1.5

Content warnings: transphobia, torture, violence typical of a fight scene (detail below; skip if you prefer surprises)

• Several guards forcefully cut a transgender character’s hair. Her emotional distress in response to this is briefly depicted.

~.~

The next floor, as it turned out, was like entering a walk-in freezer, and without his jacket, Joshua found himself shivering, even though he’d wrapped his wings around himself for warmth. His turtleneck was sleeveless, unless you counted the tattoo sleeves, which did nothing to shield him from the cold. Everyone was shivering, really, except for Felix (who was repeatedly making and dispelling icicles in his hand as he walked) and Kai (who was just a tough bastard, apparently).

At least with Felix and Kai around, the group could maintain invisibility to avoid unnecessary gunfire. Ilia had done a decent job keeping the group cloaked on the first floor, and Dani had kept the group shielded on the next, but it was clear that the strain had gotten to both of them. They looked exhausted.

Hey, Peter. Dani said curtly, punching the other lightly in the shoulder. Make me a jacket.

Oh! That’s a good idea, actually. Peter held out his hands, and the ugliest fleece jacket Joshua had ever seen popped into existence. It was bright pink, with the words “I’m an Asshole” emblazoned across the back. Dani took the jacket with a sour look in Peter’s direction.

Does anyone else need a jacket? Peter asked with a shit-eating grin. Immediately, four hands went up in the group. Joshua’s pride kept him from raising his own. Instead, as everyone donned their new, equally ugly jackets, Joshua turned to Juli.

Can’t you do something about the cold? he asked.

No, Juli said sullenly. My powers aren’t working well in here. It’s like the cold is cutting the flames off before they can even start.

That makes sense, Felix reasoned. The person they’re keeping on this floor—Minerva—has fire powers, too.

Joshua refused to look at the immortal, staring instead at the flickering pink stripe that bisected the wall, running horizontally in both directions. The flames seemed weak, but grew stronger with every step the group took.

Karyme suddenly winced, bringing both hands up to her head.

Something’s messing with my powers, she said, teeth gritted. It’s like I’m getting some sort of static interference. I can still see things, but…

Ah, Kai said, his expression grim. That would be Null. They can, as the name suggests, nullify powers with their very presence. They have limited range, of course, but… we’re in for a fight.

Joshua cracked his knuckles, running his fingers over the metal caps on his fingerless leather gloves. He hated to admit it, but he was eager to take his anger out on someone. He still wasn’t over the loss of his jacket, or the new hole in his tattoos.

Karyme and I will stay outside again, Rae said bitterly. On that note—why am I here, exactly? Joshua had been wondering the exact same thing, but he wasn’t stupid enough to ask.

…You don’t know the full extent of your powers, yet, do you? Felix asked, raising an eyebrow.

And you do? Rae shot back. Before Felix could answer, a rumbling echoed through the prison, and the floor started to move upwards. By now, Joshua was accustomed to the movement, and he didn’t so much as stumble. Once the rumbling had stopped, Felix answered Rae’s question.

Your power, Felix explained, isn’t just to track things or people—it’s to switch places with them.

Rae turned to Karyme, xyr expression blank. He’s pulling my leg, right?

Well, I… Karyme frowned. I’ve never seen anything more about your power than what I told you when we first met. But it’s possible that there’s more, since my power only tells me what you know—whether consciously or subconsciously—about yourself.

Oh. Rae took a shaky breath. Okay. It was the first time Joshua had seen Rae lose xyr cool in the last 24 hours, and, well, Joshua figured that this was one of the better reasons to freak out.

A shriek echoed down the hallway, and Joshua snapped back to attention. The torture chamber was just a short way down the hall, and as he reached the entrance, Joshua grimaced at the sight before him.

There were six guards standing around an exam table, and though their bodies blocked the prisoner from view, it was clear that she was writhing on the table, shrieking and biting every time any of the guards got close. Dark hair littered the floor around the table, with blood mixed in.

“HEY!” Felix yelled, stepping forward. “Get the fuck away from Minnie!” He started running in a circle towards the back of the room, attracting about half of the gunfire, and Kai followed him. The other three guards turned towards the rest of the group with a mix of confusion and fear in their eyes.

Joshua kicked off from the ground, rising into the air with less speed than usual. It seemed that Null had indeed turned off Joshua’s super speed, but the awkward slowness didn’t stop him from swooping down to the nearest guard, wresting the guard’s rifle from their grasp, and slamming the butt of the rifle into their stomach. The air left the guard’s lungs all at once, and they fell backwards with a thud. Before the next guard could react, Joshua threw the rifle aside and took to the air once more, surveying the battlefield for another opening.

