Chapter 37 #2
My arm throbbed with increasing intensity. I finally looked down and felt bile rise in my throat. Fragments of my crushed cuff protruded from my skin like metallic splinters, blood oozing around them. I felt dizzy and looked away quickly.
“And here,” Halcyon continued, moving Helios to another spot, “is where you fell to your knees, begging them to forgive you. But they didn’t believe you, did they? They thought you’d done it deliberately.”
“Helios,” I called out. “William. I know you’re in there.”
Halcyon paused, turning Helios’s head toward me with that unnatural, jerky movement.
“William Evans,” I continued. “This wasn’t your fault. The Alliance records prove it. Your powers destabilized, but it wasn’t deliberate. You were a victim too.”
Halcyon laughed. “How touching, you think you can reach him.”
“I know you’re fighting,” I pressed on, ignoring Halcyon. “I can see you in there.”
“This is amusing,” Halcyon said, walking Helios’s body closer to me. “Please continue. I enjoy watching hope die.”
“Remember who you are,” I said, meeting those conflicted eyes. “You’re Helios. You help people. You save them.”
“He can hear you,” Halcyon taunted, crouching in front of me. “He’s screaming inside. Shall I let you hear it?”
Suddenly Helios’s face contorted in agony, his mouth opening in a horrific scream that made my stomach lurch. Then, just as suddenly, the scream cut off, replaced by Halcyon’s cruel smile.
“That was just a taste,” he said. “Would you like to hear more?”
“Fuck you.”
He made Helios walk in a slow circle around me. “William here has been quite useful. Did you know his power can be focused into a tiny seed of energy? Plant it inside someone or something, activate it remotely, and...” He made a small explosive gesture with Helios’s hands. “Quite elegant, really.”
As he spoke, I concentrated, reaching out with the senses I’d taken from Havoc. I could feel Helios’s signature, warm and golden and vibrant. But it was tangled with something else. Something dark and oily that pulsed obscenely.
“Remember the Keeper at the Nexus? That was our first experiment with the equipment,” Halcyon continued. “William here planted the seed during a routine meeting. Then all it took was a simple remote trigger when the shield generator was active. The energy feedback was spectacular.”
I saw Helios fighting harder behind his eyes, anguish breaking through Halcyon’s control.
“The others were even easier. A handshake here, a friendly pat on the shoulder there.” Halcyon made Helios’s voice sound gleeful. “And they never suspected this fucking Hero everyone loves. The perfect puppet.”
I needed to get closer. If I could just touch him, I might be able to separate those signatures, pull Halcyon’s corruption away from Helios.
But I had to be careful. Every time I’d tried to nullify powers, I’d absorbed something different, Havoc’s chaos energy and ability to sense supers, Halcyon’s mind control. There was no guarantee what I’d take from Helios if I touched him.
But what choice did I have? If I could touch him, I would temporarily incapacitate his powers. I might have a chance to save him or at least escape.
“William,” I said, ignoring Halcyon’s taunts. “I know you can hear me. This isn’t you.”
Halcyon sneered with Helios’s face. “He can’t hear you anymore. I’m breaking him, piece by piece.”
I pushed myself up to my knees, wincing as the movement jostled the metal fragments embedded in my wrist. “You remember Keeper Parker? She always talks about how you bring donuts to the rookies on their first day.”
Something flickered in Helios’s eyes. Recognition, maybe.
“And how you visit the children’s hospital every week,” I continued, putting more force behind my words. “How you make little suns dance above their beds to make them smile.”
Helios’s body shook, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.
I took a careful step forward, then another. “You’re Helios. You’re warmth and light and hope.” I put everything I had into my voice, willing him to hear me. “You’re stronger than he is.”
“ENOUGH!” Halcyon roared, but the voice cracked.
I was close enough now. Just a few more steps.
“Fight him, William,” I urged, my voice growing stronger despite my fear, letting more power lace through my words. “You’ve been fighting all along. You can win.”
Helios’s eyes cleared for a moment, filled with pain and determination.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Helios gasped, fighting for each word as sweat beaded on his forehead. His eyes were clear for that brief moment, truly him, not the monster using his body.
“I know,” I said softly, taking another careful step toward him. “This isn’t your fault, William. None of it is.”
His face twisted as Halcyon wrestled back control.
“Such a touching moment,” Halcyon sneered through Helios’s mouth. “He’s quite fond of you, you know.”
He stalked toward me, all traces of Helios’s gentle demeanor gone. I backed away, my shoulders bumping against the wall behind me.
“Nowhere to run now, little Annie,” he said, reaching for me with Helios’s gloved hand.
His fingers tightened around my wrist, pressing deliberately into the metal fragments embedded in my flesh. White-hot pain lanced up my arm as the shards dug deeper.
My vision blurred and I screamed as the pain threatened to pull me under.
“Please, stop.” Agony and terror ignited the energy trapped in my veins. I felt the sickening weight of Halcyon’s stolen power coat the words as they left my mouth.
Halcyon’s control slipped just enough, allowing Helios’s true self to surface.
“Annie,” he choked out, his voice broken and raw. He managed to loosen the hand squeezing my injured wrist, and though I could see him fighting to let go of me, he didn’t. “I’m so sorry. I can’t stop him.”
The torment in his expression was unbearable. This was Helios, the real Helios, forced to witness everything Halcyon made him do, powerless to prevent it.
“It’s not your fault,” I whispered. “William, this isn’t you.”
“I tried to fight him. For months. I was screaming inside, watching my hands...” A sob tore from his throat. “I couldn’t stop any of it.”
“It’s okay, William.”
Helios jerked suddenly as Halcyon fought to regain control. His eyes met mine, desperate and pleading.
“Your voice is so strong in my head,” he gasped, fighting for each word. “It’s cutting through his control, but it’s not enough.” His fingers twitched against my arm, his grip loosening fractionally. “I can feel him, Annie. He’s going to make me kill you.”
A deafening crack split the air as a wave of blue energy slammed through the far wall. Chunks of concrete and twisted metal exploded inward, suspended in Havoc’s chaos field before dropping harmlessly to the ground.
Havoc hovered in the opening he’d just torn into the wall with Cipher close behind him.
Helios flinched at the noise, his grip loosening just enough. This was my only chance.
I lunged upward, my fingers stretching toward his face.
Everything seemed to slow down as my palm made contact with his jaw.
I focused with everything I had, reaching for that oily darkness I’d sensed wrapped around Helios’s golden signature.
I could feel it now, a parasitic presence twisting through Helios’s power like poison.
Helios’s body went rigid, then began to tremble violently. His eyes widened in shock as something flowed between us, hot and electric, making my nerves scream in protest.
My edges of my vision darkened as something foreign poured into me. Was this Helios’s power? Or was it Halcyon’s control? I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.
Helios’s knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground, dragging me down with him. His grip had turned from restraining to desperate, clinging to me as if I were his lifeline.
I could hear voices. Cipher and Havoc both shouting my name, their words urgent and afraid.
But they sounded distant as my own heartbeat thundered in my ears, drowning out everything else, growing louder with each passing second.
The transfer continued, relentless and agonizing. Whatever I was absorbing from Helios felt wrong, twisted and corrupted. Halcyon had wrapped himself so thoroughly around Helios’s power that I couldn’t separate them.
“Annie!” Cipher’s voice broke through the roaring in my ears, closer now.
But I couldn’t respond. All I could do was hold on as the world dissolved into pulsing light and the deafening rhythm of my own heart.