![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameThe Theory of Everything
Chapter Seven: In My Hour of Darkness
Summary: Devlin manages to get the others' trust, but before they can do anything about the spell, Charmcaster arrives.
The Theory of Everything
Chapter Seven: “In My Hour of Darkness”
Just because he had to wait for Gwen to pass along the message that he wanted to meet with everybody, it didn’t mean that Devlin had to wait around in Los Soledad all day. Flying was difficult in broad daylight, so he made sure to frequently stop on rooftops and in trees, keeping out of sight.
Something caught his attention, and he looked down to see Ben with a girl who definitely wasn’t his ex-wife, both of them being hassled by a pair of reporters. Devlin glared. Some things never changed. He had no love for the profession; the press had given him a hard time all throughout his teenage years, second-guessing Ben’s trust in him and criticizing his every move as they waited for him to follow in his more infamous father’s footsteps.
This might help Ben’s opinion of him, and it also gave him a little fun in the meantime. He reached for a flash grenade and tried to get Ben’s attention.
Ben, in the meantime, had known there was trouble the moment the white car stopped in front of him and a woman with a tape recorder and a younger man with a camera came out. It was worse when Julie had groaned.
“Oh no,” she murmured. “They’re from ORE Journal—the local Japanese paper. My dad reads it all the time.”
“Bad as Will Harangue?” Ben whispered.
“No one’s that bad,” Julie answered. “But Reiko Momoi never lets a story go.”
Ben kept that in mind as Momoi politely introduced herself and her intern, whom she called Shinji, enthusiastically greeted him and started taking pictures.
“What do you have to say about your recent battle with Captain Nemesis?” Momoi asked, nonplussed by Shinji’s eager photography.
“Uh,” Ben started, blinking as a light shone in his eyes. “I’m not sure I should talk about that…”
“Captain Nemesis challenged you repeatedly on-camera,” Momoi said. “Do you feel this rivalry was sudden, or was it building over the course of your short partnership?”
“Um…”
“He just said no comment,” Julie answered, giving Momoi a flat glare.
“Of course,” Momoi replied politely.
“Oh, Ben!” Shinji said, as if he’d suddenly remembered something. “You were dating Jennifer Nocturne, right? Did she break up with you after Captain Nemesis’s defeat?”
As far as reporters went, Momoi seemed to be one of the better ones, even if she was steadily getting on Julie’s nerves. She was stubborn about the story, but she at least treated Ben with respect. Shinji, on the other hand, may have seemed like a nice guy, but a comment like that definitely said he was not reporter material. Julie was even angrier now, and even as Momoi chastised her intern, she looked like she was going to give a few words of her own…
That bright light was shining in his eyes again, and he looked over to see where it was coming from. To his surprise, he saw Devlin standing on a nearby rooftop, holding some kind of capsule that was producing light. He waved at Ben, then motioned for him to cover his eyes.
While he wasn’t sure just what Devlin was about to pull, Ben knew a warning when he saw one. He grabbed Julie’s hand, and as she looked at him in surprise, he made sure to close his eyes and turn his face away. Recognizing the warning, she did the same.
Momoi and Shinji watched in surprise, suspecting something, but before they could do anything, Devlin dropped the flash grenade right between the reporters and teens. The sudden burst of light temporarily blinded the reporters, giving Ben and Julie the chance to run. Devlin followed their escape, dropping more flash grenades behind them to make it difficult for the reporters to take chase.
“Thanks,” Ben said once the three of them got to the high school. “They ambushed us on the way to school. We were going to be late.”
“No problem,” Devlin answered, taking notice of Julie and how she and Ben hadn’t let go of each other’s hands.
A bell rang, and Julie looked over. “We’d better get to class.”
Ben followed her gaze. “Yeah. Thanks again.” He turned back to look for Devlin, but no one was there. He blinked in surprise, but Julie pulled his hand.
“Later,” she insisted. “We’re going to be late!”
Ben nodded and followed her inside. Gwen had put in her vote of confidence in Devlin, and a little thing like this made Ben feel better about wanting to trust him too.
