Chapter 16

When I came to, I had been moved. The new room I was in was the one I had seen in my dreams. It had completely metal walls like the first room with a bunch of different testing machines. By testing machines, I mean things like treadmills, weights, a closet-like box in the corner, and a multitude of various items. Jonathan doesn't know this, but I had already seen what everything in that room was meant to do: test our abilities.

I had already screwed-up by loosing control and overpowering my dampener, so my only focus is to keep our new powers a secret. God only knows what would happen to the world if Jonathan Moore figured out I can see the future.

"Jax?" I asked, still pretty drowsy.

No answer.

"Jax!" I started looking around frantically.

Where was Jax? This was one of the versions I had dreamed about. It was one of the worst ones in my opinion. This was the one without Jax by my side. I feel like I can handle anything with my twin there to support me, but without him? I'm screwed. It's as simple as that.

"He isn't here," said a voice from the speaker in the corner, Mr. Moore's voice.

Now that I knew what my power dampener could handle, I really needed to rein-in my anger. Everything needed to roll right off my back.

"No shit, Sherlock," I snapped back, "Too scared to talk to me face-to-face, are we?"

I had already proved that Mr. Moore had buttons to push that make him snap. My purpose is to push those.

"Your tactics won't work on me, Blair, so you mine as well just give up. All we need from you is corporation, ok?" he said, "We are going to test you now."

"Great," I needed to show no fear.

A guy dressed in all black armor carrying a cattle rod walked into the room. Just by the way he was walking, I knew he had been informed of my past encounters with guards. Just to freak the guy out, I smirked at him. He might just think I'm crazy now.

"You wouldn't hurt a girl, now would you?" I asked, adding a little pout at the end.

"Shut up, witch," he ordered strongly.

I guess he's not the strong and silent type. Aw! We scared Carl away! Ok, maybe I am a little crazy, but who isn't?

He really put me through the wringer. We started off with the treadmill. He made me continuously run for hours, testing my limits on stamina. Every time I tripped, or started to slow, he would give me a shock with either my newly-upgraded collar or his cattle rod. Let me tell you, I can handle quite a bit, but those shocks just killed me!

I thought I was done after that, but boy was I mistaken. They moved me over the weights to test my strength. We didn't spend quite as much time on those as the treadmill, but that didn't make it any less difficult. Once we were finished, we moved onto the mental training. He sat me at a table and asked me all sorts of random questions. If I didn't answer quick enough? Shock. If I got the question wrong? Shock. After that, I was SURE we were done, but once again I was wrong. We moved onto the closet. It turned out to be a power testing room that was "adaptable to any climate." Adaptable my ass. If I could overpower something someone educated on our abilities built, I could overpower this stupid box!

It turns out, I can't overpower the stupid box. I ended up just holding back as much as possible. It was hard to hide how powerful I was after they had seen what happens when someone I love is threatened. Mr. Moore is smart; he knows how to find someone's weakness. Mine is personal loyalty. My parents had already figured this out by the time I was five years old. Nobody messes with my brother, that's for sure.

"Come on, witch, I know you got more than that in you," black-armored dude said from outside the box.

Through all of the exercises, I had been hooked up to a bunch of wires that I assumed were monitoring my vitals and brain activity. Well, not assumed per say. I saw screens with a bunch of information about us during one of my visions. THAT was extremely weird to see, for sure.

"Screw you," I said, acting like I was struggling to use the little bit of power I was using.

I figured out that I overpowered my power dampener necklace when I freaked out earlier. Now, it's just a regular necklace. One of the few regular things about my life right now. I guess my thoughts have gotten real depressing during this whole kidnapping thing.

"Awww. Don't be that way, witch," he said.

"Stop calling me that. I'm not a witch," anger started to flare up in me.

I could feel myself merging with Khione again. Why was this happening now? It felt like we were evolving or something. That's sounds so weird. Like I'm some sort of animal. Well, I mean, humans are animals, but that's besides the point. What is going on with me?!

"Isn't that what you are?" the black-armored dude asked, "Someone who practices magic?"

