Sweet Odium - Chapter 33: Chapter 33

[Rune]
I was caught in the middle of a loud discussion between 6 different group leaders. Among them was Hyeonsu and Raven's aunt who were both trying to persuade the others to give our plan a try. Although Hyeonsu was leading the mission he did not have total authority so persuading him hadn't been enough. We were already lucky that the mention of his brother had turned the tables... after that Neil had left without a word but soon Raven's aunt had arrived to be informed about what happened. To say she wasn't disappointed in Raven, Vince and me was a lie but yet she did not see a disadvantage in sending us first so we had her on our side.
"Miss Inoue, we value your opinion a lot and Inoue has proven its capability numerous times but these three have fooled you right under your care so how are we supposed to put our hope into three youngsters, one of them from Falcon group?" A man with eyes as blue as the sky and a light blond buzz cut remarked with worry. From his looks that were similar to Celeste's I guessed he had to be the leader of Hiver.
"Mr. Hiver, if you really value my opinion so much then you should know that we have thought about this very carefully. There is nothing to lose by sending Rune first and-"
She was interrupted by another man who cleared his voice loudly.
"By all means I don't think these three should attend this meeting." He remarked with a side glance to me and the two others. Raven was about to say something when Vince pulled him back and gave me a sign to follow them out of the small tent that we were inside of.
"Vince, they only want to make sure that we don't interfere." The angry older said but calmed himself down when Vince shook his head once again. He knew that we had no chance to begin with if we didn't listen to them.
"We'll have to wait but believe me, it won't take long... we have no time." He sighed and let himself sink on the ground next to Raven who had grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him.
"You've been awfully quiet, princess." He whispered and hugged me from behind before pulling me down with him so we were next to Vince on the cold dirt. I didn't want him to let go so I crawled on his lap and wrapped my arms around him. To be honest, I had thought that this situation would not affect me much because I had started this already knowing that it was not easy... but after revealing my identity to everyone here I started hearing the whispers that I ignored before and I felt the heavy stares that I never had a problem with before. I knew it was stupid to think that way but...
"I feel like everyone hates me..." I silently mumbled and I hated how I wasn't able to speak normally.
"Bullshit, you know I love you and-... wow, I really said that out loud just now." Raven cleared his voice seeming like he was embarrassed about what he said and quickly pretended like nothing happened. Instead he kissed the top of my head that was still leaning onto his chest. It made me grin weakly for a second but what I meant was something different.
"I'll leave you two some privacy." I heard Vince saying silently before he seated himself somewhere a little closer to the tent where the leaders were still discussing. I didn't have any problem with him staying next to us though. He had become a good friend of mine after all.
"So.. what do you think saying everyone hates you? Usually, I thought you wouldn't care." Raven started talking again when continuing to let his hands brush through my hair.
Answering to this was something I had never done before... speaking what's on my mind when I was sad. Everything was just so complicated all of a sudden.
"You know... I've grown up being told that my group was masacred for a reason that wasn't justified so I... I always believed that I was the son of righteous parents and that the real bad people were the gifted society. I never cared about the reputation of my family. But now everyone here thinks I'm some sort of traitor, criminal... an outcast. At first I didn't care because I thought that they are wrong but are they really wrong? I am an outcast... I had been a traitor since I decieved you about my real identity when I joined Inoue and I am also a criminal that has taken lifes of people that were fighting for their freedom. How could I ever revive the status of my family when I already ruined my own... how would any other member of the Falcon group survivers think of Rune Falcon who wants to kill his own uncle? ... And what is Inoue group thinking... when they see their young heir together with me? It dawned on me when we came here that I burdened all of you with my own problems and now I am responsible for the trouble it has caused you. Am I selfish? I-"
Before I could say anything else I was interrupted by Raven turning my head up so we were facing each other eye to eye. His expression showed anger but the way he was holding my face was gentle and warm.
"You... are anything but selfish Rune Falcon. You never asked me nor the others to trust you, help you or lie to our own group. We did that out of our own free will because just as you try to reconstruct your groups honor I am trying to reconstruct Inoue's honor for wrongfully murdering innocent people. Look around you, Rune. I doubt there are many people here who have never killed a person in their lifes and neither did any of them never lie. You might be an outcast as a Falcon family member but that is the strongest weapon you have. How will you be able to direct all the attention to yourself and show everyone that you can beat Peter Falcon if not like that? You... are different than anyone else here because you are the only one who can win this fight. And because you are the only one that has a stunningly beautiful boyfriend who got your back." He bit his lip and let his hand slide through his hair while I could only watch him lost for words. I had always thought Raven didn't think much about feelings and doubts... but what he had just said held so much value to me that I didn't know how to answer. That was until he ruined it with his joke.
"Ahh, don't look at me with those eyes or I might kiss you." Raven turned away his head as a joke but then he started grinning and closed the gap between our lips while wiping away the few tears on my face. But feeling the warmth of his lips made my cry even more although I didn't want to stop. Slowly I kissed back and held onto him closely like a child.
What was this kind of anxiety that I felt when looking at him smile at me? Why was I so scared of seeing that smile fade?
"Don't leave me..." I breathed out and intertwined my fingers with his.
"I won't."
"Guys! It's decided! We have permission to go first!" Suddenly Vince showed up next to us being out of breath and with a last grin between me and Raven, we stood up to follow him.
