Behind the Trigger

~Chapter Five: The First Move~

"You know, Prince Helios, sometimes the world doesn't need heroes anymore, sometimes what it needs are monsters," and with that, she hit a perfectly accurate blow to his temple.

Andromeda and Vix were the only ones left and both vulnerable in their positions. Ash went after Andromeda to finish his fight from earlier and Morta went against Vix in a battle of magick. Water and air against darkness. Sword against knife. The clangs and shrieks of the metal only lasted for a few minutes before Ash hit the hilt of his sword against Andromeda's head.

While that was happening, Morta was throwing blast after blast at Vix, both of them hovering above the ground by a few inches and surrounded by magickal power. Morta's eyes were completely red as she used her magick and the glow was visible from under her hood. Her aura grew stronger by the millisecond. Vix's eyes were completely different from Morta's, swirling with blues and opalescent whites. Whenever they fired a blast, the other would swallow it up with their respective magick. This went on for well over the time when Ash's duel was over, and by the time either of them started tiring, they were at least two feet in the air.

Morta ended up knocking aside an ice dagger Vix had conjured from his water powers and reversing its direction and having it head straight for Vix's chest. He blocked it, but not without falling out of the air from pure exhaustion. Upon hitting the ground, Vix was immediately unconscious. Morta's aura dampens and her eyes return to normal as she comes down from the air. Ash is waiting for her with a smile, but his eyes still hold worry. Morta is worn-out from the fight, but she also comes down with a smile. The two rulers quickly use Ash's teleporting ability to go back to the Darklands, leaving Alfhiem confused and dazed at the battle that unfolded itself in front of them. How did two rulers manage to defeat the four best heroes in the world?

~Celestial's POV~

I awoke to the familiar sight of my purple room. Wait, room? What am I doing here? My body hurt all over, but more so in my chest. I groaned and rolled over, my lavender comforter weirdly wrapping around my body. Helios was to my right, napping in a chair. Look at that, the crown prince of Alfhiem is napping in a chair, I thought dryly. He didn't stir, so I had to figure out my own problems. What happened during the battle? Did we win?

I couldn't answer these questions, so I nudged my brother in the knee to see if he could wake up. He didn't stir, so I tried to slap him lightly. Keyword: tried. I slapped him harder than I meant to and the sound of the slap resonated across the hollow framing of my room. He woke up with a jolt, looking around for any intruders.

"Helios, you idiot, it's just me," my voice sounded a bit raspy, but it still came out as sarcastic.

"Celestial? You're awake!" his gold eyes were trained on my purple ones.

"What happened?" I asked, I know, a simple question, but we could elaborate later.

"Well, Enchantress knocked us both out and according to Vix, also won. You were blasted in the chest, so if it hurts, that's why," Helios explained while staring off into nothing.

"Why do you look so dazed when you stare off into space like that? What happened to you?" I asked specifically.

"Enchantress said something to me before she knocked me out. I just can't get it out of my head. I don't know what to do, I'm confused, everyone on the team got hurt and I just can't help but blame it on myself," he started ranting.

I sat up, rather painfully, but I got myself there and started talking, "Brother, you can't beat yourself up over this. Now tell me what she said to you."

"She said, You know, Prince Helios, sometimes the world doesn't need heroes anymore, sometimes what it needs are monsters," my brother repeats from what Enchantress said in the battle.

"Not gonna lie, that's utterly terrifying," I said brutally honest.

"Exactly my point! Now it's just going to haunt me," he slumps back in his chair with a defeated expression.

"How are the others?" I questioned, impatient to change the subject and get my brother from his twisted mindscape.

"Andromeda is resting with Vix watching her. They both woke up a while ago," Helios reports back to me.

"Gods, that boy is head over heels for her and she doesn't even know!" I exclaimed in emotional agony.

Seriously, that guy needs to suck it up and just ask the girl out.

"You're not the one who has known him since birth. I have to deal with his rantings every day! Do you know how many times I just want to ask her out for him? It's driving me insane!" Helios rants while I chuckle at my brother's antics.

"Yes, yes, I know. You come into my room every day after your duties to rant to me about it. Can I get out of this bed to go tease him now?" I let my childish side show for just a little, teasing Vix about his crush is just too funny.

"Oh, fine! Just don't put yourself through more than you need to," he warns as I swing my legs off to the side.

I grab his arms for support and balance as I put more weight on my feet. It feels good to be walking again. We make it out of my room with little difficulty and get to where Vix is, which is right by Andromeda's bed, on a chair.

"Vix, you really need to learn how to hide your crush on her better, I can see the blush all the way from here," I mock from the doorway.

His head turns at the sound of my voice and his cheeks go a dark rose. I laugh at his face before coming over with help from Helios. Vix pulls up a stool for me to sit on and I face him, his cheeks still sporting a blush.

"Glad you're awake. How are you feeling?" he asks as my brother stands in the corner.

"My whole body hurts, but whatever. How are you feeling?" I ask sincerely.

"Oh, well, I battled it out with Enchantress with magick, so I'm taxed. I've been put on strict orders for no magick for a few days. Speaking of magick, we need a new plan if we are going to fight those two. Tenebris is very skilled with his sword and Enchantress has the most terrifying aura of magickal power I've ever seen. We can't just fight them, we need to get under their skin somehow," Vix starts.

"We could capture one of them. They seem to be close, so maybe we can break them that way?" Helios says from the corner of the room.

My brother's brow is furrowed in concentration as he tries to think. I go over the plan as well, to capture one of the leaders.

"What if they get free? What if the other comes to rescue them? We need plans, not ideas," I speak up.

"If we capture Enchantress, we can put her in the magick-proof prison. We could even find out her identity if we tried. I just don't know how Tenebris would react," Vix muses over the possibility of the idea.

"That's a big if," Helios states.

"I think if I had to choose, I would rather want Tenebris as a lone enemy than Enchantress. I've seen her use her magick, I've fought her magick. If I had to be completely honest, I don't even think she was giving it her all when she was firing spells at me. I think she was holding back," Vix says.

"I agree with your lone enemy part, but what do you mean holding back? She used a lot of power," Helios brings up.

"We don't know her limits, but I don't think she does either. I don't think any of us or anyone associated with her knows how far she can take her magick," Vix clarifies.

"Just what I needed, another stupid problem," I groan.

"Well, we need a plan to capture Enchantress then, that's problem one, and we are going to fix it," my brother states, and we start to get to work.