Awakening
Look! Two (three if you count the next chapter too ;) ) in one day!
Second to last chapter! Enjoy!
Third POV
"FATI!" E're appeared in an explosion of power, rocking the already shaken foundations of the Tower. She appeared in what should've been her father's lab, but almost nothing was left to distinguish the one amazing room from the rest of the crumbling structure that was the upper floors of the Tower.
Immediately, the younger Immortal took stock of the situation. Angered as she may be, she didn't let that blind her. Fati stood in the middle of the destruction, small pieces of ash and rubble floating down around her. A crazy glint reflected in her eyes and a dark smirk spread across her lips.
Floating behind her was what catch the young Immortal's attention though, and what caused her heart to seize.
"DAD!" She yelled, her eyes flickering between Tony and Pepper. Both were suspended in thin air behind the older Immortal. Pepper was unconscious, blood dripping down her face from a cut on her hairline. Tony however, was very alert. E're quickly took in his scrapped appearance, noting Pepper's favorite suit, the gold tie, and the white rose. His dark eyes were widened with fear for her and Pepper, and with rage. He looked furious, beyond furious; he looked like he wanted Fati to burn.
E're's anger grew, and she didn't notice when her form shifted. She didn't notice when the thin dress vanished and her armor appeared. She didn't notice when her cloak settled around her shoulders, or when her green eyes flashed silver.
She hadn't noticed any of her physical changes, because her attention had frozen to a halt when she saw the red velvet box setting on the floor by her father.
"What have you done!?" E're exclaimed, her form shimmering and her eyes blazing as her rage grew. How dare this manipulative, pathetic excuse of an Immortal ruin her father's proposal! She screamed in her mind. How dare she come and attack her home. Her family!
"Only what is necessary, Sister Dear." Fati responded tauntingly. For not only had E're failed to notice her physical changes, but also the energy pulse that Fati had sent out.
"Check." Fati giggled to herself as E're took a threatening step forward.
"Don't call me that!" E're yelled, her power swirling. "You're no longer a Sister of mine." She spat, her eyes narrowed in disgust.
How dare she call her that, after everything she had done? Fati didn't deserve to be an Immortal anymore. She didn't deserve to be part of the Family.
"Temper, temper," Fati 'tsked', slowly starting to release her own power. He had helped her. He had shown her the way, and she wouldn't fail. "You really should learn to control your anger, or else you're gonna get burned."
Another unstable giggle followed, and E're realized that Fati was sounding more and more like Insania every passing second. That scared her. That scared her a lot.
If anything, it made Fati even more dangerous.
"What do you want?" E're growled, and the two started circling each other, Pepper and Tony floating behind Fati the whole time.
"What do I want? Why I thought you knew!" The purple eyed Immortal exclaimed as yet another giggle erupted from her lips.
Her eyes suddenly darkened, and her manic grin was replaced with a scowl. "I want you dead!"
"You haven't been successful in the past." E're stated, switching languages as she could see what the conversation was doing to her father. "What makes you think you're going to succeed this time?"
"Because," Fati continued in English, to E're confusion. "This time, I'm not just going to kill you. Oh no. You see, you've been a pain in my side to far too long now. He's been disappointed with me, and this will fix it all. Oh no, Sister Dear…little Aequivalere, I'm not going to kill you."
Fati vanished, the light draining from the room like water down a drain. E're spun, her energy filling the room, trying to find the older Immortal, to no avail. Somehow, since she had appeared, Fati had blocked her presence. E're wouldn't be able to find her.
"I'm going to destroy you." Fati snarled, suddenly by E're ear. The redhead spun around, her energy flying around her in all directions, but it passed harmlessly through Fati.
E're's eyes widened in shock in horror as he attack did nothing, but before she could teleport, take a step back, or even blink, Fati lifted her fist, and sent sickening dark blast of energy at E're.
