Relentless | Will

[claire]

This was really the most delicate stage of the operation, considering that she would be sticking herself in harm's way to make this crumb possible. If there was one thing that enraged that boy, it was threats against his pretty little girlfriend. She was easy enough to locate, given that she had a life that was built on a routine. Virage stayed on a rooftop a few blocks away, watching from out of sight as the girl closed and locked the door of the house she was exiting. She certainly was a vigilant one, and her mind was protected by a very strong barrier. Was that barrier to keep others out, or something in? Either way, Virage was glad that her goals had given her the opportunity to take down such a fascinating girl.

She floated a block closer, taking great care not to be seen. It was certainly more of a challenge than Virage had thought, given how ambivalent the girl's eyes were. The blonde's eyes widened as the girl vanished in a cloud of lavender flames, only to reappear on the roof just behind her. Interesting ability.

"I don't take well to being followed," Violet said, her lavender eyes fading to blue. "Is there something you want?"

"Certainly," Virage replied, her feet still several inches off of the ground. "But what I want isn't something you can grant, unless you're willing to sit still while I kill you, then your darling boyfriend would be free to continue the path you found him upon."

Three knives flung themselves in the pyro-girl's direction, directed by Virage's thoughts. Unfortunately, this girl had better reflexes than that, and she vanished in a cloud of lavender, reappearing in another similar cloud. A intricate pattern of flame spread from her feet, enveloping the rooftop in lines of fire. Violet flickered in and out of visibility randomly, and not even she could predict when she would or wouldn't be corporeal. Still, Virage was far smarter than the average girl, and her keen eyes finally made out the pattern. It was a mathematic probability equation, and Virage could time it.

Spreading a transparent shield about her person, she extinguished the flames around her and prevented Violet from getting a shot in. Locating the girl with her mind, Virage sent the knives in again, clipping her in the arm and cheek before Violet could vanish again.

"Is that all you can do? Dodge?" Virage taunted.

Violet didn't answer in words, but as Virage attempted to delve into the girl's mind, she was repelled by a blast of flame which burst through the barrier at the point that it had been weakened. Virage cringed back at the pain. Hmm... Some sort of instinctive defense against mental attack? It was doubtful that she had done it on purpose. Blood dripped from Virage's nose, and she sent a wall of telekinetic energy outward in every direction. Five silver knives trailed after Violet, and two of them embedded in the girl's flesh as she hit a nearby wall with a grunt. One penetrated her arm, and the other buried itself in her hip.

That mental recoil was giving her a terrible migraine... If she fought that boy in this condition, there was no guarantee that she would win. Her powers depended on her mental well-being, and nothing broke one's concentration worse than a migraine. She sensed his approach, and there was no option but to run.

"When we meet again, I will finish the job," Virage warned.

Without another word, she took off in the opposite direction of Will's approach, leaving the smouldering rooftop.

[Violet Schultz]

As Violet's shift finished at the Safehouse, she left and locked the door. Robin had assured her that the security system was updated, and that the automated defenses would ensure that the guard-duty shifts were only an extra precaution rather than absolutely necessary. Her dark eyes surveyed the area out of pure habit, checking for any sign of threats. Everything seemed normal, but something felt... off. She felt like she was under a predator's gaze, but she couldn't really place why she should feel that way, considering that she couldn't spot anyone around for quite a ways.

Normally, she would've either flown or teleported back to the Tower, but she needed to know what was happening here, and figure out if there was danger to Olivia because of it. While her shift was over, it was still her duty to ensure that the Safehouse was still secure, and that nameless threat worried her. So, instead of taking the easy way back to the Tower, she started walking. The pinpointed mental probe was the first clue, and while she could barely feel it, she could tell that some outside force was examining her mental walls, which she kept in place by meditation and training. Who was appraising her? It was certainly nothing like the link, and it felt decayed and unwholesome, like something rotting from the inside. As the entity moved like a shadow behind her, Violet pinpointed her location before disappearing and reappearing behind the threat.

She was an average sized girl, about Violet's age, and she wore some sort of pleather outfit which showed her slight stature. Her golden hair was drawn back in a pony-tail, and a black mask was on her face. What kind of stupid looking...

"I don't take well to being followed," she intoned, her dark eyes resuming their natural color. "Is there something you want?"

The girl's answer made Violet's jaw clench in anger. So, this girl was trying to draw Will back into that dark corner of his mind where she had first seen him, where the feral side was dominant. He fought that part of himself a lot, and she knew that it might not be too terribly difficult to push him back in that direction. She'd known for a while that part of the reason that Slade wanted her dead was that she could help keep him away from that place, and that she had drawn him out of it in the first place. Then the girl attacked.

