Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Capricious Infection ❯ Act 45: Hepesta ( Chapter 45 )

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Capricious Infection

By: Revamp

Act 45: Hepesta

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“It'll just be me and you, grim reaper. I'll make sure that you don't kill anything else in this world,” Mae openly challenged Tarvos. His reign of terror stopped right where he was standing.

“Wait,” Karkatta looked thoughtful for a moment before Calypso's words hit her light a freight train.

`I want nothing more to die in this world. It needs a good foundation for the mass rebirth.'

“So,” her features turned grave, “that's it. I knew something was up, but I didn't know it was that. Well, that means that…” She turned towards her newly acquired feline friend. “Hey, Hepesta.”

“Yes?”

“Did you know about the dead being resurrected? You're the Divine One of Birth.” If anyone knew about what was going on, it was definitely her.

“To be purrfectly honest, I didn't know. I have actually come here on another mission.” This was the first that she'd even seen or heard of such an event. Hepesta was so busy with her current task that the situation eluded her.

Tarvos stepped up to the blonde, clutching his weapon in hand. “We can settle it our own way. If I kill you then you'll stay dead this time. You see, I don't like it when people overstep my boundaries.” Even if Calypso was above him, there was a certain way that the natural flow went. When people died, then they stayed dead. He had a feeling that there were more where she came from as well, and that bothered him.

Mae shot off of her position, putting all the force she could into her actions. “Isn't that too bad? I never did like your plans,” she swung her sword with force but the sneaky reaper just ducked.

Tarvos swung his scythe down low in an attempt to chop off her legs, but she jumped out of the way. He swung it again, hooking it around the girl's waist and hurling her into a large pile of rubble and debris. Her body hit it with such force that refuse and littler went flying in several directions.

Mae slowly pulled herself up, knocking back the pieces of debris that had covered her body. “You're a monster. You killed everyone at school, and in this world. You probably want to kill them when you're done using them.”

None of those aliens were any good. They came to her planet just to kill people. Tarvos was the absolute worst. He was probably making her friends believe they had something to fight for, that something grand was waiting in their midst to lead them to a peaceful resolve when really the only peaceful resolve was death.

“Insolent fool,” Tarvos smirked. “You merely bask in the triumph of your creator. That doesn't make your case legitimate. I don't like foolish mortals who believe that they can defy death.”

Even right now, the fact that she was speaking to him caused anger to permeate from his body in waves.

“Do your worst. You will not have me this time,” Mae was determined to defeat him. She had been given another chance at life and the best path she could take would be to give herself a reason to rest in peace and save the lives of her friends before he so savagely ripped them away.

“Mae!” David tried to get her attention.

“Dude, I don't think that's really her,” Tony had an awful feeling about all of this. Mae died a while ago. People didn't just come back from the dead and if they did, it wasn't natural. There was a next to zero chance that was her.

“She seems possessed and driven,” Rezzi noted. “It's true that she defied Tarvos before but this time is something else entirely.” There was something different about “Mae”, something special.

“She's being manipulated. This is cruel. For once, I hope Tarvos kills her.” The last thing Tony wanted to see were his friend's bodies being played with like dolls. They deserved to rest in peace after all they'd been through.

`Tarvos…you know what's going on, don't you? You and Oz share a mind. Whether or not you're two different people means nothing.' Rezzi concentrated on the blur before her that she believed to be her friend. “No one can save her. She's already decided to go against us. This isn't anything we can save her from. Even if we made an exception for her, Tarvos would not.”

Once someone defied death, it was his job to make sure they returned to the earth. If they decided to go against him, they would be just like Mae and he would be forced to kill them as well. They needed to keep their eyes on the prize and do their jobs as the harbringers of a new age. Even if Mae was a dear friend, things were different now.

“You're not going to try and save your friend?” Hepesta was a little shocked. Didn't human friends stick together?

“She's gone. I can't save her,” Rezzi closed her eyes. Some things had to be sacrificed, and this was one of them. Mae was dead. There was no use in fighting against a force of life that was stronger than any of them.

