The Spiralling

Chapter 24: Lost

The sky was weeping tears upon the sight of such pain and misery to come. It was dark; It was night, and blood has been spilt. Aldan was lying on the ground, his stomach screaming in pain more so than the water that falls from the sky. Blood was flowing out more so than the water gushing through the drains of the rooftop floor.

He was in intense pain, his consciousness wavering, his soul aching to depart yet it was not meant to be. He was still far from dead. His eyes flickered open and close, and in between the tides of dark unconsciousness, he witnessed his good friend, Dave, or as many named him as such, 'Kick-Ass', steadily losing ground in his fight against the Demoness.

His consciousness wavers, and to this mind he was given a slideshow of Dave slowly dying- It was beyond something he could easily accept lying down, a sheep seeing its kin to the slaughter. With all his might, despite his screaming stomach, seeing a pistol he reached out for the weapon.

It was a disgrace to Aldan, to touch a gun. As a dedicated swordsman and headmaster of an academy of some prestige, it was a great dishonour for him to use a firearm in battle, and this time he had to rely on the cowardly instrument. Time was running out; he could die any moment now or just fall unconscious anytime soon. All he knew was that he will only allow it to happen only after he had lent his last aid to a friend.

Nevaeh was his daughter. Although they had never really known each other there was still a sense of fatherhood in him. On the other side of his mind however, he knew that she could not be controlled in any way, nor reasoned with, and neither was there any way to secure her given the situation. Should he give her a leeway to kill a friend and everyone else she was targeting, it would do no one any good. Her daughter would still be killed sooner or later along with many other souls. Aldan would have to make the ultimate sacrifice, for his friends Dave and Mindy, and for the city he grew up in; ultimately for his daughter- he knew that heaven was waiting for her, as it was not her fault that she killed so many.

With his decision made in an hour of an instant and his heart dead in that same instant hour he took an aim and fired the pistol- despite his revulsion to firearms he was still accurate enough to do what he must. Just before Demoness was able to execute Kick-Ass, he fired on her only Eastern sword left, breaking the long blade from the middle. A second shot was aimed directly at his homicidal daughter, who fell to her knees clutching her chest.

"Dave! You're far better than that!" The Grandmaster shouted his last words of encouragement- to physically help was one thing. A man could never fight on muscle alone, that much he knew. Nevaeh had mentally weakened his friend as well, and he intends to make sure his sacrificing of his daughter's well-being had counted, "Give... Give up now, Mindy will surely... perish... Wha-what of your... f-friends... and... family..?" Before he could watch his daughter perish he soon blacked out; His suffering consisting of bodily harm completed by heartbreak.

"That-" And indeterminate amount of time had passed when the medieval swordsman heard his friend crying in rage. With his consciousness fragile, he was in between the dream world and reality, "For Michael!"

"Was-" In this state he could barely think or feel at all; he was numb both in body and mind from the knife in his chest and the amount of blood he was losing. All he knew, and cared to know was that it was Dave's turn giving battlecries and taunts. It could only mean a turnaround of events, "For Mindy!"

"Where the... Tell..!" In between listening to the shouting and turning over to observe, there were momentary lapses in his wakefulness, but what he saw was painful to behold. Kick-Ass was starting to get very physical with his daughter. He was pointing a gun to her lower jaw.

"Dying..." He could hear from his daughter's bloodied lips. Her voice sounded weak and pained. He wanted to move in to regulate the interrogation but he could not move at all. With a knife to his chest and a slash wound the width of his stomach he was effectively immobile. He could feel the pain when Kick-Ass pistol-whipped Demoness.

"... Is she! ... Tell me right..!" After threatening to shoot her again, Kick-Ass went right to choking his daughter. He had to act soon, if he wanted things to go the right way. In between each moment of void, he tightened his grip on the hilt of Nevaeh's combat knife and gave it a tug. Each pull threatened to send him straight off to high heaven.

"She's dying..." If only his daughter was a little more sane than she was. Halfway out of his chest, the knife wound sparked intense pain. More time had passed than normal after he blacked out from it- he knew, as his friend and child had changed location from close to him to the shelter housing the stairway from which they entered the rooftop of the D'Amico headquarters. Kick-Ass was going out of control- he was starting to punch her and slam her small frame against the wall. They were too far to listen in on, and his vision had become discoloured and blurry, but that much he could tell; that there was not much time left.

Giving the hardest pull he could muster given the circumstances, he took out the knife from his chest in one swift motion- a stream of blood followed the blade as it flew away from him. Aldan knew he would not die from it, as he could breathe properly still despite the pain; the knife had missed his lungs. His armour had probably made it harder for Nevaeh to aim at his organs. Still, flesh was still flesh, and this time, this pull sent him halfway to high heaven as it took him much longer to waken from it.

"Let go!" He could barely hear the muffled scream from Demoness- he had to act fast, "Let go now!" Forcing himself on his feet, he witnessed Kick-Ass tackling Demoness and giving him a shock from his Taser, which ended up electrifying both persons due to the rain and how they were in full contact of each other. By the time he came over hunched, clutching his wounds, the taser had already died, and in aiding his incapacitated friend and daughter, he was treated to both relief and anguish.

Demoness was Mindy. It meant a myriad of consequences. His daughter could be anywhere, it meant- she could be dead or alive, sickly or healthy, happy or miserable, he will never know. It meant he had gone off track for days, and that he had to start his search for his daughter all over again.

It meant Mindy was the one mortally wounded, in addition to Dave Lizewski. Dave would be saddened to know that he had raised his fist against his own beloved friend. He would lose two friends from death, if not from mental anguish- Mindy was in danger of both ends, if not already gone from the latter.

With all his might, after binding his wounds with pieces of his cloak, Aldan carried them both down, boarding a service elevator that took them to the back door of the skyscraper. The police were there as well, some killed from firefights raging between D'Amico's men and them, the remaining ones allowing them to pass on their merit as masked crime-fighters. A distance away from the crime scene in some alley, he reported to the police as victims of a theft case turned violent and they were soon carried away by an ambulance to the nearest hospital.

That was what he could remember from the incident, yet all his mind was focused on was Demoness' face- It was Nevaeh's, yet it was Mindy's. He remembered everything as they were when he turned over her face. Some of the paleness of her skin had faded; it mean her pale skin was fake- she was putting on some kind of disguise. One of her eyes had a a greenish, greyish hue, or black, he couldn't tell from the dim lights, and the other was red. It meant she was wearing lenses all along. Her hair had gained some colour, turning from white to pale yellow. She was wearing a wig.

Nevaeh's features had faded away into Mindy's. It meant his daughter was nowhere to be found. Upset, he remained quieted as he was ferried back to his hotel by a taxi. After spending days in the hospital, arranging for Mindy to be sent for special treatment, visiting Dave and forcing his way out of the hospital he had decided to go back to searching for the only family he had left.