Subject Seventeen: Wraith Among Shadows

My head snaps up when I hear Seventeen’s comment. Although my body is beaten and weary I still managed to drag myself up towards him and Four. My amazement for Seventeen’s power is short-lived when he puts forward the idea that there are other Shadow Soldiers inside the facility that we do not know of.

“That’s not possible,” I half yell at Seventeen while limping towards him. “There’s no way that is possible. Even if by some impossible chance that it were true, then they should be taken out when Ten and One takes down the facility.”

“No,” Seventeen replies. “I saw something in Block D. Blueprints and designs for other Shadow Soldiers. I think they were all supposed to be designed after me. There’s no way we can just leave without investigating this.”

I want so much to believe Seventeen but I just can’t find it in me. If there are more Shadow Soldiers under Sanders’ control, then surely he would have used them against us by now. I turn away from Four and Seventeen and look towards the others who are still resting behind the boulder. Eleven seems to look better than before now. She has been healing me and all the others constantly and it has worn her down too much. Fourteen is still unconscious. Great. We need him now too.

“Fine,” I say. “If you want to check this ridiculous idea of yours out then you’ll need to be fast. I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t hinder us or ruin the plan. You better tell Thirteen first. And one more thing…”

“Which is?”

“We need to find Nine. He’s been gone too long. Five and Seven were with him but it appears they were separated in the midst of a battle. I’m not sure Nine will be able to take out the Doctor after seeing what Sanders can do. I don’t know what sort of drug or weapon he’s using but Sanders is way too dangerous to approach right now. The Doctor can be seen in the same way too.”

“Well,” Thirteen’s voice rings out. “That would be a laugh.”

I turn my head as I see Thirteen and Fifteen walking towards us across the field. I’m relieved to see that they are okay. I do however notice how Fifteen’s left hand is shaking a little bit. That could only mean one thing. I look past them and realise I’m right. Twelve is strolling down the field behind them.

A shiver runs all the way up and down my spine and I can feel myself beginning to shake too. Glad to know they got him out successfully, but it isn’t as if they can control his actions. During one mission Twelve got carried away and forgot I was fighting enemies. I had to dive out the way but my arm still got completely crushed when he manipulated the air pressure. I remember the intensity of the pain I felt until Eleven had healed me.

“He won’t get carried away,” Thirteen says to me, almost as if he can read my thoughts. “Anyways, we have bigger issues at hand. Seventeen. I warned you about trying to change the future didn’t I?”

“What do you mean?” Seventeen replies.

“In the future where you saw Washington fall, you saw Sanders there didn’t you?”

“Yes. What does that have to do with anything?”

“When I say that you can’t change a significant event in the timeline, why do you think I say that?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“It’s because time will need to correct itself. I’ve told you this already… It needs to balance itself out. Save one life and another will be taken. It’s like equivalent exchange, like in alchemy. It’s the same for the opposite. You’re trying to kill Sanders, meaning that if you succeed that future you saw won’t be the same or may not come to past. But that just means that the lives you save by killing him will be taken from somewhere else by some other means. Kill Sanders and save the President’s life, and it may just be your life that is taken to balance the scales.”

I open my mouth in shock. If one of us – or Seventeen mainly – kills Sanders we could run the risk of dying as a result? So what are we supposed to do? Just let him run around free killing more people? Or just stand there and let him kill us? No. I refuse to stand by and let Sanders continue to walk this world.

“I won’t die that easily,” Seventeen replies. “I have a feeling that this something I’m meant to do.”

“Oh don’t worry. I’ve already seen you die in thirty-four different ways today. Ignore my warnings if you want.”

Seventeen doesn’t reply to this. Instead he turns his back to Thirteen and looks up to the sky. It seems like he is thinking about something. Moments later he begins speaking again.

“Thirteen,” he says. He pauses for a little when he gets Thirteen’s attention. “Who are the Forgotten?”

Thirteen actually looks surprised for once and his eyes go wide. That brief moment of surprise is immediately replaced by a more calm and stern look. For the first time since I’ve known Thirteen, he is completely serious. Not his usual care-free or lazy self.

