Darn, forgot to put this up last night...

There weren't exactly many warm updrafts in mid autumn, but I managed to fly in a lazy manner over Burgess, trying to pinpoint Paura. This was made ever so slightly harder by the fact that large spots of Burgess were covered in shadow as the rest of my Branch was being attacked.

I wanted to help, I really did, but after the lead I now didn't know exactly how far Paura would go. I also couldn't see what was going on in those fights, no point dropping into a situation that I might make worse.

My eyes still followed the clouds of shadow. One where I left Taboo, one over in Tanglewood in distance, two where Sally and Tina were based, one where Nigel was...
And a small one by my house.

I swallowed a curse and headed back towards my house, worry filling my gut. Paura was willing to break one law by trying to kill me, how many more was she willing to break?

I came into an iffy landing, stumbling a bit as I landed just inside the fence on the front yard. I still needed to work on that.

Inside the yard and around the side of the house I could see three Nightmares, with Paura standing in the middle of them.

"Called in the cavalry I see."

Paura made a half amused huffing noise. "For a cold hearted killer, you have odd weaknesses." She inclined her head towards the house to make it clear what it was she meant.

"And because of that, has it crossed your mind that I'm not a cold hearted killer?"

Two Nightmares peeled off and Paura vaulted onto the back of the one remaining. She drew her sword again, still keeping up the show of swirling shadows, as if the metal alone wasn't enough to freak me out.

"...That's a no." I sighed.

I used ice to propel myself up from a standing position and brought my wings down in a hard flap, shooting skywards as far and as fast as I could. Paura followed me on her Nightmare while the other two Nightmares tried to flank me.

I shot up higher, forming icicles around me and firing them out to take out the Nightmares. After years of fighting these things I knew all their weak spots. These two took a couple of hits to go down, then I tucked my wings in and rolled to avoid Paura charging out me.

However, I didn't move quickly enough to avoid her sword tip catching the top of my helmet with a clang.

I was flung backwards, spinning out of control. I didn't fight it, I formed an ice platform to catch me instead of trying to fly. Unfortunately I landed oddly, falling hard on my stomach, the armour took most of the impact, so I just lay there for about a second before moving again.
With another flap I was back in the air in time to Paura miss her intended hit as her sword slammed into the ice.

As she pulled it free I retreated and took stock. The best way to get Paura back on the ground was to get rid of the Nightmare, not hard. However from this height Paura could break something or die, so that wasn't an option. Therefore, lure the two of them to a lower altitude.

The woods now were almost ideal. It got her away from the town, just in case, and as this was a revenge plot, the chances of back-up were low. Paura would want to do this herself.

"You know, if you want to kill me." I called out to the other Descendant, hoping that I hadn't just woken up the kids. "You're going to have to do a better job at catching me." I caught her furious look as I grinned in a purposely annoying manner and dropped.

I opened up my wings once I got below the top floor of the house and headed towards the woods. I knew my way around in there and I was willing to bet that she was too angry to have much of a strategy beyond, well, killing me. She was making this up as much as I was.

I heard her yell in frustration as I disappeared into the trees, and that was then followed by a few crashing noises as she followed me.

I shot between the trees before taking a sharp turn, shooting right before turning another 90 degrees to the right, facing back the way I came. I flew forward a few feet from momentum before stopping. I could see Paura pull back hard on the sandy reins though the trees, halting the Nightmare as she turned to where she thought I would be if I had continued moving further, not seeming to realise that I hadn't moved.

I formed a platform just below my feet and folded my wings against my back as I landed. I skated up behind her before she realised I was there and sent an icicle clean though the Nightmare, starting where it's tail was and bursting out of its chest.

Paura shrieked as her mount disappeared from underneath her and fell to the ground, landing hard from the sound of it. I had continued skating to her other side, ducking behind a tree and standing on one of the larger branches.

Through I could now see her get to her feet, leaves stuck in her hair and her face twisted in an expression of absolute fury.

She did a quick 360 and didn't seem to find me, as she started yelling.

"Where are you? You coward! Show yourself!" She screamed into the forest, and I was willing to take her up on that. However, I caught a hitch in her breathing that made me pause.

