Now, before anybody says anything- yes, I know Zarei is gay and that whatever relationship she had in the past with Spender was purely platonic. However, this story was written and completed before the date between Zarei and Day even started. Please take this piece as, well, a product of its time (sometime mid 2016). It's been posted on AO3 for around a year now, and you can check there if you don't believe me ;D
Her heels clacked against the polished wood floor of the small cottage she's built for herself in the woods. Spirits, differing in appearance and ability and ferociousness, scattered like scared rats under her feet. "I told you idiots to leave survivors- not to leave all of them alive." She huffed and let the front door slam behind her. "A death or two in their little clique might have been a major hit to morale, but I guess that's a thing of the past now."
It was a small home, and old, but it had done her well all these years. It stayed sturdy and beautiful, and in a way she thought it a physical manifestation of herself and her spirit. She almost thought she'd miss its small wooden door and the way the fire burned beneath the pot she'd pieced together from the Mayview Museum a good ten miles away (carrying that sucker back had been quite the hassle at the time). The quilt she'd sewn for herself to sleep under come freezing winter nights would be a figment of the past now that her strategy was set in motion.
She could hear Velda and Conall bickering in the tools she'd locked them in. The mermaid hairclip and the pocket watch sitting at the bottom of her small dark orange purse were buzzing, vibrating in her hands as loud as they were in her mind.
Berenice pursed her lips and let a fresh wave of air escape from the heat of her lungs, reaching her hand up to pull the tie out of her hair. She set it in her bag and ran tense fingers through her silky golden locks, humming as she came to sit in the small bench before her vanity. "Home sweet home, right?" She reached up to the first few buttons of the shirt she called her "business shirt", the one she wore when she took over Spender's job for all of three months. She ran a sensual finger down from the collar to her mid-chest, then ran it back up and lightly twisted the buttons out of their holes. "These clothes are so stuffy. It makes me so hot…"
Berenice pretended to cool herself off with a handheld fan, twisting her head to look over her shoulder where Richard Spender lurked in the background. He stood a straight as she figured a man of his personality would, looking so ready for danger when there was no way they were in any- yet. She batted her eyes and turned her arm in the direction of the sink. "Be a lover and get me some water?" He didn't respond, but his body carried itself over to what she'd deemed her small kitchen, grabbing a glass from one of the few cabinets she'd carved. With a smile, she bent into her vanity, setting her jaw on the back of her hand. She was in the spirit world in no less than three seconds, and the arguing she'd heard in the confines of her clutch became loud and abundantly clear.
"Look at what she's doing! You were foolish to trust her!"
"And yet here you are, dead just as I am- because you were foolish to trust me."
She practically heard Velda wince. "I- that's not-! This is not the same thing! I made a mistake, yes, but do not be so arrogant as to assume that mistake was following you anywhere! I am my own person! You are the sheep!"
"His point still stands, Velda." Berenice turned her head over her shoulder again, crossing her bare legs and running a hand along her small black skirt to smoothen the creases. "Regardless of the how's and why's, both of you are here- under my control." Velda cringed and bared her teeth, but she said nothing. Conall smiled from ear-to-ear, as if winning such a small argument was a victory in battle. She knew his ego drove him, same as it did her own. Velda- well, she knew Velda was driven by emotion. Which emotion was up for debate, although Berenice felt she had a few ideas. "You two can stop bickering, now. Once we've accomplished our objective you'll rest easy."
"You say that like our goal is in sight! I have some bad news for you, harpy" Velda gestured to the wide open space that was their melded minds, although she probably meant something different. "You've been wasting your time playing Stockholm Syndrome Housewife with some random consortium agent- not ripping the consortium out from under its own feet."
Berenice chuckled and moved so that she could lean her back against the vanity. "But I am."
"But you're not!"
"I hate to say it, love, but I agree with Velda this time." Conall crossed his arms over his chest, wide pupils narrowing like a cat's aiming eye. Velda's jaw dropped to hear him say it, but her tongue was out at Berenice as quick as her shock depleted. "What are you doing messing with some helpless fool who can hardly control a handful of teenagers?"
"Getting revenge- that's what." Berenice turned her head to the side and waved them off with one hand, scratching the edge of her vanity with the long nails on her other. "Now if you idiots could stop bickering and let me handle the plan you two had no part in- that'd be great."
She blinked and the cluster that'd been their melded minds had faded, and before her was a glass filled to the rim with ice and water. Spender smiled at her and she took it in a firm hand, careful to let her fingers brush against his as he passed the cup to her grasp. She thanked him with a pretty-eyed smile and tipped the glass over her dry lips. Each drop was a relief, every inch of water cascading down her throat a sweet icy bliss. She'd felt like she was overheating, dressed from her neck to her toes in appropriate teacher apparel. No wonder school is out in the summer. That would've been unbearable. She switched which leg was crossed over the other, and let her eyes scale the length of Spender's body. His black pants were thoroughly fitted, even for a borrowed pair of slacks. The white shirt adorning his shoulders and buttoning all the way up what she'd assumed to be a toned chest- well, that must have felt pretty hot.
Berenice hummed and twisted her finger in a circle, but the only response she got was a confused cocked brow. She tittered to herself and pulled the cup from her lips, giving him her most carnal grin. "You should take that shirt off, Spender. It looks like it'd be awfully hot, too."
It took what she'd said a few moments to register, and when it did his entire face went as bright as her reddest lipstick. "I- ah! Um, no- no, I'm quite alright."
Her lips parted to say something, but she bit it back with a sneer and turned around. Well, that's not good. She ran her fingers through her scalp and looked at herself in the mirror, watching as her golden locks fell like caramel over her face. I'll have to fix that.