“Did you hear anything about Crows too?” Thirteen says.

“Yeah. The blueprints I saw had a design for me and four others, all of which were named Crow Two through to Crow Five.”

“That bastard already managed to get four more… Goddamn it! Fine. Normally I wouldn’t care what would happen as the end result, but if you have no other choice then Sanders and the Doctor needs to die. But only as a last resort, alright? I’ll have to try and figure out what to do next. And more importantly, someone slap that dumb idiot awake!”

Thirteen points at Fourteen who is still lying down unconscious behind the boulder with Sixteen. Sixteen herself is biting her nails whiled crouched next to Fourteen, as if in a sever state of anxiety or about to have a panic attack. I almost feel the need to comfort her but then I disregard this as I can’t help but wonder who the Forgotten or Crows are. To rouse up Thirteen this much they must be people of unimaginable strength or pose an immense danger to us.

“Thirteen,” I say. “That’s great and all, but what about Nine?”

“He should be fine if you and Seventeen go and back him up now. He should be in Block F right now. Get a move on now. Oh, and take Fourteen with you. As soon as you take out the Doctor I want him to restore Seventeen’s memories. The rest of you guys’ memories can wait. Oh and Two, I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I ask.

Thirteen just closes his eyes and turns away from me, as if ashamed or too sad to answer me before simply saying: “For your loss,” under his breath.

What does he mean? My loss? I want to question him but we don't have any time right now. Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I just nod. I turn towards Seventeen and signal for him to follow me. He seems exhausted but is still able to move well. We head towards Sixteen and Fourteen. Sixteen looks at us as we approach and tilts her head to one side.

“What should I do now?,” she asks.

“Go help out Thirteen,” I say.

With that, Seventeen and I lift Fourteen up by the arms on either side and get moving. We can wake him up – or at least try – once Nine and us get that failsafe or kill the Doctor.

We head back towards the facility. I remember the path we took to get out of here and begin heading straight towards it. I glance back to look at Twelve one more time. He’s simply staring into the distance by himself whilst whistling a jaunty tune. I feel a slight annoyance at this but decide to ignore it and focus on the task ahead.

We enter through the side of the facility where One blew open the wall. She’s always been one for theatrics. Seventeen and I haul Fourteen through the maze of corridors in the facility. The corridors are littered with bodies of soldiers and riddled with bullet holes. Every now and then we would come across great big cracks in the walls or floor; courtesy of One. We continue through the broken down facility, making our way over through to where we assume Block F is.

“Do we even know how to get there or find Nine?” I ask.

“I can follow his energy trail,” Seventeen replies.

“Huh? What’s that?”

“Everyone has their own unique energy. I can home in on that and follow it to find them.”

“Does that even make sense? Can you hear yourself right now? I think you’re losing the plot, son.”

“Fine. Don’t believe me if you want.”

I can’t help but laugh a little. Home in on people’s energy. Now that is a laugh. However, I don’t have time to dismiss this bizarre claim of his. If that is what he thinks then let him strut his stuff. Not like I can understand half the things he can do; he did after all burn people to nothing but bones with some weird looking tear gas. What the heck was that?

Seventeen abruptly pulls Fourteen to the left and down a corridor I’ve never seen before. The suddenness of the turn causes me to buckle but I quickly regain my composure and head after him. Maybe he does know where he is going after all. The corridor we’re going down now has few lights, all which are dim. It almost feels as if we’re heading into darkness and into the depths of the unknown. As we move forward I notice the amount of bodies we are passing every now and then has increased greatly. The bodies that we pass now have all been shot with one bullet directly in the centre of their chest. This is clearly Nine’s work.

I tear my gaze away from the bodies and continue hauling Fourteen forward together with Seventeen. If Nine did all this then he must be up ahead somewhere. Something doesn’t sit right with me and it takes me a moment to figure out why. Before when we were inside the facility, One and I met up with Five and some of the others, but we were fighting our way out. We were always engaged in battle as numerous soldiers would constantly pop up out of nowhere. So why aren’t there any soldiers around now?

“Hey, Seventeen,” I say.

“Yeah?”

