Hello. Here I am again. Glad to be here. This episode has been a long time coming. Well, every episode is because I've been a slow writer the last long while. But this is a significant one. I hope you all enjoy it and would love it if you left a review. Thank you.
S2E7: Darkness Within
Never before had Henry gotten air sick. He's parachuted out of a crashing plane, been piloting the Man-copter since he was fifteen and rocketed to space. Not to mention how many times he'd been in a plane just like this one. None of that seemed to matter to his stomach today, as it kept jerking about like something was trying to rip it out of him. The sensation was so painful he was sweating and bent over his own lap, making an effort to suppress his natural reaction to throw up or pass out.
The pain is so all consuming that he is oblivious to the events that are causing a ruckus for the rest of the passengers on the plane, at least for a little while. The shrieks and commotion of a bunch of people pressing closer to the right-side windows gets his attention. His seat being the aisle seat on a right-side row means he is pressed as people try to get a better look at whatever it is they've seen. Looking that way himself, he catches sight of something small and dark flying alongside the wing of the plane, a pair of glimmering wings beating furiously.
Before he can try to make sense of the impossible sight, the weight of all the passengers shifting so suddenly to the one side has the entire plane listing dramatically that way. People scream in fright and the flight attendants shout in their own panic for everyone to get back to their seats.
It only gets worse from there. The dark unidentified flying object passes the window and something else bangs on the door at the front of the plane. Henry's stomach jumps violently one last time; then the door is ripped out of the plane. All the air and anything loose or light is sucked out by the sudden negative pressure. The renewed screams are cut short by the removal of the oxygen. The oxygen bags drop from the ceiling. A wiry young man, wearing only tight black pants and an open vest, with a pair of sharp glass wings cutting out from his back, lands in the doorway, unaffected by the outward rush.
Henry is so shocked he almost passes out; gaining his senses, he pulls the oxygen mask onto his face. Many others on the flight are not so composed and do succumb to unconsciousness. Henry helps his seat neighbors get their masks on.
While the Seraph steps into the aisle and casts his eyes around, another flits in through the open door. It's Keaira, the young fairylike woman. She lands beside her cohort and instructs, "Find the source."
"What am I supposed to be looking for?" He returns.
"You should be able to sense it," she returns, beginning her own search.
He follows, muttering, "I can feel its here. It's not my job to do the pinpointing."
"Stop complaining, Raj," she says. She stops beside Henry. He meets her penetrating look. She smiles, "I found our problem."
Rajani peers over her shoulder and smirks, "Hart. We should've known." He pulls Henry from his seat with a firm hand.
"What do you want?" Henry hisses, wrenching himself out of Rajani's grasp.
Rajani retaliates with magic. A tangle of tendrils of pure darkness lash around Henry, binding him tightly. It knocks him to the ground. His oxygen mask rips from his face and the air is sucked from his lungs. He struggles for air and movement as Rajani pulls him harshly by a connected rope of magic down the aisle. "We warned you we'd come if you didn't resolve the Shadow Guy problem. You failed, so here we are."
Henry stops fighting the bindings, feeling cold inside. His stomach begins twisting sickly with panic and dread. "Blackouts dead," he argues.
"Something remains," Keaira insists.
"No! I killed him!" He breathes terrified. "I saw him turn to nothing; I know he's gone."
"Something remains; and it remains within you," she tells him. "So, we are taking you with us to end it."
"Excuse me?" He questions. She doesn't elaborate further, stepping out the open airplane door. Rajani follows, dragging Henry, but Henry resists again. "Stop! Get off me!" He demands. He struggles against the bindings, furiously willing them to break.
The shadows vanish. Rajani drops, like his tendons have all snapped as one. He falls backwards over himself. His wings slice through the walls, lodging in what lies behind. He let's loose a series of explicit Dystopian curse words.
The pain in Henry's stomach reignites with a vengeance, burning deeply to his core. Again, his breath is torn away. Until it was gone, he hadn't realized he was breathing fine for a moment.
Keaira comes back to hover in the doorway. "Rajani? What was that?"
He continues cursing, inserting somewhat of an answer between the expletives. "… Hart… magic… if I know…" he rips his wings free.
The plane shudders, then drops, falling at least several hundred feet before the pilots regain some control. Even still, it's descending more rapidly than is comfortable. Henry's ears pop. A garbled message comes over the intercom.
"You broke it," Keaira informs calmly.
"Who cares?!" Rajani grumbles. "Help me get Hart and we can go. Forget the stupid plane!"
Anger fuels Henry to get back up. Somehow, he is breathing again, though with much pain. "Not happening!" He says, facing them. "If you want to talk to me, you can do it civilly. And I'm not letting you take down this plane!"
Keaira studies Henry with a confused expression. "You're channeling it?" She marvels.
Rajani fumes, "I told you he just did that! He broke my binding spell!"
"He shouldn't be able to. He has no experience, no training," she argues.
"What are you talking about?" Henry demands.
They don't answer him. Keaira keeps staring, disturbed. "We must take him."
"You're not taking me anywhere," Henry insists, ready to fight.
The plane shudders more violently, the pilot speaking barely intelligible words again. "Don't presume anything, Hart. We will take you if we have to destroy the whole plane to do it." Rajani says. The walls of the plane begin to creak and crack.
