4.6
There really is a lot that's difficult to explain about fighting another precog that you can't really understand if you aren't one yourself and I am not sure how you would even put into words for someone who isn't. Suffice to say, as I charged at her, leaving a trail of fire in my wake, I was running through a countless set of possibilities and mapping responses to her, even as they changed from one instant to another and she reacted to me.
Or I reacted to her and she reacted to my reactions. Fire balls launched at her and sections of Winslow were uprooted, blocking all of my shots. I swerved and dodged as countless pieces of rebar tore free of concrete and speared toward my like lethal projectiles. Even as those possibilities faded away, the distance between us narrowed. There was an entire line of possibilities where I came in behind her and then she was suddenly behind me, then I behind her, repeat incessantly. I dismissed that line of absurdity and prepared my attack.
Sections of rebar bounced off of a telekinetic defense as I twisted out of the way, erecting a wall of telekinetic force to block a machine gun spray of concrete chunks that would have, in one timeline, torn through my body. I dropped tracking that thread as new possibilities wove through the tapestry in my mind.
There was no distance remaining now and I gathered the flame around me, condensing it and shoved my hand forward with the sphere aimed for her midsection. It struck only air as a nudge sent me off course, passing her by with barely an inch to spare.
I arrested my motion and spun on a dime, knowing that she could not avoid this even as a multitude of other possibilities flew by. The sphere of fire exploded into a lash that enveloped the winged figure. Or it should have, as she twisted at the last moment, brushing past it by a hairsbreadth. The fire continued on, unobstructed, as a telekinetic shove slammed into me. I tumbled head over heels in the air, catching glimpses with my eyesight even as my precognition showed a building below lighting ablaze as my attack struck it.
The strike was strong enough that I couldn't completely counter it, but I made multiple minor adjustments, keeping myself from dying in a hundred different ways as Winslow was torn apart below us. Huge chunks of the building circled me, held aloft by The Simurgh's power before they suddenly shot toward me in the same moment I managed to stop my uncontrolled tumble.
Her grip on them was firm enough that I found myself trapped, sealed inside a confined space as the concrete and metal closed around me. I grimaced at the uncomfortable sensation and shoved the panic aside in time with a burst of my own power. The makeshift prison exploded outwards and away from me, debris raining down on the city below as I looked for The Simurgh.
She was drifting away, the direction one that I confirmed with a glance ahead to track where she was going. She was heading toward the floating building that served as the Protectorate's headquarters in Brockton Bay.
"We're not done, bitch!" I shouted, for all the good it did. She had never, as far as I knew, actually spoken or communicated beyond her Scream and her singing. Which I apparently couldn't hear, but my knowledge of them, things everyone heard about, meant there was a time limit. If she was here long enough, Brockton Bay could be walled off and cut off from the rest of the world. That narrowed down the long term possibilities quite a bit if I set that as a condition to avoid. But the short term were still a kaleidoscope that shifted with every thought I had.
I adjusted my precognition as I struck out with my telekinesis, struggling against hers for a moment before I had to evade a truck that ripped through the air, the faint sounds of someone screaming. In my mind, I set the multitasking, splitting my awareness along the multiple possibilities I had laid out. In present time, I wrenched the door of the truck open and plucked the passengers free, devoting only enough attention as was needed to return them to the ground relatively unharmed.
The futures I was seeing resolved into four paths as the Simurgh moved, drifting further away from Winslow's ruins, still on a course for the Rig. I tensed as I raced through each, fighting a growing sense of panic as she evaded another of my attacks, the truck sailing past her to crash in the city below. All four lines were important; Vicky, Cath & Mina, Noelle and Danny. How was I supposed to choose?
Shaking my head, I tore girders out of the damaged sections of Winslow and set them ablaze, flinging them at the Simurgh. The heat was such that they melted in transit, spreading outward in a wave that she evaded with the slightest of movements, all but dancing away from my attack as if it was no threat to her. I snarled, a thought changing the molten metal's course, chasing after her as I reached out to seize her in the grasp of my telekinesis.
My grip slid off, like I was trying to grasp something that was far larger than it appeared, but I did see her wings shift and the possibilities of reprisal shifted. She didn't like that I had tried that.
Rain sizzled off the molten metal as she tore it from my grasp, reshaping blobs of it into spears that she launched at me. I shifted, evading each just as she had done, minute adjustments that just happened to carry me out of their path before ending it with a flourish that was a mockery of what she had done. My eyes locked on her as I did so, uncaring of where the spears fell when my precognition did not show any further attacks from them on me.
