True Dark

by Niall Teasdale

‘Oh, I forgot, you were never a kid.’

  How had the bitch got behind her?! Midnight turned, her boots scrabbling on the smooth surface, and then she was running again. When she caught up with Andrea, she was going to make it a slow death.

  ‘For an ancient nightmare monster,’ Andrea called out, ‘you suck at being scary.’

  Another tight turn. ‘You can’t keep this up forever. When I have you, I’ll show you just what scary is.’

  ‘You can try.’ There was no time to react to the sudden proximity of the voice because there was a tree branch swinging into Midnight’s face before the words had fully registered. There was an instant where pain blossomed over her forehead, and then everything went black.

  ~~~

  Groaning, Midnight opened her eyes and looked around. She was a little surprised that she was alive, never mind conscious, but she was not going to question it for now. She was alive and…

  She was just outside the tunnel which led down into the base of the mountain. Down there, in the depths of a brand-new, ancient volcano, Andrea’s memories were being burned, constantly. Or that was the theory. Looking down, Midnight thought she could see light at the end of the tunnel. Not the red-orange light of the furnaces, but white, flickering light almost like the light cast down from the leaves in the forest but moving faster. Something was wrong.

  She took more care as she jogged down the tunnel. Andrea had surprised her in the forest, and that was not going to happen again. There was nowhere for someone to hide here, but Midnight was being cautious. So, she jogged, making her way down the tunnel at a reasonable pace but watching everywhere as she went. It turned out to be a waste of time; there was nothing waiting for her along the tunnel because the surprise was right at the end.

  There had been furnaces here, huge machines set to burn away the remains of the memories from before. Now there were four huge columns of flickering, crystalline light. Each climbed up from the rock, up into the sky high above. The flickering, she realised, came from the images tumbling and turning in the shafts. Each was a memory, a shifting image of things from the past, from the life of Andrea Morgan.

  ‘I destroyed them,’ Midnight said softly. ‘Every one of them was burned.’ Her voice rose to a scream. ‘I destroyed them!’

  ‘You can’t.’ Midnight’s eyes snapped down to the space between the columns of light. Andrea stood there, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Her eyes were brown instead of the jet black of Midnight’s, and her hair was shorter. ‘They’re my memories, Midnight. You can’t get rid of them, because you can’t get rid of me.’

  Midnight took a step forward. ‘I got rid of the other one. I can get rid of you.’

  ‘You didn’t. She’s part of my personality. She’s not around like she was, but you haven’t killed her.’ Andrea pointed toward one of the columns and Midnight looked. Twilight danced through the light, turned to blow Midnight a kiss, and then vanished into the swirling memories.

  ‘I can kill you,’ Midnight hissed. ‘I’ll prove it.’ And she charged in to throw the first punch.

  14th November.

  Billy took another look at Midnight, sighed, and went back to his lonely vigil. She had jerked once, not too long after closing her eyes, but there had been little movement since. She just lay there, like she was asleep, and he had no idea what was really happening.

  Or… Well, maybe he did. It seemed like there were two versions of Midnight. Two personalities? There was the one he knew, and there was the other one. The one he knew was a sadistic bitch, a murderer, and she had left him to whatever Jīnlóng had intended to do to him. The other one had somehow been going out to wreck the 8G, but she had also somehow gained control and rescued Billy. He was not entirely sure who he hoped won, but Midnight was a piece of work and was unlikely to lose.

  Something, a movement, drew his eyes back to Midnight. She was… twitching. Her muscles were bunching and relaxing almost like she was fighting. That kind of made sense. They were fighting in there. He had just not expected it to be quite so physical. He turned his head back toward the doorway just in time to see Jīnlóng step into it.

  ‘Shit!’ Billy pulled the trigger convulsively and three 12-gauge slugs left the barrel, only one of them hitting its target. The bullet flattened against Jīnlóng’s chest and he gave a grunt of displeasure. The smile never shifted from his features, however. Then he was moving, grabbing the front of Billy’s shirt, turning, and Billy found himself flying through the air. He was still in the air when his back slammed into a wall. He had no idea where his shotgun was, or where he was for a brief interval. He was fairly sure he had broken ribs, probably internal injuries, but he was still conscious, still aware, and Jīnlóng was still there.

  Turning his head was an effort, but he managed it. The great hero was standing in the office, looking down, looking at Midnight. Then he reached behind his back and produced a grenade of some sort, pulled the pin, and dropped it. With supreme effort, Billy managed to get into a sitting position as Jīnlóng walked out of the office. Light blazed as the grenade began to burn: another flare.

  ‘You have led me a long chase,’ Jīnlóng said. He had come to a stop about fifteen feet away and was just standing there, looking at Billy. ‘Now that I have her, I no longer need you.’

  ‘You don’t have her until she’s dead,’ Billy said.

  ‘She’s dead. I simply haven’t killed her yet. You on the other hand…’ Jīnlóng took in a breath through his nose, opened his mouth, and exhaled. Fire roared toward Billy and he screamed. He felt the blast envelop him and his skin cooking, crisping. It seemed that the fire was still around him and some part of him realised that his clothes were burning. The pain was incredible for about a second before Billy Hong finally died.

