The Darkness Inside ~ Pentatonix

Air

"Now?" Avi echoed.

"Of course," Void stated. "There is no reason to wait."

"But there is," Kevin shook his head. "We want Mitch back as much as you. We need to work out the kinks in the plan... We cannot just get up and go."

"We have to!" Void roared. The bracelet rattled on his wrist. It wasn't enough however to completely contain his powers, and although it shocked him continuously his fist was ghostlike. His skin was smoke, and electricity danced through the clouds like a thunderstorm. And then as suddenly as it started it stopped, and Void crumpled to the ground. "We have to..." He sobbed. "Please..." He begged, black tears streaming down his face. "Please..."

Scott found his feet moving, and suddenly his arms were around the boy, hugging to him to his chest. Not caring that tears were soaking his shirt. He just held Void, letting him sob, letting him grieve.

"I've failed," Void cried, gripping onto him. "He's all I got, I've only wanted to protect him. I've done everything... for him! AND HE'S BEEN TAKEN FROM ME!" Scott gripped him closer, tracing soft circles on his back. Softly shushing him, holding him tighter, letting him know he wasn't alone.

"Then let us do it now," Avi said quietly. "We have nothing to lose. The EE has already stripped everything from us. We only have something to gain." Scott slowly agreed and reluctantly released his hold on Void.

He then turned to the wind, plucking the soft parts of the air, the part that carried voices. He carefully molded each into solidity, and weaved in each of the groups voices. They ended up being tiny, and he knew his friends were worried they would be lost in their ears. But Scott only handed them out, and began to weave another until each Elemental had a device.

"You'll have to speak aloud," Scott explained. "It will pick up a whisper and transmit it to all the other devices. But if you do not speak aloud, then you communication skills are useless." Kirstie smiled at him and reached for him, squeezing his hand. Scott smiled back at her, taking her hand gladly. Kirstie was his best friend, he wouldn't trade her for the world. Perhaps that is why Scott bonded so closely with Void, each of them caring so deeply for another person, yet can do nothing to protect them.

Scott made his own last, slipping it into his ear. He regrouped himself and tightened his mental hold on all of the devices in each of his friends ears. He wanted to make sure they were working, so he turned up the sensitivity and watched all his friend wince. So they worked. Scott smiled to himself and dulled the devices senses. 

"Now then?" Avi asked, messing with his device. Scott tried to turn down the sensitivity, but he wasn't sure how much lower he could go until they stopped working completely.

"Of course," Void said, he had finally pulled himself together and was using his sleeve to mop up the acidy mess on his face. "It's now or never."

The four best friends locked eyes with each other, almost mentally agreeing that if this is the end it was worth it. At sixteen years of age, they were fine with giving up their lives. They had nothing to live for but each other anyway.

"Ready?" Void asked, breaking up the moment.

"Yes," Kirstie said quietly. "It's as you said, now or never." And with her soft words, Void twisted the handle on the door and the five stepped out of Outside, prepared to meet whatever fate was waiting for them. The second time they had ever rebelled... the second time one hundred times worse than the first.

~*~

Scott tapped nervously on it wall beside him, waiting for Kirstie to do her part. He was nervous, he always was nervous. He didn't want to be shocked, he hated those bracelets, they scared him more than Madden did and now he had subjected his whole body to be shocked. He wished he could just get it over with so he didn't have to think about it.

Kevin reached for his hand, and although he was no Kirstie, Scott took it gladly, focusing on their connection rather than what was to come.

"Uh," Kirstie's voice sounded like she was directly next to Scott. Fantastic, it was working perfectly, the first time it had. "We have a slight complication." Kevin squeezed Scott's hand, his eyebrows furrowing in worry.

"Define slight," Kevin said, Scott could feel him continue to worry.

"There happens to be a gate that I cannot get open that leads to the power room. It's drilled shut from the other side." A banging noise was heard from Kirstie, muffling her voice slightly.

"How tight are the bolts?" Void's voice asked through the device. Scott was amazed that they were working as well as they were. He didn't want to tell Kevin that though, then he'd think he was even more useless. Instead he just squeezed Kevin's hand as they listened intently to the conversation being held.

"Um, one is loose, the other seem decently well screwed in," Kirstie explained.

"Use water to place pressure on the vent. It might loosen the bolt," Void suggested sounding almost bored. Scott thought maybe it was the device making him sound like that. He couldn't have gotten bored so quickly... he was freaking out before...

"I'll try." And once again the line went silent, leaving Scott and Kevin to their own silent hell.

"So..." Avi voice started.

"Try not to speak unless it is needed, every word you say uses my energy," Scott explained, trying not to sound angry. He was getting weaker by the second, he didn't have time for mindless communication.

"Through!" Kirstie exclaimed excitedly. "I'm in the power room!"

"Fantastic, let us know when the generators are fried, so I can begin burning some sh-"

"Language," Kevin interrupted.

"So I burn some crap," Avi corrected.

"Back-ups are down," Kirstie reported. "Just the main one to go." A few seconds the halls went dark. "Done, starting burning Av."

When the sound of footsteps started coming their way, Scott released Kevin's hand and stood in front of him. As Madden appeared Scott was already whipping up a whirlwind. She yelled something into a device, but Scott continued to attack her, feeling the rush of being apart of something. For the first time he felt powerful, like he could do something. For the first time Kirstie's voice telling him we wasn't useless felt true. But it was shut down almost as quickly as it started, as the shocking devices fired and Scott screamed as they connected it. He fell to the ground immobile, unable to lift his head. He felt himself getting weaker, and weaker. All of his energy was put towards the devices. He barely felt the gloved hands grabbing his arms and pulling him away. He locked eyes with Kevin. 

"Going dark." Scott barely got those words out, before the world plunged into darkness.