It was three days after Damien and Nyx wiped out Iris, giving Damien's injuries time to... barely even start healing. Nyx was in the kitchen with her coffee. She stared off into space and her mind seemed to drift. She remembered seeing Nate that night, fighting against Z. He looked so tired...and angry. To be honest, he reminded her of Nate's father...and it felt wrong. Nyx anxiously nibbled on her lip, there's a pretty good chance he'll be mad when I come home... especially when he finds out I've been alive for months.
She hoped that part of him would understand why she didn't come home right away, but she also knew him too well. Based on how he was acting in the moments leading up to her death, it was likely that he would be...prickly. That wouldn't be all she would have to deal with when she went home, seeing Danny again, Kyle, Soul, Orion, Rhys and Nerissa. Not to mention her mother...and having to tell all of them that Damien was the reason she's alive at all.
"Good morning." Damien spoke flatly and jolted Nyx out of her mind. She looked up at him as he walked to the coffee maker for his own cup. He was trying to hide it, but Nyx could tell he was still in pain.
"Hey." Nyx responded as she mimicked his flat tone. Damien wordlessly poured himself a cup of coffee before walking to the table and sitting across from her.
"So, I hope you're ready to move out tonight." Damien said with a tone of sudden urgency, Nyx raised an eyebrow.
"Why?" She inquired with veiled suspicion.
"Because Faust told me something alarming, he said that word around the grape vine says that Z is planning to skip town tomorrow morning. If he manages that, he'll likely be gone for good." Damien said as he leaned forward onto his elbows, cupping his coffee mug with both hands. Nyx's eyes widened slightly before her lip curled subtly.
"Well, I'm always ready, but are you?" Nyx asked him with a raised eyebrow, sure Damien was Gifted, but his healing wasn't that good. She could tell the gunshot wound still hurt him when he moved his torso. She heard Damien chuckle softly before he looked up at her.
"A little pain isn't going to hold me back, besides, if I don't go then you'll be alone and he'll just kill you again." Damien's voice sounded sincere and it threw Nyx off again. She narrowed her eyes on him slightly.
"Alright fine, we'll start searching for his lair as soon as the sun goes down." Nyx said as she placed her forehead in her palm and ran her hand through her raven hair. Damien smirked coyly as he brought his mug up to his mouth.
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That Night
Nyx and Damien perched on the roof of a building that overlooked the slums district. They knew that Z's lair was in this area, somewhere within a mile, they just had to find it.
"Okay, where would a highly trained Gifted killer pick for his hideout?" Nyx whispered under her mask, seemingly to herself.
"Well, sure as hell not there..." Damien responded quietly, Nyx looked over and followed his gaze to see police filing in and out of a pub. Each time one of them entered or left, they could see inside, and saw nothing but half cleaned blood and bodies that were being taken away. Nyx's eyes widened in shock, while Damien raised an eyebrow in intrigue. "I'm gunna try and get closer." Damien whispered as he looked back towards Nyx. Before she could protest, Damien dashed off across the roof before quickly turning around as he fell over the edge. Nyx watched as shadows snaked out from under Damien's clothes and shot up to latch onto the edge of the roof. Damien slowed down before coming to a stop in the air above the officers, thankfully it was dark enough that he blended right into the shadows.
"This bloodbath is months old at this point. Do we know who made the mess?" The first officer asked the other as they stood outside of the bar, smoking a cigarette.
"Well, after questioning people in the surrounding area, it appears to be a Gifted crime. We got multiple suspects, a small Japanese brat with glowing yellow eyes and bare feet. The other suspects have very miniscule identifiers, they were hiding their faces." The second officer said as he looked down the notepad he was holding, Damien narrowed his eyes. "One taller, muscular African American. One man with pink hair and blue eyes. One with white hair, wielding a katana. One shorter man with glowing blue eyes and black hair. And one Hispanic man who, according to the testimony from the witness...took control of his mind." The cops looked at each other for a moment with subtle fear on their faces.
"Wait...so-" One cop started before his buddy cut him off.
"Yep...It appears that The Mind Stealer had a kid, and that kid inherited his Gift...that could mean big trouble." The second cop sounded afraid and Damien's eyes widened slightly before he used his shadows to pull himself up to the roof, where Nyx was waiting.
