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Chapter 46 - Daughter of Rathe 

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Shift felt pain in his chest as if the dagger had struck him instead of Athira. 

He screamed her name as shock crossed her face. Her hand pressed to his slipped against the blue shield he couldn't penetrate, Shift forced to stand and watch as the blue Warden stalked towards her, as Athira slid down the wall, clutching the hilt of the dagger with shaking fingers. 

The Warden crouched in front of Athira, her lips moving in silent words. 

"Thira!" Shift slammed his fist against the shield he felt the cartilage in his hand crunch. "Thira, for the love of colour, blast her!" 

He dug his fingers into the shield, summoning any sliver of his colour that remained within him and trying to get it to shift something. He'd take blue and all its bare truths if it meant he could break the bubble holding Athira, but his colour refused. The intake of black was expended and had burned his green out in the process, leaving him effectively colourless. 

That didn't stop him trying to beat the shield down as Athira's blood continued to pool beneath her. 

Athira's strength finally gave out, her upper body falling towards the Warden, who, to Shift's surprise, caught her and wrapped their hand around the hilt of the dagger. It was something in that action, the almost tender grip that triggered realisation for Shift.

They're not trying to kill her, so what are they--

The Warden pulled out the dagger. 

Athira's head jerked back. Her fingers clawed the ground behind her as pure, fierce black colour bloomed in her chest and exploded. It thrashed around the edges, a far cry from the smooth edges Athira usually lined herself and her targets with. It was rough and thick as it raced down her arms, her legs, her head, covering her entire body and runes in a matter of seconds. Not even the Warden's shield could stop it as it lunged through the shimmering blue surface. 

Shift scrambled backwards, panic in the back of his mind. The colour, it's going to--

"Where's Athira?" asked Zoe, stopping beside him. 

The Warden stood there, bloody dagger in hand as she accepted her fate with a triumphant grin. 

"Run!" cried Shift. 

He grabbed Zoe's shoulder and dragged her with him when she hesitated, pulling her back, as far away from Athira as he could get them in the seconds they had. She ran with him reluctantly, throwing backwards glances in the direction of the cloud of black colour. 

"Her colour," Shift panted. "It's going to heal her and--"

An invisible shockwave rocked the air, knocking Shift and Zoe off their feet and throwing them several metres forward. He grabbed Zoe mid-air in a bear hug, taking the brunt of the impact as they hit the ground rolling. 

Shift caged Zoe's body with his limbs as he glanced back. The blue sphere had vanished along with anything in a ten metre radius of it, a list that included the top halves of an Elite or two on the ground, the nearby tower and the ground, leaving only a craggy, torn chasm of earth beneath. 

In the centre, one figure remained levitating above it all. 

"Is that... Athira?" asked Zoe. 

Shift didn't have an answer for that. 

He figured it was, but something wasn't right about her. At this distance, the details were hard to make out with the exception of the cloak still fluttering around her form, the cowl in place as it always was. 

"Zoe, I think--"

Zoe knocked Shift off her and scrambled to her feet. "We have to get to her. Now." 

For someone who'd been on the edge of becoming comatose, Zoe moved damn fast. Shift could barely keep up with her and the brilliant yellow flickering around her as she raced to the edge of the crater, leaping and bounding over what Shift hoped were just unconscious bodies like they didn't matter. 

She stopped where the ground dropped away, eyes fixed on the figure whose back was turned to them. 

Zoe cupped her mouth with her hands. "Thira!"

The figure turned. 

Even ten metres away, Shift could read the numb shock holding Athira still. It was her, there was no doubt in his mind anymore. She just didn't look quite as he'd come to expect in the last few months. 

Tight black garments similar to those of the Owl hugged her figure, but where the Owl's had been grey, these were an iridescent crimson that left most of her legs and arms bare. Instead of boots, long, slim coverings wound up her calves to the backs of her knees, leaving several windows of skin in their path. Her wrists were covered in a similar design, although they appeared to be thicker in nature. 

The fashion statement wasn't the biggest change. Athira's skin, while still pale white, had a red undertone to it that somehow seemed to permeate the pores. It wasn't quite a glow but at the same time it seemed to emit an aura around her that stirred the air. Several parts of it seemed to appear raised, not unlike the descriptions of dragon's backs found in the shifter legends Shift occasionally read. 

