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Chapter 40 - Found

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Tied to the chair, body covered from the neck down in the Warden's suit, Shift had no idea how he was going to get out of this one. 

Being woken by a rather fine woman in a blue suit and a pounding head came as a surprise. It took him a minute of worrying he'd gone out to some club and been roofied by fangirls for the second time to remember the attack on Indigo base. 

The memories had a dreamlike quality to them. The only reason he believed what his mind was telling him was due to the fact he was now tied to a chair with what he assumed was a Warden flicking a syringe of purple fluid in front of him. 

"Uh," said Shift, drawing the Warden's gaze. "Don't s'pose you feel like explaining what's going on, perhaps undoing these cuffs?" he asked hopefully, wiggling his trapped hands. 

The Warden looked away and continued to examine the syringe. "Purple colour on Indigo's apparently giving them some trouble. You're leverage, as far as I know she'll be watching until I get the O.K to give you the antidote."

"Couldn't you just tickle me or something?" asked Shift, eyeing the liquid. His mind was racing with ideas, plans to escape but none that were viable. "Athira hates it when I'm tickled, I swear."

The Warden shrugged. "It's nothing personal. Just orders, really."

Shift looked around the room, trying to draw out the situation as long as possible until he found something useful. "Any idea what Athira's giving them trouble with?"

"They're trying to recruit her, potentially being duo Spectrum and all. Easier to have her working with us."

Shift frowned. "Wait, are we talking about Athira or Zoe here?" 

"The purple colour. Athira."

They think Athira's Spectrum? Duo... indigo and violet? 

That had to be it. There weren't any other combinations that made sense. Shift just wondered how long until they figured out her colour was, indeed, black, much as she'd been trying to tell everyone since day one. 

The Warden moved to stand beside Shift, who really didn't like the look of that needle. An idea was forming, but it wasn't particularly appealing. Shift just wasn't seeing any other way out of it. 

Why does this Warden  have to be a blue colour?

"No way I can convince you to go with the tickling?" asked Shift.

"Sorry, no can do," said the Warden. "It's nothing personal. Just orders."

Shift gave a melodramatic sigh. "I know, I know. Orders, they suck don't they?" He popped his lips. "Well, may as well get on with it. Y'no, stick the needle straight in my neck and be done with it, hey?" 

The Warden raised a delicate eyebrow. "I was going to go for the wrist, but--" Shift stuck his neck out as far as the restraints allowed. "--fine. If you'd rather it there, doesn't bother me. Just means it'll start quicker."

Shift felt the prick as the needle pierced his skin, saw the movement from the corner of his eye as the Warden depressed the plunger. 

Then, much to the surprise of the Warden, Shift twisted in his chair and attempted to headbutt the Warden's hand. She jerked back with a yell of surprise, releasing the needle still sticking out of Shift's neck. 

"The hell!" The Warden grabbed her hand like she was unsure what'd happened. "They didn't warn me you were crazy! What'd you shift last, a damned bull?"

Though Shift's forehead had only made the briefest contact with the Warden's hand, it was enough. His colour latched on and copied the blue it'd seen through the touch, and a second later it was ready to go. 

The Warden still hadn't caught on to what Shift had done, horror still written over her down turned lips and cramped forehead, so Shift made use of the time. He'd runed a few times with Talia's colour, much to his distaste of the idea. No one seemed to understand why he hated it, not even Talia who was supposed to be a full-time blue. 

He turned his gaze to the cuffs, sending colour to the area. 

Open.

There was a little resistance but the colour did his will, bending to meet the shape of his requested rune and bring the action into reality. A spread, spiral shaped rune with reaching ends appeared on the metal surface encasing his hands and flared. 

The cuffs popped open. I'm so glad that worked. 

Shift grabbed the needle and threw the empty glass tube at the Warden's head. Predictably, she ducked, and Shift used the moment to jump on top of her. The momentum took them both to the floor as the Warden tried to bring her colour to life and Shift grabbed her wrists, pinning them above her head.

