Filling the Boundless Void

"There are enough heroes out there, the world doesn't need you right now. Everything you are doing doesn't mean much if you don't understand what you are fighting for, honey."

Mom's words echoed within my mind as I stood on the roof of the Sagan Academy science building, gazing out over the campus, numb to everything.

Even if the entire building beneath me collapsed into a sinkhole and swallowed whole, taking the rest of the campus... no, the rest of the city down, it wouldn't compare to how devastated I already felt inside. They talk about a person's world being rocked by bad news. My world wasn't just rocked. It was rocked, rolled, ground up, pummelled, and shattered into pieces small enough to pass through the eye of a needle.

He couldn't be gone. Not him. He was as constant as the bite of the north wind in the Arctic, the blazing heat in the Sahara desert. As the rage of a Karen whose coupon for buy-one, get-one free was declined by a cashier. He would never stop. Not ever. NOT EVER!

I'd stopped heroing. Hadn't changed into Madam Marvelous in I don't even know how long, or anything else for that matter. I followed my mother's wishes and tried to live as one single person, her daughter, until I would graduate. He didn't agree, of course, not that he said or told me. His shrug of indifferent disappointment spoke louder than his normal shouting. Our training, our entire relationship, just stopped the day I told him.

I knew he was mad, cause when wasn't he, but always hoped that in a few years when I graduated and had some life under my belt, so to say, he and I would make up and pick up where we left off. He'd teach me more about fighting. We'd spar. I'd lose repeatedly, but he would occasionally compliment me on a tactic I would employ and laugh at how foolish it was to try on him, but against anyone else it would have done the job.

I wanted so badly to tell him thank you. I don't think he ever knew how grateful I was for him and what he did to encourage me. I wanted to feel his great clawed hand on my shoulder, patting me as delicately as a bull in a china shop could dain to be.

Instead, I felt his hand slide into my own and take grip as the roof groaned at his massive weight pressed down upon the entire structure beside me.

"WHY ARE YOU SAD, LITTLE WARRIOR," a voice said beside me. A voice I so wanted to hear but dared not look at for fear of its source disappearing. "YOU LEFT ME FIRST."

"I always planned on coming back." Tears welled in my eyes. "You were supposed to be there when I was ready."

"I TRIED TO TEACH YOU NEVER TO DEPEND ON ANYTHING BUT YOURSELF. THE UNIVERSE IS A HARSH MISTRESS. MY VERY EXISTENCE SHOULD HAVE PROVED THAT TO YOU. YOU DO KNOW I WAS MEANT TO DESTROY THIS PUNY WORLD AFTER ALL."

The mirth in his voice brought out a small smile from my lips. "You kept saying that, but I don't think you wanted to anymore. You were having too much fun."

The sun ahead of us seared the horizon, a flare of white-hot light sizzling where it touched the edge of the earth.

"DESTRUCTION OF ONE'S ENEMIES IS ALWAYS FUN. THAT DID NOT MEAN I EVER FORGOT MY PURPOSE, AS YOU DID. YOU WERE BORN A WARRIOR BUT NOW PRETEND TO BE A SHEEP."

"I'm not pretending to be anything. I need time to figure out who I want to be for myself, not who you, Mrs. Fae, BADGE, or my parents want me to be." I almost pulled my hand free from his, but stopped. I wasn't ready for him to go. "I want to be more than just what I can do. I'm not just a shapeshifter anymore."

"I HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN THAT, LITTLE ONE. IT IS GOOD YOU ARE FINALLY UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH OF YOU."

I suspected he knew more about my abilities than I had realized while we trained, but it was hard to ask questions when his punches came toward your face like scaley freight trains. "I'm going to miss you. Why did you have to--"

"BAH, DON'T SPEAK TO ME OF SUCH NONSENSE. SHOW ME!" His fist tightened on mine. Pain shot up my arm as bones cracked and ground to shards.

I screamed out, part the pain of my injury but more the unconsolable hurt behind the pain. I curled my other hand into a fist as I fell to my knees and punched through the rooftop, sending blocks of debris onto the floor below.

"GOOD, LITTLE WARRIOR. DON'T WASTE WHAT YOU FEEL. USE IT."

My face wet, the cement dust created by my blow settled on my cheeks and clung to me. I brought my head up to look at the sun as the last of it incinerated the skyline and faded from sight.

"I don't want to let you go."

"YOU MUST. YOU MUST NOT KEEP HOLD OF ME, IT LESSENS YOU AND YOU WILL NEED BOTH HANDS FOR THE FUTURE."

"Then come back. Don't leave me here without you. I need you."

His hand released my own and I knew he was gone. I still looked to my side, hoping beyond hope he would be there, but all I found was open air the scrapes of his tail swiping carved into the rooftop.