Chapter Two | What Dreams May Come

Katherine's face shifted from one of a tired resignation to one of absolute horror. "Shawn," she croaked, "I'm so sorry. I couldn't protect you. I tried to get away, to fight them off, but I was too weak."

Shawn surged forward and tried to hug Katherine, but was stopped by the director. "She's right. My men beat her to submission. But there's still plenty more they can do if I do not have your cooperation. And I will make you watch."

Shawn looked up at the woman and scowled. "You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?" The director flicked her wrist and a knife appeared in her palm. Before Shawn could even blink, the director was behind Katherine, knife to her throat. Shawn cursed. "Do you still question my resolve? I have killed many before and will kill many in the future. Another body added to the tally would be nothing to me."

Shawn straightened up and looked the director in the eyes. "Fine. You win. I will do what you want."

The director smiled and the knife suddenly vanished from her hand. "Good." She came from behind Katherine and put a hand on Shawn's shoulder. Shawn grimaced in disgust. "Now we can begin. Let's start with an introduction. I, as you know, am the director of this facility. You may address me as Director Annika."

Annika turned and gestured towards Katherine. "You already know your adoptive mother. Or do you?" She smiled a broad smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Did you know that Katherine works for us too? Well, at least she used to, up until she tried to hide you from us." Annika barked a laugh. "She grew a conscience. Who knew that raising a child would make you more empathetic?"

Shawn felt a lump grow in his throat. He looked past Annika at Katherine. "Is this true? Did you really work for them?"

A tear fell down Katherine's cheek. "Yes. I once believed what they told me about their purpose for you, believed it would make the world a better place. But the more time I spent with you, the more I knew I couldn't let them get a hold of you. You were―are smart, funny, kind, and so much more. I couldn't let them turn you into a monster."

Shawn tore his gaze away from Katherine, his mind racing. Everything he believed, his whole life, was a lie. But then why had she tried to save him? Did she really love him? His head pounded. He didn't know what to believe.

"Shawn," Katherine said quietly. Shawn clenched his fists. "Shawn, look at me!," she yelled. He looked up at her and saw tears streaming down her face. "Shawn, please, I didn't want this for you. You have to believe me! I love you! I hate myself for lying to you, but I knew the truth was worse than the lies I had to tell to keep you safe."

"What's real, mother? All of this, is any part of it true? Or am I just a pawn in this sick game you two are playing?" Shawn felt a tear slide down his cheek.

"How sweet. Mother and son, finally bonding with the truth out in the open," Annika said. "SAy your piece now. We're leaving."

Shawn looked back at Katherine. He didn't know what to think, but he did know that if everything she said was true, if she did love him, that his last words to her, for a while, at least, shouldn't be ones filled with vitriol. "I love you, mom. I will get us out of this, I promise."

Katherine smiled sadly. "My boy. I love you too. Please remember that. Keep yourself safe."

"I will," he said.

Annika swiped her badge in the card reader next to the cell again and the door slid closed smoothly. "Now it's time for the real work to begin."

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Shawn watched as Annika bent down to look into the retina scanner. The machine whirred as it scanned, and beeped when the scan was successful. Moments later, the door that it hung next to opened silently, sliding into the wall. "This," Annika said as she swept her arm around the room, "is the training room. It is also where you will be spending the foreseeable future."

The pair stepped inside and the room came into full view. The room was organized into different sections, with gym equipment in one corner, gymnastics practice equipment in another, and the other half of the room covered with padded mats with various practice weapons hanging in groups on the walls. There were swords, maces, axes, staffs, shields, and many more things that Shawn could not place.

On the mats stood Victor. He was boxing with a practice dummy. When he noticed the pair, he finished his routine with an uppercut powerful enough that it sent the dummy flying across the mat. Shawn rolled his eyes. The man couldn't help but show off how strong he was even when no one cared.

Victor walked towards Annika and Shawn. "Director." Annika scoffed and nodded towards him. "You will be training with Victor here. As you say, he might not be smart, but he is strong, and he knows how to fight."

Victor's eyes flared with anger at the director's comments, but he didn't let it show any more than that. He cracked his knuckles and stared harshly at Shawn. "Don't worry, boy. I won't hurt you. Too much." He started to chuckle when the director wrapped her hand around his throat with speed that was near impossible to believe. "You are to train him. Nothing more. If he is harmed in any way during this training, you will answer for it."

Victor stood still, not daring to make a move against Annika. "Of course," he choked out. "I live to serve."

Annika scoffed and let him go. "Pathetic."

Victor rubbed his throat and shrank back. Annika looked back at Shawn. "However, if you fail to perform, it won't be you or Victor that pays the price."

