"Sigurd the Dragon Slayer. With a sword descended by Odin, bestowed upon him by his fallen father, Sigurd slayed the cursed-tainted dragon, Fafnir, earning the title Dragon Slayer. After bathing and drinking in the beast's blood, Sigurd gained invulnerability and wisdom from the monster's remains."
Her corpse dropped to the floor. The aura lifted from her body and collapsed into the girl she had just touched. A tiny dragon frolicked into the girl's hand as though it was being initiated into her soul. She smiled, clasped the dragon away, and headed into the school building.
There were more inside of her. Surrounding her as though they'd lived with her her whole life. Her grasp around her powers were fluid, only she was adaptive enough command her tiny beasts. They were her spirits, her ghosts, enslaved to do her bidding. With a wide enough collection, she could've become powerful enough to take down nations.
He yearned to know how strong she could become. It also conflicted him. Was it better to hunt her now, while the prey was still available? Or to wait until she matured, in order to prolong the challenge? He decided to opt for both, hunt her now and play for the sake of pleasure, but collect her remains later to extend the game.
XXX
There was never an escape...
"You're a big-game hunter, not a philosopher.
Who cares how the jaguar feels?" - Richard Connel
-The Most Dangerous Game
Chapter 3: Two of a kind
The ends of her mouth twitched. Her fingertips pressed tightly against her novel while she glared down at the pages. Crooked voices rubbed against her eardrums as she wondered how close she actually was from her own personal hell.
"Did you see what she was wearing?" Paulina's grin was wicked, satisfied only from the scolding of others.
"I know, she is such a freak!" Star muttered off like a mutt barking for its master.
She hated them. For crying out loud, they were in a library! Ciara couldn't believe how chatty they could be for a room designed for silence. Paulina and Star's conversations involved the most redundant subjects she could imagine. Gossip, makeup, boys, fashion magazines. If sounds physically took up space, their breaths were as wasteful as garbage.
Ciara shook her head, trying to fight off the urge to physically drag them out from the library. Paulina mistook her gesture as an agreement, "it's actually really sad, if she wants people to notice her, she could at least not be a freak about it."
Lifting an eyebrow, Ciara commented, "maybe she doesn't care, and everyone else cares what she looks like, except for her."
The two girls paused a moment. Star muttered, "well, she should care."
Finally giving up, Ciara closed her book and rose up from her seat. "I left my homework in my locker, I'll be back later."
Paulina raised an arm, "oh, give me the answers when you get back."
"Me too," Star said, "I hate English. Mr. Lancer's books are so stupid."
Ciara's face was stone cold. "Sure," she said in a stoic tone.
Slowly walking to her locker was more like a deadman's walk of shame. School had become a dread as she couldn't stop imagining herself far, far away from it. Every second seemed like a waste of her precious time. Paulina, Star, and Valerie all wouldn't stop pestering her with their worthless woes. Lunch became a battle. Both because she was forced to eat the slop that the school offered as food, and because Valerie and Paulina's passive-aggressive attitudes kept putting her in the middle of their pointless quarrels.
The boys were worse. While the girls would share venomous words with her, boys wouldn't stop staring at her like she were an object they needed to posses. Some even followed her, eyeing her body with their desperate fantasies for her (she was also certain someone made a shrine of her inside their locker).
Slowly opening her locker, she couldn't help but rest her head inside. Breathing deeply, regretting the bonds she'd chosen to form, she groaned, "why me..."
"Maybe your just lucky," a teenager spoke down to her. Looking up, she could see Dash's golden greased hair and chill blue eyes reflecting down at her. "Lucky that I bumped into you."
He smiled, her mouth flat-lined. "That's not luck, that's punishment."
His jaw dropped, but he didn't give up so easily. "Yeah well, you know I scored four touchdowns-"
"I don't care. No one cares. You think people care but they only pretend to care. And if that's the only boastful deed you have in life, you're more lost than every other student in this school."
Dash froze in place. His identity was built up from his own athleticism, to have that gutted away from him was like taking a shot at his being hood. "Yeah well, I think its cool..."
"Of course you do," she said, twisting the blade further. "You live in your own little world. Like an ill-witted fool."
Dash's pride broke down like fragile pieces of glass. He slumped his shoulders over and dug his hands deep into his pockets. Murmuring to himself, he walked away from her. 'If only I could take this anger out on something.' Danny Fenton passed by him. Dash completely spun around to stalk him like prey.
Ciara took a deep breathe and smashed her head against the locker door, "I hate it here."
XXX
Ciara looked off distantly. The school was minuscule from her perspective, taking up a small patch of grass from the entirety of Amity Park. If it disappeared, it would've been like removing a carpet stain that ruined the rest of her view.
