I've been betrayed before, don't get me wrong; I just didn't expect it here for some reason. On the mainland, a hybrid cannot trust a human or anyone else. To try and distinguish ally and enemy is impossible. An uncollared hybrid was asking to be a slave or a pet. An opinionated hybrid was asking for death.
I'd manage to evade that enough to find a freetown where the humans didn't give a rat's ass about my tail or my bare neck. As long as I turned a blind eye to the fact they had just murdered someone in front of me in cold blood. So why do I feel such pain now? What's causing it?
How strange.
I half expected some part of myself to answer back.
I haven't heard anything for days. I'm not used to the silence to be honest; it makes me nervous. All this time, I've been dying to have the voices silenced and when they actually were - I want them back. It was the only thing that calmed me when I was by myself on a lonely street. Now I can hear how silent it truly is...and my ears hurt.
I feel pain because of the person who betrayed me. My own wife. Perhaps it is better to call her Adagio model no.3...or was it no.4? Adagio's died and returned so many times now I'm beginning to forget how often she's "returned from the grave." It's her fault. All of it is. The doctor was right.
Adagio asked one day to take Donatien for a walk. Given where we live, I found it weird. In truth, she wanted to take him to a gallery on the mainland; they had some artwork from a person she respected. Adagio had been obsessed with starting and expanding Donatien's horizons as early as possible and bringing him to a new environment made sense. How foolish of me. I should have gone with them, but I had to work.
Several days past. I don't hear anything from my wife.
I called. I texted. I panicked.
Adagio was later delivered to the lab in pieces, some melted, others charred and blasted beyond repair. She was conscious but so far damaged that she couldn't even manage speech. It took a prototype cybernetic brain for her to finally explain that she had been struck by a grenade during an attack. Oh and she'd let the attackers kidnap our son. Sorry.
That's right. Adagio's response to our child's kidnapping - the one we poured more hopes, dreams, sweat, and the best of both of our beings into- was, "Sorry."
I went mad, screaming for Donatien to return for several hours in the ruins. not that he could hear or understand the sounds of a panther at any rate. My voice was raspy for days after that. Everything in my mind scattered. It was void of thought and emotions, anything not having to do with finding my child. Days past but no ransom call was made. No demands. I thought someone was after my family as a whole. I was attacked. Adagio and Donatien were attacked. Arwen was save at home for the moment, but how long before these nuts took her as well?
I didn't understand why this had happened. Who would attack and take an infant? This didn't happen in Midian; it was broad daylight in a perfectly good area on the mainland. There's no way the UAC's cameras didn't catch it. I started to suspect everyone and question whether my faith was somehow being tested. Was Donatien being punished for my sin?
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| The new Father seemed to think so. |
I went to confession to beg forgiveness for the man I had wrongfully killed in the name of Ayr's ritual and for the people whose lives I may have destroyed as a result of my experimentations on them. At first, Father proclaimed that Donatien was simply paying the price for the sins of his hybrid mother. It was typical banter from a mainland priest I guess. After I broke down and declared Donatien was only a few months old, his demeanor changed. It seems no matter what views people have of hybrids, a innocent child is always going to be an innocent.
I was given a blessing and sent on my way to follow in the words of the Lord and pray that I would find my son soon. I planned to protect myself and alert the MPD and UAC to the kidnapping. I planned to avenge Adagio and see to it her attackers begged for death when I was through with them. I planned for everything that might stop me.
Then I found out.
Adagio had been planning this all along. She hired UAC to attack me and the Blackstar operative I'd hired to provide security around the city; I still don't know if Ms. Zhangsun is alright. An attack was not enough. When I work up, I was in Belfry. I don't recall much of what happened to get to that point but I was not happy to be in such a place. I had a special hate in my heart for Dr. Sautereau after those rumors she spread about my family and me in particular. The woman confirmed that Adagio had turned me over for evaluation, likely out of concern since I mentally snapped with the loss of the baby.
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| Maybe I was a little cracked... |
Thankfully, Dr. Sautereau understood that mourning was not a mental emergency and she's helping me sort out the voices in my head. Starting with Kilana, I'm undergoing treatment so I no longer have the different personalities fighting for dominion of the same body. She even explained the rumors, citing mostly anger at Adagio and using whatever means she had to get back at her for the shooting incident. Still don't know why she had to bring me into the rumormill, but that's old news now.
Like the pastor, she hoped I would take my time to recover and focus on my family rather than work. Not just Arwen, but my Pack family as well. No matter what I felt about Ayr's eccentricities, he remained the father figure of the Pack. As a Beta, I should be supporting him, not questioning him. I think I will do just that.
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