Maia kept on her straight and emotionless face. She knew that if she had hinted at even just a little bit of expression, Leticia would have noticed and she would've risked all of their lives.
After Leticia and the soldiers returned, they quickly dragged the unconscious Damian and Maki to the prison cells. Maia slipped on a little lie about their plans. It was purely made up. She had told them how the rebels were after the vials that were stored in the front house. As they had confiscated the remaining vials from Maki and Damian's belongings, it made her lie believable.
This made Leticia conclude that this was an inside job and that someone was working with the rebels. With the explosion and distraction from the prisoners, she believed in Maia's lie and quickly sent her off.
It had been exactly three days after that, Maki and Damian had woken up and made a fuss about letting them go and them wanting to see Maia, but the soldiers stationed to them only assaulted them to their heart's content.
Aside from the day they were captured, Leticia had no more interest in the two and just decided to keep them as prisoners. With the memoria revocare being utterly useless, she had no use for them anymore.
Those vials contain arsenic mixed with phosphene gas, the same compound she kept on giving Maia before. Leticia hoped to create another soldier like Maia and she believed that she would have done that.
She so much believed that arsenic and phosphene were the answer to why Maia became a super soldier. But, Maia knew, those vials were nothing but drugs and chemicals that would kill anyone who takes them.
She was different. She had always been but now she understood that she was different in another way.
She was an experiment, but it was different from what Leticia had done to her. In her deepest memories, Artemis had drugged herself and injected chemicals with the knowledge that she was pregnant. She had then performed a medical surgery on her right after she was born.
She felt the two hearts beating in her chest and grimaced. How had she not noticed this before? It was so obvious now that both were beating. Now that she felt them pound inside her chest making her acknowledge the fact that she was indeed a freak.
Her regenerative abilities might have been from that experiment too. But, she still had so many questions and she was so unsure of what to do. She only knew that the woman who was communicating with her wasn't a hallucination or delusion.
And that she was here, in this area. On the prison to be specific. She needs to find her to find some answers. And she needs to do it quickly.
Leticia never really needed Maia to be around her all the time. That was why Maia could go to the prison grounds and no one would question her why she was there.
The prison was originally a two-story building, but there was an underground floor. A basement prison cell to put in simpler terms. Leticia says that she likes her favorite prisoners to be put there but Maia knows the truth.
Down there lies Leticia's failed experiments. Mutants, chimera-like experiments, the freaks, and the unsuccessful and unlucky ones. Maia would've been put there if she hadn't been lucky enough.
Maia walked through the doors of the prison and found that it was vacant. When the riot started, Leticia ordered for all the prisoners to be killed, especially the ones that had tried to run away. No one was lucky enough to have escaped.
Only those who stayed inside their prison cells and sat quietly had been spared. They were then moved to another part of the area where they were heavily guarded.
Maia turned and was instantly welcomed with the sight that she had hated the most.
The prison cells where the children are. The children didn't have the strength to join or run away from the riot, so they stayed where they were.
Only two soldiers were stationed in that area and they were given the order to shoot to kill if anyone tried to escape.
Maia gritted her teeth, these kids don't even have the will to live. She was mad at herself because she had buried her conscious mind, she couldn't prevent these children from being prisoners.
She knew who they were. They came from the cities that they had raided, or the ones that had started to rebel. They had oppressed every city and had taken every prisoner they could get. It didn't matter if they were women, pregnant ones, elders, and even children.
It was either a prisoner and submit to the government or get killed right on the spot.
And she had killed enough people that just thinking about it, made her want to slit her throat.
She wouldn't forgive herself. No, she would never forgive herself for everything. Taking another person's life was never on her bingo card and yet she had done it with ease. It didn't matter if she was in her right mind or not, it was still her hands that had done it.
Maia continued walking and when the soldiers who were guarding the door to the basement saw her, they didn't even bother to stop her. They knew instantly that if Maia, Leticia's favorite, was there then she must have been running an errand.
After all, they only saw her as a robot soldier who would follow her creator's orders. Maia knew better that a chance like this wouldn't come again so she had better use all of her luck.
The basement prison cells were far wider than anyone could imagine. It makes up half the whole area of this camp. Maia walked slowly and tried to feel where the woman she was looking for was.
