Chapter 128

*Ivan*

I screamed out as Drake let me go. My eyes blurred and I felt the anger take hold of me. I felt my eyes change as I lashed out, punching Drake square in the nose. My body shook violently as I growled angrily.

"Ivan! Stop!"

I froze at the voice. My heart pulled toward it but all I could think about is what Drake had done. He'd taken something from me. Someone. Someone so important to me. I couldn't remember who it was. My mind was foggy and I couldn't think clearly. I just felt anger. The rage burned inside me.

I fell to the ground on my knees, grabbing my head in my hands. I screamed out in pain as I tried to put my thoughts together. My body continued shaking but I didn't know why. I felt a pull in my head. The pull felt so familiar and the pain didn't exist with the pull. I let it take me and the world around me blurred.

Arms wrapped around me tightly and the familiar scent hit my nose.

"Ivan, come back to me!" The voice begged me.

My vision began to clear and I was in a blank room. Hadn't I just been in the forest? Where am I? What is going on?

"Ivan, it's me, Ari. I'm here. Come back to me." Ari said softly.

Why was that name so familiar? The voice. The scent. I felt a pull to it. Like I needed to wrap myself in it. My breathing began to slow back down to a normal pace. My vision had cleared completely and a shorter, spiky hair sat in front of me, holding my face gently in her hands. She had a scar on her left eye. I reached out and touched it. Who would do that to her? I felt the urge to protect her. To keep any danger away from her. I looked into her gray-blue eyes. They were beautiful. She was beautiful. I could tell she was a fighter. That she was strong. Her eyes were full of love for me. Why? Did she know me? Who am I?

"Your name is Ivan. And yes, I love you very much. You are my mate. I am yours." She whispered.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" I asked her.

"Because, we are connected. You can do the same thing with me. Please come back to me." She said, sadly.

"Anyone would be a fool to leave you." I told her.

I pulled her to me. I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing. I didn't really know her. But she said I did. I just wanted to comfort her. I didn't want her to be sad. I hugged her tightly and breathed in her scent. It was so familiar and it pulled me to her. I wanted to stay like this forever.

She pulled away and looked up at me, the worry evident in her eyes. She pulled my face down to hers, our lips meeting each other. A spark moved through me and all my memories came flooding back. Losing my parents. Meeting Ariya for the first time. The fire. Then losing Ariya. Everything came flooding back in. I gasped as I pulled away from her. My head was pounding but the pain was fading away.

"Ivan." She said my name softly.

"I'm here, princess. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened." I told her.

Ari grabbed hold of me tightly and began sobbing. I wrapped my arms around her and nuzzled into her. I knew we were in our mind and I had just punched Drake. I wasn't sure about what happened right before that.

"It was weird. Drake went to see if anyone had tampered with your mind and then you both were stuck together screaming in pain. We didn't know what to do. So Keo put up a barrier for a moment to try to avoid anyone hearing. Then when Drake finally released you, you attacked him. I could feel the anger coming off of you. I swapped with Keo and shouted but you only froze. So we swapped back and I pulled you to our mind. I'm not sure what's going on out there, but Keo knows I pulled you." Ariya explained.

I grinned at her, "Ari, did all of that happen instantly?"

"Yes." She grinned back at me, "That's not the point though, Ivan. What happened?"

I tried thinking back to what happened when Drake made contact with me and tried to search my mind. The memories flashed through my head but this time I didn't forget everything that had happened prior. I didn't have the same anger that came through.

"Whoa. I didn't know all of that happened. I wonder why your memories disappeared for a bit?"

"I'm not sure. I think it was an effect of trying to uncover that memory. Now we know what Ryker looks like." I told her.

"True. Too bad we didn't get a bit more. We would have figured out his ability. From the look of it though, it would make sense if Ryker was an Enforcer. Should we still have you mention it to Boss?" Ari asked.

"I don't know. If it seems appropriate I guess, but otherwise I think we leave it alone for now. We don't need to worry about making Boss suspicious." I told her.

I could feel Ariya's concern for me. I could tell she was still a little worried that I wasn't completely ok yet.