“So, you're abandoning her?” Hepesta couldn't believe what she was hearing.

“My team mates can do what they want. I am responsible for Tarvos being here. I helped him out, knowing that he was the precursor to the end of the world.” Standing up against him now would be more than foolish. All of this time, Rezzi had been on the reaper's side and that was where she would remain. She had invested far too much in this from the beginning to let down either Tarvos or capriciouscarnage.

A wave of nostalgia hit her as memories of the past leaked into her senses, filling the blind girl with recollections of when she first met Tarvos. They had a conversation she would never forget and one that came to change her life.

`You see, you are the chosen one. I just need you to take care of me until the great awakening,” Tarvos told the girl after revealing his demonic form to her.

“So, you're death, the grim reaper? Are you going to kill me?” Surely there was a reason that the two of them crossed paths. It had always been rumored that once someone saw the face of death, they would reach their marking time. Rezzi had figured that was the case with Tarvos.

“No,” his answer was shocking, “you're special to me, my dear. I want you to be my accomplice.”

“What?” Rezzi was caught off guard by his offer.

“You believe that you're walking on the edge of an apocalypse. You couldn't be more correct. I want you to form a pact with me. No matter what comes, I will protect you and help you obtain your true desire. For that, you must keep my secrets.” It was an offer that was too good to be true. Before her stood a man who held the promise of curing her illness in his hands if she would become a part of his doings. However, the price was high and she had to give up her humanity to become his aid.

“capriciouscarnage brought you here, didn't he?” She had a feeling this must have been her friend's doing. He did tell her that something huge was coming her way, but she never would have guessed that it would have been something of this magnitude.

“It's why you were chosen,” Tarvos smiled. So, she did know what was up didn't she?

Rezzi frowned upon realizing what had actually just taken place. “So, I'm a pawn?”

“He thinks highly of you.” With a swift movement, Tarvos gripped the girl's chin and stared into her glassy eyes. “So, I can trust you with this task. I need you, Rezzi.”

“If I don't help you?” She was curious of the consequences.

A long, bony finger tapped her on the nose. “I'm afraid that you wouldn't be what we thought of you then.” His voice was teasing, but she knew his intentions were dark.

“You'll kill me.”

Tarvos merely smiled in return.

She was pulled from her thoughts as she heard the clashing of blades signal through her senses. She turned her head in the direction of Mae and Tarvos who had their weapons locked. Mae spun around, but Tarvos was quick to mimic her movements. As he spun, he smacked the girl with his wing. The force of the blow caused her to stumble forward but she caught herself and skidded to a stop, digging her heels into the unforgiving ground below.

“Take this! Light of Hope!” The girl pointed her sword at her foe. The blade glowed a bright white and shot a beam from the tip.

Tarvos pointed his scythe at the girl and purple streams of neon magic pulled themselves around him, then shot forward with a brilliant flash. Both of the beams collided and negated each other completely.

“What?” Mae didn't get why her light attack was negated by a dark one. Didn't light have the advantage over darkness?

“Anything can be killed, magic included.” His powers weren't normal dark powers. They were something on an entirely different level.

“You cheating, dirty bastard,” the blonde fumed and charged at him again. She ran at full force, but the reaper merely flapped his wings. High winds were hurled at her as she tried to steady herself. Her skirt flapped in the wind as she swung her sword at seemingly nothing. Her weapon produced white whips of energy that headed straight for the opponent.

Tarvos jumped out of the way as they hit part of a derelict building behind him. “Give up. You can't win,” he spun his scythe and produced a purple wheel of energy that spun towards her. She barely managed to dodge out of the way as the attack skirted past her. A warped smile crossed his features. “Now die,” he swung his weapon again, promising the blow of death.

Suddenly, the sky turned a light shade of gray. Mae looked towards the heavens and her form disappeared as if she had teleported away. Tarvos' attack dug into the ground where she once stood, marring the earth more than it had been.

“She disappeared,” Tony could hardly believe his eyes. Last time he checked, she didn't even know magic. How was she able to do that?

