Dedicated to NerdyNinja1 ~ The first of the people commenting and throwing cookies at me to get me through NaNo. <3 

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Chapter 10 - Weaponised Turtle

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Shift nodded. “Anything I need to know?”

Athira looked at him. “You’re not fighting. You’re going to sit back and dodge any missiles that may come at you while Talon and I take care of him.”

“Or I can help and we get this thing done faster,” said Shift.

Athira raised an eyebrow at him. “And how are you going to help take down a demon entity whose ankle you barely come up to?” she asked. “Your colour won’t work in here.”

Shift flexed his hand, letting the tingle flow through his veins. “My colour’s there. I can feel it. If I can shift some of your colour--“

“My colour?” Athira shook her head. “Shift, don’t take this the wrong way, but it’d be like giving a bazooka to a turtle. You might have capability, but you’d have no idea what to do with it.”

Shift wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that comment, so he persisted. “Sometimes you just gotta give the turtle a go!”

“And that’s about the time someone discovers a new dish cooked with turtle meat,” said Athira. “You couldn’t even take me -- don’t interpret that as a challenge -- let alone something directly controlled by Rathe. And once you figure out that I’m right, you’d be stuck in limbo for all eternity and then Zoe would kill me.”

They drifted into silence for the next few minutes. Athira seemed to think the matter was settled, but he’d be damned if he was letting her charge that thing armed with only a bird.

There has to be something I can do, thought Shift, although quieter this time. He considered trying to shift Talon to see what he could get, but decided against it.

They were almost at the base of the ridge now. Enormous shards cleaved off the face of the mountains lay scattered around their base, some half submerged in pools of glowing fire. It caught Shift’s eye, and he started towards it.

I don’t even have to touch it, I can just--

A black wall appeared in front of him, barring him from the pool. Strangely enough, despite the black colour he saw it through; the pool retained its red glow even as the rest of the colours submitted to the black and traced themselves with a white outline.

Shift turned back to see Athira’s hand raised and coated in black.

“Don’t try to shift that,” she said, dropping her hand and the wall with it. “It’s not your usual red colour. It’s beyond the visible spectrum, and I don’t know what it’d do to you if you tried to use it. You can only see it because of the mindscape and the amount of heat it’s emitting.”

Shift sighed.

“Okay, second question--“

Athira silenced him with a hand, eyes scanning the ridges. “Shh. Do you hear that?” she said.

“I don’t hear anything,” said Shift.

Nope, said Talon.

“Exactly.” She pulled up her cowl and pulled the front of her cloak shut. “It’s coming.”

It felt you use the colour, said Talon.

Athira grit her teeth. “I know. I didn’t even try to restrain myself, it was a reflex.” She swore softly. “I’m an idiot. Didn’t even think--“

Now is not the time, Athira.

She nodded, pulling herself together and turning to Shift. “Unless you want to be a fried turtle I suggest you find somewhere to hide yourself, somewhere--“

Her sentence was interrupted by an earth-shattering roar.

Shift spun around to find the ridges, the same ones he’d thought impassable except with flight, crumbling under the grip of a gigantic being of which he could have never imagined in his wildest dreams.

The thing was easily a third taller than the ridges it clung to, its giant, horned head alone was four times the size of Talon’s wingspan. Its skin was like the pool, a glowing crimson colour that burned from within and lit whatever it touched on fire. The most terrifying thing about it was the black, sunken eyes that somehow still had pupils, and how they were locked on to their small, insignificant group.

And that’s only it’s essence.

The demonic being roared again, a sound that pierced Shift’s eardrums and set his blood racing. He wanted to attack the thing climbing over the ridge. It didn’t matter that it, this Rathe demon was knocking aside mountains as if they were nothing. It didn’t matter that as the thick, trunk-like legs were crushing the reforming pillars into dust.

Shift balled up his hands into fists. He needed to make that thing feel pain.

Athira! Talon’s voice echoed through his mind as he advanced. Your friend, the shout has affected him!

Athira glanced at him. “Shift, you idiot!”

Her colour wrapped around him, picking him up and setting him down a good fifty metres facing away from Rathe. Her voice came over the sound of Rathe destroying heaven and hell to reach where Athira stood. “Hide!”

Shift shook his head, clearing it of the buzzing that seemed to be plaguing it. He turned around just in time to see Rathe throw a boulder the size of a small house at Athira and Talon.

He didn’t get time to shout a warning, let alone give them time to move. The boulder hit its mark dead on, sending a spray of shards up into the air around them. Shift hit the ground to avoid the shower, watching on in horror at the dust cloud where Athira had been standing.

From the dust, a black shadow shot into the sky. Shift followed Talon with his eyes as the bird flared his wings, unleashing a blast of black colour at Rathe’s head. He then tucked his wings, diving straight for the eye that was easily his size.

