Enter the Hound: The Origin of Inu

Chapter 24: Fire and Ice

 

            Inu lie panting on the floor, her eyes squeezed shut as she focused on blocking the pain.  She could not concentrate to keep even one clone summoned long enough to regain her feet.  All around her, echoing off the walls and in her ears, was Aria’s voice singing “Habanera.”  Aria walked slowly around the storage room, circling her victim as she sang.  Every now and then at certain points in the song, she would jab and slash her finger in the air and a new gash would open on one of Inu’s arms or legs.  They weren’t deep gashes, but they were enough to torture Inu and make Nadine scream inside Aria’s head.

            “I told you to behave, didn’t I Nadine,” Aria said.  “You just had to make that phone call earlier, didn’t you?  Well, see what happens when you misbehave?”

            “Nadine’s still in there,” Inu said as she listened to Aria speak.

            Not realizing she had been talking out loud, Aria frowned down at Inu.  “No,” she said.  “Nadine is dead.  There is no Nadine.”

            “But there is,” Inu panted.  “You were talking to her…just now.”

            Aria growled.  “You are imagining things, mutt.”

            Inu ignored Aria.  She knew what she had heard.  Nadine was still in there somewhere, and she kept interfering with Aria’s plans.  Inu’s only hope of surviving was to appeal to Nadine despite Aria’s insistence that Nadine was gone.

            “Don’t let her bully you, Nadine,” Inu yelled.  “It’s your mind, too.  Fight for it!”

            “Baka inu!” Aria cried.  “It’s no use appealing to Nadine to save you.  If she so much as whimpers for me to stop, I’ll kill you.”

            “You were going to do that anyway,” said Inu.

            “True,” Aria replied, “but I do so love to torment Nadine, and as long as she insists on clinging to existence, I may as well add your death to her conscience.”

            “You share her mind,” said Inu.  “You share her conscience, too.”

            Aria laughed.  “No, baka inu.  That’s the beauty of the split personality.  I have all the fun, and she has all the guilt.  If she says anything, I’ll kill you and she will forever have your death on her hands because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.  If she doesn’t say anything, she will still have your death on her hands because she didn’t have the guts to stop me.  Either way, I win, you die, and Nadine suffers.”

            Inu cursed and attempted to roll onto her side, then cursed again because moving was painful.  “So what happens if Nadine tries to commit suicide?” she asked.  “You’ll die.”

            Aria stopped laughing.  The smile fell from her face.  Inu grinned.  Aria obviously hadn’t thought about that little detail before.

            “If I were you,” Inu continued, grunting as she once again attempted to move, “I’d be a nicer to Nadine before she ends both of your lives.”

            Her face twisting in rage, Aria let loose a sonic shriek that knocked Inu back onto the floor.  Inu curled up, ignoring the pain in favor of protecting her ears.  Aria inhaled and shrieked again, her voice rising in volume and pitch.  Pressing her hands harder against her ears, Inu howled.

            “STOP!”

            The shrieking ceased and the floor rumbled.  The next noise Inu heard was that of Aria crying out as something threw her back.  She felt fingers on her cheek and cracked her eyes open to find Frostfire kneeling beside her on the floor.

            “Miss me?” he asked, forcing a smile despite the gravity of the situation.  Inu smiled back and closed her eyes.

            “You have no idea,” she sighed.

            Frostfire helped Inu to sit up on the floor.  Nothing appeared to be broken, but there were a number of bruises and gashes on her arms, legs, and chest, and Inu kept pressing her hand against her stomach.  Frowning, Frostfire peeled off his coat and wrapped it around Inu.  There was no time to dress her wounds right now, and he had to get her out of here quickly.

            “Austin!” Frostfire shouted.  “I need you!”

            Turning his back on Aria, Austin trotted over to Frostfire and Inu.  The so-called Diva of Death and Destruction lay on the floor and shook her head as she tried to figure out just what had hit her.

            “We need to get Ashley out of here,” Frostfire said.  “You’re stronger and faster than I am.  I need you to carry her.”

            “I can walk,” Inu protested as Austin and Frostfire helped her up off the floor.

            “But can you climb stairs?” Austin asked.

            Inu looked over at the stairs.  “Oh god…you’d better not drop me.”

            A sonic shriek tore through the air, causing Inu to press her hands to her ears and curl against Austin as he held her up.

            “Going somewhere?” Aria laughed.  “I should think you’d want to stay.  We can have a little sing-a-long.”

            Frostfire looked back at the stairs, then at Austin and Inu.  Moreau had more than likely made his escape by now.  It was no use worrying about him.  Inu was badly wounded and in no position to fight.  Only Austin’s grip kept her from collapsing to the floor.  Despite the blood loss, fatigue, and the fact that she was still wearing heels, Inu was determined to stand against Aria and bring Nadine back.  Aria, meanwhile, showed no remorse for her treatment of her former friend, nor was she remotely concerned about what Austin thought about her behavior.  Ashley-chan and A-kun were Nadine’s friends, and Nadine as good as dead.  Aria had no friends.  She had only her Master, and that was enough.

