As Sara and M's fight escalates more and more, the latter decides to employ even more force by expelling a powerful burst of air that sends the former flying across the hallway they've turned into a battlefield. Fortunately, the teenage girl manages to sustain her agility and lands back on her feet.
'Doesn't this guy experience fatigue?' Sara wonders, feeling increasingly frustrated and concerned. Their tussle has been going on for over twenty minutes and her opponent isn't showing any signs of exhaustion, whereas she's panting like a dying dog. 'I'm just going to have to fend him off until I can come up with an escape plan.'
The beautiful dark skinned girl forcefully stabs her rapier into the ground and channels her icy power through it. Then, all of a sudden, multiple ice spikes emerge from the surface beneath M's feet and impale him in every part of his body. Three through both his legs, four in his arms and shoulders, and another four into his back and stomach. Nevertheless, the young man doesn't flinch in reaction, there isn't even a single drop of blood from any of the holes. Instead, he just widens his smile and bursts into laughter.
"I honestly thought a girl as smart as you would've understood by now that those types of attacks are useless against me, but I guess your looks don't actually complement your brain. What a shame," M mocks her before he releases another gush of wind that instantly destroys the ice nails, causing shards to dart in every direction. Not long after, all his wounds completely seal shut as if he wasn't just stabbed.
"Ahhh!!" Sara lets out in pain as one of the broken pieces from the spikes finds its way into her left shoulder.
Totally out of reasonable ideas, the girl resorts to a last stitch attempt at a strike against her enemy. She adjusts her grip on her icy sword and flings it like a javelin towards M, but it never touches him. The second the blade comes remotely close to him, he manipulates the air around him to shatter it into tiny bits.
"It's almost like you're not even trying to fight back at this point," the black zegen cultist laughs as he extends his right hand towards Sara and an invisible ring of air forms around her neck, slowly suffocating her. He moves his hand and the air begins to pull the girl closer to him against her will. "I think I've gotten bored of this one-way struggle, so it's about time I kill you and get to the rest of your friends. I have something important to get to after all."
Right now Sara's gruesome demise seems set in stone and there's nothing she can do about it, but that's exactly what she wants him to think. With M's guard down, one last ice spike swiftly comes forth from the ground behind him and penetrates through his skull, but he doesn't appear bothered in any way.
"I can see you're clearly desperate now. Dont worry, I'll en-"
The deranged criminals speech abruptly comes to a halt once the coolness from the weapon spreads to his body like a virus and freezes his brain, instantaneously ending his life. Regardless of whatever regenerative ability a zegen may possess, he/she is still only human and M is no exception. The brain is the control center of everyone's body and undoubtedly the most important part, and in as much as you can supernaturally heal and restore any other damaged organ, if this particular one is terminally damaged, you'd be dead too soon before your ability can even be activated, which is simply what Sara just did to her attacker.
With M no longer alive and his power therefore no longer in effect, Sara falls to the ground as the gaseous force compelling her disperses. The teen inhales a huge breath of air as she recovers from almost being asphyxiated. She feels overwhelmed with relief as she wasn't completely sure how well that last move was going to play out. She more or less took a gamble with it and she's extremely glad it was enough to save her life.
Sara forces herself back to her feet as her breathing slowly stabilizes. She feels a throbbing pain from her shoulder and turns to see blood flowing out of the spot that was pierced by the stray shard. The girl powers through the hurt and drags the object out before immediately freezing the mouth of the injury closed, preventing even more blood loss. With one crisis averted, she decides to start her search to meet up with Laura and Mathéo. She's not fully sure of which direction the brunette followed when she fled, so she just takes any random path and hopes it's the right one.
After several minutes of aimless wandering round such a colossal building without finding any traces of either of her companions, Sara begins feeling really pessimistic. She has taken every turn and entered every room she's stumbled upon, but she still hasn't found any signs of life, talk less of her friends. However, the dark skinned beauty still chooses to continue her endeavour and she eventually comes across a doorway she didn't previously notice. This one is a lot wider than the others and there's a sign hung above it that says, 'Sala de Adunāri Gemeral'. Sara has no idea what it means, but she assumes it's in Romanian since the Zomer library her and the others discovered a few months back had books written in the same language.
