hhnnnn this chapter sucks
I almost forgot I had to do this so I ended up scrambling to finish late on Sunday again
I really need to stop doing that hhnnn
Anyway, this chapter is brought to you by peanut butter, Au/Ra, my complete inability to sleep at night, and three different notebooks
In the previous chapter, Jesse and a few other Authors went to the prison Skybound and released Aaron, while the rest of the Order went back to where they were first attacked to try and find any clues as to where the monsters might be now. They met Becca, the current human guardian of the prison, and she agreed to come with them to defeat the demons before they cause too many problems.
Im still shit at summarizing eehhhh
Also, little heads-up...
RIP Mintron shippers.
Just wait and see.
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Kendall's Author power brought herself, Jesse, and the other three Authors right to the entrance of the Order's headquarters. Teleporting several people at once could serve a challenge sometimes, but all of her practicing in the time between when she'd first unlocked her powers and now had definitely paid off.
"I wonder if the rest of the Order are back yet." Athena wondered.
"Probably not. We weren't at the prison that long." Myst replied. Kendall shook her head. "Actually, I've found out that I can occasionally experience some time slippage when I'm teleporting across long distances. It's not too much of a difference, but...yeah."
"Well, let's see." Jesse decided, pushing open the large double doors and slipping inside the building.
They could hear the voices of the others coming from the same room they'd first all met in, laughter and good-naturedly raised voices echoing down the hall. When they glanced inside, the scene that greeted them was something that could really only be described as chaos.
The various chairs and whatnot had been pushed aside, leaving a large open space in the center of the room. Aranna and Star were facing each other in the middle, both holding wooden swords and standing defensively. Aiden was nearby, with his arm lowered between them, calling, "Three...two...one, fight!"
He stepped back quickly as the two Authors lunged for each other. Star quickly created a forcefield around herself, but Aranna had already switched out her wooden sword for her Fish of Knockback, and used it to send the older Author skidding backwards. Star recovered quickly, adjusting her grip on her sword and throwing an invisible wall up in front of Aranna.
"Aranna, you're not supposed to use your own weapons!" Aiden scolded.
"Sorry! I forgot." The ponytailed girl said airily, her expression making it clear she had done nothing of the sort. She tucked her Fish back into her inventory, taking ahold of the wooden sword again.
Star had formed another shield around herself, a shimmering, mostly-transparent bubble to protect her from any attacks. She edged close to Aranna again, the younger girl not making any attempt to get away. When she was near enough to strike, she dropped the shield and lunged forward, but Aranna was ready. She swung her sword up to meet Star's, the two makeshift weapons colliding with the dull sound of wood on wood. She tapped into her Author power, feeling her other arm expand and lengthen, even though from an outside perspective, it didn't look like anything had changed.
Aranna reached out with her power-arm and snatched the sword from Star, who stumbled back in surprise. Now weaponless, she swept her leg under Aranna's feet, knocking her off balance. The younger girl let go of her sword for the briefest second, but it was long enough for Star to create a small forcefield around the wooden blade.
Star leaned down and snatched the weapon just as it hit the ground, dropping the small forcefield so she could get to it. Aranna transferred the other sword from her invisible hand to her real one, but the fight was interrupted before either of them could attack again.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Jesse demanded.
"We're, ahh..." Star trailed off, relaxing from her fight stance.
"Preparing for our upcoming battles!" Aranna said cheerfully. Jesse glared at Aiden. "Just when I was starting to think you could be trusted..."
"Actually, it was Myst's idea." Aiden informed her. "I was just the elected moderator."
Jesse turned her scowl on Petra and Olivia, who were sitting side-by-side watching the chaos. "Really? None of you thought to reign this in? I thought our job was supposed to be the responsible adults here."
"Who needs responsible adults when there's magical gladiator fights to watch?" Petra asked with a wicked little grin. Jesse dropped her head into her hands. "Please tell me you at least found something out about the monsters?"
"As a matter of fact, we did." Olivia said, standing up. "Jesse, this is Becca. She was the guardian of the prison before it was opened, and knows exactly where each of the monsters went."
