- Marijuana? - said Ashley.
- Exactly, stupid! It's great. You need to try it. It's healthy and relaxing. - said Sharon.
Ashlynn looked worried and full of doubt.
- Come on. Why are you so worried? You told me your mom was out of town for a day, because of that conference bullshit, your father had to drive her there and then attend some guy's funeral... like, hello? Do you need a second invitation? - said Abigail.
Ashlynn thought about the offer and said:
- Alright, fine. As long as this whole deal doesn't go out of hand.
- Party time! Woohoo! - Zoey yelled.
Abigail asked for the check. After they paid, the pack went to Sharon's Mercedes convertible, which was parked in front of the Healthy Snacks restaurant. As she inserted the key in the ignition, Sharon said:
- I say we go to the store for some booze and snacks for the party. Oh, and Ash, you need to be properly dressed. You must not look embarrassing in front of all the studs in there.
- Why should I do that? - said Ashlynn.
- Really? Are you that stupid? Ronnie's nowhere to be seen, his buddies are not here, he's been silent to you, hasn't told you anything about what he's doing... he's just not good for you, girl. Keeping someone at a certain distance and silence are signs of lies and cheating. The best cure for this is bailing out as soon as possible by cheating first.
- I can't do that, Sharon!
That expostulation irritated Sharon, so she turned around and snapped her head:
- You won't last long in this world if you keep acting nice and listening to your parents just because they think they know better. Now, what should we buy? Zoey, prepare to write down a list.
Zoey yanked her phone from her purse and prepared to type.
- I'm typing.
- 3 packs of chips, at least two packs of beer...
- I don't like beer, Shar. It makes me pee too often. - said Abigail.
- It's cheap. And also: who said we need to drink it? Clyde wants us to bring booze. There's definitely going to be a shitload there, so... wait, I'll ask him how much hard liquor he has.
In his reply he said that he had a stack of vodka and a stack of martini. He also said that a couple of friends will bring two kegs of beer.
- We need to buy just one pack. They will have two kegs at the party, plus a stack of vodka and a stack of martini.
- Oooh, martini... I haven't drunk martini in ages. - said Zoey. - What else do we need?
- Popcorn, salsa dip and... Ashlynn? Any ideas?
She simply shrugged.
- You're not going to be this silent when we go there. If I have to, I'll stab you in the back, but you'll talk to people! Now tell me what do you want from the store.
She gave it a thought, but there was no answer.
- Say something, God damn it!
- Can you not let me think?
- Think faster!
- Shut up, you two! - Abigail intervened. - Let her think. Ash, whatever you want, I'll buy it for you. Just name it.
- Hm... well, whatever you're having or...Hey, I haven't drank whisky in a while! - said Ashlynn.
***
Tyler and Garret arrived at New Hope. Just as they disembarked the ship, Stromak inundated them with praise:
- Well done with the capture of this vessel. I want to know everything that you did to the wretched scum's armies and equipment, what you destroyed and what you took from them, if you were alert enough to do it.
- I don't know where to begin, frankly. - said Tyler.
- We will discuss Ankonian's fate later on. Tell me what happened.
- There was stealth, explosions and death. What else do you want to hear?
- Be more specific, Hexer.
- We found this tiny chest in one of the hangars. - Garret meddled in after he grabbed it from the cargo area of the ship. - I don't know what they do, but I figured they'd be of good use to us.
Sable observed them and stated:
- I thought it would take eons until I see a pile of these again...
- What are they, Sable? - Tyler asked.
- These are vebrills; stones containing energy. They are fairly common, if you know where to look for them. Should you pile enough of them, vebrills can power pretty much anything and everything.
This reminded Stromak of New Hope's power-related issues and gave him an idea.
- Before I come up with a rescue plan for Ankonian, I want you two to go and fetch some more vebrills for New Hope.
- But... what do we tell his parents? We have to tell them about this. We won't say anything about the Overlord - I promise. - said Garret.
