None of us are Free - Maya

 

Place: In the middle of the forest in Sologne, somewhat in the center of France. Time: 07.06 am Weather: Clear winter morning about an hour before sunrise. Dedicated to: @Maya

Wayne stumbled through what appeared to be darkness. He knew it was dark because the light didn’t reflect, and yet he could see. His heightened senses all came together despite his dizziness, and created some sort of image of the hallway he was dragging himself down; barefoot, bloody and some many kilos thinner than only a few months ago. He could sense people too. Or whatever they were, because none of them smelt human and the fact that he could smell that forced a sharp whimper past his lips; a sound that escaped before his hand clamped around his mouth to muffle it.
Cold, hard and all consuming fear rippled through his body. Had they heard him? Had they smelt him? And then; blissful smells of fresh air and humid ground as the tunnel opened up in front of him and he somehow managed to drag himself out of there. If he had had need for oxygen, he would have been out of breath long ago, but instead what made him gasp was the all consuming hunger in his core. The guard had done very little to quench his thirst. He hadn't been human anyway and the little blood Wayne had gotten from him had tasted terrible.

For how long he wandered through that forest, he didn’t know. He knew not much, in fact, about anything, and because of that, he stopped, paralyzed at the sight of what appeared to be city lights. The town was quiet and dimly lit and he slowed down as a open café appeared around a corner. His eyebrows furrowed as he read the sign.
Ouvert jour et nuit.
Wayne’s mouth opened slightly as he took a minute to stare. Was he in bloody France?! “Fuck,” he rasped to himself, his voice broken from the excessive amount of pained screams he had endured. He pushed the door open, his eyes frantically scanning the open room for a phone. Something smelt incredibly good in here. Something warm and comforting.
A short, stuffy man appeared, flashing a warm smile at the scrawny young man; the smile quickly freezing on his face, as he took in the state of the stranger. The bare feet. The scruffy beard. The blood.
“Oui, monsieur, je peux t’-“
“Phone?” Wayne cut him off, gasping for air as soon as the scent hit him. This man smelt incredible. “A telephone!” He snapped sharply. Wayne threw a hand in front of his nose and mouth, feeling how his face slowly changed. Teeth pushing their way out and veins popping forwards. The scruffy man looked at Wayne as though he was a miracle of sorts, dreamingly flashing a smile before handing his personal mobile phone. He had to get out. He had to get out now. He grabbed the phone in a hurry, rushed for the door and slammed it so hard behind him that the glass shattered.

The number he finally dialed in a dark alleyway was a number he had memorized many years ago and had whispered to himself over and over. As the slow, rhythmical beeping found its way to his ears his vision became blurry. If his heart had still been beating, it would have induced a panic attack from hitting so fast; but now he felt no panic, just overwhelming, all consuming sadness and confusion.
“Mh-Maya.” Wayne whimpered dizzily, not understanding whether she had picked up the phone or the voice had been a voicemail message. “I don’t know what day it is or what year it is or - or where I bloody am or if any of this is real l but I know.. I know I know your number.”  
The phone in his hand was wet from the silent tears streaming down his face. “I think they’re onto me, peanut.” Wayne slid down, his back against the rough stone wall behind him, clenching the phone to his ear for any sign of life on the other end of the line. They were going to find him and drag him back there. He knew it deep inside. They would find him.

Tidus had invited her over last night, it had been a while since the two of them had talked, and a lot had been going on. The winter season was falling upon them, and she couldn't believe that for the first time ever she was actually going to spend Christimas with her family this year, she wasn't going to sit alone. But she woke up in the guest room to the sound of her buzzing phone, she never had it on silent, not with what was going on in her life at the moment. You never knew. So, she reached for it to see an unknown number, but either way took the phone - you never knew. The voice, it made her sit up in a heart beat, "Wayne?" Maya almost lost her breath, bit wide awake she was. Maya's good sense of hearing could easily pick up how dizzy he sounded, how out of place - how pained, it made her hold her breath.

She hadn't heard from him in months, and as a creature of habit once people said they were going away for a while, and she never heard from them again - well, Maya did tend to just think they were done with her. Life had never taught her otherwise. But Maya listened carefully to his words, as the sense of guilt washed over him - saying he knew her number. "What? Wayne, who?" Maya took a sharper breath in getting up from the bed and put her phone on speaker. Luckily Maya never travelled anywhere without her computer, so she picked it up. "Wayne, I need you to stay with me okay? I will come and find you okay? I promise you. But first, first I need you to tell me what can you see?" She took a deeper breath in trying to keep a sense of calm, while her mind fought not to explode from trying to listen to all the sounds she could hear around him. "Who are after you Wayne?" Maya tried again, plugging her phone to the computer and began to trace the call.  Luckily she was at Tidus place, so she would be able to just ask him to make a portal the second she had a location.

What? Wayne, who?
Wayne opened his bright blue eyes, having had them shut as hard as he had been clenching onto the phone. They narrowed in confusion. What the hell? “Is this real?” His voice was nothing but a fearful, fragile whisper. She spoke again. Maya spoke again. An involuntary sound between a whimper and a sob pushed its way through his throat. Oh my god. Could he really be that lucky?

Her question made his eyebrows push together, forming a slight ‘v’ in his forehead. Why would she ask him what he could see? His eyes opened a bit more, trying to gain focus through the alley, as the morning sun slowly started rising to the east. He could still see the stars though. “Stars,” he told her, an emotional thickness clouding his words. The sight made him oddly nostalgic, and the stream of tears slowed down, as his eyes focused on the little flickers of light above him. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had seen the sky, and now he was ever so lucky to witness the beginning sunrise. “I can’t go back,” he whispered in a raspy breath on the verge of a panic attack. Not the time that would happen before where he couldn’t breathe. This felt more like a frenzy. An energetic boost of madness, that made him want to scream loudly for someone to dare find him and drag him back. He told himself he would rather die. Fight tooth and nail; scratch faces, bite necks; whatever had do be done and die trying. Never back in that cold, lifeless metal-cage.

“The corpo- the - her,” he replied in a whisper, drawing a shaky breath, as though saying her name out loud would somehow magically have her appear. He rolled slightly on the ‘r’, his Scottish accent thickening the more drowsy he felt. Then a thought dawned on him. Maya. “Peanut, I - I don’t think you should come,” he spluttered, the drowsiness turning into a heavy surge of paranoia. They knew her! They knew her, didn’t they? The harder he thought about it the more sure he was. It was a trap! As soon as Maya would arrive they would jump out from the bushes and they would get her. They had a whole file on her. He had seen the name under suspects - a category of people of interest or something like that, but surely he had seen her name there, in the database. “They’ll get you too! They’ll get you, they - you’re in their system somehow! You have to not come, hn?” The last little noise was yet another whimper by the thought of not being able to get home. Of course he wouldn’t. This was too good to be true. Too lucky. Perhaps another illusion to get to other people of interest than him. Like a thunderbird. “Maya you can’t come, I’m sorry I called you, I’m sorry I’m sorry,.” He possibly uttered apologies after that. Slow whispers of ‘[i]I’m sorry[ /i]’ over and over as a mantra until it turned into and exasperated sigh. “So hungry,” he blabbered. And the hunger mixed with the sensation of seeing even a hint of the sun for the first time since his transformation made him feverish enough to perhaps, deep inside wishing just a little, that Alicia Blackwood would find him and give him some of her blood again. Some of that beautiful, warm liquid that had been his only reason to live for what felt like a very, very long time.

