When Athira woke from her nightmare in a grey-tiled box of a room sitting opposite of Karma's smug, tattooed face, she knew she hadn't imagined it.
"I see you're finally awake," said Karma, folding her hands neatly over the tablet on the table in front of her. "We did have our concerns that you might—"
"Where's Shift?" asked Athira. Everything else felt hazy, but that much, she could recall.
Anything, remember?
Not this. Not you.
"He's in a secure location," said Karma. "I'm sure you have questions, but first, there's a few things I need to discuss with you, such as—"
Athira glanced herself over as Karma spoke, paying zero attention to the Warden's words.
She was still in most of her Owl outfit with the exception of her cloak and mask. Her legs and waist were restrained to a sturdy, metal chair bolted into the floor. Her arms were forward, covered up to the elbows in a large pair of heavy-duty binders secured to the table.
"I'm not talking to you about anything until I see Shift," said Athira, tired of Karma's voice droning on in her ears.
Karma sighed and tapped the tablet in her hand, bringing up a video feed and turning it towards Athira. "If you insist. Here."
Athira didn't even look at it. With her arms forced in front of her, what remained of her runes seemed to stare her in the face. The once sharp, crisp edges were ragged. The more solid sections of Blue were patchy, and even the flickering had been reduced to little more than a dull, dying glow.
"I want to talk to him in person."
Karma's eyes narrowed as she slid the tablet back across the table. "What would that accomplish?"
Athira flexed her bicep, watching the outline of a rune split and sputter. There was so little of them left — and for the first time, Athira found she didn't care.
"To be sure it's him, for starters," said Athira, hardly recognising the levelled calm in her voice. She flicked her eyes up to Karma, giving the Warden a razor-thin smile. "And because if you've hurt him, I'm going to kill every last one of you before I leave what's left of your little hideout in ruins."
"You might want to consider your threats a little more carefully, Athira," said Karma, leaning back in her chair. "Those binders were specifically designed to contain your Colour, and I assure you, you will not be getting out of them until we're satisfied that you're no longer a threat to our cause."
"Is that so?" drawled Athira, giving her restraints an experimental tug and finding them firmly locked in place. She drew Black to her hands, attempting to phase them through the binders only to find the Black sucked away before she could use it.
It didn't matter. She didn't need her hands to use the Black for anything more than a safety precaution. If Talon were ready to help her restrain it, she could be out of these binders in the blink of an eye.
Talon? she called across the empty expanse of her mindscape, receiving nothing but an echo in reply. Athira frowned. Tal, can you hear me?
The spirit is gone, growled Rathe, prowling at the edge of her thoughts. I saw to it myself.
Dread sank its teeth into Athira as she glanced down in a panic and realised what she'd missed earlier. The detail she'd taken for granted.
"I assume from your alarm that you've noticed there's no way out of those binders?" said Karma. "We've studied your Colour extensively, and—"
"Where's my amulet?" snapped Athira.
"We destroyed it," said Karma, raising an eyebrow. "We were unable to determine its use and deemed it an unnecessary risk to keep."
Black flickered along Athira's arms and was instantly sucked into the binders.
Destroyed.
Athira knew she should have felt something — anger, guilt, fear, maybe — but everything just felt numb. The lingering pain that needled against the underside of her skin was the only thing that prickled through the haze smothering her.
Talon was gone.
Karma was saying something, but Athira couldn't hear it over the ringing in her ears.
Talon was gone.
Part of her wanted to let go right there. To give in and drown herself in Black until everything else had washed away, but she'd already failed Talon. She couldn't fail Shift too. Not again.
Athira forced herself to breathe, to surface above the silence that threatened to suffocate her one last time before she let it swallow her whole.
"—listening?" Karma was saying.
"I want to see Shift," said Athira, forcing every syllable out, strained and slow. "In person. In this room." She looked at Karma, resisting the urge to bare her teeth. She had to play nice — at least long enough to convince the Wardens there was a chance she'd cooperate. "Do that, and I'll pay attention to whatever speech you've got planned. Otherwise, you'd do us both a favour by knocking me out again."
Karma gave it a moment of consideration.
"As a show of good faith, I'll grant your request," said Karma. "Assuming, of course, that we can talk while I have someone bring him over."
A few words felt like a small price to pay for Shift and Zoe's safety. "Fine."
Karma glanced over her shoulder and lifted a hand, giving a signal to whoever was watching the room. "He'll be here soon."
Athira settled back in her chair.
She'd wait until Shift arrived. She'd get him out of Sirah along with the rest of Indigo, even if she had to drag them out of the city herself.
And then, once they were safe, Athira would bury herself alongside the Wardens.