She called upon a spirit. The first had the face of a horse, it's blue aurora followed wherever it moved. The second was robust, with lighting streaming out from its arms and legs. It's electrical symbol at its chest glowed the same color as its red lightning. The last spirit was on fire, to the point that it's being was only distinguishable as a stick-like fiery outline.
She commanded them. "Clouds of black, I summon thy might. Rhiannon. Danu. Cailleach." They danced, and the sky above her formed gray. The air above cooled with winds breezing kindly against the grass. Leaves fell as heat began collecting into the atmosphere. The storm brewed. Ciara wondered how long the rain dance would continue before she had enough power to demolish the school.
Are you attracted to catastrophes, Phantom? She remembered the last two times she encountered him. The Meat Butcher. The Salamander. At the height of every public crisis he would arrive. She only speculated what it would take to summon him.
"Resourceful," he said from behind. "Emulating rain by emulating the environment, did you learn that on your own, or did the idea occur while in class?"
The voice came from a mechanical tin man. He wore an exoskeleton that made him larger than a bodybuilder. Its helmet had the outlines of a skeleton, with his jawlines opening when he spoke. His eyes matched the head inside, expressing delight upon gazing at Ciara.
"You're... A warlock?" But her eyes deceived her. Whereas Ciara could typically see Faeries pulling the strings of actions of those they follow, there was no Faerie inside his suit of armor. Unlike Phantom, it was clear he was simply a normal man using the weapons of a warlock without having the supernatural abilities to build them. "Or perhaps, a warlock impostor?"
Skulker's laughter was mechanical. "No, I am not a warlock. I am something much greater than any title you could come up with. You may call me Skulker, the greatest Specter hunter of all time."
"Specter?"
"How else did you think powers derived from?"
Ciara thought about that for a moment. She had never considered that others might call what she saw as faeries as something else. "You mean faeries."
"Fairies? Ah, I see." He typed into the screen on his forearm, "that's what you've chosen to call them. More importantly though, you're a clairvoyant. Your value goes up each time I learn more of you."
"Value? Value of what?" The faeries stopped in their place. They turned their heads to Skulker with an icy, soulless stare.
"Value for hunting, of course. I am a collector. A collector of things rare and unique. And you, reaper girl, are that, and so much more." The tin-man laughed in arrogant delight.
Ciara rolled up her fists. "You will find that I am not so easily preyed upon."
"If you were easy prey, I would never have chosen to hunt you." Fire and lighting crashed into Skulker's armor. His feet didn't move an inch off the ground. The suit's insulation obstructed the blast as though it were a light wind. "It would be a pity if that were you most powerful attack. I was hoping you would put up more of a fight."
Ciara scoffed off his comment. Cerberus rose up in front of her and growled like Skulker were fresh meat for him to pry into. "That is a wish you will soon regret."
Cerberus the mutt pounded across the ground as it closed the gap between itself and Skulker. The moment it headbutted Skulker, Skulker grabbed him by the neck and began choking him to death. The twin heads of Cerberus tried biting at Skulker, but their attempts and chewing him down were met with coursing electricity running out from his body.
After the middle head choked to death, the other two fell to the ground. Ciara's eyes widened in astonishment. Skulker's strength and durability could've matched Achilles, but in the end, she reminded herself that Skulker was just a man. A fragile, nimble, weakling man.
A thousand small suns fell from the sky. Smoke bombs blocked out his vision. Neon lights burned through the ground around him. Ciara wasn't going to waver from his false strength. Skulker charged through all her attacks and smashed his heavy body against her. It was like a literal truck had sent her flying. She numbed up her body and levitated herself to avoid impacting the ground.
Peasant bastard. The cretin had no powers, he impersonated the chosen to compensate for his weakness. We blessed endure great suffering to be chosen for blessings, and this one impersonates us without having suffered at all? It was an unredeemable sin.
"You are filth, Skulker."
He smiled, "no, reaper girl. I am the epitome of all predators. You, and all that are like you, are fair game for me to prey upon."
Ciara gritted her teeth. She hurled another hundred fireballs at him, this time more as a distraction than to do him damage. She circled above him and punched down at him with invisible arms that sprouted from her back. Not only did Skulker block them, but he also parried them as though they weren't invisible. Skulker eventually leaped through the invisible arms and punched her in the face. When Ciara fell down with a bleeding nose, gliding mechanical wings grew out of Skulker's backpack revealing that he could fly.
Disoriented and infuriated, she decided to draw out from the thunder she'd begun creating earlier. The storm had brewed, and she only needed a conduit to channel it into her desired direction.
Skulker sensed that Ciara was changing her tactics. He cracked his knuckles and neck and positioned himself in a fighting stance. His crooked grin gleamed in excitement, glad that he could show the ingenuity of his suit.