Henry decides bold stupidity might be his best chance. He rushes Rajani, bowling into him, taking them both to the ground. Of course, Rajani retaliates. The two fight for about twelve seconds while Keaira rolls her eyes before stepping in. Her magic reaches into Henry and incapacitates him with pain.
"Are you honestly going to stoop to physical blows to have this fight?" she berates Rajani.
He gets to his feet, glaring down at Henry who is barely able to move. "I can put him in his place however I want." He argues.
She scoffs and says, "Just bind him so we can go."
Rajani's magic rope lashes around Henry again. Keaira's power pulls away; the pain subsides, leaving Henry shuddering. Before he can rally himself to fight again, his head is kicked harshly by Rajani. His vision blurs and blackens in patches. The Seraphim drag him out of the crashing plane. Tethered by the rope, he trails behind them unwillingly as they fly away.
Dazed as he is, he can see the plane as it makes its final descent toward the ground. He groans in protest but is unable to stop it from colliding with the ground, skating through the dirt with a terrible scraping. It comes to a stop, broken into pieces and with the engines on fire. He hopes the people inside survived, convincing himself at least the majority of them could have.
Then he is pulled up through a cloud and into shadow, feeling sick again as he is dragged through the sky for hours. The air is thin and his body aches. He slips in and out of awareness as they go.
(Theme Song: "It all just kind of happened," Henry says, rubbing his face wearily. "I helped end a killer and now his victims haunt me. Every time I win a battle, I end up with more problems. Whatever happened to happy endings and victory celebrations? My life is seriously nothing but Danger… the music of the theme song over lays his voice. The scene cutting to the credits…)
When they finally land, Henry has regained his senses. The Seraphim touch down gently but are none too careful about how Henry lands. He collides with the dark stone of their fortress's courtyard. "Gah!" He complains. Now safely on the ground he uses his forcefield to rid himself of Rajani's magic bindings. Rajani releases them as they are forced to expand. "You really suck." Henry complains.
Many dark angels stop in their various tasks to stare in wonder at their masters and unexpected visitor. Gossips travels in whispers as they recognize Henry.
"Your opinion is irrelevant," Rajani sneers. "Get up. Your presence here is not a holiday."
Henry scoffs most derisively, getting his feet under him. "Then care to tell me what I am doing here? Cause I was totally under the impression you just wanted a friendly talk."
"Come," Keaira commands. "We are awaited."
"Yeah. No," Henry says. She bristles and gives him a look asserting irritation and superiority. "You can tell me what you want from me or I can leave."
Both Seraphim cast their magic to subjugate him. He responds instantly with his forcefield to prevent the attacks. The gossiping around them stops, the dark angels now more interested in watching. "Nuh-uh. I said talk. Explain what you mean about something being left of Blackout." Henry demands.
From behind some force lifts him, shield and all, from the ground. He cries out and collapses to his hands and knees as his forcefield rolls without the solid ground for him to stand on beneath it. He unwittingly loses his hold on it and, without the protection, is set upon by the magic holdings of the Seraphim. The rest of the six have joined them in the courtyard.
With all their powers combined pressing at him, he can hardly make a move. He tries to twist about and is spun back just as quick. Before he can even clench his fist to call on his forcefield, his fingers have been paralyzed. In succession each following movement is restrained with ease until his only defense left is his tongue. He mutters a Dystopian curse word and grumbles. "You all suck."
"Be silent." Tamesis commands in his deep tone; and then even Henry's jaw is beyond his own control.
He grumbles his continued curses for only his mind to interpret. The Seraphim return to their sanctum, toting him along, and commanding their amused subjects back to business. The renewed gossip is less subtle now as they mock Henry for trying to fight the Seraphim. "As if even he could…" "…like his little forcefield would protect him." They laugh. Henry steams in the humiliation.
Inside, he is dropped onto their stone table, splayed across the center of it like some kind of offering. Fortunately, the fire is not currently burning. He slowly regains his ability to move as their enchantments are released bit by bit while they talk.
"The corruption is contained within him," Keaira explains. "I'm certain there is not another source."
"Yes, I sense that to be true," Li nods. They all take up their places around the table, making Henry feel a little like the feast they are all about to dig into.
"Still, that does not provide all the answers we seek," Gyldyr says, her leafish wings rustling as she takes her place betwixt the other woman.
Keaira and Rajani give a full account of their time tracking Henry down. "We have brought him but I'm certain it will not be as simple to end as we hoped. This corruption and its integration into Hart will require a closer study." She explains.
"He demonstrated some control of it," Rajani adds bitterly.
"Mm, perhaps not control," Keaira counters with an amused smirk. "I do not think that was a conscious action. If he were truly in control, his resistance would have been greater. We would not have taken him so easily, I think." Rajani frowns.
"The fact he can access it to use defensively at all is an issue. It may prevent us from excising the issue," Gyldyr says.
"I'm right here. You don't have to talk like I'm not," Henry grumbles, sitting up and working his limbs back to proper function. "Also, what the butt are you talking about?"
Their focus turns to him. Haughtiness and disdain taint their stares. Henry's quick enough to shield himself with his forcefield before Tamesis can cast another "Be silent" spell. This time he says, "Silence. We are discussing." Regardless of the wording, it's too late to affect Henry.