“I'll pursue her until one of us meets their end, Mae. Then, your sweet body will be mine,” Tarvos' tongue ran across his lips. He swore he'd return her to the grave and that was exactly what he was going to do.

“Why is she back?” Dante wanted answers. This wasn't supposed to happen. It seemed like something out of a zombie movie.

“How did she get back?” That's what Tony wanted to know. Who raised the dead, and how did they do it?

“Mae…” Lannad didn't want to have to fight her friend. She had no idea who was doing such an awful thing, but she wanted to help in any way that she could. Mae needed to rest peacefully, not be caught in limbo between worlds she didn't belong in. She could only hope that one day her spirit would return to the realm it came from.

“We need to get back to Oz,” Rezzi informed. “There's got to be something going on that we don't know about. I want answers.”

`Calypso is serious this time. Things can only get worse from here,” Karkatta knew the signs. If Calypso was raising the dead, things couldn't be good.

“What was that?” Dove wanted to know what the hell just happened. Even thinking back on a few moments ago, it still didn't seem real. Did she really just watch Tarvos fight against her dead friend? How the hell did she cheat death?

The Cut Throat Crew stood behind Dove as they watched what happened from a safe distance. They happened to be in the area when they witnessed the fight, and as a result learned some more than interesting news from that little interaction.

“People who are decease rising from the grave? Sounds like a zombie apocalypse to me,” Spades wasn't too sure what to make of it, either.

“If that were true, then why are there still corpses around?” Hearts wasn't so sure she believed the zombie apocalypse theory. If zombies were taking over the world, then everyone who died would be up walking around. That would only be more problematic than before.

“Maybe we're stuck in a loop,” Clubs thought that girl might have been from a different time, or that the time continuum was merely looping for her and she was set on an endless cycle of life and death. That would make it to where the girl couldn't fully pass on.

“If that's the case, time will keep repeating itself and these people will be stuck in a cycle of life and death. If we die, then we may end up the same way.” It wasn't anything Boxcars wanted to think about. It sounded like purgatory to him.

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The group gathered in the living room of Rezzi's house once again to report their findings to Oz. The living room was beginning to look crowded with so many people and Dius in it. Everyone wore serious expressions and the tension was thick.

“What is it?” Oz asked after being approached.

“If Tarvos kills people, they're supposed to stay dead, right?” Lannad decided to bring up the subject.

“Logic dictates,” Oz arched an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Someone is raising the dead,” Tarvos just decided to cut the crap and get straight to the topic at hand.

“What?” Oz looked caught off guard by that. What did he mean they were raising the dead?

“Remember Mae? The girl that was supposed to be one of the chosen ones?” Lannad asked.

“Why is she coming up?” David didn't like where this was going.

“She came back,” Rezzi told him exactly what he thought she was going to say, and he hated it even more than he thought he would.

“Dude, no,” David was in complete denial, “stop.”

“She's…different now,” Lannad averted her eyes with a solemn expression. She couldn't place a finger on it, but this was not the Mae they all knew and loved. She was far more spiteful, and she was standing in their way. She didn't want to have to kill her, but she knew it was eminent.

“Oh, I know what happens now,” Tarvos noted as everyone turned their sights to him.

“I know what's going on as well,” Karkatta admitted the truth.

“Calypso is bringing their souls back and placing them into their bodies,” Pregmacia delivered the bad news to everyone without skirting around it. She wanted them to know the severity of the situation.

“What?” Tony could hardly believe his ears. Did she really just say what he thought she said?

Oz looked visibly shaken up by the utterance of that sentence. He could feel the electricity coursing through his body as his worst nightmares were birthed into existence right in front of him. This was beyond bad. She had already begun her movement and caused the ball to start rolling from the opposing side.

“I know how she's doing it, too,” Tarvos let that fact be known.

“How?” Pregmacia was interested in what he had to say about the matter.

“Maya the Eternal,” the name slid off of his lips like turpentine. “She's created an infinite loop in which the free-floating souls travel. They get pulled back into their thinking that when this paradox is remade they will live out their lives as they did before the apocalypse came.”

