"Chicken rice."

"Prawn noodles."

"Durian."

"Char Kway Teow."

"Prata."

"Nasi-"

"Hey, Jean! Jean! What the heck are you speaking?" I heard someone hissing disapprovingly at me.

I laid on a bed, turning to face the person with a blank expression.

"Food that I miss from Singapore or Malaysia."

"What makes you think this is the right time to think about food?!" Jessie practically screamed in my face.

"Well, what do you expect me to do? Now that I'm stuck here, with you?"

"Think of a way to escape?"

"With those guys here? Yeah, there's no chance."

"Oh come on, you are gonna give up, just like that?"

"Yes, besides, you've been here longer than me and you've never escaped. How do you expect me to escape then?" I grumbled my words out, grimacing as I turned away from here, going back to my rambling of foods.

"Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not!"

"Why are you raising your voice?"

"Ugh!" I sat up, narrowing my eyes at Jessie, her eyes widening in shock.

"Whoa there. What's the matter with you?" Jessie threw her hands up in surrender and I softened my look, sighing in frustration.

"How did you even end up here anyway?" Jessie added and I sighed yet again, summarising the events that led me to here.

I stared at Nathan, too hurt to even formulate a reply.

"I have to agree with Nate, bringing you along will be a burden to all of us." Kim concurred.

Burden?

...yeah, I guess I am...

I'm not like them...

"No, no! I'm not saying that! You aren't a burden! I'm just...concerned that we won't be able to protect you the entire time." Nathan hurriedly cleared up, glancing at me a nervous look.

"That's just a nicer way of saying 'you are a burden'." Kim scoffed and I opened my mouth to finally respond. I was completely hurt by their words, but at the same time, deep down in me, I understood their reason for not bringing me along.

"I agree too, I don't have to restrain myself anymore." Thomas nodded, a satisfied smirk on his face. His words and expression triggered me, making me flare up instantly.

"Restrain? What does that mean, huh?"

"What's with that accusing tone? You trying to imply something?"

"Oh, I dunno. You almost killed me once, who knows what you are capable of?"

"I'm not a murderer. I'm not capable of killing either. Didn't Kim tell you, I've had my reasons for doing that?"

"Oh, really? I don't see how any reason can make me forgive you for that."

"Stop fighting, you idiots! This isn't helping with the situation!"

Thomas directed his eyes to Kim, narrowing his eyes at her. "Let me explain to them, right now."

"Not right now, we don't have the time!"

"So you are just gonna let them think I'm a murderer?!"

"No, this just isn't the right time, Thomas."

"Stop with the lame excuses! You just can't bring yourself to accept it, like me!"

"Guys...seriously, please stop fighting. It really isn't helping."

"You are the one that started this!" I retorted at Nathan, rage swirling in my eyes. My anger was getting the better of me, and hurt flitted across Nathan's eyes.

"I...I'm sorry, I'm just worried that I'm not strong enough to protect you."

"Oh, please, Nate. Just admit it, she's not like us, she can't protect herself and that's why, she's a freaking burden."

"I can protect myself, thank you very much!"

Thomas raised his eyebrows at my claim and he folded his arms across his chest, his tone mocking. "Really now?"

All of a sudden, we heard a loud crash from upstairs, making all of us pause. We glanced up simultaneously, only for the door to the basement room to burst open and an object was instantly thrown in.

"Grenade!" Kim yelled and I was surprised she would even know what it was by just looking at the object.

Alas, we were all a little too late in reacting, the grenade exploding right in front of us. A blinding light flooded across my eyes, accompanied by a piercing ringing in my ears.

I was utterly disoriented, the loss of my hearing causing me to lose my balance. Smoke filled my lungs and my eyes were watering, my vision completely gone. I gasped and coughed, stumbling forward before tripping and falling.

My vision eventually came back, however, I could only see blurry silhouettes amidst the smoke. The next thing I knew, a hard force hit my head, my consciousness fading away.

"...and then I woke up, and you were here. By the way, I'm so glad you are safe, Jessie."

Jessie embraced me, patting me comfortingly. "I know that, I've heard it a million times from you ever since you came here."

"And don't worry, my grandfather doesn't have the heart to kill me. I used to be his favourite granddaughter after all, despite how he is."

"I'm kinda glad to hear that." I smiled in relief, hugging her back and she tightened her arms around me.

"By the way, you were at fault, you know right?" Jessie said, releasing me from her hug, a soft grin on her lips.

"My fault? I was hurt! After all the time we did these missions together, they don't treat me like a comrade, but a burden!"

"Doesn't give you the right to accuse and blame them like that. They may be partially wrong in how they came across, but your response was uncalled for."

"They called me a burden!"

"It's true, because they are slightly different and so are their enemies."

"How can you not be angry at getting called that?" I asked Jessie and she smacked my arm, making me yelp in pain.

"They are just worried, in their own way! Imagine if you were to get involved and you get injured, or if one of them gets injured and they are unable to protect you in that process, wouldn't it be worse? How would you feel? How would they feel?"

"But I..."

"You said you understood their words, but did you truly understand why they really did that?"

I grew quiet, unable to reply to Jessie as I glanced away, guilty.

