Is this destiny?

Jesse entered the room where Michael is being held and she observed that his wrists are bloody from the leather straps which cut in his skin.

"Did you try to yank yourself free?", she asked mockingly. "You know that no one gets out of those like that. You used these kinds of restraints, didn't you? You should know that your best bet is to break the chair, but it's reinforced with a metal frame so… tough luck."

Michael was breathing heavily while his gaze didn't leave the television. The pain in his hands, wrists, legs, nothing compared to the agony in his heart and mind while he helplessly watched Oni being tortured. He screamed instead of Oni, and no one answered his calls.

Jesse approached him and opened her hand, a few inches in front of his face. "Your lover sends this back."

Michael's sight focused on Jesse's palm, and there he saw the ring, still on Oni's finger which was cut off with the bolt cutter.

Jesse pouted in disappointment. "She didn't scream. But she fainted, that is something. While she is resting, I thought to come here and say 'hi', so that you are not lonely. And in a bit, I will go back to check on her. I wonder if she will scream next time."

"You bitch!", Michael growled.

Jesse looked at him in disbelief. "Is that the best you can come up with?"

Her gaze moved back to the finger in her hand. "I wanted to cut off the whole arm, but the cutter can't open wide enough. We will need to go finger by finger and see what else can fit inside that opening." Jesse threw the finger on the floor and scowled at the blood on her palm in disgust. "I got dirty…"

In the next second, Jesse's face contorted in anger and she kicked Michael in the face. The heavy chair swayed slightly before returning to its original position.

"Do you see what you are doing!?", Jesse screamed. "You got me dirty and upset! Why didn't you die in Egypt? Why didn't you stay dead? Oh, I detest Europe! Because of you, I had to return!"

Michael tilted his head to wipe on his shoulder the blood which oozed from his mouth before looking at Jesse.

He hates her. If he can get free, he would rip her into pieces. And he would make her suffer. She hurt Oni, and she hurt him. She lied to him for many years. Why does she sound like she is the victim?

Jesse didn't look at Michael. She got a handkerchief from her pocket and vigorously rubbed the blood off while mumbling: "I was happy in Kenya. But when they saw you here in June, they called me back. They said that I failed a mission of disposing of agents and I had to fix it. For three months I am stuck here while waiting for you to return! That is three months…" She looked at Michael and continued. "I would love to kill you right now, but we need to find out who is behind you. And giving you a quick death will not make up for three months I am stuck here…"

Jesse's eyes were full of madness while she advanced toward Michael.

She was about to say something else when the wire covering of the ventilation shaft from the ceiling fell on the floor with a thud and two shadows bolted into the room.

Before Jesse had any time to react, a hand clasped her neck in an iron grip and slammed her viciously toward the wall.

Jesse was dazed from the force of the impact and she blinked a few times to focus her sight.

Jesse saw a female with her upper half of the face covered in a mask and blood-red eyes directed at her. She wanted to move, but the pain in her neck was paralyzing, and every time she moved a muscle, it seemed that it's getting worse.

Sarah was partially blocking Jesse's view of Aiden who squatted in front of Michael and visually examined his condition. But Jesse saw that Aiden is in a black outfit and with a black mask on.

"They have Oni…" Michael tilted his head toward the television. "She passed out."

Both Sarah and Aiden exhaled in relief at the confirmation that Michael and Oni are alive.

They had to be extra careful when entering the building, so they used ventilation shafts.

Sarah's and Aiden's priority was to find Michael and Oni and to ensure their safety without alerting the Shadow Ravens of their presence. They are aware that Shadow Ravens don't hesitate to kill and sacrifice their own people, so killing outsiders like Michael and Oni at the sign of trouble would be expected.

The signal jammers confirmed that Shadow Ravens use technology, and based on the specific area of coverage, they concluded that the technology is advanced.

The assumption was that Shadow Ravens are doing things 'old school' without exposing their information to the open network (and eventually internet), but the truth is that they are cautious and advanced.

They are a dangerous network of spies who recruits gifted youth, trains them while raising them into faithful soldiers, sends them to missions, and disposes of them when they determine that they are not useful anymore, or that they might know too much, or maybe they have new operatives to replace them. No one retires from Shadow Ravens and they dispose of their agents before they suspect that something is wrong, while their loyalty is still at its peak. That is how Shadow Ravens maintain their secrecy.

Aiden saw instantly that Michael was tortured. He was bloodied and bruised up and his right hand was a mess.

Aiden injected Michael with anesthetic which will numb the pain but allow him to move.

Aiden was carefully releasing Michael from the straps which were embedded into his skin, when Michael started chanting in a shaky voice: "This is my fault. I don't know how to face Oni… This is all my fault… Oni is hurt because of me…"

"Save your apologies for her.", Sarah told Michael.

At this point, Sarah and Aiden don't know what prompted Michael and Oni to make a move which resulted in their scouting mission to end up with them falling into a trap. But both Sarah and Aiden know that Michael loves Oni and that they are both loyal to their family so whatever happened, was not intentional.

Mistakes and accidents happen, and in this world of underground organizations, every wrong step can be their last one.

With Michael and Oni hurt, the priority is to get them to safety and treat their wounds. Everything else will come later and blaming oneself or others will not do any good in this situation.

Aiden untied Michael's legs and asked: "Can you walk?"

Michael nodded, but instead of standing up he fell on his knees and with his left hand he carefully lifted Oni's finger from the tiled floor.

"This is Oni's. She cut it off…", he said without looking at Jesse.

Sarah gritted her teeth and asked Michael: "Who is this woman?"

"Jesse…", Michael responded weakly.

Sarah and Aiden exchanged glances and shared an understanding that this is the same Jesse from Michael's stories. That is the only explanation why he ended up being caught.

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