Sell you a Bridge chapter 312

June 21st 2016 Twilight Town, 12:00 PM EDT

Getting  everyone sorted out for pairs was annoying. The only real bright side  was the realization that 'every team needs a powerhouse' was pretty much  pointless in my current group. Every person with us was a scary  bastard. Still, I tried to stagger the teams so we had someone with a  meta ability covering the most human of us. Artemis was with Kit, Wally  was with John, Eddie went with Tommy. Zee was with Sindella, Drea with  Suzie, and Taylor with Rana. Since the big detective was our lock for  finding one of the wielders it made sense to put my daughter, who was  probably the second strongest person here, with him for backup.

We  divided up the spots to search. I took the mansion with Jim, as agreed.  Zee and Sindella took the ghost train, and honestly I stopped paying  attention after that. I made sure I had voo-don't dolls prepared for  everyone to block a lethal hit and just made sure everyone could contact  us if needed before Jim and I finally left for the mansion, as we  stepped out, waving goodbye to Olette after getting directions, I took a  deep breath as I enjoyed the crisp air of a pleasant evening in June.  Well, not really evening, but since it was sunset here all the time it  felt like evening. I had to admit I liked the weather.

"So."  I said to Jim as we walked casually down the winding road. "This place  is pretty nice right? Like, I could see visiting again sometime. Living  in Destiny Islands would be nice, but it's a bit secluded. This place is  just crowded enough not to make me feel cut off." I tried not to  mention how comfortable I was becoming with the dark energy in the air  the longer we stayed. It was mixed with the normal energy of the regular  multiverse, which somehow made it feel even more comfortable.

Jim  gave me an unamused look. "Oh, are we going to pretend you weren't just  handed a possible death sentence?" I rolled my eyes at my teacher, and  he just shook his head sadly. "Dear boy, I've known you long enough to  know when you're distracting yourself. Your task comes with manageable  goals, which helps, but you're a mess for the moment. I'm not going to  force you to talk about it, but I wanted you to know that when it's just  the two of us there isn't a need to put on a show. Brood if you want to  brood."

I sighed heavily, my shoulder slumping as we drew  closer to the mansion in the distance. "Well, that didn't take long.  For a potential incarnation of Deception I sure don't seem to be any  good at it." Or maybe I was, and I'd just wanted someone to notice how  upset I was feeling and ask about it. Now that he had though, I found  that I didn't really want to talk about it. Just having someone  acknowledge how fucked all this was gave me plenty of comfort, but I  didn't want to dwell. In the end, I just shook my head. "Thanks but no. I  don't want to wallow. I'll talk when I'm ready, for now lets just catch  up."

He smiled at that, and we did. He told me about how  he'd been feeling during this whole mess. Missing Paula and Claire,  pride at how well we were all doing, guilt at not being able to keep up  as well as he'd like. I told him about how I felt like I was drowning  sometimes, and the girls were the only thing keeping me afloat. We  talked for about a half hour, making our way to the mansion which was  much further than it had seemed (the place was huge). We were lucky  Olette gave good directions or we might not have even found it, size  aside. It was mostly hidden by forest and only visible from a certain  approach.

Stopping at the gate, I couldn't help but stare  up at the large building in appreciation. Jim gave his own whistle as we  came to a stop. "Lovely architecture, that is. Never seen a style quite  like it. The stained glass in the tower is particularly striking. Don't  you think?" I did, and I gave a nod of agreement as I withdrew my  keyblade, giving it a quick tap on the padlock so the gates could drop  open and let us in.

"Definitely." I said as we entered.  "This place is less broken down than I expected from an 'old mansion'. I  was figuring we would see some broken windows and splintering wood.  This is actually pretty nicely maintained. Either they have a  groundskeeping staff, or the girl that Olette mentioned is a neat freak.  Do you think she's the other wielder?" That seemed like a long shot to  me, but weirdly, part of me almost expected it. It was why I had picked  this mission, I felt like aside from John and Rana, who were guaranteed  to find one of them, this was the best shot to run into a wielder.

As  we approached the front doors and tried them, Jim made a pensive sound.  "Maybe. It's difficult to say, really. There's certainly SOMEONE living  here. The lack of dust proves that, if nothing else." The doors had  opened easily, admitting us to a very empty entrance hall with only a  few suits of dull but well maintained armor and a pair of huge  staircases to break up the emptiness. Jim rapped his cane on the side of  the door, raising his voice. "Hello? Anyone in here? Miss? We were  hoping to speak to the owner?"

I gave him a flat look and  he just shrugged. "What? We're here to meet with the resident, this  place is too big for me to feel like knocking, but there's no reason to  be rude. If she can hear us we might save some time. I for one don't  fancy wandering around this place for-" He froze, his eyes stopping as  he scanned the room. "Ok. That was actually really impressive, love."