"No. I am not going to be quiet. You're discussing me; and you have yet to tell me why," Henry gripes at them. "You all recall how, when I needed your help, I came to you and asked politely, right? I didn't kidnap you, crash a plane and drag you halfway around the world, and I let you talk. If you want something from me, you can show the same courtesies."
"You're not a guest here. We don't need your help. You're an issue and you'd already be dead if we were certain it would solve the problem," Rajani growls.
"Wow," Henry says, leaning against the side of his bubble. "Well, you're going to have to rethink that strategy."
"You can't keep your forcefield up forever," Rajani asserts.
"You want to test that theory?" Henry asks with a sarcastic smirk. "You're probably right but you're also impatient. You ready to play this waiting game?"
"We will not be able to cast anymore spells at him nor get a better sense of the corruption while he is encased in his own power," Erebus notes, stroking his beard. "It may not be the best idea to try to wait him out."
"Don't give him the satisfaction," Ranjani argues.
"I really don't care much either way," Henry fibs. "I can spend the time figuring out whatever this 'corruption' you're talking about is and how I can use it to lay Raj out again."
"You did not lay me out," Rajani grouches.
"Well…" Henry shrugs.
Li cuts in, her considerable authority preventing the younger Seraph's protest. "I suggest you refrain from making such threats. The power we have referred to that allowed you to retaliate against Rajani is corrupted magic. Blackout's magic."
"Blackout is dead," Henry insists.
"But his magic did not die with him, not all of it. We have felt the lingering corruption. Keaira and Rajani went to find what remained, and they found you," Li explains.
"I don't use magic. I wouldn't even know how," Henry says. "Wherever you get it from, I don't have access to. I would never and have never tried."
"I believe you wouldn't," Li scorns. "But, regardless of your intent, you have accessed the power of the Pit. You have channeled magic. You have become an anchor for the corruption Blackout perpetrated. We need to understand how this happened, so we can end it and prevent such a misuse of the power again."
Henry cannot get himself to fully process what she is telling him. "That's not possible." His speech is tense. "How could I become an anchor for Blackout's magic?"
"That's what we want to know," Rajani gripes.
Li gives him a silencing look. "We can discover the truth, but we need to study you."
"I am not letting you all molest me with magic," Henry says.
She sighs subtly. "Then begin by telling us about Blackout's death. From there, we can decide what steps we need to take."
Henry frowns suspiciously, but consents. Staying in the bubble of his forcefield for safety, he tells them the story. They are attentive listeners, giving very little commentary. Most of their reactions are subtle, but the black hole surprises them, and Henry's attempts to convey his experiences within it hold them captivated. "… He decayed into nothing. The black hole shrunk around me; I don't know how I got out. It popped or something and then I was on the ground. Thought I was dead when I saw Captain Man. Then I fell into a coma for a few days and that was end of it."
A short silence follows the end of his story. "Your mentor returned from his grave? That requires explanation." Erebus speaks.
"Feel free to give me one," Henry replies.
The older man stares into the middle distance in Henry's direction. His cohorts are likewise deep in thought. Gyldyr is the next to speak. "We should have handled this ourselves. It was foolish of us to trust Hart to handle this corruption alone."
"I did handle it," Henry protests. "And if you ever try to come to my city we will treat you the same as we did Blackout."
"Tt…" Rajani scoffs. "You couldn't beat him without our help. Your city would have no recourse if we were to visit except acceptance."
"My city is more resilient than you think, and my team more equipped. I suggest you don't threaten them unless you want to go the way of Blackout." Henry returns.
"Don't flatter yourself," Rajani laughs cruelly.
"Take your own advice," Henry returns. "You have no idea what I could do to you without even trying."
"Enough," Li commands, silencing them.
"What do you mean by that?" Tamesis questions Henry.
"It is irrelevant, Swellview is nothing to us. Gyldyr is correct. It would have been expedient to go when we learned of Blackout's movements there. Having discovered his atrocities, it was foolish of us to do as little as we did. But now he is gone, our problem lies before us." Li continues.
"I don't use magic, let alone Blackout's brand!" Henry maintains.
Gyldyr answers, "You entered the Pit. Blackout's attempt for immortality despite his physical death called forth that conduit and you entered to see him destroyed."
"What?" Henry asks.
"The black hole," Rajani drawls. "Idiot."
Henry glares at him. The two trade metaphorical daggers of loathing through their stares. "What you've called a black hole fits the description of the Pit. Or rather, a conduit to the Pit." Li explains.
"How did a lowly bounty hunter, such as he was, gain as much ability as he did?" Tamesis wonders.
"Even if I was in this 'Pit', that doesn't mean I started using magic," Henry contends.
"The Pit is magic, the source of it all," Keaira says. "We call upon it to give us power, but you entered it. Very few ever dare to submerge any of themselves into it."
Li nods and elaborates. "To go even as shallowly as you did into that conduit leaves you marked. You have never called upon the Pit to give you power, it has instead made you a vessel for itself."
Henry huffs annoyed and afraid. "So, like the black hole is inside of me?"
"In a manner of speaking," Li nods. "Keaira perceives it within you. We have brought you here so we may end that connection."
"Great," Henry says. "Except I don't feel like dying today."
"That's not up to you," Rajani smirks.
"Killing you is not our first choice at the moment," Erebus notes.
Keaira agrees, "We cannot be certain that your death would end the threat. The corruption did not die with Blackout, we cannot assume safely that it will with you."