Stars, she pressed her brows a bit together, it was less in detail than he usually provided her with, which only made her more worried than she already was. The worry was eating her up slowly, but the second her computer got a notice on where he called from, she pressed her brows even further together. What the hell was he doing in bloody France? Maya licked her lips a little hating how the thick panic seemed to have overtaken him. "Wayne, breathe," she closed her eyes for a moment and took her own advise. What had happened to him? She shook her head trying to push back the trains of thoughts and theories that were building up in her mind, she had to direct her focus, she had to figure out where and how to get him back. His mention of that she shouldn't show up, made her exhale.

But it was the rapid speech and the mention of her bring in their system that made her freeze for a moment, almost dropping her phone. Closing her eyes for a moment as the flashes of thoughts and memories attacked her unexpectedly from behind almost knocking the air right out of her lungs. Now, Maya had been hit by waves of extreme paranoia before, but it was a long time since Umbrella had even been on the top of her thoughts. The end of November was rather chaotic for her thoughts just like the beginning of December, but she had found peace in being around her family. Keeping herself busy with spending as much time with them, with work, using her head to something else than to remind herself how last year had been. How the years before that had been. "I'm not going to just leave you," Maya then broke her silence, feeling how an almost sob where leaving her throat, making it harder by the second to not let her emotions cloud what ever was going on. Wayne needed her. He had needed her for so long, and she hadn't known. "No it's okay. It's okay," she closed her eyes again, feeling how the tears begged to be released as they rushed to her eyes like an army.

"Okay, listen to me Wayne. Stay where you are - okay? Do - not - move." Maya took a sharper breath in, "I will get to you. Just don't move - I will hang up now, but give me five minutes okay?" Maya then hang up, quickly jumping into some suitable clothing and rushed towards wake up her uncle, informing him about what had been happening. Informing him to call her mother, because in case of anything - she knew if Wayne wasn't being paranoid, they could use the extra help, besides - her parents, the rest of the family and if not also Howie would kill her if she didn't start telling people whenever she was about to do something that could end up being dangerous.

Once she had briefed Tidus, he had opened a portal to place Maya in the area of where Wayne would be, and she stepped out of the orange like hole forming in the air looking around. The sun wasn't quite up yet, but she could sense it longing to rise as soon as the portal closed behind her. "Wayne?" She looked around. She couldn't pick up on his scent, which was perhaps the oddest thing. Maya scratched the back of her head and started walking around. The only supernatural creature she could even smell was a vampire. At least in the distance she was at. "Wayne?" She called out a bit more panicked.

Wayne, breathe.
Yeah. It was definitely her. She had been with him many times before, when his anxiety had kicked in and taken control. Except now, breathing wouldn’t do anything for him. “I-“ he hesitated. It wasn’t a stutter this time, but pure hesitation, his mind running in overtime trying to tell her what had happened to him. “I don’t need to anymore,” he tried. He didn’t need oxygen. He didn’t actually need to breathe at all. His heat had stopped and so had his immediate need for oxygen. His brain momentarily detached from the conversation. Had that been a sound? Were there too little sounds in fact? And then reality brought him back in a frenzy. “No, Maya, no please!” Whether he begged her to not come or not hang up was unknown to him; he just knew she could come, and that he didn’t ever want to be alone again. His voice had cleared a little, kicked back by the fear he felt in his whole body. Fear of being found. Fear of causing damage to his friend. Fear of coming back. Fear of himself. Fear of everything. Could he even come back? Would they still want him now that he was … changed? He didn’t even know what it all meant. He wasn’t stupid, Anthony Wayne, quite far from it actually, and so he knew what had happened. How it had happened was another story. Changing someone from one species to another was somewhat near impossible. And especially from two species that would kill each other with their bites. Werewolf to vampire. His feverish dreams and flashes of the last few months of constant pain and confusion made him close his eyes.
Then she hung up.

The promised five minutes felt endlessly longer and a million seconds shorter at the same time. He had dozed off there, alone in the alleyway where the sun wouldn’t have found him before mid day, and the gentle lulling voice of the past ripped through the hazy comfort and woke him back up. Her voice could only be an illusion in his mind, he knew. And yet something urged him to wake up again.
Wayne opened his eyes lazily, wrinkling his nose at a new smell. Wha- mountain-air. He knew that smell.
“Wayne?!”
Electricity shot through his body and he groaned sharply from the pain it took to push himself back up. “Maya?!” His voice was raspy. “Maya, you can’t be here! Ah.” He could hardly focus, but managed to grab a hold of the stone wall behind him to stabilize his wobbly knees. She smelt like heaven though. The smell of fresh air and thunderstorms guiding him towards her. And finally he saw her. Spinning around on an open plaza in front of his little alleyway. Her blonde har reflecting the first little rays of morning sun so beautifully that she too could have been a pretty star on the nightsky. He couldn’t speak then, simply looking at her with so much noise in his head. There was so much he wanted to tell her. So much he wanted to say. Yet, as he took a hesitant step towards her, a sharp pain burned the skin on his bare feet.
“Ah!” Wayne winced loudly and jumped back into the shadows, smacking into the wall behind him. The sun. Oh, he could have cried. She was here. She was here and he couldn’t even hug her. Slowly he slid back down on the floor. Was it her smell that made him dizzy or was it the sun? Everything was so bloody strong. He smelt wet dog too somewhere. Wet fur. “You came,” he mumbled. She came.

Maya?!

Her name being spoken gave her that kick she needed to walk towards the direction of where she had heard Wayne's voice. Her fast racing mind reminding her that she hadn't seen him for so long, he didn't even know anything that had happened, he didn't know about her being part werewolf now - she was like him - no wait. She stopped for a moment as she tried to reach him and he tried to reach her, but the sun stopped him. Made him retreat back inside. Maya pressed her brows a bit together looking towards the morning sun that was so sharp she had to narrow her eyes a little bit. Then, as she licked her lips a little bit and pressed her brows together, she let her mind pick the last set of pieces of the puzzle and put them together. Wayne was the vampire she could smell. "Oh course I came," Maya breathed out, thanking her high senses had remained unchanged after she had been turned. She breathed a little bit more about, feeling her lips slightly shiver with guilt. In this world, of course there would be a way to make a turned werewolf human to make such a change of making them a vampire - it didn't take a fast paced mind like Maya's to figure out it wasn't impossible. Every thing was possible with enough patience. But she also feared how this had been done to him. By the fright, the locations - it screamed trouble - and only one possible enemy could reach her mind with the resources to do such a thing. Maya walked closer towards him, turning inside to see him on the floor. She had seen this before, after he had been turned into a werewolf earlier the year, beaten and bruised by things he couldn't understand.

