She tricked you…
I looked at Nishi, desperately hoping she would shake her head and tell me it wasn't true, but… she just whimpered, "I'm sorry, Nick, I'm so sorry…"
It just couldn't be.
My voice screamed out, and didn't sound like my own, "LIAR!" and in that moment, I found that I could care less about either Jimmy or Nishi. I forgot about them completely, to focus on the object of my deserved anger. Kraven, who was laughing at my pain. It wasn't true, it couldn't be true.
I attacked.
In a rage, I shot towards Kraven like a bullet fired from a chamber, a rabid animal poked and prodded before finally being released from its cage, I turned myself loose. I would kill him, I had decided viciously. I would focus completely on killing this man. That focus gave me astonishing clarity, made me forget, for a moment, about what he had said.
It was lies. I would prove it with his death.
Kraven's eyes widened and he only had time to dodge away. He began to scream a command to his Aberrants, but the pounding pressure on my skull muted whatever he said. I broke Nishi's handcuffs as almost an afterthought, and I didn't notice when she rushed away to help Jimmy against the Aberrants that held him captive.
All I saw was one opponent. One enemy.
Even with my concentrated willpower pulling magic more strongly than I even did against Les in our last fight, I felt Kraven siphoning some away from me. His experience over me couldn't be denied as an obvious advantage. I didn't care, however. I would win no matter what he tried to do to stop me, I had already decided that.
I gathered power to my fist and Dashed again. I hurled the concentrated force in my fist towards his smirking face. He slipped away like a writhing eel at the very last moment, steel flashing and he left a long gaping cut across the length of my shoulder. A taunt more than a wound, but I still felt the pain nonetheless and struggled with holding onto my Glow as he sauntered backwards, flicking blood off his long serrated knife.
Dammit, that had hurt. He was better with the single knife than Kristen was with both of hers. I eyed him warily now, my mind calming down as I attempted to deal with the pain and still formulate a plan of attack.
He took advantage of my weakened will to siphon even more power from me, beginning to develop his own Magus Glow as a result. I gathered my wits and fought back, and for a few long seconds it was purely a mental battle. I was proud to say that although he had at least a decade of experience on me, I held my own almost evenly against the cloaked mage.
Still, taunting cuts appeared across my shirt, even when I managed to dodge. I suppressed a wince as the blade sliced a thin line diagonally across the right side of my chest, just above the pectoral. Blood flew, my blood, but I ignored it to keep my concentrated hold on my power. After a couple more attempts to get in close, I had gained a feel for his quick slashing style and was easily parrying the blade as it came. Faster than Kristen, but not necessarily much better.
Lord Richard Kraven snarled even as I smirked at the nearly even match, "Sorry Dick." I jeered, "Look's like you're coming up a little short." I fought even harder and began to pull power from him. It made me feel alive, to have any control at all in the fight. But then again, gathering power was always what I had been best at.
It was his turn to Dash at me, but now I was ready for him. The blade whistled hungrily as he screamed his rage to the world. His need to kill me had taken the form of steel. Unfortunately for him, Les had pounded a singular, fluid style into me that served me well up close against an unfamiliar weapon- which had probably been the point.
My arm came up to block his descending limb at the wrist, just under the blade. Kraven was bigger than me, but not built much stronger, so our struggle was physically well matched. His other fist lashed out- he obviously had some hand-to-hand training himself, but I matched that as well. We grappled mentally and physically, neither willing to give an inch to another.
"I- will- kill- you!" He promised.
"You can try, Dick!" I snarled, "I guess it must be easy to become a city's warlock. This is seriously PATHETIC!" I shoved him away, my Sphere of Power decisively tossing him into the factory's far wall.
The older mage didn't give up easily, however, using his own telekinetic ability to soften his landing quite a bit. I doubt he even felt anything but the mere touch of the bricks on his back, even though it should have left him screaming in pain. Oh well. I would just have to impress my wrath upon him in some other way. I was nothing if not persistent, after all.