She tried to bring her knee to a rather painful area, forcing him to straddle her and lock down her legs with one of his own. It was in this compromising position that Shift really, really hoped Athira wasn't actually watching, or that if she was, she knew what he was trying to achieve with it. 

Whatever was in the syringe was starting to take effect and the Warden knew it. The walls appeared to be melting around him, the floor disappearing to leave him alone on a dark expanse with figures lurking just beyond. Shift managed to take both her wrists in one hand despite her wriggling underneath him, bringing the other hand up to rest on her forehead. 

Sleep, thought Shift, hoping it'd work.

By some miracle, it did. The Warden's eyes glazed over as she went limp. Her head rolled to the side, eyelids closing. Shift remained on her for another few seconds, wary of trickery before pushing himself off and reaching for the second, still filled syringe resting on the table in the corner. 

He picked it up, inspecting the contents with a careful eye. As the walls of a well-known alley began to rise up in the expanse, familiar faces from a past he'd rather not remember becoming clearer around him, Shift figured it was a do or die situation and jammed the needle in his neck. 

Even with his eyes squeezed shut, he could feel the effects counteracting each other. He counted to ten before peeking, finding the grey tiles of the room in place once more and breathing a sigh of relief. Then he remembered he'd shifted blue colour and almost immediately closed them again. 

Shift gripped the sides of the table. Just don't look down, and don't look at anyone. Easy, right? Right. Easy. No problem. 

He trained his eyes at the ceiling and made his way out of the room, trying to figure out how viable it would be to attempt and find his way out with his eyes closed, or at least until the blue colour ran out. He then imagined Raph's withering look and told himself he was being stupid, lowering his eyes a fraction but still unable to shake the nerves. 

Why blue. Why blue? Why did the Warden they sent me have to be blue?

Shift found himself in some kind of prison complex, from what he could tell. The grey tiles were everywhere. Colour-fueled bars woven around physical ones sectioned off small rooms no doubt used as jail cells. Shift couldn't help but notice most were empty with the doors wide open. His growing bad feeling was confirmed when he saw three guards--Elites, not Wardens by the looks of it--piled up on top of each other in the corner, clearly unconscious. 

He was about to inspect them closer when he caught a glimmer of blue on their chests before rapidly hurrying away. 

Shift managed to find his way to a hallway with a slight incline to it which he hoped meant 'exit'. Sure enough, voices floated down through the walls. 

"Told you you shouldn't have done that," said a young voice. 

"Thank you, Tracker. I shall take your advice next time curiosity strikes me."

Shift slowed his steps, sticking to the wall. These voices... he knew them.

"So the hell are we going to do about her?" said yet another familiar voice. "We can't leave her for the Wardens, she'll probably turn herself into a puddle at this rate." 

Shift made it to the top of the ramp to find a group of at least fifteen people with their backs to him, apparently interested with something on the ground. 

"Good question, Nobody. What indeed, do we do with her? I suspect she's beyond our help at this point, which is a shame. If the Kingdom comes to pass on this timeline, there'll be a lot less revenge we'll be able to take on certain people."

The hairs on the back of Shift's neck rose as Reader's voice hit his ears. He didn't get a chance to act as one of the group turned around and aimed some kind of colour-blast hand cannon at his chest. 

"Boss, we got company."

In unison, the group turned around. As they moved, Shift got a better view of the thing they'd been staring at before him. Or more accurately, the person. 

Athira!

Shift hated the blue colour for several reasons. The first was related to the faint blue glows he could see at the centre of each person's chest. The second was that it required some form of thinking, strategy, planning, that he couldn't just charge in and go for it. 

"Care to step away from the girl?" asked Shift, politely as he could manage. 

Reader nodded. "Of course."

His group backed away as Shift approached with caution, hands raised and ready to rune. Much to his distaste, he was forced to acknowledge the glowing blue symbols in the chest of each person he passed to watch for any sign they planned to jump him.