"You people are insane!" Agent Bove waved his arms around dramatically, expression ranging from unfathomable disbelief to fervent frustration. "We need to call for backup! We have no idea how many spirits she's manipulated. We could be walking into a literal hoard of grudges!"
"And if we do call for backup, which I most assure you we won't," Zarei stuck her hands in her pockets, and fixed Agent Bove with a scowl so staggering everyone could discernibly see him tremble "then the odds of Richard Spender walking out of this alive are cut in half. I have full confidence that Isabel and I can get through to him given time. Bringing agents with no connection to the operation will ensure Spender's death, and I'm just about sick of burying the man."
"So what?" Max raised an eyebrow Ed assumed was of curiosity- or skepticism, knowing him. "We just walk in there with our fingers crossed we don't get overwhelmed?"
"We keep our heads up and our wits about us. We can't afford to get anyone else involved."
"Okay- I get that," Isabel turned her head over her shoulder, eyes narrowing in Zarei's direction from where she stood taking shots at the training dummies. She seemed skeptical as Max did, but Ed knew she was far less willing to question that plan if it meant keeping Spender alive. "But how are we supposed to figure out where they are? I didn't get a great look at Guillory's license plate."
"We have documents for that sort of thing," Bove tapped the side of his head. "Berenice is one of Conall's allies; we have records on her from the past. We harvested some of her aura the same way tools harvest it, pretty much for tracking her within the Mayview vicinity. We'd just assumed she was dead like the other two so we've never used it."
"So you have to go and retrieve those documents before we go after them?" Ed wasn't too keen on that idea. They'd spent months mourning Spender, and to have him ripped from their hands so suddenly was motivation enough to start a fight. He could feel Muse humming in agreement where he'd tucked his tool in the belt loops of his pants. Call it Burger-family intuition, but he had a feeling that the rest of the club was as ready to kick some spirit teeth in as he was. Their faces read of death and their auras flittered through the air like colored aromas. Isabel seemed the worst, nails scratching at the skin in the palm of her hand because she was itching in her blood to take their final opponent down. They had, after all, spent six years of their lives living in anticipation of the final ally's move. The exhilaration of ending it all- settling the score once and for all- that was a rash Ed couldn't seem to rid himself of either.
"It shouldn't take me any longer than fifteen minutes." Bove pointed an accusing finger, but Isabel gripped it between firmer fingers and he faltered in everything but his scowl. "I'm already doing you a favor by keeping this from the boss. You want to rush me? Be my guest. My loyalty isn't with you."
"And yet you're agreeing to help us?" Isaac's inquisitive gaze lingered on the last words, and Bove's grimace fell with Isabel's grip.
"That doesn't mean anything."
"Either way," Zarei stood straighter as she came to stand in the cold middle of the collected group, eyes grazing over what she had to work with. Ed almost felt like a chess piece, and he would've said something about it had Cindy's trembling hand not found the edge of his shirt. He glanced down at her and she, through tired eyes, gave him a small encouraging smile. He understood it better than he felt he should have- she was scared. He related to that emotion, and he'd shaken quivering hands with it many times before. It did seem like a lot, he supposed. The one time Cindy had ever gone up against one of Conall's ally's, she'd taken on a gargantuan squid and nearly lost her life in the process. Now that I think about it, Izzy and I were almost ghosts, too… "While Agent Bove is doing that, we need to make a plan of attack. First things first- we split into groups."
Ed spotted the frantic gaze Max and Isaac shot each-other, and he watched their silent conversation delve from something uneasy to something hearteningly encouraging. Ed clenched his own fist.
"Group A will go right for Guillory and Richard, and Group B will defend Group A from oncoming attacks from the assumed packs of spirits we'll find upon walking into her nest." The venom with which Zarei said 'nest' was enough to make everyone in the room cringe.
"Well if it helps, I think Ed and Cindy should share a group." Isabel spoke in mutters, but the frustration in her eyes read louder, and she turned her gaze somewhere to the side to hide it. "They sure have been 'working' together just fine…"
Cindy squinted before looking altogether baffled, and she turned her puzzled eyes on Ed. In truth he was equally as perplexed. He'd known she'd been upset about him seeing Cindy instead of her, but the sheer level of wrath she'd let loose on him as they stood together on the patio hadn't just been about his coping mechanisms, although he was yet to figure out what said reason was. She'd wanted to tell him something, and for once she was- and this stumped him- too scared to. She'd never been the type to cower to anything or anyone, not even a rambunctious dog or her grandfather. To have her standing, in his hands, hiding from him- it'd hurt. If he was honest with himself, he deserved it. He'd spent all that time, running to Cindy's in the middle of the night, instead of sitting down on Isabel's bed and letting the chain on his mourning laments loose. God, he didn't know what Isabel must have thought, watching him come home exhausted both mentally and physically. God, he didn't even give her a reason- just "I don't' wanna talk about it" or "I'm tired". She must have known; she had to have known. If she'd been so loud about him relying on Cindy, then what else could she have possibly wanted to say?
Realization struck him like the chord on a guitar- suddenly, and with no prior warning. He let his lips part and his brows furrow, and it was with great awe that he started to piece Isabel's recent behavior into the puzzle she'd left him with, bit by curious bit. He furtively set his gaze on Isabel, although she seemed to be keeping her eyes steadfastly on anything that wasn't him. He felt the tug of Cindy's hand at his shirt and saw the aura swaying above Isabel's bare tank-topped shoulders, and suddenly everything made a little more sense. He grinned, for the first time in a long time, and turned to pay attention to the commands Zarei was listing off.
"So… do we just" Isabel made a motion with her fist, pounding it against the palm of her hand "break in there and starting kicking ass or-?" The club crouched in the brushes outside a small cabin in the woods, something not lost on Ed, who was particularly amused by it.