"Well?" Nyx asked him as he regained his perch on the edge of the roof. Damien exhaled evenly before he spoke.
"Your friends from Sanctuary were here the day that massacre happened. As of right now, they're all suspects." Damien responded quietly with an even tone. He looked at Nyx from the corner of his eye and she stiffened. No, they couldn't have done this. "There's something else too." Damien got her attention again. "They were talking about Nate, and they sounded afraid because of his Gift."
"What?" Nyx asked quietly with shock in her words.
"Nyx, if Nate's morals aligned with his father's, he could easily take over the world with his Gift alone. Have you not thought about that?" Damien answered her in a serious tone and Nyx had surprise spread across her face. She hadn't thought about that, she just knew that Nate's Gift was...scary. She never really thought about how bad it would be...if Nate had gone down his father's path. It was silent for a while before Nyx wanted to change the subject.
"Z isn't one of those bodies, is he?" Nyx asked in a slightly shaking tone. Damien studied her expression for a moment before responding.
"No, I don't think so. This looks like it happened at least a few months ago, before we saw him at the Iris headquarters. He's gotta still be in his hideout." Damien responded with a slightly soft tone. "We should wait until they leave and then check out that bar." Damien added as he sat on the edge of the roof and hung his legs over the side.
"Why? That's just wasting time." Nyx said with irritation as she kneeled on the edge of the roof.
Damien scoffed softly, "Because we don't have any Intel other than he likes this pub and his hideout is nearby. We're going to have to do some classic deductions to find it." Damien said casually as he leaned back onto his hands. Nyx's brow furrowed in irritation, genuinely considering just shoving him off the roof, but it faded when she remembered he could easily catch himself anyway.
After about 30 minutes, the police had finally finished their investigation/half assed cleanup. The two waited until the alley was deadly silent before they both dropped down from the roof. Damien landed safely with the help of his tendrils and Nyx landed like it was a small hop before the dark violet glow around her faded. They both walked into the bar and looked around, the bodies were gone but a lot of the blood remained. Nyx saw dried bloody footprints litering the place, barefoot prints. They were across the floor, running across the wall, on the ceiling.
"What...the hell?" Nyx uttered softly as she followed the trail of footprints with her head. Damien looked around as well before something caught his eye. He walked over to one of the bar stools and crouched down, catching Nyx's eye. She walked over to him and looked down while she stayed standing. They both quickly noticed a smear of something that resembled mud in its darkness. Damien reached down and swiped a bit of it with his first two fingers. He brought it up to his nose and sniffed before recoiling slightly as Nyx's face twisted in slight disgust.
"The sewers." Damien said flatly as he stood up and wiped his fingers on Nyx's shirt, she quickly lifted her arm and swiped his hand away as she exclaimed in disgust.
"I remember from the map, there should be an entrance not too far from here." Nyx said in an irritated tone before she turned and walked out of the bar. Damien followed her from a small distance before exiting the bar himself. He saw Nyx looking down the alley to their left, he narrowed his eyes just as he started to feel impacts of water droplets through his hood. It was starting to rain.
After the two had slid down the deep culvert and got to the pipe, Damien held open the gate into the large sewer pipe so Nyx could climb inside. "Alright, so we should be careful here, he'd be stupid not to leave traps or alarms." Damien said as he squinted his eyes, struggling slightly to see in the dark pipe that only seemed to get darker as it went deeper.
"Pfft, please." Nyx said as she leaped up and the dark violet glow encased her again. She flipped upside down and her feet planted on the ceiling of the pipe. Damien looked up at her with an unbothered look before raising his eyebrow.
"That's your way of avoiding pressure plates? What if there are motion sensors?" Damien asked with an irritated tone. Nyx rolled her eyes with an annoyed sigh.
"I didn't think Damien Erebus was a pussy." Nyx taunted before she turned around and walked down the roof of the pipe. Damien lip curled in anger and he growled softly, he then closed his eyes and his scowl relaxed. Damien then flexed his fingers and shadows emerged from under his clothes and coiled around Nyx's waist. She protested as Damien created a plank out of shadow and hovered above the water in a laying position on the plank that was anchored to Nyx. Damien saw Nyx look down at him, but up for her.