Jesse glanced over at the young blonde girl, who had been talking with Rush and Ivory but looked up when she heard her name. "Well, that's good. She has a way to track them?"
"Yep. Becca, could you come explain the map to Jesse?" Olivia called. The blonde was already on her feet, heading for the small table near the back of the room where she'd spread out the map. "Of course."
The leader of the Order pointed to Petra. "Keep an eye on him. Make sure no one decides to give him what they think he deserves." she ordered, gesturing to Aaron, who was still standing with Athena and Myst near the entrance to the room. He hadn't seemed all that surprised by the mock battle between the two Authors.
"Why me?" Petra demanded. Jesse's only reply was a firm look as she turned away to go examine the map.
Minty had unfortunately been sitting near where Aaron was now, perched on a wool block that served as a makeshift chair. She hadn't moved an inch since she'd caught sight of him, anger and resentment tightening the firm knot of feelings in her stomach. She watched him silently as he scanned the room with an interested look in his bronze eyes, seeming almost like he was looking for something.
Looking for her.
Their eyes met only a second later, and it took all of Minty's self-control to stay still, to not close the few feet between them and punch him in the face. He stiffened as well, doubt and guilt and fear and another emotion she couldn't read dancing across his features.
Neither of them moved for several moments. Minty felt like the rest of the world had been put on mute, as she could hear nothing but her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.
Then Aaron glanced away, looking down at the ground, and her anger-fueled paralysis was broken. Minty abruptly stood up and began to stiffly walk away from him, hoping she could strike up a conversation with one of the other Authors and forget he was even there.
But no such luck.
"Minty...wait."
His voice was quiet, a soft murmur dripping with guilt, but she heard it loud and clear. Without turning around, she intoned, "I don't want to talk to you, Traitor."
"Please, I just-"
She cut him off again. "Don't you even try to say anything. Anything."
"Not even...'I'm sorry I hurt you'?" Aaron tried. The teal-haired girl whirled around, fixing him with a furious look. She was aware they'd gained the attention of most of the room, but didn't care a bit.
"No! 'Sorry' doesn't BEGIN to cover it! You're sorry when you run into someone, or break something by accident! 'Sorry' is not for if you BETRAY SOMEONE, and get several people KILLED! You are a TRAITOR! I don't give a damn about how 'sorry' you might be, it doesn't mean jack shit to me!"
Aaron's mouth twitched downward. "I...I never wanted..."
"I DON'T CARE! It doesn't matter if you wanted to or not! You betrayed me. You were the cause of multiple deaths. What you want isn't relevant anymore, if it ever was. Because you, Aaron..." she pointed at him, jabbing her finger at his chest. "...you can consider yourself UNFORGIVEN. FOREVER."
She turned away from him.
"Minty..." Aaron said softly, almost quieter than a whisper. Minty's reply was calm and deadly. "Try to talk to me again, and I'll carve 'forgive me' in your chest with my axe."
Aaron shrank back, and Minty stomped off.
"That'd be kinda pointless, y'know. He'd be dead by the time you got halfway through 'forgive'." Athena pointed out.
"And what's the point of a dead guy with 'forg' carved into his chest?" Maya asked with a sadistic half-smile. Minty gave her a halfhearted glare, trying to decide if she was worth arguing with or not.
"It's about sending a message. You all have no sense of panache." Minty snapped haughtily. Kendall shrugged. "I've got plenty of panache. My idea of showmanship just doesn't involve mutilating people."
This earned several laughs from the nearby Authors. Minty lifted her head. "Well, my sense of decency doesn't extend to traitors. I'm done with this conversation."
"Too bad. It was just starting to get amusing." Petra commented. Aiden flashed another wicked grin. "Speak for yourself. Showdowns like this are great entertainment."
"And you would know." Marilan contributed dryly.
Aaron had tuned out of the conversation as soon as it turned away from him. He dropped to the floor, sitting with his back against the wool block Minty had been perched on earlier.
He hid his face in his hands, trying to breathe normally again. He'd been dreading that confrontation for months, ever since he'd first been tossed into Skybound.
He'd already known Minty would be angry with him. She had every right to be. But he also felt like he had to at least try to make things right, even if it was a hopeless endeavor from the start.
