Harry, when sensed, he had found another demeanour and had a glimpse of Peter in his mind, he ran to the portfolio leaving his dream behind. The last Chalice was gone. He slammed the broken door and understood what had happened. At midnight, there was a hue and cry situation in the hotel. Harry ran to summon Peter, Valencia, David and Ramesh. He didn't think about Charlotte at that time.
Meanwhile, Ramesh was shocked to understand that Charlotte was Maniac.
"Maniac? You? It was supposed to be Robert Brooke. Oliver claimed it himself.", Ramesh said astoundingly.
"That's why he's known to play well. Remember the months. When did I meet Valencia?"
"She told about eight months ago.", Ramesh was a bit frightened.
"When did Maniac's first case come into the media?", asked Charlotte while she was wearing gloves in her hands.
"Merlin's Beard.", quavered Ramesh, "Eight months ago."
"That proves it, then?"
"Why do you want from me? My murder?"
"No! I want you to join our force if you please. But I think you won't, will you?"
"I never will", Ramesh gaped.
"Then I shall kill you..."
"What will killing me give you?", asked Ramesh fearfully.
"Weaken your Leader London. Nerve Tacker will be no more and no hard-working demeanour, then."
"You are Oliver's, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am and should I add I am a Cygnian, too?"
"Suspected...You know these are not well-to-do tasks...This is a betrayal. You betrayed Valencia. What about her? Her trust? You deceived her? How'd you get a job eight months ago without any qualifications?"
"You know, Ramesh, there's a Cygnian power. Those who are given the Crown of Powers, like me, have the power to manipulate minds. Just close your fists and you shall make it out. Therefore, I took admission as an assistant of Valencia as we all knew who served which demeanour. The plan worked in the same way. Oliver, also, once used it."
"Smart!"
"You're too brave Ramesh and I appreciate it but that's all in vain. You all have fought in vain."
Ramesh didn't speak of anything now. Taking a glimpse at his muscular hand, Ramesh swiftly whacked Charlotte in her face. She was not able to resist. Ramesh, in this time, tried to strangle her. Her gloves restricted any fingerprints to be shown on Ramesh's body.
Meanwhile, Harry was coming with Peter and David to call Valencia. The rooms were on different floors and hence, it took some time.
In this instance, Ramesh tried his best. He knocked Charlotte with his muscular hand he had developed. Charlotte, eventually, fell. She seemed unconscious In this situation, Ramesh thought that it'd be better to leave her in the same position and inform Harry that they'd been betrayed. Ramesh swiped his sweat off his face and the moment he turned back, he was forcefully hit with an iron type of something. That was not an iron rod or something related, that was Charlotte's hand. She was also given the Crown of Powers and deserved the powers every prince had. But she was not awarded with the demeanours. Ramesh, though was hurt, he stood bravely but was hobbling. He was punched on head and he developed some vision problems. Everything started to fade away around him. He saw two to three Charlotte and it was his mind that did not execute the situation properly. Meanwhile, Charlotte had whacked him with her full force which caused Ramesh to fall on the bed. Ramesh was not worthy to fight a Cygnian though he tried to resist well. But eventually, the fight ended up with giving the room an untidy look, with things spread here and there. In the end, Charlotte stabbed him in the middle of his stomach.
"You'll pay for this betrayal...", Ramesh said between the stabbing pains, "Peter will find some solution for the demeanours."
Ramesh lost his breaths. In a blink of an eye, his breathing and beating chest stopped their motions. His heart took some rest and so did his body. All the conducting cells, because of the inactive flow of blood, lost their properties, but some lived. Some of the cells survived which had some extra blood for their metabolic activities. The bed went bloody red. Charlotte was happy to see that worthy blood for the Hard-work demeanour was drenched out on the bed. Ramesh's face slipped without the support of his spinal cord and faced the shield he was working on. The tears that were left in his eyes went down due to gravity and his last expression was a beautiful smiling face. Ramesh departed on his deathbed giving a beautiful expression with tears because of his failure and some of them were because his mother was left alone now.
The same time, Charlotte heard some footsteps approaching. She was sure who was it. In hurry, she pasted a large sticker, she had brought, on the wall... The sticker portrayed 'Maniac'.
She opened a portal and left the room as fast as she was able to. She left the sign, behind, the portals make. Harry entered the room and saw the last sparkles of the portal but not the face. The second scene was unbearable for the team.
Ramesh lying motionless on the bed. His face was stupor but the team was not able to get into the swing of this situation. Stricken by remorse, the team entered torpor and called Sapna on the scene. She was not told what had happened. Harry, in tears, went near him and was fighting his impulse to run. He caressed Ramesh's inactive face and then called Peter near him. Valencia and David did not know what to do. They stood still crying for the brave boy. Harry kept his face on Peter's chest, crying. Peter, also in tears, gave him some support. At midnight, Sapna came running through the halls. She saw what was inside. She stuttered to halt. She slumped to the wooden chair while she saw Ramesh stabbed. Harry tried to obscure all this scene. In this hour of the dark night, there was a hither and tither situation in the office. On the other hand, Charlotte's another end of the portal was her room. She disposed of all the gloves and proofs. Took a bath and with artificial looks, she went to join the crowd.
