Kumori's Bane
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The silence was deadly. The white of shock had drowned the crowd so thoroughly that even those who previous gasped for air, gave up the struggle. Fingers went numb and began to tingle from the red aura of hate that came from the single body. And confusion, but not surprise, warped the thoughts of those once ignorant.
"What?" Joe finally breathed, his whisper carried well through the square. "H-how?"
Nick's eyes simply turned to their panting mother, whose hands covered her heart and her forehead.
"It's," she shook her head, eyes too wide. "It's true," was all she could say as her skin continued to drain of color.
Kevin, who had otherwise been distracted, zeroed in on his mother. He was instantly bombarded with toxic whispers of a world stained red. Where his will was slowly being crushed by the weight of two snakelike crimson eyes. Where his heart began to burn with the flames the Hero-driven world kindled.
"Stop it!" he suddenly shouted, finally able to find his curled-back tongue. "You're killing her!"
Nick broke his gaze with his mother and turned to his eldest brother. "And you've been killing me since I was born."
"Nicholas!" Tom stepped forward with a glare. As soon as his son turned to face him, the look of anger died. "Please," he nearly pleaded. "This isn't you."
Nick blinked once. "It is her fault," he finally revealed. "I'm not doing anything to her. She is only hurting herself to try and find the person I used to be."
Their mother collapsed into the arms of their father.
"Let her go!"
Nick crossed his arms. "Tell her to let me go."
Again, the eyes of a mother met with the uncaring eyes of a son.
"Let me go," he told her, voice even.
And the mother broke the contact. She let him fall from her heart, but he was quickly replaced by a gaping hole of agony. To have felt this, to know this kind of redness...
"Mom?"
She could only hide her eyes from Frankie's call.
"Are you alright?"
Nick turned his head up to his younger brother. "She will never be the same, Frankie."
"What did you do to her?!"
Nick closed his eyes at this aggravated yell.
"Nothing," Sandy whispered, her voice void. "I just saw the truth. He and the four...they're one. It is as he says."
"How?"
She turned to regard her sons, her face giving away nothing. "I don't know. But four souls have become five."
"When the Bane was destroyed," Nick spoke up when it became apparent that his mother could no longer speak through her grief. "I tried to stop it. The Four manipulate me into thinking that I had a chance to stop it. To save both them. Instead, it pulled me in."
Nick closed his eyes for a moment as whispers, unheard to anyone but him, sounded. Four voices. Telling him to shut up. To continue. To finish this. To stop it.
"Kumi, Tardis, Benevolio, Micah," he listed, eyes still closed. "Four fathers blessed with the first powers. They used them to shape the worlds."
His eyes opened, but they were far off, as if lost in memory.
"And then four women came into their lives. Four extraordinary and beautiful women. They intrigued each other. All eight shared the extraordinary abilities. It was only a matter of time before they fell in love."
Only Lilith didn't move in amazement of this story.
"Only a matter of time before the feud between good and evil would begin. They were supposed to kill each other – not let the powers spread. Children were never supposed to be born; four families were never supposed to be built. Gods were not supposed to walk among men."
Nick blinked and his eyes cleared.
"They tried to stop the Four's intentions. To rid the world of powers, but the Bane saw it as a blessing. A means to save mankind. The Four saw it as a mean for it to be destroyed. The men agreed that it couldn't continue. But the women fought. They hid away their children and slaughtered their husbands. They rejoiced in the saving of humanity. But they were wrong. Their actions led to all of this."
"And it was supposed to be over with their deaths. But the wives didn't know how much the men believed in the doomed future. They didn't know that they had locked away their souls the moment they caught wind of their wives' betray. As soon as their mortal bodies were killed, the Four was born."
Another blink and a breath.
"But the women found the Four. They vowed to fight it. To extinguish the evil it wanted to spread. To stop the annihilation of powers. "
"I told you he betrayed us!" a new voice rang out as a horrid stench filled the air.
Phantom limped in, his face never once entering the light, and following him was the city's entire army of Villains.
"He intends to destroy us all," he sneered to the shocked audience. "You all heard it. He already killed Florice." A finger pointed to the white and cracked skin of the corpse. "She is now just a new toy for Talis."
The mentioned girl just looked a Nick, eyes curious.
Shouts of anger met the Normal's ears, but he shut them out easily. He shut out the stomping of the tantrum pounding feet. And he ignored the holes that their gazes burned into his skin.
"We all share a common enemy, now," Phantom muttered as he eyed the gathered Normals and the Heroes. "And it will take all of us to destroy him."
Silence.