Ciara shook her head, pathetic fool. Crackling sounds shook the trees in place. The world went dark as Ciara's clouds blotted out the sun. At Casper high, students began preparing a tornado drill, unaware to how dangerous the storm truly was. Wind whistled so loudly that crying animals hid to their shelters. A golden spirit appeared in front of her, and it pointed one hand at the sky and the other towards Skulker. The thunder united into a single force under the conduit. The conduit amplified the lighting with its talent.
The energy released as a beam. Skulker's entire body became covered in light. The beam almost blinded Ciara as it burned the ground surrounding him. As the energy slowly died down, the scorched hill Skulker stood on was decimated, but the tin man was still standing in place.
Skulker was almost proud of her. She was a worthy prize to him, and perhaps even a worthy rival. He knew she could grow up and become more durable through time and experience, and become the most priceless opponent. But it wasn't right for him to kill her, not yet. He wanted wanted her to mature. And he needed to force her potential out of her.
Skulker's burning body flew into Ciara. He reached her in less than a second and headbutted into the ground. He turned off his jetpacks just to drop his feet onto Ciara's chest. She spat out blood.
Skulker pointed his forearm at Ciara's head. He smiled, letting her know he was boastful. His blast overwhelmed her body, and turned her into a circuit board for surging electricity.
XXX
Waking up felt like surviving from a train wreck. Jittering twitches ran across her finger tips. They tingled from the after shock that still resided. Breathing was painful. Slow, deep breathes weren't enough to calm her irregular heart beats.
Walking down the stairs was a challenge. She fell over several times but tightly held onto the railing to help her way down. The house was empty. Darkness covered the living room while night time crickets sang from outside.
She didn't remember walking home. She remembered dying by Skulker's hand, and then waking up in bed. What had happened? Looking around the emptiness of her home, Ciara was too battered to want to think about it. She dropped onto the sofa and held herself tight, allowing for what specialized fairies she had to speed up the healing process. She closed her eyes, and whispered her mum's lullaby to calm herself to sleep.
"Come away oh human child
to the water and the wild
Come away, human child
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping, than you can understand"
XXX
"Where was she all day?"
Anna and Roy looked down at their adopted daughter. Her tightly arched brows told them she was having trouble sleeping. Sleeping on a lumpy, worn-down couch without bed sheets or pillows made them wonder what made her think it was a good idea.
"She had trouble sleeping," Roy's chin arched low as his calm blue eyes locked onto Ciara with focus and concern. "Like when we first adopted her."
Anna's eyelids fell low, recollecting how poorly she had handled that situation. "What should I do?"
"You go to work tomorrow, I'll talk to her in the morning." Roy placed a hand on Ciara's head, but Ciara instantly murmured and turned herself away from him.
Anna leaned low and whispered into Ciara's ear, magically relaxing her into a deeper sleep. Roy took her into his arms, and gently carried her into her bedroom for her to rest.
XXX
Classical music played in the background. The volume was just loud enough to help Ciara raise awake. She shook her arms and legs to test out her motor skills. The soreness across her body was gone, and the tingling sensation she'd been worried about subsided into a light numbness on her hands and feet. It would heal.
Mozart's string quartet symphony grew louder as she headed into the kitchen. Roy sat at the dining table with a heavy book at hand. He smiled as Ciara entered the room. "Good morning, princess."
Morning? It was 8am. She'd slept the entire day. "Good morning, my king."
Roy pulled out the candy stick from his mouth and pointed a pinky at Ciara's direction. His slim figure made each of his movements smooth. Dressing up professionally was a habit for him, even on the days he didn't work. A crimson colored dress shirt and black ironed dress pants emphasized the enthusiasm he constantly had in him. "You know Ciara, even sleeping beauty had a bed to sleep on. We found you passed out on the couch yesterday." He went up to her and patted her head, "are the nightmares back?"
Ciara's cheeks grew red. Her beginnings there weren't her proudest moments. Rather than answer him, she reached for a jolly rancher from the candy jar that sat on the dining table. She almost ignored the question. A moment of silence passed between them before Roy finally frowned, letting some guilt fall unto Ciara. "I've just been tired," Ciara said half-lying. "The people I've been working with at school, they give me headaches."
"Headaches?"
Ciara nodded, fully aware of how easily she could emit an image of weakness to other people. "Mr. Lancer partnered me up with people who talk a lot. It... Leaves me tired some days. It's like, everything they talk about doesn't interest me, so hearing them talk is like hearing radio static I don't understand. I end up being tired after spending all day with them."
There was enough truth in that statement to fool most of Roy's intuition. "Can you request to work alone?" Roy asked while twirling the candy stick in his hand.
"That's not really an option." Ciara had thought about that, but she knew Paulina would take it as a personal insult.
