Chapter 28：Flames from below

James hit a cold metal roof with a thud. The energy he recognised filled his body once again and he rose to look around. Blitz had dissipated through the journey and now James stood there was his sword in his hand. James put it away and peered over the edge of the roof. It was a four story warehouse but a gutter provided a makeshift ladder for James to climb down. He slowly manoeuvred down but stopped when he reached a window leading to a bedroom. On the bed he saw Cynthinia and William playing Uno. James continued down and reached the floor where he instantly went inside the building. The walls, floors, and ceiling where like you would have in a hotel but cheaper and less ... flashy. There were two staircases either side of the room that both seemed to lead upstairs. James went up the left one and hoped to find William and Cynthinia. What were they doing together? Cynthinia's a goddess so she should be with the other gods and goddesses.

James saw the door to the room they were in and kicked it open. Cards flew in all directions as William brought out his trident and threw it at James. He just missed and it wedged itself three inches into the wooden door frame.

"What a nice greeting!" joked James. William stood up, walked up to James, grabbed his trident, put it away, and punched James in his stomach.

"It's been three weeks since you went missing! Jack hasn't left his room and is barely eating!" exclaimed William. Cynthinia walked up behind William and gripped him shoulder, freezing him on the stop.

"I thought you'd be with the other gods and goddesses? Why are you here playing Uno?" asked James. Cynthinia looked at William.

"I was banished. I changed the timeline so you could wield the celestial weapon of fire. The others didn't take it so well and they sent me here to live out my life and die a mortal. William here doesn't know and thinks my name is Caitlin. I'd like to keep it that way." explained Cynthinia. James raised his hands and arms in a slight surrender gesture.

"Fair enough. Just tell me where Jack is and I'll sort it out." said James. Cynthinia pointed to a door with a tray of food outside of it. Cynthinia stepped back behind William and gripped his shoulder again, releasing him from his temporal paralysis.

"Now go and make up for it by talking to Jack!" demanded William. James walked off in the direction of Jack's room while William shut the door angrily.

James picked up the tray of food and water and knocked on the door trying to imitate William's voice.

"Jack, you need to eat!" said James through the door. There was some quick shuffling and some panicked patting of a bed or something. James tried the handle and the door opened. Jack was holding the celestial weapon of darkness and was trying to hide it under his mattress. His whole appearance had changed to black shoes, black jeans, a black shirt - you get the picture - and a large, ripped, black cloak that might have come from a dead body of some sort.

"J-James! Is that you!?" excitedly asked Jack. He went to move closer but stopped when he saw the fear and confusion in James' face.

"H-how did you get that thing. It went missing in space after I cut it in half." said James. He placed the tray down and brought out his sword, pointing it at Jack.

"I can explain. Two weeks ago, some guy gave me a key ring of a scythe and said it suited me. I was drawn to it. He said it had fulfilled it's duty for him. When I brought it back here it started growing and I realised what it was." explained Jack.

"Why didn't you try to get rid of it?"

"I tried, believe me. But it kept coming back to me like we're bonded together. I thought that if I told William or the others, that they'd kick me out or try to kill me or experiment on me or ..." Jack started to break down and James quickly put his sword away and grabbed Jack by the shoulders and held him firmly.

"They would never do that! And if they did, I'd personally kill them all!" said James. Jack calmed down and looked at the floor.

"The general asked me to come to his office to talk about a business proposition. But if he sees me with this he'll freak out!"

"It's a simple process. Just feel the weapon soak into your body and become one with you. It'll disappear ready for you to use it again. As simple as that." James stepped back and Jack gripped the scythe. He breathed out and began focusing on the scythe.

"Your focusing too hard. Don't control it, work with it." said James. Jack slowly lowered his focus on the scythe and it slowly became enveloped in a hazy smoke that entered Jacks body. The same happened with James, William, Ben, Izzy, Edward, and Liam who each had their weapon become enveloped by their element and it enter their bodies.

James took Jack to the general later that day. James waited outside while Jack and the general discussed business.

"The appearances of these ability users has nearly doubled in the past week. We ran some tests on that Noa woman after you brought her in and it seems her mutated DNA has disappeared. Would you happen to know why this is?" asked the general. He spoke in a tone that implied he knew the answer he wanted but wanted to hear it from Jack.

"The only thing I could think of is when I stopped her from falling with that weird force-field thing." replied Jack.

"Exactly! We scanned you after the encounter as well and it seems you've stolen her ability! If we can use this, we can save money and time when tracking down these things and that school thing won't be needed!"

"Wait, what? You want me to use an ability I didn't even know I had to steal peoples abilities?!"

"Exactly!"

"No! We've already put a lot of effort into the school at we're not going to waste it."

"I was afraid you'd say that." the general motioned and metal cuffs clamped down on Jacks wrists, ankles, and waist. Three scientists entered holding a scientific cap connected to a large box like machine. They placed the cap on Jack and started working on the box.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Jack.

"We've collected some people of our own. One of which had quite the mind bending abilities. Literally. We've replicated their abilities and we were able to shrink the mind erasing technology we already had. We just need to alter your mind and you'll work for us." the general snapped his fingers. "Just like that."

The machine whirred to life and Jack's mind was torn apart. Memories deleted, added, and re-written, thoughts and feelings wiped and replaced, and goals and ambitions gone and altered. The cuffs opened and Jack rose. He brought out his scythe and streaks of his dark red hair turned black. He opened his eyes and looked at the general. They were black with black cracks surrounding them and monster like, red pupils pierced through the emptiness.

"What is your objective?" asked the general. He leaned forward to listen for Jacks response.

Towards his first target.

James burst in with his sword drawn.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" demanded James. The general looked at James with a cold stare.

"It's time for this era to come to a swift end." said the general. He went to stand but something held him in place. He looked down and saw James' sword pierced through his chest. The looked around and found all three scientists mutilated on the floor. The whole room was burning with bright blue flames and in the middle was James with blood splattered over his face and a large mangled, arm replacing his right arm.