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withlovingregards · 6 years

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Sequinox: Vivaldi’s End

WARNING: Character Death ahead. As well as Non-Canon scenes, written to be more dramatic

The way they described it in all the movies, tv shows, books; it all seemed so cliché. Everything happened so fast, there wasn't anything they could do, it was all just for dramatics. Things like that just didn't happen in real life. Nothing was that fast.

But as that stinger detached itself from Scorpius' head and lashed out, they learned that they had been wrong. She was that fast, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do as the stinger dug its way through Vivaldi. Time around them stopped, and damn it, that was supposed to be fake too. There was no time to blink as it knocked him off his feet, and they could only watch the stinger retract back to the giant woman, leaving a trail of blood in its wake, and in the darkness of the night, Vivaldi's blood dripped from the pointed tip like it was venom.

Before his body even had time to still, soft particles of golden light floated away from his body, the light joining the stars as his clothes disappeared, replaced with the ones he had been wearing before he transformed. A costume that had barely been a costume. Dark jeans and jacket, a red shirt, and where once there had been a spider logo, only a bloody hole remained.

"Oh, Spider-Man, that's cool!"

"Barely any effort at all," Hannah had scoffed. Caiden brushed it off. He wasn't in the mood today to deal with her attitude.

"Oh my god!" Hannah screamed, covering her mouth with her hands as her eyes widened, watering though she wouldn't admit it. She knew that curly hair, those freckled cheeks. God, was that...?

"Caiden!" Yuki cried, running over to him with no hesitation, skidding to his side, not caring about her now bruised and bleeding knees. "No, no, Caiden!"

"Why are you guys creeping behind a bush?"

"We're watching this go down. Wanna join?"

"Not really."

"How about some dippin' dots?" Sid asked, holding out her partially melted cup of an ice cream monstrosity.

"Um, no thanks."

Pressing her fingers against his neck, Yuki searched for a pulse; waited one moment, then another. There was no breathing, there was no pulse. Looking at his eyes, open wide like he was still in shock, they were dulled. Dead.

With and enraged yell, Chell charged, sword aflame. Smirking, Scorpius simply brushed her aside like nothing, sending her flying through the fence they had hidden behind to transform. Growling, the girl ignored the pain and kicked off the splintered wood, coming at her from behind.

Caiden plopped down the plate of food in front of Chell, and she noticed immediately that there were more fries there than there were on anyone else's plate. She gave Caiden a look, and he only shrugged.

"You're gonna ask for more anyway. Saves myself a trip."

"You're just tryin' to get yourself a better tip."

"Is it working?"

"Um, heck yeah!"

Shaking her head, though her body shook with what she was sure was shock, Sid readied her fists and ran into the fray. Unfortunately, she didn't even get close. With her tail, Scorpius pinned Chell to the ground, and turned to her. Sid put a hand to the ground, curling her finger as best she could, and caught herself before she could fall into the crushing hold of the enemy before her. Scorpius' smile was wicked, but she came no closer to her, not while she had Summer in her grasp.

Hannah was stock still in her place, eyes only for the dead boy on the ground. Her classmate, that annoying creep, the talented photographer... Caiden. All this time Vivaldi had been Caiden, and she'd been so mean to him; for God's sake, when was the last time she had said something nice to him, if at all? And now... He was dead. He had helped them for so long, and they'd done nothing to save him.

"Hannah, Yuki! Get over here and help us!"

Chell's yell snapped Hannah out of her mental breakdown, and she could see that Sid and Chell were going all out against the giant woman, and getting no where. All her confidence had dropped to rock bottom. They had been doing so good against these stupid stars, and now...

With a shaky breath, Yuki gently brushed her hand across Caiden's face (God, he was already cold), and closed his eyes. She had vowed she would be stronger, strong enough to protect her friends. And she hadn't. She hadn't been able to do a damn thing. After hours, days, weeks of training. Her failure showed here.

"That was pretty good Winter," Vivaldi said, nodding his head, "You've really shown some great improvement."

