Of Heroes and Villains

Bloodstained Lilies

The bomb at Inadu's feet sent the bees flying everywhere. Dean hit his head, and got knocked out, and Liu and Shen were clearly going to be no help. Fully aware of how Val's vapor worked, Inadu brought the remaining bees high up into the air, where there was no chance of Val touching anything. Using Shen's vapor, Inadu's bees multiplied and grew in size, turning into something that resembled hornets, then spread through the city.

Val couldn't have detonated that bomb without seeing where they were. Just as she'd suspected, Inadu found her former ally running away like the coward she was, so the hornets gave chase. A few of them stuck close to the ground, traveling between the houses to catch up to the bomber, while the rest spread throughout the city to make it look as though they were still searching. Val stopped once she reached a particular house, then went inside, knowing it to be unlocked.

'She's definitely touched everything in there. Going in would be suicide.'

Knowing her main body would be fine so long as a single hornet or bee survived, Inadu sent a bunch of them toward the house. The first three that went in were sneaky, and found Val nervously pacing around the table.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!" she cursed. "What the fuck do I do? None of them fuckin' died. Useless fuckers, all of them!" Taking a chair, she swung it at the kitchen counters, and Inadu couldn't remember the last time she'd seen something so pitiful. Val had never been all there, but this recent decline, which may or may not have been an unfortunate side-effect of being brought back from the dead, was something she'd not seen before. Val's eyes were wide and frantic, her breathing erratic.

Nonetheless, she was an enemy who had to be dealt with, so the hornets attacked. They flew toward Val's neck, then repeatedly started stinging her. Screeching from the pain, the girl tried to smack them away, but only managed to get one, and it stung her hand in the process. The other two stuck to her face, stinging it all over as she ran around the room. She managed to catch one in her fist, then crushed it to death, but the last one stung her in the eye, making her walk backward as she cried. Tripping on the remnants of the chair she'd just broken, Val hit the ground and hit the floor with her head, so Inadu went to attack her some more, leading the other hornets inside, careful to have a few of them out of the explosions' reach.

"You fuckin' Indian cunt!" screamed Val as she thrashed on the ground, hands covering her eye. "I'll fuckin' kill you! You always were a stupid bitch! Kill yourself! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU HEAR ME!?"

Realizing she was too far gone for negotiations, the hornets struck. Val thrashed about some more, but never even thought to use her vapor. She died screaming, throwing empty threats around.

What Inadu hadn't expected was for her vapor to go off as she died. In a spasm, Val's body brought an index finger and a thumb together, setting off a large explosion that leveled the entire house as everything inside of it blew up. Every single hornet inside died. The few of them that were outside could see the house wasn't the only thing to go off. Explosions happened all over the city, destroying houses, cars and buildings. Having taken too much damage, from both the explosions and the earthquakes, one of the buildings collapsed, crushing a whole street.

With only three hornets alive, Inadu knew it'd take her a long time to regenerate, so she took them to the edge of the barrier, where they'd be the safest. As she flew, she noticed all of the zombies dropping dead, revealing that Omen was the last opponent standing.

At the same time, Jordan was walking down a narrow hallway within ZONE'S headquarters. She'd checked a few rooms already, then finally caught a sign of life. Someone was rummaging through ahead of her, and there were only a few people it could be. Every step toward it made her tense up a bit more, fear gripping her heart and body.

Jordan wasn't an idiot - well, at least not as big of one as most people liked to think. She was self-aware, at least, and knew she was the least-contributing member of Helter Skelter. Even Don, who had only been with them around two months, had done more. She had never finished a case by herself, and hadn't helped take down a single ZONE member. The biggest thing she had done was killing the first Destroyer, but that proved to have done nothing right after.

'I should just turn around,' she taught, fearing her own death. 'They'll understand. This guy killed Unbound! What the hell can I do?!' She stopped walking, and just stared at the slightly opened door. 'He's in there. Omen might be right in there. The strongest man alive is inside that room. Oh God, why did I agree to this? I should just turn around. I'm not cut out for this.'

For some reason, Don's comforting face came to her.

Shaking her head, Jordan harshly brought her palms to her cheeks, slapping some sense into herself. 'If that dimwit can go randomly go out and take care of a bomber, then I can do this. It's not like he can kill me, right? What do I have to be scared of?'

The face of the man who'd abused her for years appeared in place of Don's, and Jordan found herself unable to move forward. She wished he'd go away. No matter how much she pretended to love being with the others, she knew she'd never find peace. The only times she was ever left alone were those when she was drunk off her ass, to the point of passing out. That was what her life was. She wasn't good for anything. She was just a useless piece of garbage, and couldn't possibly be the one to save everyone. She had deserved being locked up like that.

Then another image came to her.

Jordan saw her friends in chains, forced to kneel before Omen. She saw him doing whatever he liked to them. The image after that showed another possibility - her friends being locked up for being what they are.

The next thing she knew, Jordan was walking forward. She passed through the door and entered the room, a confident look in her eyes.

She was surprised to see Omen crouching down, pulling on his hair. He turned around as he heard her, revealing how little sleep he must've had.

"S-Stay away," he said, crawling away like a wounded dog. Jordan walked toward him, passing through the large table. "I'll hurt you!" Omen threatened. "You're not strong enough to stop me! No one is!" He fired a blast of light her way, and Jordan tensed up, unsure if it would go through her.

It did, and left her unharmed as it hit the wall.

Omen screeched, "No one can stop me! I'm the strongest! I am ultimate! I-I..." tears started flowing down his face as he banged his head against the wall, ripping off a lock of hair with one hand and scratching his face with the other. "I'm alone."

Jordan couldn't believe this was the man she'd spent so many hours fearing. The very mention of his name had been enough to make her drink herself to sleep. This thing in front of her? It wasn't the man of her nightmares. This pitiful creature couldn't frighten a child.

"I can kill you," she said. "I'm strong enough."

Omen screeched again, and fired few more beams of light at her. None of them did anything, and she slowly walked up to him, extender her hand in putting it through his skull. "It'll be over in a moment."

Then she pulled, and his brain came out with her hand. In that instance, Jordan thought it was over for sure, and lowered hear guard.

Her reward for this was getting pierced from the back.

She gasped as a sword of light emerged through her chest, spraying the wall with blood as Omen's corpse disappeared. Barely able to turn her head, she saw Omen standing there, a bored look on his face.

"One of the abilities of light is creating illusions," he explained as the sword disappeared, and Jordan's body limply relied on him to keep standing. She tried to activate her vapor, but it was no use. "You've lost too much blood, dear. You're going to die now."

Thinking back to how pathetic she'd been all her life, Jordan managed a small smile as she died.

'At least I tried, right?'