Rajani's smirk sours but he doesn't argue, clearly outnumbered as Tamesis also speaks his opinion. "We need to study you to understand how this connection works and how we can dissolve it."
Henry considers them. "You don't want to live with this. You don't want magic. We have the same goal. You need only give consent to our examination of the connection, and we will vow not to kill you lest we can find no other method to remove the threat." Li convinces.
With a sigh, Henry agrees. "Fine." The Seraphim all swear to the vow as Li had laid it out.
As soon as Henry's released his forcefield he finds himself again in the grasp of their unpleasant magic. They work seamlessly together to lay him out on the table again. As his back hits the table, Rajani speaks something and he finds himself stripped from the waist up. "That was my favorite travel hoodie," he grumbles quietly, knowing they'll ignore it. The stone surface is cold against his skin. Next Gyldyr casts fire from her hand and ignites the table. Henry flinches from it, but it's pointless as the Seraphim begin chanting together and the fire crawls up over his torso. "Woah! Wait. What are you doing?" he asks. They do not answer, continuing the spell. The flames sputter in every color. Thankfully, they don't seem to burn him, but they overtake his vision, and he loses all sense of reality.
(Commercial Break)
Henry floats in blackness, blinking instinctively then realizing he's not having a physical experience anymore. His senses are those he'd had in the blackhole, the senses of a bodyless soul. The realization has him scared the fire might've killed him for a moment. The next, he's more concerned that, dead or alive, he's back in the blackhole somehow.
Though there's nothing to define it by, Henry becomes aware that he's moving through the darkness. He's moving downward, like he's slipping deeper into the darkness. His fear is not lessened by the feeling. He attempts to stop the motion, but only manages to flail about without any control.
That pain in his core flares and spreads, filling every part of him. Catching sight of his hand, he stops flailing and stares at it alarmed. It's vanishing, either turning the same shade of black as the void around him or turning invisible or straight up turning into nothing. He's becoming one with the darkness.
His senses expand, he is everywhere and nowhere, as limitless as the darkness is.
The darkness writhes with the knot that has been living inside him and causing him pain. They swirl and morph together. The pain it causes is exponentially worse than the small knot had caused before. "Stop!" he commands. The darkness seizes back aggressively. He cries out. "Stop! Let me go!"
There is a violent recoil as he comes back to himself, coalescing around the knot of Blackout's magic. All his senses except pain muddy as the other darkness lashes out at him. He retaliates, the knot of black magic responding to his wants. The darkness around him stops lashing out at him and he finds he's no longer sinking in it. The entire void is still.
He appreciates the calm as the pain in him subsides. He is now very aware of the dark knot inside his center. "Hello?" he calls out, feeling watched. "Dark Angels?" There is no response. "What is this? How is this getting rid of Blackout's magic in me?"
Still nothing happens. The knot in him twists and the darkness watches him. He waits. And he waits. It's not easy to keep a grasp on the passage of time as nothing happens. Nothing changes. The seconds, or days, that pass are maddening in the nothingness. At some point, Henry huffs furiously and shouts into the darkness, "Leave me alone! I don't want magic! Take it back and let me go!"
It is some other piece of an eternity later that something finally happens. Something hooks into the knot in his core and pulls. It is sickening and painful, but he is moving again, being pulled upward slowly. He comes to the edge of the pit of darkness and there experiences a resistance to whatever or whomever is trying to fish him out.
He grunts at the irritation of the tug of war on his soul and joins the battle to get out. His hands punch and pull and slash at the barrier. It gives way and he crashes to the ground. The dim light where he lands is relieving.
He takes it in and gets up to face the Seraphim behind him. Like him they are not but souls. "What are you doing? What was that?"
"We were not the cause of your immersion in the Pit," Li tells him.
"Can we please just kill him?" Rajani begs.
"No," multiple of the others reply.
"The more we understand, the worse this gets," Keaira says. "It would be a mistake to kill him now. I do believe any attempt got a simple solution such as death would be a great folly."
"You also swore you wouldn't, so there's that," Henry reminds grumpily.
"He was in the Pit," Rajani protests. "He was summoned there as soon as we began our casting. And he has come out unharmed, unchanged."
"That was your Pit?" Henry asks. "You psychos interact with that willingly?"
"Yes," Li says, and it is unclear to Henry if she's responding to him or Rajani. "Let us continue."
The Seraphim resume their spell castings and Henry groans as the setting around him again changes abruptly. He's in a room, a great hall. The walls to his left and right ripple with light and color, they extend into the fog that obscures the rest of everything more than a few feet away. He can't see the front nor far end of the hall, not the ceiling, and even the floor is murky, looking less than solid under his feet. "Hello?" He calls out. The sound falls flat in space. "C'mon, can you guys not be more open about what it is you're doing to me?"
He sighs and decides he won't just stand here. Turning around in a circle, he decides on his direction. He steps towards and reaches for the right wall, thinking to follow along it. Each step gets harder to take that way and soon Henry notices the rope trailing from him back towards the left wall. He swipes at it, but it's solid, a bridge that melds right into the left wall. He traces it back to that connecting point.
His fingers hit the wall and the swirling light and color there on turn to pictures. Little scenes play across the wall like movies. Henry leans in, watching them each in turn and knows every one of them. They're all of him.
