The minute those words escaped her lips, an electric jolt shot through her body, sending her thoughts awry as if on rewind. Images of her younger self flashed across her mind along with glimpses of Alicia Crescent and Samuel Templeton. The very process sensitized her nerves painfully and she staggered backwards while clutching her head.
‘Dee, what’s wrong?’ River said in alarm when he saw her pained expression.
‘I don’t know,’ she gasped as the pain slowly ebbed away to be replaced with confusion. What had just happened anyway?
The walkie-talkie on River’s belt suddenly crackled to life.
‘River?’ Adriana’s voice rang out in the desolate church. ‘River, where are you? I don’t care if you’re ignoring us but get back to HQ! Rhett’s orders! We’ve finally figured out what the GroundUnders are after! We’re in Omega!’
As trained soldiers, they packed their feelings away and focused on the fulfilling the given command. Upon entering Omega, the inhabitants gazed suspiciously at the two. Keido, who was positioned behind the enormous computer, smirked at Destiny.
‘What you got, Keido?’ Destiny asked, ignoring everyone’s stare.
‘Rhett, isn’t there something you would like to say?’ William put in, giving him a sideways glance. Rhett’s face colored slightly but he cleared his throat and gave Destiny his usual stern and cold expression.
‘The file you brought us,’ he uttered impassively. ‘Turned out to be exactly what we needed to piece the puzzle together.’
‘You should be glad I insisted on studying it, Rhett,’ Keido said casually as he opened a file on the screen. Rhett gave him a murderous glare. The file he had opened unfolded to reveal window upon window of information stamped with ‘FAIL’ in bold, red capital letters. Destiny raised an eyebrow. Why was Alicia so persistent on this experiment when she failed every time she tried? The windows suddenly disintegrated to make space for the image of a dark silhouetted lean creature with bat-like wings. The image shifted to one side as information wrote itself beside it.
‘Ew! What is THAT!?’ Chi cried out and wrinkled her nose.
‘Alicia labeled it as ‘Mage’,’ Keido informed.
‘Mage…’ Destiny murmured and a familiar tingling returned to her skull. Something was trying to surface in her mind but it was like she was pushing it down while simultaneously trying to wrench it free.
‘Mage was a segment of Hova,’ Keido read off the screen. ‘Which the scientists had obtained when they severed off a piece from her. It mutated into Mage, a life-form more powerful, more destructive and definitely more unstable than Hova.’
Tito grunted while Gear whistled low.
‘Because of its unstable nature,’ Keido continued. ‘It couldn’t be exposed to the Earth’s environment without causing a nuclear explosion. But if encased in a unit that can withstand Earth conditions, Mage would be invincible.’
‘Is that what the experiments were for?’ Adriana said in a hushed tone. ‘They used…’
‘At least thirteen humans died while the others went insane,’ Keido said gravely, his frame rigged. ‘And I’m not even counting the animals used. But here’s the worst news: they finally succeeded in sealing Mage. It was Alicia Crescent and Samuel Templeton who did the honours.’
At that moment, something shattered inside Destiny. Her eyes widened in realization as she covered her mouth to stop herself from vomiting. The experiments. All those bloody experiments were…
‘Destiny?’
She looked up to see a concerned River reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder. She flinched and jumped back to step on Adriana’s foot.
‘OW! DESTINY!’ she howled and clutched her foot. Everyone looked at them distractedly.
‘Yo, Dee, you okay?’ Tito queried.
‘I…I can’t breathe…need air,’ Desinty managed to stammer as she scrambled out of the room.
‘Probably weirded out by this stuff. I know I would be,’ Chi said knowingly.
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