Her expression did not change but more projectiles burst from the city below us, forcing me to devote more attention to dodging or deflecting those as she drifted further away. The most likely path now was the Rig, with the other paths almost overlaying my sight, ghostly images of the Simurgh angling off in different paths. Of those, the strongest of the possibilities at the moment would take her away from the Rig to an attack on Vicky and her family.
The molten metal came at me again and I seized it in a grip, tearing it away from her and condensing it into a single orb that I leeched the heat from, firing it off in a burst of concentrated energy that turned rain into steam as it crossed the distance. I had already established that she had no way to affect intangibles with her telekinesis and being able to manipulate heat meant I had an avenue of attack that she could only block or dodge, not wrench away from me.
Of course, the effects of the concentrated heat didn't appear to do anything as I watched her evade it in the present time while in another possibility, she simply didn't bother to avoid it, instead peeling a building below apart. A woman screamed as she pulled upward, flailing helplessly as she was embraced by the Simurgh.
In the now, though, the winged bitch drifted past that building without any sign that it interested her in the least, the probabilities of her destination shifting from the Rig to one of my friends, with the second most position warring between Vicky and Noelle now..
No.
I flew at her with enough force that the bubble of telekinetic force around me would have allowed me to tear through an armored car. The Simurgh spun away, evading it as she had done nearly She still floated there, almost mocking with the certainty that there was nothing I could do that would affect her.
Debris filled the air around me and I twisted, deflecting and dodging concrete, rebars and other wreckage that she was throwing my way. I winced mentally at some of the possibilities as I saw a telekinetic swat from Ziz plunge me into an overflowing drainage line. Those lines faded as I had no desire to watch myself die over and over from a rusted iron pipe punching through my head.
Rectangles shot up into my field of view, the green color and slits in the one in front of me unmistakable as a locker slammed into place around me. I heard screws twisting even over the rattle of rain against the metal
A locker. Fucking hell.The bitch was using that against me!
It ripped apart before panic could overwhelm me and I glared in the Simurgh's direction, where she had reached the waterfront, the Rig still her goal. Fire seethed around me in my response to my anger and I flung it at her, a whip of flame that hounded her. Still, she dodged and wove through the air and for a moment, I thought I could see her lips shift in a mocking smile as my attacks failed.
I let the whip fizzle out and any restraints on my temper shattered, my powers setting the bitch on fire directly. She immediately twisted, dove and crashed through a building, spreading flames through it before she emerged, the rain putting out any fire that clung to her with a hiss of steam.
"That won't help you!" I screamed as she flew toward the Rig again, once more set ablaze from my power. Another blow of telekinetic force struck home and I swore as the angle she was positioned at caused her to drop into the water, extinguishing the flames that I had just created. She vanished beneath the dark water quickly and I readied my next attack as she erupted from the water. I didn't have anything on hand so I settled for dropping hammers of telekinesis and fire at her where she would emerge.
The attacks skimmed past her and crashed into the Rig, the building shaking from the impact and the exterior wall visibly sagging from the amount of heat that had collided. Again, she had avoided my attacks and I chased after her as she rose toward the Protectorate's headquarters. I could see people on the landing platform, rushing toward a helicopter as well as others boarding a boat, clearly evacuating the building.
As the Simurgh rose past, they stopped and I could feel fear and terror radiating from them at the sight of The Endbringer. Her wings shifted and the Rig began peeling itself apart, The people on the landing and the docks were still staring at her, petrified where they stood and I swore.
"Move, damnit!" I swore loudly, but between the rain and the sounds of the Rig being pulled apart, they apparently couldn't hear me. Damnit, move! The thought lanced through my mind and I saw the people gathered there twist to look in my direction, including one who had just emerged.
Dauntless. His spear crackling with energy as he looked from the Simurgh to me. This close, I could pick up on the emotions of everyone, the undercurrent of emotions that I had been ignoring from all across the city being quite clear. Fear of the Simurgh was there, but there was something else radiating from them, that hadn't been there before. It took a second to identify. Fear of me.
The Simurgh began acting again, the debris as the Rig was torn apart floating up, wires and cables and pieces of computers following as more of the upper levels came apart. She was building… something and while I wasn't sure what, I didn't need precognition to know letting her finish it was a bad idea. Maybe if I could keep her engaged with trying to build that, it would keep her from following on one of the other timelines. I forced myself to ignore the nausea I felt at the possibilities that awaited those I cared about and focused on the now.