Maya walked over and sat down in front of him, placing a hand on his knee, giving him a soft smile. "Hey Stranger - it's been a minute," she chuckled a little bit pained. Okay, he was a vampire. In Maya's opinion it didn't change how she saw him, he was still Wayne no matter if he was human, werewolf or vampire - hell he could be an alien and she would still see one of her best friends in front of her. "How about I get you back to Gaia, huh?" Maya suggested him with a little half smile. However, she could smell the newcomers of demons coming in closer by. "So, despite me really wanting to get you out of here, I need you to tell me, who did this to you?" Because Maya herself needed to brace herself for who she might have to face within a few minutes.

There were just about a million reasons for Wayne’s skeptic brain to conclude that this was either a dream or an illusion of sorts.
1.Regardless of his dizziness, it was definitely not long since he had been speaking on the phone with her. He knew for a fact that he was somewhere, where they spoke French. - Not Canada, nor French Polynesia, nor the Republic of Congo; not even France, Switzerland or Belgium were respectively close enough to Gaia, for her to be here before at least midday.
2. She smelt very different. The hint of mountain air that had hit him first was still there, but she smelt… a little bit like what he would assume a werewolf would smell like. Or some sort of shapeshifter. A bit like how Lucas sometimes could have smelled like an animal, when his sensitive werewolf nose had started picking up on peoples scents.
3. She didn’t shy away from him, when her face changed in realization of what he had become. Instead her face shimmered with pain and … guilt?

Of course I came.
His brows knitted firmly before buckling upwards, as emotions took over his face. They had been here before, the two of them, hadn’t they? Exactly like this. A gentle hand on his knee, made him look up at her shimmery eyes. “How?” He whispered. “How are you here, peanut?” It really shouldn’t have been that hard for his brain to focus on the million different reasons how it could be possible, but he couldn’t allow himself that luxury. He carefully placed his own, cold hand on top of hers. So warm. He could feel the blood rushing through just there, below the fine layer of skin.
His wounds had healed a while ago, most having turned to small scars and bruises that would fade soon, but the blood and dirt was still here.
Wayne’s head perked up. He smelt them too. They smelt like his guards. Like demons. A short whimper left him, and his grip on her hand tightened. “We have to go,” he whispered desperately, placing a hand on the floor underneath him, preparing to push himself up and start running again, when her question reached him and he froze. Would she believe him? Umbrella was known for doing good.
“Ah, what the hell,” he mumbled. His brows furrowed again, as his jaw tightened. If there was one this he knew clear as day was who had done this. Yet it proved difficult speaking the name and he had to look away. “My - my boss,” he growled. The fear was slowly seeping away turning to anger. A bitterness that dropped from his words as he spoke. “My boss from the Umbrella Corporation.”

How? Yes that was a very good question, yet a simple one to answer. "One of my uncles can makes portals," well she could just have said Tidus by name, Wayne would have known who she spoke about if she had said so. And to be fair, Maya had gotten quite a few uncles over the last months, who would have thought her against all odds would have found so much family this year? "Besides, I traced the phone you called from while we spoke, you know it's piece of cake," she chuckled a little, trying to humor the situation up. His skin, so cold it was like ice, making her realize he had as matter of fact died in the time she thought he had just been out trying to find himself. Wayne was right, they had to go, and she looked shortly at his hand that gripped onto hers, making her take a deeper breath in. They couldn't go anywhere if he didn't have a daylight ring, and it wasn't like she carried one in her pocket in special cases. He froze. She wondered why, and suddenly she didn't know what she feared the most - his answer or his silence. "Your boss?" She repeated his words, where was it he worked again? She couldn't recall him ever actually having told her the name.

From the Umbrella Corporation.
It was like her heart dropped to the floor for a moment, rolling around on the ground trying all its power not to shatter after having collided with the cold ground. "What?" Her words leaving her lips as if he had just knocked all air out of her lungs. Maya licked her lips a little, moving to her feet taking a few steps away from him. "You were working for them?" Maya could feel her heart starting to race even faster and she shook her head a little bit, her mind restarting the conversation from what he had said earlier - they have files on you - wait - did he know? Maya blinked a little bit, exhaling and looked to the side, the sun was way to far up by now for him to escape from its long fingers. Her mind felt split in two, one of them wanting to figure out how long he had been working with them, had he in secret been working against her? Just trying to keep her close so he could monitor her? The other part wanted them to get the hell out of here, having him explain everything when they got back home. But Maya could not hide the fact that she was suspicious of him at this moment. "There is no way we can get you out of here without you burning up," she mumbled a little bit looking, was it a trap? Umbrella's way of getting her back in the system, using Wayne as bait? She looked towards him, "I'm not leaving you - so don't even go there. I can fight them," she sighed, not because she wanted to. But she could, she sort of had to.

Her uncle?
Wayne tilted his head. My god. She’d found family? So strange to think that while he had been gone, in his own version of hell, the world had simply kept spinning around him. It made him feel utterly insignificant - a feeling that heavily dulled the flutter of happiness he had found for his friend. That and her strange smell. The more he thought about it the more he felt a little nauseous by it. He couldn’t focus on her words, but managed to squeeze her hand slightly. “You smell funny, peanut.” And then the warmth of her hand got ripped away. His eyes opened wide in surprise and he desperately grabbed out in hope of getting her back, somehow wondering who dared rip her away from him like that.
His hand fell when he realized it had been her. All her.
The way she spat out the words with so much hatred and despise and took a step back as though he had physically struck her made his throat tie together in a gulp. Them. It dawned on him that she knew. She knew. Normally people spoke of the corporation in lighthearted terms, maybe perhaps joking about the possibility of them being power and money hungry, but it was for the greater good, people said; their medicine was helping countless of people. But not Maya. Clearly she knew.
“I didn’t know,” he whimpered. “I swear I didn’t know. I - I would never - you know I would never!” And he wouldn’t. He hadn’t. Not on purpose anyway. And when they had tried to blackmail him into continue working, that’s when everything had gone wrong. His ‘no’ had not been taken kindly.
He saw the paranoia flash in her eyes. Had they done something to her? Had he done something to her? Without knowing?

He had seen the sun only once since his transformation. Once, to check if it burned. Alicia had tried and tested anything he could possibly think of, to make sure that he was fully and truly turned, and the sun had not been an exemption. So at her words he nodded slowly, still searching her face for whatever it was she was feeling. Hurt. Hurt for whatever reason Umbrella had effected her.
“I know,” he whispered, leaning his head backwards on the rough wall to raise his eyes to the sky. That’s why you shouldn’t have come. He knew they were probably both thinking it. He had doomed them. As he opened his mouth to tell her, that she had to leave him, he barely made it past the first words before she cut him off, declaring she would do no such thing. Then, it was his turn to frown.
“You will not!” He insisted. No way. Not alone. “You don’t understand. They’ll take you.” His anger turned to a low, breathy mutter. There had to be another way.

He started throwing words out of panic that he hadn't known. But if he hadn't known, how would he know what she spoke about? How could he even imagine what she meant? Maya knew she had seen algorithm of his hacking system once before when she had hacked his phone earlier this year, but she had never even dared to take her thoughts that far. The reason she had known the algorithm and been able to understand it had been because she had done it before. Once before. Maya stayed silent for a moment, a dreadful silence that wasn't very much like her, but he had been his coding that had kept her locked in when she had tried to escape. He had been working with them this entire time, and even if she knew he couldn't have known - she wished he had known better. Maya breathed out trying to mask the hurt that wanted to explode out of her, but right now she directed the emotion towards the people coming in closer.

