5.32 – A choice made and the path taken

Aurora pushed her energy to its limits again and threw herself at the epitome of darkness.  She ran at him and Black Angel slipped silently out from the room.  Gothschilde backed off as Aurora’s blade swung towards the neck of the creature, but the Void Wolf simply caught her sword and idly examined her blade.  On contact, Aurora felt the familiar sensation of darkness eroding the light of her sword.

With narrowed eyes, Aurora willed her light to remain strong as he fed on her energy.  She forced her sword forward through his grip with a yell, “NO DARKNESS WILL DEFEAT LIGHT WIELDED BY A STRONG HEART!” Aurora’s blade flared up and seethed with light.

There was a wet squelching noise as Aurora thrust her sword into the Void Wolf’s body.

“HA HA HA! MORTAL GIRL, I ENJOY YOUR SPIRIT! TOO BAD YOUR GREEDY PEOPLE ALLOWED THEMSELVES TO CAPITULATE SO EASILY! YES! STRUGGLE FOR MY AMUSEMENT! I’M MORE ENTERTAINED THAN IN AGES!”

Aurora reached back and formed another gauntlet around her fist to slam it into his face as she pulled her sword back, pulling it free from his grip and body.  Arcs of power continued to rippled along her blade and as she freed her blade, showers of sparks flew.

“You’ll love this, too!” Redline Racer’s voice came from the doorway. She’s woken up! The speedster ran in with her communicard in hand to run around the two.  There were popping strobe lights all around as she flew around the Void Wolf.

“Howdoyoulikethat?That?That?That?” she taunted the creature.

“FEEBLE AND PATHETIC! USING SMALL LAMPS TO ATTACK THE STAR-SHADOWER!” He scoffed and laughed uproariously. “THE VOID WOLF LAUGHS AT THIS PATHETIC ATTEMPT, SPEEDY MORTAL!”

“That’sfine.I’mjustadiversionanyway!” Redline sped off as Aurora stepped forward to slice his chest with her light blade.

The Voidwolf blocked her attack with an arm and the sword connected with him, swinging into the dark matter that was his body with another wet squelching noise. He laughed. “HA HA HA! YES, BRING YOUR MORTAL POWERS TO BEAR!”

Good job, Aurora, but you can’t kill him under these circumstances, Black Angel said. Guess what I found. Follow my voice, and I’ll lead you to the shard that tethers him to this plane!

Aurora turned to Redline with a grin. “We’ve got it! Let’s go!”

Aurora turned and dashed out from the room, boosted by her wings’ flapping.  She left a few feathers behind as Redline Racer spun and zapped ahead and out from the room.

“Whichway?” Redline asked.

“A FOOLISH ATTEMPT TO FLEE IN THE FACE OF PURE DARKNESS!” The Void Wolf laughed and bent to pick up one of Aurora’s feathers to clench a fist around it. Her feather turned into sludge as he forced himself through the doorway after the running heroes.

Aurora pointed towards Black Angel’s position based on where her voice came from.  Redline ran through the corridor and the Void Wolf chased Aurora up the corridor.  They reached an open doorway and Gothschilde was already standing inside another room, having snuck out while Aurora was occupied. She was negatively illuminated by a jagged black crystal floating in the center of the room.

Aurora looked at herself to see that she was illuminated normally, however the light that bounced off their bodies were all reversed and darkened, colors darker than they once were lighter, even Gothschilde’s black dress. It could not change how light illuminated Aurora’s frame because she was a source of light and rejected the shard’s non-light.

Black Angel stood beside the shard, looking also normal.  She gestured generally at the shard. “This is it. Use your Empyrean powers to destroy it… or contain it with them! Choose well.”

Aurora froze, pondering on the issue while the Void Wolf laughed, nearing the entrance of this room.

What would it mean to contain it? If it’s evil and irredeemable, I should destroy it.

“Do you want to let Gothschilde get ahold of any of it?” Black Angel asked. “She can’t do much with it while it’s in one piece.  If you contain it… and if you trust me.... It can be put to use… But no matter what you choose, you have to either contain or destroy it. Doing both will let you defeat the Void Wolf.”

Aurora nodded thoughtfully.  If she destroyed the crystal, Gothschilde would have her power upgraded and they would fall if she turned on them with greater power… and her power might be greater than the Void Wolf’s.

Could she trust the judgement of a villain who had claimed that she would take her body sooner or later? Could she trust Gothschilde?

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” The Void Wolf hissed as he finally reached the door and started forcing his way inside.

“I trust you.” Aurora said, having made a choice, hoping it didn’t lead to problems.

Even though the black-feathered villain was once evil, she’d shown evidence of change.

Thinking back on the times before the Empyreans were taken by the Oubliette, Black Angel had been almost wistful and regretful.  When she’d vanished when she first got her powers and Black Angel was taunting her, always trying to bait her to cross the line to the dark side, she always disappeared in a twinkling of darkness, but her aura was now grey.

She chose to trust, no less than when she chose to trust her mentors with her secret identity.

Holding her hands up to the shard, she formed a bubble of light around it.

Help me!

The Void Wolf pushed the doorway open with a screeching of metal and entered the room.

