Taurus
I catch a glimpse of Sagittaria's shocked face. It burns across my memory even after everything else disappears and tendrils of pain grip my brain, blinding me. I feel my lips parting as if to utter a scream that does not happen.
And then I feel a falling sensation, as if I'm flying, but in a very bad way. I release a muffled scream before something thick and warm wraps around me and slows my descent. Carefully cracking my eyes open, I see Vienna below me, vines curling around her wrists and stretching into the sky to slowly lower me down. A deep graze is already bleeding from her upper arm, maybe from when she hit the ground. I doubt she's noticed yet.
I wrap Vienna in a tight hug as soon as my feet touch the ground, "Holy crap," I murmur, "thank you."
"It's alright," Vienna laughs awkwardly as she steps away. I glance over the surroundings. Thin rock is under my feet, pockmarked with small craters. The air smells putrid, like rotting flesh. Yellowish–white structures protrude from the earth, looking familiar, and yet as if they'd crumble to dust at any moment. And somehow, I know instinctively exactly what they are. Corrupted rib bones. The thought sends shivers down my spine. And now I'm sure that we're in the right place. A river curves around us in an almost perfect circle, the little islet that we stand upon raised relatively high. There is a large steel disk in the center of the islet etched with odd words. Half of them are illegible, the others mashed–up words that I can't decipher. A green stone set into the center mirrors the acid seas of Deleias. It feels ... unnatural.
Peridot tumbles through the portal in a flailing mess of limbs that seems almost theatric. Vienna looks at her in distaste and doesn't even bother lowering her to the ground as blood drips down past her wrist and onto the ground.
Leilani, meanwhile, takes pity and lowers her down using air currents. Peridot safely lands and heavily leans on Ari's shoulder for support, as he's the nearest to her. His face registers surprise for a brief second before he gently pushes away. Peridot's lips curve downwards into a displeased expression and removes her arm from his shoulder, but their shoulders are brushing. Last to be thrown through the portal is Sagittaria, clutching the arrow to her chest. Vienna gladly lowers her down. Sagittaria's eyes flicker to Ari and Peridot before her gaze hardens into solid amber and she resolutely turns her head away. It doesn't take a genius to see the pang of hurt in her expression.
Ah, angst. Funny, because the Deadpools never can recognize it for what it is.
I raise my eyes to the horizon, but there's nothing. Just the bubbling, poisonous–looking river. Also, it's a sickly whitish–green and I'd be willing to bet that the consistency is sticky, just by the way it sluggishly moves. It looks disgusting. And probably carries toxins.
"What's that?" I point at the river and state the obvious, "that isn't water?"
"No shit," states Caprice in a deadpan. My eye catches on the green stone and an uneasy feeling grips my stomach again. I see it then. Two glowing green eyes peering out of the center, and I recognize the oppressing feeling. We're being watched.
"Guys, move!" I stumble forward, towards the river. After all, if we are being watched, the vision of the eye can only reach so far. If it is an eye and I'm not just paranoid. Sagittaria's standing right on the stone. She jumps and leaps off the disk, right after me, looking dazed, as if she doesn't know what she's doing.
Leo glances at the stone and his eyes light on Vienna, her arm gloved with blood and a rather unimpressed expression on her face. Vague concern flickers over his face for a half–second and he bites his lip furiously. If this had happened a month ago, or more, I doubt he'd care in the least.
She glares at him and he turns away, flushing slightly. Carina kneels down next to the river, prodding it with an orb of water, which simply melds into the ivory river with a loud sizzle. She frowns and decides wisely enough not to touch it.
Caprice's vines tentatively stretch into it, but the river accepts it, flowing docilely as she manipulates them to stretch into a thick archway. At first, I don't understand, but then I feel it. Something's under this earth. There's something hollow under my feet. The vines lead under the river, which fizzles and sputters. It resists normal magic, but not corrupted magic, I assume. Which would make sense if this was actually the Corrupted's headquarters or whatever.
Ari brushes dark fire over the river, separating from Peridot, who looks on as if she wants to help. The river begins steaming, disappearing, and then the vines have made a ladder–slash–archway down into a cavern. I turn and nearly jump back into the river as I see Vienna standing behind me, bloody and terrifying.
"Vienna," I voice as Leilani slips through the archway first, "your arm does not look good. At all."
"I'll be fine," she sniffs with a careless shrug, "Euphoria is going to have to do something about this. She can't afford me bleeding out, can she?"
It's a mystery to me as to how she's so calm about this. She never was so calm about injury. She'd freak out if one of us was injured and do anything but send us to the nearest medical center for a simple cut. And now she's severely bleeding and doesn't seem to care all that much.