Shift dropped his gaze to the ground, already moving towards it. Images of Athira lying unconscious, half-crushed under the boulder played through his head. There was no way--

The dust around the boulder cleared enough, giving him a glimpse of a black, spherical object’s edge that vanished even as he looked at it. Instead, the boulder became covered in black colour, starting at the point closest to the spherical object, and once entirely cocooned, proceeded to fly through the air straight at Rathe’s head.

Athira followed it not long after, rising up to join Talon’s assault with blasts of black colour.

Shift could only watch in shock as the two executed complicated manoeuvres of attack and counterattack, all the while dodging whatever Rathe could get his hands on and the gigantic horns that circled his head like a crown.

Shift suddenly understood why the entire landscape looked utterly destroyed.

The boulder Talia threw at her in the training room was nothing compared to here.

Yet despite their best efforts, their assault seemed to be bothering Rathe no more than a fly would Shift. Less, if that were possible. It didn’t matter what they hit him with, the demonic entity essence thing refused to even stumble, let alone give ground or consciousness.

I have to do something, thought Shift, hoping Talon was out of range to pick up on the thought.

He looked around, catching sight of an area off to the side, shielded by a rock that curved over a fire pit.

Shift recognised it instantly. It was the exact place from his vision, the one he’d had grabbing Athira’s wrist after she snapped at Talia’s taunts and gave way to her lurking darkness.

Where I saw that figure.

He moved over to it, pulled by a force he couldn’t entirely explain. Thunderclaps echoed around him but he ignored it.

There’s something here.

His destination was on the other side of the fire pool. After a quick glance, he took the only way across - the narrow stepping stones barely the size of his foot littering the surface.

The first jump was the hardest. He nearly fell in on the fifth, but by the ninth jump, he was across and in that little area that was shielded from the rest of the mindscape by a curved rock wall.

There were drawings on the wall, detailed stick figures sketched on with what looked to be paint made from the matter in the pools. It glowed, but they were definitely discernible. Seven figures, all slightly different colours depicted in distinctive manners stood in a line behind an eighth, the brightest of them all. In the picture, their backs were turned to Shift, facing what he could only describe as a large splodge of mindscape pool-paint.

He shuddered. Who knew splodges could look so evil?

Shift turned around, almost walking straight into the little girl staring up at him.

The first thing he noticed was how she barely reached his chest.

The second was that she was see-through.

“You found my cave,” she said timidly. “No one’s ever found my cave.”

She rocked back on her heels, hands at her mouth and looking up at him with sad, grey eyes that waited for him to speak.

Shift grabbed her partially-solid shoulder and knelt down to her level. “Where did you come from?” he asked gently.

 “I’ve always been here. Since she stripped back her mindscape, I had nowhere else to live.” One hand reached up to play with a strand of raven hair. Tears formed in her eyes. “None of us did. Though Rathe’s killed most of us off now.”

A cold shiver went down Shift’s spine. “Who’s ‘us?”

“Her memories.”

It was then that the similarity struck him. Although Athira had more than a few years on her, the girl’s features were almost exactly the same. The grey eyes, the raven hair, the pale skin. Even the lines on their faces were the same, already marking the girl at that age.

“You’re Athira, aren’t you?”

The girl nodded. “From when she first met Raph and Zoe. I was so happy then, I had a family, and then... then...” She looked confused. “Then I didn’t anymore. That’s when I was put away in her mind until she needed me again.”

Shift couldn’t help himself. “What happened?”

“Zoe got hurt and it let Rathe escape for the first time. The Sin took over, she couldn’t control him any longer, so... so she left them. She didn’t want anyone else to get hurt like Zoe because of her.”

The girl started crying , tears sliding down her cheeks. Shift pulled her into a hug, finding it strange to be able to see his arms through her back.

“Zoe’s alive, Thira,” he said, using the nickname Zoe had for her. The girl’s face changed, hope blossoming across it with childlike innocence as she looked at him in disbelief. Shift nodded and continued. “Thira found her again. But she needs help, because Rathe is going to get loose again. Can you help me?”

The girl blinked a few times, looked around before giving him a tentative nod. “You can absorb me, and I’ll help you absorb some of Rathe’s energy, if you want.”

“You know what I can do?”

She shrugged. “Athira has lots of stuff she’s forgotten how to do. Or just won’t remember. Plus, I know lots about you. You’re the seed she planted in her mind.” She eyed him. “It’ll hurt though,” she said seriously. “A lot more than anything you’ve ever experienced before, even with me protecting you.”

Shift wrinkled his nose, thoughts of previous injuries and their implications running wild through his head. He shoved them aside and looked the girl in the eyes. “It’s okay. We need to help Thira however we can.”

