Shift glanced over the scene, trying to work out if he'd missed something as Raph similarly hesitated beside him.
"Well?" said the Red Warden. "Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to convince Yellow to let me take her binders off?"
"Stop calling me that!" snapped Zoe. "My name is Zoe, not Yellow."
"Zo," said Raph slowly. "You know this guy?"
"This charming idiot calls himself Red." Zoe stood up, her gaze still locked on the Warden. "Apparently he's the Red Spectrum, but he has a lot to learn before I'm ready to put up with him on any team of mine."
The Red Warden — Red — didn't look like anything special. Everything about him looked like a cookie-cutter lackey who was paid to punch things with his mouth shut. He was roughly their age and just short of Raph's height, clean-shaven with dark hair cut close to his head, but it was the blank, thousand-yard stare about his gaze that made Shift second guess his initial judgement.
"The Spectrum is hardly your team," replied Red.
"Oh, I beg to differ," said Zoe, eyeing Red with a glare that would have sent a smarter individual running. "You didn't help me before. Why now?"
"I am committed to stopping Rathe at any cost," he replied automatically. "As a Spectrum, you are a key part of that goal, and I have a feeling you meant what you said earlier about hitting your breaking point. Though I find the sentiment ridiculous, your survival trumps my loyalty to the Wardens."
Zoe huffed and approached him, holding out her hands. "I should have guessed."
Red laid a hand on her binders. They opened, and Zoe tossed them to the floor. She walked over to Shift and Raph, pulling her Keeper suit — or what was left of it — the rest of the way up.
"What happened to your suit?" asked Shift, eyeing her missing sleeve. The scorched fabric cut off near her shoulder, just above the armband around her bicep.
"I tried to get this damned thing off," said Zoe, tugging at the Sloth-infused armband. It didn't budge. "Thought maybe it was attached to the skin, so I tried melting it, which hurt like hues and obviously didn't work."
"What caused that decision?" said Raph, inspecting the armband.
"My self-healing is using as much Colour as I regenerate just to keep me awake," said Zoe, directing an annoyed glance towards Red as she stuffed the chain of her locket back inside her shirt. "Until I get this armband off, my Colour is effectively not regenerating, and I'm almost out." She looked back to Raph and Shift. "So, now you know what I've been dealing with for the last five hours, is everyone else okay?"
"Well, we're alive, at least for now," muttered Raph, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know about okay, though."
Shift glanced at his shoulder and gave Zoe a small smile. "Think I can shift some Yellow?"
Zoe held out a hand in reply, and Shift took it. Her Yellow felt like it always did — sunlight that warmed his insides. It began healing him the instant he shifted it, quickly repairing whatever had snapped in his shoulder along with every other ache and pain he'd accumulated in the last few hours.
"The others should be waiting outside," said Raph, jerking his head. "Let's go."
Raph turned to leave back the way they'd come, Shift and Zoe close behind him when a fourth set of footsteps followed after them.
Zoe stopped and turned back to glare at the Red Spectrum. "Where do you think you're going?"
Red blinked, confused. "I'm... coming with you?"
"Team members only," said Zoe coldly as she turned her back on him and kept walking, pushing past Raph. "Go find someone else to harass."
"I am your team member," said Red, undeterred, though he seemed perplexed at having to explain himself. "More so than they will ever be. We are Spectrum, a team chosen by destiny to defeat the Sins and—"
A loud boom from somewhere outside shook the building.
Raph swore, shield over his head. "What in the hues was that?"
"That was Purple," said Red.
Shift didn't take his eyes off his surroundings as he said, "...Purple?"
"The Wardens think Athira's the Purple Spectrum," muttered Zoe, fixing the ribbon in her hair with a grimace. "They call all the Spectrum by their Colour. It's weird, don't—" Her eyes went wide. "Wait, Thira isn't with you?"
"She said she'd make her own way out," said Shift. "She's distracting the Wardens while we—"
Zoe glared at him and started running for the exit as a second explosion went off somewhere nearby. "And you just let her go?"
"It wasn't like she gave me much of a choice!" Shift yelled back as the rest of them ran after her. "Did you forget she can fly?"
Talia and Kione were waiting outside, staring at the twin plumes of smoke rising into the air a few blocks away. Several half-built Frames were scattered on the ground around Kione, Tech that he'd probably scavenged off the unconscious Elites.
Talia wrinkled her nose as she noticed Red. "Great. Another stray. Who's this?"
"Red Spectrum," said Zoe, her eyes on the smoke. "Red, do you know where Thira is?"
Red tried to reply when Talia beat him to it.
"You're joking, right?" said Talia with a snort of laughter. "After what she's done?"
"Really?" said Zoe, exasperated. "Now, Talia?" She shook her head and turned, heading for the smoke. "I don't have time for—"
The ground beneath Zoe's feet rose up and trapped her leg, rooting her in place. Off balance, she fell, only to be caught by a second scoop of stone.
"What in the hues are you doing, Talia?" said Zoe, trying to pull herself free. "Let go! I need to find Thira before—"
"Give up on her already, Zoe!" said Talia, leaning heavily on her left side. "She's been using you and everyone else on this team from the start, or can you still not see that?"
"We might not even be here if you'd given her a chance in the first place!" Zoe shot back. "But no! At every point you could, you just assumed she was lying, that she was trying to—"
"I gave her a chance every day I didn't report her to the Elites, and look where that got me!" yelled Talia. "My Blue is gone, Zoe, and it's all because of her!"
Zoe frowned. "What do you mean your Blue is gone?"
"I mean that your psycho 'sister' took my Blue and tried to kill me," said Talia through gritted teeth. "Even Shift can't sense it. My Colour is gone."
