(Mal)
The first flash of black in her peripheral vision had Mal throwing her body to the side in order to avoid the blow that had been directed at the center of her face, however, she found a hiss breaking passed her lips when she went to push herself up, the fragmented bone in her forearm screaming in agony. Her right side collapsed under her, but she forced her left arm to support her weight on its own as she pushed to her knees, wasting little time in throwing her shoulder into the area just beneath the man's ribcage, well aware that it would disable the agent, if only long enough for her to make her next move. Funny how they attacked only after I thought about it. As he fell to the ground she moved swiftly to her feet, swinging her right leg around to connect with his temple, only to find that her body went crashing to the ground as well when a large hand gripped her calf, throwing her off balance.
"You little shit!" The agent cursed, grip tightening as his other hand reached for something in the inside pocket of the jacket he wore.
Mind swimming with pain, Mal thought as quickly as she could and brought her other leg down until her legs circled the man's head. A hot flash of pain sliced through her calf, but she slid until her knees clutched either side of the agent's head, and with every ounce of strength she could muster she twisted her legs to one side in a swift movement, the sickening crunch of thick bone snapping seeming to ring through the crisp air.
Not weak, but a fighter. Mal released her vicelike hold on the agent when his body fell limply against the ground, maneuvering her left leg out from under his fallen body as she turned onto her stomach in search of the boy who had rescued her. She found Jay holding the agent against the ground, the two of them struggling against each other as the younger male slowly lost the dominance; Mal knew she needed to help. Jay wouldn't kill the man, only hold him down or render him unconscious, but letting any of them get away wasn't an option she had, so she stood on unstable legs and limped over to the two, lifting her stronger leg and throwing her heel into the man's jaw with enough force to snap his neck.
The mixture of confusion and horror swirling in dark-brown eyes as Jay looked up at her would have nauseated her had she not slipped into a numb fighting state of mind, however, instead of worrying about what the boy currently thought of her she made her way back over to the guy who had attacked her, well aware that searching and getting rid of the bodies took priority over healing. Ignoring the burn of the gash across her leg, Mal crouched down beside the body to begin searching for orders, or notes.
"What was that all about, Mal?" Jay's voice was laced with anger and worry, two emotions she hadn't been aware could mix. "Who were those men? Why did you kill them?"
And Mal would have answered him, had the sudden sound of crunching grass and leaves not demanded her attention shortly after his voice faded. They didn't come alone. Raising back to her feet she glanced around at the agents approaching, counting; five. Shit.
"Mal…" Jay's voice came again, this time more urgent as he surveyed the brutes coming quickly in their direction. "What the fuck is going on?"
"Stop talking," Mal hissed under her breath. "There are a few things I need to do."
There were too many things she had to do before the second fight began, and as far as she could tell not nearly enough time to be able to successfully complete them; but that didn't mean she wasn't about to try. Okay, most importantly. Closing her eyes, she dug deep into her magic, reaching out for the luring presence of the girl, a large sigh of relief escaping her lips when she felt Evie safe in the dorm kitchens. Stay safe, Princess, she thought as she pulled her magic back inside of herself. Next… She curled her fingers around her forearm, grinding her teeth together as she prodded the fracture; that's quite an ugly one. With a deep breath she pushed the tips of her fingers into the dip between bone and summoned her healing magic, doing her best not to release the scream that threatened to tear through her as two pieces of the same bone were sewn back together to become one again. A light sheet of sweat formed along her hairline due to the pain, but before she could reach up to wipe it off a hand grabbed hold of her shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Jay whispered, eyes now glued to her.
"Healing myself," Mal breathed out heavily, forcing out a laugh. "You don't think you can win this fight alone, do you?"
"I was right, you are crazy," Jay chuckled, no sign of hatred or disgust in his voice.
It surprised Mal, the absence of hatred, but that was something she could think about later, right now she needed to protect the boy the way he had protected her. Not forgotten, but rescued.
"You ever fix that technique?" Mal questioned as she pushed off the boy's body, her magic caressing the air around her as her strength and energy returned to her.
Jay snorted, turning to face the agents coming from the other direction. "Why don't you just watch and see how it's done?"
"We'll see about that," Mal smirked.
Though she wasn't entirely sure it was sane to behave this way in the kind of situation they were in she couldn't be happier that Jay was with her, their banter relaxing her in a way it never had before. I can do this, she released a heavy breath; I have Jay.