Still, Reader seemed sincere. Shift knelt beside Athira.

She was shaking, limbs twitching on the floor against the tiles. Colour literally spilled off her body, cloaking her body in pure, smooth sheets of colour. Her head was back, dragging in shuddering breaths as the rest of her curled into a ball like she was trying to hold herself together against the heat flowing from the now crimson runes on her arms. Colour had soaked her clothes, and for the first time Shift understood why the Owl had a uniform. 

The clothes look almost the same as the ones she wore to the Underground, realised Shift, eyes trailing across the pure black colour-fabric clinging to her. Only this version makes the other one look like a cheap knock-off. 

Ignoring the glowing mark in the centre of her chest with a practiced eye, Shift reached for her, intending to try and shake her out of it when Reader interrupted him. 

"I wouldn't touch her," said Reader. "I tried to before, and well..."

He held out his hand, revealing the blistering skin across his palm. 

Shift glared at him. "So what, then? We leave her? I don't think so." 

Reader's hand did remind him of the last time he'd touched Athira when she was like this. The sheer heat off her body had been enough to bubble the skin on his hand, and that was when colour hadn't been spilling from the hidden rune in the centre of her chest. 

Shifted the blue colour, thought Shift, bringing the colour to his hands. Might as well use it. 

He focused on his palms. Protect from heat.

The colour obeyed, a sharp, three pronged rune with curled edges materialising on his skin. A chill ran over Shift's body as Reader's voice carried on in the background. 

"Ah, runes," said Reader. "Blue is a beautiful colour, is it not, Shift? How I envy your ability to become whatever you wish. Blues can see so much, read the world around them even if many refuse to open their eyes to it."

Shift gritted his teeth and inched closer to Athira, the heat from her body scorching his knees like he was sitting centimetres from a fire. The rune in the centre of Athira's chest was blurred under the flows of her colour, something Shift was grateful for. He didn't know if he could stay so calm if it were clear. 

"If she tells me that you're responsible for any of this--"

"I have a vested interest in the Kingdom of Sin coming to pass, Shift, but there are much more interesting paths for its arrival than this," said Reader. "But even if you're willing to risk touching her in this state, I'm afraid it won't do much. Athira is in the grip of Rathe, and from the glimpse I got of her mindscape, the only thing holding him off is the pure force of her willpower. With her colour the way it is, that won't last lo--"

"Thira?" Shift said softly. A kiss had brought her back from whatever state she'd been in when the Sleeper gas had taken hold, but he doubted it would help again. She'd been in control then, not a curled mess unable to stand. 

Shift took Athira's shoulders, pulling her head on to his lap. He found the last slivers of his colour hiding among the blue and pulled it to the surface, running his hands along her arms and over the angry crimson glow of the runes. 

"We're wasting time," said Reader. "It won't--"

Under Shift's touch, Athira released a breath. The intensity of the rune's red glow faded, just the slightest bit, but enough for Shift to feel relief. 

Reader stopped. "Interesting. Very, very interesting." 

Though Athira's colour didn't seem to be affected by Shift's touch, the heat coming off her was. Her limbs still trembled, eyes still closed, but he'd done something. 

"Feel like sharing?" asked Shift, glancing at Reader. "You seem to know a lot more about this situation than I do."

Reader glanced to Nobody, who stood beside him as still as Shift had ever seen her. 

"Touchy, isn't he?" said Reader. "As I said, Athira is, was, I don't know which now without touching her, in Rathe's grip. If she remains there, the Kingdom of Sin will come to pass much sooner than most people are currently anticipating."

Shift took an extended breath. "How do we stop him, then? Rathe?" 

Athira stirred in his lap at the word, her body slowly uncramping as he continued to run his colour over her arms, trying to soothe the runes further.

Come on, Thira. Wake up.

"I think the question you should be asking is, how do you stop her colour?" said Reader. 

"You just said she was in Rathe's grip, Reader. What does her colour have to do with it?"