But before he could even begin to worry about the mysterious stranger, he had to get through first period.
Ken came to a halt before the statue of his father. All was quiet; he’d beat Charmcaster there. Taking advantage of the calm before the storm, he looked up at the statue—a monument he hoped wouldn’t become a memorial. It had been built some decades ago, when Ben made a name for himself saving the universe. Ten years ago, it had served as a meeting place for Ken and Devlin when everything had first started.
Time had weathered the statue. Some features were no longer as sharp as they used to be, as stone details had worn down from the wind and rain. Ken’s eyes drifted to the dedication: Hero of Heroes. For the first time, it hit him. There were a lot more people than just his father counting on him. His brother, his aunt, his great-grandfather, the rest of his family—the whole city, planet, galaxy, and universe were depending on him to do this. To him and Devlin, Ben was their father. To the people they’d never even met, he was a symbol, a legend that could not be lost now.
There was the sound of magic crackling, like electricity. Ken spun around and stood with the statue at his back, in ready position.
“You again,” Charmcaster noticed as she emerged from the portal. “I see you don’t have your bodyguards with you this time.”
Ken bristled at the taunt, but rather than respond to it, he zoomed forward, trying to rip the staff from her hands. Instead, Charmcaster brought it up quickly, drawing on just enough power that she could give him a solid whack that sent him crashing into a neighboring building.
“Isn’t this ironic?” she taunted as he picked himself up. “Your daddy’s power defeating you. Just proves that you were never good enough.”
The remark cut deeply, and Ken wanted to make her pay. But he’d already learned the hard way not to let his temper get the better of him. Thinking quickly, he switched to Arcticguana and froze her body solid, though leaving her hands and the staff free. He bounded forward and shifted to Grey Matter so he could scramble up the ice and try to pry the staff from her cold fingers. He’d just begun to get it free when Charmcaster’s hands began to glow, and he felt intense pain from magic coursing through his small form. He held on tightly to the staff as Charmcaster shattered the ice, but she swung it violently, throwing him off. He crashed into the base of the statue, reverting to human form.
It was only there, dazed and sore as he looked up at the statue, that he realized just why his father had always been so hard on him. Ben hadn’t become the Hero of Heroes just by having the Omnitrix; he’d had to prove his worth to the entire universe. It had taken time and heartache for him to master its power, and here Ken expected everything to be given to him. He hadn’t had to earn the right to wear the Omnitrix; his dad had given it to him, after a good deal of reluctance. Ken had mastered nothing, and Ben had been trying to teach him that.
“Appropriate,” Charmcaster said as she came toward him, aiming her staff. “One more Tennyson down, as he lies helpless at Daddy’s feet.”
Maybe he wasn’t ready. But at the very least, he was going to master himself. As energy pooled into the mouth of the staff, Ken got to his feet for his last stand.
Gwen got the message to Ben and Kevin after school, and they met Devlin behind the local hotbed of weirdness, Mr. Smoothy. Ben was sipping a drink as Devlin gave the abridged version of his tale, leaving out the details about him being from an alternate future and about his family. Though he didn’t look it, Ben was listening carefully, still willing to trust Devlin, particularly after seeing he how he’d helped him and Julie escape the reporters without a confrontation. Kevin, however, was leaning back against the picnic table, his arms crossed.
“So you screw up and nearly get your dad killed,” Kevin said. “How is that our problem again?”
“Kevin,” Gwen said, giving him a warning glare. As he backed off, she pulled out the Archamada from her backpack. “I looked in here and sure enough, there is a spell by that name. And the description is just as bad as Devlin makes it sound.”
“Wait,” Ben interrupted, setting down his smoothie. “If it’s in the Archamada, how did Devlin’s dad get trapped by it? You’ve had the book this whole time, Gwen.”
Devlin fought not to reveal his sense of dread. Ben might have seemed like he wasn’t too bright half the time, but the other half, he was uncomfortably sharp. He didn’t want to think about what else Ben might figure out if he was stuck here too long.