Without Dani’s shields, everyone had to be a little more careful. Ilia, Lian, Karyme, and Rae were still in the hallway. Morgan and Dani hung out at the entrance, ducking around the corner every time a hail of bullets came their way, then returning fire. Juli and Peter were more reckless. Every time Morgan or Dani created an opening, Juli or Peter darted in, knives at the ready. Peter tended to go for the knees; Juli tended to go for the throat. Still, against six (no, five—the guard Joshua had knocked down wasn’t getting up) guards with assault rifles, the group could only do so much.

This is annoying, Joshua grumbled.

No shit, Juli groaned. We can’t make much ground without our powers.

About that, Karyme said carefully. I think I have an idea. My powers aren’t fully working, but I can see Null—and I can tell how limited their range is. If we can get Null out of that room…

Joshua dove in for another hit, smashing his fist into a guard’s face with such force that he could hear the pop of a jaw dislocating. Nice. Joshua wanted to get another hit in, but the sound of gunfire echoed behind him, and he was forced to retreat to the skies once again.

You want me to switch places with Null, Rae realized. Ohhh, no, no, no. That sounds dangerous.

I’ll cover you, Kai said smoothly.

Joshua looked over at the two immortals, who were more or less acting as sponges to absorb the majority of the gunfire. Three of the guards were firing point blank rounds at Felix and Kai, and though the two continued to run circles around the guards, playing distraction, they were both riddled with (rapidly healing) bullet holes.

Just do it, Joshua said thinly. Don’t think our human shields are going to last very long.

F-fine. There was a loud popping noise, and suddenly, Rae was standing where one of the guards had been mere seconds ago. Joshua felt a surge of power in his chest, like a heavy weight had been lifted. He grinned in spite of himself.

There was a second of stunned silence, and Kai used it to his advantage. He extended his hands, and a blast of air knocked all of the guards away from Rae. Before anyone could recover, Kai glided over to the table to start freeing Minerva, his hands glowing forest green.

Joshua didn’t think it possible, but somehow the temperature in the room dropped even further as ice spiraled outwards from Felix’s feet, freezing the guards to the ground.

Joshua didn’t hesitate. Now that his speed was back, he easily swooped between two guards and knocked their heads together with enough force to draw blood. Peter finished the job with a well-placed knife throw, killing one of the two guards at Joshua’s feet. As Joshua rose into the air once more, it felt like the air currents themselves were helping him gain speed, and he circled back around to deal a finishing blow to the other guard, smashing his heel into the guy’s skull.

Joshua took a look around, breathing heavily. Juli was sitting on top of a guard, removing their knife from his chest, and the other two guards were frozen solid in blocks of ice. At the doorway, Null was lying in a pool of their own blood, courtesy of either Morgan or Dani—Joshua couldn’t tell, and honestly, he didn’t care.

Kai and Felix were helping a young Black woman off of the exam table. Both immortals looked the worse for wear—their clothes were practically dripping with blood, riddled with bullet holes, and Kai stumbled a little as he let the woman lean on him for support.

The woman looked to be in her early 20s, though it was hard to tell with all of the dirt, grime, and dried blood on her face. Her arms were peppered with gashes and bruises—many of them new—but as Joshua looked on, the wounds were already closing. The woman’s dark, pink-streaked locks looked as if they’d been hastily chopped.

“Min…” Kai said softly. “They cut your hair again?” The woman stared off into the distance, a palpable sadness in her gaze.

“Yeah,” she said finally, her voice sullen. “Guess we’ll have to find Mateen so xe can fix it.” She turned to the rest of the group with an apologetic smile. “Sorry for dragging all of you into this mess.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” Joshua ground out, wiping the blood off of his gloves.

“No,” the woman agreed. “It doesn’t. The name’s Minerva, by the way, but I think you already knew that.” She closed her eyes and let Kai hold her, just for a second.

“Let’s get out of here,” Kai said gently.

“Yeah,” Minerva said miserably. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

~.~

The next stairwell down led the group right back to a pressure exchange chamber, although the lack of blood and shattered glass indicated that this was a different pressure exchange chamber. Still…

“This is the floor where Kai was being kept,” Karyme announced. Morgan groaned in frustration.

