Chapter Fifty - Betrayal

Chapter Song Suggestion "Fuse by WinstonW"

*note : all dialogues like so {example} are spoken from the Veres's perspective

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THE PAST | Eira

She peeked around the darkened corners of the tepee tents, making sure no one was paying her any attention. It seemed everyone was busy with their strange guests that came to pay the Chief a visit. She wondered who they were. One was tall man, and the other was a boy — they were both dressed in hooded robes.

Their discreet behavior warned her they weren't meant to be here but, perhaps they wanted something from the tribe.

No matter. It wasn't her concern. She needed to get out here before anyone noticed she was gone. Securing her bow, she darted to the exit but not before catching a glimpse of the disfigured hand shaking her father's. Eira wasn't repulsed by it but found it compelling — as if one day it would be an important puzzle piece that would answer all her questions.

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PRESENT DAY

"Are you alright, Eira?" Florian demanded over his shoulder.

"I'm fine," she answered, focusing on Regis. "I want you to take me to Veres."

Dark eyes narrowed with suspicion, the biggest reaction she had witnessed from him yet. "Why should I?"

Taking a step forward, she confronted him. "You said that you'd do anything for Veres but have you ever stopped to ask yourself what it is that you want?"

Regis stared at her, not comprehending her question.

"You love Veres like he's your biological father. Is this the outcome that you want for him — his death? There is no guarantee that he will come out of this alive, Regis and make no mistake, he will be annihilated either way."

"That is between Father and I. He will finally have his long-awaited revenge and I won't stop him. This is the only thing I can do for him."

"Master isn't a weakling," Matahari spat, offended that this peculiar assumed Veres would lose in a fight. "You don't know what he is capable of."

"That's not what I care about!" Eira snapped. "I may not have the right to say this but, killing Levente won't bring peace to Veres's heart. What he needs is closure and I have Venetia's final logs with me."

Imperceptible shock registered in Regis's gaze. "Venetia Rubart's logs?"

"That's right. Venetia left a final message for her husband, and he needs to hear it."

"You can't believe this bullshit, Regis!" Matahari scoffed. "What does she know about Venetia Rubart?"

Regis remained silent, though the look in his eyes told Eira that he was contemplating her unspoken request. A monstrous roar rumbled throughout the place, threatening to bring the entire hub down.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you, Captain!" A new voice entered the scene. It was Koga with Kaiser behind him. "There's a fucking three-headed snake rampaging in the forefront. We're going to be buried alive if we don't kill it now."

Regis took advantage of everyone's distraction to open up a portal and grabbed onto Eira. "Come with me."

"Eira!" Lars lunged forward, snatching nothing but thin air. "Fuck!"

Stunned, Matahari couldn't believe Regis was going to betray their master. What was he thinking?

Lars swiveled towards her, his reaper pointed right in her head. "Where's Falconer?"

"I-I don't know!" Fear coursed through her veins. It was the first time she had been caught off-guard. "He went looking for Novak Levente."

That meant they were in the lower levels. "Your services are no longer required." With that, he pulled the trigger and blew her brains out.

Florian shut his eyes in time for the gore to splatter on his face. "Ugh! Fuck! That was disgusting."

"Florian, take care of the Thrydran. I'm going to find Levente." Lars turned to Kaiser. "Tell me how to get to the lower levels."

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Eira always felt strange and nauseous when they travelled through the portal. They arrived in a relatively dark place, and all she heard was the low hum of unknown machines. "Where are we?"

"This is the secret lower levels," Regis answered, expecting her to follow as he crossed a suspended bridge. "This is where the Lieutenant General carries out his human experimentations. Father used to work here."

Eira already guessed that one. Veres might have loved his wife but, his devotion to researching and developing Cell had pushed him down a twisted path. What started as a beneficial project to save mankind eroded into a struggle power between two conceited individuals. There was nothing scarier than a man who knew what was right or wrong and yet chose to ignore it.

"There is no guarantee that Venetia's logs will alter father's mind," Regis spoke up after a moment of silence. "He has dedicated his remaining life to purging and reconstructing this new era. Father has invested too much to be easily swayed."

"I know but, it's worth a shot," she relented, curiosity entering her tone. "What made you change your mind?"

"There is one thing I've always wanted for myself," he slowly confessed. "Though I've never met Venetia Rubart in person, I sifted through her memories and understood she was the only one capable of making father smile. He doesn't know but I keep all their photographs. That is the only thing I want. To see him smile again like before."

