After breakfast Vezaias was ready to accomplish his goals. He gathered everyone into the safe room and shut the door.

  “We have several goals that we are going to work on and accomplish today. We have a serious mission today but before we do that, Ava, we need to work on your mimic talent, right after Lux works on his regeneration talent.” Vezaias looked thoughtful while Lux suddenly looked scared.

  “Wait, I've already figured out how to do it, I really don't think that…”

  “Lux, it took you over an hour to regrow your hand. I need you to work on your speed.” Vezaias said seriously. Lux began to back up on reflex.

  “You’re going to cut off my hand again?? No way! I think I'll pass!” Lux nearly shouted. Vezaias looked annoyed at the disobedience and glanced at Remington with expectation. Remington sighed and reached out, snatching Lux with his invisible grip freezing him in place.

  “No! Remington! I don't want him to do this to me! Please let me go!!!” Lux shouted as he tried and failed to escape the hold.

  “You know I cannot let you go. I must be subordinate.” Remington said mildly as he continued to hold Lux. Lux was now looking panicked, and shifted to look at Vezaias as he approached after summoning one of his machetes.

  “No! No! Don't do this, Vezaias! Please!” Lux cringed and struggled helplessly.

  “Be quiet and listen to me Lux. Calm down. Shhhhhhh.” Vezaias hushed him as he cupped Lux's cheek with his hand gently. Lux was gasping from panicked breathing and soaked with fear, but he quieted his begging.

  “We are a team. Rem, you, Ava….we are working together to kill all the haters. Understand?” Vezaias cooed. Lux's eyes were leaking with fear but he nodded softly. “……and each of us will have to depend on one another. Right?” Vezaias said smoothly. Lux nodded again as more tears gushed out. Vezaias was really laying it on thick. Ava only listened, looking bored as if the possibility of gore didn't bother him at all. Remington was soaking in anticipation and worry for Lux. Before the thought of someone hurting Lux made him angry, but this was Vezaias that was going to hurt him and he was helpless to stop him.

  “This team is going to depend on everyone mastering their talents. Now do you think if someone attacks you and cuts your arm off they will sit around and wait for an hour before they attack again?” Vezaias questioned.

  “Nnnno.” Lux stuttered.

  “Of course not, while you are busy regrowing it, they could be killing Ava, or me, or Rem…” Vezaias hummed wickedly. “….is that what you want to happen?” Vezaias added. Lux shook his head quickly. “Me either. So you are going to practice regrowing your parts as fast as you fucking can. I will chop your hand off 100 times if it means it will help you improve your speed. I'm doing this to make you stronger. If you obey you will be rewarded, but if you don't I will punish you. Understand?” Vezaias cooed smoothly, leaning closer and smoothing back Lux's swirls of hair. Lux swallowed hard and nodded again very softly. Remington remembered Zexich telling him this was only a manipulative tactic to abuse him. He began to wonder if this was true. Was Vezaias only taking pleasure in hurting them? “Now I’m going to have Remington release you and you are going to stay put and hold out your arm so we can get this over with. Then you need to focus on regrowing it as fast as you can. Got it?” Vezaias said maliciously. Lux nodded again, still gushing with tears. Vezaias straightened up and glanced at Remington. He released Lux gently who fought the urge to try and escape. Vezaias waited for him to collect himself and hold up his arm. He was shaking and terrified but did what he was told. Vezaias smiled wickedly and readied his machete. He aimed it carefully looking as if he were enjoying the moment.

  “Don't move Lux. Ready, 5, 4, 3, 2……” Vezaias swung as hard as he could. SSSSSLLPOP, but this time without anything to brace the limb, it only hung still attached by a morsel of flesh and like a screen door flapping in the wind, it flopped down as Lux screamed so loud the whole house seemed to shutter.

  “Whoa, let me just remove that!” With one quick swipe Vezaias severed the connection and the hand dropped to the ground. Lux quickly clutched his stump into his chest. Vezaias pulled out his cell phone and checked the time. “Alright let me know when it's fully regrown. Better hurry. I chopped a bit higher this time so you might bleed faster.” Lux tried to acknowledge the advice but the color had drained from his face then he was suddenly dizzy, his vision darkened then his muscles gave out and gravity took over. Remington reached, stopping him from hitting the floor and laying him gently to the ground with his invisible grip. Vezaias reached down and took the severed hand.

  “Wake him up. He's never going to get any faster if he passes out every time I chop off a body part.” Vezaias turned to leave. “Ava go upstairs.” Vezaias ordered. Ava quickly complied and headed out of the room and up the stairs.