Zarei shook her head in synch with Agent Bove, who looked absolutely drained already. That wasn't a huge surprise, all things considering. In just a day, he was overthrowing nearly a decade-long Mayview threat, keeping secrets from his newly-appointed superiors, and being manhandled like a small child by two aggressively dominant personalities. Ed was surprised, and impressed, that the poor guy hadn't called it quits and just stayed passed out when he went to the consortium. "We stick to the plan. Isabel, Miss Balton- you're with me." It was an arrangement Ed wasn't particularly fond of, but he wasn't about to bring forth the fury of the only woman who could patch him up after a final-boss-level beating. "Group B, you stay here and wait for our signal."
"Which was…?"
Zarei glared at Max, who laughed and held up both hands in mock defense.
As they approached the front door of the small cabin in the woods- creepy, Isabel noted- the familiar sensation of doubt began circling in her stomach, swallowing the confidence that'd been there moments before whole. She swallowed it down, although it felt more like it choked her, and she tried her best to focus on Zarei and the path before them. They crouched down to avoid detection, and Isabel couldn't help but look back. Max and Ed were both waving her off, heartening smiles a small but helpful comfort as she and the rest of their small team crept over to the side window sitting somewhere above what appeared to be a bed. Guillory's and Mister Spender's relation to the bed, however, was yet to be determined. Zarei looked over her shoulder and nodded, signaling Isabel to look over her shoulder and nod to Cindy. The poor girl looked about as shaken as a brand new spectral might have been, her green eyes wide and dismayed behind her gritty stare. Isabel tried her best to offer her a comforting grin, and it seemed to work, but she could still feel the fear riding off of Cindy in swirling spurts.
It might have been her own fear.
"Three…" Zarei began the countdown, fingers up for emphasis. Isabel held her breath, and Cindy gripped the back of her shirt for a support Isabel wasn't sure she'd find.
"Two…" Isabel glimpsed back at Group B again. She told herself she couldn't help it- that finding his gaze was like looking for the lighthouse in the dead of the night, and perhaps that was the truth. Ed's reassuring smile faded to become something greater, something more in-touch with the reality they were living. His smile was small, but everything else about him- his posture, his eyebrows, his shoulders, and the twitch of his nose- was so immense to her right then. Even from afar, he was making a promise to her that she'd be alright. Maybe it was because it was Ed, or maybe she knew it even under all of the stresses of the situation at hand, but there was a sudden prodigious feeling of sureness; she could do this. She'd be fine.
They would see each-other again.
"One…!"
Cindy whipped out her cell phone and, with a flick of her wrist, she turned it into a butcher's knife. She took a deep breath and raised her arm, sending it crashing into the window with force enough to shatter the glass. Zarei and Isabel took the chance to leap over the windowsill and into the house, tools and spectral shots ready at the aim. Upon entering the small cabin, the first most noticeable thing was Spender standing to the side, clad in a frilly chef's apron (dotted from top to bottom with pink and red hearts). The second most noticeable thing was Guillory, hands in oven mitts, trying desperately to set a steaming hot pie down. From the looks of the bursting filling dripping down the sides, it was cherry. They both appeared surprised to have company, but Guillory looked more miffed than embarrassed. That was funny, considering Isabel would have expected some form of shame from Spender's end. When she looked to his face she found none. "Well," Guillory dropped the pie on the counter and slammed his mittens right beside it. "It looks like my plan needs a little improvising."
"If you know what's smart, shrew" Zarei stood and cracked a line of her spectral aura like a whip. "You'll release him before I use you as my next surgical treatment dummy!"
"Big words, Miss Zarei. Care to live up to them?"
"If she doesn't," Isabel clenched her fist and let her aura flow through her. The feeling fit against her skin like an old friend, a power that'd been sitting within her that she hadn't used in forever. It was her passion- a real drive behind every punch she'd throw and every swing of her umbrella. "I will!"
Cindy climbed in, sitting on the windowsill with her tool in one hand and the broken border in her other. She was trembling, but her face read of danger.
Guillory inhaled slowly, turned her unamused gaze to the ceiling…
… And to their honest surprise, she broke into hearty laughter.
Even Spender seemed surprised, eyes widening behind his glasses and he reached around to untie the apron from his waist. Guillory's hearty laughter broke into tiny snickers that she tried to stifle with her hand, and the look in her eyes would have read as frolicsome in any other situation. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just thought you'd have something more dramatic to say. Something like" her voice came in a purr. "That's your last word or Keep your filthy hands off my best friend!"
The phrases hit Isabel like a replica gunshot to the face, a bouquet of memories stampeding to hit her all at once.
Isaac's other hand sat at the back of Conall's head, tugging viciously on his hair. "I was waiting for you to say my name." His expression darkened and he moved closer, empty eyes tightening. "That's your last word." Then there was electricity flowing in and out of the ghost. Conall was screeching.
Immediately, Ed sat up and coughed, inhaling heavily and grasping for the air he'd been denied for longer than was probably healthy. When his chest finally stopped burning and his sight returned to him, he glanced to the side to find what had saved him.
He was ecstatic to find Isabel on top of Velda, fist pulled back and scorching with red energy. Her aura was nothing compared to the fire in her eyes.
"Keep your filthy hands off my best friend!"
"Oh my god," Zarei and Cindy turned to her, eyes just as puzzled as they were cautious. Isabel's aura temporarily faded to a low burn, a sudden shiver coming over her body as realization hit her even harder than the earlier gunshot. "You were there! You were there the entire time!"
"Well, no." Guillory raised a hand to the pocket watch around her neck and the mermaid clip in her hair. "My friends told me all about it themselves. Don't worry. I haven't been stalking you or your friends- or your boyfriend, for that matter."
