Part I: The Raven | Chapter 4: Exiled Once More

My idea was to distract them and escape, and distract them I did. I threw the sharpest ice shards I could muster at the chains of their oil lanterns, making them drop spread their contents everywhere, then proceeded to throw a spark at the black pool at their feet. It made them panic, as they tried to put out the fires on the soles of their shoes, though it would ultimately not seriously injure anyone. I took advantage of the situation to take Isabella with me into my house, free her, and barricade the door using my bed.

"What do we do now?" she asked, seemingly panicking.

"We pack some stuff, take the stairs up to the roof, and we run out of town. Hope you stayed in shape during these past five years." 

"Don't worry about me, I'm not the one who's been slacking off here. But I'm more scared about you. Isn't this your home?". She seemed worried. 

I thought about it for a moment, having spent five years in this wretched place... though I came to a decision. 

"No. There's nothing waiting for me here, except misery and a population who thinks I'm some kind of demon. Besides, why would I let you have all the freedom?"

She smiled, and we started packing supplied. Food, money, weapons, medication, anything that wasn't too heavy and that could come in useful in the long run. As soon as we started hearing banging at the door we ran up the stairs like scared rats. Once up on the roof, we started running, though with light steps as to not collapse the flimsy shacks' rooftops. All the houses were aligned and stuck to one another, and so we ran, our footsteps echoing throughout the long dug-out cavern. We could see the mob below us, a few meters behind, trying to catch up, though they were also on the rooftops, meaning they had broken into my house too. 

Eventually we arrived at the end of the town's residential area, so I took Isabella's hand as she teleported us down to the ground, which isn't something I recommend because of nasty consequences for anyone who isn't her. Anyways, we stopped to look at the dark, pitch-black tunnel in front of us, then looked at each other and nodded. We would continue to run, no matter the obstacle. As we ran, the air became colder, the tunnel darker and the footsteps behind us more and more faint. 

After a while, we noticed some kind of rectangular hole in the wall on our right, a few meters above us. It was too high up for us to try to get up inside it and hope they didn't see us, but Isabella had the same idea as I did, as she Shadowstepped us into it. We waited there for the angry mob to pass through, and then go back from where they came once they got tired of chasing a foe that wasn't there anymore, their torches illuminating the dark caves around us, revealing it to be of a dark blue colour. 

Once the threat had come and gone, we sat down and tried to catch our breath in the pitch black surrounding. "Jupiter almighty," I finally spattered. She gave me a weird glance. "I didn't think they were that afraid of you!"

"... didn't think you'd still use those old expressions. Aren't those behind us?" 

I was taken aback by what she said, her tone seemed to have changed. 

"Maybe behind you, but I still use them. Though no one except you even know what it means or where it comes from." 

"Doesn't it get old?" she said. "Hasn't five years done anything to you?" 

"I don't get what you mea-"

"Forget it..." she took a lamp out of her backpack, one that she had acquired right before we escaped. It was shaped like a stick, with a wide cylinder at the end that provided an soft, omni-directional light. We both squinted our eyes once she turned it on, as our eyes had already adjusted to the darkness.

"We should get mov- oh wait, there's a door here!" she got up and walked towards a rusty metal hatch door. She tried opening it, but to no avail. 

"Would you mind helping?" I got up and we tried opening it together, and finally it let us through with a loud rusted screech. 

We found ourselves inside an old abandoned metro tunnel. Neither of us had ever been in one before, though we had heard the stories of how some of our forefathers had taken shelter in them during the collapse. We took time to observe it, though the tunnel wasn't as abandoned as I thought; fluorescent light bulbs hanging from the ceiling by thin little cables were still powered. We looked in both directions; both were endless corridors of rails, light and concrete, as well as complete silence apart from the hum-buzz of the lights above us. We decided to go left, and see how far it could get us. The memories of what it felt like, walking down these long tunnels leading to no where, suddenly started flooding back into my mind.

"Exiled once more..." 

"What?" 

"This is just like back in the day, right after Casey's betrayal and before I got arrived in Eastport. The long tunnels, the permanent sense of being lost... the silence."

