While life had given ezra problems, having cole around was actually a blessing in disguise.
"Cole, you got five minutes or I'll leave you here" she announced with a weak threat and a smile.
The next minute cole came bounding down the stairs wearing brown dress boots, red shirt blue faded jeans and a ball cap. Smirking at his eagerness Ezra tossed him her keys and said "you can drive us to the mall today"
Catching her keys, and smiling with suspicion, they both went outside to Ezra's car and backed it out, shifted to drive and headed to vale central oasis, an outdoor mall near the center of vale, but little did he know, a catastrophe was coming their way. Cole parked the farthest away from the others so that they could walk in peace to just take in the world he became perfectly accustomed to.
"so what are we here for, dust rounds, sharpening stones-"
"those are called whetstones little volt" she teased ruffling his hair. "but no, we're here for something else"
Both Cole and Ezra wandered around in the valeian City Center, getting what they needed for winter when Ezra stopped him at a bench to sit down to relax, both opting to drink hot chocolate. After an hour, Cole looked at the woman and saw her ear-splitting smile and asked "what's so funny, do I have something on my face again?"
She smirked at him and replied, "no, nothing like that…well, other than me being proud of you" she paused with a dramatic sigh dropping her shoulders "but I guess I've put this off for a while."
"What are you talking about?" he questioned with a mouth full of sandwich and coco.
Nonchalantly she brought out a manila envelope with a message in cursive 'to the parents of Cole Valentine' and passed it to Cole to go through.
"What- when did" Cole stammered with his words and looked up at Ezra in bewildered shock.
"You are legally now my son, the paperwork will be finalized if you choose to sign right on this dotted line" she poked at a paper that showed where it had the line that said signature with an 'X' next to it.
Cole hurriedly signed the papers and went to hug her when she put a hand on his shoulder and smiled grabbing the paperwork and pushed it into the envelope.
"And since I'm your parental guardian now, I thought it's best to take you with me to sanctum academy; I'm a professor there teaching the combat class, I start this week, so I can still pay for your education and I'll be able to make sure you behave yourself while I'm at it." She added that last line with a hand on his head patting his hair straight teasingly.
"thank you so much Ez- uh, mom…heh" he loosened his grip and smirked with embarrassment. "I promise I'll make you proud"
She laughed and said, "you already have little volt" in his ear hugging him just as tightly.
Wiping tears from his eyes he felt embarrassed just as they let go from the embrace, cole laughing eased her fears that she messed up. Fortunately nothing could prepare them for what was to come.
She and him collected their bags to go home, but stopped when a rumbling noise and ground shaking grew with intensity until an explosion of debris and a freight train engine crashed through the city square from the north side.
Ezra brought Cole close as they got low, with her protecting him. "Mom, what was that!?" he looked at her to see her frantic and afraid.
She snapped out of it and looked at him and yelled, "run, ill be right behind-" suddenly a gigantic explosion erupted behind them tossing Cole and Ezra through the air knocking he went through a thrift store window and Ezra flew into a bus window sending it crashing down on its side on a café table and a few people in the process.
In the far east side of the city square another train rested inside a large trench created from crashing through the west side of the city wall, dead and injured people littered the streets, people screaming in terror while Grimm poured from the hole and began their destruction.
Everyone ran in terror, kids were dropped, parents scrambled to grab said kids and their brand new clothes and knickknacks. Ezra lay inside a bus unconscious but mostly fine, cole unfortunately was worse off than her and bleeding out.
Soon enough the atlas military and valeian hunters responded to the call of duty o defend the city and contain the breach but it wasn't working well.
Bleeding and gasping for breath, cole woke up on the ground in agony, underneath him was thousands of shards glass sticking to his clothes and skin and fell off with loud clinking and clattering as he pushed himself up on his knees.
Standing up he looked around to see blood and people around him unmoving and cold. He struggled to look any more, so he felt it was best to try to walk out of there except the only thing he could do was limited with a broken leg, cracked ribs, a gash going from his hairline down his face and over both of his lips on the right side all the way to his chin and a large shard of glass in his leg, he looked down at it and tried pulling it out but flinched clenching his teeth groaning and tearing up. He needed to move but couldn't bring himself to remove the glass in his leg but he couldn't let it break off inside him so he removed and wrapped his shirt around it and tore it out with a quick yank.
