Chapter 20.

"Are we really doing this again?" I asked.

Arms cuffed, legs chained to the red carpeted floor. But it was different this time, I was lying down. But it was also different in the way that everyone had a gun trained on me. They stood in a semi-circle, Kira in front of me, Draco to her left, and Saia to her right. Mei standing beside Hera, a tablet pressed against her chest. Hera stood behind all of them, her arms crossed, a pressed look on her face.

Jin leaned against the bookshelves. He had found a way to look at me that was below his previous glaring.

"Not like we can trust you," Jin said. "I told you guys that we shouldn't, but here we are."

I looked at Mei, she shrugged nervously – a shy smile following. She mouthed a sorry.

"So what do we do?" Saia asked, her head pitching towards Hera.

She was twirling a chess piece between her fingers. A knight, its slick black gleam reflecting the white light in my little prison room. "Tick. Where is he?"

"East Coast."

"Why the hell is he in the East Coast?" Jin snapped, springing up to his feet. "You're lying to us, aren't you?" He turned towards Hera and said, "See! He's trying to-"

"Shut. Up, Jin," Hera snapped. "Why is he in the East Coast?"

I shrugged. "We have an apartment over there. Pretty nice to be honest."

"Thought you were broke," Draco said.

"Me too," Saia added, the pistol in her hand dipping slightly.

"I mean…I am. But when you're nice to people they do things for you sometimes."

Jin towered over me, his boot resting on my stomach. "Stop. Your. Shit. Are you lying about the Unit?"

"Why would I lie about that?" I asked.

"Oh, maybe because, you know, it's all of a fucking sudden," Jin spat, his boot pressing down, the sharp rubber heel biting into my flesh.

Kira pulled him away, shoving him back down onto the couch. "Jin, you need to get your shit together."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hera asked. She placed the knight on the coffee table, the sharp click breaking through the room.

"Because…there's a payoff," I muttered.

She raised an eyebrow, the rest of her face still blank.

"My memory gets ruined every time I use it."

"What do you mean gets ruined?" Mei asked, her sleek silver tablet in her palm.

"Like…I forget things. Sometimes small things like where I left my backpack, or big things like people or things I've done," I said. "It varies."

"So what don't you remember right now?" Saia asked.

"Yeah, because he'd tell us what he can't remember, Saia," Draco muttered.

Jin stood up from the couch, he towered over me again. He was stone faced, his lips in a thin line, black eyes dead. He slammed a boot into my side. A bolt of pain burst across my ribs. He kicked me again, the third kick thrown off by Draco tackling him. A cacophony of shouting broke out between Saia and Kira. Draco wrapped a thick forearm around Jin's throat, easing him up to his feet.

Jin snapped his head back, slamming it into Draco's nose. Blood exploded from his face, untangling himself from Draco's thick arms. He threw himself over me, slamming a fist into my jaw. Another crashed down onto my nose, a snap thudding through my head. Blood filled my mouth, the room spun, my heart pounded in my skull.

Kira grabbed a handful of his hear and jammed the barrel of her black gun underneath his jaw. "Do it. I dare you."

Draco hauled him off of my chest, a hand wrapped around his throat. He pushed him down onto the couch, holding him there with his cinderblock sized hands. Kira kneeled down next to me, grimacing as she dabbed the blood pooling around my nose.

"Nose is broken," she reported, Mei tapped it onto her pad. "A rib or two too."

"I'll go call someone at the hospital," Saia said, flipping Jin off and leaving the room.

"Hera," Jin breathed, his eyes locked on me, his knuckles red. "He's not worth it. We'd do better off without him. He's lying about losing his memory."

"And how would you know?" I snapped. I choked on a ball of blood rolling down my throat, the shorts coughs sending stabs of pain down my side.

"Because I was in Young Haven," he shouted. Draco pushed him back down to the couch and his beefy fingers tightened his grip. "I know what the hell you did. Your father was probably a better person than you."

