Chương 39: Why am I still here?

Grim gasped as she felt frozen hands reach deep inside her soul and grasp at something within. It ripped, uncaring of the damage it caused. Her already fragile Aura shuddered, and she immediately coughed up a ball of phlegm and blood, splattering Hazel's cheek.

"What are you doing?" Grim yelled as she tried to push her away. She couldn't.

"I NEED YOU TO REMEMBER," Hazel yelled back as the pressure within grew. Something inside her was being ripped out, something vital. It dug deep gashes into her aura as it struggled to fight off Hazel's influence, the metaphysical damage being translated into real pain. Grim pulled on her shadow, willing it to return, but she refused, rebutting her in a way she'd never done before. [CEDE] was anchoring her against her pull as Grim felt Hazel use it to assert her claim over herself.

She saw no other choice as she activated [CEDE] on herself, and in the next instant she was back in the terminal room with the monitor. Inside there, she was separated from Hazel and was free to move. The lights were on this time, and it didn't take her long to spot Hazel elbow-deep in the monitor, pulling at the demon that lived deep inside her soul. She tackled her a moment later, both hands wrapping around her midsection to throw her away from the terminal.

They both hit the ground and rolled together as Hazel tried to fight her off.

"Stop!" Grim pleaded as she wrenched Hazel's head to the side, forcing her cheek against the flooring.

"It's better this way." Hazel replied by head-butting her in the face, knocking her back enough for her to kick off with her foot.

"Let me help you!" She transitioned her fall backwards into a roll, righting herself to her feet. Hazel was halfway back to the terminal when Grim pulled on the skill again, causing her to stumble as she fought off the command to return. Grim's boot met her midsection, and she was flung to her side where she rolled until she landed on her back, Grim dove and landed on top of her. Hazel squirmed, but Grim bear hugged her as hard as she could, not allowing her to escape her grasp.

"Agh, fuck, no biting!" Grim yelled as Hazel's teeth dug into her shoulder.

"Let me go! You don't know what you're doing." Grim held on, not letting her weasel her way out this time, "I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself again." Hazel hissed in frustration and disappeared.

"Hazel?" Grim asked, but there was no reply. She felt for her skill but felt a distance between them, confirming that she'd actually left. She must have deactivated [CEDE] either by choice or, if she was fortunate, because she was out of energy. Grim deactivated it as well to the sound of chaos as Phil unleashed a root from beyond the circle to separate them. Hazel used Grim as a launchpad and flung herself backwards to avoid it.

"What the hell is going on?" Phil yelled.

"We have to remove it! She has to remember," Hazel yelled back. Grim saw that the Doctor had fallen unconscious and now rested in a small heap. She hadn't seen what happened, but the Aura she'd been leaching wasn't just back, it was stronger now. That was bad, but that was a problem for later. She'd need to get Hazel to return first and stop whatever this was.

"The Doctor's unconscious kid, not gonna happen. Stand down or I'll put you down." Hazel's face screwed up into a ball of frustration, her eyes scrunched as she shook her head, she looked to Grim for support but whatever she saw in her face only made it worse, "She has to let me remove it, you said it yourself that you want it gone, didn't you? It's the only way to help her, to help you find out what happened." Phil sighed, "You're right, but it's her choice. We'll figure this out once we've cooled down."

"Don't you feel it? Her Aura?" Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"Not just an Aura anymore, an Authority," Phil said. Hazel stared Grim down, begging her to disagree as she said, "She won't change her mind."

"I won't," Grim said. She thought about lying to defuse the situation but found it almost anathema to her being. She could not hide who she was without destroying something fundamental to herself. Phil had retracted the root he'd sent out, and it now hovered by his side like a hound ready to protect its master.

"It's her choice." There was silence in the room before the soft sounds of Hazel laughing broke it. It started off small, then grew to encompass more than it should've, coming from a small woman. It stopped.

"The funny thing is she doesn't even remember why it's not," Hazel flashed a feral grin as a sob escaped her throat.

"It's mine." A root sharpened into a spear point narrowly missed her face as she cranked her head to the side. She twisted and stuck her hand against the wood, " [CEDE]." Grim's heart dropped as she yelled, "Don't let her touch the roots!" It was too late, time worked differently in the terminal room, and she saw Phil stiffen up. The root fell limp.