"You know damn well that's not what I do. Hell, nobody REALLY knows what I do," I let slip an important fact.

He smiled. Dammit! He's good, I'll give him that. The black-armored dude was able to get under my skin without me realizing! This is not good, this is not good at all.

Just when I thought he was done, he threw another curveball at me. Jax. He held up a tablet showing a live feed of Jax's cell. They were forcing him to use his powers, just like me, but they were using MUCH more brutal techniques to do it. It brought tears to my eyes and ignited a fire in my soul that had just appeared. Khione and I merged again.

This time, I knew what I was doing. We were both of us and one at the same time. Our thoughts were the same. I feel like this is what we had been training for our whole lives. It was a euphoric feeling.

"You want power?" I asked, smirking, "I'll show you power."

By now, I was already changed into the "merge" me. It was a mix of both Khione and I, but mostly Khione's looks. We had curled white hair, icy-blue eyes, silver eyeshadow, and shimmery-blue lipstick. I think my skin was even a little bit paler. My hands were already frosting. This would be fun.

I let it all out. Ice started to burst out of my hands, and a layer of ice was spreading up to the walls, starting by my feet. This was so much different than when it was either Khione or I in control. What I could feel, she could feel. In the worrisome part of my brain, I was thinking about if I could control myself and whether or not I'll be able to turn back, but I was ignoring it. I was on a high, and I wasn't planning on coming down until I had broken my family out of this hellhole.

I saw the black-armored dude go to shock me, but he was stopped at the last minute by someone yelling, "Wait! Stop! I want to see this!"

That "someone" was Jonathan Moore. He actually thinks this box can contain our power at full strength? Wow... and I thought he was smart.

If he wanted a show, I was going to give him one. Instead of everything turning red, everything turned white. Literally. The entire room was covered in ice and the temperature was brought down to below zero. WAY below zero.

I could hear the hinges creaking on the box. This thing was strong, but Mr. Moore doesn't have enough knowledge about us as he thinks he does. I'll give him credit for how long it's already lasted, though.

"This enough for you?" I asked, looking right at the camera after the box's walls had literally bursted at the seems.

There was no answer, but that was the last thing on my mind. I had to deal with the black-armored dude. He was giving an aura of training, so I knew I had to be careful. He probably knows how to study his opponents. That means I couldn't go with a fight plan. I had to be surprising and erratic.

I didn't wait for him to make the first move. Speed was my friend. I side-kicked him in the gut as a distraction, and then I grabbed hold of his arm. From there, I judo-flipped him to the ground, where I twisted his arm at an awkward angle. All of this was done in less than ten seconds. All those years of training with Jax and our parents really gave me high standards on what was a difficult fight.

He grunted, clearly trying to hide his discomfort. He underestimated my fighting skills! Oh, he's gonna get it.

I wasn't going to be this cruel, but I started to form a layer of ice on his arm, slowly covering his whole body. I didn't break my promise, though! It was just a layer, so he'll thaw out eventually. At least, I think he will. I've only practiced it on objects, not people. Oh, well! Now's a good a time as any, I guess.

I saw a keycard on his belt. That card was my way out. I immediately took it, and ran. Once I got into the hallway, I saw door upon door upon door. I didn't have time to look through all of them!

"Oh, come on!" I sighed in frustration.

Each cell seemed to be designed specifically for the occupant. There was one that had what looked like fireproof walls. I saw why quickly. The woman in the cell held her hands out and shot a burst of flames at the wall. I didn't think every person in the place was completely sane, so I needed to get out ASAP.

"Jax? Mom? Dad?" I yelled, not even caring about alerting anyone.

An alarm had already sounded as soon as I had broken out of the box. I had frozen off the collar again once I had gotten out. No need to give the enemy another advantage! They already had the location and the firepower.

"Blair!" I heard dad's voice from a couple doors down.

"Dad!" I exclaimed as I saw him and mom through the window on the door.

They were tied up to two metal chair. They also had shock collars on.