And then there was the tail--the long, almost featherlike appendage moving like a fifth limb in the air behind her. 

"What happened to her?" whispered Zoe, stepping closer to Shift. 

Athira's hands reached up for her cowl, pulling it back to her shoulders to reveal a crown of sleek, pointed antlers with pointed ears. Her fingers lingered at the edge of the fabric as her eyes, no longer grey but black with glowing red irises, fell on Zoe, sliding to Shift after a moment. 

It was then that the biggest revelation hit Shift, bigger than the tail or the horns or the burning gaze she was currently affixing him with. Why her arms looked so bare, despite the same amount of coverings over them. 

"They were never binding her colour," Shift said, running a hand through his hair. "They were binding her body."

"What?" asked Zoe. 

"Athira's runes," he said. "They're gone." 

They finally broke, Shift thought, searching for any trace of blue or red lines etched into Athira's skin. And they weren't holding her colour at all. She did that all on her own. 

Athira's legs shifted beneath her in a way that made Shift think she was going to float towards them when she hesitated and her gaze jerked up. The soft, confused look cracked and hardened to a snarl.

Shift turned around and found out why. 

The backup had arrived. At least twenty Wardens and another thirty non-zombified looking Elites were running towards them with various dangerous looking weapons. For the first time, they weren't bothering with demands of surrender. 

"Fire! Retrieve the Spectrum at any cost!"  

Shift grabbed Zoe and dropped them to the ground once more as the shots skimmed over their heads, praying they wouldn't start shooting at him when a guttural growl sent a tremor through his ears. 

"Get away from them."

Shift risked a glance at Athira. In an instant, black colour engulfed her body and she disappeared. He searched the space over the crater for a sign of her, only to find her standing between them and the Wardens and the black colour scraping off her skin back down to her hands. 

Shift couldn't believe it. She teleported.

 The firing didn't stop, but Athira didn't seem to notice as she raised a shield of black before her. 

"Owl!" demanded a Warden."Demon, spawn of Rathe! Whatever the hell you are, you will not succeed!" 

Athira dropped the shield. "You do have to wonder," she said, voice dipped in a rolling, monotonal edge. "How you Wardens are going to succeed against Rathe when you can't even handle his daughter."

The Warden's didn't get a chance to answer as Athira raised her hands. 

Without exception, every single weapon the Wardens held became individually coated in black colour. Shouts of surprise echoed through their ranks as the weapons then winked out of existence at the squeeze of Athira's fist. 

It didn't stop most of them from drawing on their colour, even as the cavern began to shake around them. Shift couldn't deny the growing sliver of fear both for himself and Zoe, who was still curled under him on the ground, nor the part of himself aching as he watched Athira throw the Elites around like they were nothing. 

"Thira!" Shift could barely hear himself over the rain of shattering tiles and rumbling ground. "Thira, you're going to kill them, stop it!" 

Athira's tail flicked behind her, wrapping around her legs before releasing itself as her attention remained ahead.

"I'm not going to kill them," she said calmly. 

Shift released a breath. "That's go--"

"They'll suffer longer and more if they remain alive," finished Athira, picking up another three Elites by their feet and dragging them across the ground. She seemed to be saving the Wardens for last, keeping them corralled together with a typhoon of black-coloured objects. 

Another Elite femur cracked as she hit the wall. 

"You're better than this, Athira!" cried Shift. "You're not Rathe, you're not a Warden!" 

He heard her sneer. "No, I'm just his daughter. His spawn." 

 "No, you're not!" said Shift. "It's a metaphor--"

Athira stopped terrorising the Elites for a moment and turned to face him, giving him his first clear view of her face. Hatred was breeding among the unfamiliar features, a volatile anger that could explode at any moment. 

"Child of Sin isn't a metaphor," said Athira. She made a sharp gesture to herself. "This? What you see? It's my true form, Shift. The biological influence of being sired by Rathe."

An Elite got too close. She threw him into the chasm, her eyes following the body and lingering there, away from Shift. 