Back-to-back, Mal and Jay waited until the first agent reached them before shooting into action. Pushing from the strong body behind her, Mal extended her left hand toward one agent while throwing herself at the other, dropping at the last second to ram her shoulder into the man's set knee, snapping it backward and sending his sprawling body over her rolling one. Rolling onto her knee she curled the fingers of her extended arm tightly into her palm and watched as the other agent fell to the ground suffocating. There's two unable to fight, and there's two more with Jay. She barely caught a glimpse of Jay flipping over one agent and throwing his foot into the other before a blow to her shoulder had her twisting around; the fifth agent. Throwing both her hands out in front of her as she landed on her back she forced the man to a complete stop, the knife in his hand aimed at her throat, before slamming her foot into his stomach and sending him backward. She released the paralysis spell she held on him, but was standing over him before he even had the time to reorient himself, her hand extending, fingers curling, and wrist twisting sharply to rip the life from his body.
Before she could turn to check on Jay she felt a hand coming to rest on her shoulder, and she would have flipped the person if Jay hadn't spoken shortly after. "See? Told you I knew how to fight."
Instead, she snorted. "I guess I owe you an apology."
"I guess you do," Jay replied with a light laugh, his fingers squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.
"Well, don't hold your breath," Mal told him as she turned to face the agent struggling to crawl away from them with a shattered knee. "You'd die before I finally gave you that apology."
Brushing passed the boy she moved over to the struggling agent, summoning a green flame and allowing it to dance around her fingers as she came to a stop beside him. She stared at the symbol etched into the arm of his jacket, recognizing it but not enough to pin it to an agency. Her orders had been clear; she was to eliminate anyone who came after the artifact, however, something about the symbol tugged at the back of her mind, telling her to hold off on killing this man, and though she wasn't entirely sure why she did, she decided to listen to that voice.
"Jay, can you search their jackets and find me their official orders?" Mal asked the tanned boy without taking her eyes off the agent sprawled before her.
She didn't get a verbal response, but she could hear the ruffling of jackets and papers being searched through as the man by her feet rolled onto his back to look up at her, pure hatred and agony dancing behind his cruel eyes.
"You'll never get away with this," the brute agent spat, still attempting to appear intimidating despite everything. "We'll find you eventually. We'll kill that little girl of yours."
Typically, Mal would have lashed out with fury by now, especially after that last threat had reached the air between them, however, the calm, icy rage she had slipped into kept her from slowly burning the man to a crisp like part of her wanted to. A hand tapped her shoulder just before Jay appeared by her side, an open envelope held between his fingers as his dark-brown eyes narrowed on the man who had just threatened not just one of his friends – Mal realized – but two. Grabbing the envelope from her friend's grasp she flipped open the paper to read the name of the agency these men had come from, her jaw clenching when she recognized the name immediately. The paper was quickly replaced with ashes as she encased it in her magic.
"You're going to do something for me," Mal spoke with an eerie calm, the fire burning bright in her eyes letting the agent know just how furious and utterly serious she was. She crouched down, tipping her hand to let the ashes sprinkle to the ground between them before continuing. "You're going to tell Head that I'm done taking orders from him. Tell him that, if he so much as thinks about harming Evie, I'll burn his precious little agency to the ground."
She didn't even wait for an answer before she waved her hands over his body and engulfed him in her magic, sending him close enough to the agency to actually get there, but far enough away that it would cause him a tremendous amount of pain to travel by himself. As she stood she wavered, and Jay had to catch her, but she pushed back to her feet and swung her hand in the direction of the rest of the bodies, watching them disappear as she sent them directly back to her old agency; a more serious message. The spell leeched the last of her magic from her body, and she collapsed to her knees, but Jay was there for her before she could let out another heavy breath, his hands coming to rest on her back in order to keep her upright.
"What's happening, Mal?" Jay questioned, dark eyes surveying her body for any injuries. "Are you hurt still?"
Mal shook her head. "I… I'm drained of magic. There's a limit for most of us."
"Most of you?" Jay's eyebrows reached toward each other. "What are you talking about?"
There's a limit for all of us except Evie. Mal wanted to say, but knew she shouldn't. She knew she had to explain everything to Jay just as she had with Carlos, and she couldn't help but hate herself for dragging both of them into her mess, but something closer to the surface told her she wanted them to be with her, that she was delighted to have them beside her in this spiraling disaster.
"Evie can't know," Mal breathed out, well aware that the girl needed to remain oblivious for as long as she could; if she didn't her magic would consume everyone and everything around her. She needed to know how to control her power before being brought to light about everything. "She… She's in danger, Jay. I was sent here to protect her."