Maya raised her brow at him as he told her she wouldn't fight them. That They would take her. She felt the panic crawl down her spine rather unpleasantly. "Like hell they will," Maya replied a bit more stoic to his anger building up. "You've never seen me fight," she also pointed out, and despite, "so why don't you sit down and let me handle this." Maya spoke not really letting it be up to debate, after all she knew they wouldn't come very far in taking her, if Tidus had done as she had told. She knew very well that at least one person would come as back up, strongly followed by half an army if allowed. One thing she hadn't had in the past was people having her back, but she for sure had that now. Maya walked closer to the exit, feeling the sunlight on her skin despite the winter air being crisp and cold - she could almost hear them. Even so, she might not even need to fight them, if she could just slow them down or knock them out.

Wayne had actually been really quite young when they had contacted him first. Still doing a degree, specializing in 3D holographic engineering, and some lady had offered him a job even before he’d ever gotten around to graduating. His initial coding had been simpler than what he would usually do, but soon enough he had started having fun. Complexities, getting pushed to do better and think smarter. It had felt like he belonged there; finally amongst people who appreciated his talents. Not like everyone else who thought he was strange. Obviously his excitement for doing work for a well known company along with high praise and a bit of prestige and admiration had made him blind to what they could have used his systems for. He had never asked questions. He wasn’t really raised to do so, and had he seen the red lights he didn’t even know if he would have listened to them knowing how much he hated change.
His desperate words clearly didn’t do much to calm Maya’s skeptically panicky eyes on the subject, and Wayne felt some fragile thing between them shatter to pieces. She stayed quiet though, and the silence burned hotter than the sun he had felt moments before.

Wayne wished desperately that he could fight with her. He could barely stand though, and knew that anyone coming would have the easiest possible time catching him and dragging him back to whatever godforsaken hole they had kept him in. “Already sitting,” he grumbled as a bitter reply. “Maya, please. They’re ruthless,” he tried again, knowing that look in her eyes would mean that she wasn’t about to listen to him at all. A low groan escaped him, as she spun around and walked out on the open piazza; the sunlight making her blonde locks glow like gold. He had doomed his best friend. And even if they survived this - which … odds were clearly against them - she had looked at him, like something had broken. Like he had broken her somehow. And he didn’t understand, because what could he have possibly done for that stupid corporation for her to look at him like that.
His head was spinning. The smell of the demons gave him sharp, bright flashbacks to the hole. To the cage. “Can’t go back,” he whispered to himself. “Can’t go back.” Alicia had told him that he could easily just switch his emotions off. A perk of being a vampire, had she glowingly stated as if there was any part of this that could possibly be positive. Switch the emotions off and you won’t feel the pain. He had resisted so far because, well, what would be left of him without his emotions. Emotions was what made him him; and he knew that if he had to spend one more second in that cage, with the nagging knowledge that he had cause any harm to Maya, he would not be strong enough to not press that button in his heart.  “Can’t go back,” he repeated in a whisper. “Rather bloody die.”

Maya, please. They’re ruthless. She licked her lips a little taking a sharper breath in. She had been ruthless, she could do ruthless if she had to - not that she wanted. Maya had found peace within herself for the first time in her life, she had found peace, a sense of belonging - and yet here she was, feeling how that peace was disrupted by the chaos in her veins that never really had been gone, just asleep. She could hear his whisper. He didn't want to go back, the repeating whisper making her take a sharper breath in trying not to let her emotions overtake her - especially not right now. Rather bloody die. She froze for a second, before she spun around. "Don't you dare fucking say that, do you hear me? Don't. Fucking. Say that," she hissed a little at him, looking down at him while taking a sharper breath in. Hell, she knew what it was like to give up, be on the edge of just wanting the nightmare to be over because you were so sure the sun would never shine on you again - that happiness wasn't yours to have. "Don't fucking say that," she shook her head and breathed out, feeling the energy in her needing an outlet before she could destroy everything in the room they were in. "They are not going to get you okay, I won't let that happen. Neither of us are going back there," she took a sharper breath in before stepping out, seeing the group of at least seven demons standing not far from their little hiding spot.

They were armed, she could see that from distance, it was a smart move. She would give them that, they had the upper hand in numbers. Maya had the upper hand with the distance. It didn't take much effort to pick one of them up by a lift of her hand and throw him against two of his buddies, slowing them down. She closed her eyes for a moment. What she wouldn't give to just have kept that nice peace and quite. Maya breathed out, folding her lips a little bit. She hated this. Odd, she had used to like the thrill, it had been what kept her alive all these years, that sweet kick from the excitement, now all she wanted was to take the first place back home to Howie, and just forget this had ever happened. "There are at least seven of them," she sighed a bit, feeling the small lack of her confidence reaching her. "A portal would be very nice now Tidus..." she mumbled a little bit to herself.

Although she surprised him a little with her anger, a small surge of embarrassment hit him with her words, but slowly faded into defiance. He knew of her low point in life; he knew that she had felt like that too, and he had been heartbroken by her loss of will to live back then, but his clouded mind felt upset at her rage. How dared she react like that. She had no idea. No idea what they had done to him back there. No idea what he had endured or felt or seen or been through.
Wayne’s eyes darkened drastically and he narrowed them in defiance to her emotions, ready to snap back, telling her that she couldn’t possibly understand, when she said something, that made his anger disappear in the morning sun.
Neither of us are going back there.
His narrowed eyes opened at the realization. His brain sure had slowed down, when it didn’t concern mathematics or absolute survival.
Maybe the files he had managed to peek at back then had not been people of interest. Maybe they had been actual test subjects. He swallowed, a little uneasy at the surge of anger he had felt towards his best friend. “You-“ He didn’t even know what to say.

He would have probably never had time to say anything anyway. There were too many words to be said. To many apologies. And he had not gotten the time to say any of them before the guards showed up. From Wayne’s dark corner, he only recognized a few of them; but that was enough for the panic to take back control of his body.
With a clenched jaw he kept telling himself, that a Vampire couldn’t have panic attacks. Panic attacks came down to breathing. It came down to heartbeats and oxygen and other things he didn’t have. So why was he feeling to utterly, helplessly anxious at the whist of their scent.
He closed his eyes to refocus, but was hit by a tsunami of images, so his eyes opened up within a short second to get rid of the memories that pushed onto him. “Oh, wot the bloody hell,” he whimpered, his voice cracking dangerously at the last word.
He heard her talk of a portal again. Had she said the name Tidus? Wayne’s brain tried desperately to connect all the confusing dots, but he very quickly gave up, as a demon took another step forwards, a kind of pretense-defeat in his face.
“Little girl.” The demon’s voice was rough and coarse, and there was a humorous flick of light in his eyes, as if the whole ordeal was funny in some way. It made Wayne clamp a head in front of his mouth to not audibly whimper again. “We need the vampire; why don’t you take a step back, mh?”

