Kiera
This sucks. Like seriously. After all that. And look where it got us. Captured.
I had to stay strong for the Rebels. Declan, Mei, and I needed to come up with a plan pronto.
For now though, we allowed the Guardians to shove us around in the direction they wanted us to go.
We've been blindfolded since we left the old building and the Rebels behind. I guessed it was so that we wouldn't know where we were going or where we were.
Eventually after what felt like hours, we stopped walking. No matter how comfy they were, my feet were sore from still wearing Declan's oversized boots.
On top of that, I was so tired.
A door groaned open and by he sound of it, I bet it was heavy and large. They must be serious about where they were locking us up or whatever they were planning to do with us.
Our blindfolds were removed once we were all in the building. We entered through a dank corridor that was barely illuminated. Lights flickered sporadically down the hallway.
The same three Guardians forced us down the hall until we were standing in front of a small, wooden door.
The first Guardian ducked inside and the other two Guardians pushed us in after him.
Three chairs were situated at each of the walls. Mei was lead to the one on the left, Declan to the right, and me to the one at the far wall.
We didn't fight the restraints that were placed on us. There was no point. Our powers were useless and we were all physically and emotionally exhausted.
Our wrists were bound to the arms of the chairs with what I realized was Onyx. I remember when Trev was stabbed by a sword coated in Onyx and wasn't able to heal like he normally could. Great.
I felt my energy completely drain from my body when the Onyx made contact with my skin. I couldn't keep my eyes open and gave up the fight to stay conscious.
~
I woke up some time during the next day. Declan and Mei were still asleep.
I sat there a little longer until the wooden door was pushed open.
My jaw just about hit the ground when Justine stepped through the threshold.
"Yeah don't think I'm here to save you. You guys completely betrayed us. You deserve to pay for what you've done. It's complete chaos out there.
"I'm a Supporter now, paired with Quinn. They had to assign all of the entrants' jobs early at The Trials because of all those Guardians and Supporters you killed.
"Guardians once friends have now turned to enemies. Supporters once family are no longer considered family. All. Because. Of. You." She annunciated slowly as if I was stupid or something.
"You will also pay for brainwashing him," she said, pointing at Declan, "We were supposed to be the strongest Guardian and Supporter pair. But you've gone and ruined it. I don't even recognize him anymore. Nor do I want to, for that matter."
She swung her tight ponytail around and glared at me.
I snorted and said, "Yeah, okay whatever you say."
"You don't know what you've done, Kiera. You just started a war. A war that the Rebels cannot win. Surrender now, or you will wish you and all the Rebels were dead."
Flipping her hair once more, she sauntered out of the room as if she owned the place.
My blood was boiling.
Declan chuckled once she left.
"What are you freaking laughing at?" I accused.
He shrugged.
"Oh my gosh. You pretended to be asleep that whole time. You couldn't back me up, could you?"
"No. This was more fun. It's entertaining to see you get angry. Especially now when your eyes get that bright green."
I glared at him and realized what he said. Not giving him the satisfaction, I kept the thought that I had green eyes, and not gray ones, to myself.
"But what do we do now? You heard what she said. There's a war out there," I said desperately.
"We fight back. This is Our War. Just because we are trapped now, doesn't mean that we are completely helpless. Mei has a trick up his sleeve. He just needs to wake his ass up."
Mei opened one eye. Declan and I started laughing at his expression.
"A war, huh," Mei said thoughtfully, "I guess it was bound to happen. I'm not worried. Let's get out of here."
Then as if the chair was made of paper, Mei broke through the restraints. The chair splintered in pieces at his feet. He easily destroyed my chair and Declan's.
"I'm immune to Onyx and power dampening poisons," Mei shrugged.
"I can still use my power so you guys can rely on me," he said pointing his thumb at his face and winking.
Mei's form began to shimmer and bend in odd places. When he became a solid body again, he wasn't Mei anymore.
He was an exact replica of Justine.
~
Declan
I have to admit, Mei's power was pretty cool. However, now that he had used it in front of me, I would be able to use it, too.
Mei, now turned Justine, smirked and twirled around.
I felt my body fade in and out in between reality and some place else. I felt nauseous as my body bent in weird angles.
Bending over, I was no longer myself.