Violet's reflexes were quick enough that she could avoid the knives, but if she was to fight as well as she liked, she would need more room to maneuver. Her flames expanded from her black boots to give her more options and keep this girl guessing. If this person was after Will and she used silver weapons, Violet needed to take care of the threat. She didn't want to risk him getting exposed to that substance, since she knew it was like a poison to him. But she was more clever than Violet had given her credit for. She was free to attack whenever she liked, but Violet couldn't get close because of some sort of barrier. Two knives finally caught her, one on her cheek and the other the bicep.

Then the mental attack came, and Violet had to stop flickering to concentrate. It would be dangerous for both of them if she completely breached the barrier, since it would set off an explosion large enough to throw them both off of the roof. Somehow, as soon as a sizable assault started to break through, a flare of her inner flame through the girl out of her mind with a violence that neither of them had been expecting. With red running down her lip, the girl sent some sort of wave of energy through the roof, and Violet found herself being thrown backward, a series of knives trailing after.

She cried out as one pierced her hip, and the other stabbed at her arm. She pulled the knife from her arm first, as it was the less serious and painful of the two. Blood trickled down her bicep, dripping off of her elbow as she let the knife fall to the rooftop's floor. Then the girl was suddenly gone, and Violet stared after her, sensing the approach of someone far more welcome. Her eyes went to her hip, and she estimated the penetration to be about two inches, just above the hipbone on her right side. Clenching her teeth, she gripped the knife and pulled it out, gasping as it came out. Not the most comfortable wound, this one... Her hand lit up with a lavender flame as she placed it over the spot. She needed to stop the bleeding.

[William Talbot]

The bread crumbs where getting bigger, and stunk of rot and mold...


Moving almost aimlessly, Will wracked his brain for a time trying to think as to what the next move this Virage might make, until it hit him: Violet. He had to find Violet and warn her!


Getting to the top of the nearest building, Will felt for the link, and then remembered that she was at the safe house with Olivia, and that sent a fresh wave of worry through him; what about Olivia and Ruby?



Jumping to the street, he ran, as hard and fast as he could he ran, becoming a streak of hot blue he ran until he felt, then saw the last moments of the fight, and morphed on the run, and jumped to the roof, too late to close on and grab Virage, but in time to see Violet pull the knife from her hip and seal the wound off with a lick of flame...


"Violet!" he called to her as he dashed across the roof to her side, his hands going to her shoulders gently as he looked at her, then reached to her bleeding arm and gently ran a blistering hot finger over it, sealing the soft pale and warm skin with a thought.

"Oh god Vi, are you okay?" he asked almost frantically, the amount of blood wasn't massive, but it was hardly a few drops either, a stain ran down the leg of her jeans, and her elbow and forearm where stained red as well and it bothered him greatly, his distress broadcasting everywhere without limit as he leaned in and kissed her cheek then peered closely at the cut on the other side of her face before he looked to his finger and panted some, a kind of rash seeming to break out over his finger tip from touching her skin where the sliver tipped knife had sliced her open, his finger suddenly spazing harshly before he held it away and blasted a long bright and pale gout of flame from it, the blue tinted slightly green for a moment before turning blue once more, the contamination gone and the rash vanished as well...

"Silver..." he whispered softly as he gazed at his finger then looked to the cut on her cheek, his eyes dark and low; "I'm sorry but, I can't help you with that Vi..."

Who or what was this Virage, and why where they attacking him like this? Could they not muster the guts to face him head on?

[Violet Schultz]

"It's fine, Will," Violet said, sounding a little out of breath. "Just don't touch those."

She jerked her head toward the two bloodstained knives at her side. Both of them were made of silver, and she didn't want him going anywhere near them. Her hand was still on her wounded hip as the bleeding slowed and finally stopped. She wasn't as good at healing her own wounds as she was at healing his, and vice versa. Using one's own lifeforce to heal wounds really only worked on others because if she tried to use it on herself, she would just be redistributing it from one part of her body to another, and it was more of a challenge than giving Will some of her lifeforce extra. Still, it did the trick for now. Not that it wasn't still quite painful.

She looked back up at him, feeling his frustration through the ever-present link. Throughout the day, she'd been sensing some heavy emotions that he wasn't mentioning, and she couldn't help but wonder if they were related to the one who had just attacked her. He hadn't spoken to her over the link all day, since they'd been across the city from each other and she'd been on official Titan business, but she knew him well enough to know that there was something going on here.

