Chapter Seven

This was not Six.

This was someone completely different. She was no small female; she was lean certainly, but she was muscular and tall, her hair hanging just past her shoulders, side swept bangs falling down the side of her face, her dark brown eyes watching me with killer intent.

"Who are you?" I asked. She cocked her head.

"Your demise," she answered smoothly. Her voice was husky and rough, but strangely soft and non-threatening, but they were at odds with her words. She reached behind her to withdraw a sword that gleamed in the lights overhead. The blade seemed to have words running along the sides, the handle woven in some shiny fabric. It was a uniquely long katana style sword, similar to my magic swords.

Of course, I wasted no time and summoned my own into my palms. Blue magic encased the long smooth blades with soft glowing light. The female paused to eye them, almost as if she were impressed by them, then quickly darted her eyes back up to my face, narrowing seriously.

"Could've sworn there was another one of you around here," I murmured. The female cocked her head.

"Sometimes if someone can't do their job right, they send in someone better," she responded, stalking towards me. I watched her foot work, watched the way she stepped on the sides of her feet, yet maintained perfect balance. She was always in a position to hop away from me, so she knew exactly what she was doing. The sword wasn't to scare me. It was her weapon of choice.

Unfortunately for her, the sword was also mine.

She moved fast. One second she was in front of me, in the next she was darting off to the side and coming at me from the side, swinging her sword around to slice into my arm. The way she swung the sword, however, the way it barely touched me, she wasn't trying to cut me open and kill me. She was trying to do the same thing Six had done; kidnap me.

I swung around and clashed my left sword into hers. For a moment, I swore her sword was going to break, and she seemed to wait for it too, her eyes wide in shock, her body rearing back, as if she fully expected the sword to break through hers and slice into her. Lucky for her, her sword held strong and prevented mine from cutting through. I pushed back and forced her back. She stumbled, then caught herself and came at me again, trying to aim for my sides, my arms or legs, anywhere that wouldn't cause too severe of damage. She wasn't going for my throat, my head, my arteries.

Again, this wasn't about killing me.

She was trying to subdue me long enough to kidnap me.

She came at me again and I blocked. It was mostly a game of blocking every attack she launched at me. I wasn't trying to hurt her. I immediately switched gears myself. We needed to capture her. If we did, we could interrogate her professionally and figure out why the Mother wanted me specifically.

With that in mind, I started to push back. I went from dodging and blocking to the offensive, swinging my sword around to slice at her legs, but she leapt up... and a pair of wings shot out of her back. I jerked my head up, stunned as I watched thick black feathered wings unfold from her back and catch her in the air so she was hovering above the ground, then she landed and wobbled a little, as if she wasn't accustomed to the wings being there.

In fact, she looked frustrated that they'd come out in the first place. She stepped back, glancing over her shoulder at the large black angelic wings that unfurled and beat the air for a moment before folding up behind her. She jerked her head around to glare at me, almost accusingly. Like she blamed me for the wings coming out in the first place.

"Beautiful wings," I commented, admiring the way they caught the light and gleamed. She paused for a moment, cocking her head as if confused by the compliment. She pursed her lips, then shook her head and drew her sword out in front of her again to challenge me. She wasn't going to be swayed by commentary. She had a job to do and she was going to do it.

She came at me again, but this time she was off kilter. She was definitely not used to those wings being out, and I briefly felt sorry for her. She was still going to fight, even knowing she wasn't going to beat me, thanks to those huge wings.

I knew from experience, or rather, the experience of others that fighting with wings was no easy task. I had plenty of family members with wings, all of whom had spent years trying to learn how to fight with them unfurled like that.

She wasn't going to beat me.

And she knew it.

I saw the look on her face as she pulled up short, still keeping her sword out in front of her, her brown eyes wide with realization. She took a step back instead and I took one toward her.

A second later, the back door to the bar flew open and the female snapped her head around, her eyes growing bigger, almost horrified, before she vanished a second later. I turned to see Lumen, Holly, and Amenti all standing in the doorway, looking startled.

"What the hell was that?" Amenti demanded, coming out into the cool night air to approach me. Holly also ran ahead of her and immediately did a check over on me while Lumen stood frozen in the doorway, staring at me.

"Someone attacked me," I said slowly, unsure how much I wanted to divulge to the Cousins. No doubt they would also try and convince me to tell Hades, however, they also respected my wishes so certainly they wouldn't run back and tell him... right?

"Who attacked you?"

"Who would attack you?" Amenti rephrased Holly's question. I shook my head for a moment, then let my swords fizzle out in my palms before disappearing. I looked past them at Lumen, who had a strange look on her face. I narrowed my eyes as I realized she recognized the person who'd attacked me. That's what that look on her face was. Recognition. She knew who attacked me... And she only knew, because that was the person she was trying to hide from us.