“There’s probably another record of the spell,” Gwen answered easily. “I don’t know half the spells in here, much less where they came from.”
Whew. That had been a close one. Believing the lie, Ben just nodded, looking at the book in Gwen’s hand. He looked uneasy as he read the effects. “This is pretty bad. You said you only needed the counterspell?”
“Yes,” Devlin answered. “Go ahead and destroy the original, I don’t care. I just need the cure.”
Ben looked over at Kevin. “Sounds harmless enough. And I really don’t want another copy of the original here.”
“Fine,” Kevin replied. “But I’m telling you, if this backfires on us again, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”
Still, it settled the matter. Gwen folded the page to make it easier to tear, then began to rip it from the binding. But as she was halfway through, the Mori Spell was ripped from her hands, sailing across the lot to Charmcaster, who smugly plucked it from the air.
“I knew if I tailed you three long enough, one of you would lead me to the Archamada,” she said. “I just didn’t think you’d lead me to so useful a spell.”
All four were ready to fight, Devlin reaching for his blaster, Kevin absorbing the metal of the table, Gwen’s hands glowing with energy, and Ben with his hand on the Ultimatrix.
“Careful,” Devlin warned. “You don’t want to get caught by it.”
“Kinda figured that,” Kevin answered, charging.
“Wait!” Devlin shouted.
Kevin didn’t hear him. Covered from head to toe in steel, he morphed an arm into a blade and slashed at Charmcaster, who dodged his attacks. Like a starting pistol, it made everyone else spring into action. Gwen began unleashing energy discs while Devlin fired his blaster, the runes on it making his lasers twist to avoid Kevin as they went for Charmcaster. Ben brought up a form on the Ultimatrix and slammed down the dial.
“Big Chill!” he called as he flew to assist Kevin, phasing through Charmcaster as he tried to freeze her. He just missed her, only getting her arm, freezing her hand to her staff. She shouted in pain before turning her staff on Big Chill, blasting at him. The beam missed, fazing through him as he went intangible, and she left herself open to Kevin’s next attack. A hand morphed into a mallet hit her, sending her reeling back.
“Enough!” she growled, generating energy around her hand to free it. She aimed her staff at Kevin. “I’d love to get Gwen out of the way first, but you’re too much of a pest for your own good!”
A circle of pink energy began to form underneath him, and everyone began to move. Ben swooped down to pull him out of there, and Gwen tried to form a bubble around him, but Devlin was the fastest. Without even thinking of the consequences, he ran at full speed, shoving Kevin out of the way of the array. The magic closed itself before he could escape himself.
He could feel everyone’s eyes on him in shock. Gwen gasped, her hands over her mouth in horror. Ben floated overhead, stunned and helpless to stop it. Kevin had rolled to a stop and looked over at him, not in any way having expected the sacrifice. And Charmcaster, who had been surprised by his speed, gave him a look of confusion before she slammed her staff on the ground.
“Not who I was aiming for, but you’ll do just fine,” she said.
“Stop her!” Gwen shouted.
Ben and Kevin charged, and Gwen blasted energy, but Charmcaster raised a hand, erecting a forcefield around the whole area. Kevin pounded against it and Big Chill tried to faze through, but nothing could get past it.
“I’ll have enough energy to make up for this little spell after this is over,” Charmcaster boasted, holding up the Mori Spell. “Ars longa, vita brevis. Ex nihilo nihil fit. Beati possidentes. Memento mori!”
It was just as bad to go through as the evidence had indicated. Sharp pain went through Devlin’s body, forcing him to scream as he tried to thrash against it. But immobilized, any attempt to escape just made the pain worse. His life energy appeared around him in a shifting white aura, connecting him to the staff. It hurt like nothing else in the world. But he could remember how his father had just stared Charmcaster down. If Devlin was going to die, he would at least do the same as Ben and go down with dignity.