"You're the one who chose to help me!" She seemed slightly tipped off by what I had said.

"Like I was going to leave you behind with those guys."

"I can handle myself, you know."

A short silence ensued, followed by the crackling of gravel under our boots. 

"I didn't think leaving Eastport would feel like this. Though it seems like I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"Can't you just... shut up?" She stopped in her tracks, and turned to me. "Listen. I know you probably felt nice and secure in that little grimy hole you called home, but right now, complaining won't do us any good."

We continued walking silently, with no notion of time passing. After a good hour or so, I started pondering if this tunnel wasn't for trains instead of subways. Either way, after a good hour of walking, we stopped to rest for a bit, laying our backs on the concrete wall. I tried closing my eyes for a bit, hoping to get some rest after having been woken up by a practical hostage situation. I felt a bit awkward talking to Isabella now. I didn't know how to close the rift that she had unexpectedly opened. I felt colder, physically and metaphorically.

After a while, we had come across another door not unlike the one we had come out of. We entered it, as it was our only chance at getting out of the silent, cold tube in which we were stuck in. It led to a small, grey office, with a desk and an old computer. We reckoned it was probably older than we were, so we left it alone. Both of us were exhausted after having walked for so long, however, so we decided to stop for the day and try to set up camp in that small, dingy office. Luckily enough, the concrete floor wasn't as dirty as one could expect. I put my bag on one corner of the room and used it as a cushion to set my head on as I laid down on the back-breaking floor, and looked up at the ceiling. I was just about ready to try to fall asleep, when Isabella spoke. 

"I'm sorry for how I was back there. I just..." she paused, as she also laid her back down, then sighed. "I've spent so much time on my own that I just don't want to lose the only company I've had in years, especially not you. I've been running on survival instincts for so long that I've forgotten how it feels like to talk to someone." 

"It's fine. I know how you feel. I may have been surrounded by people these last couple of years, but they sure as hell didn't feel like company. As you might have guessed from your interactions with them, they really weren't the brightest people." she suppressed a chuckle. "And besides, what else would I expect from the bossiest operative in Omega-9?" 

She turned towards me, ready to protest, but immediately gave up from the pressure of the fatigue, so she opted to smile whilst shaking her head instead. 

"What about Amir? You two didn't get along very well, I remember that much."

"Yeah well, there's a difference between bossy and being a stubborn jerk."

We both laughed, and continued the conversation, reminiscing on the good old days. I could see that despite having spent time away from each other for so long, we hadn't grown apart, and I could feel the room get hotter with each chuckle, each memory shared, though it might have just been me. We ended up staying in the small office for the night, as we finally decided to sleep there. 

Or so we hoped. In the morning, we woke up to realize that the office wasn't actually abandoned, as a man in a grey uniform opened the rusty metal door, waking us up in the process. All three of us just looked at each other in an awkward silence for a few seconds, until the intruder decided to close the door. I looked a Isabella, though she was just as confused as I was. A few moments later,  four heavily armed guards clad in metal armor barged in, and took us out of the small office, back into the tube. That's when we realized that the tunnel wasn't abandoned at all: an actual, heavily reinforced convoy train had stopped in front of us, and a man who we presumed to be an officer stepped out of the train as the guards around us forced us on our knees. 

"Well, well, well. It's been a while since we've had any vagrants trying to occupy our territory. Would you mind identifying yourselves?" We remained silent.

"Silent treatment? Trying to act tough, are we?" He nodded to his soldiers, and they hit us in the side with the cross of their rifles. 

"What about now?" Once again, we remained silent. 

I looked up at the man, and he seemed almost familiar to me. He had gray hair, though it was covered up by his officer's cap. He didn't seem old in his face, however: one would place him in his thirties. I vaguely recognized his insignia. It was a black double-headed eagle. I suddenly remembered who these people were. 

"Ironsydes!" 

"That's right, kiddo. And since you can't tell us who you are, we're just gonna have to take you in for questioning." He looked towards the soldiers behind us. "Gentlemen." He turned away, walking back into the train. And at that moment felt a strong blow against the back of my head, as my vision went completely dark.