The Mariposa

Chapter 35

A Few Months Later

Maeve

It was finally the fated day of confrontation. We had carefully been preparing for months, orchestrating a plan to infiltrate the place not long ago I called home. We were as prepared as we could be, but the odds were still not in our favor. We all knew that, we had accepted it. Having the Mariposa as part of our numbers did help a great deal, but the Veralians were still so untrained.

Elyas and I would be scouting ahead. There was a secret passage into the Mariposa HQ that I knew of. It was meant to be used as an emergency exit, in case we were invaded. Ironically enough, we would be using that very passage to invade.

I met Elyas at the door to our abandoned HQ. His expression was a carefully constructed wall of fake certainty, I had learned to recognize.

"Are you ready?" I asked him, offering my hand.

Without hesitation, he nodded, taking my hand.

I turned to Kalon, Harrow, Augustine, and Ezekiel. They were our designated Generals. "We're going to scout ahead, assure that the passage is unguarded. If it goes as planned, you guys will get a message from me on your commlinks to follow us. If you don't get a message from us, something has gone awry, and you are to prepare for possible invasion. Under no circumstances should you come after us if we have not reported back to you. Am I understood?" I narrowed my eyes at Kalon especially.

Harrow and Ezekiel nodded, but Kalon only stared back at me. She would not make me a promise she couldn't keep, I knew that.

Still, my heart was heavy as I turned away. "Let's sneak into an assassin's headquarters," I said to Elyas.

We took off, our makeshift army cheering for us as we took off. We flew through the storm, emerging on the other side for what could possibly be the last time. As soon as we were back in the normal night skies, Elyas spoke:

"This will be my first time seeing this place you speak so much of."

I laughed lightly. "And it will likely be my last time seeing it..."

He looked at me with what I was sure was pity as he gently squeezed my hand. Unable to return his gaze, I took off. He followed shortly behind me.

It wasn't long before we arrived at the HQ. The entrance to the secret passage was below the HQ. Carefully evading the view of the guards that surrounded the headquarters, we flew under the massive building. In the middle of the building was a trapdoor. Elyas floated next to me, watching my back as I held my wrist gun up to the scanner. There was a risk in using my old wrist gun as they likely put my identity on their hit list. My wrist gun would likely get us immediately apprehended.

So, I used Augustine's. The risk was still there, but it was possible they would presume him dead or missing, not an enemy. Our entire plan hinged on this chance.

My heart flooded with relief when the scanner flashed green, the trapdoor opening up. Elyas shared my relieved grin. I went through the door first, Elyas following below me. It was a very narrow tunnel, built like an airduct. It was only big enough for one body at a time, so he had to be behind me at all times.

"I'm enjoying the view. This mission is turning out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be," came Elyas' voice from below me.

I shot my leg back, and he narrowly dodged my assault. "Shut up. And not just because you're being inappropriate. It's possible that our voices might carry," I whispered.

"An assassin's headquarters have thin walls?" he asked quietly.

I shook my head. "It's monitored. No cameras. And they'd have to turn on the monitors for voices, but they have a reason to considering we just used the scanner for this passage. Someone could be listening to us."

He was deathly quiet after I said that. We rose through the passage, reaching the trapdoor that when opened, would put us right in the emergency bunker, where we had kept a lot of our supplies. It normally went unguarded as it was only used in emergency situations.

Once again, I used the wrist gun at the scanner. It opened up, and we flew through the hole, emerging into the bunker. Elyas had just joined me when I heard a whizzing sound come from somewhere in the dark room.

Panicked, I darted my vision around, but I couldn't see anything in the pitch-black room. "Elyas, do you see anyone? I just heard something flying."

I turned to him, expecting a response but he was stumbling, his eyes going half lidded. He started to fall, and I caught him, holding him tight to me. Inspecting him, I saw a dart in his neck. My heartbeat picked up as I realized what it was. I looked up to try and find the one responsible just as I felt a dart strike my own neck. The two of us crumpled to the floor.

***

My head felt impossibly heavy as I slowly gained consciousness. I blinked my eyes, trying to get a grip on my surroundings. All that surrounded me though were blank white walls. The ceiling was white, the floor was white. Everything was a white nothingness. I couldn't tell where anything began and ended. I looked beside me to see that Elyas laid there, still asleep. I shook him violently.

"Come on, Elyas, wake up."

He blinked awake just as I had. His eyes met mine, then darted around the room. He sighed heavily, resting against the wall behind us.

"Any clue where we're at?"

"Yeah. We're about to die. This is one of the many twisted things I tried to get them to stop doing. It's the confusion room. They'll keep us in this room with no food, no bathroom. No visitors, no guards to torment us. The idea is that we'll slowly lose all sense of self, until we eventually just die of insanity or starvation, whichever happens first."

I winced. "Damn, why not just kill us?"

"Too good for us. But that means this has moved on from the Mariposa. The royal guard must have been in your HQ."

My eyes widened as I studied my lap. "They knew we would come. They knew we'd use that entrance. They were just waiting..."

"For us to trap ourselves. Right."

I checked my wrists, but the wrist guns were gone. Not only did I not have any way of protecting myself, I also had no way of contacting our army.

"They took our wings too," Elyas said, studying my back.

I looked at him, trying to ignore the way my skin was crawling, my hands trembling. "You're the prince. Surely you must know a way out of here."

He shook his head. "No clue. Because I was so adamantly against it, I wasn't allowed to know any of the details on how this place works, besides what I've already told you."

I crossed my arms across my chest. "How can you seem so calm?"

He chuckled. "I'm resigned, Maeve. There is no escaping from here. We've reached the end of the line."