The first thing Eira got in the morning was Jess' phone call. They had a quick exchange and decided that the whole team needed to come back, and it was only Eira who was going to do that since she had no idea what Jason's plan was.
"Well..." Jess paused for a moment, "Who saw Nick last?"
"Jason... Me." Eira blinked, "I needed to look at the files again to know the time. We were too shocked to find out the details, we just saw... his body."
"I can imagine how you must've felt," Jess sounded so mature and strong in the phone, it surprised Eira.
"He must've gone somewhere right after..." Eira spoke her thoughts out loud. She felt her throat constrict, "My dad's under investigation too for the explosion. Once Luke is at court, the investigation will quicken up and he'll be able to come home."
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry, will you come to the court with me?"
"For Lukas? Of course." Jess said, "Evans is making a mess of the human world and everyone thinks the Ryders did it."
"I've seen the news," Eira sat at her bay window, hoping to see Jason's cooper brown hair, but she know he wouldn't come, not now anyways. "I don't know what the Gataria government is doing but-"
Eira's voice disappeared, she thought she saw someone at the driveway but quickly go out of sight. She got up from the bay window and went out of her room. She looked down the hallway, where her parent's bedroom was located, where her mother would be sleeping – alone.
Eira bit her lower lip, her guilt flooding her when she remember her tone against her mother, waiting for her husband to come home, dreading for her daughter's safety.
Eira clutched onto the phone tighter and went straight downstairs, she moved as quickly as she could without making any sound.
"Eira?"
"I thought I saw someone, I'm going to go and check."
She quickly wrote a note, tore it from the notepad and left it on the fridge. The door clicked open, and she was gone like a snowflake in the icy breeze.
---
She didn't know where she was walking to, like not knowing whether or not she'll get a reply from Jason. Eira had messaged Jason last night before she went to sleep, and first thing in the morning to check on him, with baited breath. There was no reply, and Eira had no choice but to keep still in bed, until Jess had called her.
"I think I should stay with you on the line," Jess mentioned, just when Eira had successfully connected her wireless earphone with her phone. She placed it in her ear and her phone in her back pocket.
"And I think... that's a good idea." Eira crossed the road and stopped in the centre. She observed the area. There were relatively no cars in her neighbourhood, the sun not as warm in the morning. She turned to check her other side – there was no sight of that mysterious figure.
"Where are you? I'm going to come and find you."
Eira didn't reply, she followed her senses. She ducked into the shadows and wished that she had Jason to tell her where the warmth led to... well, not anymore.
At the corner of her eyes, the shadow flitted again. She heard something resembling a shuffle of footsteps. She kept jogging down the path.
"Where are you Eira?"
"Near the lake."
Lake.
Eira took in a harsh breath and stopped in her steps. There it was, the lake. It was a completely different scene, nothing horrible could possibly happen here at the lake looking as beautiful as that. Eira felt a deep connection with the presence of the water, it was abundant and alive; she felt the particles move in a certain direction. She lifted her arm, the current changed it's direction and was drawn towards her, piling onto the soil and sucked beneath.
Ms. Taylor's training wasn't a waste.
She heard another sound and instantly went after it.
You know, whoever that was, they might be tricking you to somewhere. She told herself.
I know. But I have to follow.
Whoever it was, they must've known that she would follow them. It didn't matter.
She stopped at a clearing but remained at the edge, she wasn't going to expose herself straight away. She had to wait for another sound, another impatient step made by the opponent. But it didn't come, they knew her game.
She let out a sigh and finally walked out into the open, where the sun was giving a much brighter light.
"The clearing," she muttered to Jess, "a bit further than the lake."
As she walked out only for a few seconds, a girl entered her view. She was younger than her, shorter than her, half of her face covered her mask but if someone knew her personally, they'll probably know who she is – but, Eira has never seen her before.
"Evans wanted me to pass you a message."
Hearing his name, Eira felt a chill down her spine. She stared at her mercilessly, narrowed her eyes and asked with a small smile, "That is?"
