Today was D-day—Kagami's first mission.
Kagami eyed the book of tartarus. It was displayed on a dais in the centre of Flamma's cluttered study. The book's yellow-stained eye watched Kagami. Kagami shuddered.
Flamma stocked spell scrolls into the bookshelves. "Don't sweat it Kagami! You've opened a portal before, easy peasy."
An all-out attack on earth yet Kagami's sole job was to hold the door open for Magor's army. She wasn't permitted to go along.
Vestalt didn't trust her – that much was obvious. She hadn't found out about Kagami's late-night excursion with Fireblaze. It was only a matter of time.
What Fireblaze showed confirmed her fears. Vestalt intended to take the orb from her. Does Vestalt see her as irrelevant to whatever grandiose plan Magor was concocting?
"It's time," Anchor said. He stood by the study entrance.
Kagami waved Flamma goodbye and followed Anchor to the narrowed corridors.
"Where did you go last night?" Anchor asked abruptly.
For the first time, the heat at Volcano Mountain got to Kagami.
"I went outside for fresh air," Kagami answered nonchalantly.
Does he know she went to Vestalt's lab with Fireblaze? She would've noticed his body heat if he tailed her. Unless he somehow bypassed her heat detectors.
The two reached the outside. Kagami squinted, her eyes adjusting to the sunlight. She was shocked at the sight. Hundreds flocked below the jutted bluff she stood upon.
Shades bounded by lava chains emerged from underground crevasses. When sunlight fell on them, the Shades unleashed ear-deafening shrieks. They desperately fought their bounds, seeking reprieve in the darkness. However, Lava soldiers tugged on the chains, dragging them back to the light.
"Come on. You need to get into position." Anchor said. His perfunctory expression unnerved Kagami.
Vestalt rode on Obscurio's two-headed dragon, Cerberion. She barked orders in the air. Obscurio was on the ground dragging Shades into the sunlight.
Kagami clenched on the hem of her skirt. But there was no soft fabric to calm her nerves. Only hot, solid armour. Kagami no longer sought comfort in the heat, a reminder of what she had become.
Kagami straightened her posture and hurried to match Anchor's pace.
"Stand here," Anchor said.
Shades and lava gormiti alike lined up in droves. Kagami was ahead of the pack, leading an entire army to Earth.
They are going to invade Earth.
The realisation hit.
This was Vestalt's true test.
It was the day of the student council rally. Every candidate had to give a speech to the entire student body. Kagami stood on the stage and gave a flawless speech.
Everyone applauded her. Nick sang her praises, throwing in the towel. But she didn't tell Nick, or anyone as a matter of fact, that her hands were trembling underneath the podium.
Kagami muffled a laugh. She's tried to be a fire gormiti. Prove her worth to Vestalt and Magor.
But she's not a fire gormiti. She's human. A 16-year-old girl with terrible stage anxiety.
A faint cackled laugh breathed down Kagami's neck. She turned but there was no one behind her.
"Yoohoo!" a voice whispered. "Don't you recognise my voice?"
"Fireblaze?"
"Is something wrong?" Anchor asked Kagami, temporarily exiting another discussion.
"N-nothing's wrong. I'm just a little nervous." Kagami replied.
"Then fix whatever nerves you have. The success of the mission relies on you." Anchor returned to his previous discussion. Kagami sighed.
"For a second I thought you'd rat me out," Fireblaze whispered.
"Where are you?" She darted her gaze, avoiding Anchor's suspicions.
"Right beside you." Fireblaze pinched her. Kagami tucked in a yelp.
"You're invisible? But how?"
"I stole a little something from that annoying assistant of Vestalt. I can't get 2 feet beside you without Anchor or Vestalt getting in the way."
"What do you want?"
"You never gave me your opinions on Vestalt's experiments."
Kagami resisted the urge to throw up - the memory of those poor, helpless gormiti. The guttural yells for help, the shadowy hands clawing and tearing their flesh – all Kagami could recall to vivid clarity. Vestalt took that risk when Kagami completed the orb and was willing to take that risk again.
"Aw, are you frightened by what you saw? Don't worry, even if you get turned into a Shade, your lord of nature friends will come and free you."
"Just leave me alone. I need to focus on the mission."
"You're still going through the mission knowing that your earth will be no more?"
Kagami took a deep breath. "I've made up my mind."
Her reasons for joining the lava nation were naïve and irrational, but Kagami was committed. She wasn't the same girl who came bursting into Vestalt's doorsteps mid-tears.
This was the reality before her eyes. She would be child of war, Magor's loyal obedient pet. And if that meant relinquishing her orb then so be it. She would never go back to Earth.
The old Kagami was dead.
"Oiji-san, Shujin, everyone I'm sorry but this is goodbye, forever." Kagami wiped her eyes.
"Let me hand you a special surprise gift on your first mission." Fireblaze's voice lowered "From Obscurio."
Before Kagami could react, it was too late.
Her mission was over before she knew it.
Nick mounted a fancy box decorated in detailed oriental designs onto his bike basket. Inside were Japanese snacks, from Mr. Ono to Jessica. The boys were the delivery men.
"Are you really not coming with us?" Lucas said, clasping on his helmet.
Toby reminisced on his last conversation with Jessica. Jessica had never been angry enough to unleash her powers so…violently. Jessica was upset about Mark's stupid request, who wouldn't be? But Toby began to suspect there was more going on. Gorm might be involved but Jessica refused to open up.
"We have more pressing matters to attend to!" Out of seemingly nowhere, Razzle appeared, propped onto Lucas' bike seat.
The boys screamed.
"Dude?! Don't sneak up on us like that!" Toby yelped, looking around the neighbourhood, anxious if anyone else saw Razzle.