"You're not leaving me behind that easily." Damien mused as he smirked at her cockily. Nyx growled angrily before she continued walking down the pipe, telling herself that this was all a means to an end. After they reached the end of the pipe, it was so dark they could barely see anything. They did hear something though, they heard soft splashing like someone was walking through the water to their left. Damien used his position to peek around the corner of the T junction, and he saw him. Damien's brow furrowed before he saw Z flick the cigarette he was smoking and walk further down the pipe.
"It's him." Damien whispered under his breath as he glanced up at Nyx. He could hear Nyx growling softly in hot rage before he manipulated his shadows to lower himself to the ground silently. He knew that even the tiniest sound would carry far in this metal pipe. Nyx stayed on the ceiling of the pipe while Damien walked along the ground, taking care to keep an eye out for traps. They could barely see Z through the blinding darkness, but they saw him lift his arm and press a button that was hidden in the stone wall to the right. After typing in a code, a larger door slid open and Z started to step inside. Nyx's lip curled before she suddenly dashed forward, Damien inhaled sharply in surprise as he watched her move impossibly fast before pushing off the ceiling, flipping her body and dropkicking Z in the back. Damien dashed forward and into the door after Nyx, who was already running across the ground after him.
Once inside Z's hideout and Z regained his footing, he quickly turned around to face his attackers and his eyes widened. "Infinity. Well, color me impressed. How'd you manage this, huh?" He said with a slight smile on his face as he swung out his thick blade with a flourish.
"Yeah, that was me." Damien said with a sly smile as he stepped forward and pulled his mask off his face, he had a feeling he would need his oxygen to be unobstructed. The two of them heard Z hum in amusement.
"Well, lucky me. I get to take down two pains in my ass." Z said before he stood up straight and spun his blade. Nyx lifted her hand and pulled her mask down before the dark violet glow coated her again.
"Just try it." Nyx purred before she dashed forward at lightning speed. Z lifted his blade and tried to swipe at Nyx when she got close, but Nyx was ready. She had used her Gift to make her body as hard as steel and then grabbed the blade with her bare hand. Z's eyes widened before Nyx lifted her foot and kicked him in the abdomen. He flew into the air before Nyx was surprised greatly to see Z keep his grip on the handle of the blade. He used the momentum from Nyx's kick to swing around and bring his knee into Nyx's side. She recoiled slightly but it didn't stop her. Nyx and Z locked eyes before Nyx swung her leg up high and tried to slam it down onto him. He tugged hard on the blade and slid it from Nyx's grip before her foot collided with the ground with a loud crunch. Z flipped backwards onto his hands to avoid one of Damien's tendrils as it tried to stab him from above, now that Z was away from Nyx.
"Man, fighting you up close and personal is exhilarating." Z said in an elated tone before he tried to rush her again, lifting his arm to slash again. Right before it made contact, Nyx ducked low and another tendril swiped over Nyx's head and collided with Z. He was sent backwards before sliding across the pavement. Z then saw Damien jogging up next to Nyx.
"You good?" Damien asked her quietly, without taking his eyes off Z.
"Of course I am." Nyx responded as Z was recovering. He stood up straight and took a deep breath.
"Don't worry, I'm good too." Z taunted before he reached behind him and pulled out a handgun. As he fired at them, Damien instinctively lifted a wall of shadow to block the bullets. The wall lowered and the two saw something small and round bouncing towards them.
A flashbang.
It erupted before the two had time to react. They planted their hands over their ears and their heads rang with a violent and shrill noise. Nyx's head was being throttled so harshly it caused her focus to waver and the glow around her faded. Damien saw this, and also saw something else through his blurry vision that shook him. Z was rushing towards them with a smaller knife ready to stab into Nyx's abdomen. He swapped out his large blade for something that gave him higher speed. Damien's eyes widened before he quickly reacted and shoulder checked Nyx out of the way. Nyx grunted when she hit the ground before her eyes finally recovered from the blast.
