3Busted
73 hours earlier
Angel's POV
I was still trying to read Kiki's mind when she announced her plan to the Flock.
"If I let Angel read my mind and show Max what she is seeing, will you guys trust me and believe me when I say I am not working with or for the School?" she asked apprehensively, not completely comfortable with the idea.
I looked at her in shock. For most people this would just seem like a logical solution, but for Kiki this the equivalent of willingly letting a whitecoat experiment on her. This is a monumental decision and a huge leap of faith in us for her. The whole time we had known her, she had always seemed a mysterious. She always acted so cheery around everyone and her sarcasm could rival that of Max's, but I could tell she was even more like Max's in the sense that she isn't good at trusting people. Even though she wants to befriend us, she doesn't trust us enough to open up about anything personal and keeps herself closed off. Sometimes when I would scan her mind it sounded like she was fighting herself.
Maybe I should tell them...no not yet; I think I can trust them, but what if they leave; Stop being so paranoid Kikibird, you can trust them. They saved your life for Christ's sake. Just be brave for once. But in the end she never told us what was on her mind. Whenever she had these inner wars, her mood always seemed to deaden, and if someone interrupted her train of thought she would tense and look like a deer caught in the headlights before she relaxed and cheerily responded to whoever called her.
"Why can't the rest of us know? We're a Flock. You can't tell Max and Angel keep the rest of us in the dark!" I heard Iggy protest, bringing me out of my musings. Gazzy and Nudge were agreeing with him. I saw Kiki tense up at the thought of having the whole flock go into her memories and I felt bad for her. This is a big deal for her and she already seemed stressed out about just the two of us seeing her memories. If the whole flock were to watch her memories I don't think she would handle that kind of stress too well. I was about to speak up when Fang beat me to it.
"I agree to your terms." Fang said from the wall.
We all looked over at him in shock.
"If Kiki is willing to trust at least some of us to private information about herself then I won't object. I wouldn't want to tell a whole group of strangers, whom I only met two weeks ago, our whole story if I were in her shoes" he explained.
I saw Kiki relax slightly and I smiled.
After Fang's little speech, Max decided to agree to Kiki's terms and told me to get ready. Even though she had calmed down a bit, Kiki looked very nervous about the prospect of allowing us to dig into her past, literally. I could feel the shields blocking her mind slowly go down one by one.
I waited for Kiki to give me a sign that she was ready for Max and me to enter her mind. Max are you sure about this? She seems really scared. I sent while waiting.
Yes, this has to be done. I feel bad about it, but the Flock's safety comes first. She responded
I was about to reply back, when Kiki gave me a nod to proceed with the plan. When I looked away to focus on linking Max's and mine minds, I heard Kiki send me a thought before I continued. Angel, I have lifted most of my mind blocks so you will be able to explore any memory you want, but I have to ask you not to explore some memories. I will not stop you from entering, but you may not like what you see. I looked over at Kiki and nodded.
I entered Max's mind first and then connected our minds into Kiki's. I could feel some mind blocks there, but they weren't complete blocks. They were more like do not disturb signs, meaning "you could enter but I'd rather you didn't." This must be the memories Kiki was telling me about.
Right before we completely entered her mind, I heard her think Here goes everything and saw her face contort in pain before passing out onto the ground. Then everything went black.
The first thing I saw was a bright white room. I looked around the room and panicked when I couldn't find Max.
Max, where are you I thought out to her.
I waited a few seconds for a response and was met with complete silence. I started to panic when I suddenly felt her presence next to me and turned around to face Max. I let out a relieved sigh and grabbed her hand for something familiar to hold onto. I looked around the room and saw a single dog crate in the middle of the white tiled, brightly lit, 16'x16'x10' room with one door to enter. I looked inside the crate and saw a short, black haired, tanned, Asian, with wings asleep laying on her side and cradling her left arm. I immediately knew this was a younger version of Kiki.
Suddenly, present-day Kiki appeared next to me, startling both me and Max. She looked at the scene and frowned, then she glanced over in our direction.