Once again, she caught a glimpse of his inner child. Regis Ciel wasn't an evil man but one blinded by faithful devotion and the need to appease his saviour. She wondered if he was doing this because he was afraid to be abandoned and yet, she had a feeling even without Veres, he would do just fine. It made no sense for a killer to be selfless. But this world itself made no sense ever since it fell apart.

"To be honest, I was going to give up and let fate run its course," he continued. "But then you came along." He sounded thoughtful. "There are similarities between you and Venetia."

Eira didn't think she could ever be as great as Venetia Rubart. It was true what people say about the dead being legends because their stories could no longer be written or changed.

"Hope is where you'll find the reason to live and keep on living." Regis's gaze measurably softened. "It was Venetia Rubart's favourite quote, and that was what she represented to father. Hope — just like you are to the people around you."

A lump formed in her throat. "I'm sorry, Regis. I take back what I ever said about you being an unemotional robot."

He awarded her the barest glimmer of a smile. Before she could say more, a man's angry voice interrupted them from a distance. "You coward! Reveal yourself to me!"

Eira froze. Were they caught? Was he referring to them?

Exchanging undecided glances, Regis held a finger to his lips, and she nodded in kind. He crept towards the source of the sound, and she followed. Eira had only seen the Lieutenant General once many years ago. Her impression of him was a rather imposing older gentleman with an air of supremacy and arrogance that bordered on intimidation. Looking at him now, she still felt the same way. She supposed his arrogance and conceit was how he had gotten so far and away with everything.

He appeared to be anxiously looking around, searching for something. It was then Eira noticed the naked figures behind him. She bit back a horrified gasp. Inside tanks and tanks of cylindrical goo, were small children fitted with breathing tubes and heart monitors. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was being done to them. Some were limbless, most had stitches all over their bodies and she nearly gagged at a headless torso with its brain still intact. How was that humanly possible? Was the child even…alive? Was he or she capable of breathing or communicating?

"Finally, after all these years, you're going to pay for what you have done, Levente." Veres's voice bounced off the tanks — taunting and irate.

"That voice," Levente murmured accusingly. "I know you! Come out and show yourself!"

"Have you killed so many that you have forgotten who I am?"

"What do you want from me?" Levente snarled, not the least bit remorseful. "I am not afraid of you. Do you think you're the only one who has attempted to corner me?" He released an undignified laugh. "If you don't stop right now, I won't hesitate to destroy you and if I'm feeling generous, I'll even spare your life."

Away from the spotlight, this was Levente's ugly, true self. Eira wouldn't feel sorry if he died right now.

"I see you're still the same, Levente. Always eager to wield your power over others but never dirtying your own hands." Came the sarcastic response. "Ten years ago, I appealed to the council to have you removed, but you've already sunk your claws deep into those corrupted bastards. Almost everyone in Ataxia was working for you, and there was no ounce of justice within these walls. So, I had to find another way." Footsteps were heard but, there was no one. "For years I plotted my revenge, waiting for the right time. I assumed with the years I've given you; you would have found a way to replicate my formula, but I guess you've always been too stupid and greedy."

"Veres." Levente spat out, knowing no other man who held a deeper grudge against him. "I knew it was you! You're here for revenge? Don't be hilarious. I got rid of you once, and I can do it again. You have no authority here."

"Your self-confidence is exaggerated, Levente. I can kill you where you stand but, where is the fun in that?"

Levente choked as hard pressure gripped his neck, like invisible fingers tightening around his vocal chords.

"Do you understand now, Levente? I'm the one who let you rise up to where you are today. I gave you those years to play God and now I'm the one who will take it all away."

"I should have – killed you with that – whore of yours!"

Eira cringed. She was astounded when the Lieutenant General was hurled across the room, crashing into the worktables. Strange liquids spilled onto the floor and broken glass crunched beneath his shoes as he struggled to get up, still able to laugh in his state. "Is that all you got, Veres? I assumed ten years is enough for you to come up with a grand plan."

Eira couldn't believe her eyes when Veres materialized with the sweeping motion of his cloak. Was that his reaper? It was the strangest weapon she had ever seen. It didn't look capable of offensive fighting at all.

Levente rummaged his coat and pulled out a device. "I, on the other hand, didn't waste my years of research for nothing. Allow me to show you what my experiments are capable of."

"The Lieutenant General doesn't know how pointless his attempts are," Regis murmured under his breath. "This is the first time I feel pity for a stranger."