Despite the immense uncertainty plaguing Sara's mind in this very moment, she opens the door, and the sight she beholds once she enters into the room is nothing short of inhumane and horrendous. In this vast hall where she currently finds herself in, dozens of bodies lay lifeless on the floor like a heap of dirty clothes in need of laundry. The most scarring part isn't even the fact that they are corpses, but the state they're in. They all look so shriveled and decayed, as if they've been dead for years, yet the absence of a putrid odor tells the girl they were alive not too long ago, which can only mean one thing. This is the handiwork of an extremely powerful zegen, and the thought of a person being so cruel and heartless as to do such a thing instantly causes Sara to literally throw up. What a monster!
Aaron. Sara immediately remembers the primary reason why she came here in the first place, to find her kidnapped boyfriend. She refuses to even consider the possibility that he has been killed along with the crowd of now unidentifiable cadavers laying in front of her and quickly rushes out of the room to look for him. She has absolutely no intention of leaving this place until she rescues her lover, regardless of how dangerous it'll be.
* * * *
Mathéo and Laura just stand in front of the villain that has taken control of Aaron's body without moving an inch. The brunette's heart is beating so fast after hearing his insane question she feels like she might have a heart attack, while the Latino contemplates on what would be the smartest course of action. He's finding it difficult to choose between fighting and fleeing as quickly as possible because he doesn't know if Feto also has authority over his best friend's ability. If by any chance the teen's suspicions prove to be the case, both options would be nearly impossible. The guy would be able to kill the two of them before they could even make a single step.
"Since neither of you want to come forward willingly, I'll just have to take the initiative and choose," Feto declares with joy in his eyes as all the light bulbs in the hallway instantly turn off, severely diminishing the places brightness. The evening darkness from outside isn't helping the situation.
"Oh shit!" Mathéo cusses as he realizes the enemy is about to do exactly what he feared-make use of Aarons darkness manipulation. "Laura, stay close to me."
To the surprise of the two teens, a fat black spike shoots down at them from the shadow on the ceiling above them all of a sudden. Fortunately, Mathéo swiftly reacts by pushing Laura away and jumping back before the needle is able to hurt either of them, but that's not the end of Feto's attack. Unbeknownst to the Hispanic boy, the monster quietly emerges from the darkness on the wall behind him and grabs him in a tight choke hold with his arms. Mathéo struggles fiercely to free himself, but the grip of his assailant is too strong for him to overcome.
"So, I've made my choice and you're going to serve as my appetizer. Once I'm done with you, I'll take my precious time enjoying your dear Laura. I'll make sure to savour both your flavors. Are you ready?" Feto maliciously whispers into his prey's ears and the mention of his girlfriend's name instantly infuriates him.
Refusing to allow this sadistic creature have his way, Mathéo goes full-on barbarian and bites the skin of the limbs constricting his neck with all the force he can muster, penetrating the surface layer and staining his teeth with the blood of his opponent. The pain from the bite causes Feto to loosen his grip for a moment and the Latino takes advantage of it by pushing him away and freeing himself. Mathéo quickly pulls out his gun and turns around to shoot, but the adversary dissolves back into the shadows before he gets the chance to.
"Mathéo!! Help me!!" Laura cries in fear and pain, evoking a response from her love as he turns again to see her being hung by a shadow tentacle from the ceiling that has firmly wrapped itself around her neck. Forlorness floods her expression as she helplessly struggles to free herself from the agonizing suffocation.
Without delay, Mathéo aims his pistol at the shadow appendage and pulls the trigger. Luckily, the bullet severs the limb and emancipates Laura. The teen boy doesn't get any time to recuperate his energy as an unknown leg kicks him from behind, and when he turns to face his attacker, what he beholds is far from human. It's a pitch black being that's about the same size and shape as an average adult but is completely devoid of any facial features, a lot like something you'd see in a nightmare. To make things worse, two more of it crawl out of the darkness on the ground and these ones are even bigger and buffer than the first. This shouldn't be possible, Aaron has never been able to use his power to create living creatures. Could Feto's presence have augmented it in some way, and if so, to what extent?
'What sort of punishment is this? I didn't think Aaron could get any more overpowered than he already was,' Mathéo thinks.
