Chapter 15: Let's go to war

XXX

River's POV

There she is… in all her twisted glory. Enchantress stands on the landing halfway between the first and second stairs of the main hall. A swirling cesspool of black magic and lights behind her. It twists and turns, almost pulsing with life. I wonder if that's how she made them… the Reavers.

It's then that I feel her. Feel her trying to pull me back under. Pull me under her spell as I walk closer to the center of the room. I refuse to let her, and use all my mental strength not to succumb. She cackles as she descends a few steps.

"Such a silly little girl. Do you really think you can resist me?"

I hear the others cock their weapons and take a few steps. I hold my hand and signal them to stay back. I feel their apprehension, but they also don't move closer.

"I'm stronger than you think." I spit at her.

"Of course you are, dear child," she says before her cackle reverberates off the stone walls around us. "That's why I brought you here afterall." And she continues to cackle. "I brought you here to be a weapon of change. The sun is setting and the magic rises. The metahumans are a sign of change. This… body…" she says as she does a bit of twirl on the stairs as she takes another step towards me… "is highly inadequate for what I have planned."

Flag's worry over June and her words hit me square in the chest. "You brought me here to be your next vessel…" I say with disgust.

She cackles again and I feel sick to my stomach. It's all I ever am… a thing. A thing to toy with… a mind to dissect… a body to use and discard. And I am blinded by rage as she continues to laugh.

"Poor lost little girl… but you were never a girl were you? You were always just… a… weapon." She says punctuating each word.

Every memory pours into me. Each needle that pricked my skin in the name of science. Each subliminal message encoded in my brain. Each stolen memory of bloodshed and injustice. And I feel them all bubbling… feel them trying to consume my being.

Except this time I won't let her use them against me.

XXX

Deadshot watches as the tiny girl in front of him lets our a tangled scream and launches herself at the thing in front of her… blades drawn and raining down a fury of blade and strikes. He watches as out of nowhere Enchantress conjures her own set of blades and they enter a whirling dervish duel of clashing metal against metal.

"We need to figure out how to help her." Flag says as he begins march forward.

Harley and the others are quick to move as well, but everyone stops as the echoing of much larger footsteps fills their ears. Everyone turns and looks at the giant of monster…Incubus…enters the room from the adjoining hall.

"Oh shit!" Deadshot says as takes in the monster's size.

"Uh-oh!" Harley says as she echoes Deadshot's sentiments.

"Who's this? Its gonna be bad!" Boomerang says audible gulps.

They watch as Incubus looks towards the two women dueling on the other side of the room and takes a step towards them.

"Oh HELL naw!" Deadshot says as he opens fire on Incubus.

"Light him up, we can't let him get to Tam!" Flag yells as he begins firing as well and the others are quick to follow suit.

The entire room erupts into war. And each of the squad members is quick to try and do their best keeping Incubus away from Enchantress and Tam. But it is quickly becoming clear they are no match for Incubus' size or strength.

"We gotta get him in that corner! Thats where the bomb will be." Flag says over the sound of gun fire.

"I'll do it! I'll get him there." Diablo say as he starts to walk towards the towering figure.

Deadshot is quick to try and pull him back. "Look, think it through…"

But Diablo shrugs off the hand on his shoulder and continues to move out of cover. "I got this. Let me show you what I really am."

And they watch as each step Diablo takes his form changes… first to a blazing inferno that engulfs his body… and from the flames rises a giant flaming Aztec skeletal figure in his place.

XXX

...Below in the sewers….

The SEAL's were almost in position. They had another 200 yards to go before they would reach the bomb and hadn't run into any of those things… yet. As the first SEAL reaches the bomb their luck runs out and the Reavers seem to appear out of no where. They are quickly swarmed as Croc tries to shred them and keep them from the lead SEAL team member going for the bomb.

The SEAL watches as Croc and the others are being over run and moves to turn back and help.

Croc is quick to stop him and yells at the man. "Go!" He says as he keeps clawing, shredding, and biting at the Reavers surrounding him.

The SEAL doesn't hesitate and continues swimming ahead to the drop point. He surfaces at the designated point and plants the bomb and readies the charge.

"Rick, in position. Standing by."

XXX

...Up above…

Flag hears his comms cackle to life. "Rick, in position. Standing by." He calls out to Diablo. "Drive him into the corner!" He says as he motions to the one he means.

The skeleton that is Diablo nods and begins to push with all his might against Incubus. While Incubus towers over they fiery Aztec god, he is no match for his strength.

"Get him mate. Come on." Boomerang cheers as Diablo continues to gain ground.

"Yeah, do it!" Harley yells.

Diablo sends a blistering fireball at Incubus, and pushes him the last bit he needs. The Incubus is knocked down, and Diablo moves to back away from the blast zone, but Incubus reaches out and grab hold of him. He's unable to break free and as he continues to struggle, Incubus seems to be syphoning Diablo's power out of his body.

"Diablo, get clear Get out of there!" Deadshot yells as he watches in horror as the flames begin to die out and the man is left in the god's place.

"Blow it!" Diablo yells over to the rest of the squad.

XXX

River's POV

Each blow was countered… each offense was met with a defense… there was no ground gained or lost on either side. We're equally matched. The yin and yang of a larger whole.

In a fury I go to strike a crippling blow and we end locked up in front of each other.

"Your resistance is futile… little girl." Enchantress hisses as me, but I refuse to yield.

"You've already ruined my world…I refuse to let you ruin this world as well." I say as push harder.

"Are you really so blinded by your own insecurities? Are you so desperate for any form of affection you would blindly throw away your chance at greatness? To rule them?"