She found this an acceptable answer apparently, because she stuck out her hand palm-up and gave him an expectant look.

 Shift took her hand.

*+*+*+*

Athira pooled her colour in her hands and unleashed another blast, adding to the countless ones she’d already sunk into Rathe’s head.

She dropped, letting her body freefall to safety as Rathe lashed out with his arm, picking herself up mid air to zip off to the left above his shoulder.

“Talon!” she cried, catching a boulder and slinging it around. “It’s not working, he’s not getting any smaller!”

Talon grunted. He dove for Rathe’s finger, stabbing the end of it with his sharp beak hard enough to draw lava-like blood. We have to keep trying, we can’t do anything else.

Athira looked around desperately, trying to find anything that could help them gain the advantage. Rathe tried to get the jump on her distracted state. She brought up a shield and shattered it on impact, sending the shards flying to impale Rathe’s upper leg.

She caught sight of the giant red runemark on Rathe’s chest. The one place they’d always avoided because they weren’t sure what it’d do, if it was like Athira’s and helped bind his power or if it enhanced it. The way it was glowing now made Athira suspect it was the latter.

She made the decision. “We need to go for the mark, Tal!”

You sure?

“Nothing else is working!” she replied, blocking yet another attack.

Talon fell into line with her, veering right as she went left. They ducked under Rathe’s raised arms in unison. Athira was ready to bring herself around, readying as much colour as she could hold in her body for the blast that would hopefully end it.

She was so focused on holding that colour, not letting it escape that she didn’t see Rathe’s tail swinging up behind her.

It caught her in the back, winding her and knocking her from the air and sending her spiralling towards the ground. She tried to regain enough control to levitate herself again, managing to slow her fall slightly and eventually stop but she wasn’t fast enough.

Rathe’s hand snatched her from the air, fingers closing around her waist. Her one free arm blasted at his hand until he pulled her upward with enough force to snap her head back against the rough skin of his fingers.

Athira! Talon’s desperate cry translated into an audible screech. I’m coming!

She could barely hear him, let alone see him. Her vision was blurring, body growing limp under the fire of her runes. The heat of Rathe’s skin was igniting her runes like never before, as if it could tear them from her flesh.

Athira stopped fighting. Her trapped arm stopped pushing against the wall of clawed fingers her free arm draped across. Reality was giving way under the pressure of Rathe’s presence.

Release the gem, said the voice, twisting around her thoughts. Allow the passage to open.

She couldn’t remember why she had to hold on, why this searing agony was worth enduring just for the blissful silence that lay beyond it. There was nothing, nothing but Rathe and his all consuming fire.

Athira lost the strength to hold up her head. It fell back against Rathe’s hand, cheek resting on the scaly red skin. Her eyelids drifted open to see a large, dark shape hurtling towards her, one that vaguely registered in her mind.

Tal...Talon? She tried to concentrate. Something didn’t look right. Why is there something on his back? It looks like...

“Let go of that girly you interdimensional slimeball!”

...girly?

The figure leapt off Talon’s back, landing squarely on Rathe’s knuckles. They slammed their palm into a spot directly in front of Athira’s face, heated red light immediately blossoming from the point of contact.

“Holy...” They grabbed their elbow with their free hand. “Oh dear god Athira why didn’t you tell me -- okay so you did tell me but holy gods of colour does it hurt!”

Rathe’s grip on Athira’s body loosened as the glow near her face intensified. She wanted to turn her head away but couldn’t find the strength, and just as she thought she couldn’t bear it any longer, the glow disappeared.

The figure straightened. His being glowed with the same power as Rathe.

“Hey, buddy!”

Rathe’s attention moved from boring into Athira’s consciousness to the figure standing beside her.

“Eat it!”

They extended their hand towards Rathe’s face. Athira couldn’t see anything past that, but a flash of light and heat told her some of Rathe’s power had been used. They must have hit something good, because a second later Rathe’s grip on Athira completely failed and she plummeted towards the ground.

There was no semblance of control as she fell, vaguely aware of the ground rushing up to meet her. A black shadow flashed beneath her. It intercepted her descent. Rathe’s figure became smaller by the second.

The black shadow fluttered to the ground and Athira felt herself being rolled down to the ground. Her body flopped, completely drained. There was nothing left to hold herself together with, only embers of will holding the last of her strength together. She barely moved as the shadow took off beside her and left her there.

Athira began to drift, scattered fragments of thoughts leaking into the darkness beyond.

A dull thud came from the ground beside her, followed by two lighter ones in rapid succession. They moved towards her quickly, dropping next to her as hands pulled her shoulders up on an incline, resting her on something squishy yet hard.

