Thank you for 2K reads <33
Warning: creepy image of eye embedded into text.
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I stumbled out the front door, my legs struggling to keep myself up as the ground shook violently. There were people outside, I didn't have much time to pay attention to them- but I heard frightened screams and caught glimpses of unbelieving shock.
I probably looked like that too when I was far enough away and turned around.
Mordo and Stephen seemed to leap out of the crumbling doorway of the Sanctum, tripping into the debris that had already fallen and scrambled further away as more continued to fall. Already outside, the rubble from the large cement buildings that lined the streets and ceased to stand; I felt a bit queasy at the limbs that were attached to bodies underneath them. Nausea set into me like a wave at the abrupt death I was facing.
Kaecilius and Dormammu had taken away numerous lives in a matter of minutes.. probably seconds. I felt my heart grow heavy like the tension between the tides and the moon- that's how my mother used to describe sadness.
Then, as if to further the already awful air, the night sky seemed to alter into a deep purple- a slow change that I didn't at first notice until I saw what looked like giant planets beginning to approach. "Dormammu," Mordo breathed, staring over the broken Sanctum's window as the earth's atmosphere looked as though it were being eaten away at an alarming rate. Although my body felt as though every movement was going to rip each muscle, I found my sanity begging me to run away- it whispered when I had heard about Kaecilius, it spoke when two zealots attacked me, and now it screamed at the top of its lungs; Every twitch in my body was in preparation for moving quickly (in the opposite direction).
My head turned to do just that, but my eyes caught Stephen, whose worried and fanatic expression was a hardened glare at the encroaching dark that was coming closer and closer. You can't run, I heard myself saying in my thoughts. My shoulders slumped at the truth of it. Running would buy me.. maybe three extra minutes? And what good was that? There was also the fact that just as the night before, with now, as my shoulder pestered me, I had placed my life into Stephen Strange's hands without him knowing.
Maybe now I would do it again.
I mean, I hadn't wanted to be involved with Kaecilius and Dark Lords that have more power than the God Christians worship. I only wanted to find some form of purpose, I guess. Something to give my mentality a thing or two to do instead of waste away in a gas station selling cigars to the prematurely dead.
My head slowly turned back to what was in front of us- Wong joining from somewhere on the right of Mordo. Kaecilius stood with hostility, two new zealots standing behind him in a similar position as Mordo and I to Stephen. I could see the death that the dark dimension was bringing- a large cloud of ash and debris was filling the air as buildings continued to fall. "It's too late," I heard Mordo say, seeing Stephen out of the corner of my eye begin to open the eye of Aggamotto.
"Maybe not," he said, dragging the green bands around his arm.
He's going to rewind time.
Kaecilius, maybe a block away, leaped forward, anger flaring within his creation of a sharp and long mirror shard. Stephen continued setting himself up- flicking his hand outward to form the final orb in front of his hand.
Kaecilius continued approaching.
Without noticing, my hands instinctively created my golden blade, its sparking edge being more defined than I'd ever seen it.
When Stephen didn't look as though he were going to defend himself, I lifted my sword quickly, just as Kaecilius leaped to puncture his forehead with its tip, and felt the power beneath his blow when the shard met my weapon.
My own creation blinked as though a storm were shaking its power lines- but the sharp piece that it had clashed with shattered with a loud gust of air before falling in a shower of broken glass to the paved ground. The attacker seemed surprised for a moment; I was surprised for a moment. My forearms still felt as though they were being jostled from the impact.
Now Kaecilius turned to me.
"Anytime, now preferably" My voice cracked, my nerves betraying me as I watched the man smile. And then un-smile, and I felt my body lurch forward again, my weapon rising and then drawing back before disappearing between my hands.
My head turned back to the sky. I began to panic; I had no control over what I was doing.
That quickly ended when I felt another lurch through my body, and I was able to freely move again. Kaecilius and his two zealots were nowhere to be seen, and now it looked as though everything was going backward.
It was going backward.
"I know, I know." Stephen said, tipping his head back and forth, "Breaking the natural law."
Wong smiled hopefully, swinging his weapon. "Well don't stop now."
Stephen glanced at me, and I assume I look confused. "We've got a second chance," He said, breaking into a sprint towards the Sanctum which was beginning to rise from the ground.
All around us, people were running backward, cars were moving ways they shouldn't have been, and building pieces were flying dangerously close to my head. The Sanctum was climbing to its original height again.
We were perhaps a street away when a mirror shard flew between Mordo and I. We stopped, turning to see that Kaecilius had broken out of the time warp along with his two helpers.
Its okay, I tried to convince myself, three of them- four of us.
I looked at the men again.
One, two.. three. I was the third.
My heart clenched as I realized that Wong was gone, my limbs numbing again as I came to terms with the fact that I would have to fight at least one zealot if I wanted to give Stephen a chance at fixing everything around us. "Kaecilius," Stephen's voice was stern, almost as the Ancient One had spoken. "It's time to end this!"
A pair of bright lights began flying towards the six of us. I jumped onto the sidewalk as the back of a split-open SUV swerved back onto the road, from wherever it had come from. My hands caught myself as I fell onto my knees, dropping in time to feel the brush of a metal pipe slice across the side of my neck.
Gritting my teeth, I stood to face a woman- her dark, long hair nearly matching the gray and purple that surrounded her eyes.
Her hands lifted like a mirror to mine- we were protecting our faces from impending attacks as she made her first move. Her right hand came from around my block- but I had tripped backward- making her fist collide with my own as my bones jarred.
