My talk with Kieshala had helped but Nat and the others were making it pretty obvious that they were worried about me. When Kara told Nat exactly what condition I had been in before Jenny had healed me, our caretaker looked ready to murder someone. Not only had there been a hand-sized patch of scales ripped out of my tail but Kara had counted fifteen burn marks in various stages of healing, most of them on my breasts, face, and torso. She couldn’t even be sure if she had actually found all of them since it was just a quick look and some might have already completely healed before I was brought back with our rate of regeneration.

So that night before leaving, Nat had another heated conversation with Pierce, asking just what their tests had involved. She told him exactly what my condition was when I was returned to the pool and how pissed off she was about it. She also exaggerated a bit by saying that I was withdrawn and unusually timid, defensive, and jumpy around her all day since being returned. It really wasn’t too much of an exaggeration though.

She was really worried about our safety until Maddie, her parents, and people that they trusted could break us out. So she gave Pierce both barrels. She was furious that this was the second time in as many days that I was tortured by people here, that she was worried that I might be scared of humans now, and it was once again impeding her progress in getting us ready for his marine park on schedule.

In the end, Pierce was convinced by the possibility of huge monetary losses to talk with whoever had been responsible and ensure that it wouldn’t happen again. He really wanted that park ready to open on schedule with his main attractions on site. Nat had figured out pretty quickly that if she wanted Pierce to listen to anything that she said, she would have to frame it in a way that made it look like it would cost him time, money, or both. He might not have liked Natalie calling to yell at him but he hated the thought of a potential failed business venture even more.

I wondered who was going to get the brunt of Pierce’s anger; Dr. Harris, the goon who provided the muscles, or that Hart bitch. To be honest, I was hoping for all three of them, it was certainly better than having it focused on us. The video cameras in the lab probably had the whole thing recorded and if any of them thought to erase that footage, the fact that it was missing would still probably be enough to convince Pierce that Nat was telling the truth. Still, I couldn’t help but worry that this complaint was going to come back to bite us all in the collective ass somehow.

I was comfortably settled in Kara’s arms and hoping for sleep that wouldn’t seem to come. Despite my talk with Kieshala, every time that I felt like I was about to drift off I would get a flashback of my time in the lab. I could see the smug look on Hart’s face as she called me ‘Jonny’, I could feel the burning of her cigarette against my flesh, but the worst by far was the shadow pains in my tail as I relived my scales being ripped out one by one.

Not for the first time, I attempted to reassure myself with my new mantra. “I am Naethari. I am Naiya Soulsinger of Clan Moonreef, and I will not allow this to break me. I will get through this and, as soon as I get the opportunity, that bitch will pay for what she did in kind.” After several repeats of the mantra in my mind, I felt ready to try to sleep once again, only to start in surprise as the phone in the sealed bag began to light up and vibrate on the floor of the pool.

Once again, I tried to slow my heart rate as I reluctantly extracted myself from Kara’s arms. She tried to hold tighter to me in her slumber but I managed to escape, grabbed the bag with the phone, and made my way up to the surface. It took a moment or two to get comfortably seated on the edge of the pool but at least I could see well enough in the near pitch darkness of the room to extract the phone from the bag and unlock it. Hooray for Naethari vision, honed to see even in the darkness of the ocean depths.

The time on the phone said 23:47 but growing up with Maddie’s parents, military time was like an old friend. There was a notification about a missed call, of course, and it was from Maddie’s number so I called her back. “Naiya?” my sister asked, sounding worried.

“Yeah, I wasn’t sleeping yet and saw that you called,” I answered simply.

“We’re getting you the fuck out of there tonight,” she said, her voice suddenly hard and angrier than I had ever heard her before. In the background, I could hear her loading magazines as she spoke.

I sighed. “I guess that Nat told you what happened, huh?”

“Damn straight she did! I’m coming for you, Sis, and then I’m going to find Pierce and that bitch who tortured you and put a bullet in both of their heads!” Yup, she was understandably pissed but she obviously wasn’t thinking clearly either.

“Mads, you need to calm down and think clearly, remember what your parents taught us about anger. Have you talked to them about this? What did they say? You know damn well that cowboy shit can get you killed, a rescue operation takes time to plan if it’s going to succeed. How are you going to get four people who can’t walk out of a heavily guarded estate?” I didn’t really care if she answered me or not, I just needed to get her thinking clearly.