  ~~~

  The fight had been going on for a while now. They were, of course, very evenly matched, but Andrea was barely attempting to hit Midnight. Andrea parried, dodged, retreated, and shifted around the cavern at the bottom of the volcano. Midnight was getting frustrated, angry. Well, she had already been angry, but now she was furious.

  ‘Fight, damn you!’ Midnight yelled.

  ‘Why?’ Andrea replied. She slapped aside a punch to the face and then stepped back to avoid a kick.

  ‘I want to kill you!’

  ‘You can’t. I can’t kill you either. We’re the same person. The only way either of us can kill the other is with a bullet to our head.’

  ‘I am not you.’ The ‘not’ was emphasised by a spinning kick which Andrea ducked under. ‘I am the Darkness. Older than–’

  ‘You were the Darkness. When we merged, you built a personality based on mine with all the compassion ripped out. You thought.’

  ‘I thought?’

  Andrea nodded, slapping a punch aside. ‘The number of times it would’ve been easier to let Billy die. The way you reacted to that dancer. The way you reacted to people disrespecting all the dancers. You’re not as monstrous as you’d like to think. Here, let me show you.’ Timing her parry of another punch to the torso perfectly, Andrea grabbed Midnight’s arm, yanking it hard and rolling backward. Together, both women fell and Midnight let out a shriek as she realised they were about to fall into one of the memory columns.

  Light blazed around them and Midnight screamed again as memories of her time within Andrea flashed through her mind. The shadow demon attacking Cygnus outside Diamond’s house and Midnight had stepped in to stop it. The anger she had felt at the sight of some useless 49er pawing at the girls as they danced. The hesitation she had felt before leaving Billy to Jīnlóng’s mercies. The slight hint of pleasure she had felt when she realised that Andrea had saved him. Just a hint. Pleasure and… relief. He had been her companion almost since she had woken up after…

  And then there had been the Guardian ship hanging over China. She had destroyed it because it was in her way, breaching its reactor to cause another cosmic energy burst. She had almost convinced herself that it was purely selfish, but there had been
that little hint of duty. Left in orbit, the ship could have caused enormous damage, and she had needed to see it destroyed.

  ‘You’re not the perfection of evil you’d like to think you are, Midnight,’ Andrea said from somewhere within the swirling cloud of light. ‘And I’m no paragon of virtue. But I can’t let you go on like this. It’s time for you to go where Twilight has gone, back into my psyche. It’s time I took responsibility for some things I’ve been avoiding. I’m the Avatar of Shadows, and I need to take control.’

  ‘No,’ Midnight said, but her voice sounded thin, reedy. She was fading and she knew it, washing away in the river of Andrea’s memory.

  ‘Yes,’ Andrea said. ‘I’m the original. Whether the Darkness likes it or not, I’m what you and Twilight came from. I’m the one that remains when you go back.’

  There was a subtle shift, a fleeting motion, and Andrea was standing, alone, in the column of light beside the forest. It was over, and there was just one thing left to do.

  ‘You’ll never be rid of me.’ Midnight’s voice. Andrea was not really sure how she could tell the difference, but it was definitely Midnight speaking.

