Broken

59-Battle

Marian stood on the cliff at the edge of the forest, the rushing water splashing up against the rocks far below. She heard Xander out here, she could have sworn it, his evil laugh. She had heard it, she had followed her senses and it brought her here. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, the wind whipped at her hair. It was a gloomy and cloudy day outside, not the kind of day she normally went outside. She sensed him here. "Come out you fucking coward!" Marian shrieked, that damned menacing chuckled, it sent shivers down her spine. "I'm impressed Marian, I certainly raised a prodigy." he said, appearing over the edge of the cliff, hovering. A sick grin slapped on his face. "What do you want Xander? Get out of here, this is not your turf anymore." she snarled. Xander tilted his head, "Oh but it is, as soon as I reclaim it." he laughed. Marian narrowed her eyes.

Kinney had seen it first, the giant whipping storm over the cliff, that wasn't normal east side weather, she showed Andy, then they saw Xander's head slowly float over the tree line, Kinney gasped and automatically pushed the emergency button, within seconds everyone was there, examining the storm, they geared up and headed out, prepared for anything. They thought.

When they arrived, they saw Marian caving into herself, shooting whatever magic she had left at Xander, Cassian rushed up to her while everyone else went to distract Xander. She was pulled to the side of the forest and given a quick potion, everyone was throwing whatever they could at Xander, but he was fighting them off with ease, he has had much more training than everyone and was most definitely stronger. They had no idea how they would beat him.

Solice was panicking, she needed to go help, she gave the baby to Damian and rushed out, grabbing multiple weapons. "Oh hell no." he muttered under his breath, he took the tracking chip out of his wrist by making a small slice on the inside of his arm and tucked it inside the baby's blanket, he put the tracking device in his pocket and ran.

He took the baby to the pond, Merida's pond. "Please protect her," He said to no one, he turned to his daughter "Wait here until mommy comes back. You'll be safe." He smiled. He tucked her in the moss beside a tree and put some more moss on top of her, to keep her warm and hidden. He kissed her forehead goodbye, "Do great things Alena, my light." He turned and ran.

He met everyone on the cliff and gave the device to Solice, "Find her when this is all over," he said, she gave him a horrified look. "She is safe." He muttered, Solice turned back to Xander. Everyone was getting exhausted and it showed, Xander was just deflecting everything they were throwing at him. Xander deflected Kinney's ice and it deflected back at her, striking her in the leg. She screamed and fell, grabbing her leg. Marian looked to Andy "Et ignis ventus!" she creamed, he nodded before igniting his flames, "Fuck with fire and you'll get burned!" He yelled as he threw his fire into Marian's wind magic. The magic surrounded him like a cocoon, Erik was throwing spikes of iron into the cocoon, Kinney was using every ounce of her power that was left to help.

Terrifying screams came from the fire cocoon, is whipped around him, warm air was rushing around everyone as Xander continued to scream. Damien was flying in the air, shooting arrows and throwing knives, anything. and Solice was throwing knives with deadly accuracy. Suddenly the screams faded, everyone when silent as the cocoon of fire crackled, Marian looked at it.

Silence

BANG

The cocoon exploded, Cassian shielded Erik and Damien wrapped his wings around Solice, the rest of him being burnt to a crisp.

Silence

Erik looked up, it was bright out, he felt Cassian, a dead weight on his shoulders. "Cass?" he muttered, Cassian slowly groaned and rolled off of Erik, who hugged him gratefully. Solice pried herself from Damien arms, crying. His feathers, once white and beautiful, had been charred and burnt to a crisp. Her husband, once loving and comforting was now burnt so heavily that you could barely recognize him.

The survivors watched Xander's ashes float through the air as they checked the pulses of everyone.

No pulse

No pulse

No pulse

Everyone was dead. They were the only survivors. Solice was crying as they set off back to the Academy, to find her baby, who was hopefully still there. She checked the device and everyone followed the red dot, they came to Merida's pond, the light shimmering against the clear water. They heard faint sobs, Solice growled, that was her baby. She rushed over to the source of the crying and pulled the moss off of the baby. She scooped her up and cradled her, "It's ok, mommy is here now." She said, tears running down her cheeks.

"You're safe now baby."