"Wow, I didn't know I was that old." Kiki commented as her younger self stirred in her sleep.
"What do you mean?" Max asked
"I thought I was younger when I had my memories erased. I brought you guys to the first memory I have that doesn't have holes and gaps in it. I told you guys in the alleyway that I've had powers for as long as I can remember, but that doesn't mean I've had them ever since I was created. I'm about eight during this time. I assuming this is the day after they tried to erase my memories." Max and I gave her a questioning stare.
"What do you mean?" Max asked.
Kiki chuckled humorlessly, "I say try, only because they didn't remove memories about my various experiments and I never forgot that they were dangerous and would hurt me, also because flashes of random memories would pop in my head. I-" Kiki suddenly stopped herself during her explanation and her face suddenly shut down.
I was about to ask her what was wrong, when I saw the door to the room open. Three whitecoats walked into the room and I saw young Kiki in the dog crate jolt awake at the sound of the footsteps. I could feel myself and Max tense up. I looked over curiously at Kiki wondering why she didn't seem bothered by the whitecoats, when I saw her face in the coldest, scariest glare ever-one that could rival Max's glares-focused on the first whitecoat.
We hadn't even gone far into her memories and I had already decided that Kiki would never be a spy for the School. I watched as the scene before me unfolded.
The first whitecoat approached the dog crate with a needle filled with a strange yellow serum and unlocked the door. I watched as young Kiki move further back into her crate, as far away from the syringe and whitecoat as she could possibly get. She soon hit the back of the cage and curled herself into a ball in an attempt to protect herself from the evil whitecoats. I suddenly saw her jerk from an invisible force after another whitecoat pressed a button on a remote and she immediately pushed her left arm away from her body towards the whitecoat.
"I had an electric anklet attached to me so if I got out of line or wouldn't cooperate they would 'motivate' me to obey them." Kiki explained in a monotone voice.
Max and I exchanged glances trying to figure out a way to respond that would comfort her, but nothing came to mind so we went back to watching the memory.
The first whitecoat slid the needle into young Kiki's arm and deposited the contents of the syringe. He pulled the needle out and re-locked the crate's door while the other two whitecoats made observations and muttered to each other.
I saw young Kiki start tearing up and twitching every now and then as the contents of the syringe made its way through her system.
"I don't know what was in that needle, but it hurt like hell. My body felt like it was burning from the inside out, but I didn't want to let them see me being weak."
I was about to say something to Kiki when I heard a whimper followed by a loud screech come from the dog crate. I saw Kiki turn away from the scene with sadness, anger, disgust and disappointment on her face. I couldn't understand why she was disappointed until I remembered what she had just said. She didn't want to be seen as weak, and this display of pain made her feel like a failure.
The scene disappeared and we were in a black hallway full of doors. Most of the doors were white, but near the end they were different colors.
"Is this what it's like going through people's memories?" Max asked Kiki and me.
"I don't know, Max, I've never gone through a person's memories before. I just pick up on what they're thinking." I replied.
"No, it's not always like this, I just organized it like this so it would easier for you all to sort through. Most of the time memories are scattered and hard to keep up with, and if a person can put up mind blocks it's impossible to see anything that they don't want you to see or the mind blocks will push you out of the mind all together." Kiki stated matter-of-factly.
Max and I stared at Kiki curiously. Kiki shrugged and started walking down the hallway. We followed after her.
"When I learned to control my mind reading, I started testing out what my limits were. I first started out just reading minds, then I tried controlling them, I soon found out that I could only control one mind when stupid me used my powers in front three whitecoats. The other two whitecoats ran out of the room and next thing I know I was pinned down by three Erasers while a whitecoat came over to sedate me. They started testing my abilities by making me go into the other mutants' minds and force them to do things... I know you think I'm horrible, forcing other mutants to obey the whitecoats, but I couldn't help it. If I didn't manipulate the other experiments I would end up going through their tests... I tried, but after the fourth test I couldn't take it anymore. Their tests plus my own was too much and I gave in." She looked ashamed and in pain remembering what she had done.
