by L. C. Mawson
“It would be understandable after last night,” he figured.
His sister raised an eyebrow as she approached. “The monsters don’t care how tired we are. We have to be ready to fight, no matter the circumstances.”
“I’m ready,” Claire told her, standing straight with her hands behind her back, radiating determination.
“Good,” Justice said simply before moving over to the wall. There was a terminal there and she keyed in something before stepping back as the wall came to life. Sections of the wall moved over each other, exposing the array of weaponry stored beyond.
“Choose something,” Justice said. “Preferably something you have experience with, if you have experience with any.”
Claire moved over to the gun, which was the type of staff she usually trained with, picking it up and feeling the weight. It was familiar in her hands. She performed a quick front twirl to make sure that she had the feel of it. And, if she was being honest with herself, in the hopes of impressing Hate, who was currently leaning against the far wall and couldn’t look more annoyed at having to be there, scowling into her comic book.
Jealousy groaned at the display. “Okay, come on. Making me jealous of your combat skills is not a good idea.”
Claire raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it good if you’re jealous?”
“Not always,” Vengeance interjected. “Her power makes her better at everything but the thing she’s jealous over.”
“It’s better if I get jealous over superficial things,” Jealousy elaborated. “Like how good you look in your workout gear.”
Serenity cringed. “Okay, that’s slightly inappropriate.”
Jealousy rolled her eyes. “You’re not dating this one, Sere. No need for the claws.”
Claire felt a little uncomfortable at that, wishing that she'd slung a loose top over her sports bra, despite how it would have gotten in her way. She felt a little silly for her reaction. They were probably just messing around.
“Hey, none of those kinds of comments about the new girl,” Justice told them sharply, confirming that Claire had been right to be uncomfortable.
“As if your brother doesn’t do the same,” Jealousy countered. Claire wondered if she would have minded as much if it had been Vengeance flirting with her. Possibly not, though she doubted she would have been entirely comfortable with it. Especially given their age difference.
“Not with a fifteen year old he doesn’t,” Justice said, the sharp tone still in her voice. “This team is a safe space. For everyone. That’s the end of it.”
She turned to Claire, picking up a long sword from the wall before moving over to face Claire on the floor. She sliced the air in front of her with the longsword, much as Claire had spun her staff, showing that she wasn’t going to go down lightly.
“Given your prior training, I’m not going to go easy on you,” Justice warned.
“Bring it,” Claire said, with confidence she was surprised to find. She’d never gone up against an opponent with a sword before. Not while she’d been armed with a staff, at least. She’d fought against opponents with a jian, but only when she too had been equipped with one. But still, this was her special interest. She was good at this.
She deflected Justice’s blows easily, spinning out of her way. She had a habit of throwing in twirls from her ballet lessons sometimes, which her old instructor got annoyed at her for, but right now it gave her the edge over Justice, messing with whatever knowledge she might have about Baguazhang.
“You most likely won’t be up against one opponent,” Justice told her as she disengaged, giving Claire a moment to breathe before Vengeance joined his sister on the floor.
“Yeah, I’ll most likely be up against monsters,” Claire figured, blocking a strike from Vengeance as he came at her with a dagger in each hand before ducking away so that the twins were in front of her, instead of her being caught between them.
“Don’t be so quick to jump ahead, Love,” Vengeance said and she honestly couldn’t tell if he was addressing her with her Aspect name, or simply saying ‘love’ as a term of endearment.
“We’ll get to monsters soon enough,” Justice told her as she brought her sword down.
Claire barely managed to block her strike and it left her open to Vengeance.
She danced away just in time but it was only another five minutes before they had her, Vengeance’s knife pressed lightly to her throat.
“That was longer than most newbies,” Empathy told her and Claire was surprised to see that Pain had moved to sit beside Em at some point, remaining as silent as ever.
“The twins are definitely a force to be reckoned with,” Jealousy told her and Claire took it as reassurance.
“Is it time for Biter, do we think?” Justice asked.
Serenity clenched her fists at that as she spoke up. “She’s not ready. She can’t be. Love was the only one who-”
“She’s Love now,” Justice reminded her, her tone making it clear that there was no disputing that fact, though there was a hint of softness to it. “Biter is the best way to see if she can handle Love’s powers.”
Serenity nodded, though Claire could see that her eyes were slightly glassy and she had yet to unclench her fists. Empathy was looking at her reproachfully but didn’t do anything. Claire decided to follow Empathy’s lead and not address it.
“Lita,” Vengeance called, “can you send us Biter’s storage unit?”
“What’s a Biter?” Claire asked.
To her surprise, it was Serenity who answered her. “Lo- The Love before you found a monster nest after a fight. We had killed the mother and there was a newly hatched Stinger in the nest. She used her power to make it docile and decided to bring it home to raise. Em removed its venom gland, so it’s mostly harmless, but it never once tried to attack any of us. Not until Love died, that is. We’ve kept it locked up ever since.”
“And you think I can bring it back under control?” Claire asked.
Serenity looked away, glaring at the floor.