"May I please speak to my sister alone?" I asked. Holly and Amenti looked at each other, then nodded slowly and backed off, heading inside and giving Lumen a pat on the shoulder as they departed. Lumen stepped out and the door closed behind her. She stood there, almost sheepishly, looking down at her feet, her short dark hair a curtain over her face, but I could still see the shame in her hazel eyes as she studied the ground.

"You know her," I said simply, "Because she's been coming to visit you almost every night for the past few weeks." Lumen looked up, opened her mouth like she was going to argue, then stopped and looked back down at her feet again. I gave her a moment of silence to consider her next words, and she finally looked up, brushing the hair back out of her face to show the stern set of her jaw, the fierceness in her eyes.

"Yes. I know her. Her name is Five."

"You've told no one about her. Including me."

"That is correct."

"Why did you lie?"

"Why wouldn't I lie," Lumen murmured in disbelief, "If I had told anyone about her, they would've tried to capture her and interrogate her."

"Because she's the enemy," I said. Lumen shook her head fiercely now, clenching her fists.

"She is not the enemy. She's a victim," she said angrily, making me frown, "Just like all the other artificials who are being created and raised to become killers for the Mother. They are not the enemy, Hadrian, and I know you know this. They're victims of her sick twisted dreams."

"That does not change the fact that they tried to kidnap me," I said, making Lumen grimace, "And not just this one time either." She looked away. I frowned.

"You knew," I accused, watching her look at her feet again, "You knew they were trying to kidnap me." Lumen pressed her lips together in a thin line before she closed her eyes, then looked up at me, exasperated.

"Five was the first one sent to come get you. She... She failed, so they sent someone else. I don't know who he is, but Five told me not to worry about it. She told me you would be okay."

"You believed her."

"Yes," Lumen whispered.

I didn't know what to say. My assumption had been correct; Lumen was hiding someone from us. I hadn't really guessed it was the enemy, but the moment I saw the look on her face when she opened that door, the immediate recognition, not just in her eyes, but in Five's, I realized they knew each other. In fact, it sounded like they did more than just know each other.

"You love her," I murmured. Lumen pursed her lips and closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded solemnly.

Five had been sent to kidnap me, but apparently failed... perhaps she'd gotten sidetracked by Lumen, hence why she failed and they sent Six in to do the job instead. However, Six was also failing quite miserably at the job as well. Eventually they were going to send someone else in to take over where Six left off.

"So, why did Five just try to attack me?" I asked. Lumen shook her head.

"I don't know. She told me she wouldn't. She told me she would stay away from you, but something must have happened. Something must have happened to make her change her mind, but, Hadrian, I swear I had no idea she was going to do this," she explained. I studied her, but knew right away she was telling the truth. Lumen didn't lie often, and when she did, they were small lies. Like wanting to go home and sleep to get away from the Cousins, when in actuality she just wanted to go home and read her book. Things like that. But she did not lie about life or death. And right now, that was what was on the line here.

So Lumen had no idea why Five came after me. Fine. But why did Five come after me?

"If I'd known she was going to do this, I never would have let you come out here by yourself," Lumen added, coming closer now and reaching out to take my hands, "I swear, Hadrian, I never wanted you to get hurt in all this. I just... I just wanted to be with Five. That's all." I looked at her, studied her sad dewy hazel eyes, like she was on the verge of tears. She genuinely felt guilty for all of this, but it really wasn't her fault.

She fell in love.

I closed my eyes.

Shit. This situation was an exact mirror of what was happening between Six and I. This magnetic pull we felt towards each other in the midst of a battle that was going to get raw and bloody very soon. At this point, I was at a loss on what to do.

"I understand," I said at last, watching Lumen look at me in mild surprise, "I'm not angry with you. I'm disappointed you didn't trust me enough to tell me about Five, but I am not angry." Lumen's expression pinched into sadness once more.

"It wasn't that I didn't trust you," she said softly, "I just couldn't risk someone finding out about Five. No one. Not a soul. Even her own people don't know. If they were to find out, they'd kill her, Hadrian. No hesitation." I nodded grimly. I understood that much. Seven had told us about the kinds of punishments they inflicted on traitors, something he himself had nearly experienced.

"Where did she go?" I asked at last. Lumen shook her head.

"She lives in town, but hasn't told me where. She didn't want me to have that information in case someone found out and tried to torture me."

"Smart. Perhaps she's gone to figure out how to get rid of her wings," I murmured. Lumen frowned.

"I'm surprised they came out. She's pretty good at keeping them under wraps."

"She doesn't use them often?"

