all those years ago. She knew deep down that her words from years prior to that incident had played a part in it as well. He had convinced himself that deep down, she really did think he was a monster, a vicious killer, and that he was no better than the scientists he talked so badly about. Even if she had apologized over and over, it hadn't been until years later that Xander had started to believe her.

Veronica was right. Her words had undone so much progress for him.

"You don't get to act so high and might, Lumina," Veronica spat out, "I hurt you and I loved you. But you hurt the man that raised you. You don't have any higher ground to stand on—"

Suddenly, Lumina was grabbed by the wrist and wrenched back as a familiar figure stood in front of her, aiming a shotgun in Veronica's face, "Keep your mouth shut or I'll blow off your face. Actually, fuck that, I'm going to blow off your face anyways."

"Ge?" Lumina asked, blinking.

"Don't listen to a damn word she says, she's just trying to get into your head," Xander said, not taking his eye off the woman on the ground in front of him.

Lumina looked down, "But I—"

Xander turned his head to look at her, "We will talk about this later, I promise. But right now, I need you to trust me when I say that I know you didn't mean it."

He was right. This wasn't the time for her to get swayed by emotion. She took a deep breath, "Alright. Alright, I'm okay."

"Good," Xander brought his attention back to Veronica, "Now, I wish I could take the time to put you through the pain you put my little sister through. But since we don't have time to waste, I can settle for making it as painful as possible," He loaded the gun before shoving the barrel into Veronica's mouth.

Lumina put her hand on Xander's shoulder, opening her mouth to tell him to leave this to her, that she needed this—When she was cut off by an ear-piercing scream. And from the way Xander tensed up, he had heard it as well.

She wished she hadn't recognized that voice. But she had.

"That was—"

"One of your little ones, no?" Veronica coughed, smirking even though blood trickled from her lips, "You should probably go check on her. It seems like she might be in a bit of a…Tough situation."

Lumina's eyes flashed, "You fucking bitch, what did you do—"

She was stopped by Xander holding her back, "A'Li, tell Bella. Now."

"What? But—"

"Tell her we heard Nia scream. I don't know what's happening but she," He kicked at Veronica's body, "Seems to know something about it. We need to check on Nia now."

Not questioning him, Lumina reached up to her own earpiece, "Bella, are you there? It's an emergency," She urged.

"—Hello? Lumina? Yeah, I'm here, I can hear you. What's wrong?" Bella's voice came in over the earpiece, concerned.

"We heard Nia scream," She said simply, "Something is wrong, we need to check on her. I…We have a bad feeling."

"Her earpiece is still connected, it should still be working. Why isn't she responding?" It was Fenix's voice, sounding panicked, "I can't get through to Val's earpiece."

"I think hers stopped functioning earlier," A familiar voice responded, and Lumina recognized it to be Apocalypse, "Yeah, Val, Risále, and Hyunwoo's earpieces stopped working, the latter two could still hear through them but I don't know for sure about Val."

Another voice joined in the conversation, it was Owen, "Should we go looking for her? If—If Nia screamed then it's probably because of Val—"

Lumina had her attention forcefully stolen from the conversation when someone grabbed her arm. She turned back, whip at the ready when she realized who it was, and gaped in disbelief. Behind her, she heard the shotgun fall to the ground out of Xander's hands.

"Ma?" She asked, almost cautiously, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing in front of her. Both of her parents, holding weapons, looking at her concernedly.

Her mother stopped forward, checking her over for any injuries, "Are you alright, Jiali? We came as soon as we could, we didn't realize you would be so involved in all of this. Come, we need to get you out of…Here…" She cut herself off as her gaze shifted to the person standing behind Lumina.

"...Auntie?" Xander asked, his voice trembling a bit, "No, that…That wouldn't be right, would it? Technically, you would be my…"

Lumina completed the sentence for him, turning to her—No, their mother, "Ma, Baba, you might have already recognized him but…This is Guocheng-Ge, my brother. He's…Well, you know, being my brother, he must be—"

"We know who he is," Lumina was surprised by the disapproving tone her mother's voice took, "Alexander Liu. One of the most prolific assassins of the White Lotus."

Out of the corner of her eye, Lumina could see Xander flinch, stepping away from them, almost putting a separation between himself and the three of them. She wasn't about to let that happen, she was not about to let him fall back into that space where he believed he didn't deserve to be her brother.

Grabbing his wrist, she stopped him from moving and he looked at her, shocked, "No, Ma. He is Alexander Guocheng Liu, one of the most famous lawyers in the Stronghold, a victim of the White Lotus, and most importantly, my brother and your son."

Minri Liu's expression hardened, "I don't know what you've been told and how you've become so close to him, but he is not my brother and he is not my son," Her husband didn't say anything, simply standing silently behind his wife.

Xander and Lumina were both shocked to hear this, "What do you mean? Uncle and Auntie said—" Lumina began to say, but Minri cut her off again.

