Leila woke up surprised. This was the first time that Asmodaeus hadn't tried attacking her in her sleep since Jim had given her that damned thing. She looked at the blade suspiciously. The gray sword looked like normal, even to her not quite normal vision. Too normal.
Leila turned her senses inward and gasped. Her mindscape was... desolate. The palace where she stored the most important pieces of herself was still intact, but the rest of it? Wasteland. Her gardens had withered to nothing. Planets she had formed and placed into orbit around her palace, shattered. Holding back panic, she checked her connection with her brother.
Jim's mental avatar entered her mind through the link. Solid ruby eyes surveyed her domain critically, as the avatar refused to face her.
"So that's what happened," he muttered, beginning to fade from her mind.
“Wait!”
“What?” Jim snapped. He had been like this ever since he had found out the truth, he'd pay some attention to her requests, but would completely ignore her otherwise.
“Are you all right? Did any of it get to you?”
The avatar froze. Then turned very deliberately, black runic tattoos forming on skin that was rapidly turning crimson. Leila only had a moments warning as a wave of telepathic power flew through the avatar and hit her.
Hundreds of faces, twisted in horror as they died. Millions of voices screaming in incoherent rage and pain. She felt her mental realm shake as the assault ended, a single face replacing the thousands. The man's face was peaceful as he lied beneath her, dirt and blood marring his face as he smiled gently. Then a fist, covered in amethyst power, descended on that face, crushing it, destroying the smile forever. A wave of pure mental agony, regret mixing with a fury and absolute need to destroy the people responsible for all the pain.
Jim looked at her, the fury pulling back as his face turned to stone. “Yes,” he lied, “I'm fine.”
Leila didn't stop him from leaving this time. You knew the price that he would pay when you made your choice. And you would do it again. You will do it again and you know it. Is it any surprise that he knows it too? She took a moment, forcing herself past the guilt. She couldn't afford to lose to her sins, no matter what she did. She had seen the alternative to her not acting, and if the price of a fighting chance was creating hell after hell for her brother to forge himself in. If the price was to make that gamble was to condemn herself and her family for all eternity. It would be a bargain that she would grab with both hands.
Next on the agenda. Leila spread her senses around her mental realm searching for Asmodaeus. She found the daemon in the wreckage of where his cage had been, its body wounded, unable to move. Leila frowned, knowing that if the daemon could break out of her cage, it would have done so already, and willed herself to its side, banishing the remains of the cage. Leila sighed, the daemon was nearly gone, if she had slept for just a few more minutes, whatever had destroyed the cage might have finished it too.
“Neither of us gets off that easy, Mo,” Leila murmured, using her powers to reform the Asmodeus. “I've got plenty of work ahead of me, and you will eventually help me with it.”
The daemon coughed, opening its eyes, “I will devour your soul.”
Leila rolled her eyes at the growled threat, “That would be more intimidating if you were a bit further away from oblivion. What happened?”
Asmodeus's eyes widened in surprise, “You don't know?” It laughed, low and harsh, before flashing an image at her.
A disc of Light and Darkness, impossibly fused together, began to change. At first, the change was slow, the darkness separating from the light, beginning to turn the disc into two distinct parts. Suddenly, the Darkness surged, threatening to devour the Light. The Light surged in response, crashing into the Dark. The two merged into a chaotic mess before exploding, destroying planets and stars, only stopping once it reached the Palace at the center of the dimension.
Leila gasped, some of that power had gone through her connection with Jim. Leila checked the cord in the back of her mind that bound her brother to her, worried to find it slightly frayed. She considered whether she should check on him again, but he hadn't seemed to be injured when he came earlier. And he wouldn't tell you if he was.
Asmodeus charged at her, trying to take advantage of her distracted state. Leila absently raised a hand, creating a cage of Light that burned the daemon's newly regenerated skin when the two came into contact. No, Leila decided, her brother didn't want her help and had probably only come earlier out of curiosity as to what had happened to her to send her power out of control. Which was something that she needed to figure about as well. It had been over three years since the last time her powers had gotten out of her control.
Balance.
