Chapter 18
Ellie wakes up in a daze. It’s dark. Cold air clings to her skin. For a second she thinks she’s still dreaming, but then she tries to move and realizes her feet aren’t touching the ground. Her wrists are cuffed above her head, chained to a beam. The metal bites into her skin every time she shifts. An anti-magic clip digs into her, heavy and wrong, like something dampening the inside of her chest. She tries to summon fire out of reflex. Nothing happens.
Panic rises fast. Ellie forces herself to breathe through it and looks around. The space is huge, dark, and empty, an abandoned warehouse a few miles from the tournament grounds.
Dust floats through thin moonlight cutting in from broken windows. Her mouth is gagged. She tries to shout anyway. Only a muffled sound comes out. She squeezes her eyes shut and searches her memory. How did she get here.
She remembers the corridor near the restricted sections, the areas only contestants and staff can access. She remembers thinking it’s strange how quiet and empty it was. Then nothing. Someone struck her. Hard. The world went black, similar the time Sonny hit her after she watched Sonny fight in the forest after the birthday party.
Ellie’s panic heightens. A faint movement pulls her attention to the far side of the warehouse. Someone sits in the shadows, meditating. Back straight. Hands resting calmly. The same posture Sonny uses.
Ellie’s blood turns cold. “That’s not Sonny,” she thinks.
The figure opens his eyes and stands. Five steps into the light. His face is partially covered, but Ellie still recognizes the presence. It’s the same kind of wrong she feels around Sonny when he gets serious. Controlled. Predatory. Comfortable in violence.
He looks up at her like he’s checking a clock. “You’re awake,” Five says. “Good. He’ll be here any minute.” Ellie glares at him, breathing hard through the gag. Five looks at her with a similar expression that Sonny has.
“Based on your face, you already have an idea who I am.” He walks slowly toward her, hands relaxed at his sides, like he’s taking a casual stroll. “You’re probably wondering how you got here,” he continues. “All of us Omegas use Ether Shroud. It hides our presence. It makes us nearly impossible to detect. It makes assassinations easy. Taking hostages too.”
Ellie’s eyes bulge. She fights harder against the cuffs, chain clinking. Five stops close enough that she can smell him. Then he punches her in the face. Pain detonates across her nose. Something cracks. Ellie’s eyes water instantly.
Five hits her again. And again. He doesn’t rush. He doesn’t lose control. He strikes with the same calm rhythm, like he is doing this for a reason, not for fun. Ellie’s body jerks with each blow.
Her breathing turns ragged. Five watches her reaction like he’s studying a result. “I can beat Sonny,” he says, voice casual, “but I’ll take every edge I can get.” He tilts his head, almost thoughtful. “I want him to walk in here and stop thinking. Let impulse take over.” Five steps back and looks up at Ellie, satisfied. “So scream when he arrives,” he says. “Make it ugly.”
Ellie trembles, tears mixing with blood, and stares at him through the pain. Five punches again and she lets out a muffled scream. “That’s it,” he says almost casual.
The coordinates lead Sonny to an abandoned industrial block a few miles from the tournament grounds. Empty streets. Dead lights. A warehouse that looks like it should have collapsed years ago. Sonny feels ether in the air before he reaches the door. Heavy. Familiar. Wrong. He enters Terra form as he runs.
Markings flare across his bandages beneath the illusion cast. The ground answers him, and the world sharpens. He kicks the warehouse door open.
Ellie hangs in the center of the room, wrists cuffed, feet off the ground, a chain biting into the ceiling beam. An anti magic clip is fixed to her, dull and ugly. Her mouth is gagged. Her face is swollen. Sonny’s vision narrows.
Five steps out of the shadows, like he is walking onto a stage. "You made it, Three."
Sonny’s voice is low. "Leave her out of it."
Five ignores him and reaches up, yanking the gag loose just enough to let Ellie breathe and sob. "She’s awake. I want you to hear it." Ellie’s eyes find Sonny. Fear and relief crash together.
Sonny starts seeing red and moves forward. The floor grips him. Gravity slams down like a giant hand. Sonny’s knees hit the concrete, then his whole body. His muscles lock. He tries to rise and the room presses harder, crushing air from his lungs.
A voice speaks from the darkness on the far side. Calm. Female. "Don’t thrash. It wastes strength." Seven steps into view. Ellie’s blood turns cold. She had no idea she was there.
Five looks down at Sonny. "You didn’t consider her, did you. You rushed in like an emotional human. You forgot everything you were taught."
Sonny’s fingers claw at the floor. He can’t move his legs. He can barely lift his head, even in Terra form.
Five strolls to Ellie and hits her in the face like he is swatting a fly. Her head snaps to the side. Blood runs from her nose. Sonny’s teeth grind.
Five leans close to Ellie’s ear. "Scream. He needs to hear you."
Ellie tries. The gag is partly loose, enough for sound to leak out. Five turns back to Sonny. "You were trained to be numb. Then you leave, and in a few months, all that training fades away because of this girl. It’s made you weak."
