Chapter 22: When the Shadow Came Out
They were fighting. Death Eaters against a mixture of Muggles, mudbloods, half-bloods and blood-traitors.
The Ministry kind of gave up on trying to stop Blood Devil by themselves and chose to remain neutral in this fight against the pure bloods.
Take cover, you idiots! Sylvia hissed in her mind that could be used to communicate with the others. Spells, curses and hexes flew passed them like a rainstorm, trying to hit anyone that was stupid enough not to hide.
But the Death Eaters, especially the original ones, weren't that used to fighting with logic. They would tear through the enemies with the Unforgiveable Curses like they did with the Muggles many years ago, not realizing that this was different.
Aunt Bella was the worst. She was literally fighting like mad. Delphi had to get Rodfort to pull their mother down and avoid being hit.
Sylvia knew she could take down the enemies all at once, but that would cost her letting Wings out and would harm people she didn't want to harm. Her powers were only half in her control, while the other half could do anything when she released them. For now, she could just only duel with people one by one instead of letting her power explode, especially after when she last did it, Matilda was killed.
The other side of the fight couldn't really recognize any of them since they all had masks on. But there were a few people targeted because they've used their special spells as a signal. The Blood Devil knew that there were non-pure bloods among them, and he wouldn't want to kill them all.
"I said, take cover!" She took the risk of giving away herself with her voice, but she didn't care about it anymore. There was nothing to be scared about. No one has even defeated her in a duel, and she knew she wouldn't be hurt because Wings was there to help her.
"We're not gonna be rats, you know!" To her frustration, Bellatrix called back to her. Great, now she's exposed as well.
Who cares?
"What did Clearance tell you to make you fight against us?" Sylvia mocked a Muggle before aiming a Full-Body Bind Curse at him. Another spell shot at her, but she blocked it without effort.
When she turned to face the one who shot the spell, she froze at the point.
"Mora." She didn't care about the situation anymore and took off her mask.
"Sylvia?" The black-haired girl looked as surprised as her.
"You're standing on the wrong side, Pounce."
"My parents wouldn't let me," she murmured, "he won't let me."
"There's always a choice." Sylvia shook her head, "I'm sorry, Mora. Avada -"
Someone else cut her off by a strong "Protengo" before she could finish the enemy off. That had her snapped back from Wings' control and realized what she was doing.
"For Merlin's sake, Wings, Mora's my friend, you're not killing my friend." She hissed under her breath to herself. Michael was the one who blocked her curse, and he shot another hex at her after letting down his shield.
"I thought you were better than that, Black." Michael spat at her.
"Well, I thought you were better than using simple spells like 'Protengo', Veihe." She shot back with a non-verbal curse, making the two being flung back into the air. Before they landed, she used her air powers to ease their landing so that they wouldn't break any bones.
Pathetic weakling. Wings hissed angrily in her mind.
Shut the hell up. She retorted.
"Bea, don't turn your back on your enemy when you're fighting." She reminded Beatrice Travers while helping her to blast off Elsbeth, who tried to sneak on her back.
"I know, it won't happen again." Beatrice sighed and went off to fight with another Hufflepuff.
She used her powers to take down many Muggles and wizards with only a little effort. The fight was easy and more like a training session for her, until…
"Surrender, pure-bloods of wizarding families," There was a choking bloodstained smell that came when fire rose from the ground. A tall man walked out of the fire, wearing a dragon-like mask, "you have fought well, but your existence has threatened the lives of the beings on Earth. You shall sacrifice yourselves for the good of the society through death."
"You talk way too much, dumbass." Sylvia rolled her eyes, pulling the fire around her and made them form a circle around the battlefield. It was Black Fire. No one was able to go quit by this time.
Bad guy? Wings asked with an amusing tone.
Yep. Killing him is absolutely acceptable. She grinned and her right eye turned dark purple as well.
Wings turned the surroundings into a high cliff with many sharp rocks, making a complicated place to fight.
Seriously? Again? She couldn't stop herself from asking. The last time she turned the surroundings into a complicated one like this…
It's an advantage for us. Wings replied.
She never expected this to happen so soon. It's not that soon. She reminded herself. This person has been taunting us for more than a year.
She recalled how they worked together to convince each other that they could trust one another among the Death Eaters, how she had a fight with Tim about whether the Death Eaters would turn on them or not, how they trained with the adults – the former Death Eaters, mostly – and duelled each other, how Tiffany poured through the books that they don't teach at Hogwarts in the Black Library, how they laughed and pranked as if there was nothing going on…
It was all to soon. Unlike the battle with Voldemort that has lasted for decades. They worked together for only a few months, without really getting to know and pay attention to everyone in the group.