"Are you suggesting we...form an alliance?"
Phantom nodded to Loraine. "A temporary one. Just until this menace is laying in a pool of his own blood."
The only movement was Paragon stepping closer to Nick, and Talis pulling herself from the crowd. She nodded and smiled towards the pair before she skipped over to their side.
"Talis likes snakes," she told the crowd, still smiling.
"Three of you against all of us?"
Lilith left the crowd, her form shifting in the light. She put her dainty hand on Nick's shoulder and winked to Talis.
"Four, actually. What a fitting number," she laughed. "Four to become the Bane of your existence."
Nick glanced into their determined faces, his hard face nearly dropping at their sacrifice. But they all knew; somehow, they all knew what they were going to lose.
"And hundreds to become the Bane of yours."
A world against them.
"Wait!" Bri ran forward and stepped behind Nick's legs. Eric soon followed, but he stood, fists out, to face the Heroes.
Sandy Lucas took to her feet and joined the two Normals. She soon fell to her knees and tore Bri from Nick and held her close. The mother met the eyes of her son, and nodded. For a moment, they had shared a soul. She knew. She was prepared to face it.
"Mom?"
"Let it be," she ordered her family. "I've made my choice. I know what I'm doing."
They were too speechless to fight her.
Finally, one more stepped from the sea of people.
Tony made his way forward and nodded to Nick as he placed himself in front of his mother.
Nick looked to the crowd, eyes resting on those who fought for him and those who made him the blood to lure sharks.
Four Villains.
Four Heroes.
One with the power to end it.
Two pure enough to life through it.
Nine prepared to die.
And Nick nodded to himself. This was it. The finale.
It is time for a long rest.
A well earned one, Nick couldn't help but add.
His limbs still ached and burned to the point where he wouldn't have been able to stand without the Four's support. His eyes could hardly focus on one face. He couldn't even identify his emotions anymore. The voices within his skull that weren't his power, the constant prickle of the held back power; the visions of a world painted red – they meant nothing anymore.
And the sun on his face was cold.
It was time.
And he was ready.
"Enough of this," Phantom hissed. "Just more blood to spill." He turned to Loraine and the rest of the council members. "What do you say?"
They nodded to each other. "All traitors must be punished. All threats must be eliminated."
"Then shall we share the first blow?"
Paragon's hand entwined with Nick's. Nick reached to his mother. His mother grabbed onto Bri's, and Bri to Eric's. Eric grabbed Tony's and Tony held Talis's. Lilith connected the odd circle with a small smile.
The rest of the Normals closed in around them, faces set and bodies defensive.
"They won't touch us," one whispered. "They can't."
"Not with the Four on our side," another agreed as their predators slowly advanced. "Not when Nick has a plan."
Nick let his head fall. His plan?
The world covered in ash. Gray. No light. No life. Nothing but two little sparks and their tears to give life to the sapling underneath their huddled forms. Ghosts from their past surrounding them, unwilling to let them go. To give the pair a fresh start.
But there was no better way.
The world was already stained in red. It had already died under the wrath of hatred. Already crumbled from the war of love and hatred, of good and evil, of gods and humans.
Nick lifted his head again, but he didn't see the red that splattered from the Normals he let die. He didn't hear their screams as they tried to flee. As they yelled for him to protect them, to save them.
As he betrayed them.
But the Bane did this to them –not Nick. Not the Four. The Four tried to stop it before it started. Before it came to this. To the death of billions. The pain wasn't meant to be shared; the pain of killing the ones who were exactly like you. The ones who trusted you unconditionally. The ones you had to betray.
The Four never meant for anyone other than themselves to feel this. To feel the shattering of their soul as it split into a thousand pieces that would never again form together. The pieces that had jagged edges. The edges that stabbed into the heart of their host and caused it to bleed. To mourn. To die.
And all fragile pieces eventually turn to dust. Dust that covers the withered heart of a dead man still walking. Of the empty shell that is only running on sheer willpower, of the belief that he can make this right. Of the belief, that when it is over, he will finally feel again. The warmth of the sun, the shaking of his limbs, the blessed comfort of sleep; the things that once made him human.
Blood landed on his skin far before the blows did. With every fleck of innocent blood, the more Nick allowed himself to breathe. The more red the world behind his closed eyes became. The more anger the Four built and the more pain Nick held back.
Revenge was petty. Hatred meant next to nothing. Murder was a start. Anger was strong. Pain was powerful. And memories...memories of Normals pasts, of their suffering, of everything they want through: the dark rooms, the death threats, the tears, the blood, the flashes from death...that was everything needed. All of these emotions that Nick had singlehandedly managed to create through his mask of evil.
