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Chapter 20 - A Secret Kept

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Shift held his breath as Athira’s eyes cleared, the grey irises reclaiming their usual place in her gaze. Her face was still set with hard, edged lines of fury as she glanced up, finally noticing how Indigo was staring at her.

Her eyes flicked to Zoe. To Raph. To Talia, passing over Kione.

Finally, they came to rest on Shift.

For the first time since meeting her at the collapsing ruins of Starpoint Tower, Shift was truly nervous in the wake of her deadpan stare. Not of her colour, that abyssal black maw that seemed limitless, but of Athira herself.

For the first time, he understood why villains everywhere feared and respected the Owl.

Shift hid the revelation behind the same face he used when a stranger came up to him and started firing questions he didn’t know how to answer. Half smile, raised eyebrow, mildly curious yet careful at the same time as he tried to shut down the thoughts rampaging through his mind.

It didn’t fool Athira for a second. Regret flashed across her face before she wiped it off and closed her eyes. She lowered her hand and backed up against the wall, drawing in long draughts of air. Her cloak hung limp around her shoulders.

Shift felt his own shoulders sag in relief. She’s back from... whatever that was.

No one else in the room seemed to know how to react to her sudden outburst. Everyone was frozen. Staring. Tense. The buzz of their colours lurked just below their skin, driving Shift’s own into an expectant hum. With the way it was surging through him, he was surprised no one else could feel it.  

Shift shook his hand to clear it, images of how this situation was going to play out running through his mind. After a minute passed and Raph started glaring at him, Shift decided to take the bullet.

He kept his guard up as he moved towards Athira, going for the first thing that came to mind.

 “Didn’t think it suited Zoe’s complexion?” he asked, his words slow and deliberate.

Another breath, stirring the edges of her raven hair. “The Elites are using the Sleeper’s energy.”

“What?” said Talia. The sharp word snapped the cord holding everything tentatively together. “Just because we’re throwing around theories here, it doesn’t mean--“

Raph shut Talia up with a gesture that Shift read as something like ‘if you don’t stop talking right now, you’re doing paperwork for the next fortnight’.

Talia’s upturned lip made her seem a lot less happy about the silent order than Shift was. Everyone glanced to Athira uncertainly, but other than the sound of grinding teeth, Athira didn’t reply.

Raph threw a quick glance at Shift, who gave him a nod of encouragement. “Why do you say that, Athira?” he asked.

“The thing on the monorail,” said Athira slowly. Nothing moved but her lips. “The disturbances. The things infesting Will’s mindscape. They all have the same energy that was coming from Zoe’s arm band. If it’s not the Sleeper, then it’s something else. But whatever it is, the Elites have figured out how to use it.”

“It could be tied in with the project the Elites are working on,” said Kione from Zoe’s side. He was crouched beside her, her wrist in his hand. He dropped it and moved back to his computers. “It’d make sense if they put some of the energy into the armband, see how Zoe reacts to it.”

Indigo looked to Zoe, who fidgeted uncomfortably under the attention. Her hand ran unconsciously over her freed bicep, and the yellow aura that outlined her body when she got excited was making a comeback in the darkness. Something Shift hadn’t realised was missing.

“It feels better,” said Zoe. Light played around her fingers. “I mean, I didn’t realise it wasn’t before, but now that it’s gone...”

“It’s only recent, since we got back from HQ,” said Athira. “That, or it wasn’t active before.”

Raph clucked his tongue. “Discord must have swapped it. But why only now? Why not straight away?”

“Maybe they didn’t need to before?” asked Shift. “Or the notes mentioned other tests; maybe they only just finished those and thought it was safe to try on Zoe?”

“This changes everything,” said Kione. He brought up the prophecy file once more, spreading the timelines across the control room’s grey walls. “The timeline we’re on now, from what I can figure out is one of the rare ones where the Sleeper wakes up and puts Thols in an eternal slumber, Spectrum included. So when Rathe arrives--“

“--There’s no one awake to stop him,” muttered Talia.

Shift had to give Indigo’s elemental credit. She was handling the situation with Athira, a supposed villain inside her home fairly well, all things considered. With her history and known zero tolerance approach to villains, it was surprising she hadn’t simply turned them in. He suspected that it was only her respect for Raph and Zoe holding her back.

Just as Shift was thinking how he’d ignored Talia’s attempts at civility with Athira and should have probably been more understanding with her, she flicked a piece of honey-blonde hair over her shoulder and shot Athira one of the most venomous looks he’d ever seen.

Uh oh.