"Jin," Hera said. Her voice carrying and calm, a sharp chill settling in her golden eyes. "Get out. My office. I'll see you there."

"Her-"

"Now. Jin." She glared at him and he looked away.

He rose, pausing beside me to show me his favorite finger. The doors slammed shut when he past them, his heavy cologne hanging in the air. Hera snapped her fingers, Draco and Mei clicked off the cuffs. I gingerly sat up and Kira helped me to my feet.

"Kira, Draco, Mei could you give Daniel and I space?"

Draco nodded, patting me on my back. Kira helped me onto the couch, she mouthed, See you at the apartment? I gave her a weak nod, putting on a bloody smile. She rolled her eye and smiled. She stuffed her gun into its thigh holster and left the room – the better smell of honey replacing the cologne.

Hera sat down next to me, cold fingernails resting on the back of my hand. "Tick was a spy, wasn't he?"

"What do you mean?" I stammered. My lips slowly swelled and made the words come out rounded and slow.

She smirked, not a cocky smirk, but a confident smirk. "Playing chess can teach you a lot, Daniel."

"Was he the piece you were talking about at Kira's apartment?"

She shook her head, deep golden eyes grazing over the bookshelves on the other side of the room. "No. He wasn't my bishop."

She nodded and stood up. The large holster strapped to the small of her back gleaming the same colour as her eyes. She plucked the chess piece from the table and pressed it into my hands. "Tick was my knight. Keep it, it's yours."

She began walking towards the door, her heavy boots thumping against the carpet.

"Hey, Hera?" I called. She paused at the door. "You said something about my brother. I…don't have one."

She smirked again, a knowing smirk. "Yes well, it looks like you actually are the Unit. Goodnight Daniel, rest up. And get those ribs of yours checked on, don't want my favorite piece not at his best.."

She left, leaving me on the couch. She spoke in riddles, every word calculated, every move she made planned. She wants you to latch onto a word or a sentence and get wrapped up in a meaning that might or might not be there. But I would have remembered having a brother…I should remember one. But I don't. I can't even remember Mum's name, I can't remember most things in Young Haven, and I can't even remember where I actually grew up. I needed to question Hera. I needed to talk to Jin.

A blue haze of pixels exploded in front of me and a man appeared. He was facing the bookshelves, quickly spinning around and sweeping a ringed hand through mottled gray hair. His pale blue eyes and shark grin painting his face.

"Wow, now that was difficult. Hera has so many walls up. I probably only have a minute until she notices," Magnus said.

I staggered onto my feet, the heat of pain raging through my chest.

"If I were you, I wouldn't shout," he chuckled. His hair was un-kept, suit slightly wrinkled. His eyes kept darting to something I couldn't see. "There are quite a few bombs in the Gray that would be set off by that. But that was excellent. Losing my soldiers in Young Haven and then letting Tick go free. Absolutely smashing my expectations for you, Stray. Or should I call you the Unit?"

I froze. My heart hitting my chest harder than Jin hit me. "How do you-"

"Know?" he chuckled. He lifted something up to his face, a piece of paper with the number two on it. It wasn't paper, it was too jagged, too leathery. Too much like skin. "I'll see you soon, Stray. I don't know if you watch the news but, I suggest that you take a keen interest in it tonight." The pixels dissipated, his shark grin the last to go.

Tick was alright. He would have called me if anything had gone wrong. He was okay. That was a bluff. If anything, it was someone else's skin, right? I shoved open the door, stumbling into a wave of Rogues. I pushed through them, ignoring the waves of pain crashing through me every time someone pushed back. I stumbled down the curved steps and onto the large lobby floor, the sharp squeaks of my boots on the polished floor cutting through the air. I jogged as fast as I could towards a room packed full of people, a sea of different colors and sounds. They were glued to the TV, bottles near lips but hovering in the air. I pushed to the front of the crowd, ignoring yells and curses.

It was the news. It was a video of the bridge. There was a body hanging from it. The body's cinnamon skin glowing in the moonlight. The number two missing from his face.