The night sky was still filled with Xania's presence and an ever changing spread of beautiful colours.
A teenage girl wandered the streets and alleys like every other night.
She was short and malnourished. Her hair was a dazzling bright white colour, mixed with several touches of gold. It was the only thing that looked beautiful on her. She was jagged and tattered—torn clothes adorned her body and her feet insisted of having no shoes to protect them from the thorns and thistles scattered on the ground.
Her black, seductively shaped eyes scanned the alley. She was on search for food. It was evident she hadn't eaten for a while now. But her body wasn't complaining.
She caught sight of a man standing at the end of the alley but ignored him.
He's always standing there, she thought.
He walked to her and threw some money on the ground. She looked at the money and resumed searching the garbage bin for something edible.
"Go get yourself a proper meal, you animal," the man scoffed.
"Go fuck yourself," she snarled back.
"For someone who needs help, you're quite ungrateful."
"I don't want your help."
"You're not going to live much longer like this. You need him."
"He uses me. I'd rather roam the streets for the rest of my life."
"We both know that's not true." The man placed his hand on her shoulder. "You. Need. Him."
She understood the situation. It wasn't a choice.
"Is that what it is?" She frowned and looked into his eyes. "I told him I was done. Why's he so obsessed with an alley cat like me?"
The man smiled. "Your hair. Have you not a single clue what it is you're carrying in your head?"
She touched her hair gently with her eyes still fixed on his.
"You're a Nexus—" he cut his own statement due to her hand almost clawing his eyes out. He skipped back and pulled out his gun. "It doesn't have to be like this..." He said in an annoyed tone.
"I'm not a monster!" She screamed.
"Look at yourself," he frowned. "If you aren't the definition of monstrosity, then I don't know what is. You're filthy, dirty and violent. Let's add the fact that you're beyond reason."
"Helping him was a mistake! One that I'll never make again."
"Your decision is to die of starvation?" He sighed. "Come on, you're smarter than this..."
"Raise up your gun."
He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Are you that hungry for death?"
She pounced off the ground like a cat, leaping right at him. He pointed the gun at her and hesitated for a second.
"You're a waste," he pulled the trigger and sent bullets right to her head.
The bullets made impact as she was still mid air. Her body thud loudly on the ground afterwards.
The man looked down at her body. The bullets flew to her mouth but they weren't any holes in it.
No, it was quite strange because it almost seemed like they were stuck at her teeth. He squinted his eyes as he counted the three bullets.
She isn't hurt, he realised.
She opened her eyes and with a swift side movement of her feet, she forced him to the ground. She leaped on him and began to squeeze his neck.
"What would you gain...if you...kill...me," he choked.
"Freedom," she answered. "Once I kill you, I'll be free from this set of chains. They're so many chains and I've become a slave to everything. Fuck it all!"
"How...? You caught the bullets..."
She'd faked to have been hit by the bullets whereas, she had caught them with her teeth. The man stared at the bullets she spat out on the ground.
From the corner of her eye, she could see another figure standing at the entrance of the alley. She dared to ignore it till she noticed it stood mere meters from her.
It just closed the wide gap in less than a second?!! She thought.
She looked up at the figure with confusion written all over her face. It moved from her sight before she could even blink. The rending of flesh was heard thereafter. She quickly looked down at the man she had been choking.
His head was gone.
She jumped up and assumed a defensive stance. The figure reappeared in front of her with the man's head in its hand. It stared at his head in its hand like it didn't know what it was carrying.
She began to rage. "No...no!! He—he was mine! I wanted to kill him!" She yelled.
The figure looked at her and tilted its head slightly sideways.
"Who are you?!" She asked. "Show your face!"
She looked hard at its face and took note of a very blood-chilling fact.
It has no face... Could it be... a Scar? She pondered. No, there's no way it would've moved around without alerting anyone. Why does it seem like it has no intention of killing? It looks...confused.
If it was a Scar, something wasn't right about this particular Scar.
"I'll kill you! He was mine!" She drew out more aggression without believing the thought of it being a Scar.
The figure tossed the head at her and jumped high into the air on top of the building bounding the alleyway.
