Berserk

Terrible sounds were coming from the darkness of the trees. There were sounds of firing weapons, flashes of light- but still the sounds continued, and only got worse. The small group of Gifteds huddled for a moment, not understanding, as they looked in the direction Tori had just run.

“What happened?” Konki breathed. She stumbled up, turning to Shan. “What happened?!”

“Her eyes,” he said vaguely. “…They turned black.”

“Again? But we took care of that!” Konki yelled. “The contract- Tau said he dumped it in a volcano!”

A dry scoff from behind them. They turned to look at Null, staring at her incredulously. “That doesn’t ‘get rid of it’,” she said, arms folded as she looked into the trees. “Believe me, I know a couple of things about Gifteds who work like Dextera. If they work through influencing your mind like that, just burning a piece of paper isn’t going to do anything!”

“But…” Akaru trembled, clutching his wounded arm to himself, not daring to try shifting while it was in there. “Dextera said that was how it worked! The piece of paper gave her the ability to control Tori. Or something like that, right?”

Null sighed, shaking her head, as the screams came from the trees. “Maybe the piece of paper helps her focus. It can be instrumental, for an inexperienced Gifted. And maybe she even transferred some of her energy onto it, so that it would work like a seal. But in the end, the influence she had on Tori’s mind stays there, no matter what happened to the paper. It was damaged somehow when Tau took it, but… There’s no telling, exactly how much hold Dextera’s instructions still have. Not without her here to question.” She sighed, rolling up her sleeves. “I had hoped she would stay cured, but now it looks like…”

A figure appeared in the underbrush, crawling towards them in a panic. They straightened up, going silent, Konki drawing her swords and Shan lifting his knife in preparation for the Agent-

Only to watch as a dark shape dropped on him from above, a resounding crack ringing against his skull.

The hair rose up on the back of Konki’s neck as she watched Tori, hunched over, snarling ferally, the shifting black weapon gripped in her hand. The regular Tori wouldn’t hurt anyone more than she had to, and definitely wouldn’t kill. But this one… There was no hesitation, whatsoever, in the violent creature in front of them.

She stepped back, foot over foot, keeping her eyes on the girl as she moved. Maybe if they backed away slowly, waited for Tori to snap out of it, then they could come back later and-

Krch!

A cold feeling ran down her spine as her heel crunched down on the dry twig. Tori’s head snapped up immediately, black eyes fixed on them. Konki gritted her teeth, motioning behind her back for the others to start backing away. Maybe she could turn them invisible, if she could only get to them. But for now…

Tori got up, weapon shifting in her hand, slowly forming into claws that covered her fingers and stretched out to long, lethal points. She stalked towards them, slowly, with all the grace of a predator.

“Tori,” Konki said warningly. “You got rid of the Agents. You’re safe now. We’re… We’re your friends. You can calm down now!”

The martial artist stepped into a beam of moonlight, not slowing down. The rods had fallen away somewhere in the trees, but she didn’t appear to be bleeding. Somehow, she had healed incredibly quickly. Konki had to wonder what toll that had taken on her body.

She had to wonder whether Tori would even notice if she were in pain right now. The three or four darts sticking up from one of her arms didn’t seem to suggest she could. Metabolism, the deeper, more cynical part of Konki’s mind suggested. If she can speed herself up, she can probably speed her metabolism up too, with enough focus. It would make drugs useless… Although how the heck she would even know how to do that is- !

The regular Tori hadn’t known how, come to think of it- the bear trap wound on her leg had taken forever to heal! In fact-

The bear trap wound.

Konki’s eyes flicked down to Tori’s legs on instinct, picking out the wound that had been injured before. “Come on, Tori, it’s us! We’re on your side! You don’t have to-“

Tori yelled and sprang.

“Konki!” Shan yelled. He tackled her, shoving her out of the way, and making the area echo with the sound of the black weapon hitting his ribs with heavy force.

Tori immediately whirled around, trying to vault over Shan to get at the more vulnerable girl behind him. Konki took a moment to gasp for breath, then rolled onto her back, swinging a sword up. It met Tori’s spear at the very last moment.

Shan lunged for her from behind, trying to grab around her neck, to choke her. Tori kicked out hard, forcefully, sending him flying. Snarling, she turned on him to try to finish him off, and Konki pushed herself up on one elbow, one foot snaking behind Tori’s, trying to trip her.

Tori jumped, and landed crouched a short distance from Konki, who was shakily getting to her feet. She growled, shifting the spear to a pair of swords to match Konki’s, then suddenly yelled out in pain as Akaru, still injured, bit her foot. She kicked him, hard, elbowed Shan’s return punch away, tensed at the sudden grab at her shoulder and whirled violently, stabbing behind her with the spear still half-morphing-

The grip on her shoulder tightened to white knuckles, Null staring at her in dull pain as Tori’s weapon sank into her shoulder.

Tori, Null’s hand still firmly holding on, stared in slowly-dawning, uncomprehending concern as the green flooded back into her eyes. “Wh-“

The hilt of Shan’s dagger came down hard on the back of her head, and she crumpled.

Null held on only long enough to see her fall, then released her, coughing hard as she stumbled. Shan stepped forward, grabbing her before she could fall on top of Tori.

“Null!” Konki yelled. “Wh… Why did you- !”

“I told you… not to touch me,” Null hissed quietly as Shan reached beneath her, scooping her up.

“You were just stabbed,” Shan replied flatly. “I can take being vulnerable for the few seconds it takes to get you out of here.”

“I’m fine- it’s nothing ser- nng!” The thin woman gritted her teeth painfully as Shan shifted, a wave of pain running through her shoulder. She rode through it for a moment, not speaking.

When she opened her eyes again, they were staring at her. Tori lay unconscious at Shan’s feet, Aden and Elora were crumpled on the ground not far away, completely out of it, Konki was holding an injured monkey, and Shan was still standing still, holding her in her arms, saying nothing.

…It didn’t matter, if they didn’t like her. They really didn’t know what to do, right now.

She took a shaky breath. “Tie her up,” she said, eyes flicking down at Tori, then up. “After that, find a way to pick up those two over there. We’re getting out of here.”

No one moved.

“Well?” she said, voice rising. “I know somewhere we can go so we won’t die. Do you want to get there, or do you want to stand here staring at each other until reinforcements show up?”

They began to move, rushing in the dark to get each other moving.

~~~

Leon hissed, keeping himself pressed flat behind a tree, watching the Agents scouring the wooded area just beyond him. Drat it, how had they gotten here first?! Someone must have tipped them off. Or maybe one of the Gifteds had been stupid enough to pull on a trap. In any case…

He swallowed down anger, fists gritting. “Well done,” he hissed. “Well done, Alia! Thanks to you, you’re probably still surrounded by Gifteds, and I can’t get to you through all of the Agents in my way!”

Red threatened to overwhelm him, and for a moment he was really afraid he was going to lose control, going to slip and do something stupid, maybe attack the Agents and get himself caught. But then Dextera’s voice sounded in his ear, and for a moment she snapped him out of it, forcing him to focus. “Leon?”

“…Yeah?”

She exhaled. “Where are you? Are you finished out there yet?”

“Working on it,” he hissed as he listened to two Agents stroll by, deep in conversation, barely five feet away from where he was.

“I know you’re busy, but is it okay if you come back?”

“Why?”

A pause. “…Kate’s here. She looks really mad.”

He stood there in silence, trying to figure out if he had heard that right.