"Are you sure that's the only reason? Is there anything else that's been on your mind lately?" Ciara shook her head, allowing for Roy to let out a sigh of relief. "Well alright. Push through this as much as you can. If you ever need an excuse to come home early or skip school, just tell them we need you home for medical reasons. We'll lie for you."
"Thank you," Ciara thought about Skulker. How long would her guardians cover for her?
Roy poked her forehead and smiled. His honesty and ignorance gave Ciara a sense tranquility that she wholeheartedly needed. "Be sure to ditch those partners once the project is over. Boring people aren't worth a princess's time."
XXX
Returning to school was like nothing had changed. She still had bruises that her powers couldn't heal, but boys still gawked at her and her 'friends' still spoke like hawks chewing over prey. Ciara counted how many days were left for the project's deadline. She calculated the hours left, then the minutes, and then the seconds. Counting the time was her only reminder that time was indeed moving forwards.
"Ugh," Paulina said. "Those losers keep staring at us."
Looking up, Ciara noticed Tucker, Sam, and Danny all turning away from glancing at them. They no doubt still had sentiments from homecoming. "Don't waste time thinking over them, even out of anger. It's not worth our time."
"Amen to that."
As Paulina and Star continued talking while Ciara worked on the project. Ciara made sure to shuffle between faeries from out of sight. They practiced combinations between the bookshelves in the event that Skulker would show himself again. The exercise was relaxing. As she practiced reaction and clairvoyant powers, she heard a large mechanical suit in the school basement, clapping methodically as though to grab someone's attention.
"I gotta go," Ciara said standing up.
Paulina and Star looked at each other, and then at Ciara. "You're not gonna ditch us again, are you?" Star asked.
"Yeah, I missed the homework assignment yesterday because didn't come back. You better not leave again."
"I won't," Ciara promised. "I just need to meet with someone."
The two girls grinned deviously, but Ciara walked off before they could pry questions from her. Her walk downstairs included preparation. She transformed into her golden hair alias while making sure to charge the strengths of any spirits that could deliver a heavy first blow.
When she reached the basement floor that she'd once faced the mad butcher in, Skulker was humming in a tune that was distinctly familiar to her. "Be quiet," she demanded. Skulker huffed, then stopped. "Why did you spare me yesterday?"
"Because hunts are never entertaining when they end too soon."
"This is not a game of cat and mouse."
"My word, I hadn't taken you for a girl who watched cartoons."
Ciara sighed in disappointment. Skulker was referring to the out-dated show Tom and Jerry. Ciara was referring more to the Cat and Mouse in Grimm's Fairie Tales. "I am not as nimble as you take me for. If this is a game to you, it will never pan out in your favor."
A silicon dragon arose from the shadows behind her. It's eyes glowed green as neon smoke fumed out from its mouth and back. "Oh my," Skulker said in delight. "The dragon from the mall attack? This is how you plan on combating against me?"
The Dragon sprinted at him, it's stomach dragged across the floor as it aimed to crush Skulker with his crystalline body. "Why do you think I visited Amity park in the first place?" Skulker smacked the dragon's face with his fists, he cracked open the dragon's mouth and launched liquid nitrogen into its stomach.
The fire of Ciara's dragan burntout. A dagger extended from Skulker's arm, and pierced through the dragon's crystal skin. Aware that the dragon had failed its use, she called it out of existence. Skulker was more than satisfied. "Why do you think I visited Amity Park in the first place?"
Ciara glared at him. "She was your prey, wasn't she?"
"Indeed," Skulker said. "But if losing her meant finding you, I'd say it was a fair trade off."
Skulker lunged in Ciara's direction. Ciara, copying maneuvers from what she'd seen from Phantom, used shape shifting and cloaking faeries as she ran away from Skulker's advances. I'm sacrificing offense for evasion, she remembered, I won't win this way.
As she moved and spun around the packages of the basement floors, Skulker easily found her whenever she hid. He can see me, but I can't see him, she realized. A direct result of her having a faerie and Skulker being normal.
As she tried sprinting away, while studying what she could from his movements, a chisel hit her. Or at least, a nailhead scratched across her shoulder. She was spending so much time evading, Skulker hadn't even begun using his long range weapons until now.
More chisels hit her. Her legs and arms had light scratches bleeding across them. None of them were vital hits, but he was sending the message that he could hit her but she couldn't hit him. She stopped running and turned around and faced him.
Her body became encompassed by a forcefield. The forcefield was a metallic color, giving the impression she'd turned herself into metal. Fire spun around her. Like a machine, she punched Skulker's stomach as he sprinted towards her. A loud cracking sound hummed across the room. The punch froze Skulker in place, taking the forefront of the blow and holding still like the breathe was smacked out of him.
Before Ciara could smirk at the small victory, Skulker laughed. "Let me clarify something," Skulker said with her punch still lodged in his stomach. "I would never have survived as a Specter hunter, if I couldn't survive the damage of a Gatling tank."
