Part One: Jay's Story- Chapter Six: An Explosion of Dazzling Lights

The words hit me like a punch in the face. “W-what?” My two years training, everything I’ve learned about being a villain and the tiny details that come along with it, nothing could’ve prepared me for this. The fact that my friend might be truly brainwashed, that she might not want to leave. “No. What have they done to you?” I whisper. She looked away, staring at the floor. When she brought her head up, I could see the sadness in her eyes.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Jules. Come with me. Join us! Be a hero.”

A wave of anger washes through me. A hero? Like S.W.O.R.D? None of them are heroes! Not real heroes, like the stories we all want to believe. Good and evil, both are opinions. I’m a villain, so what? Without the stigmas attached to the title, it’s the same as a hero. Her words echo through my head. One keeps coming back. Jules. My name. That isn’t what I want to be known as, not anymore. When I finally respond, my anger is obvious in my voice.

“My name is Jay, and I don’t need your fancy institution to be a hero.” I turn, grab Darkling’s hand, and run. As we race through the hallways, searching for an exit, I hear her calling after me. I don’t respond.

“Wait, Jules,” Darkling stops for a moment, forcing me to pause as well. “Don’t you want to rescue your friend?”

“What friend?” I scoff. “S.W.O.R.D took my friend and replaced her with another one of their perfect hero clones. She’s not my friend anymore.”

When we exit the building, we’re joined by the other villains who had retreated from the target building.

“We’re going home,” Darkling says. The villains nod and start loading into helicopters and vans for the return to base.

“What about the mission?” one asks. “The girl?”

“She’s already been mindwiped, there’s no turning her back,” I inform him.

“Move out,” Darkling adds. I note that most of the villains have already started back. Darkling’s hand twitches and a pool of shadows form around the two of us, lifting us off the ground. We wait until everyone is on their way before our shadowy transportation floats after them. I hear a noise, almost imperceptible. I can tell that Darkling’s heard it too. We both turn back to the target building. At that moment, a huge explosion shakes the ground. Darkling’s shadows pull us away, but we are caught in the blast. The last thing I see as I’m hurtling towards the ground is an explosion of dazzling lights, like falling stars, tearing across my vision before I black out.

~~~~~~~

In the flashes of consciousness, I’m able to comprehend, I see white. White coats, white sheets, white ceiling tiles. A steady beeping is all I hear. Possibly murmured voices. The smell of bleach, like a hospital. I’m only awake for seconds before plunging back into the endless black that is sleep. My body is healing, though I’m not sure from what. I can’t feel any injuries. Then again, I can’t feel much at all. Once, I’m awake long enough to glance left and right. Dark hair on a white pillow catches my attention. Two cots down to my left is Darkling. Machines clustered around both of our beds block most of my view, but I catch flashes of metal that I’m able to piece together. A... metal arm? Yes. Darkling’s right arm has been replaced by a cybernetic arm. I think of my seconds of falling just after the explosion. Darkling, falling with me, already unconscious. Blood staining his uniform, droplets of it following us to the ground.

From then on, whenever I open my eyes in those flashes of consciousness, all I can see is red.

~~~~~~~

The first few things I learn when I wake up are as follows. One: Darkling is in stable condition and is expected to be awake in a month or two, once the cybernetics are fully integrated into his nervous system. Two: The explosion at the target building was caused by S.W.O.R.D, who had anticipated an attack and planted a bomb to kill Darkling. Three: Darknight and the I.I.E.M. came to assist the S.O.S. when S.W.O.R.D and BASE teamed up to attack us. Four: I had come out of the explosion mostly unscathed besides a few minor injuries and a concussion. Five: I had been unconscious for two months.

Two months.

I mostly stay in the medic room, watching Darkling. Okay, that sounds creepy, but I want to be there when he wakes up. Anyway, I’m not supposed to do anything too strenuous. I’m still recovering. I’m not sure what scares me more: that Darkling almost died because of me, or that my powers are gone. The doctors say that it’s normal for someone’s power to be nonfunctional after that person has experienced trauma.