“It’s a good way to test your powers without sending you back into battle,” Justice reasoned.
“Don’t worry, it can’t do much damage,” Vengeance assured her.
“Yeah, puncture wounds the size of a mug are nothing to worry about,” Jealousy said sarcastically.
Claire felt herself pale a little as a new compartment moved out of the wall. It was a clear box with air holes on top and inside was what looked like a purple scorpion with blue marbling over its plates. It was the size of a Staffordshire bull terrier.
“She decided to keep that thing as a pet?!” she asked incredulously.
“She’s not ready,” Serenity told the others.
“I hate to agree, but that’s not the best start,” Jealousy added, a little sheepishly.
“Let her try, at least,” Empathy said.
Justice nodded, turning to Claire. “You have to concentrate. Find some feeling of love within yourself and focus on it. Then focus on Biter. Direct your feelings towards him. Find some way to love him.”
Claire couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as Biter made a clacking noise that made her skin crawl.
“Ready?” Vengeance asked.
“Yes,” Claire lied. She refused to back down from this challenge. She refused to die.
Vengeance moved his hand over the box and the front of it disappeared.
Claire moved her hand out in front of her, as if directing it at Biter would help her to direct her power at him. The clacking noises increased as Biter seemed to be regarding her.
She quickly tried to find some feelings of love within her, but only drew a blank. She didn’t have any family. Lindsay had been her friend, but they hadn’t been that close. Claire had never had any other friends. The other Aspects were too new to her for her to think of them as such. She’d never had a parental figure, not even at St Cecilia’s. She’d never been in a romantic relationship before Hate, and whatever they might have had was too new to be love
. Not that it mattered now, anyway.
Claire’s breath began to quicken as she felt her panic rise.
Biter primed itself for attack, its stinger held high.
Biter collapsed to the ground with a sudden blast of black lightning. It twitched, indicating that it was still alive, but incapacitated.
“Serenity’s right,” Hate said coldly, folding her arms. “She’s not ready.”
Before anyone could say anything else, Hate stalked out of the room.
“I told you,” Serenity said simply before following her out.
Jealousy gave Claire a half-hearted shrug. “Hey, there’s always next time, right? Most of us take a while to get the hang of our powers.”
“But most of us at least used them by accident on our first day here,” Pain said simply, marking the most Claire had ever heard him say.
Empathy shot him a glare before turning her attention to the twins. “Love is a notoriously tricky ability. She’ll get it.”
Justice shrugged. “I know, but not today. Biter needs to heal.”
Vengeance had already moved Biter back into the compartment, which he'd moved back into the wall. “We’ll focus on other forms of combat for now,” he figured.
“You’ll get it,” Empathy assured Claire, but she wasn’t so sure.
Her stomach felt like someone had dumped a litre of ice water into it. If she couldn’t get the hang of her powers, she would surely die.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Two weeks passed and Claire was no closer to using Love’s powers. She'd kept herself busy and distracted with combat training and hanging out with Empathy, well aware that she was avoiding dealing with her lack of power. In all honesty, she had no idea of what else to do, so she just kept on avoiding for the sake of her sanity.
Em usually spent her time watching reality TV, absorbing the abilities of the people she watched and using them for various tasks. She watched a show about A&E in order to help patch up Serenity, after she came back from a mission with a busted leg. There was a particular show that was her favourite called Sherlock. It followed the woman who was considered the greatest detective in the world and Em used her skills to keep track of the monster’s movements. Claire wondered why she didn’t just watch a nature documentary and use a wildlife expert, but Em just shrugged, saying that it didn’t work as well.
She'd also watched one about fashion designers and had used that ability to add little pink heart designs to Claire’s work out clothes. Justice had explained that the monsters were able to easily cut through any material known to Humans or Rena, which meant that Claire’s work out clothes were ideal for battle. They were light and didn’t get in her way, allowing her to move quickly enough to dodge attacks.
Not that Claire was going to see battle any time soon. She wasn’t allowed out until she had a handle on Love’s powers, demonstrating that she could hold her own in a fight. She'd been trying, truly, but it was no use. The others were growing impatient, she knew. Serenity’s injury had only made the situation worse. Justice and Vengeance were no use until the monsters had already caused some damage and Hate and Pain couldn’t take down more than two at a time, even with Jealousy and Serenity backing them up. And now they were down their shield.
Claire hadn’t slept for the past few days. At least, not for more than an hour or so each night. She was too worked up. Too frustrated with herself for not being able to access Love’s powers. Empathy had tried to reassure her, but it was no use. She knew that she was nothing but a problem for the others.
Hate still hadn’t spoken to her since that first training session. Her words to the others hadn’t been too kind, either, from what she could gather from Empathy. Em did try to reason that Hate was simply worried that the others would throw her into the fighting before she could properly defend herself, but Claire had a tough time believing that Hate cared so much.
“You know, there’s only so much training you can do,” Vengeance eventually said half way through one of their sessions. “It won’t help you get out in the field any faster.”
