Helplessness #20

The days passed in a quiet, fragile peace, a lull in the storm that Nathan knew couldn't last. As much as he tried to keep his distance, an inevitable attachment grew. Lily's presence was like a small, steady flame in the cold, shadowy corners of his heart.

Despite everything she had endured, she still found ways to laugh, to smile, and to wonder at the world around her. She had an uncanny ability to find beauty in the simplest things—a butterfly resting on a windowpane, the rustling of leaves in the wind—and it chipped away at the hardened walls Nathan had built over the years.

Her brightness was infectious, a stark contrast to the darkness that Nathan had let consume him. She reminded him of the man he once was, the man who believed in something more than survival and violence. Every day with her felt like a small, tentative step back toward the light he had long since abandoned. Yet, beneath the warmth of these moments, an unsettling truth loomed.

Nathan knew there could be no perfectly happy ending. The reality of their situation was too grim, too fraught with danger. As much as he wanted to believe he could protect her forever, a life on the run was no life for a child. She needed a home, a place where she could grow and be free from the shadows of those who would seek to use her.

The question of where to take her gnawed at him until the answer became uncomfortably clear. There was only one place, one group that could offer her the protection and stability she needed. It wasn't a perfect solution, and Nathan was well aware of the complexities it entailed.

The leader of that group was a formidable man, not known for his compassion, but he had a code. He treated his fellow mutants with respect and, most importantly, he had the power to shield her from any force that might come after her.

Nathan's jaw tightened at the thought. It wasn't an easy decision. He couldn't ignore the potential for Lily to be drawn into the leader's agenda, to be used for his own ends. Yet, as much as it pained him, it was a better alternative than the constant threat of capture or worse.

She deserved more than a life of perpetual fear and hiding.

As the resolve solidified in his mind, Nathan packed their scant belongings. Each item folded away carried a weight of memories and unspoken fears.

He glanced over at Lily, her small form curled up in an armchair, her face serene as she slept. For a moment, he let himself imagine a different life, one where they weren't fugitives, where she could live without the burden of her powers.

But he knew that was a fantasy.

Steeling himself, Nathan gently shook her awake. Her eyes fluttered open, the familiar trust in them piercing through his guilt. "Lily," he said softly, "we need to leave. I'm taking you somewhere safe."

She sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Safe?" she repeated, her voice tinged with a mix of hope and trepidation. "Where?"

Nathan hesitated, searching for the right words. "To a place where there are others like you. A place where you can be protected."

Lily's brow furrowed, sensing his apprehension. "Will you be coming with me?"

Nathan's heart clenched at the question. "I'll stay as long as I can," he said, avoiding the full truth. "But it's important that you have a home, a real one."

The sadness in her eyes was palpable, but she nodded, trusting him despite the uncertainties. Nathan gathered their things, his mind set on the journey ahead.

Leaving the forest and the sanctuary of the cabin felt like stepping into a nightmare that Nathan couldn't escape. The wilderness, with its quietude and simplicity, had been a fragile bubble of peace. Now, thrust back into the real world, that bubble shattered with brutal clarity.

Nathan soon discovered the extent of their predicament: Lily's face was plastered across every screen, her image distributed with a warning that she had been kidnapped. It was a nationwide manhunt, and nearly every law enforcement officer was on high alert, searching for the child who had unknowingly become a symbol of something far greater and darker.

Nathan's skills, honed over years of military service, were pushed to the limit. He expertly navigated through roadblocks, evaded patrols, and slipped through the cracks of the government's extensive net. But it wasn't just the authorities they had to fear. Word had spread in the criminal underworld about Lily's unique abilities.

Mutants and mercenaries, lured by the promise of power and profit, were on the hunt as well. They had waited, biding their time for the perfect moment to strike. And now, with the government's attention drawn, they moved in for the kill.

Nathan's every instinct screamed to protect Lily, to keep her safe no matter the cost. But it was a battle against impossible odds. He fought with the ruthless efficiency of a man who had spent his life in the shadows of conflict, every strike precise, every movement calculated.

Yet, even with all his skill, he was still just a man. Against the combined forces of trained soldiers, deadly mercenaries, and mutants wielding terrifying powers, Nathan found himself overwhelmed.

