Haunting Revelations

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The Normal sat on the charred rubble, eyes staring at the mask but failing to see any of it. He knew that any other person would have given by now and deemed this to be impossible. He knew that anyone with any sanity wouldn't be sitting here as a war began its rampage above his head. He knew that this all was nearly impossible and absolutely insane, but the journey to change was never one for the probable and sane.

And what a journey it had been. A plan that had been created long before he even cared about the Heroes or the Villains. It was something that had been in the works since the first Hero and Villain fought. Something that was older than any memory, even the one that hung around his neck.

There were obstacle's that it knew of. There were obstacles that Nick knew of. And together, they took them out. Together they resurrected the plan and together, they made it possible. They lied, deceived and ruled in secrecy. They gave things to one another and they took things the other could never replace. It was pure insanity, living hell and a jumbled mess, but it somehow worked.

It worked until a third unit came into the picture. Another mind to mess with the plan. Another thing in their way. An obstacle that they needed to become an ally. The Bane of one's existence and the relevance of the other.

Nick sighed, hand going to where the chain used to rest as he remembered the first time he met Kumori's Bane. It had been when he was locked away in the Hero Council. A moment that was meant to be terrifying for the Heroes and a large step for the Villains. An attack on the outside, but a distraction for those who knew the truth.

And it all had been his plan.

Nick heard the yells outside as Heroes discovered that their own defense systems were rebelling against them. He knew cameras were coming to life, computers were crashing and sparking dangerously, lasers were becoming deadly with radiation; he knew of the chaos. He heard the whisper of vines as they slithered through the walls and lay on the floor. The sound of a door being thrown off its hinges was lost to anyone who wasn't listening for it.

The Normal had been standing behind a corner when Tom, Joe and Kevin bolted out. He watched them clap their hands over their ears and start off towards the room he was supposed to be in. And he slipped into the room they vacated, unseen and unheard.

The glass was quickly cracking under the frost he had ordered Cascadea to make. All it took was a simple nudge from one of Florice's roots to shatter the barrier completely. The Normal stepped into the room, no fear of the security for Neuropath and Technotron would have that controlled by now. He stopped a few feet from the pearl dove and waited.

'Talk, you damn bird.'

Nick could have smiled at the Four's outburst, but too much was at stake.

I have nothing to say to such a dark heart.

'Then address the boy!'

I was.

Nick blinked at this. "Me?"

No reply was given.

"I didn't ask to become a Villain. I didn't ask to be treated as I am. I didn't ask for the Four."

You asked for means of revenge.

"For means of change!"

The Bane, again, was silent.

"Please," Nick begged, "You know what we're going to ask of you. You know what has to be done in order for everything to be set right."

I could destroy the Four, end you, and still get the same result.

"No," Nick whispered. "You wouldn't. Killing a Normal doesn't do anything anymore. Hundreds of Normals die every day. No one cares anymore."

People still care.

"Not many."

The Bane was silent again.

"Heroes aren't Heroes anymore," Nick tried again. "They share the blame in all of this."

'The line has been erased.'

This may be true, but it would take an extinction to fix the world.

'Changes never come without risk!'

Risk?! There is no risk, only absolutions! And this boy will surely lead us to it!

'There is no reward without risk!'

Reward? What reward could come out of the death of millions?

"Peace," Nick quickly tried to intervene. "Villains and Heroes won't have the need to fight! There will be less deaths in the end."

I cannot allow this.

"What if they willingly agree to die?"

Silence.

I will not be handled by a dark heart.

Nick looked to the dove and held out his hand. "Then I won't use you. Everything that happens will be up to you." The Normal reached out, almost touching the pendant. "You can choose to end all of this right now, or you give us the chance to try and redraw that line. No more death. No more pain."

Nick took a breath at the Bane's silence, but he couldn't hesitate; he had already stayed here for too long. He closed the gap and touched the crystal.

You will have my blessing as long as your intentions do not change.

Nick came out of this with a small shake of his head. He had broken his promises to both pendants. His desires grew as the Four began to thirst and his intentions changed greatly when his innocence had been stripped from him. He once desired to find balance, to have the Normals seen as human beings instead of the blood that brings the sharks. He intended for this to happen in a nonviolent manner, something that would bring out the best of the Heroes.

