Hey, here we go with the second part to the November Rain fight along with learning more on what Mary and her Birmingham can do with her power to return things to what they once were.
Chapter 33: Past Power.
Mary continued running, Doc close behind, until they pulled behind a house. Hugging her back to the wall, Mary glanced back to check if Stu had followed them. The street was empty, but she wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or concerned.
"What do you mean you want to test your powers?" Doc said, pulling her out of her thoughts. She straightened and turned her attention to him.
"W-well, we need a plan to get away from him, and I want to check something I never thought of before today. No better time than the present," Mary said, moving from the wall to an old window. She studied the broken glass, which reflected Doc as he moved to stand beside her.
"This is impossible. We have to keep you safe," Doc said urgently, bending down to meet her eyes with concern written on his face.
"Doc, you've been acting so weird. I want answers." Mary stepped towards him. Doc moved back with each step, until he found his hands placed against the back of the wall. A knot formed in his throat as the two looked at each other, trying his best not to meet her intent gaze. Finally, he opened his mouth to answer her.
The sound of footsteps came from the house beside them. Doc tackled Mary to the ground just as the wall behind him crumbled into dust, covering both of them in a thick haze.
"You rotten little bitch, I'm not playing this time," Stu spat, stepping out from beside the window. November Rain advanced towards the dust and rubble that hid the duo, only to find a broken lock beside the house's cellar. "Fucking bitch."
Inside the house, Doc was swearing under his breath, putting a chair by the cellar door and praying that it would keep Stu away for just a moment. His mind worked frantically to find more ideas for escape. Before he could think too deeply, Mary spun him around to face her and her serious expression.
"Doc, we need to figure out a game plan to take him out," Mary said, holding him close and watching his eyes fall with the weight of what was going on filled his soul. "I don't think the others will be able to help even if we do catch up to them. We need to figure things out now or I might as well walk with them to meet the Major."
"NO!" he shouted, taking hold of her arms. His eyes met hers, filled with an unusual intensity. "I will die before I let them take you away." As Doc's eyes rested on her, he noticed something that made his eyes widen in shock. "M-Mary, I think there's more to that Stand than what he said. If I'm right about how it works, I know how we can attack him."
Soon, the cellar doors shattered into pieces. Stu stomped down with a look of frustration painted all across his face.
"You really are starting to draw out my patience," Stu hissed, looking around the large room and its many hiding places. The cellar was too damp for his abilities to check properly, and his thoughts filled with annoyance at the idea of checking all of them.
"Hey!" Stu turned to see the source of the shout, Doc, glaring down at him from the staircase. American Pie floated beside him, arms outstretched.
The sight made Stu chuckle, and he gave Doc a mocking smile. "Oh, and what are you going to do with your weak ass Stand?" Stu asked, taking a confident step closer to him. Yet his foot lodged into a paint can that he could've sworn wasn't there before. His head turned to find Mary, who smirked at him as she pulled out a pair of wine bottles from a nearby box. Birmingham tossed them at Stu, only for November Rain to appear and instinctively punch at the projectiles. The shattered pieces sprayed down onto him, and he barely reacted in time to avoid losing his eyes. Still, several shards of glass sliced his forehead, blinding him as blood poured from the wounds.
Then the glass reassembled beside him, forming into bottles that quickly fell to the floor. They shattered once again, and Stu winced as he felt glass now stabbing into his legs. He couldn't risk walking, either; the rest of the shards had spread around him, promising immense pain if he misstepped. With her plan executed, Mary ran past the glass shards towards the stairs. Doc reached out to take her hand.
Suddenly, a glass shard soared through the air. It slammed into the wall, now covered in blood. Mary and Doc stared in shock at Doc's hand, which was now lying on the ground in a growing pool of blood. "Not so fast." Stu held his eyes open with one hand, wiping away the blood on his face with the other hand.
"Shit!" Doc screamed incoherently, holding his stump with his remaining hand. As Mary looked at Doc's pained expression, fury began to build in her heart. With a vicious snarl, she summoned Birmingham, which took hold of the shard and tossed it at Stu's chest. He smirked, letting November Rain catch the shard and toss it away before it could reach him.
