• Mark •
As soon as Billy's hands met the sides of Jack's head, he was dropping to the floor like a stone. My breath caught in my throat as several emotions appeared to flash across Billy's face – first, some regret, remorse, but that quickly changed to content as he backed away. I couldn't find it in me to care anymore how much he could hurt me; all that mattered was reaching Jack and making sure he was okay.
Thankfully, Billy didn't try to strike me down as I sprinted over. The same words kept flashing across my mind as I drew closer – not again, this can't be happening again. I had never seen the kind of power that could kill somebody simply by touching them, but any number of things could have happened – icicles from his hands, poison, there were several powers in his possession which could end like this.
I dropped to my knees, taking Jack in my arms, rushing to press two fingers against the pulse point in his wrist. When I didn't feel anything there, I did the same to his neck, tears already flowing desperately when I felt nothing there, either. His skin was already pale and felt cold to the touch, clammy, and no amount of desperate movement of my hands against his chest brought the presence of a heartbeat. I leant over, resting my ear just against his cheek, but I couldn't hear any breaths or see the rise and fall of his chest. He was still. All the evidence was there, but I refused to accept it, immediately choosing instead to frantically press my hands down into his chest. I had been taught CPR before, most people at Sector Eight were, and thankfully the knowledge was coming back in the form of muscle memory, because if I'd had to think about it in that moment I would have never been able to remember.
I took a deep breath and pressed my lips to his urgently and released two gulps of air, trying to force the oxygen into his lungs. His lips just felt cold, motionless, and it was sickening. I repeated this several times over, 30 chest compressions, 2 breaths, just as I had been taught, but the life didn't return to his face, I still couldn't feel the beat of his heart. After about five minutes, when I felt like my wrists would break off should I continue, I leant back and moved my hands to my face, feeling the water streaming down my cheeks. Why Billy still hadn't taken advantage, I didn't know, but I didn't feel like doing the smart thing and questioning it either. I stayed like that for a moment, desperate breaths leaving my mouth, before I felt a whimper ripped through my throat, another deep breath, a louder whimper, and then I was screaming, unable to shut my eyes.
I don't know how long I sat there, it could have been an hour, could have been five minutes, the hands of my internal clock had frozen with my thoughts. I couldn't do anything but sit there and violently shake, half wanting to hug him to my chest, half not because I was afraid of how it would feel to not share in his warmth. I don't know how long it was, but eventually the disbelief became such that I felt everything replaced by hot, cutting anger. I couldn't see it, but my eyes must have turned pink, if not the rest of my face by now.
"You'll regret this." I gasped out, standing up on shaky legs. I could practically feel the excess power leaking out of me, my body too simple a vessel to contain that more energy. Something told me Felix wouldn't have such an objection to my lack of control now. "I am going to make your life a living hell. Are you listening!"
It wasn't a question, I knew he was. The power seeping through my mouth, leaving with my words, assured it. I steadily turned around, feeling almost weighed down by it, and when my eyes met his I finally saw what I had been looking for – fear. "I will not allow you to take anymore."
"Mark?" A new voice suddenly joined in. I whipped my head around, recognizing the voice instantly, and came face to face with Daniel, shock written across his face as he took in the scene. He must have followed us, probably spoke to Felix, but he clearly wasn't prepared for what would meet him. He looked to Jack, face paling at the sight, and then back to me, almost fearfully. "That's you, right?"
Have I seriously changed so much that he can't even recognize me? I asked myself briefly, but it was a passing thought. I simply nodded, feeling a flare of worry suddenly strike me. "Daniel, back away. It's not safe for you here."
He took a step back on instinct, then another, but he caught on rapidly and his feet dug into the dirt, obviously desperately resisting the urge to carry on walking away. My voice hadn't worked on Daniel for about a year, and seeing him struggle so much to resist was a little bit scary, even for me. "N-no! I'm not leaving you to fight alone. I'm here to help."
"I can't watch you at the same time," I tried to reason with him, but Daniel was absolutely adamant, reaching to his pocket and pulling out a pair of throwing stars, resting gently between his fingers. I raised an eyebrow, but he stayed firm, even in the face of what I knew must have been quite scary just then.
"I don't care. I left Matt and Ryan to help you, I'm not backing out now." He stated, and it was so firm now that I knew nothing I could say would make his consent to leave. I could try purposefully putting power behind my words, but it felt wrong, and really, if he wanted to help, I had little reason to turn him away. "Let me help you."