Sapna had no words to exclaim and neither anyone else did. The moment after this, Harry saw the 'Maniac' sign and his hands went red. He closed his fist that was clutched in anger and a variety of expressions; his melting iron arm was mostly at its highest temperature. Though his arm was blazing, Peter controlled it yet he felt that pain Harry was going through. Amongst the thick, swirling grey snow outside, Sapna looked through the translucent window. The reflection gleamed her eyes with the moments of her past. She started slowly, "Bereaved! Again! After Sanjeev, now him. He was the only family, I was left with a decade ago."
"See, I can understand...", Harry tried to console her.
"You can't Mr. Osborn.", Sapna tub-thumped, "He concealed his birthday for me. That small boy. His father died on the same day. For the society curses the woman behind, he changed his birth date so that the society shall not curse me. He, that small boy, sacrificed his dreams for me"
Sapna spoke these as she saw all those happening all on the translucent glass. No one interrupted her and everyone knew the time she was going through.
"That's so unexpected. Robert... I am going to kill him once he meets me.", Harry said.
Peter stood in despair. Noted the Chalice Of Demeanours and asserted, "Harry, you told the Chalice's been stolen. It was Ramesh. He did it. He found the last demeanour as he said that we should at least not waste the chalice. You told that you had that feeling but who was it?"
"You...I saw you...", Harry picked the crumbled newspaper from which Peter's photo was missing, "See, Ramesh used this... You were the smartness demeanour, Peter. The poster said it, too."
"I mean I can't be... I have nothing..."
Yes, but you have everything, the brain and that's the extremity. Remember, we needed practical smartness and you had that...But we lost Ramesh, tonight. We found one but lost one, too."
"I think we'll resolve this later. As of today, I feel sorry about him."
"No, you should not.", Sapna broke in, "He sacrificed himself giving you the smartness demeanour. He was not stabbed nor was he murdered. He sacrificed himself...", Sapna repeated it again and again to aid her grief.
Harry ordered a servant to bring an icebox. The icebox was brought in an hour. The body wasn't sent for the post-mortem. He was stabbed and that was clearly seen. No one thought it significant to send his body for one day and delay other projects.
News channels were all filled up with this news and that was nothing that astonished the team. Ramesh was kept in the box. Two vials of his blood were taken out by Peter secretly. He did not know why but he intuited it. Sapna, the whole night, sat near the box, took its support and believed that he would wake up once and hug her. That was quite impracticable. Harry stood in one corner of the room thinking about the fight Ramesh and Harry had when Ramesh was given the title of Nerve-Tacker. The body was covered in white clothes with ears and nostrils closed with cotton. Charlotte was also present in the room with her artificial acting. Her betrayal was the most unexpected thing that could happen with Ramesh and that did. The whole night went with racking sobs He remembered him as a boy and a very brave and resplendent person.
High priests were brought to carry out all the religious tasks. The whole night, Indian prayers were sung to rest his soul (as mythologies suggest). Next day at the dawn of the new day, everything went dark in the grief of a boy's death. His body was taken to the funeral field. Wooden sticks were arranged. His body was kept on the arranged sticks. Sapna had last looks at her boy. She commemorated the day when he was measured in inches. Then, his face when was accused of his father's murder though he did not do it. His hard-work to replicate those cells. Everything was just cracking her mind from deep. She chuckled as those images reappeared but that smile faded with time when she remembered he was no more. She was given the flame to light the body up. This was not India because generally women are not given this task but Sapna's case was different. She lighted up the whole body. Sparkling flames with a distressed mind made the team understand it was not that easy. Peter and Harry were standing at a distance but that was enough to feel the radiated heat. As the heat passed through their eyes, Harry had lost himself into tears. He said wheezily into Peter's ears, "Brazen...He is...Oliver... We lost one demeanour but found one, too. What do you think? Ramesh sacrificed himself and I am proud I was his mentor. I am sure he fought bravely but Cygnian powers were enough for him. I can't even imagine the states Mrs. Bhatia is going through. I don't even consider me that worthy that I can see her face-to-face. They were living their life happily and I mostly destroyed it because of my own desires."
"That wasn't your desire, Harry. None of it was... You worked for the world and Ramesh also did. Maniac's attack was so unpredictable and is beyond anyone's expectations. Really, I am going to kill this Robert thingy...", Peter grunted.
"Leave this blame game. It was everyone's fault. We are left without our Hard-Worker. What do you think?", Harry was continuously seeing the pyre burn with the flames and smoke that may have carried Ramesh to the place he belongs now. Its one's perception to believe all of these mythologies and Sapna was one of them. She thought he'd be reborn but that was impossible. But to aid one's mind, this was something relaxing.
The body was on fire and Sapna descended. While Peter said, "How can I be the smartness demeanour? I mean, there are too many smart people on Earth?"
"But maybe theoretically but not practically. You know Oliver told me, 'There are too many over-smart people on Earth!'. You solved the Rogers' case. You figured it out. You knew who Maniac was. Still, you have doubts..."
Peter got some idea and said, "Yes, I have doubts. Robert might not be the Maniac. This is someone in our team. It has to be a betrayal...Who knew Ramesh was coming to steal the Chalice tonight?"
"How can you say that? Someone's betraying us?"
"Intuition"
Sapna entered the talk and broke the conversation, "What do you think to do now? Another demeanour?"
"I am still working on that part. There has to be someone else", Harry replied hesitatingly.
"I think I can. Of Course, that boy, Ramesh, had the same genes I had. I can give it, why can't I?"
"You'll be eligible?"
"What way do you have now?"
"No way to move...He had the powers. Now, his blood has been burnt."
"I have it in here...", Peter took out the vial
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