A shield sprung up instinctively, and the black power hovered, barely an inch from E're's chest for less than a moment. E're power surged again, trying to fling the energy away, but her attack did nothing yet again. Panic bloomed in her chest and she stared at Fati in disbelief.
"This isn't Immortal Power!" She exclaimed, and Fati cackled.
"Oh no," She agreed, with a large, insane, dark grin. "This is so much worse."
As if it was waiting, the energy then ate through E're's shield, and E're barely had time to reach out over her Bond in panic before she was flung across the room, into the of the few walls left standing.
"I am going to destroy everything you are, everthing you could be, and everything you have been." Fati snarled, before laughing gleefully. She would not fail.
Mortem's POV
Worry formed in my chest the moment Penny clutched her head. I tried to call out to her, to draw her attention, but she didn't seem to hear me. The moment Fati's name left her lips I knew things were bad, and my worry turned to dread.
When she vanished, I went to follow, only to find myself crashing into a dark, sickening wall of energy rising into place all over the state of New York. Panic enveloped me as I realized that I couldn't reach her, and blink panic erupted as I reached out with my mind to find that our Bond was blocked by the sickening wall of energy before me.
I could barely think, Fati's dark, twisted presence causing my mind to become frantic. What was happening? What was Fati trying to do? Why had E're gone off without me?!
I don't remember calling out to Cor, I don't remember sending a message to my Family. But my suddenly wild emotions must've bled through, for almost instantly, I found myself surrounded by my Siblings, many who were clutching at their heads, having just bounced off the barrier.
"What's wrong!?" Vitam's voice echoed through my mind, but I didn't even turn to look at her.
"Fati's blacking us out!" I could feel the words falling from my lips and mind, but I didn't remember speaking them. It was as if my mind and body where two separate things. Both trying to get to our Bonded, but not knowing how.
I threw all the energy I could spare without damaging my Realm at the barrier, but it didn't even flicker. It didn't waver in the slightest.
"This is wrong." Infinitas said, coming to stand at my other side. When had Vitam moved? I couldn't focus. I couldn't think. Fati had E're! All of their encounters that I knew of or had been present for flashed through my mind. She wanted her dead. She wanted to kill my Bonded; I couldn't just stand here!
"This power if not of Cor. She should not be able to wield this!" Infinitas exclaimed, laying a pale hand on the black barrier that only we could see.
"I DON'T CARE!" I yelled slipping into English as any control I had cracking and my dark grey power flying all around me. I barely registered the fact that all of my other gathered Siblings – Vitam, Amore, Insania, Musices, Laetitia, Memoria, Noli, Vindicta, and Genus being a few of them – were attacking the barrier with me.
My Siblings jumped back, my power was harmful to even the inhabitants of Cor, but Infinitas didn't even flinch. She just put her hand on my shoulder, and forced my power back within my form.
"We will save your Bonded, Mortem." She said, her ancient eyes glowing with power as they connected with mine. "But control yourself. Harming your family or letting yourself become blind with anger will cause nothing but grief to us all."
Her words sliced through my mind like a hot knife through butter. I shook my head, condensing my rage, using it for fuel, but not letting it control me. Perhaps I had been around humans for too long.
"You are right, Sister; my apologies." I said, glancing around at my Siblings around me before focusing back on the barrier in front of us. It didn't exist on the physical plane as such, but a higher dimension that very few beings at access to. Humans, Mutants, and most meta-humans and aliens would be able to cross through it with no problem. But it stopped all forms of Immortals in their tracks.
Infinitas was right; this wasn't an Immortal construct, which just made the whole situation a whole lot worse.
"We will reach Aequivalere." Amore said his face unusually dark.
"Normally, I wouldn't worry about her." Vindicta said, a large energy blast growing in-between her hands.
"But this is different." Infinitas finished for her, ignoring the angry glare that Vindicta gave the older Immortal. "Aequivalere may be more than capable, and very powerful, but I fear that she just walked into a trap."
