Cloaked by Nobody's invisibility, Athira and the rest of their mismatched group followed Reader through the maze of corridors in complete silence.
More than a few slightly blurred figures passed them by, oblivious. Reader's group communicated with sign language, and though Athira couldn't understand what they were saying, she caught Kione's sharp eyes watching every gesture that passed between them, even going so far as to join in on occasion.
When they reached a large, bunker door, Nobody approached it and scanned the wristlet against the pad. It flashed and changed to the outline of a hand with a timer at the top. Nobody didn't seem to be expecting that, furiously signing something at Reader. Kione pushed his way to the front of the group, Orange flickering at his fingertips, but it was too late.
The timer ran out, and an alarm loud enough to rattle Athira's brain inside her skull began blaring down the corridors.
"You didn't tell me about a handprint," Nobody yelled over the alarm, glaring at Reader. "You said the wristlet was enough to—"
"I wasn't expecting to enter their vault," said Reader with a casual shrug. His eyes slid to Athira. "Regardless, I believe it's time for our other stealth expert to take over."
Athira rolled her eyes, engulfed the bunker door in Black, and shoved it upwards into the wall.
The Warden's 'vault' was more like a miniature city contained within a massive cavern, the sheer size of which was only possible due to the stability runes inscribed onto the rock around it. Several of the buildings resembled sleek high-rise blocks, with more than a few surprisingly tall trees interspersed between them. Grey tiles covered the floor, climbing several metres up the stony walls of the cavern.
"This place is massive," said Raph. "Where are we going?"
"Zoe will likely be somewhere in one of these buildings," said Reader as they headed down the ramp and onto one of the main, grey-tiled 'roads' leading into the city, still cloaked by Nobody's invisibility. "Which one, though, is anyone's guess."
"Narrow it down," said Athira, jaw clenched.
Reader regarded her with a cool stare. "Find me a conscious Warden, and I'll tell you. They communicate telepathically with a certain Purple's ability, so what one knows, they all know."
"Finding a Warden won't be a problem with the alarm we set off," said Kione, tapping the makeshift Frame in his hand. "We've got incomings. At least five up ahead."
"Stay together," said Nobody as the five incomings — all Elites, judging by their suits — came into view at the end of the street. "They shouldn't be able to see us if we just—"
Mid-sentence, the Elites opened fire. Raph and Athira immediately threw up a shield, the Black slowly bleeding into the Red where they met at the centre.
"Their aim is too accurate to be guessing," said Raph. "We need to—Athira, wait!"
Athira stepped through her Black, past the wall of blurred air and out of the invisibility zone. The centre Elite raised a hand, and the others halted their attack.
"Submit peacefully, and this will go no further!" yelled the centre Elite.
Black misted out from Athira's hand. "Funny, I was going to say something similar to you."
She engulfed the centre Elite's chest in Black and dragged him towards her. The other four attacked from a distance, their projectiles of varying Colours vanishing as they met the ever-growing cloud of Black around her.
When the Elite was in front of her face, Athira said two words.
"Where's Zoe?"
He grimaced, still struggling against the Black. "I will never betray—"
Athira didn't need to hear any more. She pushed the Black-bound Elite behind her where he vanished into the bubble of invisibility for Reader to search while she engulfed the next Elite and repeated the process.
She forced herself to pre-plan every movement, to focus on keeping her actions calculated and precise. Pull in an Elite, ask her question, hand them over to Reader. There was no room for acting on impulse — not when one, errant flicker of annoyance might unravel what was left of her self-control.
That plan started to crack when she turned back from shoving the third Elite at Reader and realised the remaining two had fled.
With her jaw clenched and her breaths forcibly even, Athira took to the air and followed them.
They hadn't gone far. Athira found them a block away, looking rather agitated as they spoke with four new Elites. She coiled Black around her arm and gave them a cursory glance, mentally preparing herself to engulf all six at once. None of them looked like anything special — just more fodder to waste her time — until the tall female in a blue suit looked up.
Her gaze locked with Athira's, and everything else froze.