“Athira, can you hear me? Athira!” The voice changed directions, sounding increasingly panicked. “Talon, she’s not responding!”

Her thoughts are drifting. I don’t know what to do, Shift.

“What happens if she doesn’t wake up?”

I don’t really want to think about that consequence. It would mean the end for us all.

The hands pulled her further up still, one wrapping under her arms while the other supported her neck. The touch sharpened her thoughts, bringing a measure of clarity to them.

That. What you did then, do it again!

“Athira?” The hand on her neck slid around, its paired thumb spreading warmth over her cheek. She followed it with her mind, clinging to that voice and its heat like a lifeline. “Thira, wake up.”

Athira opened her eyes, finding herself staring at the crook of an elbow. As the seconds ticked by, she became increasingly aware of the fact that she was propped up on Shift’s lap with Talon standing guard, studying her worriedly with one eye.

She adjusted her head to meet Shift’s concerned gaze.

“Eat it?” she asked. “Really? That’s the best you have?”

His lip twitched upward on one side. “You’re welcome.”

He helped her up slowly, supporting her as her legs threatened to give way. Wondering why her arms still ached, she rolled up one of her sleeves.

The sight made her breath hitch.

Her runes, usually a light blue colour were an angry red, glowing with the same light Rathe called upon that made her skin crawl.  They seemed more intimidating than ever before and after a moment of being completely frozen; Athira broke their hold over her and covered them once more with her sleeve.

Climb on, said Talon, lowering to the ground. We need to see where Rathe was attracted to in the mindscape and figure out where we’re going next.

Shift helped an unsteady Athira on to Talon’s back before climbing on himself. Once on, he leaned forward, arms brushing her waist to grab a handful of feathers in front of her legs. She ignored the feelings rising up in her, telling herself it was merely an aftershock effect of almost succumbing to Rathe within the mindscape.

“So,” said Shift as Talon flew over the ridge. “I think I finally understand what those runes are for on your arms.”

“And what’s that?”

“If that Rathe thing is what you’re trying to contain, that colour hurts like hell when you’re in contact with it.”

Athira twisted around awkwardly to stare at him. “You what?”

He grinned. “I weaponised the turtle.”

She continued to stare. Is he serious? “That’s not possible. You should be dead, burned from the inside out and nothing more than a shell.”

“I found a fragment of a memory,” he said casually. “She Rathe-proofed me as much as she could.”

Athira turned back around, shaking her head. “I’m not even going to ask how you found it or why you were in the battle or even how you managed to control it, Shift. But... thanks. For saving me twice now.”

He leaned forward, resting his chin on her shoulder. She glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow but tolerated the contact.

“Twice eh?”

Athira shrugged. “For saving me now, and pulling me out of Rathe’s grip before when I slipped into it fighting Talia. I’m pretty sure that was you, anyway. If not then disregard and get off my raven.”

“Pretty good for a turtle, huh?”

“You seem friendly all of a sudden.”

“It’s the new thing,” said Shift, ignoring her comment. “Villains everywhere will be weaponising their turtles once they hear about this!”

“Except they’ll never find out, because if you tell anyone anything that happened in here, I’ll turn you into a turtle and put you back in this mindscape to see how long you last.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Can you even do that?”

“Keep pushing it if you want to find out.”

Shift laughed and retreated his head. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I’m just glad you’re alive. How come I can’t tell anyone about what happened, though?

Athira sighed. Because the truth would come out when the facts don’t match up and you’d figure it out. “The last thing I need is to fight off a squadron of Elites who know I have a direct link to Rathe. Look,” she said, pointing towards the ground as Talon as he crested the ridges.

Where the ground should have been solid, partial sections gave way to a shimmering surface that rippled and reflected the light. Phantom buildings flickered in and out of existence, large metal structures with people and some kind of water crafts inside them.

“It’s the docks,” said Shift. “Why can we see this here?”

The veil between dimensions here is thinner than other places, sort of like a connecting point, said Talon. That’s the easiest explanation we have.

“That’s where Reader will be then,” said Athira. “The colour disturbance should originate at this point, leaking through dimensions where it’s thinnest. Now we just need to get back.”

“And how do we do that?” asked Shift, peering over Talon’s side.

Athira couldn’t help herself. She faced him and gave him a knowing look, allowing herself a ghost of a smile that aimed to unsettle him.

It worked. Shift glanced nervously to the sides. “Uh, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Oh nothing,” she said innocently. “Just thinking about how much fun it’s going to be waking you up when I get back, little turtle.”

*+*+*+*

A/N - Go team turtle!

PLEASE READ! For some people, the next chapter will be bugged and appear blank. If you *CANNOT* see the words on the NEXT chapter, delete this story and re-add it to your library. It should fix it. <3 

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