I flicked my wrist and sent wave after wave of force at him, laughing as he dodged like a frantically bouncing rabbit. I just drew in more and more power; it was what I was good at. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Nishi and Jimmy fighting in tandem against the Aberrants. They were doing quite well. Thick, gnomish Edgar had already been knocked out from the fight, and was bleeding heavily from a wound on his body that I couldn't see.
That was just the sideshow, though. I focused on Kraven.
"Hey, asshole." I shouted at him even as I pulled the lighter from my pocket, "I didn't mean to hurt your boy Two-Bit so badly, before. I usually don't like to use this, but for you I'll make an exception!" I flicked the lighter on with a decisive click, and felt the warmth of its tiny flame.
Tiny, but alive. Tiny, but not for long.
Imagine holding absolute power in your hands. It was the power to change the world, to burn it down and start anew. That was the crux of being an Aether of Fire. It was pure, it was fierce, and it was beautiful.
It was rage given form.
In seconds, it was roiling around me. My flames eagerly licked outwards to Kraven as if desperate to reach him. They were me, and I was one with them. Living flame, my hatred giving it life and supplying constant power. Now for the first time I saw something new in Kraven's eyes to replace the vengeance… fear.
I quite literally howled in victorious triumph as I Dashed at him. My concentrated flame, living in the palm of my hand would not be denied. I stole his power easily from his very grip- stole it and fed it to the power of divine creation. Kraven was nothing to me, nothing to my power. This was what it was to be an Aether, to be special amongst those who were already semi-divine.
That was what it was to be Nature incarnate. Both a gift and a curse. I lost myself in the burning power, it was even more intoxicating, more overwhelming than when I had Snapped against Les. This was true magic, plain and simple. Kraven had hurt me, and now he was going to pay for it.
The man tried to move away from me, desperate and unable to gather the power to Dash away from me. My madness had purpose, and that purpose was to end the fool who had caused me pain. Emotional and physical. The part of me that wasn't human, the part that was born of fire, born of a fever that I couldn't remember… it spoke to me. Not with words, but my mind translated it clearly, as if it could speak.
End him… let me grow… and your pain will disappear.
It was part of me, truly. How could I lie to myself?
My arm flashed out and I gripped Kraven round the neck as he tried to stumble away from me again. I pinned him against the sad crumbling bricks of the old factory, and wondered unconsciously if the man ever believed that this could be his end. He should have known not to mess with me, I was an Aether. Kraven was nothing. Just a vindictive child who was throwing a temper tantrum because he couldn't get his way.
There was still fear in his eyes and he still wriggled weakly. But Kraven didn't seem resigned; he believed he would live, the fool. I held his life in my hands, and this Lord Dickhead believed he was going to actually get out of it.
I smirked menacingly and slowly brought my other hand, fire breathed around it in a dangerous coil, encircling my forearm from elbow down to my fingertips. I was so far gone in the moment that I didn't even realize that with the heat of it, my arm should have been sloughing skin off from my bones. As it was, all it did was burn the sleeve from my shirt.
"Goodbye, Lord Kraven." I snarled, "Y
ou've messed with my life for the last time."
Ah. There it was, finally. He didn't just fear me now, he saw death was coming… and I would be the one to deliver him to its very warm embrace.
Nick stop!
Our magical confluence had been completely dominated by my will as Kraven choked and struggled haphazardly. My precognition therefore had returned to something noticeable. My hand stopped just centimeters from his gut. Frozen, confused. What? Another voice had entered my mind, different than the whispering urges of the flames within. I knew the voice, though.
"Nick stop!"Reality caught up and I heard Jimmy's actual voice, desperate. I glanced back for a moment to see all four Aberrants on the ground, unconscious or possibly dead. Swann was gripping one of his arms, and Nishi was by his side. Both looked horrified.
"Why?" I asked, my voice deeper than usual and strangely amused, "He deserves it. He deserves to burn."
"This isn't you, Nick!" Nishi pleaded, "Let him go, it's alright, we can leave-"
"After he's dead." I decided, I moved again and Kraven began to struggle pitifully against me once more as he sensed his end.