"Taurus, are you going next?" calls Ari from where he's still steaming away the water. The river is slowly diminishing. Awkwardly, I pause.
"Yeah, sure," I mumble, locking my feet onto the vines and climbing down. I'd never realized that it was humid before I step down onto the stone floor and a freezing gust washes over me. The cavern is wide, but the ceiling is very low. The creepiest thing about it is that it's empty, most of it cast in shadows.
It's damp but cold, vines crawling up the walls. Odd hooks line the walls, thick silvery rings hanging from some while other hooks are empty. And then there are three other hooks with odd things hanging from them. They look like flamethrowers, but thinner, with a steel disk attached to each side. I wonder what Vienna would say about them.
"Flamethrowers, but powered by fire magic," Caprice says lowly and I jump.
"When did you get here? Cappy, you are not innocent!"
Softly, Caprice laughs. "I have my not–innocent moments," she admits with a slight smile. Sometimes, her defenses crack and a slightly silly version of Caprice Deadpool pokes out. I have to admit that I love those moments.
"Don't lie, Cappy — oh no. I think the arsonists have found their true loves."
With a look of dread, Caprice turns to where Sagittaria is looking around, having just climbed down. A look of awe strikes her face as she notices the flamethrower, before she dashes towards it at top speed, nearly smacking into the wall with a yelp.
Caprice looks resigned. "I was hoping we could be quiet."
Leo
Quiet, no way," I snort as Sagittaria reverently turns over the flamethrower, looking excited to be alive.
We start wandering down the hallway. The empty hooks become less frequent now, and murky water puddles spot the ground. The cavern slopes upwards gradually and narrows, and I can hear a far–off clanking sound. Behind me, a happy Sagittaria has slung her flamethrower over her shoulder. She looks like she's forgotten about Peridot.
Soon, the hallway widens branches out into four small, dark tunnels that slope further upwards. They all look similar but for the third, where a torch is attached to the wall and flickers dimly. I glance at the others, and we all share the same uneasy thought. We'll have to split up.
"Hell no. That's some horror movie crap," Scorpio voices, his voice overly sarcastic. As if he's hiding an emotion underneath. But of course he is. Like the rest of us, he's worried and doesn't want to show it. Sarcasm is always the solution.
"Shut the hell up," Aquaria fires back. "I think we should split up."
"And I want you dead, honey, but we don't all get what we want," snaps her archenemy, glaring furiously at her. She crosses her arms with a scowl, leaning forward and locking eyes with him even though they're just inches apart. I suppose intimidation isn't working too well. I might joke that they're moving on to seduction, but I don't want to die a painful death.
"And neither of you call the shots here," interrupts Caprice as she draws herself up to her full height, which isn't imposing, but her stature is. And so, admittedly, is her attitude. "I say we split into four groups. Ari, take Leo and Peridot. Vienna's injured so she'll stay here. Yes, Vienna. I don't care if you can fight. Scorpio, Gemi, Sagittaria. I'll take Taurus —"
"You should probably have Leilani if you land in a sticky situation," opines Vienna. "You're corrupted magic, so yeah, Leilani' toos good."
"But ..." Caprice says, trying to find ways to not bring her enemy, and then sighs. "Aquaria. Pisces. Carina." Pisces and Carina exchange happy glances, but Pisces flushes slightly as he turns awat.
"Simp!" Aquaria declares, poking his rib teasingly and ducking from the little swat he aims at her.
"You're the simp," Pisces retorts, earning a confused look from the bluenette and then a shrug.
The tunnel is continuously sloping, with jutting pieces of rock that are so easy to trip it. It's almost pitch–black, too. The previous cavern was lit by occasional torches, but not this. The ceiling scrapes my head. But eventually, it ends at a circular room lit by a single torch. A thick wooden door, corrupted by mildew, is set into it. The ceiling is much taller, with a brown substance smeared liberally over the rough walls. I decide I don't want to look down at the floor. It smells rotting.
"I'll go back and inspect the corridor with fire," I tell Ari, "Alright? You stay here and check everything with corrupted fire."
Running a careful flame over everything, I see nothing. But I can hear Peridot talking, and somewhere in the distance, footsteps. So I pause and listen, even though that's not what I'm supposed to be doing.
"So — I wasn't a boarder at Lonely Star, but I think we shared classes," starts Peridot's smooth voice, slightly hesitant, but not natural. "And so there was something I wanted to say."
I freeze, exhaling a deep breath. I'd never noticed Peridot. I'm willing to bet that Ari hadn't either. He'd only ever had eyes for Sagittaria, and that's the truth. Slowly, I edge back to the entrance. I don't like her tone. It's just weird. I don't like it at all.
