Brianna Acero and the Second One's Return

73. The master plan

Three days ago, a voice that wasn't mine spoke in my head and told me that if we didn't give up Diana, our friends would die. It's been three days since Anna, Ash, and Xavier made it safely back to their compound, three days of zero activity on Dominic's part. It was like he suddenly disappeared. I want to talk to the boy again, but he never answers. There's something about him, something that I can't quite put my finger on, that draws me to him. I want to know who he is, what he wants with me, what he wants with all of us. But try as I might I never get my Gift to work and show me what I want to know. The visions I got were few and far between, and I only ever managed to see snippets of the future. I saw Diana in a cabin, I saw a stone ceiling. But what really sent shivers down my spine was the vision I had yesterday before I went to bed.

If it weren't for the fact that I had felt that odd tingling down my spine, I wouldn't have even realized it was a vision. I couldn't see anything, I was just surrounded by darkness, and I thought I saw a flickering red light somewhere in the pitch black. Somehow, I knew I was in a room, and I couldn't move. But where was I? That, I hadn't been able to figure out.

Now we are currently lounging around in the common area trying to figure out what Dominic's plan is, watching trainees go by, walking towards their next class, or just hanging out like we were. Some came back with sweat soaking their shirts, no doubt having arrived from the training rooms, and others appeared with soot covering their faces and singed hair, probably thanks to another one of Jordan's classes.

Diana is with Christian, yet again. It seems like all the girl does is ask him questions about her uncle, and Christian is always too happy to comply. I had yet to tell her about the voice, about Dominic's demands. I was going to tell her the night before, when the two of us stayed up watching a movie in the dorm, but I chickened out.

"Thanks, for everything you are doing for me. I do think of you all as friends, I don't know what I'd be doing without you," she'd said, and the last of my resolve had melted away.

"Maybe," says Cassie, "he's an alien overlord that wants to study her Gifts and take her back to his planet."

We all stare at my friend, unimpressed, and I shake my head at her.

"Be serious Cass, we are no closer to finding out why he wants her than we were a few days ago. At this rate we will never figure it out."

She harrumphs, mumbling something under her breath along the lines of "you all are no fun."

We are trying to come up with a solution to our most frequently asked question: what does Dominic want with his niece? If he doesn't want to harm her, then why take her? Why go to all this trouble over one girl? I mean sure, she is a very powerful girl, but still. If he's been alive all this time, why not go after her sooner, why wait all this time? There are so many questions dancing around in my head that it makes me dizzy.

"It has to have something to do with her Gift, right?" Says Mara, laying off the couch with her head touching the floor.

She was convinced that more blood flow to her brain would help her think. I think it will just end up giving her a headache.

"But what would he want her Gift for? To take away someone else's? And if that were true, who does he want to take it from?" Asks Kalen, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

That wasn't such a bad idea. We know that Dominic hated the division between Norms and Elites, the president told us himself. But the question was who would he take their Gift away from? Would it be more than one person? Multiple?

"And what about the Ruthenium II? What was that all about? We know that the whole thing about the prison was just a diversion, he was never actually going to try and free the prisoners, he just wanted us to think he was. So what is he using it for?"

Silence follows my question as my friends try to think of possible answers to our dilemma.

"He obviously needs it to power something, right? I mean that amount of RII," says Cassie, shaking her head. "That could power a small city!"

"Maybe it's a machine of some sort, something he will try to use to overthrow his brother? Or something he believes will bring balance between Norms and Elites," says Mara, rocking back before sitting up with one arch of her back, clutching her temples in her hands as the blood rushes from her head.

But what on earth would bring balance between Norms and Elites? I mean, I don't want to sound horrible, but there is nothing we can do to make us more similar. Those with powerful Gifts are Elites, those without are Norms. We can't just suddenly say that we are all the same because people with strong Gifts would have an unfair advantage over those without. Granted, nowadays there is still an unfair advantage, but at least Elites are controlled and monitored, trained so that they learn to harness and control those Gifts. Norms don't have to go through that process, and their lives aren't planed out in front of them. For us we can either choose to work at the compounds, or in protection and defense. We don't have many other choices. So how does Dominic want to create a balance? There will never be a balance as long as there are Gifts that are stronger than others, not ad long as...

Oh... oh no.

I feel my heart stop in my chest, breath catching in my throat as a very bad hypothesis starts forming in my head.

"To achieve balance," I mumble, looking at my hands, opening and closing them ad if they were something foreign and strange. "Then he needs to get rid of that which is causing the unbalance in the first place."

I look up, hoping I see a slither of understanding in my friend's faces, so that they can tell me that what I'm saying is crazy, it is impossible. And yet a man is back from the dead, a girl has the ability to take away people's Gifts, and the most powerful man in the world has no Gift at all. I'm starting to believe that anything is possible. But sadly no one seems to catch on to my meaning

"Think about it," I exclaim

"If it weren't for Gifts, there would be no difference between Norms and Elites. We would all be the same, Giftless. And Dominic doesn't just despise Gifts, he despises the fact that he was born with an ability that is more like a curse than a Gift. He hates it, he believes it's unfair that other people get to be happy when he isn't. It's not Elites he's after, it's everyone."

Mara's eyes widen a fraction and Jayson starts drumming his fingers on his knee, the corners of his mouth pulling downwards in a frown.

"You can't be insinuating what I think you are," says Cassie, holding up her hand as if to stop me from going further, but I can see the hesitance in her face. The reluctance to believe me, and yet, I see the truth that is burning behind her emerald orbs.

"Dominic doesn't want to use Diana to take away just one person's Gift. He wants to use her to get rid of all Gifts."