"You really thought I would fall for the same trick twice?" Stu asked smugly. Before he could move towards them, however, the tiny shards of glass began to glow. The bottle appeared inches from his face, distorting his vision and distracting him for just a moment. Mary noticed this out of the corner of her eye while she helped Doc up the stairs, slamming the door and trying to put distance between them and Stu. As they raced out the door and past more houses, her mind was focused only on what she had just seen. What her own Stand had done.
After they got to the next street, Mary laid Doc against the wall with her mind set. "Doc," she called, trying to get his attention. While he was starting to feel numb from blood loss, he managed to meet her eyes. "I know this may seem weird, but I want to try something."
"S-sure," he said, giving her a smile. "Do what you need. I trust you."
Mary nodded, summoned her Stand, and sent Birmingham to float over Doc. "Now Doc, this is just a test. Don't get mad," she said as Birmingham's fists began to glow with a light blue light. Before Doc could ask what she meant, the Stand reared back its fist and punched Doc square in the chest. He felt the Stand's power coursing through the attack, yet his body looked exactly the same, down to his missing hand.
"Hmmm, maybe more," Mary thought aloud., leaving Doc more confused than ever. Birmingham punched him for a second time, making him yelp as fresh blood spurted from his wound.
"Ahhhh, M-Mary!" Doc yelled frantically, trying to stem the bleeding. Birmingham quickly hit him for a third time, and he sighed with relief as his hand appeared back on his body. As he wiggled his fingers, Mary finished taking mental notes of the effects.
"What were you trying to do?" Doc asked. He glanced up at her, but her gaze was fixed on her shadow.
After a few moments, she looked back to Doc. "Okay, so if that's what time it is...Doc, I need you to hurt yourself with your Stand now," she said, ignoring his question and confusing him even more. He silently wondered what she could possibly be thinking by asking him to do such a thing. "Trust me, I need to know this, and I can't see it."
Mary put her back to Doc, giving him a pleading look. He sighed, reminding himself that he didn't have time to fight with her. He summoned American Pie, which pulled back its fist and drove it into his stomach with enough force to knock the air out of him. He gasped in pain, holding his stomach over the already forming bruise. He tried to keep his mind on Mary, on whatever was supposed to happen.
Meanwhile, Mary was looking at her shadow, paying him no mind to him with her full focus on the ground. "...Eight." For the fourth time, Birmingham pulled its fist back and punched him in the chest. Its warm glow spread through his chest, causing all the pain to vanish as though he'd never been hurt.
"You always make me feel better," he whispered, holding his stomach and looking at Mary. He saw the giddy smile that spread across her face, and as their eyes met, he couldn't help but smile back.
"Doc, thank you so much. Now we have it! We have the weapon that will take him out once and for all!" Mary exclaimed, walking over to him and helping him to his feet.
The two were caught up in the moment, but not quite enough to miss the sound of a wall collapsing behind them. They both turned and looked out from behind the wall to find Stu, furiously rubbing at the fresh blood covering his eyes.
"Okay, what's the plan?" Doc asked, moving out of sight. The duo shared a small look, a private smile, before Mary began telling him the plan.
Stu could sense the liquid of two bodies. They were nearby. "Okay, come on, you bitch," he called, wincing as the wind and dust brushed against his injuries. He forced his eyes open and prepared to find their location, only to see Mary leaning against a nearby building. Her stance seemed casual, but as his eyes met hers, he saw only grim determination.
"Oh, what do we have here?" he asked, looking at her with a dangerous smile. He took a step closer, summoning November Rain to his side.
"I'm tired of running from you guys. I hate the feeling of putting my friends in danger," she said, giving him a cold look.
He brushed it off, however, and gave her an arrogant smirk. "Oh, so you finally realized standing up against us was useless?" he asked, scanning the area for any broken objects around them. He wasn't planning to fall for her tricks again.