What was her goal here? Maybe I could counter her better if I knew that? Could I read her mind? I added another thing to the assortment I was juggling and reached out, hoping I wasn't making a huge mistake but not seeing any chance of such among the timelines I was viewing.
Pain exploded into my skull, like you felt when a sound turned into hideous static, nails on a chalkboard, only a thousand times worse and I tumbled back, clutching at the side of my head as I tried to fight past the stabbing pain that assailed me..
When I opened my eyes, the Rig was peeling apart even faster, the pieces flying upward to become part of something. She had picked up speed. Why? I looked ahead, sparing attention from the timelines I had been tracking to che— Oh.
Lightning erupted from the sky, crackling bolts that twisted and turned as the Simurgh avoided them, abandoning her science project for evasion. I tracked where he would be before he actually appeared, my eyes fixing on a particular stretch of cloud. Green clothing, with a cape and cowl, his featureless mask shifting from the Simurgh to me for a moment. Both his hands glowed, crackling with power as he emerged into view.
Eidolon.
A flash and he was floating in the space before me, his voice surprising me with how normal it sounded. "Sirin, is it not?"
For a moment, I was stunned that one of the Triumvirate knew of my name. The amazement faded quickly as the shifting timelines drew my focus again.The Simurgh was moving, more debris rising toward the thing she had started. I ripped away pieces of the Rig and threw them at where I knew she would be.
And only two of them actually hit her as Eidolon drew abreast of me, the tilt of his head and the sense of his emotions reflecting slight puzzlement. "This is your first Endbringer fight, correct? You should go to the staging area and get a wristband. Fighting her is different from the others and every precaution is needed." I wanted to listen, to trust that this could be left to them, but the futures I was following grew worse if I withdrew to do as he asked.
I shook my head, hoping I could make him understand while I chased the Simurgh with projectiles, tearing at her grip on whatever she had been building so that I could unmake it. "I don't have time for that! They'll die if I-
"What?" The interruption was clear as his emotions crystallized to a mix of hope and suspicion. "You're a precog? No, better question. You can predict the Simurgh's actions? Truly?"
"Yes, and they will die if I…" I trailed off with my answer, swallowing as one of the timelines swung up to be the most likely, the images showing The Simurgh diving back toward the city, dodging past me on a direct course fo—
I abandoned the conversation slammed into the Simurgh, holding a barrier around myself. She tried to dodge, but I hammered her with my telekinesis, keeping her in my path and her head twisted to look at me, an impossible angle that a human body couldn't have done.
"You won't touch him!" I screamed, slamming her form with repeated blows of pure force that made her seemingly delicate form rebound repeatedly from side to side. Even through that barrage, she kept moving, drifting away from the Rig and toward the shoreline, until we hung over where the Dockworker's Association's office was.
The building tore apart under her her will and I winced at the sight of my da —of Danny's— workplace crumbling. Rocks slammed into my bubble, throwing me off course as she twisted in a move worthy of a world class ballet dancer, settling back into the same stance and posture she had from when I first attacked her. Again, I caught what I thought was a mocking smile directed to me, but when I focused, her expression remained as serene as ever.
The rocks and debris coalesced, just like the first time, squeezing around me to trap me inside a small space again. At least it wasn't a locker like the last time, but it still made my temper flare as I fought against her grip. An instant, and my prison was torn away by another force and the green clad man was there, appearing with an odd flickering effect, like a shutter opening and closing rapidly.
"Hey! Listen!" Eidolon demanded. "Can you truly precog her? We need to get you to command to help coordinate if that's true!"
"What if I can?" I shouted, tracking the Simurgh as she began drifting away, her intended course playing out. Her path would take her over Mom's house but he didn't appear to be the target now. No, it was Vicky. The image of what would happen to Vicky and her family, after being twisted by The Simurgh's headgames made me tense. There had to be a way to stop her. "If I leave, the things she'll do to people I care about…"
Eidolon threw an attack toward the Endbringer, a web of energy that she shifted in the air, arcing away from it as it pursued her relentlessly. "Look, I understand that seeing things with precog can be unsettling, but you need to-"
"I don't have time for this, or you, sorry," I cut him off. "What part of I can't leave or it gets worse is unclear?"
"Have you ever-"
"Out of the way!" I snapped, doing something I knew I would regret later, but if it kept Vicky safe, it was worth it. Eidolon was suddenly surrounded by a bubble similar to what I had used to shield myself when I rammed the winged bitch. This time, it shielded him from the g-force as I sent him flying out of the way, removing the obstacle from my path to my target.
