Indigo (NaNoWriMo13)

Chapter 44 - Gone

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Chapter 44 - Gone 

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With Athira out of range, Shift turned his attention to the door. 

Nerves clenched his stomach. He'd seen the people who the Wardens had tested the gas on, if you could call them that. They were shells stuffed with meat, housing a shrunken consciousness that waited for the oblivion of sleep to take them. Hopeless, defeated and broken--and in the back of his mind, Shift couldn't stop them from taking Zoe's face. 

"Tal, can you get the door open with a rune or something?" asked Shift. He glanced down at his clothes. "I'd shift it, but I'm full of black colour at the moment." 

Talia nodded and shook out her hands, eyes scanning the door. "They took my bag of pre-runed earth, but I should be able to come up with something." She spared him a glance and smiled. "I hate to say it, but the clothes make you look kinda badass, even if the mask is a little much." 

Reader stood behind them, leaning against the wall. "You may want to get on with it. The yellow Spectrum doesn't have forever in there, since Athira took out the Wardens supposed to get her out."

Talia placed her palms on the door gently, stretching her fingers over them. "Shouldn't be too hard. The door's made to respond to blue, I should just be able to rune 'open' and it'll--"

She cut off. Her hands shifted slightly across the metal. Her ponytail flicked Shift in the head, to his annoyance. A second after that, the tips of her fingers went white as she pressed them further into the metal. 

"No...that can't be right," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else as her head began making small, quick movements to examine the entirety of the door. 

The same frustration crossed her face, slowly melting panic. She straightened her back, stood up and slid her hands over the runes, over the smooth metal surface of the door, to the tiles and back before Shift felt like he had to intervene. 

"What's wrong, Tal?" asked Shift, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

Talia blinked furiously, her chin quivering as she managed to squeeze out the quivering words. 

"I can't feel my colour," she said. Her hand came off and slammed back down, harder this time. "I can't feel it! It's gone, Shift!" 

Shift froze. Oh colours. She didn't.

"It's not the runes?" he asked, keeping his voice calm. "They aren't just blocking it, like the anti-colour the Wardens used?" 

Talia's head shook. "I could still feel it then! It just wouldn't stick!" 

"Okay, Tal, breathe--"

She staggered away, grabbing her wrists and rubbing them like it'd summon the blue light. Her hand clutched her hair, pulling the end over her shoulder like it gave her an idea. 

"Maybe, maybe if I try to rune something else, I could--"

She ripped out her hair tie, spilling golden locks down her back. A look of intense focus crossed her face as she stared at it, but she dropped it a moment later, defeated.

"It's not there, Shift," she said, shaking. "My colour isn't there."

"Let me see," said Shift.

He took her trembling hands and let his colour consume him, that tiny part that never shifted into anything, always green at his core. It swelled up past the black as he called it forward to find Talia's, melding with his consciousness. He'd shifted her colour before when Raph had forced him. He had a vague idea of what her blue felt like. It was protective and stubborn, solid as any mountain could claim to be.