He returned the punch back to her in full force, making Ciara crash through a pile of packages. Her body was shaking. Skulker was only a husk without a faerie. He had no right to pick a fight with her or any of the other chosens. Yet he did so with cocky arrogance. Picking at her like she were a game carrying no threat to him.
"You pathetic wench," she growled. "You are nothing. You are less than a speck in the grand play. We blessed, we are destined for more than you can possibly imagine. Your strengths aren't even your own. You are only a bastard, doomed to be nothing more than wasteful space to us graced."
Skulker stared at her in an uninterested gaze. Her body was battered, he could see that she could still grow up to become an ignorant girl. "You're quite naive." Skulker walked towards her taking long. "As special as you believe you are, you're just like so many others. Allow me to enlighten you; you're not special. Your specialty is not unique. And in the end of the day you're just as mortal the rest of us."
Skulker cocked a bomb from his belt buckle. It wasn't meant to hurt her, it was a teleportation tool that a friend had given him. "I'd like for you to see my home. A pocket dimension given by a friend. I want you to look inside, take a glance, and tell me again if you still think you have a grand destiny."
The bomb exploded by Ciara's head. Her body tingled. She was blinded. For a moment, she wasn't sure where she was anymore. A low humming entered her ears. Blinking her eyes out, she caught a glimpse of what Skulker had done.
It was a cabin. The silence within it was abnormal. No sounds were heard because there was only a ominous hum that hallowed from outside. Like there was no atmosphere. The room was made of finely crafted wood that made the ornaments organized in a cleanly professional manner.
The ornaments were dead capes. Heads stuck out from the walls the same way an animal hunter would flaunt their kills in a boastful manner. Each mannequin had masks over their models. Some with burns and cuts implying a story and history for each person he killed.
The floor had an artful cape rug with boots and gloves attached to the corners. A helm was attached to the side positioned in an identical way a bear skin rug would be placed. Iron gauntlets hung from the ceiling like chandeliers. They looked like tinker tech. A stuffed human doll laid seductively on the piano, Ciara wasn't sure if it was a mannequin or a stuffed human.
Another bomb went off, and she was returned to the basement of Amity Park with Skulker standing in front of her. The loud ringing almost stopped her from hearing him speak. "Tell me Ciara, which one of us are the speck in this grand play of yours?"
Ciara's silence spoke volumes. She flashed a light in his eyes and fled with all the energy she could muster. She ran to the school halls and hid in the bathroom, hoping Skulker wouldn't risk being seen in public. Scrunching down to the side of the toilet, she noticed her legs were heavily bleeding. She felt woozy before deciding she needed to burn her wounds shut.
XXX
A paranoia was growing. For days, Skulker constantly picked battles with her whenever she was alone. Each fight damaged her more, scarred her more to the point that she wore long sleeve shirts and dresses solely to hide at her wounds. Bruises, cuts, burns, things she couldn't heal; so she had to hide them.
The only safe haven she could attain was when she was in the company of people. Any moment alone risked a confrontation from Skulker. She wasn't sure how much longer he'd entertain the game of cat and mouse.
"You're going out?" Ciara asked.
Anna helped Roy with his tie. Their violet colored wares complimented each other in a way their youth and passion shared. Sometimes Ciara thought they were a happily ever after couple, with herself being the illegitimate daughter they didn't deserve.
"My mistress cooks too much, wives need breaks too." Roy had adopted the nickname from Ciara. For some reason, Anna took it more as a compliment than an insult.
"It's true," Anna said adjusting his tie. "True men show their wives what they're worth."
"But I can't afford that, so we're just going to a restaurant instead."
"And not enough men appreciate dates after marriage anymore."
Roy thought about that for a moment. "Now that I think about it, doesn't living together count as quality time?" She choked him slightly with his tie. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."
Ciara twiddled her thumbs together, "may I... Sleepover at a friend's house tonight?"
The two adults stared at her. "On a school night?" They asked in a skeptical tone.
Ciara nodded, not offering an explanation. The couple looked at each other for a long moment, communicating without words. It was like they knew a secret of hers but they didn't want her to know that they knew her secret. I hate it when they speculate about me...
XXX
Paulina was pleasantly surprised when Ciara knocked on her door. Things quickly became comforting when her father offered to cook them both dinner. Ciara had wished she could enjoy the well cooked meal, but she was too focused on Skulker, cynically watching Ciara from a safe distance above the rooftop.
In Paulina's room, she wasn't sure how well she'd sleep. The paranoia was growing. How long will he hunt me for? She knew she couldn't win, Skulker had too many victories under his belt. She was child's play from his eyes.
"Ciara, why are your arms cut?"