I sighed, trying once more to each my Bonded's mind. My own felt so empty without her presence. It was worse than when she was human, before she Awoke. It was almost like she didn't exist at all.
"Well, that's E're for you." Vitam said, trying to lighten the mood. I glared at my twin, and she fell silent. Even if it was true, I didn't want to hear it.
"Right." I said, drawing everyone's attention back to me. "Let's get this barrier down."
Agreement echoed around me in various forms, but I blocked everyone out again as I went back to attacking the barrier. As my energy slammed into it, I let my mind attack it as well. The barrier was a woven construct, and if we could just find one niched strand or one weak link, we would have our opening.
"I'm coming E're. I'm coming." I projected as hard as I could at the Bond, hoping, praying, that E're would hear me.
I wouldn't let Fati take my Bonded from me. I wasn't sure if I'd survive without her anymore.
Tony's POV
I couldn't move, it was like I was frozen solid, or someone had transferred my consciousness to a statue. I couldn't feel my body, I couldn't move a muscle. I didn't blink, and I didn't breath. I couldn't even tell if my heart was beating. It was like I was just floating in the middle of what used to be my lab, my world crumbling around me.
It was awful, worse than the worst nightmares that had pledged me for months. Pepper hung in the air besides me, my almost fiancé, and I wanted to glare and rage and yell at the small Immortal who had done this.
Penny had told me about Fati, more than she had told Bruce and possibly even Thor. I knew things about that child looking creature that made me want to put on my suit and snap her like a twig. She had hurt my daughter for so long, doing damage that my baby girl may never completely heal from. I wanted her gone. I wanted to burn her.
She had hurt Penny, she had hurt Pepper. She had destroyed the top of my Tower, again, and she might've hurt my team. I hadn't seen anyone since everything had exploded, and in the very back of my mind, behind all of the pain, worry and rage, I wondered if the team was alright. I didn't even know how many of them were in the Tower.
Jarvis also hadn't made his presence known, and I couldn't help but hope that he was alright. AI or not, he was my son, my family, and I prayed to whoever might be listening that my family was alright.
But all of those thoughts were secondary. All of those thoughts were just the random ones drifting in the back of my mind.
For ever since Penny appeared with rage in her eyes, the majority of my mind was too focused on my daughter. My daughter, who was so angry, my daughter, who looked horrified as she realized what Fati had done. My amazing, powerful baby girl who had just been thrown into a wall.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
My mind cycled through her name over and over again, as I floated there, Pepper bleeding at my side, unable to move as Fati seemed to overpower my daughter.
Why wasn't any of Penny's attacks working?! Why couldn't she block Fati's? Why did it seem she was so outmatched when I had seen my daughter do the most amazing, impossible things?!
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
I watched, as rage and hate flowed through my veins, as Fati cackled, staring at the pile of rubble that buried my daughter.
"Come on, Penny, get up! Come on, get up! You can do it!" I thought desperately to myself. I struggled fruitlessly again, trying to move, to blink, to do anything. I couldn't just float here while Fati was possibly killing my daughter!
I couldn't lose her, not again. Never again. I wouldn't survive another time.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
Thoughts and emotions flashed through my mind almost too fast for me to make sense of.
"Are you giving up? Baby Sister Dear?" Fati asked cheerfully as she slid over to the pile of rubble.
I wanted to yell, I wanted to rage, I wanted to blast her into next week. Penny didn't give up! And. She. Would. Not. Hurt. My. Daughter!
"Come one baby, get up! You have to get up! Fight!" I repeated over and over again, on top of all of the other thoughts racing through my mind.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
Suddenly, the ruble shifted and Penny was on the other side of Fati. Power swirled around her battered form, part of it silver, and part of it black. The energy battled around her and if I could move I would be shaking in worry and fear. She had to be alright. She just had to be.
"Oh!" Fati exclaimed as E're threw a bright white beam of energy at her. This one actually connected with the Immortal, knocking her back a few feet.
