Chapter 6
The Demon Within
=MORGANA=
Her brother was here, she was staring right at him. Why did it feel so strange, so surreal. He was tied to a post, maybe that was it. He did attack them. He was practically feral when they found him. He didn't recognise her, he acted like she wasn't even there. Even worse, he mentioned Shadow Man. She didn't like the sound of that, why would that cultist be after her brother.
"Morgan what's going on? Why did your brother attack us?" Lyra asked.
"It's complicated. His semblence, is hard to control." She said. "I want you to understand my brother is a good person but he's, difficult at times. He's always been a difficult kid to control, Arthur usually kept him in line, but things don't always work out." Morgan started to ramble. She was started pacing too. This was too much. Her brother being here was a problem. She wished she could feel relief that he was still alive but he was dangerous.
"Calm down." Lyra said. She reached up and grabbed Morgana by the sides of her head. Morgana took a deep breath. She hugged Lyra.
"Thank you." She said.
"Let's figure this out." Lyra said. "Also he's waking up."
"Oh no." Morgana said. "Alright chin up Morgy, let's do this." She whispered.
"Where am I?" He said, he began to shake in his binds.
"Mikael, it's me. Morgy." She said. She knelt in front of him. He began kicking his legs, struggling to climb to his feet. She reached out and touched his face. He jerked away from her and barred his teeth. He started biting at her. She retracted her hand. "Calm down. You're safe."
"Never safe, never free." He said. "Always hunting, always running."
"What happened to you?" Morgana asked. "I haven't seen you in years."
"You aren't her, she was shorter." He said. "And younger."
"It's called a growth spurt, seriously." Morgana said. "It was a few years ago we last saw each other."
"Seven hundred and eighteen days." He said. "Kept count, always counting."
"I know, I did too." Morgana said. "It's really me. Your sister."
"Just a trick." He said. "Just another trick. He's always playing tricks that one, real trickster he is. Yes, yes, yes."
"Who?" Morgana asked. "Who is playing tricks on you?"
"Shadow Man." He said. "Like you didn't know. He's always watching, always hunting, always finding. No escape."
"Sorry to say but your brother is a loon." Lyra said. Morgana frowned at her
"I have to check something." Morgana said. She grabbed Mikael's coat and unbottoned it, she then opened his shirt. He struggled. She didn't stop. She opened it up and gasped. Lyra recoiled a few steps. His chest was covered in scars, hundreds of them. Like someone spent hours slicing at him. She checked his wrists, they were bruised, so was his neck. He was restrained. "Someone tortured him."
"Why?" Lyra squeaked.
"I don't know." Morgana said. She felt her eyes welling up. She took a few steps back. Her brother started making growling sounds.
"What do we do? We can't just leave him here." Lyra said.
"We can't untie him though." Morgana said.
"Why not?" Lyra asked.
"His semblance is dangerous." She said. "Not until he calms down, not until he recognises me."
"Morgy?" A soft voice called out. She turned to him. She saw tears running down his face. "Is that you?"
"Mikael!" Morgana said. She ran to him. He recoiled.
"No!" He said. "You have to stay back. I can't. I can't control it."
"Just talk to me." She said.
"I'm scared." He said. "I can't contain it much longer. You and your friend need to run."
"Run?" Lyra asked. "What does he mean by that."
"I don't want to hurt you." He said.
"Those binds are top of the line, they will hold." Morgana said. "It's just like before."
"No, it's stronger now." He said. Morgana froze. Her eyes started to widen. His eyes were blood red. They were becoming increasingly bloodshot. His hair was starting to stand up. Sweat was dripping from his forehead.
"No, no, no." Morgana mumbled. "Lyra we have to go right now!"
"What is going on?" Lyra asked.
"I'll try to hold him here." Morgana said. "Call Arthur, call Ash, call everyone!"