Athira wasn't close enough to make out the female's face, but the style of her golden-blonde hair was all too familiar. Her blue suit wasn't quite right for an Elite, but she wore no binders. No restraints. She was just standing there beside them, like—
The female raised her hand and pointed at Athira, drawing the attention of the Elites she stood with. They all turned, began yelling things about surrendering and landing slowly with her hands on the ground, but Athira hardly heard them as the golden-haired female took two steps backwards away from the group and ran.
We were given a tip from a reliable source.
Silence wiped away any semblance of a plan as impulse took over and drove Athira forward.
In three seconds, she'd overtaken the running female.
In two, she'd landed hard on the ground in front of her.
And in just one, Athira found herself face to face with Talia.
Talia had known Indigo were looking for Wardens. She'd known that they'd spoken with Grandma. She'd known where Athira and Shift had been last night. Most damning of all was that despite not being arrested with the rest of the team, Talia had somehow ended up in the Warden's secret base where she now stood, completely unrestrained.
Talia's blue eyes were wide as she skidded to a halt. "Athira! We have to—"
"I'm the Owl to you, elemental," said Athira with a sneer. "And there is no we. Not after what you've done."
"What?" said Talia, glancing over her shoulder at the fight that'd broken out with the Elites behind her. "Are you—"
"Selling me out to the Elites, I get," said Athira stiffly. "But your team? What, were they guilty by association, or just collateral damage to get at me?"
Realisation dawned on Talia's face, quickly honing into anger. "I didn't sell out anyone! Not even yo—"
Black engulfed Talia, cutting her off.
"Do not lie to me," hissed Athira, fighting the urge to close her fist and snap every bone in the elemental's body. "You betrayed them."
"I'm not!" said Talia, lifting her chin away from the Black creeping up her throat. "I didn't betray anyone, you psycho!"
One chance, whispered a faint, fading voice in the back of Athira's head, a dying beam of light in the darkness that was drowning her. Give her one chance to explain herself.
"Then why aren't you in binders?" said Athira, taking hold of Talia's mindscape with Black. It felt different from Reader's. It was harder, more solid, carved entirely from a single block — or at least, it had been. A deep, ugly fracture split the scape into jagged halves and left the foundations unstable. "Why were you standing beside those Elites like you're just fine with what they've been doing?"
"You think I'm fine with any of this?" yelled Talia as the faultline through her mindscape slipped a little further. "I considered some of these bastards family, and it turns out they've been torturing people! If I were fine with that I'd be no better than the rest of the Underground scum!"
"Really?" said Athira coldly, sensing the truth to that, at least. "If you're that torn up about it, why weren't you at base with the rest of Indigo?"
"I—I went for a walk," said Talia, mentally scrambling for the words. "I had to get out—clear my head." A thought — a breeze of dusty wind swept across the stone in her mindscape. Can't tell her about the others. "I stayed out longer than I meant to, and when I got back, the rest of the team was go—"
Athira tightened the Black, squeezing a choked breath out of Talia. "I told you not to lie to me. Who did you meet on this 'walk'? Who did you tell?"
"I didn't tell anyone," gasped Talia, but Athira felt the deception set in the stone. Talia clawed at the Black around her throat as her feet came off the ground, leaving her with one frantic thought that swirled through her mindscape. Can't know. Can't know. Can't know. "I just—"
"Liar," snapped Athira, and threw Talia at the wall hard enough to crack the tiles.
Talia staggered to her feet, bracing herself against the wall. "I would never—"
Athira silenced her with a fist across her jaw.
The impact echoed down her arm, wholly intoxicating. Sure, she could crush the elemental with the flick of her finger, but there was something all too satisfying about being able to feel it.
Athira grabbed Talia's chin and forced her to look up.
"I could pry the truth from your mindscape," said Athira, tilting her head at the elemental with a smirk. "But honestly, I just don't care."
Talia opened her mouth to reply. Athira closed it again with a second and third blow that sent the elemental sprawling across the ground. Talia tried to defend herself, gripping a chunk of stone from the ground and hurling it at Athira, who caught it with Black and smashed it over Talia's head.
Athira's next three strikes didn't pack the same kind of savage satisfaction as her punching bag curled into a defensive ball. Annoyed, Athira grabbed the elemental's arm with Black and hauled her onto her feet, shoving her back against the wall and pinning her there with a hand against her throat.