He sees a depiction of himself as a little boy, holding a baby Piper. He can hear her wails, and his dad giving him instruction on how to hold her. His toddler feelings of excitement and curiosity take over him and he finds himself speaking alongside the memory. "She's noisy." It's all like he's in that time and place again.
The progresses through the whole memory, then a stream of others: him giving a toddler Piper a piggyback ride, the two of them fighting over toys. Each little scene is of him and his sister, tracing the history of their relationship. Every fight and every fun moment with her from his entire life is chronicled, right up to her dismissive wave goodbye to him as he'd left for New York. He gets to the end, feeling simultaneously like he's just lived through the last seventeen years of his life again, and also like it's only been a second since the experience started.
Curious and confused he considers another of the images. In this he relives every victory he's had as a hero. He laughs at the feeling it gives him. Another recalls all the memories of him Jasper. It's overlapped with the memories highlighting his and Charlottes friendship. He stares transfixed as he looks through the groups of memories. One of particular hilarity he finds shows him every time in his life he's eaten pizza; every delicious bite.
It all seems so amazing and fun, until he looks at the wrong image. The memories that appear this time are not so fun. He sees his grandma's funeral, his hamster's death, the moment he'd learned his Uncle Jimmy had died. He is shocked and tries to pull away but it only moves to the next scene. At the memory of Ray's death he attempts to shut it out by shutting his eyes but remembers the uselessness of the act while using the soul based senses. He can't turn away or hide from the memories of every terrible personal loss he'd experienced. Friends and family die all over again as he revisits each memory. When the last one passes, and he can release the wall, he drops to his knees with a sob.
He curls into himself on the floor, the feelings from those memories lingering more acutely than the fun ones had. Panic surges familiarly, but without the physical effects of his usual attacks, the intensity is changed. His chest hurts but it's not from a pounding heart nor straining lungs. He's not struggling to breathe because he doesn't need to breathe. The emotions are all there is to feel, and they are terrible.
"Life knock you down?" Erebus says. He's hovering in the fog, just having come into view.
Henry gathers himself quickly, it won't do to appear distraught in front of the Dark Angels. "What?" he asks.
Erebus smirks at his attempt to appear strong. "It would seem that Life gave you a beating and you did not take the damage well."
"I'm fine," Henry denies.
Erebus is not convinced. "Verily? Your fear filled position on the ground was an unmotivated choice then?"
"No!" Henry protests. "I mean, I'm not afraid. I wasn't sitting here afraid. I…" Erebus is clearly not buying it but Henry refuses to admit the truth of it. "What is this place? Why did you guys send me here?"
Erebus does not answer for a moment. He stretches his scaly wings, gliding fluidly a few feet further away, searching through the fog. "We did not send you to this place deliberately. We merely sought to find those things which can elaborate on the corruption within you. Your consciousness came to the place with the most significant connection." He looks up and down the great hall.
"And what is this place?" Henry repeats his question.
"It is a place between. It is a realm between realms where time and space are endless and empty. You would call it Limbo, I think," Erebus says.
Henry's brow scrunches with disbelief. "Limbo?"
"That is what the people of your society call the state between Life and Death, correct?" Erebus questions.
"I… Life and Death?" Henry wonders. "We're not dead though."
"No. We are between for the time being," Erebus agrees. He taps the rope connecting Henry to the wall. Henry sees he has one of his own, though it is much rougher, with some artificial looking points as though it has been repaired many times. "Life still holds us to it."
"Um… these rope things are life?" Henry asks.
"No," Erebus says with much more disdain than he'd yet demonstrated. "These are our tethers to Life." He directs his hand down them towards the wall. "Without them we would be taken and pulled into Death by its own strands." He changes his point toward the opposite wall.
Henry blinks confused as he takes in the Seraph's meaning. "The wall is life?"
"Yes, fool. Did you not understand that as you relived your life while touching the veil?" Erebus scorns rhetorically.
"No. I didn't know that's what was happening," Henry admits. Erebus scoffs. Henry ignores it to ask, "And we're in limbo because…?"
"Because somewhere within this place lies answers to the questions of Blackout's corrupted magic." Erebus answers.
"Like in my memories on the life wall?" Henry guesses
"No," Erebus says. He then pauses, "Perhaps that would provide answers, but it would not be your life I saw if I touched that veil. And we believe there is a more concrete aspect here that will hold answers."
Henry peers around in the grey fog, the idea of Blackout's evil magic hiding in there is not difficult to believe and is also unsettling. "You guys haven't found it yet?" Henry asks.
"I am the only one here. I have the greatest capacity in the matter of Life and Death. The others will do what they can. You are the only help I have in this place to find what it is we're looking for."
"Me? I don't even know what we are looking for. How can I help?"
Erebus's disdain is apparent in his body language as he explains, "The corruption is joined with you. Therefore, whatever aspect of it is in this place, you are also joined with. It should be simple for you to seek it out."
Henry frowns while thinking. It should be simple? He'd never been to this foggy limbo place before. He'd only just learned that he was connected to the remnants of Blackout's magic. How could he be expected to have the answers Erebus was looking for?
Erebus stares at him, expectant. Henry shakes his head and shrugs. Erebus' impatience visibly grows.