"Go Penny! KICK HER SORRY EXCUSE FOR AN IMMORTAL BITCHES'S ASS!" I yelled in my mind, and tried to ignore the fact that I didn't actually remember thinking that. I could feel the abyss growing, creeping back towards the front of my mind. I could feel the edge getting closer and I could only hope, for Penny's sake and my own, that she won this fight.
"Feisty," Fati smirked, a chuckling echoing out of her throat. Penny looked horrified, her eyes wide in fear, and I was sure that if I could move, my expression would match hers.
"But you don't really think that's going to work on me do you? I'm currently holding back about fifteen of our Siblings, while …what's a good term…" She tilted her head to the side and the urge to snap her neck just grew, "ah, while I'm hacking your Soul."
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY! RUN! That's bad. Bad. Run!
Penny's eyes widened, even further if that was possible, and I wondered how on earth Fati managing that. Immortals were practically gods in their own right, and although she was one of them, how was she holding back fifteen Immortals? Much less a rather pissed off Mortem; if I knew the Immortal at all, he was probably almost frothing at the mouth to get back to my daughter.
Strange enough, that almost soothed me.
But the feeling was gone, drowned by the wild worry and fear consuming me.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
With her never failing smirk, Fati waved a hand and the black in Penny's energy suddenly intensified, and Penny collapsed onto the ground with a heart shattering scream.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
"What are you doing!?" Penny hissed, from her position on the ground. I could barely see what was going on, my vision was blurring so much from my rage and panic. Run, why wasn't she running? Why couldn't she save herself, once, just this once.
Her voice, so filled with pain, echoed in my mind over and over again along with everything else. No, she had to be ok, I couldn't lose her again.
Not again.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY! Run, God just Run! Not again. Just Run! Penny! PENNY!
"Your Bonded is the Immortal of Death." Fati stated simply, ignoring the fact that Penny's eyes were now squeezed shut and she was twitching from the pain as the dark energy attacked her again and again.
I had to save her. I had to.
Not again. Not again. I had to save her.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
The edge was coming closer and closer, I could feel it. I could practically see it, just how I couldn't take my eyes off my daughter, who was practically screaming from the pain.
I had to do something I had to save her! I couldn't do it, not again.
Never again.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
"I doubt he or any of his minions would collect your Soul. So, we thought, how to kill someone without leaving behind a Soul." I could tell from Fati's voice that she was happy, probably grinning and clapping or something like that. But my eyes couldn't move away from Penny, from my precious baby girl who now had tears streaming down her face as she bit her tongue to keep from screaming.
I had to help her. Somehow. I had to save her.
Suddenly, I could see Fati again, because she was nose to nose to my daughter. GET AWAY FROM HER! I raged and I screamed, but I could do nothing.
"You don't leave behind a Soul." She hissed, her fist suddenly through Penny's chest, and darkness wrapping around her like some kind of cloak.
"AAAAHHHHH!" Penny's painfilled shrieks filled the air, and something inside of me finally snapped.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
LET HER GO, LEAVE HER ALONE! PENNY!
I HAD TO SAVE HER, WHY COULDN'T I SAVE HER?!
"AAAHHHHH!"
"Say goodbye to your little human father, Aequivalere. You're never going to see him or you're Bonded again!" Fati cackled as she pulled her fist out from Penny's chest, bright blood splattering across the floor, silver energy pouring out of the wound as the dark energy ripped her body to shreds.
LEAVE HER ALONE!
Save HER! I HAVE TO SAVE HER!
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
NO. NO. NO. NOT AGAIN!
Penny glowed, dark grey, before exploding in energy. A new body, still screaming but in a new voice, lay in her place. It was older, cropped hair, and somehow I recognized her from that one picture so very long ago. Lynx. Previous SHIELD director. Penny's previous life.
"AAAAHHHHHHH!"
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?!
Almost instantly, she exploded again, and this time a tall dark haired male was lying, screaming in her place.
