Where are we??

"Cyrus?" Vito asked confused and somewhat relieved to see a friendly face, if at all this was him.

Cyrus turned to his right and acknowledged him with a smile. "Took you long enough to wake up."

Vito looked at him even more confused, "What do you mean by that? I thought we all left the hotel and went our separate ways. Did that not happen? Was everything after the farewell celebration simply a dream from exhaustion?"

Cyrus chuckles and turns his head back to the courtyard out front.

Vito was infuriated at his response as he was genuinely confused and all he was doing was laughing. 'He knows something about all this yet he chooses to laugh instead of tell me,' he thought.

"Cyrus, stop laughing right this instance, I am really confused right now and you're doing no good being the way you are." Vito physically shook him back and forth but gently enough not to knock his glasses off of him.

"Calm down will you Vito? It's not that much of a big deal. Can't you see we were kidnapped?" Cyrus asked as he waved his hand around them.

There was a slight pause between them as the information Vito received had delayed processing in his mind. The wind blew by and finally, he calmly reacted to the words he had just heard.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, KIDNAPPED!?" He yelled at Cyrus.

This was as calm as Vito could be to receive such news from a person he trusted.

"Calm down Vito, it's more complicated than that. You of all people shouldn't act like this is a big deal," Cyrus emphasized as he watched the view from the balcony.

Vito sneered at him, "Cyrus, whether or not I had a complicated upbringing that resorted to these, "activities" every so often does not mean that I want to be on the other side of it."

Cyrus smiled had curled up as he heard that, "Oh? so you admit to being guilty of such heinous crimes. I Detective Cyrus with the power placed in me at this moment place you under arrest for uncivilized activities, such as shaking a man who is wearing glasses."

At this point, Vito snapped and started to attack him, specifically to destroy the glasses that he was wearing.

"You snarky bastard, let's see you act so confident without those pair of glasses you are wearing." He immediately reached for them but Cyrus backed away keeping them out of his reach. 

After a few seconds of this pointless exchange, Vito finally calmed down with a feeling of shame for being unsuccessful.

"He has good technique," he told himself.

He was now leaning on the balcony somewhat resting from the exercise.

"Since you are done attacking me I will continue from where I was so rudely interrupted in our conversation," Cyrus said.

"Interrupted my foot," Vito muttered.

Cyrus began, "So yes we have been kidnapped. And there are two possible conclusions of the perpetrator. One was that it was Alex. Whether it has some meaning or simply a miscalculation on his part, I don't know. But I am aware that he possesses the means to move us about in whatever way he pleases."

"As to the conditions he needs to fulfill or carry out before he teleports someone or even the effect it has on the environment I am not sure. But I am certain that he is one of the only people who could have done it so fast."

"That is to assume that it has only been a few hours since we left the hotel."

As he was explaining this to Vito, he was somewhat impressed. 'You are telling me that he can gather up so much information so precisely? Like wow, life does give unfairly,' he thought.

Cyrus went on, "And that leads me to my second conclusion. And this one is less likely but still highly plausible when we look at our situation. We might have been kidnapped by some military personnel or someone with deep connections."

"If that is the case then I am not too sure how safe we will be."

Vito was now sat down on the balcony before he asked, "And what about that makes you so worried?"

"Well Vito, if we were kidnapped by the military or some other powerful organization, we may never leave for one. Two, being that we might have been knocked unconscious for quite some time, maybe even days."

Vito took his time taking in the information as he turned his head over to some butterflies flying above a butterfly fountain and some were laying in the water. "We are just a pair of kids, why take us in?"

"Well, we are more than just kids," Cyrus sighed as his smiles completely faded away, "We are candidates for the right to become the representative of this planet. The world is in chaos right now. Governments are in complete shambles as for the first time this is something that is completely out of the control of anyone."

"A representative will be chosen by the planet and not by the people, meaning that the people cannot rely on the government to protect them and even if they could, we are under the force of a being that could fly and project itself over the whole planet. No one believes that we can even hope to exist anymore after the two months is over."

"The United States government has tried to establish peace among the other countries. To create a so-called, 'United Nations Federation' It's lazy work if you ask me. And even in the face of adversity, they want control."

"What better way to take over than with a state of the world crisis? And even then other nations refused to join them so a war could pretty much breakthrough instead of the peace that they wanted. Subjugation is easier than negotiation."

"Anyways, so it's because of the lack of control that they cannot predict and plan for their next move if they cannot understand what is happening right now. And the things they would do to find out more about this "chosen representative" could even lead to us being kidnapped."

"They have connections, so they might have learned about the strange movements of certain individuals with a strange mark on their shoulders and then kidnapped us after the expedition was over so that they could try and find a way to send one of their own to be the representative of the planet."

"And the only reason we haven't been hurt for information since we arrived is because they are waiting for further instructions on how to proceed with us."

Vito was astonished. 'Was he able to put together all of that information by himself? If he is this capable then why isn't he the representative? Why was Terra chosen? Was it chance?'

