Young Writers Society

Nadira and Codix eventually made it to the front of the group just before they arrived at the control room. All of them were frantic and nervous messes; they had managed to catch Kartiel before based on sheer luck. He was unlikely to fall for the same tricks again, and having to fight him for a second time absolutely terrified Codix.

Nadira skidded to a halt when she stepped inside the control room. Codix, unaware that she was about to do that, went tumbling into her. The two fell to the ground with a loud crashing noise. It was only when he hurried back to his feet that he figured out why she had stopped in the first place.

Kartiel was sitting in one of the chairs.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. He was sitting right in front of the life signs detector, but Codix got the strangest feeling that he hadn't really been all that focused on it - otherwise he would have noticed them approaching and wouldn't have been that startled.

"You escaped," Codix said.

"I did."

"I hurt your legs!"

Kartiel gave him an almost smug grin. "I used an ancient form of magic a mortal like you could never understand-"

"He used a painkiller," Nadira interrupted. "I can still see the injuries on his legs, and there's a small bottle peeking out of his jacket."

The grin momentarily faded at the comment, only to return a second later. "You should have thought to check my pockets before you threw me into the cell that I modified. Did you honestly think it would hold me-"

"So he used painkillers?" Codix whispered to Nadira. "That doesn't seem that, I don't know, cool."

He wasn't trying to egg Kartiel on, but that was the effect he achieved with what was supposed to be a comment to his best friend. The villain looked noticeably deflated at the comment. He must have really been trying.

As usual, Aegeas was the last to arrive in the control room. That didn't stop him from seeing Kartiel, reclining on one of the chairs, wheel around and stare at them. Strangely enough, the 'god' had wide eyes and a weaker grin than usual (even if the latter could've been the fault of Nadira and Codix pointing out he was on painkillers). Aegeas recognized that expression immediately - Kartiel was startled. Why? He should have seen them coming; he was right in front of the life signs detector.

A lightbulb went off in Aegeas's head.

"You're afraid," Aegeas said, pointing to Kartiel. "And I'm betting it's not because of us, or you would've stayed in that cell. What did you do, you moron?"

There he was, before the control panel, clear as day.
What was he doing? I looked to the screen behind him, and lo, there was a whole band of red dots on the map. If these readings were correct, then we would be facing a party of soul-sucking creatures, who alone could overpower any of us, and together could surely decimate the lot of us with little effort.
If my skin had had any colour in it, it surely would have left me now.
This searing fear in my chest caused my customary verbosity to fail me.

''Kartiel...I thought you had the shield working.'' I muttered weakly.

Raiden had Naruto-ran the whole way there, but that was currently unimportant.

He glanced at the life signs detector, only to be mortified by the cluster of dots that sat around. At Boris' comment, he let out a hollow laugh.
"If recent events are anything to go off of, it should have been obvious he didn't do it properly."

I am going to die. I thought for the first time in several hours. I am going to die far away from home, with a band of strangers, having never seen the end of my quest. My body will be sold to the university for the surgeons to practice on, and they will never know what happened to me.

I crossed my arms and gave Kartiel a reproachful look.
''Well, you have outdone yourself now, you disastrous clodhopper. You roped us into this mess, and I demand that you make yourself useful and at least give us some helpful advice for the upcoming bloodbath.'' I said assertively.

As everyone entered the room, Bo's gaze had immediately gone to the screen.

Kartiel didn't feel like much of a threat anymore once he saw the group of red dots approaching theirs on the screen. While the others bombarded Kartiel with questions, Bo backed up to the door and cocked his gun, keeping guard. It was then that he spotted something that looked like a high tech control pad - the kind in movies used to close doors. He didn't hesitate to see if it did just that - and after the system scanned his hand the doors slid shut. If they could barricade the door and keep it shut, that might buy them a little more time to come up with a plan.

Bo still stood there, looking through the windows in them, with his gun ready and his ears open to whatever Kartiel was going to say as a reply.

Kartiel silently took all of the questions and insults in, his voice an emotionless mask the entire time. Something about that terrified Codix. It was one thing for a person to be extraordinarily angry, like he had been when they had taunted him earlier. But this? This was truly frightening. He should have had some sort of reaction to this.

"The shields were in perfect working order before you all arrived," he said, studying their faces with that same horrifying blank look. "I ran diagnostics several times. They're a crucial system to maintaining this city. If they've suddenly gone offline, that means something else is at fault."

He looked over at Boris. "I had nothing to do with this. This city was once home to the enemy of the Wraiths. If you were in their shoes, wouldn't you have come looking for them?"

He turned his attention back to the displays in front of him. Ignoring the group of people gathered in the room, he went over to the other displays. He studied them for a minute before glancing at everyone else. "It's the ZPM," he said.

"The what?" Codix asked.