"That's uncalled for." Zarei came to Isabel's defense before she could, stepping in front of her with an outstretched arm. "This is business. Keep her personal affairs out of this."
"Coming from the woman more tragic than anyone else here. Out of curiosity," Guillory reached over and ran her middle finger down the length of Spender's chest, a grin inching across her face as she watched for Zarei's reaction. "Does this piss you off?"
A spectral shot right past her head did little but prove her point. Guillory whistled and glanced over her shoulder, as though the shot would have left a mark in her unpossessed wall. "Well, that's a yes." Isabel hissed at Zarei when her aura began to grow well above her body, but the woman hardly paid her any mind. It wasn't too surprising, considering Zarei was a great many years her senior, but Isabel would have thought she'd have more sense.
Spender stood still, expression as blank as any mindless dummy's would have been. Isabel shivered to see him like that. Usually his face was an orchestra of different emotions. Spender hid a lot of things, but he'd never been very good at hiding what he was feeling. The Spender before them was simply not her Spender- their Spender. He was a zombie under psychedelic manipulation and Isabel wasn't about to let that stand.
Guillory hummed and ran her finger back up Spender's chest until her hand could come to sit at his shoulder. "You know, I thought it was going to take much longer than three months to tell me everything I needed to know- he's surprisingly easy to break."
"That's because you're a medium with powers," Zarei chided "not because you have anything worth calling feminine wiles!"
Berenice snorted. "Somebody's mad because she didn't get the boy at the end of the storybook." She clicked her tongue and shrugged, shaking her head to and fro. "Green certainly suits your aura, my dear."
The next spectral shot would've hit had Spender not grabbed Guillory by the arm and tugged her roughly out of the way. Isabel turned back to Zarei again, eyes wide. The older woman was overflowing with her aura, eyes sharp enough to cut straight through whatever shell Guillory had before. "It's not green…"
Guillory gasped and pulled herself out of Spender's chest, eyes and fingers flying to the good inch of hair Zarei's shot had snagged off her head. Her gaze fell from her charred locks to Zarei, who, upon further inspection, was smiling like a full-bellied cat. "…It's chartreus."
"I haven't heard anything yet." Ed frowned and bent forward, only to be rudely wrenched back by the rear of his collar.
Agent Bove sat behind him, fingers strutting along his neckline with an overarching atmosphere of "I dare you" somewhere in his bearing. "Stay here until Doctor Zarei gives the signal."
"Dude, seriously. What's going on in there?" So Ed wasn't the only one who noticed. Isaac seemed equally as perturbed, fingers twitching in anticipation by his hips, electricity cracking up his arms. "Quiet isn't good."
"Eh, it's subjective." Max leaned one arm on Isaac's shoulder. "In this case, you're right though- probably not."
"Shh!" Agent Bove held up a single finger. "I think I hear something."
The group fell into a silence, but whatever Agent Bove heard, they weren't hearing anymore. There was only the ambiance of spring- bees flying, birds chirping…
"Does anybody else hear a snake?" Ed cautiously glanced around at his feet, then turned to look behind him. "Anybody?"
The entire group twisted to each-other, looking around at their feet and behind the bushes to their sides, but nothing around would have logically been making a hissing noise of any sort. Ed patted his entire body down, found nothing, and shrugged. Agent Bove fell flat onto his butt and crossed his arms, a frown on his face funny enough that Ed contemplated pinching his chubby cheeks. Isaac and Max looked at each-other, shrugged, and turned back to Bove and Ed.
That's when something slimy, scaly, and long wrapped around Isaac's throat.
The corresponding seconds seemed to pass in a hurry, with Isaac being lifted into the high heavens with the trees and Ed hardly climbing to his feet in time to see his feet dangling in the air.
Isabel felt herself gasp as she only scarcely side-stepped one of Spender's kicks. If he hadn't been expecting that, he seemed more than prepared for it. He swung that same leg around in a full circle and brought it down, just before launching it straight for Isabel's face. "For a guy" she grunted and ducked to avoid it "Your leg sure does go high!"
"Richard!" She could hear Zarei calling to him from across the cabin, even if her voice sounded strained. A quick glance in her direction saw Zarei blocking a down-turned elbow from Berenice, shield up and bright, although flickering. "Look at what you're doing! That's your student, you fool!"
Isabel frowned and turned her gaze back to her teacher- one moment too late. A fist to the face sent her twisting around, struggling to catch herself and steady her footing. She shook her head and grasped her chin where he'd assuredly left a mark, but her attention was on his fast-approaching ninja stars. Shit! Isabel waved her hand in a sad attempt to put up a spectral shield she wasn't focused or balanced enough to conjure competently.
"Try batting your eyelashes, doctor!" Berenice's voice was shrill, and growing higher with every deep orange fist she threw Zarei's way. "It won't work, but he might feel sorry about taking your life!"
Spender was creating more stars before Isabel could even block the first wave, tossing them like hot plates. I'm not fast enough to deflect these! All she could do was raise both her arms over her face and pray silently for the best, wrists twisted away so that he, hopefully, wouldn't go cutting an artery. One star hit, but the next few struck a very pink wall. Isabel squinted through the creases her arms made to see Cindy standing in front of her, dropping her spectral barrier and every sharpened star with it. "Thanks."
"It's why I'm here!"
Cindy crouched and leaped into the air, twisting around to bring her knee upon Spender's shoulder. He dodged it easy enough, but he probably wasn't expecting for Isabel to take the distraction and run with it- literally. She let her aura collect around her hardened fist and rammed into Spender at full speed, leading her fist directly into his abdomen. She felt him grunt and hiss under her hand as they went flying into the kitchen stove. Cindy landed roughly on one foot, and she grunted and fell to the floor with a hand to the injury. It didn't look like it was sprained, but it would take a moment to stop burning.