Because evil was what the world needed to see. What the world needed to instigate a change. A change that would right the evil they created, the one Nick and the Four tried for so long to stop.
Because the bane of Kumori was never meant to be the Bane. Never meant to be four women who wanted the existence of powers. The bane of shadows was the one who could shed light on the truth. The truth that gods ruined this world. The truth that mankind was doomed to kill itself. The Normals saw this far more easily than the Heroes. And the Villains knew it if they were told; it was hardwired in them, even if they forgot it.
That is why those without power are the ones that should be listened to. The ones without a voice because society cut out their tongues; they are the ones who will be the kings and queens of the new world. The ones without any sort of chance in starting this cycle again.
The first blow was to Nick's guy. He didn't care who threw it. Didn't even care which power was creeping up and chilling his spine. Didn't care about the fact he was being murdered. He no longer felt the hands in his, as one had been torn from his and the other had long since cut off feeling in his fingers. He no longer felt any sort of anything. No pain. Hardly any chill. No light. The only thing he knew was the steady hum of the Four, keeping him sane and keeping him still, and the way his heart hammered on.
And this was the way it was supposed to be. They didn't need another fight. Another pointless delay. Another way to manipulate them straight into Nick's plan. Because this was the end of it. The only end of it. The end of the plan to end the world. To cover it in a sea of blood. And if Florice had been right about anything, it was that corpses made great fertilizer for new life.
Florice. A death that made Nick sick with the amount of pleasure it had brought him. A death that had been his final step. He knew Phantom was watching. He knew Paragon would have been to shocked to say anything. He knew the Villains would be so hurt that they would listen to his reasoning. And he knew that, once they all knew the truth of the Four, they would want it gone.
Because a threat is a threat, even if it is father of their race.
Nick barely had the time to think almost before the numbness began to spread into his chest. His sense had long since shut off. He wasn't even sure if he still stood, or if anyone stood over him, if anyone was even touching him. Everything was just a blur, a rumble, something distant and something faint. To him, he was cradled in the praise of the Four. Given its final blessing; an easy death.
"Why doesn't it protect him?"
The hiss came through audibly, but the voice was muffled, as if through a mist.
"Why isn't he fighting back?"
"Does he want this?
"Nick?"
They want another fight? More death?
Something harder than this.
Something more satisfying than a boy bowing down to his fate?
Something more than this.
Shall we give it to them?
Or will the finale be enough?
"Fight back! Only cowards die this easily!"
Coward?
Coward.
The anger flared up from the flickering coals. It raced across his dead veins and fed off everything he had ignored. And the red behind his lids flared to match the color of the blood which fell from his face.
His eyes snapped open, but what the people saw was not the boy they once stepped on. His eyes were a mirror of the Four. Nick was nearly gone; given all he had to the plan and barely had enough left to hold onto the anger that forced his body to stand. His soul was empty. But the Four's was not.
And the Four was him.
And he was the Four.
So his soul was filled with the need to finish this. And to finish this right. So if the world want a final battle, then it was up to him to give it. To be the last martyr; the standing victor.
As soon as he reached his full height, they all stepped back, too shocked to see his broken body moving without a wince of pain. Too scared to look into the eyes of someone who should be dead.
"A trick!" Phantom tried to shout, but his voice only squeaked when Nick turned his head to look at the hideous figure. The figure he probably didn't look much better than. "Their bodies surround him, so why isn't he laying with them?"
Because you want this. You asked for this. For the grander finale.
"Knock his ass back down!" someone unseen shouted. A blow forced his head forward, but he didn't stumble. Instead, the yell of a person lighting on fire and running through the crowd, rolling on the ground, and eventually silence. The acrid smell of something that cannot be described.
They asked for this. But did they really want it?
"You wanted something more, didn't you?" Nick whispered, his throat briefly burning as more blood trickled down it. But he Four kept him going. Kept him from feeling the twinge for too long. "More of a fight?"
The world grew a shade darker from his tone and the sun lost its warmth to everyone still standing. And so it turned from a game of corner prey to Russian Roulette. One hit would take them down, but all it would take was one to take him down.
The female council member stepped forward, her heels clicked as she approached the boy.
"Everyone should have listened when I told them to kill you," she said, voice uneven. "Now, I will take it upon myself to see it done!"
Her hand began to glow a sickly red as acid was flushed from her pores. She raised it to Nick's face and smiled.
"Let's see the Four save you from this."
