CHAPTER TEN
Ethan's POV
"Stand down, Ethan," said Ares, still smiling at me like there was something to be amused about, "I only want to help." He still had my fist in his hand, squeezing it with renewed force I never expected he’d have. This guy surely did prove that he also didn’t want to harm me. I fought back the urge to wince in pain, if this was I was going to die today in this fucking man’s hands, at least I won’t give him the satisfaction of watching me suffer in pain.
"Fuck you," I spat on his face, as memories of Craw flooded freshly throughout my memory. He may have modulated my strength to zero but my agility remains untouched. Grabbing the opportunity when he flinched, I pivoted on my heel and threw him over my shoulder wasting no time as I aimed my kick to his shoulder to dislocate this bastard's arm before he landed.
He, however, managed to counter my attempt by twisting away from my grip. I ran straight up to the wall behind him, running ninety degrees perpendicular to the ground propelling with all my might until I got good height then kicked off, somersaulting in the air as I used my momentum to connect my heel at Ares' face in less than three seconds flat.
The impact caused the Rubrix to fly off his hand; I made a run for it. That thing controlled the technology running through my veins, I can regain my lost strength or better yet bring everything up to a maximum. I wonder what would happen then? Maybe the Agency would have no choice but take me in again for being the strongest agent they could have ever encountered. I would have also been the only agent that survived getting out of ARC alive and in one piece.
My fingers were just a few inches away when suddenly a trash can lid knocked it away, followed by a kick planting on my ribs before I could comprehend what happened. I rolled away on the wet ground that had a stench I did not want to ponder on. Coughing out the air knocked from my lungs, I pushed myself up, quickly recovering due to my enhancements.
"Ethan, listen to me, I don't want to fight you," Ares was holding his hands up in surrender, his shades were gone, and I could see the fear glimmer in his eyes. What was this guy trying to play me at? I was not stupid and I was definitely not a traitor, it was ERA that helped me live my life and my loyalty to my Agency will be with me to my grave. So why was he still trying to convince me to listen to all his lies? What will he gain from me? I shook my head.
"Then that would make it easier for me to kill you!" I charged towards him, my strength may have been temporarily removed but I still had control over my speed and endurance.
I locked him into a series of punches and kicks that almost moved too fast for the normal human to comprehend. Something was off though. He was coping my every move. He was blocking all my hits. I swung my right fist for his head; he tapped it away just as I planned. Using the momentum of my body, I spun with a roundhouse that connected to the side of his head before breaking away from him.
I watched my handiwork as he slammed to the side of the alley wall about five feet away from me. I was cracking my knuckles, nonchalantly sauntering towards him as I began thinking of creative ways to end this bastard’s life. He was too busy struggling to stand on his feet; he was leaning on the wall, discombobulated by the blow. He’s pathetic. I smirked at his impending doom.
“Ethan! Stop it!” Robyn cut in, standing in my way, aiming her gun at me. Her gun that I gave to her this morning. Her gun which I painstakingly stayed up all night for to give her today! I felt a crack ripple through my heart, summoning a knot to form up my throat. What was this? Something as feeble as that couldn’t be the reason of this… hurt.
Summoning the best, controlled voice I could muster, I spoke, “Robyn, step out of the way.”
"Bring down his vitality," Ares managed to say as he slowly recovered from the massive blow I gave him. He had a hand on the wall to keep him steady; he was stretching his jaw and checking if there were any breaks. I glanced at Robyn and my heart fell to me feet when I saw her already handling the Rubrix, fingers already sliding down graphs that controlled my capacity. I wasted no time as I ran towards her, only in an attempt to snatch it from her--
"I can't believe this," I stopped dead in my tracks, feeling fatigue washing me down to my very core for the first time. My muscles suddenly cried in protest, cramping up as I continued to ignore them until the weight of the pain dragged me down, causing me to stumble to the ground. I found myself heaving as my lungs, too, began searing in pain. The taste of metallic air lingered in my mouth that begged me to recover for a bit.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this!” I said, exasperated as I looked searchingly in her eyes.
"I knew you would overreact like this you asshole," She began. I looked up seeing her eyes gloss over with tears that swelled and fell freely down her cheeks. “God, you idiot, why can’t you just open up your stubborn head!” her voice cracked. Her hand that had a gun pointed at me began trembling. Before I could defend myself I was quickly interrupted, saving me from saying something stupid.
“Whew! You’re still a tough one, aren’t you?” Ares shook his head with a cheerful smile still tugged at his lips, “look Ethan, for the hundredth time, just listen.”
“Bullshit,” I grumbled, trying to catch my breath as I slowly rose to my feet.
Ares raised his brows, looking surprised as I forced myself to recover faster. His eyes flicked quickly to the Rubrix then relaxed ever so slightly, “Fine, at least listen to this, give me that one-on-one heart-to-heart without your big guns and muscles and then I leave you be. What do you say?”
