Right, so now we had a whole swarm of Revenants, who were incredibly pissed off about being yanked away from their fun time, and we were their new targets. Every last one of those thousand monsters were coming back here and they all wanted to destroy us. It was like we’d wished on a monkey’s paw to stop those things from killing everyone.
And there was even a monkey around here somewhere who might have magical wish granting paws with a dark sense of humor for all I knew.
Even before Shiori finished saying her previous words, I was grabbing her hand and pulling her as I started to run. Barely a few steps into it, with the deafening sound of those shrieking monsters filling the air, I transformed into my lion form, giving the other girl time to clamber on top of me before taking off at a full sprint.
What followed was chaotic, to say the least. We couldn’t go in a straight line, or anything close to that. These creatures were everywhere. I’d had no idea they could even turn intangible when they were in bodies, but here we were. They kept coming through the walls and ceiling before solidifying into their much more dangerous form. They blocked our escape route over and over again. There was no way we could take the time to fight any of them. Even if we managed to win, it would slow us down so much the rest would pile on, and rip us to pieces. None of us had the sort of power it would take to kill these things instantly, not now that Tabbris had used her wings. It would take too much time for those to regenerate. Time we very much didn’t have.
So, instead of fighting, we kept running. With Shiori clinging tightly to my neck, I darted through every bit of open space I could find. They were closing in all around us as I leapt twelve feet in the air to pass through a five foot wide space between a cluster of the creatures, bounced right off one behind them, and then slid almost ten feet just on my own momentum to pass directly under the next set who were floating down from the ceiling.
Unfortunately, from there, a larger group of already solid creatures was waiting, so I had to dart to the left, instead of continuing forward. Then I had to double back again to evade a semi circle of the monsters who were trying to close in from that side. But Shiori had noticed an opening, and she shouted it out while pointing, so I twisted back that way and ran.
It was like we were trying to run the winning touchdown for the Super Bowl, and had to evade not just the other team, but every single one of their fans too. Everywhere I turned, there was barely any space to move. The Revenants were cutting off every avenue. They were tightening the noose, making it impossible to get anywhere.
And just then, right when I was starting to think there was nowhere else to go, one of the monsters blocking our path suddenly lit up with flames as a familiar sword was driven through its back. The fire spread over the monster, while an identical set of flames appeared off in the distance. As it screamed, the creature was teleported from one side of flames to the other, revealing my mother standing there with her hand out. “Let’s go!”
I darted that way, and Mom grabbed me by my fur and Shiori by the arm, while activating some sort of power. Instantly, we vanished before reappearing outside the chamber. There was a glowing forcefield open over the portal inside the sarcophagus and everyone else was already there. Most of them were lying around, panting, heavily or nursing various wounds. Some of them pretty bad ones from the look of it. Four of Miles’ teammates were being tended to by Med-Robin.
But we were out. We’d made it. We were safe, even if I could still sense those Revenants as clear as day. They had been all around me, hundreds of them closing in from all sides. It was like a…. stench that permeated every single one of my senses. We needed to get away from here to some fresh air so I could stop feeling them.
As I was still taking that in, Trice moved to stand in front of that forcefield to look in at the monsters. What had once been an opaque portal was clear enough now to show the other room. “Yeah, they don’t look too happy,” he muttered before turning back with a smirk. “Well fuck them.” Now that I looked at him from the front, I could see a bloody wound in his side. He winced just a little, putting his hand over it, while another, quieter curse escaped him.
Denuvus shook her head, as though still flummoxed as to why he had gone in after us. “Yes, and now we can all celebrate this wonderful victory. Preferably by calling that ship back so we can all leave.” Her words were pointed. “Unless you great and powerful saviors would like to tempt fate yet again.”
Ignoring her, I transformed back to my human self, in one of the Seosten bodysuits. A thought while I touched the pouch that had my clothes stored in it brought them out and clad me in them once more. Then I looked to my mother and Nevada.. “It really worked? They’re all in there?”
God, there had been so many of those damn things in there. But at least they were on the other side of that forcefield now. And really pissed off about that fact. Glancing that way, I could see some of them slamming up against it. They desperately wanted out. It made me shudder. How long was it going to be before I stopped sensing their power and malevolence? Right now it was so strong and overwhelming that the sensation made me want to vomit.
Mom took a moment, breathing in and out a couple times before nodding. “So it would seem. Med, how are they doing?” She asked that while looking over to where the android was helping Chas, Jason, Emily, and Kaleigh.
Without looking away from his work, Med replied, “We need to get them some help. They’ve been poisoned with something that’s too strong for me to do anything about. Whatever some of those creatures had on their claws, it’s pretty nasty, and like nothing I’ve seen before.”