Talia tilted her chin upward and looked down her nose. “So, I guess we have to wonder exactly why the Sleeper is waking up this time, hey, Athira?”

Athira’s eyes opened and locked on to Talia’s face.

Any good feelings Shift had about the situation fizzled up and exploded into a thousand pieces.

Super uh oh.

“What are you, stupid?” said Athira. “We catch the Elites playing with his energy, and you’re trying to blame me?”

Talia’s fingers flexed by her side. Her voice dripped honey. “You seemed to know exactly where the disturbances were happening every time. Weakened when they did. The Elites didn’t.”

Athira’s eyes narrowed. “They’re probably causing them, if you have a second in between inventing new reasons as to why I’m the scum of Thols.”

Talia snorted derisively. “Yea, because we’ll believe you. Just like every other time, right?”

Athira pushed herself off the wall. She took a step, fists clenched and black flecks of colour peeling off her skin. Before she could take a second one, Shift was on his feet in front of her.

 “Okay, cool it you two,” he said.

Neither seemed to hear him. Both were completely focused on the other, tunnel visioned and ignorant of their surroundings.

Shift placed a hand on Athira’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. He could feel the tension in her body as he stretched his other arm towards Talia, hoping that his touch would be enough to soothe Athira’s colour without making it too obvious what he was doing.

He took their hesitation as a good sign and pushed his point.  “The training room hasn’t been repaired from last time yet. Just. Chill.”

Athira’s hand gravitated to her amulet, fingers outlining the birdlike design engraved in the metal. The flecks of colour receded back into her body.

Bullet avoided, thought Shift as he watched them go.

Athira held Talia’s gaze, but the anger drawn lines on her face had vanished with the colour. Instead, she looked tired.

Her voice was softer when she spoke. “I’m a lot of things, Talia. But a liar is not one of them.”

Talia rolled her eyes. She pointed an accusing finger at Shift’s chest. “Just because you have Shift wrapped around your--“

The high pitched wail of an alarm cut into her words.

Shift looked to the screen, where an orange exclamation mark was flashing across it, pushing the other files Kione had up into the background. He let his hand fall away from Athira’s shoulder, but only after brushing his fingers against hers in what he hoped was a comforting ‘I’m here’ gesture.

“Dammit,” said Kione.

The orange colour’s fingers swept across the screen, their expert strokes quickly bringing up a map of Sirah. Several sections pulsated with various intensities, but there was one about ten minute’s walk from Indigo base that drew Shift’s attention.

Kione confirmed his suspicions. “We’ve got a colour villain or four in sector nine holding a couple of civilians hostage.”

“Damn it all,” said Raph. “They always pick the worst times to start banding together.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand, the other pointing between Zoe, Talia and Athira. “Girls, get to the scene ASAP, see what you can do to diffuse the situation. We’ll grab the Rainbow and catch up soon enough.”

Athira gave a stiff nod and fled the control room. Talia and Zoe were quick after her and Shift was about to follow when Raph touched his arm and gave a slight shake of the head.

It was only when the control room door panels slid shut behind Talia’s heels that Kione turned back to the keyboard once more, banishing Sirah’s map to the top right corner of the screen. The pulsating alert was now joined by yellow, blue and purple dots that hadn’t yet left Indigo base.

“Hopefully they don’t kill each other,” said Raph. He took one of the physical orange folders in his hands as he spoke, flicking through the data. “What else is there?”

Shift raised an eyebrow. He glanced at the door, trying to work out why Raph and Kione weren’t heading straight out them. “Aren’t we going after--“

“Seriously?” said Raph, glancing up. “You didn’t catch Kione’s signal to wait?”

Shift had no idea what he was talking about. “Uh, I was busy making sure Athira wasn’t going to explode us all accidentally.”

“Sure you were.”

“Shut it,” said Kione. “We’ve only got a few minutes before we have to leave and Zoe or Athira start to get suspicious of why you’re so late. I’ve already explained most of this to Talia.”

He brought up the prophecy folder, highlighting part of the data that had previously been concealed behind other pieces by his colour. It opened at the flick of Kione’s hand, revealing several smaller files previously hidden inside.

“I didn’t want to bring this up in front of Athira, or Zoe for that matter,” said Kione. “Don’t want to be setting off any false alarms or nothing like that until we’re sure. I mentioned the Prism and the Spectrum, but they’re all good things.”

“Always has to be a balance, doesn’t there?” muttered Raph. “Interdimensional doomsday demon isn’t enough, universe?”

