Union

thirty three

NOVEMBER 1ST
0015 EST

When Liv woke up, she was met with a throbbing pain in the back of her head and a very unfamiliar view. She sat up with a grimace, forcing herself to fight through this phantom pain as she got to her feet. Where was she? And what happened to her?
    Liv's footsteps echoed through the spacious room. A wall of ceiling to floor windows looked out over a city. In the center of the immaculate tile floor stood a long glass conference table, with fancy black swivel chairs dotted around it.  So she was in a conference room. But that still didn't explain her head trauma.
    Calum, she thought. Where's Calum?
    Liv spun around, her heartbeat suddenly frantic in her chest. Was it her panic or was it getting darker in the conference room? She spread her fingers, flames dancing across her palm, illuminating the shadowy room. Exit, she needed to find the--
    Liv froze, her eyes locked on the door. If she'd been alone, she wasn't anymore.
    A figure stood in the darkness near the only exit out of the conference room. Liv couldn't make out much except the outline in the shadows and two glowing violet eyes. A swell of panic rose up in her soul but she forced it down, urging the fear to turn into fury.
    The flames in Liv's palm became brighter, growing up her arm.
    "Who are you?" Liv's voice was steadier than she'd thought it would be. "Where am I?"
    Maybe it was Liv's imagination, but she thought she'd seen the figure in the shadows smile.
    "Can't you see?" It said, its voice distorted as if it was coming from the darkest depths of the ocean. "You're home, Ember."
    Liv eyed the figure warily, unsure if she should take its words at truth. However, curiosity won out despite her reluctance. Keeping a watchful eye on the shadows--it didn't seem to be going anywhere--Liv crossed to the wall of windows and looked out over the horizon.
    A city in chaos looked back at her, the lights of the buildings piercing through the night like beacons waiting help. Plumes of smoke floated into the darkness. Even from where Liv was standing in this building, she could hear muffled screams and tires squealing down the streets. As if that wasn't concerning enough, Liv's eyes fell on the buildings, on the curve of the sliver of coastline that she could see. She knew those buildings, she knew that coast.
This was Brightbay. And it was burning.
"What's happening?" She murmured, eyes locked on the city-wide destruction.
"This city has met its reckoning." The figure's voice floated around Liv, seeming to freeze her in place as she watched the horror stretch across the city streets she called home. "There will be no reprieve."
Liv spun around, fixing the figure in the shadows with a scathing look. "Let me go."
"I can't let you do that."
"Do you really think I'm going to take orders from someone hiding in the corner?" Liv willed the flames to grow.
The figure narrowed its violet eyes at her. "Then maybe I should step out from the shadows."
"Maybe you should," Liv confirmed. "Although I could always do it for you."
The glow of the figure's violet eyes dimmed into nothing, and Liv felt the room temperature drop twenty degrees as Rune materialized before her eyes. His very presence seemed to instill a fluttering sense of fear in the pit of Liv's soul. His shadowy mask obscured his haunting eyes, but Liv knew that she was being watched intently, studied for the first sign of weakness.
Liv's fire flared with a snarl. "I should have known."
"And yet you didn't," came Rune's cool reply. "So instead of acting like you hold the cards, little hero, realize you are playing a very dangerous game with a very skilled opponent."
"I don't see an opponent." Liv raised her chin at Rune. "I see a pawn."
Rune's arrogant chuckle echoed through the empty conference room and he swept down the opposite end of the table. Liv mirrored him, circling away from him. Rune stopped when he stood where Liv had been, his back to the wall of windows.
"Do you know how you got here, Ember?" Rune asked.
The question was so mundane that Liv hesitated. That must have been answer enough for Rune, because he raised a gloved hand and snapped, the sound like a whining pitch. "Allow me to jog your memory."
Liv furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but before she could protest, another figure materialized into the room. He was bound and gagged,his platinum hair muddied and his electric eyes wide with fury as he stared daggers at Rune.
"Calum," Liv breathed. She shot a scathing look at Rune, standing idly by the windows like some sort of statue. "What did you do to him?"
"Nothing he did not deserve." Rune's voice was dripping with contempt, as if he was talking down to Calum rather than Liv. "He is a fool."
