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Ivy

It has been exactly three days, twelve hours, and forty minutes since the video went up. It was all everyone talked about. Every store I went to, every corner in school, even at Renegades; all I could hear were whispers of the Rebel-lions and the mystery of how the video went up on the biggest display server in the whole dimension.

The Hub had increased in size, different people from all sectors, even the Purest, came over to celebrate and dine there almost every night. This was what I wanted... in fact, all I wanted. But it just didn't feel right... It wasn't supposed to be too easy. In the few movies I've seen, nothing was this easy, especially something this good.

Ethan told me Glory had given him the admin rights to the server.

He didn't put much thought into it, neither did he explain any further, but I couldn't help but wonder. All he had said afterwards, was that we had to be more vigilant than before, watch our backs and be prepared for anything.

He didn't have to tell me that twice, I knew something was off, I could feel it in my guts, something was about to go really wrong. It was all so awfully calm, so calm it scared the living day light out of me.

I sighed, tucking my hair behind my ear as I shifted slightly on the blue beanbag at a corner of Ethan's bedroom. My eyes going over the blue prints, memorizing every inch of the building.

It was huge, so many offices within its dept.

I wondered briefly if Ethan had been into the main offices.

I lifted my gaze. "Ethan, asides from Glory's house, where else have you had the opportunity to visit inside the main Facility?" My voice was a little bit loud so as to ensure he heard me from his wardrobe.

"Uh..." He sounded distracted, I heard his footsteps before I saw him. "The headquarters, why?" He answered with just a brief glance towards my direction.

I swallowed, having temporarily lost my ability to speak. My sudden silence wasn't because of his response, but his appreance.

God! What did I do to deserve this boy?

The black sweat pants he wore, hung low on his waist, giving me a mouth watering view of his well sculptered torso, downwards. He was shirtless, as guessed. His head casted down as he tried to fix up the zipper of the jacket he was holding on his grip.

He bit down on his lower lip in concentration, his wet hair falling over his forehead, going this way and that as he tried to fix in the zipper.

How can someone look so hot and cute at the same time?

My heart gave a harsh thump, reminding me that he was all mine, this-- this guy was-- was mine! How even in the world did this happen? How could someone like him-- love me? This was my dream! after spending half of my years, reading and watching movies where the male character just makes you wish you were in the movie or book, I had always wanted someone like this, but somehow, I knew it would never actually happen... But here he is, and here I am.

He held my heart in his palms, and I gladly boasted of the thought about me holding his.

He raised his head, his gaze falling on me.

Like a lovesick idiot who didn't want to be caught ogling her own boyfriend, I looked away, my hand fumbling with blue prints.

"Why are you asking? Do you need some help with the prints?" He asked, either pretending to have not noticed me staring, or just decided to ignore it.

I swallowed. "Uhm... No..." I trailed off, the gears turning in my head, I did need some help to confirm some of the layouts and I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to have him close by. "...I mean, yes... I might just need some help." I finally completed, my gaze lifting to meet his.

He nodded. "Okay, I'll put on a shirt real quic-"

"No no, it's fine." I stopped him from turning halfway. Realizing how desperate I sounded, I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I mean, you don't have to." I added cooly as if I didn't really care.

He squinted his eyes, trying to figure me out. "It's fine, I won't take all the time." I could see amusement dancing in his eyes as he set back into the wardrobe.

My shoulders went down in disappointment, eyes falling back to the blue prints.

Few seconds after, he walked back out, a black shirt covering his body, as he playfully kicked the grey beanbag from the other corner of his room, as he moved, untill it was right by my side. He settled down next to me, filling me with his warmth, my nose picking up the fresh whiff of his shower gel and his stomach flipping cologne. His thighs pressed against mine as he leaned in, his eyes on the blue prints.

I gulped.

"What do you need help with?" His voice, just by the side of my ear, sent chills down my spine, igniting a fire within me, one that sent my heart into overdrive.

"U-um, well, I just wanted you to crosscheck, since you've been to the headquarters, I may have missed something."

"Okay, let's see." He voiced, his hand moving the prints to his side, giving me a chance to breath some air back into my long mushed lungs.

His thigh was still pressed against mine, supplying me with a strange kind of heat, one that made me hot all over.

I watched him from the corner of my eye, as he looked over the prints, oblivious to his whole being seducing the creep out of me. I had the insane urge to just tackle him to the ground and kiss him all over.

