Reborn with my killer's looks-Chapter 32: Peace

The water hit them hard.

Calvin couldn’t breathe. His lungs burned as the flood filled the office in seconds, swallowing everything within.

His Crest kicked in on instinct. Metal ripped free from the floating filing cabinets, desk frames and the steel bars of the wall. It all converged around him into a crude bubble.

He sucked in air inside the enclosed space, practically gasping for it.

Through the gaps he saw Josephine. She’d thrown up a sphere of hardened light around herself, while Luna just stood there in the water, completely still.

Her white eyes were wide open and the water around her was being pulled down and away from her body by her gravity manipulation abilities, but even she looked strained and her jaw was clenched tight.

The Blue Reaper held it together and coated his katana in plasma. It crackled in the water, blue electricity arcing off the blade.

And he swung at Phillip.

The blade went straight through the water-man’s chest leaving only vapour. Phillip’s body just... flowed back together, like cutting through smoke.

"Plasma conducts heat well. You’re trying to evaporate me." Phillip said. His voice was Like that of a teacher correcting his student’s math homework. "I appreciate the creativity, really."

He tilted his head, water rippling across his translucent features.

"But you see, I’ve had time to adapt and understand my new form. Water flows continuously." He spread his arms. "And You can’t destroy something that has no fixed shape."

Calvin launched a barrage of metal projectiles, and they passed through Phillip like he wasn’t even there.

"Ahh, magnetism." Observed Phillip.

"Interesting but there’s only so much you can do with that."

Josephine fired arrows of light.

Same result.

"Energy-based attacks." Phillip actually smiled. "Better. But light passes through water, doesn’t it? Refraction, reflection. Beautiful really, when you think about it."

The pressure started increasing.

Calvin felt his metal shield begin to buckle inward, the air inside was getting thin and stale.

Josephine’s sphere cracked and thin line split across the golden surface.

"I don’t enjoy this, you know," Phillip said. He sounded genuinely apologetic. "Causing pain and fear. It’s not really in my nature. Even now, even after everything the master did to remake me, I prefer peace over violence."

He moved closer to them and water flowed with him like an extension of his body.

"Yet you are all sinners and by the will of father Chaos you must be purged without fail."

Calvin’s vision started blurring and Josephine’s sphere shattered completely. She dropped into the water with her arms flailing while Luna’s field collapsed and the water closed over her head.

The blue reaper was extracted out of the water into a bubble by Phillip.

"I’m sorry," said Phillip, and he actually sounded like he meant it. "But the master wants the Blue Reaper. And what the master wants, the master gets. The three of you are... well. Necessary casualties. I’ll make it quick and painless. That’s the best I can offer."

The water compressed tighter.

Calvin’s metal shield got smaller under the pressure, his ears were popping and his lungs felt like they were being crushed.

This was it, they were going to.....

And then the wall exploded, a massive blast of molten fire carved through the brick like a hot knife through butter.

The water around the entry point turned to steam instantly, creating a gap.

Peter stepped through. His hands glowed orange-red, and his bald headed face twisted with rage.

"PHILLIP!"

The water stopped crushing them immediately.

Phillip reformed into a solid shape, turning toward the hole in the wall. "Brother, what are you doing here."

"Don’t you dare ’brother’ me!" Peter’s voice was a raw scream. "I’ve been searching for you for twenty minutes! Do you have any idea how that made me look?"

"I was completing the mission....."

"And Seems like you were taking your sweet time!" Peter stomped forward. Where his feet touched the wet floor, steam erupted. "The master sent you here to complete my mission and that’s something I can’t accept."

"I haven’t failed, Peter. I was handling it."

"Handling it?" Peter gestured wildly at the Trinity and the Blue Reaper, who were all still alive, still breathing. "You can’t do anything right, all that time and They’re still not dead! You’re just... what? Having a conversation with them?"

"It’s not that simple"

"It is that simple!" Peter’s hands erupted into a full flame. "You just like to make it complicated. I don’t know what you stand to gain, maybe you think if you told your enemies how you do this cause you have to, they’d feel sympathy for you.!"

Phillip finally raised his voice.

"And you make everything about violence because you can’t control yourself. Just like you couldn’t control yourself with those civilians on the subway or when Lionheart came looking. Every single problem we have traces back to your inability to follow orders."

"My inability?" Peter laughed. "I’m not the one who got us punished! I’m not the one who questioned the master!"

"I was defending you!"

"I didn’t ask you to!" Peter’s voice cracked. "I never asked you to! But you couldn’t help yourself, could you? Perfect Phillip. Calm Phillip. Always cleaning up angry Peter’s messes."

The water around Phillip started churning faster.

"Someone has to clean up after you. Someone has to think, plan and consider consequences beyond immediate gratification."

"Consequences?" Peter’s face winced. "You want to talk about consequences? How about the consequence of your ’defense’ getting your hand chopped of? How about the consequence of making me look weak in front of the master?"

"That wasn’t my intention—"

"It never is!" Peter’s hands clenched into fists. Molten drops fell to the floor, burning holes in the expensive carpet. "Your intentions are always pure. Always noble. But somehow I’m always the one who ends up suffering for them!"

Phillip was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice had reduced in pitch.

"You think you suffer? You think you’re the victim here?" The water started spinning faster. "I gave up my hand for you. I took punishment meant for you. And instead of gratitude, instead of acknowledgment, all I get is blame."

"I never asked for your sacrifice."

"No, you never ask!, You just do whatever you want, and I’m left to deal with the aftermath! And that’s how its always been, even before we were reborn."

"Don’t bring that up"

"Why not?" Phillip’s form began expanding, water spreading across the floor. "It’s the truth. You were always the reckless one. The angry one. The one who got killed because he couldn’t back down from a fight"

Peter’s mind flashed back to the night in the warehouse and how he had instigated a few of the men to go against the blue reaper in the lead up to their inevitable death.

"Come one boys, he can’t take us all at once." those were his final words that day

The room temperature spiked so high that the remaining water started evaporating just from proximity to him.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me." Phillip’s calm facade had completely cracked now. The water was churning violently. "Your death was on you Peter and your inability to walk away from a fight."

"Shut up."

"And even now, even after the master gave us a second chance, you’re still the same. Still angry, violent and making me clean up your messes!"

"I said shut up!"

"Make me."

Peter moved and so did Phillip

Fire met water in an explosion that shook the entire building.

The Blue Reaper grabbed Calvin’s arm.

"What?"

"They’re going to kill each other. We use that to escape." The Blue Reaper’s hand glowed blue.

A portal opened beside them and Josephine was already stumbling toward it, coughing up water and Luna followed up behind.

Calvin let himself be dragged through.

The Blue Reaper was last. He paused at the threshold, watching the brothers.

Peter had grabbed Phillip by the throat, or what passed for a throat in his watery form. His hand was so hot that Phillip’s "flesh" was literally boiling away.

"You want to blame me?" Peter’s voice was raw. "Fine! Blame me! But after this is over, after I’m done with you, you won’t have a brother to protect anymore!"

"Finally," Phillip gasped. "Something we agree on."

The Blue Reaper stepped through the portal.

And It snapped shut behind him.