"When Reader first called me a child of Sin," said Athira. "I thought I still had a chance--that it simply referred to an attitude, or my colour, but as we can see before us that is certainly not the case. What he was referring to was my nature, something completely unavoidable because it's built into me."

"So what?" 

Zoe's clear voice demanded Athira's attention. Yellow colour flickered around her as she got to her feet.

"You say this is built into you?" asked Zoe, not waiting for a reply as she rushed on. "You say that you can't escape it?" She shook her head, strands of platinum flying untamed around her. "No. I won't accept that. The Athira I know, the one who I've always known would never accept that. She'd keep fighting Rathe, keep fighting whatever it is that's trying to control her, because she controls herself!" 

Athira looked away. Black colour flickered around her outline, flaring and spiking in a way that suggested she'd given up on trying to control it. 

"You always gave me too much credit," said Athira. "I'm a monster, Zoe. You just have to look at me for the proof."

"The only proof of a monster I'm seeing is the way you're playing with those people!" said Zoe. 

She jabbed Athira in the chest. "If this is who you are, Athira, if this body is what you think defines you, then I'll remind you--runes were the only thing hiding it from you. If this body, the spines and the horns and the tail have so much power over you, then why, only now, are they dictating your actions when they've been ingrained in your DNA your entire life? They're nothing more than cosmetic, and you damned well know it, so stop using them as an excuse to give up!" 

Zoe was panting, fatigue at the core of her stance but she refused to give in. 

Athira's colour dropped away from her hands. She stared. The tail stopped lashing behind her. 

"You don't hate me for being like this?" she asked quietly. 

Tears sprung to Zoe's eyes as she launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around Athira despite the spines digging into her and the colour licking her skin. She squeezed, pressing the side of her head against Athiras, somehow finding a place for her head among the horns wrapping Athira's. 

"No, Thira," whispered Zoe, so quietly Shift could barely hear the words. "I love you no matter what you look like. I only hate the doubt you have for yourself because I know you're better than that."

Athira's eyes shut tight as she buried her face into Zoe's shoulder, and for a moment, the world stood still, ignorant of the chaos around them. The black colour retreated back into Athira's body as she reined it in with a breath that lifted her chest. 

Shift glanced around, keeping an eye on the Wardens. Athira's wall of rubble and crates had fallen to the ground, but even so, the Wardens no longer seemed interested in attacking her. Instead, they were talking frantically with wild gestures at the roof and the space where the tower had stood, now only marked by the last three metres of its roof lying on the ground beside the crater. 

The cavern was still shaking, tremors running under Shift's feet. 

"Think you can stop trying to bring down the roof on us now?" he asked, glancing to Athira.

She stepped away from Zoe, examining the ceiling some hundred metres above their heads. 

"It's not me," said Athira. "Sloth is waking up."

"What?" asked Shift. "How? Is that even possible?" 

Athira closed her eyes. "The Wardens have been keeping it just below the point of waking so they could access their energy. When my colour healed me, it broke the runes and released... this," she said, glancing at her long, feathery tail. 

Zoe frowned. "Colour shouldn't be able to trigger it though, should it?" 

"Colour didn't trigger it," Athira said. "Rathe's presence did." 

"So that Warden then," said Shift. The trembling was growing, "When she stabbed you..."

Athira nodded, the burning irises surfacing behind her lids. 

"She knew it would break the runes, that Sloth and Rathe would sense each other and that like two dogs on a leash, they're going to try their best to obliterate the other and anything else in the way of that goal." 

The Warden's shouting increased as they came to a conclusion. They separated around the room, random colours pairing off with a blue, the colour that made up at least half their number. 

"They weren't a Warden, were they?" asked Shift, watching the Wardens scatter. Zoe stood beside him, tilting her head. 

Athira met his eyes. "Herald." 

Shift had the feeling she was about to say something else when the entire cavern lit up in a pale blue glow. He and Athira stepped back, dropping into a defensive stance out of habit. 

Giant runes, easily five times Shift's height flickered to life across the cavern roof in long, complicated strings of colour. Linked together by smaller interwoven runes still several times the size of any regular inscription, it was an arrangement that Shift knew he'd seen before. 