For a few seconds, Isabel actually felt in control of the situation. She had Spender pinned against the wall, a fist in his stomach and her forearm barreling into his hip. She vaguely wondered if he'd hear her if she spoke to him, if he'd bend and break whatever spell he was under if she said the right words at the right time. That was, after all, the reason why Zarei had decided Isabel was best on the offensive team. If anybody was going to get through to Spender, it was one of them. "Mister Spender, listen-!" She was cut short by a stern knee in her chest, knocking the breath clean out of her lungs, leaving her to drop to her knees with her arms at her lungs. As she sat on the floor choking, trying her best to recuperate, Spender was already standing tall again, and it was with no hesitation that he reached down to run a hand through her hair, fingers brushing against the tangles and tugging harshly at the more sensitive strands. She squeaked when he jolted his grip, tugging her roughly off her knees to send her sliding across the wooden floor.
"Isabel!" She wasn't sure if that was Cindy or Zarei, but she wasn't about to waste time glancing around to find out. She could hear Spender's footsteps, calm and looming, a silent threat that left shivers down her back. She climbed onto her elbows and knees, using one hand to reach for the umbrella at her belt.
The footsteps came to a stop above her, and she could see his feet on either side of her shoulders. She didn't dare turn on her back to see him standing over her, not when she knew his eyes would look so empty. There was a terrifying burst of light, one she could only see because her shadow became as clear as day- it meant he was holding another batch of stars. Isabel steadied herself on her elbow, taking as deep a breath as she could humanly manage with the air still knocked out of her. Focus. She clenched her fist. You can do this.
She watched as Spender raised his hand, a star between each finger, from the shadow that loomed above her. Steady. He sent the stars sailing at her head, but she flipped onto her back and struck them away with the length of her tool. Spender seemed visibly surprised, eyebrows high and eyes wide, and she took that lapse of focus to raise her legs between his. Isabel tossed him over her head, using the momentum to tumble back onto her feet. Spender went flying behind her, and it was with a firm hand that she gripped her umbrella.
"What exactly was your plan?" Zarei dodged another orange fist, eyes following the shot pass her head, just barely grazing the lenses of her glasses. "Why did you target Richard out of every agent in Mayview?"
Berenice snorted and sidestepped a spectral shot. If she noticed the lock of hair it'd taken on its way passed her head, she wasn't wildly infuriated about her new haircut. "The club, of course! Perhaps when the idiots you call my friends made their reckless moves, they were still children entirely irrelevant in the eyes of the consortium. Now that they're older," Zarei ducked to miss another fist, but she didn't catch the leg rising until Berenice's knee met her jaw and sent her flying to the floor. Zarei reached up and rubbed the offended area with a glowing hand, eyes on fire with indignation when Berenice stood over her with a flaming hand. "These kids have quite the reputation among the paranatural, don't they? I'd dare say they're revered as heroes- especially amid consortium agents."
"So, what's your point?"
"Well, the best way to hit consortium morale is to hit close to home- Richard Spender's little babysitting day job. The best way to hit them? Take their teacher from them- rip him out of their lives."
"But why have him return?"
"I didn't just have him return, darling, I had him return under my control."
Zarei squinted, but as realization skulked, her eyes grew wide and her skin as pale as an unpainted wall. "You were planning an attack from the inside!"
"I most certainly was! His betrayal would leave the club too busy tearing each-other apart to function, and the consortium would be left to deal with Spender on their own. They'd start purging the ranks-!"
"Like they did when you were an agent…"
"Exactly! The mass panic and hysteria over being marked a traitor by the consortium- it'd leave a rather large handful of spectrals without a purpose for their abilities or an organization to serve."
"You couldn't possibly believe they'd come running to you?"
"Why wouldn't they? I was, after all, betrayed by the consortium just as they were- that's all the reason someone struggling to find a purpose needs to know. By the time the consortium was done doing inventory, I'd have an entire army!" Berenice patted the mermaid clip in her hair and the pocket watch at her chest. "Not to mention, I've got the spirits of my little friends helping me out here! One tool just isn't enough, you know?"
"Enough to take the consortium down a notch."
"Please- take them out completely! I just needed to take him away every few days to maintain our bond."
"What bond?" Zarei scoffed. "This is mind control and he is strong enough to break through your little tricks."
Berenice bit her bottom lip, snickered, shook her head, and then pulled her glowing fist back for another shot. "I wouldn't be so sure."
The struggle to get out of the chokehold the snake spirit or whatever the hell it was had Isaac in was a quick one; nine times out of ten, sentient beings didn't enjoy being electrocuted. Isaac tugged on the tail around his throat and squeezed tight enough to bruise, barring his teeth as he channeled a strong surge of lightning out of his hands and into its skin. It hissed, and Isaac almost felt bad when its tail was charred bad enough to crumble beneath his fingertips. He raised a hand to the ground as he fell from the trees, creating a cloud large enough to create a gust of wind he could slip down like a slide to the grassy floor. He landed with a huff, turning his contemplating eyes on the rest of his group. "The spirits from before- she's still controlling them!"
Agent Bove nodded and turned to glance over his shoulder. "Looks like more are headed our way. You kids can take care of yourselves right?"
Max squinted at him sarcastically, raising both hands in an irritated shrug. "Are you kidding me?"
"Believe me," Ed grinned and twirled his paintbrush like a pen between his fingers. "We are more than ready for this."
