Except that would have made all these years incredibly boring. She would have a lot less experience and growth, a lot less victories and kills under her belt, and, as it turned out, a lot less regret and guilt as she stared out over the city she used to love terrorizing.
Hearing the scream, her eyes slowly scanned the rooftops and then dropped justs in time to see two people running as fast as they could across a dark street. Loping behind them was a larger youma, though it was too difficult to make out another other than its hulking frame and long tail at this distance.
It was fast. It was gaining.
Interest piqued, Painite hoped down from her gargoyle-like perch on the edge of her favorite, run down theater. She had her spear in hand, if only because it was a comfortable gesture. One of the few things that she could say still felt right. She did not fail to notice that she was literally clinging to whatever she could that tied her to the Negaverse, but decided not to think too hard on it.
She teleported as she dropped down to the street, not letting her feet touch the ground until she reappeared a few feet behind the hunting youma and its chosen prey. Beyond the monster, she saw a bloodied, torn woman protectively shielding a boy behind her. He was clinging to her arm, tears in his eyes and his body shaking. He did not seem to see anything but the monster, while the woman shifted her gaze to Painite as she casually walked toward them.
“H-help us! Please!” The woman begged, her knee buckling. She sagged, despite her profound efforts to stay upright, taking the boy down to his knees behind her. He cried out in surprise and fear, tugging at her arm.
“Mom!”
Painite stood beside the youma. She recognized it, strangely, though she had no attachment to it. It was large and scaled, looking like some sort of mutated dinosaur. It had long claws on its hands and feet, and wore the tattered remains of what might have been a uniform, once upon a time. Distantly, she wondered what sort of a Youma she would be, when Chaos finally consumed her.
“Please!” The mother’s voice again. It was strained, and Painite turned her gaze back to the civilian duo. The youma had stopped its attack only because she had showed up, growling lowly and eagerly, just waiting for its chance to attack again. Strangely subservient, but there were all manners of monsters in the Negaverse. This one had more patience to spare that some with far less damaged starseeds.
She noticed the pool of blood collecting under the woman and realized how badly wounded she really was. Her midsection looked to be slashed open, and she had one arm around her stomach in a pitiful effort to make sure everything that was supposed to be inside her stayed there. It looked to be only mildly effective.
“Sorry lady,” she said, tilting her head to the side. No smile came to her, though usually this was where she would grin like a maniac and say something pithy. Instead, her apology ended without a sarcastic twist, the words echoing hollowly in the night and ringing in Painite’s ears. She turned away, resting her should on her spear and taking a step away from the soon to be dinner and desert pair.
The youma let out a roar loud enough to shake a nearby lamppost, though the bulb was already broken and thus could not be burst by the impressive sound. It charged forward and two screams quickly joined the fading roar. Painite had managed to get a few feet away before she stopped and listened. Flesh tearing. Screaming. Crying. One less voice. Just the boy now. She shut her eyes tightly, willing herself to teleport away, the pull of Chaos welcoming her as she vanished and all was quiet for a split moment. She opened her eyes as she reappeared, stabbing her spear upwards and shutting the jaws of the youma by force, piercing through the bottom of its lower jaw and through the roof of its mouth.
Dust rushed around her as the youma burst, though she knew it would only be gone for a short while. At least this encounter was over, though she was not going to feel responsible for the next people it attacked. She looked over her shoulder, seeing the boy on the ground beside his fallen mother. He was not as young as she had thought at first, maybe just at the end of his teens. Still, just a kid in the scheme of things. He was bleeding badly from a tear across his side, but it was his mother that was in the worst shape. For a moment, Painite was not sure if she was even alive, but a low moan of pain proved otherwise.
“Please help!” the boy yelped, looking up at what had to be a very confusing savior. She had, after all, left them to be attacked in the first place, and only changed her mind when it was too late. Painite knew that she was responsible for the woman being further wounded, though she had nothing to do with the attack itself. Guilty by complicity. Her head was shaking of its own according, instinct saying no, but she kneeled by the bloody and battered family despite herself. The spear disappeared, sent to its little pocket in negaspace, and she leaned over the woman.
Painite felt her heart thundering in her chest, the rapid pulse deafening her ears and constricting her throat to the point where she had to hold her breath. She reached her hand, trembling, and touched the woman’s shoulder.
“Thank you…” her voice was soft now, no longer fearful. She was quiet, breathless, but she somehow managed to lift her hand enough for Painite to catch it. The woman’s face twisted in pain, and she let out a ragged, terrible sound. Her lungs had to have been torn to shreds: there was no way she was getting air. She was just bleeding to death, and the pain had to be incredible. Painite gripped her hand tighter, maybe too tight, unable to process her thoughts.