Maya had thought endless of times in the past, what if she hadn't been alone the time when Ramsay had surrounded her that day? What if  she had thought harder, would she had been able to escape? Maya pushed the thoughts and memories of terror away, she had to focus. "Fucking hell," she took a sharper breath in, watching one of the demons speaking up, the way he looked at her just pushed her closer to the instincts she had hoped to keep on a shelf. But of course it wasn't that easy. "Yeah? And I need for you to bugger off - so why don't you do that?" Maya replied and raised a brow. At least she knew Ramsay was dead, Tatia had killed him. "I for sure thought Umbrella would be smarter than this, but I guess we all can be surprised, right?" She clicked her tongue a little. "Oh, hey, how about you take a step back," she looked towards one of the demons whom she reckoned was getting too close, and used a telekinetic pull to push him back. Maya could hear the sound of the loading their gun taking an aim at her making her looked towards the sound with the corner of her eye, and just as the demon pressed the trigger, she made a small hand move to redirect the gun towards one of his buddies. "You just saw I could move things with my mind, and this is how you act out," Maya mumbled a bit to herself. At least one demon down, made it six left. Still pointless to get into a close encounter with them if she wanted to come on the other side of it.

One thing that was as a matter of fact different than the last time she had been in a situation like this, was rather simple. She had people in her life now she was so closely entangled with now, she had her family and even if she hadn't known them long, she had already learned so much from them. More than they maybe even realized. Maya knew she could take the demons head on, with the right choice of action - she just needed to play the cards right. The otherwise blue morning sky turned darker as clouds started to form, as if a storm was summoned from above, which perhaps it was, caused by the young hybrid's frustration about the entire situation. The sound of thunder starting to echo over their heads, making a little mischievous smile curl on Maya's lips, "I guess I only have to say this once, if you don't leave. I'm going to have some electrocuted demon on my plate soon." She raised her brow a little, well at least this was a warning sign, she was very curious to see if they would take it. She guessed not, but then again, they had been warned.

The demon’s dark eyes managed to pierce across the open space, locating Wayne in the corner of the shaded alley. They narrowed skeptically at Maya’s taunting words. “You snake,” the demon whizzed, his pretence carefreeness disappearing, for the first time sounding like it was serious business and like Wayne had sincerely disappointed him. “Need to learn how to keep your damn mouth shut, Anthony.” Wayne knew that tone. The disappointment that would lead to something very painful. He knew inside of him, that the demon wasn’t wrong. He should have kept his mouth shut. He should have never involved Maya.
At that thought, a demon to the right straightened his arm, loading a gun towards Maya. He would be her doom. The click of the gun echoed through the empty streets that would soon be filled with people making their way to work. And then a loud bang.

“Oy! No!” Wayne barely had time to think before he pushed himself forwards, leaping towards his best friend in an impulse. The sun hit his hand, and with an annoyed, hoarse scream of pure anger and frustration, he had to step back into the shade. God!! In almost the same movement, the blonde Thunderbird had lifted her hand, and flicked it to the side, somehow pushing the gun that was pointed at her to the side almost lazily. One demon fell to the ground with a groan; but the leader barely looked back - his eyes had turned from Wayne to Maya, tilting lightly with an impressed gleam in the dark eyes and lips that slowly curled upwards in a weak smile.  It was easy to know what he was thinking amidst his fascination. Powerful Thunderbird; but also something different.
The sky turned dark and in the gloomy weather; a faint rumble of thunder. Wayne had never seen her use her powers. He stared in awe - his lips slightly parted - at the sky turning quickly above them. What the hell. And Alicia had called him special for his apparent immunity?!
The demons shuffled uncomfortably on their feet as they had to reevaluate who they were more scared of; a young girl who could control the weather and apparently also their movements - or the Umbrella Corporation. An easy choice for the few of them, who actually slowly backed away, clearly not wanting a show down in the middle of the French villa. Their leader stood still, simply observing Maya curiously. He knew he had no chance at winning this; he also knew that making a mess in the village would compromise their entire operation only a few miles away in the forest and that too much attention was never good. But then there was the bloody Vampire boy. He was not only a test subject but also a guy who had worked for them and definitely knew too much. Alicia however, would have covered their tracks, and if any information came out from the boy, it would be ridiculously easy to hit back and nobody would ever listen to a newly turned vampire. Not even if he claimed to have been a werewolf because well that would be impossible wouldn’t it. He smiled back; the same little mischievous grin that Maya sported, and raised his hands in defeat.

Wayne carefully tried raising his hand away from his hide-out, wondering if the thunderstorm was covering the sun enough for him to move; and with the emotional realization that he could suddenly move freely, he stumbled forwards towards Maya. Swinging and swaying and sweating, but determined to get to her.
“Anthony,” the Demon said, calmly; and Wayne heard him very clearly through the thunderous rumble above them. “We will find you, boy. We will find you soon enough.”
Then he backed up, not taking his eyes off the two of them, in time for Wayne to reach Maya, desperately grabbing her hand, sinking back onto the ground next to her on his knees. “We have to go,” he gasped. “We have to go; they are waking up. I - I don’t think I can contr- hng.” He covered his nose with his free hand. The humans had slowly started moving, and he could smell them so very powerfully.

It was sure a boost of confidence as she watched some of the demons taking her warning seriously. One would find it foolish to underestimate a young girl who had been raised and shaped into a killing machine, just trying to cope with what the world had tried to force on her shoulders. It was so easy, so tempting to just give in and give them a piece of her mind, giving them a show of just how they should not even dare to try mess with Wayne or her again. Perhaps it was the most dangerous dance she had with her past for months, the closest she had been or at least had thought she had been to Umbrella since they had taken her few years ago. Fucking Ramsay, she was happy he was dead. Maya was one thing about this, and it was confidence, because she knew just what kind of power she held and what she could do if it came down to it - she also knew, if she took that step it was hard to go back from. Her mind had already picked up on his movements, how his expressions changed just by inches and his heart beat, oh his heartbeat, how he was thinking about what she would do, or if she would do anything.

The smirk was reflected back on her, enough to give her a little kick that perhaps was the best not to explore further. She didn't need that kick to be alive, not anymore. What she needed was packing her stuff and get to Howie in London and just settle there away from the chaos the region on Athena seemed to haunt her with. But even so, she knew if terror could find them in France, it could in London as well, but she was confident in wanting to try having just a shot of the normal life she never had the chance to get. Even if there was nothing mundane about Maya, one could dream and at least try it out, right? She hadn't made it this far just to quit.

Maya was rather aware that Wayne had stepped out from his hiding spot, realize they perhaps had her to thank for that, or not, the demon saw Wayne - of course he saw him. "Oh please, prepare a better villain monologue by then," she shook her head a little bit. It was dangerous enough that it wouldn't take Maya much to find the demons face throughout a quick little day to day hacking, and tracking who ever he was. If she could hack into Bratva and had helped Irina with being one step ahead - she would find out who that demon was. Maya wasn't scared of him, not while she had a free hand out, fear could come when you had nothing left - and she had regained so much. Wayne grabbed her hand, almost forcing Maya to move her eyes from the demon, but she didn't. Not till he was out of sight.

Her eyes looked around as people started to get out to get out. At least it was Sunday, the first Sunday in December. It had at least given them a few extra hours, because people usually sat in and enjoyed the time with their families. "We will," she picked up her phone texting Tidus to make a portal that could take them to her mother's house in Grounds of Lily. Maya knew Katelyn was at their father's place, so she could take Wayne to her mother's. Besides there was no way she would take a newly turned vampire to a house filled with delicious blood types. It didn't take long for the orange like circle of a portal to show up in front of them. Maya grabbed Wayne's hand and forced him up, to pull him through the portal.  

