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Chapter 33 - Potentials

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Being the leader of a Colour team in Sirah meant Raph often didn't get a full night of sleep, but rarely was it the intruder alarm that woke him up. 

Raph sat up, whipping the covers off and forcing his eyes to adjust and scan the darkness despite the way they blurred. The alarm would set off a series of protocols, one of which locked down the bedroom doors to give them time to assess the threat. The Elites insisted on it, although it didn't do much if the threat was already inside the room. 

He seemed to be alone. Raph kicked the remaining blanket off his feet and moved towards where his colour suit hung, putting it on with a well practiced movement. He was always armed, but having red for his colour meant some defense was required. Taking a few hits was almost a certainty in most fights, and his suit was designed to deal with them. 

It took him a second to remember the specific code to lift the protocol locking the door, but a second later the grey metal sheet rose back into the ceiling to reveal the hallway beyond.

Zoe was already there, halting her stride when she heard his door. Unlike him, she hadn't bothered to change into her suit and stood in the pajama singlet and shorts she usually slept in. 

"What's going on?" she asked. 

Kione's door opened and he poked out his head. The colour of his skin made it hard to see against the darkness. Athira's door remained locked. Raph doubted she was even in there. 

Doesn't matter. "Shift's on patrol tonight, Talia's on guard duty," said Raph, waving Zoe and Kione forward. "Which means she sounded the alarm."

Sure enough, Talia's voice came through the communicator that lived on Raph's wrist. "Foyer. Now. Shift's hurt, Athira's with him."

She didn't have to repeat the words. Raph's mind did that for her. 

Shift's hurt.

Possibilities ran through his mind, each one more unlikely than the last. 

Shift had been caught by surprise while out. He'd been targeted by a villain group specifically and taken down, barely managing to escape. He'd stumbled upon a nest, or someone on the Elite's wanted list and tried to take them on solo.

He'd been somewhere that he shouldn't have been. 

With Athira. 

He tried to tell himself he wouldn't blame her when he heard the story, but he knew it was going to take something special for that to happen. Athira or not, Shift was a younger brother to him. Too well natured for his own good. Too willing to accept that someone might be something they're not, if it meant giving them a chance to change. 

I'm starting to sound like Talia. Guess her nagging got to me. 

That, and all the strange, unexplained occurrences. Like why Shift was worried about her presence at the tower, why she kept sneaking out, and why the Owl had supposedly been spotted at several places around Sirah and reports were still coming in about her activities despite Athira denying all knowledge. Or just avoiding the topic all together with meditations. 

They reached the foyer. Shift was laid out on his stomach near the edge of the room, the two girls kneeling over him. Raph recognised the Owl's signature cape on the ground beside Athira and a knot formed in his stomach. 

She didn't attack him... did she?

He forced himself to wait and ask questions later. Blue colour flickered at Talia's fingers as Raph caught sight of a previously prepped rune stone the size of his fist in her hands, but his eyes were drawn back to the bloodied purple rags on the floor beside Talia. 

"What's the situation?" asked Raph, crouching beside Talia. 

"He's been stabbed with a non-colour formed dagger in the back," said Talia. Her voice was stone. "Didn't pierce the other side, but he's still bleeding out. Athira compressed it with rags, but he's unconscious and still fading."

"Can he shift some of Zoe's colour?" asked Kione as Zoe dashed forward and took Shift's hand. Though the yellow colour appeared at her fingers, Shift's green wasn't the least bit interested. 

"He's burned out," said Athira. Her voice was flat. "It won't work for at least a few hours."

Raph swore. Shift was supposed to be the second easiest one to deal with injury on their team, bar Zoe. "Can we move him to the med bay? What rune are you using, Talia?" 

"Yes." Talia let the colour fade. "And it's just one to infuse strength into one's body. I'm not skilled enough with the healing side of runes to attempt anything like that. He could just as well end up with an extra arm or age ten years if I try it."

As she spoke, Athira raised Shift with her colour by floating him on her cloak, and keeping it flat, glanced at Raph for directions. He went to point the way as Zoe beat him to it, running ahead into the corridors and motioning for Athira to follow. 

Raph followed at a jog with Talia and Kione close beside him. 

"Sorry about the alarm," said Talia. "I figured it was the quickest way to get you out here. I don't have the knowledge to deal with this."