"That was when I really learned that the only person you can count on is yourself. The experiments had counted on me to help them out and I betrayed their misplaced trust, and I knew from the beginning that you can't trust a whitecoat, ever." She spat out the last words and I had a feeling that there was a story behind that, but didn't push her.
"Anyway, instead of outwardly fighting I honed my mind-reading skills and started sifting through various whitecoats' memories. I was searching for an escape route, when the director walked into one of my testing sessions. I searched her mind and found the escape route easily and planned my escape. I stole the key to my cage off the Eraser that was escorting me and when he left I made my escape. I got to the door that I thought was the exit, only to find myself trapped in a room with fifty Erasers. Turns out the director knew about my mind reading powers and they had been monitoring my brain activity to see when I was using my powers. She had blocked off different parts of her mind so I would think she inadvertently showed me the exit." She stopped outside a white door and took a deep breath.
"What's behind this door?" I asked.
"This the night you guys escaped." She said with a tense tone. Was she angry, and why did she know anything about our escape?
She opened the door and we were in the 16'x16'x10' white room again. Younger Kiki looked to be around eleven years old now. She was sitting up in her cage as much as she could, since it was obviously too small for her, and staring at the door as if expecting something. Then the alarms in the building started going off, and I saw Kiki smile with hope in her eyes. Suddenly, we heard the door open and in the doorway stood Jeb. Max looked hurt, I was scared, and Kiki looked ready to attack him.
Jeb started to rushed towards the hopeful Kiki in her cage and hurriedly got her out of her cage. We followed them out the door and through the hallway. They stopped outside a door and through the window you could see six cages. I immediately knew it was the flock and so did Max. Jeb opened the door and went in to free us. Younger Kiki stood outside the door as look-out when six Erasers popped around the corner.
"They're here!" Young Kiki yelled through the doorway.
"Hold them off, we'll be out in a few seconds!" Jeb yelled from inside.
He hurriedly unlocked the cages and carried younger Gazzy while old Max carried my old self. Jeb lead us out of the room and into the corridor. Eleven-year-old Kiki had taken out three of the six Erasers when Jeb ran out with the flock behind him.
"We're clear, Munchkin, let's go!" Jeb shouted at Kiki.
Kiki turned around, "Stop calling me that, I hate that name!" She shouted back, but had a smile on her face.
Max and the rest of the flock had already run to the end of the hallway and were waiting for Jeb and young Kiki to catch up. We followed them outside the School into a forest. Jeb had a van to fit the whole flock and Kiki plus him into waiting for them to get in. As the flock piled into the van and Jeb got behind the wheel, twenty Erasers and six scientists burst through the door and charged towards the van. Kiki turned invisible and killed the Eraser closest to her. She ran towards the van, but before she could reach it an Eraser who had followed her scent grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back, ripping the muscle and three tendons in the process. Her invisibility dropped and there was blood gushing out of the wound. Kiki tried to get up, but with the use of her powers and the major blood loss she was easily overpowered by the Eraser that attacked her. She looked up at Jeb pleading for him to not leave her, and he looked away and sped off with the flock.
As the rest of the Erasers chased after the van, we saw Kiki's crestfallen face before the Eraser pinning her down knocked her out, picked her up, and chucked her back into a cage. The scene started changing as we watched Kiki be carried back into the School.
I was startled when I heard present-day Kiki speak up. "I always thought the tests were bad, but after Jeb broke you guys out they increased the security and number of Erasers around the facility. They were pretty upset that you guys escaped before they were done with their experiment and they took it out on me since I was the only one left from the escape. When you guys got away I kept wishing that Jeb would come back and save me, but it never happened. The whitecoats invested more time on me and attempted to "improve" me more. Their new goal wasn't just to make a super weapon through me, but it was also to turn me into bait for you guys. After three months I stopped believing Jeb would save me. I tried to escape by myself a few months later and almost succeeded. I made it to the forest and did a U&A. Before I could make it 100 feet into the air, an Eraser shot my wing and I plummeted back down to the ground. The scientists then decided to clip my wings weekly so I couldn't try flying away again."