The last of the energy entered the staff, and Charmcaster let both the forcefield and the array drop. Devlin’s body fell to the ground, and Charmcaster smirked at Gwen before raising her glowing staff and firing at her. Gwen quickly threw up a shield, but the energy shattered it easily, sending her flying back.
Kevin charged again, but Charmcaster blasted him back before taking to the skies, where Big Chill soared and dove to avoid her blasts. As Gwen pulled herself up and grabbed the Archamada, Kevin ran over to Devlin, checking his pulse. She knew it before he did; she couldn’t feel a trace of mana left.
“He’s gone,” he said softly as Gwen approached.
“Maybe not,” Gwen said with conviction. She looked down at the Vivere Spell, then at Devlin. “Keep his heart pumping. I’ve got an idea.”
Kevin didn’t ask, instead compressing Devlin’s chest repeatedly to keep blood flowing to his brain. Gwen looked up in the sky where Big Chill and Charmcaster were fighting and shouted, “Ben! Keep her from using that staff!”
“Easier said than done,” he replied, grappling with Charmcaster for the staff. She threw him off, and he reached for the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest. “Hmm, or maybe it is easier.”
The symbol transformed at his touch, and green light spread throughout his body. Gradually, his form became red, with patterns like flames forming over his eyes and on the edges of his wings. With a cry of “Ultimate Big Chill!” he flew toward her again, blasting icy flames.
Gwen looked down at the counterspell as Ben kept a sheet of ice on the staff, freezing it in Charmcaster’s hands. Ultimate Big Chill was strong enough to keep her busy for a while. Seeing that Kevin was still doing compressions on Devlin’s chest, Gwen began to read:
“Fortis cadere, cedere non potest.”
Within the ice, the staff began to glow again.
“What are you doing?” Charmcaster demanded.
“Ex tenebris lux.”
A faint glow formed around Devlin’s body. It surprised Kevin, but he didn’t stop the compressions.
“Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.”
Energy flowed from the staff in a sudden rush, aiming for Devlin.
“No!” Charmcaster shouted.
She swung the ice-covered staff, catching Ben completely by surprise. A jagged bit of ice caught his side, drawing blood. It dripped across the battlefield as he flew after her, breathing frozen fire to keep her from attacking Gwen and interrupting the counterspell. He flew down rapidly, fazing through her legs as she swooped closer. Her legs froze, and the sudden weight was more than the fading power could take. She hit the ground, ice exploding everywhere as the last of the energy flowed back to Devlin.
“Memento vivere.”
Devlin drew a sudden breath, startling Kevin, who backed up slightly. Shaking, Devlin opened his eyes, giving Kevin a surprised look before feeling a drop of something hit his sleeve. He glanced up to see Ultimate Big Chill, who landed beside him.
“Sorry,” he said, holding a cut on his side. “Good to see you’re okay.”
“It worked!” Gwen cheered, closing the book as Kevin tried to help a trembling Devlin to his feet.
Ultimate Big Chill peered behind himself and saw Charmcaster beginning to recover. “She won’t be out long. Kevin, get him to safety. Gwen and I’ll take care of this.”
Kevin didn’t argue, instead putting Devlin’s arm around his neck. “Come on.”
“Just a second,” Gwen said, placing the Archamada in Devlin’s other arm, making him cradle it close. He looked at her weakly before she ordered both of them, “Now, go.”
He managed to nod before Kevin led him off. Before the first blast of magic could come after them, Ben and Gwen turned to face Charmcaster, ready for anything.
This title comes from a line in the Beatles song “Let It Be”: “And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” Reiko Momoi, Shinji, and ORE Journal are from Kamen Rider Ryuki, since I figured I might as well have a Kamen Rider cameo to go along with the Power Rangers one from the last chapter. The Vivere Spell is once again strung from Latin phrases I got from Wikipedia: “Fortis cadere, cedere potest,” (“The brave may fall, but cannot yield”), “ex tenebris lux,” (“from darkness, light”), “omnia mutantur, nihil interit,” (“everything changes, nothing perishes”), and “memento vivere” (“a reminder of life”/“remember to live”—the opposite of “memento mori”).
