"Goodbye, son," Matthias said.
He raised his arm to throw the energy ball, but just before it hit William, something reflected it back at Matthias, striking him in the chest. He was thrown into a wall by the force of his own attack. He stood up to see James, Matthew, and Wesley standing around William, helping him to stand.
"What are we doing here?" James asked.
"I guess the spell brought us here," Matthew guessed. "At least we were just in time to get to William before he did."
"Are you okay?" Wesley asked William, who still looked exhausted.
"Now that you are all here," William said, his eyes once again turning red, "I am fine."
William caught Wesley by the arm and threw him into James so hard that the two of them fell onto Matthew. He aimed his hands just above the three brothers and the stone wall exploded, sending jagged rocks and small boulders hurtling towards them. Thinking quickly, James shot both his hands into the air, creating a telekinetic barrier that held the rocks in place just above his and his brothers' heads. After a short while, though, he began to tremble as the rocks began to seem heavier and heavier.
"I can't hold them for much longer," James said, looking at William, who had rejoined Matthias.
"Freeze them," Matthew told Wesley.
"Not so fast," Matthias said, conjuring an energy ball and flinging it at Wesley.
Wesley gasped and flashed his hands, freezing Matthias' attack in time. James struggled more and more just to keep his hands outstretched, but slowly the rocks crept closer towards their heads. Matthew jumped up and charged Matthias and William, preparing to strike manually. Matthias produced another energy ball and threw it at him, but it passed harmlessly through him as he tapped into his phasing power. He was just about to reach them when William once again gestured towards him. William's explosion power knocked Matthew back into Wesley. The energy ball that Wesley had frozen earlier came out of suspended animation and continued its path towards James. With Wesley and Matthew both dazed, James reached out towards the glowing green projectile and rebounded it into a wall.
With his attention divided, the weight of the rocks overpowered him and they came crashing down. Wesley desperately reached out and froze them, hanging just millimeters over James' head. James quickly dove out of the way and the rocks slammed into the ground with incredible force.
"Bravo," Matthias said.
"William!" Matthew shouted. "Snap out of it! Can't you see what's happening here?"
"We need your help!" Wesley added. "Don't do this to us!"
William grabbed his head with both hands and shook, as if his mind were split into two and each side was fighting fiercely within him. His good side made another desperate attempt to overcome his evil half, once again throwing him into an epileptic fit. Matthias stepped forward and reached a hand out to Matthew. Matthew began moving towards him, not of his own accord. Wesley and James both grabbed his hands, but the pull was too strong for either of them.
James waved his hand and Matthias was thrown towards a wall, but before he could hit the wall, he blinked out of sight and back to his original place. He again reached out his hand and Matthew continued to inch towards him. James waved his hand again, but this time nothing happened.
"Do something!" Matthew yelled at his brothers.
"We can't!" James said. "He copied my power! Freeze him, Wesley!"
"No way!" Wesley replied. "I don't want him to have my power too!"
Matthias waved his other hand and James and Wesley were telekinetically cast into the air, slamming into the wall. They both slunk to the ground, barely conscious. He focused on Matthew, who was now within his reach. Matthew was raised higher and higher into the air until he hung thirty feet up, held there by Matthias' power. Matthias began clenching his fist and Matthew began choking; something was closing in around his throat.
"H-Help me, W-W-William!" Matthew said in between chokes.
Wesley was the first one to come to; he saw what was happening and tried to yell, but he was too weak to do anything and fell back on the ground. William saw what was happening, but the opposite forces of good and evil seemed to tear him apart from the inside. Finally, with a great effort, his good side made one last attempt to reclaim William's sense of !!!
William's eyes returned to their natural color and he was breathing heavily as if he had just finished running a marathon. He turned towards Matthias and charged him, breaking his concentration on Matthew. Matthew fell back to the ground, landing so hard on his feet that his right one broke on impact. He slithered towards his brothers and tried to wake them, but they were still out cold.
William was relentless in fighting Matthias. His newfound strength came from the intense feelings he had developed while being in conflict with himself. Meanwhile, Matthew finally got James and Wesley awake and they were all watching their first two ancestors engaged in an all-out battle. After much back and forth action, William had finally thrown Matthias onto the ground, giving him some time to get to the three brothers.
"Do you have the spell?" he asked them.
"I have a spell," Wesley said slowly, giving William a strange look. "What are you, a psychic now?"
"Just give him the spell," James barked at Wesley.
Wesley gave William a piece of paper with a spell neatly written on it. It was a spell to vanquish a spirit. The only catch, though, was that it had to be read by another spirit to work. William took the paper, looked over the words for a minute, and smiled the way he did when he had first been summoned.
"Anger, envy, wrath, and rage
Rest you not on any plane.
Ashes to ashes, I vanquish you now;
Nothing left of you be found!"
Matthias began to emit black smoke as his body shook violently. The power of the spell was tearing him apart, literally. Finally, there was a great explosion, covering the entire room in smoke. When everything was clear again, James, Matthew, Wesley, and William were more than surprised to see Matthias still standing in the same place. He was obviously affected by the spell, but nevertheless he was still alive, so to speak.
"Why didn't it work?" James whispered.
"Damn," Matthew said back. "The Angel of Death is still trapped somewhere."
"So?" James asked.
"Don't you pay any attention?" Wesley said through his teeth. "As long as the Death guy is trapped, nothing can die or return back to the dead."
"So the big question is," Matthew said, keeping one eye on Matthias, "how do we set him free?"
"You have to use your power as the Complete," William said to them. "It is the only power strong enough to free him from the Council."
"The Council?" Wesley asked. "The Council of what?"