Suddenly standing in the living room in her mother's house in Grounds of Lily. Maya used her powers to quickly pull the curtains down in the big living room. It was a shame really, because the view of how beautiful the snow was in the large garden was something out of this world. "This is my mother's house," she informed Wayne, knowing he hadn't had a chance to meet a lot of her actual family other than knowing she had found her birth parents back in April, but back then it was also just slowly getting to know them and Katelyn. He didn't know she had moved in at her father's house, nor that Howie and her were together, or that Roman was with Katelyn. She picked up her phone and texted her mother to let her know her whereabouts, before doing the same to her father: knowing her mother would most likely have sent out the entire force for notice. Maya took a sharper breath in and closed her eyes for a moment just collecting herself, then turning towards Wayne.

We will.
But how? He thought in his clouded misery. How could they go anywhere? How had she even made it here? The more seconds his brain got to swirl thoughts around in circles, the more the only conclusion could possibly be that all of this was an illusion. In the real world the Demon would have not accepted defeat – he could see it in his eyes; the darkness and need for chaos and pain. It was all just a game to them. And Maya! Since when was she so strong?! So casual in shouting threats around and so confident in herself? And then something strange happened in front of them; just as he had opened his mouth to tell her that they should retreat back into the forest and away from the humans because he couldn’t do this anymore.
A bright orange circle sprung up. Much like if they had been looking at a metal door and someone was cutting through it on the other side, causing sparkles from the metal hitting metal and heating up. It expanded, and as he stared at it in awe, he felt Maya’s hand grab hold of him and drag him through. It was a strange sensation. Almost like being in a rollercoaster and having that small surge of energy in your core and then – then it all disappeared and there was no more thunder. No more clouds. There was daylight and there was a living room.
The curtains drew and the room turned dark.

It was strange but beautiful watching the blonde thunderbird as she explained him where they were. He felt warmth and genuine happiness towards her and her fortune in life. Birthparents! Probably who she was texting too. Through his hunger and confusion and the dull achy pain in his entire body, Wayne smiled at her. A smile that froze a second later as realisation dawned on him. He was in her mother’s house! Not only was it his fault that they had seen Maya. And that Maya apparently knew about them. And how did she know about them?!
“We - you - uh. I need to find a place to hide, don’t I?” He mumbled. They’d find him here. They’d seen Maya; she was compromised and if she hadn’t been on their list before she most probably would be now - especially if he was hiding at hers. At her mother’s. Whoever she was. Maya was finally happy; he could feel it seeping out from her entire being. Something had changed for the better and through his misery he still found a place for the warmth of knowing that at least she had been well and getting better whilst he had been in hell - at least she would be fine without him when he left. Now that she had family that cared. He also either didn’t know or didn’t remember just who this mother might be and wouldn’t want to harm her in the process. “I can’t put this on your family, Maya.” Wayne looked up at her, feeling determined to try to make it good again. “I can’t put this on you.”

"First and foremost, you need to just take it easy for a second," she took a sharper breath in. Looking at all the Christmas decorations that her mother had been hanging up, even the smell from the Christmas cookies that had been made few days ago still hang in the walls. Christmas seemed rather contrapuntal with the horror that had happened this morning. Maya placed her phone back in her back pocket. Maya needed to breathe at least for a second, to find out where they had been keeping Wayne, who had taken him and what they had done to him, alongside with why they had taken him. "There is a spell over the house, we are safe in here," she breathed out, there was perks of having a powerful warlock as your step-father. Maya turned her eyes to him as he said he couldn't put this on her family or her, and licked her lips a little bit. It wasn't like no one ever had managed to save he from Umbrella back when they had her, she had saved herself - like she had saved herself so many times before. It was first after meeting her family that she had suddenly been having to adjust to people actually having her back and come for her when she needed help - even when she was too stubborn to ask for it, or thought the situation wasn't worth help. Maya was still learning.

Maya folded her lips a little bit and took a sharper breath in. She had not forgotten the words he had said out of panic. "Where you working with them?" She asked despite knowing the answer, and even so a part of her just really hoped he would lie. Just for a second. "They turned you into a vampire? How, I assume they had to neutralize the effects of the werewolf bite, trace it out of your body till it gained back it's human properties - then actually going to the entire vampire process," she mumbled a little bit letting her brain work for her. Maya took another controlled breath in and scratched the back of her head. "I to get in there an erase the files they have on us," she mumbled a little bit using her telekineses to move the laptop from the coffee table in the living room towards them and opened it. "You said they had something on me right? I need to find it before they get to clever, fucking hell, I've been staying one step ahead of them for years by now - this is the last thing I need Wayne," she hissed a little, trying not to let the panic raise ove her, but him being all over the place didn't really help Maya in staying in a calmer state of mind. "Just don't say anything right now, please. Don't - say a word," she licked her lips a little bit placing her computer on the counter and started searching around, getting into the Umbrella's system - after all it wasn't the first time she had been sneaking around there to try find what she needed. But since she hadn't heard from them since the former Legends of Gaia had assumingly taken care of Umbrella - Maya had thought it was it, and they were gone, now the worry started to shake her a little again. She just needed to get this out of the way, and then she could aim her focus on him after.

Wayne pinched his lips together. She knew exactly what he was going to say. How could he excuse it? Why did she look at him like he had hurt her? “For,” he corrected sternly, trying to explain with that one word that he wasn’t a bad guy. He hadn’t known. “For them.”
She was saying so many words. Was that too many questions? Wasn’t it extraordinarily loud in there? He could almost smell the humid cages and the lack of sunlight and taste the blood and the screams and the tears and –
“God!” He snapped hoarsely, trying to dull the loudness in his head. “I don’t know! I’m not bloody bio-chem and frankly I wasn’t able to focus on paying attention to details!” Wayne wrapped his arms around himself, grabbing hold of his own elbows and took a step back from the blonde thunderbird. How was she this calm about it all? How was she not shocked? He had never heard of anyone being turned back from werewolf – that was certainly not a normality! – and not at all about someone getting turned from a werewolf to a vampire. They were toxic to each other. Bites would kill them. This didn’t make sense, and she spoke as though it did.  

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he grumbled. She was bypassing his system way too easily and somehow that bothered him the most. More than the fact that she had known about umbrella but never confided it to him even when they had told each other so much. He’d spent years on that system! And she butchered it in seconds as if it was some first grader colour coded test in primary school. Somehow it was some sort of joyful little victory, when she started on a complicated code, he knew would fail. The spark of delight faded before she could hit enter and he quickly grabbed her hand, forcing her to not press the next button.
”You have to use a lambda instead of the list comprehension function or it’ll blow back on you; and add a conditional before the second range,” he muttered before letting go of her hand, knowing that they could have been mere seconds from giving something to the system they were trying to enter and feeling heavy in his chest that he had nearly let it happen, because of some bizarre jealousy that had flared up. He trusted she had a good enough system to not give up important things, but it was probably best to not alert anyone that they were digging. “I added a backdoor just before … uh. You know.”
Then he took a step closer to her; still his arms folded in front of his chest as if he could make some sort of barrier like that, and he peaked over her shoulder at the screen, wondering if somehow she could delete it all. Maybe he could live a life where none of this had happened. Maybe he could pretend.

