Indigo's Owl [Indigo Rewrite]

Chapter 5 - Training

Athira pressed her palms against her eyelids. Rathe was the last thing she needed to drag Raph into. "The only reason I'm talking to you is because Shift's blackmailing me with the location of my cloak. He said you had something to tell me about — about that night. After that, I'm gone."

"Ah," said Raph, running a hand through his hair as he considered his words. "That... might be a conversation to have in a little more privacy. If you —"

A head-sized rock slammed into the mat between them, startling Raph as Talia landed her board and stalked towards them.

Athira glanced down at the rock. "I think you missed the hoop, elemental."

Talia ignored her, walking straight to Raph and jabbing a finger into his chest. "I thought you'd come to your senses by now, but apparently that little bump on your head last night was more serious than I thought. The plan was to get her to lead us to Reader so we could arrest him. That's it."

Raph didn't budge. "Can we talk about this after?"

"What, after you've had your little private talk and she's sunk her claws in deeper?" Talia snorted, her blue eyes flicking to Athira. "Sister? He's never mentioned you once. Yet you show up, and he's immediately lying to the Elites to protect you and offering our team as a personal errand service."

"Talia, I —"

"Don't you 'Talia' me, Raphael Dukehart," said Talia, pointing her finger at him again. "The Owl is a known criminal! Giving her the spare room instead of shoving her in a holding cell was one thing, but treating her like she's part of this team? Discussing sensitive mission details? You're either an idiot, or she's a Purple screwing with your mind!"

Halfway through Talia's speech, Athira sighed.

It was always the elementals. Nature gave them an ability in addition to their Colour, and for whatever reason, they all seemed to think it gave them the right to be the loudest idiot in the room.

Talia fixed her glare on Athira. "Anything to say for yourself, Owl? How about some details about your Colour, or what kind of Purple you are? Are you a Psychic? Engulfer? Empath? What are you, exactly?"

Athira folded her arms and met Talia's glare with her own. "Tired of listening to you, mostly. My Colour isn't Purple."

Talia rolled her eyes. "Yes, Raph told us about your mythical little Colour. Unfortunately for you, everyone above the age of five knows you're lying, because Black isn't a Colour." She smirked. "This whole routine would almost be cute if it wasn't so painfully obvious what you're doing. Even before Violet and Indigo merged and formed a bunch of super hybrid Purples, there were criminals running around pulling this crap."

"Yet here you are, wasting your time arguing with me."

"Tal," said Raph with a heavy sigh. "It doesn't even make sense. If she were a Purple, why of all things would she try to convince us that her Colour is Black?" He pressed a hand to his forehead. "Hues, what's the code phrase? Rainbows needs no elementals. I'm not being influenced."

Talia narrowed her eyes, flicking her gaze towards Raph. "Maybe you are just an idiot, but I'm not taking that risk." She looked back towards Athira. "There's a reason every Keeper team has an elemental. We're resistant to Purple, which is probably why I'm the only one who has any damned sense when it comes to you."

Athira pressed her lips into a tight line. The Black pushed as her patience thinned, but she held it in check, digging her fingers further into her folded arms. "Why don't you use those elemental powers of yours to Grip the rocks out of your head for two seconds and pay attention. My Colour is Black. Not Purple."