Tarvos could tell that her true intention lay with using the souls they had already cut out and deemed unfit for their new world. With all of the dead at her disposal, Calypso could easily overrun them in number alone. From here on out, the fight was going to be a lot more intense and involved.

“So…she's forming her own army to combat us,” David saw how bad this was. This crazy lady was going to use a zombie army to try and end them. Shit was getting deep.

“That was her plan all along,” Karkatta had a feeling that she would try something like this.

“Are you serious?” Tony was freaking out. How could they just be calm about this? Calypso was literally bringing people back to life to try and kill them. That was awful! If she brought back everyone that had been killed, they'd be out numbered.

“She wants to turn this planet against us,” Karkatta knew that she'd try something like this. That woman wanted to prove a point, and use the powers of life to show them that a planet could still prosper despite their efforts to build a new Earth. She wanted to show them how glorious things would be if life started over and burst forth on their own.

“How awful,” Hepesta turned a sorrowful glance to the ground. “What should we do?”

“No matter who I kill, they'll come back and she'll turn them to her side.” Tarvos knew that Calypso was literally just going to create vengeful souls who would be hell bent on killing returning the favor. After Tarvos put them out of the world, Calypso would bring them back just as quickly. Feeling wronged by their deaths, they would be swayed to her side. It would be easy to have them under her control if Maya granted them life. They would feel grateful or even like they owed her for it.

“Since we killed them, their hatred for us would be greater than before…aliens, humans and maybe even Dius. You've got to remember, we're dealing with all forms of life from many different periods,” Ares pointed out a few facts to them. Calypso's grasp on the many victims of their planetary cleansing was very far. It would be hard to defeat her if she ever utilized these powers in abundance.

“How do we win against this? It seems impossible.” The more they all talked about the outcome, the more Lannad felt uncomfortable about it all. It seemed like they were just being set up to lose.

“This can't be…It just can't…” Oz was rendered speechless. He couldn't even form proper sentences due to his inability to process what he had just been told. This was literally the worst scenario imaginable.

“Dude, it's not cool when Oz flips his shit,” David knew that something was seriously wrong. This was something that could change their whole game play. There was no way that they could take on swarms of zombies and win.

“Are you saying we can't win?” Pregmacia was afraid to ask that question. She knew the answer but she didn't want to hear the grim response.

“So what? Do we just give up? You're fucking caught Oz. How are you going to play your way out of this? You were so confident before.” Dante knew how screwed they were. Why didn't Oz just admit that he fucked up at this point?

“We can't win, can we?” David looked to Oz with disappointment. He wanted the Dius to say something; anything at all would be nice. His silence was condemning him at a quick rate.

“I refuse to give up. I'll go out with my claws bore and my teeth sunk into flesh,” Ares wasn't going to just lay there and let Calypso or her zombies kick him around. Everyone else might be losing hope but he refused to.

“I don't know what to do,” Oz felt himself break out into a sweat as he stumbled backwards and placed a hand to his forehead. “I can tell you that I'll need to think on it for a while. Tarvos is right, however.”

“We just need to defeat Maya and Dredge,” Tarvos let them know who the two main sources of their problems were going to be.

“Not exactly,” Karkatta corrected him.

“Hm? No?” Tarvos wondered what she thought about everything.

“Eternity and Deception might be a part of it…but so is Life,” Karkatta reminded him of another Dius that would be put into play in this situation.

“That means,” Pregmacia's face lit up in revelation.

“Cenobia must be on her side,” Tarvos deduced.

“This is bad. Life, Eternity…Deception…” Oz looked at Karkatta, “Who else is there?”

“Right now, that's all I know. Dredge is her right hand man. He's been faithfully by her side, and he's probably the one who gave her the idea,” Karkatta thought it was something that bastard would do. She was almost a hundred percent sure that Dredge was the first one they needed to take out.

“Everyone's coming back to life. That means we'll have to kill them,” David wondered if anyone could even really die once they killed them again. Would they just come back to life yet again? Were they immortal?

“Our parents and school mates…We'll have to just keep cutting them down until they fall,” Tony thought that would be the only solution to the problem at hand. There was nothing like a good, old-fashioned beat down.

