The Clan of Outcasts [Season 3]

Part 31: "Return"

A Remote Island (formerly Gybralltyr), Seven Years Prior...

Thunder crackled, and rain poured over the turrets of the tall black building hidden among the hills of Gybralltyr. Inside, tiny threads of electric energy sparkled in the shadows of the spacious laboratory space.

Mallory, the self-proclaimed "Crow Queen" smiled as the various stages of her machine surged to life around her. She called this place "The Rook", and it had been her home and the birthplace of her serious efforts toward vengeance. Twelve years since she was cast out of her village, twelve years of hunting and building and tinkering, experimenting on those who had been Gifted by Juros--and tonight's trials promised to be the most successful results yet.

BANG! The door opened, letting a gang of ruffians and a host of foul weather inside.

"Milady, we've got one," rasped the bounty hunter.

Mallory smiled, her long fingers toying with a lock of her red hair. "Excellent," she said. "Put it in the other cage." She gestured to the central component of her room-sized machine, two cages, one already occupied by a quivering inhuman creature. Its broken, dingy-white wings flailed when its eyes recognized the tightly-bound figure thrust into the empty cage.

"NO!" Rasped the delicate voice, "Lyssa!"

"QUIET!" The lead bounty hunter struck the bars above the Angel's head.

"Try not to disturb the test subjects, Thorn," Mallory commented in a dry voice.
The Angel, subdued and forlorn for a while now, began flailing and ranting, shaking the cage with his movement. "No! What do you want with us? You're a monster! How dare you hold us capt--"

Mallory flipped a switch on the control board in front of her, and a rounded bell beside the cage unleashed a terrible blast. The frequency struck the Angel like a physical blow, and he collapsed.

She rolled her eyes at Thorn. "Now look what you've made me do--it doesn't work when they're hurting! I can't have you in here if you're going to interfere with my experiment."

Thorn sneered at her, but turned heel, signaled his men, and left.

Once the Hunters cleared out, Mallory turned back to the cage.

The Angel had recovered somewhat, and was even now struggling to return to a more upright position. "You..." he gasped heavily. "You don't know... what you're doing..."

"I know what I want you to do!" Mallory seethed. "I know exactly what I'm doing. The trouble is that you aren't doing what you're supposed to." She gestured to the opposing cage, where the female was just beginning to stir. "Hence the necessity for the other half of this little equation."

The Angel scowled. "We are not equations!"

"No, you're abominations!" Mallory seethed. "You're the only beings capable of awakening my brother's true self--why won't you help me?"

The Angel lapsed into stony silence.

"Tengar? What is happening?" murmured the woman, opening her eyes at last.

The Angel lunged desperately at the side of his cage. "Lyssa!"

At the sound of her name, Lyssa's eyes widened, and a thick darkness coalesced in the bars of her cage--but when it cleared, she was still there. She frowned in confusion. "What--"

"Don't yield to her, Lyssa!" Tengar gasped. "She is a monster and she's trapped us in her infernal machine--"

"I AM WHAT JUROS MADE ME!" Mallory roared, and both Abnormals cringed as the charged cages inflicted searing jolts of pain through their bodies. "He is the real monster here! And you--" she scowled at Tengar. "If you won't give me the Gift I need, then I'll just have to take it from you myself!" She threw the switch, and the process began.

"Please!" Lyssa begged, trembling all over, so that her shadows leached out of her skin--although they could not reach outside the cage. "You don't have to do this. There is a kingdom called The Realm, a Gifted King has given birth to a Gifted son, and he is ready to welcome the Gifted into prominent places--"

"Too late!" Mallory cackled as the next phase of her machine crackled to life. Gears and cranks shifted and rattled. Soon the extraction process would begin. "I know all about King Balwyn's integration efforts--the fool thinks that by putting Gifted people in places of power, and strategic positions of employment, he'll appease both sides and achieve peace in his kingdom." She scoffed. "Who does he think he is? Why should any Gifted person answer to a King? I'll show them what real power looks like, when I'm done!"

She crossed the room as the power of the machine crackled around the cages, causing both Abnormals to grimace and cry out in pain.