The three creations all charge towards Mathéo at the same time and the boy valorously takes them on. When the one in the middle comes close enough, the Latino grabs it by the shoulders and knees it in the shadow crotch before shooting its head, instantly causing it to fade out of existence. The shadow monster from the left takes advantage of the distraction and punches him in the face as his guard is down, while the other kicks him a few steps back. Their attacks are really strong, but that won't be enough to stop Mathéo.
The kicker goes in for a punch, but it fails miserably as the teen immediately catches its fist. The creature's ally tries to come and save it, however Mathéo stops it by putting a bullet through its head, destroying it just like its brethren. The last surviving shadow doll pulls its arm from the boys grasp and takes hold of his other wrist in an attempt to steal his weapon. Luckily, he reacts quickly and smartly by kicking it away and killing it with another shot.
"I got to admit, Mathéo, you're pretty strong, even for a scrawny normal. I guess since you're taking too long, I'll just have to skip straight to the main course and use you as the dessert afterwards."
Mathéo immediately turns around when he hears Feto's voice and espies him with Laura in his grasp and a pocket knife barely an inch from her throat. It's glaringly obvious from the psychotic smile on the villain's face that he intends to slit it and the mere thought of it frightens the brunette to her core. Tears are already trickling down her cheeks cause she's not ready to die, especially not from such a ghastly method. Mathéo realizes it's up to him to save her, but what can he do?
"You don't have to do this," Mathéo says calmly as he slowly lowers the gun. "Aaron, I know you're still in there somewhere and I need you to regain control of your body. I know we haven't been on the best of terms for some time now and I'm sorry for that. I was being selfish and didn't actually stop to consider what you were going through, what you are still going through, but that doesn't change the fact you'll always remain my closest friend, my twin brother, and that guy's not a killer. You don't even like hurting people, you only do so by accident when you lose control. I know you better than anyone else in the world, so I'm sure this isn't what you really want. So please, for my sake at least, snap out of it and come back to your senses before you do something we'll all regret. I'm begging you."
"Not a killer," Feto mocks the boy as he bursts into laughter. "You clearly don't know this vessel as well as you think you do for you to say something that ludicrous. What do you think happened to the dear influential Minister-President of Brussels? Or should I ask who happened to him?"
"What do you mean by that? Rudi Vervoort was assassinated by some terrorist group," Mathéo responds feeling very perplexed and it causes Feto's laughter to intensify even more. The Latino doesn't understand what the monster is implying. Is he trying to accuse Aaron of murdering such a prominent politician? That isn't even probable in the boy's opinion cause as far as he knows, his best friend didn't attend the gala.
"I see Sara never told you the true story. The real culprit is none other than the owner of this body I'm inhabiting."
Mathéo gasps in disbelief upon this shocking revelation. He can't possibly buy such a bizarre claim. Aaron would never murder someone be it willingly or under compulsion, or would he?
"So, I suppose it won't be so out of character if I do this." Feto doesn't waste a single second more before he cuts Laura's throat using his blade and pushes her to the ground for her to bleed to death. "Tasty, he comments as he licks the girl's blood off the body of the knife."
Filled with rage and hatred because of what Feto just did to the brunette, Mathéo raises his pistol and shoots him four times in the torso without hesitation. Surprisingly, each bullet just gets absorbed into his body as if it was sucked into a black hole, but even that's not enough to make the Hispanic teen back down. He decides to go physical and tries to use the body of the weapon as a baton to bash his head, but Feto immediately blocks it with his forearm.
"Feisty. Did I strike a nerve? Dont w-"
Feto is forced to shut up when Mathéo suddenly knees him in between the legs so hard he thinks his balls might have cracked, but he doesn't stop the attack there. The teen swiftly refocuses his center of gravity and goes in for another kick, landing it perfectly on the side of his stomach and moving him some steps back. Infuriated, Feto retaliates as he channels energy from the darkness surrounding him and molds it into a powerful pitch black blast which he aims towards his Latino target, sending him flying off his feet and to the ground. Then, Feto jumps on his prey, knife in hand and ready to stab him in the face. However, the latter quickly reacts by hitting the side of the former's face with his gun, causing him to fall off his body.