“I would have expected to run into opposition by now. But we haven’t run into any enemy soldiers. Any idea what is going on?”

“I have a rough idea, which is why it is so important for me to find Sanders and the Doctor and kill them before it is too late.”

“Can’t you think of a better solution than killing them? I think too many lives have been lost today already.”

“Compare these lives to the amount of lives that will be lost in the war. Or the amount of lives they’ve taken and the amount of lives that they will take.”

I sigh as we continue moving forward. Seventeen is right and I know this, but it feels like something in the back of my mind is trying to hold me back from taking out Sanders. It’s as if my subconscious is warning me against attacking them.

“I think it’s the effects of the borrachero,” Seventeen says.

“What is?”

“You feel as if that deep down taking out Sanders is wrong and it almost feels as if something is restricting you, don’t you?”

“How do you know that?”

“Because it is the same for me. If all our memories have been messed with then it is safe to assume this is due to the effects of the borrachero. They’ve tried to brainwash us into making us loyal, but it seems as if it doesn’t work completely. When you first got here you didn’t remember anything did you?”

“No, but my memories came back soon enough. I admit it was a bit of a shock to suddenly find myself in the training room fighting for my life, but within a couple of weeks I got them back.”

“But those aren’t your real memories, are they?”

“I’m not sure. Nine and you have made me doubt it.”

“Moreover, don’t you think our numbers are weird?”

“Huh?”

“You’re number two, but Nine and Four and the like were here before you.”

“I always just assumed that we were assigned our numbers before we had the operation to become Shadows.”

“Maybe. Or maybe there were others before you who were assigned the number two and you just filled their spot. Moreover, Thirteen said something which made me wonder why we have numbers for names in the first place. I highly doubt that there are only seventeen of us.”

What he says makes sense. Since when did Seventeen get so smart? I’m surprised by how much he’s developed from that brainwashed puppet he was when he was introduced to the team. Moreover, he doesn’t seem to be fazed by the sudden speed of the events over the past week. Is that because the borrachero has suppressed his emotional capacity so much that his mental and emotional state doesn’t deter easily?

“Let’s assume that you’ve been brainwashed,” I say. “If that were true you wouldn’t be on our side would you? I just think your memories and emotions have been messed with. Nothing more. And that thing you said about Sanders, it's just a feeling for me. I feel like something bad will come out of it after hearing what Thirteen said but I still want him dead.”

“The only reason I’ve helped you is because of Thirteen. My reason is telling me that someone who can see the future is the only person who seems reliable. Not to mention that I would be able to tell if he lied to me.”

“And how would you do that?”

“By how his energy reacts.”

Again with this energy stuff? What on earth is he on about? I decide to ignore his jargon.

“So what happens when you get your memories back?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care. It isn’t as if anything will have changed, will it? Well, maybe us?”

I turn my head away and cover the side of my face that he can see with my hair. I don't want him to see me blushing right now.

Fourteen begins to stir which takes me by surprise. Seventeen and I come to a stop and put him down against the wall. I crouch down to his level and watch him as his eyelids slowly begin to open. He’s finally waking up. The only issue with this is that we have no idea what he is going to do until we get our hands on that failsafe. As tired as I am I’m already preparing myself to fight him.

“Uh,” Fourteen groans. His deep voice is shaky and his breathing is slightly heavy. He looks a little stiff from not moving around for so long.

“What should we do with him?” I say to Seventeen.

“What do you mean? Not like we have much choice but to bring him with us.”

“That may be true but we don’t know how he will react to the current situation without that failsafe.”

Fourteen’s eyes finally fly open and he stares at us with such intensity that I take a step back. Fighting him now won’t help us, so we need to be careful about how we approach this situation.

“What the hell?” he says.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

“Sick. Tired. Grumpy. Want me to go on?”

“Not really.”

“What happened? My memory is a little foggy right now.”

“I assumed you would be able to use your powers to clear that up.”

“Ah, shut up. Who’s this?” he asks, pointing to Seventeen.

“Seventeen.”

“When did he get here? Do you want to fill me in on the situation or not? I’m not exactly too pleased that I wake up in some part of the facility I don’t know that is littered with dead bodies and I feel like shit.”

