Outside the domes range, Auburn half carried Peridot, an arm draped under him. Auburn managed to stop the blood flow by covering up Peridot's arm and wrist areas with his jacket.
Auburn peered at the wound. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. A rainbow of colors appeared where the jagged lines against the flesh appeared, more prominent where Peridot claws started (ended)? Where the blood should have showed up, those rainbow colors flickered.
Peridot gave out a startled cry, and Auburn slowed his pace. He felt Peridot's body warm up.
"Here, let's stop for a minute. I might have some water with me."
Auburn propped Peridot against a tree. Peridot's heavy breathing continued as Auburn attempted to feed him sips of water.
Auburn put the cap back on the bottle, "This is all my fault."
"No, no it's not. We tried to go after them together. If anything I was too weak to do anything."
"But I should have held off activating my semblance until I knew you were safe! Now you have a weird colored wound and are burning up to the touch."
Peridot gave a slight smile, "Well, it is summer time and we were fighting a moment ago."
Auburn tried to hide a smile by pretending to say sternly, "Stop talking. I need to get you some help."
"You boys said you need some help?" A new voice asked.
Auburn stood up quickly, placing the hammer in front of him. He stood in front of Peridot, who gazed up at Auburn's back.
A tall female, with long, wavy dark red hair with gold streaks throughout it. She wore quite a bit of armor, on her chest, arms, wrists, and legs. They were all gold plated, with dark orange lining the outside. She wore a long sleeve white jumpsuit under the armor. Gold plate boots crunched the leaves as she approached the two students.
"Who are you?" Auburn asked.
She held her hands up, showing that her weapon was out of her hands. Instead, a large light gray sword, with a red outer rim and red handle, sat on her back.
She spoke with clear confidence and assurance, "I mean you no harm. My name is Aurelia Falls. I was told to come here to help bring a criminal to justice."
(Aurelia Falls. Piccrew)
"Oh yeah? How do I know to trust you?"
Aurelia red-orange eyes flicked, and Auburn realized she had gold flecks in her eyes.
"You don't." she told him, "But when you do, I can help save the people in the village."
"Then you need to know the direction they are all in. My sister and her team mate. They are fighting your presumed criminal."
Aurelia tilted her head in curiosity, "And which direction is that?"
Auburn pointed, then turned to where Peridot sat. As Auburn helped Peridot back up, he looked over his shoulder and saw that the girl had left.
Auburn continued to the village. A prayer to the Gods in his heart that he and Peridot would make it in time.
🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
Red spirals moved slowly next to small blue zig zags shapes. The dome wall appeared a mostly purple hue, but the red and blue stood out. A gentle hum was heard from it.
Indigo slowly lifted themselves from their position and grinned at the two girls, "Well, what do you think of my little parlor trick?"
"It's...different." Jasper offered.
Indigo ran a hand through their hair, "Dome of Wrath and Gloom is what I like to call it. Took a while to master it, but now it should be about time to show the world its true potential."
Jasper shouted, "You hurt our friend! You lied when you said you didn't want to hurt anyone."
Red flickers appeared on the dome's surface as Indigo replied, "Oh, I'm well aware of lying. How lying tends to hurt others, and most likely, ourselves."
Indigo nodded at Onyx, "Tell that to your little friend and the lie she has been living her whole life. How she wants to be more than how she was living."
Onyx felt her eyes flutter to the ground, but she looked up to see blue outshine from the red on the dome's wall.
"What is this exactly?" Onyx demanded.
Indigo grinned, placing the katana blade lightly on their shoulder, "Ah, asking the questions now are we? It goes like this: Red is for feelings of anger and hate. Blue is for feelings of sadness and despair. Now you all, help feed my dome in a sense with those emotions. Now here is where my hypothesis starts: When the dome reaches 100% one color, it will release whichever energy into that area. Which one? I am not too sure, as this is my first time trying this out."
Indigo looked over at where Jasper and Onyx stood, "I'm sure glad I have two willing guinea pigs to help me out!"
"I'm not willing." Onyx gritted through her teeth.
"And I'm not a guinea pig!" Jasper shouted.
Onyx let out a sigh, and a bit more blue flickered around the dome.
Indigo began to chuckle, "Let's start this experiment!"
Onyx took out three arrows, and fired each one at Indigo. Indigo dodged the two and split the third one with the katana. Onyx tumbled to a stop, coming back to a crouched position, one knee on the ground, bow drawn in her hand.
Indigo cackled, "Oh bravo, my dear! Let me ask, who said the bow would be the best weapon? Always fighting far away, never dealing with matters face to face."
"My grandfather fought with a bow. I wanted to continue the tradition, since Auburn got our father's dagger."