I paused for a second; milling it over one final time, before giving him a nod and turning back to Billy. The boy was watching, not moving to do anything, but he didn't look quite as afraid anymore, either. Almost as if he was using the moment to gather his wits, before we finally fought. "I hope you're aware that after what you've done, I can't show you any mercy. I won't."
"I wouldn't expect any less." Billy confirmed, and now his smile, that stupid smile was back, and I could feel the anger coursing through my veins, running up and down my arms, fresh waves coming with every beat of my heart. Suddenly, my worry for Daniel paled in comparison to my desire to kill this boy. "Have you gotten over your little temper tantrum?"
Even though I had only been in this state once before, and I had been even more out of it then than I was now, I remembered the feeling of being so in control and yet having a total lack of it well enough to recognize it. I had so much power in this state, I was filled with so much energy, and the logical part of me didn't know how to use it – so instincts simply had to take over. I knew how much power I gained; I had heard Felix tell me stories that absolutely horrified about when it had happened to him initially. Still, it shocked me.
I pulled the felt moustache from my pocket, not hesitating for a moment before flipping it over and turning it into its gun form. I raised it, shutting one eye and shooting in such rapid succession that I wasn't even sure I had aimed. Apparently, it didn't matter. The bullet was off center slightly and missed Billy with the easy movement of his body, but before he had chance to send me a mocking smile I yelled right, and the bullet curved. Despite my brain telling me how impossible this was, gaining the obedience of objects was not something those with persuasion should be able to do, my body handling it without a hitch, yelling right again to round the bullet on him.
Now, at least, Billy seemed startled. He dodged again, apparently too shocked to remember that he had magnetism under his belt as well as gravity manipulation, both of which could have easily controlled the bullet, and I almost felt the urge to laugh at his stupidity. Because it occurred to me in this moment that this boy really wasn't hyper-intelligent – he wasn't any smarter than any of us, he just had a power advantage. My dad, back when he was around, used to tell me about that. No matter how big a person was, you could beat them if you could outsmart them. Brain would always beat brawn. Regardless of whether the brawn was muscle or power, the idea was the same. Billy's first mistake had been whatever he'd done to Jack. He'd unknowingly evened the playing field, and I firmly believed with this advantage, I could beat him.
Daniel spent approximately ten seconds recovering from shock at my being able to control a bullet with my voice, which was actually impressive given that I myself was still in shock, and finally surged into action. As Billy moved to dodge the bullet once again, he threw a throwing star his way, directly to his left and right. This way he was pinned in – stay in place and he would meet the bullet, move left or right and he'd have a throwing star lodged somewhere, preferably his throat. For a moment I thought it may even be over, maybe we won, but Billy finally seemed to gather his wits about him and was gone, reappearing on the other side of the training area.
Daniel cursed, spinning around to face him, but we were too late. Billy stamped his foot and the ground gave a tremble, like a miniature earthquake. It approached me rapidly, but just as it was about to hit and send me flying back off my feet, I yelled out "curve!" and tremor circled around me. Daniel, sadly, was less lucky, launched into the air one moment and on the ground the next, letting out a groan from the impact.
Billy took the time to look annoyed but seemed to be very quickly over it, instead holding his hand out and watching it for a moment as it turned into a drill, spinning rapidly as he smirked and then disappeared.
I leaped out of the way as soon as he materialized in front of me, dodging the drill just narrowly and flipping my gun into the air as quickly as I could, transferring it back into a sword. I caught it just as Billy appeared at my side, hand lurching forward with full intent to send it burrowing into my ribs. I turned, blocking it with my sword, the scrape of metal against metal grating at my nerves, but it was the least of my worries, as I pressed hard enough to send the drill backwards, in an arch away from my own body.
He's relying on his powers, it suddenly occurred to me as this occurred again, another direction, forcing me to turn and block again, but the attack wasn't changing. But he doesn't actually have much strength in his muscles. Given the correct circumstances, a small slip-up from him, and I could use this to my advantage.
Finally I turned just in the right direction, just the perfect place to be there as he materialised, catching him off guard. He stepped backwards, drill disappearing as a side affect of his shock (powers, sadly unreliable at the best of times) and just narrowly avoiding each sword slash. Hand to hand combat isn't all that great, either.
Daniel was waiting. He had managed to get up in the time we had been fighting, approached steadily from behind, and he was ready with a guitar, stupid but useful, poised to deliver a hit to the head which would knock him unconscious for us to get backup. Truthfully, that wasn't the plan in my head just then, as my mind returned momentarily to Jack's motionless body, the stillness of his hands, the eyes that would lie still if only I had opened his eyelids. I had every intention to kill the boy, but okay, I could knock him out first.