I peered through the fire coloured leaves to see that her Sun deprived face did indeed look a little red around the eyes. Although I was too far away to be sure.

"...Why?" I thought I heard her say, but I wasn't too sure.

"Why?" She repeated. "It's not as if they tried to kill you."

Yeah, I didn't know that.

My ears pricked up as she started reciting names, like it was a list that had been burnt into her brain.

"Elliot, Jasmine, Shep, Richard, Claire...*

She seemed to choke on the last name. "Tetro"

"Why did it have to be him?!" she suddenly screamed, making me jump, but she wasn't facing me. "He was just there! He didn't go for any of you! Not like me!"

She took a moment to recover herself.

"He was my brother, and you killed him."

My eyes widened and my legs nearly gave way beneath me, so I grabbed hold of a branch above me to keep me from giving away my position.

I had thought this was simple case of revenge, or avenging fellow Descendants. Turns out no, this was far more personal, this Tetro, had been her brother.

Oh moon, I knew what that felt like.

Despite what common sense was telling me, I dropped out of the tree, not bothering to mask it. I walked out from behind the trunk, which had a similar girth to North, with my hands up as Paura spun to face me.

Her distressed face rapidly morphed back to a mask of fury, but I'd already heard. She couldn't fool me.

She hadn't lost her grip on her sword, so charged right at me with a yell. I skipped to the side, hands now behind my back. I kept this position as she kept trying to hit me, again and again as I danced on the crackling leaves. I wasn't actually sure if that sword could pierce HOG armour, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out.

To make sure, I formed a layer of ice on my gauntlet, before shooting my hand out and grabbing the sword blade, halting it in its tracks.

Paura didn't bother to pull her sword away, instead I was thrown backwards by a blast of sand.

I lost my grip on the blade and flew back several metres, not hitting any trees and instead coming to unwelcome meeting with the ground. I rolled for a few more metres in a flurry of red and gold before coming to a stop and jumping back up again.

I formed a staff of ice to block the incoming strike from the sword. I then went for a disarm, which she spun out of and backed off, holding the sword in a one handed grip by her side for a second. She then switched back to a double handed grip and held it upright over her head, yelling and charging with reckless abandon.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as we began again, only to have them widen as the shadows that had been curling around the blade condensed and lengthened the sword, suddenly making it a lot harder to avoid.

I didn't bother with evasion, instead in something of a panic I flung my arms up, pulling up a shield.

The shadow extension stayed solid, bending across it. Suddenly the sword fell to ground, the shadows dispersing.

I turned around in time to block Paura popping up behind me from my own shadow, dagger aimed for a gap between where the helmet and the shoulder pads failed to meet. Reacting on instinct I twisted the dagger out of her grip and went forward with an elbow strike to the nose.

Paura screamed and staggered back, clutching her nose as she staggered back, red flecking her own black gauntlets.

Remembering that I was supposed to be trying to sympathetic, I backed off, allowing Paura to retreat and disappear into the shadows.

I let the shield disperse back into airborne water vapour before stepping over to the sword, planting my boot on its hilt. I wasn't going to get any closer than that.

"Okay, my turn to talk to an 'empty' forest." I said, with a slight smirk. I even pulled my visor up so my voice could carry further. "Because you're not going to leave this behind."

I took a deep breath. "Okay... I'm sorry." I started. "I didn't know, I didn't know exactly why..." Words seemed to be failing me.

Another deep breath. "I never wanted to kill them, okay? I was a kid, I was scared, I was, I was angry admittedly. You know, fear leads to anger and all that. I, I also didn't realise one of them was your brother, it makes sense now."

I wasn't sure what else to say, words and phrases just clogged in my throat and refused to come up. So I finished with a weak, "I'm sorry."

I only saw a blotch of black out of the corner of my eye a split second before I was struck with what was probably a mix of sand and shadow. I got flung back, accompanied by a wordless scream of rage that came from Paura.

Once I hit the ground again I went to get back up, except the sand shadow mix hadn't let go, and instead tightened around my waist and flung me up into the air with a cry of shock as I sailed towards the canopy. Before I could get my sudden flight under control I was pulled harshly back down to earth.