"Good call," said Raph. They rounded a corner. "We need to find out what's going on with Athira and Shift. Whatever it is, it's gone too far."

"Gee, you mean we shouldn't let an ex-criminal just run around inside Indigo base and out and keep everything she knows from us?" Raph could almost hear the rolling eyes and smug grin. "Especially after learning of an apocalyptic prophecy that she might be the one to bring about?" 

Kione interrupted her spiel. "Can we get a healer of some colour to the tower?" 

"Tried that already," said Talia, all traces of that I-told-you-so grin sliding off her face. "All the good ones are busy with a situation on the other side of Sirah in Amber's territory dealing with a Sleeper attack."

The door to the med bay was open. Raph stepped inside.

Shift was on the closest bed. Under the fluorescent lighting, the crimson stain on Shift's clothes was undoubtedly there and a lot larger than Raph would have liked. Saving his questions about the strange grey clothing Shift wore for the same time as Athira's Owl cape, Raph headed for the cabinets and started pulling out what he needed to treat Shift. 

"You can do it, Zo," said Athira. Her voice sounded strained. 

Zoe looked panicked. "I--I don't know, Thira. I've never heard of anything like it--"

"Heard of anything like what?" asked Kione. 

"Thira wants me to heal Shift," said Zoe, frowning. "But my regeneration only works on me, I mean, unless he shifts it. But Athira says if I--"

"If I help Zoe find her mindscape, she should be able to unlock the potential to project her colour on to other people," explained Athira. "She's strong enough to do it, it's just a matter of how."

Raph was still measuring out various fluids he'd hoped to never have to use on his team. Using them meant someone was in serious trouble, and judging by the pallor of Shift's skin he'd reached that point long before Athira had reached Indigo base. "It's worth a try, Zoe. Kione, can you set up the IV?"

Kione followed the request immediately. Zoe was having a little more trouble. 

"But what if I--"

"You're Spectrum, Zo," came Athira's voice. "You're better than all of us. You just have to try. You can do it."

Only Athira could talk Zoe into something with so little words. Raph heard Indigo's yellow colour take a deep breath. 

"What do I do?" 

"Relax," said Athira. "Hold my hand, and relax. All I want you to do is let your colour flow, let it out like you do when your aura shines through."

The room fell silent except for the clinking of vials in Raph's hands. Two would be injected now and another three later, assuming they were needed. The IV should keep his fluids up, the blue vial would hopefully encourage the wound to seal and the green would boost his colour, hopefully bringing back its ability to shift Zoe's sooner rather than later. 

Prepared in case Athira's idea didn't work, Raph turned around to watch. 

The girls sat beside each other linked together by a hand, eyes closed and colours visible on their skin. Zoe's was the usual soft, yellow light engulfing her aura while Athira's was black with a harsher white edge to it. Where they hit, the two energies melded and the white outline of Athira's thickened. 

Zoe's aura flared. It was brief at first, growing steadily stronger with every synchronised breath. The yellow light bridged the space between Zoe's fingers and Shift's chest, slowly travelling across more of Shift's body with every pulse until his chest was covered in a halo of light. 

It wasn't anything like when Shift borrowed colour. This was purely Zoe's colour, guided by Athira. 

The glow intensified. Raph had to squint and shield his eyes. The glow was everywhere, surrounding him, surrounding Kione and Talia and bathing everything in its warmth...

And then it wasn't. 

The yellow aura collapsed back on Zoe, leaving Raph feeling like he was missing a part of himself.  

"I felt it," said Zoe, gasping for breath. "I felt his colour, but it wouldn't take mine. It just pushed me out. I'm sorry, Thira, I'm so sorry."

Athira's face was blank, staring at Shift. Raph swore some of the darker shades in her clothing had been drained by Zoe's colour, but that seemed ridiculous.

"It was worth a try," she whispered. 

Raph took control. He nodded at Zoe, who backed up and took Athira with her to sit on a nearby bench. Kione and Talia approached, looking to him for directions.

"Gloves," said Raph. "We need gloves. If Shift's colour comes active again he can't shift one of our colours accidentally when he could take Zoe's. No bare skin contact, we'll try Zoe's every five minutes. Kione, get the nanowrap ready for after I've cleaned the wound. Talia, get that strength rune back on his body. Focus it around his chest, keep it strong. Do you have anything for binding or sealing prepared?"