"You were what?" Jay questioned, completely bewildered.
"I promise I'll explain everything to you, but we need to get out of open field," Mal said as she glanced around the surrounding area and pushed herself to her feet despite the fatigue washing over her.
Jay nodded, moving quickly to gather the book she had dropped and whatever he had retrieved from his locker before holding both items out to her. Though she was slightly confused she didn't take the time to question him, taking the items from his hands and making a move toward the dorms, however, she only got in a few steps before she no longer felt the ground beneath her feet.
"What are you doing?" Mal gasped in surprise when Jay lifted her into his arms, left arm hooked underneath her knees while his right hand curled around her ribcage.
"You're too weak to walk," Jay stated, carrying her effortlessly. "And don't even try to argue, you hot-head."
She narrowed her eyes, but hooked her arm around his shoulders in quiet agreement.
As Jay made his way to the dorm buildings with her in his arms, Mal couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that everything was about to get worse. If Head had sent people to eliminate her, he had clearly grown impatient with her, but something about the attack tugged on her chest, telling her that it had only been a warning. He wouldn't want his agents to kill me, she thought, shaking her head; no, he'd want to do it himself. It was obvious that he hadn't wanted her to know it was him, if he had wanted her to know he would have sent some of his younger recruits to deliver the message, the recruits that had spent their days insulting and trying to upstage her. He had hoped to make the first move anonymously, believing it would rally her into moving faster so that he could get his hands on the artifact sooner. Part of her wanted to see the look on his face when he realized the necklace's power wouldn't work for him, that same part of her that held tightly onto her pride, the pride that wanted to watch him realize he wasn't some god trapped in a human body, wanted to watch him break.
But she had turned down her own path, set her own mission that definitely didn't include handing Evie's necklace over to Head, and though the necklace wasn't an important aspect in her mission she wouldn't just ignore it; it belonged to Evie, no one else. Her mission was to protect Evie, to fight for her, to ease her pain, to do everything for her even if it demanded her own life, but to also live a life surrounded by the people she cared for, by the people who cared for her. This was her mission because it was what she had been subconsciously searching for, what her heart beat for, it was what she had yearned for her entire life without even knowing it.
And so she had made her first move in response to Head's, and she was ready for anything he had to throw at her because – for the first time in her life – she had something to fight for.
It was all too familiar, eerily so. The constant hissing of the skin around her wrists, the heat from the metal breaking through the material of her jeans to burn her, and the low laugh that seemed to rumble the small, tightly encased room. The thick band that had marred her ribcage before hadn't been placed on her this time, but she knew better than to find solace in that fact.
"What happened, Mal? I figured after our last little chat you would be smarter than this."
"Maybe I just put my intelligence to use on more important things," she responded through a clenched jaw, trying her best to calm herself enough to keep the fury from taking over.
There was a reason Head had chosen such a small room, and if she couldn't keep her anger under control she'd find herself in a new world of pain after transitioning. However, that didn't mean she wasn't going to let the bastard know just how much of a mistake he was making by doing this to her for a second time.
"You dare defy me again!" Head hissed angrily, curling his fingers around the metal whip in his hand.
"You dare be surprised by it," she shot back, well aware that her behavior wouldn't get her anywhere.
Her head was yanked backward within a second and the threat of iron rested centimeters from her throat, close enough that if she even swallowed it would tear through her flesh. She looked down the trail of her nose at the man who had ordered this to happen for a second time, solely because he couldn't control her transitions himself. That was what he wanted, to hold complete unwavering control over her, to use her as a secret weapon against anyone else who dared to challenge his authority. It sickened her, and she swore that one day she would rid the world of power-hungry humans like him; she didn't know how long it would take, but she didn't care, she would eliminate anyone and everyone who claimed complete power over others.
"I'd die happily rather than be your little pet," she spat the words at him almost as if they were a venom that could take him down in a single second.
That unsettling laugh shook the walls again as tyrannical eyes locked on her. "I will not let you slip through my fingers that easily, little girl. You will bow to me, or I will make you."
This time, she didn't give him the satisfaction of a response, instead keeping her mouth shut as she held his gaze with unwavering confidence. She knew she couldn't win like this, but she could win the overall battle by never giving him what he craved. He would beat her again and again until she kneeled before him, but it would all be wasted energy because she would never even lower her head an inch for him. Someday, she would strike when he was least expecting it.