Calum thrashed and spat out his gag, breathing heavily. "The only fool I see is you."
Rune didn't move, and Liv hated him all the more for that. How dare he remain so idle, so collected as if he had the dignity or authority to do so? Villains had no strength; merely a mask they each hid behind.
As if responding to her fury, Liv's fire ignited in both of her palms. Her heart hammered in her chest. "Well, this has been fun, but I'm afraid we have plans."
Liv moved to launch a fireball at Rune, but he merely waved his hand and the flames in her palms were doused. Liv jolted, flexing her fingers to will more fire, but none came.
"I'm afraid neither of you will be going anywhere," Rune drawled. "At least, not until the truth is revealed."
"There is no truth!" Calum screamed, his voice so guttural that Liv resisted the urge to jump.
Rune swiped his hand through the air, and Calum's screams were silenced even though his lips kept moving.
"Screams are only amusing to listen to when they don't come from someone so...petulant." Rune turned his attention to Liv. "It is to my understanding that you abandoned your brother and comrades on some silly little quest."
Liv felt herself freeze, flickers of memory coming back to her. They'd broken into the old apartment, where Liv and Tristan used to live before the explosion. Calum had thought something was wrong. Liv wouldn't listen.
Liv forced herself to look back to Rune, into his dark mask. "So what?"
"So silly little girls shouldn't go poking around fires. They will get burned," Rune said in a low voice.
Liv barked out a laugh. "You're telling me to be afraid of fire?"
    Something snapped inside of Rune. "Enough of this meaningless talk. We are here for an execution."
    Liv felt her heart drop to her stomach. She made the mistake of looking to Calum, which was exactly what Rune wanted her to do.
    "Ah, so touching. You love him. You won't once you find out what he did." Rune waved a hand around the room, and suddenly Liv wasn't in the conference room, but in the scorched apartment. She watched shimmery versions of herself and Calum meander through it in search for clues. She watched Calum's eyes glow intermittently, as if receiving and sending messages.
    "No," Liv muttered.
    The scene continued as shadows flitted past the shattered windows of the apartment. The next thing Liv and Calum knew, they were surrounded by the Shadow Web, Rune and Psyche at the center of it all. Liv had launched a fireball at the villains, only for Rune to send it flying back. Calum shoved Liv out of the way. She'd hit the remains of a table on the way down. As vision Liv went unconscious, real Liv was pulled from the illusion to find tears swelling in her eyes.
"How do you think I knew where to find you?" Rune took a step towards Liv, each movement thunderous. "I had an insider the whole time."
Liv couldn't fight the tears spilling hot and fast down her cheeks. She looked wildly between Rune and Calum, writhing against his bounds and screaming without sound. "N-no. No. He's on our side!"
Rune tutted, as if chiding a child. "It's almost pitiful how gullible you are." He froze, as if getting an idea, and Liv imagined a serpentine smile coiling behind his mask. "But I should let the hero try to defend himself, shall I?"
Rune waved his hand and Calum's shouts and pants became audible again. He was breathing heavily, his eyes red from crying. He shook his head at Liv. "Liv, it's not true! I swear on my life--"
"--Oh, please do," Rune interrupted.
"--I'd never betray you like that. I learned my lesson long ago. You know me, Liv!" Calum's words were desperate, pleading. From a place deep within his soul, Liv could feel as much. "You know me."
She did know him. But she'd also known betrayal. She'd known deceit. She'd known the shadows so well that her own powers of light surprised her at times. How could a girl that had lived in the darkness quell it in favor of the light?
But Calum had been that light. He'd helped her. He'd rebelled against his father and his leader all because he loved her.
Liv wanted to stamp her foot in frustration. Her heart was urging her to believe him, while her mind was telling her to condemn him. And her city was burning, her home, her friends--
"I'm telling the truth." Calum panted, his eyes electric. "Please."
"Rather foolish last words," Rune drawled. He averted his focus back to Liv. "So young, so blind. So ignorant to the truth when it's right in front of your eyes."
Liv narrowed her eyes fractionally at that. Despite herself, she met Calum's tear-stained eyes, hoping the look was enough to convey the message behind it. Calum tipped his chin ever so slightly and looked away, his eyes averted to Rune.