“They fucking tortured you, Naiya! They’ve been holding you against your will, experimented on you, and now they fucking tortured you too! I promised to always be there for you! I promised to protect you!”

“And how are you going to do that if you’re fucking dead, Mads?!” I snapped back. “If you come here alone, guns blazing, you’ll either end up dead or in prison! You can’t help me that way and I don’t want to lose my goddamn sister! Work out a fucking plan with Mom and Dad, something we can all live through!”

There was a long silence and Maddie’s next words were a surprise. “You… called them Mom and Dad.”

I was about to argue that I hadn’t when I replayed what I had said in my head. “Holy shit… I did.”

When they were home from missions while we were growing up they had always treated Mom as a friend or more rather than as a servant, and they had treated me no differently than Maddie. They had been parents to me as much as my own mother had until she died, and even after they continued to treat me like their own kid. Max had been like a father to me, the one I would have wanted to have, and Clara was a little sterner than my own mother but she had filled that role just as much.

I had always thought of Maddie as my sister but I thought that was because she called my mother ‘Mom’ just as she had Clara. Sometimes I had thought it was just because she thought it would be cool if we really were siblings, that she felt that close to me. She did feel that close but there was something that she used to say when I was little too. She said that we had the coolest family in the world, not just because her parents were teaching us super cool stuff that other kids didn’t get to learn but because we were lucky enough to have a great dad and two great moms.

There were times that I had wanted to do the same as my sister, to call Clara ‘Mom’ instead of ‘Aunt’ and to call Max ‘Dad’ instead of ‘Uncle’ but I wasn’t their real kid, I didn’t think that I deserved to do that. But they also taught me that family wasn’t just about blood, it was about those who cared for you, loved you, and would fight for you if needed. I already knew the answer, but I had to ask. “Do you think they would be upset? Y’know, with me calling them that?”

“Don’t be stupid, Sis, they’d be happy. We’re family and, until now, you’re the only one who never seemed to realize that because you were too lost in trying to pretend to be someone you weren’t. Mom and Dad just never suggested it because they didn’t want you to think they were trying to take your mother’s place. She was more than just a servant or even a friend to them you know, we all miss her as much as you do.” I could hear her sniffling on the other end and then Maddie took a deep breath to steady herself.

“I know. I miss all of you so much but I don’t want any of you getting killed trying to come in here without a plan. Are you calmed down now, Sis?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so. We do have a plan to get you out but when I heard about… I just kinda lost it. We’ll stick to the plan but I’m worried about you, and the others in there with you. Nat cares about all of you and I think she’s a good judge of character. I know that I just met her but I like her a lot. Tell me one thing, Sis, are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied.

“Liar,” she replied in a near-whisper. “You were tortured, of course, you’re not fine. That shit stays with a person.”

“Okay, I’m not fine, but Kieshala talked to me and I’m working through it. I can hold on until you can get us free. I’ll be even better though when I kill that Hart bitch with my own hands,” I replied more honestly.

“I thought you didn’t want to join the family business because you were leery about killing people, even those who deserve it,” she pointed out, her tone suddenly sounding concerned.

“I’m starting to see the appeal,” I retorted. “Besides, Un… Dad always says, ‘Don’t get mad, get even. And remember to bring plenty of ammo.’ So if there’s an opportunity when we escape, that bitch is mine.”

“Sounds like revenge, Sis. I can get behind that, I just never thought that you could.”

“Yeah, it’s revenge or at least part of it is,” I admitted. “There’s more to it though. I never really thought that true evil existed until I woke up here. Pierce and Hart, that’s what they are. If someone doesn’t do something about them, they’re just going to keep grinding people under their heels and making them suffer. If I can get payback and make sure that they can’t harm anyone else, then I think I’ll be able to sleep just fine at night.”

Maddie’s voice trembled slightly as she replied, “Okay, Naiya, I’m just worried about you. You’re my sister and my best friend. I don’t want to lose you. We almost lost you once already.”

“You’re not going to,” I told her with all of the determination that I could muster. “I’ll be waiting when you come to break us out, no matter what I have to do. We promised to always be there for each other right? Well, I don’t intend on breaking that promise.”