The minutes ticked by as Raph issued orders and Indigo followed them. Their colours not useful to the situation, Zoe remained with Athira on the nearby bench. With the quick glances he stole at them, Raph caught emotions he hadn't thought to ever see again on Athira's face. Worry. Regret. To his surprise, anger. They were only brief, born in moments when the monitors or Shift made a sound, but they were there. 

She didn't do this on purpose, Raph found himself realising. She's never been able to lie or perform any planned stories in these situations. She just shuts down. Whatever this was, it was an accident. 

The nanowrap bandage worked its wonder, sealing the wound without the use of needles or staples. Talia's runes kept Shift's body strong as the IV supplied the fluids he'd lost and the various Elite concoctions of colour boosting worked together to bring the colour back to his cheeks. 

Even so, it was at least half an hour before Raph allowed himself to relax. 

"He'll live," Raph announced, taking a moment to lean on the bed. "But there is the slight issue of how this happened to begin with."

Athira looked at the floor. 

Zoe, still beside her on the bench squeezed the hand she'd managed to pry from Athira's statuesque posture. "Thira, we know you've been going out at night. We're your friends. We're here to help you."

"Some of you would just as soon execute me," muttered Athira. Then, even softer, almost to the point that Raph didn't hear it, "I almost wish you could."

Athira's hands masked her face. Without her cloak to shield her body, she looked strangely vulnerable to Raph. He hadn't seen her without one since she'd come back for more than a fleeting moment. 

This moment, however, was frozen in time. The air in the med bay seemed to settle around him, tense and tighten as it wrapped around them and bound the bodies of Indigo together. 

"Athira, girl," said Kione. "Talk to us. We're a team--"

Athira's hands slammed on to her knees, sending out a small wave of black colour that made Zoe jump. 

"You might be a team, but I'm not." Her fingers clenched in unison with her eyelids. "I need to meditate. Everything's out of control, I can't--"

"No," said Talia, pouncing on the opportunity. "We're dealing with this now."

Athira's eyes held a dangerous edge. "Would you like me to deal with you again?" 

Talia grit her teeth, but remained otherwise immovable. 

"She has a point, Athira," said Raph. He tried to ignore the look Zoe was giving him. "We can't just keep dancing around this issue, hoping that it'll get resolved on its own. It never seems to be a good time with your colour, because every time you come back from these midnight outings you need to meditate again." 

"Exactly!" said Talia. "So we're dealing with this now!"

Raph shot her a glance, one that told her to back down if she didn't want to guard the door, and looked back to Athira. 

She was shaking her head in tiny, rapid motions. Her eyes closed, shaky breaths raking in through her nose and exhaling as uncertain words on her lips. 

"Azarin, he, who comes through night. Zark'n, he, who guides the light. Laris, she, who holds the gem. Rathril zi la ish varen."

Raph sighed. He was about to interrupt her when Kione placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, gesturing to wait. With that, Kione's eyes studied the ceiling as he listened to Athira's chant. 

The repetitions continued, each one bringing a slightly calmer presence to Athira's movements. The glow of her runes on her bare shoulders and biceps faded, but to Raph's surprise, the outline and general colouring of them remained. 

They used to fade back into her skin when we were little.

"Athira," said Kione slowly. "Your chant, where's it from?" 

Her eyes remained closed. "It’s from one of the stories my mentor used to read me, when I was little. I liked it, so I used it as my focus for meditation."

Kione chewed his lip. "What colour was your mentor?"

That rose the lidded curtains from her grey irises . "I... I don't remember him ever using a colour," she said after a pause. 

It seemed to be what Kione was expecting, to an extent. His face lit up as he sent a shot of colour into his bracelet, bringing several orange, holographic looking screens into existence. 

"Subject change much?" said Talia. 

"Tal, this might be important," said Kione. "We'll get back to it, it's just--ah, here we go."

One screen enlarged, dwarfing the others. As far as Raph could skim from it, it was little more than a jumbled account of some battle that seemed too fantastic to be true.

"Relevance?" asked Raph. Kione's tangents were usually productive, but his patience was wearing thin.

"Read this and tell me if it sounds familiar," said Kione, highlighting a passage. 

Raph scanned the text. 

            'But Azarin he would not commend, the bravery of Ish'varen,

                      their flashing swords, the brazen might, as Shield soared on Laris' light, 

                      Before their fall, after the fight, 

                     let hate and anger drench in night.