  “Wait!” Remington shouted impulsively. Vezaias paused and turned to look at Remington very seriously.

  “You…..you don't have to hurt him like this!” Remington was afraid of speaking his mind, but watching Lux suffer this way was making him boil inside.

  “I do, actually. I don't like it anymore than you do, but there is no other way. I need him to be strong.” Vezaias said seriously.

  “But why?! Why do you want us to be strong?! And how is hurting him like this helping at all?!” Remington shouted, kneeling and pulling Lux’s unconscious body into his arms to hold him and squeeze the severed arm to slow the bleeding.

  “We need to be strong so we can accomplish what we need to accomplish. It will be dangerous.” Vezaias said.

  “Tell me why?! What are you trying to accomplish?! I'm tired of being left in the dark, and expected to just follow your orders blindly!” Remington shouted.

  “You know why I cannot tell you.” Vezaias pressed.

  “Yes, I know! I'm a bad liar! But we don't have to go back! I can close the portal, we can stay here! We can go far away where we will be safe, and happy, and never go back!! We don't have to fight!” Remington pleaded. Vezaias was quiet for a moment.

  “That's not going to work, Rem. Someday you will know why.” Vezaias said seriously. “Now wake him up. We have other objectives we need to accomplish today.” Vezaias said firmly, then he turned to walk away. Remington sat feeling defeated, while trying to wake Lux. It took a few minutes to help him surface back into consciousness but soon he was blinking his eyes trying to focus on Remington's face.

  “You have to concentrate, Lux. I know you can do it.” Remington said softly as he raked Lux's hair from his face. He was sweaty and shivering and pale as he took over clamping his hand around the stump of his forearm. Slowly the flesh began to grow back and reshape into a new hand. Lux cried a bit as it was a painful process and soaked up all the loving attention Remington dished out as he suffered, but in just over 30 minutes after the hand was severed he was flexing a brand new hand. He was on his feet again, still feeling dizzy and full of endorphins, as Remington took him by his new hand and led him up the stairs to find Vezaias. Vezaias was sitting in the living room watching TV when they approached very cautiously.

  “35 minutes, better Lux, but not good enough.” Vezaias said in bemusement.

  “Fuck off, growing body parts back isn't exactly a walk in the damn park.” Lux scoff unhappily.

  “Che, that's why you're practicing. Now it's Ava's turn.” Vezaias said, getting to his feet and glancing at Ava who sat glued to the TV.

  “Aww, Vee, can't it wait until the next commercial?” Ava groaned.

  “No Ava, right now.” Vezaias pressed. Ava pouted all the way to the safe room.

  “Just be glad he isn't going to cut your hand off Ava.” Lux scoffed.

  “Ugh, but what are we going to do? It's not like it's hard for me to morph into an asshole!” Ava complained. Vezaias gathered everyone into the safe room and turned to face Ava.

  “If you can mimic me then you can mimic others. Let me show you.” Vezaias said seriously. He turned to Lux and looked amused.

  “Lux I'm gonna need you to hold still again.” Vezaias said smoothly. Lux immediately looked scared.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You're not going to chop off another body part are you?!” Lux said in horror.

  “No, nothing like that. Not for you at least. Just stay calm.” He said amusingly.

  “Okay but…..is this gonna hurt though?” Lux said nervously.

  “You know I'm not sure. I've never done this to another person before. Let's find out together.” Vezaias said smoothly. Lux was afraid but waited nervously for whatever was about to happen. With a quick jerk Vezaias thrust his hand forward impaling Lux through the chest. Lux jolted in pain but seemed to be frozen in place as Vezaias grabbed from inside of him and pulled his fist out holding a glowing crystal orb. Lux's eyes seemed to go blank as he extracted the crystal from his body. Remington looked horrified at this. Ava looked amazed and not at all as worried as Remington was.

  “Zexich told me that these artificial bodies are powered by crystals. I've been working on extraction, because these crystals are fused to the synthetic body, and are used to store the person's whole essence inside the crystal.” Vezaias placed his other hand on top of the crystal. “Of course if the body dies, so does the crystal, but if I can extract the crystal like this I can steal a shard from it….” Vezaias seemed to snap a large shard off of the crystal. He then pushed the crystal back inside of Lux. A moment later Lux was coherent again and looking very confused.

  “What happened?” Lux asked worriedly.