I refuse to listen. But as I block out what Enchantress is taunting me with, I hear something else… I hear Diablo's words, and the order Flag gives.

"NO!" I yell as I reach slip and turn towards them two battling figures on the other side of the room.

It's a slip…and it's what she was waiting for.

XXX

...Elsewhere...

They're a ball of nervousness as they try and hide themselves in the bar. Both of them were perfectly capable in a fight, but with GQ's busted leg, he wasn't going to move quickly or be able to keep up if their location was discovered by those things outside. And they could hear things… creeping around outside… hunting.

GQ watches as Frost peeks through the blinds, finger on the trigger, as if he half expects something to pop up and go boo!

"What do you think they are?" Frost asks in hushed whispers.

"Tam called them Reavers, something from a nightmare or something."

"Stuff of science fiction, you ask me. Look like they mauled their own faces off."

There is an electricity in the air and the street outside seems to go quiet. GQ and Frost quick nods and begin to lift their sidearms…

Frost looks outside again and watches as a blinding light ascends towards the sky from the Central Station a few hundred yards down the street.

"Shit." He says as he backs up towards GQ.

"Come on." GQ says as he begins to try and stand from where he is sitting. "We're sitting ducks we stay here and they may need us."

XXX

...Back with the squad...

The entire room is engulfed in a blinding flash as the bomb goes off. It sends most of the squad members flying as rubble and debris erupts from where Incubus and Diablo once stood.

But that's not all that is sent flying from the explosion.

They didn't see what happened… on the other side of the room as Flag gave his order.

Didn't see the ball of swirling, smokey, dark energy that had engulfed the two women locked in their duel in a split second. They didn't see the blinding light that had been emitted from the swirling lights on the stairs behind them… and they also didn't see Diablo disappear just as the bomb detonated.

But what they did see… as the dust was just starting to settle… was three bodies… falling from a spark of that same dark energy…

"What the hell?" Deadshot says as watch Diablo lift his head and try and get to up. Deadshot quickly runs out to help him and the others cautiously approach the other two figures laying face down on the ground… not sure if they are dead or not.

"Homie, how did you…" Deadshot says as he helps Diablo.

Diablo looks over at one of the figures a few feet away. "I felt her… reach out and pull me in…somewhere." He says as he points at the figure Boomerang cautiously turns over. It was Tam.

"Then who is…." Flag says as he watches Katana turn over the other body to reveal Dr. June Moone… not Enchantress.

"What… the… hell." Harley says as she glances between the two women.

There is a splash behind them and Deadshot and Diablo quickly turn to confront the noise. They are mildly shocked to see Croc emerging from the hole in the ground that had just blown Incubus to pieces. "Did we get them?" He says as he walks over to the group.

But before anyone can say another word, Tam's eyes pop open as she gasps for breath.

"Doll?" Boomerang says as he turns her face towards him. But the worry lines are quick to set back on his brow as he watches the irises of her eyes begin to turn pitch black and she falls back unconscious.

XXX

River's POV

I was awake… but at the same time I wasn't. I was back… back where it all started. But the voices didn't fade as I opened my eyes. They were creeping out of every crack and crevice of her mind. But they weren't mockingbirds… they were silent nothingness.

"I started a joke… which started the whole world crying…" Her voice calls out to me through the silent nothingness of their voices.

My eye's snap open and I stare at the same familiar sight… The same familiar metal ceiling and walls of my room. I sit up and take everything in. It was just as I left it… just as it was when she ripped me away.

I hear her words echo around the room. "But I didn't see…that the joke was on me…"

I slowly raise myself up and try and clear my mind. It's a jumble, like I had been on a carousel for far too long and hadn't gotten off. I stumble towards the door.

"I looked at the skies… running my hands over my eyes…" Her voices continues from down the hall. Leading me in the direction she wants me to go.

It's all too familiar, just like when she had stolen me away. My heart aches at the memory of that night. It had all been such a mess. I don't remember how Jayne's gun got in my hand… it was an object. It didn't mean what I thought it meant. It was still so hard to comprehend back then… so crowded inside my head.

"I fell out of bed… Hurting my he'd from the things I said…"

Each one had been frightened, frightened by the curious little girl. A figment of something that shouldn't have been what it was. And when I enter the cargo bay, it's exactly the scene I see before me.

Frozen in time, exactly as I remember. Perfect imperfections of each one of them. I take deliberate and delicate steps towards the former version of myself. Or was it just a piece of who I really was? Am I two separate people? Or is it all in my head?

I reach a hand out tentatively towards that girl, but as quickly as I do it fades to dust… they all do, and I am left alone in the belly of Serenity with her laughter echoing off the walls.

I feel like I am caught between them all.. caught between two worlds at once.

"I finally died… which started the hole world living…" She taunts me as I stand in front of those cargo doors again.

And I'm back where it all began. Staring at her reflection in the doors that lead out to the inky blackness of space.

"If only I'd seen…that the joke was on me."

XXX

They didn't know what to do. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

It started at her eyes, an inky blackness that seemed to creep along the veins just under her pale skin. But it was spreading… and it was was spreading quickly.

"What the hell is wrong with her?" Boomerang says as he moves her body so he can cradle her in his lap.

Harley's practically throws herself next to Digger and begins to examine her. "It's like a a virus… it's spreading." She says as she touches the skin along her face where the black tendrils began to appear.

XXX

AN: Okay, I am sorry it took me so long to update. But I hope you are happy with the latest update/ where the story is going. Is it what you expected?

Anyways, we are getting very close to the end of the fanfic, and I am back into the creative spirit, so I am hoping to have this finished up in the next few weeks. Til' next time everyone ;)