  Andrea looked down at her shadow and smiled. ‘Why should I want to be?’

  ‘Though I think you could learn to be a little more civil,’ Twilight suggested.

  ‘Brat,’ Midnight scolded.

  ‘Ghoul,’ Twilight replied.

  ‘Quiet, children,’ Andrea said. Her feet lifted off the black ground as she rose up toward the light. ‘Mother has work to do.’

  ~~~

  Andrea opened her eyes and wondered whether she was actually still inside her mindscape. Bright, white light blazed around her. She turned her head. Magnesium flare on a concrete floor. The real world then, but no Billy. Magnesium flare…

  She sprang to her feet just as Jīnlóng walked back through the door. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘you are awake.’ He was speaking Mandarin, slowly. Andrea’s knowledge of the language was basic, to say the least: Midnight had focused on Cantonese. ‘I will enjoy killing you more.’ He stepped in, unleashing a flurry of blows to her face which she dodged, mostly. One of them hit home and she heard bone crack before she fell backward onto her butt.

  ‘He’s going to kill you if you don’t get a move on,’ Twilight commented.

  ‘I had him on the ropes in a couple of seconds,’ Midnight added. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to–’

  ‘No,’ Andrea grumbled.

  ‘Speak a civilised language,’ Jīnlóng said, which was when Andrea realised she had used English. ‘Let me help you up.’ He reached for her and Andrea reacted. The light was too bright and she needed to be out of this room. But he was in the way of the door. She needed darkness. She focused on the brilliant light from the flare and, quite suddenly, that light was gone. She rolled sideways, sliding through the suddenly thicker shadows and across the warehouse to the far wall. The blaze of light from the flare came back as quickly as it had stopped, but the roar of anger from Jīnlóng put a smile on Andrea’s lips.

  Still, it was hardly over. She looked around, spotting the burning corpse ten or so feet away against the wall. The smile vanished and her features hardened. ‘You did not have to kill him,’ she called out.

  Jīnlóng appeared in the doorway, spotted her, and dashed toward her. ‘I wanted to,’ he said.

  ‘Not very heroic.’ Andrea waited, allowed him to close the distance. Her shoulders sagged as though she could barely move. That was not far from the truth. She let him close in, let him reach out and grab her throat in one hand. ‘Chǔn zhū,’ she said, which Billy had told her meant ‘dumb pig.’ Billy would not be helping Andrea learn more Chinese. It got Jīnlóng’s attention; he looked up, into her eyes, his lip curling into a sneer.

  Then he froze, has hand dropping away from her throat as the terror swept over him. A trickle of heat flowed through from him and into Andrea. Her nose stopped bleeding, which was nice, but he was still standing there and he was still a threat. And she still felt like she might collapse at any instant. She pulled the shadows up around them both and faded into them. As far as she knew, he had no way of seeing in total darkness. If she could keep him at this long enough, the darkness would heal her…

  Jīnlóng shook off his daze and growled. ‘You cannot escape me.’ Andrea remained silent, a shadow within the darkness. He moved, slowly, carefully, turning as though searching for her. He had some sort of ability to sense things in the dark, some form of hypersensory effect, she guessed, using his other senses to try to place her. So long as she remained inside her darkness, he could not hit her anyway. ‘I will find you,’ he said, and he reached behind his back to produce another flare.

  The flare in the office chose that moment to burn out. Andrea looked that way, toward the newly darkened office. Her weapons were there and with her weapons… She stepped through into the office just as Jīnlóng tossed the grenade a few feet away. Light blazed outside, but it was dimmed by the single dirty window the office had. Crouching, she grabbed her revolver and raised it, pointing it at the door. She heard the Golden Dragon cursing as the light from the flare burned the shadows away. There was blood in her mouth and she swallowed, waiting for him to make an appearance. He would figure it out soon enough.

  He did. She fired as soon as he appeared in the doorway. He had not yet looked in her direction and the burst of black flame hit him right between the eyes before he could react. He fell backward, stumbling and then falling, and Andrea remained where she was for what felt like an eternity, waiting for him to reappear. She decided he was not going to when the second flare he had dropped burned out.

  ‘He may not be dead,’ Midnight said. ‘You should finish him.’

  ‘I’m pushing myself to keep going as it is,’ Andrea replied, pulling the darkness up around her and settling back onto the blanket. ‘He can wait until I feel like I didn’t just go fifteen rounds with a tank.’

  ‘He killed Billy.’

  ‘Of this, I am aware. Now, shut up so I can get some rest. I’ve had a long day.’ Andrea closed her eyes, but she knew she would not sleep, not yet. She had had a long day. She had finally taken control of her life, of the Darkness. That was a problem as much as it was a good thing. She still had a little Midnight in her soul and she was not sure how that was going to affect her. Well, there was only one way to find out.