Chapter Seven: In My Hour of Darkness
Summary: Devlin manages to get the others' trust, but before they can do anything about the spell, Charmcaster arrives.
Chapter Seven: “In My Hour of Darkness”
Just because he had to wait for Gwen to pass along the message that he wanted to meet with everybody, it didn’t mean that Devlin had to wait around in Los Soledad all day. Flying was difficult in broad daylight, so he made sure to frequently stop on rooftops and in trees, keeping out of sight.
Something caught his attention, and he looked down to see Ben with a girl who definitely wasn’t his ex-wife, both of them being hassled by a pair of reporters. Devlin glared. Some things never changed. He had no love for the profession; the press had given him a hard time all throughout his teenage years, second-guessing Ben’s trust in him and criticizing his every move as they waited for him to follow in his more infamous father’s footsteps.
This might help Ben’s opinion of him, and it also gave him a little fun in the meantime. He reached for a flash grenade and tried to get Ben’s attention.
Ben, in the meantime, had known there was trouble the moment the white car stopped in front of him and a woman with a tape recorder and a younger man with a camera came out. It was worse when Julie had groaned.
“Oh no,” she murmured. “They’re from ORE Journal—the local Japanese paper. My dad reads it all the time.”
“Bad as Will Harangue?” Ben whispered.
“No one’s that bad,” Julie answered. “But Reiko Momoi never lets a story go.”
Ben kept that in mind as Momoi politely introduced herself and her intern, whom she called Shinji, enthusiastically greeted him and started taking pictures.
“What do you have to say about your recent battle with Captain Nemesis?” Momoi asked, nonplussed by Shinji’s eager photography.
“Uh,” Ben started, blinking as a light shone in his eyes. “I’m not sure I should talk about that…”
“Captain Nemesis challenged you repeatedly on-camera,” Momoi said. “Do you feel this rivalry was sudden, or was it building over the course of your short partnership?”
“Um…”
“He just said no comment,” Julie answered, giving Momoi a flat glare.
“Of course,” Momoi replied politely.
“Oh, Ben!” Shinji said, as if he’d suddenly remembered something. “You were dating Jennifer Nocturne, right? Did she break up with you after Captain Nemesis’s defeat?”
As far as reporters went, Momoi seemed to be one of the better ones, even if she was steadily getting on Julie’s nerves. She was stubborn about the story, but she at least treated Ben with respect. Shinji, on the other hand, may have seemed like a nice guy, but a comment like that definitely said he was not reporter material. Julie was even angrier now, and even as Momoi chastised her intern, she looked like she was going to give a few words of her own…
That bright light was shining in his eyes again, and he looked over to see where it was coming from. To his surprise, he saw Devlin standing on a nearby rooftop, holding some kind of capsule that was producing light. He waved at Ben, then motioned for him to cover his eyes.
While he wasn’t sure just what Devlin was about to pull, Ben knew a warning when he saw one. He grabbed Julie’s hand, and as she looked at him in surprise, he made sure to close his eyes and turn his face away. Recognizing the warning, she did the same.
Momoi and Shinji watched in surprise, suspecting something, but before they could do anything, Devlin dropped the flash grenade right between the reporters and teens. The sudden burst of light temporarily blinded the reporters, giving Ben and Julie the chance to run. Devlin followed their escape, dropping more flash grenades behind them to make it difficult for the reporters to take chase.
“Thanks,” Ben said once the three of them got to the high school. “They ambushed us on the way to school. We were going to be late.”
“No problem,” Devlin answered, taking notice of Julie and how she and Ben hadn’t let go of each other’s hands.
A bell rang, and Julie looked over. “We’d better get to class.”
Ben followed her gaze. “Yeah. Thanks again.” He turned back to look for Devlin, but no one was there. He blinked in surprise, but Julie pulled his hand.
“Later,” she insisted. “We’re going to be late!”
Ben nodded and followed her inside. Gwen had put in her vote of confidence in Devlin, and a little thing like this made Ben feel better about wanting to trust him too.
