The False Book of Darknes: Chapter 4

Let's Talk

Ok, I encountered Panacea and now she was on to me. It was no big deal, right? Oh who am I kidding. I screwed up big time, but no matter! Just because there was a slight hiccup with my plan doesn't mean I can't unscrew it up.

I just had to stay calm and act like nothing happened, something which I was making headway as I slipped out of the main office with the principal guiding me out the door. “I assure you it won't happen again.”

Freaking out was just going to make things worse. For all I know, Panacea might only be interested in me because I have some fucked up genetic disease or something. On second thought, that didn't sound any better than having Panacea detect my Linker Core…

Anyways! Right now, I needed to make everyone think that everything was fine on my end. That should throw Panacea off my scent right? The patronizing hair ruffles and pinched cheeks was worth it, I told myself as the principal doted on me like some kid.

“I know you won't Mister Anderson,” The kindly old woman smiled before handing me a lollipop of all things. “Now you'd best be going now. You don't want to be late!”

Nodding, I smiled back as I excused myself. “Thank you!” It was mortifying having to deal with that, while the candy was mildly insulting, but all of it was quickly forgotten as soon as I had a taste of the treat; It was lemon flavored. “What a nice old lady.” Anyone who liked sweet and sour candies was good in my book.

Sucking on the tart candy, I headed for my first class; Philosophy. It was surprising seeing it offered as an elective, as the schedule printed out for me by the school secretary showed, but I had to remember this was Arcadia. This school could actually afford to offer this kind of subject unlike Winslow.

“Thank god for small mercies,” I whispered as I slipped inside the classroom, interrupting the class in the middle of a discussion; Something about the moral decisions if the trolley problem illustration was any indication.

Taking a quick glance, I let out a small sigh of relief; Panacea wasn't around. Maybe there were some other Ward, but I don't exactly remember all of them and they weren’t really people I was looking for. Right now, I just want to be alone with my thoughts.

Ignoring the pointed stares and hushed whispers, I handed my excuse slip to the teacher. After a quick read, the teacher nodded before he continued as I made way to the back of the class before sitting down and staring at the large tome in front of me. “What the hell do I now?” I asked myself, unsure on what to do next.

I was supposed to keep a low profile, observe Panacea, Vicky and maybe some of the Wards from a safe distance, before disappearing, never to be seen again. It was easy and simple plan, but things went south so fast as soon I stumbled into her.

Of all the people I could have encountered, it was Panacea. Maybe it was the magic in me, or something else, but she definitely saw something in that brief contract and now I had to figure out a good way to shake her off. That was easier said than done, however, given how people would trust her words over mine.

“We can always eliminate her,” Darkness casually offered as I felt her stir awake from her slumber, “I can even make it so that we'd leave no trace behind.”

Frowning, I sighed. “No, no killing unless I say so,” I wasn’t just going to resort to something so drastic just because she was suspicious of me. I didn't even know why she looked at me like that. “Plus she's a hero so no touching her.” Touching her was tantamount to suicide, both figuratively and literally.

“A shame because here I thought I was going to have another meal,” She moaned, making me roll my eyes. For a magical artifact, she was awfully hungry. Speaking off.

“When you said you consumed their shard, how much of their shard did you consume exactly?” I asked. Shards were massive things after all, with some reaching the sizes of mountains. I blame the author's inability to math, but it did pacify my partner somewhat at the satisfied feeling washing over me.

“Down to their very marrow,” She giggled, sending shivers up my spine. Still, as terrified as I was, I wouldn’t be losing sleep over what Darkness probably did to Oni Lee. Bastard stabbed me in the back! “Though I do have to say that for such massive creatures, they provide surprisingly little sustenance.”

That seemed somewhat surprising. You'd think that they would provide a lot of pages for her, but as I flipped through her pages, I found myself frowning.

“So much junk data for mere quantum teleportation,” She mumbled while I stared at the ever shifting fractals of symbols drawn on the few pages she had filled, “I had to compress it just so it doesn't take up too much space.”

“At least there's more for me to burn down and convert to magical energy!” She chimed happily as I closed the book.

“But it'd only power you for so long,” I whispered. Aside from a couple of pages, probably from a previous user I didn't know, Oni Lee's powers barely gave her anything. “This is kind of disappointing not gonna lie.”

Maybe it's better to describe Entities more as Siphonophores rather than Whales; A whole lot of nothing for something so big and complicated. “Don't worry master,” She assured me, “There’s quite a number of them nearby! We have plenty of prey to consume~.”

This immediately gave me pause. I haven't considered how she could detect shards. “Wait, was this why Panacea had an aura around her?” I asked, earning me a chime of agreement.

This was a game changer in all the best ways, while opening up a few dozen cans of worms at the same time. I could start hunting down some villains. Clean things up before Taylor comes into play and then slip away, but that was quite ambitious given how my current plan was alreayd fucked up in away.

“Let’s hold on to that for now,” I sighed, “I still have some things to deal with.” Maybe Panacea was in a good mood?

-x-x-x-

Come lunch time, I found myself yet to encounter the adopted Dallon and it wasn't like I was trying to hide. There I sat, off to the side, in the Cafeteria with a pizza slice in hand. With how blue I was (Something which I needed to change as someone’s wardrobe can't just be varying shades of blue!), I stood out like a sore thumb.

“Maybe she got cold feet,” I shrugged as I took a bite, “Or maybe she's busy.” It wouldn't be too much of a stretch if she was needed for a medical emergency or her sister needed someone to bail her out, but whatever the case was I wasn't complaining.