- Let them breathe for a while, Stromak, so that they can return refreshed and ready for your assignments. - Sable suggested.
Stromak was adamant about Garret and Tyler immediately setting off in search of vebrills. Happily, though, he let them go home after some persuasion on behalf of Sable.
- I'm doing this only because...
- Because they need it, not so much because I'm right. - Sable interrupted Stromak and left the hangar with a smirk on his face. It didn't seem like a huge achievement, but knowing that the boys could notify their loved ones about the situation and ventilate their minds for a short while, knowing that they could do something to distract themselves before they set off on yet another mission was enough for him to relax and focus on meditating.
- "It is a shame I cannot contact Ankonian. To motivate him, so that he could break free of the cage..." - Sable's thoughts were violently interrupted by Getiya.
- Why is Ankonian not here, Sable? Where is he? What happened to him? Please, I need to know.
Sable pushed her aside with the words:
- All shall be well with your romantic interest. Have no worries, child.
She blinked repeatedly with confusion.
- I don't have a romantic interest in him!
***
Ronnie was being dragged by the Overlord. His attempt to escape was commendable, but insufficient. Ren'ul's evil nature and superior strength were far too much for him. Also he was outnumbered. Gibel was able to land a few blows before his father took over and he was delighted with himself about it:
- You see, Ankonian? You're helpless now. Your comrades left you to fend for yourself and now you are a prisoner, a foundation for experiments...
The Overlord dropped Ronnie's restraints, walked over to his son and slapped him so hard across the face that his cheek burned like a forest fire.
- You may spit in his face once I'm done with him, Gibel. And another thing: I'll speak to you later in regards to your... partial lack of competence. Retion, where are you? I need you to occupy my son with some important activity while I busy myself with our... unexpected guest. - Ren'ul called him through his intercom.
- I shall make it happen, my liege. - he replied.
The Overlord resumed dragging Ronnie, whilst Gibel left with the remainder of the troops.
- "What's going to become of me? Am I... going to die? Will my new home be a prison cell?" - Ronnie's thoughts rendered him anxious. Panic enveloped his mind. He started feeling nauseous and dizzy.
A long time passed and during that time his back was bruised, skinned and bleeding. So was his chest. Thankfully, though, those wounds were quickly healing. The pain, however... Ronnie was not used to it.
The door to the prison cell opened and Ren'ul threw him inside. The assassins were stupefied and speechless, until Mintelk spoke up:
- How did you capture him?
- My superiority, skill-wise and wit-wise, plays a huge role. And that superiority does not matter now. What is of greater importance... is our new prisoner. Oh, excuse my rudeness; I meant our new guest.
Ronnie giggled quietly when he saw Helaka.
- What's so funny, Immortal?
- The last thing you should be doing at this very moment is laugh... impostor. - said Ren'ul.
Ronnie stopped laughing and his grin decamped.
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- I don't see the reason behind such an empty statement, Furot. - said Ronnie.
The Overlord twisted Ronnie's left wrist.
- You are not Ankonian, boy.
Ronnie's legs sank under him because of the pain.
- The REAL Ankonian was a powerhouse, a festivity of murder, an ocean of the blood of his victims and an enemy you don't want to pick a fight with. He could snap your mind and shatter your bones, humiliate you with a minuscule amount of effort and plough his way through anything and anyone standing in his way. You couldn't escape, let alone defeat my armies. You were on your knees before I even stretched my legs. You're a FRAUD! A speck of dust! And you possess his powers! What did you do to Ankonian? HOW did you kill him!?
He received no answer.
- I demand an answer! - Ren'ul growled.
After a brief moment of silence Kunala said:
- I knew something seemed wrong about the Immortals...