"Will, do you know who this girl is?" she asked, ignoring the stars that she was seeing.

She didn't know her attacker's name, nor did she know that Will had no idea of what Virage looked like, but with both of them having a piece of the puzzle, it was entirely possible that they could figure it out. She dropped her hand from the wound on her hip and lifted the other to her arm, feeling the familiar soreness that came from a recently sealed wound. The cut was gone, but the damage below the skin was still painful. The process was similar to cauterization in respect to the effect, but the process was different. Instead of burning the site of the wound, which would be impossible for either of them, they gave some of their inner flames to help boost the natural healing power of the injured cells.

Blood loss, though, was never a pleasant sensation, and there was nothing that they could do about the dizziness that it brought.

[William Talbot]

William nodded slowly as he stared at the two red stained knifes, then back to Violet his eyes distant as his mind wandered, covering every memory he had from when Violet had first met him until just then, once, twice, three times, and yet only one thing stuck out in his mind, and it was somehow rooted to the strange librarian he had met only a few weeks ago.

But how?


"Whoever she is, she knows me Vi, and I mean, knows me... She's lead me across town for today, first... My old home, then the alley behind the warehouse where we first met, and now to you..."
Will looked off over the rooftops as if he had heard something, and then he whispered out softly; "She knows something, and if not, then she is trying to pull me away from everything to try and destroy me..."


Looking back to violet Will felt only a little bit better, but he also knew she was feeling weak, and it was because of him, he had somehow drawn her into a dangerous realm where he wasn't sure of the players, or the rules, but it was clear by the two knifes on the roof top at their feet, that this was for keeps.


"I'm sorry Violet... I wish I knew just what is going on and why but..."


He didn't like this feeling of helplessness...

[Violet Schultz]

"You've got nothing to apologize for," Violet said with a sigh. "But if all of this happened today, odds are that she's not going to leave the issue unpressed for too long. We need to figure this out."

She looked in the direction that the girl had gone, contemplating what all she had learned in the battle. Clearly this girl had some sort of mental abilities, but since Violet's mind was a dangerous place for someone without invulnerability to fire, it had been impossible for her to get in and do whatever it was she planned on doing. So, she had some sort of telepathic abilities, as well as telekinetic shielding abilities which made her impossible to touch. The maneuvering of the knives suggested that she had full-blown telekinetic abilities as well, and the last attack was probably telekinetic as well, though the specifics were difficult to determine. She'd never seen anyone so powerful in that power set.

"Okay, so this girl is about 5'6"ish, long blonde hair, slight stature," Violet said. "Age is difficult to determine because of the mask she wears, but she looks about our age. She apparently knows a lot about you, but considering her telepathic abilities, we can't rule out the possibility that she found out these things by playing with your head."

She continued staring at her trail as she thought out loud, wincing in discomfort once but continuing. Her wounds were far less urgent than the situation, considering that there was no way of knowing when the girl would come back. Besides, if Will had been wounded in the same way that she had, with those same weapons, he would be far worse off than she was. Even just touching her wounds spread the poison to his system, and she was worried for him. It would be useless to try to get him to not pursue this, since (1) the girl wouldn't just let things lie, and (2) Will wouldn't consent to it even if she did.

"Her powers are telepathy, power level unknown, and telekinesis, including shields, item manipulation, and telekinetic blasts. Stated goals: to eliminate me and to bring you back to the state in which I first found you. Am I missing anything?" she asked, completing the analysis.

[William Talbot]

Will looked off distractedly as Violet spoke, his head nodded slightly as he listened, and yet was also thinking back trying to piece this together...


"Slater..." Will said softly as he squinted off, the link letting him see what Violet had seen, his mind snapping the image of the Librarian to the mental image Violet had of Virage, the faces, hair, and build too alike to be a fluke.

"The Librarian Vi, Virage is Carie Slater the Librarian... I could see and hear the fight, and feel it through the Link, but I couldn't feel her, just like the Librarian I told you about... The one who looked like..." Will shook his head hard at that thought, tried to shake it from his mind before it took hold, and before Violet could snag it as well, but it just kept coming back until Will spoke out loud; "No... We need to find her first and make her talk... Something bigger is going on here, I can smell it..."



Too many things where fitting together into a picture Will didn't want to see, but then they also where just as disjointed as ever, the clouds still clinging to his mind as it raced about trying to make sense of the chaos that was prancing about in front of him emotionally like a drunken clown on the back of a clumsy giraffe...

