Lisette, hold on. We're coming for you.
New Year, New Us
"LISETTE!!" My screams echoed in the dark forest, while the rain continued to pour harshly through the thick trees. I clung to my phone as I looked left, right, and all around before furthering my steps and calling out her name again.
The clock was ticking rapidly because it was getting closer and closer to midnight, and the pressure was heavy on our shoulders.
Calvin and Rick had discovered one sole solution to this but there was one sacrifice that had to be made.
* * *
"You found a solution?!" I called out as I moved to the nearest tree and summoned the earth to shield me from the onslaught of water droplets.
Fighting to catch my breath, I put the phone on FaceTime and added, "I don't have long. My battery is low."
"We'll make it quick, but it's like we were hypothesizing earlier." Rick took the lead. He and Calvin were surrounded by Rock, Royce, Ruke, Zackery, Zion, Zeus, and Zeke.
"The way to reverse it is to push each of our elements into you. You’ll give that energy to Lisette, but there are two conditions with this."
"The most important step is that you have to kiss Lisette and make her sexually aroused with the kiss. That shouldn't be hard."
"Meaning I'm an amazing kisser. I know," I quietly mumbled but they all caught it.
"Haha," Calvin commented and continued right on, "However, because the source of energy is going through you versus it going through a mechanical method like in an injection or port-tunnel site of sorts, whoever inputs the energy through you will be connected."
"What?" I tried to wrap my head around it, but Zion stepped up to try and explain it better.
"Think about it this way, Jade. You're a Hive Queen that we're connected to. Our connection is based on our elements and the thread of energies that sync with one another. Think of you as a flame and we're the moths that come to you for a connection. When our energies connected, we initiated the bond, but remember how Zackery's bond fully awakened with you?"
"Oh right." I had totally forgotten about that.
"That's basically the level two of our connection. The reason why this is a problem isn't because of us Maxwells or Calvin," he stressed. "It's the R- squad."
I needed a second to figure it out, but when I did, my heart dropped.
Oh no...
"Wait. Doesn't that mean if the R-squad sends their elements through me...they'll potentially become a Hive?"
Calvin slowly nodded. "We're not a hundred percent sure, but that's what we feel will happen. As of now, the potential of them being Lisette's Hive is high, but they can't solely save her from this. Charles wrote that double the force of each element may not be enough and he'd add a third boost to support the official transition, but that's with external forces. We're using you as the port to connect to Lisette which means they'll have no choice but to pour their elements through you versus directly to Lisette."
"But...wouldn't that..." I was struggling to figure out what the final outcome would be for R-squad and Lisette.
Wouldn't that ruin their chances of ever being together?
"That's the sacrifice," Royce was the one to speak up and he took a steady breath. "What Calvin is trying to get at is that by pouring our combined energies, we'll become your Hive. Meaning, you'd be connected to the Maxwells, Calvin, Lisette, and us. A total of ten individuals. Calvin and Rick don't believe you'll have an issue with the added Hive, but by going along with this we're going to sacrifice the connection we have with Lisette."
"Which may also mean...she won't ever have feelings for us again," Rock revealed.
"We'd still have our memories, obviously," Ruke clarified, "But there'll be no connection. Any feelings Lisette would have for us would go down the drain. She may still want to be acquaintances or even friends due to us being around you, but anything past that would be impossible."
"Think of it like the idea that lust would be meaningless without Lisette," Rick elaborated. "It's like bees. Once they've chosen their queen, their royal is absolute. We'd all be connected to you and want a romantic relationship when you're up for it, but there would be no relationship with another. Even if you ordered us to, we wouldn't have any feelings about whatever romantic action we've been asked to fulfill."
"So you're basically losing any chance of being with Lisette for the sake of saving her, and you would have to bond with me and be my fourth Hive, which I pray would be my last."
"I don't think you could survive one more," Calvin admitted. "Four is pushing it. It's never been recorded that anyone has survived having four Hives. You'd potentially be the first, but my instincts tell me you'd be alright. In this case, because we're trying to save a connected Hive, you'll still be experiencing the power of three main Hives with the planned procedure but after this is over, we're going to be on major magic ban."
"We're going to have a normal semester at school?!" I gasped. "What a blessing in disguise."
"Thank goodness we have someone who can add some humor in all of this." Zackery sighed. "This whole thing is heavy,"
"Stressful too," Zion added.
"If we're feeling the heat," Zeus began, "imagine Lisette, who's somehow managed to carry all this burden for months. Remember she was working herself to write this journal. We had the information to save her ages ago, but never clicked in on it."
"We can't be too harsh on ourselves," Zeke admitted. "But as Trackers it's our duty to ensure all our members are okay. We didn't see the tiny signs and assumed things were alright with her because she's always so happy with a dose of crazy. If we'd picked the signs up earlier, we surely wouldn't have reached this point, but we're here now and if we want to give Lisette a chance at life, we have to try this."
"Are you okay with this, R-squad?" I quietly asked. "If you go along with this...any chance with being with Lisette is over. You'll have to be stuck with me...and well, I'm a no-nonsense type of gal. I also barely know any of you...so starting a relationship so fresh out of the woods will be tricky for me."
Jeez, I wasn't even adapted to Calvin yet, let alone Lisette.
"We're not agreeing to this out of benefit," Royce took the lead in answering. "We fucked up, Jade. We fucked up really bad...and to be honest, we didn't truly realize how badly we'd done until recently. We don't have time to explain the details, but Lisette deserves to live. She suffered ten years of agony and instead of embracing her freedom, she was willing to come to your aid and stop Charles from hurting you, your team, and other innocent people. It didn't end well because of our mistakes, and instead of fixing them, we thought distance and being told by others of higher command what to do would somehow fix all of this. It didn't...and we had to realize that the hard way."
He took a calming breath and bobbed his head like he'd finalized the decision with the rest of his brothers.