The conspiracy orchestrated by mankind overturned the tide against them. The enemy was one in flesh and blood. They were deceived by their own narcissism, believing that humans would naturally share the same core belief, but even in this locked up city, the divergent faction cooked up a vicious treachery that was slowly unfolding to the heedless public.
I. Andrew's questions.
The message had been received. The White Sect had been declared a terrorist faction, and the few known names associated with it shall be interrogated then executed. Andrew's suspicions were true, but there was more to that situation. His brother was not a liar, and now, the word has spread amongst the terrified public who already had little to no faith in the system. Who was the intruder? And why had it been dwelling this city since the last battle? The legions had no name or description of their target, Clyde was still unconscious as he was being treated by the city's finest doctors.
Henry had claimed that the mooncaller was a young child, but his allegations can't be fully truthful. He had also claimed the existence of more mooncallers in the council, hiding in plain sight, but how come he was aware of all of that?
"I can't trust him." Andrew walked around Clyde's bed in the hospital as he waited for him to wake up. "This is crazy, but its better than nothing." Said Andy, a very close friend of Andrew and a well-known legion's physician. "If I follow his words, I might waste so much time on nothing." Andrew sighed as he sat down beside Clyde. "I know this isn't what you want to hear." Andy paused. "But if you think about it, it does make sense." She sat down facing the other side of the bed. "For the white sect to go on unnoticed this long, someone is hiding. There can be many of them that could have an ability we are yet to discover." Andy explained and Andrew seemed to swallow her words in agreement.
Clyde laid on the white hospital bed, stripped of his clothes and hooked up to monitors. He wasn't intubated, he could breath on his own, but his hand was severely injured as well as his ribcage. Clyde was injected with a strong serum that sped up his recovery process. He was a precious witness in this case, and as they ran out of time, Andrew relied on the serum to wake the young man and give him the answers he needed.
"I am afraid that if the council was infected, that means we can hardly communicate with them regarding any important information." Andrew said. "True. I don't think you should trust anyone, not even me." Andy expressed as she got up. "Now, he should be awake in minutes. The serum had been fully injected." She continued. "I will leave you too alone. There are many preparations to be made for the upcoming fullmoon." Andy excused herself as Andrew nodded.
His eyes were glued to Clyde's beaten face, monitoring every breath he took. His suspicions were on the rise, he could point his finger up to a hundred person. Clyde's honesty could either be destructive or deluding. Exposing Abigail would ruin this girl's chance of leading a life, yet, covering up for her would mean he had to only pinpoint the incident on Brando.
Bit by bit, his eyelid twitched. Andrew's heart leaped once he saw Clyde's red eyes were opened.
"Finally!" He cheered. "Don't move, Clyde." He ordered him. "You're severely injured, I'll put you back to sleep once you tell me what happened." He explained. Clyde's tears flood his wrapped face as his breath became erratic. His mouth was injured, he could hardly master the strength to utter a single world. Andrew could see Clyde's agony, but he would rather witness a man's pain rather than a city's slaughter.
"Don't make it hard for yourself." Andrew spoke, "I need a name or a face." Andrew asked. Clyde struggled to look left and right as he felt threatened, but he was willing to give his boss the information he needed.
II. Where's she?
Carvo had walked the streets for hours. Unable to ask for help, he had to relay on his strength. He might have been old, and he might have had only one eye, but this man's mind was the greatest jewel this city had yet to appreciate. Not long ago, Carvo had secretly reached the pinnacle of his research. He had been able to cut off the neural signals that tie the mooncallers' hunger for humans at the fullmoon, making the creature no longer possess any desire for human flesh. However, that was only on a cat. Abigail was the only intelligent Mooncaller Carvo had operated on, and for him to carry out that procedure meant he was taking a great risk, but it was either this or watch his sister become the beast he feared.