Paulina grabbed at Ciara's arms coming out from the bathroom, wearing pajama pants and a short sleeved t-shirt for sleep, the cuts on Ciara's arms were revealed. Paulina looked at her like she were a ghost, like she'd committed some sort of deplorable act that only deserved sympathy. "I have cat," Ciara lied. "She scratches me... A lot."
Paulina looked away, deciding to drop the subject out of fear of saying something wrong. Ciara sighed, she'd forgotten to cover up the scratches from Skulker's fighting. Hiding her cuts from her guardians was as simple as using a faerie to obscure their vision. They asked to see her wrists after she began wearing longer sleeves. Their fears had quickly disappeared after they're eyes deceived them.
So focused on Skulker's nearby presence, she'd forgotten to use the same trick with Paulina. "Be more careful," Paulina said gloomily. "You getting hurt isn't cool."
When the lights went out, and they both laid back on their prospective mattresses, Ciara noticed something for the first time. Paulina stopped talking to me. Under normal circumstances that would be awkward, but Ciara loved the newfound silence Paulina had gained.
"My mom died in Columbia." Ciara looked over next to her. "You were adopted, right? I lost my mom when I was little, I still remember what she looked like." Paulina turned her head to Ciara, "do you remember your parents?"
"No," Ciara lied. "I don't know if they ever cared about me or abandoned me because they didn't want me. My foster parents always tell me that it doesn't matter, but I still wonder a lot."
"Anna is nice," Paulina said. Ciara rolled her eyes in the darkness. "I didn't have a mom to teach me all of these things growing up. I figured if no one would show me, I'd try and learn these things better to make up for not having a mom. My dad always says, 'a princess can always be a princess, with or without a mom.'"
Ciara's mom had once called her a pixie. Probably because she'd always been small, tiny, like maybe Ciara had fitted in her mother's hand; once upon a time.
Her mom's spirit was still with her. It was a remembrance of her mother's image. Golden hair contrasted to Ciara's natural autumn hair. Calming blue eyes as beautiful as ocean waves. She loved her mother's eyes.
But she'd forgotten her face. Only the brightest colors on her mom's head were what she knew for certain. Summoning her mother's spirit didn't give the spitting image of her mom, it only gave a memory. Uncertain of what she looked like, Ciara could only hope that her mother's face was identical to her own. She hoped that someday, she would become identical to her.
"Paulina, have you ever heard of the story of Deirdre of the sorrows?" Paulina shook her head.
"Once upon a time there was a girl born to a very proud king and queen. She was destined to grow up and become beautiful women, with beauty that would become the envy of all the lands. But that beauty was also a curse, because she was also destined to cause feud and war among the men that would all fall in love with her.
So her father, in an attempt to protect her and to protect his kingdom, sent her to foster parents to protect her from the future she was destined to have."
Ciara remembered Pathfinder's power. What was it in Ciara's future that made Pathfinder move her across the world just to alter destiny? Had Pathfinder condemned her to death, the same way Deirdere of the Sorrows ended?
"Sometimes, I pretend my parents were royalty, and that they sent me away to have a normal life."
"Is that why you like those books so much? You like to pretend things?"
Ciara's eyes closed shut, "yes, I like to pretend."
XXX
The exhaustion was beginning to show. She stopped tidying up in the mornings, and was now solely reliant on Paulina's company to avoid Skulker's advances. Paying more attention to her faeries than where she was walking, she bumped into Danny in the hallways.
"Sorry," Danny said, just as Ciara said, "pardon me."
They looked at each other, the exhaustion from each of them was obvious. From the dark circles underneath their eyes, between Danny's messy hair and Ciara's lazily tied hair, they both looked worse for wear.
Tucker turned the corner and reached out to Danny, "C'mon Danny, we've got ten minutes before you're late for gym." Tucker paused to look over at Ciara, "wow, you look-"
She hissed at him.
"As beautiful as ever."
Ciara was about to insult him, but chose to hold her tongue. Just take the compliment Ciara...Sam followed behind Tucker. "Oh look, it's miss sunshine again. Lemme guess, asking for time management advice from Tucker?"
Ciara's gritted her teeth, "I don't have time for this."
Just as Ciara was about to walk off, Danny placed a hand on her shoulder, "hold on, we've been wanting to talk to you about something."
She shifted around and glared at him. "What? What is it that makes you think you're even worth an ounce of my time?" Danny froze from her cold hard stare. "I thought so," she said as she walked off.
"What's with her?" she heard Tucker ask once she left their hearing distance.
"Maybe all the people pandering finally got to her."
Ciara held her breath, remembering again that there were two more chosen people in town living in plain sight. Fenton's family was infamous for their tinkering, she made the decision to stop by his home after school.