"AAAAHHHHH!"
"Backwards and backwards. One by one. You will die!" Fati exclaimed, her voice somehow floating over Penny's screams and my thoughts.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
LEAVE HER ALONE. STOP. STOP IT. YOUR HURTING HER!
Flash, Bang.
Another body, female, with silver hair.
"AAAHHHHH!"
Flash, Band.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
I couldn't even see the body, before she exploded yet again, her screams never ending. My vision blurred, my mind no longer wanting to see the horrors in front of me.
"AAAHHHHHHH!"
Stop! Stop. Not again! SAVE HER!
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
Flash, Bang.
PENNY!
Bang, Bang, Bang.
There was no pause between the explosions that ripped away life after life from my daughter's Soul. I couldn't even see her anymore. Over and over again, she was just exploding with black energy, her screams never ending. I was almost glad that was all I could see through my blurred vision.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
PENNY!
NO. NOT AGAIN. STOP IT. STOP IT!
SAVE HER. YOU HAVE TO SAVE HER.
PENNY!
"Back, and back, and back!" Fati's voice broke through my scrambled, broken thoughts. She was laughing.
She. Was. Laughing.
"AAAAHHHHH!"
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
Laughing, laughing while my daughter was screaming.
STOP IT!
Bang, Bang, Bang.
"Hahahahahahahahah!"
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
STOP IT! Make it stop! SAVE HER!
Bang, Bang, Bang.
"AAAAHHHH!"
"Hahahahhahahahahhahha!"
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
SAVE HER!
Bang, Bang, Bang.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
BANG!
It wasn't just Penny exploding yet again, this time the whole Tower shook. The whole city might've shaken.
SAVE HER.
My vision cleared just enough to see the bloody spot on the floor where she had been. She was gone. No. Not possible. She couldn't be gone.
Not again.
No, not again.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
She was gone.
I didn't save her.
I couldn't do anything.
She was gone.
Penny, Pen, Pen, Penny, Penny! Pen, Penny! Penella! PENNY!
Mortem's POV
The whole state of New York shook as the fifteen of us finally broke through the barrier. Instantly pain flooded back through the Bond and I feel to my knees as the Bond, my Duties and my Soul screamed at me. I clutched my head, and screamed.
"MMMMOOOORRRRTTTTEEEEEMMMMMM!" Penny's agony filled shriek filled my mind.
I couldn't think, I could move. There was just pain.
So much pain.
"AEQUIVALERE!" I yelled back across the Bond my eyes squeezed tight. I tried to tell her that I was here.
She had to know that I was here, that I was coming. That it would be ok.
She reached out to me, finally able to sense me. I reached out, our minds finally connecting beyond the pain. Images flashed before my eyes, fragments of memories tainted by pain.
Tony and Pepper, hurt.
Unable to fight, unable to protect herself.
Not leaving any Soul behind!
SO MUCH PAIN!
"GAAAHHH!" I spun around and puked as I instantaneously experienced everything that E're had since she had left me less than a half hour before.
"Mortem!?"
I barely heard my name, the pain had faided and for the briefest instant I was relieved, but then the emptiness returned to me. I couldn't feel her.
I couldn't feel E're!
My eyes shot open and before anyone could say anyting I was gone.
"Fati!" I growled as I reappeared in the Tower, only inches from where E're had been just a moment before.
"Ooh, look. The boyfriend's here." Fati snickered, glancing over at Tony, who was hovering behind the purple eyed Immortal with a glazed look in his eye. Worry flashed through my for just a moment before I pushed it back.
The human was strong, he would be fine.
'He did just watch his daughter get tortured and possibly killed. Are you sure about that?" Some snide little voice in the back of my mind asked but I ignored the voice. Not even thinking about the fact that I now suddenly had a voice talking to me in my head.
"What have you done!?" I roared, death energy flowing off of me in waves. The floor beneath me cracked and the whole Tower shook with my wrath.