Despite trying not to, he let out a scream as the pain -as well as the scent of burnt flesh- overwhelmed him because after tearing it out his skin was lit on fire without realizing the fuel from the bus has gotten in the fabric of his clothes and scorched his leg. He was able to put it out but not after seeing how screwed up it was.
He couldn't see nor walk straight, his body hurt everywhere and wouldn't stop bleeding, clothes were torn and burned, but cared about finding Ezra and getting out of there as quickly as possible. If he found her at all that was.
Using the broken frame to keep him upright he bore witness to pure carnage, running wild throughout the area but thankfully the Atlesian military and valeian hunters were working on the situation, it didn't look good. Ignoring the glass biting into his hand, he took off to run through the chaos looking for Ezra.
"Mom!" he called out before he slipped on some ice and wet snow opening his gut wound and coughed violently, "ez- *cough, cough* mom! Where are you?!" he begged quietly trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working as he tried crawling through the cold and wet ground when something grabbed him by the back of his jacket and tossed him to the side.
Hitting the ground hard, he rolled onto his stomach staining the snow in blood. he frantically looked around, all around cole watched people die, grimm torn apart by the military and hunters -whom were gaining traction- climbing over a car he spotted Ezra on her back straining to hold back a knasher from biting into her. Teeth snapping closer and closer while she held it at bay.
Rushing towards her cole hoped to blast it into oblivion and even tried to do so with a mighty roar only for his body to seize up and collapse right from under him on his stomach.
In the worst possible way of fate, Cole saw a girl close to his age just…standing there frozen in place…just staring at them. Not doing anything, WHAT WAS SHE DOING!
Ezra screamed as she flew into the rubble that was once a building. The knasher screeched and bound over to Cole forgetting its original victim.
"HELP HER!" he cried out grabbing the snow, and dragged himself forward, but it was too late, the black cat faunas girl ran away. "NO, PLEASE COME BACK" he hollered desperately.
with everything going on he missed Ezra just long enough that he thought the knasher had succeeded in killing her but since he couldn't see it he missed the part where ezra had caught its jaws in her grip but not long before she was gone
She didn't even have a chance to scream as she looked into his mismatched eyes, crying. "I'll always be proud to have been mother, I love you little volt" then her arm vanished in its teeth and she'd vanished from remnant…no literally like she'd blinked from existence.
And like that, the world around him faded away and memories of their time together came flooding in, the times he yelled at her in anger to leave him alone when she caught him looking for traces of his family's killer, crying in her arms when he was caught looking at an old photo of his family's happier times, the times he and Ezra laughed together, and a month ago he'd accepted her help and accidentally calling her mom when he'd asked for permission to buy him a music player; he loved her and accepted her as his parent…she just adopted him too! but now? She was gone, Dead, nothing left But a bloody smear on the sidewalk.
"MOOOOOM" he bellowed in anguish unable to feel the below freezing chill of winter, all that remained was pain. His tears froze to the ground the moment it fell, watching the girl run off with a bullhead taking her away after entering. "You better pray I never see you again, cause you will die otherwise!"
After ten minutes of crying he slowly limped over to the necklace with a pendant of a Phoenix now soaked in blood, With all the negativity it brought out of him, he unintentionally drew an alpha knasher to him. It was halfway through eating a dog when it had tasted his fear turn into malice and despair in the air. Bounding towards him it roared.
Balling his fists he didnt hesitate in gathering electricity from every exposed power line and dust rounds, then as if a bomb were dropped on the beast's head, a storm of lightning bolts showered down peppering the rest of it's body. Rage burned through him like a thousand angry wasp nests.
At that moment moving forward, he made a promise to trust no one and fight his battles solo, and fight he did.
As the blinding light took him, he let out a roar akin to that of an animal with the lust for blood and took Ezra's twin axes in hand shaking and blind to pain and rage, pushing his lightning in the metal in the axes making them more dangerous. With blinding speed and brutality he tore Grimm apart like a shredder, But while his bloodlust was far from over, a specific memory replaced his rampage of sorrow and rage with nothing but grief, and soon that hole inside would grow all the deeper.
Screams filled his ears from the Grimm he tore apart in a rage fueled frenzy, severing limbs and heads from bodies until his mind faded to elsewhere with a loud scream. "RRRAAAAAAHHHHH" With the dual axes in hand he looked like he'd gone into himself to fight till he dropped.