“How the hell did we end up back here?” she griped.

“It’s the way the prison floors keep moving,” Karyme explained. “Or, at least, that’s what my powers are telling me. If we keep going down from here, we should end up on a new floor.”

“Let’s go, then,” Felix said impatiently. As he turned towards the stairs, Karyme interrupted.

“Wait.” Her heart was hammering against her chest, and she found her throat dry as she tried to speak, but this was too important to pass up. “There’s something that’s been bothering me for a while now.”

“Oh?” Felix asked, looking over his shoulder at Karyme. “Do tell.”

In the background, Peter was murmuring something or the other about flaming lime grenades as he tossed a lime up and down in one hand. “Flaming lime toilet paper grenades?” Joshua shot Peter a glare that could kill—if it had been anyone but Peter, that is. Karyme elected to ignore whatever the hell that was.

“Our powers,” Karyme said curtly. All three immortals immediately froze. Kai and Minerva exchanged guilty glances, and that gave Karyme the courage to continue. “Yeah, okay, that’s what I thought. You don’t just know more about them than we do. You know where they came from.”

“Oh,” Felix said softly. “Haku didn’t tell you.”

“Of course they didn’t,” Morgan snapped. “Haku didn’t tell us shit.”

“It seems to be their whole MO,” Dani added, crossing her arms. “Not telling us things, I mean.” Felix laughed.

“Yeah, that’s Haku in a nutshell,” Felix replied, his tone good-natured. For a second, he was smiling. Then, his expression turned serious. “Here, sit. This is going to be a long conversation.”

“Uhhh, do we really have time for a long conversation?” Juli chimed in, gesturing towards the door leading out of the PEC. “Guards could show up at any time.”

“Me ‘n’ Kai’ll stand watch,” Minerva said, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed. “This is important.” Kai joined Minerva, warily scanning the area outside. Karyme didn’t see the point—one look with her powers told her that there was nothing living in the vicinity, at least for now, and there was no way the immortals didn’t know that, but whatever.

The mortals began to shuffle awkwardly towards the benches. Felix stayed standing. Karyme elected to take a seat next to Rae, and Ilia sat on her other side. Of everyone there, Ilia seemed the least nervous about this conversation, perhaps because it pertained to her the least. Interestingly, as Karyme used her powers to scan Felix, she got confirmation that his shaking hands meant he was, in fact, very nervous about this topic. Felix took a deep breath.

“So,” he began. “Where do most powers come from?” A heavy silence filled the room.

“The Necromancer,” Dani supplied. “He’s the only one who can give a person powers.”

“In the current state of society, that is mostly true,” Felix replied. “It’s… a little more complicated than that, though.” Morgan groaned, leaning forward so her head was in her hands.

“Can you just get to the point already?” she snapped, glaring at Felix. “Stop talking in legalese and just tell it to us straight.” Felix made eye contact with Morgan, a twinge of irritation in his eyes.

“Bear with me for a little longer. You’re going to need this context if you want to see this through to the end, and even if you choose not to, this is still important information,” Felix said solemnly. Morgan scowled, but said nothing in reply, and Felix took that as permission to continue.

“Let’s start at the beginning. Anyone who is immortal, like the nine of us are, is that way because of a curse from a long-dead deity named Yaran. There are ten..." Here, a pained expression flickered across Felix's face for a second. "There are ten such immortals currently in this world. All ten of them are currently in this prison: nine as prisoners, and one as the jailkeeper."

"In other words... the Ennead and the Necromancer. Our powers come from the same source. And if The Necromancer can gift powers…" Felix swallowed. “If The Necromancer can gift powers, and your powers didn't come from The Necromancer, then where would that power have come from?" Felix looked around the room expectantly.

Karyme gulped. She knew where this was going. It was the hypothesis she’d had when she’d asked the question. But still, to hear it out loud…

“You,” Peter said bluntly, holding eye contact with Felix. “Our powers came from you.”

For a second, the room was silent except for the rumbling as the floor moved downwards.

“Why?” Dani asked, her voice full of thinly masked anger. “Why would you—you didn’t even ask. Do you know what it’s like, living with powers that didn’t come from The Necromancer?” Felix stayed silent.

“How does that even work?” Lian interjected. They didn’t look too upset—not yet—but Karyme could see the various alert boxes popping up all around Lian signifying various forms of distress. “We hadn’t even met you until today. You’ve been in prison longer than I’ve been alive.”

