The Ties That Bind Chapter 20

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Of Heroes And Villains:
The Ties That Bind

By Minikisa


An assassin.

A fallen hero.

An unlikely meeting.

The road to redemption is long and hard and filled with explosives.
The Ties That Bind


Constance was a genius.

It was evident in everything she said and did, from the way she could learn and understand just about anything at a glance, to the way she acted, knowing full well that she was the smartest person in any given room.

Being around her had been difficult sometimes.

Now Constance was standing in front of a class of undergraduates, lecturing them in a way that made the complex arcane theorem seem intuitive and easy to understand when it really, really wasn’t. There was a presence to her, and she was sparkling with that certain something that separated good teachers from bad ones. The gaze of every student in the class was on her, listening raptly.

A student raised a hand.

“But what does the runic matrix actually do?”

She’d explained that not five minutes ago, and Stephen leaned back with a sigh, waiting for her exasperation to shine through.

Constance waved her hand, a shimmering image of her previous blackboard sliding back into view.

“The runes are a focal point for magic, and much like any language, they have a vocabulary, grammar and basic structure. An arcane circle is, in essence, a program, which is activated by the flow of magic. Then it’s just a matter of the magic sequentially executing the individual orders of each rune to rewrite reality around it.”

Constance used to make Stephen feel stupid when she knew something he didn’t, which was the case far more than he liked. When a few clipped sentences did not make him understand it instantly, she’d grow annoyed.

She was smiling patiently.

“So, remember, every time a circle blows up in your face, you’ve found a bug, usually by giving your magic contradictory instructions. Now let me explain how, should such issues arise, we can narrow down which rune in the larger whole is causing problems…”

Psy leaned back in the chair at the very back of the lecture hall, and watched his ex-girlfriend thoughtfully.

Constance had been an adventure, a mystery for him to unravel, and he had enjoyed every moment. He’d been all too eager to overlook her flaws, ignoring them in favor of the more positive traits he uncovered bit by bit.

She was the first true equal he’d ever had. Perhaps even more than an equal, holding all the cards in their relationship, and that hadn’t bothered him at all.

But he saw now that a relationship based solely on not knowing her might have not been his best idea ever.

Would things have gone differently if she’d been completely open with him? Perhaps not. Perhaps he would not have escaped Cinder Snow even if he had been warned beforehand. But that thought was there, and would forever be, feeding an anger that had been simmering for three years now.

Her secrets had ruined him.

And he had lost his taste for them.

Perhaps he could have forgiven her – if she hadn’t been the first to stop visiting him.

He understood why, of course. Unlike his other friends, who had known only the – considerable – hurt of his words, he had kept physically attacking Constance every single time he saw her.

But he had been so alone.

Ever since he had regained some measure of sanity, Psy had been filled with the burning desire to make amends and hope his friends could find it within themselves to forgive him.

Groveling had been his default setting.

But now that he had recovered his spine, anger had started rising to the surface, because maybe he was the one who was owed an apology. The despair he had known, thinking he was going to spend the rest of his life tied to that fucking bed in that fucking room fully aware that his Purpose was destroying him piece by piece and nobody who even cared that he was dying.

PsyKick would have starved himself eventually. He had been getting very close to succeeding when Diane walked into his life and ordered him to eat something because she had no use for minions who could barely stand. And considering nobody seemed to have figured out that he’d been getting better for months and was released weeks ago, now he couldn’t help but wonder just how many weeks or months it would have taken his so-called friends to notice his death.

Maybe a few of them had noticed his recovery. And then just not deigned to show up because they were done with him.

Yes, he had said horrible, horrible things.

But Psy tolerated all the horrible thoughts that he saw in the heads of all his friends, because everyone had them.

And he did not deserve to be abandoned for revealing that, in his lowest moments, he was not perfect either.

As good a lecturer as Constance was, he found his thoughts drifting, since the subject matter was so very far out of his expertise. And with the feelings for her so fresh on his mind, he couldn’t help but compare her to Caroline.

Caroline had done terrible things, and taken pride in some of them more than he liked. Psy could see each of her failings in sharp relief. He had not pried into every secret she had, but at this rate would know them all soon.

And he had seen her beautiful core, and fallen for her almost instantly.

What made it different from his previous failed relationships was that she knew him, too. Caroline had seen the faults in his mind, his most humiliating moments, the deep, deep scars, and had decided that they did not matter. She had seen his core, the very essence of his being, pointed to it and called it amazing.