I cried out as I clanged and clunked upon the ground and rustling leaves. Once again, the armour took most of the impact, so nothing was broken, but I could feel where bruises were going to pop up and I was a little dazed. Something oddly warm trickled sluggishly down the side of my forehead and I elected to ignore it for now, the blood would freeze on its own and scalp wounds usually looked worse than they were.

I started to push myself up when there was another blur of black and kick to my ribs, flipping me on my back. Now I could see the expression on Paura's face as streams of blood ran from her nose, dripping on both her armour and mine. It was a mix of furious, distraught and...confused?

"You're not supposed to be sorry!" she yelled, sword back in her hand, no longer wreathed in shadows and pointed at my throat as I lay there. The sand shadow mix she was controlling wrapped around my wrists, ankles and stomach, holding in place as she got ready for the kill. The tip was hovering above the major weak spot in HOG armour, where the helmet didn't quite meet the breastplate in order for the straps holding the helmet in place to be accessed.

Despite the situation, I really couldn't resist. "I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that!" the tip lowered dangerously, and my gut was screaming me to get out of there, but freezing a shadow is a bit beyond me.

"You're not supposed to be repenting, you're supposed to be... supposed to be..." Paura trailed off.

"Twirling my handlebar moustache and laughing manically?" I offered. "Mwhaha, I'm so evil! Watch me kick this puppy for no reason!"

I don't know what response I was expecting, but a snort of laughter was not it.

"That does sound really stupid when you say it outloud." She admitted, although that sword hadn't moved an inch.

I had to chuckle a bit as well. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it? And, I meant it, I'm sorry."

"Stop it." She growled. "I know evil's probably a bit much, but I still hate you for what you did."
I'd lost my patience. "Yeah, well you're not the only one!"

I glared right into her eyes for a second before relaxing my expression. "You seriously think I don't regret doing that? I see them every night when I go to sleep. Every night they're asking me 'why, why did we die? Why did you kill us?' and you know what? I don't have an answer for that."

The tip of the sword quivered.

"From what I understand, the whole point of that little event was to try and get a reaction out of possibly less disciplined Descendants of Jack Frost, an attack. A death." I added pointedly. "You set out with that plan and attacked someone who your leader had been told had unstable powers and emotional state. Yet you did it anyway. What exactly were you expecting to happen?"

Paura tightened her grip on the sword. "It wasn't Tetro's fault." She hissed.

"You're right, it wasn't. I doubt any them deserved that, and, I am sorry. He was your brother, I get it, I really do. I can't say this enough times. I'm sorry."

The tip quivered again, and for a moment I thought Paura was going to pull it away. However, that moment passed and she pushed the sword down, the tip now resting on my throat.

My fists clenched and frost gripped the surrounding forest debris while I gritted my teeth. The burning sensation coming off from that contact alone was almost unbearable. I didn't want to know how much it would hurt if it actually pierced the skin.

I kept looking at Paura though, and I thought I swore her resolve waver.

"It's hard to kill someone." I managed to say without crying out. "Especially in cold blood I would think. Not that I know. It leaves a mark though, a stain on the soul. It won't leave you."

Paura alternated between loosening her grip on the sword and gripping it tighter. What I was about to say next might just tip her.

"Doing this won't bring Tetro back."

Paura's face twisted in anger, her eyes became wild and I felt my gut clench as I feared that I had said the wrong thing. Paura lifted her sword up a bit to drive it in, and I wasn't sure if I saw Mortimer's reflection in the blade or not.

The blade hovered there, Paura's breathing becoming quicker as she raised it a little more. Blood continued to drip from her nose, and I saw her eyes following the crimson droplets onto the black metal blade and the pale blue metal of my armour.

Then she relaxed, and dropped the blade, letting it clatter to the ground.

Her whole body slumped, and I could feel the sand and shadows holding me in place retreating.

"Darkness damn you."

I let out a breath that I hadn't realised I'd been holding and sat up, subconsciously rubbing where the tip had been placed and finally noticing the pain. Paura was facing away from me, picking up her sword and sheathing it.

"You're bleeding." She said in monotone. "You should get that checked."

I felt where I had felt the blood before with the tip of my metal covered finger. It had frozen by now.

"Thanks." I started to say, looking up, but Paura had gone.