"Now, as I've been telling you," continued Karma, picking the tablet up from the table. "We're aware that you and your team have been quite busy since you joined. Attempting to identify Wardens. Meeting with the Silver known as Grandma. Locating our extraction facility." She flicked a thumb over the screen, scrolling down. "The list is rather extensive. Your Orange hid everything surprisingly well, but our source proved to be correct."
"And who might this source be?" said Athira, tensing her hands against the padded insides of the binders. "I want to make sure I can thank them properly the next time I see them."
Karma's reply was a thin, amused smile. "Contrary to what you might believe, the Wardens are not your enemy, Athira. We have a sacred duty: to guard this universe at any cost against the Sins that might seek to destroy it. I believe you're familiar with our creation stories?"
"Celestials expelled their evils into a tangible form, couldn't destroy them, decided to make a prison universe and trap the Sins inside planets," muttered Athira. "That about sum it up?"
"You're missing a few details, but yes," said Karma. "That does about sum it up. I'll admit, at first, we suspected you to be the Herald — the one dedicated to Rathe's ascension — but we have since ruled out that possibility. However, there are a few things that still have us intrigued. For starters, how is it you came to know about Rathe?"
"It was in a storybook I had as a kid."
Karma gave a low, quiet chuckle. "You're very good at half-truths, Athira. It impressed me at your Keeper interview, too. Unfortunately, I've done my research this time, and those runes of yours tell a different story."
Athira maintained her stare. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Is that so?" said Karma, tapping her tablet and tilting its screen towards Athira. "Then perhaps you'll remember this."
The tablet played what looked like a video from a phone that'd fallen with its camera against the ground. While the video was little more than a close-up view of the tiles, it'd recorded the audio perfectly.
Raph's calm, sturdy voice came first. "Athira, you remember the plan?"
Her own reply followed. "Yep. I'll be done with them before—"
A sudden shattering sound cut her off, like a sheet of glass had hit the floor and sent a thousand shards bouncing across the tiles.
Then Shift, sounding alarmed. "What's wrong?"
"The Sleeper has the same energy as the Surges," Athira's voice replied, far more strained than before. "Except it's about ten times more condensed. I don't think I can touch it without Rathe—"
The video ended.
"A short clip from one of the victim's phones we found recording at the scene," said Karma. "While it's interesting that this audio was deleted from your team's comms, what I find more interesting is your apparent sensitivity to Sleepers, as well as your concern with Rathe."
"Is it?" said Athira. "Maybe Kione deleted it because he found it boring."
"We have our theories, of course," said Karma, continuing on like Athira hadn't spoken. "Given your reaction to the Sleepers, we're fairly certain that you're sensitive to Sloth's energy. What we're struggling to piece together, however, is your connection to Rathe." A carefully constructed smile curved its way across her mouth. "Perhaps you could explain that to me."
"I could," said Athira. "I'm just not going to until you've made good on your end of the deal with Shift."
Karma sighed. "While I'd prefer it if you were to tell us willingly, I must warn you that we have ways to force the information out of you if required." Her dark eyes glittered. "We take our mission seriously. Nothing is more important than the correct handling of the Sins."
Once, Athira might have agreed with that. "Where is this going?"
"Work with me, and you'll find out."
"I think I'd prefer it if you just killed me, honestly," replied Athira. "It sounds a whole lot less exhausting than this conversation."
"Unfortunately for you, we're very much interested in keeping you alive," said Karma. "We have reason to believe you're the Purple Spectrum."
Athira blinked. "You think I'm... what?"
"You're familiar with what Spectrum are, correct?" said Karma. "Seven people, pure incarnations of their Colour, who together, can defeat a Sin."
"And you don't see the tiny little maths error you made when you came up with this idea?" said Athira, smirking at the idea. Her, a Purple? If only she were that lucky. "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple is six, genius. You'd need an Indigo and Violet Spectrum to hit seven."
"The Nomstral incident did raise concerns," admitted Karma. "But the predictions are clear: one is two, and two is one, and there's always the Silver Colour to consider." She waved a hand. "Regardless, your status as the Purple Spectrum will require additional testing to confirm. For now, I'd like to talk more about the origin of those runes on your arm."
Athira snorted. "Then you're going to be disappointed. I told you. I'm not telling you anything else until I see Shift."
Karma's expression darkened. "You agreed to talk while he was on the way."
"And I did," said Athira with a one-shouldered shrug. "Now, I want you to hold up your end of the bargain."
"It'd be a shame," said Karma, rising from her chair with both hands placed on the table in front of her. "If Shift were to finally arrive, only for us to have a repeat of last night's events at our extraction facility, wouldn't you agree? I do recall you being far more willing to answer my questions when my dagger was in his side."