But before he could even begin to worry about the mysterious stranger, he had to get through first period.
Ken came to a halt before the statue of his father. All was quiet; he’d beat Charmcaster there. Taking advantage of the calm before the storm, he looked up at the statue—a monument he hoped wouldn’t become a memorial. It had been built some decades ago, when Ben made a name for himself saving the universe. Ten years ago, it had served as a meeting place for Ken and Devlin when everything had first started.
Time had weathered the statue. Some features were no longer as sharp as they used to be, as stone details had worn down from the wind and rain. Ken’s eyes drifted to the dedication: Hero of Heroes. For the first time, it hit him. There were a lot more people than just his father counting on him. His brother, his aunt, his great-grandfather, the rest of his family—the whole city, planet, galaxy, and universe were depending on him to do this. To him and Devlin, Ben was their father. To the people they’d never even met, he was a symbol, a legend that could not be lost now.
There was the sound of magic crackling, like electricity. Ken spun around and stood with the statue at his back, in ready position.
“You again,” Charmcaster noticed as she emerged from the portal. “I see you don’t have your bodyguards with you this time.”
Ken bristled at the taunt, but rather than respond to it, he zoomed forward, trying to rip the staff from her hands. Instead, Charmcaster brought it up quickly, drawing on just enough power that she could give him a solid whack that sent him crashing into a neighboring building.
“Isn’t this ironic?” she taunted as he picked himself up. “Your daddy’s power defeating you. Just proves that you were never good enough.”
The remark cut deeply, and Ken wanted to make her pay. But he’d already learned the hard way not to let his temper get the better of him. Thinking quickly, he switched to Arcticguana and froze her body solid, though leaving her hands and the staff free. He bounded forward and shifted to Grey Matter so he could scramble up the ice and try to pry the staff from her cold fingers. He’d just begun to get it free when Charmcaster’s hands began to glow, and he felt intense pain from magic coursing through his small form. He held on tightly to the staff as Charmcaster shattered the ice, but she swung it violently, throwing him off. He crashed into the base of the statue, reverting to human form.
It was only there, dazed and sore as he looked up at the statue, that he realized just why his father had always been so hard on him. Ben hadn’t become the Hero of Heroes just by having the Omnitrix; he’d had to prove his worth to the entire universe. It had taken time and heartache for him to master its power, and here Ken expected everything to be given to him. He hadn’t had to earn the right to wear the Omnitrix; his dad had given it to him, after a good deal of reluctance. Ken had mastered nothing, and Ben had been trying to teach him that.
“Appropriate,” Charmcaster said as she came toward him, aiming her staff. “One more Tennyson down, as he lies helpless at Daddy’s feet.”
Maybe he wasn’t ready. But at the very least, he was going to master himself. As energy pooled into the mouth of the staff, Ken got to his feet for his last stand.
Gwen got the message to Ben and Kevin after school, and they met Devlin behind the local hotbed of weirdness, Mr. Smoothy. Ben was sipping a drink as Devlin gave the abridged version of his tale, leaving out the details about him being from an alternate future and about his family. Though he didn’t look it, Ben was listening carefully, still willing to trust Devlin, particularly after seeing he how he’d helped him and Julie escape the reporters without a confrontation. Kevin, however, was leaning back against the picnic table, his arms crossed.
“So you screw up and nearly get your dad killed,” Kevin said. “How is that our problem again?”
“Kevin,” Gwen said, giving him a warning glare. As he backed off, she pulled out the Archamada from her backpack. “I looked in here and sure enough, there is a spell by that name. And the description is just as bad as Devlin makes it sound.”
“Wait,” Ben interrupted, setting down his smoothie. “If it’s in the Archamada, how did Devlin’s dad get trapped by it? You’ve had the book this whole time, Gwen.”
Devlin fought not to reveal his sense of dread. Ben might have seemed like he wasn’t too bright half the time, but the other half, he was uncomfortably sharp. He didn’t want to think about what else Ben might figure out if he was stuck here too long.
