Contradicting Worlds

The atmosphere was getting cloudier and cloudier as we get nearer to the room. Somehow, I can feel the aura taking me in its grasp and I can"t ignore the strong pull that"s making my feet walk closer and closer. I don"t know why but by the time that we reach the door, I am sweating all over and I feel nauseatic. My heart is pounding inside my chest as Raven pushes the door open. We were greeted by worn-out faces, some look at us--or rather--look at me with horrified expressions, I feel uneasy under their gazes. Raven"s hand tightens around mine as we step inside, he must"ve felt my uneasiness.

The Head is sitting--as usual--at the tabletop. Her hands are clasped together and she has this serious expression on her face that tells me something bad is about to happen. Raven and I took our seats and The Head resumes what she was saying, "As I was saying, we are taking precautionary measures right now. Our initial plan was to have our 24 bests inside the city but we cannot take that large number inside so instead I am planning to just take the 10 of you inside including Ellie and Raven." A loud sarcastic laugh echo around the room causing us to turn our head in that direction. Ila sat cross-legged near The Head with her head tilted slightly to add more to her dramatic interruption.

"I have some better ones in my group, why not take them in instead of these two? My mates are a lot more practised than them," She spits the last word like it"s something foul and dirty. She glances at me then to Raven. "Besides, we don"t know what they could do yet." I catch a little fear in her voice and I agree with her, for once, with the latter part, they don"t know what I could do. Only one person in this room knows what I hold inside of me. I steal a glance at Raven and caught him watching me. Probably thinking the same thing.

The Head nods once after Ila spoke. "You"re absolutely right and that"s one of the main reasons why I chose them to come instead of our trained ones." When Ila began to intervene again, she holds up one hand to silence her. "I get your point but the ones outside are going to play a more vital role in this mission. The Government is being more rigorous this time, they are putting a lot more warriors than the normal count. They are putting at least a hundred or two in each gate. 10 at each Bell Tower, and they are even placing a lot of warriors in underground or secret pa.s.sageways so we can"t use them as our escape routes." Murmurs ran across the room but only one voice booms out.

"But how the h.e.l.l did that happen?" Ila exclaims. "It"s like they know that we are going to tackle their forces that day." She runs an exasperated hand over her hair. Despite her annoyed expression, The Head remains calm and placid.

"We don"t know if the news leaked out--which is very unlikely to happen--or they are just simply being attentive," she said in a low voice.

"Or," Ila"s eyes dart around the room. "Someone is spying for them."

"We can"t avoid that possibility but we can"t also make an intuition." She regards the room silently as if contemplating on whatever Ila had said. "Now,--" she said, finally breaking the silence.--"Viola, I want your troops on the North Gate and North Tower, Ciara, South, Lilia, West, and Sheena East. Lei, air. Mica"s and Milo"s will be staying here, informing us. Mice"s and Nikki"s will be surrounding the city. You know what to, I don"t have to elaborate anymore. Raven and Ellie, I want the two of you to be the ones to free the exiles." I have to bite my tongue so hard to keep myself from barking out when I heard their snickers.

"No," I replied calmly. My voice echoed around the room, silencing their snickers. They look at me like I am being ridiculous for opposing The Head"s idea but I know better than to listen. "You shouldn"t place different squads on different gates or towers nor should you place the same squad on the same place. You are making the operation vulnerable and reckless at the same time." Gasps fill the air. It seems like she doesn"t usually get an opposition but I held her stare equally.

"Oh," I wince at the sound of Ila"s voice. "Care to tell us what you think?" I bite my lower lip to calm myself down.

"I think we should attack full-force."

"You think we"re not acting on full force?"

"No. I think you are overusing your powers. I am not saying that your strategy might not work but base from it, it seems like you"re underestimating your opponent. The warriors intake medicine. This certain medicine is what makes them powerful. It makes their vision clearer at night and sharper during day time, they can feel your presence even though you stand 50 meters away from them, their brain works faster than combining all of you, and that"s make them dangerous. One look at you and one shot at your abilities and they will instantly know your weakness. And if your information is right, then they will come more prepared than you are, and if you want to go on with your plan, I a.s.sure you, you will be dead before you even reach pa.s.sed the gates." By the time, I finished talking I am short of breath like I"ve been running. I look around for their reaction. The Head is looking at me through narrowed eyes, Ila"s scowling at me the whole time I"ve been speaking, Mica looks worried, Mice seems confused, others look interested while some look at me suspiciously. I can feel Rave"s eye digging at the side of my head and I swallow the lump in my throat as the silence stretch and stretch into almost forever.

"Where did you get this kind of information?" The Head"s cold reply cut through my gut but I chose to stay intact.

