after unlocked: a sokeefe fanfic

Chapter 79-Alina

Alina glared out her window in Atlantis.

Far below her, in the square, she could see a few elves going about their business, entering and exiting the few shops just open at four in the morning. They weren't who she was glaring at. In the center of the square, where her narrowed eyes were directed at, stood the shining statue of the "Saviors of Atlantis."

She hated it.

Just another reminder, another prick of resentment against the teenagers undoing all the work she'd done.

When the Neverseen had promised her more power, she'd accepted the offer to become an experiment eagerly. She longed for more power, something superior even to her Beguiling. If she was more powerful, perhaps she could've had the life she'd always wanted.

It had been painful, the experiment. She'd taken so many elixirs, the days had begun to blur together. The hunger for power became a gnawing ache in the pit of her stomach, always there, never ceasing. Every time she went to the Neverseen's labs, she prayed that it would be the last time she would be pricked and prodded at.

Then they'd begun the real transformation.

She'd died, she supposed. One moment, leering needles were swinging towards her neck, the next, she'd awoken in a stark white room strapped to a table.

Her fingertips had been blue.

She hadn't been able to feel any of her body.

She'd died, she knew.

The room was terrifying. Cold, white, severe. She hated it.

As soon as she'd spoken, she felt the difference. The ache became unbearable, and her words echoed around the room. Her words turned into shouts and shouts turned into bloodcurdling screams.

They injected more of it into her. She hated them for it, but loved them all the same.

She awoke the next day in her room, with the proceedings implanted in her mind by one of their few remaining Telepaths.

In less than twelve hours, she was in control of half the population and had sentenced the Moonlark and her friends to Exile.

It had been time consuming controlling minds, especially all at once. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to keep it up.

Her new power extended the time her beguiling lasted. But not for long enough. It began to wear off, even after the multiple injections forced on the population. She'd used an Enhancer, used the flowers, used more injections. Nothing worked long enough.

She and the council, who were locked in their homes and under strict monitoring by Alina and her alliances, had convinced many of the crimes of Sophie Foster, Keefe Sencen, and the Black Swan. Desensitized the population.

But some resisted, as some always do.

And there were too many who did.

They were hunted, when there was time, and captured.

Others escaped, and Alina left them, in hopes that Sophie Foster would not reach out to them. She wouldn't know either way, but even she could hope.

Keefe Sencen and Dex Dizznee had shown up shortly after.

And there went the most talented Healer in the Lost Cities, the one Alina had warned the Neverseen specifically about.

People had begun disappearing after. A few, at first, every once in a while. Others woke up and ran. The few numbers increased, and even now, though the reaches of the Neverseen far outnumbered the captives still in their control, the Black Swan and their agents slipped in and out of Atlantis, Lumenaria, and Eternalia without a trace.