 The same thought was crossing Athira's mind. "It's like back in Starpoint tower, underground with the runes and the towers--"

"It's a containment field," said Zoe, her eyes wandering over their surface, mouth slightly agape. "They activated it when Sloth almost broke free there too, then just sort of left it on to be safe." 

"Does that mean they were doing these experiments at Starpoint too?" said Shift. "It'd explain why the outskirts are just kind of dead when--wait, how do you know all that, Zo?" 

She glanced back to where the Wardens had been standing, trailing a running purple Warden with her head before he disappeared. 

"He was a telepath," she said, turning back to face them. "Telling me not to panic, that they'd come back to get me after Sloth was contained."

Athira walked to the crater, stopping at the edge. 

"What, they're just leaving you with the Owl?" said Shift, wondering what Athira was doing. 

Zoe shrugged, following Athira. "They don't trust her, certainly, but apparently they don't think she's a direct threat to me. He said they needed all their colour to deal with Sloth, or this city is going to become the centerpiece of another dead continent."

Athira's voice floated towards Shift as he walked closer.

"Tal, you can't," she whispered. "You'll burn in there if you stay."

Zoe tilted her head. "Who's she talking to?"

"Talon," said Shift. "He's sort of a bird that lives in her mindscape and helps her keep her colour and Rathe under control." 

Zoe accepted the explanation with a nod. 

"I can already feel it," Athira said. "It's not as sudden but..." Pause. "It doesn't matter, Talon. This form is stronger, I can feel it. I'll be fine, you won't if you stay." She crossed her arms in front of her face, colour building in her grip. "Out. Now."

The black pool in her embrace fluttered into a recognisable shape. Shift held his breath, watching the white outline of feathers sprout, the details solidifying right up until the point where Athira flung her arms wide and released Talon into the physical world. 

He spread his wings with a cry, two flaps taking him up into the air, a dark silhouette against the blue backdrop of runes spiralling through the air. 

Athira hunched, holding her waist with both arms. 

"You're already burning up," said Shift, hands hovering nearby. "Thira, you can't--"

"I can, and I will," said Athira, straightening. "If Talon stays in my mindscape, he'll die. Rathe's stirring, the fires are spreading and he can't go into my colour again without being sucked into oblivion. He only survived it last time because Rathe retreated, thanks to your amazing kissing ability, 

Zoe's eyebrows shot up. Shift tried to hide the smile as her questing gaze scrutinised her face. 

"But this time?" said Athira, oblivious to anything but Talon circling overhead. "Until Sloth's asleep or dead, he won't back down."

"Shouldn't we just get out of here while the Wardens are doing the containment thing?" asked Shift. "They'll put Sloth back to sleep, Talon can go back in your mindscape, they're distracted while doing it and we can make an unnoticed escape! Seems like everything just works out for us, really." 

From the air, Talon's cry of warning echoed around them. 

"Behind us!" said Zoe, pointing to where two figures, one red and one orange were running at full speed towards them. From the looks of their suits, they were Wardens. 

"Think they changed their minds about leaving you with the Owl?" asked Shift, stepping in front of Zoe. "Just be gentle with them, Thira...wait." He squinted, trying to get a better look at them. "Is that Raph?" 

The figure in an orange Warden suit waved their arms above their heads, and sure enough, Kione's voice followed. 

"Hey, guys! We found you!" 

Athira dropped her hands. "Didn't you two leave?"

Kione grinned and looked to Raph. "Well, grumpy pants here wanted to, but after I hacked the cameras and we saw what was going on, well--"

"I was wrong, Shift," said Raph, jaw set. "The first unwritten rule we have as a Colour team is to ensure the safety of our members, even if it means letting a criminal go. With everything else going on, I forgot that."

Shift clapped him on the shoulder and smiled. "S'kay, buddy. I'm not used to the threat coming from our superiors either." 

Raph nodded and like that, the rift between them healed. "What's the situation here?" 

"On our end, everything's wiped," said Kione. "Cameras, recording, sensors of all kinds disabled. With all the Wardens and Elites running here in the chaos you created, it was disappointingly easy. Things go so smoothly for you guys?" 

Shift and Zoe glanced at Athira in unison, who folded her arms as Raph and Kione did a double take. 

"Er," said Kione, retracting a questioning finger. "Why does our girl have horns and a tail?" 