“There’s probably another record of the spell,” Gwen answered easily. “I don’t know half the spells in here, much less where they came from.”
Whew. That had been a close one. Believing the lie, Ben just nodded, looking at the book in Gwen’s hand. He looked uneasy as he read the effects. “This is pretty bad. You said you only needed the counterspell?”
“Yes,” Devlin answered. “Go ahead and destroy the original, I don’t care. I just need the cure.”
Ben looked over at Kevin. “Sounds harmless enough. And I really don’t want another copy of the original here.”
“Fine,” Kevin replied. “But I’m telling you, if this backfires on us again, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”
Still, it settled the matter. Gwen folded the page to make it easier to tear, then began to rip it from the binding. But as she was halfway through, the Mori Spell was ripped from her hands, sailing across the lot to Charmcaster, who smugly plucked it from the air.
“I knew if I tailed you three long enough, one of you would lead me to the Archamada,” she said. “I just didn’t think you’d lead me to so useful a spell.”
All four were ready to fight, Devlin reaching for his blaster, Kevin absorbing the metal of the table, Gwen’s hands glowing with energy, and Ben with his hand on the Ultimatrix.
“Careful,” Devlin warned. “You don’t want to get caught by it.”
“Kinda figured that,” Kevin answered, charging.
“Wait!” Devlin shouted.
Kevin didn’t hear him. Covered from head to toe in steel, he morphed an arm into a blade and slashed at Charmcaster, who dodged his attacks. Like a starting pistol, it made everyone else spring into action. Gwen began unleashing energy discs while Devlin fired his blaster, the runes on it making his lasers twist to avoid Kevin as they went for Charmcaster. Ben brought up a form on the Ultimatrix and slammed down the dial.
“Big Chill!” he called as he flew to assist Kevin, phasing through Charmcaster as he tried to freeze her. He just missed her, only getting her arm, freezing her hand to her staff. She shouted in pain before turning her staff on Big Chill, blasting at him. The beam missed, fazing through him as he went intangible, and she left herself open to Kevin’s next attack. A hand morphed into a mallet hit her, sending her reeling back.
“Enough!” she growled, generating energy around her hand to free it. She aimed her staff at Kevin. “I’d love to get Gwen out of the way first, but you’re too much of a pest for your own good!”
A circle of pink energy began to form underneath him, and everyone began to move. Ben swooped down to pull him out of there, and Gwen tried to form a bubble around him, but Devlin was the fastest. Without even thinking of the consequences, he ran at full speed, shoving Kevin out of the way of the array. The magic closed itself before he could escape himself.
He could feel everyone’s eyes on him in shock. Gwen gasped, her hands over her mouth in horror. Ben floated overhead, stunned and helpless to stop it. Kevin had rolled to a stop and looked over at him, not in any way having expected the sacrifice. And Charmcaster, who had been surprised by his speed, gave him a look of confusion before she slammed her staff on the ground.
“Not who I was aiming for, but you’ll do just fine,” she said.
“Stop her!” Gwen shouted.
Ben and Kevin charged, and Gwen blasted energy, but Charmcaster raised a hand, erecting a forcefield around the whole area. Kevin pounded against it and Big Chill tried to faze through, but nothing could get past it.
“I’ll have enough energy to make up for this little spell after this is over,” Charmcaster boasted, holding up the Mori Spell. “Ars longa, vita brevis. Ex nihilo nihil fit. Beati possidentes. Memento mori!”
It was just as bad to go through as the evidence had indicated. Sharp pain went through Devlin’s body, forcing him to scream as he tried to thrash against it. But immobilized, any attempt to escape just made the pain worse. His life energy appeared around him in a shifting white aura, connecting him to the staff. It hurt like nothing else in the world. But he could remember how his father had just stared Charmcaster down. If Devlin was going to die, he would at least do the same as Ben and go down with dignity.