I tore brickwork and concrete up from the city below, stretching my powers as much as I could to use the debris. Let's see how the bitch likes turnabout. She twisted and dodged, evading the attempts to hit her, but I wasn't aiming for that this time as the air around her was filled with rubble.
My hand closed and it all condensed to one point, slamming into the Simurgh and trapping her, a giant sphere of metal, stone and brick that trembled visibly. I brought my other hand up, though it wasn't necessary, struggling against her own telekinesis as she tried to break free of the prison I had shaped around her.
"How long can you hold her there?" A voice asked, one I had been expecting in the back of my mind. Another of the Triumvirate. Not Legend though, instead, it was female, belonging a figure that I had idolized for a long time and I couldn't quite bury the thrill at meeting her, even given the circumstances. Alexandria had arrived on the battlefield finally.
"I… she's fighting me, so I don't know. So far, I think I'm good, but…" I said, moving to the side as a car flew up from below, aimed at me. It changed direction to come back at me and I scowled. She was trying to break my focus so she could break free of the rubble. Apparently, she had decided that was an easier path of escape than to contest my telekinesis outright?
A wing burst free, proving her right as I dodged the car, which tore itself apart abruptly, countless pieces of shrapnel making a beeline for turning me into a pincushion. Could I…
The moment of indecision was all she needed and I threw up a barrier as the prison I had crafted exploded outward, pieces rocketing away. Below, the crashed into buildings while the rest slammed uselessly against my defenses. Alexandria dodged or simply punched pieces she couldn't into powder before drawing close to me.
"Sirin, is it? I'm told you claim you can precog her?" she asked as we cleared the rain of debris. "It would be invaluable if you pulled back out of her range and helped coordinate our offensive, if that's true."
I hesitated, torn between differing emotions. This was Alexandria and she knew my cape name! On the other hand, I had blown off Eidolon, who was now engaging The Simurgh while the second Triumvirate member spoke to me, but… I tapped my precognition to see what would happen if I did as she was asking.
The Simurgh dove as soon as I left the battlefield, dodging and evading attacks from the Triumvirate and others who were joining the fight. Her first target was in my neighborhood, tearing apart what had been my hous—
My eyes shifted in her direction and I swallowed, cutting off the timeline as I dove after the Simurgh, gathering rubble and lighting it on fire as I fell. Alexandria kept pace with me and I exhaled, framing an answer for her.. "No, if I leave her alone, if I don't fight, it's worse. I'm sorry, but I'm not going anywhere."
"Listen!" Alexandria shouted over the wind. "I understand you can precog and think you have power to match her, but-"
Whatever else Alexandria was saying, I lost it in the sound of my attacks breaking on the Simurgh. Some of them anyway. Several were deflected away, scattering several other groups of capes that were aiming to join the assault. Before I could press onward, Eidolon dove in, driving the Simurgh down to the ground with an attack that released a visible shockwave, shattering buildings around the point of their impact.
I clenched my hands into fists, grateful that I had a moment or two of reprieve before I had to go after her again, so occupied with Eidolon was she. Alexandria dropped down beside me and I could sense frustration from her, alongside resignation for reasons I couldn't decipher. I held up a hand before she could speak. "I already know what you're going to say and you're wasting your time. And before you consider it, you can't stop me."
"You plan to keep attacking her?" Alexandria asked, forestalled from another appeal to make me withdraw by my statements.
"I can't stop," I said, winding my way through the shifting possibilities quickly. It was getting easier to do so, but I was still only finding options for a holding action, keeping her away from those I wanted to protect. Mostly. There were a few where I could drive her off, if I was willing to, but I couldn't bring myself to investigate them very thoroughly after taking a cursory glance ahead.
"I understand you're frustrated with what you see, but-" And we're back to her trying to convince me to leave. I opened my mouth to reply when the Simurgh exploded into motion, escaping from Eidolon's bombardment. Her course would take her to a well-to-do neighborhood, where a house at the end of the street sat. Catherine and Minako.
I took off, cutting off her charge with fire, working to hem her in and keep her away from my friends. The fire blazed hot, shifting colors as I forced my power into the flames and slashed at her with it. This time, it left marks behind and I pressed the attack. I had something that was showing an effect finally!