The move showed me that she was much quicker than the other two I had had to face. I took the time to inhale a steadying breath, glancing down at my fists to see them shaking with apprehension.
The distraction earned me a force to my cheek and my head spun for what felt to be a million seconds. Bile rose in my throat, and as my focus slipped away from analyzing her movements, I found myself blocking them.
Use your instincts.
My thoughts flew into my last name- taking up every nook and cranny of the word as though it were an empty glass that needed to be filled. It was peculiar- not the average American last name that I had come across. But then again, I wasn't American.
My arm wrapped around an impending punch, bringing it down and slamming her arm against my knee, feeling ill again as I felt it give way slightly with a crack. The zealot shouted curtly and stepped back, regaining her composure as I felt my fists clench- steady.
Her eyes seemed to glow fervently now, anger bursting into her careless approach towards me for the second time.
I wondered how I had gotten my name. What stories lie behind it, if any at all.
I imagined the snake I had seemed to grow attached to, remembering the sense of motherly hurt as the other zealot had broken its glowing body. Now, I had no time to conjure it, but I wondered if it would appear out of will instead of movement. If I focused hard enough on creating its long, slender body- I hoped that it would conjure itself somewhere near.
I found myself staring at the girl before me; She had stepped back again as my palm met the bottom of her chin and snapped her neck backward. I felt the urge to cringe at the whipping sound it created.
I knew a lot about the snake that shared my name. Its aggressive nature set it apart from other species- offense being a rare existing trait in the animal. I had seen a million videos of the snake's large, dripping fangs lurching into something set up so that its jaws could be caught on video. Its venom is powerful enough to kill 100 people with one drop- blocking their nervous systems, ceasing the blood flow within their veins and failing every organ within the body of the supply it needs.
The woman before me seemed to grow a pale yellow, standing up straighter and dropping her guard as she stared back at me.
I looked on confused as the major veins beneath her skin became pronounced- their off-colors of blue and purple seeming to pulsate just as mine had when Kaecilius touched me.
Suddenly, her spine went rigid as she struggled to breathe; her body then slumping onto the moving pavement.
I was on the pavement as well a moment later- the ground shaking as though a meteor had just struck its core. My stomach ached as I looked up, staring into what I thought were the eyes of the dead zealot I had fought with.
Her eye sockets were taken up by two deeply gray orbs that lacked pupils- crimson veins rummaging through where the white should have been, climbing into the center and traveling along her eyelids.
I sat up quickly, widening my eyes in fear at the abrupt change in appearance they had made. A new mark was in the center of her eyes towards the bottom of her forehead.
My thoughts hesitantly concluded that I had done this to her. There was no mistaking that the marks that had somehow been dug into her face made the Ouroboros symbol I had seen many a times during my research on the creatures.
Nausea crept into my sagging movements as I turned away, rising to my feet and facing the lack of commotion going on with Mordo and Stephen. I noticed then that the rewinding world I had been fighting in had ceased moving altogether.
Mordo was also standing, Stephen seemed still on the pavement as I saw the lack of green around his arm. The fall must have broken the power or his focus.
Kaecilius stood with his last zealot- his hard eyes catching my breath as they stared at me with a sense of hatred I had only seen when my sister learned of how our mother was killed. "Come on, Strange," Mordo said through gritted teeth- clearly tired and in pain. "We can finish this."
Abruptly, Stephen rose- and continued to rise until he was out of sight- flying into the fog of the frozen dark dimension.
Shock seemed to pool into the chaotic thoughts I was having. He must have had a plan- right? A reason to fly away and leave Mordo and I with Kaecilius? "He's left you," the sorcerer said grimly, a victorious smirk befalling Mordo's anger. "Now you can give yourselves to Dormammu just as I have,"
My eyes narrowed, snapping onto Kaecilius' with such determination that I could almost feel something branching from me to him. Could I-?
Maybe.
I tensed my jaw, imagining again the effects of the Taipan's venom.
The man shifted his weight for a moment before his glaring eyes turned to me, a tilt in his head giving off a creepy, inhuman appearance. "What are you doing?" he asked calmly, rolling his shoulders as though trying to loosen up.
I envisioned minor arteries rejecting all blood that flowed to them.
"Don't attempt to use Death against her son," he ordered haughtily, drawing a mirror shard and rushing at me. His words lacked meaning to me.
Use your instincts.
I ducked to the left, refusing to break my stare as his leap of fury soared over me and behind to reset. My imagination became something of power- and I felt it in the way my body remained steady- even when I felt my conjured sword appear within my hands and block his impending weapon.
My teeth gritted together as Kaecilius pushed downward on his blade, dropping mine closer- too close to my face as I focused on the pupils of his eyes. "I said-" his tense vocals were riddled with enrage.
I imagined the spinal chord of the nervous system shriveling from the lack of its energy, snapping off from the base of the brain. The etching began on his forehead.
A moment passed. Then two.
Kaecilius' weight grew extremely heavy as the mirror shard dissipated just as it was about to cut into my head. An extreme fatigue withered my body- the man rolling onto the ground and lying still beside me.
I felt as though I had inflicted what I had imagined upon myself. My body was barely responding to what I wanted it to do- its incredibly slow and laborious movements making my lungs want to hyperventilate in panic. I closed my eyes for a moment, swallowing pain as I placed my hands beneath me and pushed myself up.
And then, I was standing in front of Kaecilius again.
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Rinse and repeat amiright???
Lol I should really be finishing two essay right now but it's time to post anyways.
I hope you enjoyed! What do you think of Alaria? Is she developed enough?
xx A