“Good. Just hold on until we can break you out, Sis, I’ll be seeing you soo…” Her voice trailed off for a second and then she whispered, “Shit! Mom and Dad just got home and they’re gonna flip if they see the small arsenal I was packing.”

I could hear her scrambling in her room and then, “Madeline, Natalie called us. She said that you were angry and took off, she was worried about you. Are you o… Madeline Catherine MacArthur! Why are you hiding an RPG under your bed?!”

The image in my head was so hilarious that I couldn’t help but giggle. “Oooh, busted! Maddie got in trouble,” I sing-songed into the phone.

I could practically hear her wince. “Uh… hey, Mom. Yeah, I kinda maybe flew off the handle a little. They were torturing Naiya though! She… uh… kinda talked me down. Oh! She’s on the phone and she totally called you Mom and Dad! You should talk to her! I’ll put her on speaker!” Wow, that was bad, trying to shift attention to me like that, she had to know that wasn’t going to work, right? That hadn’t worked since I was five years old.

“We’re still talking about the weapons, Madeline,” that familiar voice said sternly before asking in concern, “Jo… Naiya, are you alright?”

“Yeah, Au… Mom. I’m as good as can be expected. I miss all of you and my new body is taking a bit of getting used to but aside from the captivity and torture I’ve actually been happy about this. It feels so good to be in a body that feels right, I even kind of like the tail and stuff now, and I can do some pretty cool stuff too. I did what you and Dad taught me. They can torture me but there is no way in hell that they’re gonna break me,” I told her, tearing up a bit from hearing her voice.

“That’s our girl,” Dad said sounding both grim and proud at the same time. “Madeline told us what was going on. It was a little hard to believe at first but she and Natalie were very convincing, and the pictures helped. Hang in there, Kiddo, we’re working on a plan and recruiting some friends to help get you and those other poor girls out of there.”

Mom quickly interjected, “Speaking of which, Madeline, Jack has everything set up through his contacts. There’s a temporary apartment, car, and burner phone, as well as a convincing history and all of the necessary documentation, credentials, online presence, and fake IDs. Everything should stand up to even government scrutiny.”

“Way to go, Uncle Jack! I knew we could count on him!” Maddie practically squealed, referring to a friend of the family who was the living embodiment of having friends in low places.

“There’s a folder with everything you’ll need on the kitchen table. You won’t have long to familiarize yourself with the details but you should pack what you need and get settled in the apartment as soon as possible to study for your role. Take a few weapons too, but nothing that you can’t conceal. They’re for emergencies only,” Mom advised Maddie.

“You got it, Mom! I gotta go, Sis! Hopefully, I’ll be seeing you in person real soon though. Love you, Sis,” she babbled as I heard her rummaging around her room. I thought that I had an idea of what they were talking about and if she could pull it off I might just be seeing Maddie again sooner than I thought.

“Love you too, Mads. I should probably go try to get some sleep again anyway. Umm… Dad… Mom… I probably haven’t told you this as much as I should but I love you both too. You’re just as much my parents as Mom was and I should have let you know that I felt that way a lot sooner. I hope that we can see each other again soon. Goodnight,” I sniffled as I wiped away tears with my free hand.

“Sleep well, Sweetheart. We’ll see you as soon as we can. We’re coming for you and nothing is going to get between us and one of our girls,” Mom said firmly.

“Not if they know what’s good for them,” Dad added in a cold tone. His tone warmed up though as he said, “Get some sleep, Kiddo. If you need anything, even just to talk, call us. I don’t care what time it is, we’re always here for you.”

I was crying happy tears as I placed the phone back in the bag, sealed it, and jumped back into the pool. Kara looked at me in concern and wrapped her arm securely around me as I snuggled close to her. ~ Is everything okay, Naiya? ~

~Yeah, I think it is, Kara, ~ I told her as I snuggled closer. ~ This day really kinda sucked but it just ended on a high note. I’m still a little worried about falling asleep though. I… I don’t want to see or feel what happened again, but at least there are some good things to think about along with the bad. ~

Kara leaned over, turning my head to kiss me tenderly as she looked unwaveringly into my eyes. ~ I’ve got you, Beautiful. You’re in my arms and I’ll keep you safe for as long as I can. I won’t leave your side and I’ll be here when you wake up. ~ Despite my fears, I was soon lulled asleep by the warmth of her embrace and the safety that I felt in her arms.