Visible damage appeared across her body as I continued assaulting her, blackened sections appearing where the fire impacted against her body. A nearby water tower tore open, its contents twisting to meet my own attacks in an attempt to cancel them out. I mentally scoffed at the attempt raised the temperature higher, watching the water simply boil away and my flame whip continue on unabated. Behind me, I felt another's presence come into focus near that of Alexandria and Eidolon. It was an unfamiliar one to me, but the sense of camaraderie between it and the other two was enough to tell me who it was. The final member of the Triumvirate had arrived.
They hung back, not joining my assault on the Simurgh and I frowned but couldn't spare the effort to investigate why, as buildings rose, propelled at me by the Endbringer. I shredded them with my power, turning the rubble into projectiles that I used for trying to herd her into the fire. She twisted and dodged, or used her telekinesis to nudge things off course, or to steal pieces of rubble and use those to deflect.
Legend shot past me, a flash of emotion making it clear that he was dissatisfied with whatever the discussion with the other two had wrought. His lasers lit up the sky, chasing after the Simurgh even as she evaded the fire and rocks I was throwing at her. With his aid, it became easier to land hits, as he cut off options that I didn't have to spend time on, letting me maximize my blows. Alexandria and Eidolon had not rejoined the fight, but I could feel them moving off. Below, in the city, I could sense familiar minds, those of the Protectorate and Wards, mixed among the ebb and flow of terror that was wafting from the minds of the city's residents.
I tried matching my efforts more closely to Legends, reaching out to get a feel for what he intended next. I didn't delve deeply, because I didn't want another of those headaches to occur. The ones I got sometimes when I tried to read a parahuman's mind were similar to what had happened when I had reached for the Simurgh. Was there a connection?
A shake of my head drove the thought away. That didn't matter right now, I decided. Chasing her away, or better, destroying her, if such were even possible, had to be the priority. Still, with my light brush of his mind, I could keep myself in sync and not get in his way, making our efforts have the biggest impact.
More buildings were brought into play and I devoted effort to fighting her grip on them, I won out after a moment and turned them to my purpose, using them to box her in. The fact that I was feeling no strain from doing so made me wonder at how much I could really manage, but other than when I trashed the boat graveyard, I had avoided really cutting loose.
Still, The Simurgh did not make it easy to keep her pinned down. It was nigh impossible, but seeing which ways she would go helped and even as she tore pieces of the buildings apart to give her space, Legend's lasers would be there.
Eidolon finally rejoined the battle, coming in with an attack that rippled through the air down onto the Simurgh, the pristine surface of her skin blackening and cracking. She danced out of the path of the attack and shoved Eidolon away with her telekinesis, sending him tumbling through open air. Then, with a shift toward me, she dove toward the city.
I charged to meet her, a hammer blow of force throwing her off course from a path that would have sent her straight for Catherine's house. She adjusted her path and I gave chase through the streets, the passing of seconds carrying us over a familiar house. One I had once called home. A glance with my powers confirmed that no one was home now, so why had she come here?
The entire block exploded, one house after another peeling apart into a tornado of debris. My chase had carried us away from the Triumvirate and I could feel them moving to catch up, feel alarm from Alexandria but not clearly enough to figure out why. I deflected pieces of houses that were thrown at me in a half hearted series of attacks, prodding my precognition to see what would happen with all three of the Triumvirate fighting beside me against the Simurgh. Two possibilities filled my vision and elation followed. In both, the Simurgh's defeat was a certainty. The first, she was driven from Brockton Bay in just moments more. The second, our attacks overwhelmed her and a strike at-
The Simurgh's head twisted to regard me, then every house in range joined her vortex. Below the Simurgh, the house that I had once, that Mom had called home, shattered into too many pieces to count. My breath caught as I watched the remains rise, separate from the vortex that was being used to hound the Triumvirate. Alexandria broke through, though, an unstoppable force that couldn't be slowed by something as simple as mere debris. I felt her drawing near, but most of my attention was for what had been home.
"No!" I screamed in denial of what had just happened, the word a half thought as well. Alexandria's head snapped around to stare in my direction as everything went to shit. A wave of force slammed against my shields, sending me reeling as the power of the blow was unlike anything that she had brought to bear before. Before I could right myself, with the possibilities shifting madly as I tried to make sense of them, the wreckage that had been my house closed in around me, cutting off my physical sight.
Memories flashed through my mind, shattering my sight of the future in favor of the past; The way I was entombed was nearly identical to another moment, months before and I heaved a shuddering breath, pushing at the trap. I was even turned in the same fashion, my arms caught between my tk barrier and my body, with everything pressing in around me. I took another shuddering breath, fighting to keep calm. It's all to throw me off balance, that's it. I could deal with that. I could.