Visibly rolling her eyes, Denuvus walked that way while reaching into her pocket. “Oh, please, as though I wouldn’t be prepared to handle a simple poisoning.” She took some sort of vial out and popped the cork before crouching next to them. The thing was filled with a thick purple fluid. She held it in front of Chas. “Drink this.”
His response was to turn his head away and snap a litany of curses and suggestions about what she could do with herself. Kaleigh and the others subsequently reacted, basically the same way. None of them trusted the woman to actually cure their poisoning, even though I could see the pain in their pale faces.
Sighing, Denuvus started, “My name—”
That was as far as she got before Miles suddenly had his bee weapon, shaped into a sword, pointed at her throat. Not that he probably would’ve been able to actually hurt her like that, but his point was made. Especially as the boy snarled, “Don’t.”
Looking up at him, her expression making it clear how little she cared about the blade at her throat, Denuvus tersely replied, “Well, if you truly don’t wish me to save your friends’ lives, so be it. I must say, however, I did not expect you to be so cold.”
The glare he shot her was matched by Royce, the other member of the team who was still standing. He had his own weapon pointed at her as well, a pair of what looked like sawed-off shotguns in one form that combined into a single full-length, quad-barreled gun with enormous stopping power. The combined form was what the boy was using right then as he spoke in a tight voice. “You don’t have to enslave people with your power just to get them to take some medicine.”
With that, he and Miles both lowered their weapons and moved to crouch in front of their injured teammates to have a quick, whispered conversation. Not wanting to eavesdrop on that given how personal it obviously was, I squeezed Shiori’s hand before pulling her into an embrace. “You did it,” I managed, my voice shaking a little from the high of what we had just been through. It simultaneously felt as though I could run a marathon and fall over at the same time. I just wanted this day to be over by now. But something told me we weren’t done with everything just yet. Unless that was just a product of me still being able to sense all those Revenants right on the other side of that forcefield. I wouldn’t be able to relax until we were safely away from this spot.
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As though in response to that thought, Judas spoke up. “I know we all want to celebrate right now, and that’s fine, but I still have a question. If we pulled all those monsters back, where’s that monkey guy? Something tells me he would already be here if there was no one left to fight. He doesn’t exactly seem slow, and he’d probably be complaining that we interrupted his fun. So, why isn’t he here?”
He had a point, of course. Monkey, or Sun, or whatever he wanted to be called, was far too fast for me to think it would take him this long to get here once the Revenants started leaving. And he obviously wouldn’t have any trouble finding us. Now that it had been pointed out, the fact that he wasn’t here already was starting to make me worry all over again. Between that and the lingering full-sense stench of the Revenants, I couldn’t–
Before consciously thinking about what I was doing, my body spun. It wasn’t Tabbris. It was me. But I was moving without actual thought. There was no time for that. This was all instinct, the second the truth occurred to me. My hand snapped out, throwing my power as hard as I could while my staff came up and around in my other hand.
The power caught two of them. Two of the four Revenants who were possessing the ‘poisoned’ teammates, even as they were in mid-lunge toward Royce and Miles. My staff slammed off the third one with just enough force to stall it slightly. The fourth, however, was unhindered as it threw itself toward Royce with a scream.
At least, unhindered by me. But Persephone was there. She appeared in a flash of motion, catching the creature possessing the girl who had once been Emily Perry by the shoulders before throwing her backwards. Her other hand caught Chas’s body as well as the Revenant possessing him bounced off my staff and tried to attack again.
That was the moment Rahanvael appeared. The ghost girl appeared in front of me, speaking quickly. “Flick, wait. One of the other ghosts saw— oh.”
“Yeah,” I managed, “let me guess. They saw these guys get… taken.”
All four of the dead, Revenant-possessed teenage Heretics were giving those familiar and terrifying screams. They hadn’t been poisoned after all, at least not the way we thought. They were dead and possessed by Revenants. How that was possible, why we hadn’t noticed that they were dead and not just poisoned, I had no idea. And there wasn’t time to even think about it. Nor was there time to mourn. There were four very pissed off Revenants right in front of us.
On the other hand, now that I knew why I was sensing these things so strongly, I could do something about it. In the midst of their screaming, I gathered myself once more and shoved it outward. That time, all four stopped short. Maybe they were weaker somehow? Or maybe that was just how pissed off I was at that moment. Either way, all four Revenants froze just as the others were gearing up for a big fight.
Asenath looked back at me, the first to realize. “Flick?”
“I can hold them,” I assured her, though my hands were shaking somewhat from the effort as they thrashed against my control.
Denuvus, who actually looked a little bit shaken, spoke up. “We have to kill them before she loses her grip.”
“No!” That was Royce, the boy throwing himself in front of her while his head shook. “There has to be a way to get those things out of them!”