Henry wracks his brain for some idea. Magic. Limbo. What does he know about either of those? Magic. Limbo. Life and death. Living and dead. Something clicks. But, no. He thinks. Maybe? "What?" Erebus says.
"Ghosts," Henry whispers. He looks into the fog, the direction he's been facing when he'd appeared here. Life on the left, Death on the right.
"Pardon?" Erebus asks.
Henry nods him to come along and takes of at a brisk pace straight ahead. He's not sure, but there's nothing else he can think of that fits. He searches and listens for any sign through the fog that he's right.
It comes slowly. At first, it's just a faint sound. As it grows, so does the dreaded certainty in his heart. The howling of the wind and the souls within it become clearer by the minute.
"What is that?" Erebus asks. "Hart?"
Henry doesn't answer. The fog begins to thin, being whirled around and pulled in by the vortex. They reach the edge where it's all visible before them. The storm from Henry's nightmares rages in front of him, more real and terrible than he'd thought.
"Oh no," Henry utters under his breath.
Erebus approaches it closer. Henry keeps in step with him. The Dark Angel stops several feet shy of the storm, studying it with a cautious eye. "This should not exist," he says.
"I thought it was a nightmare," Henry says. "I see this every time I go to sleep."
"'Tis not a nightmare. This is troublingly real. These souls, they are those whom Blackout killed?" Erebus asks for confirmation.
Henry nods, "All of them, I think. They're trapped here."
"Yes," Erebus agrees. He pauses for a long moment. "This is the issue. The magic within you holds them here."
Henry opens his mouth but can't form the words he needs.
Erebus walks around the edge of the storm, keeping a fair distance from the whirling magic and souls. He considers the storm and the area around it, the wall he calls life and the one he described as death. His penetrating gaze meets Henry's. Those several minutes he takes between speaking pass like molasses.
"Tell me about your mentor," he instructs Henry.
"Uh… what?" Henry mutters, surprised.
"Your mentor, Captain Man. Tell me about him. He was a victim of Blackout, like these souls, yet he is not here with them. I want to know how this can be."
"I don't know how," Henry protests.
"You studied the attacks, the deaths, what was different about his?"
"I don't know! I didn't actually see the attack, I was just the first to his body after he was killed."
"There must be something. He alone returned to Life. The answer must be contained within some small detail, so spare none," he insists.
"I- he was dead," Henry huffs. "There was no injury or mark on him, but he was dead and we couldn't revive him."
"Details," Erebus demands.
"What details?" Henry questions. "There was nothing else. We looked for clues, we spent months trying to figure it out. There was nothing except his dead body. We've tried to understand since he came back to life. Still, there is nothing. Magic doesn't leave traces after the fact."
His response displeases Erebus. The Seraph returns to his examination of the scenario, muttering to himself.
Henry sighs and turns his attention from his irritable companion. He considers the storm, listening to the souls desperately longing for rescue. Taking the last few steps to be right up beside it, he reaches into the wind. Erebus calls a command against him doing so, but it comes too late. A hand grasps Henry's from within the storm, the force of the motion is so strong it pulls Henry along, tripping over the ground. He tries to get his feet under him and pull back. "No!" he shrieks. It works; he manages to stop himself, to his own surprise. Another feeling fills him, one of control and power, he holds against the magical wind, becoming an anchor for the soul he's holding onto. The storm pulls back violently against him. "I'm not going in there," He mutters, not certain who he's telling. "You're coming out."
That is exactly what happens. With little effort Henry pulls the person he's holding onto out of the storm. The soul emerges, not blueish or glowing, but looking like a real person, a Swellviewian cop with a nametag reading Gerald. He is covered in a web of dark tendrils that trail back to the storm. He gets his feet on the ground, looking around in awe. "What… where… who…?" he stumbles over his own questions as he stares between Henry, the storm and the misty haze surrounding them.
"It's okay," Henry assures. He is not sure of the validity of that; he's not sure of much at the moment.
"Hart!" Erebus lands next to him.
"What the…?" Officer Gerald exclaims, looking at the Dark Angel.
"You pulled a soul from that tangle?" Erebus questions Henry. "You can control the magic holding them here?"
"Uh, maybe," Henry says. "I've done it before. They keep showing up as ghosts."
"What are you talking about?" Officer Gerald asks.
Erebus hums, considering the cop and the webs on him.
"It's okay," Henry assures again. "We're going to help you."
Erebus hums again, sounding amused. "Indeed," he says. He grabs the webbing. It goes taut. He pulls at it and it peels away from the cop.
Officer Gerald gasps. "Oh, that is better," he says. The next moment he's floating away from them. A tether like the one connecting Henry to the Life wall attaches itself to him from the Death wall.
"Woah!" Henry says, concerned. He chases after the cop. "Wait."
"Is this supposed to happen?" Officer Gerald asks. He floats directly to and through the right wall of Limbo. Henry tries to catch him, but the tether attaching him to life resists.
"Don't be a fool, Hart," Erebus advises.
Henry turns on him. "You said that wall was death."
"Yes, and if you touch it, you will die," Erebus answers nonchalant.
"But- But Officer Gerald, he just died? You pulled that magic web off him and he died! Did you know that was going to happen?" Henry shouts.
"I suspected," Erebus nods. "Fortunately, it did. Now we know our directive, this will be much easier."
"You killed him!" Henry accuses.