"Of," William said, "Evil. The point is that you three have to tap into all of the power that you possess. The Council is made up of the most evil beings known. You alone have the power to free the Angel."
"So what do we do?" Matthew asked.
"Whatever you do," William said, "you must do it now. I will ward off Matthias as long as I can."
"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do now?" Wesley asked frantically, turning to watch Matthias every few seconds. "He's hurt now, but he won't be for long!"
"Another spell, maybe?" James suggested.
"Worth a try," Matthew said. "How about...I don't know...Hear us now, hear our cry...Keeper of the Great Divide...Break the chains...that have you bound, what's his name again? Is it Than-something?"
"I can't remember," James said, rubbing his head. "It starts with a 'TH.'"
"Thandor?" Wesley asked blankly. "No, no, no! It's Thor!"
"That sounds stupid," Matthew said. "I think it was Thanobia or something like that."
"That's a girl's name!" Wesley said. "Maybe Thanobio!"
"Thumbelina?" James asked. "That sounds familiar..."
"Too easy," Wesley said under his breath. "What the hell is that guy's name?"
"THANOS!" William yelled from across the dark room. He was struggling to keep Matthias subdued.
"That's it!" Matthew said.
"Hear us now, hear our cry,
Keeper of the Great Divide.
Break the chains that have you bound;
We summon you, Thanos, right here, right now!"
A blinding flash illuminated the room, causing everyone to cover their eyes. As the light died down, Thanos stood in the center of the room, between the Complete and William and Matthias. He looked disoriented for a brief moment, but saw who was around him and soon figured everything out for himself.
"Hello? Hi!" Wesley said, getting Thanos' attention. "We have a surly spirit over there who needs to go to hell. Can you do something about it?"
"As a matter of fact," Thanos said, "I believe that William can do something better."
"No!" Matthias shouted, managing to push William off of him. "I cannot be defeated!"
"Is that his motto or something?" Wesley mumbled.
Having copied James' power earlier, Matthias forcefully threw everyone around him into a wall, disengaging them temporarily. Only Thanos stood unaffected.
"Freeze him now!" James ordered. Wesley, still dazed, gestured towards Matthias and he froze in motion.
"Read the spell again, William," Matthew said.
"Anger, envy, wrath, and rage
Rest you not on any plane.
Ashes to ashes, I vanquish you now;
Nothing left of you be found!"
Matthias broke out of Wesley's freeze, but it was too late; the spell had taken effect. The black smoke that had emitted from Matthias' body earlier reappeared. Matthias screamed as the power of the spell ripped his body apart from the inside. Thanos smiled slightly and faded into thin air. As he did, Matthias burst into nothing; his spirit had been vanquished. The shockwaves of the powerful explosion blew rocks and dust around the mysterious chamber. Minutes passed before anyone said anything.
"Is it over?" Wesley asked.
"Yes," William answered. "Matthias is gone...for good this time."
"About time," Matthew mumbled. "And everything is back to normal then?"
"Yes," William said.
"No!" Wesley quickly cut in. "My dorm room is still in pieces and there's still that little part about y'all kicking my ass for no reason."
"There was a reason..." James said under his breath.
"It wasn't our fault," Matthew said. "We were possessed."
"Oh yeah?" Wesley argued. "Evil doesn't just create feelings inside you. It takes what's already there and magnifies it. Y'all were acting on your actual feelings about me; evil just took away the hesitation."
"Listen," James said.
"No I will not listen," Wesley said. "Now I know how y'all feel about me, even after what we've all just been through. And not just this; the entire time I've known both of y'all I've gotten this weird treatment. I don't know what y'all's problem is with me, but I'm not gonna sit around and wait for an answer. I'm out of here."
Wesley turned around to leave, but noticed that there seemed to be no kind of entrance or exit anywhere. In fact, the entire place was just a sealed chamber.
"William," Wesley said. "how do we get out of...wherever we are?"
"The power that brought you here," William explained, "will take you back. I must take my leave now. While I too must apologize for my behavior, Wesley, I will say that it has been both a pleasure and a great honor to have met you three, the Complete. I can rest in peace now knowing that future generations will be safe. Until we meet again..."
And with those words, William disappeared in a white light, leaving James, Matthew, and Wesley alone in the room. Matthew was propped up on James' shoulder; his broken foot wouldn't allow him to stand alone. Wesley stood about ten feet away from either of them with his back turned. He just wanted to leave and never see them again. In fact, he wished that none of this had ever happened to him in the first place. Although having a magical power was cool, he admitted, it wasn't worth the sacrifice of a normal life. To add to that, he didn't want his courage to be tested every time a demon or warlock or evil being attacked, which would happen all the time now. I never signed on for any of that crap, he thought.
"Look," Matthew said. "I understand how you're feeling right now, Wesley, but I don't think that just leaving is the answer. At least let's get back to Oxford so we can talk about this."
"I don't want to talk about anything rationally!" Wesley snapped back. "Y'all don't understand what it felt like to be nearly killed by someone, let alone my own so called brothers! I know that siblings pick on each other, but that was just ridiculous. Who's to say that it won't happen again? I mean, if there's warlock blood in us, any of these events could easily repeat themselves."
"We'll just make sure that they won't," James said calmly. "Believe it or not, Wesley, we're all in this together."
"We used to be," Wesley said, finally turning to face James and Matthew. "We're not anymore..."
Intense, I would say! And that concludes episode number 2 in my Complete series! It may be a slight pause before I start episode 3, but here's an idea to keep y'all informed: the tension between Wesley and his brothers, more demons, and the hardships of college will all be covered! Can't give too much away, you know!