Ed and Agent Bove stood back-to-back, Ed cutting down whatever spirits came his way with a thick, sharp line of ink (a scythe, his preferred weapon, usually). A frog-like spirit, walking on two slimy legs made its way toward him, acid-burned-looking tongue hanging from his mouth and leaving a trail of acidic slobber where he walked. Ed drew a longer handle on his scythe and reached out just as the spirit leaped into the air. With a sharp breath, he caught its throat in his blade and severed its head in midair. Ectoplasm came dripping from the heavens, and Ed squeaked and raised his barrier above himself and Agent Bove mere seconds before it melted their clothes and skin clean off.
A smarter spirit saw the opportunity to strike while he was distracted, and it used its two fangs (roughly the size of its own 4'3 body) as jousting swords. It charged at Ed with intent to kill, and Ed could only turn at the first glimpse before Agent Bove had his own shield up around them. The spirit met the wall with a huff and a high-pitched grunt, sliding down the barrier. Agent Bove dropped his aura and took a spectral shot at its head, wincing when tiny drops of ectoplasm hit the sleeve of his onesie. "Keep a better eye on our surroundings."
"Yeesh, sorry! Ya let one spirit get the jump on ya and suddenly everything you've been doing is bad."
"Don't be such a drama queen, kid."
Ed opened his mouth to retort, but a familiar scream hit his ears first. He couldn't make out the words, but he could hear Isabel's terror as clear as he heard his own breath leaving him at the sound. "Isabel!" He made a move for the front door of the cabin, but Agent Bove gripped him by the back of his collar. He flailed and threw his fists around, kicking his legs and twisting his head over his shoulder to give the guy hell. "Would you- let go of me! Isabel's in trouble!"
"And we're gonna be too if you don't stay here! She's a Guerra, right? She'll be fine!"
"She's not just a Guerra, dude!" The next spirit that came at him had the wrong idea, because he didn't even blink before he led the edge of his weapon into its skull, sliding it down the size of its torso for good measure. He turned back to Agent Bove, who had his firm attention on a spirit a good three inches taller than him. He took his tool, a small silver butter knife, and enlarged it to the height of his body, sticking it into the spirit with so much strength that he was twisting it around in the air. "She's Izzy- my Izzy! And I know when she needs my help!"
"What-?" Agent Bove turned around, raising his tool and slamming it into the ground, leaving the spirit on the other end to burst like a balloon upon impact. There was no ectoplasm, thank god, but the disgusted look on Agent Bove's face spoke like there had been. "Doctor Zarei and the Balton girl are in there!"
"But I'm not! I'm not leaving her alone again!"
"It's okay!" Isaac called from across the clearing, one hand on a spirit's face and the other blocking an oncoming attack from another spirit. "We've got things handled out here! Go get her!"
Ed sighed and mustered up his best smile for Isaac, nodding as he twisted around on one foot to make a run for the cabin. "Thanks! I owe you one!"
Isaac laughed and called back over his shoulder. "You bet you do!"
The laughter was short-lived, because moments later he heard a cry inches away from him. Isaac whipped his head around fast enough to give himself whiplash, and cringed to see Max writhing on the ground under a spirit's clawed hand. It ran its thumb along Max's throat, drawing blood where it pressed. Max grunted and tried to kick it off, but he wasn't strong enough to do much but kick his legs into its belly. Isaac hissed and raised a fistful of lightning. "Wrong spectral, buddy." A quick dose of electrification sent the spirit screeching and flying into a tree, hard enough that its head grew stuck in the hole on impact. Max wheezed and gasped for air, sitting up and grabbing his throat for good measure. Isaac was bending down by his side in seconds, one hand at his shoulder and another at his forearm. "You okay?"
Max turned to him, and he was a little perplexed at the grimace that met his concern. "Are you asking if I'm okay because we're friends?"
Isaac shrugged, gave Max a weak smile, and nodded. "I mean, yeah?"
Max scowled and pushed Isaac off of him, just enough to get him away but not hard enough to be aggressive. "Great. Perfect. Thanks." He came to stand on his own, taking his bat from the ground where he'd dropped it in his struggle. Isaac blinked and came to stand again, tightening his eyes at Max's turned back.
"What-? Max, what is your problem?"
"My problem?" A spirit made the mistake of lunging for Max right at that moment, and he swung his bat with such a force that it crushed the spirit's head on impact. "You! You're my problem!"
Another spirit came at Isaac from behind, but he didn't even turn around to face it. A powerful burst of wind was enough to send it flying three yards away. "What does that even mean, Max?"
"Dude, if you can't figure that out" the sound of Max's bat colliding with another spirit's face sent chills down the spine "then maybe you're right! Maybe we are better off as friends!"
Isaac's entire body burned with anticipation, and perhaps a masochistic urge to argue. The emotion had been building up for some time, he supposed; a second fight between him and Max was all but inevitable. "Okay, that's it! Get your empty head out of your hoodie for a second! I wasn't the one who suggested we stay friends first- that was you and you have no right to pin that on me!"
"When," Max gripped a spirit by its throat and tossed it over his shoulder just as Isaac planted a firm thundering kick in a larger spirit's waist. The spirit detonated on impact "in the hell have I ever- ever- said that we should just be friends?"
"Literally the day we met Berenice, Max!"
"What?"
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Isaac grunted as a spirit he'd dealt with minutes before tried knowing on his arm with only three teeth. He gripped it by the back of its head and threw it to the ground, bringing his heavy leg upon its smaller body. "Did you not introduce me as My Friend Isaac? Because that's something I distinctly remember! Kinda set my radars off a little- and lo and behold, look where we are now!"
Max paused mid-swing, choosing instead to dodge the feral wolf spirit that went flying by his face and over his shoulder. He blinked at Isaac, frowned, grimaced, and then scowled and rolled his eyes. "Jesus Christ, Isaac! Are you serious?" He twisted around and met the wolf spirit's second attack with a metal bat to the face. "Oh my god, fine! I'm sorry about that! It's just what came out!"
