Eclipse of the Sun

Chapter One- Prologue

***Author's note. I will basically give everyone who deserved a POV a POV in this. That includes Callum, Danna, Simon, Leroy, and Ingrid. Yay Callum!***

Simon prowled the catacombs under the Cathedral, invisible. He searched for any other Anarchists, hiding for a second ambush.
There was nothing. The tunnels were dark, and eerily empty. Simon felt safe enough to turn visible again. He was exhausted, and stalked through the tunnels, now just looking for somewhere to sit.
"I've never seen you before," a small voice said. Simon jumped and went invisible for a flash.
He turned around. The owner of the voice was a small girl, with striking blue eyes and short black hair, messing around with a bunch of wires in a bag.
"What are you doing here?" Simon demanded. There couldn't be civilians underneath the Cathedral, much less children. Maybe this was the Anarchists new strategy.
The girl shrugged. "I'm supposed to sit down here until the fight's over."
Was this girl being purposefully cryptic or did she really not get what Simon was trying to ask?
Why would a kid be in the Anarchist cathedral? Was she a prodigy? Did she even know what was going on?
Well, no matter what, Simon was a Renegade, and his first duty was to protect civilians. And that meant learning what the help this little girl was doing in the catacombs. "Can I sit?" He asked, voice gentle.
The girl seemed to consider it for a moment, but then nodded.
They sat in silence for a bit, the girl tinkering with her wire, and Simon wondering what she was doing down there. Right when he was about to ask what she was working on, the girl said something instead.
"Are we winning?" She said, softly.
Simon hesitated. For some reason, he didn't think she meant the Renegades. "It's a tie." he finally said, because that was something kids understood. He didn't want to risk making the little girl upset.
The girl nodded, as if that was only the way. "Say, what's your power? I saw you turn invisible."
"Yeah, that's my power," Simon said.
The little girl smiled. "Cool. There's a Renegade like that, you know. Can invisible people be seen by each other? Have you ever fought him?"
Simon smiled.. "Can't say I have." He paused. There was definitely something wrong about this little girl. Was she related to an Anarchist? Were her parents fanatics? Were the Anarchists taking prodigy wards now? "Would you mind telling me your name?"
The girl's gaze turned suspicious. She scooted away, just slightly, as if Simon had said something wrong. "I don't think I should tell you that."
"Okay," Simon continued. He tried not to scare the kid. Not to make her suspicious. "Then what can you tell me?"
The girl looked in deep thought, then smiled. "My uncle calls me little nightmare. That's gonna be my Anarchist name, when I'm grown up."
"Oh?" Okay. Kid's uncle was definitely an Anarchist, to have those sort of goals. Where were her parents, then? Simon didn't ask, for fear of her realizing something was "off" with him.
"And I can tell you a story!" Little Nightmare finished, a huge grin on her face. "So you don't get scared," she added, softer.
"What story?" Simon asked, smiling back at her.
"Missus Queen Bee taught this one to me," the little girl said. "One day she was going to fight the Renegades. She brought her bees— you know her bees, right? "
A shiver ran involuntary down Simon' s spine. "I believe we've met."
"Well, she brought her bees, but when they got to the warehouse, the bees wouldn't go in. And The ones that did go in got sick. So sick they died. You know why? Blacklight had sprayed the whole place with anti-wasp spray. He was being mean. Do yoh know what you do when someone is being mean, Mr. Invisible Man?"
Simon held in a chuckle. "Politely tell them to stop?"
Little Nightmare stared at him as if he had grown another head. "No, moron," she said, so matter-of-fact that Simon almost laughed again. "You hit them."
Simon must have looked taken-aback, because the little girl giggled. "So Honey punched Blacklight in the face. With her ring hand. And Evander Wade just started crying!" The kid giggled.
Well. Simon could see why they called her a nightmare.
The little girl looked up. "I hope my uncle's okay."
"I hope your uncle is okay too," Simon said, lying through his teeth. Despite himself, a twinge of guilt came to him. He could have very well killed this girl's uncle himself.
Just then, his watch vibrated. The Renegades had just made the clever little things before the battle.
Simon swiped up, and Hugh's voice came in, and Simon could hear the smile in his voice. "Ace is down, Si. I repeat: we've won."
Simon froze.
The girl looked up at him, terror in her eyes. "You're —You're a Renegade?"
Simon held out two hands. "Yes, but I'm here to help you. I—"
The girl covered her ears, as if blocking out Simon- or something else. She jumped off her spot on her chair. Tears welled in her eyes.
"Leave me alone!" She cried. Then her face twisted into a scowl; filled with more rage than any child her age had a right to have in their tiny body. Simon was reminded of Adrian— Georgia's little boy. The thought of him, sitting in the Anarchist tunnels, crying like this just at the sight of a Renegade, made Simon sick.
"I will kill you!" The little girl screeched. Though tears streamed down her cheeks, the truth in her voice was hard and cold. "I will kill all of you!" A sob seized her tiny body.
"I'm not going to hurt you—" Simon began, taking a single step toward the crying girl. However, the girl jumped to her feet, grabbing her bag and bolting down the tunnels until she was out of Simon's sight.
Simon took a step in the direction she ran, but his wristband buzzed again.
"Simon? Are you coming up?"
With one last forlorn look at the tunnels in the direction the Little Nightmare ran off to, Simon clicked Broadcast. "Affirmative."
••••••••
Later the next day, Simon heard that many of the catacombs collapsed, their structure too old to hold the weight of the battle that had taken place. Simon's heart panged. That little girl... all he could imagine was his Adrian, crushed beneath the weight of the catacombs.
He could only hope that she was with her family.