"Well, yes, she is," said the purple colour. "But Rathe himself doesn't have the strength built up yet to make the move alone. The problem we have here is Rathe capitalising on the havoc Athira's colour is playing upon her body and being to take control of their mindscape. Effectively, he's forcing her to fight on two fronts -- holding him off, and stopping her colour from falling apart."

"The hell can we do if it's her colour that's falling apart?" said Shift. "If it's even possible for a colour to just fall apart!" 

"Quite possible, I assure you. On several of the timelines I saw in the mindscapes of the pinks the Wardens let me read, the falling apart of the black colour is the trigger that brings Rathe through." 

"What. Can. We. Do?"

"Well, you could take her to Zoe," said Reader, tapping a finger on his lips. "Combine her colour with yours, preferably unshifted, and it should be enough to push this weakened Rathe back, but--"

"Why my colour?" asked Shift. "It only helps because it shifts Athira's out, seems a little pointless if I don't shift it."

"As you very well know, Shift, that is not correct," said Reader. "Your colour doesn't take the one it's shifting. It just copies it. Athira's is no different."

"So why me and Zoe?" 

Reader shrugged, a small smile the only sign of emotion on his face. "Why indeed, Shift? Why indeed would your colour help Athira from Rathe's grip?"

Athira's eyes flickered open. They took a moment to focus before she frowned. 

"Shift?" 

"Welcome back," he said. "The floor isn't the most comfortable place to take a nap, you know."

"I'll try to remember that next time Rathe decides he wants out," she said. "Set fire to a couch instead, shall I?" 

With Shift's  help, she managed to sit up. He didn't push her further, taking the lines of pain on her face to mean she wasn't feeling up to it just yet. Athira glanced up, eyes looking past Shift to fixate on Reader behind. 

"What's he doing here?" she asked shortly. 

"Helping," replied Reader in a cheery tone. "But as I was saying to Shift, pushing Rathe back now matters little in the end. It'll buy you some time until he makes another break for it unless you can get that colour under control."

Athira turned to Shift. "What's he talking about?" 

"He thinks Rathe's collapsing your colour," said Shift, taking her hand. "Using it to take control of the mindscape."

"You know, I really don't know why I bothered talking to you, Shift, if I'm just going to have to repeat myself." Reader sighed and took a few steps forward. "Don't confuse Rathe for colour. Rathe isn't doing anything except making use of her colour's instability. Pushing Rathe back with Spectrum help now will make her colour easier to deal with, but it won't last. Rathe isn't causing her meltdown. Her colour is, and it will continue to do so until you bind it to a spirit animal." 

"If my colour's not from Rathe, then where's it from, Reader?" said Athira. 

Reader shrugged again. "To my knowledge, your colour is unique. So unique, in fact, that the Wardens refuse to believe the simplest explanation: when you were born, you created an entirely new colour with your existence for whatever reason. I'm guessing this colour wasn't sanctioned by the Titans, who created the original seven and improvised on the pink later, which is why it's so unstable so early. The other colours took a few hundred years to destabilise to this point, from what I can figure out." 

Shift massaged his temples with his free hand. This was all hurting his head too much. "At which point someone bound it to a spirit animal, right?" 

Reader beamed. "So you do pay attention!" 

More so to borderline insane criminals than my own team apparently, thought Shift. 

He looked to Athira to get her thoughts on the matter. She looked lost in thought, like she'd realised something significant. 

"What's a spirit animal?" she asked. Her voice still sounded strained, like she was concentrating exceptionally hard on not falling back to the ground. 

"The animal bound to a colour, sort of helps keep it under control. All I know is that the animal has to take it willingly and more or less die, the colour will infuse its body and put it in a state of transitions, always between veils." Reader shrugged. "It's something no one's really sure about any more. They didn't exactly expect new colours to come prancing through."

The thought on Athira's face deepened, her fingers closing around his tighter than before. Her eyes closed and Shift had to take her shoulder to stop her from falling over. 