Rune stood up straighter, shadows beginning to leak from his armor. "Ah, well, this has been touching. I'm afraid I have a Union of heroes to quell and a city to destroy, so if you'll excuse me--" The shadows around him seemed to darken, and Liv got the idea that she wasn't just looking at shadows. She was looking at the void.
Calum, hurry up--
Suddenly, Rune went rigid. The shadows around him dissolved, zipped away into whatever realm they came from. Rune shook his head, turning to look down at Calum, whose eyes were glowing with intensity.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Rune bellowed, a hand raised to blast Calum to smithereens, no doubt.
"No!" Liv shouted, moving to intercept him. However, she was stopped by Rune dropping his arm. Calum was glaring at Rune with his glowing eyes, the veins in his temple and neck defined with the amount of will he was channeling into using his power.
"Getting the truth," Calum managed to say from behind gritted teeth.
Rune staggered, fighting against Calum's advances. It was like watching a puppet on a string, if the puppeteer suddenly had an aneurysm. Rune's movements were jerky, and had it not been so strange and terrifying, Liv might have laughed. The beginnings of a smile tugged at her lips, until something earthshattering happened.
Rune swiped a hand over his face, and like wiping condensation off a window, the shadows of his mask dissolved, revealing the face beneath it.
Liv felt as if the floor had opened up beneath her feet.
No.
No.
She never once had believed he'd been dead, she'd felt it in her bones. But this? This felt like some twisted joke.
So ignorant to the truth when it's right in front of your eyes.
"Aaron?" Liv whispered, unsure if any sound had even come out of her mouth.
He looked up and fixed Liv with brown eyes, her eyes, her father's eyes.
Aaron's eyes.
Aaron set his jaw, exhaling heavily through his nose. He shot a withering look at Calum, and his eyes turned gold with a resonating hum. Calum's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped to the ground.
"No!" Liv exclaimed, her heart racing. This was too much--
"He'll live," Aaron said gruffly. "Unfortunately."
"How could you?" Liv whispered. "For all this time."
"How couldn't I?" Aaron snarled, shooting her a similar look. Liv matched it, fury and heartbreak a formidable match. "I deserved my own glory."
"You had glory," Liv retorted. "Your family was your glory."
"My family was my shame!" Aaron roared. "I was nothing but an outcast. Twins of fire and ice to make up for their powerless husk of a son."
"You were powerless," Liv rebuffed. "So how...?"
Aaron rolled his eyes. "I had the gene, Liv. It just needed some...awakening. Nothing that some illicit alchemy and black magic couldn't do."
Liv opened her mouth to fire off another retort, but a realization dawned on her. If Aaron had survived the explosion. . .
"You triggered the explosion. You...you killed mom and dad," Liv spoke in horror. "To do what?"
"I did what I had to do." Aaron held Liv's contemptuous gaze. "And I will continue to do so."
Liv took a shaky breath, forcing herself to stand her ground. "I looked for you. I never believed you were dead. Now?" She spat at his feet. "I wish you were."
A thin smile stretched across Aaron's lips. He opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment, a pulsing beep echoed throughout the room. Liv furrowed her brows together, and realized the beeping was coming from her bracelet.
Aaron growled, swiping a hand through the air. The beeping stopped and smoke rose from the bracelet.
"You're too late," Liv said. "Tristan's coming for me."
"Then he will meet his doom as well."
"Maybe," Liv said indignantly. "But I'd rather die fighting as a family than alone as a coward."
Aaron said nothing, shadows beginning to flow from his frame again. With another swipe of his head, his mask of shadows blossomed on his face. Why he needed a mask anymore, Liv didn't know; maybe to conceal his shame.
But there was one thing Liv was sure of. She was sick of running, searching for answers on a quest without end. She owed it to her friends to stand her ground, to her mom and dad, and most importantly, to herself.
Liv summoned her will again, and whatever block Aaron had placed on her, he'd lifted it.  Maybe out of pity. Maybe to create a fair fight. Liv didn't care. The only thing she cared about as she fired at Aaron was setting this room ablaze, burning all of her brother's secrets and lies to the ground.