XXX
Danny Fenton, the child of two warlocks. Faeries flocked to children the same way children flocked to fireflies with bafflement. Ciara suspected that Danny might become chosen for enchantment. But for now, Danny was only a husk with the potential to carry a faerie. She wouldn't bother to harm him in the meantime, but there was indeed a chance that she'd take his faerie if the chance ever came by.
Ciara had often wondered what would happen if she took the Fenton couple's faeries. Warlock faeries always had a madness to them that repelled her. Their obsessions with sorcery and alchemy always bordered insanity to the point that they could destroy themselves just to feed their obsessive creations. If two had joined her, would she go insane too?
The basement looked to be like a bomb shelter. Clear metallic surfaces with metal tables carrying alien weapons ready to be used. It was all too foreign or her. She tapped onto each of the warlock's inventions, trying to feel how alive each mechanism worked. Although she was blind in their methods of magic, she could felt that invention could break the known laws of the universe.
The vault was their most impressive invention. She placed her hand on the iron vault at the end of the room. Her hand slowly slid down its surface as she waited for Skulker to arrive
"A doorway to the other side," Skulker said walking down the stairs. "I hadn't thought they had it in them."
Ciara could almost feel the life that existed on the other side. How many more worlds were there beyond their own?
"How comedic," Skulker said as Ciara wondered to herself. He picked up some of the guns the Fenton's had on the table. "Every one of these are rigged to implode. Either the Fentons are obsessed with making sure no one else uses these, or they're so foolish that they're doomed to kill themselves. I'd place my bet on the latter." He looked through the scope of one of the guns, "it's like if a plain person tried their hands at Specter tech."
"Like you?" Ciara reacted.
Skulker scoffed, "hardly. I'm aware of my ignorance towards Specter weaponry. But I've certainly trained how to use them."
"You... have a Warlock mentor?" Ciara thought of the prophet Merlin.
"More like entrepreneurs."
Entrepreneurs? That was a word she didn't understand at all. Ciara stepped back from the doorway and looked unto Skulker for the first time. His size boasted in strength and confidence that Ciara could no longer emulate.
"Do you envy us?"
"Of course not. I refuse to be outmatched by those atrocities."
She thought long to herself. His eyes were like her eyes in the same way that they both took the souls of the blessed. "Why us? Are we really worth the challenge? I gain power from each faerie I collect, but what do you collect?"
"Something more than you could ever understand."
Skulker walked next to Ciara and looked down at her in her glowing form. "I'll offer you a chance." Ciara looked unto him with her eyes steady. For the first time in her life, a husk had the power to end her life easily, and she was powerless to prepare for that scenario. "If you can collect 100 Specters in one year, I will hunt you again after that time is up. If I win, I will spare you then. But if you don't collect all 100 by then, our next confrontation will be your last."
He yearned for a challenge, one which only she could provide. "It took me 7 years to collect 13 faeries, you expect me to collect 100 in a year's time?"
"Lighting a fire beneath our feet is the fastest way to find one's true potential." Skulker extended his hand, "do we have a deal?"
The choice was obvious. In truth, she'd have said yes even if Skulker had asked her politely upon first meeting. But right now Skulker was shackling her into a chain built out of terror and control. Before Ciara could agree, an ominous voice echoed from afar.
"You know, in this town most people knock before visiting the Fentons."
Phantom stood floating with his arms crossed, with a mischievous grin across his face. "Phantom," Ciara and Skulker both said.
"Glad the name's catching on," Phantom threw his fist across Skulker's head. The hunter retaliated by launching lasers and missiles at Phantom's direction, but the ghost boy easily disappeared and reappeared from sight just to evade and hammer Skulker at every chance he had.
This is good, Ciara thought to herself.I can run away now. Where there was once confidence and pride, there was now fear for survival. Speculations began to form. What if Phantom loses? If we work together to kill him now, would it help me survive later?
She was now eerily aware for how desperate she was. Her breaths were fast and her hands uneasy. Too afraid to challenge him, she backed away as Skulker grabbed Danny by the neck. "It's time to put you back in your cage."
Phantom cried for help. He cried for her for help. Eerily aware that they could lose even while working together, Ciara ran towards to the stairway. As she took the first step, Phantom yelled, "Ciara!" She froze. How did he know my name? "I saved you- at the schoolyard. You... owe me!" He was choking from Skulker's squeeze.
A few days ago, the choice would've been easy. But her terror was holding her back. "I'm... Indebted to you?" Her voice came out stale, wishing the statement wasn't true. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and used her invisible arms to jerk Skulker away from Phantom.
"My, this has certainly gotten interesting." Phantom floated to Ciara's side, taking a fighting stance facing Skulker. "I haven't fought a duo since... I dunno, three months, tops?"
It was a childish statement, but it still scared Ciara. "Yeah well," Danny spoke with a newfound confidence, "some advice; never fight a guy in a lab full of tinker tech he can use."