It was far too soon…
She had drifted off while letting Wings kill Blood Devil with all her powers. Not all, obviously, since she didn't even know where her powers' limits were. But anyway, using the powers more than she did.
When Wings pulled back from her mind, she saw the man she loathed dead on the ground. She let the Black Fire down do that the Muggles could run away to where they should be.
"You're just seriously gonna let them go off just like that?" Rodfort appeared from behind her, clearly Apparated.
"Damn, forgot." She cursed and summoned for her box. A few seconds went by when the brown box came flying towards them. She quickly opened it and called for Thunder, the Thunderbird she adopted when she went to a desert. "Don't wake Tanisha and get some rain." As soon as she blurted out the order, the golden Thunderbird shot out from the box and flew to the sky, summoning dark clouds and bright lightning.
"A Thunderbird? Cool." Tiffany commented, showing up near her.
The Thunderbird's rain wiped away the Muggles' bad memories about the Wizarding World, which was literally everything.
"Who's Tanisha?" Tim caught the name when he came over.
"You won't want to know." Sylvia said darkly, taking a step back when Thunder dived down into the box again.
"So, what do we do now?" Davina asked her. The wizards they've been fighting have already fled by Apparating away. Nothing was left, apart from the Death Eaters.
"I think we should tell the Ministry this whole thing." Tiffany suggested.
"No, the Ministry is not going to poke their nose into this affair." Rodfort eyed her, "They haven't been doing anything for us."
"Point." Sylvia sighed, feeling tired after all those stuffs going on, "I'm going back to Grimmauld. No partying, by the way."
"Alright, then." Rodfort blinked before turning away. Sylvia Apparated straight to her room in Grimmauld Place after having a word with Aunt Bella to assure her that she was fine.
Boredom. Endless boredom wrapped her up like a dark cage with no way to get out.
"Wings? Do you have a physical form?" She couldn't help herself from asking. She needed someone to talk to, or at least just to know that someone was there, instead of being completely alone and had nothing to do.
She wasn't attracted to books in Black Library anymore. In fact, she finished them all with her time in this place.
"I have a spiritual form, if that's what you mean." Wings' voice sounded pretty much the same to hers, but with less emotion and perhaps a bit more of a child.
"Can you show up? I've got nothing to do." She groaned. Her Magical Creatures in her box didn't really need her at this point. As long as they didn't fight among themselves, which never happened, they could do just fine on their own without her.
Nothing needed her. No one was there for her. Nothing was there for her to do. Is that what Uncle Sirius felt like when he was trapped in this house by Dumbledore? Being so bored that you could even hurt yourself just to remind you that you're alive?
Just then, Wings came out. She looked like a ghost instead of a real person. A spirit, to be specific. She appeared to be younger than Sylvia, and she was an adorable little girl no more than 12 years old. Yes, adorable, if you don't know what she did before.
Wings had curly black hair and purple, shadowy eyes with pale skin. Her face so pale that it was almost pure white. Her eyes were huge like a new-born kitten, and her features were beautiful.
She was wearing a Gothic black dress with silver decorations on her collar and cuffs. It made her look more like a little vampire than a witch.
"Hello, Gloomy," The girl said, showing no emotion, "it's great to finally meet you in person."
"Hi, Wings." Sylvia stared at her other side, "I didn't expect -"
"Me to be so young? Thought so." Wings gave a chuckle. Her thin bloodred lips twitched a little in amusement, "It's not like you're that old."
"Yeah, 15, if you count in Asgardian years." Sylvia shrugged, "Why didn't you show up before?"
"I didn't trust you enough back then, and you didn't ask." Wings replied.
"Why would you come into my body instead of just – like – go on wandering?" She was curious about it, though she tried not to show.
"Isn't it fun to be able to have a body?" Wings tipped her head to one side, "I was wandering around in Asgard when I saw you, trapped in your own darkness. How did you find her, though? The lady who waked me from my long sleep."
"You mean Hela? She found me, not the other way round."
"I sensed the sweet taste of blood, battle and death, so I came out." She continued, "She was strong, but not that difficult for me. I was not too used to your body since you went down to Midgard, so you took over again and we lost."
"We were supposed to lose that fight, it's part of our history, their history, my history or whatever. It's got to happen or else we might not be here by now."
"Alright." The girl blinked and her long eyelashes brushed the air.
"For another thing, don't kill the people I care about, okay? You nearly killed Mora back there if it wasn't for Michael." Sylvia had to warn Wings for another time.
"Fine, I won't do it again."
"Don't kill unless I let you to, and don't come out without my permission." She said seriously, "This is my body, and you'll have to follow my rules."
"You have my word." Wings said before disappearing and went inside her once more.