He stopped her. And for a second she had to just breath and not press enter either way, but she had learned to listen. Well, Maya had spent time with Iris, and Iris was wonderful mind was basically a computer, watching that, observing how she did stuff, well Maya's mind was filled up with all the good stuff. But her newfound werewolf temper didn't make the stress she was under much easier, and this was the only time she was thankful for the extreme training she had been forced and shaped from by the military since she was a kid. Maya could handle the stress, she could go from it. She had to. But as she listened and let him guide her, it was how they did things the best - and right now they needed to remember how well they worked together rather than anything else, even if it was hard. Then once he let go of her hand, she kept working. Just like him, she didn't like being told what to do, but she also knew better than to put up a front about it, what she truly got a kick from was getting further into the system. Maya had used to work for Legends of Gaia, she had been in their system and it was marvelous, and completely different, but it had never stopped Maya for taking on a challenge. Then he mentioned the backdoor, and she nodded a little, clearly listening despite being completely focused on the screen. "Aha," she kept on going, finally seeing something. Of course Ramsay's personal files were hidden away from Rayna, that guy had never really liked anyone digging into his stuff, and Maya found pleasure in knowing he was dead.

She opened the file of hers, finding large reports about the three almost four months she had been captured. There was a video file, and for a second she was tempted to see it, but she already remembered every single day in detail once her mind started playing its own tabe. The curse of having Maya's mind. She also remembered all the bad stuff down to detail, and she felt a single tear escape the corner of her left eye, before she started deleting everything in that file, then searching for Wayne as well, "you want me to delete it?" She asked without really wanting to hear a no, just doing straight for it. Then starting to make sure she erased her tracks perfectly. There was no way she would risk getting more on Umbrella's radar than today's search had brought upon her. She didn't like it. Once out she turned off her computer completely and closed it. Her hands found the counter and she bended her head down for a second taking a sharper and more controlled breath in.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be snapping at you - I shouldn't be surprised that they would try to lure someone like you into their nest," she sighed a little bit before straightening herself up again and pushed herself off the counter as she turned to face him again. "But you better not be lying to me," Maya pointed out rather serious. Because she couldn't stand the thought of him backstabbing her, not after everything. Maya was beyond freaking out, she could freak out later, and as calm as she seemed it was just one of the layers that she didn't wish to shred right now.

But Maya understood going from being one thing to the next, and having your life flipped around. Wasn't she the one who had been jumped by werewolves under a full moon and therefor ended up being bitten so brutally that she could perhaps have died, if it hadn't been for the bites had made her something else entirely. But she could explain the chaos he had missed out on once things had settled for him.

Wayne took yet another step closer, finally fitting snugly in next to her like he always had done. His eyes scanned the screen, feeling sour of the fact that he had never done this. Never dug around. It would have saved him so much pain had he just been more curious and less naive. The files dominoed around the screen, one after the other in a long tail and his mouth opened in plain shock. There was so much!
He gently touched the corner of the screen, letting his fingers trace around the edge of a window with what appeared to be a video. He had seen videos like this before – right when Alicia had shown him what they were doing down in the bottom floors. Even though it didn’t play out, he saw her silhouette so clearly on the screen. And then. Gone. One by one the images and the text disappeared, and he slowly withdrew his hand back to crossed arms, watching the screen go emptier. Until his own face popped up and his hands fell down alongside his body.
It was all there. Everything.
You want me to delete it?
“I – uh.”
Everything disappeared. All the research. All the files. All the data. Him. He stood frozen as Maya closed the computer. And although he had thought he would feel relief, and possibly did, somewhere he also felt regret. All they had done to him had been so horrible but perhaps deep inside he had survived it by thinking that at least maybe all the data they got from him, would help other people one day. Maybe some more generic cure for turning werewolves back to humans. Maybe some other medical things. And now that it was all gone, he felt somehow empty. Like it had all been for nothing. At least she must feel some sort of relief being out of their system. He nodded slowly to himself. That would be a better thanks than anything else, he decided. No regret. Just happiness that Maya was free. Focus on Maya, he told himself. Focus on -

“I’m not lyi - Why in the bloody hell would I be lying to you?!” His voice gained that all-too-familiar screech it did when he was on the verge of panicking. Only this time he only felt pure frustration that she would ever think for a second that he had willingly and knowingly participated in such horrid experiments for what? The gigs of it?! “They’ve a good reputation, how the hell was I to know! Not like they’ve put up bloody signs everywhere, saying they’re doing sketchy what-nots in their freaking secret, underground basement!” He still felt very deeply the sting of betrayal from a company he had given his life. He had moved all the way to Gaia for them. It had been his plan since he was 12 for god’s sake.
He pressed his lips together and reached a hand to his forehead, dragging it through his messy hair. It had grown long and a little frizzy just like his unkept beard. “Sorry,” he mumbled. It was bitter. Just as he had started getting the hold of the infamous anger as a werewolf, all these new sensations needed to be understood. So many bloody emotions! Not to mention the god damn hunger. "It's all a bit much." He turned to her. "You alright?"

Why would he be lying? She didn't know, but she also didn't trust it. She didn't trust anything in this second, and she just needed to breathe. "Fuck that," she hissed a little bit, good reputation her ass. She didn't care. Not that she blamed Wayne for not knowing better, but she should, she wanted to. "Because all places like that are too bloody good to be true Wayne," she added looking towards him, just as frustrated. Maya sighed a little bit, she didn't want to snap at him, it was the last thing she wanted, but her mind was so alert since he had called her and it was echoing, ticking like a bomb to explode with everything he had said, the people from Umbrella had said, along with what her eyes had seen on the files she had just deleted. Everything was buzzing, so loud in her head and his frustration with it all wasn't helping.

I'm sorry. Maya licked her lips a little taking a step back turning her back to him for a minute, if she thought he was an enemy she would never have even made the thought about doing that. But he was right, it was indeed all a bit too much. You alright? She had been. From this summer till she had gotten that phone call - well perhaps there had been a few bumps on the road, her entire transformation, the shooting in the woods, stuff like that. "I'm fine," she licked her lips a little bit shaking her head. Then she turned around looking at him, "I'm sorry this happened to you - you didn't deserve that," she exhaled a little, still feeling the guilt poke in her gut for not having been there or known. She had thought he had left after she had gotten the text that he was out of town - and after that she had heard nothing - which in her world usually only meant one thing, people were done with her.