Perhaps I spoke too soon as I saw a shadow looming over me. “Anderson,” Pancea grunted as I stared at the mousy girl standing in front of me.

“Dallon,” I nodded back, feeling conscious as she kept staring. For a girl that was close to my height, she had quite the glare.

Before I could speak up again, she grabbed my hand, making me freeze up. “We need to talk,” said the girl sternly as she tightened her grip, “Now.”

“Can you at least let me finish my pizza?” I asked while struggling to keep my racing heart from leaping out my chest. Before I could muster up the wit to complain, I found myself dragged along behind the girl as she marched out the cafeteria. “Ok, I guess we're doing this now.”

As I struggled to keep hold of Darkness as well as keep up, my partner chimed in worriedly, “Master?”

I was panicking inwardly, but I can’t have her come out, not yet at least. “I'll handle this,” I told her as I mustered up a brave front. If Amy wanted to do anything to me, she would have done so the moment she touched my hands.

After I got dragged half way across the campus, I soon found myself inside the girls bathroom. To say that I was confused would be an understatement. Still, even as my face burnt up at her grabby hands touching my face and feeling my sides, I kept mum. “Extensive, but… fascinating.”

“Ok Dallon, what's the big idea?” I snapped, pushing her off me before backing away to get as much distance between me and this crazy girl. “First you drag me out of the cafeteria and now you're playing doctor.”

Yes, she was cuter than I expected with her freckles and her tired look, but damn it I was done getting molested! “You do know I'm just as old as you, right?” I snarked, making her snort in amusement.

“Just as sarcastic as ever I see,” Amy replied as she crossed her arm and gave me a once over. Ok, she was both crazy and touchy. Good to know.

As I wondered if I could inch my way towards the door without getting noticed, she stepped towards the entrance, blocking me off. “At least that rules out parasitic possession.”

“Wait, hold up. Let's rewind a bit here,” I said, somewhat alarmed at what I just heard, “What do you mean parasitic possession?” She can't just drop that without dropping an explanation. Speaking of…

“Darkness,” I asked my partner, “Mind telling me what Dallon is talking about?” Either Panacea was messing with me, or the Book of Darkness was lying, and I starting to lean on the latter as I felt my partners unease

“Well…. You see master,” Darkness replied haltingly, but before she could answer, Amy did so for her.

“Anderson, you have, for the lack of better words, large worms inside you and they're holding you together,” She replied and everything started making sense.

“Ok, that explains how you healed me.” I sighed out in relief. The tentacle dreams, the strange feeling I had around where Oni Lee stabbed me and the seamless communication I had with my partner, all of it explained if my partner (or at least parts of her) was lodged inside me.

“Y-you're not mad?” Darkness asked hesitantly. “It's just the last few masters I had before you didn't like it when I told them!”

“No, I'm not,” I replied, “I'm just disappointed.” I could understand it, but I didn’t like it when people hid things from me. It just makes it harder for me to trust them even if they were remorseful about it.

“I'm sorry master…” She apologized, but it was just a bit too late for it.

“We'll talk about this later,” I replied before turning my attention back to Amy who had been harping on about her inspection of my passengers.

“It's fascinating really,” She noted clinically as she got close before poking and prodding me once more. Thankfully, she was less grabby this time, choosing to inspect my body with her finger. “They're not harmful even when they require their host to feed them. More mutualistic actually.”

Brow rising, she asked, “And where the hell did you go to get stabbed this many times?!”

“It's a long story,” I replied with a grimace, “But to cut it short, I walked into the wrong neighborhood, got stabbed, but a good samaritan saved me.”

“So a cape did this…” Amy nodded as pulled her before she stared at me with narrowed eyes, “They don't seem malicious, but that’s what they said about Teacher.”

“Don't worry,” She smiled as he reached out, “Even with their strange biology, I'm sure I could purge them out of your system.”

Alarm bells immediately started ringing inside my head, and so too with Darkness. “Wait, if she purges me from your body then our bond would be broken!” She shouted in panic, “I haven't even formed your Linker Core yet!”

“Without my tentacles and a linker core to bond to, I can't manifest!” She explained as I started backing away. Maybe she was lying, but like hell I'd let my ticket out of Earth Bet go just because some tentacles made my spleen their home!

Hands raised, I replied, “Now hold on a minute! Do you even know what would happen if you tear them out-!”

BOOM!

Immediately, we froze as dust rained down from above us. Another explosion soon followed before another, each growing louder until I felt a roar that shook the very ground beneath me. The city was being attacked.

“Amy, we have an emergency-!” A feminine voice rang out before pausing as both Amy and I stared at the interloper. From her blonde hair, and the skewed Tiara she had hastily put on, it was clear she was Glory Girl and she looked somewhat confused and pleased(?) at finding me with her sister.

As I glanced back at Amy and realized how she had me backed up against the wall, I let out a groan, something which earned a giggle from the blonde bombshell. “Was I interrupting something?” She asked as her cheeks took on a rosy hint.

“Vicky, what the hell!?” Amy shouted as she flinched back as if she was touching something hot.

“Ok, ok, but seriously,” Vicky replied before she flinched as a roar echoed out from the city proper, “Downtown's burning and mom needs us right now.”

“Fuck,” I cursed, kicking myself for not realizing this was going to happen, “Lung's pissed because Oni Lee's missing, isn't he?”

“Yeah-! Wait, how did you know that Oni Lee was missing?” Vicky asked as Amy looked at me in question.

Taking a deep breath and considering my choices here, I sighed, “It's because my powers killed Oni Lee.”

A/N:

Next chapter this is Rogue Trader. We're having out intrepid Rogue Trader talk to the Fabricator General of Janus VI~