Holly Beach, Louisiana
Days before Savage






A dawn sun peeks out over the waters of a beach. But this isn't the beach set in Lux's mind. No, this is an actual beach. In these early morning hours it's devoid of all souls save one. Lux stands at the shore, light cutting into the gently rolling waves making the entire scene look like shimmering gold. A time and a place chosen for particular reasons. One, because no one else would be around to see the young man seemingly talking to himself, and two, because it was the surest example of this planet's bounty, and a vivid reminder of what she was fighting for.

Lux knew that Corey's mental image was behind her even before he spoke. She could feel his presence boring into her, the intensity of his bitterness like a choking cloud. Lux had no delusions that this would be easy, but she had to try or risk losing the boy forever.

It's beautiful, isn't it? Lux spoke softly.

It's a distraction. What do you want? Corey's response was cool and suspect.

Lux turned to look at him, and she had to conceal her surprise at what she saw. Corey's mental image looked thinner, gaunt even. His hair straw like and unhealthy looking. His skin tone pale and sickly. He's dying... The thought interjected itself in her mind, and she pressed on. I wanted to share this moment with you. And I wanted to talk.

Corey just looked at her blankly for a moment, before cocking his head and narrowing his eyes at her. You think you can just hand wave away the bullshit you pulled with a pretty sunrise?

Corey, I....

You LIED to me, Lux. You lied to me and you tried to use MY body to kill a child! Corey spat. There is no repairing that. How can you not understand that?

Lux nodded. I do understand that. And I understand things between us will never be the same. But I was trying to keep you innocent. Any actions that I took, as wrongheaded as they were, came from a place of...caring....

Yeah....yeah.....caring. Corey snorts derisively. That's a whole other matter. So you're gonna lie to me, and do what you did, and then come at me with this heartfelt expression of LOVE for me? Do you realize how fucked up that is, Lux? LOVE? I'm a 17 year old boy and you're a GHOST in my BRAIN! What box am I supposed to put that in, huh?

It's not like I planned it that way! Lux bit back her anger, drawing it back in and down. Then, softly, she speaks again. How do we go forward, Corey?

We don't. Corey uttered with chilling finality.

What do you mean?

Just...leave me alone....Corey turned to leave, and Lux raced in front of him to force him to see her.

What do you MEAN?

Corey responded without even looking at her. I can fade away.

Lux looked at him incredulously. What?!

I know you need to finish your mission. I'm not selfish enough to try to stop that. Lots of people are gonna get hurt if you can't do what you set out to do. But I can't be a part of it anymore. I just can't. My body is yours.

I don't understand....

Corey looked at her now, tears rimming his eyes. I'm going to make myself be gone. I can do that, Lux. I started collapsing the beach, to test it out. I can make myself go away. Just by thinking it.

Oh Jesus, he's going to kill himself. Lux's heart hammered in her chest. No, no, no! Please stay here with me! This isn't even about the mission Corey, I want you HERE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!

I don't love you. He spoke the words without bitterness or hostility, but with a profound sadness, like he was trying to convince her to sever the final tether binding him to her. Lux swallowed back the hurt of his words. But they weren't unexpected.

I know. I'm ok with that. I want you to live anyway. You don't have to love me back. Agony

Corey sputtered out a sob, but he didn't leave. Thank God he didn't leave. That meant Lux still had a chance. Tears started to form in the body's eyes, Lux's borrowed eyes. She ached to hold Corey, to comfort him, to lay on this beach and have a good cry with him, as though that alone could wash away her guilt for what she had done to him. But it couldn't. It would never come clean. I will be honest with you, about everything. From now on. I swear to God. And you get veto power on anything I do from now on. If you're not comfortable with it, it doesn't happen. Lux shuddered internally, realizing the full scale of what she had just done. Placing the success or failure of her mission directly in Corey's hands.

You can't do that.

I can. And I will. We'll save the world. She bent down, catching Corey's eye. Your way. Lux paused a moment, and then she took out her phone. There's something else.....

Corey looked at her with blood shot eyes full of dread. What else could their possibly....

No. Not like that. I've been thinking Corey, I've kept you to myself. And that was wrong too. Lux opened up a text message, and stabbed in a quick message to someone. I kept you to myself because I feared for the mission, yes. But also because, I think, I selfishly just wanted you for myself on some level. You need more than me. You need more than just my mission. Corey, you need to live again. Lux looked up from the phone. You're about to get a call. Take control, Corey.

Corey looked at her uncomprehendingly. What are you...? A call from who?

The phone started to ring. Take control, Corey. Answer the call.

Corey, still looking distraught and confused, looked at the phone, and then back at Lux. Hurry. Lux prodded.

Corey pinched his eyes shut, and he allowed himself to drift back into his body. Coming to and seeing the verdant sunlight breaking out over the water with his own eyes, he presses his thumb down on the answer button on the phone and brings it to his ear.

Hey Corey, it's Vita. Listen, we got a lot to talk about....

Later....