  “Nothing Lux. Just going to borrow something from you.” Vezaias said, holding up the shard of crystal in admiration. He broke it in half and absorbed one part into his own fist.

  “That's great Vee, but what does that have to do with me?” Ava said humdrumedly.

  “Good question Ava, I'm sure you haven't been practicing all your life to act like a schizophrenic maniac. So I am going to give you a good stab in the right direction.” Vezaias mused, then suddenly he swung his fist and stabbed Ava in the chest with the other half of the shard of crystal. Ava yelped in pain and grasped Vezaia’s wrist as he pressed the crystal deeper until it completely absorbed into Ava's chest. As soon as it absorbed all the way Ava screamed dropping to his knees as his flesh reacted shifting into a complete likeness of Lux. Lux himself was horrified.

  “You cloned me!” Lux shouted.

  “What the fuck, Vee?!” Ava shouted now in a voice that was identical to Lux's.

  “Oh calm down. You are mimicking Lux. You can shift back to yourself and now you can mimic him whenever you want.

  “I am thoroughly against cloning!” Lux shouted.

  “This is important, Lux. Ava now has your essence, that means he can also copy your regenerative talent.” Vezaias said amusingly. Lux looked angry and Ava suddenly looked scared. “I think we should test it out.” Vezaias said menacingly. He glanced at Ava who was frightened.

  “Hold out your hand.” Vezaias ordered.

  “No! You can't cut off my hand!” Ava slid backwards and started to frantically scoot away from Vezaias. “No! Stay away from me!”

  “Hmph, Rem, secure him.” Vezaias said firmly. Remington quickly complied and snatched Ava in place then forcing him to extend and arm outward.

  “No! No Vee don't do it! Don't do it! No! No! NO! NOOO! AHHHHHHHH!!!” Ava screamed as Vezaias swiped his machete and easily sliced through Ava's arm. Ava collapsed to the ground clutching his arm and screaming.

  “Ugh, at least it isn't me this time.” Lux cringed looking very horrified.

  “Help him focus on growing his hand back. He is not as experienced at it as you are.” Vezaias said firmly, then he took the hand from the floor and turned to leave.

  “I hate you Vee! I hate you! AHHH!!!” Ava shouted as the pain raged through his arm. Lux sighed and kneeled down next to Ava and began to help coach him through the basics of limb regeneration. After a while he was sure that Ava was successfully beginning to regrow his hand. Remington elected to follow Vezaias upstairs, since Lux could handle things himself. He found Vezaias with his feet propped up on the coffee table and turning the TV channels searching for something interesting to watch. Remington approached cautiously wondering what sort of reaction Vezaias would have, since it was difficult to anticipate what he would do next. Vezaias glanced up at Remington mildly but interested. Remington was sure to stay closed in and docile waiting for some sort of cue.

  “What's up Rem? It seems like you are in need of my attention.” Vezaias said softly. It was so strange to feel so attached and crave affection from someone who was now consistently being so violent and callous.

  “Can I sit with you?” Remington asked very meekly. He felt so small as if Vezaias could smash him into nothing with a blink of his eye. Someone who was so unimaginably powerful, he wasn't even sure what Vezaias was capable of now, but even knowing all of this, Remington desperately wanted to feel close to him again.

  “Of course Rem. Come here.” Vezaias welcomed him into his arms very lovingly, soothing the fear and doubt he felt, as strong arms closed around him securely. Remington was now crying softly from the rush of adrenaline that was subsiding after all of the gore and terrifying objectives that Vezaias had executed so far today.

  “Aww, Rem, please don't cry. Everything is alright. Shhhhhhh.” Vezaias shushed him and lovingly stroked his back and shoulders, then placed soothing kisses on his messy hair.

  “I'm sorry, I'm just overwhelmed. I'm trying to control it.” Remington huffed and rubbed his eye of tears.

  “It's okay.” Vezaias said softly. Remington felt him breath in deeply. For just a moment everything really was alright, but moments never seem to last. Remington soaked in the moment for a while before deciding to speak up.

  “I wanted to tell you, because I'm sure you would want to know right away, but Lux manifested another talent while we were in the infirmary last night.” Remington said, still wrapped in Vezaias's arms.

  “Oh? What is it?” Vezaias asked very curiously.

  “I'm not sure. Zexich gave him his medication and then tried to get him to talk about some of the horrible things he has been through, specifically about why he doesn't like doctors, and he got very emotionally overwhelmed and I tried to calm him down but when I did it was like he suddenly turned into an electrical outlet. He shocked me as if his skin was electric. I really don't know what he is capable of with this talent. I don't know how it works.” Remington explained.