"Run!" Mikael said. He began to twist in inhuman ways, his bones began to make popping sounds, his skin started to darken. His face started to distort, red lines began to burn through the skin. His teeth turned to needles. Claws grew out of the ends of his fingers, hair began to retract in a blackish ooze. He resembled a great wolf, a beowolf, only without the white plating, but with the glowing tattoos. He let out a horrific shriek.
"Run!" Morgana shouted. She whipped several black bolts at him, but he ripped the restraints apart like they were made of paper. He hopped onto all fours. He began to strafe. She whipped a few more bolts. They bounced off his skin. He lunged. A dart shot into his shoulder and he began to spasm. He kept moving forward.
"What?" Lyra shouted.
"Run Lyra run!" Morgana called out. "Call for backup. I got this."
"Oh sure you do!" Lyra said. "I'm not leaving."
"At least call for backup then." Morgana said. "We're going to need it."
"Dialing." Lyra said.
Mikael, or the beast that now took his place growled at them. It leaped onto to top of a shipping container. It hopped to the next one. It began circling them. Morgana raised Black Willow and began to draw a symbol in the air, several bolts began to appear around him. She flicked her wrist and stabbed towards Mikael, the bolts launched. They pinned him by the arms and the throat. His eyes glowed red and he let out a pained howl.
"Yeah, Ash get everyone down here, we got a problem." Lyra shouted into her scroll. "A grimm, uh, something like that."
"Just get down here!" Morgana shouted. The beast began to fight his new restraints. She had no idea how long they would hold. Lyra launched a dart, it pierced his skin and he let out another pained howl as electricity coursed through his veins. The beast started to step forward, despite the restraints.
"This isn't working!" Lyra said.
"I noticed." Morgana said. "Run!"
They hurried to the door of the warehouse. They slammed it shut. Morgana erupted green flames against the door welding it shut. They backed up. They heard a shriek and something shattering on the other side. There was a loud bang against the door. A small indent appeared.
"Now what?" Lyra asked.
"We can't let him escape." Morgana said. "We wait."
It took about an hour before the others arrived, the door was heavily dented. Ash and Billy arrived with Arthur and the rest of his team. They had their weapons ready. They stared at the door and plenty of uneasy glances were going around.
"What are we hunting exactly?" Gabriel asked.
"We aren't hunting anything." Morgana said. "We're containing."
"Containing what Morgy?" Arthur asked.
"Mikael." Morgana said. His eyes lit up.
"No, he is not in there!" Arthur said. "You didn't!"
"He's not in a good way Arthur." Morgana said. "He's been tortured."
"He's kind of crazy." Lyra added.
"Oh, even better. He was trouble when he was sane, now we got a traumatized and irrational monster inside there." Arthur said.
"Who is Mikael?" Lancel asked.
"Their brother." Ash said. "Morgana's twin."
"Oh, okay, congratulations on having a brother." Gabriel said. "Thanks for never mentioning him."
"He left." Arthur said. "We are far better off without him."
"That's not true." Morgana said. "He's our brother!"
"He's a beast." Arthur said. He took off his breastplate and unbuttoned his shirt. There was a large claw mark against his neck.
"Where did you get that scar?" Morgana asked.
"Last year, I tracked him down." Arthur said. "He lost control like he usually does. Nearly killed me."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Morgana asked.
"Because you were in Bastion." Arthur said. "Didn't want to trouble you."
"Oh great, yeah that was a marvelous decision!" She said.
"Guys, the door is coming apart." Gabriel said.
"We need to figure out what we are going to do about the uh, monster?" Lancel half asked, half stated. "What is the plan exactly?"
"We need to knock him out." Arthur said. "Avoid lethal blows, we take him down clean." He glanced at Morgana for a minute. "He's family after all."
"Alright, so what exactly are we fighting?" Billy asked.
"Think Beowolf." Lyra said.
"That doesn't seem too bad." Gabriel said. Tor shrugged.
