Realize: Legacies| Book 3

Chapter 40 - A Friend Returned

Xavier's POV

All of us immediately headed back to the dungeon in anticipation with what dad had informed us when we were still inside of his office.

I still don't know what had made him change back or if it was a good sign or not, but now I was just glad that we get to see Francis as who he is.

On reaching his cell, two guards were waiting outside before they finally stepped aside when we arrived.

"How long since he shifted back??" Dad went to ask one of them.

"He had just finished when I went to contact you sir." The guard answered. "He didn't make any more movements and stayed passed out afterwards."

"Could've feeding him the animal grease triggered this??" I turned towards my teacher and asked.

"Perhaps. Though I'm not so sure at the moment." He answered me as one of the guards went to open the cell on dad's order. And maybe it was because of the sounds of the metal door opening, but Francis started to stir in his chains.

"I'll go in first. The rest of you stay here and wait till I know it's okay." After his instructions, the healer then slowly walked inside of the cell. Eyes trained on the now moving body in weariness in case he made a sudden move against him.

"W-What??" I hear Francis whispering out in confusion as he slowly lifted his head to realize that he was chained up. And an even more confused expression crossed his face when he looked at who was in front of him.

"M-Mr. Anderson??"

"And who exactly am I speaking to right now??" The healer went to ask him suspiciously.

"Huh?? What do you..." A look of realization then slowly formed on his face. And a few moments afterwards realization, came the look of horror.

"I'm..." He closed his eyes tighter in disbelief before opening them to look at the man in front of him. "It's me. You have to believe me sir. It's... It really is me."

With the slow shift of his eyes, he soon found himself looking directly at me and the others who silently watched from outside of the cell. A shocked expression on his face when he saw us there before he looked away and turned back towards the healer.

"I believe you." Mr. Anderson soon responded. "Don't worry Francis. We're here to help."

"Where..." He tried to move his right hand but was stopped by the chains to which he immediately looked at and realized that both of his hands and feet were chained up on the back wall. "C-Can you take these off of me??"

With the pleading look on his face, he begged him in his hopes though our teacher on gave him an apologetic expression.

"I'm sorry, but we can't do that. We have no idea on the reason why you've shifted back to yourself or on how you managed to take back control. And with that, we also don't know how long your control will last until the spirit takes over again." He slowly explained to him. And Francis just slumped in his chains as he turned away and looked towards the floor.

Mr. Anderson took that as his chance to gesture us that it was okay if we also entered the cell before looking back to the half naked teen.

"We're going to do what we can to help you Francis. That's a promise. Everything that we can. But first you have to answer some of my questions. Alright??" He told him in a soothing tone to which the teen replied by giving him a slow nod.

"Okay." Francis looked very weary about us though. And I can understand that cause I would be too if I was being chained up in some dark dungeon with some people that you don't know and some that you barely do.