Cyrus had paused after he finished talking but then spoke again, except this time he was unsure of something. "Still with all being said, it is strange that the mark on our shoulders that symbolizes us being representatives still hasn't left even though Terra was already chosen. I hope it is not permanent."

Hearing this made Vito think, 'He is right isn't he? There is no reason for us to continue to carry these symbols since Terra was already chosen. I wonder why they haven't left?'

Cyrus who had finished giving his explanation was now ready to do something else, "Welp, Vito come downstairs with me, there is something you should see."

"More important than us finding an escape path to go towards?" Vito asked.

Cyrus began walking down a small flight of stairs from the room Vito assumed he had come from. As he does so he yells back, "I already looked and I didn't find one, I also doubt you can see better than me."

"This guy thinks his so smart doesn't he?" Vito said as he rolled his eyes and followed.

They walked down for a little bit and entered inside a garden, or better yet a greenhouse.

'"So this is what's on the other side of the theater?" Vito said.

Cyrus walked up to a certain corner and with Vito following him behind. He stood right by a creamy white flower and pointed towards it, Vito was confused but smelled it anyway, and it was honestly very pleasant.

"Alright Cyrus, The flower smells nice and all, but what does that have to do with anything?" he asked still concerned about why he was acting so nonchalant about the situation.

 "Oh, nothing special. I just figured that gardenia flowers were your favorites since you liked it so much that last time when- never mind, let's go downstairs." He then stepped out of the room and went down another flight of stairs.

'That guy, what was he going to say?' Vito asked himself.

As they moved down the flight of stairs they were led back to the living room that Vito had seen earlier.

'I guess the spiral staircase connects through more ways than one. If I had gone the other way, I might have met Cyrus head-on without having found the planetarium. Still, it was nice that I found it, I will go take another look at it later,' Vito spoke in his mind.

As soon as he had finished that thought, he and Cyrus heard the footsteps of someone coming from down the hallway and toward their location.

Cyrus proceeded to grab Vito's hand and move me behind a couch that was in the room. He then lifted his finger and motioned for him to keep quiet.

 The footsteps got louder and louder until they finally came to a stop.

"Vito and Cyrus, it is my pleasure to finally meet you. Will you come out from there and follow me down the hall? There is someone eager to meet you."

Cyrus stood up and Vito followed quickly after.

Cyrus then smiled to greet the young man in front of them, despite him being young he was quite older than Cyrus and Vito.

"We were simply admiring the fabric of the couch, it is full-grain leather after all. It takes quite a lot of money to obtain something so extravagant," Cyrus said as he caressed his hand on it.

The young man smiled as he waved his hand out towards the couch they were at. "You have quite a good eye, Cyrus. A very good eye. I am curious how you know what it looks like. It is quite extravagant after all. Perhaps you can afford it."

Cyrus gave out a small fake laugh, Vito could tell it was fake because he had seen him genuinely laugh before. "You jest, how could I someone so young afford this? By the way, where are we?"

The young man pointed towards the hallway, "I am sure the person waiting for you down the hall would love to fill you in about your current situation. If you would follow me that is."

"Well I am a little shy so I'm not very fond of meeting new people if you don't mind," Cyrus says as he nervously looks around. He was putting on an act.

'Is he faking nervousness? He is a good actor,' Vito thought.

"Don't worry," the young man said kindly and with a friendly smile to boot. "You've already met just a little while ago, although you were unconscious at the time. So you have nothing to worry about. Cyrus Barnaby." 

Cyrus kept quiet for a little while. He was thinking. This took a bit longer than expected and Vito began to wonder if he should speak up or not. Just as he considers this, Cyrus smiles and says, "Alright, let's go and meet this man."

The young man takes a look at Cyrus and it is almost as if they were reading each other. His smile faded for a little while and then he brought it back up again as he turned around and asked "Who said it is a man?"

As they walked down the hallway, Cyrus and Vito hung back a little while the young man led them from the front. He is well-dressed and wears a peculiar handkerchief on his shirt. He has a pair of black gloves that certainly stand out as he seems to use hand gestures a lot.

Cyrus whispered to Vito a few things as well, "Vito, when we hid behind the couch the man stopped for a moment and then knew exactly where we were. I checked the place earlier, there are no cameras so this leads me to believe that we might have trackers on our bodies."

"Whoever owns this place is quite wealthy as he/she has quite the assortment of rooms as well as the funds to organize this entire area. He/she probably doesn't get bored so I assume they don't leave often."

"When I spoke to him earlier, from our conversation, he did nothing to assure me of our safety and was in a haste to get us to meet that certain someone waiting for us."

"And lastly, what worries me the most is that I had made a note in my head to memorize the faces of every individual who was in the hotel building during the time that the representative was chosen. That includes the servants that worked for or under Alex."

"And he was not one of the ones there."

From what, Cyrus is saying, Vito knew that they were about to be brought in for questioning by an organization they did not know about. It might have even been by secret government agents.

Vito also made a note in his mind, 'Just now Cyrus said he memorized the faces of every individual during the time that the representative was being chosen. And as he said that to me, he never mentioned Terra's name'

'This is my sign from him to keep quiet about Terra.'