Chapter 20

The ones frozen were still more than capable of seeing and hearing everything that was going on, they just couldn't move. They watched as their friend turned and confronted the crazy woman on the dais. They screamed at one another, Aryana standing there and arguing though Andrea looked completely at ease, even sipping a drink.

Out of nowhere, Aryana let out the most pain filled scream any of them had ever heard before, the sound of ultimate suffering and hurt. The two that were able to do something about being frozen were trying their best to escape their confines, Warren heating his body the best he could, Will doing his best to crack and break the ice around him.

Warren wanted to get to her, to help Aryana, his heart breaking as he stared at her. She curled into herself, crying and shaking. He was nearly free. But he wouldn't be free in time.

Before he could get loose, Will too, Aryana began to change. They watched as she shook, screaming a horrible scream as her skin turned gray, something it had never done before. They watched in horror as she yelled at the heavens, her body still morphing and changing. Like before, she curled into herself as her dress began to rip along the seams, her wings suddenly sprouting from her back. The two of them knew they didn't have long before things got worse. The problem was, they got worse faster than usual.

Something was wrong, something was different and soon they saw why. Unlike any other time before, something began to push through the back of her dress. It wasn't her wings, obviously, and it looked… wrong. Their question was soon answered when a tail of all things burst through her dress.

As suddenly as it had happened, it was over. Slowly, they watched as Aryana stood like some kind of monster, ready to kill a village. They weren't far off. Aryana moved forward, towering over those near her, taller than she was before, bigger and radiating intense heat. Andrea looked worried now, more so when fire sprouted from her hands and trailed to the ground like deadly whips. She took steps forward, the two men able to see her foot prints left behind.

Warren hurried, able to finally step from his icy prison as Will shattered his. The two moved forward, silently to not spook Aryana, when she spoke. Her voice was hollow, evil and sounded nothing like she ever had before. She was pass the point of rage, of anger and hatred. She was homicidal and all of it was aimed to one woman.

He went to take a step forward when Aryana suddenly swung a whip over her head, gathering the leverage needed to send the end of it towards the woman. It ripped through the podium on the dais, sending it into hundreds of smoldering pieces before things got worse.

Suddenly, her swings became erratic. Aryana looked confused as she began to swing the whips all around her, trying to take out invisible forces. The two men knew what was wrong. Andrea was making her see things that weren't there and if they didn't stop the demon, she may very well destroy everything.

Aryana screamed, fearfully almost, as she swung desperately around her. She was so blinded by rage that she didn't have time to realize that this might not be real.

"I'll kill you!" she screamed, swiping a table and sending it into a flaming mess. "Hold still you bitch! I'll rip your head off!"

The whips soon changed to fireballs, a more terrifying concept given how many people were frozen around her. They didn't know what she was seeing, but it wasn't good.

Will tried to step closer but the heat was too much for him, nearly singing his clothes.

"Dude, I can't get near her. She's burning too hot."

"I'll do it." Warren muttered, moving forward quickly.

The heat that surrounded her was palpable, almost like a wall. He could feel it rolling off of her and nearly pushing him back. Determined to save her and everyone around them, he pressed on. He could smell his clothes beginning to smolder from the invisible fire around her and feared she might burn him alive if he didn't hurry.

Out of nowhere, Aryana turned to throw another fireball and Warren used his chance. He lunged for her, the young woman towering over him by a few inches, and grabbed her arms. She snarled, looking nothing like herself or that she may have recognized him. He didn't even recognize her to be honest.

"Aryana, come on." he said loudly, how words not making it through her haze. "Snap out of it!"

She tried to wrench herself from him, something that would have been easy if Will hadn't seized his chance and come up behind her, wrapping his arms around her. Warren had managed to distract her enough to get the heat wave around her to dissipate, but her skin was burning him.

"Hurry up dude!" he yelled from behind the monster, trying to keep her from using her wings to shove him off.

"Firefly!" he screamed, a flash crossing her eyes before being engulfed again. "God damn it you stubborn woman, wake up!"

