The Martyr: Book 2

Maude

Typically, students get a three-week break between academic years at Stonewall Academy. Unfortunately, I decided to accidentally bring an end to all time powers and destroy Duration group. Therefore, school was extended for a week while everyone tried to figure out what the fuck happened. So summer was cut short a week. I guess that's fair considering I changed thousands of peoples powers across the world by accidentally having Ember burn the chain of The Originator (the thing that controls time powers).

I have no regrets. Especially after having to go through the final exam, which haunts me every night. And it helps that no one knows what happened. Well, no one besides Luke, myself, and the two girls who helped me do it: Ember and Reyna.

My parents, head of the Super Police (SP) of the country, don't know that I'm the reason for the chaos taking over the world. I'm not sure what lawful consequences would accompany that, if any. But my parents do know the headmaster of Stonewall Academy woke me from a medically induced coma to let me be killed in the final exam. Joke is on her, I guess.

This caused a full investigation to be launched on Stonewall Academy. The final exam has been the same for ages. But my group was the first to survive due to the academy's control collars not being able to work on me. So yeah, I cheated, but I'm alive. Six students that should have died are alive. And it's the first time. Which means that there's finally first hand evidence of what happened during the exam. That's the one piece of information the SP needed to finally put an end to it.

Apparently, in the past, the case was always dismissed because there was no one from the exam to say what actually happened. It didn't matter that the whole student body and teaching staff watched in the ballroom like a game show. It didn't matter that the most elite students were completely mind controlled into helping be the firing squad for the exam. It didn't matter that families sent their children to school never to be seen again. Because there was magic at play and no concrete evidence despite the fact that everyone knew it was very real.

That day, my part in the trial had ended. I stared at the SP courthouse with Axel and Luke at my sides as we awaited the final verdict against Stonewall Academy.

Both Axel and Luke were covering their shade match tattoos. Axel was a rare match. the last letter of his code was a strange letter that was an E and an F. This gives him the ability to match with two shades. But once I saw his tattoo, we were forever connected on a spiritual level. We feel the other's extremes. Like he felt the pain that caused me to be medically induced into a coma last school year. He felt my fear during the final exam. I felt his relief and happiness when he found out I was alive.

The shade matches are said to be the ancient super beings - the Supers - way of making the strongest connections between people with powers. Sometimes, like in my parents case, it's because they have the same power. They're both tri-tele (they have telekinesis, telepathic, and teleportation powers). But other times, like in mine and Axel's case, it's kind of an opposites attract situation. I'm tri-tele but Axel has the four main elemental powers - earth, air, fire, and water. I'm mental, he's elemental.

Luke is quite the special case...

Luke is what's know in the superpower world as a chameleon. This is because he can copy the powers of those around him. Once he's copied the powers, he has them forever. It's the rarest power of all. The powers possessed by the Supers and the founders of Stonewall Academy, the world's first superpower educational facility. In fact, Luke is a direct descendent from the founder of the Serenity group. Each founder started their own group that was based off of the different colors of their crests. Chameleons don't have an exact shade match at first. Because their crests are an ombre of the color of their group. The groups represent the founder's ideals for education and control of superpowers. It's how and where you'll develop your powers the best. The colors are based off of the colors of the original founders' crests. There are six groups: Balance (blue), Serenity (pink), Rumination (red), Transformation (yellow), Cultivation (green), and Duration (gray). Well... only five now. It's kind of a whole mess.

But back to Luke, the Serenity group has a second year student mentor a first year student to assist with controlling their powers. After mentoring me all year and teaching me to control my powers, Luke's shade match tattoo filled in. Luckily for me, the last letter of his shade match filled in during the final exam. This broke him of the control over him for him to rip off one of his control collars and save me from certain death.

Axel and Luke have never seen each other's tattoos. So they don't have a direct connection to each other. And that is a very very very good thing because they generally don't play nice together. It's not a love triangle thing. I love Axel like a big brother and he also feels no romantic love to me. Luke is my boyfriend - finally. Axel watched his mentee die in the final exam when he was in his second year. He didn't want to watch one of his shade matches die too. So he was always extra hard on Luke once I was in the picture. And he still is because Axel thinks it's fun to annoy Luke (and it's usually a little entertaining). Axel graduated at the end of last school year, so I won't have to play mediator with them anymore.