Her mother's advice echoed. You are the Origin of All. The essence of your power lies in its inherent contradictions. The only way to truly control the Light is by standing in the Dark. And only someone who's eyes can see, will be able to know the Darkness.
She had been using Dark for her disguise as it was the power that nobody had seen. While she wasn't worried about someone figuring out what she was – the only likely result of that being the observant woman either leaving or offering her services in as discreet a manner possible – she was worried that if she would use Light somebody might figure out who she was. And the rewards that one may get from helping a hidden Scion, were nowhere near the profits that someone could get off the body of Marie Drake's daughter. Even without including Asmodeus in the haul.
Leila banished that train of thought, not about to go over decisions that she had already made. Balance. She could do that. Leila pulled the Light to her, demanding, calling it to her side, drawing the dispersed powers around her. Asmodeus roared in pain from the proximity of the sheer power Leila wielded. She ignored the daemon as the Light ran through her, cleansing her insecurities and fears.
Light alone cannot create.
One of her few memories of her father. She couldn't use the pure Light to reconstruct her mental sanctuaries, it wasn't flexible enough. What she could do with it though... Defend. The Light exploded away from her, forming a massive sphere around her consciousness, pulsing with the destructive power of a sun.
Leila checked her mental plane for Darkness, finding it sunken into the debris scattered all over the place. She could extract and condense the Dark, but that would risk a replay of what had happened earlier. Her two primary powers tended to get volatile when they were both condensed and awake. Better to leave things as they were until the op was over. She gave Asmodeus some power to make sure it didn't die, cast a regretful look around what used to be her beautiful planets, and exited her mind.
Leila walked down Broadway, window shopping, and looking for a nice coffee shop that Adrian had told her about that should be right over... found it. Somehow, she wasn't surprised to see the boy standing by the front door. Adrian Danvers waved cheerfully at her grinning.
“Thought you'd come here on your day off Leila!” He practically cheered, looking for all the world like the teenage boy that she knew for a fact he wasn't.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Captain,” she answered politely.
Adrian grinned at her attempt to brush him off, “How about I pay for our coffee's and we go for a walk together.” The smile left his eyes, letting her know that this was one of the few times that he wasn't simply flirting with her.
Leila nodded, “I'll have a cocoa then, thanks.”
The boy nodded and opened the door, “After you, milady.”
After getting Leila the promised cocoa and himself an espresso, Adrian looked at her “Out of the city? I know a nice spot, great view.”
Leila frowned,
He shrugged “No need, Tamara spoke to them, I'll meet up with them later.”
She sighed, the man had thought of everything. Not having much of a choice, she followed him outside, sealed her cup with some kine power as the captain began to Enhance, Adrian leaped, rocketing up to the rooftops across the street, Leila smiled apologetically at the bystanders, before following her captain in an Enhanced leap of her own. Adrian set an easy pace, one that any Class Four enhancer would be able to keep up with. Also, one that was certainly illegal, especially going over the rooftops as they were.
she cut off the transmission at the stunned expression on his face. Not even Adrian -
Leila growled at the idiot, who apparently had never listened to her about the difference between taking a risk and being a complete, total, moron. Almost on cue, she felt a couple of auras heading at them.
Leila replied.
She rolled her eyes,
Adrian sent her a location. Leila grinned at one of her rare verbal wins over the man. She knew the place he showed her, had actually considered taking a boyfriend there once for the privacy, though that had been before. Adrian hung from her psionic arm silently for a while as Leila flew, enjoying the feeling of the wind in her face, adjusting her wings to deal with random gusts of wind.
Leila held back the impulse to shrug, making a mental note to not tie the wings to her upper body muscles in the future.
They made it outside the city fairly quickly, somewhat to Leila's disappointment. She made a mental note to fly with wings sometime in the future if she wasn't worried about getting shot at. The spot Adrian had directed her to was just how she remembered it, a small hill, without much trees on it, but an amazing view of the forest and distant mountains.
Adrian yelped as the hand that Leila was holding him disappeared, dropping him unceremoniously to the ground, nearly a hundred feet below, he Enhanced as he hit the ground, not even stumbling at the impact. Leila followed, her wings vanishing, being replaced by a bright aura that lowered her to the ground at a much more sedate pace than her captain.