- This excuse of a pile of animate flesh, along with the other two charlatans hold the remains of the Immortals. You've been fighting amateurs the whole time. Though... I cannot blame you entirely for it. - The Overlord said and turned his attention to the assassins:
- Your only fault was that you could not hold your ground on their planet, which luckily does not affect my plan on a large scale. I will deal with this fake copy later. Meanwhile... you are free to do to him whatever you wish.
Ren'ul left the cell without saying anything else. He went to see what Retion and his son were doing. Furot contacted Huklin:
- Where are you, Huklin?
- I'm in one of the damaged genetic laboratories, your magnificence. Those... fiends! The foetuses are useless now. Do we...
- Have no worries, Huklin. We have the genetic material to create new ones. It might take some time,... but the damages will be repaired. Do not fret. Busy yourself with replenishing our ranks.
- What about the Immortal? What do we do with him?
- He's not a part of your agenda... for now.
The assassins gathered around him. Mintelk took one of the chains from the Overlord's personal collection of torture tools, which was brought in beforehand and commenced whipping his chest and legs. She then wrapped the chain around her fists and proceeded to maul his head. Ronnie was heavily bleeding and could not fight back. Kicking his way out of their grasp was impossible, because Kunala tied his legs with another chain. Helaka protested:
- What are you doing?
- I'm tying him up, so he doesn't move. Do you have different plans for him?
- Yes. My plans are very different.
Helaka untied his legs and took off Ronnie's jeans and underwear. Then, she picked up a pair of spears and stuck his arms against the wall. Then she used another pair of spears and pierced his legs. Sitting upright because of the spears in his forearms, Ronnie was still bleeding and in sheer fear. As an Immortal, he had more than the necessary strength to break free under normal circumstances, but the barriers in his mind did not allow it and his body was broken. The nanobots in his bloodstream could not fix the damaged tissues fast enough. Ronnie was afraid that he'd rip his hands off and break some bones. That issue was not important, because Helaka straddled him like a horse.
- Remember what you did to me? Oh, I forgot you aren't Ankonian. He's no longer with us, but seeing as you are here... and you are his heir... you'll suffer like I did once.
- "He... raped her? But why?" - Ronnie thought and shortly afterwards he received a flashback. In it he saw Ankonian, or rather himself, humiliating and torturing the three assassins. However... they looked different. Their imposing looks were not present - instead, they looked more like they belong in a monastery.
- "They look like... nuns. So murdering is not what they've always done in their life."
Helaka commenced raping him. He struggled and tried once again to break free, but to no avail: she punished him for his disobedience by punching his mandible. That blow alone rendered him motionless. Ronnie was now numb. The visions interlaced themselves with the reality before his eyes. No thoughts of Ashlynn crossed his mind. In fact, he had no thoughts. Just laying there on the floor in a pool of blood, helpless, alone, on a ship brimmed with evil.
The assassins were overcome by the sexual drive and all three had a go. They used everything the Overlord normally used on them. One could say that what the sisters were doing was a therapy session, a release of built-up steam.
***
Tyler was sitting in the living room with Garret and Ray. They were all waiting for Macy to come back from the clinic. The silence and mystery were too odd. Ray tried to probe Tyler for information, but he refused to say anything until Macy got home:
- It's far better to spill the beans when everyone's here.
- I hope the situation is not too bad. Did you call your parents, Garret? - Oliver, Tyler's father asked.
- Oh, yeah, dad has a minor issue with a case, but he said he's going to break free from it as soon as he can. Mom should be on her way now.
The boys did not have to wait too long. Macy walked into the house a quarter of an hour later, closely followed by Mr. and Mrs. Bryson. Julia stood up from the couch and said:
- Thank goodness you're here!
- What's happened? And where's Ronnie? - Mr. Bryson said.
Tyler gave a deep sigh and told them:
- That's... precisely the issue. Ronnie is a prisoner now.
- Has he broken the law? - Macy asked.
- No, he... he's a prisoner to the Overlord. - Garret said.
- How did this happen? - Ray asked.