"Take your kid to work day came early this year," said Athira dryly. 

Talon's caw once more sounded from above, growing closer as he swooped low, flapping furiously to stop himself overshooting Athira's offered arm. 

"I wasn't warning you about them!" said Talon, sounding exasperated. "I was warning you about the sleepers!"

Athira's eyes went wide. "Sleepers?" 

"Purple blob thingys that tried to eat Shift back on the monorail!"said Talon. "Or the one that almost got you in the sewers, the ones that have been randomly appearing over the city that no one can really stop with the exception of--"

"Zoe, Shift, and me," said Athira, gaze flicking around. 

"We gotta grab Talia and go," said Shift. "We're losing our chance." 

"Talia's here?" said Raph. "She didn't--"

"She came here to try and get us out," said Shift, giving him an 'I'll-tell-you-later-I-promise' look and hoping Zoe wouldn't figure it out. He still hadn't figured out how he was going to tell the rest of his team, including Athira, about Talia's new colourless status, but underground in a secret Warden base was not the place to bring it up. 

"Looks like the containment field's nearly up," said Zoe. "Come on--"

A new voice entered the conversation. 

"It's already too late for the containment field," said Reader, striding towards them. with his usual cocky strut. 

"You," said Shift. "Where's Talia?" 

"Right here, Shift," said Talia, stopping beside Reader and folding her arms. 

Past that, she didn't say anything, content to stare Shift and anyone else who looked at her directly. Shift wasn't sure whether to be relieved or terrified.

"As I was saying," said Reader. "The Wardens designed the fields to keep Sloth down, not push it back down once it's awakened."

"So what are we looking at?" asked Athira. 

"At best, it'll reduce the radius of the affected areas, but you're looking at another dead continent," said Reader. "And that's assuming Sloth will even go back to sleep with Rathe so close."

Shift could no longer ignore the glowing violet hues around them, the gelatinous masses gathering slowly but entirely unstoppable as they made their way past building, Elite and Warden while absorbing anything in their path in one end before spitting it out the other. 

"The sleepers are coming," said Raph, taking note of the same thing. "We need to do something and do it fast." 

"The hell can we do against a Sin?" said Kione. "These things are trapped in planets, man!" 

"We're shutting it down," said Athira, fingers tightening by her sides. Her tail flared, revealing it was actually composed of seven individual feathery lengths. 

"I didn't realise Sins came with an off button," said Kione, raising an eyebrow. 

Athira half turned back towards the crater, looking back over her shoulder at them. 

"Spectrum are there to fight Sins," said Athira. "They're Spectrum because their colour affects a Sin more than just a tickle."

"When they're all together," Shift felt the urge to point out. "Remember the stuff Kione dug up? With one missing, they always fail. Rathe wins."

"We might not have the full Spectrum," agreed Athira, "but this isn't Rathe. We don't need it. This is Sloth, a Sin that's slow, lethargic, and we have a chance to put it back down before it destroys us. We have two Spectrum, and that'll have to be enough." 

Shift frowned. "Two? Are you--"

Athira gave him an are-you-serious look. "You're Spectrum, Shift. You and Zoe."

Shift blinked. "What?" 

"You don't take colour, you copy it," said Athira patiently. "So why then, would your colour affect Rathe when he's riling up inside me, unless your colour affects Sins?"

Shift swallowed. "Um, he's scared of weaponised reptiles? 

 Zoe smirked and nudged him with her elbow. "Welcome to the club, greenie." 

"What about you, Thira?" Shift finally managed to ask. 

Athira threw Talon back into the air and reached for her cowl. 

"I'm not Spectrum," said Athira, somehow managing to pull the colour-infused fabric up despite the horns ringing her head. "But what I am is royally pissed off."

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A/N - I had trouble describing how Athira's 'Rathe form' looks in my head, so hopefully it comes across not too confusing-like. I'm sure most of you saw the Shift thing coming too, but hey! OBVIOUS TWIST!

You guys seriously broke that vote button, too. Hit ~180 in less than a day... think we can hit... say, 215 this time and break it again, Athira style? ^.-

Daily updates deserve a vote, yes? Please? ^.^ 

* Comment, vote, prance, be a unicorn! <3 *