"Stratus!" Jimmy snapped at me, "Don't fucking do it!" My hand froze.
"Why?" I said, annoyed.
"It's not up to you who lives or who dies, man. No one person should ever make that choice." Jimmy said, "Your eyes right now, man… this Fire Aether thing is affecting you. You're going to regret this later- I know you! Let him go, we can leave now. He's a member of Archanos, if you kill him, there are going to be consequences!"
I wasn't sure if it was Jimmy, or Nishi, or just the time to actually think, but my mind was coming back from its daze. It felt like I was coming out of a dream, the heated murmurs disappeared gradually until my mind felt like my own again. It was a strange feeling… like suddenly entering an air conditioned room after being outside in the heat. The licking flames around me dissipated slowly, leaving us as only one man choking another.
The fear in his eyes was replaced by rage, and I felt his will begin to successfully fight my own-
Then Nishi and Jimmy were there, pushing against him by my side. Together, we easily held him against the wall, stopping his ability to access magic. The defeated crime lord of Detroit snarled at us and desperately attempted to get away- but to no avail. He was ours.
"Thanks." I told them reluctantly, they had been right to stop me. As shitty a person as Kraven was, I didn't want to ever look in the mirror and see a murderer. It was one thing to kill in self-defense, but he had been defenseless. It would have been murder, pure and simple, even if my mind had screamed it justified.
"What should we do with him?" Jimmy asked.
Nishi scowled and kicked the Warlock in the place that no man ever wanted to be kicked… hard. Both Jimmy and I winced as Kraven let out a screaming squeal of pain. That had to hurt. Couldn't really say that he didn't deserve it.
"Bastard." Nishi said viciously.
Deciding to put him out of his misery, I knocked the asshole out with a sharp blow to the head. We released our combined hold on him, and he crumpled to the ground in a miserable heap.
My Glow faded as the magic left me, and I suddenly felt the weight of the battle press on my mind in the form of a powerful headache. Magical exhaustion wasn't something that I had to deal with for awhile now, but I had definitely pushed myself further than ever before. Using the fire element was undeniably a larger power sink than pure telekinetic attacks. I stumbled dizzily, and found Jimmy at my shoulder, holding me up. Nishi was already determinedly striding past the Aberrants and towards the factory's open doors.
"Nishi!" Jimmy called after her, "Wait, where are you going?"
Nishi had begun to run, "I'm going to end it!" She called viciously over her shoulder, "Kraven just confirmed everything I needed to know. Vik killed Alok, and I'm going to beat the confession out of him."
"No!" Jimmy let go of me and tore after her. I fell to my knees without his support, desperately reaching in my pocket for one of my energy bars. It was a poor substitute for rest and a few good meals, but it would have to do for now. My friends ran out, one after another, forgetting completely about me. It actually kind of hurt.
"I'm the Fire Aether." I mumbled, "Aren't I important?"
No one answered my question, so I was just left to shove the bland chewy bar in my mouth. I eyed the comatose mage, no one was here to stop me now, I could end him. I couldn't help but notice the knife, Kraven's knife, lying nearby…
It would be poetic to end his life with the same knife that had cut me several times.
But my friends had been right, of course. I would regret it, there was no true justice in killing a defenseless man, no matter how terrible he was.
"But if I meet you again," I murmured, "If you try and come after me again… I will end you."
I knew I was making a promise to an unconscious man, but it was a promise that I knew I would keep. I turned away and slowly made my way to the door. My head pulsed angrily with a headache; I hadn't expended so much energy in a fight- possibly ever. Add to it the fact that I never had used my Aether abilities in a fight like this- well, it was quite a toll on my brain.
When I walked slowly past the downed Aberrants and out of the factory, I saw that the day had darkened considerably as night drew closer. Nishi and Jimmy were already gone- they could Cloak and Jump all the way back. My ability to Cloak was still nonexistent, and it was definitely still light enough that there was no chance that someone wouldn't see me.