He starts breaking Ellie apart in pieces, slow and deliberate. A rib cracks. Ellie jerks. Five hits the cracked ribs again.
Ellie’s scream turns ragged. Sonny’s breath shudders. He tries to speak, but the immense gravity steals the air.
Seven watches without emotion, hands raised, fingers making small adjustments like she is tuning an instrument. Five draws a blade and cuts off Ellie’s clothes exposing the residual pain Five has already inflicted to her body and humiliating her with the same calm precision he uses for killing. He carves shallow wounds in places meant to hurt and not kill. Ellie’s eyes roll and drool drips down her chin. She is close to passing out.
Five looks back at Sonny. "This is payback. Healer. Six. Four. You take from us, so I take from you."
Sonny’s mind goes very quiet. He finds Draco. "Can you break the trap?" Sonny asks. Draco’s voice is amused, but there is an edge now. "This is child's play." Sonny’s eyes lift to Ellie.
"Then you’re up," Sonny says to Draco.
He drags his right hand across his chest and drives his fingers into the mark above his heart. Pain blooms. Blood spills. The seal cracks. Draco’s ether erupts. Windows explode outward.
The gravity pressure flickers. For a heartbeat, the room becomes pure wind and light from where Sonny lays.
Draco, controlling Sonny’s body rises. His eyes split. One eye carries the heavy clarity of Terra form. The other burns with a dragon’s gaze.
A deep nasal inhale and an exhale from Sonny’s mouth. Then a voice that is not Sonny’s. "Fresh air and freedom. At last."
Five takes a step back for the first time. Draco moves Sonny’s body like it weighs nothing.
Draco blurs forward and hits Five with a punch that detonates on contact, a Draco charged strike that sends Five crashing through a metal wall of the warehouse and out into the night. Seven reacts instantly, hands snapping through signs. She tries to go on the offensive right away.
Draco is already on her. He approaches from down low and kicks Seven upward and follows up with another upward kick from his other leg sending her flying up. He then jumps and meets her in the air. An Ether Clone appears upside down on the ceiling and uses an Ether Force strike to her back to stop her upward momentum. Draco’s knee slams into her stomach. His elbow drives into her jaw. He wraps her leg in his bandages, spins and whips her back down into the floor. Seven coughs and tries to lift a hand. Draco’s Ether Clone behind him slingshots him directly at her and he drives an Ether Orb into her midsection. The orb is dense, bright, and brutal. It punches through her body and leaves a hole that should not exist. Seven’s eyes go wide then lifeless.
Draco, controlling Sonny’s body, does not stop. He rains down strikes, each one heavy with demon ether, until Seven’s body turns into something that does not resemble a human. Ellie does not want to look at the blood splattering about, but she cannot avert her gaze. The sound of flesh ripping and bones shattering fill the room. Ellie watches, shaking. Terror crawls up her spine.
This is Sonny’s body, but this is not the Sonny she knows. A loud laugh comes from Sonny’s mouth, but it is not his. “Freedom feels so good.”
Draco turns his head toward Ellie, with an evil smile. "I guess I should let you down." He makes his way to Ellie and slices the chain, catches Ellie, and sets her on her feet.
His gaze slides over her disrobed body. "Damn. Sonny is one lucky guy."
Ellie, still half delirious, half fearful of Draco, slaps him. Draco laughs through Sonny’s mouth. "After all that, you still have fight. I like that."
He throws his cloak at her. "Cover up and wait for me." He gives her a wink.
Five bursts back into the warehouse, furious, Terra form flaring around him like a storm. "You think demon tricks scare me" Five snarls.
Draco’s smile sharpens. "No. I think you’re the weak one here."
Five launches a barrage of ranged ether attacks, wide enough to fill the room. Sonny moves between and deflects them. Not dodging so much as slipping through gaps that should not exist.
Sonny opens his palms and kunai and shuriken appear, each tethered by thin Ether Strings. He sends them out, curves their flight midair, and slashes the projectiles through Five’s shots like a puppeteer cutting lines.
Five tries to keep his composure as his own technique is dismantled.
Draco closes distance. He hits Five into the air with a rising strike, then follows with a kick that drives Five into the warehouse ceiling. Metal cracks.
Draco lifts two fingers pointed at Five in mid air and unleashes a technique that Five taught him years ago. "Ether Shot," he says softly. He releases it with the full weight of Draco’s ether layered over Terra form and his own reserves. The beam from the end of Sonny’s fingers is wide, yet heavy. It blows a hole through the ceiling, lighting up the entire sky like a second sunrise that can be seen for miles. Five is vaporized.
The light fades. Draco’s ether runs dry. Terra form collapses. Sonny’s body hits the floor like his legs are mush.
Ellie screams his name, but Sonny doesn’t move. She can hardly move herself. The only sound left is Ellie’s shaking breath and the soft crackle of settling debris.