She saw Damien stumbling backwards until he fell onto his backside, and she saw Z's large hunting knife stabbed into Damien's abdomen. She quickly noticed he was stabbed right where Z had shot him a few nights before. Nyx's head shot up to see Z pointing a gun at her face and he chuckled darkly. "You're nothing but a small smear on my reputation, which is about to be wiped clean." Z said in a stern tone. Nyx watched behind Z as Damien tried to flick his first two fingers and his eyes widened when nothing happened. The realization his fast that the knife was coated with the Gift inhibiting drug.
Nyx's breath hitched before she quickly activated her Gift, her eyes glowing bright violet. The glow surrounded her body before she shifted backwards to a standing position. "I must say, I'm a little impressed you've made it this far as an enemy of Gifted. But that ends tonight." Nyx uttered darkly before something strange happened. Something that shook even Damien as he sat on the ground, trying to steady his breathing to carry him through the agony he was feeling.
The sclera in Nyx's eyes darkened until they were black and a low rumble could be heard in the concrete box that was Z's hideout. Nyx suddenly shifted forward in the blink of an eye and barreled into Z. They rolled across the ground and the gun slipped from Z's hand. When they finally came to a stop, Nyx was on top of Z with both hands wrapped around his throat. He was struggling to breathe and tried to grab and pull her arms off but she was far too strong.
"You...are nothing but a parasite." Nyx growled out as both Z and Damien saw something else unsettling. They saw black tendrils snaking up Nyx's neck from under her clothes, they looked like they were in her skin rather than crawling over it. This...was how Damien's DNA was affecting her Gift. "You hurt people...men, women...children...just because they're Gifted. You tried to kill Nate." Nyx's tone turned even more unhinged as her grip tightened, completely cutting off Z's air as he thrashed. "You won't hurt anyone...ever again." Nyx said before she grunted stiffly and a loud crunch echoed through the empty room as Nyx caved in his throat with her bare hands.
After Z finally fell silent, Nyx lifted her hands up slightly and they shook for a moment. She then stood up off of him before a soft pained groan from Damien caught her attention. She whipped around to look at him and saw him looking down at the large hunting knife still stabbed into his abdomen. "Fuck." She said before she moved quickly towards him. "Don't pull it out!" Nyx told him sternly as she saw him starting to reach for the handle of the knife. Damien looked up and saw the dark tendrils on her skin recede back under her clothes and her eyes faded back to normal. She had just... successfully deactivated her Gift when it was going haywire.
"Why the hell would you do that, you moron?" She asked him angrily as she slung his arm over her shoulders and helped him up. Damien exhaled in annoyance as they walked towards the entrance to Z's lair.
"Because I'm smart enough now to know when I'm outmatched. I knew I couldn't handle him one on one, but you could. So I'd rather take the hit, so you could take him out." Damien responded in a weak tone as Nyx pulled out the phone that Faust had given them. She glanced over at him as she opened up the contacts to call Faust, surprised that Damien had made an... actually humane decision.
"It's always bound to be bad news when I get a call from you two. What's wrong now?" Faust said into the phone in a slightly tired tone.
"I need you to meet us at the culvert by the pub in the alley by the corner of 9th and Delancey. Make sure you bring some supplies with you, Damien got himself gravely wounded again." Nyx responded to Faust as Damien snickered softly at Nyx's passive jab.
"I had a feeling that you would need me to bail you out, so I'm already nearby. See you in five." Faust said before he hung up. Nyx slid the phone back into her pocket and continued guiding Damien out of the sewers.
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"Well well, what would you do without me?" Faust said confidently as he looked down over the edge of the culvert at the two of them, he had an umbrella to shield him from the rain that was falling harder. Nyx looked up at Faust with a tired look before she spoke to him.
"You're not going to help us up?" Nyx said loudly over the rushing water and rain that was now falling harder. Faust smiled and pulled his hand out of his pocket.
"I never said that." He responded before he flicked his hand to the side and Nyx's breath hitched when she saw a shadow tendril lift from Faust's shadow. The tendril flowed towards them and secured itself around the back of them. This allowed them to easily walk up the slanted side of the culvert as the tendril pushed them up. Faust laughed through his closed mouth when he saw Nyx's shocked face when they got to the top. "Ah, Damien here donated a bit of his blood to my collection. See, my Gift is an interesting one, I drink the blood of Gifted, and I can use their Gift for a maximum of four hours." Faust explained calmly before his eyes moved to lock with Damien's. He had conveniently, and purposely, left out the fact that he had a pint of Nyx's blood as well.