"You okay?" Axel asked as he rubbed small, soothing circles on my back. I looked at the courthouse while Luke held my hand in his left hand. His other hand was holding Ember Abcroft's hand. Ember was the reason I ended up in a coma and the exam. But I couldn't have passed the exam without her. We used to hate each other's guts, but recently it's been different. I guess almost dying in a horrifying series of events planned by your school will get girls to bond together.

Luke and Ember are like siblings. Luke's parents were murdered during his first school year at Stonewall Academy. Luke grew up best friends with Ember's brother, Blaze and so the Abcroft's took Luke in as their own while he's still a student at Stonewall.

I shook my head in response to Axel's question. I was afraid if I spoke then I would end up sobbing and crying again. Today was the day that our memories of the exam were read and displayed for the entire SP and Superpower Protection and Correction Council (SPACC) to see. To have the memories pulled out of me to watch was no less vivid than going through the exam all over again. The sea monsters, the planes, the poison fog, the Knockvolley firing squad... it was just too much.

The trial had taken up most of my two weeks off. The Day of Fruition, also my birthday, was tomorrow. Which meant I returned to Stonewall the day after tomorrow.

Hours started to pass but I stayed glued to the outside of the courthouse with my friends as the verdict would be decided upon by the head of the SP, my parents, and the SPACC judges and leaders. Finally, my parents emerged. I stopped breathing. The world was spinning in a panic as I didn't see smiles on their faces.

Axel grit his teeth and continued to anchor me still. Luke wobbled a little but steadied himself. All three of us were an overwhelming mess of nervous panic.

I didn't notice that Axel's brother, Ember's brother, and some of our other friends had come to support us. In fact, every local Stonewall student gathered behind us at the courthouse. I felt two large hands on my shoulders from behind as my parents approached. It was Barry Hendrix, a guy in Serenity who's in Luke's year and one of our close friends. Barry has the ability to manipulate emotions. He can do this from afar without touching someone but I know he was putting everything he had into calming me down. Which in return, would help Axel and Luke calm down. Three birds, one stone kind of situation.

I felt a swirl of emotions but they were masked by the steady calm Barry was pouring into me. My parents approached and looked at all the students who were nervously waiting what they had to say.

"There will be no more final exam at Stonewall Academy," my mother announced. "But students who do not pass will be taken to a SPACC correctional facility. They will remain there until they can display proper control and ability to use their powers."

There was mass cheering from the students but not me. The final exam being over was great news. But sending students to jail when they failed seemed harsh. And something in my parents' expressions told me this wasn't much of a victory.

Barry's hands lifted off of me with the news as he clapped and shook Luke's shoulders in a bro-congrats kind of way.

Axel hugged me tight. "You did it, kiddo. The nightmare has finally ended," he murmured into my hair. Axel was once a very muscular and fit man. However, when I went into the coma, his body took a toll leaving him nearly skin and bones now. His hug felt so strong despite how fragile he was.

I didn't realize I was sobbing until Ember and I were sobbing in each other's arms. Our friends all joining in to comfort us and hide us from the paparazzi who were capturing the emotional moment that will go down in history.

After the paparazzi were driven off and everyone had calmed down, I found myself talking to Axel and his brother, Alex. It was the last time I was going to see Axel before I went to Stonewall. Alex was going into his fourth year in the Balance group. My parents were teleporting them home tonight so Alex could get ready to go to Stonewall.

"Happy early birthday, Maude." Axel said as he hugged me. "I'll write to you as often as I can. I love you and Alex will be there if you need anything."

"I love you too. I'll see you at the end of fall break," I said to Axel. Stonewall Academy had one week breaks between each season. It helped make up for the lack of summer but still allowed students to return home to see their families for short periods of time.

"I sure will be, always there to tap the kegs and get her into lots of trouble," Alex joked lightly.

"She finds enough trouble on her own," Axel laughed as he kissed the top of my head and the boys walked over to their parents.

If only Axel knew the half of it...

I didn't tell him about how I was somehow fated to stop Donovan Vespa, the creator of Duration house. I didn't tell him that I had Ember destroy the chain and accidentally eliminated time superpowers. I didn't tell him that Donovan Vespa (DV) was able to take over people and that he was using the chain to weaken Duration students. I didn't tell him that's why I destroyed the chain. And I certainly didn't tell him that Donovan Vespa will use his Time-master abilities to seek revenge and try to kill me.

But what I didn't need to tell him, was the cold tingling of separation that rushed through me once he was gone.