~A/N~ BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. Whoa, emotion meter is detecting high levels of feels ahead.
Chapter 12
Ivan dragged Lloyd further from the danger, behind a wrecked car. He was lurking under the surface of consciousness, his head stirring, a groan rising in his throat. The shrapnel was still embedded in his shoulder.
Overhead, the team was firing bullets at the immortal form of Etrius, but they either deflected off his skin, or passed harmlessly through him.
Beecher retreated behind a building, beside Nox, reloading his sniper. "The whole 'shoot and kill' thing? Yeah, clearly working." Nox noted the tone of sarcasm dripping in his voice. He sounded almost like Etrius.
"So what do we do?" Nox asked, and as if on cue, her question was answered.
The sound of chopper rotors slicing the air beat over their heads. Plisskin's chopper hovered over them, rapid fire weapons at the ready by the cockpit window.
Plisskin slammed the auto-pilot button and handled the only machine gun left. Aimed, fired.
The Mind Worm and The General pulled up a force shield to stop the onslaught, but the bullets shattered it like glass. Nox smiled. Obsidian shards.
Dust and silence thickened the air. Plisskin's chopper remained in place, and Beecher stepped closer to inspect the damage.
Was it really over?
Plisskin's chopper circled the skies overhead, looking down at the thick dust in expectation.
Something wormed out of the fog, heading straight for Beecher. An invisible arm grabbed his throat. He was hoisted off the ground, struggling in the air.
Dust swirled harmlessly around Etrius and The General.
Nox screamed something at Etrius and came charging at them.
"One step closer, Mortal. And it'll be the last you see of your brethren."
Despite herself, Nox stopped and backed away, a cold, unforgiving wall rising up between them. She glared darkly at The General. "This is all your fault. You're a coward."
The General showed no anger towards this. Instead, he smirked at her. "That's where you're wrong, Experiment X. Cowards tremble in fear at the sight of power. But I wield it."
Beecher's feet kicked against the air as he struggled to escape. His hands clawed uselessly at the invisible fingers closed around his throat. He ground his teeth. "This isn't you, Etrius!" He managed to choke out. "Whatever power has it's hands on you, you need to let it go."
Etrius' eyes remained clouded with the Mind Worm inside.
"Talking to him is futile, Beecher," The General crossed his arms, pure power coursing around him. "He belongs to the Parasite now. There's nothing you can do to change that."
"What the hell do you want?!" Boomer screamed at them.
"To make you suffer with Mankind," The General responded darkly, and then returned his gaze to the Mind Worm. "Finish him."
Etrius' hand remained fixed in place, his eyes frozen.
The General frowned. "Well what are you waiting for? End it now, so we can achieve ultimate power."
The Mind Worm slowly turned his head to face The General. A smile performed on his face. "The power is mine."
The General glanced down to see a shard of Obsidian embedded in his abdomen. The Mind Worm had stabbed him with it.
Even from such a distance, Nox could barely feel the Obsidian Shard's effects on her.
"All of it. Mine." The Mind Worm's eyes darkened with intention.
In a flash of light, the Mind Worm extracted The General's powers, leaving him Mortal once again.
"Why?" The General breathed.
"Someone like you is too corrupt for my liking. I knew you weren't going to share the power. I can read your mind, idiot." With his free hand, he grabbed The General by the throat.
Nox shut her eyes and turned away. Despite this being the man that crushed her life to ruins, she couldn't watch him die.
There was the sickening sound of bones crunching, spilling blood, and then silence.
The Mind Worm smiled, blood on his hands.
He chuckled.
Then he burst into a fit of dark laughter.
"I am beyond powerful now. There's nothing you can do to stop the process now!"
Beecher watched with shock and sadness in his eyes. He struggled against Etrius' power vising his throat. Pressure rose in his head, and black began to encroach his vision. "ETRIUS!" He screamed, on the verge of collapsing. "You are the only one who can stop this! I still have faith that you can kick this parasite's ass."
The Mind Worm tipped his head back and laughed. "You can't change a thing, mortal. I am the Mind Worm. I am Element Evil. In this world, I am the new God. Bow before me!"