- Yeah, how did it happen and why were you away for... 4 days? - Julia asked.
Tyler had them sit down and told the whole story:
- That night, when we left, we went to... what was it...
- Winchester. - Garret said.
- Right. So we went there, fought some aliens and then we secretly boarded their ship. Our commander wanted us to stay on the ship, so we could infiltrate their headquarters, cause as much havoc and trouble as we could, find some stuff that we deemed useful and then leave. Sadly, just as we were about to leave... they caught Ronnie.
Macy gasped.
- I wanted to save him, but...
- But what? Suddenly you had a change of mind and decided to leave him behind, that he was unimportant? - Macy was furious.
- There was nothing we could do, Mrs...
- Don't you stand on ceremony, kid. My son is God knows where...
- I was given an order, madam!
- Yeah, it's true. I was cross with Tyler for a short while, but we couldn't risk our safety. Stromak promised that he'd come up with a rescue plan right after we go to some place for some rocks... or whatever those things were. - Garret clarified.
- So there's nothing anyone can do about it? - Macy said.
- No, not for now. Unless Ronnie finds a way out. - Tyler said.
Macy covered her face and wept.
- We were allowed to come here and notify you about the events. Otherwise we'd have gone straight away to some other place for... whatever our commander wanted. - Garret omitted the part about the stones.
- Of all the moments you could have been disobedient in, you decided to act like sheep and keep it low! - Macy was still steaming.
- You have little to no idea about how the military works, do you? - Ray stepped in the conversation. - Regardless of how you look at it, leaving Ronnie behind was the best decision anyone could have taken. There was just the two of you against everything out there, am I right?
- Exactly. - Tyler answered.
- And your commander is going to come up with an idea for Ronnie's retrieval, right? - Raymond asked.
- Well, it could be seen as stretching the truth, but yeah - he did say a couple of times that he was going to construct a plan. - Garret responded.
- Why do you think that way? - Ray asked.
Raymond's reasonable approach, combined with his experience in the m
ilitary was working far better than Macy's conflicting anger.
- Because he wasn't the one who let us come back here. - Tyler said.
- Instead, it was our... I don't know how exactly to call him. - Garret said.
- Stromak was convinced by our... uh... yeah, I don't know how to classify him either... he's our mentor and martial arts teacher. We already had a training session with him. - Tyler said.
- Why were you not certain about his position, Garret? - Ray asked.
- If he really was just a mentor, how would he influence the commander to give us some time off? There must be a connection on a higher level between them, but it's too early for us to come to any conclusions. - Garret's thoughts made sense.
- Alright. Here's my suggestion: do what they ask you to do once you go back to headquarters and stay close to them. I'm going to need some insight and possibly help you out from a distance. What is your commander like? - Ray said.
- This is no time for a quiz. - Oliver whispered to his wife Julia.
- Shush! This is helpful for all of us. - Julia responded.
- Well... to tell you the truth, Mr. Mason...
- Just call me Ray. - he briefly interrupted Garret.
- Very well. I was just about to say that our commander is, I assume, not the sort of person who smiles a lot. He's very... cold.
- And raw. - Tyler added.
- Yeah, what he said. Should you decide not to co-operate, he will be cross with you.
- He is a commander, after all: he can't afford to be soft. - Ray said. - What's the difference between when he talks to you and when he talks to... what's the name of your apprentice?
- Sable. - Tyler said.
Ray nodded.
- Stromak is not really open and welcoming when he talks to us. There's this bottled anger that burst out whenever he realizes that something's gone wrong. - Garret said.
- Whilst Sable is more careful, understanding... unusually human for someone who hasn't spent a single day on Earth. He just knows how to approach us. He spoke to Ronnie for some time during our training session and when Ronnie got pissed... he did not raise his voice or his hand in order to hit him. His primary weapon is brains. We have yet to see him use brawn properly. - Tyler said.
The Immortal Trinity: Inheritance Page 18
