Chapter Seventeen: End of a Tyranny

Events of Downward Spiral occur at the time of Journey of the Iron Fist.

Part Two takes place during the evening...

Belinda Al-Harazi. My not-by-blood mother.

I mentally sighed. Really world?

Okay, actually it wasn't really my mother. What I mean is that she was totally jacked up. The left side of her face was covered in scars and her eyes were a purple color.

She laughed. "Oh, you must be confused. I understand." She walked down, grabbing the mask. "Let me explain. Cross has been several people. I started using it after the last one failed to exterminate you with Taskmaster's posse."

That made sense. They both sounded different and acted different. "And the powers?"

She laughed. "Shadow powers can be transmitted. Ever heard of Deadpool?"

I just glared. "So you took it up, for what? Money?"

The biggest screen popped up. "Oh no, my dear. Belinda is doing this because we're both getting revenge on the same person."

I snapped at the screen. "The Ghost King."

He laughed. "Actually, you can call me K'men sweetheart. That was my name before I took over my kingdom."

"So, K'men I guess." Sam started growling and struggling in Blight's grasp. I glared at him and he stopped. "Sun can't have harmed you both. I know she left you for dead but what did she do to Belinda?"

"Ripped apart my family." She turned to the screen. "I suggest we kill them both."

"Don't. None of the Badoon have reported back. Sun will no doubt come looking for them."

Cross smiled and looked at Blight. "Knock them out and shackle them."

I felt a pain in the back of my head and fell into darkness.

"Welcome back Mushina."

I pushed myself up and I frowned. I was standing back at Hatshepsut's temple. Instead of seeing my mother, Ionia was standing there. She looked calm but ready to fight. "It's Mason."

"You've been avoiding your training."

"Been busy." I stood up fully.

Ionia dropped her calm face into a dangerous one. "Your consciousness betrays everything, especially those that are on your mind." She held out her fist.

Well guessing all the cards are on the table. "You lied to all of us. You just want someone to destroy Bellas Major."

Ionia laughed. "That's true. But I doubt you can convince the others. If you're still alive." She slides her hand left to right and I was plunged into darkness.

Something explodes behind me, and I just duck out of the way as a spear spirals out of nowhere, streaking through the darkness just above my head as I scramble to get out of the way.

You know what sucks not having powers. But I needed to stay alive. "Okay." I muttered to the much more confident me. "Here goes nothing."

I raise my arms and Masterizzare appears, biting the spear in half. I ran and hugged him, earning some curious and quite rude thoughts. "Ionia is bad and she's trying to kill me. Get the other Nightwatchers." Masterizzare nodded and disappeared into smoke.

I heard a blast of something and I turned, putting up a shield. Fire streams around my shield, as my arms begin to convulse under their tremendous power. I can feel my shoulders wrench like I'm holding up a collapsing building, but this time I don't give up. I need to stay alive. For Anala. For dad. For the team. For Sam. I take one step forward, then followed by another.

The flames blaze brighter, changing color as the air scorches with heat. The sky turns gray with smoke and I can feel the weight on my arms begin to lessen. I summon any power I had left and forced it into my shield. White light begins to turn every tongue of fire that threatened to burn me into nothingness. In a matter of seconds, Ionia lets out a final, tremulous scream before falling to the ground and I collapse to my knees.

"You did well."

My chest heaves for air as Antigone and the others approached me through the fading darkness. I managed an exhausted smile.

"I did it." I cough as I try to regain my breath. I looked over at Ionia who was trying to sit up. "I finally beat you."

Ionia glared and held up a hand. Cleo materialized and wrapped her in cloth in an instant. "Oh, how long I've wanted to do this." She grabbed Ionia under the chin. "You've been a very bad girl Ionia."

Antigone looked down at me and extended a hand. I took it and stood up, coughing. "Thank you for showing us who Ionia was. I never thought she would have been evil."

I nodded. "Same. But what do I do now? I still have to fight Crossanx Blight."

Antigone nodded. "We will stay to defeat them and then you need to let us go. The necklace will keep your powers and experiences, but you will have to learn from scratch. Everything."

"Damn. I liked being bad ass." I looked at them all. My friends and teachers. They had made my life more interesting in the past few months. Now I can't imagine not learning from them. But I have to do it for them. "I guess I let you go onto whatever comes after life."

Antigone nodded and walked towards the new white fog that appeared. "Goodbye, Mason." Cleo dragged Ionia, who was screaming, and blew a kiss. The others said goodbye too.

After the others disappeared Fyre ran up and hugged me. "Tell Anala I'm gonna be both of your guardian angels."

She walked towards the fog and I had one question nagging me. "Hey, who was Anala in love with? And why doesn't she tell him she's alive?"