That, for some reason, seemed to be enough to get her to focus on him. Almost immediately, Aryana stopped struggling against Will, the fire disappearing completely and giving the other two a chance to breathe fresh air. She looked down through black eyes, her talon clad hand gently touching the man's face.

"Warren?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"That you in there or the crazy still around?" he teased.

Aryana weakly laughed before she looked at herself, Will stepping back. Her face contorted in fear as she saw everything about herself, everything that had never happened before.

"Oh god…" she whispered, doing her best to calm down and change back.

She had flashes of her dad in her mind, terrified she had done the same thing as she forced her body back to normal. Fear swelled inside her the longer it took, but soon enough, when she opened her eyes, Warren stood taller than her again.

Without bothering to control herself, she lunged for him and hugged him tightly. Warren returned the affection, not caring if the people around them could see it. He buried his face in her hair as she clung to him.

"What the hell happened?" he asked as she pulled back, seeing tears falling down her cheeks.

"Nothing." she lied, looking to Will and seeing his jacket and shirt burned. "Oh Will I'm sorry."

"Nah." he laughed. "But uh, we've still got a convict on the loose and we have to thaw all these people, so can we do this later?"

The two nodded before carefully coming up with a plan.

"I want Andrea." Aryana growled when their planing was complete.

Warren heard the hatred in her voice and looked at her. She felt the action and paused as the trio made their way down the halls.

"What?" she asked, trying to look innocent.

"What'd she make you see?"

"What do you mean?" she fidgeted.

"Andrea's like Martha was." he replied.

Aryana felt her stomach drop. So, Layla was right. Andrea really did create illusions. Aryana wrapped her arms around herself and started walking again.

"I don't want to talk about it…"

He eyed her curiously, wondering what had her so bothered and flustered until he realized what she had screamed. She had screamed and changed because Andrea made her see someone dying. Judging by the way she freaked out, Warren was fairly certain he knew who too. Jason. Andrea most likely forced Aryana to watch her kill Jason, something that never happened, but was easy to notice when the woman screamed, you killed him.

He felt a pit grown in his stomach as they discreetly rounded another corner towards the science lab.

"You think she left it in there?" Aryana finally asked. "I mean, she stole the Freeze Ray, why would she leave the Reverse Ray in there?"

"She didn't go here." Will said. "Medulla keeps the Freeze rays in the open. He keeps the Reversing Ray in his desk."

He peeked around another corner and saw the door to the science lab open. He took a deep breath, trying to see if she was anywhere nearby and when he felt it was safe, they moved forward.

"And what are we going to do to stop the psycho?" Aryana finally asked as they slipped into the room.

"Well, hopefully she won't try to steal those white bracelets Medulla made." he sighed heavily, as though terrified about the concept.

Aryana suddenly froze, standing up right completely.

"White bracelets? The hell do those have to do with anything?"

Will sighed, moving towards the desk when he turned to face her.

"Doesn't Tony tell you anything?"

Aryana looked slightly hurt and shrugged.

"Not about work." she defended weakly.

Will shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Ethan told me Tony's been helping Medulla make these white bracelets that enhance a super's powers." he started. "There's something in them that makes the Super's power grow like tenfold."

"The hell would he make something like that?" Warren hissed. "You know what'd happen if a villain got a hold of those?"

"That's what I'm saying. Hopefully she didn't get them."

"That's stupid." Aryana snapped. "Why would he build something like that?"

"Probably just because he could. Look, can we talk about this later? We need to get the…"

"Looking for this?"

The voice made the group turn slowly, the haunting tone that worried all of them. Andrea stood at Medulla's desk holding a red ray gun in her hand and a white bracelet dangling from her wrist. Smiling happily, she waved the trinkets at the heroes.

"This wouldn't happen to be the bracelet would it?" she cackled.

"Oh god…" Aryana gasped, trying to quell the rage within at the sight of the woman.

"Wanna try to take me on now?" she growled at the demon woman. "With this much power, I can make entire groups of people, buildings full, see anything I want and there's nothing any of you tight wearing dicks can do about it."

She began to laugh wickedly at the three as they stood there watching her revel in her victory.