The rubble didn't budge, her grip countering my own. How? She wasn't that powerful, was she? Nothing I had seen had indicated this! Had she confounded my precog somehow? Made it lie to me?
No. I remembered that much from reading what little there was on them. Most Thinker powers simply conflicted and didn't work against the Endbringers, especially precogs. I had been able to map out her actions without even a blip beyond countering when she did something in response to what I was seeing. No, I had…
I had to get out! I shoved with everything I had, shaking my head with denial at what I was going to see when the prison of brick and metal broke around me, the Simurgh's own telekinesis no longer able to hold against my own. I turned in the air, facing the Endbringer where she floated, serene once again, for all that she now carried visible marks of the conflict.
The Triumvirate were gone. Not dead, but in the time she had held me trapped, she had apparently cleared the field of everything but me and her. I could sense them, back toward the waterfront, where the remains of the rig floated, but my loss of sight during the panic had made me miss what had sent them away.
I tried reaching out for their minds and all I could feel was a sense that they had been pulled away, assisting with an evacuation? It wasn't clear as to the reasons why. What was, though, was that I was once again alone against the Simurgh. The rain that I had been ignoring was coming down even heavier now and even with my blocking it out, the amount of moisture in the air had simply soaked everything, my hair plastered against my head as I stared across the street at my opponent.
An Endbringer. The Simurgh, who had destroyed our house.
My temper lost all restraint and I charged after her at her with a scream of rage. Fire blossomed around me and reared up in a twisting column that shot forward, intending to surround The Simurgh.
She drifted to the side in an almost casual movement and the attack missed. I didn't let that deter much, twisting it with my mind to chase after her as she began to pick up speed, dancing across the sky over Brockton Bay as I lobbed fire at it. Not her. It. An abomination that ruined everything it touched. She continued to run and I gave chase, throwing everything I could at her as we settled over a section of town that I thought was ABB territory. With the rain and darkness, it was hard to tell.
"You can't dodge this, you bitch!" I snarled, fed up with her running away. My power latched onto her, seizing her in a grip with every ounce of telekinesis I could manage. She struggled, but this time, at least, my grip was unbreakable as I pulled, her wings stretching out in different directions by my will alone. I was going to pluck this bitch's wings off one by one and enjoy every moment of it.
One of her wings ripped away with a hideous shriek and I cast it aside, applying more pressure on the rest even as I brought the fire around, condensing it, making it hotter, my rage driving it onward until it was so bright that it hurt even when I wasn't looking at it.
Another wing cracked, feathers scattering downward slowly and I saw her twisting, desperation to escape evident as the condensed fire, now so hot that it was its color had turned blue shot forward, on a collision course for the Simurgh that she couldn't avoid. I had her.
A building below me ripped apart abruptly and something shot upward into the path of my attack, its timing exact enough that I couldn't divert out of the way. Even my telekinesis slipped off of it, so firm was the Simurgh's hold. Every bit of the fire that I had unleashed was swallowed up until only the device remained, rotating slowly. I stared as it began spinning faster, pieces unfurling like one of those expanding child's toys that condensed down to a very small form, but in reverse.
Color fled from my face as my powers showed me what was happening. I slammed it with my telekinesis, flinging debris, anything I could do as the core was revealed, a coruscating sphere of blue light that all but shrieked. How had she… when had she? Why hadn't I seen this?
No!
The thought was a panicked shriek that I couldn't control as I threw up a barrier, throwing everything I had into it as the core shrunk to a tiny point before it erupted outward. Light obliterated my sight as a thunderous impact slammed into my shields. I reeled as my entire world turned into pain and everything went dark….
"It starts with a firebir- No, with a phoenix."
The words from several nights ago drifted into my mind, jarring me back to consciousness. Light trickled as I opened my eyes, making me flinch for a moment as I tried to get the ringing in my ears to stop. All around me was dark, save for a thin beam of light coming from above, tracing through a tiny opening to strike directly into my eyes. I groaned and reached out, shifting away rubble to free myself. I floated upward, shaking my head several times to try and dispel the ringing that was slowly fading away.
I blinked several times as I looked around, not quite sure of what I was seeing. There were no buildings. There were no streets, no city. Just a scorched and blasted rubble as far as I could see. I drifted downward, settling onto a flat expanse of concrete, reaching out for any sounds, any minds that I could detect,
"Mina? Catherine? Dad? Noelle! ...Vicky?" My thought stretched out, and there was no response. I couldn't feel them. I couldn't feel anyone. The hum that had become a familiar background sensation since I started being able to hear thoughts was gone, leaving only silence.