"That is not for you to know." I retort in an equal cold tone. Her eyes turn into small slits as she regards me silently. Then she throws her head back, one fist covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking as she laughs. Yes, she"s effing laughing. She continues to laugh while I stare at her, dumbfounded. I look at the others" expression but they seemed just as surprised as I was.

"Attagirl," she said as she slows her own laugh. "I like it! Now I am more interested at what"s about to come out of that clever mouth. Tell me, what is your plan?" This woman"s mood is changing like mad, one moment she was laughing then one second she was dead serious again. I cleared my throat.

"You were planning to do this during night time but just like I said earlier neither night time or day time is the best time to do this so I suggest we act mid-day. The warriors have their energy full during the day and they will replenish it during the night. They aren"t allowed to take another one if the serum in their body is not fully gone yet. It will mess up their system and they will go mad. The serum will slowly makes it way into their brain then they will start losing control until the serum is riding their body completely so attacking them during mid-day with the serum wearing out of their body will be the best decision. They will be force to take another one so that they can fight us. I am not saying that making them lose their minds will be the best way so we still have to stay cautious. We have to fight while they are losing their control and not after because that will be putting us in a more risky position."

"And what about the people around the city? It"s mid-day, won"t they be busy to get ready for the Grand Ball? Although they are citizens of the city we cannot risk their lives either." A soft voice speaks up. I glance at Mice, she still won"t look at me though and guilt is slowly eating me.

I try to keep my voice calm, " Yes, you"re right, they will be busy but I can only say that they will busy preparing inside their homes. The citizens of the city are rich enough to have their own designers coming to their houses."

"Then what about your idea regarding the placement of our troops?" The Head asked.

"Okay, so, do you have someone who cannot only make a person invisible but she can make the sounds, footprints and smell go unnoticed too?" A trembling hand shot through the air.

"I...I...I am practising for it. I can only make the smell go, I am working for the sounds right now." She stammered.

"Uhm...okay. But that"s not enough. Uhm, have you done it with another person?" She shakes her head, not quite looking directly at me. I blew out a sigh. "I don"t know what each of you can do so I don"t know what troops to place where. Can you show me your abilities? Each of you?" They turn their heads toward--of course--The Director, seemingly waiting for her approval. She nods then they begin introducing themselves and their powers to me, informing me every detail I need to know about their ability including their weaknesses and strengths.

VIOLA - The Right Arm. Can move an object within a hundred-meter radius and can also make a person her puppet.

MICA - Vision and strategist. She can know the ability a person has and her weakness in an instant.

MICE - The Soothsayer. She can manipulate time and can tell the future.

CIARA - The Wrecker. She can summon catastrophic events.

LILIA - The Green Panther. Can call upon nature.

NIKKI - The Observer. Can turn a whole battalion invisible.

AIDA - The Magician. Can remember everything in just one glance and can make an illusion.

MILO - The Mind. If Mica is the strategist then she lays out their plan, detailed. She can also see a few feet away from her like a vampire.

SHEENA - The Creator. She can create weapons out of her body.

LEI - The Eye. She can fly and summon the wind.

I can see why The Head chose them as a troop leader. Their abilities are common tho but still, when we combine them skillfully, we are going to turn the city upside down with havoc walking in our wake.

I laid out my plan in front of them and I watch while they listen carefully, not uttering a sound, they seem interested but hesitant. The power in my voice didn"t falter even though I have been speaking for the past 30 minutes, laying down the map of the city, bringing down instructions, telling them all the possible secret pa.s.sageways that I am sure the government know nothing of, stating the warriors" weakness and strengths. When I finally finish talking, my confidence begins to waver but I held their stares, all the same, antic.i.p.ating questions. To my disappointment though, no one asks so I decided that they understood after all.

"How do you know all of this?" And The All-Mighty shoots her first in a string of annoying questions.

"None of your business," I said curtly. She shrugged, acting nonchalant towards my answer.

"I like your overture. But the question is will this work?" I look straight into her eyes. Knowing that she can read my mind, I answer her through our connection.

Yes. She leans back, the eyes of our audience dart between her and me.

Tell me, how do we make this work? A smile tugs playfully at my lips.

Make me their train leader tomorrow. She looks at me to see if I am serious but I am more than serious right now, I am confident and I feel tyrannical, she breaths out a quiet laugh. We eye each other for a minute, the atmosphere around us is growing thicker as the silence stretches into infinity. Then she speaks up, loud and clear but I have to make her repeat it twice because I don"t think I heard her correctly. "I said. Tomorrow morning you have training with Ellie, gather all your troops and make sure that before they step onto the platform they already know about the changes in our operations and tactics."