I observed the two. Robyn’s hardened gaze was slowly softening up; her aim was lowering to the ground as she waited for my reply. Ares stood with an unfathomable demeanor set with a fixed smile on his bruised face. At least I got the satisfaction of beating the crap out of his face.
Why was this guy so indomitable anyway? What could he possibly want more from me? He already took the life of everyone I held dear to my heart, wasn’t that enough? Why would he still want to steal Robyn from me? Why should I care about her, you might wonder.
Well let me tell you why… That would be because. Because… Who the fuck am I kidding? Even I don’t know the answer to that.
“Why would you give a shit about me anyway?” I asked at last, growing tired of all this. I was slowly losing the will to trudge on with the thought of Robyn climbing over to ARC’s side of the schism. The two glanced at each other, sharing some secret as they smiled over to me.
“Because ERA wouldn’t,” Ares answered simply, “give him back his boost”
Robyn nodded eagerly, mouthing apologies to me which I pretended to not notice. A renewed flush of energy seeped back into my veins, I gave the two a questioning look, “why’d you do that? You know I can easily snap your neck with my bare hands, you know what, I’ll actually—“
“Ethan!” Robyn chastised me, shaking her head as she gathered her things before attending to me, checking over bruises planted over my torso and my cheekbone. I pulled away from her, narrowing my eyes slightly before I decided to disregard her. Did she think that after biting me back she could easily waltz back to me again like nothing happened at all? Well she was wrong then.
Ares chuckled heartily, not seeming to have noticed a thing I’ve just said, “we better go soon before ERA catches up to us.”
He led us to a black van manned by three of his men. The drive was long and quiet; none of us preferred talking again. It seemed fair and safer that way. I sat on the left bench between two armed men, understanding that they still don’t trust me. Robyn and Ares sat on the other parallel to me with one guard sitting between them. I gazed hard at the banshee as my brain decided which flurry of emotions was going to take over. I still don’t understand how thirty minutes of being away from me in the club could easily change her mind about who the good guys were.
It must be the alcohol.
She glanced over to me like an instinct and I felt the impact of an overwhelming wave of goose bumps slapped against my sk
in. I hated her for that. For barely doing anything and then have this effect on me. It must be the mixture of emotions. It had to be. I glowered at her until she dropped her gaze and sadly looked away.
We reached an old, abandoned warehouse that ARC had turned into a hurried, makeshift headquarters. Desks filled a few corners of the vast place with researchers typing away on the computers. I learned that in every entrance to the warehouse, there were a handful of armed men guarding it. These were places that ERA took out in our missions.
Two armed men escorted me with Robyn right behind me, holding the Rubrix like she owned it. We stepped into a clean white room that resembled a small lounge full of white furniture. Soon enough, my small talk with Ares began.
“Would you want some coffee?” He offered, he had a white coat folded over his arm while holding up a mug that was probably given to him prior to entering this room. As he made his way to an armchair, I didn’t answer him, keeping a cold, steely gaze that immediately told him to fuck off, but he was relentless. He found humor in it, “juice, chocolate, soup, beer, champagne, no? Okay,” he shrugged.
"Let’s face it,” he took a sip from his steamy mug, “whatever you do, ERA is no longer a place for you,”
I stared at him blankly before I chuckled darkly, shaking my head. He was the one that didn’t seem to understand the situation. He ignored me as he went on, “why else would they try to kill you? Aren't you even wondering why you've been released from your services?"
Question after question came and I never even dared to try and solve for the answer. I waited for him to get to the point. I didn’t plan to lengthen this conversation any further. I carefully looked right into his eyes and tried to understand the emotion from his annoyingly kind facade. Was that sympathy right there?
"Ethan, just think about it," he unzipped his jacket and revealed a sleeveless shirt that brandished big strong arms before he wore his white coat. "Didn't you even think why ERA was always hot on your trail? I don't know how many hideouts you have left Ethan, but to be honest, ERA is just giving you enough time to just have you lead them to your nest so they could destroy it and steal more data from you," he carried on, "Look man, I know that eventually you will go and return to your other hideouts but when you go back to them, you won't find them anymore. And that's when they'll finish you off,"
I looked him hard in the eye, seething as I struggled to stay calm until my own mouth failed me as words stumbled faster than I could stop them, "Why should I listen to the asshole that killed one of my best men?"
"Hey man, let's not get this on a personal level, you killed more of my comrades than I did yours," his smile fell, clenching his jaw and balling his hands into fists. His kind eye instantly glazed over with a hidden grudge that finally revealed itself.
Bingo. Maybe this guys did have a weak spot.
