Indigo's Owl [Indigo Rewrite]

Chapter 43 - True Wrath

It was dark within the void. Silent, like she'd been removed from reality and shoved into the empty space that lurked between the stars.

But Athira knew better, because she'd been here before.

She remembered the darkness so perfect that she didn't have a body outside of pain or cold. She remembered the silence so smothering that every shaking breath she risked was deafening. She could still taste the dampness that clung to the walls. Still hear the squeaks of the things that grew brave enough to bite her when she stopped to rest, could still feel the madness that crept over her as minutes turned to hours and hours turned into an endless, sleepless eternity alone.

She'd escaped it once — or at least, she told herself she had. In reality, it'd followed her, leaving a hole in some crucial part of her that had gnawed at her over the years, empty and angry and hollow until she'd thought the feeling might eat her alive.

Now maybe, it finally would.

There was nothing left to hold on to. That last solid bit of her had shattered the moment she'd driven that spike through Zoe's chest. Anger-blind or not, protecting Zoe had always been the one thing she'd been sure of. The one rule she'd built herself around because she knew she'd always fight to keep it.

What was she without that?

You are what you've always been, growled Rathe from somewhere above her. A vessel for my wrath. He paused, lifting his head to the surface as he revelled in the moment. Now witness, daughter, as I wield it like you never could.

Projected onto the distant Black that surrounded her, Athira could only watch as in the physical world, Rathe opened her eyes.

The world was monochrome again, little more than a crater at the centre of the Warden's hidden underground city. Zoe was on the ground, blood soaked through her suit. Her head was in Shift's lap and Athira couldn't tell if she was breathing.

Guilt struck her, whittling a little more of her away.

I did that.

"Thira," said Shift, glancing up from Zoe. "I think—" He hesitated, looking straight back into the eyes that were no longer her own. His voice hardened. "Rathe."

Rathe chuckled, a sound that set the ground trembling. "Athira's little pet with her dying light. How fitting that two objects of my ire will be the first to recognise my victory."

Shift gently lowered Zoe to the ground and stood up, placing himself between them. "I think you've taken something that doesn't belong to you."

Rathe examined its claws, the Black that swirled around them. "She has no need for it any longer."

"Still gonna need you to give it back."

"This body is mine by right."

"Then we're gonna have a problem," said Shift, pacing to the side with a frivolous gesture, simultaneously keeping Rathe's attention fixed on him while pulling it away from Zoe. "Or did you forget what happened last time you went against me, Rathey boy?"

"You will not be so lucky again," snarled Rathe. "I am Wrath. I am—"

"Do you even know what true wrath is?" Shift yelled over the top of him. "Wrath is vengeance. Wrath is retribution." Shift grinned, but there was a wild kind of danger behind it. "You? You're just blind, dumb anger—and Athira will always be stronger than you could ever be."

Rathe unleashed a roar and charged.

Shift seemed to have been waiting for it. He aimed a laser at Rathe's eyes to blind him and dove to the side as he yelled, "Now!"