Close Nemesis

Chapter Forty-Nine: Purpose

LAIVA:

There is a knock at the door. For the first time, I've had a pretty good sleep. In the background, I can hear Xalir throwing up the contents of last night's drinks. I recoil in disgust, before letting out a yawn and stretching my arms.

I'm surprised that in just one month, Xalir managed to get himself a new house to live in. Sure, he has some Plassilmavern silver reserved in the bank, but still, I'm surprised he managed to decorate his house so quickly.

I'm a little offended. If he could buy a house like this, then why did he settle for an apartment?

I guess I'll never know.

Anyway, once I arrive at the front wooden door, I turn the silver doorknob to open it and find Zieré standing in front of me. She's wearing a dark hoodie with red holocrete sleeves, and she looks absolutely stunning. The grey and black fur that decorates her body is softer than usual today. In fact, I think Zieré just blow dried her hair.

"ZIERÉ!"" I cheer enthusiastically. "It's so good to see you again!'

"I'm not here for a social chat, Laiva. I mean, I've missed you. But I really need to discuss what's happening with the re-emergence of your powers and stuff."

"How did you know where to find me?"

Zieré shrugs. "I saw you run out from the bar. I teleported Lygor away so that you could calm down. I don't need you going crazy. But, anyway, long story short: I need you to become Oppugnant once more."

I turn away from Zieré, staring at the multicoloured bottles stacked upon on the rack behind the bar. "I wanted to toss this life behind. You know what I did. I've made mistakes. Then, I tried to fix them. I failed to rid the galaxy of superpowers, and now, I'm afraid that fixing anything further will only make things worse."

"Laiva, I know you. You came to me on Garbatrak with a purpose. You had a resolve to stop the future destruction Rotcetorp would cause. And you succeeded."

"Yeah, but innocent people have lost their lives because of my actions. I'm a bad person."

"Your continuous attempts to do good show otherwise, Laiva. I know I tried to kill you as TeleVisore, but you know how heroics work. I had to put my duty above my friendship."

I breath heavily. "You still could have killed me when you were helping me out on Garbatrak."

"I only sought to kill Oppugnant. I didn't wish to kill you."

I chuckle. "But, if you killed Oppugnant, you would've also killed me."

Zieré rolls her eyes.

"No, silly Laiva. I wasn't intending on killing your superpowered alias. I only wanted to transform you into a true hero. By presenting TeleVisore as a threat, you and Rotcetorp would've had your chance to prove yourselves as heroes."

"But, that doesn't matter now, Zi, since we became allies."

"True that," Zieré responds as the nostrils on her two noses twitch.

"Anyway, even if I wanted to become Oppugnant once more, I don't even have a suit. I left my suit with Lygor. And, we had an argument."

Zieré smiles, before pulling out a strand of her grey hair out.

"I know, Laiva. But, you have to stop picking fights with people. It's not a healthy habit."

Zieré laughs. Her pointy, cat like ears slightly wiggle as she does so, and I smile awkwardly towards her.

Then, she stops laughing and stretches her left palm towards me. A flash of blue light envelopes her arm, and as it dies down, a small, hexagonal disk takes its place.