Indigo's rigid face went slack, as he expressed, "Family. It always comes back to family. They leave you. Forsake you. Cause you to question, why are you here? That you matter to no one."
"From what I understand, family is what you make of it." Jasper spoke up, "You find the people you connect with and begin to form those close relationships that bring about trust and love."
Indigo's body appeared to go limp with the words Jasper was saying.
Onyx added on, "Right. In some way, we begin to find those we can put our faith in, whether it is either on the battlefield or in our personal lives."
Onyx looked over at Jasper, "I trust you Jasper, as the leader of Team JAPO."
Jasper smiled brightly and said, "And I trust you, Onyx, as a teammate."
Indigo's breathing began to quicken and they looked over at the two with angry eyes, "No! There is no such thing as the power of friendship or teamwork, or whatever it is!"
The red bubbles began to swirl quickly around the dome. The dirt began to fly around the dome, and Onyx covered her eyes with her arm.
The sound of strained cracking was heard, and Onyx gasped as she saw those small cracks starting to form on the red sides of the dome.
Onyx looked over to see Jasper blocking Indigo's blade from reaching her throat, Crescent Blossom struggling against the weight.
Indigo let out a frustrated grunt, and pushed her further. However, they gave a quick glance over Jasper's shoulder.
Indigo gave a gasp, and lowered his blade. Jasper did likewise.
Jasper turned slowly to see Aurelia Falls standing there.
Aurelia gave a little wave from the other side of the dome.
🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
"You're too late!" Indigo shouted triumphantly.
The dome began to groan under the weight of the heavy red bubbles.
A yellow light flashed, and the dome let out a shriek and bursts.
Jasper managed to cover her eyes in time. When she unshielded her eyes, she gasped as she saw red bubbles and swirls surrounding the area and the trees, hovering in the air, but wiggling at any vibration or wind.
Jasper moved quickly away from Indigo, both hands on her scythe.
Indigo stood in the middle of the trees, seeing the red swirls and bubbles hovering around the air. Indigo raised their arms to the sky and shouted, "Yes! Yes, be free! Fill the world with anger and hatred."
Indigo continued to howl and laugh crazily.
Jasper started to approach, when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Aurelia shook her head, and walked towards Indigo.
Instead, Jasper took the opportunity to run over to Onyx, "Onyx! Are you okay?"
Onyx winced and held her side, "Yeah, just a bit of a strain. I didn't think we would be fighting this hard today."
Jasper nodded, "Let's rest here and watch."
Onyx nodded and the two of them watched the red hair figure approach the black clad figure.
Aurelia Falls unsheathed her sword. "Indigo Black, you are now under the protection of the city of New Remnant. I ask you to either come with me, or face dire consequences."
Indigo looked over at her and snarled, "Oh yeah? You and what army?"
Aurelia reached down to the ground for a few loose leaves. She held them, crumbling them with her hand. She watched the small pieces flow into the wind.
But, the last few shreds began to show the colors of fire. Her sword in her right hand, she began to raise it into the air. The leaves started to scatter towards her, forming a circle around her. The leaves began to catch fire, but did not burn up. The smell of ash and dead leaves wrapped the senses of those in the area.
The red bubbles and spirals began to turn to black ash when a speck of flame touched them.
"I need no army, when I have the powers of the Fall Maiden in my possession." Aurelia said, her eyes showing off a yellow flame.
Indigo looked started, speaking in a shaky voice, "Impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible. In fact, I can show you."
Aurelia raised her left hand, and some of the leaves from the circle moved over to those red decorations. The red pieces began to burn on the spot.
Indigo let out a scream. Aurelia moved her arm to the right a bit, and again the leaves began to burn right through the red bubbles and swirls.
Indigo raised their eyes in hatred to Aurelia. Aurelia held her sword with both hands. Indigo did the same with their katana.
The two leapt to the other, with Aurelia being a bit faster. With several forceful attacks, the two fought with speed and an intent to weaken the other.
Yet, Indigo noticed their body getting heavier. Maintaining the dome, feeling parts of the dome be consumed in flames, and the fighting they had to endure with Team JAPO, was catching up to them.
With frustrated, and exhausted grunts, they felt their technique getting sloppy. With a final yell, Indigo rushed to Aurelia.
Who smiled at him with warmth enough to melt hardened butter, stepped to the side, and slashed a dozen or so times at the exposed back.
Indigo started to fall to the ground, landing in the dusty dirt and gnarled exposed tree branches. The last of the aura depleted, blackness floating near and away from where they laid.
Indigo weakly pushed their arms between those tree roots, and gazed up at the sky.
It was still that soft, summer blue color. Indigo preferred the approaching night sky.
