Chapter Text
Mia's Pov
We were in the meeting room and had yet another meeting. We've been having them a lot in the past six months since Andy and Lauren left.
"Okay, so the Inner Circle has been silent for five months. Why are we still paying such close attention to them?" Cameron asked. He had come back from Baltimore a couple of weeks after Andy and Lauren left. I asked him to help me look for them so he had to sit in on the meetings with me to know what's going on.
"Just because they don't seem active doesn't mean they aren't," Lorna said.
Cameron sighed. The adults started talking about whatever their theory was about what the Inner Circle is doing. I get that it's important and stuff but I wanted to share the stuff that I wanted to talk about. I think I found a lead about Andy and Lauren.
"There have been more reports of dead people coming back to life. So the Inner Circle is still active; they're still there, just hiding." Marcos said. "I've been reading some of the reports from Sentinel Services that we can find and all of the ones that say that people that were dead came back they just assume that they were never dead. The government isn't aware of this person at all."
"No duh, the government knows basically nothing," I said. Seriously they know nothing.
"Maybe we should tip them off about that mutant," Caitlin suggested.
"And risk them finding us? No way" Esme said.
"That's fair," Caitlin said. She turned to me, "Have you found any new leads about Andy and Lauren?"
"Yes actually. Cameron and I checked out a lead the other day and that gave me a couple of leads to look into. I'm going to start looking into them later tonight." I said.
Caitlin nodded. "That's good."
She's been worried about her kids ever since they left. It's understandable, but sometimes she hovered over me when I was trying to find leads. It got annoying but I dealt with it because she's their mom, but she gets overly worried a lot.
The others finished up the meeting and John came over to me. "Hey, do you need help checking out the leads?"
"No, they probably won't actually lead anywhere. It's fine. It probably won't lead anywhere anyway, they rarely do," I said. John had been coming with me to look for Andy and Lauren ever since he came back after helping out in Baltimore.
"Okay, I have to go help Marcos with getting some new refugees from the Morlocks," he said as he left.
"You know I don't even know why we're still looking for them. They clearly don't want to be found." Cameron said as we got up.
"I know but we can't give up. They're my friends and the longer they stay out there the closer Sentinel Services gets to catching them. Besides what about their mom? I don't even know what she would do if we just stopped looking." I said. I wanted to find them but sometimes it just seemed impossible.
John's Pov
I was in one of the vans with Marcos heading to pick up some new refugees from the Morlocks. Erg had a group to send over to us.
"John, how are you doing," Marcos asked me while he drove. I hadn't been okay since Clarise died. I've been getting through it but some days it was all just too much. Even though she has been dead for well over a year now, it still feels fresh.
"I'm fine, brother," I said.
"You sure? You've been more distant than usual lately," he said.
I sighed, "Marcos really, I'm fine. It's just with everything that's happened the last few months, everything that happened with the spy, then Andy and Lauren leaving. It's all just a lot to comprehend."
Marcos pressed his lips together and focused back on the road. We drove in silence for the rest of the way.
Erg greeted us at the entrance to the tunnels, "John, Marcos. The people that want to go to the Underground are just within the tunnels."
"Thanks, Erg. I'll go get them and load them into the van," Marcos said walking into the tunnels.
Erg nodded, "I need to head back into the tunnels. There are a few people who chose to stay with the Morlocks and I need to take care of them."
"Erg, I know that Andy and Lauren talked to you before they left. I tracked them to one of your tunnel entrances. I lost the trail after that. Where did they go after they left?" I said stopping him from leaving.
Erg stopped, "They came to me, for supplies and nothing more."
"Erg, they must have told you where they were going. You have to know something," I said.
"They didn't tell me where they were going. Now you better go, Marcos is done loading your new people into your van. I must get back to my people. Good luck finding your friends," Erg said before walking back into the tunnels.
I punched the wall next to me, "Damnit."
Marcos walked over, "John what are you doing?"
"He knows something. He has to," I said.
"Maybe, but even if he does he's not going to tell us. Let's just get back to headquarters. You can meet up with Mia before she goes out again," he said.
I deflated, "Fine."
Marcos led me back to the car and this time I drove as we headed back to headquarters.
Esme's Pov
I smiled as Leah gently kissed me, "You know you are so beautiful," I said.
Leah laughed, her laugh was so pretty, "There is no way I can even compare to you. You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," she said. I was laying down on my back while Leah was laying gently on top of me. I smiled as she started to tickle me.
I squirmed and giggled. I wriggled till I could grab her hands, and pushed her onto her back pinning her under me.
"I love you," I said smiling. I leaned down and kissed her.
"I love you too," Leah said smiling, she glanced at the clock, "You know we should probably get back to doing our jobs. I have to make sure all of the little ones are in bed."
