A few hours later on The Fronthouse
"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE!?"
Magnus' voice boomed all over the place as they grouped up after searching the whole place up. Damian panted, his hands flying to rest on his knees as he stared at the ground, his teeth grinding itself together.
He had been so focused on the children that he had forgotten Maia.
Maia, who he knew, had nightmares from this place. They hadn't been back here since its destruction and he personally knew that Maia didn't want to go back here. Just because she agreed to go back here to search for Marvyll hadn't meant she was fine with it.
"We shouldn't have left her"
Maddin paced anxiously as she tried to think of any places that Maia could have gone to but it was useless. She didn't know anything about Maia. Apart from the painful past about their mother and her wrongdoings, she hadn't known anything about her. So did Magnus, Maddox and Makoto.
"Was it trauma?"
Maki asked Damian which made the older male flop down on the ground. His fists balling in his hair as he frustratingly pulled it.
"She had nightmares"
He started and everyone's attention was on him.
"One of the reasons why I asked for us to be placed in the same room is because of her nightmares. She'd dreamed of dying, of blasting away along with the barrier. Of losing herself from countless chemicals being injected inside of her. Of…"
He took a sharp breath and shivered when he remembered how Maia's muted screams scared him to death. Because he didn't know what to do or how to comfort her. There was no absolute way to erase what had happened to her.
"Of losing her sense of self as she watched her own body kill countless innocent lives. Civilians and our classmates. Of how she almost killed me and Maki. Of how she took that first kill with her conscious mind intact."
A shiver ran down their spines as the soft winds blew through the rotting corpses. As if they too remembered how Maia had killed some of them.
Damian looked up and stared right at Maddox before he continued.
"Dreamt of how she had taken Artemis' life with her own hands"
Maddox flinched and took a deep breath as he let the words sting him right down to his core.
"Sometimes I'll wake up with her beside me crying silently as if she had taken her own right to cry loudly away. She didn't know how to cope with it. I didn't know how to comfort her."
"And still she hadn't objected when we planned to go back here"
Makoto finished for him and blew a sigh as he frustratingly brushed his fingers through his hair.
"We need to find her"
Maddox finally stated, his voice full of resolve. His guilt at the edge as genuine worry starts to seep in. He had been a fool but now all he wanted was to apologize to his younger sister. Damn her stubbornness and all of it, he was gonna make it up to her in all the possible ways he can.
"I don't want to imagine what might have happened to her alone out there"
"But where should we start? She clearly isn't here anymore"
The plans started forming across Magnus' mind rapidly as he barked orders to his siblings.
"Maddox, Maddin bring the car around, use the old roads to see any sign of Maia. Since you have the enhanced sight Maddox let Maddin drive so you can search better. Meet us here in about half an hour"
The twins nodded before they ran back towards where they had parked the car.
"Makoto, Maki you search the east and south area. Don't go too far, the distance should be as long as you can see the front house. Meet back here at half an hour also. Search together got it?"
"Got it"
"Be careful both of you"
Maki said as he ran towards Makoto who was already going on the Southern clearing. Magnus stared at Damian who had stood up and brushed his backside of dirt.
"North and West?"
He briefly stated to which Magnus nodded at giving him the clear signal that the two of them were running off towards that direction.
"If she had an episode then her fight-or-flight response would be to run away from here"
"That's why we should start within the vicinity and then to the surrounding area"
Magnus nodded at Damian and searched left and right for any signs of life as they ran through the thick foliages of trees and plants.
But Damian had cursed not having Maddox's enhanced sight. He could've seen much farther if he had it. He could've searched for Maia or even found her.
Maia. His Maia whom he left behind just because of his regret for the children that he couldn't save. He was such a fool.
A fool whose nose was scrunching up from the scent that was emanating from the Western part of the forest.
He stopped running and scrunched up his nose once again to inhale the intoxicating scent. A scent that was filling him up.
Magnus, who had been running ahead of him, stopped and looked back at him.