But he now desired what the Four and Bane wanted all along. Balance was never the answer. A utopia is only a dream for the naive. The Four and the Bane struggled to find the upper ground, to put their side on a pedestal for so long. When they both vanished, the mortals continued this battle. Power was the answer. One side had to have it all. It couldn't be a constant brawl. With power came harmony. The Villains would be able to do as they pleased in a way the Heroes would never understand.

But they would need someone to guide them to that one way for the war to truly end. Someone had to give them the power back. Someone had to give them so much power that everything would right itself. Overflow any system and it will eventually shut itself down until there is nothing left to remember it by. It would be a rough war, but because of it, the future would be brighter.

'A war,' the Four hissed. 'That was first started by the thing that was made to bring peace.'

The journey was very nearly done now. The creator of this was finally dead. The war had begun again. History was to repeat itself in order to purify the mistakes that were made when the line had first been set.

A world, Nick thought. That is balanced because it is without balance. A place where you do not have to have powers to have a future.

'The world,' the Four inserted. 'Like it was always meant to be.'

But in order to do this, sacrifices had to be made.

'And they will be made.'

Would they be? These sacrifices were things Nick would have never done in the past. Things he barely wanted to think about even now. Sacrifices that would ruin the way the world ran.

Nick focused on the mask that rested in the palm of his hands in order to drown out the persistent thoughts of the Four. However, he made no move to put it on.

"What's wrong?" Paragon asked. "Checking for spiders?"

He did not smile.

"Second thoughts?"

Nick shook his head.

"Then what?"

"I told my brothers to kill me if I was ever corrupted by the Four."

Paragon blinked at this. "But the Four won't give them that chance."

Nick nodded once at this.

"You've known that this for awhile now, though. There's something else, isn't there?"

Nick sighed deeply, eyes going to the burn mark on his palm from when he first met the Four. That day felt like a lifetime ago, but then again, that was his old life. The life in which he had been as corrupted as the Four and tainted red by the lies he told himself.

"Nick?"

The boy slowly looked to the shifter. His face held sorrow and secrets, but there was no sign of him turning back. There was just that final lingering doubt that kept telling him he couldn't, he shouldn't. But everyone knew the truth: he had to.

"I'll wait outside," the girl sighed, for she knew the look of someone who needed to be alone.

"Wait," Nick breathed. "The night we killed the Bane," he started slowly, unable to look the girl in the eye. "I tried to stop it, to stop them."

Paragon searched the Normal's face. "I don't understand."

Nick's hand cupped the ruby gently. "I didn't either. Not for a long while."

"Then could you explain it to me?" Paragon asked, impatient as the silence was left to grow.

Nick let out a humorless chuckle before he nodded. "I never claimed to be a Hero," he whispered. "But people still saw the good in me." He finally lifted his head to look at the Villain.

"Because there is good in you," Paragon whispered.

Nick smiled small as he shook his head. "You don't understand, Para."

"No, I don't," she agreed. "So stop wallowing in your little bubble of misery and just tell me!"

Nick's smile faded at this. "Don't test me."

Paragon took a step back as those words smacked her in the face."This is going to be hell," she quietly stated after a moment's pause "If we keep going on like this. With the anger and the secrets. Nothing will change if we don't."

Nick nodded once as he let the tension die from his hands. "I won't let this all be for nothing. The line between Hero and Villain has to be redrawn."

Paragon cocked her head at this. "You've mentioned that before, but what is the line exactly?"

"Honor, protection and virtue," Nick breathed as he pointed to the cracking ceiling. "Destruction, cherishment and unity," he continued, finger now on Paragon. "Greed, balance and normalcy," he finished, finger pointing to himself.

Paragon nodded, understanding him for the first time in this conversation. "And how do we get there?"

Nick turned his back to the girl. "I've told you before: we let the world burn."

The Normal turned the mask over in his hands. "When I tried to stop them," he continued the previous conversation. "It wasn't exactly me."

"The Four?"

Nick nodded. "I had been its puppet for the longest time without it even doing anything. It allowed me to wear it because my desires were so easily manipulated into its own. I needed the Bane in order to achieve balance, it needed it to be destroyed. And it needed to be destroyed in order for the balance to be created."