"He was already dead. Blackout killed him." Erebus says. He gestures at the storm and the other wall. "None of these souls are tethered to Life. They are supposed to go through that veil." He emphasizes the wall of death they stand so close to.
Henry's thoughts race. Erebus keeps talking; Henry takes it in as he considers everything else he's seen and learned. "The magic in you is entangled with these souls. We remove them from the magic storm here, and they will complete their journeys through the veil of death. Then your corruption should go as well. You simply have to pull them each out or stop the storm so they can be freed from the magic."
"You want to kill them all?" Henry scowls, upset.
Erebus scoffs, enunciating, "They are already dead."
Henry shakes his head. "Not until they go through that wall." Erebus frowns but doesn't argue the fact. "If they go through the other, they can be alive again." Henry asserts. "We could save them all."
"No," Erebus sneers.
"Why not?" Henry demands.
"A soul passing back into the world of Life is how they become what you know as a ghost. They are no longer living. Their tethers to life are gone, they cannot return to a mortal life again."
"Captain Man did!" Henry disagrees.
"That was an anomaly," Erebus argues. "A one-off. You insist there was nothing different about his death than the others. Without a reason, we cannot assume it is possible for even one other soul to repeat the feat."
Henry shakes his head, grasping for a way to argue the point he's feeling so strongly about. "It wasn't a one-off. Drex came back to life too."
Erebus pauses. "There is another who returned?"
"Drex," Henry nods. "Our enemy. Blackout killed him too and he came back."
"And was there anything different about his death?" Erebus asks.
"Only that he was a villain, as far as I know," Henry answers, glad Erebus has gone back to considering the scenario.
"What does he have in common with your mentor? Is there something the two of them share that makes them unique?" Erebus next asks.
The answer to that comes to Henry so fast, that he is too shocked to answer. How had he not made that connection yet? Erebus asks again. Henry nods and answers, "Indestructible. They're both indestructible. They have the same power."
Henry and Erebus consider the news in silence for a moment. Erebus eventually continues his questioning. "Their power, how did it affect them in death?"
"Uh… It stayed," Henry says. "Both their bodies remained indestructible even after they were dead."
"And how effective is that power? What is its nature?" Erebus presses.
"It makes them indestructible. They can't be hurt by anything. Almost anything." He answers, guilty feelings resurfacing at the thought of what can hurt them. "Every cell in their bodies were made indestructible by the Densitizer."
"Every cell? And they remained indestructible?" Erebus nitpicks.
"Yeah," Henry says.
"So, neither of them decayed after being put in the grave?" Erebus determines.
"Uh… I don't know. I guess. Maybe." Henry responds.
"Interesting," Erebus notes.
"Does that have something to do with why they're alive again?" Henry asks.
"Undoubtedly."
"So, it is possible for people to come back to life?" Henry enthuses. He feels sure of it.
Erebus scowls. "No. It may provide an answer about your mentor's fate, but the rest of these souls are beyond Life." He is insistent about it. "We must destroy this magic now and send them all the way of the universe."
"No." Henry is as insistent as the Seraph. The spark of hope in him has flared. Erebus' scowl deepens. "I'm not letting you kill them. There is another way. There must be."
Erebus rises, a fury visibly filling him. "This is not a debate, boy. Do not defy me. You will…!"
"No!" Henry interrupts. "You're not going to kill them." Henry charges Erebus and is surprised he can touch him. Taken by surprise, the Dark Angel is knocked backward.
Together they are sprawled on the floor a few feet from where they'd been. "YOU DARE?!" Erebus shouts. His wings extend violently, lifting him into the air and checking Henry halfway back towards the Life wall.
Henry glares defiantly. He gets up and has time to look around and consider things while Erebus approaches. The answer of what he should do does not come to him. He doesn't have the power to contend with Erebus one on one, least of all while only a soul, without his superpowers.
Erebus takes hold of him, forcing an intense closeness between their faces and commands, "We are here for this purpose, and you will do what is required of you to end the corruption."
"No." Henry defies.
Erebus lifts the rope that tethers Henry to life up and threatens. "I could break this without effort."
"You won't," Henry calls his bluff. "You swore an oath you wouldn't."
"Unless there is no other way to stop this corruption."
"You found another way," Henry says. "And you need my help to do it. You can't kill me because if you do you may never get rid of this 'corruption'."
Erebus laughs, "If you refuse to help, then there is no other way that may stop it but to kill you."
Henry frowns. He kicks Erebus in the chest, putting some distance between them and says, "You're not killing anyone. If anyone here is supposed to be dead it's you. You were born thousands of years ago. No matter what you do to extend your life, you can't change the fact that you should've passed through that veil millennia ago."
Erebus comes at him. He runs as fast as he can to the Life wall. Erebus grabs him a moment before he'd hit it and they both crash through the veil. All Henry's past memories fly through his head at hyper speed. He snaps awake in his body, on the burning table of the Seraphim's chamber.
(Commercial Break)
Henry has never appreciated having a physical body more. With six angry seraphim after him, having access to his superpowers is the only reason he's alive. He focuses on maintaining that barrier as he's batted at by their spells. He makes slow progress towards the door, running back and forth as they keep blocking him. Magic explodes against his forcefield; it wraps around it, pulling him across the chamber. He is forced into a corner. The Seraphim close in on him.
