Corrupted

Chapter 11

In the basement of the mansion, Ave stood in the middle of a circle of twelve copies of herself. Shadow-clones. She frowned.

"No, this is weird. I can't fight myself." She pointed to two of the clones. "You're Blaire." She pointed to two more, and two after that. "You're Alec, you're Tracy, you're Aria, you're Kate, and you're Ricky"

With her multitude of powers, she assigned to each pair of clones the abilities they were supposed to posses.

"I won't be fighting you all together, so I'll be doing two by two. You first." she said as she pointed to the shadow-Blaires. They stood in front of her, and all the others stood back, against the wall. Blaire got in a battle stance. But as she saw the two Blaire look-alikes in front of her, memories poured into her head.

Ave was back in the record shop, in the form of Rexton. She had been talking to Blaire for a while.

"I've always been attracted to bands. My whole life really." said Blaire with a laugh. "I actually wanted to be in a band myself."

"What stopped you?" said Rexton, honestly impressed.

Blaire laughed. "Every instrument I try sounds like a cacophony of dying animals, and I can't sing to save my life."

"Ah. Valid answer."

"Yeah. But my friends never gave up on me. But I'm still not going to be in a band. Too lazy."

Ave snapped out of her trance. She was still facing the clones, who were looking at her inquiringly.

"You know what, no. Kate, get over here." Ave got into a battle stance again, but more memories jumped to the surface.

Ave was back in th forest, but now she was Teoh. She had been walking with Kate for a while.

"You know, your friends don't trust me one bit." said Teoh.

"Yeah, but they've had their share of bullshit this past year." answered Kate with a shy smile.

"And you still stick together through all of that?"

"Yeah. It's not that hard, really."

"Huh." said Teoh, sounding a bit sad. "It's like I can't hold on to a friend for more than a year."

Once again Ave was back in the basement. Her face felt wet, and her mouth was dry. Had she been crying? She tried to fight the others, but every time she did, memories of her encounters with the teens poured into her head. After trying everyone, she was on the floor, in a fetal position. The clones dissipated in a puff of smoke. The memories had made her realize something. There was another way to what she was doing, the goal she hoped to reach. But she wasn't going to tell Pierce. For some reason she knew it would not help her situation. So she stood up, and wiped the tears off her face. She knew what she was going to do tomorrow.

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In the morning, when the plans were made and everything was sorted, Ave was getting ready to track down the group of teens. Suddenly, Pierce grabbed her arm.

"Be careful, okay?" he said with concern.

"I'll be fine." answered Ave with a chuckle. "I'll do my thing, then you can do the grand entrance you've dreamed of."

Pierce's face lit up at the thought.

"Okay, I should go. See you later." On the contrary of Pierce, Ave preferred to make grand exits. So, she casually back flipped off the stairs and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.