"What is it? Did you remember something?"
Damian closed his eyes and focused on the scent. Because among the earthy and leafy scent of the forest and trees, he could smell it. The foul smell of chemicals mixed in with blood and a little bit of lavender.
"Maia's bodywash"
"What?"
Magnus disbelievingly stared at Damian as if he had grown horns but Damian who kept his eyes closed continued.
"Maia always smelled like chemicals, it was an aftereffect of what Leticia had done. Chemicals and blood, that's what she smelled like. So she tries to mask it with a strong lavender scented bodywash that she concocted herself back at the Pentagon."
Damian opened his eyes as his gaze met Magnus'.
"And that same body wash I could smell in the West, along with the scent of the river"
Magnus didn't have time to decipher whether to believe Damian or not because he knew the geography of this place. He had studied it. Every path towards it years ago for a chance to save Maia. He knew what lies West of the Front house. Knew exactly what river it was and how it'd be connected to Maia.
His eyes widened as the realization hit him.
"Lithuania, she'd gone to Lithuania"
A few minutes later they had gone and gathered everyone and were using the car to rush to Lithuania from the pathless forest.
"I hope you're right about this Kuya Damian"
Maki said as they all held onto whatever they could hold on to as the car braced the rocky and grassy grounds of the forest.
"I don't know why but I can still smell her. If anything the scent is getting stronger"
He stated but Maki only kept on staring at Damian. On the Faura that was coating his entire being. He could see it. He whipped his head around and saw that everyone was being coated by a yellow aura, just as it had been since that day when Maia made an aura barrier.
And the scary part? Was that he knew exactly what shade of yellow they have.
Magnus who has Canary Yellow. Maddox who inhibited Citrine Yellow. Maddin who is coated with Saffron Yellow. And Makoto with Sunflower Yellow.
If he was being honest he doesn't know what was happening to him. At first he had thought that he had become someone like Old man Shizu or the people of Seven City. But then attributes and the name of the shades started forming in his mind before he could even utter a word.
And it had started right after Maia had created that Golden barrier. At the back of his mind, he had this strange idea that this was his gift or at least a part of it. Just like the strange phenomenon of Damian's sense of smell being keen.
The attributes however, were spiraling through his mind as he stared at everyone again.
The fire brick for courage, caution and love. Canary yellow for positivity and egoism. Citrine yellow signifies spontaneity and betrayal while saffron yellow for humor and jealousy. And the sunflower yellow for happiness and doom.
But the weirdest thing was that he cannot see his own aura nor do words and attributes for it pop inside his head.
"Stop the car"
Maddox hurriedly exclaimed, which halted Magnus' driving and made everyone look at him. Maddox was staring at the far west of the forest. Everyone couldn't see anything besides trees that were blocking their way but Maddox saw something else different.
"I see her by the river. Let's walk on foot"
Was all he said before he hurriedly got out of the car, Damian right on his heels as they ran without waiting for the others. They both nearly tripped and fell but they hadn't stopped. And Damian knew they were getting closer, because Maia's scent was becoming more prominent.
The sweet lavender scent was completely overwhelmed by the strong chemicals and scent of blood. And there right past the clearing on the riverbank was Maia kneeling as her sobs echoed throughout the forest.
Damian stopped in his tracks. Because Maia was crying, not her quiet sobs or stifled cries, it was the full blown wailing that made him stop. As did Maddox. Maia had screamed at him while crying. He had seen her tears but there was something different with how she was crying right now.
It felt… raw and painful.
The others had reached both Damian and Maddox and stopped too when they heard Maia. No one was moving another step. They were concerned but the other figure holding Maia made them stiffened.
"Marvyll"
Makoto silently called and amidst Maia's loud cries, Marvyll had heard him. She turned and they had caught their breath when they saw her.
Brown shoulder length hair, clothes that were obviously too large for her, a pair of glasses sitting right above her nose.
And brown eyes that had vertically slit pupils.
"Hey"