The Result of a Change

Zoey

He smirks after seeing my expression.

“Jo - Jonathan?” my voice trembles as I force the words out.

“The one and only.” he says as his smile turns to a straight line.

My heart pounds, “Where am I?” I ask.

His gaze turns to my side causing me to do the same. I find my wound wrapped in a white bandage. I look back at him, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Care to elaborate?” I finally manage to let these words out.

“As obvious as it seems, Zoey, why are you doubting it?”

“It’s hard to believe you kidnapped me to clean up a wound you didn’t know I have.”

“Well, you got a point there.”

I raise an eyebrow and he sighs.

“Stop fighting, Zoey, you won’t reach anywhere. Your little powers are nothing against us and our technologies.”

“We won’t stop until you give up and leave.”

“We can’t leave either. That’d be counted as betrayal.”

I let out a chuckle.

“I never knew invading a planet is a sign of faithfulness, Jonathan.”

“You’ll never understand but that’s completely fine for it’s not your concern.”

I let out a breath. This conversation isn’t going anywhere.

“What do you want?” I ask behind gritted teeth.

“What you stole from us, fair enough.” he replies with ease.

“What are you talking about? We took nothing from you.”

“You did, and to make it clear, it runs in your veins, Zoey.”

The experiment; he’s talking about Nicholas.

“That’s ridiculous, we had no fault in this. Leave us alone.”

His expression changes and I can tell, he’s infuriated. He gets closer to where I’m sitting.

“Not before spilling your blood and theirs on the street, Zoey. Mark my words.”

I open my mouth to speak but a robot steps in, interrupting our conversation.

“New Information.”

He turns his gaze to the floating structure before us.

“B21, what is it?”

“Marcilus is dead in his room.”

“Did you figure how did he die?”

“Yes, Master, gun bullets are found in his body.”

“Okay, flee away from the room now and tell Harold I’m meeting him in a few minutes.”

The robot goes out of the room as quickly as he came in and Jonathan turns to me, giving me a suspicious glare.

“What?” I ask.

“You killed him, didn’t you.”

“He stabbed me first.”

“You must’ve tried taking the serum.”

“It’s our right to remove your nasty blood from our veins, Jonathan.”

He laughs before turning his lips into a straight line.

“Your right? I couldn’t care less, Zoey.” he says as he takes his gun out of his pocket and points it at my forehead.

I don’t move, rather I smirk.

“Was that supposed to scare me?”

“I only raise my gun to kill, never to scare.”

I don’t fear death, I never did but I can’t die, not now, people need me. It would be selfish if I let him kill me. Besides, I would rather die as a warrior than get shot by these monsters.

“Wait, I have got a deal.”

I startle as I hear the sudden crashing of the door. Before I could react, two very familiar figures step in, leaving me in utter surprise.

Peter

The metal floor echoes with every step we take. We’ve been walking from a corridor to another and stepping in all the rooms that were unlocked but nothing showed a sign of life. Everything I dreaded in the last building we were in, is here, just a little bit more polished walls with less blood marks on them.

I wonder where Jo is. Zoey didn’t mention anything about her but then again, we haven’t talked since she came back. Edward did but he always kept on dropping the topic whenever I asked him about her.

“Edward?”

“Yes?” he replies in a whisper.

I take it as a sign and intend to whisper next time.

“Where is Jo?”

He stops walking to look at me then resumes his search.

“Follow me, I found an elevator.”

I grit my teeth and stand fixed in my place.

“Stop doing this!”

“Doing what, Peter?” he asks over his shoulders.

I sigh. “Running away from the topic. I’m her friend too, her close friend, if you remember and I have the right to know where she is.” I say getting infuriated.

He turns around facing me. I expected a cold expression but I was hit with glassy eyes and a look of sorrow.

My lips parted to say something but I couldn’t let a word out. What can I say? I’m not even sure what made him so close to crying but all I know is he doesn’t often do unless it’s more serious than expected and that thought made me flinch.

He swallows, “She’s dead, Peter. I’m sorry, I never got the courage to tell you. Hell! I couldn’t bring it up to myself. I had to pretend I’m strong but that’s unbelievable, Peter, and miserable.” He sputters out, his eyes getting filled with anger.