Yuki blushed, trying to hide how pleased she was at his compliment. This was training time, she really needed to calm her hormones down.

"Thanks. I've been training a lot recently."

"It shows."

Winter stood up, her eyes down cast, her knees blooded from scrapes, her hands dirtied with blood that wasn't hers. She couldn't let this sit idly by. If she couldn’t save her friends, then she was sure as hell going to avenge them.

"Come on, Hannah," Yuki said, brandishing her wand, "We've got a fight to win."

They were beaten, bruised, Chell had been stabbed again, Sid had a broken arm, Hannah had been burned, and Yuki was close to passing out due to a drain on her mana. But victory was theirs, hollow as it felt. Before their eyes, Scorpius slowly turned to star dust, glowing brighter and brighter the more that she started to disappear. But even though she was dying, her unforgiving and cruel grin refused to leave her face.

"You think this is a big win for you," she growled out, voice strong, "You've defeated Scorpius, you all are big heroes. Think again."

Her laugh sent shivers down the girl's spines, hitting a nerve in them. And when she continued to speak, her voice wasn't like it had been. It sounded like two people speaking at once, and panic gripped Yuki's heart when she realized who the other voice belonged to.

"There are more stars in the sky than Sequinox. I will stop at nothing to destroy you and this miserable planet. And even if I can only take you out one by one... It won't take much longer to get rid of the rest of you, now will it?"

Her dual toned laughed echoed around them as Scorpius' eyes turned towards Caiden's body. The four girls could only grit their teeth, trying to hold back their tears. And as they listened to the woman laugh like a mad man, they wished there was more that they could do at that moment. All they could do was watch as the last of the star dust rose into the night sky. And while the red and blue lights of emergency vehicles started to blot out the darkness, they could still see the threat that lingered in the stars. They had gotten rid of one constellation, but rather than dimming, the others only grew brighter, stronger.

As soon as Scorpius was gone, Yuki fell to her knees. Her breath was ragged, her vision blurred before her. She could distantly hear her friends surrounding her, asking if she was okay even if they had worse wounds. She was fine, Yuki would be okay. That didn't apply to everyone, though.

"Like hell! My son and his friends went this way! I need to make sure they're okay-"

“Caiden, I don’t know what’s been wrong with you recently, but are you really going to sit here and mope the whole day? You’ve always enjoyed Halloween.”

Caiden wanted to fight her, say he wasn’t being moody, but it was a futile one. She wouldn’t understand. She wouldn’t understand why he was terrified to leave, terrified to stay, all because of that alarm this morning and his dented door handle.

And as if their hearts hadn't been broken before, they shattered when they heard the sound of Elena, Caiden's mom. Still dressed to the nines for the holiday they had all been celebrating, it was a harsh reminder that this had all started out as a fun gathering of friends. The fight had seemed to go on forever, but really, it had only been an hour or two since they'd just been normal, teenage girls.

"Ma'am, please, you need to come back-"

"Caiden!" Elena screamed, moving passed the officer trying to detain her, and ran to her son. Her eyes were wide, so wide that from far away you could only see the whites. With shaking hands, she tried to reach down to touch her son, but stayed an inch away. If she touched him and didn't feel his heart beat, didn't feel the coldness of his skin, didn't feel his chest rising and falling with his gentle breaths, then this could all be a dream. She could shake her head, be back inside her home as her children said bye as she sent them off. She could be happy again.

Her hands rested on the cleanest part of her son's chest, and she felt it all. Tears started to stream down her face, one after another until she could see nothing out of the blurriness.

"Did I tell him I loved him?" Elena asked, and there was nothing any of the Sequinox could do to stop their own tears from falling, "Did I even do that before I forced him to go out when he didn't even want to? When was the last time he even heard me say that?"

“Alright, I’m going, I’m going!” Caiden groaned, opening the front door, “But if Gel’s already started wrecking havoc, it’s not my fault.”

“You’re both such brats,” Elena said as he shut the door, adoring smile lighting up her face.