Besides Darkling, there were only a couple of major injuries. A few S.W.O.R.D officials who happened to be near the blast, one or two villains with stab wounds or broken limbs from the fight. With the few healing-powered villains the S.O.S. has, those injuries were corrected quickly. But no healer can regrow limbs.

My days of waiting grew to weeks until I’d been awake for almost a month and a half. What little sleep I got was peppered with nightmares and memories. They were mostly of the day of the attack. The look on Morgan’s face when she’d said S.W.O.R.D was her home. Her calling after me as I dragged Darkling away. And something else, something that may have been my imagination. I doubt it, though. Morgan, pulling a radio from her pocket. Choking out the words “set the timer” as Darkling and I rounded the corner. Set the timer. That could only mean one thing. Morgan had ordered the bomb to be set. The bomb whose explosion nearly killed Darkling.

I come to a decision. I have to leave the S.O.S. I caused this mess, and now I have to dig myself out of the rubble. My decision to be a villain, my coming to the S.O.S, it had all lead to Darkling almost dying. I’m the problem, I realize. None of this would’ve happened if I’d never come here. I can’t stay. And I know that I can’t wait to leave. Not even until Darkling wakes up. I have to go now.

Standing, I make my way to the door. A nurse starts to say something, but I shove past her, breaking into a run as I hit the hallway. I see the stairs that lead to the roof. But first, a quick stop by my room. I change into my uniform and gather what I might need. I’m not planning on coming back. Then, as an afterthought, I scribble a note and leave it on the table. In case someone comes here to look for me. Then back out into the hall. There’s some sort of commotion in the medic room I just left. No time to stop and look. I race for the roof.

The roof access door opens easily. The air is colder up here, and the wind is stronger than I anticipated. Stepping to the edge of the roof, I open my wings, ready to fly. Someone is shouting in the hallway leading to the roof. Urgent, worried, but I can’t make out the words. Multiple people are climbing the stairs. I turn, slightly, so I can see the door. The handle rattles and someone shoves the door open from the inside.

It’s Darkling.

I’m frozen to the roof. The ledge I’m standing on, the way I’ve already mapped to fly, forgotten, if only for an instant.

“Jay. What are you doing?”

I find the breath to say “What has to be done.”

“What do you mean?” Confusion in his eyes, maybe a little fear. The silence stretches, one moment, another, with the soft breeze the only sound.

“I can’t stay,” I say finally, barely more than a whisper. He takes a half-step back. Almost involuntarily, I take a step away from the edge. I’m almost facing him now, instead of glancing over my shoulder. He doesn’t look like a supervillain, like someone to fear. He looks... weak. Vulnerable. Like... someone to protect. And what a brilliant job I’ve done of that, I think sarcastically.

“Why not?” By the time he responds I’ve almost forgotten what he’s responding to.

“Because. I-- I’m the problem here. None of this would’ve happened if-- If I had never come.” The words come out rushed. I’m not sure he’s hearing everything I’m saying, but I can’t stay much longer. If I do, I’ll never leave. “Don’t you get it? This is my fault. And I can’t-- I can’t--” I cut off abruptly.

“Can’t what?” He prompts, after barely a second. “What?” It’s almost a demand.

“I can’t lose you,” I whisper.

We’re both silent. Stunned, almost. Even I’m not sure why I said it.

“Don’t try to stop me,” I plead. If he does, I’ll have to stay.

“Where will you go?” He chokes out.

“I-- I don’t know.” Anywhere but here. “I.I.E.M, maybe even S.W.O.R.D, I don’t know.” I turn back to the ledge, and the rising sun. “Goodbye, Darkling.”

I step off, my wings catching the wind.

Reviews

[Jay_Bluefire]

In the paragraph before the first line, change 'swirled into unconsciousness' to 'swirled towards unconsciousness'
Between 'no one could fix Darkling's arm' and 'Days later' put 'The worst part was,' and uncapitolize 'days'
Capitalize 'i' in 'which i considered the easiest'
Between 'hospital bed,' and 'only the' put 'with'

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

*three thumbs up*