Indigo smiled fondly as they remembered back in early childhood, they would wait to see when the first star would appear. When they saw the first star, they would wish upon it, eyes closed and nose scrunched up.
As Indigo got older, they knew wishing upon a star would never work, but still enjoyed gazing out the window at those stars because they knew the stars were far away.
Where they were safe and twinkled brightly for others to enjoy.
Indigo peered into Aurelia's face, the yellow flames gone, but the smell of ash around her. The smell of ash was the last thing Indigo remembered of the father and of the house. Indigo remembered setting those flames bright, before running into the night. Before running here to watch and learn. To then fight these strange people, who knew nothing of the pain they once endured.
Indigo felt their eyes droop, and a strange sense filled them. They welcomed it, and began to feel and lay still.
As Jasper and Onyx approached, Jasper saw Indigo go limp.
Jasper gasped, "Are they?"
Aurelia looked at her, amused, "No, they aren't dead. They are feeling peace for the first time."
"Oh right, peace. It is a nice feeling." Jasper mused.
"Who are you exactly?" Onyx interrupted.
Aurelia sheathed her sword. "The name is Aurelia Falls. I came to take Indigo Black back on accounts of murder and arson."
"But it wasn't their fault!" Jasper shouted, "You see their father..."
"Unless you want to testify in court, I suggest you stop talking there." Aurelia said in a low voice.
Jasper and Onyx stood there, stunned, as Aurelia picked up Indigo, placing them on her back.
"How did you get here?" Onyx asked.
"By boat. The river connects the cities to get lumber from Oakheart Village."
"Ohh, boats are cool." Jasper said, fascinated.
Onyx let out a sigh.
Aurelia let out a smile, and gestured with her shoulder, "Shall we go back to the village then?"
🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
Peridot laid on the bed, white sheets surrounding him.
Auburn sat on a nearby chair, "How does it feel?"
Peridot held up his left claw, winching a bit, "It still stings a little, but the nurse said once the medicine kicks in, it should stop hurting for a bit."
"Well, that is some good news, huh?"
Peridot shifted his eyes to the other side of the bed, "Yeah, I guess it is some relief."
The two sat in silence for a minute until Peridot spoke up, "I wanted to be a Hunter to protect people. To not be like him because when I think of him, all I see is the last image of him. My eyes on his back, his face turned away from me, as he left me and others to die in a burning village."
Auburn replied gently, "Peridot, I am so sorry you had to go through all that."
"But through all of that, now I have a chance to save others. It compelled me to live to one day reach this point. To have a team who has my back and I can help them with my semblance."
"And we are glad you are here."
Peridot let out a sad sigh, "Right. Yet, it is me that gets hurt on our first mission. Granted, I don't think the fight with Indigo was part of it. I always felt that I was weaker than Hunters, or even other students. No matter how hard I train, I will just put you all in harm's way."
Peridot hung his head sadly, "I shouldn't be a part of the Team or the Academy anymore."
Auburn watched him, took a deep breath, and spoke, "I think you are being too hard on yourself. And if Jasper were here she would say the same thing. Maybe Onyx too, or well, she would give you a look to communicate that."
Peridot raised his head, and Auburn continued, "You see, your story reminded me of how my mother's story, how she was abandoned and left to survive on her own. She met my father in a village, and they have remained inseparable since."
Auburn smiled at Peridot, "I understand that loneliness feels confusing and unbearable. but we are here for you, to talk things through."
Peridot gave a warm, tentative smile.
Auburn felt his ears heat up in embarrassment. He then got up and started to move the blanket closer to Peridot's legs.
Peridot let out a chuckle, and said, "You know, you look pretty cute when you are worried. I like seeing this softer side of you."
Auburn paused and looked over at Peridot.
The two exchanged a shy smile, cheeks turning an even darker pink.
"Auburn? Peridot?"
The two straightened out, as Jasper and Onyx approached them.
"Oh thank goodness you two are safe!" Jasper exclaimed, running to hug Peridot.
"Yeah we are." Auburn said, then cheekily smiled, "You know, I was never into those snow globe things. But if Onyx was in one, I would get one."
Onyx elbowed Auburn, who winced, but still grinned at her.
Peridot grunted from under the strength of Jasper's hug, "Hey uh, Jasper, maybe we can talk about the mission."
"Oh right, sorry." Jasper said, letting Peridot go.
"I will say one thing though. This is a mission we will never forget." Auburn said.
The Team nodded somberly. Then, they each let out a burst of laughter. The sound continued to grow as the sunset's gentle rays brushed against the walls behind them, a mixture of pink, orange, yellow, and purple.
(Cover art: Indigo's emblem. Art by Jenmouse45).
To be continued.