I was the asshole Guardian who had shoved us around last night.
Kiera's and Mei's eyes widened to the size of saucers.
Then Kiera remembered I had the power to use anyone else's power and she relaxed.
Then she explained to Mei what I could do and he nodded.
I still felt sick so I turned my back on them and put my hands high above my head on the wall to breathe.
When I felt better, I turned back around and gawked.
There was another Guardian from last night in the room.
"Yes!" He shouted, fist pumping the air.
Kiera can still tap into my power source somehow and use any power I can.
"Woah. Do you guys have the same power or something?" Mei asked.
"No, I'm able to see what my opponent will do before they do it, but lately whenever I'm with Declan, I can use his power also. I don't know how since we haven't been paired as a Guardian or Supporter," Kiera explained.
"Oh, actually that happened with me and my girlfriend. We can use each other's powers without having been paired together. That's why you might have noticed me speaking in her mind sometimes. I guess the pairing of a Guardian and Supporter isn't determined by the Known Family or Trials as much as they would like to think," Mei scratched his long hair.
"So you think that we've already been paired?" Kiera asked.
He nodded and said, "Let's not dwell on it right now, we need to get out of here. They probably won't have any Guards in this hallway because we're supposed to not have been able to break free and use our powers. I guess since you can use my power and all that you're both now immune to Onyx, so you're welcome," Mei beamed.
Kiera smiled back as her buff Guardian.
Mei opened the door and poked his head through. When he was satisfied, he gave the "okay" sign with his thumb and pointer finger.
We slipped through the door into the empty hallway. Since our blindfolds had been removed when we got here, I memorized how we got to the room. I led the three of us down the hall the way we had entered.
A group of Supporters walked down the hallway on the other side. They smiled at Mei, aka Justine. He smiled back at them then winked at us. The Supporters continued normally down the hall.
We went down another corridor that would soon lead us outside.
Four Guardians turned the corner. Of course one of them had to be the first guy who had found us; the one I was currently mimicking.
He did a double take when he saw me and narrowed his eyes. "It's them," he said to the others.
Mei sent an ice blade into his leg and he collapsed.
Well, Mei's power was even better than I thought. He could use the power of the Neph he chose to be.
With a flick of his wrist, Mei flung three ninja stars made of ice into the other three Guardians' legs. They also fell in agony.
Kiera high-fived Mei and we were running.
One of the guys on the floor pulled out a small device and spoke into it, "The Rebels are loose. Heading for the back entrance. Need backup. We are wounded."
We reached the huge, metal doors and were panting.
I yanked the handle, but it wouldn't budge.
"Shit, they must have locked it from the inside once they got word of us escaping," I cursed.
Mei stared into the lock until we heard a click. He strained against the door and pulled it open.
We crashed through it, slamming it shut behind us.
"I can use my girlfriend's power of disarming cameras, locks, traps, anything. I don't have to be near her to do it because we made our bond so strong. You guys should try it sometime," Mei said, smirking.
We transformed back to our normal selves. Each of us snapped our wings open and took off to the sky.
~
Kiera
We were flying as fast as we could. I lagged behind because I didn't have nearly as much experience with this as they did.
Declan kept peaking behind him to make sure I was behind him. I gave a weak smile.
He said something to Mei and they dropped to my sides. Their wingspan was so large that they had to be far away from me so we wouldn't hit each other's wings.
"No, you guys can go on ahead. I'm fine behind. And plus, we need to meet up with the Rebels," I said and they flew forward.
I looked beneath me and remembered what Justine had said about it being complete chaos out here. I couldn't see anything from how high up we were though.
Suddenly, it felt like my wing was on fire. I looked underneath it to see a long gash in the gray feathers. Something had just sliced it.
A huge Guardian broke through the clouds and threw another knife at my other wing. I tried to dodge it, but it still nicked my wing.
Then, I was falling.
Declan turned around at that point and stopped flying forward. It looked like he was gonna come back for me.
"No!" I yelled to him. He needed to help Mei with the Rebels.
Understanding dawned on his face about what I couldn't say to him.
He nodded sadly and slowly turned his back on me.
Declan and Mei took off faster than I've seen anyone fly before.
And I was still helplessly falling through the sky.