Knowing the price of secrets, when given the choice between a relationship built on the thrill of discovery and another on being completely open with one another, PsyKick knew exactly which one he preferred.

But his heart still hammered against his chest when he watched Constance.


***



“Excuse me.” Caroline’s voice broke just a fraction, and he had to clear his throat. Telling himself he did not care anymore was easier when he was not actually talking to her.

Constance slowed her steps out of the hall and gazed at him with a blank expression, the one reserved for strangers. Which was what he was to her. “Yes?”

The elaborate backstory he had given himself went out of the window.

“I need your help.”

She curiously cocked her head at him and turned to face him fully.

“I have this magical problem I need removed…” He absently raised his dainty hand to his throat where the invisible tattoo was engraved.

And the world stood still.

He blinked when he realized there were three bullets hanging in the air just inches from his face.

Constance was pointing a gun directly at him, her swaying hair the only movement in the frozen courtyard. All around them, students stood suspended in the middle of whatever they’d been doing when she had stopped time.

“Did you think,” she said in a pleasant voice. “That I would not recognize an assassin when I see one?”

Psy blinked slowly, not daring to move. She could unfreeze the bullets before he could hope to do anything.

“I thought,” he answered slowly. “That Cinder Snow’s sister above all people would understand the wish to reform.” She hissed in a sharp breath and he tilted his head, gazing at the bullets. So willing to use lethal force? “…but perhaps you are not as reformed as I thought.”

“Pawns of the Order do not get to judge my defenses. Especially not when they supposedly come to me for help.”

And from one moment to the next, the bullets were gone.

The gun was gone as well, and now she was gazing at him with her arms crossed, a calculating gleam in her eyes. He exhaled in relief, allowing himself to relax a fraction.

“Who are you?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“And why would I help a stranger?”

“Because it’s what a hero would do. Chrono Warden.”

“Your attempts at manipulation are adorably obvious.”

“But are they working?”

Something like a smile flitted across her face.

“That depends entirely on what you want from me.”

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Comments

A question

Another great chapter. Well, aside from the fact that it was too short. I want more!

Anyway, had a couple of questions.
1. Just how long was PsyKick locked up in the psychiatric facility?
2. So how powerful is Chrono Warden? Is she a power level 10 like her sister Cinder Snow?

Can't wait to see how this turns out! I'm not sure if I want to see if Stephen accidentally slips and says something that tells Constance exactly who he is inside or not.

Cicero2K
'Otium cum dignitate'

Thank you! :3

For all your lovely comments, each brings a smile to my face.

To answer your questions:

1. He was locked up a little over three and a half years ago at the age of 20. Diane started visiting him about 4 months ago, and he was released ~2 weeks ago.

2. Chrono Warden is powerful, but she is not a Ten due to a number of factors, the most significant of which is that she is not active as a hero and does not hone her skills for battle beyond self-defense. What happened to Psy, and being forced to kill her own sister (...even if she didn't succeed) permanently put her off the entire hero/villain conflict. She just wants to live a nice, quiet life of studying magic.

I am really enjoying this.

I especially like how you have Psy look back on his relationship with Constance with the realization that his new relationship with Caroline is so much deeper because there are no secrets. Not only is this a highly entertaining story but now you are throwing out these deep truths too. Incredible work.

Chrono Warden

hope she helps Psy.

DogSig.png

Constance + Cinder Snow = sisters? MIND BLOWN!

That means that Cinder Snow most likely got through to PsyKick via that relationship AND the fact that Constance stopped visiting PsyKick, when it was her sister that did this to him, much more hurtful.

The intricacies of the character interactions in this story are simply amazing.

The two faced nature of the heroes, of how they have to present their front to the populace and how they are inside is also another pleasant surprise.

I feel like I am reading a novel on par with the Watchmen.

Thank you!

*blushes*

Thank you very much for that lovely compliment.

While I will address what happened between PsyKick/Constance/Cinder Snow a little more in this story, if Constance/Cinder Snow came as a surprise, I take it you didn't read the first story, in which case - if you're interested in more PsyKick backstory - I would strongly recommend reading Chapter 22 which chronicles Cinder Snow's motivations (can skip the first parts and just scroll down to Diane's section) and the Epilogue, which shows Diane starting her therapy with PsyKick. :)

Power

Tas's picture

Time has to be the most powerful power. The ability to stop time is just.... phew. Anyway, I'm glad Constance is willing to listen.

-Tas