"I want all to partic.i.p.ate," I said, not caring to elaborate because I am sure that they already know what I am talking about.

"Of course," she said with a tight smile. "You are all dismissed for the day. I leave the room wearing a triumphant smile.

The day pa.s.sed by pretty quickly then suddenly today is tomorrow. I pull up my hair in a ponytail and head for a black tank top and tight black pants with the ends of it tucked inside a combat boots. I went out and take my time walking towards the training room, gathering my confidence and breathing in and out of my mouth to calm my nerves. Raven already left hours ago and I told him to go without me. I see not a single soul lurking around the hallways so maybe all of them left early for the practice, I almost feel bad for being late but I have to take my time finding peace because the moment I enter that room I know that peace is going to run away from me again.

I open the door that leads to my doom and I even out my face while I walk towards the front.

"You are late," Ila said as she brushes past me.

I cross my arms over my chest and give her a stoic expression. "How do you know I"m late? I didn"t give time reference, y"all just early birds and I am not." I turn around without looking at her but I can feel her glare digging graves on my back as snickers rang around the room. "Okay," I said as I a.s.sess them. They quickly straighten up from their stretching and immediately fall in line with their squad leaders in front of each line. I take in their numbers, silently counting in my head. "I hope your troop leaders already told you about our operation that going to take place inside the city when The Grand Ball happens. Squad leaders, I want you to divide your group into eight include yourselves in the number except for Milo"s and Micas. I want to talk with the two of you." They exchange a curious glance and start walking towards me. Each leader turn towards their group and started splitting their members but I see Ila making no effort to move. She glares at me while I arch an eyebrow, daring her. She lets out a frustrated growl and works while I smirk at her.

Milo and Mica caught up to me. A confused and curious look pa.s.s through their features. "You two have your own troop but unfortunately, you shouldn"t stay here," their eyebrows form a crease. "Yes, I talked with our Head. You two need to come with us but I want you to a.s.sign the best among your group to be your replacement while we are away. I hope you explain our plan vividly to your groups, including our escape plan, did you not?"

"We did," they spoke at the same time.

"What do you need me for? I know you need Mica but why me?" Milo asked.

"Because, The Head told me that you can a.n.a.lyze pretty quickly. I need that just in case we get caught up in the fight. When we reach the city, your first mission is to find any possible way outs, I"ll give you the map of the city, discuss it with your group." I look at her through my lashes. I reach her chin and her bosoms were big and she has a great body. Her features were sharper than anyone, her jaw and cheekbones were more defined.

"Where"s the map?" She holds out her hand, palm face-up.

"Uhm, don"t freak out okay? Don"t scream because it will hurt us both," her eyes widened a little and before she even got the chance to reply, I reach up and put my thumbs on her temples while my other fingers reach around her head. Her head falls back but I hold her in place. Her eyes roll before suddenly staring out in nothingness and I know I got her. I remember what Elisa taught me and I continue the process, ignoring the sting I feel in my eyes at the memory of her. I pa.s.s Milo the entire map of the city, my muscles went tight, my breathing quickens and the final detail left me.

I release her and we both gasp for air. I take a mouthful of oxygen then exhale through my nose. Someone patted my back and I look up, finding the eyes of Raven. "Are you okay?" I nod while his arm reaches around my shoulder to pull me up. My breathing slows and I notice that all of them were looking at us. "What happened?" I open my mouth but no sound comes out. "It"s okay. It"s okay." He rubs my shoulder and I feel safe.

"Was that..." I turn to Milo who looks just like me, except that she"s more out of breath. "Was that your ability?"

I swallow loudly before answering. "No, it was from a friend." I push the tears pooling in my eyes away. I turn around and walk towards the centre with Raven, Mica and Milo following me.

"Wow," I heard Milo breathe out behind me.

"Now that you have been divided, I want you to combine with the other groups that have the opposite ability like yours, you should have 8 different abilities in your group, making it 8 groups in total." They stand for a moment. "NOW!" That makes them move. They scurried in a line and hopefully, they understood what I said.

The rest of the day was spent with the way I want it to be. Just like I have thought, they don"t know the ability of the others that have the opposite as them so we have to do a quick introduction which consumes an hour and a half of our time. After that, they warm up with each other and we have had to "practice" how to make them move in sync. They caught up fast then I told them about the things about the warriors then I made them fight with their troop leaders. The "special ones" or the ones who are like me that doesn"t have the same ability as all of them, I had to train them personally and that includes the girl with a deafening voice, literally and figuratively.

After all of that, Raven and I quickly went into our room and I fastly fell asleep without even bothering to change my clothes because I was too freaking exhausted to care. Raven"s warmth envelops me and I am at peace once again.