Jesus.

"Okay, so everything else is fine, but there's a problem with the intersecting junction between the headquarters and the control room. There's supposed to be a line over here, demarcating this hallway, from that..." He was saying, pointing to whatever directions he was pointing to, I wasn't looking at the prints, my eyes were on him.

His beautiful features, made for me alone, the alluring shadows his flawless face carried, his beautiful hair always trying to compell my fingers into dancing through their flawless waves, while kissing him senseless. Ethan was a living prove that dreams actually do come true.

He was saying something, his gaze meeting mine in an instant, making me blink away my thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah... Um... Yeah..."

His focus was completely off the prints now. "I don't believe you, what's wrong?"

I shook my head. "Honestly, it's nothing. I'm just a little bit distracted."

"What's distracting you?" He asked, looking genuinely concerned.

My heart melted, my body taking a command of its own. I pushed the prints aside, moving to straddle a now confused looking Ethan. "What are yo-"

He was unable to complete asking his question cause my lips captured the words from his mouth at that moment.

It was apparant that my actions shocked him, taking from his lack of response.

I pressed my body against his, grinding on him, as my fingers which had been itching to touch his hair, buried themselves down their soft dept.

He caught unto the surprise quickly as he kissed me back just as passionate, his hand taking its place at the side of my face tenderly, his thumb resting on my cheek like I was a fragile glass he didn't want to break.

My hand against his chest, could feel his heart beating wildly, the rhythm almost the same as mine.

His other hand moved slowly upwards to the exposed skin on my thigh, sending shivers through me. He stoped his movement right where my black shorts stopped. He hesitated, I knew he wanted to do more, but he stopped himself.

I pushed him further down, deepening the kiss, our tongues dancing to the tantalizing beats of our hearts.

Our lips broke apart, but were still touching as we took in short breaths. I pressed my lips against his again, my hips moving torturingly against him. He groaned softly breaking us apart, this time putting enough distance between our lips, enough to break whatever spell had been upon us.

His beautiful emerald pools made my heart swell.

My thumb reached out to stroke his bottom lip, now swollen slightly, thanks to me. "Why do you always hesitate?"

He took my hand from his face, intertwining our fingers. "I told you already, I don't want to rush into this."

"But I don't feel like we're rushing into anything, I don't care about what others say, I don't think you're with me because you just want me. I'm with you because I need you, and I can't imagine a life without you, because I love you... isn't that the reason you're with me?" I asked, wondering where this new found innocence and determination came from.

"It is, Ivy. But... well, I've never really like really tried out this dating thing, and even when I was with Lacy, we didn't go that far, I just-- I've messed up with a lot of girls, and I don't want to treat what we have like that too."

Confusion met my brows. "But that's not what it is with us, you're not messing anything up with me."

He nodded, looking down at our intertwined fingers. "Yes, I know. It's just... Other girls I've been with, they... They're only interested in sleeping with me, because, well, they think... he's hot, he's sexy, he's cute and that's that, and I-"

"You're scared that if we have sex I'd lose interest in you?"

He chuckled, his gaze not meeting mine. "I don't know..." He trailed off before his eyes met mine again, his teeth nervously biting down on his lower lip before he spoke. "Would you?"

I laughed, when I mean laugh, I really did laugh my heart out at him. "Are you kidding?"

"What? Everyone has their insecurities, no matter how perfect they may seem."

"God, you're such an idiot."

He shook his head, a small smile on his face. "Honestly, I don't want to just rush into it... You know the saying, you rush in, you rush back out."

I chuckled. "If I'm not mistaking, we've been together for like ten months?"

"Six months out of those ten months were spent pretending to date each other, and the remaining four months, one of them was spent with both of us apart."

I sighed. "I don't mean to sound whiny bu-"

The sound of both our phones going off at the same time, stopped me.

"That can't be good." Ethan said, reaching for his phone the same time I reached for mine.

Bringing it to my view, confusion met my brows as I looked up at Ethan's confused gaze.

"Fresh apples?" He mused, already guessing I got the same message.

We both went quiet, trying to decipher the meaning of the text.

Few seconds into thinking, it suddenly hit me, my eyes growing wide the same time his grew wide.

"Roman!" We both exclaimed at the same time.

*  *  *

His room was a mess.