Kione sighed. “You guessed it. Another thing that comes up a lot is something the Elites have termed the Herald of Rathe. From what I gather, it’s a person who’s dedicated their life to bringing Rathe to Thols, usually via breaking the Prism. Killing a Spectrum works too, but it doesn’t accelerate the process.”

Several passages flashed across the screen. Raph leant forward, scanning through the central ones Kione highlighted.

“The pink colours meet on the point that the Herald will bridge the gap between the physical plane and the dimension whereupon Rathe resides,” he read. “And upon his arrival to Thols, Rathe will consume Thols’ energy and break free into the universe. Oh, great. No pressure.”

“Isn’t this stuff we should be telling Athira?” said Shift. “I get that you don’t trust her, but she’s been looking for this information for years now, and--“

“Shift,” said Raph. He held Shift’s gaze, which was never a good thing. It meant he was being serious. “Have you ever considered that, well, Athira might be the Herald?”

Shift waited for Raph to crack a smile and tell him he was joking, but the moment never came. “You’re serious? After the amount of effort she’s gone into making sure Rathe doesn’t escape? Are you--“

“Shift, chill man,” said Kione. “You’re as riled up as the girls were a minute ago. Raph has a point. Nowhere does it say that the Herald has to be aware of their actions. Only that their life is dedicated to bringing Rathe into Thols.”

“Think about it,” said Raph, closing the orange file. “Her colour isn’t in the Spectrum, the very thing designed to stop Rathe from seizing Thols’ power. What does that tell you?”

“It tells me that she might have another role to play in stopping Rathe, or maybe it’s completely unrelated,” said Shift. He folded his arms. “Pink isn’t in there either, but we’re not accusing them. This isn’t fair.”

Raph rubbed the bridge of his nose. Red colour left a thin trail in the air. “We’re not accusing anyone, Shift. We’re just speculating and making sure we’re ready for whatever happens. If this Prism is key to stopping Rathe, we need to do anything we can to stop it from falling into this Herald’s hands.”

“By that logic, the only one we can trust with it is Zoe,” said Shift.

“Point,” acknowledged Raph. “I know you’re attached to her. Whatever happened in that mindscape...” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is protecting Thols, no matter what.”

Shift wasn’t sure how to reply to that. Everything until this point regarding Athira had been based on instinct, going with what felt right, trusting his colour to read the situation correctly. In the brief moment he had to think about it, he realised he still trusted it. The only alarm going off was that keeping this information from Athira was going to come back and bite them in the--

“We don’t even know where this Prism is yet,” said Kione. “So it’s a moot point until we do.”

Raph nodded again. “Fair. Is it possible that the Herald is responsible for the timeline we’re on at the moment? Waking up the Sleeper?”

“It’s more likely what Athira suggested, that the Elites screwing with it is causing it,” said Kione. “Otherwise how do you explain them having access to its energy?”

“And Reader,” said Shift. “He ties into this somehow. How he seemed to show up at every disturbance. He could be our Herald, but even if he’s not, he has something to do with this and I’ll be damned if we don’t find out what.”

Raph nodded. “Look into his background some more, Kione. See what you can dig up.”

“On it, boss,” said Kione. “I’ll let you know if I crack any of these other folders open, but you two should get going being they get suspicious and we cop kitchen duty for the next week.”

*+*+*+*

Despite what Raph said, they didn’t take the Rainbow.

They tried, of course, but when Shift tried to start the damned thing, it gurgled, made a horrible choking noise, and then continued to sputter until he turned it off again and put it out of its misery.

“Now what?” asked Shift, tapping flat hands against the lifeless wheel.

Raph slid out and slammed the Rainbow’s door shut behind him. “We walk,” he said. He brought his wristlet to his mouth and pressed a button on the side. “Kione, get someone to fix the Rainbow ASAP. Sounds like it has water in the system or something.”

Shift moved to the side of Indigo base, sticking his head out the side door. “Street level?” he asked Raph as he approached.

“Too slow,” said Raph. He gave Shift a knowing look. “Your colour working again?”

Shift lifted a hand and summoned his green colour to his fingers. “Looks like it.”

Raph held out a hand, which Shift accepted. The red colour took to his green like never before. It surged through his system in a wave that had flecks of it rolling from his skin. It was like his body, the part of it that handled the colour had been scrubbed clean on the inside. All the leftover parts of the colours he’d shifted in the past were erased from his body, leaving the way for the next colours free.

Athira’s colour...?

In three seconds, Shift was charged and ready to go, and he could barely hang on to the colour.