To interrupt my nice reunion, there was a guard inside the cell. It didn't long to take him down, though. I was so eager to hug my parents again that I just fired a strong blast of ice at him, and he was knocked-out. Nifty trick, huh?

"I've missed you so much! Are you ok? Did they hurt you?" mom asked me while her eyes frantically looking me over.

"I'm fine, mom. Right now, we need to find Jax before they send too many people for us to handle," I assured her.

Mentioning Jax seemed to make her notice that he wasn't here. I could practically SEE her momma bear instincts kicking-in. Not a good choice to mess with a cub with superpowers, Mr. Moore.

"Let's go find him, then," dad said, giving me a quick hug and starting out the door.

"Don't think we're not going to speak about your new look when we're done, though," mom told me, giving a pointed look at my makeup.

I was never the one to wear flashy makeup, so it was certainly a surprise to see me starting NOW of all times.

"I'll explain everything that's happened on the way," I assured her.

And so I did. I talked about how Jax and I got taken, the first interrogation, the black-armored dude, and then I went all the way to when I found them. I left out nothing. This was our family's style: we didn't hold back on the grimy details. It may be hard, but it was needed.

We kept walking and occasionally calling out Jax's name. There was no reply, so we had to look at every cell. He seemed to be as far away from me as possible. When we finally found him, he looked horrible.

"Oh, my baby!" mom let her inner mother out, cupping his face in her hands.

He had bruises all over his body, blood was coming from a head wound, and he seemed like he was struggling to hold onto consciousness. I knew what I had to do. I had never done it before, but it was like an instinct. Khione's memories were my own, and she seemed to know what she was doing. I just acted, no thought.

"Hold on, Phoenix," I muttered, "Stay with me!"

"What took you so long, Frostbite? And what's up with the new do?" he mumbled, eyes opening and closing.

"I've evolved. What's your excuse?" I mused, trying to lighten the mood.

He just gave a weak chuckle. 'Typical Jax,' I thought as I started to work.

I touched him on the shoulder and focused on his injuries. Ice started to form over the wounds. This type of healing was what kicked-in when I got injured. My body's natural self-preservation instinct. Khione seemed to know that I could make it work on other, too. I trusted her, so I tried it.

The ice took about thirty seconds to fully melt. When it did, everything was healed. Looks like it wasn't that bad. When I broke my arm in third grade, I was in a sleep-coma for a week while my body healed itself!

"How'd you do that?" dad asked, incredulous.

"I just focused on my need to help him," I shrugged, starting to help Jax up.

It was then that I realized I had forgot to remind them to get their collars off.

"Oh! Take you collars off. They might be able to track us with them," I said.

Mom electrified the collar to the point that it fell off, dad just crushed it, and Jax melted his. It's weird, but the sight made me smile. This was my family. No matter how unusual, this was when we were the closest: when we were fighting together. Not everybody can say that they have that kind of bond with their family members.

"Now let's get the hell out of here!" Jax exclaimed, clearly getting a sudden burst of energy from my healing.

I saw in my mom's eyes the want to correct Jax on his swearing, but she refrained herself. That made my smile widen. I never thought I would see the day that we didn't get called off for cursing. It was a miracle in the worst of situations!

"My thoughts exactly," I said, leading the way down the hall.

We encountered a few groups of guards along the way, but nothing we couldn't handle together. We were one unit. Everything we did, we did together. It was almost like the feeling I was getting with Khione. The total trust and confidence in each other.

When we had finally reached the elevator, I was exhausted. Mentally and physically. It takes a LOT of brainpower to use our abilities the way we were. We were fighting while also incorporating our powers into the fight. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it still makes me so tired.

Turns out, we were at subbasement level 10, so it took a little while to get to the ground floor. I didn't know what we were expecting to be waiting for us. An army? Mr. Moore? Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't the actual thing.

It was business as usual in the lobby. The secretaries at the front desk were talking on the phone, there were people waiting to for appointments, and nobody seemed to notice the beaten-up family coming out of the elevator. That is, until they got outside...