It was stupid, knocking him out with a guitar, but it should have been perfect. Billy was in shock, he had even lost control of his powers, he didn't know Daniel was there, it was perfect and we were going to win and this nightmare would be over, but I forgot one important detail. Because this, this attempt to creep up on this boy, this boy who kept surprising me, had been exactly what had landed Jack there in the first place.
It was perfect. Until the ice pierced right through his chest, right where I knew his heart would be. And then it wasn't.
Watching Daniel's body hit the ground was more traumatizing than Jack's, because I saw everything. The way the ice went straight through his chest, no blood managing to escape because it was plugged, the way his eyes widened in shock and stayed that way. The way he paused for a moment before his lips fell open, a small choked gasp as he retched up blood onto the ground. The way the ice retracted, and the wound was left open, blood spilling out in messy clumps as he fell to his knees, all support lost. The way his head turned slowly, almost desperately, and his eyes met mine.
The way his bones seemed to crumble as all the life left those eyes.
Once again, time seemed to stand still. Maybe it did, maybe Billy gave me that, I didn't care, I just didn't. It was too unfair. There was no way the world could be so cruel as to take them both from me at once, as to end both their lives within the space of an hour. There just wasn't any way, and yet I didn't need to check his pulse or his breathing to know this one. I didn't need to ask Bob the probability of survival, because I had watched the ice turn blood red as it shot through his heart.
All of that energy, all of that power left me in an instant, shooting out of my body. It came out as a surge, a massive shock wave that sent Billy hurtling backwards, but I hardly even noticed. I couldn't approach him, I couldn't, and yet I had to, steps hesitant and breath short. It was all I could do to take his hand in my own, surround them with my warmth that I wished I could give to him, would give anything to give to him. This young man, always so full of energy, who I just wished I could give my life to.
He came in every Friday morning, a bundle of fresh energy, and shot a throwing knife as the back of my head. I caught it, I always did, even if it was slightly too far left to actually hurt me, and he stomped his foot and frowned and threw a small temper tantrum before handing me a cup of coffee he had brought me because he knew I wouldn't be up so early if he didn't ask me to be, and I drank it as he went about his drills, the room suddenly filled with music, the only time I felt I could really sit and appreciate it.
Whenever we did group training sessions he always challenged the people stupidly out of his league, often me, and if I was busy he would challenge Tyler, who would send him flat on his ass before he could even consider doing much. It was stupid, stupidly endearing, and I watched him sometimes just to catch the smile on his face, the absolute delight which always showed in his eyes whenever he was beaten, because he's stupid, but he had fun being stupid, and he doesn't care if he looks stupid doing it.
He had been absolutely ruthless in his eagerness to get Cry and Felix together. Whenever he hung out with us, there were subtle hints, little throwaway comments which would have been just that, had Cry's face not lit up like a tomato. He did it with Jack and I too, after Jack joined. He took every opportunity to make fun of me, because he loved seeing me embarrassed. Sure, it was embarrassing, but it made his face light up so most of the time I allowed it.
I caught him sometimes, in those tender moments where he wasn't running around and screaming with ridiculous glee, sat in the music room, fingers strumming the strings of a guitar. There was always a soft smile on his face in those moments, a different kind of happiness that I knew only music could bring him. He could set all the other instruments off, I knew that, but he never did. Somehow, the soft strumming of the guitar was even more beautiful.
Just a few hours ago, I had seen him dancing, with anybody and everybody, first Matt and Ryan in equal part because they wouldn't dance on their own, until they were dancing together and he moved on to his next victim, picking up random girls who had no choice but to follow him, and then they couldn't help grinning as he spun them around, unable to frown in the face of his happiness.
I had seen him just hours ago, eyes sparkling with his smile, and I wished that could have been captured. I had never seen Daniel at rest, he was always so hyper. Matt had told me once how he slept like a baby, how once he was out he was out, and nothing could wake him until he wanted to be woken.
So, taking a deep breath and blinking back the tears, I swallowed my own regret and reached forward, fingers gently touching his eyelids. They closed without an argument, and despite everything he looked at peace.
"I'll tell them what you did." I said, even though a part of me, that scientific part the nagged at my brain constantly, told me he couldn't hear. "Matt and Ryan, and Cry and Felix and everyone. Your family. And I promise you, this won't be in vain." I struggled through the last part, gasps leaving my mouth as I held his hand to my chest, hugging it almost urgently. Finally, I let go of the breath I was unknowingly holding and gently placed it back to his side.
"Goodnight Daniel."
***
Daniel Kyre: July 6, 1994 - September 18, 2015
Gone but not forgotten. Rest in peace.