It took Zoe a moment to finally shake her head. "There had to be a reason. Maybe it was an accident, or—"
"The reason is that she's unhinged!" said Talia. "She is beyond our help at this point, Zoe!" Talia looked back to Kione, then at Raph and Shift. "Can one of you back me up here? Raph?"
"We don't know exactly what happened," said Raph hesitantly. "She might have—"
"I don't believe this," said Talia, turning back to Zoe. "Athira is dangerous. She's almost got everyone except Kione killed on at least one occasion. Why are you still trying to help her?"
"Athira was always there for me when I needed her," said Zoe. "She took everything on herself to try and protect us from it. She's not perfect—she's never been perfect—but she never gave up on me, and I will not give up on her when she needs me the most." Zoe held Talia's gaze. "Let me go, Talia."
Talia's reply was quiet. "After what she's done, you'd still choose her over me?"
"It isn't a choice," said Zoe softly. "You're both imp—"
"Fine," snapped Talia. The stone released Zoe, dropping her hard against the ground. "Go after her. Get yourself killed. I don't care anymore."
"Tal—" began Zoe, wincing as she held her side, but it was too late. Talia Gripped a platform of stone beneath her feet. It rose into the air before it sped off, taking Talia with it. Zoe slammed her fist into the ground and swore before yelling, "Talia!"
"Kione and I will go after her," said Raph quickly, taking a few steps in Talia's direction as Kione muttered a curse and scooped up his half-done Frames. "Shift, go with Zoe. Laser two bursts into the air if you need help."
With that, Raph and Kione left, following after Talia.
Red folded his arms and gave Zoe a sideways glance with a smirk. "Nice team you have here, Yellow. I can see why—"
"You go with them," said Zoe, glaring at Red as she pointed after Raph. "And if anything bad happens to them, I will hunt you down and kill you myself. Understood?"
Red actually took a step back. "I—"
"Go."
To Shift's surprise, Red scowled but obeyed, shaping what looked like a fancy version of a Chromacycle and swinging his leg over it.
"Purple's somewhere in the left building," said Red, jerking his chin towards the most recent smoke cloud drifting into the air. "Wardens lost sight of her in the smoke. Might want to hurry."
"Her name is Athira!" Zoe yelled after Red as he sped away on his bike. She huffed, holding her side. "If everything else wasn't falling apart around me, I swear I'd have beaten that smug, righteous little look off his face by now."
"You okay?" asked Shift. It was strange to see her hunched over.
"Fine," muttered Zoe, scrunching her face as she exhaled loudly and straightened. "Pain is just really inconvenient. Let's go."
Together, they ran towards the earlier explosions near the centre of the Warden's city.
They started cautious, hesitating at each corner to check for Wardens or Elites but with every tremor through the ground, their recklessness grew. There was no sign of anyone anywhere, and by the time they reached the final corner, neither of them bothered to check before turning onto the street.
Chunks of Redresin rubble littered the ground alongside numerous shards of crystal Black. Thick, dark smoke poured out of the side of the building through the multiple holes that'd been blown in its walls, and an acrid, bitter scent that was vaguely reminiscent of lavender wafted through the air.
Zoe stopped just short of the closest entry point into the building — a hole some two metres in diameter that didn't come close to the definition of safe — and cupped her hands to her mouth.
"Thira!" Zoe yelled. "Thira, can you hear me?" When no reply came, she stepped back, her eyes scanning the side of the building. "Red said the Wardens lost her in the smoke. She might still be in there. Come on!"
Shift barely had a chance to open his mouth before Zoe darted inside.
Left with limited options, Shift just muttered a curse and followed her.
Inside, the smoke — not black like he'd initially assumed, but a dark, midnight-purple — smothered the air, growing thicker the closer to the ceiling it rose. Shift was forced to stoop and cover his mouth with an arm to even have a chance at breathing as ahead, Zoe did the same, still calling out for Athira.
The further in they went, the harder it became to see. The smoke made Shift's eyes water, yet despite the ever-growing haze, there was no tell-tale flicker of firelight. There was no blast of heat, just an uncomfortable, creeping warmth that was somehow worse. Redresin didn't burn — not easily, anyway — and Shift wasn't keen to find out what the Wardens had stashed that burned with a purple smoke.
Eyes stinging but locked on the yellow of Zoe's suit, Shift called out to her. "Zo, how far are we going?"
"Until either we find Thira or whatever's on fire!" came Zoe's reply. "She can't be—"
Zoe cut off with a cry as she was shoved to the side by a dark shape concealed by the smoke. Shift aimed a wide laser of shifted Yellow down the smoke-filled corridor, but the burst of light failed to reveal Zoe's attacker as her back was slammed into the wall.
"Thira!" yelled Zoe, grabbing for the dark shape — a Black tendril — spreading over her chest as it lifted her up. The toes of her boots scraped against the ground, but the faintest, Yellow glow still glimmered through the haze. "Thira, it's just me!"
The tendril hesitated, and a second later, Athira stepped out of the smoke.
No — it wasn't just smoke, but Black, misting off her skin. It clung to her in a haze, swirling thick on some erratic, phantom breeze. The Black had bled into her clothes, turning the fabric of her Owling outfit shiny and hard. Her skin had a strange sheen to it, and Shift found himself hoping it was just a combination of the flickering Blue light of her runes amongst the dark purple smoke.
But it was the way she watched them with that cold, detached glint and the considered tilt of her head that sent a chill down Shift's spine.
"Zoe?"
*+*+*+*
A/N - Things are breaking, and the glue of the team might not be enough this time to hold it all together
Next chapter: :)