Cornered in a desolate industrial district, he fought with everything he had. The air was thick with the stench of gunpowder and blood. Bodies littered the ground as Nathan pushed himself beyond his limits, refusing to yield. But his body, battered and bloodied, betrayed him.

His vision blurred, his limbs grew heavy, and he collapsed to his knees, blood pooling beneath him. He looked up at Lily, his heart wrenching at the blank expression on her face. She was in shock, frozen amidst the chaos and carnage.

"Lily... run," he managed to gasp, but the words barely left his lips before his strength gave out, and he crumpled to the ground.

But Lily didn't run.

Something inside her snapped. The gentle, kind child who had always shied away from violence, who had never raised a hand in anger, could no longer stand idly by. Her small frame trembled, not with fear, but with a growing, unstoppable power. Her eyes, once wide with innocence, now burned with a fierce determination.

Nathan watched, helpless and horrified, as Lily unleashed her mutant abilities in ways he hadn't thought possible. Her powers, suppressed and controlled for so long, erupted in a surge of raw energy.

Her body transformed—arms sprouted extra limbs, her skin shimmered with an unnatural hue, and flames crackled at her fingertips. She moved with blinding speed, her punches shattering bones, her fire reducing their attackers to ash.

The scene unfolded like a biblical reckoning. Lily tore through their assailants with a vengeance that left Nathan speechless. The mercenaries who had mocked and jeered moments ago were now screaming, their confidence reduced to terror.

Mutants with their own formidable abilities fell before her, unable to withstand the sheer fury of her assault.

Nathan's heart ached as he watched her. This wasn't what he had wanted for her. He had fought to protect her from this very fate, to keep her from becoming a weapon. But now, in the face of overwhelming danger, Lily had taken up arms in the most literal sense, her powers an extension of her will to survive.

No matter how many adversaries Lily struck down, they just kept coming—mercenaries, soldiers, mutants, each wave more relentless than the last. The air was thick with the acrid scent of burning debris and the metallic tang of blood.

Lily, her small frame now a battleground of grotesque mutations, continued to wield her powers with a ferocity that defied her age. Her once gentle hands were now fists of raw power, her delicate features marred by the grotesque mutations she forced upon herself.

Nathan watched in horror as her eyes began to bleed, dark crimson streaks staining her cheeks. Veins bulged unnaturally across her face, pulsating with the strain of powers she should never have had to wield. It wasn't just the physical toll that terrified him—it was the emptiness in her gaze, a void where her innocence once resided.

"Stop!" Nathan's voice cracked with desperation. He stumbled forward, pain wracking his body, but his injuries were nothing compared to the agony of watching Lily destroy herself. "You don't have to do this! Please, just stop!"

But his pleas fell on deaf ears. Whether it was the exhaustion, the blind rage, or simply the overwhelming desire to end the nightmare, Lily pressed on, her movements becoming more mechanical, more sluggish with every passing second. It was clear that her body couldn't endure the strain of her power.

Blood flowed freely from her eyes now, staining the ground beneath her. Her breathing grew ragged, but she didn't falter. She couldn't.

Nathan's heart pounded in his chest. This wasn't what he wanted. He had promised to protect her, to keep her safe from the monsters that hunted her, but now she was becoming one of them. "Lily, please! You have to stop!" His voice was hoarse, each word drenched in anguish.

Suddenly, she was surrounded. A ring of enemies closed in, weapons raised, eyes filled with grim determination. Lily, standing at the center of the storm, turned to Nathan. Her expression softened, the fire in her eyes dimming for the briefest of moments. A warm, almost serene smile spread across her face—a stark contrast to the chaos around her.

"Thank you..." she whispered, her voice barely audible over the cacophony of the battle.

Before Nathan could react, Lily raised her hand. In an instant, a blinding light enveloped him. The world spun around him, and then, with a disorienting jolt, he found himself somewhere else entirely. He collapsed onto soft, damp earth, the sharp pain in his body fading as if it had never existed. His wounds were gone, his breath coming easier. But the relief was fleeting.

A deafening explosion ripped through the air. The ground beneath him trembled as the distant cityscape lit up with a fiery blaze. Two entire blocks were obliterated, reduced to smoldering ruins in an instant. The shockwave echoed in Nathan's chest, a grim reminder of the devastation he had failed to prevent.

