Chapter 75-Capture, Part Two

"Mary!  MARY!"

"Ohhh…"

Mary lets out a low groan as her eyes slowly flutter open.

Looking around, she finds herself shackled in an underground jail cell.  Mary hears Gaia's voice calling to her from the stone wall to her side.

"Gaia…what happened…?"

"We were…defeated, then captured…" Gaia admits.  There are hints of humiliation in his voice.  "By that strange split-haired guy who could wield two elements."

"I see…" Mary replies as she peers to the ground in sorrow, "Hopefully…the others will come rescue us."

"Hopefully.  Assuming they weren't captured, as well.  We NEED to find out who our enemies are, and what they want with us."

Mary and Gaia's brief conversation is interrupted when they hear some footsteps come from ahead of them.

Mary looks up, watching as a tall woman, around five foot nine, with long, LONG black hair with stringy bangs that has streaks of bright running through it, like blood.  She has a maroon-red left eye.  Her right eye, however, has a black sclera.  The eye itself is royal-blue with a tan pupil in the shape of a mysterious symbol. The woman is wearing a long, skin-tight bright red dress with orange sun decals going across it, like the split-haired man from before.  The woman has make up caked all across her face, and appears to be in her late-twenties.

Mary feels an odd sense of familiarity from this woman.

Mary narrows her eyes at the woman as she approaches Mary, then stops before her cell.

"So this little girl is the BLOOD USER and healer of Team Noah?"  The woman smugly asks as she places a hand on her hips and smirks at Mary.

"Who…are you…?"  Mary faintly asks as she peers up at the woman.

"I'll allow YOU to decide that," the woman answers as she holds a hand down towards Gaia's cell, "You and I are, let's say…EXTRA-SENSETIVE when it comes to noticing our blood relatives."

Mary raises an eyebrow.

"Control!"  The woman barks, and once she does, thin maroon-red strands of what appears to be string begin to slither out of the woman's fingertips.  The strings float through the air over to Gaia, then in between the bars of his cell.

"What the Hell are these?!"  Gaia snaps as he attempts to yank an arm forwards, only to be bound by his chains.

Once wrapped around Gaia, the strings begin to rise into the air a little, each armed with a sharp point at the end.

And then…the strings file forwards, piercing Gaia's flesh and burrowing deep into his skin.

While Mary can't watch this scene unfold, Gaia's screams of pain give it away.

"Gaia!"  Mary desperately cries.

Gaia continues screaming in pain for a while, as the smirking woman's strings wiggle deep beneath Gaia's flesh.  But then…the screaming stops as Gaia goes limp, as his head lifelessly slumps over.

"G-Gaia…?"  Mary nervously asks.

Slowly…Gaia's hand begins to lift up, and in one fell swoop, he swings it outwards, yanking his chains clean off and causing his shackles to clang against the ground, then shatter.

"Gaia, what's going on?!"  Mary cries.

"Your friend is under MY control now!"  The woman cackles as she wiggles her fingers, the ones with the threads extending from them, which causes Gaia to shoot his second arm outwards, yanking his chains off again.

The woman continues wiggling her fingers, and next, Gaia kicks both legs outwards, one at a time, and pulls the shackles binding his ankles off as well.

Next, the woman wiggles her fingers again, causing Gaia to reach to his belt and pull out his wand.

The slumped Gaia aims his wand limply at the bars of his cell, and orange sparks of energy begin to burst and swirl around his body.

Pillars of rock made out of the concrete walls and floor of the cell then shoot forwards, each aimed with a stoney fist at the end.

Using the pillars of rock, "Gaia" smashes through the bars of his cell, freeing him at last.

"What are you doing to Gaia?!"  Mary frantically cries, "Who are you, and why do you feel so familiar to me?!"

"Allow me to show you!"  The woman cackles as she wiggles her fingers again, causing Gaia to exit his cell and turn to face Mary's.  Mary's eyes widen upon seeing the threads burrowed within Gaia's flesh.

"Are you…CONTROLLING him…?"  Mary gasps.

Just as before, Gaia aims his wand towards the bars of Mary's cell, and yet again, pillars of rock begin to rise out of the concrete walls and floor of the underground prison, each aimed with fists of stone at the end.

"Sn-snap out of it, Gaia!"  Mary pleads

But despite Mary's pleas, the woman laughs maniacally as Gaia's stone pillars begin to fly towards Mary, who flinches and turns away, squeezing her eyes shut in fear.

A loud CRASH echoes throughout the underground prison as Gaia's stone pillars smash through the bars of Mary's cell, but then a moment later, Mary feels herself, well…unharmed.

"H-huh…?"

Slowly, Mary opens her eyes again and peers back over to the woman, where she sees Gaia's stone pillars paused a mere hair's width away from Mary's face.

Mary's eyes widen as she peers behind Gaia's stone pillars towards Gaia, where she sees his glossed-over eyes shut tightly in concentration, his grit teeth clenched tightly together and struggling against the woman's hold on him.

"WHAT?!"  The woman snaps, "How can this be?!  The Earth Charger is RESISTING my control?!"

Mary's expression brightens.

"Gaia!"  She excitedly exclaims.

"Fer-get it!"  The woman spits as the maroon-red threads burrowed within Gaia's body begin to retract back into her finger tips, "This is why I prefer corpses!  No thoughts of their own!"

Gaia lets out a small groan as he falls face-first to the ground.

Gaia's stone pillars retract back into the ground as well.