It was cold.

And dark.

I was frightened but I couldn't remember why.

My mind was turning and it was searching for something. I was reliving images of my past. I saw nan's face. I saw my dad's face and later my mum's. I saw Reflecta, the first bond between us. It was in the colour of a lake. Azure. It sparkled like translucent ice. Then, I saw my ice powers. Frost bursting into light hues of colour, forming unique patterns. I remembered myself as a girl, trying to catch snowflakes and maintain them in their original shapes in my palms, only with futile effort. They would either melt or I would freeze over and their edges would extend and turn to something else.

Then, I saw the colour of emerald and woke up.

My senses were numb and slow. Everything was dangerously slow. If I was in a dangerous situation, being slow is one of the things you can't be. Yet, I was slow and my body felt heavy. I was scared to move. I didn't know if I was injured and I was scared of the pain that would follow.

I held my breath for a few seconds.

I was alone.

There was my breath alone.

I slowly shifted my body and realised how uncomfortable I felt. I tested my grip and tried to move it and found I couldn't. There was something tight around my wrist.

I looked around. I was in a dark cell with no windows.

I shuffled back and used the wall to help me sit up. I was dry in the throat, my shoulders ached and I didn't want to open my eyes — I wanted to sleep.

Then, the door creaked open. The light poured inside. I winced, turning away from the brightness before it closed shut.

Footsteps.

However, just one set of footsteps.

I cautiously opened my eyes and saw that Marty stood there holding a ball of light in his palms. He stared at me.

I tested my fingers again, instinctively wanting to break the bounds around my wrist and launch directly at him. He brought me here, he was the one to-

But, every time I tried to make my powers flow, it was stopped.

Marty slowly sat down on the ground, placing the light nearby. He watched me at eye-level, "Save your energy."

I scoffed and turned my eyes away from him.

"What is this place?"

He didn't answer me. He took out a water bottle — I didn't notice he had it with him — and twisted the cap open. He held it out toward me.

"I would've killed you already," he added when he saw the look on my face.

When he saw that I didn't move, he took a generous sip and swallowed it.

I tried to gulp but my throat ached for water. So I leaned forward and Marty took my chin gently and put the bottle to my mouth. I drank in consistent swallows, relieving myself from thirst. I wanted to drink more, but Marty took the bottle away and turned the cap closed.

"What do you want from me?" I shot. "You're working with those people. With Ted and Professor May."

Marty stayed silent. I guess I was right. Professor May had always shown signs that she hated people like us but I had nothing to really prove she was actually working with those who wanted Iridescent dead. As for Ted, I only knew when he decided to make his identity known.

"Who are you people?"

Marty didn't answer me. He avoided my gaze and got up.

I suddenly had a thought. Is Robin here? But instead of shooting him the question directly, I decided to test Marty.

"Robin was always under your watch. You knew exactly when he's going to disappear because you were part of the plan. You brought him here."

His footsteps halted.

My brows shot high. Robin was here somewhere.

"Where is he? What have you done with him?"

"Nothing." Marty talking to me probably meant my words had hit the right spot somewhere.

"Why do you need him? Why-"

"Cassie, I'm not going to answer them," Marty said. I used the wall to stand and walked toward him with a slight stumble.

"What are they going to do to me?"

Marty's torn-look flashed by his eyes. He turned the door handle and shut it behind me.

I was left in the dark, once again.

***

Marty forgot to bring the light with him. I didn't know if he forgot or he left it there on purpose. But I sat on the concrete floor for what seemed like forever until the door opened again. Someone took me roughly by the arms and shoved me out from the cell, knowing that with the rope tied around my arm I couldn't do anything with my powers.

I was brought out into the light. We were in an abandoned warehouse and it was largely empty. Professor May was there along with... the twins.

I hadn't seen the twins in ages.

Why would Marty work with someone who endangers his sister?

The person forced me to the ground and I let them do whatever they want. Professor May slowly walked around the table, her fingers trailing around Reflecta and another sword on the table.

"You were stalling time back at your office," I began. "Why?"

Professor May let out a short laugh, "You love to ask questions don't you?"

I ignored her and assessed my surroundings. I had no tools near me to help me escape. All I could do momentarily was eye down the potential exits for escape. As I did, I noticed Marty standing with another boy, they both watched the scene unfold without a twitch of a brow.

Was Willow Marty's leverage? If he didn't do what they said, then Willow was the price to pay?

Professor May said something but I was deep in thought and I missed it. I only snapped my head to the side when I heard groaning. A massive weight was thrown to the ground and I inched back as someone's blond hair brushed past my arm.

They sat up with some struggle but they managed.

"Yoan?" I breathed shakily. Yoan stared back at me with weary eyes.

No, no, no, no, no!

I looked back in shock. "What do you want from us? Who are you?"

Professor May was also using the same tactic as Marty. Silence. No evil villain plan reveal. It was all simply "doing". I didn't like it — all the control was slipping out of my hands. The situation was completely out of my hands.