I sigh and take a deep breath. We don’t have enough time to fill him in if he doesn’t remember everything clearly. The best thing I can do is find out how much he remembers right now. It seems like he’s too weak to use his abilities to recover his memories at this point; his powers use a tremendous amount of energy.

“Long story short, we’re going to kill Sanders.”

“What?! What the hell is wrong with you guys?!”

“Thirteen and Nine orchestrated this. It’s a long story, like I said. But to simplify, I’ll just say that we’ve been lied to and that if we don’t take Sanders and the Doctor down a lot of people are going to die.”

“Nine? I see.”

Silence follows for a few seconds, but then Fourteen takes us by surprise. He moves so fast and swiftly that I don’t have time to react. He reaches out with his right hand and grabs Seventeen by his neck. Then he presses his left hand to Seventeen’s head and they both stay in that position for about ten seconds. I know not to interrupt him. I guess I was wrong when I thought he couldn’t use his powers; he’s looking at Seventeen’s memories. If I tried to break them apart then he could fry Seventeen’s brain.

Damn it. I should have been faster. Who knows how he will react when he finds out what’s going on. I watch as Seventeen’s eyes roll up and he falls backwards into the wall.

“I see…” Fourteen says as he straightens up. His attention turns to me and his eyes pierce right through me. I take another step back and prepare to take him out if I have to. Right now the mission is what is important.

“Just wait till we find that failsafe, alright?” I say. I can hear my voice shaking.

“There’s no need,” Fourteen says. He takes a step towards me and my body tenses. Does he seriously intend to fight us here for his family? I back away a little more but he continues walking towards me. I make up my mind to bring him down if I have to.

I clench my fist and swing it, aiming right for his face. I put all the strength I have left into this one punch, but he catches my fist with one hand. I immediately despair; he’s going to take us both out here.

“Calm down, Sky,” Fourteen says.

I look up at him in surprise. How does he know my name? It is only now that I remember that he looked through all of Seventeen’s current memories. Still, that doesn’t give him the right to call me that. I jump back a few more steps to create some distance.

“So?” I say. “What are you going to do now? I really don’t have time to deal with you.”

“Like I said, calm down.” He points at Seventeen who is lying down motionless with his eyes rolled back so you can only see the whites of his eyes.

“What did you do to him?”

“Nothing. I looked through his memories and I understood everything. I know exactly what’s going on.”

“So? What are you going to do now? I don’t want to have to fight you.”

“Nothing.” This takes me by surprise. “The way I see it now is that even if they kill my mother and sister, hundreds of millions of people will die. As much as I love them there isn’t any point in prioritising their lives at this point. It may seem inhumane to you but letting emotions get in the way of rational decisions is what gets you killed.”

“So you’ll help us?” I say. Fourteen’s response surprises me.

“Now I will.”

“Now?”

“Yesterday may have been a different story. Based on all the information I just got out of that guy’s head, it seems as if the war just started today. There’s no point fighting to save them now if the war has already begun.”

I pause at his heartlessness but then I understand. It's most likely that they would die regardless of what he did if Sanders wanted to clean up this mess. Not to mention, with the war going on, he could only hope for their survival. Helping us must be his best bet.

“In that case, let’s go kill Sanders.”

“Wait. I’m still not sure we should be killing Sanders right now, or at least not according to what Thirteen said. And in any case there is one more thing that I need to do now.”

“And what could that be?”

Fourteen turns his back to me and crouches down in front of Seventeen who is beginning to stir. Seventeen holds his hand up to his head and groans as if he had been hit hard. Soon enough he is able to get up to his knees. Fourteen turns his head back to look at me while pointing at Seventeen.

“Well,” he says. “Thirteen has left me such an important task. Isn’t it time to get his memories back?”

And with that Fourteen pulls up Seventeen. Neither I or Seventeen have time to do anything against the speed of Fourteen’s sudden movements. His left hand pushes Seventeen against the wall whilst his right hand flies up to Seventeen’s forehead. Fourteen’s hand begins to glow orange and Seventeen’s eyes roll back again.

Fourteen is really going to restore Seventeen’s memory.