"See?"

"Fine, I was in the wrong." I conceded, pouting to myself.

"You should apologise to them next time, you see them."

"...I will." I replied unhappily, still pouting and Jessie suspired.

"Now that we have that out of the way, what do we do about this?" Jessie questioned, looking straight ahead and I lifted my head up, following her eyes.

She was staring right at the door, a hopeless look in her eyes.

Aquarius stood there, in her trademark baby blue costume, fiddling with her nails with a bored expression. Beside her was Blink, who was tapping rapidly on his phone, probably playing a game or texting somebody.

He was still in his ridiculous outfit.

Whereas, beside him was...what's his name? Hellfire? Gazing at his fiery flames engulfing his hand in fascination, with a small smirk.

...and finally, the last person, who turns out to be the same apeiron that almost killed me back at the grocery store. It didn't help that he was glaring intensely at both of us.

Any chances of us escaping is probably impossible at this point. However, I have to say, having four apeirons guarding you is somewhat pleasing.

It makes you feel very important.

Well, unless all of them were glaring at us like the guy who portrayed as a broke person to kill me.

"...dude, what's your problem?" I asked rudely, still not over my grumpy mood.

"I had to act like a broke person in front of everyone because of you." He barked, apparently, his pride must have been hurt by that.

"What? How does that even explain why?" I said, confused at his reasoning.

"I...!"

"You...?"

"I...don't know."

Jessie snorted at his response, earning a glare from him which doesn't seem to affect her laughter.

My eyes spotted a trail of water on the floor, beside my leg and suddenly, I felt a hand wrapping around my neck. Aquarius appeared in front of me and I widened my eyes in fright, while Jessie abruptly stopped her laughter.

"I swear to god, I'm gonna make Frost regret what he did to me. It hurt like a bit-"

"Aquarius, they are Alexander's hostages." Blink warned, no longer focused on his phone.

Aquarius clicked her tongue, letting me go and I inhaled deeply, relieved. She walked away, returning to her original position. Jessie hurriedly moved and wrapped her arms around mine, equally fearful.

"Wh-what does she mean by your grandfather's hostages, Jessie?"

"I...I...really don't know, Jean. I've no idea what my grandfather is planning now." Jessie answered, her voice shaking a little and I clasped my hand over here.

Alexander Talbot.

Why do they obey his orders so easily?

All of a sudden, the Darth Vader theme song started to play out of nowhere and everyone became silent, including the two of us. The four of them looked towards my pocket, followed by the two of us and we stared my pocket, my phone vibrating violently inside my pocket.

"...uhm...that's my phone..."

I forgot to mute it.

"That's your ringtone?" Hellfire questioned in amusement.

"It's actually my mother's ringtone. It's originally my mother's phone and I forgot to change it. Uh, you see, she hated phone calls, alooooot. So, she used his theme song to say like 'ohh noo, someone's calling her! Trouble's coming!' and stuff, so-"

Before I knew it, I was rambling on and on, letting my phone ring on as I dug it out. I had no idea why my phone was here and why they left it with me.

"Jean?" Jessie interrupted my long rambling, which I was honestly thankful for.

"Yeah?"

"I think...you should keep quiet now and pick up the phone..."

"Yeah." I agreed, digging out my phone from the pocket and glancing at the screen.

Omni.

I inhaled sharply, hastily hitting the answer button. Unfortunately, a second later, water coiled around my hand and my phone instantly died. I screamed, my phone dropping to the ground and scattering into pieces. I lifted my head up, narrowing my eyes at Aquarius who looked triumphant.

"That's the second time you have destroyed my phone, ugh! And it's my mother's old phone!" I exclaimed, infuriated at her.

"Don't think that I don't know who that was." Blink stated and I gritted my teeth, irked.

Of course, he and his damn mind reading skills.

If only he was focused on his phone, he wouldn't have read my thoughts.

I never had any chance to deliberate on the matter, due to the knocks on the door. The 'broke' grocery man opened the door, mumbling words that were incoherent to me at this distance. He closed the door a moment later, glancing at his comrades. "Alright, it's time."

Blink teleported abruptly, startling the both of us as he grabbed our arms, pulling us roughly to our feet.

"Come on, hostages, we gotta go."

"Where?" I asked him, unhappy at how he pulled us.

"To Alexander, and his cube."

I almost choked on my saliva, looking at him with a horrified expression.

*************

"You know, I'm just wondering, if you can teleport, why not just teleport there right away?" Hellfire inquired Blink and I hung my head, starting to feel hopeless. I eavesdropped on their conversation half-heartedly, dread gnawing at me.

"Are you dumb? Do you think I can just teleport how far I want to? The further I go, the more it drains me."

"Whoa dude, just asking, no need to get offended."

"Fine. Still got any more questions?"

"Why couldn't you teleport through the door just now?"

"I'm still learning how to teleport through opaque objects or walls, sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't."

"What happens if you don't succeed?"

"I just ram straight into wall or object."

Everyone started to snicker except me and Jessie. We were inside a car, being transported to the place properly, instead of suffering through his teleportation. However, this meant nothing for the event I'm about to face.

