Nadia opened her eyes to a bright light. She groaned, curling her fingers slowly. She heard voices that sounded so distant.

Oh my! She's awake

Nadia?

Nadia, can you hear me?

Her eyes closed and she fell into darkness.

Nadia's eyes fluttered open to behold a white ceiling. She blinked slowly, trying to connect with her consciousness. She looked to her side and saw a drip there. She looked down at her wrist and saw an IV inserted in it.

“What?” She croaked in confusion. She took in her environment. This wasn't her dorm room. “Where am I?”

This felt awfully like deja vu.

That's when everything came rushing back and she sat up in alarm. She regretted her actions when the world tilted and her head started pounding. She groaned, holding her head and then waiting until it subsided and the world stopped spinning.

She yanked out the IV and stood up. She took a step and her legs gave way. The door opened to reveal Faryal on the other side.

“Nadia!” she rushed to her in alarm and helped her back to the bed, before going back to close the door.

She went back to the bed, sat down beside Nadia, and placed her palm on her back, “Are you alright?”

When she noticed the blood oozing out of Nadia's wrist, she went to take a towel out of the wardrobe and pressed it to the wound until the bleeding stopped.

Nadia hugged her tightly. “You're alright,” she breathed.

Faryal returned her hug and they stayed that way for some time.

Nadia pulled away first, “We have to get out of here, we have to find the others and leave now,” she said in a rush.

“Nadia breathes,” Faryal urged, placing her hands on her shoulders. “We are at AR's base, they rescued those of us who were able to get away from the Resistance and got stranded in the forest. They found you bloody and close to death. It was a miracle you survived that fall. They brought you here and nurse you back to health.”

Nadia took a moment to process what she said. “So they are not the bad guys?”

“No, they are not. They are an organization created to take down The Resistance.”

“Oh. Well...well how long have I been unconscious?”

“Three months.”

“Three months?” Nadia echoed in disbelief. That's s long time lost and wasted, she thought. “Shat about Joanne and Mia and Makena-”

Faryal's intake of a shaky breath made her pause. “Did anything happen to them?” Nadia's eyes were wide with panic. “Say something,” she pressed when Faryal kept silent.

Faryal looked away for a minute and when she met Nadia's eyes, hers were shining with tears. “Mia and Freya's didn't make it.”

Nadia lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, her head pounding and her mind clouded with dangerous thoughts of what could be happening right now when she heard a work knock on the door.

She wiped her tears away and went to open the door. A petite fair-skinned woman stood on the other side dressed in a blue long-sleeve chiffon maxi dress.

The woman smiled warmly. “Hello, Nadia.”

Nadia eyed her warily. “Who are you?”

“I'm Jia. The leader of this organization. May I come in?”

Nadia opened the door wider, stepping aside. Jia walked in and Nadia remained at the door, leaving it wide open. She continued to eye Jia with caution as she sat on the edge of her bed.

“You should sit Nadia, you don't want to stress yourself, considering your health,” Jia told her.

“I'm fine,” Nadia said, firmly.

“Faryal told me you were awake. She also said she explained to you who we are.”

“Not really.”

“We are AR, the AntiResistance. We created this organization to bring down the Resistance.”

“Yeah right,” Nadia scoffed. “Didn't do your job then. How did all this start in the first place? This Resistance nonsense.”

“I'll explain all that. Just sit first, please Nadia. You're not in good shape right now.”

Nadia hesitated before sitting on the floor, still near the door, still not closing the door in case she needed to make a rum for it.

The woman went km to explain how the Resistance was developed in the late 90s. It first took stray human kids in, turning them into supernaturals, trying to rekindle the number they lost during the war.

But this new breed of species was weak and not much better than the average human. They began kidnapping the real supernatural and performed experiments on them. They took their blood and injected it into humans. The experiments proved positive when the new breed of supernatural became faster, stronger, and almost undefeatable. They crested hybrids, and tribrids. Everything was going great.

But the original supernatural were dying, the experiments were killing them There was a man among them named Rahul, he wanted out, he didn't want to have a hand in the death of his kind. They threatened to kill him if he left. But he still escaped, determined to reveal the secret, even if he would die in the end.

He found a way to pass the message to Jia; an ex-militant before he was found out and killed. Jia took it upon herself to gather people with high intelligence, good fighting skills, and great leadership values. Together they established the AR.

They built their bases close to the different supernatural schools and each school had a spy who are to report any unusual activity to them.

“Then the kidnappings started,” Jia said. “Forestlands was their first target. They started kidnapping the students and we tried to trace them to their hideout but-”

“You couldn't,” Nadia completed in an accusing manner. “You didn't even help when the school got blown up. When the students were being killed and friends were taken away.”

Nadia's voice was shaky, “You had to wait till the fight was over. Claim to save us and then make up think you're heroes. But no, you're all a bunch of cowards.”

Jia smiled sadly. “I'm so sorry Nadia. The fight happened so suddenly, there was nothing we could do. We warrant ready for it, the plan was to find out their base first and attack later. If we had just barged in, I'm afraid none of us would have been here right now.”

“If you weren't ready for it, why didn't you call the supernatural cops or something?”

“That's the thing, Nadia, we can't trust anyone but ourselves. The resistance has people in the Force department that are their eyes and ears, so we can't risk that.”

“So what are we going to do?” Nadia asked in defeat.

“We are going to bring down the Resistance together. You all will be trained to become warriors and we are going to bring your friends back and end the Resistance.”

“We are no warriors,” Nadia muttered. “We are just a bunch of teenagers.”

Jia shook her head. “No Nadia. I have watched the others train, and they have shown great potential. With enough time and training, you all will be a force to be reckoned with. But I won't force you or anyone Nadia. It's your choice. So are you in or out?”

Nadia thought of all the people they had, their home burnt to the ground and her friends taken away. She thought of Ahryan and what he did to her, to Lloyd. She thought of her powers. Why have such great power and sit back and do nothing? When you could do much more? After all, with great power comes great responsibility.

With a voice filled with determination, she said, “I'm in.”

THE RESISTANCE BASE

It's been three months. Three whole months of torture ever since Jace and the others arrived here.

They were being put through rigorous training for those like Jace who have been placed in the army category. Whoever tried to escape or break the rules will face severe punishment or more likely have their head exploded by the chip placed in their brain.

As for the demons who would just grow another head. They would be burnt with phoenix fire, the only means that could send them back to hell apart from Angel's heavenly flame.

Other lesser students have been placed into the experiments category. Experiments that could kill them, for the Resistance have no care for their life.

Jace watched along with the others as Freya ran around the arena in an open field, a dagger in her hand with a wolf fast gaining on get. Two other wolves were lying dead behind her on the ground.

She ran close to the nearest tree and ran against the trunk, wrapped an ankle around a branch, and twisted her body just in time to slide the knife between the eyes of the wolf, whose jaws were wide open to take her down.

The guards unlocked the metal bracelet locking her powers, for they were not supposed to use it to fight this time around.

She walked up to him and laid her palm on his shoulder, “Your turn, ” with that said, she walked away.

Jace walked up to the guards and watched with the usual irritation as they injected a serum into him to lock his powers. When they were sure it had enough time to take effect, they took him to a weapon rack to choose his weapon. His eyes lazily ran over them until they settled on a Kusarimaga. A weapon with a sickle at one end and a chain connecting it to a metal spiky ball.

“Let's get this over with,” he muttered, brandishing his weapon as he strode into the circle to face his opponent