Mentally - 18. Epilogue

When I opened my eyes, I was in some sort of medical facility. Everything was white and looked like a modern hospital setting. Beside me was Aiden, who was still dozing off. I saw a bandage where his arm used to be and couldn’t help but wince inside. It must have been awful for him to lose an arm. And knowing Aiden, he must have had a strong urge to kill Damian. If I had to win back my best friend, I had to convince this other guy to forgive him, too. Otherwise, they will just end up killing each other somewhere down the road.

A couple of IVs were inserted into my veins to ensure I was hydrated. My vitals were being read by a bunch of other machines beside me, but so far, everything looks good. Even my head was wrapped around with a lot of additional suction pads to monitor my brain activities. It didn’t even take a couple of minutes before a couple of men entered the room.

One of them was definitely a doctor, and the other one was my mentor. He looked restless, and the bags under his eyes were heavy. Even more pale and sickly than usual. If it were up to me, he should be the one who would be hooked up to an IV. Mr. Horikoshi coughed before making eye contact.

“Where are we?” I demanded. My throat had a stinging sensation. And my voice my coarse, and I couldn’t help but cough after. It felt like there was a fever inside my windpipe.

“A medical facility, obviously.” He replied dryly. When his eyes met mine, I made sure to give a bit of a death stare because of the sarcastic response. “We’re in a secret location. We can’t really be seen in public right now.”

“How long was I out?” I asked another question. The pain in my throat slowly descended to my stomach and radiated throughout my body. My muscles were stiff, and I couldn’t help but stretch my fingers. “Everything hurts.”

“A couple of days.” The man replied. His answer explained a lot. There was no way that it would be just a couple of hours with all the hurt that was exploring my body at that moment. I didn’t even notice some of my body parts existed because I had never felt them before. “That one whole day used up so much of your energy, and you were only on adrenaline boost. Your whole body finally collapsed.”

“Wa-ait a sec.” I stammered. A flash of memory erupted in my mind. It was a woman’s face. And she was someone important to me. A warm feeling in my chest appeared out of nowhere. Then it cracked. “What about my mother?”

“We already informed her what happened and secured her safety. She’s also hidden in another one of our secret facilities.” He replied. I could help but release a sigh from the news. At the very least, my mother was safe. She was the one who protected me all those years. But with everything that was going on, it was my turn to protect her. I knew that evil men were coming for us. “I’m still making the arrangements, so she should be here within the next few days.”

Silence fell after that. And it was pretty awkward.

“Did you at least get what you need?” I inquired.

“Yes. Thanks to your efforts, we have retrieved enough incriminating evidence against Helix Corp and their illegal experiments. Plus, there were also enough encrypted emails from a branch of the US Military that participated in it.” My mentor almost applauded me with such gratitude. A warm smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. And that was a scarce sight to see. He looked like a proud dad or something. “I’m sure your friend will end up in the middle of a political conspiracy because of the deeds of his father. I’m sorry.”

“I wonder if I could meet Damian again.” I mumbled. It was a painful yearning inside of me. I knew the answer already, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth. The next time I would see him, we would be enemies for sure. “There are a lot of things I wanted to say. And I want to save him! I’m sure there’s a way!”

“There is. I’m sure of that. With what is going on around him, he should start to question things. But that won’t be our first pressing concern.” “If only you were not a minor, then you would be hailed as a humanitarian hero. We still cannot reveal that we used a kid in this operation. Despite the differences in political views and ideologies against Mentals, they are still sentient beings. And experimenting on them is deemed unethical by the United Nations. There will be serious repercussions against Mr. Christensen.”

“What about him?” I shifted my gaze to Aiden, who was still asleep. His missing arm was still a painful sight to see. I could help but wince inside whenever I pictured the image when Damian managed to tear off his arm at the last second. It was bandaged tight, but I’m sure Aiden would be a lot more grumpy than ever.

He was connected to Anna Festus, but he was reticent towards her during the encounter. It was another waiting to be solved. But I’m sure I will not be able to find the answer anytime soon. To think that Damian Davis was a secret joint experimental project of the US Military and Helix Corp was just beyond me.

“We will need to ask him certain questions once he recovers. But with his animosity towards his father, I doubt that he will ever abandon us.” Mr. Horikoshi assured. And it made sense. If Aiden had other allies, he wouldn’t have found me in his sights. Anna Festus was definitely not on his list of people to trust, and his instincts were right. “We are the only allies Aiden has. There’s nowhere else for him to go.”

“You’re right.” I agreed. Aiden probably felt betrayed by someone he knew. I was, however, sure that it was satisfying for him that he made the right decision not to trust her at all. The woman had been playing us all that time. “Damian’s father and Anna Festus. They’re monsters. How could they do that to an innocent kid? I mean…he experimented on his own son?”

“I’m sure he has motives.” My mentor commented. Then slowly walked towards Aiden’s bed. His eyes grazed his vitals which seemed to be expected. Or else an alarm would have been set off already. “But whatever those motives are, they would be tough to justify.”

“I just remembered something.” I stated. My mind focused on the memories that I saw through the man we battled against in New York City. “They were waiting for something. There’s a high chance they were about Damian. The voices I heard were saying that he was awakened. And the fact that we saw Damian soon right after meant that it was probably him.”

“If that’s the case, then Damian is like a Messianic figure to them.” My mentor replied conclusively. “Ergo, we would be having a challenging time in getting to him. For sure, he will be very guarded.”

“He’s powerful enough to defend himself. It took three of us to just pin him down and render his battle abilities useless.” I added gravely. And it was true. Damian was literally a monster at that point. And if he just awakened recently, then he would discover more and more of his newfound abilities. “Those powers he had. They’re not just psychic powers a Mental should have. He was right when he said that he was a different breed.”

“The data that we were able to obtain from the lab below the Arc would give us clues to what Damian really is. And yes, it seems that he is a different breed. We need to be careful if ever we reencounter him.” The man suggested. Then his eyes stared deeply into Aiden’s wound. There were still specks of blood on it even if we were already in the facility for the past couple of days. Something else may have been causing that, too. A typical wound would have closed already at that point. “But the interpretation of data may take a few weeks for us to understand. Based on the initial reviews, the experiments were based on Russian and Chinese experiments. And we don’t have enough data on those to reconstruct the pathology of the experiments right away.”

Then we stared eye to eye. Almost like we were sizing each other up. The man was tall, but he probably felt small at that moment. “What’s next for us then?”

“There is one thing that will come out of this. And you better be prepared.” My mentor warned strongly. I gulped so hard that it was probably audible inside the tiled room. For some reason, I knew that I would not like it.

“War is coming.”