"No." Stu's head shot up in surprise, taking in the sight of Birmingham now hovering behind her. She pushed off the wall, standing as if to challenge him. "No, I'm going to stand and fight."
He shrugged, taking a few steps closer. As he approached, Birmingham's fists flew towards him. Stu was about to send November Rain to meet the attack, only for a dangerous thought to cross his mind. Immediately, he withdrew November Rain and stepped back from the attack, letting Birmingham hit the ground by his feet. "Well, aren't we smart? You've seen me covered with glass, and if I let you hit November Rain...well, it's not worth risking it. But if you think that power can defeat my Stand, you're sadly mistaken."
"Yeah, it's definitely powerful. Letting you steal the moisture from everything around you sounds deadly," she said. His eyebrows shot up at the comment. He hadn't told Doc about that. Mary noticed his confusion, took hold of her shoulder. Lifting her hand, it was covered with many grains of white. She looked him dead in the eye. "Salt."
"You really are smart. You've got me figured out," Stu said, chuckling under his breath. Then November Rain appeared in front of him, and his smile dropped away, replaced with coldness aimed directly at Mary. "I'm just going to mummify your arms and legs to carry you to the Major. You will heal him from the pain, he will take all the power he deserves, and your friends will die."
Stu moved to take another step, but instead felt something covering his shoes. The sensation seemed to rise, and he looked down slowly at his lower body, which was now covered up to the knees in cement.
"I should thank you for helping me master my Stand's power," she said. Birmingham rushed towards him with both its arms back, launching them towards Stu and hitting him all over. But the punches seem to be doing no damage; in fact, he felt his eyes beginning to heal as she attacked.
"You're just healing me, you stupid cow," he mocked. With all the energy running through his body, he felt like he could climb out of this pit soon. "Then you'll regret all these tricks."
But she remained in place, unphased with his threats. Actually, a smirk was slowly spreading across her face. "My Stand's punches send whatever it touches back 5 minutes," she began. "And I can punch fifteen times a second, meaning your body goes back 75 minutes with each second that passes by."
At her words, the energy rushing through him suddenly felt sinister. Fear filled his mind, and he scratched frantically at the cement, but he was stuck in place. All the while, the punches continued, hit after hit. "One minute has passed by. That means your body has gone back over three days."
She watched the shadows to count the time passing as Stu was kept stuck in place, utterly unable to escape. He felt his body moving back further into the past, and his mind raced at the thought of what might happen if he couldn't stop her. Losing his Stand, then his body, and then...then came the thought of being unborn. That final thought, a fate worse than death loomed in his mind. Sweat tried to form as his breathing accelerated. But he couldn't even sweat; every drop was reversed in an instant by Birmingham's next punch. His eyes darted back and forth, looking in vain for a way out. His panic rose and rose, spreading through his body like a disease which not even Birmingham could heal. Now hyperventilating, his flailing and breathing and terror grew faster and more powerful, until at last...he stopped moving. He stood there, expression fixed in a look of terror, blank eyes on the horizon.
Mary stopped her Stand's attack and walked towards him, watching him closely for some sign of a trick. Finally, she reached him and gingerly placed her hand on his neck. Feeling no pulse and no breathing, she stepped away. Without the support of her hand, his limp body fell to the ground.
"He had a panic attack. I gave someone a..." Mary trailed off, withdrawing her Stand and walking towards Doc's hiding spot. She couldn't bring herself to voice what she had just done, couldn't even raise her head until a hand was placed on her shoulder.
"Death never feels good. But...he killed so many people hunting us," Doc said, looking down at her with a gentle smile. "That wasn't your fault." Hesitantly, her head rose, and she returned the smile. They looked into each other's eyes before Mary rose up on the tips of her toes, pressing her lips against his in a kiss. Doc's mind flashed through every moment they'd shared, and without a moment of hesitation, he returned the kiss. Each of them held the other in their arms, and shared a quiet moment of love.
TBC.
That is it for this chapter and I hope you all enjoyed it, please leave a review to tell me what you think. The final battle is starting in the next chapter.