“It's not so bad. It's what you're here for. You are assigned to lay waste to this place. In order for something new to surface, it must rise from the destruction of the old.” That was the way that the world worked. Without death, there would be no life. Tarvos knew that more than anyone else.

“This makes things hard. I wonder if they are on Calypso's side of their own volition,” Pregmacia wondered if she was controlling them or if they actually believed in her cause.

“What do you mean?” Rezzi was curious.

“Calypso is very powerful. If these people are corpse puppets, she could control the whole planet's population,” Pregmacia knew that it wouldn't take long, either. With the number of dead outweighing the number of living she had an endless well of possibilities.

“Her mental powers are the strongest of the Dius race. She controls matter itself and co-created this universe and all that's in it. The only problem with this theory is that it takes tremendous energy to control that many people,” Ares pointed out the flaws in Pregmacia's thinking.

“It's not mind control, and they aren't corpse puppets,” Tarvos corrected them. “If they were corpse puppets then I could gain control of them. Not that I don't have other powers.”

“This isn't it,” Oz cut into their discussion. “She resurrected everyone.”

Just then, the lights flickered in the house a couple of times before they came on. Various motors and other electrical machines in the house came back to life as the group glanced around. At least they could all see and function like normal people now. The darkness was really getting to them.

“This is bad,” Oz turned his head to the side. “We're screwed right now. There's no way we can win.”

“So uplifting,” Tarvos frowned. “I feel more positive already.”

“No fucking joke,” Dante crossed his arms over his chest. “If you're saying we're all going to die. What the hell are we supposed to do?”

“Fail, I guess,” David didn't have the answer. Was the answer to just fail and give up what they were going to do? Did all of their efforts really come down to this?

“I…I have to think…” Oz slowly made his way out of the room, disappearing into the hallway.

“Wait!” David darted off after him.

“Well, fuck,” Dante slapped a hand to his forehead. What the hell were they going to do now? How in the hell were they going to do now? He was so stressed out over all of this he was getting a headache.

“I'm not good at this,” Tarvos wanted to say something comforting, but he couldn't find it in himself to do so. Being loving and positive just wasn't what he was created for.

“We'd better think of something, or this will turn into paradise lost real fast,” Karkatta advised them to start getting their thinking wheels turning. They needed a good plan and they needed one fast.

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Oz managed to retreat outside with David in tow. The two of them stood beside of some large rocks in what used to be Rezzi's front yard. The Dius was overcome with worry, and he couldn't help but to feel nauseated over what had happened. He didn't know what to say, what advice to give or how to help anyone else out at all. For once, he couldn't act like the leader of the group or the mysterious figure who knew all of the answers.

His façade had been cracked with a few sentences and his foundation was more than crumbling.

“You're freaking out on me hardcore, bro. This must be really serious,” David started the conversation. He wanted to know how serious this all really was. Could they really never win against it? Was Maya the Eternal, Dredge, Cenobia and Calypso that hard to beat?

“I don't have any answers,” Oz turned to him, shock still riddling his features. “I can't do this anymore.” The tears that had clung to his eyes began to roll down his snow white skin as he quietly wept. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I led you to believe that I could save you and your world. I didn't know that we'd be facing these odds.”

He took his glasses off and wiped his face with his forearm. Oz had done an awful thing. He just gambled with all of their lives and set them up like chickens to be slaughtered by a cruel processing plant. Everything that he'd promised them was merely the thought of a pipe dream.

“I don't even know how to combat that. She's rewound everything we've done.” All of their progress meant nothing once more. Even if they started over again, she would merely twist fate to her liking again in her cruel, puppeteering hands.

“Dude…are you crying?” David had never seen Oz have such a terrible breakdown. The man he spent so much time idolizing was reduced to a sobbing hunk of flesh before him, and it was something that he never wanted to see.

“I never thought I'd say this but…I regret. I actually do.” Never has the price of his actions weighed as much on his shoulders as it did now. Oz couldn't escape the twisting feeling in his blood pumping organ. He never meant to play with lives the way that he had. None of this was intentional.