Nick shook his head, fingers now lost in his hair. "It took my memories because it knew it could feed me bits and pieces of my old plan and add in parts that the Bane feared. It knew that without my innocence, it could feed the Villain side of me. It wanted me to interfere, to try and stop it."

"Why?"

"Because the Bane was meant to destroy the most villainous being."

Paragon only stared. "You?"

Nick nodded slowly. "The part of me the Four created."

"But you weren't evil!"

Nick did not respond immediately. "Evil? Everything up to the moment the Bane was destroyed has been a lie, Paragon. Necrophere never existed. He was a phantom created and embodied by the Four and by my own idea. I needed a distraction, something to justify my actions until I could start my plan. So I created him time and time again. I staged everything. Every battle, every kidnapping."

Nick dropped his head into his hands. "I lead Kevin into those spikes and tried them with stupid illusions. I allowed Joe to get electrocuted. I made the entire world believe in a lie. I manipulated everyone: you, Joe, Kevin, Brianna, Eric. Everyone I could. And then I acted as the saving grace when all along I was the Villain."

"You hurt yourself in order for it to be more real? You lied to all of us? Who helped you do this?"

Nick shook his head. "No one helped me, Para. And I had to lie. It had to seem real."

Paragon crossed her arms and shook her head. "So tell me the truth. When did this all start?"

Nick held out his palm for Paragon to see the burn. "It was mine the moment I first touched it."

"Then why didn't you stop Florice?"

"Because I didn't know that it was mine. But in a way, it slowed her down."

The Villain and the Normal watched the serpent move, the shadows it was made out of growing. Its head was level with the girl's. Florice looked up, winning in her eyes, as she raised her hand. It hovered above the snake's head, slowing lowering.

Her hand ghosted over the shadows. The snake hissed. Nick's hand burned and Florice's hand flew to her neck where the stone had rested.

It reared back, opening its terrible mouth, and lunged forward.

Nick got to his feet, running. And he didn't look back.

"I wanted to get away from her and buy the Normals some time, and it did that."

"So it was all you?"

Nick nodded. "All me. I did everything I could. The Four did everything it could to make sure I didn't screw up."

"And the Bane had enough."

Nick nodded. "It believed that I could finish the plan, that I had to in order to make things right. That night when the Four took my memories, when the Bane first saw how Heroes acted in the face of danger, it knew that nothing sort of this plan would fix anything. And because of that, it tried to preserve whatever was left of the real me. "

"Did it work?"

For this, even Nick didn't have a straight answer. "We'll find out," was all he could say.

Paragon pursed her lips at this, but said no more. "So this plan," she slowly began to ask. "Is it yours or the Four's?"

"Does it even matter?"

Paragon wanted to answer, but she knew that this was not the time to push her friend. "It's brilliant," she told him. "But you realize that it's risky?"

Nick snorted at this.

"Dumb question, I know. But what if it doesn't work?"

Nick looked up at her with determined eyes. "It will work, Paragon. It has to."

The girl nodded. "Alright, it will work. So how exactly will it work?"

Nick stood and turned his back to his friend. "You'll see. Now go; I need you to be the first one out there. You, Florice and Valenteen. The rest of them will follow."

"What about you?"

Nick raised the mask to his face and stared at Paragon's reflection. "I'll be along after I talk to the Normals."

Paragon nodded. When she was almost out of the chamber, she paused to look back at the young man. "Hey, Nick?"

He nodded to show her that he was listening.

"Be careful."

This had him looking at the girl.

"You'll be their primary target. If something happens to you," she sighed and shook her head. "I don't even want to imagine it."

Nick nodded once. "Same goes to you. It's not every day that a Villain can become a friend."

Paragon smiled small at this. "How many times do I have to tell you," she laughed. "I'm on my own side."

Nick smiled at this as well. "No one can tame you."

She saluted Nick and bowed to him in a rather mocking manner. "That's why we make a great pair. No one can tame you either."

Nick chuckled at this. "The Four could object to that."

"Shut up and take the compliment," Paragon argued with an eye roll. She turned back towards the exit, her smile faded. "I'll see you out there."

"Yeah," Nick nodded. "Give 'em hell."

"Always do."

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The Heroes knew that this would be the final stand. They knew that it wouldn't be drawn out torture; the carnage was going to happen and the survivors were going to suffer. There would be no opportunity for escape. They had to stand together and stay strong. But they all lacked the one thing that often won a war: hope.