Mathéo instantly turns the tables around as he mounts on top of Feto's vessel. With one hand strangling Aaron's neck and the other pressing the mouth of his pistol against his forehead, the Hispanic teen readies to end his oppressor's life. After all, a bullet in the brain should be more than enough to kill both his friend and the alien spirit occupying his body, but is he really willing to go through with it? Can he really stomach murdering his oldest friend?
"Please stop, Mathéo. It's me. It's Aaron," says a trembling Aaron as his eyes regain its natural blue color. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone; I wasn't in control. Feto has been compelling me, I swear."
Mathéo contemplates on what he should do next. He knows it's the real Aaron that's talking to him, but he's not sure if he can still trust him right now. Not after what Feto did to Laura.
"Fuck!" The Latino caves in to his best friend's plea in frustration as he throws his hand gun aside and gets back on his feet. "It's good to have you back, bro," he adds, stretching out a hand to him as a sign of good will.
"That was a bad idea. You should have gone through with the head shot," Aaron tells him before a black spear extends out of Mathéo's shadow all of a sudden and impales him through the gut from behind. "This is a fight after all."
The emotions going through Mathéo's mind in this moment is an amalgam of immense pain, anger, aversion, shock, betrayal and confusion, and for a moment, he can swear that he sees Aaron smile after staking him with his ability before his eyes change back to crimson. So, it was Aaron's decision after all to do this to him, to literally stab him in the back. What a perfidy from someone he has always thought of as a brother!
While all that plays out, Laura begins to hurriedly heal her injured throat. It seems Feto didn't consider the probability of the girl using her ability on herself when he chose not to sever her head outright. Nevertheless, the pain from the cut doesn't disappear even after the wound is completely treated and she still finds it difficult to speak because of it. The brunette forces herself back on her two feet and she's utterly mortified when she turns around to see Mathéo with a shadow spear through his lower back. She tries to scream, but her vocal chords prove too sore to do so.
"It's about time I munch on my snack," Feto starts malevolently as he gets up and approaches Mathéo. He's about to grab the boys neck as he stretches his hands towards him, but he's abruptly obstructed when a wall of ice appears between the two of them. "What a nuisance!"
With the frozen demarcation now separating the two guys, the black weapon piercing the brown skin teen evaporates away and he falls to the ground, blood spewing out even more rapidly than before. Laura rushes to his aid and when she views the injury up close, she almost throws up. The inside of the hole has been contaminated by some black gooey substance that's mixing with the blood.
"Am I going to die?" Mathéo asks her with so much fear and melancholy in his voice. He's trying so hard to fight the pain, but the brunette can tell he's on the brink of tears. This is the most vulnerable she has ever seen him and she needs to help him. "Please, I don't want to die. Not yet. I'm not ready."
"I'm not going to let you die, I promise. Everything's going to be alright," Laura assures him as she places her hands on the wound and activates her power, emitting a green glow, but something's wrong. The lesion isn't healing cause something is repelling the girl's ability. It must be the work of the disgusting infection that the shadow spear left. It appears to have zegen-resistant properties. Fuck!
"What's wrong? There's a problem, isn't there?" Mathéo notices the anxiety in Laura's facial expression increase as the injury refuses to heal and instantly gets the feeling she can't help him. "It cant be healed, can it? I guess my eternal curse of bad luck has struck once again."
"I told you I'm not letting you die and I intend to keep my word," the brunette vows as she quickly takes off her blood soaked blouse, revealing the sports bra she's wearing underneath and part of her cleavage in the process, and ties it round her boyfriend's wound like a makeshift tourniquet. "This is going to reduce the blood loss while I get you to an actual hospital. My ability isn't working right now, but conventional medicine and surgery might be a different case."
Laura serves as a support to help Mathéo stand and she leads him out of the hideout. As the two escape slowly but surely, the girl hears the sound of Sara and Feto facing off behind the ice wall that the former created to protect them, but she can't risk going back to check if her friend's okay. She urgently needs to get the Latino medical attention before he bleeds to death, even if it means abandoning someone else.
It takes the two teens a couple of minutes to reach the car they used to get here, but when they pull the door handle, it doesn't open. That's when they remember that Sara locked the door after they exited the vehicle and she's still with the key. Going back to retrieve it would be a suicide mission right now considering what they're up against. Deciding to look for another way out, Laura pulls out her phone to call for help, but there's surprisingly no longer cell service. Maybe it's the result of the ominous blood red sky soaring over them that they haven't really stopped to take note of.