Wayne gawked at her in disbelief. “Too good to be - too good to - you don’t think that anything was too good to be true to me, huh?” He groaned desperately. Nothing had been good before Umbrella had taken him in. Nothing whatsoever! “You of all people should know that.” Maybe it wasn’t exactly the same, but the academy had taken her in much like Umbrella had him. Given a place with people who seemed to care and most importantly a place where he was useful and appreciated and could actually help and make a difference. He had never even suspected that his gifts would be used to anything else than what he saw. They were years ahead! Such advanced technology; he could spend days looking at the tiniest little complexities and he could help build them! Not to mention the many people who could actually keep up with his busy mind. Keep him on his toes even. Yes, that might have been too good to be true, but he hadn’t known anything else. He had even made friends for the first time in his short life. At least people that didn’t scold him when he couldn’t figure out a correct way of behaving in a social situation and people who actually helped him grow. Just like Maya had. Just like Roman. And the whole family. Like Jack and Lucas. Would all these people look at him differently now? Did they all know about Umbrella? Would they think him a bad person? Or someone stupid and naive; just like his father?
“I don’t lie to you,” he mumbled. “That’s the deal isn’t it? Huh? We don’t lie! Not to each other.” That was the deal. That was the basis on their entire friendship. The first proper friend he’d had in a very long time too. Had she even been looking for him?

He nearly stepped to her when she turned around but something kept him away. Kept him locked in his position there, a half meter from her blonde curls. He had never felt awkward around her; she had been the one person he hadn’t minded physical touch around. A gently hand on the arm. A head on the shoulder. Even a hug. And now he didn’t dare placing his hand on her shoulder to make her feel a little better in whatever misery he had put her in.
He felt his own arms wrapping themselves around him again, clinging on to some strange need for positive touch that he hadn’t felt in so long, not even knowing if he could bear it anyway, when she turned around and he caught on a little tighter at her words. You didn’t deserve that.
Wayne’s jaws tightened with his grip. Did anyone? Did anyone deserve that? Perhaps he had deserved it; helping them for so long. If anyone didn’t deserve it, I’d was her. It was such an overwhelming sadness knowing she had been through something but had never felt comfortable telling him back then.  “What … what did they do to you?” He whispered. “Why didn’t you ever tell anyone?” Not that he judged her, but it was such a big organisation. The world deserved to know. They needed to be punished.

You of all people should know that, - "That is not the same thing," she mumbled a little. It wasn't. Not completely. Even if they both always had looking for a place of belonging - he knew that, but he didn't know much, didn't know how she was raised in the military, how big her loss was. But heavier than she ever admitted. She felt angry for a moment, again with the anger, she was most of the time always angry or held a piece of it close. How could she not, she had been angry at the world and herself for many years. The guilt she carried was heavy. But she had forgotten it for a while till today. With all the good she had found this year it had been sleeping and right now it had woken, ripped all the scars up. "That's the deal," she sighed a little licking her lips closing her eyes for a moment, still with her back turned against him.

He hadn't deserved it. Not that anyone did. But it was perhaps her guilt that spoke the loudest. Shouldn't she had known better? Had she been so caught up in her own happiness that she couldn't hear a signal for help? Maya just watched her friend standing there in front of her, hugging himself and was in desperate need of knowing things would be alright - and yet, Maya would never lie and tell him things would return to normal, because they wouldn't. Nothing ever turned to normal, and Maya for one had never experienced normal. What … what did they do to you? She completely froze for a second, still dealing with the entire days, minutes and seconds replaying in the back of her head, and as he asked they just pushed forwards. Why didn’t you ever tell anyone? She had told someone, Levi and Alison. She had joined the Legends, she had fought trying to make a difference- more fighting, more pain. "They did enough," she licked her lips a little looking into his eyes, feeling another set of tears wanting to push through. "What should I have said? Hey I was lured by them to think I had found information on my birth parents - after I had finally gotten out of the military, and survived not being killed by an army of living dead while all my other friends from my unit had been slaughtered? and that I was tricked by one of the leaders in the military who had bought the rights to me, as if I was an object he had bought on auction? That they put me in a room and tortured me, experimented on me, tried to get inside my head. As if the military didn't do that enough," the lights in the room started to flicker a little as her powers started to spark by the wave of emotions.

Maya exhaled and closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm a trained killer Wayne. I didn't tell because I'm used to it, being sold like a weapon just waiting to be used," she made a small shrug then opening her eyes looking away from him. "I wanted to get away, I wanted to just be me -" Maya crossed her arms a little bit, hating reliving these moments her mind played out every time she blinked. Maya had to turn back time with her speeding mind and remember why they were even here, what had happened today. "But we are not here to talk about me now. We are talking about the fact that they turned you into a vampire who did? Rayna?" Rayne was the only one she knew for sure about being there. Zitora had told about her. Tatia had seen her. Maya turned her eyes back towards him. Well, she had the skills and training in keeping her emotions in, focusing, right now she relied on them.

That they put me in a room and tortured me -
Wayne took a step back.
Experimented on me, tried to get inside my head.
The words made his eyes glaze over. His racing mind fell quiet, only focusing on the small echo of her words. It was like a punch to the stomach. It was so nauseatingly surreal that it made him want to curl up, press his hands to his ears and shut his eyes so tightly that he wouldn’t have to ever see anything. Not her broken face when she spoke. Not the flickering lights. Yet somehow the nausea turned to numbness and her emotions felt … hollow.
“God,” he muttered, staring at her. “You’re so British!” His voice snapped in exhaustion, breaking into a frustrated screech as a rush of heat found its way to his cheeks. “What should you have d– You should have told a bloody adult! Whoever! The police - The goddamn Queen and King and Mayor! There were so many down there, Maya! They can’t do this!” It was all so unfair! Such a large corporation and this amount of shocking corruption; how was this even possible? How had no one caught on to this?! A massive web of lies. He felt his eyes finally catching up to the overwhelmingly numbing emotions that spun around his entire body, pressing out angry tears as soon as his voice had reached volume. “They can’t do this! They – they -” He had to take a dizzy step back, letting go of himself to reach behind him for whatever piece of furniture he could grab hold of in fear of his legs not being able to support his body. It was a fumbling, messy grab he fought to hold onto a bookshelf, as the world turned foggy through the tears.

Clearly nothing in this world had been like what Wayne had thought it was. Just like it always had been. His dad had turned out to be a manipulative psycho. His best friend was a trained killer and had been through horrors he sadly could now imagine. His entire life had revolved around a company that was doing repulsive experiments on people And somehow nobody ever stopped to check on him as she got dragged along in a frightingly fast pace.
His legs couldn’t possibly keep him standing any longer and finally gave up in their impossible quest, letting Wayne lapse to the floor. The tears had stopped and dried to sticky patches under his eyes and on his cheeks. He looked up.
“What – No!” Why the hell was she speaking of Rayna? “God, no. No, the – what’s her – the first of - ah!” Even thinking of her name made him feel like he had to throw up, and he physically had to grab his knees and push himself slightly forwards, positioning his head between his legs like he had been taught to do in the event of a panic attack. He exhaled slowly, shutting his eyes tightly, trying not to whimper too loudly as he did so. What the hell. What the hell. If this was all an illusion anyway, what could go wrong. He’d still be down there in the dark. They couldn’t do anything they hadn’t already done to him. “Alicia,” he managed through another exhale, not even caring about it anymore. Did anything really matter at this point? ”Alic - Did you –” Wayne took a breath, letting his tongue moisten his dry lips. He didn’t blink. It felt empty staring at her through the realisation that slowly dawned on him. “Did anyone even look for me?” Where his voice had first been insistent, it had turned to a hoarse, weak whisper. They hadn’t. Nobody had. Even a plain idiot could see that now. Not her. Not Roman. Not even Artemis. However long he had been gone, people had moved on; and clearly to the better.