The last of the energy entered the staff, and Charmcaster let both the forcefield and the array drop. Devlin’s body fell to the ground, and Charmcaster smirked at Gwen before raising her glowing staff and firing at her. Gwen quickly threw up a shield, but the energy shattered it easily, sending her flying back.
Kevin charged again, but Charmcaster blasted him back before taking to the skies, where Big Chill soared and dove to avoid her blasts. As Gwen pulled herself up and grabbed the Archamada, Kevin ran over to Devlin, checking his pulse. She knew it before he did; she couldn’t feel a trace of mana left.
“He’s gone,” he said softly as Gwen approached.
“Maybe not,” Gwen said with conviction. She looked down at the Vivere Spell, then at Devlin. “Keep his heart pumping. I’ve got an idea.”
Kevin didn’t ask, instead compressing Devlin’s chest repeatedly to keep blood flowing to his brain. Gwen looked up in the sky where Big Chill and Charmcaster were fighting and shouted, “Ben! Keep her from using that staff!”
“Easier said than done,” he replied, grappling with Charmcaster for the staff. She threw him off, and he reached for the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest. “Hmm, or maybe it is easier.”
The symbol transformed at his touch, and green light spread throughout his body. Gradually, his form became red, with patterns like flames forming over his eyes and on the edges of his wings. With a cry of “Ultimate Big Chill!” he flew toward her again, blasting icy flames.
Gwen looked down at the counterspell as Ben kept a sheet of ice on the staff, freezing it in Charmcaster’s hands. Ultimate Big Chill was strong enough to keep her busy for a while. Seeing that Kevin was still doing compressions on Devlin’s chest, Gwen began to read:
“Fortis cadere, cedere non potest.”
Within the ice, the staff began to glow again.
“What are you doing?” Charmcaster demanded.
“Ex tenebris lux.”
A faint glow formed around Devlin’s body. It surprised Kevin, but he didn’t stop the compressions.
“Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.”
Energy flowed from the staff in a sudden rush, aiming for Devlin.
“No!” Charmcaster shouted.
She swung the ice-covered staff, catching Ben completely by surprise. A jagged bit of ice caught his side, drawing blood. It dripped across the battlefield as he flew after her, breathing frozen fire to keep her from attacking Gwen and interrupting the counterspell. He flew down rapidly, fazing through her legs as she swooped closer. Her legs froze, and the sudden weight was more than the fading power could take. She hit the ground, ice exploding everywhere as the last of the energy flowed back to Devlin.
“Memento vivere.”
Devlin drew a sudden breath, startling Kevin, who backed up slightly. Shaking, Devlin opened his eyes, giving Kevin a surprised look before feeling a drop of something hit his sleeve. He glanced up to see Ultimate Big Chill, who landed beside him.
“Sorry,” he said, holding a cut on his side. “Good to see you’re okay.”
“It worked!” Gwen cheered, closing the book as Kevin tried to help a trembling Devlin to his feet.
Ultimate Big Chill peered behind himself and saw Charmcaster beginning to recover. “She won’t be out long. Kevin, get him to safety. Gwen and I’ll take care of this.”
Kevin didn’t argue, instead putting Devlin’s arm around his neck. “Come on.”
“Just a second,” Gwen said, placing the Archamada in Devlin’s other arm, making him cradle it close. He looked at her weakly before she ordered both of them, “Now, go.”
He managed to nod before Kevin led him off. Before the first blast of magic could come after them, Ben and Gwen turned to face Charmcaster, ready for anything.
This title comes from a line in the Beatles song “Let It Be”: “And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” Reiko Momoi, Shinji, and ORE Journal are from Kamen Rider Ryuki, since I figured I might as well have a Kamen Rider cameo to go along with the Power Rangers one from the last chapter. The Vivere Spell is once again strung from Latin phrases I got from Wikipedia: “Fortis cadere, cedere potest,” (“The brave may fall, but cannot yield”), “ex tenebris lux,” (“from darkness, light”), “omnia mutantur, nihil interit,” (“everything changes, nothing perishes”), and “memento vivere” (“a reminder of life”/“remember to live”—the opposite of “memento mori”).