Stasia shook her head, speaking softly. “It is too late. They must have died inside that chamber, and no one saw. Those creatures hitched a ride within them, and tried to wait for their moment.”
Med, looking and sounding stricken, nodded. “I am so sorry, but she’s right. Your friends were already killed. They must have been… creating false life signs, forcing the heart to beat. If they were alive, these monsters couldn’t access them.”
Miles put himself next to his only surviving teammate, his voice stammering. “B-but we can do something about it. Even if they were taken by these monsters, we can still help them! Persephone, she’s a Revenant, but she has control of herself! Why can’t they?”
Persephone, for her part, spoke very gently. “I do not know why I am the way I am, and I have found no others like me. But whatever the source of my difference, I am still a Revenant. I am not the Seosten I am possessing. And even if by some miracle you made these four be just like me, they would also simply be Revenants, not your friends.”
The other two tried to argue with that, but it was obvious that they knew she was right. They were just desperate to find a miracle. A miracle that wasn’t coming.
What did come, however, was Monkey. He crashed down through the ceiling, making everyone jump before landing smoothly and dusting himself off. “Well, that was fun, and I even got a pretty good scrap in before you had to go and take them away.” Looking up then, he suddenly smiled at the sight of the four frozen figures. “But you kept some for me?! You shouldn’t have.” With that, the man started to move that way while cracking his knuckles. “Hope you’re ready to let them go so we can have a sporting–”
“No!” I jumped that way, putting my hands up. In the background, I could feel the Revenants try to take advantage of my sudden distraction. But Tabbris was still possessing me and she took over keeping them under control. “Stop, just–just wait! Those are their friends, they just–they…” I looked over my shoulder toward the stricken Miles and Royce, having no idea what to say. How was I supposed to say what… what had to happen? Fuck, how would I feel if it was… if it was my team, my friends? What if it was Columbus, Sean, Sands, and Sarah right there? Would I be able to stand by and let someone… someone kill them? Would it matter that they were already dead? How would I be handling that?
Obviously, I couldn’t have stopped the man if he just kept going. But to my relief, he paused and tilted his head before a look of understanding crossed his face. “Ah, I see.” That was all he said, but at least he didn’t march through me to get to them.
Mom, seeing that he had at least stopped for the moment, turned back to focus on Miles and Royce. Her voice was soft. “Boys, I… am so very sorry. You should walk away, go down the tunnel a little bit while we…. while we take care of this. Then you can come back and see them when they aren’t… when they aren’t possessed.”
“While you take care of it?” Miles shot back, his voice rising almost hysterically.
Before he could say anything else, however, Royce put a hand on his arm. “It’s not her fault.” He turned then, his eyes narrowing into a glare straight at Denuvus. “It’s hers. She brought us here. And then she refused to go in there and help.” His voice had turned cold and dangerous, making it clear just how much he wanted to take this whole thing out on the woman who had used her power to drag all of them to this planet in the first place.
I had no idea what I could possibly do to help the situation, but I did know that I didn’t want these two to be here when the others had to do something about the Revenants inside those bodies. The fact that I had to be here in order to keep them motionless was bad enough.
All it took was a look toward Shiori before she got the message and stepped that way. She, Asenath, and Twister carefully guided those two down the tunnel. Nevada looked like she was torn between helping and keeping her attention on Denuvus. But in the end, she went after them to help Royce and Miles.
Which left the rest of us standing there with these four already dead classmates. I had really thought that we had gotten out of that whole fight without losing anyone, and now look. These four, who shouldn’t even have been here at all, who had chosen to go in and tried to help just to save the people of this world, were dead. Just like that, three quarters of their group had been wiped out.
“I can handle it quickly and cleanly if you want.” That was Monkey, his voice, oddly soft, given everything I’ve seen of him so far. There was a deep understanding in his eyes. “And in a way that keeps their bodies intact so you can bury them, or burn them, or whatever you all do now.” There was another pause before he added, “If they were your friends, none of you should have to do that.”
I had no idea what to say, or what to do. My mouth opened and shut a couple times, while no sound came out. But my mother knew. She stepped over toward me, putting her hands on my shoulders before turning me away. She must have gestured or something to Monkey, because he silently walked past. I stared at the distant wall with my mother’s arms around my shoulders until it was over. Finally, I felt the strain against my power cease completely. They were gone. And I wasn’t looking at the wall anymore. I couldn’t see it through the tears streaming down my face.
Was that weird? I didn’t even know these guys aside from having talked to them a couple times here or there. But still… still, they didn’t deserve to die. They had gone in when they didn’t have to, had fought to save this world. And now they were dead.
Finally, I found my voice, whispering softly. “Okay…” I wasn’t looking back at the… bodies. I couldn’t, not yet.
“Now what?”