"I may be old, but you won't get me that easy kid," Phil said as the sound of wood creaking and cracking filled the room as the root he'd thrown split and coiled itself around one of his arms. Hazel's hand hung by her side but flared outwards in frustration, "If I can't take it, then I'll just copy it. What do you think's gonna last longer? My copy or that sad amount of Aura you have?"

"Try me," Phil said, drawing himself into a duelist's stance. He was awkward and stiff as he did so, years of inactivity hampering his movements, but a glimpse of who he'd once been shined through as his Aura flared itself. The lone rock in a river, worn down by the current. A tree's shade he would never feel. If I don't, who will? His aura was tampered down to a spectre of its former self, the ideal still upheld, but he did not have the stamina to bear it for long in its full glory.

It was still there, but not as oppressing as it had been.

"Don't let her touch you! You won't be able to fight it if she does," Grim warned him as she ran at Hazel. Wood wrapped itself around her wrist and arrested her momentum as she was painfully jerked back, the bark unyielding. She grabbed her knife, but before she could chop into it, it snapped in twain as another tendril lashed through it.

There were five pots of small trees that surrounded the circle they were in while the rest of the room was covered in a bushy plant that was in every corner and spread upwards, hugging the corner of the wall to meet in the middle of the ceiling. After her first restraint was cut, Hazel threw several more towards Grim as Phil sent his own in retaliation to defend her.

Phil seemed to be more deft in wielding the Boon but Hazel had a lot more energy to throw around than he did so while he was able to cut them down in moments or wrest control from her, Grim still had to be careful to dodge the ones that got through which slowed her progress to a crawl as they all fought for a better position. Phil ducked and weaved every attack, only made possible by years of experience as they traded blows with each other.

Loud wooden thwacks deafened the air as elongated tree branches struck each other with force, dancing like swords in the air above them.

"You might be better at using [CEDE] but out here I'm not going to lose, I won't fail to protect you." Hazel shouted as Grim slashed a doorway through a flower that had grown large enough to encapsulate her.

"You're not protecting me! I don't want this." Grim was almost to her when the ground shook and split as the foundation underneath the concrete shifted sending a field of plant matter between them.

"I'm protecting you from yourself!" Dirt filled the air, and she coughed as her mouth filled with it and her eyes stung. When the dust cleared Hazel had almost made it to Phil before he was able to see her. With Grim out of the picture for the moment she was able to bring her whole force to bear against him as she grew a mushroom spore to explode into a smokescreen, like the jaws from a tiger, four tendrils of wood dove out of it. It wasn't enough.

Phil now had his full attention on Hazel now that he didn't have to protect Grim and his efficiency and skill with his Boon showed. Hazel wielded it like a blunt instrument and while she'd incorporated misdirection into her attacks, Phil was ready for it. He seemed to have an intuitive understanding of the physics involved and only used one tendril that cracked as it whipped into all four of them, just enough to knock them off balance from hitting him.

They stuck into the concrete flooring beside him, and his armour exploded into spikes that impaled each, severing Hazel's connection to them. With her range severely reduced, Phil went on the offensive. Flowers that sparkled in dangerous colours, warning of toxins, sprouted around her. They spread particles that shimmered around Hazel. They landed on her, and where they did, they ate into her skin turning it a motley of colours. Red than purple, then darkening into a dead black.

She strode forward through the cloud, letting it eat away at her as she doused herself in shadows, the healing gloom battling the death of the spores infecting her. It trailed off her like smoke as she barely missed a step. Phil was forced to drop control over the flowers as she closed the distance lest she try to take his Boon again. Seeing that his initial plan wasn't working, he renewed his assault by launching a barrage of roots towards her, careful to cut them off as soon as he launched them.

Some missed, some she blocked with a shield grown, and several hit her, rending flesh from her bone or leaving her with new holes that gushed blood and viscera. Shadow grew in those places, filling her wounds with false flesh and lies, but leaving her able to fight. Grim dove at her back, knife outstretched like a fang, Hazel flung her head back, sensing her, but a root burst through the concrete near her feet and latched onto Hazel's hand like a manacle, stopping her from casting.

Her knife came down angled on Hazel's throat, and there was nothing Hazel could do to stop her.