Nox's sword suddenly felt heavy in her hands. Her power channeled through it. It was the only thing left with KrSAPPHIRE inside. Romanov said it held the ability to take down the Mind Worm.
If her powers didn't rage out of control after.
Beecher's eyes rolled up, and his limbs went slack.
Nox rose to her feet, feeling her powers coursing through her. This would be the last time she would wield them.
She held her sapphire sword two-handed, charging at Etrius with a battle-cry. There was nothing left to lose.
Etrius pulled up a shield in his defense, but Nox knocked it away. Without another thought, she drove the sapphire sword into his chest. Blue light pumped from the blade, into his veins. His eyes widened from the shock, and his grip on the power shriveled.
Beecher collided with the ground, bringing a cloud of dust into the air. Boomer darted to his side.
Nox extracted the blade harshly, black blood spilling. The usual presence of control within her was no longer there. She could feel power and anger bubbling up to the surface, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. This was the monster she was turned into.
The Mind Worm's eyes rolled up, and he collapsed to the ground, out cold.
The sapphire sword shattered in Nox's hands.
She turned to Boomer and Ivan Joseph, power curling around her form like a corset. Her brows creased as she shook her head. She needed to get away from here before she did unreplaceable damage.
Whirling around. She kicked her heels into the ground and leaped from building to building.
Boomer shouted at his only standing comrade. "Ivan, go after her! There's still time—we can stop this!"
Ivan nodded and chased after Nox.
~X~
He ran along the cracked pavement, glaring up at the towering buildings as Nox leaped them. He lost his powers inside the Castle. He couldn't keep up for long.
"NOX!" He shouted.
Halfway leaping to another building, a flash of electric blue light emanated from Nox's eyes. She lost her concentration and collided with the ground. A dented circle formed around her on the ground.
She rose to her knees, bracing her hands against the ground as the world rocked. She glared at Ivan, light pouring out of her eyes like tears. "Stay back!"
"It's okay, sister," Ivan began to close the distance between them. "You did the right thing. It's all over now."
"I said stay away!" Nox's voice cracked, white light bleeding from her mouth with each word like a virus. "You don't understand!"
Ivan remained in place, his eyes watching hers like a hawk.
"My sword is gone. Without it, my powers are going to rage out of control!" She felt something powerful churning inside of her stomach, rising up to her chest and throat. She struggled to fight it down. "I'm going to destroy the city! Maybe the Earth too."
Ivan's eyes narrowed. "I won't let that happen."
Light exploded from her eyes and mouth like a supernova, coating the city in a layer of foggy ethereal light. She let out a scream that's been building up inside of her. She couldn't hold any of it back.
A familiar shout came from behind Ivan. He whirled around to see Boomer rounding a corner, charging towards the two.
"Stay back, brethren!" Ivan shouted, but Boomer disregarded his warning. He reached into his pocket and produced a shard of KrSAPPHIRE attached to a gold chain.
Ivan's heart dropped. "ARE YOU INSANE?! Get that out of here!"
Boomer stopped in front of Ivan, keeping his distance from Nox. "Romanov gave it to Lloyd. He knew this would happen, and he said this is the only thing that can contain it."
"How can we trust—?" Nox let loose another burst of power, wearing away the exterior of buildings. Boomer and Ivan hid behind a building to escape the force of damage. "Never mind," Ivan said at last. "Use it. It's all we have left."
Boomer charged out from behind a building, raising an arm to shield his eyes from the light. He screamed Nox's name through the distraction, but he doubted she could hear him. He couldn't even see where he was going through the light. He just had to trust he was moving in the right direction… If he was moving at all.
He couldn't see his feet or arms as he ran. But he could just faintly hear Nox screaming in the distance.
He skidded to a stop when he saw a familiar hunched over figure, fingers locked in her hair. Boomer kneeled before her, nearly going blind by the light emanating from her pours.
Nox noticed him kneeling before her. With what strength she could muster, she shoved him against the chest. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She screamed at him, but her voice was lost in the light.
With his bangs hanging in front of his eyes, he reached into his pocket and produced Romanov's crystal shard. Boomer pressed it between Nox's eyes as his vision went blind from the light.
