Death's Source, incarnated into the vessel of Katie Moon, had infiltrated Retly: the Demon City. Yet instead of preparing an ambush against her enemies, she lurked in metallic shadows. Her body was as ominous as a looming silhouette shuffling through the darkness between. After shedding her ragged attire to reveal her regular clothing, she threw her jacket over her dress. Azure retinas examining the inner blackness, Katie clicked her teeth.
In a mere flash, she appeared on the rooftop, and while crouched, scanned the vast area before her. Her pupils started darting from roof to roof. In time, she sighed and fell to her bottom. Plopped flat on her rear, her head turned, adjusting her ear so she could hear what was occurring within the very building she sat on. She couldn't hear anything. Once again, her head turned, and there they were, turning at the corner of the block.
The Jester and the Founder parted after sharing a handshake. Icarus swiftly vanished into a crow, leaving Callum to walk down the street, revealing another cigarette. From where he stood, as he approached the building Katie was perched on, the bright red sign read 'Luci's Devilish Boxing.'
Moon hummed after witnessing his entrance. Turning around, she quickly crawled and then arrived at the glass skylight to peek in at the ring. Beyond the stringy borders prohibiting anyone weaker from entering, the sight of her familiar pretty face and her glowing golden locks laid bare.
Despite her resurgence, his scarred features lacked surprise. From where she was sitting, she glimpsed within that single right eye colored a muted crimson. As expected, there glimmered no light. His face devoid of hope, for before he wasn't Kelly Summers, no. Rather, it was the path to the disaster that would assuredly bring the New World to ruin in the future he reluctantly saw.
"Hey. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Kel asked while smiling.
"Don't play stupid with me, Kel. I know you surprising me here wasn't a coincidence and you don't have any powers. You couldn't have escaped them on your own without an Artifact so you're working for them. 'Riot' has already infiltrated the inner ranks of Retly." Callum didn't guess but his assumption was spoken so assuredly that Kelly winced as he stated the unchangeable truth. "How long have we been compromised? How long have you been free? And more importantly, when did Katie Moon arrive here?"
"You're not the one supposed to be asking questions here!" Kelly yelled, throwing her seat back as she stood tall.
But he remained unwavering. He stepped forward but he didn't witness his foot implant against the ground. Instead, before the sole could ingrain its mark upon the floor, he'd vanished. Kelly's face was suddenly drenched, pupils rapidly darting every which way, searching for a semblance of his body as her waist continually turned. But, at the same time, it took the heart to perpetuate constant beating, there was breath hissing onto her collarbone. His hand just barely hovered over her shoulder, mere millimeters away from killing her. But what stopped him?
What halted him sent a chuckle to exit his mouth. His head just barely turned for his intact eye to brighten its scarlet hue, now shining against her face and into her azure retinas. What lay behind him was Katie Moon, wielding the unsheathed Blackened katana to her enemy's neck. As the sharpness pressed against his volatile flesh drew blood, the time would come when droplets would pool against the ring's ground that laid below.
Kelly was stunned. Facing Callum and witnessing Katie behind him, her wide eyes remained the same. She couldn't even feign assurance, for even while Death's Source held the blade to her opponent's throat, she cowered as if faced with the embodiment of despair.
'What the hell just happened?! I didn't see either of them move so they couldn't have used any of their speed.' Just then, Summers remembered. 'Wait, Callum has the Requiem Artifact and Katie collected her grandfather's Artifact. They... stopped time?!'
As for the confrontation between the Founder and the Source, Kelly remained silent. It was almost as if she were entranced by something. Kate analyzed her surroundings with lagging looks around the environment. After her examination, her lips parted and she spoke once more.
"Leave, Summers. You've accomplished your mission, now regroup with the others before anyone sees you," Katie ordered the blonde.
Kelly didn't need anything else. She turned tail, running out the ring and then the gym. As she burst out the front doors, her head turned, glimpsing inside as the entrance revealed the hostage situation within. Katie's blade against the Founder--his demise was probable, and yet she abandoned him. But what more could someone like her do? Without powers, only given a pretty face to compliment her weakness, she continued sprinting until her ankles began stinging.
