Achlys looked up at her grandfather with terrified eyes. Every muscle in her body was tense as she slowly got to her feet. Her muscles were still shaky from being electrocuted. She took her hand away from her face to show a large, scorched scar like a spider’s web next to her left eye.
Memories of being exposed to dangerous chemicals for her to reproduce as a child flashed in her mind’s eye. Remembering waking up the day night her mother died from a nightmare, only to find it real. Her mother a clammy corpse in her bed, father beaten and sobbing next to her.
She never watched it happen, but she remembered the image her mind crafted of seeing her mother in Zeus’ place.
Achlys remembered her father telling her she’d be next if they didn’t run from her grandfather, only to be called together for a family meeting. Her grandfather’s cold, alien eyes glaring down at her like she was a curse.
Kronos’ voice snapped Achlys back to reality.
“All the effort I put into taming you and you attempt to destroy my energy reserves. You’re a traitor, Achlys. You’re so disloyal to your own family. Don’t you remember what I told you would happen if you ever turned against me?”
“I remember,” Achlys choked out.
“You did cause anarchy at the palace and cause the fall of PISTOL, so at least you fulfilled your purpose before you scarred my creation and began to burn my fuel.” He gestured to Abyss and the land around them. “But now, I have no reason to keep you around.”
Achlys was trembling and tears stung her eyes. “He... he’s not yours.”
“What?” Kronos stood up taller, towering over Achlys, nearly twice her size.
“A-and I’m not either.”
Kronos clenched his teeth and growled in frustration, lifting his hand to strike Achlys across her already injured face.
She was blown a yard away from the blow and a small line of neon green steam came up from her cheek, flowing steadily to Kronos’ face. He breathed in deeply, eyes turning from a cold grey to a menacing black.
Coughing, Achlys choked back a sob. Her past had finally come for her before she could finish her destiny, before she could ensure the safety of the universe. She thought the hardest part of everything was over multiple times over now.
She thought Abyss was okay, but then he disappeared and left her behind. She thought she’d found him and be able to reason with him, but Volt came back and turned him against her. She thought she’d dealt with the one coming between her and her plans, but it just made Abyss come after her. She thought she’d dealt with Abyss and done away with any barriers or emotion that would keep her from global devastation. Instead, she was faced with an indestructible wall.
She was staring down death.
He finally caught up to her.
The moment she dreaded facing every day over the last decade.
Kronos slowly approached Achlys again. “Get up.”
Achlys closed her fists around a handful of ash and shook. Tears soaked the ground below her. “Please...” Achlys whispered her plea.
What am I doing? Please what? Please spare me? You were planning to turn the planet into a wasteland where you’d rot away slowly. You planned your own death. What makes this any different?
“I said get up!” Kronos demanded, kicking her curled up from across the ashes and dirt.
It took all her strength to finally obey. She saw no point in sitting around to be killed.
Kronos sneered mockingly, alien features communicating a sense of superiority. He again began to approach her. He reached down and grabbed her neck, lifting her with two fingers as she gasped for breath.
“No- no-” she meekly protested.
She felt her breath begin to be drawn from her body. The neon color seemed to flake away from her hair and the green streak began to turn white, shortly after the black hair followed. He lungs strained for breath and her vision blurred as the red fire in her eyes faded back to a deep green before it began to fade to an empty white.
Every muscle in her body seized up, desperate to flee but too afraid that they restricted their own movement.
But then electricity surged through Kronos and Achlys respectively. The two let out cries of pain. The draining stopped and as the shock faded, Achlys was dropped to the ground where she saw Abyss grasping Kronos’ ankle.
Abyssal’s eyes stopped sparking and settled on the pure black color that signified his power at work.
“Abyss?... What are you doing?”
“Saving you,” he answered firmly just as Achlys faded into unconsciousness.
* * *
Achlys woke up in a hospital, the steady beeping pulse of a heart monitor sounded behind her.
“How come you were able to be electrocuted multiple times without any powers and live, but he has to be gone?”
Achlys’s eyes travelled to Abyss sitting at the bedside with his back turned to her.
“How did you know I was awake?”
He just shrugged. “I can sense everyone’s lifeforce now... and I can’t feel others. I don’t know how or why.” He still wouldn’t look at her.
There was a long moment of silence before Achlys spoke again.
“Why did you save me?”
“Sometimes people just save other people, even when they shouldn’t.”
Achlys didn’t know what to think of that. She knew she didn’t deserve to be saved. She thought she was dead. She thought she’d killed Abyss, and she did kill his brother. But it still didn’t make sense why. She stared at the plain, grey floor.
“Thank you.”
No response.
Achlys felt clamps lock around her heart.
“And...” she added, “I know it doesn’t help anything... but I’m sorry. I didn’t plan to kill him.”
“But you did. Twice.”
Achlys winced. She deserved that. She knew she did.
“I saved you because you happened to be there. Enemy of the enemy. Kronos had to be stopped, whether you were involved.”
“How did you stop him yourself?”
“I had a head start. Not much you can do once you’re locked down by devour.”
“You can say that again.”
Achlys saw Abyss’ shoulders tense.
His tone was quieter when he spoke again. “How did it feel?”
Achlys’ eyes widened and she grabbed her right arm. “It... was worse than I ever imagined.”
“You’ve imagined yourself in that position?”
“...More times than I can count.”
Abyss turned around at last and looked at Achlys in the hospital sheets.
“Why?”
“Kronos was the famil patriarch. I was in the line destined to kill him.”
Abyssal’s eyes fell to the corner of the bed. It was obvious he felt awkward looking at her. Achlys wished he didn’t.
“Why do you ask?”
“I... It was my power. It hurt others, but I never knew how bad it was.”
“We’ve both hurt people with our powers. I just wish I could undo it. I wish I could bring him back for you.”
Suddenly, the lights flickered and the monitor flatlined before everything powered on again. But for Achlys, the strange occurrence only became worse. The echoes of Volt’s dying screams repeated on an overlapping loop in her mind. She gripped her head and stared at the sheets, curling up into the fetal position.
“Achlys? Achlys?” Abyss said, growing worried.
Achlys didn’t hear him. The sound was growing to a crescendo. It was deafening. The screams pierced her ears and began to melt her brain. The world around her continued to flicker the way it did as the electricity fried Volt’s nervous system.
Abyss touched her shoulder, and she jumped away as the earth split below them. A green light rose up and the ghost of Volt appeared. He was still tied to the chair screaming. Abyss leapt away in terror as he stared up, helpless at his brother for just a moment before the earth sealed itself again and he vanished.
“What was that?” Abyss asked, sitting on the ground at staring at the space where he literally saw a ghost.
“I- I don’t know,” Achlys stammered. “I think... it was my father’s power.”345Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJigaximE76
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FIN
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