“Up we go then,” said Raph, that grin he got when they were about to do something not-quite-regulation breaking out across his face.

A colour-formed grappling hook appeared in his hand, which Raph promptly shot up to the roof of the nearby building. As Raph’s body was pulled up, Shift quickly morphed his own grapple. It took him a second to rein the colour into the right shape, but he managed it.

“Thinks he can get the jump on me,” muttered Shift as he clasped the grapple to his wrist and followed Raph.

The feeling of shooting skyward, free from gravity’s grasp was one Shift could never get enough of. In the few seconds where he was weightless, he relished the experience. Mid way up, a stray thought entered his mind.

I wonder if this is what Athira feels like when she levitates.

It was quickly followed by another.

I really have to think about something else.

Shift reached the top, planting his feet firmly and pulling himself up the last few inches. He savoured the physical activity after being trapped in mindscapes and HQ and warehouses and badly named vehicles for the last two weeks. Training was fine, but the rush of a mission was different. Training was structured. A mission was unpredictable, wild. Dangerous, even.

Raph was almost at the other side of the building Shift had just finished pulling himself up to. Not to be out done, Shift raced after him. His feet pounded along the slightly inclined surface of the roof, boots giving him the grip he needed to not slip to his death. Not slowing in the slightest as he approached the edge, Shift aimed the wrist his grapple was attached to and fired.

The rope made of pure colour shot out, latching on to the next building’s roof.

Shift reached the open gap and jumped. He activated the grapple, pulling his body towards its anchor mid-air and resisting the urge to look down. The buildings they ran on might only be half the height of Indigo base, but it was still a long way down. More than enough to cook up a Shiftcake.

I have to do this on the skyscrapers some day, he thought as he hit the next building’s roof running. Damn, that’d be a rush.

“C’mon Shift!” called Raph from in front of him. “Out of practice, eh?”

“It’s your colour, mate!” said Shift, pumping his arms. “You’d better not let some shifter beat you at it!”

“If you ever want to fight it out in the arena, you let me know!”

“Cocky bastard,” said Shift, although he couldn’t deny the smile creeping across his face.  

Raph laughed at that. The two continued over the buildings, running as fast as their legs would take them, constantly pushing the other one to greater efforts as they swapped the leader position.

It wasn’t long before they neared the area where the alert had originated.

Stopping beside Raph, they perched atop the buildings like a pair of overgrown pigeons and looked out over the large courtyard like area.

Shift recognised the area as one of Sirah’s ‘nature’ initiatives. Some official had decided cities were all well and good, but that the people were out of touch with their natural side. They then proceeded to clear a few areas in the city, making way for hundreds of trees, bushes and shrubs from foreign states with names Shift couldn’t remember to save his life.

This one had become a notorious area for those in Sirah that preferred the cover of night to the sun. The park itself contained several buildings, most small restaurants or cafes that were open 24/7, but there was one larger one near the western edge that the official’s hadn’t been able to knock down when they created the area for fear of exploding half the city.

“Figures that they attacked the Dungeon, doesn’t it?” said Raph.

“Just what I was thinking,” said Shift. “Who doesn’t need booby traps and DIY security traps?”

Raph shrugged. “Eh, if it means we don’t have to fight them outside the bank again, then I’m happy. Let’s get down there.”

He fired his grapple at the roof they stood on and jumped backwards over the edge, abseiling down the side of the building. After a second of gazing across the park from his elevated view, Shift did the same.

His feet hit the wall as he let the colour rope out a little at a time. Judging by the windows, he figured they were only four stories up from the ground now. Not much judging by the towering buildings that made up most of Sirah, but enough to send a thrill down Shift’s spine.

Shift reached the second story window as Raph hit the ground. Raph’s descent had obviously caused chaos inside the building because when Shift reached it, there were already five or six people pressed up against the window, various electronic devices out and aimed at him.

“Dammit Raph,” Shift muttered through clenched teeth as he broke out a smile for the onlookers. He couldn’t hear them through the glass exactly, but as he continued towards the ground he was pretty sure one of them demanded he come back and have their babies.

Raph tried to maintain his innocence when Shift glared at him.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” said Raph.

Shift released the colour forming the grapple from its moulded shape. “I didn’t say anything, Raph. What would I be talking about?”

“Like I said, no idea!” Raph started jogging towards the Dungeon. “Come on, we have to go see if the girls have killed each other yet.”

*+*+*+*

A/N -  HAPPY NEW YEAR AND WHATEVER HOLIDAY YOU CELEBRATE <3