As Aurora formed the bubble around the crystal, her powers started draining away from her.  Black Angel put her hands onto the bubble and the draining of her energy ceased at once.  Black Angel disappeared and there was a sudden absence in Aurora’s mind.

The Void Wolf roared and shrank dramatically to a human-sized shadow.  Aurora turned as he rushed at her to attack and balled up a fist and struck him right into his inky face.  He flew backward, rubbing his face. “ARRGH! HOW DARE YOU STRIKE THE STAR SHADOWER, YOU SAD MORTAL FEMALE!”

Gothschilde stepped up behind Aurora. “You’ve betrayed me!” She hissed.

Redline rushed up behind the loli at superspeed to grab her wrists and pull them behind her back as she forced her to the floor. “Your darkness will probably just make him stronger, so zip it for now. Let us finish the job.”

Aurora made a gesture and drew her light sword, allowing her luminosity to elevate again. She pointed it at the Void Wolf’s head. “You’re helpless now, cut off from your energy, Void Wolf.”

The shadow growled and stretched his arms to either side with a loud laugh and at that moment, the ship grew brighter as he pulled all ambient darkness to himself. “I STILL HAVE A CARD TO PLAY, MORTAL!” He grew again.

“Surrender, Void Wolf, or I WILL run you through.  You aren’t alive, are you?”

Void Wolf laughed loudly. “YOU HAVEN’T THE MALE GENITALIA TO DO SO, FOUL FEMALE FIGHTER!”

“Half right…” Aurora chuckled in a whisper and stepped forward to put her sword of light through his chest.  The Void Wolf’s eyes widened as he clutched at her blade when it went through his heart, or what might pass for one, perhaps.

Redline Racer gasped and Gothschilde chuckled, still pinned on the floor. Her eyes were riveted on Aurora and the Void Wolf and she said, “He’s not real as Aurora said. It’s just a construct of complete darkness with a will.  Let me up, idiot.  I may be able to weaken him now that he’s cut off and wounded.”

Redline shook her head. “I don’t want to risk accidentally empowering him. Let Aurora finish it. I know that she can.”

Aurora left her sword sticking through Void Wolf when she let go of her blade and began to punch him repeatedly with her light-imbued gauntlet constructions.

“STOP! STOP! STOP!” The shadow said every time she punched him. His desperate cries continued and were delivered in the same imperious tone. “I WILL TEAR YOU INTO PIECES!”

Aurora almost felt sorry for him as he became less with each punch that tore off yet another chunk of his darkness to disintegrate as it fell from his body.  Piece by piece she took him apart until he ceased to be.

Aurora looked over her shoulder to see that Black Angel was back and held the sphere. She looked tired and from the way her limbs were trembling, it certainly looked as though she was greatly exerting herself to contain the object she wrapped her arms around.

Redline gave Aurora a thumbs up. “Wow! Nice work! I better watch out. They might replace me with you.” She laughed.

Aurora grinned and shook her head. “They’d never do that to you, Redline.” Aurora stumbled over to the shard and Black Angel. “I guess we’re finally done.”

Putting a hand onto Black Angel’s shoulder, Aurora sighed. “Is it weird that I felt bad for him after everything? Black Angel… Thank you for your support. I now respect you,” she murmured. “Is the ship purified? It sure feels better.  Are we in good enough shape to fly?”

Aurora took one of Black Angel’s hands as she let go of the shard with a weary expression. “Will you teach me?”

Black Angel sniffed and looked away. “Hopefully you will continue to trust me in the future, and perhaps even let me out every so often.  Ahem, let’s address your questions.  You’ll have to walk around the ship with me and follow my instructions so I can examine things, but I think that we can do it. I once was a pilot, before I embraced the darkness, so I know much about the repairing of this technology.”

Redline Racer looked at Aurora and blinked. “You’re not talking to me, are you? I mean, I can probably figure out how to drive this thing, but I don’t know much about it, so I don’t think I could repair it.  I mean, I could look at it all at speed and see if I can figure out how it all works, but this would be more of a job for Dynamech… or maybe your friend Mocha, eh?” She grinned.

“She’s here.” Gothschilde smiled, looking at Black Angel without seeing her. She looked then at Aurora to ask, “Who is this Mocha person? What’s her power? She can make coffee really well?”

Aurora laughed out loud and Black Angel looked at Gothschilde with a small smile.  “No… she was a budding villain in my city.  We’re helping her to clear her name and get a fresh start. She’s my friend.  One of many.” Aurora walked to Gothschilde and knelt beside her to take one of her hands. “I’d like to call you a friend, too.”

She looked up at Redline. “You’re right, Goths.  I’ve been speaking with Black Angel.  She’s a part of me, so to speak.  Her good side, before she turned, was a pilot of one of these ships.  It was before Empyreans discovered the Oubliette.  She’s going to teach me how to repair this ship so it can be put to use.  I don’t want to be a grabby, but since it’s a part of my heritage, I’d like to claim it and restore it to what it once was.  No, better.”

“C’mon. Follow me. Let’s see if we can get this thing airborne,” Aurora said, grinning eagerly.