Her hand met Nick's face. But she was the one to scream. She pulled away, eyes covered in a black shadow. A shadow that entered her veins and visibly raced down her neck, chest and arms. It stretched across her head. Entered the areas covered by clothing. And she collapsed, her last scream etched on her face and her body convulsing.
And Nick couldn't help but think of the Bane. For if it were still living, it wouldn't even have bothered to save this woman. Even it would have spit on her body after it stilled. After the darkness of the Four had completed shrouded whatever light she had in her soul. After it had consumed her life.
"Funny, isn't it?" Nick managed to force out. "I always did say this was just a game. Me being a pawn. But I've made it across the minefield. Now, I have the power." That was it for the Normal's voice. For everything he had the capacity to say. And he had no idea how long it would take for his mind to slip away as well.
If he still had it.
"You have nothing," Phantom hissed as the tendrils of his power stretched across the boy's mind. But Nick's expression remain unchanged. And Phantom's power dwindled on its own, as it found nothing to attach to. Nothing to scare or blind. Not a single care weak enough to manipulate. He only found one thing that was impossible to latch onto: the shifting desires of the combined souls and their horrid, but hidden intention. The one thing that kept them both standing.
They may have had nothing in terms of alliances, support, or even power, but they had everything when it came to the means. They had set it up perfectly. There were no means to stop this. Not by his hand, at least.
"Who wants to kill him?" Phantom managed to whisper as she spread his arms to address the audience. Most shied away from this repulsive gesture. Most were already covered in the stains of their sins. Most were tired of all of this; tired of their siblings getting killed and tired of being the ones committing the murder. When it came to this, Florice was the only one who truly thrived with red on her hands.
Even Talis, who was spared for the bloodshed for the simple reason that her puppets would not let her die, looked away as she put her icy hand on Nick's arm. The corpses around them shifted, heads on the undecided audience as they knelt down in front of the girl and left Nick's chest and head exposed.
But still, no one moved.
"You do it, then," Joe ordered the disgruntled hunchback. "If you want him dead, then kill him."
Phantom gnashed his yellowed teeth at this. "I have tried, but my power cannot reach such a frozen mind. And the Four is not letting physical wounds kill the boy –as you can all see."
This was true enough. The Normals body had enough lacerations that blood should be pooling around him instead of in steady, single drips. His limbs were purple and skin broken, but nothing seemed to faze him. The frost that crept up his clothes only left a trail of wet fabric. Even the hand-shaped bruises around his neck, courtesy of the girl who could remain unseen, hadn't been enough.
Loraine had tried, but no matter where she pressed or how hard she squeezed, the boy still found a way to breathe. And as much as she would have liked to be the one to annihilate the threat, as she was one of the first to try and secure it, she could not.
"No takers?" Phantom hissed.
"Why would anyone try and kill a God," Lilith choked out from her position on the ground. Her form no longer shifted in the light. Her wrinkles pooled with the crimson wine from her veins. Her skin was taunt and cold. "When they know their fate will be worse than his?"
Nick looked down to the woman who once tortured him greatly. To the woman who scarred him and scared him away from the dark. To the girl who helped him with excitement in her eyes and wisdom in her words. To the Villain suffering beneath his feet.
And he nodded to her, hoping she could somehow see the thanks in his frame.
The light left her eyes as the Four cut off the blood from her heart. It made it quick. It tried to make it painless. Because without her, this moment would have never happened. The Four would never have met Nick and Nick would never have taken it as his own. It owed her this. And Lilith managed to smile at its actions before her life vanished.
"And so it kills another," the disfigured sneered, but people have stopped listening to his poison. They saw the truth in this kindness, in this one act.
"It ended her suffering," Talis whispered. "She is at peace."
Cascadeia shook her head. "So it's about we bring peace to this world." She pointed to the Normal. "I spared you once before. Stopped Florice, but couldn't kill her. You took revenge for all of us. And I have taken my revenge on you." As she spook, she eyed the ice that still managed to cling to the boy's hair. "I am at peace."
With this, the woman turned and strode away from the crowd, confidence in her step. Eyes followed her departure, but no one called her back. Cascadea had fought for the death of her brother and for the vengeance of those who hurt him. But now, she had nothing more to fight for. Florice was dead. And the Four would make the Heroes learn. Would make all super-beings learn. And frankly, she could care less as to how it was done. As long as it was done, she would remain at peace.
But no one followed her.
"It would be fitting for a family member to kill him. He betrayed you. Why not return the favor?" Phantom hissed, eyes flicking to Valenteen to ask for her persuasion techniques.