"It's ok, princess. I'll be fine. I'm here. You brought me back. I refuse to lose you again though." I growled.

"That's not going to happen. I won't let it. I can't lose you like that." Ariya said, the tears starting to form in her eyes.

I pulled her to me and hugged her tightly. Breathing in her scent. I loved her more than anything in this world. I would burn the entire world down if I had to. Especially if it meant saving her. She was the most important person to me. She was all that mattered. I still cared for Keo, Caleb, and Drake. But Ariya was my top priority. She always would be. My anger for Drake had dissipated. I knew why he did what he did. I didn't like it but I understood it. It was the only reason I didn't hate him. I had Ariya back. That was what mattered.

"We need to head back, Ari." I told her.

"I know. I just didn't want to let you go." She told me.

"You're not letting me go. I'm still here. We'll stay connected for the rest of the night. Maybe we can sleep this way. It's not perfect, but maybe we can be in each other's mind and I can hold you through the night." I suggested.

I felt her brighten up a bit at the thought. I wasn't sure if it would work but it was worth a shot. Anything to get even a bit closer to her. I wanted to get her out of the facility so bad. I knew there was a lot of work to do though. It made me impatient. I wished that everything wouldn't take so long but I knew there was nothing we could do about speeding things up. All we could do was take a step forward and continue moving.

I felt myself take back over in my body and blinked as the world came back into focus. Keo still had the dome up and was looking at me concerned.

"Ivan?" Caleb asked.

"It's me." I looked over at Drake, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I didn't realize what I'd done to you. I'm the one that's sorry. I promise you, Ivan. I'll never take Ariya away from you again. I'll never let anyone take her from you." Drake swore to me.

I nodded at him, "You saw the entire memory?"

"Yes. We have a really big problem. Ryker. He is a person that can break other people's minds." Drake told us.

"What does that mean?" Keo asked.

"It means that the memories you get, he can completely shatter them. Basically leave you a shell. I can block memories and hide them. Ryker can destroy the memories. He breaks people's minds. That's probably why Ivan didn't remember him. He's probably done something to prevent Ivan from remembering him completely." Drake explained.

"But if he can destroy the memories, how were we able to get that back? Why would he train me? Does that mean he knows who I really am? Why wouldn't he turn me into Boss if that's the case?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I don't think he destroyed your memories completely. Unfortunately, getting those memories back is going to be nearly impossible. They'll have to come back on their own. I think the one we got back was only because it was ready to come back. I'm not sure the extent of his ability. I just know that he can destroy the memories. So there's no way of telling if he sees your memory before he destroys it."

*It wouldn't make sense if he couldn't see the memory. How would he know what he was destroying?* Ariya asked.

I told the others what she said and Drake responded, "Ariya's not wrong. The only reason why that memory was probably able to be brought back is because it was probably still within my barrier. If that's the case, he probably can't destroy or see the memories that we block. But that's not guaranteed."

"The only thing I can think of is that he can't break what he can't see. That's probably why it was only partially broken. As for training you, he probably didn't have a reason not to. If you didn't remember anything because Drake had blocked everything he probably didn't see it. Breaking your memory of him was probably strategic. It might have been because he became an Enforcer. It might be because he just doesn't like people knowing anything about him." Keo thought out loud.

*Keo's right. There's a limit to each ability. That's probably his. Which means fighting him is going to require us to be able to protect our minds.* Ariya thought and I had images flash through my head for the training she had in mind.

I told the others and Drake flinched, "That's going to hurt all of us for sure. But it's definitely worth it. Keo and Ariya need to learn how to block memories as well. If we can fight off a mental attack, it's likely that we can get past fighting him. But there's 7 other Enforcers we have to worry about. We don't even know if he is an Enforcer or what number he is."

"What do you mean number?" Caleb asked.

"The Enforcers are numbered based on how strong they are. The weakest is 1 and the strongest is 8. Think of it as levels you have to pass to be able to move on. A couple of them actually work together though. At least that's what I heard once. I'm not sure how accurate that is." I explained.

"Looks like we have our work cut out for us." Keo said.

"True. We're done for tonight though. Everyone needs a break. We'll start back tomorrow." Drake said.