How dare she?! How dare she try to erase my Bonded from existence! My energy flung out, my entire being encompassing the building. I ignored the humans, the few dead from the blast already been taken care of by my reapers.
Instead I cast myself out, farther and farther, over Asgard, Jotunheim and Helheim. I pushed myself past the boundaries of this dimension and into the next, and then the ones after that.
My power flowed, and worlds around me shook in fear.
For the simple truth was, Immortals didn't completely manifest their forms when they interacted in the human world. It was only part of their self, shaped into a physical form to interact with the lower planes. An Immortal's true form, base form, was larger than any being could imagine.
And Fati now faced all that power, all that wrath, directed at her. Fati took a step back in fear, her eyes actually going wide.
"What have you done!?" I roared, and the worlds shook.
I didn't care. I didn't care as storm clouds gathered. I didn't care as buildings crumbled. I didn't care as Infinitas, Insania, and Vitam all appeared behind me.
"She's gone!" Fati exclaimed, her pride clear in her voice. "Gone, dead, eradicated! Her Soul's no more!"
Our Siblings behind us gasped in horror, but I didn't listen. I closed my eyes, my fists clenched as I stretched even farther, across every dimension, across every world that I inhabited.
I had to find her. She couldn't be gone. Not like that, I had to save her.
She was my life, my soul, the warmth to my darkness. She couldn't just be gone.
"Why have you done this, Fati? You know what fate Father shall sentence you to." Infinitas said, stepping up beside me, her hand on my shoulder. This whole dimension shuttered with power as the Immortals raged at the loss of one of their own. The world was starting to tear, starting to fall apart.
We were destroying the dimension, shredding E're's realm. But at the moment, none of us cared.
I just had to find her. The others could worry about Fati.
Where would she go? If she had to flee her home. If she, at her very base, at her core of her Soul, where would she go if she had no place left to flee too? Where would that last piece of Soul that just had to exist take her?
"Father shall do nothing. He has not interfered yet, and even now he does not play his hand." Fati mocked, her voice echoing around my head even though I tried to block her out. "Face the truth, he doesn't care anymore. He doesn't care if we break the rules, and he won't do anything about it!"
"You're wrong." Insania spat, her voice steadier and darker than it had been in a very long time. Her whole being seemed to shift for a moment, and suddenly it wasn't Insania standing there. It was Chaos, and she was less than pleased. "Father and Mother do care. They just leave us to govern ourselves, most of the time, so we learn independence and free will. They are not pleased with you, and neither am I."
She took a deep breath before continuing, the same time that my search became even more frantic.
E're had to be out there somewhere.
I was stretched so far, it was starting to hurt. I was barely even in the body standing in Stark Tower. It was faded, like a hologram, and I wouldn't have been able to move it even if I tried.
But none of that mattered, because I had to find E're. She had to be out there somewhere.
I couldn't lose her.
I would find her.
Third POV
"You broke me, Fati." Insania stated coldly, drawing gasps from every Immortal who was still physically in the room. Mortem's form was almost gone, but everyone's rage was still physically touchable. The dimension was shredding. Insania could feel it.
She also knew that E're would want this world protected.
She only hoped that Mortem was able to find her. Or Fati might've just doomed more than this world. No one had ever truly seen what happened when a Bond broke. An Immortal hadn't died before, and no one wanted to figure out what would happen either.
"You took me and tortured me, trapping me and tormenting me until I was Chaos no longer, but only Insania." Most of the Immortals behind her didn't know this, and many of them felt guilty for the way they had treated the Immortal. "When Aequivalere freed me, she gave me my life back, and I swore mine to hers."
Even more gasps echoed throughout the room, and Chaos wanted to hit them. Now wasn't the time.
Though she could understand their shock, she was the only Immortal to ever swear their lives to another Immortal.