"Just leave me and go save yourself," Mathéo whispers faintly as his intense fatigue grows exponentially by the second and he slides off the girl's hold and finds himself on the bare soil. "I'm already a lost cause at this point anyway."
"Don't talk like that, Mathéo. There's no way I'm abandoning you here like this. I've already lost both my parents, I don't plan on adding the first real friend I've made in a very long time to that list. You're too important and dear to me for me to just let you go."
Renewed with conviction and a rush of adrenaline, Laura carries Mathéo over her back and starts towards the route leading out of the forest. She's willing to piggy back him to wherever she has to as long as it means the boy is going to survive. She doesn't think that she'll be able to live with herself if he doesn't make it through this.
* * * *
As Sara hurriedly searches the building for Aaron, she starts hearing noises from some sort of conflict, battle maybe. At first, she ignores it and continues her endeavour, but when the sound of multiple gunshots echoes through the walls, she realizes whatever is happening isn't something minor. The girl immediately rushes towards the source of the sounds, and she is totally aghast by the situation she walks into when she gets there. Laura's on her knees with blood all over her clothes, Mathéo has a black spear that looks like Aaron's creation protruding out of the center of his stomach and her boyfriend is approaching him slowly with what comes across to her as murderous intent.
'Something's definitely wrong here. I need to do something fast,' the dark skinned girl thinks as she snaps her fingers and an ice wall instantly forms that disconnects her and her zegen lover from her other two classmates.
"What a nuisance!" the person resembling Aaron complains underneath his breath as he turns around to face the unwanted guest, and once Sara sees his crimson coloured eyes, she can tell the boy standing in front of her isn't who she originally thought he was. "Oh, its just you, Sara."
"Don't talk to me all buddy buddy as if I'm supposed to know who you are. You don't fool me," Sara warns Feto with a grave tone before materializing her signature ice rapier in her right hand as a show of seriousness. "Tell me, what did you do to the real Aaron?"
"You don't need to act like such a drama queen. Your precious boyfriend is still here; he's just resting," Feto responds as his lips stretch into a villainous grin. "But since you just interrupted my snack time, I think I'm going to have a little bite from you. What do you think?"
"You're a si-" Sara doesn't get a chance to finish her sentence before a shadow hand extends from the ground and grabs firm hold of her ankle.
The girl reacts swiftly by using her sword to sever the supernaturally fabricated limb, but that's not the end of her ordeal. Several shadow figures begin to emerge from the walls, the floor and even the ceiling. They all charge towards her in earnest, ready to attack and kill, but before they even come close enough, she stomps her foot once and all of them freeze. A second later, the ice blocks shatter and the creatures disintegrate.
"Wow. You're clearly more interesting than that normal that you just saved," Feto compliments her as he witnesses her masterful usage of her ability. Without a doubt, she knows how to told her own in a fight.
"Don't patronize me, you impostor," Sara tells him before dashing towards him with her icy blade. It's time for her to go on the offensive.
To her astonishment, as she's about to jab him with her weapon, a black smoky shield abruptly appears in front of him and sucks it in whole. Sara immediately jumps back before it can absorb her too, and the thing vanishes once the distance between them is widened. She wasn't expecting such a dangerous defensive move from him. It's obvious to her now that her opponent is capable of doing far more with Aaron's ability than the actual owner.
"It's my turn now," Feto declares as he coats both his hands in shadows, forming black razor sharp claws around each of his fingers like a glove. "Ready or not, here I come."
He charges towards Sara with full speed and mouth watering anticipation, but she has every intention of fighting back. The girl channels all her power into her right hand, and with one push, shoots it all out with full force. A strong burst of cold air is released from the surface of her palm and it instantly freezes the entire opposite half of the hallway, Feto included, forming a massive ice berg in front of her. She falls to one knee as the physical strain caused by what she just did kicks in without warning.
"I'm sorry, Aaron, but I needed to stall him so that you'd have enough time to chase that body snatcher out. I don't know if you can actually hear me from in there, but I'm rooting for you. Please, don't let me down."
