Magic

With a faint click the door's lock mechanism opened.

"There you go, a it's open." Tessa told Shaw.

"Thank you." He opened the door and held it up. "Ladies first."

"Especially when the men don't now what's on the other side."

"Absolutely."

Tessa entered to a big empty hall, closely followed by Shaw. The air was thick with magic, making it hard to breath. The hall was big and very empty, their steps echoed between the walls.

"There is nothing here." Shaw said. "Nothing but this freaky magic."

"Perhaps not in this room. You can feel the magic, we are close to it's source."

"So we are going to keep following it and see were it brings us?"

"Precisely."

"Oh, great. I don't like it."

"You are going to have to deal with it even if you don't like it."

"I hate it when you're right."

Tessa raised an eyebrow. "I'm always right."

"When you aren't wrong."

Rolling her eyes Tessa walked to the right. Shaw hadn't noticed the stair that was going down into the ground, but he was far from surprised that Tessa had.

"Are we going down there?"

"Seems that way. Grab a torch from the outside."

~o~

The only good the torch did was to light up the uneven steps in the stair, but there was really nothing else to see. The stair continued to go down into air that wasn't just thick with years of dust, but with magic as well. If the magic had pressed on their lungs earlier, it was nothing like now. The air almost felt like a liquid, slowly running down to their lungs and making it hard to breath. Tessa and Shaw walked down without speaking, they had to focus on getting enough oxygen as the stair brought them farther and farther down.

When Shaw was about to knock on Tessa's shoulder and get her to turn back, they finally reached the bottom. They was standing in front of a closed door. It didn't have a lock, so there was no way Tessa could pick it. She tried to open it, pushing inwards, but it stayed shut. Most likely it was bared from the inside. Tessa shook her head. She wasn't going to be able to get it open. A simple hand wave at the door signaled to Shaw that it was his turn to try. A wicked smile spread over his face. It had been a long time since he had done some thing like this. Using part of the power he had stored up, he kicked the door and down it went.

~o~

Magic slamed into them like a sledgehammer. The power was so overwhelming that they almost was knocked back. After a few moments of recovery they focused on the small room behind the fallen door. In there five people in plain robes sat in tailors seat, each with a glass globe between their hands. In the heart of the otherwise clear globes sparkled a black and deep purple center. Above the circle of mages was a large sphere, that had a surface similar to a sun's. Like the globes hearts the sphere was black and purple, always shifting and moving. At times it sent out flares and when that occurred Shaw and Tessa felt a wave of stronger magic rolling over them.

~o~

Analysing the scene before her Tessa became sure that it was the globes that connected the mages to the sphere. She also realized how obvious it was that the sphere was failing, despite all the magic it sent out. Her intuition gave her the feeling that it wasn't supposed to use up so much magic as it did. It was due to the rapid consumption of magic that it was failing. That it was leaking and they hadn't found a way to stop it, so it constantly had to be feed with new power.

~o~

Tessa took a grip on the globe held by on of the mages. She ripped it from his hands and smashed it against the floor. It shattered and the sphere flared when the globes center rejoined it. The mage who had held it fell back, unconscious. Shaw followed Tessa's example and took the globe from one of the women.

"What do you think that you are doing?" A man dressed in a ornamented robe stood in the doorway. It didn't seem like he notice the magic's pressure. He raised his hands and a shockwave sent Tessa flying into the wall on the other side of the room. Shaw didn't even twitch, the attack hadn't affected him like it had Tessa. His mutant ability had simply absorbed the force. The man frowned, unable to understand why Shaw wasn't affected.

"I am the guardian of the All Knowing's Power. This is no place for you!"

"We are simply doing what we was sent to do." Shaw pressed the words over his lips. It was hard to speak, but it was plausible.

"Who sent you? Who is it that want to destroy us?"

Tessa struggled to get to her feet.

"We have no intentions of destroying you." She said as she used the wall to support her.

"Then why break the links to the Power? It's what's holding us together."

"How ignorant you are." Tessa said, finally fully balanced. She walked a few steps closer to Shaw and the guardian. When she grabbed an other globe panic spread over the man's face.

"You don't dare. You don't know the consequences of you actions." His voice was still controlled, but a tone of fear had started crawling into it.

"Oh, really?" Tessa dropped the globe. When it touched the floor it shattered with the same result as when the first one was destroyed. She took yet an other globe from it's mage, holding it up before her. The fragile glass rested on Tessa's fingertips.

A muscle twitched under the guardians right eye.

"No you won't."

"Yes I will."

The guardian sent out a second shockwave. Even though it wasn't as strong as the first, Tessa hit the wall again. She groaned from the pain that shot through her back, but she wasn't the only thing that had stricken the wall. The globe had been thrown backwards as well and the hard impact had broken it. A drop of blood trickled out of a shallow wound on Tessa's cheek. It had been caused by a chard of flying glass.

"That's it. I have had it with you." Shaw squesed the globe in his hand. It took barely any of his strength to break it. The flare from the sphere was larger than the previous ones, sending out more of it's magic. Only one globe remained, feeding the sphere with the mage's power.

"I won't let you destroy it."

"You can't stop me." Shaw told him very calmly. The other man was slowly walking sideways, trying to approach the last globe. When Shaw wasn't standing between him and it, he ran towards it. Shaw stretched out a leg, making the guardian fall face first to the floor. He tried to grab a hold of the globe, his fingers was touching it. The orb lay loosely in the mage's hands and the man's desperate attempt to take it, made the globe roll down to the floor. To the guardians horror it rolled towards Shaw, who stopped it with his foot.

"No... Please don't..."

Shaw pressed down his foot, shattering the last globe. The sphere exploded, blinding them. And then they were back in the Omniverse.

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Author's Note: So here's an other chapter I hope you enjoyed reeding, 'cause I sure liked writing it. Even if I was a bit mean to Tessa, slamming her into a stone wall, twice. But keep reading when I update next week and perhaps leave a review were you tell me what you think.