"What do you mean?" Eira whispered back.

"Watch, and you'll see."

Veres made a big show of glancing around, his face distorted with pure revulsion. "Your experiments have always been vile and grotesque just like you, Levente. The little girl you altered might have been your best work yet but she's not even complete. She's barely even human now."

"Were you the one who stole her from me?" Levente's temper spiked, propelling him to push the device's button. One by one, the cylindrical tanks shattered, and the runny goo cascaded like a river, overflowing the lab. "Arise, my minions and obey your master. Kill that man and you shall be greatly rewarded!"

It was unthinkable for Levente to harness the power to control these mutants. The original predators were difficult enough to control but…mutants? He was playing with fire.

Veres's face was implacably calm as he watched the poor, underdeveloped mutants approached him. They reminded him of his first failed experiments and the zombies who couldn't withstand the intensity of Cell III. He admitted, he was no saint. He condoned human experiments for the sake of 'saving humanity' and he was no better than Levente but, at least he could justify that he didn't leave the poor test subjects in this diabolical condition. If these were his experiments, he would have given them a mercy killing.

Being human meant being able to rationalize, to feel emotions and to think. These mutant children were robbed of that capability, no longer able to function properly. They were abominations.

"I feel sorry for you, Levente. All these years, your greed for power has blinded you to the reason why Ataxia was created in the first place. At least I remained faithful to my cause while you abused your power and then betrayed me. Allow me to show you the real meaning of power." Veres extended his tendrils of awareness into the minds of the mutants who thrived on the essence of predators' blood. Any organic being associated with Cell was under Veres's domain of power. This was his true weapon.

On the day his hand was crippled, he discovered his latent miracle. It was the reason why he became interested in science and the research of all things predator. Veres sought to understand why he was born with this power, and sometimes he felt sorry for those who struggled to become kill hunters. The naturally gifted truly did have an easier life, and so he kept his powers a secret from the government. He didn't want to end up on the dissection table when he was the only one who had the power to wield the scalpel. Cowardly of him, yes, but he had no intention of suffering at the hands of others.

Over the years as a scientist, he only came across one individual who was like him. The others were considered 'man-made'. That individual however, refused to join his cause, preferring the primitive lifestyle of a hunter. Naturally, Veres had him killed.

{Kill your master.}

{Kill your master.}

{Kill your master.}

He sent those malevolent commands into the heads of the mutants, his lips stretching to reveal a malicious evil. In that moment, Eira recalled a memory from long ago, chilling her from the inside out. "Regis…does Veres have a tattoo on his crippled hand?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

Betrayal – raw and brutal – bloomed in the pit of her stomach but she faced him with studied nonchalance. "I just remembered a fragment of my past. Regis…have you met the Qeath tribe many years ago?"

He paused to think. "Yes, I think we did."

"Why?" she demanded.

"We went to kill the Chief."

She turned even colder, and her mouth went dry, and her heart laboured with slow, painful thumps. At the same time, her brain was working too fast, racing through a chain of conclusions, each more unpleasant than the last. "W-Why?"

Regis gave her a very cold, strange look. "Because he wouldn't obey father."

Eira said no more. It couldn't be a coincidence that Veres Falconer came to find her, could it? That day, before her parents' death, she caught a glimpse of two strangers who came to visit. She distinctly recalled the hand that shook her father's. It was ugly, terribly scarred and there was a tattoo on it – the same symbol found on Veres's predators.

Eira's mind reeled. Had Veres known who she was all along?

"Arghhhhhhh-haaaaaa!"

She jumped when the most inhumane scream ricocheted off the walls. Eira believed she had seen everything as a kill hunter but the way the mutants tore and attacked Levente — ripping off his arms, gnawing on his bones and biting into his organs was enough to fuel her nightmare for months. It was gory, savage and he deserved every second of it. She wished Lars was here to see it.

Suddenly, the fine hairs on her nape rose to attention. Like a prey being hunted, her eyes snapped up to find Veres staring in their direction. He acknowledged Regis without tearing his eyes off her. "Regis, is it done?"

"Yes, father." Regis rose fluidly.

Eira wondered if Veres could see the change in her expression, if he could see or hear the fear ebbing in her veins. What was he thinking right now?

"Then let us proceed to the next step," Veres remarked.

"Yes, father."

Eira grunted when Regis stabbed her in the neck, the feeling of unexpected betrayal overwhelming her. "Regis...how could you?"

And then she felt nothing at all.