"You little bitch! I'm gonna make you pay for this," Feto's voice echoes from inside the huge mass of ice, and this time he's switched out his usual frolicsome tone for a serious one. He's really pissed off about being trapped in like this.
All of a sudden, there's a massive explosion of black smoke originating from the icebergs interior and it blows the entire building open. The force sends Sara flying and she lands on the debris. The impact leaves her with a couple of scratches and some serious back ache, but she luckily doesn't sustain any dire wounds. She overcomes the pain and gets back on her feet, but she's immediately petrified when she looks up. Soaring in the middle of the air with dark phantoms circling around him is Feto. To add to this already eerie ambiance, the evening sky above them has become as red as the monsters eyes.
"You!" Feto points his hand at Sara and a black cloud materializes around her like restraints and raises her to the same level as him. She tries to resist it, but the bundle of gas doesn't give her room to move. "Do you still believe your knight in shining armor is going to come rescue you now?"
"I'm not afraid of you," Sara still maintains her composure despite the bleak situation she currently finds herself in. "There's no chance Aaron's going to let you use his own body to murder me. Are you hearing me, Aaron?! There's no way you're going to allow this monster to actually murder me!"
For some reason, the sound of the girls enraged voice triggers something in Feto's vessel that causes Aaron's memories to flood his mind. The first time Aaron and Sara met, their first date, their first ever kiss, all moments involving the two teens go through his head. As these mental souvenirs resurface, the secondary spirit occupying the body begins to struggle to remain in control, causing him to accidentally drop the dark skinned girl back on the ground.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?! Are you already forgetting you're the one that invited me to take over?! You don't get to chicken out now!" Feto soliloquizes as he starts angrily slapping himself like a person losing grip of his sanity.
"Aaron! Don't give up! You can do this! Show him who's the real boss and push him out!" Sara cheers on her significant other in an attempt to motivate him. After all, that's all she's able to do for him at the moment.
The battle of wills rages on more and more fiercely as both Aaron and Feto fight each other to exercise dominance. The latter grabs the two sides of his head as if he's having a headache and starts yelling painfully at the top of his lungs. He's losing the tussle, he can't subdue the body's true possessor. There's a blinding burst of light as the orb containing Feto's essence shoots out of Aaron's chest and he falls to the ground unconscious.
"Aaron! Aaron! Wake up! Please wake up!" Sara gently taps his body, but he doesn't respond. The rhythmic rises and falls of his chest gives her hope that he's alright and she looks up at the night sky that has now regained its natural color and notices a helicopter approaching them from afar. "Here! Here! Please come here!" The girl screams as loudly as she possibly can while waving both hands as some form of distress signal.
* * * *
Laura continues her desperate struggle to carry Mathéo to a hospital despite how weak she is at the moment. She hears the sound of a loud explosion from the direction she's coming from, but she decides to ignore it and focuses on her task at hand. Right now, time is of the essence to her wounded companion, so she can't afford to let anything delay the two of them.
"Help! Help! Please someone help!" the brunette screams at the top of her lungs, tears gushing out of her eyes. Mathéo's overbearing weight finally gets the better of her and she falls to her knees. "He's dying! Help him! Please!"
Laura attempts to get back up and resume the journey, but her legs are too fatigued and she falls back down, causing Mathéo to roll off her back and land on the soil. The brown skin boy has already lost consciousness, which is only expected considering how much blood he's lost by now. His girlfriend immediately checks his pulse to make sure he's still among the living and notices it's very faint. He doesn't have much time left, he'll be dead in less than ten minutes at this rate.
"Stay with me, Mathéo. Please," Laura begs the insentient body as she tries again to heal him. When that proves futile, she resorts to a fairy tale classic and passionately kisses him on the lips, but this isn't a magical world and as thus, it doesn't revive him. "Please hang in there. I cant lose you too."
Surprisingly, the brunette suddenly hears a weird sound and raises her head to the sky to see a helicopter approaching from a far distance. Swiftly, she pulls out her phone, points it up and turns on its SOS flashlight to attract the pilots attention.
"Here! Here! Were down here!" Laura screams, praying it will help whoever is flying the vehicle to notice both of them. This is her last hope of possibly saving Mathéo and she can't afford to let it go to waste. "Please! Look at us! We need you!"