She wanted to chase after but hesitated. She looked down at the man's head. Sitting on the floor she stared blankly at it. She shook her head a bit and remembered her sole aim:
Survival.
There was no point in a homeless girl like her chasing down what just killed her problem to kill it. However, she would've loved the satisfaction of killing the man herself.
Disappointed, she walked out of the alleyway to the road. She continued down till she got to the bridge—the only place where she could lay her head. It was late at night but there was quite a number of cars on the bridge. It was odd but perhaps something important was ongoing in the city.
She sat down at her usual spot and watched the cars pass by. She laid down on the pedestrian walkway situated right beside the bridge.
Another night without supper, she groaned.
Her eyes began to close when she caught sight of something flying above her. Her eyes widened and she got up. She squinted her eyes at it and immediately recognised it.
It was the figure that left her few minutes ago.
Why the fuck is it here? Why is it staring at me like that? She thought.
A huge rod of iron came off and detached itself from the railing of the bridge. It floated right beside the figure but it pointed directly at her.
"What the fuck is this night?" She grunted.
The rod came at her with great speed. She jumped and evaded it. Dust particles swirled around her making it difficult for anyone to see—anyone but her. She could hear the creaking out iron. Her eyesight pierced through dust and she saw it pull more iron rods from the railing all without touching them. And it seemed that they obeyed its commands.
He's sending more?!
She ran out of the dust created by the impact of the iron to the tarred ground. She wasn't sure why this individual wouldn't let her be. Was it one of his men? No. He killed him.
She ran into the midst of the pedestrians on the walkway but it still followed her relentlessly. However, it seemed like it lost a trace of her because it paused with the iron rods floating beside it, many in number they were.
She continued walking but wondered if her bright coloured white hair would stand out in the crowd. She focused her hearing and she could hear it mumble words—words that were inaudible even to her with heightened hearing.
"...all..." It was the only thing she could make our of what she was hearing.
It speaks? That rules out the fact that it may be a scar...a Nexus perhaps? She wondered.
It only mattered to her because it was evident she couldn't outrun this one. At least, not easily. Even though was going to, she needed to know what was chasing her.
She walked further and further into the crowd, mixing herself among tall people and using her height to her advantage.
A cold liquid dropped on her face. She touched it and looked at her fingers.
It was blood.
The ground shook right after. She looked back at the figure. It didn't move from it's position but she found out how ruthless it could be. It was certain it couldn't see her but it didn't matter to it.
It was ready to kill everyone on that bridge to find her because it launched a barrage of rods at everything on the bridge. Blood splashed everywhere like rain amidst the screaming and shouting and pandemonium the sight caused every person to fall into.
They all ran as fast as they could. She joined in running and tearing through the crowd as best she could. Some iron rods hit her but did her absolutely no harm. They just bounced off her skin. It wasn't enough to kill her because of her Nexus ability. This made her realize that everyone else would die and she would still be the only one left.
She didn't care if the people died, after all it bought her some time to find out what she could do to escape. What bothered her was how fast they were dying.
She glanced around and saw more dead bodies than they were of people running around.
Legionnaires! All I have to do is to hold on long enough for those bastards to show up! She smirked.
She tried to move another step but her leg couldn't make contact with the ground. She was floating. No, it was carrying her.
"Fuck! Curse this fucking hair!" She struggled in the hair helplessly as she flew towards it.
She raised her head up and saw other people in the air. But then something was wrong because it seemed like they were all flying towards her.
"No, no, don't touch me!!" She yelled but it wasn't like they had control of their bodies.
They slammed against her relentlessly. It had hoped to use them as a weapon against her. But she wasn't taking any damage. She could feel their bones crush and their bodies disintegrate as the hit hers. Nothing was harming her.
As the last person smashed against her, she opened her eyes. She covered in their blood. All of them.
She gritted her teeth and allowed her body to fly helplessly to the figure. It launched an iron rod at her. She caught it and slammed it against its head as soon as she was in range.
Its telekinetic grip on her came off and the two fell several feet to the ground.
She got up—still unharmed—and looked around. It was gone. But she took note of something she had been undermining from the very beginning.