Then again, it's hard to escape while under his forcefield, it massively limits his ability to move. He leaps for a gap between Keaira and Tamesis before it closes but is blocked and lifted into the air. They carry him in his bubble towards the table.
Furious and desperate, he lets his forcefield go. Since the magic had a hold around the green bubble, he escapes the hold. He hits the ground in a roll and has his shield back up and is running again before any of them have a chance to attack again. They do attack, fiercely and with much shouting. The fight resumes.
Henry wouldn't have made it out the door if Rajani didn't try to cut him off. He cast his magic tendrils and wraps them around the forcefield on every side but directly forward. Henry drops his forcefield again and dives through the opening in front of him. Of corse, he lands right in Rajani's grasp and Rajani laughs in triumph. Henry doesn't DePaul for a second, knowing it would mean his death. He expands his forcefield wider this time. It catches a spell just as it would've hit his back and it throws Rajani into the grand doors of the hall, causing them to open. Henry leaps through them.
In the courtyard he almost has a second to breathe, instead he uses it to get further away. Out of the Seraphim's direct sight for a minute, he dashed into the dark stone corridors of the fortress, taking as many turns as he can to keep from their sight. Spells still follow him, burst of energy hitting things behind him multiple times.
Not knowing where he is in the huge fortress, he runs headlong into a group of Dark Angels in a chamber he stumbles upon. They are as startled as he is. Those that don't have quick enough reactions to catch themselves with their wings go to the floor alongside him. He loses hold on his forcefield, landing in a pile of bodies.
"Hold him, Angels!" Gyldyr orders. Some obey quickly, some are too tangled and confused to do anything. Rajani swoops in swiftly to help with a victorious cackle. His tendrils bind Henry again. Henry huffs furious and refuses to surrender to this most annoying Angel. He needs to find a way to beat Rajnai. If only he could do that thing he'd done in the plane again, knock Rajani on his back.
Henry searches inside him, he'd felt the magic within him. It had filled him in the Pit. He was sure he was tapping into it while dealing with the ghosts. He must be able to use it. Last time Rajani had him bound, he'd broken the bindings; he'd wanted them to break so badly and they had. Henry concentrates all his mind on breaking them.
Cut the cords. Dissolve them. Break Rajani's connection. He thinks of every way he might cause them to break. His anger grows as he can't quite seem to find the right way. The effort is making his gut hurt as the magic writhes inside him. It disrupts his focus.
He switches to trying to get the wrenching pain to stop. Then he is struck with a thought: he broke the tendrils last time with the magic inside him. He must use it now. He wills the magic to stop writhing in him and become like a dagger, to extend without him and cut the bindings.
It works. The bindings break and Rajani tumbles to the floor in a cursing heap. But Henry doubles over as well, feeling like he's been stabbed in the gut. He is immediately set upon again by the Dark Angels surrounding him.
Rajani gets back up more furious than ever. Tamesis hums thoughtfully from behind his compatriot. "That was a messy attempt. Effective, but poorly executed," Tamesis notes.
Henry is able to close his fist again, freeing himself from the Angels' grasps. Rajani kicks the forcefield in irritation. "Calm yourself, Rajani," Li advises. She turns to Henry, "You won't be able to escape, Hart. Your forcefield will not help you get out, nor can you hold it forever. You don't know how to use the magic in you, you'll kill yourself before any of us. You have no power to overcome us. Submit and let us rid you of it, our vow will still stand so long as you submit."
Henry groans. He can't submit. He has to find a way to get away. The idea comes to him, and it makes him freeze. His heart pounds and his breath catches. He feels sick even considering it. His hold slips on his forcefield. Rajani and the lesser Angels are on him again in a second. His hands are forced flat open to prevent him recovering his protection, and that seals the next event. It only takes the slightest thought for the blades to fly from his fingers.
The blades slice up the hands and arms of the angels holding him and they release him with shrieks of pain. He swings one arm toward Rajani, letting loose another blade. It cuts through the Angels wing, leaving a web of cracked shards across a fair portion of the glassy substance. Rajani falls with a pained cry of his own. The rest of the angels in the room stop and stare in shock. Henry runs to the windows of the chamber, cutting them up before he gets there and leaping out.
He reactivates his forcefield as he falls through the air. Hitting the ground a couple dozen feet below he takes off into the city. His pursuers don't seem to follow, at least not quickly. Nonetheless, he does not pause for breath until he's reached an old hideout on the outskirts of town.
The flavor of bile rises in his throat as he considers how he'd just intentionally used his power to hurt people. Though he knows they're Dark Angels and will be healed quickly and he'd had to in order to get out. He lays on the floor, catching his breath and trying to control the panic that's trying to seize him again. As his back hits the rough wood floor he remembers he's naked from the waist up. He'll need to fix that. Maybe there are some clothes stashed at this safe house but he doubts it. That was never their concern when he, Charlotte and Jasper were here, they'd had their gumballs.
He pulls his tin from his pocket, glad he still has it and chews some gum from it. His costume isn't the most ideal thing to wear in Dystopia, it will draw attention, but it's better than being half-naked. He rips the mask off, thinking it might be the smallest help. And he'll take whatever help he can get. The full extent of his situation demands it. He's alone, trapped in Dystopia, with the entire force of the Dark Angels out for his blood.
Next Episode: S2E8: The Lone Danger