"She's not allowed to. It's a defect from her genetic sequence. Apparently all of the artificials have some kind of defect, or mutation in their genetic coding."

"Ah, yes. Six told me," I muttered. Lumen frowned at me.

"Six?" She asked. I hesitated. I studied Lumen, her questioning face, her worried eyes. I felt a small childish part of me wanted to keep things with Six quiet like she did with Five, but at this point, it would only be a way to get back at her, which wouldn't help anything. At least someone had to know about Six.

"He's the one they sent after me after Five," I said, making Lumen's eyes widen, "I interrogated him myself, for a brief time before he escaped." Lumen was quiet. She looked around on the ground, like she was trying to cope with the information.

"I didn't hurt him," I heard myself say, making her look up curiously, "I... I played with him, but I didn't hurt him. At least, not in a way that he would disagree with." She frowned curiously.

"What do you--"

"He told me all the artificials have their mutations. Six himself can blend into his surroundings. Almost like a chameleon. Perhaps we can figure out who his parents are based on that mutation?" I offered. Lumen nodded, then paused.

"But I know at least four people with black angel wings."

"And I know quite a few people who are good at blending in with their surroundings. Not excluding the shadow virus."

"So it's going to be a lot harder than we thought," Lumen concluded grimly.

"And we still have no idea why the Mother is hunting me down," I added. Lumen frowned.

"It's got to be something to do with the artificials. That's her whole goal, isn't it? To create an army that serves her. So you've clearly got something to do with it," she said thoughtfully.

"The question is what," I muttered. Lumen nodded, then sighed and reached up to rake a hand through her hair.

"Let's call it a night," she decided, "We need to sleep on it a little." I nodded in agreement.

Together, we headed back inside to break up the party. Not that it hadn't already been broken up. Holly was in the process of arguing with the owner of the bar, who had tried to kick the Cousins out about an hour ago. Meanwhile, Kodi stood near Wren, awkwardly rubbing at his arms and looking around until he saw me and those eyes promised me a beating later. I smiled. He glared.

Lumen and I took Kodi and headed out of the bar, teleporting back to our home in Purgatory. The moment we landed, Kodi went off.

"Why did you leave the bar? Do you have any idea how awkward I felt?" He demanded. I looked at him flatly.

"The point of you going was to get to know other people, not me."

"I don't know how to do that! Social interactions freak me out, man!"

"Kodi, have you thought of seeing a therapist?"

"Okay, if anyone needs to see a therapist, it's you."

"I already saw a therapist. I'm fine."

"You are not fine. And neither am I. Jesus," Kodi groaned, wiping his hands down his face, "That was so awkward. I have no idea how to dance. I don't know how to talk to girls. Or guys. Or whatever. I don't know. Holly confused me. I don't know what I want anymore. Aside from going back to my room to play Skyrim for twelve hours."

"Go ahead," Lumen said softly, "Thank you for coming out, Kodi. I'm sorry it wasn't what you'd hoped it would be." Kodi shook his head.

"No," he said, then paused and sighed, "No, I'm sorry for getting all shrieky. I just hate being put in embarrassing situations. It makes me so uncomfortable and not having someone to support me just kinda... I don't know. Thanks for trying, Hadrian. I appreciate it. But I think I'm just gonna stick to my online interactions." I pressed my lips together, wanting to say something to change his mind, but he seemed pretty set on his decision. He gave us a wave and vanished into thin air to head home.

I looked at Lumen, who frowned.

"He's quite the homebody," she commented.

"Tell me about it," I muttered, then shook my head, "Anyway, I'm going to bed. If you hear anything, if you have a chance to ask... your friend, about what's going on..."

"I'll make sure to ask," Lumen answered. I nodded and departed for my room. I did my usual routine before I slid into bed.

I waited that night. And waited and waited. Six never showed up, much to my disappointment. At this point, I felt growing anxiety. What had happened to him? Where did he go? Had they found out about what was going on? What even was going on at this point? We hadn't done much. We'd barely spoken. Not nearly enough to swap information. Was his time up? Were they punishing him for failing his mission?

I couldn't sleep that night. I stayed up stressing about Six, about where he was, what was happening to him. About the situation with Lumen and Five. Of how stressful that must be on the both of them.

I'd come to the conclusion that this whole situation was fucked. Lumen was right; the artificials were nothing more than pawns in the Mother's game to take over the world, or fuck over the world, we weren't sure yet. Just that they were part of her plan. They were victims. Just like Seven was. Brainwashed and abused and neglected and taking that as normal.

No wonder Seven was so gungho about destroying the Mother. She abused him. She hurt him. She tortured him. And she was doing all those things to the others as well.

It was time someone put a stop to her.

The question was... How?