There's a pause. Ari has just extinguished his fire. Peridot stands next to him, and as he stands up, obviously distracted by the odd splotches on the floor as he stumbles forward slightly. Peridot softly grips him by the shoulder to stabilize him and presses her lips to his.
It happened. It actually happened. So simply and so quickly, but Peridot made a move.
"Holy —" I whisper incredulously before jumping as I feel breath on my neck. Looking back, I see a flash of dark red hair and feel my soul wither and die. No way. No fecking way.
"Sagitta!" I start weakly, but her face is blanched of all color. She shoves me roughly to the side, my shoulder striking the wall hard, and darts back down the tunnel. Not knowing what's come over me, I run after her, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back, restraining her just before the mouth of the tunnel. "Sit down! Sagitta, sit down. Or I will make you."
Her breath comes in pants now, wild amber eyes looking up to meet mine. I decide not to explain. I just grip her by the shoulder and wait for her chest to stop heaving as she hangs her head down, silent until a whine begins rising up from her throat. I internally curse. I know the Deadpools don't have mental breakdowns often. It's hard to break them, but if someone does ... they truly can't handle it.
"Oh Cemetas what have I done," she murmurs in a choked voice, burying her head in my shoulder as I stroke her hair. "What have I done."
"You didn't do anything!" I protest. "Sagitta, this has nothing to do with you."
Wrong response. Sagittaria's breaths come faster now, as if she's trying to restrain herself. "No. I should have ... I got attached. Like ... like Aqua. I shouldn't. We were just friends and I shouldn't care but I do and I don't think I can ... does it sound bad if I say ... I don't really want to see him? It was such a small thing. I —"
I squeeze her hand awkwardly. We've always had this small connection. She saw in me a potential arsonist. I saw in her a bubbly cheerful person who'd be great to hang out with. "No. It doesn't sound bad, it makes sense. After all, you are in a relationship."
"Yeah. Yeah. And ... I ... I actually was thinking about maybe making it a real one but I don't actually know and now it's just over isn't it?" she rushes through the last part with a gasping sound. "I can't believe I'm actually that stupid, you know? Caprice was right. She was right, damn it! One of the only things she's right about was that stupid rule! I thought Aquaria was just unlucky or whatever but she was right." Sagittaria quiets down, murmuring things I can't hear. I can, however, distantly hear Ari calling my name. Gripping Sagittaria's hand tightly, I ignore him, standing her up. She looks like a mess, but I think she'll be okay. I brush a bit of hair behind her, releasing her hand.
"It'll be fine," I whisper. "When you think about it, we're close to maybe dying. Can we hold up the emotional crises and stay cold until you know, you are cold? And dead?"
At least Sagittaria's alright enough to glare at me.
Unknown
Corvus glares at Archer, who hesitates before almost pleading, "Let me do it!" His eyes are wide and innocent. But no, they're not innocent. He's probably just faking it.
Corvus sighs, "Fine," he snaps. He has an inkling of a thought that Archer is manipulating him. Corvus will take pleasure in the rat's death, that's certain. He steps aside, watching the smaller boy's fingers flick numbers quickly, mumbling under his breath.
Click. Click. At first, Corvus is sure that the clicking is just the noise that the lock is making. But it can't be. There's something else. In dread, he looks behind him. He wasn't the only one to find the Shadowstalkers' hideout.
One of the mosquito-like creatures he so hates is stalking up on them. A creation of Solaris, and one of the good ones, but they're so stupid and messy to clean up. And this one can't scent the Corrupted blood. It's a failure.
Corvus summons a bolt of corrupted magic and hurls it at the thing. With another click, it dodges. Corvus rids Leleith of its existence with another bolt. The creature erupts into a disgusting mess of oozing entrails and papery skin, splattered all over. And this is why he hates them.
"Done!" crows Archer triumphantly as he snatches the key and fits it into the second lock, working quickly.
Too late, though. A spectral redhead is staring flatly at them, a dagger hanging loosely from her fingers as she twirls it almost lazily. She's confident in her power, and Corvus doesn't think it's a bluff.
Until, that is, the redhead morphs into a girl with half golden and half silver hair, tall and lean, with a wicked smile on her face.
Corvus knows she's Corrupted, but the momentary sense of relief he feels is gone, replaced by a sinking sensation. Even though it doesn't make sense, it can't be, she's not on their side.
Okay, I'm sorry. I swear. I had to do this. You can yell at me now --
Except for Gatekeep. You can't yell at me. But ANYWAY, this was sort of a rushed chapter and it's almost midnight so I'M OUT! Before uh ... something not good happens and I get caught ...
If I missed something, I'm editing it later.