The chairs and table had long left their normal positions, his bedroom door broken from its hinges, and his room a complete mess. It was an apparent sign of struggle. He had tried to fight off whoever took him, and by the looks of it, they were many.

My eyes began to well up in tears as Ethan surveyed the damages.

I looked around, my heart beating heavily against my chest, stomach giving an unsettling churn as my eyes caught the small emergency device he had used to send off the message, it was smashed on the ground.

I crouched down and picked it up, the tears escaping my eyes as I blinked, getting to my feet.

"Who would have taken him?" My voice wavered, rage and fear settling within me.

"The Inc Lords." Ethan voiced out as he came out of Roman's bedroom, eyes inspecting a weapon. It looked like a taser, but I was sure that little thing could do more damage than a normal taser. Their weapons here was something humans would confiscate. "You don't see this weapon anywhere in any sector. It's only used by the Inc Lords. They dropped it here because they wanted us to find it, they don't usually leave it lying around."

"The Inc Lords? Wha- what would they want with Roman?" I asked.

He raised his head at the sound of my wavering voice. "Hey," he said, reaching me in an instant. "I'm sure Roman's okay. The Inc Lords, they don't just take someone to have them... It's either Roman stumbled across something he shouldn't have or it's a trap."

"A trap?" It was clear from my voice that my confusion only grew. "But a trap for who?"

"Beats me. As long as Dean is involved, Glory Curt is involved, and... I am most definitely involved. Then again, it might be something else."

"Dean? Lacy's dad?"

He nodded. "Yeah... He's the leader of the Inc Lords, obviously the gang has to be run by someone who also has the key to this dimension in their hands. The Inc Lords are a large group that begun right after Glory and Dean's separation. They're what you would call the Inc terrorist. They don't exactly fight to stay or to leave, they fight to destroy. They're dangerous. We have these volunteers who are on a permanent mission to hunt them and take them out one by one... No one ever comes out of it."

I blinked.

"They're dangerous Ivy, but then again, this is too close to home. So it wasn't deliberate, neither is it a mistake, it is what they've been planning."

I had so many other questions I wanted to ask, but one of them was more important than the rest. "How do we find Roman then? We can't leave him out there for too long, God knows what they're doing to him."

I didn't even want to think about it. If the Inc Lords were as dangerous and feared as they appear, Roman had to be found, as soon as possible.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, having me reach for it, seeing Fiona's name flashing on the screen. I picked it up. "Fi."

"Oh, thank God you're okay... I've been trying to reach Roman after the notification, but I cou-" she paused. "Tell me that's a false alarm and Roman's there with you." Worry laced her voice.

I sighed, feeling tears gather up in my eyes. "No... It wasn't a false alarm, Roman's missing and we think the Inc Lords have him."

"Fuck... I'm on my way." The line went dead in a silent beep.

I sighed, rubbing my temples as I looked back at Ethan. "That was Fiona, she's on her wa-"

Ralph and Caramel busted in, breathing heavily like they'd ran here in a haste. If I wasn't in this state of mind right now, I would have killed myself with curiosity as to why they were together. But right now, we all had one thing in mind.

We had to find Roman, and that too, we had to find him quickly.

___

Vote and Comment:-)

This chapter went from heated to HEAVILY heated! Hope you did enjoy it.

Poor Roman! I literally can't imagine that boy getting hurt! Let's chant prayers cause... *sigh*

Why do you think the Inc Lords wanted him?

Do you think it all links back to Glory and, now Dean's obsession and hatred for Ethan? Do you think all this has to do with the Rebel-lions movement? Or maybe this is another scheme orchestrated by Glory into pushing Ethan over the edge? Hit me with your thoughts!

We have close to twenty chapters left till we finish with the first book! If you haven't followed the official series page on Instagram, please do. Follow (theroboticseries) starting from next year, we'll start posting fun teasers and other fun stuffs that'll keep you involved in this dimension.

Don't forget to recommend this book to your friends if you really did enjoy it!

Next chapter, and hopefully, some info as to why Roman is really missing, comes up January.

If you're following me on Instagram, you should have seen my announcements. The first book (MRB) will be coming to a conclusion by Jan-feb 2021 (I'm not ready to say goodbye... But honestly, it's not goodbye, rather, a very stern... HELLO)

Thank you all so much for reading! And have a blessed New year celebration!

Nora xx