Pet: Torment - Chapter FortyOne (Patreon)

Remus

This stranger’s words barely register as I shift my attention to Ezra, desperately searching for vital signs. The beam of energy protruding through his back pulses with life as it simultaneously drags what little is left of my brother. Xion’s pained groan is all I need to hear, forcing my mind to go blank as my muscles tense. The world around me grows intensely vivid until I can sense everything, down to the irregular pattern of the human heartbeats in the distance.

Then I attack.

An expression of shock appears briefly on our attacker's features, and he attempts to dodge but misjudges what I am actually going for. I aim for his grip around Xion’s throat, my intent to sever his hand from her neck. But he releases her, sidestepping to dodge me. I waste no time grabbing her, and since he moves out of the way, I am inches from grabbing Ezra when I feel a powerful blast at my back.

I dodge just in time with Xion in my arms, but it puts distance between me and Ezra. I slowly lower Xion to the ground, my attention remaining on the being who claims he is my father. He’s watching me with a confused expression, his gaze narrowing as he approaches Ezra.

“You know nothing of your past, do you? Nothing of the way Me’Rite tainted my name,” he says. “I can see she has twisted your mind past the point of sanity. I am shocked you are able to control yourself.”

I ignore his words as I check on Xion. She’s panting, and her skin is flushed, so I use my power to heal her, passing on my own energy. He attacked Ezra with the intent to kill him. But he was only trying to weaken Xion, meaning we are of some importance.

“Are you okay?” I ask her in a language the being before us cannot understand.

“I’ll be fine,” she says after a moment.

I shift my attention behind him to Ezra.

“We need to separate him from the energy weapon,” I say, lowering my gaze back to Xion.

“I need you with me,” I say.

Xion nods, grimacing as she rises to her feet and we both face the being who claims to be our father. It never occurred to me that I had one. My mother spoke of her life before this—of the culture we came from as if we were the only ones left. This stranger is clearly a Celestivine with an aura that I can’t decipher. He gives nothing off—no energy, no power, no intent. And for once, I feel a chill of uncertainty grab hold of my spine as he slowly steps in front of Ezra’s unconscious form, clearly intent on keeping us away from him.

His desire to kill is directed toward Ezra alone.

I take a deep breath, for the first time in a long time, focusing intensely on the battle about to ensue. Before I can move, however, our attacker comes at me. He appears right next to me, and I am barely able to sense his presence as he goes for Xion. I quickly block his attack, forming a weapon of energy in my palm as I attack. He dodges, leaning back and giving Xion the opening we need. She lunges at him from below, forming her own weapon. It barely scrapes the underside of his jaw as he goes for her once again. This time, however, I am ready.

I intercept his attack, gripping, giving him just enough space that I can grab hold of his arm, holding him firm as Xion moves quickly past us to get Ezra. I tense as a massive surge of energy washes over me, making my flesh crawl as I realize where it’s coming from. It’s him. The energy is more powerful than what my mother ever exhibited. My grip tightens as I attack him with enough force to send him back a few feet, but I don’t focus on that. I turn to face Xion, holding my hand out to get better contact as I use my power to force her away from Ezra.

Shock forms on her features as she lands on her feet, facing me.

“Don’t touch him! It’s dangerous—Hck!” My words hitch in my throat as our attacker's fist easily rips through the protective field I keep around myself, the scorching heat covering his fist making it easy for him to break through my lower back.

Horror appears on Xion’s features, and she takes a step toward me, but I use my power to force her as far away as I can from me and Ezra. Her body flies through the remaining draping from the event, and I focus my energy to siphon his. He senses what I’m doing, ripping his fist from my back just as I heal myself enough to form a weapon, swinging it behind me to aim for his throat. He jumps back, and I don’t bother to see where he lands as I use what little power I can to teleport myself inches from Ezra.

It’s a stupid thing to do in this situation, but I have no choice. I am the only one who can separate Ezra from the beam of energy interlocked with his body. My fingers are inches from touching the energy beam when I feel excruciating pain in my side, and my body goes flying.

I crash into a column; this time, the force is so much that I go straight through. My body travels at high speeds, crashing out of the opposite end of the venue, the ground crumbling upon my impact. I groan in pain, standing out of the crater created by me, flinching as sharp pain rips through me. My hand flies to the source of the pain, and my eyes widen when I feel blood.