"The words from Athira's chant," said Raph, curiosity piqued. "But what does that mean?"

"Not words. Names," said Kione, collapsing the screen. "And it's significant because that tale originates from the Wardens, was locked away in those hidden files, and details the entire battle of the Titans fighting to rid their home of the evils they created in all its flowery glory."

"So I used a scrap from a story," said Athira. "It means nothing."

"Except that everything in this whole situation always comes back to you."

"I tried to stick myself in 'this whole thing' on purpose, Kione. That was the point of the previous years of my life."

"It's more than that," said Kione, surprising Raph with the amount of passion he was putting into the words. He was taken by the mystery. "I did some digging. The Wardens are a sub-group of the Azarin monks that split off after they felt the monks weren't performing their duties as, well, wardens of Thols. Everyone forgot the Sleeper even existed except the Wardens, right up until something woke it up seventeen years ago."

Something clicked for Raph. "Seventeen years ago was when indigo and violet merged into purple."

"And," added Kione, "when the continent of Nomstral, one of the smaller ones across the sea, was rocked with a blast of colour so powerful that it disintegrated the mindscapes of anyone inside the blast zone, leaving them little more than walking corpses and rendering the land completely infertile. The blast was nearly two and a half thousand kilometres wide and hit the side where sixty eight percent of the continent's population was located, since the rest of it is mostly mountains. Now, even those areas that didn't get blasted are more or less empty because they fled."

A pause. 

The rest of the world had known about Nomstral, of course. There was no way you hadn't heard. But if it didn't directly concern you, it was easy to forget it'd ever happened. Raph did exactly that, except when he caught dealers trying to sell Nomstral cultural items on the black market. Beautifully crafted objects with intricate colour detailing worked into their forms reduced to pretty things for rich people to brag about. 

"That was when your family came to Sirah, wasn't it, Kione?" said Zoe softly. 

He gave her a stiff nod. She stood up and hugged him. 

"There was never a mention of any Sleeper in anything I've ever found," said Raph. "Just something of a colour anomaly, indigo and violet reacting to each other."

"Wardens covered it up," said Kione. "Didn't want panic, or for any cults to form. One of the thirteen files is dedicated just to that event. But it poses the question of who woke up the Sleeper?"

The conversation, though slowed, had caught even Talia's interests. "This reminds me of Starpoint tower, the so-called rune experiments the research team there was performing and how it backfired. It didn't disintegrate their mindscapes, but it killed them and left a small area around it rather dead."

Zoe moved to the bed where Shift lay and placed her hand over his, colour coming to her fingers with an ease Raph envied. 

"Possibly," said Kione, dropping his voice. "But I was thinking more along the lines of, how best to take out a Spectrum than to ensure their colour doesn't exist at all? Indigo and violet, merged. Do they even count as colours any more, or are they too diluted to fulfill their place in the prophecy?" 

"The Herald," breathed Talia. She looked to Athira. 

Athira met it with a glare. "I was four years old and with the monks in the Snowlily mountains when it happened. They had to knock me out to stop my colour from destroying half the monastery with its reaction to the merge. If it was the Sleeper being woken that caused it, that mystery is explained."

"What mystery?" said Talia.

"Why my colour reacted so badly that day," said Athira like Talia was two. "The Sleeper energy causes it to go haywire if I'm anywhere near it. Nausea accompanies."

Talia narrowed her eyes. "Oh good, I'm glad we cleared that up. I've been ever so curious as to why you can't ever control your colour--which reminds me, care to explain why you came back with a half-dead member of our team in your Owl getup, and why Shift appears to have a matching set?" 

Raph took one look at Athira's face and knew that if he wanted to keep the medbay standing, Talia had to go. 

"Talia," he said. "Out. Now."

"Why?" said the blue colour. "So she can change the subject again? I dropped it Raph, exactly like you told me to last week, and you still haven't done anything about it!" Flecks of dirt swirled on the floor. "If you don't dedicate yourself to finding out where she's been going, I'll be dedicating myself to informing the Elites about the manipulation and corruption manifesting in this colours-be-damned team!" 

There was a small gasp from Zoe at Shift's bed, when--

"The hell is all this yelling about?" came Shift's groggy voice. "Did someone take Talia's straightener again?" 