"Vicky!" I projected it as a shout and waited, taking a step forward after no answer came. My eyes drifted across the ruined landscape, searching for any sign of moment, feeling for any thoughts. Nothing. No one as far as I could reach.
"Dad!" I shouted with my own voice, only for it to be snatched away by the wind. "Catherine! Minako? Noelle?"
"...Vicky?" I tried again, my shoulders slumping. There was no answer, only silence. I took in a ragged breath, glancing upward. My breath caught. The rain and the clouds were gone, baring a star-studded sky and a radiant moon. Of the Simurgh, of the Triumvirate, there was no sign. Nothing marred the sky. No buildings, no streetlights or neon from signs. I beheld the night sky without a trace of human-produced light to dampen the sight. I stood there, breathless and alone as I looked up, my mind stretching as far as I could reach for any sign of life.There had to be someone. I didn't want to believe what my powers were telling me. Someone, anyone. There had to be.
Looking around again, I tried to orient myself. It wasn't easy, with the landmarks that I would have normally used gone. Thanks to me. Was I standing where Dad worked...where he had used to work? I pushed off into the air slightly, flying unsteadily over the ruins as I looked around. The Simurgh was gone. I wasn't sure if she had died in that explosion as well or if she had just retreated. The urge to hunt for her was there, but it was weak. I had played right into her hands like a damned fool and I wasn't sure I would accomplish anything by doing so. Probably just blow some other town up if I tried.
I laughed bitterly and dropped to the ground before what had been my home, shifting what little rubble covered the ground floor and staring at the sections of flooring that had collapsed into the basement. The wood shifted, trembling as I struggled to force myself to peel it away, to see what was beneath that. I reached out, feeling for any minds, for someone to fill that emptiness at the back of my thoughts. Something. Someone.
Anyone.
But there was only silence.
"It starts with a firebir- No, with a phoenix."
The repeated thought made me freeze in place and I drew on some fire that I let hover in the air nearby, providing some meager warmth. Why was I thinking of that conversation with Noelle now?
"-a gigantic phoenix made out of fire appeared above the school."
I bit my lip, feeling that there was something there, just on the tip of my tongue. A concept, something I could almost grasp. A phoenix. What was a phoenix?
"Fire."
Right, reborn from its own ashes. What did that mean now? I mulled over the thought as I left behind the spot that had been my house, my grip on the collapsed debris in the basement releasing. I couldn't pull it free, couldn't bring myself to see with my own eyes what my powers had shown me. Why hadn't he left? Why had he hid down there? Why?
"Life."
Life, right. I shoved aside a section of rubble at another location, staring at the bodies huddled I saw there, then moved on. That was three. Phoenixes were symbolic of death, and of rebirth, of life coming again. Which wasn't going to happen here. If I had manifested a phoenix that day, I had certainly lived up to the first part of what it stood for, with what had just happened.
Life…
"Want… I want you to tell me the future. If you could, you'd know you… what I want, you can't give."
I blinked. I had said that, hadn't I? When? My forehead furrowed in thought as I reached for the memory while I looked over the ruin of what had been a upscale townhome, abandoned to a group of out of town visitors that I had saved inadvertently. A waste, now. My eyes alighted on one figure, clutching the hand of another, with a seared section of top hat visible beneath a piece of rock. Four.
"Anything you want, money, power, name it and it's yours!" I flinched at the memory of the pathetic plea, remembering a moment that had only haunted my nightmares over the past few weeks.
The room's walls were warped and distended, the thin man cowering before me as heat rippled across the air. Sweat had drenched him and a distinctly acrid odor emanated from him, but I was troubled by none of it. I was the very spark of creation and no heat could harm me.
"Power? There is none that matters before me. I am Fire, worm. The very spark of life itself that spun your pitiful cosmos into existence. Money? What use is that to a being that sets stars ablaze and bathes worlds in cleansing fire? Less than nothing."
"Hebert… Sirin…" the man stammered, shifting from where he had been crouched, almost kneeling at my feet. "Whatever you want, I will give it! I'll work for you, give you everything that I've built! Brockton Bay! It can be yours!"
"You are deluded. There will be no accord between us. You have harmed my vessel, sought to leash something far above you."
"V-vessel?" he asked, shifting backwards again. "What… what are you?"
