Super•Villainous

LX

"Capture them! Now!"

Our bubble of peace bursting, reality rushed in. We reacted too slowly, unable to immediately reconcile the danger we were in with the relief still coursing through our veins, pure warmth made liquid. Light flashed so bright that my vision momentarily eclipsed with white in the aftermath as my pupils struggled to adjust. At some point, I went rigid, parallel upon the hard ground. My teeth clenched. My muscles jerked wildly out of my control from an electrifying pulse shot directly into my spine.

"Sir!" exclaimed a voice I was only vaguely familiar with. I should have been able to place it, but I struggled to string together even the most basic thoughts. "That's enough! Tell Static that's enough!"

I felt the staggering shock to my system of my heart losing it's steady beat, impeding blood flow to the rest of my body. The searing current only stopped when the Constable tsked and said, in an offhanded way, "Fine. That's enough. I'll admit, Fate, that I am rather surprised. I had no idea you were so soft-hearted."

"We've gotten what we wanted," Fate replied stiffly. "There's no point being cruel."

My surging powers brought back my pulse and I gasped, rolling over onto my side long before I was ready to move in order to try to get a good look at Atticus's condition. The Constable either hadn't made the connection, or didn't care about the relationship between the physical damage Atticus took and his mental deterioration. Eyes squeezed tight, Atticus sat nearby, hunched with his hands tangled in his hair, warding off his most destructive impulses with the fraying thread of his sanity.

I let my body take control, pushing off the ground, feet staggering , one in front of the other. I ignored the aches and phantom pain, the exhaustion and spasming neural connections rewiring themselves. So many times today I'd reached a point where I'd thought, "This is it, this is all I have left to give," and each time I managed to muster just a little bit more. This was no different. I would always find more for the people I loved.

In my periphery, I caught Ren looking on with the most peculiar expression. Possibly, he hadn't made any of his promised attempts to distract the Guild leader, for those attempts certainly hadn't worked if he tried. Had this been a betrayal? Had he taken on the role of double agent at the Constable's behest, playing me for a fool in order to get Atticus back under control? And I walked right into it, a fool indeed.

"See?" the Constable said matter-of-factly to Fate, a teacher guiding their student along a problem until they, too, understood the correct answer. "Look at her. Sometimes, they leave you no other choice than a little bit of cruelty to break their spirits. Static?"

"Understood," another replied.

I jerked the hand I had just laid over Atticus away as another volt shot into me through the center of my shoulder blades. I smashed my temple into something hard on my way down. The assault seemed to go on forever, much longer than the last, but at least I'd been expecting it, although bracing for such a sensation was impossible.

"Sir!" Fate protested again, as though from very far away. Not even Ren, my supposed double-crossing ally spoke up in my defense. "This is unnecessary-"

I heard a scuffle, a brief shout of alarm that quickly cut out, and then my body went blissfully limp, the stream of lightning sparking through abused arteries suddenly severed.

"Serves you right," a girl grunted.

I knew that voice almost as well as I knew my own.

But... I sent her away. She was supposed to leave!

"How did she get past our perimeter?" the Constable roared at no one in particular. "Deal with her!"

"Wait!" Ren intervened hastily, panicked compared to his speculative, easy demeanor earlier. "That's a civilian, don't-"