  “Hm……why doesn't he like doctors?” Vezaias asked.

  “Well…he said he was in the hospital occasionally while he was in prison and he always saw the same on-call doctors, and none of them were very respectful or patient with him because he was a prisoner. They treated him like garbage and rushed him out of the hospital as fast as they could, and even blamed him for why he was being seen in the hospital in the first place, because if he wasn't a criminal it wouldn’t be happening to him.” Remington said very hurt over the explanation.

  “Which was…?” Vezaias questioned.

  “Uh! Well….It's not something I want to say out loud.” Remington said with a cringe. Vezaias was quietly considering this. “It is also the same reason why he is afraid of communal showers.” Remington added as a clue. Vezaias grimaced. He seemed to be distracted now and deep in thought.

  “What are you thinking?” Remington asked meekly because it was really difficult to tell.

  “I think I'm going to need to test this out.” Vezaias said softly. Remington swallowed nervously, and felt horrible because now that he told Vezaias about this, Lux would probably end up suffering again today. It took Ava over 45 minutes to regrow his hand. Eventually Lux and Ava returned upstairs. Ava sat on the couch very broodingly to watch TV. Lux stepped outside to smoke a cigarette while Remington lay nestled in Vezaias's arms until Lux returned from his smoke break.

  “I'll be in the kitchen.” Vezaias said as he slipped out of his comfortable spot with Remington and disappeared into the kitchen. Lux sat on the couch looking rather aloof and distracted until Vezaias called for him.

  “Lux, come here I need to talk to you.” He heard. Lux sighed and got up to go to the kitchen. Remington was immediately worried, wondering what was going to happen but stayed planted on the couch. Ava didn't seem to care what was going on.

  “Have a seat Lux.” Vezaias said, pulling out a chair at the dining table. Lux sat down very apprehensively.

  “Remington told me a very unsettling story about why you do not like doctors.” Vezaias began. Lux suddenly looked irritated.

  “Doctors are the bane of my existence. I’ve only found one decent one and he's not even human.” Lux said sourly. Vezaias seemed to be amused by this.

  “Why were these doctors so rude to you?” Vezaias asked, still very amused.

  “Perhaps they have something against psychos. Who knows? The voices always told me they thought I would be better off dead. One less scumbag in the world, you know.” Lux said unhappily then he looked away soaking in emotional pain.

  “Do you remember their names?” Vezaias asked curiously but with a malicious undertone.

  “Of course. Dr. Woen, Dr. Juun, and Dr. Ken. Dr. Ken was the worst. He's the one who told me if I didn't like the way I was treated in prison, then I shouldn't be a criminal. He also suggested that if I wouldn't fight it, I wouldn't be so injured. So I should just lay there on the shower floor and fucking let…” Lux began to choke on the sentence. He clamped his eyes shut and nearly doubled over from the pain. Vezaias watched him carefully. “……I should just hold still and let them hurt me? So they get what they want and he doesn't have to deal with some injured inmate in his hospital bed?!” Lux shouted now. Remington and Ava both were in alarm now. “….and this was all my fault?! Everyone else gets what they want and I just TAKE ALL THE FUCKING BLAME FOR IT?!?” Lux screamed. His skin started to flare like a sparkler. The ground around Lux started to vibrate with energy. Vezaias was calm and only let Lux charge with energy. Suddenly the light above them overloaded, then popped, and glass fell all around them and Lux seemed to suck out energy from the broken outlet. Remington rushed to the doorway to see what was happening. Vezaias looked intrigued. More electricity was pulling out from the broken light but Lux only seemed to suck it into his skin like a sponge. Vezaias was very amused now.

  “He’s a conductor. Hmm.” Vezaias said seriously. “Lux!” Vezaias thrust out his cloak instantly nullifying Lux's conduction talent and as soon as the surge disappeared Lux dropped to the floor in exhaustion. Remington was stunned as he had no idea Vezaias could cloak Lux's talents, but now it was obvious he could disable anyone's talent within his range. Remington was quickly at Lux's side lifting his shoulders up and holding him. He wasn't completely unconscious, but more overwhelmed than anything.

  “Why did they treat me like that?” Lux cringed and began to weep. Remington felt his heart ache for him.

  “They were haters Lux. Maybe we should add them to our list.” Vezaias said, looking serious and reassuringly down at him. Lux nodded and cried harder. Remington held him closer trying to comfort him as much as possible.