"That smell..." She soliloquised. "...what is that smell?"
The figure came out of the ground. The same place where it so to say fell.
So that's it! That's how it can move around so fast. It's not physically fast it's coming out of objects. No, I can see that. It's coming out of that transparent liquid. It has to be marking the surroundings and objects like that. It's basically teleporting around... She analysed.
She stood face to face with the figure but it was different now. It looked like the figure was ready to fight her. No, kill her.
Still devoid of facial features and expression, it started to fly above the ground once more.
"Lowly one," a voice came from the figure, "what is your name why do you challenge me?"
"Challenge you?!" She scoffed. "What do you think I am? A fucking warrior?"
"I am nothing and without purpose. I was born to die."
She stood there without words to exchange. She wasn't even sure what was speaking to her anymore. Her ears tingled at the sound of sirens in the distance.
A little more!
"You're a scar," she said without certainty.
"I am nothing and without purpose. I was born to die."
"You've sure got more word in your vocabulary..."
"I am nothing and without purpose. I was born to die."
She became a little scared. There was an ominous vibe about this being flying before her. But she wanted to live more than the curiosity that boggled her mind.
Every Scar had different abilities with this one as no exception. However, no matter how powerful a Scar was, it never had the ability to speak. They were simply beasts created from the effects of Xania's proximity to earth.
The Scar lifted a few surrounding cars and launched them at Akasha. She dodged with minimum difficulty and leaped at it hoping to take it out of the air.
The Scar grabbed her by the hand after evading her grasp. Flying to the ground at a deadly velocity, it slammed her repeatedly on the ground. It held her neck and looked at her, or at least, faced her.
Her hand grabbed an iron rod sticking out of a human's eyes who was lying dead beside them and stabbed it twice in its neck, leaving the metal still in its neck.
It screamed and let go of her.
"Oh! Rods do hurt you!" She taunted. She got up to her feet and kicked the rod deeper into its neck. She grabbed its head and slammed it on her knee. Her next attack was incoming when a car smacked her aside.
She flew across the bridge and almost fell off it, into the water below. She pulled off the car's bonnet as it hit her and pushed her weight off it, separating them before they both flew off the bridge.
With one hand on the semi-damaged railing, she pulled herself up and flung the bonnet at the figure. It deflected this attack and stared at her.
"Akasha..." It muttered in a strained voice.
She frowned. "How do you know my name?!" She demanded.
Akasha watched as it disappeared into the ground again.
The bonnet! She leaped away from it but it was too late because it came out of it before she could fully leave the ground. It grabbed her and the rod popped out of its neck. There was a dent there but it appeared like the skin got tougher.
A flash of light blinded her for a few seconds. She fell down to the ground and rubbed her eyes.
"What...?" She looked up.
A woman held the figure up with one of her hands to its neck and a buster sword in the other. Her amethyst coloured badge glistened on her chest and on the back of her cape was the Flaming Shield sigil.
The woman was evidently a Legionnaire.
"You've been fighting this thing on your own?" The woman spoke to Akasha. "Impressive." She swung her buster sword at it and sent it flying to the other side of the bridge.
The woman walked over to Akasha. "I would've loved for you to run away, but I can't let that happen. However, you could decide to help me take that thing out, or you could run and then I'd have to hunt you down."
"Why do you need me?" Akasha revolted. "Isn't killing Scars your job?!"
"You'd also need to come with me after I'm afraid."
"No."
"I'm not going to hurt you, girl." The woman looked at her. "There'll be food... Lots of it. We just need some stuff from you."
Akasha's eyes brightened up. She didn't trust anyone, not to talk more of an overly righteous Legionnaire. But she was far too hungry and all the fighting made it somewhat unbearable.
I'll just run and ditch her once I get the food.
"After you," she got up. Though she knew fighting her way out of the Legion would be hard, but she had to satisfy hunger first.
"Okay kid, name's Grendel Ragnar. You're sure you're not hurt? Cause I'll need you to fill up my loopholes. You'll be my backtracker and follow up my attacks."
"I'm Akasha, and we're not friends. Just hold up your end of the bargain."
Ragnar smiled as the two ran towards their target.