"The gifting process doesn't require direct contact with the receiver," Felix explained, eyes downcast. "Especially not if you're throwing powers out at random, without knowing who they'll land with."

Ice cold shock settled over Karyme.

“At random?” Juli said weakly. “We weren’t even chosen? This shit was random?” They turned to Felix, tears in their eyes. Their hands were alight at their sides. “Why?”

“I’ll tell you why,” Joshua said quietly. Underneath his calm facade simmered a barely restrained rage. He’d been standing this whole time, leaning against the lockers and glaring at Felix, but that was the last straw for him. He pushed off of the wall, wings extending outwards in an intimidating gesture, and grabbed Felix by the scruff of his tattered shirt.

“I’ll tell you why,” he repeated. “These—these shitbags threw their powers out into the world, a world where we’re forced to hide in fear of a multinational criminal organization, in the hopes that we’d be able to show up some day to break them free! Oh, but, do correct me if I’m wrong!” By the time Joshua finished, his voice was a snarl. He slammed Felix against a locker, then let go. Felix made no move to get up as he slid slowly to the floor.

Karyme flinched. Of course she was mad about being manipulated—it was why she’d started this conversation—but her own feelings couldn’t hold a candle to Joshua’s feral rage. She took a look around the room. Morgan’s fists were clenched in her lap, their expression a mixture of horror and anger and betrayal. Dani looked shell-shocked. Juli was crying silently, tears flowing down his face, and Karyme was hit by a single thought from Juli’s mind: I could have had a normal life.

In the corner, Peter materialized an egg timer.

“All right,” Rae said, standing up. Xyr voice was calm, measured. “I don’t know if I even have authority to speak about this, since my powers are easy to hide. But…” Xe looked to Felix as xe spoke. “Are we just—are we just pawns on a chessboard to you? Did any of you even think about the very real, very human consequences of your actions?”

"The fact of the matter is, we did think this through—it took us five years to decide on this,” Kai said evenly. Karyme almost jumped in surprise—she’d forgotten he was there. “We did something terrible, knowing full well how terrible it was. We’re not asking for your forgiveness."

Morgan stood up abruptly. “Good, because you don’t have it!” She looked around the room, her eyes ablaze with anger. Karyme could feel the air pressure dropping. “I’m done with this. I’m done! You can finish this stupid rescue mission on your own!”

At that moment, a ding echoed through the room as Peter’s egg timer went off. He stood up and looked around the room, and for once, he looked serious.

“I don’t really get why you’re all freaking out,” Peter said calmly. “We already knew we were being blackmailed. This is just... more blackmail.” He turned to the immortals next. “Just for the record, I don’t think that what you did is wrong. You were trying to prevent the world from ending, or whatever. And besides, it’s not like the Soul Stealers would’ve suddenly made our lives all peachy without our powers or anything.”

“They stole, what, our entire lives from us, and you’re saying it’s not wrong?” Juli cried, marching over to Peter. “Are you stupid? These people are vile! Irredeemable!”

"About that—you don't have to keep going with this,” Felix said evenly. “Now that you know the truth about the people you've been working so hard to save, you don't have to keep pretending you care. With three of us free, it shouldn't be a problem to break out the other six."

“Which brings us to the bigger problem,” Kai interjected. “Getting you out of here. The only way out is for one of us to open a rift out of here, but we can't do that right now, because the teleportation blocking device in the Soul Extraction Chamber is still active.”

“Ah,” Rae said sardonically. “The place we’re not supposed to go.”

“Let’s split up,” Kai decided. “Minerva and I will go directly to the Soul Extraction Chamber to turn off the teleportation barrier. We’ll pick up Mateen on the way. Felix, you go save the others. The rest of you are welcome to go with whoever you want—or you can stay here and wait for the guards to find you. Whatever meets your fancy.”

“Peter, you and Juli are on the teleportation barrier team. Me, too, since destroying it was my idea,” Dani said roughly. Peter and Juli exchanged glances, then shrugged in agreement.

“I’m going to the Soul Extraction Chamber, too,” Joshua growled. “Only so I can get out of here as soon as the barrier’s down.”

“Noted,” Kai said thinly. He turned to the rest of the mortals. “For the sake of numbers, that would put the rest of you with Felix. Any objections?” Karyme scanned the room. Though there was literally lightning crackling at Morgan’s fingertips, she didn’t voice any objections, and neither did anyone else.

“Good,” Minerva said firmly. “Let’s move.”

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