The fabric from my clothing is gone—disintegrated with a portion of my flesh, causing blood to flow freely.

“Remus!” I shift my attention to the panicked sound of my name to see Iris running towards me with tears in her eyes. She has no fear, even though dirt is streaked on her face, and she has blood trickling from a wound on her head. She has multiple bloody wounds on her arms and legs, as a matter of fact. More than likely from the moment our attacker landed. And yet she runs towards me in a panic, her worry for me outweighing herself.

I narrow my gaze as my attempt to put a field of energy in front of her to stop her foolish path to me fails. I am weak, I realize, his last attack draining more of my energy without me even realizing. He is a powerful enemy that I have little understanding of.

“For a Celestivine who has yet to mature fully, you are very intuitive.” I look away from Iris as the attacker who claims to be my father approaches. His expression is blank as he takes me in, holding his hand up. The air around it ripples, twisting slightly. And even in my injured state, I can sense how dangerous it is. Luckily, I touched him before Xion got to Ezra, or she would have been wounded severely from the foreign energy coursing through the weapon.

It all centers around this Celestivine.

I briefly look past him to see Iris has stopped, her expression filled with terror as she watches him approach. So she isn’t completely witless. I try to heal the wound he gave me, but I can’t. It’s as if my body won’t connect to itself. His attack has disrupted the connection.

Just as my mother's did that day.

I tense as the memory flits over my mind. It's brief, but I see the ripple of energy as she drove her nails into my chest, severing any and all connection I had. I ignore the vision, forcing myself to focus. Now isn't the time to get distracted.

“What do you want?” I ask, hoping to stall him to give myself time to come up with a plan.

He looks shocked, stopping in his tracks as he studies me.

“Isn’t it obvious? I want my heirs to return to their home,” he says.

I fight the urge to laugh.

“If what you say is true, why would I ever return with someone who ended my brother’s life so cowardly. Without even giving him the chance to fight for it,” I say, hoping the way I phrase it will force him to reveal whether or not Ezra is even alive.

He laughs, however.

“You’re speaking of the bastard Me’Rite brought into this world?” he asks, using my mother’s name again. “I would never allow such a stain on my name to exist.”

I can feel the venom in his voice as he speaks of Ezra’s existence, and if what he’s saying is true, then our mother’s betrayal. But the way he speaks of Ezra makes my blood boil, my anger fueling me as I push aside the pain that I feel. He’s made his intentions very clear. He doesn’t want to kill me and Xion, which is why his attacks for her were focused on weakening, as opposed to being deadly enough to kill her. But he has no room for Ezra. No intention to keep him alive, that is, if he isn’t already dead.

He watches me carefully with eyes that shine so similarly to my mothers, making me wonder where she is during all of this. Where is the woman who put this all in motion, who stole memories from her children and carted them across galaxies to one day face the consequences of her actions?

I shift my attention once more to Iris.

Her knuckles are white from the intensity with which she clutches the front of her dress. If he has no intention of keeping anyone but Xion and me alive, she may very well be his next target. And though I don’t know her in the way she knows me, I see now that she was telling the truth. I pull in a deep breath, focusing on my father, who watches me carefully.

“Then you’re going to have to kill me,” I say.

I ignore the sick feeling the hits me as the world tilts. Teleporting takes a lot of focus and energy. It is something that never should be done especially when this injured. But I am desperate.

One moment, I am standing before my father, and the next, I am back in the venue next to Ezra. Pain rips through me with an intensity that blinds me for a split second as I close my hand around the weapon, attempting to absorb the foreign energy coursing through it. I can’t get a proper grasp on it as the pain intensifies, and I can only scream as I try to understand what it is I am dealing with.

It isn’t a pure energy like everything I’ve been taught. It is mingled with something else. It’s like trying to properly categorize colors when all you’ve ever seen is black and white—you don’t know what the colors mean or where they belong. You don’t even know how to explain them.

Suddenly, the pain subsides as the weapon disappears, and Ezra’s limp body falls into my arms. I hold him close, checking for a pulse when I am interrupted.

“She has truly infected your mind.” I feel him before I see him as he appears in front of me. I’m not fast enough to move, the strange weapon doing more damage than good. I’m confident the only reason it didn’t kill me is because he removed it himself, letting me know just how important it is to him that he not kill me.

“Hck!” His hand wraps around my throat, his eyes narrowed in disgust.

“How about I help you remember?”