< Tamara wanted to know if you understood what you're getting into.>
Aloud Leila added, “And that wasn't what I asked. That was how you got Tamara to call off your tails for the day. What did you want to talk about Adrian?”
Adrian sighed, “I wanted to know if you understood what you're getting into.”
Leila glared, “I told you -”
“Not with the FBI.” Adrian clarified, “Although I don't think you have all the information on that.” He met Leila's eyes, golden orbs burning bright, “do you know what this will cost you? You are going to be a pit fighter. Most of the people you fight aren't going to be there of their own free will. Some of them are going to be kids. You might need to kill some of them.”
Leila looked away, “I know, but if that's the price I need to pay...” she closed her eyes, voice trailing off.
“Now.” The command echoed, as the twelve of them released powers that had been designed for this moment. Leila didn't bother trying to watch what the others did, she just laughed in pure ecstasy, as she let the parts of her that she had held back her entire life out and devoured the remnants of a universe that the others had unbound.
She opened her eyes, “It's worth the gamble.” She didn't want to be that person. No matter what the cost.
Adrian shook his head, “Is there anything that I can do to help?”
She laughed harshly, “Not allowed. That would probably be considered my creating my own power, and while I'm important, I'm not irreplaceable.”
"How could they replace you?" Adrian asked calmly.
“Apparently there's a pair of twins in Russia.” She answered casually.
Leila answered.
Adrian sat down, leaning his back against a tree, his face calm. Leila thought that if she was her brother, she would be running as far as she could right now.
“What can I do to help?” Adrian's voice was calm.
Leila shivered at the thought of what Adrian helping her could cost. “You could die. If he decides to kill you, he will. You can't beat him.”
Adrian looked up at her, and for the first time, Leila didn't see a child's face staring at her. “I know. What can I do to help?”
“Nothing,” keep him out of this.
Adrian stared at her for a long moment before replying, “Then I'll do it all on my own, risk running across whoever this bogeyman is, and die horribly.” He smiled cheerfully, “So how's Jim doing?”
Any amusement that Leila might have felt at Adrian calling that man a bogeyman was wholly covered by her terror at the prospect of his death, and what her shame of she had done to Jim... and what she would do to him in the future.
“What do you want?” she said woodenly.
Adrian blinked, surprised at her giving in so easily, "What's the goal?" Leila collapsed next to him, "I need to either save the world or end it."
“Which do you want to do?”
Leila stared at him, “What?”
Adrian met her stare, “Say it.”
“I... I want to save the world.”
He smiled, suddenly turning back to the boy that he normally looked like, "Good, keep saying that. What's your plan?" Leila turned away from him, her cheeks burning at her admission. She took a deep breath, sitting up straighter, somehow feeling calmer. "I need to get as many people who will fight, as powerful and united as possible."
“Limitations?”
“I can influence, but I can't lead or directly advise. Beyond that, none.”
Adrian sucked in a breath, “Define 'none'”
“Jim.” The name tumbled out of her mouth without her thinking.
Adrian was silent for a while, “You knew what was going to happen.”
“Not the details. Just that it would be bad. And that he would come out stronger. With an army.”
“Would you do it again?”
His voice was calm, not judging her, “I... I'm going to let it happen again. Sometime in the next six months to a year.” Leila felt tears coming and forced them back. “He needs to get stronger.”
“He knows?”
“Just found out.”
“Leila.” Adrian was somehow still calm, “Look at me.”
She did, scared of what she would see there. “I know what your brother feels. My sister used me for what she thought was the greater good. She was probably right. I don't believe that her way was the only way forward. But I do think that she meant well. You remind me of her in a lot of ways, except for one.”
“What?”
“I could forgive her for everything she made me do. All she needed to do was say was that she was sorry. She couldn't.”
“I would do it again.” Leila couldn't understand what he was trying to say.
Adrian reached out, touched her face. His fingers came away wet. “If you aren't sorry Leila, why are you crying? Monsters don't cry. You're not a monster.”
Leila choked back a sob, Adrian reached out again, pulling her against him, “It's okay to not be a monster. You can cry sometimes too.”
For the first time since she was fifteen, she did.