But for now, she would stare directly at him, defying him once again by not breaking as he drew blood from her over and over, by not showing an ounce of pain, or fear, or submission. It would drive him insane. She could see that rage already overflowing as he circled around her and raised his hand above his head, she could feel his desperation to control her as he threw every ounce of strength he possessed into his swing as he brought the iron-tipped whip down to meet her pale skin.
Despite her tranquility during the actual moment, Mal woke with the beginning of a scream tearing through her throat, the sound exiting through her cracked lips without any restraint as her body lurched into a sitting position. Tears freed themselves from the corners of her eyes as she curled into herself, her arms shaking uncontrollably as she wrapped them around her legs and pressed her forehead against her knee. She could feel the cold metal ripping through her skin as if she were back in that cramped room again, and she had to resist the urge to feel underneath her shirt for blood, afraid that if she did she would find what she was looking for. It wasn't real. It wasn't real. It was just a dream. But she couldn't convince herself that she wasn't locked in that horrid room, waiting for each relentless blow.
It wasn't until the mattress dipped beside her with a new weight and slim, heated arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a familiar body, that she was able to tear herself from the memory and return to the welcoming reality of the room she had fallen asleep in. Knowing who was beside her, Mal allowed herself to collapse into Evie's arms, wrapping her own arm around the girl's waist and digging her fingernails into her hipbone in a feeble attempt to keep her there.
"I'm here, M," Evie whispered into her hair, breath hot against her scalp. "I'm here."
Evie didn't push to know what horrors had plagued her in her sleep, but Mal felt an irresistible tug toward telling the girl everything, a tug she had never truly felt before. She wanted to share everything with Evie, wanted to let the girl understand her, wanted to let the girl heal her, but a constriction in her chest warned her against doing so. However, she forced that fear from her body. She would tell her, she would confide in her, because Evie was always there for her, because she never pushed for anything other than trust.
A hand brushing down her back spurred her into motion, pulling her from her current state and prompting her to pull away from the girl holding her, if only to pull her closer to her. Evie didn't ask her what she was doing, or why she was doing it, and the hand the girl brought to caress the underside of her jaw solidified her strength.
"After my mother left me in an alley at night I survived on the streets for five years on my own, but when I was twelve I was taken by a man in charge of an agency. He said he would take care of me, that I was special and that he could use my talents," Mal paused, finding immense comfort in the gentle touch of graceful fingertips as she took a moment to breathe before she gave into the memories and lost the ability to continue. "I defied him, and every time I did he would drag me to a closed-off room and chain me."
She faltered again as Evie drew in a sharp breath at her revelation. Relishing in the security she felt with the girl, Mal turned on the mattress until she was facing away from her, reaching for the hem of her shirt and pulling it over her head to reveal the brutal skin of her back. The sound of Evie's gasp floated through the room as she took a deep, steadying breath, ready to tell the rest of the story. But the quiet, broken sob she heard from behind her stopped her, the idea that the girl was this affected over something that had happened to her digging deep into her chest.
"I don't think I've ever told anyone this, but I'm part fairy. My mother was one but my father was human, I think," Mal revealed to the girl behind her, not ready to turn back around and face her, not ready to turn back around and show her the marred skin covering her front as well. "He… the man who took me from the streets would chain me with iron to weaken me, to siphon my magic so I couldn't defend myself, then he would whip me with an iron-tipped whip."
"How could he do that to you?" Evie questioned, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Mal went to respond, but instead found her eyes fluttering closed at the feeling of fingers brushing delicately over the raised scars on her back. It's as good a time as any, Mal breathed out heavily as she shifted on the bed until she was facing the girl again, watching as watery red-brown eyes traveled down the length of the scar on her front, following it from the left side of her collarbone to just below her right breast. She watched as the girl's eyes widened as she realized the horrid scar stretching across her back made an entire circle around her body. Horror, pain, fury, it all flashed through Evie's uniquely colored eyes, and Mal wanted nothing more than to ease all of them despite having been the one to cause their appearance.
"He wanted to make sure I couldn't heal from it. He wanted me to carry the wounds with me forever," Mal answered her question, lifting her hands to show the girl the scars circling her wrists like bracelets, the scars she had already found. "He hoped it would make me surrender to him completely, so that he could control me and use me."
When Evie reached forward, Mal expected her to take hold of her hands, but she found herself surprised and afraid as the girl's fingers pressed into her collarbone instead. Eyelids covered green eyes as slender fingers traced over the trail of raised skin, and Mal swore the phantom pain disappeared as the girl's touch ignited her skin in a more pleasurable way, taking her mind away from the memory that had plagued her since sleep had taken her.