"I see," she said after a moment. "So my colour would have to... bind to an animal."

Shift leaned in closer to Athira's ear. "You thinking Talon?" 

She gave a slight nod of her head. "I just don't know what it'll do to him," she whispered back. "He's already done so much for me. I can't ask so much of him again." 

"He in there now?" 

Athira shook her head. "He's finding the others."

Shift frowned. "What?" 

Athira didn't answer him, instead managing to stand herself up with Shift's hand for support. Her runes were still red, colour still flowing from the centre of her chest, but she looked stronger than Shift had seen her in ages. The only signs of weakness was hidden in the tightness cornering her lips and her rapid blinking, betraying what Shift already suspected.

She's still hurting.

"We're going to find Zoe," said Athira, looking more like the Owl than the 'purple' colour on Indigo's team. She turned to face Reader. "But before we go, you're going to answer a question for me."

Reader looked amused. "And what would that be, Athira dear?"

She held out a hand to him. "I want you to tell me what I am."

Shift's head snapped toward her. "Thira--"

Reader interrupted him. "I think you already know what you are, dear. You've known it for a long time now, ever since you learned his name...even if you choose not to accept it. I really think--"

His words cut off as Athira's colour grabbed the front of his suit and dragged him towards her. Reader's ground started forward as their leader 

"My mindscape." Athira held out a hand. "Read it. Now."

Reader took the hand in his non-blistered one and shut his eyes. When they opened, a light violet hue inked his gaze, flicking around in a way that seemed like he was seeing something the rest of them couldn't. 

The room seemed to hold its breath as Reader's quiet words came out. 

"Nothing but shadows, finding peace in the light... hidden but cloaked the runes repress nothing but sight and limb..."

The gibbered words continued into sentences Shift couldn't make sense of, though Athira seemed to be hanging on to every word. No one interrupted him. The seconds ticked by, marked by the tempo of Reader's silky voice that rose and gained strength in the final few sentences. 

"...no Herald but their bridge, their key to the Kingdom. Purity split by the one who beheld them, a child of Sin born of Rathe's construction." Reader's eyes cleared, the smirk dominanting Shift's image of him. "So there you are. It's as I told you. You've known for a while what you are, Athira. Or should I call you the child of Sin from now on?"

Athira pulled her hand away and stepped back. She grabbed her shoulders, holding them in silence as she pressed her lips together. The edges of the colour-cloak dripped on to the floor, disappearing as soon as they left the main mass congealed around her shoulders. 

Shift honestly had no idea what had her retreating from the aggression dominating her actions only moments before. He figured it was a good sign, that Rathe had retreated a little further, yet all he could feel was building confusion and the urge to punch Reader in the face. 

"Why are we trusting him?" said Shift, taking Athira's attention. "He's a criminal that's admitted to working Rathe's angle. He could be lying to us, distracting us from finding Zoe and keeping Rathe down."

"But I'm not," said Reader calmly. "And she knows it."

Shift took Athira's arm, trying to lead her towards the door. She looked ready to collapse again. "We're going to find Zoe before this whole thing gets any worse."

"We need to find Talon first," muttered Athira. "I don't think I'm going to be conscious long if we don't. Rathe I can hold off, but if it's like Reader said--" 

Shift held her up. "Reader's probably lied more than once in his life, Thira. I don't think he'd take a pledge of honesty when it concerns you. We need to get to Zoe--"

Athira was shaking her head before he finished. "I manifested Talon with colour," she said. "When he left, that's when the colour collapsed. That's when... Talon!" 

Her head lifted, eyes searching the space in front of her like she was expecting to see something. Shift was starting to think more than just her colour had cracked in Talon's absence since the sleeper gas incident in the Warden's facility. Her mind appeared to have gone with it. 

He'd just finished that thought when a giant black raven appeared in the doorway. 

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A/N - Please vote/comment if you feel it's worth it ^.^ Indigo's rank 10 in both categories at the moment, can we push it higher? *dramatic music*