He felt the warm touch of a hand on his shoulder. His black and gold eyes stared at the teen for a moment. David inched closer, planting a kiss on his lips. “Don't cry,” he pulled back. “We'll think of something.”

“David,” a small blush crept to his cheeks.

“It's not over until I breathe my last breath. We may seem outmatched, but I won't let it get to me.” There had to be some way of making it right. David knew that if they gave up now, they completely threw away everything they worked for and he wasn't about to do that. He came too long and sacrificed too much to just let it all fall apart because their enemy was raising the dead.

“David…can you…”

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me again?” Oz knew how that sounded. They weren't even pyrex, but he found the gesture soothing. For whatever reason, it calmed the worry in his mind and that was something he needed desperately.

David looked a little caught off guard by his request. “You actually want me to kiss you again? I thought you'd be mad that I did in the first place?”

“No, I want it,” Oz leaned in as he felt hands caressing his face.

David carefully wiped the tears away, a confused expression was still written on his face. “What are you trying to say?”

“At this point in time…I don't even know.” The alien's brain was being assaulted with so many conflicting emotions that it was hard to tell what he wanted anymore. At this point in time, he was acting on nothing more than instinct. Who cared if it was wrong? It was what he felt at the moment. After all, Oz couldn't fuck up anymore than he already had, right?

“Your eyes…are two different colors.” This was the first time David ever saw Oz without his sunglasses on. It was strange to see someone with heterochromia. In fact, this was the first being he'd ever seen with it.

“Yes, it's a common mutation. However, I was the only one to live with it. Come to think of it, I've never seen your eyes. You always keep them hidden.” Just like himself, David wore sunglasses a lot and hardly ever took them off. Oz wanted to see what he hid behind that shroud.

“It's a part of my bitchin' mystery, though because you're psychic you probably already know what color they are.” David could bet that there was probably nothing sacred with this guy. Oz probably knew him inside and out by now.

“I haven't tried to look,” Oz wouldn't go that far. If he read everyone's minds to obtain information on them, they would become boring to hang around and try to decipher. Oz liked a good puzzle and these beings provided enough depth to work with.

“Take them off then.” It was a bold statement, as David never gave anyone permission to mess with his shades before, but he didn't mind making an exception for his idol.

Oz reached over and slowly unveiled his blue eyes. He couldn't help but stare into their depths. There was something about them that sucked him in. “You have beautiful eyes. They're like crystal.”

“I hate my eyes. My whole family has blue eyes, black hair…well, except Dove. She turned out blonde for some weird as fuck reason.” David didn't understand how that worked. It was probably some strange recessive gene or something.

“I feel strange right now,” Oz couldn't stop staring into the boy's eyes. He was entranced by them.

“What?”

Oz pulled him close, wrapping his arms around him. “David…tell me, could you see anything more than admiration in our future?”

“Uh, what? Are you okay, dude?” David felt something sink in the pit of his stomach and flutter in his chest. Was Oz really serious about all of this?

“Is it possible to want an interspecies relationship from a human, or is that too extreme?” Maybe Oz had a brocrush on him as well.

“I do like you…Hell, if I said no that would be dumb as shit,” David's voice lowered as he leaned in. “Hey…”

“David Ryzek, I think I have feelings for you as well.” They were close, so close that Oz could feel the human's lips brush against his as he spoke.

“Well, I can make this into something if you want.” It was like a dream to him. There was no way in hell that he was going to go back on it now.

“You have to commit,” Oz reminded him of what a pyrexip consisted of.

“It wouldn't be bad, belonging to the guy I used to admire. That would be sick nasty, bro. Totally off the charts,” David was surprisingly happy with the outcome of their little talk. This was more than he could have asked for.

“Then be my pyrex,” Oz was forward about his proposition.

“Of course I will, but let's keep this on the down low for now, okay?” David didn't want to call them official to the public just yet. Besides, he didn't know what the others would think of him nailing a mate while they all worried about some weird zombie apocalypse.

“Right,” Oz pulled him into a deep kiss, which the human returned all too happily.

…To Be Continued