[Violet Schultz]

"Making her talk might present a challenge, since we don't even know whether or not either of us could get close enough to immobilize her," Violet pointed out. "She's got some sort of telekinetic barrier around her. Besides, if she's using silver weapons, it's far too dangerous to attempt it without some kind of plan."

She closed her eyes to concentrate, trying to find something in the clues that would give them something to go on. They knew her civilian identity, they knew her powers, they knew her alias, and yet they didn't know anything that could help them defeat her. Even if they were to just report her to the police, if anyone went near her, there was a definite chance that they would get killed. If they couldn't handle her, it was stupid to ask the local police to try. She opened her eyes when she realized something.

"Wait, 'Slater'?" Violet asked. "Will, you were going by 'Shane Wilson' when I first met you, because Slade Wilson was the only name you had in your mind. Doesn't 'Slater' sound kind of like 'Slade'?"

Her blue eyes searched his face. She knew what he suspected, though he wasn't willing to admit it to himself. If Claire had done what Will had done, that is to assume Slade's name because they didn't know their own, there was a distinct possibility that he was right. The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Who would it benefit for her to be out of the picture and Will to be as he used to be? The person who made him that way the first time. If she was acting as an agent for Slade, consciously or not, her actions up to this point made a lot more sense. She was basically trying to remind Will of the things that had caused his change to start with, maybe hoping it would have the same effect.

[William Talbot]

Will nodded distractedly as he thought, his eyes wandering around the roof top until he looked back at Violet, then the ground between them and then back at her as he took three measured steps back and held his arm out, his hand balled up into a fist, one eye closed as he judged Violet's height for a moment, his pinky and thumb sticking out and he thought...


"Okay... Vi, glomp me..." he asked in all seriousness, as he turned to the side some, giving her a right rear quarter view of himself, his arms falling loose to the side a moment.

"Just like, ah, trot over and try to knock me down, and wrap you're left arm around my neck, and you're right arm up under my shoulder, and grip hard, like in a cowboy style neck-brace. No other tricks, just try that...."

Violet was just a bare inch shorter, but about the right over all in size and weight, and if this worked, he could either feel a lot better, or a lot worse about this mess, because something in the back of his mind was poking him, and poking him hard, and it was something that linked his recent visit to his old home, Claire Slater the Librarian and the fact that she looked as he remembered Destiny, but now he needed to see something, just try an idea to jog his memory and link up some of the pieces here...

[Violet Schultz]

Violet leaned forward to get up, but as her ab muscles tightened, she felt a sharp pain at the sight of the sealed wound. Her jaw was clenched as she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and leaned back against the wall again. Frustration was in her eyes at her own weakness, but she knew that it would be stupid to try to force it. For one thing, she could start bleeding internally if she overdid it, and also the dizziness she was feeling prevented her from overcoming the pain with willpower. It was fortunate that her healing factor would allow her to recover in about a day, but for now she would just have to put up with it, frustrating as that might be.

"Well, I would," she said, her voice tight, "but I don't think I can at the moment."

Her bloody hand rested on her hip, trying to sooth the pain with the heat from her skin. It didn't really help at all, but there wasn't a whole lot she could do to accelerate her own healing ability other than sleep. This was just an attempt at a painkiller, and a poor one at that. She was irritated with herself for being beaten so easily, and for not being able to help him the way she would've liked, but she was fully aware that there was not a lot that she could do like this. She needed at least a day to recover, and even then she wasn't sure of how much she could help against Virage.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking away in frustration that was directed internally.

[William Talbot]

Will looked back at her and then shook his head at his own short sightedness; "No it's me, I blanked for a moment there... Hang on I have an idea..." he walked over to her and eased her into a sitting position before holding his hand out and letting a flame form in his palm before he took her free hand and placed it into his own, the flame bending about her fingers and in some ways, looking as if it was going through her hand as well.

"Okay, try and absorb my fire, I think that it should help boost your healing factor some if you have extra energy okay?" he looked at her with a hopeful smile as he waited for the tip of the flame to turn lavender, his own eyes glowing softly at this point...



His idea could wait for now, but something was niggling at the back of his mind and he needed it to break free so he could harness it and follow it to its conclusion, if only to dispel the parts of him that where scared or lost, and clung to the shadows, which he wanted gone from his mind, as quickly as possible, and he was now somehow convinced that Slater was the key to it all, somehow.

[Violet Schultz]

"We could give it a shot, I guess," Violet said, shrugging. "With the damage being made by silver, I'm not sure that it'll work."