Shawn clenched his fists again, itching to lash out. Annika noticed and smirked. "You think that you can even come close to hurting me? You know what, go right ahead and try."

Shawn clenched his fists even tighter, trying to decide what to do. He suddenly swung his fist right at Annika's face, which she deftly dodged. Shawn, carried by the momentum of his swing, lost his balance and fell forward. He managed to catch himself before he fell, but Annika kicked him in his ribs, knocking the wind out of him. Shawn fell and rolled into the fetal position, trying to protect himself. He looked up at Annika, coughing. "Let that be a lesson to you, boy. I am in control here. In control of you, of him, and of this entire facility. You cannot and will not compare to me. The sooner you grasp that concept, the easier it will be for you here."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked out of the door. Victor looked down at him and sneered. "I can't count how many times I've wanted to do that."

Shawn got up to his feet and dusted himself off. "Yeah, me too," he said. "Now, what are we supposed to be doing here?"

"Here? Nothing. Before we do anything here, you need to strength train. You know, that thing I kept harping on you about when you lived with me? Well, now you can't avoid it," Victor said, humorlessly.

Shawn looked over at the gym equipment and swallowed. It wasn't that he didn't like exercise. He ran quite a bit. But weight training was never his forte. Victor was right, though. He didn't have a choice. Not if he wanted Katherine to stay alive. He looked over at Victor. "Where do we start?"

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Shawn collapsed into bed, exhausted. Victor had given him vague directions to his room after they finished training and Shawn barely had enough strength to shamble his way to the door. He didn't know if he had the strength to keep up with the training regimen Victor put forth for him, but he also knew the price of failure.

As Shawn laid on the bed, he felt his stomach sink and tears come to his eyes. Why was he here? What did Annika, or more accurately, KATANA, want with him? He swiped away at the tears, not wanting whoever was surely watching him to see what he was going through. He would push through, if only for Katherine's sake and not his own. And he would find out what KATANA wanted him for, even if it was the last thing he did.

Shawn shut his eyes and instantly drifted off to sleep.

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His sleep was not as dreamless as he would have hoped. He watched himself get kidnapped over and over again. He was just as helpless in his dreams as he was during the real thing. But then, something was different. Just as he was drugged, he saw something. Or rather, someone. A woman, dressed differently than the others stood behind the team of kidnappers, barely visible. And he thought he recognized her. It was―

"Katherine!" Shawn yelled as he sat up, jolted from his sleep. He looked around at his sparsely decorated room. He didn't really get a good look at anything the night before, but now, by the light of the dim fluorescent bulbs above him, he could see what little was in the room. A desk and chair was on the opposite wall that his bed was on. On the desk, he could see a change of clothes, presumably for the next morning. Above the desk hung a portrait of a man that looked oddly familiar. Shawn almost couldn't place him, but then he realized who it was. The same portrait hung in Annika's office the day prior.

Shawn didn't understand why this man was so seemingly important. Hopefully he could find out why when investigating just why he was so dang important to this mysterious organization.

Shawn pushed the thought away and looked around the room further. Towards the entryway, he saw a door off to the side, presumably leading to a bathroom. Hopefully with a shower, he thought, smelling himself.

Shawn laid back down on the bed. He thought about his dream. Surely that couldn't have been real… right? Katherine had lied to him before. There was no reason to not assume that there was more that she had hidden from him. But a betrayal of this magnitude? He hoped that it was all in his head, a dream conjured up by an exhausted mind.

He sighed and closed his eyes, willing himself to stop thinking about it, to go back to sleep. But the images came unbidden once more. Tears stung his eyes for the second time that night. He rolled over, and tried to think of something, anything else. He finally fell back to sleep, dreaming a much different dream.

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This dream felt much like the first, a memory, although much more distant than the first. He saw a man and a woman. The woman was crying. Shawn reached out and tried to hug her, but was surprised when he saw a young child's arms stretch towards the woman. She sniffled and picked him up, smiling sadly at him.

Shawn didn't understand who she was, but he felt some sort of kinship towards her. He wanted to help soothe her, to help her tears stop. But the longer she held him, the harder she sobbed. Shawn looked over at the man and saw tears in his eyes as well. He wiped them away and said something to the woman. She put him down and the three of them walked to a very familiar door.

The man knocked and seconds later out stepped a much younger version of the head of the orphanage he grew up in. The man and woman exchanged what seemed like heated words with the head of the home, but eventually he looked at Shawn and smiled. He grabbed Shawn's hand from the woman's and led him inside. The last thing Shawn saw before the dream ended was the door closing on the man and the woman, and Shawn somehow knew it was the last time he would see their faces ever again.