TRUTH UNSEALED (BARRY ALLEN/MAGNUS BANE)

Chapter Nine

"I wasn't ready for that!"

"You need to focus, Barry. In a life or death situation, the enemy isn't going to wait for you to get ready. This needs to become instinct. Again."

Barry groaned loudly. They had been at this for hours, with Magnus teaching and showing him how to summon his magic to close doors and lift things and bring things to him. That had been the easy part. Now the elder warlock was trying to teach him spells to defend himself and it was not going over so well. He had literally been knocked off his feet by the spell Magnus had thrown at him and he was winded. Picking himself up, Barry started to incant a spell but he faltered halfway through when Magnus' cat streaked by, right in front of him. Using the distraction against him, Magnus lazily threw another spell at him, once again knocking him off his feet.

Barry sat up on the floor, very annoyed now. "That wasn't fair! Your fricking cat distracted me."

"You need to learn to ignore distractions, Barry." Magnus told him.

Glaring at him, Barry grumbled, "How am I supposed to learn to control my powers by doing spells that I'm not ready for? Especially when your method of training is knocking me to the ground and expecting me to say a spell to....what exactly?"

Magnus rolled his eyes, shooing his cat away before he answered. "It's a simple deflection spell but I may see your point. Let's try this then." He walks over to a table with a candle on it and gestures to it. "Try lighting the candle. All you have to do is focus."

Barry stands and makes his way over to the table, sitting in front of the white candle, that looks like it hasn't been lit in a while. He gives Magnus one more look before turning his attention back to the candle and focuses. He stares at the candle, muttering under his breath the very spell to light it and he repeats it over and over, his concentration rising more and more. It isn't lighting but he's not giving up. He blocks out everything in the back-ground, determined to light the candle. He continues to say the word in a clear, strong voice and his eyes begin to glow a silver gold.

Suddenly, a bright orange flame appears, consuming the wick and Barry smiles in delight, glancing over his shoulder at Magnus. The elder warlock looks at him in shock and he says, "I did it!" He doesn't even care that he sounds like a small child who's proud to have achieved something.

Magnus is staring at him and he breathes, "Your eyes."

Barry frowns. "My eyes...what's wrong with my eyes?"

Magnus uses his magic to place a mirror in his hands and encouraged him to look at his reflection. Barry stares at himself, stunned. His eyes aren't glowing as much as before but they're still glowing enough for him to make out the color. His eyes are a silver gold and he admits that it looks really cool. The glow and color is fading back to his hazel eyes and he looks up at Magnus, his eyes wide.

"You really are something different." Magnus whispers, momentarily in a daze. Then he snaps out of it and Barry doesn't try to ask what he means as a smile appears on the warlock's face. "Great job lighting the candle! I think we should continue to work on teaching you small spells for now."

Barry silently agreed with the man. Despite his earlier attitude about this being easy, he now knew that just because doing magic looked easy, didn't actually mean that it was. He would be satisfied learning small spells and working his way up to the bigger ones once he was ready or whenever Magnus saw fit to.

Magnus gave him another simple, easy spell and task to do and Barry nodded at the man, thinking about how easy and natural it must be for the elder warlock who was raised using magic.

All I need to do is ignore distractions and focus. Can't be too hard to do it again. . .right?

OoO

That night Barry went out against Magnus' wishes for him to remain inside where he was safe until he had better control over his magic. The warlock was so busy going over books for a few friends of his, looking for anything out of the ordinary, that it was quite easy to sneak out of the penthouse unnoticed. While Barry understood being new to the whole warlock thing he needed to train, but what he didn't understand was what the big deal was about him leaving the penthouse. It wasn't like trouble would find him if he was just exploring the city, right?

Besides, Magnus had better things to do than be bothered with him all night. Especially keeping an eye on him. Barry couldn't deny that he was interested in what Magnus was doing earlier, but rather than be nosy and ask, he removed himself from the penthouse to explore New York.

The city was big. It was no wonder why it was nicknamed "The Big Apple" in the first place. Barry would have to be able to find his way back to the penthouse on his own and he guessed it was good that such thing as Google Maps existed.

Barry smiled to himself and made his way across the intersection and onto a wide crowded sidewalk. Even at night the city was bustling and people were out and about. It apparently didn't matter that it was late, it was just as crowded and alive as during the daytime.

Barry managed to find his way to the heart of the city and walked around the park. It was nice and not many people were there. He used the time alone to reflect on the past few days of his life and how much had changed.

Despite what people think, a lot can change in just a few days. Most of the time, it isn't good. At least not in the life where you help superheroes run around a city, fighting metahumans and protecting the citizens.

Barry made a mental note in his head to stop by a school supply store. There was a few things he needed to grab for tomorrow. He decided to backtrack towards the park, having explored enough and on his way there he felt like he was being followed.

Or watched.

Barry walked a bit faster, eyeing his surroundings warily. All of a sudden, something came out and tackled him to the ground. He went sprawling onto the concrete, caught off guard and scared. Barry rolled onto his back, eyes searching for the unknown assailant that knocked him to the ground. When he saw what had attacked him, his hazel green eyes widened in pure terror at what stood in front of him. There was no way this . . . thing should be alive. The figure standing over him was disfigured and mutilated, with pale skin and a rune in the shape of a circle burned into the right side of his neck. It was holding an axe and it looked really angry.

Barry gasped when he saw his arm draw back and he rolled away, the axe barely missing him and he scrambled to his feet. The man--or monster because of the way he looked--roared and stomped towards him, raising the axe again and swinging it at him. Barry jumped back, the sharp tip of the axe catching one of the buttons on his shirt, and he spun around to run, only to come face to face with another one. The mutilated person backhanded him and he went flying through the air, a cry of pain escaping his lips. He landed on top of a car, more than likely putting a dent in the hood, and the windows shattered while the windshield cracked and splintered. The car alarm went off, the noise sending knives through his head.

Barry groaned in pain and shifted slightly, trying to sit up. He had to get away or he was going to die. One of the disfigured creatures reached him and raised the axe, ready to cut him in half, when suddenly, an arrow whistled through the air and buried itself in its neck. Barry frowned, confused and startled, wondering where the arrow just came from.

What the hell . . .

Barry grunted and rolled off of the car, landing unsteadily on his feet and turned around to see what was going on. A blonde male and a red-headed girl were fighting one of the creatures with glowing blades and runes, moving too fast for Barry to track and a female with jet black hair and runes on her arms and wrist was fighting the creature that had been shot with an arrow. Barry stumbled as the world started spinning and he felt weightless as black splotches began to dot his vision. 

He swayed again and put a hand to his head, before collapsing to the ground. He saw a boy with jet black hair and blue eyes leaning over him, his lips moving but no words were heard. Before he was pulled under a sea of darkness, his last thought was,

I really should have listened to Magnus.