“It still beats sitting around feeling sorry for myself,” Claire bit back, increasing the speed of her staff, spinning it in front of her to block Vengeance’s blades.
“So, do you just not like people? Is that the problem?”
“It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just... love is a strong emotion, you know? I don’t think I’ve ever loved anything or anyone. Maybe it’s just not in my hardwiring.”
“If it wasn’t in your hardwiring, you wouldn’t have been chosen.”
“Yeah, well, I still think the system glitched out...”
“So, you’ve really never loved anyone in your entire life?”
“Why is that so hard to believe?”
Empathy chipped in at that from across the room. “Because he’s a twin! He’s never known a time without his sister.”
“Fair point,” Vengeance agreed.
“Well, lucky for you. As far as I know, I never had any siblings. I have no idea who my father was. My mother died when I was ten and I don’t remember her. I didn’t have any friends...”
Vengeance and Empathy had both heard this rant already, word for word, but they let Claire vent her frustrations anyway, for which she was grateful.
“What about romantic love?” Vengeance asked, stopping the fight.
Claire threw him a glare as she put down her staff. “None of your business.”
“Oh really?” he asked with a smirk. That damn sexy smirk of his that brought back all of those embarrassing crush-y feelings she’d had for him. She’d been right, she had no real feelings for the man himself once she’d met him, but he was just as sexy in person as he was in pictures.
“Really,” she bit back.
“All right then,” Vengeance conceded. “No romantic love. Regardless, I have a theory.” He moved back over to the wall where Biter was sitting in his box. Watching her. Waiting. Taunting.
She hated that thing.
“Hey, Em, come and help me with this,” he said.
“Okay,” Em said brightly. “Where do you need me?”
“Just stand right there,” Vengeance said, indicating to the middle of the room.
Em skipped over, standing with her hands on her hips where Vengeance had indicated.
“Okay. Now what?” she asked.
“Just stay there no matter what and face the other wall.”
“Vengeance,” Claire warned, realising where he was going with this as he went to open Biter’s box.
“Just trust me, okay?” he asked, not giving her a chance to respond as he released Biter from its cage.
The creature took no longer than a second to consider the room before quickly heading for Empathy.
“Don’t you dare!” Claire yelled, knowing that it wouldn’t do anything, but also knowing that she couldn’t let Empathy be hurt.
To her surprise, Biter responded to her yelling, turning to face her as he seemed to consider her for a moment. She didn’t hesitate, kicking it back into the box before shutting it.
Biter hissed, climbing up against the walls of the box, but Claire was too busy glaring at Vengeance to notice.
“What the hell? She could have been hurt!”
He just smirked and she wanted to punch him in his stupid, smug face.
“It worked, didn’t it? You exercised control over Biter.”
Claire scoffed. “I yelled at it. I probably scared it.”
“I have never known Biter to be scared of anything in my life,” Vengeance countered.
“Come on, this was completely out of line. Right, Em?”
Claire was greeted by nothing but silence and she turned to see that Empathy was no longer there. Claire turned back to shoot Vengeance another glare.
“See? I bet she’s terrified. I thought we were supposed to look out for each other!”
“She knew she was never in any danger,” Vengeance defended but even he didn’t seem convinced.
> Claire just gave a groan of frustration, spinning on her heel and storming out of the room.
“Hey, Lita,” she called out into the empty air. She still wasn’t used to addressing the AI. “Where did Empathy go?”
“She is in the Control Room,” Lita told her.
“Thank you,” Claire said, heading up to the top-most level. She hadn’t been up there since the first day, though Em did sometimes disappear. She supposed that she must have been sneaking off to the Control Room, though why was a different question.
As soon as she arrived she saw the familiar blonde hair, with streaks of grey, telling her that Em had tuned into Sherlock. She was sitting at the main terminal, typing away as the screen flickered faster than Claire could read. She wondered if Sherlock was hyperlexic.
“Vengeance was out of line,” Claire said simply as she came up beside her.
“It’s fine,” Empathy said, though her tone was strained. “I knew what he was going to do. If I wanted to object, I would have. Biter doesn’t hurt that much.”
“Then why did you run off?”
Empathy didn’t answer for what seemed like an eternity, her fingers dancing quickly over the keys. She did eventually pause, however, her hands resting on her lap as she stared at them.
“You did it. It worked.”
“I mean, maybe,” Claire conceded. “I might have just scared him with my yelling.”
Em shook her head, though her gaze didn’t shift from her hands. “No. It worked. I felt it.”
Claire gave an awkward shrug. “If you say so...”
Em remained silent for a few more minutes before speaking up. “I haven’t really had any friends, either. Not since coming here. I mean, I’m not even really a person. I’m just an amalgam of other people. The other Aspects like me, but none of us are close.”
Claire nodded, not really sure how to respond. She thought of Em as a close friend now, there was no doubt about that. She felt an overwhelming need to protect her, no matter what. Maybe that was just because she was younger, Claire figured.
“I’m sorry,” Em said. “I just... It’s complicated. I’m sorry.”