"We may be his birth parents, but he is my brother's son, not mine," She glared at him, "I'm sure he lived a pampered and spoiled life while my disgrace of a brother and sister-in-law decided to treat my own daughter horribly and had to struggle to survive while being abused by the people who were meant to raise her. On top of that, he went and joined the damn White Lotus. He's not a good person, Jiali," Minri grabbed Lumina's hand and tugged her towards her, "Come, let's get out of here. You must have heard that he's a cold-blooded murderer—"

Lumina ripped her arm away from her mother.

"That's enough," She said, her voice low and angry, "I understand that you are my mother and you are concerned about me. But I will not tolerate you insulting the man who raised me," Minri opened her mouth, but Lumina continued, "Sure, Uncle and Auntie tried to give him a pampered life, but he shared everything he could with me. He started working as a child so that I could go to school. He was framed and forced into joining the White Lotus, and the only reason he didn't leave was for me. Yes, he was getting money out of the jobs, but did you ever consider that they held something against him to stop him from leaving?"

"A'Li…You don't have to—"

"Respectfully, Ge, shut up," Lumina said, not even looking at him, her golden eyes still bearing into her mother, "They used me as leverage. If he left, if he stopped doing what they asked, the White Lotus would have killed me. He was trapped doing that against his will for my sake. Do you know who sacrificed his childhood to raise me? Him. Do you know who became my legal guardian as soon as he turned eighteen? Him. Do you know who almost made an enemy out of Sector 2 by getting me out of jail and putting a target on himself for my sake? Him. And as horrible as this might be to say, you were not there for me as much as this man has been. So, forgive me if I refuse to stand aside and let you insult the only constant I've had in my whole life."

Her mother was staring at her, flabbergasted, "Jiali Liu, I am your mother, how could you speak to me like that—"

"And how could you speak like that to the man that raised me?" Lumina shot back, "Do you know how much he hated your brother and sister-in-law? Do you know how happy he was to hear that he was your son and not theirs? How happy he was when he found out we were really siblings? Do you know how horrible it must be to hear your parents accuse you of being such horrible things without even getting to know you? Especially when all you ever wanted was to see them again?"

Minri didn't look at Xander, but Lumina noticed her father's eyes flick towards the man behind her, a sort of hesitation or uncertainty in his eyes.

"I was happy to find you, Ma. Don't get me wrong, I dreamed of finding you and Baba again," Lumina said, taking a deep breath, "But if you cannot coexist in my life with Guocheng Ge, then perhaps we need to go our separate ways. I lived almost my entire life without you, and I'm sure I continue that way," She was about to continue, but she could hear Mina in her in-ear, saying that they were able to connect to Nia's earpiece. 

"Shouldn't…You be looking for that little friend of yours?" Veronica coughed out. Lumina had noticed that the woman passed out around the time her parents had arrived but she hadn't noticed when she had regained consciousness.

She looked at Xander, "Shoot her."

His eyes widened, "...What?"

"Shoot her. I don't care where, but make sure that it hurts. A quick death is too good for her. Someday, I will take my time to slowly dismember her while she's still alive and breathing but for now, give her something to remember us by."

Minri stepped forward, anger on her face as she finally properly addressed Xander, "Look at what you've done to her," She said, enraged, "If we had raised her, she never would have had these thoughts of cruel violence—"

Lumina whirled back to look at her mother, with pure anger in her eyes, "This woman took advantage of my naivety when I was fifteen and she was twenty, she practically kidnapped me, held me prisoner, tortured me, raped me, broke me down as a person and lied to me that she loved me all throughout it. If you don't want her dead, then you're not worthy to call yourself parents. Now, Xander, will you shoot her or will I have to do it?"

Xander shook himself out of his stupor and aimed the gun, "I thought you'd never ask," There were three loud shots and Veronica let out a violent scream of pain as blood began blooming from her shoulders and her abdomen, "I hope you die a slow, painful death, you monster."

It seemed that Minri hadn't been ready to give up yet, "Jiali, please, just come with us and we can talk about it—"

"Val's been shot. It's bad," Hearing those words caused her heart to drop and she looked over to Xander, whose eyes were wide. 

Nia's scream made too much sense, now.

She interrupted her mother, "We're leaving, we need to get to the others. We can talk again if you're both willing to be reasonable about it and respect Guocheng-Ge. If not, then this is goodbye," She didn't wait for a response before grabbing Xander's wrist and dragging him through the crowd in the direction of the treeline where the escape shuttles and medical stations had been set up.

"A'Li, I really do appreciate you defending me…" Xander began, "But they are your parents. Maybe you should—"

"No," Lumina replied sternly, "They were our parents. But if they can't accept both of us, then they get neither of us. We're a package deal, Ge. Besides, you were more of a parent to me than they ever were, and I will not tolerate them speaking about you like that. We can talk more about this later."

Xander looked forward, "...Yeah, you're right," He said, adjusting the in-ear to hear the chaos happening over the communications, "I think we have other things to worry about."