She supposed it was essentially the same thing as the way they usually healed each other, considering that she was using his energy to augment her own so that she could heal faster, but if that method wasn't already working then there was no guarantee that it would work this time. Still, since the silver poisioning could possibly be only caused by proximity and not by reaction with his fire itself, there was a chance that it would work. She wasn't entirely certain about the particulars of which part of him was affected by fire, since both his fire and his lycan parts came from his father's side. If there was any hint of the silver reacting, she would have to cut off the energy flow immediately.

She held her hand just over his palm, and the fire flickered with a few tongues of lavender amongst the blue before the fire itself turned a pale indigo. Her eyes, which usually glowed lavender, pulsed with a tinge of blue before changing to the same indigo hue. She closed her eyes to concentrate, feeling their flames synchronize as her body tried to alter the incoming energy to match her own. It was like matching frequencies, and after a few seconds, she could feel the energy being absorbed into her inner flame. She reopened her eyes, the dark irises still pulsing indigo.

"Thanks," she said, releasing a breath as the pain backed off somewhat.

[William Talbot]

Will smiled to her as she started to draw off of his energies, his life-force pushing his spirit grown fire out his palm and finger tips into her own hand, the indigo hue also creeping into his eyes some as he fed her his flames, and gazed at her lovingly, his mind still working in the background, but his focus now on her.


Will had loved only one other, and she was gone now, and he was certain that if he should ever loose Violet, no matter the reason, he would go crazy and die from heartbreak, because he truly did love her, and the thought of harm coming to her was unpleasant, and should the harm be his own fault, that would be unbearable, but then, he was now able to be strong for her, to give her a part of his strength and make her better, it pushed all the right buttons inside, all the little boy eager to please, and in awe of a girl, grinned at this, because this was fun, this was what he was here for!

But the more mature parts if him where in control, and after a few minuets he raised his hand up and grasped her hand gently, leaned in, his eyes glowing more blue now, and kissed her hand softly, the flow moving to his mouth before it wisped away as he let go and ended the transfer of power.

"Better?" he asked as he slowly stood up and offered his hand to help her up, her over all appearance looking ten times better then it had only a few minuets prior...

[Violet Schultz]

"Considerably," she said with a small smile. "Though I'm still a little light-headed."

She took the offered hand with the less bloody hand of the two and stood, feeling a twinge of satisfaction at the lack of pain in the action. Her healing factor was usually much slower than this, but with the energy he had given her, it was almost instantaneous. She didn't absorb fire very often, since it didn't work on natural fire and it took some doing for her to be able to absorb his. Besides, she was literally taking his energy, and after a battle, when the skill would be most handy, he was usually worse off than she was because of his recklessness. He needed all of the energy he could get in those situations.

Speaking of which... She took a long breath before she looked at Will, her dark blue eyes locking on his. Her expression commanded his attention, and it was obvious that she had something important to say.

"I'm involved in this now, so I'm going to be coming with you to face this girl," she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "With that said, I need you to promise me something. No matter what happens in the fight, you cannot take any hits for me. For once, it's far more dangerous for you than it is for me."

He had a track record for putting himself between her and the line of fire, without regard for his own safety, and she knew that if he tried that this time around, he would be poisoning himself. She could take a few hits and recover in a day's time. If he was hit, there was a chance that he wouldn't be able to recover at all. She couldn't let that happen. She was intent on both his face and the link, since she wanted to be able to tell if he lied. If he didn't agree to this, she would have to get the other Titans involved, little as she wanted to. Whether or not he would be upset about it, his life was more important.

[William Talbot]

Will's smile at her improved state faded slowly as she spoke, her every fiber locked onto him as she held his hands and commanded his attention...


How could she ask such a thing?

"Violet... You're the main reason I'm alive today, and I won't let you be killed on my account... But... I understand why you want this, but... But Violet... I..." For the first time, in a long time, words failed him, she was right, this was something that was important and yet, he wanted to argue with her over this, but found he was lacking a sufficient reason with which to do so effectively...


"I..." He looked back into her eyes, his teeth digging into his lower lip almost to the point of drawing blood as his mind crashed about looking for a reason, looking for some kind of excuses either for, or against and it couldn't find one either way.

"I can't promise that I won't take a hit for you, but I can promise that I won't just throw myself in the way if it's not needed..."

He pulled her closer, so that they where face to face, a scant and bare inch between them as he bent down and kissed her softly; "I love you, but I won't let you die... Not for me... I could never live with myself if that happened..."

He looked into her eyes again, the colored orbs too deep, and endless to be real, and yet they where, and it seemed as if even with the impending disaster, all he could do was look at her and pray silently that she would not have to pay for his past and the sins of others...