The girl showed no emotions, spoke in a neutral tone, "He asked if you liked the new Jason. Do you?"
Eira's smile disappeared, "Well, what does he think? He must've certainly liked it."
The girl made no reply. She continued, "Someone who will be looked down upon in Gataria, someone with no powers, and bring shame to his powerful family."
Eira remembered the look on his father's face, Lawrence's... they all knew all along what his powers meant, and what losing it will mean. What about his future and family?
"Is that all he wanted to tell me?" Eira's voice shook, "Has he not done enough damage in the human world?"
"We all know that Ryders look down on those without power. Humans are nothing to us." The girl fluttered her green eyes, "But I guess you wouldn't know that. You've lived in the human world your whole life and besides..."
She gave Eira a provoking look, "You're a half. I don't know how your father still managed to stay in the government position. I did hear he got kicked down from a high position though, doing much of the paperwork that he used to order other people to do."
Eira balled her fist.
"And he had no choice," the girl said, "he wouldn't be able to find a job in the human world. He had no qualifications the humans wanted in the work-field."
"What is Evan's purpose? To come here and shame my family?" Eira let out a bitter huff, "He has no right to. He's a murderer of hundreds of people."
"Do you want to know where your father is?"
Eira felt her ears ring, she whispered, "What do you mean?"
"We haven't done anything to him... yet." She put her hands behind her neck and rolled it around, letting the bones click, "The choice is in your hands."
"Are you planning to do what you've done to Lukas?" Eira heard it from Luke's deepest fears and nightmares -- his excess power that almost swallowed both of them whole. "Are you planning to threaten me with my family?"
The girl raised her brows and acted surprised, "Wow. You just gave us an idea."
"Don't you dare." Eira shook her head, "Who are you? I've never seen you before."
"You might've known my sister," she looked at her nails. That exactly the same habit as Eden.
"She's dead." Eira waited for her reaction, and it seemed to have worked.
She froze for a moment, "I've heard."
"And?"
"She's been cruel to me. She always obeys father and father liked her the most. Said she had more guts than me and listened to him more." The girl jutted out her hip and placed her hand on it, "Now that she's gone, I'm his favourite."
"Evans... is your father?!" Suddenly, Eira was aware that Jess was listening to her responses too.
She laughed, "Does that come off as such a surprise? I'm going to learn to be my daddy's favourite – in my own way. I hated my sister's pathetic mannerism of bowing to my father every time he appeared. How is that called 'having more guts' than me?"
"So you are going to destroy both the human world and Gataria to prove you're worthy?"
She laughed again, "You're too innocent on that, I'm afraid. Every villain has a back story, ironically my father has one too. It has to do with our mother."
Eira let the pause grow a bit longer than usual, she let out a breath, "Your mother, what happened to her?"
"She left us." The girl crossed her arms, "Said father was a cruel man. Cruel as he was, he raised us."
"Your name." Eira demanded.
Her green eyes focused on hers, "Irene."
"I have to say you are honest with most things," Eira furrowed, "What is your real purpose?"
"To make you angry and scared. I guess only the first bit worked," She raised her brows, as though interested, "You're an interesting enemy. No wonder my father told me to come here and get taught a lesson."
"A what-" Eira let out a gasp and fell to the side. A white line of light zapped past her and cut down a tree a metre away from her. The tree fell and as Eira was about to dodge away, another few white lines swiped passed above her head.
"Light manipulation..." Eira whispered. The light beams were strong enough to cut through anything. With that said, Eira didn't hesitate to draw water, create water from the tip of her fingers. She threw the icicles towards Irene, then the water, then an ice wall with failure to contain her.
"Eira! I'm coming!" Jess. Eira didn't want her to come to the situation, but then she realised, Jess wasn't the girl she knew anymore.
The lights were back. The trees fell one by one, Eira widened her eyes and ran for her life as trunks fell heavily behind her and shook the earth. She halted to a stop when a trunk fell before her, but maintained her speed and leaped her whole arched body over it.