Professor May nodded at someone in the corner and the boy standing next to Marty walked forward. I watched the boy closely. He had dark hair and pale eyes, eyes almost like the moon. He had a stone-cold gaze and a gait that told me he wasn't confident nor was he slacking. He was walking with consistency; he was obeying an order because it was the right thing to do.

I noticed that Marty was growing restless on his feet. He took two steps right and left before he resorted to leaving.

What didn't he want to see?

Aqua moved around me and shoved me to the ground. I landed a kick on her shin but it didn't do much. She held the back of my neck and put their knee on my spine. It didn't hurt but it told me to stay put and it reminded me how much force she could put on me.

Yoan was still on his knees, hands tied behind his back. As the boy neared him, Yoan met his eyes and I watched as his expression turned into something I didn't expect.

"Robin?"

What the hell.

"Robin," Yoan's voice grew weak. "Don't do this, please."

What are they doing? What is he doing!

"Robin!" I cried. Aqua tightened her grip on me and gave me a taste of her icy palm. It constricted my voice but I kept talking regardless. "Jaxton is looking for you!"

He stopped, averting his gaze to mine. I knew I only had his attention for a short moment.

"Shut up!" Aqua pulled up my hair and smashed my cheeks to the hard ground.

"Yoan's his best friend!" I shouted and began to struggle against Aqua's force, "You can't do this to him!"

I threw Aqua off my back like a wild horse and proceeded to throw a kick in her direction. She dodged her face away and grabbed my leg, striking me square in the chest with a slap of water. She clenched her fist and the water began to freeze.

"Stop!" Yoan's eyes were moving around everyone, trying to grab someone's attention. They landed on Robin. "Stop it! I'll do what you want!"

"No... he won't!"

Whatever struggle or speech I made was in vain. Robin didn't listen. He grabbed Yoan by the neck and things began to happen.

Yoan's eyes were flooded in yellow light. The light fell off the corner and trailed down his cheek like tears. Then, the line grew longer, like roots beneath the soil. It moved along his neck, his body, his arms... his body began to glow and his clothes began to wave as though he was floating in the water. It was so bright that I had to tilt my head away. But the worst part was his scream.

It was not a scream I've heard anywhere before. It spoke of full agony and it shook me to the core. He didn't even take a breath in between.

I noticed that his scream grew into whimpers and his whimpers grew into silence. Then, a loud thump ended everything.

When I opened my eyes again, the yellow glow from his body was gone. His skin was in a sickly, unnatural colour and I didn't want to admit that I had thought he looked mildly like a corpse, a greenish shade that evidently showed a lack of life.

Robin had his palms out, a yellow globe hovering above it. His hair and clothes were moving in similar waves and his feet weren't completely touching the ground. He moved one hand, drawing some type of metallic bottle away from the table and aligned it with the yellow globe. The yellow globe disappeared within it and it closed shut.

They weren't destroying the Iridescent bond. They were storing it?

I didn't have time to register or think. Aqua broke the ice around my chest and forced me to straighten my back.

"How... how could you?" was all I mustered when Robin came to me. "Save him. Whatever you did to him... at least let him live!"

I watched Robin swallow, his grey eyes edged with sadness. Then, they were set in a determined, sharp glance. He grabbed me by the neck and I felt the gravity around me shift. My hair began to float, I found it hard to hold my legs to the floor if it weren't for Robin's powers, and there was something horribly wrong.

I let out a choked sob, my tears streaming down my face. Robin was dragging something out of me and I wanted it to stop.

I drew in a breath and leapt up with all the strength I had left and shot my skull into his jaw. Robin let out a grunt and flew back and suddenly, the world went back to normal, I was back on the ground, feeling weak in my legs. I saw the blue, dust-like smoke return back to my body, its colour disappearing.

Robin grabbed his jaw, cursing. While me, I had collapsed to the ground, breathing hard. I watched Robin recover. He hauled me up to sitting position and locked his palm around my neck once again.

"Jaxton's told me about you," I whispered. My last desperate struggle to survive. "You don't have to do this. This is not you. This is not the brother he knows..."

Robin's grip around my neck grew tighter, he gazed at me with narrowed grey eyes. "Who are you?"

"Robin, focus!" Professor May yelled.

"Yeah, you know what happens when you listen to their speech!" Blayze's words sounded next.

"Cassandra," I uttered, "someone he knows well."

Robin's eyes rounded for a second. He could probably already guessed which role I was in Jaxton's life but I didn't rely on my 'girlfriend' thing a lot. He killed Jaxton's best friend with no mercy so why would he show me any? I was just slowing down my inevitable death.

Robin's jaw tightened and the same faintness flooded my senses once again. My vision was fading quickly, covering itself with blue dots. The dots connected... became one and, gradually, I couldn't see anymore.

Then, it was pain.