In spite of that, they all crowded the city square and waited. No one spoke; there was simply nothing to say. They argued enough in the past and caused enough pain for everyone. And now that they knew their greatest weapon had been annihilated, there was no comfort to be given. For most of them, this would be their last night. And they had to make it count.

Kevin and Sandy Lucas were on the hunt for any sign of the Villains; it seemed like a silly thing to do thanks to the Four, but doing nothing seemed even sillier. They may be able to at least detect Florice's roots before she ripped them all to shreds, or feel the chill of Cascadia's ice.

The son and mother shared many glances, for they knew that a majority of the Heroes here weren't well equipped for offensive battles. Kevin, Macy and Allegeilist, for instance, were better suited for searching than fighting. And for the kids like Frankie, who had never been in a battle, were now faced with the biggest fight of their lives, with virtually no protection. But all of them had to try.

"Heroes," a voice they all knew shouted from the sky. "Over here, idiots." They all turned to see a copper colored pigeon perched just above their reach. "I see you're all ready to lose and die?"

"Some of us may die tonight," Tom Lucas told the girl. "But we won't lose."

Paragon shifted to her human form and shook her head. "So you will all willingly die to keep this lifestyle? And what makes you think you can win?"

"We're all Heroes. We risk our lives to make sure our world isn't consumed by darkness. And we will win because good will always triumph over evil."

Paragon shook her head at Joe. "This isn't a movie; the world is already consumed. Besides, the Heroes haven't exactly been good. But the Villains haven't been good either, so we're even."

"It doesn't matter," a new voice tittered. "They're all going to die anyway."

All of the Heroes took a step back when Florice skipped into view.

"We were ordered to not hold back."

"And we won't hold back either!" a Hero shouted at the red head.

"I'm okay with dying," a teen boy stated loudly. "As long as Valenteen is next to me!"

The beauty rolled her eyes at this, her arms around two Heroes shoulders'. "It's like I've always been saying," she laughed. "Love is louder than anything. But you Heroes never listened to me. You never listened to anything but your own assess, actually."

"If you had listened," Paragon added, heels tapping the building."It would have stopped this from happening. But Heroes never learn."

"And Villains never know when to quit!" Macy suddenly shouted. "You killed our siblings, took away the survivors and continue to torment us with your lawlessness. Why would we have listened?"

Florice sighed heavily. "We never quit only because you never listened. You killed my children and sent us to the subway, when all we asked for was a spot to grow. That was 15 years ago. You brought this onto yourself."

"And like you're all so innocent," Macy challenged as she took a step forward.

Paragon shrugged at this. "We do what we have to in order to survive; something that has become illegal thanks to you."

"What is so illegal about living a decent life?!"

"That's easy," Florice sneered. "It's simply illegal for us to live. Just like the Normals. It's no wonder they picked us over you."

"Anyone would pick us over them," Valenteen added. "Our actions are so much more attractive than the death and suppression the Heroes cause."

Paragon smiled. "Even the Bane picked us, in the end. Nick told me. He said that it despised what the Heroes have turned into. It hated that the line between protection and honor has been blurred into nothing. In the end, you disappointed the souls of the first four Heroes."

"That can't be true," Stella whispered, her hand on Joe's arm.

Paragon shrugged. "Personally, I don't blame the Bane. Not one bit," she continued ruthlessly. "You've all become nothing more than bird shit on the good name of Heroes."

"Shut up!" Macy suddenly shouted. "Shut up and let's finish this thing. I can sick and tired of your lies! Tired of everything! So let's just finish this!"

Paragon crossed her arms. "Impatient to die?"

"No," Macy spat. "Impatient to make you into a fur coat."

"Haven't heard that before," Paragon muttered with an eye roll. "But very well. Florice, I believe you heard her. Let's finish this."

There had never been a more sadistic look in the petite girl's eyes. "With pleasure."

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Chibiyu: And this, my fellow Chibis, marks the final battle between the Heroes, Villains and Normals. Anyone figure out the whole plan? Was anybody surprised to hear that it was Nick all along and that there was no Necrophere? Theories on how I am going to end this? I can't wait to hear them. Until Next Update!