A claw ripped through the weakened door. It slowly sliced right down the middle. There was a loud bang and the door blew outward. The beast was bigger than before. It looked absolutely furious. Morgana swalled out began whipping bolts at it. Everyone charged.
Gabriel pole vaulted and spun, swinging his blade down. It backhanded him out of the way and he flew into a nearby car. Tor swung next, the beast caught his blade and pulled it out of his hands. He backed up. The beast swung it's fist down and hit him in the top of the helmet. He dropped like a rock. Lancel lunged foward and stabbed the beast with his lance, he fired a round ito it. It grabbed the lance and tossed it, with him still hanging on. The beast started swinging blindly. Ash lunched from behind and cracked it in the back of the head. It spun around and sent him flying with a single swing. Billy tackled it and did a suplex. The beast flipped onto it's feet and tossed Billy. Lyra shot a dart into it's leg, it started to spasm. It grabbed the wiring connecting the dart to maibaum and pulled the weapon right out of her hands. It tossed it and started moving her way.
Arthur charged and tackled it. There was a bright flash of light and a bloodcurdling scream. Morgana ran forward. Arthur hand the beast pinned, it's arms were behind it's back. He was glowing with a blinding light. The beasts black fur was burning away under the light. Pale skin was taking it's place. It struggled, he held firm. Arthur was looking visibly fatigued but he held on. His breath heavy and sweat pouring down like a fountain from his brow. There was a brighter flash and Morgana lost sight of both of them for a few seconds. Her vision returned to normal and they were both lying on the ground. Mikael was coughing and wheezing, his clothes were shredded, more scars were visible along the exposed skin.
"Arthur?" Mikael asked. Arthur punched him in the face knocking him clean out.
"What was that for?" Morgana asked.
"For that." He said, pointing to the team. They were still peeling themselves off the ground.
"Now that the warehouse didn't hold him." Ash said, limping towards them with his weapon still in hand. "What do we do now?"
"We let him go." Arthur said. "That's all we can do. He promised to stay away from the kingdoms."
"That's obviously not being honoured then." Ash said.
"Why is he here?" Arthur asked. "Did he say?"
"Shadow Man is hunting him, he's the one that tortured him." Morgana said.
"Shadow Man?" Arthur muttered.
"Oh heck no." Ash said. "I'm not dealing with Shadow Man again."
"We have no choice then." Arthur said. "We have to help him."
"What?" Ash said. "You saw what he just did to us. How are we supposed to contain him again?"
"I can do it." Arthur said.
"Why didn't you do it sooner then?" Gabriel asked.
"It takes time to build up that kind of energy." Arthur said. "Besides, we're hunstmen, we have to do this."
"Why the change of heart?" Morgana asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Gabriel asked. "Shadow Man hurt his girl."
"Oh shut up." Arthur said.
"So you'll do it for Gwyn but not for Mikael?" Morgana asked.
"It's not like that." Arthur said. "Shadow Man is a threat. Someone has to stop him."
"Yeah, that sounds like a job for us alright." Ash said. "I'm out."
"What?" Lyra asked. "Just like that."
"I almost lost my life last time I went near those tunnels." Ash said. "I lost a lot."
"You have barely a scratch on you, you got out with no injuries remember?" Lyra asked.
Ash froze for a moment. He felt the pain of his scars. "No, I'm out." Ash said. "Besides, Billy and I should focus on the tournament."
"I can't believe you." Morgana said. "Billy you'll help right?"
Billy shook his head. "I have a chance with the tournament, I could win this."
"Fine, get lost you two." She said. "Lyra and I will help team ALGT."
"Hey, we beat team BRNZ." Lancel said. "We're pretty much in the clear to help."
Ash and Billy left. The others glanced at each other. Morgana was fuming. Arthur shook his head and swung Mikael over his shoulders. He carried him back inside the warehouse. They tied him to the post. Arthur sat down in front of them. The others found positions around him. If he tries to break free again, he'll have a fight on his hands.