  ~~~

  Four soldiers led the way into the warehouse. Seeker came in behind them with a pistol in her hand, though she doubted she would need to use it. More men swarmed in behind her and began to fan out, searching the building. The four point men headed straight across the open floor and Seeker followed.

  The smell of burning flesh hung in the air and Seeker’s nose wrinkled. Someone, she suspected, had got on the wrong end of the Golden Dragon’s breath. She had lost the ability to trace Hong over four hours earlier which meant that he was dead. The problem was that she had also lost Jīnlóng a few minutes later. The man had died before and come back, but…

  ‘Ma’am,’ one of the soldiers said, pointing. Seeker stepped around her guardians, her eyes flicking over the scene. There was a charred corpse, which could have been Hong, over by a wall but it was the other body that drew her attention. Jīnlóng lay on his back on the concrete floor, not far outside the door to a small office. His costume was unmarked and there did not seem to be any obvious damage to his skin. The latter was difficult to be sure of, however, as his face was coated in a thin layer of ice and there were patches of it on his chest.

  Walking over to him, Seeker crouched down and felt for a pulse. His skin was cold, clammy, and nothing seemed to be beating beneath it. ‘Have him wrapped in blankets. We’ll take him to the nearest Army base.’ Seeker got to her feet and started into the office, pulling a flashlight from her pocket to look around. There were scuffmarks in the dust on the floor, a suggestion a blanket had been put down there, and what looked a lot like the scorch patterns of a magnesium flare.

  Seeker tur
ned and walked out of the office. ‘Make him ready for travel quickly. Midnight is gone and I have no way to track her. If Jīnlóng wakes up, I assume he will wish to pursue her, but for now, our job is done.’

  Part Five: Politico

  New Millennium City, MD, 23rd January 2016.

  The snow was up to about twenty inches and New Millennium City was, to a reasonable degree, shut down. The O was not running. Starblaze International had been closed down for the last day. It was hardly out of the ordinary: most of the north-eastern part of the United States was in the same shape. There were tornados hitting the Gulf Coast and snow in the southern states hitting record levels. One of the upsides, as far as June was concerned, was that Captain Freedom was in Pennsylvania helping to handle a pileup near Bedford. There had been a few conspiracy theories suggesting that an Ultra with weather-control powers was responsible, but the meteorologists were quite sure that the blizzard was down to natural, if freakish, conditions.

  New Millennium City’s Ultras were out in force, though one of them was not in costume. Jacob had finally received his new Frostburn suit, but he was out on the streets in jeans and a sweater, plus his heaviest pair of boots: the cold was absolutely his element, and no one would mistake him for a normal with glowing, blue eyes. He was working with Astraea to bring in supplies to shops which had been almost totally looted of food and other basics when the blizzard warning had gone out. She would drop him off at a shop or mall and he would clear the snow from the delivery doors while she flew back for pallets of supplies. He would then carry the pallet into the building while she went back for another.

  June was perfectly happy flying around in her skimpy costume: she could stand up to the cold of space. Various news channels had sent out reporters – idiots as far as June was concerned – to the supply centres, so Astraea was getting seen by the public for the first time. Well, there had been a couple of blurry, dark photographs before, but now she was really out in the open and the news crews were trying to get as much video of her as possible. Okay, so she was an attractive blonde in a mask and a semi-transparent costume, flying around in a blizzard. That might have drawn attention anyway.