When she was halfway down the street, amidst running, she finally lost track of her directions. Accidentally, her face implanted into someone's chest, and just from that, she was effectively thrown back. Tumbling onto the sidewalk with sprawled-out arms, she laid flat, unable to move, searching her conscience for answers as she blinked, obliterating her hazy vision her eyes remained resigned to. She sat up.
'Where am I?' She rubbed the side of her head. 'Oh, that's right. I was running, wasn't I? And I... bumped into someone? Who did I... bump into?'
She looked up to who she'd hit, and there he was. A face she wished was random but unfortunately for her, she recognized that cadence. His brown face, his dark-skinned arms, his ebony dreads, everything down to his sheathed katana and black-gold kimono.
"You're..."
"Kelly?"
Now, back to the boxing gym. Within the ring, the Source held her Blackened Blade to her adversary's throat.
"You never did answer my question. For the past three years, I've sensed nothing. Even now, when I just stared at you sitting at that bench, there was nothing. I couldn't recognize you so how? How was it you were able to disguise yourself and infiltrate our ranks for three years without our knowledge?" the Founder asked.
"I don't have to reveal that information to you, traitor," Katie insulted him with flared nostrils and exposed veins.
"We were never on the same side, how am I a traitor?" Cal's eye were bereft of glow as he interrogated her.
"You lied to me. You stared me right in the eyes and just fucking lied to me. Don't you remember?"
Callum turned around to face Katie, stepping away to lean against the ring's threads. They looked at one another in their eyes. Katie's eyes continued to shine with life's signature light whilst Cal's retina stayed barren.
"You remember, don't you? What the hell were you thinking when I faced you? Tell me, you goddamn lackey. You knew everything I went through, but you didn't falter. You were the opposite of what I expected from the Founder... but now you've reversed. You're the same traitorous piece of shit murderer who uses 'justice' as an excuse to EXPLAIN HIS SINFUL ACTIONS!!"
"SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH ALREADY! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH AND HOW IT COMPARES TO YOUR LOWLY SOB STORY! WHAT DO YOU EVEN GAIN BY CALLING ME A MURDERER ANYWAY?! AN APOLOGY!? I DON'T FEEL BAD IN THE SLIGHTEST SO I CAN'T GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT!"
"I DON'T WANT YOU TO GIVE ME ANYTHING! YOU STARED INTO MY EYES AND LIED TO MY FACE, YOU DESERVE NOTHING BUT DEATH FROM WHERE I STAND! YOU'RE NOT EVEN HUMAN ANYMORE SO DON'T EVEN REFERENCE EMOTIONS LIKE GUILT AND SADNESS, YOU STUPID DEMON!"
Katie and Callum's screams shook the building's foundation. After they'd finished, their chests started hurting, their breaths turning ragged. Starting to pant with raising and falling busts, soon, the room fell to silence. The only sound remaining within the chamber were those rapid breaths, attempting to search for more air inside this confined space. Until...
The song of metal against hardened flesh erupted into existence. Katie clashed some millimeters away from Rivers' fist, unleashing erratic bolts of uncontrollable lightning. The gym abruptly collapsed, the explosion obliterating the walls, leaving only their two bodies amid the surrounding rubble. Branding her Blackened Blade, she tore off her jacket's sleeves to reveal her bulging muscles. Meanwhile, the Founder mere feet away, allowed for his eyebrow to rise.
'She didn't have those last time, right?' considered Rivers, dropping the coat draped over his shoulders.
What he was referring to were those marks spread across her arms. Turned upside-down embedded into her skin were black scythes, juxtaposing her fair skin. A breath escaped her lips. Now angling the Blade sideways, she glared forward. Those Marks of Death ingrained into her flesh whispered ominously, vacating an opaque haze that evaporated once touching the air.
"Well, if this doesn't work then I don't know what will."
Katie Moon, Daughter of the Crow, Death's Source. The partner to the Scarlet King, wielding the legendary Blackened Blade Artifact, gazed forward. That was the choice she made back then after looking upon those unrecognizable corpses scattered across Riverton's streets. Never look back, keep moving forward—until her enemies were destroyed.
To Be Continued.