"But seriously, I leave you alone for 2 minutes and find you making out with each other. That's gross." He sighed and I hit his shoulder slightly as a joke.
"We didn't make out..." I mumbled and heard both of them laughing at me for sounding stupid.
"Wait until you get a girlfriend, Vince. I can't wait to spy on you whenever you're alone." Raven wiggled his eyebrows to which Vince stayed indifferent.
"Let's focus on the plan, shall we?" He changed the topic and soon we were preparing for battle... this had to work out or we were screwed.
half an hour later
Me and Raven were slowly approaching the area of the basements entrance while Vince lead us in the right direction from further away where he used a drone to observe the area.
"10 people approaching from your right, another 20 are building a circle around the entrance beneath a small hill. It looks like they are waiting to report the enemies advance to call for backup so unless you want to waste time fighting you should hurry up entering the building as soon as possible." Vince's voice sounded from the earpiece I was wearing and soon I could make out figures between the trees. They were masked and fully clothed so that there was no skin shown.
"Raven, I need to touch their skin to absorb their powers." I whispered to the other who nodded and proceeded to advance forward.
"Let's use the advantage of surprise and focus on taking their masks of or ripping their clothes. They carry guns so we need to make sure they don't kill themselves before you absorb their power." he added and I agreed.
He had promised me to avoid killing anyone but only make them unable to fight if possible.
"Now." It was a simple order given by Raven when he suddenly jumped out from our hiding spot to attract all the attention while I used my speed to get behind the first man before using the Hwang power to smash him to the ground and take of his mask.
"Please nO!" He screeched in pain but I did not hesitate to grab his face and close my eyes to concentrate. Again when I opened them I could see all my surroundings glowing in different colors while the man's veins had the color of a rosey pink that quickly flowed toward my own body before I let go of him and felt a new kind of power enhancing my body.
I turned around to see Raven holding another person in front of my face, visibly wanting me to hurry up. And again I did the same thing even though I could barely hold myself on two feet after the first. It was not as bad and definitely a lot easier than the first time but in a way it felt like drinking too much water and wanting to spit all of it out.
People kept attacking from all sides but we weren't fast enough to absorb powers to be shielded from their attacks.
As soon as I grabbed the next person, a woman shot at me so I had to dodge by jumping to the side. When I saw that her bullet had hit the person I was about to take the gifted powers from, I noticed that this situation was getting more difficult by the second.
I checked to see Raven fighting a man with the diamond skin gifted abilities while I thought about how to take care of the woman in front of me.
The air around her started blurring as if she was burning up and I knew that I could not approach her with my speed that way without having the Hiver gifted ability... but there was no one here to get it from.
"What? Giving up already?" I could not see her face underneath the mask but her voice was confident and down-looking. How could I stop her without having to kill her?
I took a deep breath and came to a decision that was inspired by the gifted ability I had obtained third... the body extension ability.
In super speed I extended my arm to reach for her before she could dodge even though my skin was burning and hurting like hell. I almost fainted from the pain before I could absorb her power and the burning heat abruptly stopped.
The woman herself looked up and down at herself in horror and I thought she might run away now but instead she aimed her gun at me and shot with no mercy.
Even thought my arm had only been exposed to the heat for about a second, it had taken a red color and burned like hell. However, I dodged her bullets and knocked her over the feeling the wind making the pain even worse.
Hissing and with my burned arm shaking I let myself sink against a tree and didn't know what to do. My arm was basically disabled and I couldn't use it to fight.
"Shit!" I hissed but I was given no time to catch my breath when again something was thrown at me. A grenade... they even used those?! I was barely able to escape the explosion when I heard Raven calling for me.
I followed his voice despite feeling numb from the pain when I found him bleeding from his head pointing two guns at two people who were both pointing one at him.
I immediately got the situation and carried Raven 50 meters away in high speed before aiming my foot at one of those people. The sound of that guys leg breaking was sending shivers down my spine and I quickly tried to pull away his mask to not think of it.
But to my inconvenience, his leg was suddenly healing in a matter of seconds and neither did he seem bothered by the pain.
Could it be? With no hesitation I absorbed his powers and felt how the red spots on my arm subsided slowly and the pain went away. Everything happened so suddenly.
The healing gifted power! The fact that I had come across a person from that family was near to a miracle since only about 500 of them existed in the world.
But that also meant I had a huge advantage now because getting hurt was more difficult with that power.
Just like that I continued fighting them of one after another after Raven had assured me that he was fine. It did not take long until I had absorbed about 15 powers before I couldn't take it anymore. At the same time more people were comming out of the entrance and blocking it.
"Rune, you can't let me down now. We need to get in right now or it will be impossible to go after Peter first." Raven was supporting me from the side and did not let me sit down nor stop walking.
My lids felt heavy but it got better slowly. Very slowly.
"No worries, let's continue with the plan and-" I was not able to finish my sentence when I suddenly felt like throwing up. But instead I coughed up blood into my hands and stared at it with a gulp.
"RUNE!"
"Shh I'm good, you're bleeding worse than me." I removed his hand from my sides to show him that I was able to stand on my own but honestly I really struggled to even see his face clearly.
I knew very well that Raven didn't want me to go in there but just as me he was bound to pull through with this mission being aware of possibly dying. We had made a promise to ourselves... and that was to never give up. Raven groaned in frustration.
"Go. Fuck go, Rune!"