Both Max and I cringed at the prospect of our wings being clipped, especially by heartless scientists.
"How did..." Max stopped mid question when another scene from the School formed around us.
A look of shock and fear appeared on Kiki's face when she saw the scene that we had popped into. Max and I both looked to see what was causing Kiki to freeze up so badly and were confused at the scene before us.
The whitecoats were in a room with a nine-year-old Kiki shakily standing next to them. Before them were four crates with sleeping mutants. I realized that the mutants were the flock when they were younger. Iggy awoke when he heard his cage being opened. I looked at his eyes and realized that he wasn't looking in their direction, but looking them in the eye. He wasn't blind yet. As the Eraser went to grab him, he started kicking and screaming at it. Max and Fang instantly awoke at the sound and immediately tried everything they could to try and save Iggy.
"Stop them!"a whitecoat ordered Kiki and pushed her towards the cages. She looked reluctantly at Max, Fang, and Iggy and then turned towards the whitecoats and defiantly looked at them saying "No! I won't hurt them or help you!"
Suddenly, Kiki fell to the ground grabbing at her ankle and trying to hold in a scream. "No, I still won't do it."
The second white coat seemed to come up with an idea. He whispered it into the first's ear and as Kiki got up the first whitecoat turned towards her with an evil grin. Kiki cautiously looked at him and her face suddenly went pale.
"If you don't obey us then we will perform the experiment with your vision instead of this other mutant's, and we will make it the worst experiences you have ever felt." The second whitecoat stated maliciously.
Kiki looked between Max, Fang, and Iggy and back towards the whitecoats, and after a few moments hesitation she unwillingly obeyed the whitecoats. She turned towards Max, Fang, and Iggy, "I'm so sorry." she whispered before closing her eyes and concentrating on each of them, making them go to sleep.
"Now...MAX!"
Suddenly, we were yanked from the memories and I could feel myself being carried. I looked up to see Gazzy carrying me and immediately jumped out of his arms forcing him to stop running.
"Guys, Kiki and Max should be waking up soon!" Gazzy yelled at the flock up ahead. He looked back down at me with a worried face.
"What's going on, Gazzy?" I asked confused.
By now, the rest of the flock had come back to where we were, and Kiki and Max were awake as well. Max looked angry and Kiki looked nervous and relieved at the same time.
"Fang, what the crap. We were in the middle of an important memory and you interrupted it!" Max yelled at him, waiting for him to respond.
"We have more important things to worry about at the moment." Nudge replied instead.
"What's going on?!" Max yelled frustrated.
"Ari's back and him and a huge group of Erasers found us while you guys were on memory lane, and we tried to pull you guys out of it but couldn't figure out how, so we picked you guys up and did a U&A but only lasted for a few minutes in the air because Gazzy couldn't fly and carry Angel and I definitely wouldn't be able to so we started running and Fang yelled at you and then Angel woke up and..."Gazzy had covered Nudge's mouth while Max, Kiki, and I tried to process all the information that was just spewed at us in less than a minute.
"That..that's impossible, Ari's dead. I..I killed him myself." Max stated in shock.
I was too shocked to say anything.
"We need to keep moving." Fang stated.
After a few more seconds, Kiki spoke up breaking the awkward silence. "I agree with Fang." Then she went over to Max and shook her out of her shock.
"Max, you have to snap out of it and get a hold of yourself. Your flock needs you and you all need to get away as fast as you can before the Erasers can catch you. They're probably on our heels making up the distance Fang and the others made in their getaway. Lead your flock now and process the information later."
Kiki's little speech snapped Max out of her shock and brought back our fearless leader. I noticed the way Kiki carefully picked her words, making her an outsider to the flock. Fang also seemed to notice Kiki's careful choice of words.
"So, can we trust Kiki or not?" Fang bluntly asked.
Before Max or I could give him an answer, we heard the trees rustling around us and the next second we were encircled by the Erasers chasing us and Ari.