Kevin, Joe, Tom and Frankie, who currently shielded their mother, all exchanged looks.
"He isn't your brother anymore," the Villain reminded them. "Then again, he never really was. Think of it like a hostage situation. The only way to free him from the Four, is to kill him."
They looked into the almost blank eyes of their brother, who stared back evenly. If they were to do it, would it end all of this?
Kevin stood and faced his younger brother. He put all of his power into keeping himself away from than tantalizing aura of the Four, but now, he let his guard drop. And he felt nothing. Nothing until he looked deeper, until Nick and the Four allowed it all to be seen.
Kevin blinked once when the one emotion overpowered everything; even the ultimate powers of the Four. The shared feeling between all five souls; contentment. They were ready for this. Wanted this. Needed it to happen.
But Kevin didn't know why. He sensed the urgency. Knew that there was a plan to be completed, but it was hidden from him. And his mother was in no state to reveal it.
But they wanted it badly.
And, when Kevin probed further, it didn't feel evil. There wasn't any darkness, or redness, threatening to overtake him. It was almost...
Comforting.
He pulled away and soon his vision cleared enough for him to see Nick's eyes again. His brother gave a small nod and tried to smile, but his lip's didn't move. The light on his face was enough though. And the statement in his frame of: you have to trust me.
"What is going to happen?" Kevin whispered, too quietly for anyone but Nick to hear.
Peace.
For once, Kevin did not flinch away at the Four's voice. For the first time since they've met, it was soft and gentle. Almost begging. And very much ready for whatever came next.
"Can you promise that?"
I cannot see the future. But I can promise that this war will end tonight, if you allow it.
"How?"
How every war ends. In death.
Kevin let out a breath before he asked his last question. "Why Nick?"
For a moment, the Four didn't answer.
"Because I knew it had to be done," Nick filled the silence, voice almost missed by his oldest brother. "Because I saw the truth – Heroes had become the Villains."
And because he was the only one strong enough to do it. The only one who could be my master, and not me be his.
"This will end it, Kev," Nick whispered, breaths broken. "I promise."
Kevin could only look into his eyes, search for some lie. He took Nick's shoulder in his hand and gripped it tightly, but the Normal only shook his head.
"You have to."
Kevin's hand began to shake.
I won't fight you.
He did nothing at these words, as comforting as they were.
"Please."
"Kev?" Tom called out as he held back Joe and Frankie. "It's your call."
But he only had one call to make. He couldn't let this continue. Couldn't have it on his conscience. His mind flashed back to seeing his brother, hand pressed to his side in pain, as he rested the corner of the shared prison. To him convulsing as he was shocked by a time bomb. A bomb that Nick himself invented to help the illusion of Necrophere. To plant the ideas and hatred in their minds. But the pain had been real. He put himself through it in order to get here. In order to destroy the Bane and have everyone against the Four.
For it to feed off of this mutual hatred of the origin of powers.
The origin.
Kevin looked at his brother, shocked. But Nick could only nod with a microscopic smile on his face.
You finally understand, he seemed to be saying. You finally get it.
And Kevin nodded. He pulled his brother into a hug. And he couldn't even tell Nick that he was sorry for what he was about to do. Because truthfully, he wasn't. This needed to be done. They both knew it. And Nick had gone through enough in one time. He, as he had said before, has had a good run. The best of runs.
So Kevin chose the final words his little would hear, not caring if they were cliché.
"I'm proud to call you my brother."
With that said, Kevin did as he rarely did – delved into the darker side of his powers. The side that took away apart of himself every time he dared to use it. Because murder doesn't come without a cost. The side that sensed the mind of another, and crushed it with a part of his own mind. The part that smothered everything the person was. The part that killed.
But a body can live without a mind. His hand went to his brother's throat as his tears blurred his vision. He tried to shut out the steady beat of a pulse as he slowly closed his hand. Tried to shut out the indescribable agony of hearing a mind scream, hearing five minds scream, as they were being smothered and crushed by another. Tried to ignore the way his own mind threatened to explode as he literally ripped a piece of it from his body.
And then it was over. The pulse under his hand. The loud torrent of screams. The crumbling of his own mind.
Kevin had time to let his knees buckle and to fall, still holding his brother. He had time to let a single tear fall. But that was it.
And the world turned to the hue of hatred: red. And the sun became the eyes of a serpent: crimson. And the light turned to shadow: black.
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Chibiyu: Not quite what you were expecting? Good! I still got it. The epilogue is left, guys, and it will answer, hopefully, most of the questions you're left with. Until Next Update!