She grimaced as she felt the Echidna's gaze at her, she knew better to not look them in the eye unless she wants to be food for them.
The Echidnas as everyone calls them could incite hallucinations and like the other half of them, they would coil up like snakes once their prey had been deep in the dreams.
The chimera creatures are people whose limbs had been replaced by that of an insect. Of course, giant insects wouldn't be crossed off the list either. They would have features that are identical to any insect or animals.
"You're different now"
Maia looked back at the raspy old voice that spoke. An old man hunched over a bench with mantis-like arms was staring at her with a small smile on his lips. He looked about 60-70 years old now. Maia grimaced as she saw how his bones were one skin away, he was that skinny.
"616, Have you finally woken up?"
Maia knew that this wasn't the person she was looking for. But, something about him intrigues her. Woken up? Does he know something?
"You can speak, you know that there isn't a surveillance camera in here. Technology is useless here, especially when those Echidnas just render them unusable"
Maia, of course, knew that the hallucinations that the Echidnas make could even fool the technology.
"I don't remember you"
"Of course you don't child, you can barely control yourself. You are lucky enough that your consciousness came back"
"Who are you?"
Maia finally asked. She understood that chimeras could never have the ability to mind read or even be capable of telepathy. The chimeras were only pure strength and enhanced senses.
"A mere chimera child, I am just that. But, I am also a messenger"
"A messenger?"
The old man nodded but before he could utter another word, the other chimera around him laughed horribly.
"YOU'RE NO MESSENGER, YOU'RE A MANTIS"
"WE'RE ALL DOOMED"
"HEY, CAN I EAT YOU?"
And just like that everybody else began shrieking, wailing, and laughing altogether.
Maia knew that if this noise continued for three more minutes then the ventilation for the whole floor would be turned off and would be replaced with sleeping gas.
"My child, do you believe in Gods?"
This caught Maia's attention, amidst the noise and the loud screeches of the almost banshee-like chimeras, she heard the old man's voice.
"Some people believe in the Seven Lucky Gods."
Without even waiting for Maia's answer, the old man continued. Maia wanted to intervene, she needed to look for someone and she wouldn't waste any time on this storytelling stuff.
"The person you are looking for is a manifestation of one of them"
Maia's expression turned sour when he heard what the old man had said.
"How did you know I was looking for someone?"
"I told you… I am a messenger"
He then smiled and continued.
"She's not here anymore. She had found her escape and she had somehow knew that you would look for her here"
"If you know who she is then tell me. What does she look like? And her name? and how was she able to escape this place?"
The old man only shook his head and gave Maia another indirect answer.
"I told you, she is a manifestation of one of the seven Gods of luck."
"I need answers, not riddles old man"
Time was up, and Maia could see that the ventilation was being closed one by one. She needed to get out of there or else, she would be sleeping with the chimeras.
"Do not seek her appearance child. Do so and you would never be able to see her."
That was the last straw, Maia was impatient and her insides seethed with anger as she stormed out of the prison. The soldiers who were guarding the place quickly shut the door close and watched Maia's back as she walked out.
Maia went out using the back door of the prison and decided to just breathe.
She was angry.
At herself for listening to that old chimera's antics inevitably wasting her time.
But a part of her wanted to believe everything that the old man had said. And yet, the fact that he knew that she was looking for someone just made him all the more suspicious.
Seven Lucky Gods? Gods of Luck? Of course, she knew about them. She personally heard stories of it and if she recalls correctly there was a religion and a city worshipping them.
She once did wish for mythological Gods and creatures to be real. She believed that those Gods would have been able to save them, but it was just that. Mythology is just mythology. It will never be real.
'Maybe the old man was just toying with me, but I can't go back there just yet'
Maia composed herself and was about to walk back inside when she heard some soldiers who were loitering around the area.
"Hey, I heard that they're going to kill those two"
"Which two?"
"You know, the ones who blew up the front house"
This sent Maia into a panicked state.
"Seriously? After all of those torture?"
"Yeah, well they are better off dead now, since she probably got the information that she wanted"
"And that is?"
Maia felt a cold air run down her spine and at that moment all she wanted to do was run towards Maki and Damian and get them the hell out of here.
They were in danger.
She was in danger.
"That, that robotic idiot 616, may not be an idiot after all…
That she was indeed the spy for the rebels"