"No…" Nathan whispered, his voice cracking under the weight of realization. His heart shattered into a thousand pieces as the truth sank in. Lily had sacrificed herself to save him. She had used the last of her strength to teleport him away, knowing full well what her final act would be.

She had become a bomb, detonating her own body to wipe out the threat, ensuring Nathan's escape while paying the ultimate price.

The failure was absolute. Nathan knew, in that moment, that he had lost. Not just the battle, but the war for Lily's soul, her future. He had promised to protect her, and instead, he had led her to her death.

Tears streamed down his face as he knelt in the dirt, staring at the distant inferno. The guilt, the anguish, it crushed him.

The weight of Nathan's failure pressed down on him like an anchor dragging him into a bottomless abyss. The thought of Lily's death, the sheer futility of it all, was enough to make him consider ending it then and there. But what gnawed at him even more was the cruel irony that she had possessed the power to get them both out without a single life lost.

She had sacrificed herself because of his failure to prepare her, to guide her properly.

If he hadn't tried so hard to shield her, if he had taught her to harness her abilities instead of keeping her in the dark, maybe—just maybe—things would have turned out differently. Each heartbeat pounded a rhythm of regret and self-loathing in his chest, his mind a storm of "what-ifs" and "should-haves." The shame was a fire that burned within him, consuming every fiber of his being until it left only rage in its wake.

A boiling, relentless rage.

It roiled in his gut, twisting his grief into a weapon, a purpose. He couldn't let it end with Lily. Her death wouldn't be in vain. He wouldn't punish himself; that would be too easy. The true reckoning would come for those who had set this tragedy in motion. Those who had hunted her, manipulated her, made her into a tool for their own ends. And he knew exactly where to start.

Nathan returned to his base, his arrival met with the usual camaraderie. No one suspected anything out of the ordinary—he had taken a rare vacation, the first in his entire career since enlistment. To his peers, he was merely back from some much-needed rest. But beneath his calm exterior simmered a deadly resolve.

Without wasting a moment, Nathan made his way to General Ross's office, each step heavy with the weight of his purpose. The corridors blurred around him, his mind singularly focused on the man who had played a pivotal role in the nightmare that had unfolded.

The door to the office swung open, and there he was—General Ross, standing behind his desk, his face a mask of authority and cold calculation. Nathan's vision tunneled. Rage consumed him as he lunged across the room with a speed born of pure adrenaline.

His knife found its mark, slicing through fabric and flesh, embedding itself in the general's side. The strike wasn't fatal, but it was deliberate. Nathan wanted to see the fear, the understanding, in Ross's eyes.

The bodyguards moved fast, but not fast enough to stop the initial attack. They tackled Nathan to the ground, wresting the blade from his grasp, but his fury could not be silenced. Thrashing against their hold, Nathan roared, a torrent of curses and threats spilling from his lips.

"You killed her! You killed Lily, you bastard!" His voice cracked with the intensity of his emotion. "You and your goddamn experiments! She was a child, and you turned her into a weapon! You think you can just erase that? Sweep it under the rug?"

Ross, clutching his wound, narrowed his eyes but said nothing. The room was electric with tension, the weight of Nathan's accusations hanging heavy in the air.

"You used her," Nathan spat, his voice raw with emotion. "You're responsible for her death, for all those deaths! She didn't have to die! You did this, Ross! You made her a target, and now she's gone!"

The bodyguards restrained him, pinning him to the floor, but Nathan didn't stop. His rage was a tidal wave, crashing against the walls of the room, seeking an outlet, a way to make Ross feel even a fraction of the pain he was enduring.

"I'll kill you," Nathan growled, his voice low and menacing. "I'll make sure you pay for what you've done. For every innocent life you've destroyed."

Ross, pale and grimacing, finally spoke, his voice a cold, measured contrast to Nathan's fury. "You think you're the only one who's lost something? The only one who's had to make sacrifices? This is war, Cross. And in war, casualties happen. Collateral damage."

Nathan's eyes burned with a hatred that words could no longer contain. He struggled against the guards, his body trembling with the need to unleash his wrath fully.

But deep down, beneath the seething anger and the burning grief, Nathan knew this was just the beginning. General Ross might have survived this encounter, but Nathan's war had only just begun.

...

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