With a roll, she was back in kneeling position. She did a quick scan of the clearing, their battlefield has just widened after Irene successfully gardened the whole place. Eira waved her arms and waved the water to slither towards Irene's feet, the water rose without Irene's expectation as she was busy generating heat and light. She looked down, but too late, the water froze and stuck her to the floor like stone.
Eira stood up, took a leap and threw icicles, aimed straight at Irene's face. It was a decoy, she quickly sprung into action on the other side, and rose the water. The frost started to form and as the ice bomb moved to it's target, Irene turned around. She got rid of the decoy, and cut the ice bomb in half, only earning minimal damage to her legs.
As Irene was thrown to the floor, she released a few more light strings, hoping to cut Eira. Eira was forced to protect herself by lying close to the ground.
The line on her phone cut off, and she knew who was here with her. Jess first surprised Irene by tangling her up with grass. The trail of grass grew longer and followed Jess' fingertips as she moved.
The grass was instantly torn apart as Irene shot out another light, Eira pulled Jess down with her to avoid her new wave of light.
"This Irene! She's crazy!" Jess shouted, "I heard you through the phone! It's unbelievable!"
"She's using the technique of light cutting!"
"Yeah!" Jess gestured at the damages around her, "I can see that!!!"
Eira raised her hands and the bomb was able to cause Irene to stumble. Both Jess and Eira recovered at the same time. Eira froze the tips of Jess' plants, and the plants acts as a spear and went for Irene. Only one managed to cut her on her side.
Jess stretched both hands and the trees that plummeted had rose back up, she broke them down into barks and shot the millions of pieces at Irene, from different directions. Irene avoided the ones coming from the front, but not the ones from the back. She fell, face-first, to the ground.
Eira came next and with her arms at her sides, she moved them together in a wave motion. The water closed in on Irene and before she could get up, or let out a sound, she had got frozen in motion.
Eira felt the muscles tighten on her. Jess continued to weave her hand around in circular motions, more grass, weed, and vines climbed around the ice, locking her in.
"Phew..." Jess let out a small sigh, "She's as powerful as Eden. No wonder they're related."
"Don't be too relieved, her light-"
The ice and vines exploded their way. Eira and Jess were hit full-on with the wind from the explosion. They were thrown backwards, landing on bark.
Eira felt a dryness in her throat, she smelt the ashen smoke from the explosion. She let out a groan and sat up slowly. Irene was out of sight. Eira quickly tapped on Jess' shoulder and Jess sat up, her hand on her head.
"Is she gone?"
"I don't see her anywhere, so I assume she ran away."
Jess grinned, "Coward."
Eira was actually relieved, "You should be glad she has less guts than Eden. Eden would've had us right there."
Eira pulled Jess up from the ground, they looked at each other, realising it was the first time they battled a common enemy, together. They grinned.
"Who saved the damsel in distress?"
"Jessica Jones did, of course." Eira teased her, "Do you know who Jessica is?"
"Oh I've heard of her, she's famous." Jess stuck her tongue out, and Eira flicked her ponytail hoping to annoy her.
"This Irene is not that easy though," Jess admitted, "She could cut right through me with those hot beams."
"If she had a little confidence, even both of us wouldn't be able to take her down." Eira frowned and looked at the burnt, rectangular patch of grass in the distance, still smoking away.
"Why did she come here? Is it only to threaten about your father?"
"Maybe." Eira felt her chest tighten at the thought of it, "I hope nothing will happen to him. But I don't know how the government works. Evans network is huge, who knows, maybe they have someone in the government who can..."
Eira shuddered. Jess grabbed her arm, "Hey! Don't think like that. Your father has powers too, he can defend himself."
"One against so many?" Eira muttered weakly. She felt the world suddenly closing in and crushing down on her, despite the place had turned silent again. There was no sound. She felt as though she had something weighing down on her shoulders, and that she had no one to depend on.
"One against so many..." Eira closed her eyes, "a tiny fish in the ocean."
A/N
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L