"Or we could not do our jobs and stay in our nice, warm, cozy bed," I said, moving her red hair out of her face.
Leah laughed, "We could but you should check in with Mia before she leaves."
I sighed and laid on my back next to her, "I know, I know. She'll probably be gone for a couple of days. Someone should know where she is, just in case."
Leah smiled and got up. She put on her favorite white and gray flannel, she looked like a goddess in it. She put on her jeans and came over and kissed my forehead. "When I come back I expect you to be talking to Mia," she said before she walked out.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm getting up," I said as she closed the door.
I smiled, she was beautiful. She distracted me from everything that has been happening. She always gave me momentary happiness on the hardest days. Sometimes it was hard in the Underground but Leah always made it so much better.
I loved her. She was my best friend and girlfriend. I smiled thinking about her as I got dressed. I headed out to go talk to Mia, smiling as I thought about the fun we were having before we, unfortunately, had to get up.
Lauren's Pov
I was sitting in the car waiting for Andy to get the rest of our stuff. I was still not totally healed from getting stabbed so Andy didn't let me do much.
We needed to move on. The cops were slowly figuring out where we were. We needed to do something first, we were here for a reason. We were trying to find answers about our family, our powers, everything. We were so close, but the cops were too close to figuring out where we were.
Andy threw the few bags of stuff we had in the back then climbed into the driver's seat. He still wasn't letting me drive.
"You know you could just let me drive, right," I said.
"No, you're still recovering from getting stabbed. You're not driving until you can walk longer than thirty minutes at a time." Andy said.
I rolled my eyes, "You got stabbed too."
"And my injuries weren't nearly as bad and they are mostly healed," he said.
"You can still only drive with one hand. It's not safe." I said.
Andy laughed, "Oh, and driving when you can't use your core muscles is safe?"
"I hate you," I said, crossing my arms.
"Yup, I'm your little brother, you're supposed to," he said poking me in the arm. "Besides we're almost there so it doesn't matter."
I rolled my eyes and looked out the window. We were in New Orleans. We drove past one of the above-ground cemeteries that were scattered throughout the city. They were so beautiful in a strange, creepy way.
We got to the alley behind where we were headed. It was a jewelry shop, the owner had an Instagram page that I saw. One of the necklaces seemed familiar somehow. Like an instinctive feeling, like I'd seen it before, even though I'd never seen that necklace in my life. Andy felt the same, so we figured that we should probably check it out.
I got out of the car and walked to the corner of the building with Andy following me. I peeked around the corner, there was a security camera on the other corner of the building, pointing at the door.
I used my powers to try to break the camera lens. It was hard, if I didn't do it right people would notice that we were here.
"Can you hurry? There are too many people on the street," Andy said looking around us nervously.
"Well, I'm trying to stop a camera from seeing us, or do you want me to just skip this step and get caught?" I said.
Andy rolled his eyes. "No, but you could do it a little faster."
I sighed and made the lense implode just enough so that It wouldn't record anymore. "I'm done, let's go."
I pulled my hood up and walked into the store with Andy behind me. It was a really pretty shop, with four tables in the center and displays all along the walls. It was small but felt full.
Andy and I started looking through the display cases trying to find the necklace we were looking for. I looked through the side cases, my eye eyes scanning the jewelry. The pieces varied from old-looking new looking brand new. I walked up to the counter's display case, this one was locked. You couldn't just open the glass to take out a piece like the others. Of course, this was the case that the necklace was in.
I walked over to where Andy was and pulled him over to where the case the necklace was in.
I studied the necklace, it was beautiful, it had a crest on its center. A crest of a wolf, it seemed so familiar, gently rested my hand on the glass as I studied it.
"Beautiful necklace isn't it?" The old lady behind the counter said.
I looked up startled, "Uh, Yeah, it's very pretty."
I looked at Andy and he was looking at one of the other customers in the store, the customer kept glancing at us. We needed to go, but I wanted that necklace.
I turned to the lady behind the counter, "How much is it?"
"Oh, this necklace, it is an antique very expensive, 400 dollars," She said. I looked at Andy, we didn't have close to that amount of money.
The shop owner continued ignoring our surprised faces, "It was sold to this shop when I was still a young woman, watching my father run the shop. My father died soon after due to mysterious circumstances and I took over the shop."
I looked at the lady curiously, "Why are you telling us this."
"Because no one has shown interest in that necklace since it came here," she paused, "You two seem so familiar have we met."
"Nope, and sorry about this. Lovely shop you have." Andy said before using his powers to shatter the glass. People screamed. I grabbed the necklace pausing to apologize to the lady. An alarm started bringing and people were running out of the shop.
I turned to Andy, "Was that really necessary?"
"No, but it was fun."
I rolled my eyes, "Yeah well now people know who we are. We have to go."