He leapt toward the horde headed right for him hoping to feast on his flesh and gnaw on his bones, and when he got close enough the world disappeared in a flash of light and electricity exploding outward like a web of hot tendrils.
At the dinner table Ezra noticed how quiet he was and cleared her throat trying to get his attention "is the food okay little volt?"
initially he remained silent, visibly wanting to say something but after a moment of thought he took his time finding the right words. "a-am I ever going to stop missing my family?" he finally asked, "I know its been almost thirteen years but, why does it still hurt?" he grabbed the gloves from his pocket and slipped them on and pulled his sleeves over his arms trying to hide the scars on his skin.
Ezra stopped short of taking a drink from her wine glass and gave him a sympathetic look gently taking his hand into hers "oh Cole" she said feeling a bit guilty, "it's okay to miss the people you love, but that doesn't mean you have to stop feeling for them. Even after I die, I want you to know that I am happy you were here with me, because you are important to me and I couldn't ask for anything more."
Hearing those words Cole broke down and rushed over to her seat and hugged Ezra happy to have heard those words, the surprise hug from him made her laugh a bit and hugged him back.
"I promise I'll always be there for you" she whispered in his ear, letting him cry his heart out on her shoulder. She let him empty his heart out, uncaring about the food to focus on him for now. "I pro-promise I'll m-make you proud" he sobbed.
"I'll make you proud"
"I'll make you proud"
"I'll make you proud"
"I'll make you proud"
Those words echoed in his head over and over until the blinding light dissipated. Cole was missing, hunters of vale and atlas military personnel as well as Androids patrolled the area as they contained the mall with a perimeter around five blocks wide. the Grimm around where he once was were all but ash and charred bone.
Cole was too heartbroken to notice the sudden burst of power he unleashed had unintentionally absorbed the power from all around him in the buildings, power boxes and lamp posts. Any proof he physically existed was gone and he knew he was going to need to keep it that way for a long while.
Everyone in the area were so busy tending to everything else, they didn't notice Cole was already gone, save for a curious little orb that was 9bserving the scene unfold before it had been blown up in his rampage.
Knowing he shouldn't stay there, Cole fled into the alleyway and puked hot bile and chocolate flavored coffee crying for death to go take him as well but after an hour it never came, so he chose to pick himself up and made his way back to Ezra's house.
Heading home he ignored the world, letting it disappear from his standpoint, when he walked through the door he was already prioritizing what he didn't need and what to keep that was hers, he even went so far as to keep paying the bills until he found a cheaper place and keep what he wanted that was Ezra's that had sentimental value.
All in all, he'd sold everything except for the photo album, her bed, and everything on it, her weapons, her armor, the training instructions and videos for when he was home alone as well as the rest of his studying material, and her gift to him: dust crystal infused combat boots. Everything else he put in his smaller apartment or sold for extra lien (which got him close to half a million lien in value) and funny enough he kept her clothes since he couldn't bring himself to sell any of them, and it wouldn't feel right. 'Maybe when I find a woman she can wear these' he thought as he put her black cloak in the box with her axes and combat gear.
'how could this happen?' he thought, stepping away from the box to try to think things over. After a few minutes of mundane chores around the room, his emotions blew up from the inside out by punching the wall making a decent size hole, thrashed everything not nailed down and screamed as he just smashed appliances and everything in the kitchen and dining room.
Breaking everything felt no better than when he started but after he had he dropped to his knees and yelled "you promised me you'd be here!" punching a hole in the floor and just completely lost it all over again.
Before taking a few hours to rest and plan the future out in his now wrecked apartment, first thing he did was get just drunk enough to feel numb physically then he took a long shower and washed the blood down the drain while stitching himself together.
Exiting said shower he wrapped his long hair in a towel like ezra taught him wrapped himself in her black robe with boxers underneath and slept on her bed hoping to forget about today. Knowing he couldn't sleep he drank till he blacked out and passed out.
That's gonna be it for this chapter, I am really trying to get this story out as a more refined version of what I gave last time.
yes Ezra still meets the same fate but from Cole's pov she died and his mind didn't process her semblance awakening so it'll make sense if you got this far.
Comment anything you think could be worked on at:
H6pp1n355_in_misery.
Criticism is appreciated
Two weeks and next chapter comin.
for all my readers I appreciate your kindness