Everyone spun around to face him. Athira looked like she wanted to go to him but she held herself back, despite how her body leaned towards him mid-air. 

"Shift!" said Zoe. She threw herself over him like a glowing yellow blanket. "You're okay!" 

Shift winced. "Ow, Zo, it's still tender."

Zoe jumped back, hands flying to her chest with wide eyes. "Sorry," she squeaked. 

Raph breathed an internal sigh of relief. Trust Shift to have the world's best timing and instantly knowing how to diffuse Talia's mood bombs. Even if he'd been unconscious while most of the timer vanished into oblivion. 

"Shift," said Raph. "Care explaining why Athira showed up with a certain green colour who had a rather large hole in his side?" 

"Erm, a dagger came to life and tried to excavate my stomach?"

Raph folded his arms. He knew the time-buying statement for what it was as Shift glanced at the spot where Athira was behind him. 

"But really Raph, it's not as bad as it looks--"

"Just... stop," said Raph, raising his eyes to the ceiling. "You come back from patrol stabbed, dying and bleeding in clothes I've never seen before that seem to match Athira's Owl outfit which she also happens to be wearing despite the fact that her cloak should be locked up inside Elite HQ. One of you is going to start talking or I swear I will lock you both up myself--"

Shift held up a hand, dropping it with a wince a second later. "Okay, okay Raph. Calm your inner Talia. Athira's been trying to track down the person claiming responsibility for the Owl attacks, because for obvious reasons, it's not the original. Last night, she took me with her because the Owl now has an apprentice and she wanted some back up. Same thing tonight, except they caught me by surprise and stuck a dagger in me when they couldn't beat Athira."

Raph stood there for a moment, analysing every cool word. Shift was nearly impossible to catch in a lie, but Raph had no intentions of being deceived. "Since when does Athira need help detaining someone?"

"Since the Sleeper's influence is getting stronger and sends her colour haywire," said Shift.

The words were strangely reminiscent of Athira's earlier ones to Talia, which gave Raph an idea.  Shift might be good at lying, but he wasn't the only party involved. 

Raph turned around. "Is this correct, Athira?" 

Zoe sat unhappily beside the bed, twisting her hands. "Raph, don't--"

"We're getting to the bottom of this, now," said Raph. "No more secrets, or you're off the team and I'll be reporting you to the Elites. Now is that correct, Athira?" 

Her face was blank as she nodded stiffly. 

"Why didn't you inform anyone but Shift?" asked Raph.

Shift started to answer, but Raph cut him off with a hand. 

Athira met his eyes. "Because it's my problem. The Owl exists because of me. I told Shift because he's the only one capable of holding his own against the... imposter when he shifts my colour, and even he almost died."

"If we brought everyone--" Kione started.

"They never would have shown up or they would have ambushed you one by one," finished Athira. "I went into the Elite HQ and took back my Owl cloak. I admit it. But it was only because there was no other way to make things right."

Raph mulled the words over in his head. She seemed sincere, and the idea of some villain taking up the title of Owl once they figured the original was gone wasn't too far fetched. 

"Is that all you've been doing?" asked Raph. "Just tracking down this impersonator? Because if I find out you've left something out, there will be hell to pay."

Athira's feet touched down on the floor. "I've been doing nothing but trying to protect those that need protecting from the evil I've created." 

"And what does that mean?" sneered Talia.

Athira didn't rise to the jibe. Her eyes flicked over Talia. "Exactly what you think it means."

Raph clicked his tongue. Something was telling him they were leaving something crucial out but nothing was coming to mind to catch them out. 

"Fine," he said. "I'll believe it. We'll look into this Owl impersonator closely, see what we can find and inform the Elites that we believe the person under the cloak has changed. But," Raph glanced between Shift and Athira, "if either if you go out again, you will let us know. No more sneaking off. You're part of a team, both of you, and I expect you to act like it."

"Speaking of which," said Kione. “Discord should be coming by in the next day or two to conduct Athira’s assessment and either grant or deny her full acceptance into the team. The review and the combat assessment.”

A few tonnes of atmosphere lifted off Raph’s shoulders at that. The thought of Discord facing down against a colour like he’d never seen before would be entertaining, to say the least. 

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A/N - Slower chapter, but hopefully still like-able-ishy. And you guys seriously thought I'd let the turtle die at this point? I LOVE MY TURTLE TOO MUCH TO DO THAT. 

YET.