What? Did I really hear that or is it a hallucination?

But his eyes showed nothing but sincerity.

I take a long breath bending down my neck and turning my gaze to the shining floor. I’ll never leave whoever was responsible for this.

“Who was it who killed her?” I tried my best to let these words come out steady and firm but all what came out are some hushed letters followed by a tear.

“Max.”

This took me by surprise and I raised my head to see any sign that indicates he’s kidding but I was met with the same furious glare.

“What?”

“You need not worry, though. Revenge is taken.” he says turning away from my gaze and walking forward. I follow him.

“You killed him?” I ask wishing it’s not true.

“I didn’t have to, Zoey took care of it ” My eyes widen at this bit of information. How is it possible?

“What do you mean? Zoey can’t kill her twin.” I say matter-of-factly.

“She did, Peter, she did and she owes an explanation to both of us regarding everything.” He replies raising his voice and increasing his pace to the elevator.

I can’t believe anything I’m hearing right now. It equals living in a nightmare. Jo, the cheerful curious brave girl, is dead. I didn’t know I could never say goodbye after 11 years of our friendship. She was everything you could ask for when searching for a friend, loyalty, support, everything and yet, she died by a traitor who’s even the reason his sister might be in absolute guilt. Zoey won’t forgive herself, I know her.

I step into the elevator with Edward and press on the number ‘2’ on the panel. Uncomfortable silence fills in between us.

Before I could even say a word, I find myself dragged into a brotherly hug. I hug him back.

“We won’t leave them destroy us, Peter, we won’t stop fighting under any circumstances.”

I nod releasing myself and looking at him in a firm gaze.

“We never will for we aren’t cowards.”

He smiles and we step out as the door slides open.

We walk through the dimly lit hallway, glancing on each direction every five seconds, trying to find anything that can lead us to her.

Taking the first turn to the left, unknown voices pass through our ears. I glance at Edward, checking if he heard it and he nods. Quickly we prepare our weapons and stay fixed in our positions waiting for them.

The floor beneath vibrates louder and louder as they approach. I swallow the lump in my throat and square my shoulders, getting ready to fight.

At last they appear. Two sturdy green creatures with dark yellow eyes burning into us. Before I could even know it, one of them approaching me with a clenched fist. I dodge my head away and hold his wrist. Kicking with my knee, I watch him collapse on the cold metal floor. I glance back at Edward and find he has dealt with his opponent quite well, not for more than fifteen seconds.

Both of them rise again. I start running away hoping Edward is following me. I sigh in relief when I see him right on my side. We increase our pace as we hear their footsteps launching towards us. I hold the gun tighter with both my hands and turn back, running backwards, I fire at them, aiming for the bullets to hit their legs. One of them trips over at the same moment his leg got shot while the other increased his pace towards us. Cursing under my breath, I turn my back to him to run faster.

“This way!” Edward shouts pointing to a hallway on our right side. Quickly I follow him into it.

We could’ve never stopped running but two floating robots came in our way. They pass a blue light over our bodies, scanning us.

“Poliners detected. Poliners detected. Defense mode on.”

Turning their robotic hands into huge laser guns, they point them towards us. This is the moment where I know I have to react and quickly, before we vanish completely.

Think, Peter, think!

I control water and water destroys electronics. Hoping there’s water in this building, I twirl my fingers in the air collecting them right above the robots. Clenching my fist, the water gets collected at one spot in the air. I unclench it and all the water falls on them.

They start making unusual sounds before falling into the ground, turned off, forever. Edward gives me an approving smile that changes into a straight line with alarmed eyes after hearing the footsteps again.

We start running again, getting into each and every turn, hoping they lose our track. We get into the only wholly lit corridor causing us to stop.

Walking slowly through it, we hear a familiar voice in a nearby closed room.

Zoey.

We both run to the room, breaking the door off by full force.

“Wait! I’ve got a deal.” says Zoey with a gun pointed at her forehead.

For the first time in the eighteen years of my life, I wish the ground opens and swallows me whole.