It seemed like Skulker lifted an eyebrow from beneath his helm. "You're joking, right?" Phantom grabbed some mechanical gloves and charged his fist into Skulker's suit, the electricity was enough to short circuit some of his tools. "How did-" The gloves exploded in Phantom's hand, revealing the flawfulness of Fenton inventions.
Phantom then grabbed a metallic bazooka. It fired one shot which exploded in both his and Skulker's face. Ciara watched in bafflement as the ghost boy grabbed and destroyed each weapon in the lab, slowly deteriorating Skulker's suit in a suicidal manner.
"You know, I could use some help here." Phantom said coughing in smoke, "believe it or not... This really hurts!"
Ciara passed her only two healing faeries at the ghost boy. She looked around for a tool to use, she found a tiny remote control and pointed it at Skulker.
"Hold on, don't touch that!" Phantom's warning came too late. The vault door at the end of the room opened. Heavy wind began pulling the contents of the room away. The insidious green light from the portal behaved as though it was oblivion. Danny and Ciara pulled at the floor, while Skulker's suit began to pull inside in pieces.
Skulker grabbed Ciara by the leg, and Phantom took her by the arm. He closed his eyes, and fazed Ciara's body out from Skulker's grip. Astonishment befell Ciara as she felt like she were air for a short moment. Skulker's eyes were furious, like humiliation was something deplorable from his perspective. He glared at the both of them before falling inside.
Phantom threw a tool at the control panel, causing it to break and shut the portal down. When Ciara and Phantom fell to the ground, Ciara instantly stood up in shock. "You know my name?" She asked in heavy breaths.
Phantom stood brushing off ash his jumpsuit. "I saw your real face outside of school. I took you home that day." Phantom stared at Ciara impressed by her ability to change. It was the first time they realized they were both the same height. "Ciara, I asked you before, you're a hero, right?"
"No, I am not a hero. I am a spirit collector."
The ghost boy tilted his head. "So... As a Phantom, are you going to collect my soul?"
Ciara gave off a soft chuckle, one tired from running and fear. "Know this, Phantom. I am indeed indebted to you, but if you ever reveal to anyone my true name; I will take their soul, just as I have many others."
Phantom's face turned pale. Before he could talk any further, Ciara flew away in a rush to experience her newfound peace.
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A/N: Welp, this chapter certainly took longer than expected. I'm going to start some new writing methods that'll hopefully speed up the writing process. My goal is to finish a chapter every two weeks. Since this is still draft mode, I'd rather not rush writing because I don't want the quality of writing to go down for the sake of hitting a deadline.
Ciara's Powers: Psycho Kid. Thank you for bringing up the note about her powers. Basically, I'm trying to portray Ciara's powers as very vague. In canon some people clearly saw her faeries, but there were also times where she used powers and the faeries weren't seen. So in this fanfiction she'll be interchanging between faeries that are seen using their powers, and powers that are used without seeing the faeries. I hope that makes sense.
Notes in this chapter: This chapter came off a bit serious. My original intent was to have Skulker capture Ciara and for Danny to save her in the next chapter, but I think it's too early for her to get dragged into the ghostzone right now. The end scenario here was a bit of a compromise.
I'd also like to add a lot more humor in the future. Keep it in tune with the show's feel.
Tinkers and Classes: I'd like for Ciara to refer to tinkers as something other than tinkers. Since this is written from her perspective, she's more likely to feel tinkers are like magic smiths as opposed to science experts. Warlock, wizards, sorcerers. I'll try to be consistent. Parahumans may also be referred to as "blessed" "chosen" or "enchanted", and tinkers as mages of some sort. I hope that's been made clear prior to this author's note.
On Skulker: I really hate to be biased, but Skulker was my favorite character in the TV show. So I think I added more layers than average to him. To compensate, I'll try to incorporate more backstory and personality to upcoming villains.
I warned before that this is draft mode, and that I might decide to change previous chapters if something new comes up. Before posting the next chapter I'll be sure to make changes to chapter 2. I'd like for the dragon fight happen after Tucker first asks Ciara out. In the show Tucker asked out Valerie after the dragon fight, but for the sake of realism, I think I'll change the order here.
Edit:
Is Skulker human?: SlenderBrine. Thank you for asking about that, I think I wrote Skulker's introduction too vaguely, and I've now added some more to that paragraph. Yes, Skulker is human, and Ciara hates that he's a normal guy trying to use Tinker (or as she calls;Warlock) weapons and tools.
Specters, Faeries, and Shards: In canon Glaistig Uaine referred to shards as faeries, I'm letting Ciara continue to use that title. But in Skulker's case, he's using the word Specter for the same thing Ciara sees; Shards.
Ghost Boy: Skulker and Ciara both call him ghost boy because he's weird. He's got powers but no shard. They look at him and think, "wtf?"