“I can’t help you,” she said, looking at the boy as she spoke. His eyes were blood shot and filled with tears, his face pale and drawn. He grimaced, wrinkling his nose and forehead in a way that told her he did not want to believe her words, fighting back sobs. She shook her head again, upset. “I can’t. I’m the bad guy, I don’t save people. There’s nothing I can do…”
The woman let out another ragged cough, and her grip on Painite’s hand loosened. The Negaverse General felt the warm blood left behind, but did not draw her hand away. She was the villain, with only Chaos and the powers given to her by it at her disposal. She could fight. She could steal energy. She could feed on it. And of course, she could end lives. In fact, there was a time when that was her favorite thing to do. Now…
Taking a deep breath, Painite moved to put her hand on the woman’s chest. It was the only nice thing she could think of, and she looked at the boy as the woman, as if somehow understanding, closed her eyes.
“You have to say good bye.”
The kid threw himself over his mother, hugging his arms around her, and the two spoke quietly between tears and pain. Painite, for her part, looked away in her best effort to give them some privacy. When she felt the boy pull back, after his mother whispered something to him, Painite returned her hand to the fallen woman’s chest. She reached in and, trying to be as quick and painless as she could, pulled the starseed struggling inside from its host. It took only a few moments for the woman to quietly expire, out of pain at last.
Painite sat back, holding the starseed to her own chest, subconsciously sheltering it. She looked at the kid, who had collapsed next to the body of his mother and realized it was not in anguish, not this time, but rather exhaustion. His injuries were less extensive, his mom probably protecting him to the last of her ability, but he was still going to die without help.
“s**t,” Painite swore, looking around. She could not lose both of them, she realized. Fire pulsed through her. Adrenaline? Fear? Determination? She reached into his chest and grabbed onto his starseed. If she could use her Chaos to help the mother, then she had to do the same for the son. “You’re not ******** dying, you brat!”
She focused on the powers that she had relied on for so long to do nothing but wickedness, and pushed Chaos into the starseed under her grasp. The kid started yelling, but she ignored him, knowing exactly what it felt like. With the power of an awakened body, maybe he would be able to survive his wounds long enough to get himself to a hospital. She pulled back as his transformation took over, the strange boy replaced with a somehow far more familiar, yet brand new, Negaverse Lieutenant.
Ekanite trembled, looking at his clean hands. All the blood from his injuries, his mother’s, was gone with this new form. That did not mean the injury was, however, and already a deep red spot was spreading across the fabric of his new uniform. Painite did not take the time to ask him his name or even explain what was going on, grabbing his hand.
“Focus on me,” she said, as he panicked. He looked at her, eyes wild, but nodded slowly. “You feel my energy? You want that. You take that from me. Focus on this contact, and pull my life force from me to you. Keep your focus. Just do it!”
He tried, in a daze and listening to everything she said like an abused, but obedient puppy. The energy orb he drew from her was small, but it was enough to at least give him a boost in healing. She grabbed his hand as he held on to the orb, shoving it into his face and forcing the energy into his mouth. She clamped her hand over his face until he had no choice but to swallow it. Not the best crash course in his new job, but Painite was not thinking of servitude and doing a job in that moment. She was just trying to give him a chance.
Pushing herself away from him, still clinging to the starseed she had taken, she struggled to compose herself. There was more that needed to be done.
“Get yourself to a hospital. I’m sorry about your mom, kid. I’m sorry. I… I can’t… I have to go. I…” she took a step back, a sudden, violent wave of emotions crashing over her. Tears filled her eyes, and she struggled to clear her vision without letting them fall. It was a failed effort, as she managed to complete neither goal. “I’m sorry.”
Painite watched as the confused new Negaverse Lieutenant, in the middle of a terrible personal loss and now trying to struggle to understand his transformation and new power, reached his hand toward her in panic. In fear. He needed comfort, but she was not the one to do it. How could she be? She was nothing but ice and darkness inside, and it would only taint him further than the chaos she already forced into his Starseed. The longer she stayed there, the longer he looked at her with those pitiful, helpless eyes of his, the worse it would be. She took a step back, sheltering the starseed she had taken to her chest and shutting her eyes tightly as she teleported away from him.
I’m so sorry
She reappeared some distance away, almost entirely across town. Realizing where she was immediately, she looked up toward the building before her. At the top, standing at the edge of the roof, looking down over the city as he did most nights, was the man she had come to depend on in a twisted, pride crushing way. His aura bore down on her, the purity and strength of it almost overwhelming at this distance. She knew he sensed her, and was waiting to see what she did. If she was there for trouble, or if she was there to talk.
Her eyes fell to the fading star in her hands. This life that she had only just encountered, yet suddenly had to end. For once, it was not something she wanted. Certainly not something she was revelling in, or savoring. There was no fun in any of this. No victory, no hunt, no challenge. It was a stark reminder of just what made Chaos so alluring to her in the first place, and a powerful revelation that it suddenly turned her stomach. Pale, trembling, she teleported up to the roof top, landing close to Camelot rather than keeping a careful distance.
The Royal Knight turned to look at her, eyes immediately widening as he saw the state she was in. Bloody, red eyed and tears still drying on her cheeks, shaking like a leaf. He moved toward her on instinct, unclipping his cape and draping it around her shoulders almost faster than she could fathom. The weight of the warm, soft fabric settled on her shoulders with the rest of the burden of the evening, and she felt something inside her break. She collapsed against him before he could pull his arms back, grabbing onto his armor and holding herself against him, sobbing. Patience and kindness radiating off him as if it were the true source of his power, he let her cry for a moment, hugging her lightly but protectively. For a silent moment, he simply watched her, not even noticing what she was holding yet. Whatever happened to her, she came to him for a reason, and he would be the shelter she was seeking.