He had knocked a dozen doors, been into the churches, walked through the empty marked all after he stood dazzled by the tight security on Maria's house. He dared to ask the legions about the incident, but the information was classified. All that he was told about this incident was the death of Maria, which he had known all along. It became clear that if Maria's body was discovered, alongside the parasite dwelling within it, they would have rang him right away. He came to the conclusion that Brando escaped Maria's body, but in what form?
Carvo ran out of breath. He leaned on a wall as the soldiers' eyed him in a strange medley of astonishment and scorn. "Its him, the mad old geezer!" Gossiped the soldiers. Carvo couldn't help but chuckle at their gullible adolescent minds. "They wouldn't know." He spoke to himself.
The street wasn't empty. It was loaded with the inspection team, the deployed legion soldiers and hundreds of dim eyes silently gazing through their frosty windows. Carvo held his head and squeezed it hoping to catch any lead. As he did so, he felt detached from the noise around him. "Abigail won." He talked to himself. "If she was strong enough to force Brando out, then she must have won." He assured himself that she couldn't have died in there. "I've hit the wall." He sat on the sidewalk. "Where did you go, Abby?" He tearfully wondered, not long after that, the first lead in his enigma presented itself.
"Look at what I found!" Carvo's strong ear caught a member of the inspection team almost cheering. He suddenly wiped his frozen tears and lent them his ears. "I found this." The inspector handed his team an item Carvo couldn't see, but at that moment, he made a choice.
"That's the only way to solve this." Carvo said. "Time to use my rusty authority." Carvo got up, fixed his monocular and flexed his old muscles as he walked towards the inspection team who quickly stopped him.
"What do you think you are doing?" They shouted. "This is a restricted area!" They ordered him to step back. "Relax, people." He told them. "I am Carvo, Carvo Walker." Carvo introduced himself and soon, he saw the embarrassment on the team's face. "Oh, we are sorry, sir." The cheering inspector faltered. "Never mind, boy. Now, I have heard about your discovery." Carvo pointed towards the bloody cloth wrapped around a strange item.
"I am sorry, sir, we can't-"
"You can't what? Authorize access to me? I already have it. A quick message to Dunken should be fine. I am afraid that the more we discuss this the more time we waste. We possibly have a mooncaller around us." Carvo interrupted the inspector who looked in dire need of this man's help. He eyed his fellow inspectors who nodded. "Ally, send a message to Sir Dunken." He ordered his subordinate, and now, Carvo was on the case.
III. Clyde's choice.
As Andrew impatiently awaited the words to come out of Clyde's wounded lips, his heart bounded erratically. "Come on, Clyde. You're my finest soldier! Just give me a lead, all I need is a lead." Andrew pleaded, holding Clyde's hand and closely putting his ear close to his lips. Clyde uttered gibberish words mixed with moans and grunts, Andrew pushed him more, asking Clyde insistently about the incident as Clyde suffered more.
But it seemed as Clyde's awareness grew, he understood what needed to be done. The pain was unbearable, and so was the nagging of the blurry sequence of events he witnessed. In those events, his heart remembered Abigail's heroism before the memory flashed before him. In a minute, he knew he had to repay her for what she had done. In that moment, he realized that although her powers were terrifying, she was more human than all of them were.
"It-it talked like us." Clyde coughed. "It dug its way through the tunnels." Clyde slightly begun to faint. "Its a shapeshifter, they-they exist." Clyde paused. "Its name is Brando." Clyde passed out once again.
Andrew's face became pale. "Brando?" He gulped. "This can't be true." Andrew panted as he left Clyde and quickly walked towards the door, shouting for his soldiers.
"Notify the team on the incident's site, it's in the tunnel!" He ordered his soldier who quickly obeyed his order.
On Andrew's mind, a connection was made. The name 'Brando' wasn't new, it was old. In fact, ancient. As Carvo begun his investigation to trace his sister and her pursuer, a new lead was sent to him by Andrew. The real battle begun.
