The Fall of the Society

Chapter 11: Unexpected Powers

Her eyes clenched shut, Rose waited for the pain to come, waited for his hands to press onto her face, but it did not happen. "What the hell?" Carson exclaimed as he stepped back from Rose, cursing in pain. "Do your job Phaze! Drain her!" he demanded angrily. Phaze put her hands out in front of her and a small dark orb once again took shape.
     She could feel the power of the orb, it was quickly drawing in her power once more. "No!" Rose screamed, a burst of power flowing from her. Phaze had not prepared for this kind of surge, for when the power hit the orb it rapidly started growing in size. A guard that was standing a little too close when the orb expanded got caught in its pull and was violently ripped toward it. Blood sprayed everywhere as the orb condensed the man, causing everyone else to pull back. Carson was wearing an expression of fury and concern, while Phaze simply looked panicked.
     "Close it!" Carson roared angrily at Phaze as the table and chairs were dragged into the orb, spraying the room with wood splinters. They stood on either side of Rose as she stood and faced Carson directly. He made a motion to Phaze and Rose could feel the air around her begin to distort; she was trying to form a gravity portal right on top of her.
     Her motions were labored as she turned and faced Phaze who was concentrating very hard to make her powers work the way she wanted them too. It was clearly much harder to create one of her orbs overtop the source of power rather than nearby it. She opened her eyes and made direct eye contact with Rose. Rose let out a battle cry and started to move herself forward, fighting against the force trying to hold her in place. Growing more and more near to Phaze, her aura grew more powerful and panic spread more apparent on Phaze's face.
     Phaze's eyes changed from being locked with Rose's to being locked with Carson's. The next moment the force on Rose was gone and Phaze blinked from view. "That bitch!" Carson cried angrily. He moved backward quickly and motioned for the guards to shield him. After they moved in between him and Rose, he yelled his orders. "Stop her at all cost!" The men followed his order and began moving toward her. Now that she was free of the pressure that Phaze had been placing on her, it was easier to call forth her power and the fire flowed from her, blazing across the room and licking the guards shield. The shields could not hold up to the amount of power she was now exerting and soon failed, leaving the guards completely defenseless. A few drew firearms and fired frantically at Rose, but none of the rounds made it through her aura which continued to increase in power. Dropping their firearms, the men turned to try and run, but it was already much too late, and the fire engulfed them to quickly for them to even scream. Carson's eyes grew even wider as he backpedaled against the wall. "We were right about you; you really are a monster! Even worse than we could have imagined!"
     "I am not a monster!" Rose screamed angrily. "You have driven me to this point! All you had to do was leave us alone!" Her aura pulsed powerfully and began to swirl wildly. The power was blowing debris all around the room, and lifted Rose from the ground while she continued to push more power into the room. Carson shielded his face with his hands as his skin began to redden and blister.
     Terror radiated from Carson, "How is it possible for you to have this much power. Even Arcane Inferno could not match this." The heat continued to blast him, "You are going to bury yourself if you keep this up! The building can only take so much!"
     Rose ignored him as she began to lose control to her rage. Roaring, she pushed more and more power out of her body and into the room. Swirling more violently still, her powers started to condense in front of her, much to her own amazement. The change did not deter her anger as she forced more power to pour into attack. As the attack continued to condense it grew brighter and brighter, taking on the shape of an oval. The form continued to force upon itself as it shifted and changed. Then as swiftly as it had started, it ended with the shape blazing into the form of a man as all the power in the room shot into him. She felt drained but managed to keep herself standing as the room spun.
     Carson slumped against the wall, exhausted and drained of his powers. "What the hell power is this?"
     The fiery man stared hard at Carson before turning to Rose. Tears filled her eyes as she took in the facial features of the man standing before her. "How is this possible? Are you really here?" The form placed a blazing hand on her cheek softly and wiped away her tears. A smile crossed the figures face as more and more detail became clear to her and the room stopped spinning. Their eyes met and they embraced each other in a tight hug, before kissing passionately. "I love you Tripp," she stated, staring into his eyes. She felt she must be dreaming or going mad from all the power and pain she had been through to get where she was. There was no way he could be here with her now, but she did not care. If it took her being in a dream to be with him, she would stay here forever. She still had one thing to do before she could allow the dream to envelope her completely.
     Stepping to the side of Tripp, Rose locked her eyes angrily on Carson, who was still sitting on the floor. He returned her glare and forced his way into a standing position. She took a step forward and Carson threw himself to the side, rolling across the floor and grabbing one of the machine-guns the guards had dropped. Coming back to his feet he pointed the gun at Rose and held down the trigger. Rounds blasted from the end of the firearm in a rhythmic succession, as fire propelled the projectiles directly at her. Rose barely had time to gasp as the action took place, and she was too drained to throw her aura back up quickly enough to stop the attack. Tripp quickly placed himself between the two and absorbed the attack, the bullets disappearing into his flaming mass. Carson stopped firing with a stunned look on his face as Tripp took a step toward him. Unable to back up any further, Carson reloaded and began firing again after quickly recovering a new magazine from a smoldering corpse. His efforts were in vain as the rounds disappeared into the solid fiery form of Tripp. Finally close enough Tripp reached out and grabbed hold of the firearm and it began to liquidize very rapidly, causing Carson to snap his hands back in order to not get burned. He finished destroying the gun then looked at the ground and fire tendrils shot down on to the floor and completely encased all the firearms there, causing the rounds to fire off harmlessly inside of tendrils as they melted into pools of molten metal.
     Carson crossed his arms in front of his face, expecting Tripp to strike at him, but he simply turned and moved back in front of Rose. "I must avenge you," she said with tears in her eyes. His fiery head shook back and forth, while still smiling at her. "I don't understand." Caressing the side of her face, she laid her head on his hand and closed her eyes. She found the warmth he was radiating comforting and leaned against him.
     Carson's eyes scanned the entire room, looking for a way out while Tripp and Rose were distracted, but he would have to make his way past them to get out. Moving slowly, he edged to the corner, still hoping they would not look at him. He suddenly met Rose's gaze and froze, terrified. Rose tried to step back, but Tripp held her tight, unready to release the embrace he had on her. Working up a bit of courage, Carson continued his trip across the room, but started to panic when Tripp released her.
     She quickly stepped between Carson and the door. "Why should I let him live?" she asked, fury growing in her eyes. Tripp's form started to flicker, dimming in brightness and density. "No!" Rose screamed. "I am not ready for you to go!" Tripp stepped in front of her once more and placed his hand on her heart and shook his head. She finally understood. He was trying to keep her from becoming the monster they wanted her to be, the thing Envy had warned her about. She dropped her eyes, feeling slightly ashamed for what she had been doing.
     Tripp placed his now transparent hand under her chin and brought her gaze up to his. "I love you," he mouthed soundlessly.
     "I love you too," she replied, fresh tears welling up in her eyes. Then with a bright flash of light, Tripp was gone.