"Trust me, even I was against it," he added in a voice that was no louder than a whisper. "But he said he'd have it this way than any other way,"
"What the hell are you talking about? You were obviously about to blow my brains off until Craw jumped in," I defended. The elevator incident was something that I could not let go easily, and he saw it coming. Of course he had. This was the very reason why I swore to kill him painfully and slowly the next time we met.
"You couldn't go back to ERA Ethan, not alive, what you had running through your veins is property of ARC," In all of a sudden, Ares calmed down faster than I as he relaxed against his seat. His eyes, though, was much more duller compared to the annoying concerned look he had throwing my way a while ago.
I quickly reiterated, just to defend my Alma Mater, "Everyone knows that ERA--"
"Are you sure that's what everyone knows Ethan?" he repeated, interrupting me mid-sentence as he knew what I was about to say. “If so, then why do you seem to know so little about the origins of the ‘Elite Recombinant Agency’?” he air quoted.
I narrowed my eyes no longer taking in his cryptic words, “just tell it straight to my face Portley. I have no time for this stupid game you’re trying to play”
He looked at me with an eerie smile that made me consciously gauche. Without averting his gaze, he smoothly raised a hand and snapped his fingers. Robyn stepped in with a folder tucked into one hand. I glared intently at her as she continued to avoid my eyes. I grimaced, shaking my head as I watch her obey this stuck-up ass’ every command. It made me sick.
She wordlessly handed me the folder, and then turned to leave.
“I like her,” mused Ares, rubbing his chin. If imaginations granted you the opportunity of making it real, I would have had Ares killed and gutted in many countless ways as of this moment. He propped an ankle to his knee as he leaned back with a broad smile. “Go ahead, open it,”
I looked inside, saw my face on the upper left corner of the page along with my name, Ethan Gould, with a few of pictures of me as a child with my brother. My heart softened at the look of his little boyish features. One was a picture of us playing catch in a green grassy park; I was pitching a baseball at my tiny brother who wielded a baseball bat that was too heavy for his delicate arms to hold. Another was when we were swimming in a pool; I had a toothless grin then, splashing water mischievously at my baby brother who was apparently not happy as he tried to get away in his inflatable donut.
I remember those days quite well. It was those warm, perfect days with dad and my brother with a world that simply revolved around the three of us. There was another picture though, this one was much older; in it was my dad in his younger years, whose face I had nearly forgotten, smiling next to a beautiful brunette woman with a bulging belly, whose eyes sparkled with warmth and bliss that matched her beautiful radiant smile.
My heart sank to the pits of my guts. This was my mother.
“Gorgeous, isn’t she?” Ares muttered, looking off into the distance as he took another sip from his mug. “Go ahead, there’s more,”
I turned to the next page and it was test results from a stolen blood sample. I checked the date, and it seemed to be the day when we were first captured by the ARC. I read over the paper that had codes and abrupt excerpts saying that there was a positive match. Confused, I turned to the next page before flipping back again.
The horror that reveled before my very eyes summoned bile to gather past my throat as I gagged. I held it back in, throwing the file straight to Ares. He tapped away the object, causing papers to scatter everywhere. “That is a lie!” I roared, heaving difficultly as tears began stinging my eyes. Everything about this place was!
That was what ERA told me, to never listen to a word the enemy says. I remembered it clearly now as the general would relentlessly explain to us that the ARC were convincing manipulators that would do everything to make you go against ERA. So why did I have an annoying gut feeling that urged me to believe otherwise? These papers weren’t proof, I told myself inwardly, they’re all forged, I concluded.
Ares’ smile fell as the door burst open, armed men filed half way into the room until he raised a hand to stop the troop. I didn’t even bother caring if those bastards would want to have a go with me. I was in the need of a killing spree.
My mind raced through memory lane, trying to summon the face of my long dead brother as I watched his crying face call out my name as some men in white coats strapped us down to metal gurneys, I remembered clearly how they pierced through the veins in our hands that connected to a bag and watched all the horror as they filled us up with that one bag of puprle concoctions. I will never forget how he convulsed shortly after, nor will I forget witnessing how froth bubbled in his mouth. They had to take me away from that scene, it was only then that I knew it was impossible for him to have survived that. And if he did…
“It isn’t a coincidence that your father offered you to become one of this Institution’s pilot experiment,” Ares rose to his feet, “Ethan, this is the reason why ERA was not so open when it came to revealing information from your background. Because they
all know that they stole you from us.”
He watched me carefully as he slowly approached me, gently placing a firm hand on my shoulder demanding my entire attention as he quietly added, “because they also didn’t know what you would do if you found out that your little brother was still alive. That’s why they retired you after we took you in ARC. After they knew that I had you under my custody.”
“Ares Gould?” I stare back at him stupidly, guilt cascaded heavily on my conscience as realization drowned me away from reality. This time I could see he had on genuine smile.
“Welcome home, brother.”