Veil of Shadows

Chapter 69. Not Her

Notch's energy slammed down onto them, restraining their arms and hands. A handful of guards entered, awaiting commands. Wraith wiped the blood from her knife on her sleeve, then pushed Equinox forward so that he fell close to the Hero Squad - but they couldn't go to him, or try to heal him.

The masked man glanced to Wraith and nodded faintly. "Well done, assassin. You'll be rewarded greatly for this."

Wraith looked back over at him and, after a moment of watching him, nodded back. "I look forward to it." She went back to staring straight ahead, allowing a slight bit of sharpness to creep into her tone. "In the meantime, is there anything in particular you'd like for me to take care of?"

The masked man thought for a moment, then said "Make sure Shadow isn't killed in the attack on the rebel camp. Get to him and bring him to the castle alive, and we'll hold a public execution once all the rest of the rebels have been put down."

"You're attacking the camp?" Pro asked, eyes widening in horror. "Poppy!"

And with that, the Hero Squad seemed to simultaneously remember that they'd left the apprentices behind, thinking that they'd be safe.

Olivia. Poppy. Jaddie. Myst.

Wraith stepped forward, picking up her knife from where it had been dropped on the floor after Midnight attempted and failed to save Dave's life. He had bled out by now, eyes glazed over, staring lifelessly up at the ceiling. Wraith studied his body for a moment, cocking her head.

"How can you do that?" Ranger whispered, and Wraith looked over at her. "How can you just...look at his corpse and feel nothing? You killed him." Her voice hardened. "How can you not care that you just ended someone's life?!"

Wraith considered her words. "...I'm an assassin." She said finally, turning away. "It gets easier." And with that, she teleported away to complete her new assignment.

The masked man's eyes fell on Toxic. She stared at him, her eyes betraying nothing of what she felt.

"Not her." He said, and the guards behind him straightened, realizing that he was speaking to them.

"Pardon?" Toxic drawled.

"Not her." The masked man repeated quietly, his gaze fixed on Toxic. He tilted his head to the side, and then removed his mask to reveal glowing violet eyes.

Even Notch blinked, as though this was a surprise to him as well. "What the Nether..."

He shot Toxic a predatory smile. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who ordered that my dimension be destroyed. It may be whole now, but...I can hardly allow that to go unpunished, now can I?"

Ranger froze. Her mouth had fallen open in shock - and a little bit of fear, if you looked closely enough. "Your dimension...you...you're the Ender Lord..."

"Depends on who you ask." Toxic deadpanned, feigning indifference in the face of this new development. She was hyperaware of the three guards that shoved her in front of the Ender Lord and held her in place. Subtly, she tested their grips - they were like iron. These weren't just some hired lackeys. They had real training, and real muscle. Taking them out wouldn't be easy, but she'd manage. She always did somehow.

Instead of bursting into rage at the insult, the Ender Lord's smile widened. "Arrogant little thing, aren't you? It's a good thing you'll be staying, because I think you'll be of more use to me here."

Toxic's brow furrowed slightly in confusion. Staying. That meant that the others...

Realization hit her just as the Ender Lord activated the portal in the floor beneath them.

Her friends vanished. Every last one of them.

For a second, all Toxic could hear was her own pounding heartbeat as she stared, numb, at the empty space.

The Hero Squad was gone.

Toxic was many things, but blind fury wasn't often one of them. Cold, calculated, cool - yes. Brute anger, not so much. She had her moments, but she'd seen so much pain inflicted, and had endured so much of it herself, that she'd come to the conclusion that most things weren't worth the energy of feeling emotion over.

This was not one of those things.

She was a killer, a master of torture - the most clever piece on the board, so skilled at maneuvering the players in the way that best suited her and her alone. Now all the pieces had been torn from the board, and she had no moves left to make.

For once, she felt inclined to listen to that little nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her to destroy everything and everyone in her way.

And that carefully cultivated mask of sanity crumbled down.

Rage like she'd never known before swept through her, filling every inch of her body with a shaking, volatile desperation to kill. To wring the Ender Lord's neck until his head popped off. To tear him apart entirely. She needed to punch something, stab something - anything to let out the wonderfully bloody visions that replayed in her mind, over and over.

Wildly, throwing thought and precision and strategy to the wind, Toxic lunged against the men who held her, almost catching them off guard, pouring every ounce of the considerable strength she possessed into breaking their hold. "Where did you send them?!" She screamed.

In the same heartbeat, the Ender Lord lowered a hand to the machine.

It glowed bright purple, cracks threading through its surface, spiderwebbing madly, until it exploded, sending flying pieces of metal and machinery flying in all directions.

Even as more guards rushed over to subdue her, hold her down, restrain her, take her away to some place where they'd do Nether knew what to her, she felt the rift in dimensions snap shut. Felt the last traces of the energies of the Hero Squad go silent.

Felt the one way to get her friends back shatter into shrapnel.