"Let's just go already, this hurts like hell." Damien said through a pained groan before Faust stepped to the side and gestured them down the alley.
"By all means, lead the way."
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A few hours after they had gotten Damien back to Faust's and stitched up his wound, Nyx made a decision. Z was finally dead, and it was time to go home. Damien agreed as he sat upright in the bed of Faust's lab, he had made a decision as well. That was hours ago though. Now, Nyx was standing in the woods, with Sanctuary in view through the trees. Tears began to tug at her eyes before anxiety crept into her system. She was finally about to see him after three months, but she was scared. What would he say? Would he be angry with her for keeping him in the dark?
Nyx shook her head to clear the bad thoughts away. No way, he would be happy to see me alive, right? Nyx decided to stop dwelling on what ifs and moved forward. She knew it would be too risky to try and enter from the front door so she opted for going straight to Nate's balcony. With her Gift, it was child's play to climb inside and get into his room. Nyx looked around and confusion spread across her face, he wasn't here. Her breath then hitched when she heard a noise from his door.
A key turning in the lock.
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The Present
Nyx sat silently next to Nate on his bed, she had her body half turned towards him as he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He was breathing deeply with a thousand mile stare. "N-Nate?" She uttered softly with a shaking voice.
"I'm sorry you...you gotta...g-give me a minute." Nate responded quietly, without looking at her as he dragged his hand down his face. He then stood up and walked away from the bed a few steps. Nyx watched him closely for a while and could tell he was thinking, processing.
After almost five minutes of deafening silence, Nyx couldn't take it anymore. "Nate, please say something." Nate turned his head to look at her and his heart ached.
"You're telling me...that while all of us were suffering, trying to avenge your death...while I was in hell...you were alive...this whole time? You're telling me...that you were brought back to life with the help of the devil himself, and then you worked alongside him to slaughter an entire Gifted organization, again?" Nate paused for a moment before he tore his gaze away from her and his lip curled. "You let him kiss you?!"
"I didn't let him, he just did it! It was to save my life, Nate. Trust me, I would never willingly kiss him in a million years." Nyx responded as she stood up from the bed. "And...I had to work alongside him, there was no way I could've killed Z without him." Nate recoiled a bit, hearing Nyx talk so nonchalantly about killing someone...made him even more worried.
"Nyx...I..." Nate trailed off and his expression radiated pain mixed with...fear. Nyx felt a sudden pressure in her chest. "I don't even know what to think..."
Nyx's face softened and she reached towards him before he suddenly stepped back. She suddenly felt that pressure in her chest turn into burning pain, he didn't want her to touch him. "Nate-"
"You broke our promise." He snapped at her quietly and she flinched.
"What?" Nyx uttered with a shaking voice as Nate looked at her with pain in his eyes. He took a few deep breaths before he could bring himself to speak again.
"After we saved you and Nerissa from Damien, the night I killed Kuroi...we made a promise that we would always tell each other where we're going and what we're doing. A promise to never keep anything from each other. You broke it." He sounded hurt, and it broke Nyx's heart.
"I stayed hidden to keep you and everyone else safe-" Nyx flinched again when Nate interrupted her with a singular soft chuckle.
"Keep us safe? Nyx, we risked our lives to go after Z for what he did to you. I was almost killed, I stopped caring about my own life because...I didn't want to live without you, and the whole time you were collaborating with the same man who has tried to kill us dozens of times?! The same man who tortured Danny. The same man who hired my father to take control of your mind to force you to kill us. The same man who killed Oliver?! Are you kidding me Nyx?!" Nate was yelling with a hushed tone, he was clearly angry but didn't want anyone to potentially hear him. Nyx stood there and watched him with misted eyes, desperately trying to hold back her tears.
"That man brought me back from the dead. I needed to make sure Z wouldn't hurt us anymore...Damien helped with that goal and get me back to the man I love." Nyx looked at him with hopeful eyes, but Nate's gaze didn't waver, and what he said next caused the breath to leave her lungs completely.
"The girl I love...died that night."