The Battle Within An Angel

Twenty-Four | Maddox & Claire & Wesley

Claire shook her head, her cheeks still puffy from crying, but wiped dry. "So, what do we do, then?"

Sir Stenhouse looked at her with a glimmer of hope in his eyes, a trait that Claire envied. The last thing she felt was hope.

"We fight them with your light."

"And just how do we do that? Scare the living daylight out of her? You know she only emits light when she's afraid," Maddox blurted out.

"I am well aware of that, Maddox. It's the only way. Unless we can scare her only once, harvest her power, and utilize it to ward off those evil souls."

Maddox nodded, leaning forward to Sir Stenhouse. "Isn't it written in there that Zain had nuclear fission running through his veins? Why not just use a radioactive process to recreate nuclear fission without scaring her half to death?"

The pudgy man shook his head, his double chins jiggling as he looked toward Maddox once again. "The power that Zain had- that Claire has some of now- comes in a much larger scale than scientists can produce, really. It's almost like magic, which, of course, is our specialty."

Maddox simply nodded. "Right. Cult of Sorcery or something."

"That's right. But scientists, unfortunately, are caught up in this, too. Reasonably, she should be dead from nuclear production in her blood. But she's just fine. It's all a blur, really." As the man continued to speak, Wesley continued to drift off into an imaginary world- the one that Earth used to be.

Wesley leaned back onto the cushioned red seat, allowing himself to get comfortable underneath the roof of the hideout. Shade from the Red Giant was always appreciated. The hideout was anything but small in size, and nearly everything had a crimson red color somewhere.

Whether the color outlined a mirror or a doorframe, it was there, and it was accompanied by a symbol that Wesley found strange. Perhaps the symbol of the cult. But, he paid the symbol no attention as he half-heartedly listened to the conversation the other three were having.

As long as it didn't concern him, he didn't mind. He knew that there was a chance of being overtaken for his powers by some evil ghost, but that didn't bother him in the slightest. For all he cared, they could take it. That'd get Chaos off of his back for a while.

The last thing he wanted was to be thrown into the lab, but thankfully, it had been destroyed. The scientists, on the other hand, were still alive. Still searching.

Still being a pain in the neck.

"And he," Sir Stenhouse began, nodding to Wesley, which snapped him out of his daydreaming. "He can help us to get the documentation from Chaos."

Wesley sat up with a grunt, rubbing his eyes. "I can what now?"

"The documentation from the studies on Claire, here." Sir Stenhouse pointed directly to Claire, who was still in shock of the situation. She looked as if she were about to be sick. This was all too much to bear for her.

Wesley brushed off her behavior and focused on Sir Stenhouse. "I already have the papers. I found 'em on the ground near Bartone after the warehouse burned down." Wesley reached into his pocket to retrieve a crumpled wad of papers, still stabled together, but mangled.

The papers crunched in his hands as he straightened them out, then handed them to Sir Stenhouse. The pudgy man looked down, his double chin being folded in two, at the papers. Dr. Bartone had made choppy, quick notes about Claire; her light, her power. Her fears.

"Very claustrophobic. Emits light when left alone in dark room occasionally, though unconscious at time of emitting. On studying the light and trying to reproduce it, all attempts failed.

Nuclear fission isn't the only thing inside of her. Nuclear fission cools, not heats, so why light?"

Question marks were strawn about the paper. Dr. Bartone had come up with nothing that could explain the light within Claire, and couldn't reproduce it. Nuclear fusion, what has been heating the sun to its detrimental heat, could've made a bit of sense to Claire's illumination.

It didn't make sense to Stenhouse, and it puzzled Dr. Bartone just as much.

Sir Stenhouse read on, flipping through the papers.

"Why is there light? Why isn't she dead? What's keeping her alive? How? How? HOW?

"Could save world by reducing fusion of sun. Could destroy by not. Plan B: Leave her in the room until she dies. This world is OURS! OURS! OURS!"

Sir Stenhouse's eyes grew increasingly wide as he looked toward the bottom of the second paper. "It's better to destroy and take than to stay here and bake."

Stenhouse shook his head as he exhaled, handing the papers back to Wesley. "It seems that Dr. Bartone himself has displayed erratic behavior."

"You think so?" Wesley snarked. "Who'd have thought the man to be a nut!"

Sir Stenhouse brushed off Wesley's remark and continued. "Well, Claire, there is good news," he turned his head to her, catching her attention. "You can save the world. If only with your... power. Like I said to you earlier, it doesn't make sense for you to be alive. You shouldn't be. No one could reasonably have a constant process of nuclear fission in their body, emit light, and live. No one has ever thought such a thing possible, but hear you are. You don't make sense, but it works. You can save the world."

Claire's eyes lit up like the stars at night as she perked up at the thought of a new idea. "Wait, what if I find my father?"

"Zain Adara?" Sir Stenhouse chuckled. "Ha! Your father disappeared years ago! No one has seen him since he dropped you off at the orphanage. Rumor has it that he ran from Anaia, not being able to live with himself after leaving you behind. I thought he'd died already," Sir Stenhouse stumbled across his last few words as he looked back toward Claire, seeing the pain in her eyes.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, it's okay." Claire stood, brushing off her jeans and motioned for Maddox and Wesley to do the same. "I think we have some work to do."

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"To find my father. And I'm taking this if you don't mind." Claire grabbed the old, thick book, not giving Sir Stenhouse the chance at another word as she walked out of the red-lined door, the two men trailing behind her.

Zain Adara was out there somewhere, and he'd help her, whether he wanted to or not.