"There's no time! The resistance called! Bad news! Terrible news! Catastrophic!"
"Razzle just tell us!" Nick implored.
"Magor's army is preparing to invade Earth! Oh, the horror!" Razzle quivered.
"Then that means -" Lucas trailed off, looking at Nick.
"Kagami…" Nick snapped his bike handle, "We've got to go."
The boys ditched their bikes.
"Hey, what about Jessica!?" the left-behind Dino asked.
"Off commission!" Toby shouted.
"Off commission? Then where is she?"
Jessica got off the bus and tucked her jacket tighter. The cold afternoon signalled the changing seasons, and Jessica secretly thanked her current predicament made her prepare early.
The final stop of the bus route brought Jessica to the woodlands outside Venture Falls. Jessica trekked up the slopped landscape, following a path leading to a lavish, grand house. A large hedged wall surrounded the house broken by an ornamental iron gate.
Jessica took out her phone, displaying a digital flyer.
Mark's Spooktacular 18th birthday bash
31st October
1000 Rosewood Way, Ally Street
No Costume, No Entry!
May Blois, the adopted daughter of Jacque and Jean Blois, founders of Jaq&Jean Cosmetics. The perks of being friends with the wealthy know no bounds.
Jessica pressed the buzzer on the side of the iron gate. The security camera swivelled to her direction. The best party girls don't arrive early to parties, but Jessica didn't come to party. She texted Mark in the morning and he said he was at May's place.
The other place - he emphasised. May didn't live in her mansion. She disliked flaunting her wealth, preferring the simpler lives of "normal" folks.
There was a beep, a buzz and then a clang and the gates swung open. The Blois house was a mansion-sized castle. The ones you'd see in horror movies. May liked the simpler life, but Jessica suspected the real reason why May didn't live in the house was because it was haunted. Fitting for a Halloween-themed birthday party.
Mark ran down the front porch's steps, in what Jessica assumed was his costume. Jessica couldn't tell until he came closer. He wore a frilly white dress shirt. Interlaced strings hung lose on his chest, showing a lot of skin. The fake fangs were a dead giveaway.
"Jessica, you made it!" He said gleefully.
He went in for a hug. Jessica stepped away.
"Have you been snooping through my phone?" she accused.
Jessica spent last night scrolling through her text messages and calls. The day of the dance competition, she had two rejected calls from Toby.
Not missed. Rejected.
She realised her phone was on silent for the rest of that day when she didn't hear the peppy alarm tone the next morning. She didn't think much of it until Mark went to the Tripp's house.
Jessica couldn't shake the suspicion Mark knew about the meeting and that Jessica wouldn't be there. When Mark approached her at the library, there was a convent opportunity to look through her messages.
"I only did it because you're lying to me," Mark admitted.
Jessica glowered, "I can't believe you."
"You haven't been innocent either!" he retorted.
"I'd never invade your privacy sniffing out alleged secrets!"
"But you are hiding something from me, Jessica! That I know!"
Jessica winced. The migraines returned. "Stay out of my business!" she screamed.
The afternoon became dark. Grey clouds blocked the sun. The air changed, prickling at the skin.
"No, I won't!" Mark lashed out, reddened with fury, "Something is going on between you and your little group of weirdos. And if you won't tell me what then I'm gonna -"
Thundered boomed.
"You. take. that. back." Jessica said in a voice unrecognizable. Her body grew hot, and her palms felt staticky. But she was livid, furious, she blocked out the migraines and pain.
"No."
Some would say you were unlucky if your birthday fell on a public holiday. A birthday was its own public holiday - it'd be as though you were celebrating your birthday with someone else's birthday. And they were more popular and everyone would rather celebrate their birthday than yours.
Mark didn't have that problem. The kids at school would rather celebrate his birthdays in that instance. Mark birthday parties had a reputation for being the best of the year.
"Everyone had fun at a Mark birthday bash!"
There would be no fun at this year's party.
Mark didn't think, of all days, he'd be fighting with his girlfriend on his birthday.
Jessica was shaking. She refused to look at Mark.
"This is it huh?" Mark said, "We're over." He hesitated to say the word "over".
Jessica said nothing.
"What? We're both thinking it. Might as well stop beating around the bush and end things."
Jessica said nothing.
"Jess?"
Jessica dropped her head. Her arms sway to the breeze. Mark couldn't tell whether Jessica was angry or upset. No, it was as though all emotions left her body.
The thunder boomed, shaking the ground.
"Uh Jess, I think we should head inside."
The hairs on Mark's arms stood and goose bumps rose. Mark didn't believe in a sixth sense but his premonition foretold that something bad would happen shortly.
"Jess?"
Jessica doesn't move, stuck in her trance-like state. A harsh wind blew swept the leaves away.
Mark wanted to believe it was in his imagination, that his eyes were playing tricks on him, but it looked as though the wind was encircling Jessica.
"Jessica?" Mark quivered again. He took two shy steps forward and peered underneath Jessica's bangs.
Jessica stared at the ground, expressionless. Devoid of any life.
"If this is a joke, it's not funny." A shaky hand went to her shoulder.
Jessica blinked alive.
"MARK NO!" Jessica pushed Mark with all her strength.
Mark grimaced her touch like a twang of electricity.
Then his vision was engulfed with a bright light.
A/N: that chapter was...eventful.
The chapter was much longer but decided to chop it down for the sake of getting get out in timely manner (you gotta admit that cliffhanger was wild though).
Originally you'd find out what happened to Kagami side of things and more Gorm shenanigans but that will be in the next chapter.
As for Mark's fate?
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
there's a cut scene were we actually see whats going on in Jessica's mind while she's in her catatonic state. idk, might post it on deviantart friday.