Vi rushed down the stairs, panicked. Powder hugged her seemingly relieved by her sister's return. However, something seemed to be troubling the pink-haired girl. Something bad. "Vi, you're back."
"Why wouldn't she be back?" I asked confused.
"Benzo's dead," Vi said, causing gasps around the room.
"Dead? Benzo?" I questioned even more confused.
"They took Vander," Vi added.
"Who took Vander?" Mylo asked.
"I don't know who took Vander. But I need to help him."
"We're going with you," I declared.
I went over and grabbed my stuff before feeling a hand on my shoulder. I looked behind me and saw Vi. She pulled Powder and me into a hug."I need you both to sit this one out."
"What?" Powder and I responded at the same time.
"Jinx, you owe me a soda," I said, causing Powder to chuckle hearing her nickname in a joking manner instead of an insulting one.
"Look you two, it's too dangerous. You're all I have left, I can't lose you. If they come for you take this and run. Wherever you are light it up and I'll find you. I promise."
She gave Powder some strange object while I still waited for a response or something to confirm my very existence again. "Y/n, Powder, keep each other safe."
"Sure thing," I said as I went over to Powder and comforted her, it wasn't long before she began to break down into tears. I grabbed her bag and took out one of the crystals. "Here, maybe this will help you feel better."
She grabbed the crystal from my hand, studying it closely. Then an expression of realization grew on her face. "I can help them."
"Wait, no, Vi told us to stay here."
"Are you going to be on her heels forever? It's always Vi this and Vi that... just trust me, okay?" Powder snapped.
"O-okay, what do you suggest then?"
She then took my hand and pulled me along. We walked until finding a large warehouse. We quickly began climbing its wooden walls. "Powder, are you sure they're..." The sounds of fighting inside caused me to pause. I looked up at Powder and saw a smug smirk on her face. "...Fine, you were right. They're in there.
"I can see them, there's an open window up here."
"Great, I'm almost there. Wait for me."
"Vi!"
I had just reached the window when some... thing, had grabbed Vi by the throat. I watched as Vi was tossed to the ground. Vi crawled to safety and closed the heavy metal door blocking it from access. Powder placed a crystal inside of the cymbal monkey.
"You have to work. For me. Okay?"
She let it loose and watched as it waddled its way over to the thing. Yet something clicked in my head just as it was getting close. "Hey Powder, um... I just thought about it. Didn't one of those crystals destroy that building?"
"Yeah? What about it?"
"Only one."
A look of realization came upon Powder's face and she looked on worried, "Oh... no, come back don-
It was too late the monkey clapped and sent a shockwave of energy that knocked me and Powder off of the building. The second hit the monster and I'm guessing the man who took Vander, though someone jumped in front of him at the last second. The aftermath was disastrous. Mylo and Claggor died. Vi and Vander were trapped under rubble. Vander tried fighting that creature but instead got stabbed from behind and tossed off the walkway. Vander took some of the serum and destroyed the creature. After this, he grabbed Vi and broke through the wall.
I woke up and found Powder gone. I tried to find her, even through the pain of walking with a dislocated femur. I stumbled until I got around a corner and heard her voice.
"Vi, it worked."
"What?" Vi asked, surprised to see us here.
"Did you see me? My monkey bomb finally worked."
"You did this? Why? Why did you do this?"
"I... I didn't... I was saving you. I only wanted to help."
She looked around, finding pieces of the people she once knew. The people she called her family. I watched as the traumatic scene finally set in, and it was all because neither of us waited. "I only wanted to help. I only wanted to help. I only wanted to-"
"I told you to stay away!"
"Please. Please. Please-"
"I told you to stay away!" I saw Vi strike Powder across the face, just as I was turning the corner.
"No. Why did you leave me?!" she grabbed Powder's face tightly and held her hand there as tears fell from Powder's eyes and blood dripped from her nose. It hurt to watch, I have never seen this side of Vi before. I wasn't sure what to do or how I could ever compensate for this kind of pain, if we hadn't discovered the crystal in the first place maybe we wouldn't be here.
"Because you're a jinx. Do you hear me? Mylo was right."
"No. No. No. No. Violet, please."
I couldn't watch this anymore, I grabbed Vi's shoulder and tried to pull her off for a second. She turned and elbowed my face, breaking my nose in the process and causing me to fall on my ass. "Ow, my nose."
"You?!"
"I was just going to say, you should take a second. Take a breath, she only wanted to help... but she didn't know how destructive it would be."
She began to walk away from us. Only turns back to give a six-word comment before disappearing behind a corner. "You were supposed to watch her."
"Please, Violet. I need you. Please."
"I'm going to go talk with her. Stay here for now, she can't stay mad forever."
I began walking away to find her, but Powder didn't seem to worry as much about me leaving. Only giving a small nod. I walked for minutes trying to find her. Not a single word was said in response, only the usual. Doors slammed as I walked by. All except for one, a pawn shop. I heard enforcers nearby, I wasn't in any shape to run, I could barely walk. So I hid.
I watched from the doorway as they passed, but then I felt a necklace placed around my neck. I turned and saw the owner of this shop. He gave a devilish grin and cackled like a madman. "I saw you blow up that warehouse, you're nothing but a monster, now you'll become one in the literal sense."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, but I noticed the necklace was gone. I turned to ask him what happened and he was gone as well as the rest of the shop. I felt something taking hold of me. I walked out of the shop and immediately they turned their weapons and fired. Everything went dark, I found myself, trapped in a void. I hoped that there would be something on the other side, not this... I don't even know what this is. It felt like years passing by until I heard a voice.
'Death is not the end. Now, you're meeting here, with me.'
I turned toward the voice and found that monster standing right in front of me. Now more clear than ever before, but at the same time even more mysterious as a sense of timelessness emitted from him.
"What are you?"
"I'm the darkness that binds all things, the corruptor of the light... imprisoned in that necklace but now released through living within you."
I felt a jolt of energy surge through me, my eyes shot open as I took in my new environment. I looked around searching for something, anything. I grabbed a mirror and saw my abnormally red irises. I got up and stumbled outside, everyone seemed confused and terrified by me. Not that I blame them, I look and feel like a zombie. I went to familiar surroundings. In the undercity, I walked over to a worn-down bar. I fell down the steps and crashed on the couch.
Only one question circling repeatedly through my brain.
"Wh-who am I?"
I found a broken picture frame with my face in it. The only difference is the hazel eyes I used to have. I turned the picture around and found names.
Mylo, Claggor, Vi, Powder, Y/n
Memories began to flood my head, I remember everything until the explosion at the warehouse, after that I can only remember becoming this thing. I felt a fire burning inside of me as my skin became grey, my teeth sharpening and claws forming. I let out a loud inhuman roar that shook the ground and caused an explosion of fire that destroyed the entire bar. In that instant, I had become the thing people fear most. The monster that hides in the darkness.
Eyewitness accounts were only that of a hooded man walking away from the explosion. The shadow he cast made it too dark to get any real detail.
That's when they named me, The Shadow.