Like a fabric sheet, the light coating the city crumpled back to the center. To the crystal shard.
Nox's spine arched at the agony, her eyes growing dark as the light left them.
In minutes, Boomer let the crystal shard drop. It emanated an ethereal white glow. A silver flame danced within, longing to escape.
Boomer couldn't see anything other than black and purple in his vision. Even his eyes looked clouded over, like cobwebs had formed in them. "Nox?" He asked with a hope that they had succeeded.
Nox couldn't respond. She lay on her back, breathing shallow. The usual presence of control was no longer there… And neither were her powers. She could feel victory, exhaustion and sorrow rising up inside her.
Ivan charged towards the two. His mouth hung open, meaning to speak words, but there were none to describe what he wanted to say.
Boomer forced himself to sit upright, muscles trembling beneath his skin. Finally, his vision began to slowly clear. He was never worried about his sight, or going blind. But he was more worried about going deaf. Nothing was worse than not being able to hear explosions again. He came to a close call once when an explosion went off near him, and he wasn't wearing earmuffs. His left ear blew out, but his right still worked. Half the effect, but he could still hear.
As his vision cleared, he saw Ivan Joseph staring at him with shock. "Your eyes see?"
"Yeah," He breathed, brushing himself off. He turned to Nox. "You alright, sister?"
Nox shut her eyes, choosing to ignore the two. She never meant for her powers to rage out of control. Or to lose them. She'd grow close to her powers over the years, and she wasn't used to living without them. But she had to do this if Earth was going to survive.
"Etrius." Ivan said with distress lacing his words. "And the others. We need to get back to them."
"Right." Boomer said, holding Nox's shoulder. "Nox, we need to go. Can you stand?"
Nox finally gave him a heavy nod and pulled herself upright. She climbed to her feet, but the ground rocked beneath her. Boomer caught her before she could hit the ground. He hooked her arm around her shoulder, and then scooped her into his arms.
Nox frowned and pushed against his chest. "Really?"
Boomer gave her his trademark smirk. "What? You can't walk."
Nox crossed her arms.
The three of them returned to the central battery. Beecher had already regained consciousness, and he was looming over Etrius' still body. His glanced up with wounded eyes when he saw the remaining team approaching. But he said nothing.
Nox saw Lloyd leaning against a wrecked car, unconscious, and bleeding severely from his shoulder. Nox screamed his name and struggled out of Boomer's grip. She regained her balance and ran to Lloyd's side. A huge shard of shrapnel was embedded in his shoulder, slicing clean down to the bone.
His muscles trembled and heat poured through his clothes.
Nox hovered her hands over the wound.
But nothing happened
Then it dawned her.
Her powers were gone. There was no way to heal her comrade.
"We need to get him out of here." Nox glanced up at the sound of rotors. Plisskin's chopper was descending from the skies, landing in the clearing. The door slid open, and the pilot gestured the team inside.
"Get in! Before anyone sees us!"
Ivan and Nox aided Lloyd into the chopper, while Beecher and Boomer took Etrius. Plisskin's jaw dropped at the sight of his comrade. "What happens when we wakes up?"
"I don't know." Beecher said, his words dripping solemn. Plisskin started up the engine as Evils began emerging from the shadows, watching them.
Ivan was beside Plisskin, giving him coordinated back to their base. Now that Nox's powers were gone, the base was no longer shielded from sight. It made it easier for Plisskin to find, but it wouldn't be long until the rebels were found by their enemies.
Nox glared out the cockpit door, watching the city below. Then her eyes widened. She grabbed Boomer's shoulder, pointing down at the streets.
The Evils that once plagued the city were now shriveling into dust. The effect spread out rapidly like a wave. In seconds, all that were left of the creatures were sucked-dry bones.
"It's over." Nox sighed, barely audible under the spinning of chopper rotors. She cast a weary glance at Lloyd, who was still knocked out cold. White bandages were wrapped around his shoulder, and the shard had been removed. But blood still leaked through. His skin grew pale.
Nox made her way back to Plisskin, past Beecher and Etrius. She ordered him to pick up the pace.