She looked back. "His name's Peter Jason somethin'. Didn't really pay attention. And she just had to let him go. The thing with Anala is that she works by herself because she doesn't want anyone to get hurt."

"Guess I do get the answers to questions."

She chuckles softly, a faint sound deep in her chest. "Yes, you did. This time."

I jolted awake, my arms pined above me. I yanked at them and felt them starting to loosen. I looked around. We were in some abandoned office room turned prison cell.

Sam looked over. "You okay?"

I nodded. "I can use all of my powers now, so yeah."

"Why were they even disappearing in the first place?"

I finally yanked the whole thing away and looked at him. I walked over and yanked the shackles off before looking at him. "Psycho Nightwatcher Aven Queen who wants to destroy Bellas Major. That's all I have. But now we got to kick some ass."

"Let's go."

I smile. "Have you tried contacting the team?"

"No response."

"Think they'll be jealous we got to kick serious bad guy butt?"

"Totally."

We rounded the corner to see Blight and Cross fighting. Not screaming but actually fighting like blasting each other with powers. I'm missing something here.

I got to see the cybernetic implants that must be controlling them. Only problem: they're on the back of their necks. Fucking Suicide Squad. I pointed at them and looked at Sam. "Kill switches. They aren't doing this because they want to."

Cross blasted Blight across the room then looked at the screen. "You aren't going to harm Mushina. You'll have to go through me."

"Very well." King sighed. Cross dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. "You can be replaced." Sam held me back from rushing out to Cross. Blight walked out and looked at the screen. "Blight, you're in charge. Cancel Project Cross and terminate your prisoners."

Sam let me go and we walked out. "Sorry K'men. But we don't die easy."

Blight blasted at us and I blasted back with a column of light. They met and created a small explosion, blasting Blight back into the screens.

I turned to Sam. "Mind taking care of Blight?"

He nodded. "Do I get a good luck kiss?"

I laughed. "Come back alive and you'll get it." I ran away before he could something else. Cross was just lying there. One look tells me the whole story. There's no need to check for a pulse.

But I do anyway and I hope for anything.

Nothing...I've lost her. My mother who raised me. Forced me do things I didn't want to do.

She's already getting cold to the touch. Gone.

But I know who I can take revenge on.

I glared at K'men. "You bastard."

He laughed. "Buisness is business. You want to get revenge? Come and get me Nightwatcher. I'm on the male Badoon's planet, Moord. I love to see you try and beat me."

I stood up. "I will." I blasted the TV and shattered.

Sam threw the unconscious Blight on the ground. He walked over. "I think we did good. Sorry about your-"

"Don't you dare apologize. You didn't have anything to do with it."

"Okay. Well we won and I'm not dead..."

"First off, Are you my boyfriend?" I smirk, taking off my mask.

"Do you want me to be your boyfriend?" Sam grinned.

"I've kissed you. Twice."

"Twice? Oh yeah, you kissed my cheek on Horror Movie Night. Guess I'm your boyfriend."

"Good then." I pull off his helmet and kiss him. For about two seconds, everything fades away to blissful nothingness, but then I pull away and reality crashes back into place. "There. Happy?"

There's a twinkle in his eyes but we are interrupted by a one-eyed troll name Nick Fury. "What's the status?"

"Blight is unconscious and Cross is dead. Requesting clean up." I say into my wrist.

"How's Cross dead?"

"Cybernetic implants. A basic kill switch when needed."

"Good. Report back to the Helicarrier once SHIELD has them in custody."

"Sir, may I have permission to go check on my sister? I just want to make sure she's okay."

"Granted."

"Thanks." The communicators turned off and I looked at Sam. "I'll leave you to clean up the mess." I kissed him on the cheek. "See ya Sam."

Bright flames curled towards the sky, alighting the dark night sky with light. Anala and other people were standing there as I approached out of the Nightwatcher uniform. As soon as Anala saw me, she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the edge of the crowd.

"You choose who you want to be not what others want you to be." She muttered, like it was an old saying. She looked at the fire. "That's what the man in the picture told me after he found out I was Sun. And that's what I'm telling you now." She looked at me. "You can stay here on Earth and I can take on the Badoon alone or you can come along."

"I'm going. I know I have a life to live here on Earth, but I don't need any other family members dead in my life. Not you, not the team, not Sam. Besides, I know who's after us and I want revenge." I turned to her. "The Ghost King won't know what hit him."

Okay...This whole thing was so much fun to write. I expected it to be longer... It was on my phone...

Epilogue will be up Monday!

Just a question: Would you guys want a sequel? 'Cause I'm already writing a spinoff for Anala's past and I have a lot of free time...

Thanks for all your lovely reviews, follows, and favorites! :)

~PoetryNeedsANewName~

PS. I updated the last chapter so start there for no confusion!