"Okay, sure." Isaac sarcastically shrugged and formed a barrier over his back, using the spirits lunging for him as bowling balls. He twisted his arm around and sent them spiraling into the cluster of trees to his side. "Then why weren't you in bed when I woke up? Why did you avoid the whole Sleeping Beauty wake me with a kiss thing when I mentioned it?" He ducked and a goblin-looking spirit went right over his head. "And, oh yeah- you said you regretted sleeping with me, so there's that!"
"Holy crap, Isaac! You are such a freakin' drama queen!" The spirits seemed to pause for a moment, and it left the two of them standing there, face-to-face and entirely invested in the heat of the conversation. Max sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, but he never broke eye-contact with Isaac. "But I'm sorry. I really didn't- I never meant to hurt you. I can't say that I don't regret it, because I do, but it's not because I don't care about you or want you or something equally as gut-wrenchingly cheesy. I regret that we got together when we did, because it wasn't just us you know? It was grief and our fear about what would be coming tomorrow… That night wasn't about us; it was about Spender, as weird and creepy as that sounds." Isaac frowned and turned his head to his feet, his gaze somewhere to the side. Max hummed in exasperation, feasibly at himself. Isaac wasn't sure even Max knew. "I guess I was just worried that you weren't doing it because you, ya know, liked me or loved me or anything like that. I was kind of-!" Max paused, and Isaac almost thought he wouldn't say it, but he swallowed and found Isaac's expecting eyes again. "I was scared. I was scared you were just grieving- that you wouldn't have usually done what you did in a different situation."
Isaac wasn't sure what he was feeling- elation, stress, liberation- but he knew one emotion well enough to pick it out of the bunch.
Guilt.
He swallowed hard and met Max's eyes with just as much determination as he'd been met with. Max had spilled his guts; it was only fair he do the same. "No, actually. I've wanted to do that for a while now." Max's eyes shined for a moment, and Isaac could see traces of a pink dusting across the tops of his cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm really, honestly, cross-my-heart sorry. I didn't just ask you upfront about everything I was thinking, and I jumped to conclusions and it only ended up hurting both of us." He rubbed the back of his neck, but let his hand fall limp against his side seconds later. "That's really just because I do care about you like that," he could feel his own cheeks heating up like hot coals and his stomach shifting to and fro just below his ribs, but he wasn't about to look away again. "I was afraid of losing you because I've wanted you for such a long time, even if I didn't really admit it until a good three or four months ago. I'm actually kind of surprised you thought I wasn't interested! I thought I was being so incredibly obvious about it."
Max chuckled and shrugged, a cocky smile inching across his lips. Isaac might've been irritated by that if he wasn't feeling the same smirk on his face. "Well, you did say no homo when we left the beach."
"What-? Max, that was six years ago!"
"So?" Max shrugged his shoulders. "It stuck!"
Another wave of spirits came rushing in from all directions, and it was with a great conviction in each-other and themselves that Max and Isaac pressed their bodies back-to-back. Their auras broadened, and Max squeezed his bat while Isaac fashioned a cloud in the palms of his hands. "Hey Max?"
"Yeah?"
"Does this mean you and I are…?"
There was a snicker so quiet Isaac only felt it against his back. "I mean, it's not like I've been waiting six years or anything."
Isaac exhaled and laughed, smile widening from ear-to-ear.
Cindy squealed as another spectral shot came within inches of her throat, and she wasn't even the one being shot at. Zarei and Berenice moved in flighty circles around the cabin, sending shots and kicks whenever their claws didn't feel like enough.
If Cindy took a moment to do some last minute self-inventory, she was scared. Yes, maybe the looming threat of a tsunami wasn't approaching miles by the minute, but- Cindy glanced at the mermaid pin in Berenice's hair and the pocket watch around her neck- Velda, the woman capable of all that, she was trapped inside that pin.
Cindy huffed and came to stand, slowly and with a tremor in every move. They were an hour away from the nearest ocean. There were more of them than there were Berenice and Spender. She had no reason to be scared. I can do this. She took a deep breath and plunged at Berenice from behind, whipping her cellphone into a dagger so sharp it may as well have been a needle. The dagger hit, and Zarei laughed out loud as Berenice inhaled and fell to her knees. Cindy smiled and slowly dragged the dagger, inch by inch, piece by piece, out of Berenice's curved side.
Isabel gasped and brought her umbrella up to cover her from the stars Spender flung at her, wincing when his next move was to send a kick to her stomach. She went skidding across the floor, head riding straight into the corner of one of the bed frame's legs. She winced and sat up as fast as she could, pressing the palms of her hands to the floor and grunting when he held another star over her head. She could see beads of sweat dropping from his brow, creeping down to the skin of his jaw. He was getting tired just like she was. Of course, she chided herself. Isabel, he's got like fourteen years on you! She prepared to roll out of the way, but just as she brought her arm in the air to swing it over her side, she could feel something grab it. "What the-?" A quick turn of her head verified the worst- Spender was manipulating her own shadow. Its pure black hands, dark like the bruises on her skin, wrapped around her upper arms and tugged her roughly to the ground. She inhaled and started kicking and twisting her whole body, trying her best to tear her body away as fast as possible. Her back arched off the floor, and Spender did little but press his foot into her stomach. She winced as his heel dug into her abdomen, and struggled to open an eye to look at him. He readjusted his glasses and tilted his head, as if her life was hanging in a delicate balance right in the palm of his sweating hands.
"This will all be over soon, Isabel. Do this old man a favor and don't struggle. Death is something that comes for us all, after all."
