Marco sat, his legs folded and hands on his knees. His eyes were closed and he had his stones in front of him, the red and white stones floating in front of his face. In between them was his gun. He was breathing slowly and they were pulsing in time with his breathing. As he breathed though the gun was cycling through its barrels.
Pink, yellow, purple, green, blue, black and white across each barrel. A constantly revolving door of them. Ley floated on the other side of him with their legs crossed. They were guiding him as best they could with understanding the powers that now rested within him.
He opened his eyes as he saw the flash of yellow light appear in the temple. Squinting he looked at Sarah and Gen as they stumbled forward.
“Hey. You brought Gen?” Marco stood up as his stones disappeared. “Are you-“
“I’m fine,” she said. “You’ve got bigger problems.”
“What?”
“Jack’s here,” Sarah said. “And it’s Legion. It tried to trick me by pretending to be you. It didn’t work obviously.”
Marco’s eyes widened and he felt the trepidation in his chest. The idea of seeing or having to fight against Jack was always coming and he prepared himself for it mentally but even that didn’t mean he was ready. He met Sarah’s eyes and he saw his feelings mirrored.
“If Legion tried this with you it may have tried it with it may have tried the same with our friend Cal,” Ley said moving to a standing float position. “I think we should check on him.”
“You’re right,” Marco patted his pockets coming up to nothing and shook his head. “My phone.”
“At home. Legion used it to call me.”
“The one time I forget it,” Marco scowled and shook his head.
“I have my phone,” Sarah said getting hers out. She called him and it rang a bit longer than she hopped but he finally picked up. There was some light music coming from the other side and she could hear him walking away from things.
“Sarah what’s going on?”
“Cal. Thank God. Where are you?”
“At home having dinner with Ben. Why?”
“Have you heard from Kat at all?”
“Kat? What are you talking about? She’s mind controlled by Legion remember?” he said, his voice confused by what his friend was saying. “Are you okay?”
Sarah let out a very relaxed breath and nodded, “Thank goodness. Look. Legion tried to trick me by using Jack to come home. We wanted to make sure that you weren’t targeted either.”
Cal started to say something when he paused. “Hold on I’m getting a call. From Kat,” he said softly.
Sarah was already shaking her head, “Don’t answer it. Get Ben out of there. I don’t know what Legion’s going to do but we are not risking you guys getting hurt.”
“Okay.”
He hung up and Sarah turned to Marco. “Legion just tried the same thing to Cal that it did with me.”
“Persistent,” Marco frowned. “We have to get to them and make sure Legion doesn’t try anything.”
“Right,” Sarah nodded but paused and looked over at Gen. She was staring at them intently but when she met Sarah’s eyes, she forced a smile and nodded confidently. “We’ll be back.”
“I know. Just do what you said you would. Get them back,” she said confidently going over to the crystal and sitting beside it. “I’ll just. Keep Ley company.”
“I would enjoy your company,” they said giving her the same mouthless smile. She tried to mirror it but it came out more like a grimace.
Marco glanced at Sarah and she nodded her preparation. He took her hand and then the pair of them were covered in light and left. They came down back in the city near their apartment. Everything looked to be in one piece. They looked at one another frowning before going inside.
Neither had been home all day. Walking to the door they saw it was slightly open. That was already a red flag for them both. They called their stones to their hands and opened the door.
And there he was. Jack stood up slowly, wearing the armor of Legion. His eyes had his symbol. But he looked like him. The same smile, the same face. His hair, like Owens looked like it had been oiled back and straightened slightly.
His eyes raised slightly as he looked at them, “There you two are. I was wondering if you’d show up.”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here,” Sarah growled stepping forward.
Marco put his hand out, holding her back slightly. “You’re not the only one here. Where are the others?”
“Shrewd. I like that,” he said and smirked.
Sarah looked over her shoulder and saw the shapes moving forward from down the hall. She recognized Seth and Owen easily. Tensing up she felt Marco beside her, “Almost everyone’s here. Good.”
His eye burned a bright red and Sarah shuddered being this close to him. Jack and the others tensed their stones appearing in their palms, ready for whatever he was about to do. “Sarah you ready?”
“Always ready handsome.”
“Let’s go to work.”
The Harlequin Library 