Turning  to see who he was talking to, I froze too. Less that three feet away  from us, a girl had appeared. She had a shy, disarming smile, big  shimmering blue eyes, a cascade of platinum hair, and was wearing a  white sundress. "Huh." I said in shock. "No kidding. I haven't been  snuck up on in years. How did you..." I focused on her aura and then  grinned. "Ah, dark corridor. Nice." I might have been more upset about  that, thinking her one of Barbatos's servants, if I hadn't noticed  something else in her aura. A core of buried light I'd seen in Zee and  Drea since I awakened their keyblades.

She gave us a  cheerful wave. "Hello. Welcome to my home. My name is Namine. How may I  help you?" Despite her easy and welcoming tone, I saw a sort of panicked  wariness in her eyes. I could tell we would be in for a bad time if we  tried to attack her here, but then, we hadn't come for that.

Jim,  sensing her unease, help up both hands soothingly, on still clutching  his cane. "Peace, love. No need to worry. We just came to talk to you.  The reason is a bit...complicated, but we're friendly. We just need to  take our leave as soon as possible. We're just ahead of another group of  visitors to this fine town who have reason to seek you out, and if we  don't leave before they get here-"

"Then what?" Echoed a  loud, drawling voice from above us. We both looked up to see a wildly  grinning man with a mane of red hair emerge from a dissipating corridor.  I was starting to get really fucking annoyed at dealing with those  things. Is this what everyone else felt like dealing with me? The man's  bloodthirsty grin fixed on all three of us. "Well now, isn't this lucky.  We find the witch and a pair of our targets both. The big boss is going  to be so pleased." He clucked his tongue. "But please, I interrupted  you so rudely. You were saying what we would do if we found you?"

I  grimaced. This guy was...kind of strong. Lots of power, darkness and  fire in a sort of combusting wellspring of abyssal energy. His aura was  wild as hell, but oddly focused. We could take him, I was just about  certain, but I was also pretty sure this asshole wasn't traveling alone.  There would be another one showing up soon, if the distortion in the  dark energy around him was anything to go by. Sure enough, a second  cloaked figure, this one with hood up, emerged from the shadows right  beside him. Namine was staring up at them with a resigned horror that  made my fists tighten, like she'd already given up all hope of escape.

Seeing  the despair in her eyes, the hopelessness, I was reminded intensely of  my own musings about the corner I was backed into. This girl was scared,  she was being hunted by things she didn't feel prepared to deal with,  and they wouldn't leave her alone. She wasn't one of my people, but she  would be soon. She was a keyblade wielder who was going to be on my  team, and that was enough of a connection for my obsession with  protecting my friends to latch onto. I felt frost begin to crawl across  the ground around me as my eyes began to glow with a eldritch light.

As  if in answer to my obsession, my demonic power roared to live, stoked  with flames of wrath that anyone would get in the way of my journey to  protect my family. If I didn't get Namine on my side then I could never  go home. Never see my mother. Protectiveness, self interest, helpless  rage, it all swirled in my chest like a pressure cooker of power and  destruction. I was so angry, I just wanted to scream. Wanted to vent all  that anger right at these bastards.

The red haired one  was snickering. "Aww, look at him. He's getting all upset. It's almost  cute he thinks it matters. You gonna throw a tantrum, spooky? Or are you  going to come with us quietly. If you do we won't hurt you. We won't  even hurt the witch. You can trust ol' Axel. I absolutely wouldn't lie  to you about this. Come along quiet and we can all walk out of here  happy as clams, got it memorized?"

Namine's shoulder  slumped, and the energy roared up higher. I'd never felt this before.  Not really. Not like this. I knew what it was though. I'd done something  similar more than a few times, it was just normally controlled,  normally restrained by my will. This time though, I could feel the power  rioting to escape, to be unleashed in a way that I had never  experienced before.

I looked at Jim, my eyes still  blazing, and nodded over to Namine, creating a quick sphere of energy to  show him I needed him to shield her. I couldn't speak right now, not  like this, and I'd need to him to keep her safe, because while this next  part probably wouldn't kill any of them, it was going to fucking SUCK  for anyone who wasn't braced for it. The last few times I did this it  had been brutal enough, and I was on a whole other level now.

He  gave me a subtle nod and began weaving a spell quickly, layering  invisibly protections on her I could only see because of my aura sight. A  pair of ghostly skeletal hands enclosed each of them, fingers lacing to  create a full sphere before Jim started layering enchantments to  reinforce them. Once I saw that was done I turned to Axel and his friend  and gave a tight, close lipped smile. Axel smirked at me. "What's the  matter? Cat got your tongue? I'm waiting for an answer." I could hardly  pass up a straight line like that. So I opened my mouth. I unleashed  that pressure cooker of power. I barely had time to see Axel's face as  the torrent of divine ghost devil ectoplasm exploded from my mouth, but  what I did see was pretty funny.