Shock, icy and scorching at the same time, surged through her veins and to her brain where she registered it as panic. Her legs skidded to a stop, but she brought them as close as she could to the rest of her body, quivering under the indifferent look in his eyes. It hurt- it hurt so badly to see him standing over her, promising to take her life, like killing her wouldn't leave him as hollow and miserable as his death had left her. Floods of memories that'd visited her in the first few weeks following his death came back like she'd taken a sledgehammer to a dam, and each one was of a kind smile, a warm tight hug, a reassuring word…
Tears welled in Isabel's eyes, even though she wouldn't let them fall just yet. She tried to pull her arms out of the grips of her shadow again, but it was truly of no use. Spender multiplied the stars in his hand, each brighter than the last, her shadow stronger and rougher for it. He raised his arm to shoot them down at her, and that's when she took a chance on her last words. "Mister Spender, stop!"
He paused.
Isabel held her breath as he froze, blinking in abundance and turning his head slowly around the room. He stood there, watching Cindy pull her dagger out of Berenice, but his eyes locked on Zarei's, who stood there watching him with poised caution- controlled hope. He shook his head once and then again another two or three times. The hand filled with stars fell limp to his side, and he tilted his head when their eyes met. Isabel still couldn't breathe when he silently reached a hand out to her, wincing and worrying his lower lip. The shadows that'd been tugging and pulling at her arms slid back into the floor without a moment of hesitation, and she slowly reached forward and took his larger hand in her own.
"I beg your forgiveness, Isabel."
She nearly started smiling as he pulled her to her feet, dusting her off from her shoulders to her waist. "It's okay." He looked up at her and she looked down at him, giving him her best "apology accepted" smile. He came to stand tall before her, a small smile inching across his face.
She didn't feel the star pressed against her lower back until it was halfway lodged under her skin.
Isabel shrieked and fell forward, clutching the cloth of Spender's shirt as her body edged to the ground. He watched her with no emotion, standing and stepping to the side as she fell to her knees. He came around behind her and pressed his foot into the star where it stuck out of her back. Isabel screamed and fell forward, gasping for air. She couldn't breathe- all that came out was cry after scream. She gasped and choked and coughed, but she couldn't get one breath of air. Her fists fell lifeless against the floor.
"I realize an earlier death is an inconvenience and I am sorry for such ill timing."
Spender pressed a foot to the star in her back, pressing it slowly further into her so that it might touch muscle and bone. Isabel cried and shivered, falling limp on the floor and squeezing her eyes shut as firmly as possible. Spender raised more stars and held them over her head, but gasped as a thin stroke of green wrapped around his throat and pulled him backwards and off of Isabel. Zarei squeezed the threads of aura in her hands and drew him closer, drawing blood at the tip of his neck as a warning. "If you move one inch, know that I will have your head, Richard."
Much to her surprise, he froze again, although she could feel him trembling in her hands. She nearly let go, but a quick glance to the spots of Isabel's blood on the floor reminded her just watch the situation was. Isabel moaned and twisted around so that she could meet Spender's eyes over her shoulder. Zarei met her gaze and frowned. "I remember…" Spender's voice was guttural, struggling to work against the sharp threads menacing his life. She loosened her hold so he could speak clearly. An eyebrow raised, she incredulously awaited the next line; there was no other way to determine if it was a certifiable lie. "I remember you teaching me this technique."
His head inched downwards, his attention falling on Isabel's bloodied waist. Zarei grimaced and tightened her hold again, and Spender let out a smothered gasp in her hands. "Is that-?" He coughed and tugged at the aura choking him. "God, no. Isabel-!" Zarei told herself again and again- it's a lie. Berenice had him that good. She fought to keep her head on her shoulders, forcing down reminiscences of young hands brushing together, bare legs in the summer pressing against each-other as popsicles dripped into their laps… There was something wet on the backs of her hands, and Zarei paused in her struggle. She pulled him closer, stretching her neck out to get a better look at him. Tears, hot and wild and horrified, streamed down Spender's face the longer he sat there gawking at his bleeding student- a girl practically his own. "I'm sorry-!" He croaked. "I'm so sorry-!"
"No!" Zarei whipped her head to look at Berenice, who was fighting to get off the floor under Cindy's watchful eye, both hands at her open wound. "No, Richard, you listen to me!"
"How can he?" Cindy walked around, clutching the dull yellow hairband in the palm of her hand. Berenice blinked and frowned, but slowly realization came- hit her like a semi, smothering her into silence. Her blonde locks fell over her shoulders, loose and thin and looking awfully dry without the braid. She lunged for the hairband, but Cindy held it just out of her grasp, watching her. Berenice cried and tugged at her skin, then at her arms and her hair as it slowly turned silver as it fell through her fingers. Wrinkles pulled at her skin, and her hair seemed even duller than before. "Can't use your tool from this distance, huh? I'm going to go ahead and assume this thing makes you prettier, younger… more charming? Oh, okay. A succubus! That's it, isn't it?" Berenice wordlessly reached for the hair tie again, but Cindy held it far out of her grasp. "So, since this is the real you, I think it's fair that we reintroduce ourselves."
Berenice blinked down at the hand offered to her, then looked back up at Cindy, who was smiling from ear-to-ear. "My name is Cindy Balton." Berenice raised an eyebrow, reached out to grab Cindy's hand, as though considering repenting for her criminalities, and pulled back at the last second. She spit at the ground and Cindy cringed and stuck her tongue out, shaking her hand clean of any possible saliva. Berenice opened her mouth to retort, probably something along the lines of "Foolish girl! Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…" but she never got the chance. A mallet, pure black and dripping, smacked her square on the back of her head. Cindy watched as her eyes rolled back just before she fell forward, completely unconscious. "And that's Ed Burger." He stood above Berenice with a deep scowl on his face, but it softened upon meeting Cindy's less aggressive gaze. She tilted her head and gave him a smile, and he returned it with a relieved grin.