"I promised her that I would always help her; and so help her I have. I've played as your puppet, letting you believe you still owned me. It gave me the freedom to help my Sister. It allowed me to awaken her partially; just enough for her to handle what was coming. I cleansed her Soul and mind of your manipulations. I've stood by her side, even when she thought I was stood on yours, to help her. To protect her. To save the one who saved me."
Fati stared at the older Immortal in shock. She couldn't believe that she had been played so thoroughly by the unstable Immortal. It shouldn't have been possible.
Fati opened her mouth, probably with a snide remark, when Mortem suddenly gasped, eyes flashing open and a large happy grin making its way across his face.
"You were wrong, Fati." Mortem said, his form solidifying as he pulled himself back to this dimension. "Aequivalere isn't gone."
"Impossible!" Fati hissed out, her eyes narrowing and her fists balling at her sides.
Mortem actually looked amused as he continued. "If you can still use that word then you really don't know my Bonded very well." He sighed and then continued with a shark like grin on his face.
"I don't know where you learned to dismantle an Immortal's Soul so well Fati, but you overlooked one detail. Aequivalere used to be human. When you ripped away all of her life, all of her lives, you ripped away her Immortality. But guess what was left behind? Her Humanity!
"Oh, E're's very alive Fati. Just a little…lost." Mortem was smirking now, and the other Immortals started smiling in relief. Memoria was the only one moving, her lips muttering and her form flickering as she worked with all of the power she dare use.
But no one besides Insania noticed.
"You caused her pain. You hurt her beyond anything you've done to her before. You stripped her down to her most instinctual part of her Soul. You basically caused her to regress back to her earliest life stage, nothing more than a child. And when you're a child, a scared child in pain where do you run?"
The other thirteen Immortals stalked forward. Infinitas staying by Mortem's side and Memoria continuing her work.
"You run home." Genus stated simply his dark green eyes like pieces of glass, their Siblings nodding along in agreement.
"And when you're a child, the very, very core of a child long lost, with nothing to cling to but your earliest memories, where would home be?" With a flair of dark power, Mortem was nose to nose with Fati. The Immortal swallowed slowly, hoping that her plan would work. She wasn't ready to die yet.
"You see, Fati. You couldn't destroy E're completely because her humanity is still tied to the first place her human Soul resided. She was a New Soul when she was Harry Potter. So as long as that universe exists, so will she; in one form or another, on some level." Infinitas stated, causing Fati to pale.
She had failed. How on earth had she failed?! He would kill her! She had to kill Aequivalere before He figures out that she failed!
Fati panicked, and although all of the Immortals, seeing her panic and not being stupid, threw their power at her trying to stop her, she just wrapped herself in the dark energy. With a flair, she vanished, Mortem being knocked back into Vitam. The whole Tower shook again, before falling silent.
The silence was then broken by a thud as Pepper and Tony collapsed onto the ground in a heap.
Mortem breathed heavily. His Bonded was Alive! Alive! But if he knew Fati, and he did, then he knew exactly where she went.
It was going to be hard, getting his Bonded back. But it wasn't impossible; and for Aequivalere, he would do anything.
"Return to Core." Insania barked, and Mortem realized that clouds were still rolling and the dimension was still shredding at its seams. With no one here to keep the Balance the world was trying to push the Immortals out, and it was destroying itself in the effort. "There are too many of us here. Balance is gone, so behave as such until our Sister returns to us."
Reluctantly all of the Immortals faded from view. They couldn't linger in the human world when E're wasn't there to keep the Balance.
As Mortem vanished, he gave Tony a longing look.
"I'm going to get her back, Anthony. I promise."
Soooo, what'd you think? Tony's part just came out of the blue and I rolled with it. Yes, it is a bit different than before and it made me realize that I am going to have to end up rewriting HOA (So…yeah all of you were right. :( I didn't want to have to do that.) though it won't be as big of an rehall as this rewrite was.
Thanks for sticking around; we just have one more chapter left.
Let me know what you thought!
Cp