He's gonna reactivate the cube.

The three of them...where are they now?

What are they doing?

I hope they aren't really affected by my disappearance and spending their entire time searching for me. My life isn't worth thousands that are about to die or go into coma.

I clasped my hands together, resting my forehead on them as I prayed. They were our only hope at stopping Alexander from his madness.

They can't stop it once it's launched.

I heard Jessie sniffing beside me and I lifted my head up, my lips trembling as I looked at her. She was shaking a little, and the urge to cry welled up.

"God, stop crying. Why are you crying?" Aquarius scoffed, rolling her eyes at us, annoyed.

"I'm crying because my grandfather is about to harm thousands of innocent lives." Jessie answered hoarsely, despite that, she managed to sound extremely fierce.

"Wrong, this time, he fixed it and he said there will be no consequences."

"He's lying! Why can't you see that? He didn't show you anything didn't he? How can you say that so confidently?"

"He's a philanthropist. How can he bear to hurt people?"

"Jesus! You are joking, right? That's his facade, he's completely feeding you lies! I know my grandfather better than anyone. I know him, and he definitely doesn't love humankind."

"He does." Aquarius protested and for the first time, I saw an unusual look sparkling in her eyes.

"He said the launch this time would remove all of our powers, along with the others like us."

Aquarius gazed at her hands and I observed as she started to form droplets of water. She proceeded to absorb them back with her other hand, seemingly conflicted.

"All of us here, we want our powers gone for many reasons. We want to go back to normal, to live back our ordinary lives. Having these...powers...they are..." Aquarius grew softer and she started to seem slightly vulnerable. The atmosphere took a drastic turn and I observed the rest of them, a shadow seemingly casting over all of them.

"I became a monster to the people I loved."

"My family couldn't look at me properly in the eyes, they fear me for what I am."

"Friends left me and my family tossed me away. They couldn't accept what I've become."

Some of them toyed around with their powers while the others remained gloomy, the air of melancholy suffocating me and Jessie. She couldn't even make any remarks to them anymore. I gazed at them, not entirely sure whether to sympathise or feel miserable for them.

After all, I already about all of them, because of the information collected about them by Alexander Talbot.

"Do you understand now?" Aquarius said softly, very unlike her mean demeanour that I was used to seeing. She seems like a pitiful little girl, who seems utterly lost in life with no one to rely on, her soul itself looks broken.

I breathed in deeply, fluttering my eyes open. "It's fine, you are only doing what you think it's right, and what you want for yourself. And like you, I'm doing what I think it's right, and what I want for myself."

I patted Jessie on her back, giving her a small, encouraging smile.

"Just like how you'll try your best to stop us, I'll do my best in trying to stop Alexander. I just want to tell you, those innocent lives that will be harmed, it includes your family, your friends, your loved ones. So think hard about it."

At my words, everyone remained silent throughout the entire journey to the location of the cube.

*************

I exited car along with Jessie, halfway through our journey, we were blindfolded. The blindfold was still on us as we alighted the car, immediately getting dragged along after that. It feels like we travelled for an eternity, before finally arriving to a stop.

I heard someone commanding them to take away our blindfolds, which I couldn't be more eager for them to do so.

Sunlight immediately assaulted my eyes, causing me to go blind for a moment. I squeezed my eyes close, blinking rapidly while I squinted at the building right in front of me.

A gargantuan oval-shaped building with an outer layer of reflective glass loomed over me. I could see my surroundings filled with quarantine symbols and signs, along with a barricade that has been broken through.

A few metres away from me was a black and white sign with large words imprinted on it.

R.A.D.S.A. LABS.

Of course, everyone knew about its name. After all, its name was a taboo in the city, just mentioning it made people scorn at you.

The Research and Development in Scientific Advancement Laboratory, also known as the people who agreed to allow the cube to be launched. The entire city loathed them, and this place, with a passion.

It was utterly desolated and I could see vandalism on the signs and any other object I could lay my eyes on. The vandalism contained profanities and every kind of insult I could name in my dictionary. Miraculously, the building was the only untouched part and I could feel chills creeping up my spine.

The concrete ground seemed to add to the bleak atmosphere, the people around the two of us urging us to move forward. I was starting to feel apprehensive as I approached the building, glancing around cautiously.

I felt a familiar warmth around my hand, someone squeezing it gently.

"I believe in them, Jean. They will stop him, definitely." Jessie whispered to me and I felt slightly better, the alertness dying down in me.

"Me too."

I stepped closer to Jessie, scouting the area a little more. "We have to find a way to escape ourselves, so that we won't be burdens to them."

"You finally admitted you are one?"

"Oh, be quiet."

Jessie giggled at my huffy response, leaning in closer to me. "How do you plan to escape at this point?"

"We'll have to figure it out, somehow."

"Agreed."

Reaching the entrance of the building, the doors, that were made of reflective glass too, slid open. At that moment, we took our very first step into the forbidden building.

Countdown to launch sequence: 3 hours.

Hey guys! Sorry for the super late update, thanks for sticking with me through the journey and for liking and giving my story a chance! Love you all!

PS: Hang on a little more, it's almost reaching the end!