"ZPM. Zero Point Module," Kartiel elaborated. He folded his arms and adopted the cool persona from earlier. "Several of them are used to power the entire city. When it begins to enter a critical stage, the Zero Point Module stops powering nonessential systems to preserve the limited amount of power remaining."

"The shields are pretty essential," Codix argued.

He shook his head. "It prioritizes life support and keeping the city afloat over the state of the shield."

Aegeas took a deep breath. He restrained himself from lunging at Kartiel, sheathing his sword instead. It wouldn't do any good, it would likely startle the others, and the blood would be a nightmare to clean up.

He walked over to where Bo had sealed off the entrance to the control room, each step slow and deliberate. It was obvious that Bo was attempting to defend the door from the attackers, whenever they should come. Tightening his grip on his sword's scabbard, Aegeas stood on to his tip toes to look through the window.

"How long do we have before this city falls back into the sea," Aegeas said, gritting his teeth. "If we're running out of power, you bastard? And I'm guessing you're not going to send us back to our homes, so what's stop me from cutting off your head?"

I considered the possibility that Aegeas was merely threatening Kartiel for emphasis.
It was indeed possible. But then again, he had killed him once before, Kartiel promised to be an exceedingly satisfying person to murder, and Aegeas wasn't exactly in the best of places at present. I decided that it could not to be risked.
I calmly walked up to Aegeas, pulled him aside, and spoke to him discreetly.

''I understand how you feel. He's a very infuriating man, and I myself often feel violent sentiments toward him. But he knows more about this place than we have time to learn, and we might need that knowledge to live through this. He may be our only chance.
And no matter how suicidally vengeful you may be feeling, you do not have the right to condemn the rest of us.

If you kill him before this Wraith situation has been dealt with, I swear upon all that is holy that I will make you suffer.'' I told him quietly.
My tone was of subdued hysteria rather than vengeful accusation, but I would not be surprised if he were to take mild offense to this.

I cursed myself. In my fear, I had become impulsive, and threatened him.
If I had angered him further, rather than calming him down, then I had doubly cursed us all.

Aegeas looked up at Boris for a second, mouth drawn into a thin line. Then he grabbed Boris by the collar and pulled the man down to eye level.

"Don't push me," Aegeas said, staring into Boris's eyes. "And don't threaten me. I'm not going to kill him. Believe me, I want to, and I don't think he's going to be helpful, but that's not who I want to be anymore. But, if you think I'm weak, I'm easy to control, you're sorely wrong."

Letting go of Boris, Aegeas stepped back. "I've already suffered. What more could you possibly do to me?"

It was clear that I had severely underestimated his integrity and control.
Aegeas was not one to be trifled with, and I was reminded effectively that I should not cross him again, but he was no slave to his passions.
Despite the fact that he probably had more justification to be than anybody else. There he was, a woebegone veteran holding himself together, while I had allowed myself to indulge in impulsive acts of hysteria.
For once, I found myself regretting my actions for reasons unrelated to my physical wellbeing.


''What I said was uncalled for. I apologise.''

Aegeas nodded and went back to looking through the window.

Codix and Nadira breathed sighs of relief when the fighting ceased. Aegeas and Boris were the two most capable people there; the thought of them getting into a serious fight terrified both of them.

"We can't just sit here and wait for them, can we?" Codix asked, staring at the dots on the life signs detector. "There's a lot of them, and not a lot of us. And aren't they stronger than the average person-"

He fell silent when he noticed the look that Kartiel was giving him. Arms folded, the god studied every inch of him with that terrifying blank expression from before. Codix wanted to run and hide at the look and the fact that Kartiel was suddenly taking an interest in him, but he somehow managed to stand his ground. It didn't help when Kartiel starting giving an absolutely evil grin.

"I need you all alive to conclude my experiment," Kartiel announced, walking over to where the majority of the people were. "Even more so, I need to study how people from a variety of backgrounds handle the Wraith. But since none of you are even remotely prepared for this, I'll offer my help."

"Why should we trust you?" Nadira questioned.

"Because you're about to die," Kartiel said, "and that makes you all more desperate than you've ever been."

"Considering you're only interested in keeping us alive for an experiment that involves us taking on the Wraith, and you're silently vengeful beneath your cold expression, I'm hesitant to say yes," Bo replied from his spot at the door.

"That said, I don't want to die. And since we don't have a lot of options, I'm down." Bo however, had a feeling that at least one or two people would contest to this - "That is, if everyone else is."

Raiden swallowed. He was starting to get nervous. He could feel the palms of his hands getting sweaty. Deep breaths, he told himself, just calm down.

"You know," he started, his voice wavering slightly, "if I crit on my attacks then we might be able to win." He had gathered his voice for the rest of his sentence so it didn't shake or waver. He put on a smile. No use looking scared, and maybe he would fool himself into thinking he wasn't.