            That left only Frostfire to fight Aria while Austin and Inu escaped, and there was only one way to take her out.  Every visible hair on his body turned white with a thick layer of frost.  His lips and fingernails turned blue with cold, and yet his hands steamed with gathering heat.  The rubber on the souls of his boots began to bubble, and his clothes began to smolder.

            “Austin,” he said in low, steady voice, handing the small duffle bag to the Minotaur, “get Ashley to Jack’s truck and tell him to get her Skiffytown General.  They’ll know how to treat her there.”

            “Sure thing, man,” said Austin.  He didn’t have to ask why.

            “No,” Inu said.  “I have to stay.”  It hadn’t yet occurred to her why Frostfire would want her to leave.  “I’m not leaving without you.”

            Frostfire cast a sad smile in Inu’s direction.  Scalding hot tears leaked from his eyes and froze on his cheeks.  He wanted so badly to caress her cheek, to hold her in his arms and say goodbye, but he couldn’t touch her without causing her harm.

            “I’m sorry, my love,” he said, “but I have to do this.  Austin, get her out of here.”

            Suddenly it clicked in Inu’s mind why he wanted her gone, and her eyes went wide.  She struggled against Austin’s grip, determined not to be parted from Frostfire.  “No!” she growled.  “No, I won’t leave you!”

            Frostfire nodded to Austin, who locked an arm around Inu’s throat until she went limp in his arms.  He hated to do it, but Frostfire was right.  He had to get Inu to a hospital now.  Scooping the unconscious woman into his arms, he bolted up the stairs at top speed without a single backward glance.

            A sudden rumbling under Frostfire’s feet brought his mind back on the task at hand.  Snapping his head toward Aria, he saw her staring straight at him, a sick grin twisting her features as she mumbled a song under her breath.  He couldn’t make out was she was singing, but it sounded menacing.

            “It doesn’t have to be this way,” he said, swallowing he heat rising in his throat and forcing it to pool in his stomach.  “You can walk away from this, all of this, and start over, Nadine.  I know that’s what you really want.”

            The sick grin on Nadine’s face widened and turned into a crazed snarl, and she stared intently at the floor beneath Frostfire’s feet.  Without warning, her song jumped to triple forte and knocked Frostfire off his feet.  He couldn’t understand a word she was singing, but he recognized the song.  She was singing “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.  Frostfire smiled upon recognizing it.  It was a song of great power that required a great orchestral force to manage it properly, and Aria was only one singer.  She was in over her head, and she didn’t even know it.

            The ground rumbled and the walls cracked, but Frostfire remained calm.  He got up on his feet and resumed his stance, concentrating on gathering the heat in his chest and holding it there.  He listened to Aria’s song, felt the tempo, and used the patterns to help him focus the heat energy.  The ground continued to shake under him, but he kept his balance.  The frost on his body hair thickened until his skin was completely coated.  He looked like statue with his crystal white skin and hair, his arms spread low and hip-level, palms out and fingers curled.  His eyes seemed to glow as he stared hard at Aria.  White balls of fire formed and swirled in his hands.  He did not move.

            Aria growled, seeing that her song seemed to have no effect upon Frostfire.  She sang louder, concentrating directly on him.  The corner of his mouth twitched, but he did not move.  She became furious and closed her eyes, belting the song out at top volume.

            Her voice cracked.

            Her eyes flew open.

            The song echoed off the walls, causing them to shake.  The floor and ceiling began to crack.

            Too late, Aria realized that closing her eyes had been a mistake.  She had lost control of the song.  The facility was going to cave in.

            Frostfire’s whole body glowed with the intensity of the heat building in his chest.

            “You…” Aria breathed.  “You helped it…you helped the song get away from me.  How?”

            “You lost it yourself,” he replied.  “I merely tuned into it and allowed it to flow through me.”

            “You wanted it to get away from me.”

            “I knew it would.”

            “You want this place destroyed.”

            “So does Nadine.”

            Hot, liquid white flames erupted from Frostfire’s and engulfed his body.  His eyes remained visible through the flames.  They looked out at Aria with such pity that Aria had to look away.

            “Stay or die, Aria,” he said.  “The choice is yours.”

            Cursing, Aria fled for the stairs.  Frostfire watched her go for a moment before closing his eyes.  He had stopped her in the only way he could: by letting her defeat herself.  In doing so, he had gone too far with his own powers.  He could not bring them back down, not without releasing the energy building up inside his chest.

            Inu and Austin would be safe by now.  Aria was leaving.  Moreau, well…whether he had really fled or not, it was too late to worry about him now.

 

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            Jack was just about to dial Detective Matthews when Austin came running out of the building with Inu in his arms.

            “Where’s Cori-O?” Jack asked as Austin carefully loaded Inu into the cab and strapped her in.

            “Never mind,” Austin said.  “We have to get her to Skiffytown General, fast.”

            He climbed into the back of the truck, ducking to fit under the cap.  Jack looked at him through the sliding window and asked again where Cori-O was.  Before Austin could answer, the ground thundered and rumbled.  Snapping their heads toward Genome, they gasped as the whole facility caved in on itself.  Jack grabbed his phone and called Detective Matthews, then dialed 911 to report the incident.  Austin just stared at the collapsed building, hoping a figure would emerge, knowing it wouldn’t, and thanking every deity he could think of that Inu had not been awake to see it.