I practically inhaled the first bar as I walked quickly, and pulled out my second reserve bar to eat that as well. I willed it to work, willed myself to think about anything except what Kraven had told me.
Carmen killed Emily, not Ruark, but Carmen.
My Carmen. He said she had been my tether to Archanos. My Carmen. She had only been my friend, and then my girlfriend, only because Vik or Danae, or whoever, told her to be.
She killed her best friend on orders, and then pretended to care about me, to love me… just so I would tell her everything about my life. Just so I would overlook the darker aspects of the coven and remained tied to it. Their ace in the hole, their burgeoning Aether.
It didn't explain our mutual trust that we… no even that had been a fallacy all along. Hadn't Carmen warned me even before the last semester ended?
"There's an inherent flaw in the Magus Touch… it shows you who you trust, and who trusts you back… but it doesn't tell you if you should trust them."
She had said it right to my face. Outright told me that she was untrustworthy. How pathetic was I to not listen simply because for the first time in so long I felt safe with someone? I felt needed, trusted… loved.
My fury rushed back to me now, but this time it wasn't directed at Kraven, but at a new source.
Carmen, and whoever pulled her puppet strings. Vik, Danae, Lincoln.
Fire whispered to me again and filled my limbs with new power, power I still couldn't completely understand or control.
I began to run, fatigue well forgotten in that last mile home.
I would have my reckoning.
Chapter 16: Not All of Me Shall Die
The old house seemed to greet my gradual approach with stubborn reticence. The gate seemed to require a harder push than usual; my key seemed to catch in the door. The entrance hall floor creaked, but instead of sounding like a welcome, it was sullen. The house I had called home reflected my anger back at me. It felt like a friend reversed, an enemy to me as much as the rest of APA was right now.
I stormed through the house and found it suspiciously empty. No Carmen, no Vik, no Nishi, no anyone.
Frustrated and alone in the abandoned living room, I sent a radiating pulse of anger outwards, the magical equivalent of rapping on someone's head to check if they were there.
To my surprise, the house wasn't empty. I got a response, more like a taunt, from downstairs. I followed it without pause or thought, my wrath encompassing every fiber of
my being. It resonated like a wordless song. The beat was provided by my heart, the pitch whistled by my throbbing migraine, and the voice was my very soul, crying out its betrayal.
How could they do this to me? How could they sit and smile, laugh with me every night, then betray me in the day? How could Ruark lie right to my face, trying to protect me from a truth that I deserved to know?
How could Nishi and Jimmy keep it from me?
How could she? Pretend to smile, pretend to laugh, pretend to care…
No answers were forthcoming, and when I entered the too-large basement, the training field that I had spent so many early mornings on, I didn't find anyone but Larry there.
He stood in the middle of the green turf, as if he had been waiting for me. What really pissed me off was the amused smirk that the student president had on his face.
"Hello Stratus, good to see you, as always." Chen said, mockingly friendly. The murderous look on my face wasn't going anywhere, and Chen sighed and shrugged, "Oh dear. So, I'm guessing that Nishi isn't the only one who learned something today? Oh well. We were getting along so splendidly too…"
"Go to hell, Larry."
He had the audacity to laugh as I walked towards him. He was laughing when I grabbed him by the collar and shook him, "Where are they?!" I snarled, "Where's Vik, Carmen, Ruark… where are they!?"
His laughter died down and Larry bodily shoved me a few feet back with a snarl, "Don't touch me, freshman. Don't forget who you're speaking to, I'm still your senior."
"You're going to be paste if you don't answer me!" I retorted, gathering power around me.
Larry responded by doing the same, laughter completely gone from his eyes, "Don't test me, Stratus. You won't like the results." We both glowed dangerously, and Larry continued to speak, tone conversational again, "If you must know, Nishi was being quite a bitch just a few minutes ago. Vik didn't like her tone or her attitude, so he took her to teach her a lesson. One final lesson."
"What about…?" I started, then stared past Larry for moment. I had been so focused on him that I hadn't noticed the figure lying on the grass some twenty feet away or so, unconscious or worse.
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