Mercifully, it was several minutes before anyone decided to pay attention to him again. If there was one thing Aaron was afraid of, it was having to face his mistakes, and the blowup with Minty had essentially been a nightmare come to life.
Aaron felt someone sit down beside him, but didn't lift his head. He figured it was one of the Authors, though couldn't come up with a reason why any of them would want to be anywhere near him.
"Well, it was worth a shot, right? At least we now know that she's probably gonna hold a grudge until the end of time."
Shooting a small glance to the side, Aaron saw that the person beside him was indeed one of the Author girls, and one of the three who had come to get him from the prison. Her short, red-tipped dark hair looked deliberately messy, and her right arm was wrapped in mummy-like bandages.
She extended her hand to him. "I'm Myst. We didn't really have a chance for introductions before now."
Aaron hesitantly shook her hand, deciding that she seemed friendly enough. "You already know who I am. And from the look of it, you might be the only person in this room who doesn't want me dead."
"Not so." Another new voice said. Aaron looked over to see an unfamiliar guy sit down near them. He appeared to be a few years older than the two Authors, and had oak-brown hair that just barely swept the shoulders of his ragged black jacket. "We held it to a vote, and the majority of us decided to let you out. My name's Aiden, by the way, and I know a thing or two about how it feels to be classified a villain."
"Really?" Aaron asked dubiously.
"Oh yeah. I tossed Jesse off a freaking city in the sky." He said, nodding towards where the leader of the Order was standing, deep in conversation with Becca and two of the other Order members.
"Then...why are you here? How?" the Author boy asked.
"Long story short, I'm not the same person I was when that happened. People change, and it's damn useless to judge someone purely by what they've done wrong. Even the more 'heroic' ones here aren't perfect, but no one's keeping tallies of all their mistakes and sins and wrong decisions."
Aaron didn't say anything at first, turning words over in his mind. "It's one thing to be a flawed hero, and it's a whole other to be a flat-out villain." He murmured.
Aiden scoffed. "That's my point, kid. Heroes, villains...ah, who cares? In times like these, the lines can get a little blurred. We're all people. You're only as much of a villain as you're willing to be, and right now, it'll be easy enough for you to let your good side outweigh the bad."
"Minty's not gonna forgive you, so you're better off just leaving her be." Myst advised from beside him. "But she's just one opinion, and not everyone here agrees with how she is towards you. And you heard what Jesse told you back in Skybound; after this, you can go free. You won't be a villain anymore."
Aaron looked over at her again, meeting her honest amber eyes. "Thanks, both of you. I'm not really sure if I deserve your empathy yet, but...thank you."
Just then, Jesse clapped her hands loudly, drawing everyone's attention. "Alright, guys. The time has come. Thanks to Becca, we've got a plan figured out, and we know which monsters we're going after first. There's a lot of them, and they won't be easy to beat, so we'll be splitting into two teams and going after each monster two at a time."
"The first two we're dealing with is the Eyece and the Wellwisher. Jesse and I are leading the mission to the Eyece with Becca; it's over in a snow biome and we'll need her map. Olivia and Axel will be in charge of the Wellwisher team, since he's been to the abandoned town where it's hiding." Petra added.
"Who's going where?" Ruby was quick to ask.
"You, Dawson, Rush, Jasmine, Minty, Lila, Ivory, Kenzie, and Cindy are coming with us." Jesse said, pointing to each of the Authors in turn. "Everyone else is with Axel and Olivia. Blazerods, you're free to choose, but I want Lukas staying here." She continued, making eye contact with the blonde boy. "I'm not comfortable with leaving Beacontown unless I know someone trustworthy is keeping an eye on things."
"Alright! Finally, some action!" Maya exclaimed, hurtling to her feet. "When do we leave?"
Jesse replied with a grim sort of smile.
"Now."
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Listen I don't even care how incomplete this chapter feels
I got it done and that is what counts
Hhnnnn
But yeah, next chapter we are FINALLY going head-to-head with some demons! WHOOO!
*tired laughing*
Word count: 2264 (ugh)