Chapter 5, Rikera

Weeks went by with no sign of Raine and her new girlfriend, I’d started to think her curse wore off and Raine fell out of the sky or they’d killed each other in a lover’s quarrel. I didn’t know which outcome of the two I’d preferred either, both were rather appealing. Jackson was training the new recruits three nights per week, it was coming up for their first outing. We took them to a car park at an abandoned industrial estate.

Of course, that was when Osiris showed her face. Jackson hadn’t seen her in person yet, he took a step towards her.
“So you’re this ‘Omega’ I keep hearing about. Wearing the face of Osiris to drag her name through the dirt.” Omega. It was a good name, it represented the end of Osiris.
“That’s me.” Her voice echoed through her hollow heart.
“Great, was just checking in.”
Next thing I know is Jackson was reaching into his coat, he pulled out a pistol with a barrel that was glowing orange. He pulled the trigger and fired a large hoop at her. She flew about twenty feet backwards into an old van. One of the trainees ran up and created what looked to be a yellow glass cage around her. She stood up slowly, blood dripped from her lip.
“You son of a b***h.”
She waved her hand towards him, but nothing happened.
“I dampened your powers, good luck with that.”
Jackson laughed at her. He knew Omega wasn’t even a shell of Osiris.
She screamed, it echoed loudly through the area, shattering old glass. Her eyes burst into a hellish purple fire as she forged a glowing violet spear in her right hand. She shattered the cage with one swipe of her left hand and held the spear in the air with her right. She threw it towards Jackson. I tried to catch it, but I couldn’t. The recruits blasted it with ice, rocks, beams of other weird materials that I don’t think existed until they were given powers. Nothing stopped it. It flew towards us. Jackson took a step forward and held his gun up towards Raine and pulled the trigger, blasting her with another charge which pushed her to the ground.

He stood there, spat out his cigarette and smirked.
“Gotcha, b***h.” He looked down. The spear was inside him, it had penetrated his heart. He dropped to his knees on the dusty ground. I sprinted over next to him and slid.
“Can any of you heal?!” I screamed to the recruits. They looked at each other, a woman stepped forwards as the spear vanished. Blood started pouring out quicker.
“I can.” She sat next to me and rest her hands on him.
“Aries, can you stop the bleeding?” I looked at her and held every drop of blood around there in place, trying to continue the flow. Jackson’s eyes opened.
“Don’t be stupid girl, stop.”
“You’ll die” she told him, “I can’t let that happen.”
“Your powers inflict the wounds upon yourself, you could be the most valuable team member here. You can heal a missing arm or a cut leg, but you can’t take something that will kill you.”
He looked at me. “Don’t let her do this.”
I didn’t know what to do. I froze. Jackson pulled a knife from his coat and stabbed me in the leg. It hurt, causing me to charge the ground without wanting to. It fired the woman into the air. Jackson looked at me.
“You can stop Osiris, but you need to let these people help you. They’re heroes.”
I grabbed his hand; his grip was firm. He was giving me a pair of dog tags. ‘Captain Jackson, Protector Squad’ I began to tear up.
“You’re my hero.” He said, spitting blood out his mouth. I tied the necklace around my neck with the telekinesis.
“No, Jackson. You’re the hero. Everyone will remember you for that.”
He smiled as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes. I sat there, hunched over him. The woman healed my leg as I was speaking to him, she looked at me and nodded towards Omega.
“Unfinished business.”
I let go of his limp hand, which was still warm and picked up the gun he shot Omega with. I walked over to her, she was shaking on the ground. She tried to stand up so I kicked her in the stomach, she fell back to the ground on her back. Her eyes were pale, hair covered in dust. I pointed the gun at her head and pulled the trigger. The shockwave pushed Raine into the ground, cracking the Earth beneath her. She was unconscious.
I lifted her and Jackson and carried them back to the tower. Jackson lay in the morgue as I figured out what to say to his family, Osiris was in a cell, dressed in a pale blue jumpsuit. I finally felt like I won, I’d beaten Osiris.

I stood there, in front of her. She was in the cell, behind a thick layer of glass that glowed with a faint orange hue. She sat on the bed as if there was nothing wrong, like she was waiting. I’d won, but I didn’t feel better. She was still the devil incarnate and I was still alone. I couldn’t bear to be there with hear but I wasn’t able to build up the strength to leave. Seeing her there, like that. It killed me more than any ball of fire, any thrown dagger could.
“Raine.”
No reply.
“Please. If Raine is in there, which I’m sure she is. I hope she knows what she’s done.”
Omega turned her head and looked at me for perhaps a beat longer than a glance, her eyes looked glassy. She looked at the ground again.
“Fine.”
I left the cell block and sat on a bench outside, the woman who tried to heal Jackson approached me and sat next to me. I looked at her.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save him.”
I looked at her, she had eyeliner dripping from her eyes.
“He wanted me to be on your team, thought we’d have good chemistry. I don’t know, maybe I’m not cut out for the hero thing- “
“Stop.” I needed to ask her a question.
“What?” She looked afraid.
“He said your powers inflict the wound upon yourself. You tried to heal him knowing you’d die, correct?”
Her eyes deflected to the ground, she wiped a tear away from her eye and nodded.
“Well, you’re perfect for this team. You are a hero.”
She looked up at me and smiled.
“Can I ask your name?”
She blushed a little and laughed.
“It’s Ally. Two Ls and a Y. To the outside world, I plan on going by Curie.”
“Well, my name is Ray Andrews.”
I shook her hand, she still seemed shaken by what happened to Jackson.
“That’s the thing about this job, you face a lot of loss. A lot of pain.” I looked at the door to the cell block. “But you learn to push through it, because everyone that is lost, you know not to let them die in vain. They die fighting for a cause they believe in, for a world that’s just a little bit better than the one they were born into. There’s no greater honour than that.”
She started to tear up again, I was never one for big emotional speeches, but she seemed to enjoy it.
“Aries. Ray. You’re a real hero. You’ll be remembered for centuries. You inspired everyone here to do what they’re doing. The one honour greater than dying for what you believe in, is fighting for that same thing alongside you.”
Now I was starting to blush a little. I hugged her and told her not to worry about Jackson. He was with his daughter now. Both of his daughters.