They had come a long way from hating each other, both guilty of nearly killing the other one or two times in the past. How far things had changed could not truly settle in the back of Camelot’s mind yet, as everything still seemed so fragile and fleeting. Dying leaves in the air. At length, he gripped his hand on her shoulder gently, until she looked up at him and did her best, sniffling and choking back further sobs, to gather herself. She scowled, nodding and taking a step back, pushing her hand against him to get him away but not putting much effort into it. He did not resist, stepping back but leaving the cape, which she held with her free hand to keep it from falling away. WIth the other, she held up the starseed.
“I don’t want them to have it. Can you take it? Do… do something? Please.”
Camelot blinked. He saw tears fighting to fill her eyes, though she kept them at bay with a steeled, grimly determined look. Behind all that pain, though, he saw a small light of hope as she stared at him, pushing her hand forward and holding the snuffed out life toward him. For a moment, he hesitated, questions of what happened bubbling forward in his mind, but they were shoved aside by his sense of duty. For now, knowing the story behind this moment was not the most important thing for him to focus on. He took a slow breath, taking the starseed from her carefully.
“There’s not much I can do for… this person… now,” he said, looking at the little, crystaline star in his hand.
“Please! I don’t want to give it to them, and everything I touch is poisoned. You know that: I’m only good at destroying things. You’re supposed to be the one that knows how to fix what I break, aren’t you? You’re the one that’s supposed to stop me. So stop me from giving that to Chaos!” She grabbed his hand in both of hers, pushing the starseed closer to him and not letting go. He closed his eyes, putting his hand over the starseed, closing it between his palms, with fingers still between.
“I can try to give it some of my strength. Help it on its journey, free from Chaos. They won’t have it, Painite. That, I can promise you.”
He was a man of convictions, and he never made a promise in haste or without every intention of following through. He was a knight, after all, and his word was his duty. To protect, to serve; no matter who or what came to him for help. If they were true, if they were in need, then he was at their service. Such was his vow, and he thought of that as he shifted his focus to the starseed. He thought about the way he purified Chaos from Starseeds, though he did not draw his ceremonial sword for this. Instead, he simply kept the starseed in his careful hold, sharing with it the strength of the light inside him, and the power that fueled his Wonder.
Painite’s gasp made him open his eyes, and he saw light seeping from the small cage their hands had formed. He lifted his top hand and she pulled both of hers back, staring in wonder as the starseed hovered just slightly over Camelot’s palm, surrounded by a beautiful, shimmering and yet ethereal circle of light. It pulsed once, then flashed brightly enough to cause them both to shut their eyes for only a moment. When Painite opened them again, she could barely catch her breath.
“Wh..wha..?”
Glimmering in the purest of light was the visage of the woman she had seen die in the street. She was no longer wounded from the youma, looking like she had before the attack, or so Painite had to assume. Still, she looked tired, but her eyes were so gentle and loving, and turned only toward the General. The woman nodded her head, smiling in a way that tore at Painite’s heart, flooding her chest with fire and tension at once.
“Thank you,” the woman said, in a voice that did not echo in the silence, yet was all Painite could hear. “Please. Take care of him.”
Painite was not sure what she was trying to do as she held her hand out toward the woman, but the image burst into a shimmering rain of light, fading into nothingness before it touched the roof beneath their feet. The starseed continued to glow brightly, but now it was floating far from Camelot’s hand, up into the night sky as if to join the other lights it was named for. Knowing very little about the way these things worked, only ever caring about pulling Starseeds for use in the Negaverse, Painite had no idea what she was witnessing.
But it was beautiful.
The little light disappeared from view quickly enough, leaving both Camelot and Painite staring into the sky. The Royal Knight took a breath he only realized he was lingering on when his lungs started to burn, turning his head to look at Painite.
“What did she mean…?”
Painite leaped at him, but no fear of being attacked reached his brain. He had no instincts to defend himself, but rather caught her in his arms as she hugged him tightly. His cape fell from her shoulders, landing on the rooftop, but it was not really noticed by either of them in that moment. He smiled and sighed softly, patting her shoulder reassuringly. But almost as soon as the hug began, it was over and she leaped away from him. She looked to where the strange image of the woman had been, then back at Camelot.
The boy. Her son.
“I have to go. Thanks, tin can, for helping me. I mean it. The tin can part.” She grinned at him, eyes brighter than he had seen them in a long while, and he nodded his head slowly with a smile of his own. She teleported away, beyond his ability to sense her, and he was left wondering just what he had gotten into just now. And what she was off to do. Who it was that needed to be taken care of, and what that meant to the confusing, conflicted General.
Somehow, despite all previous evidence indicating otherwise, Camelot had faith that she would do the right thing.
Probably.