The elemental attempted to inscribe a rune on Athira's arm, only for the Black to wipe it away — and as amusing as it was watching her fail, Athira wanted this elemental to understand exactly how helpless she was before this ended.
She reached into Talia's mindscape a second time, diving down past the desperate, scattered thoughts and the secret rivers burrowed through the stone until she found a slim, Blue tether that linked the mindscape's depths to somewhere else and severed it.
Even after that, the elemental fought. She struggled and kicked and clawed with a stubbornness Athira had begrudgingly come to respect, but it didn't matter. She'd been given her chance, and she'd squandered it. Maybe she had betrayed Indigo. Maybe she hadn't and she was protecting some other secret.
Either way, it was going to die with her.
"He—elp," gasped Talia.
"Hues, you're pathetic," muttered Athira, watching as Talia tried to inscribe another rune, apparently not yet realising what was missing. "I'm almost doing you a favour by putting you out of your misery."
"Not—not me." Talia choked on the words; her teeth bared against the pain of Athira's fingers slowly crushing her throat. "Zoe. Help. Zoe."
Athira's smirk froze. "What?"
"Wardens—have her," Talia managed, lifting a weak hand to point further down the road. "Tattoos—"
They'll be taking her to get inked.
To stray from the cause will trigger the individual's breaking point, killing them instantly.
She doesn't have to agree.
Athira staggered back from Talia. The elemental sank down the wall, coughing with a hand against her throat as Athira's thoughts went into a death spiral.
Zoe.
She'd forgotten about Zoe.
Rathe's growl rumbled through the back of her head, annoyed, impatient. Athira could feel his claws. His spines. His rage that she'd given herself to so easily. She grabbed her head, trying to catch her breath, to draw in enough air to stop her head from spinning, to stop herself from—
"Thira?"
Athira looked up, finding Shift standing beside her, his hand on her shoulder, steadying her.
"Stay back," muttered Athira, pushing him away. "I can't—can't—"
"Breathe," said Shift, bringing his second hand gently beneath her chin and turning her head to look at him. "Watch me. In. Out. One then the other, not both at the same time." His hand dropped from her chin to her other shoulder. "What happened?"
Athira glanced towards Talia. Kione knelt beside her, Raph covering them with a large shield of semi-transparent Red — just like the one that was on Shift's arm now.
"Talia—I thought—" She cut off, bile rising up her throat as she realised exactly what she'd done — what she'd been ready to do before she'd remembered— "Zoe!" She grabbed Shift's arm. "Where's Reader? Did he—"
"Escaped when we were fighting the Elites," said Shift.
Athira huffed. "Doesn't matter. I think Talia knows where Zoe is. You have to go with her, stop them from tattooing her with their runes."
Shift frowned. "Why does that sound like you're not coming with us?"
"You need Talia, and I don't trust myself around her right now," Athira said stiffly. Even now, just looking at the elemental made the blood pound in her ears, Rathe's snarl twisting into her thoughts.
Traitor. Betrayer. Liar.
"What are you going to do?" asked Shift.
"I'll... keep the Wardens distracted," said Athira, shaking her head. It didn't matter what she said. She just had to get them out — get them away from her before she snapped again. "When you have Zoe, leave. Don't come back for me. I'll make my own way out."
"Thira, we are not—"
"You have to," she hissed, raking her nails down her arms, unable to bring herself to look at exactly how much of her runes were left. "You get Zoe, and you make them leave." She met his eyes, holding it with every last bit of desperation she had left in her. "You promised me."
Shift was silent for a long moment, his emerald gaze locked on hers. "Only if you promise me that you'll try to come back to us."
"I'll... try," said Athira, leaving the unspoken words hanging taut between them — that there might not be anything left of her to come back. She stepped away, out of his reach before her resolve broke. "But if not, tell Zoe—tell her I'm sorry."
And with that, Athira threw herself into the air and left.
*+*+*+*
A/N - I'd write 'Uh oh' here again but lets be honest, these chapters are just gonna get progressively more ~uh oh~ from here on out
(also, I'm curious as to how we're feeling about Talia at this point)