Some officers started to approach, looking conflicted. They needed to get this woman out of here, to process the scene, but it clearly wasn't going to be an easy matter. Seeing this, Chell got up, even though it hurt like hell, and blocked them off.

"Give her a fucking second," she hissed, no longer caring about being polite in light of the situation, "She just lost her son!"

And as if this wasn't bad enough, Sid could see Sungjin in the crowd as well, face stiff as he tried his hardest to keep a wriggling Gel in his arms, to keep her head against his shoulder to keep her eyes away.

"Dad, the Sequinox are here! Everything will be fine!"

Behind him were Chell's brothers as well, though they were tall enough to see passed the people, and their eyes were averted. They must have immediately gone back to the Parks' home to warn them of the danger.

Too much like her mom, Gel was able to wiggle free, dropping to the ground and running through, trying to get to her mom. Hannah quickly dashed over to the front of the line and grabbed her, stopping her from going any farther.

"That's far enough sweetie. You need to go back to your dad."

Caiden was getting beaten up by Gel again, ignoring her as best he could while she yelled in character, playing as Sequinox Spring again. Sungjin was doing his best not to laugh.

“We did a good job raising them.”

He looked over at his wife and gave her a kiss on the temple.

“Yeah, yeah we did.”

Gel's eye lit up with adoration when she saw that the Spring Sequinox was in front of her, though she started to grow concerned when she saw the burn marks, charred clothes, and cuts she wore.

"Woah, what happened to-" her question cut off when she got on her tip toes to peer around her. What could they have fought to cause such a scene? Was it still there?

No, the big bad was gone. But there was her mom. And Caiden. He was paler than he had been before she left. There was blood on the ground, and her mom was crying.

"Caiden...?"

"I'm so sorry Gel. There wasn't anything we could do."

It took a moment, but it finally clicked in her brain. Sungjin made it through, went to grab his daughter, but the realization had already dawned on her.

"No, Caiden! He can't be, he can't be gone!" Her wails were high pitched, agonized, and heart broken, "You- you are supposed to be the good guys! You were supposed to protect us! Why didn't you protect my brother?"

"Gel, I-"

"I hate you! I hate the Sequinox! Bring my brother back, bring him back! We still have to play, and he has to let me beat him up! Mom has to yell at him more, Dad has to embarrass him. BRING HIM BACK!"

“No, that’s not how she does her hair at all. Here, let me show you.”

Gel was a little skeptical at first, but let her brother tie up her hair. It hurt a little, but when she looked in the mirror, she did look more like Spring now.

“Get back, foul Scorpi!”

“You’re welcome!”

Her shouts turned to sobs as her father took her away, and Hannah covered her mouth again, fighting back her own emotions. The crowd around them started to murmur, and the bits and pieces she heard only drove the point home. They were supposed to protect them. But even their own magical powers weren't enough, hadn't been enough to save one boy.

They were supposed to be the heroes. They saved the day, they kept everyone safe. Obviously, this had been a job too far over their heads.

Hannah felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Sid. Her eyes were watery, but she put her hand out to help her friend up. Spring took it, and couldn't help but fall into the other's arms. They hugged, hard, and Hannah would never bring it up again, but she damn sure needed it at the moment.

"We're supposed to be the heroes," Hannah whispered into the hug, and Sid only held tighter.

"It could have been worse," was the only thing Sid could offer, and even to herself, it sounded lame and callous.

Before he transformed, Caiden took a steadying breath. The kids were safe, now he had to do his part.

He tried his hardest to steady his shaking hands, and was able to make it look like vibrato as he played. They would be fine. They had trained for this.

"And it could have been a hell of a lot better. What are we supposed to do now? More are coming."

Sid looked up into the sky, at what had once been a beautifully lit backsplash of wonder and color. Now, the starts were too bright, and every time she closed her eyes, she could see a figure. White like the center of a star, but as cold as the deepest parts of space. Her grin was wicked, predatory. And she said the only thing she could.

"I don't know.

#Sequinox #my writing #cool kids table #angst #character death #sorry not sorry

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