Lux sat on the sands overlooking the beach scene from earlier. The fullness of the morning was upon her now, the sun hanging high in the sky and the first influx of beach goers had started to trickle in. Lux allowed herself a small smile, taking in the normalcy of it all. A woman walking her toy poodle. A mother and her children enjoying an early morning wade in the shallows. A couple walking down the water, hand in hand. Behind her, the small community of Holly Beach was coming to life. She allowed herself this brief respite to experience the present moment. The vibrancy of it all. She made up life histories about the people she saw, ascribing them tales of love, hope, fear, loss, and redemption. But more than any of that, she keyed in to the fact that these people and this place were the reason she continued to fight. Some of the reasons, anyway.

Corey's phone call with VV had gone well. Lux was well aware of how Corey felt about the girl, and yes she had to put away her own childish notions of territoriality in letting him speak with her, but she knew it was for the best. That call may have just saved Corey's life.

It was also, of course, going to entail a great deal of work in the coming weeks.

But that was for the future. Now was for Donovan Blackwater.

We're quite the privileged pair, aren't we Donovan? We're inhabitants of the world beneath the world, that strange savage land that goes largely undetected by folks like the people on this beach. A world of wonderful, terrible things. You, ostensibly the offspring of an extraterrestrial, now a prim, pressed, and devilishly handsome demi-God of sorts, wielding powers straight out of a super hero comic book. Now, I'm not quibbling with what you present yourself as. Lord knows we had more than our fair share of that in the lead-in to March Madness. I take you at your word, Donovan. I'm merely pointing out that all of that lends you a certain leg-up on most.

Me on the other hand, I don't have any special powers per se. I'm decent in a fight, and know how to assemble and disassemble most firearms blind folded. That's what we in the assassination business call a “resume builder”, by the by. But my life experience, suffice it to say, is what gives me a rather unique perspective. I know what most people simply suspect. That monsters are real, and they're here amongst us. That evil exists. And that I, for better or for worse, am in a unique position to challenge it.

Now before you go leaping off any rhetorical cliffs, I'm not saying you're one of those monsters Donovan. You're not THAT bad. Because honestly, you're something a bit lesser than that. A bit baser and more simplistic.

You're just a dick.

Which, in a twisted way, is kind of a shame. I mean, from a creative standpoint you have all the trappings of a great villain. The suits. The perfect coif. The haughty air and ever present sneer. You COULD have been one of those malevolent world destroying forces that I'm hunting. Emphasis on COULD though, because it seems that despite all of your privilege and power you seem content to kick back like some kind of bored debutante, sneering at the common people, popping a space Xanax and wondering why everyone else can't be just as damned special as you are.

So allow me to invite you back here, to the land of the living. Here, on Saturday Night Savage, where somehow, despite not even wanting to be champion, you still are. Unless you have forgotten you're champion, that is. Ground control to Major Blackwater. How's the air up there?

I have an urgent message for you space command, wherever you are. I care. I give a damn about that title. And while it may be just some passing fancy to you, some discarded children's toy lying broken at the back of the closet, it's quite a bit more than that to me. You see, while you get whatever the half alien equivalent of “white girl wasted” is, sipping wine coolers in some exotic pent house on the moon as you sigh for having to bear the weight of the absolute albatross that is the TV Title while Admiral Ackbar and ET pretend to nod sympathetically but secretly wonder how a fellow alien could be such a facile uninteresting douche .....**deep breath**......I'm the one back here on Earth preparing to wipe your face in your own smug egoism and remind you that, yes, your title DOES matter and no, you don't get to have your space cake and eat it too. No, you do not, in fact, get to see your name appear on that vaunted list of champions as you sputter about how dreadfully droll it is to be tethered to just one show (oh the absolute HORROR).

So don't worry Donovan, help is on the way. I am here to release your urbane, jet-setting self from the pure drudgery of having to appear on Savage week after week. You are now free to move about the XWF as you wish, which I am so certain will definitely result in some sort of era defining championship run with a title that is actually worth your precious time and attention. I'll do you a solid and bet on black(water). Black in this case being, best guess, a couple more months with the X-treme before you bottom out and tag in one of your supporting characters...errr... brothers. And while I cash out all the chips I won on that sure bet, let me explain a little bit more about why you just irk me so much.

That title that you carelessly denigrated has HISTORY, Donovan. Just like the people on this beach, people you no doubt consider to be completely below your regard, the TV championship is built on the blood, sweat and toil of the 30-odd people who came before you. There is history there. There are stories there. Not all of them great. But some of them are. Your own father's vaunted reign for one. I appreciate that, Donovan. And while you may turn your nose up at all those stories, it would be MY HONOR to be that title's next story, and in so doing, relegate YOU to footnote status.

We are living Gods, the new epic heroes. Zeus, Apollo, and Hera have passed into the realm of simple flights of fancy. We have taken over for those myths, fighting for championship gold and being broadcast live over three quarters of the globe to millions of adoring fans. Telling stories full of thrills, heart break, rage, and joy. Our fights pass into legend, and become a part of the fabric of the XWF. We see highs that most people can only dream of. That's part of our privilege too. And when you take that for granted, when you sneer at it as being something so small, so infinitesimal, that's it's no longer even worth your consideration, hell yes I take exception to that.

Donovan, if the TV championship is but a mote in God's eye to you, I hope you're fixing for this mote to blind you for good.