I knelt, hands clad in gold cupping his face between them. "I am fire, and life incarnate. Forever, I am Phoenix. And you are naught but ash."
The memory fell away and I staggered, once more on the ground, in a half crouch, my hands extended before me, toward a blasted figure that was more ash and bone than person. Five. My gaze drew away from that as my the stinging of my eyes grew more than I could bare and I felt tears emerge.
Dad. Catherine. Minako. Noelle. Vicky. I buried my hands in my face as my shoulders shook. A hiccuping breath, followed by another and I gave both voice and thought to a scream, pouring everything into it as I clutched at my stomach. One arm tightened against my abdomen as the other slammed down on the broken ground, disturbing dust and ash in a small burst of air.
"Fire." It erupted around me, flaring brightly, surrounding me as I screamed again, this time with my voice alone. I wiped at my eyes, staring at the flame. Maybe I could end… if I was gone, this couldn't… I raised a hand and watched the fire move with it and realized that I felt no heat that could peel skin and blacken bone. Only warmth, like you would feel from the embrace of a loved one, or as a fireplace chased away the chills of a cold night
No, this fire wasn't at all what I had wielded against the Simurgh, I could tell. It was different. Something more than just fire.
"Life." The thought made me hiccup again, as a half-remembered thought came to me. Mine? Hers? I didn't know and a sound emerged that I thought might be called a laugh, if you were a crazy person.
The Phoenix brings life from the ruin of what was before.
It was insane. I was insane for even thinking this, but….
I shifted slightly, bringing myself closer to the corpse, to what had been my friend, that I had found myself before. I could tell, even with everything that had burnt away, I knew who this had been… was. Would be. My hands shook as I reached out, iridescent flames spreading from my fingers to cover the body. I reached deep, not sure what I was even doing as I felt warmth rise up from within me somewhere, fanning a spark within the target of my focus.
"Live," I whispered, holding my breath as the flames flared brightly before slowly fading, leaving a person whole and unblemished, their chest rising and falling slowly. I reached out and brushed golden hair away from her face even as I felt lines of the future shift, a distant glimpse that some day, what I was doing might lead to another confrontation with the pale figure who had orchestrated this, if she had survived.
I banished the glimpse and all my lines of the future, focusing on the now. It had worked. Whatever I had done, it had worked. But… there were so many still. All around me, fire had begun to spread. A blackened figure that had been stretching toward Vicky with one arm was first, enveloped in flames with not even a thought. It had started and it was reaching out, spreading across the city. Everything she had manipulated me into taking, everyone who was gone, they would return.
The fire surrounding me erupted outward, growing larger, beginning to take shape as I raised my arms. Behind me, I heard Vicky stir and glanced back to see her coughing and turning onto her side to stare at me.
"T-Taylor?"
I didn't reply as the flames roared higher yet again, spreading outward as I reached deeper, reached for more. I could almost feel it. There was something there, stirring within me, welling up to the surface. Fire. Life. I could grasp it. Spread it outward to those that had been affected by what I had done.
Fire raced across my clothes, burning them away and replacing them with another outfit, one I had drawn months ago. Not Sirin's. That did not fit what was happening now. Green and gold took shape around, with a sash belted at my hips, held in place by a clip shaped like the emblem I had worn as Sirin, that even now still rested upon my chest.
The flames erupted into a shape that I had only seen in dreams, in a picture on the internet and in the papers.
"Taylor!" Vicky's voice rang out and I could see her trying to stand.
Not Taylor. Not a firebird. A Phoenix. I was… I am Phoenix.
I moved, and the fiery aura moved with me, wings stretching out over what had been my home, growing so large that I was dwarfed by it. I reached out and fire spread all across what had been Brockton Bay. Small flames in some cases, pillars that cut down into the ground in others and carved a path into the sky in others.
"Everyone that was lost, everyone that was taken by my hand," My voice was like thunder as I pulled from wellspring inside me, drawing from what seemed an inexhaustible source as the Phoenix's shape around me grew larger still, lighting the sky up as I could almost hear a birdlike screech pierce the starlit sky above me. "Live."
Life emerged in brockton bay. People, animals, insects. Anything that had been culled by what I had been party to, and more. Their flames burned anew, bright and strong as I felt my own flicker and ebb. Thoughts emerged, confusion, panic, relief, reverence, fear. I could feel it all. Dad, Noelle, Catherine, Minako, Vicky. They were all alive. I smiled, relief pouring through me as the hum that had been my constant companion for months returned.
Then my fire went out.