Silence swept through Athira's head. "If you ever touch him again, I will kill you."
"You couldn't stop me then," said Karma, reaching into the forearm guard of her suit to draw the same silver-handled dagger she'd had at the facility. "What do you expect to do now you're in binders?" Karma tilted the dagger's tip towards Athira and gave her a sharp smile. "Let's find out, shall we?"
Karma started towards the door.
Without the table blocking her view, Athira realised Karma was still dressed in the same blue suit she'd worn at the extraction facility.
She knew, because Shift's blood was still smeared down one of the legs.
If Shift was on the other side of that door — if Karma got her dagger into his side again, it was game over.
Athira refused to ever let that happen again.
She flooded her body with Black, attempting to overload whatever runes or Frames were inside it. A high-pitched alarm from the binders stopped Karma in her tracks, but the binders held.
"You can throw as much Colour at those binders as you want," said Karma as she glanced back. She kept her cool, but her eyes were narrowed. "They could redirect the Colour of Sirah's entire population before they even came close to breaking. All you're doing is feeding the Colourformer system."
Athira hissed as the Black ripped through her insides. If Talon had still been here, he would have been yelling for her to stop, to reconsider what she was doing, but he wasn't.
He was gone, and he'd never be there to caution her again.
She felt the moment the Black passed the threshold. Sheer exhilaration consumed the pain, the agony that was tearing her apart — and Athira gladly gave herself to it.
"Unfortunately, you aren't trying to contain Sirah's population," said Athira, closing her eyes with a deep, satisfying breath as her chest rose through the constricting metal bands around it. "You're trying to contain me."
Athira opened her eyes.
The world was monochrome with grey-shaded details that all looked so insignificant through the scope of her Colour. One glance at the binders engulfed them in untethered Black drawn straight from her mindscape and erased them from existence. With them out of the way, she stretched out her arms and stood, ignoring the bands that'd previously bound her to the chair.
Karma raised her hand, her normally tanned skin appearing an off-white through the Black. Athira didn't give her the chance to do anything more as she engulfed the Warden in Black and threw her against the wall with a flick of her eyes.
Karma didn't move again after that.
Athira strode towards the door, Black dripping from her body. An unusually subdued Rathe circled the edge of her mind, content to watch, to wait like a hunter who knew its chase was finally coming to a close.
Because out of the binders, without Talon helping to hold it together, Athira could feel exactly how loose the Black truly was. She could feel her own monster scrape against the remains of her runes, like it was all too aware that after almost fourteen years, its freedom drew near once more.
Soon — but not yet. Athira had one last task to complete, and then, she would be all too grateful to lose herself in its oblivion.
She stepped through the door.
Two Wardens stood outside with Shift restrained between them. Athira sent the Wardens flying in either direction down the corridor and fixed her gaze on Shift. Through her Black-filtered gaze, his skin appeared its usual grey-ish white.
"Hues, Thira," he breathed, his brow lined with concern. He tried to reach for her, the cord clinking against the metal of his binders as it stopped him halfway. "Your eyes, they're—"
"Tell me something that only you would know," she said. "What was the worst nightmare that Rathe gave me?"
"The silence," he said softly.
The silence.
Like the silence that rang through her head now in Talon's absence that left her mind feeling empty and hollow. Because he was gone, and—
"Thira?" said Shift.
Athira blinked, and the world returned to its regular variety of hues.
"I'm getting you out," she said. She touched a hand to Shift's binders, engulfing them with Black. They vanished with a squeeze of her fist, along with the rest of his restraints. Athira grabbed his arm and glanced at the ceiling, hesitating only a moment at the thought of how much stone might be above her. "Hold your br—"
"Wait," said Shift. "We have to get the others first."
Athira tensed. "The others?"
"The Wardens have the rest of Indigo," said Shift. "I saw Zoe a few hours ago when they let me shift her Yellow to heal. She said the Wardens escorted them to Elite HQ this morning and they were all arrested."
This was the last thing she needed right now. "Where are they being held?"
"I don't know," said Shift. "The Wardens have been questioning me in the same room since I woke up, but I did see what might've been a holding cell area on the way over here."
"Then we'll start there," said Athira, stretching her neck against the impulse to slam her fist into the wall. For now, the monster would wait, but her tattered runes wouldn't be enough to hold it back for long. "Let's go."
*+*+*+*
A/N - Just when you think you've secured the turtle and are good to go--
(taking suggestions on what animals the rest of the team would be, so far I've got Raph as a dog/wolf, Zoe as a ferret, Kione's a lizard, and I suspect Talia might be a cat)