The Bloodforged Kin

Zavier's memory went into overdrive as he replayed their walk here. They'd taken eight turns that had had other options. Four of them could only lead back toward the entry, since they would be hemmed in by their current path or the paths of the other four. All four of the ones that remained were in the same direction so he yelled "Let's move! Follow me exactly!" He took off at as much of a run as he could get in this space. He was balancing moving ahead fast enough to not slow them down, but not so fast as to get more than one turn ahead of them.

"We gotta pick this up! We've only covered about a third of the room!" He realized that the water was filling the room faster than they could explore. It was still only at their ankles, but at the rate they were moving they'd be swimming before they reached the end. This isn't working. We need a new plan.

He stopped to let the others catch up. "Tess, kneel down with me. Cass, get in front of us." They kneeled in the rising water while Cass climbed awkwardly over them to get to the front.

"Okay bud, this is your time to shine. We need you to put that speed to use. I need you to run absolutely as fast as you can. Explore every route until you get to that typewriter thing. Do you have the speed for it?"

Cass nodded, a confident smile lighting up his face. "Hell yeah I do. Can you keep up?"

Zavier nodded. "I'll keep up, you just do your thing. Ready?"

Cass nodded, turned, then was off in a blur. If they'd been out in the open it would have been damned hard to keep eyes on him, but Zavier wasn't watching Cass - he was watching his wake.

Cass moved through the water like a force of nature, the water clearing behind him with every step. The first few paths he took too quickly, slamming into the invisible walls with enough force to send him rebounding. He slowed down after that until Zavier reached out on the group chat.

"You gotta pick it up son. You heal fast and your body is tougher than pre-System, you can handle bouncing off a few walls. Just lead with your shoulder."

Cass knew it wasn't the time to let fear slow him down. His family was counting on him and, for once, he was the one who could save them. He began to realize that his enhanced speed came with faster reflexes and reactions - if he ran with one hand out to the side and one in front of him he could feel for changes in the walls' directions or an abrupt stop in front of him. It didn't give him enough time to slow but it allowed him to spin in place to slam into it with his back, rebounding and flying back the way he came without losing momentum. His other hand traced the wall as he ran, feeling for openings. It wasn't long before he realized that although the water seemed to be moving in slow motion, he could see where it was showing openings he'd passed already, the waves revealing walls as they crashed into them.

This was only the second time since The System arrived that he'd felt like he was doing what he was supposed to do - like he had a place. The first was with Father Gabriel, but even that took a distant back seat to this moment. Then, he had been working for someone else - doing their work for them. He didn't believe Gabriel was the evil person his parents did, but he was willing to admit that things had gotten out of control, and not even Cass had been able to help stop it.

This moment, though, was different. Here, he wasn't working for someone else or helping them accomplish their dream - here he was saving his family. He was finally doing something useful - something that no one else could do. If he failed they would all die, which meant they needed him in a way they never had before.

If he failed, they would all die. They would drown right in front of him and he'd be forced to watch it through the clear walls. Deep down he knew he wouldn't watch, he'd turn his back to them. He couldn't watch that, not after letting them all die. Not after failing them.

His brain and feet stuttered at the same moment as that thought came to him. With his attention on his thoughts he didn't sense the wall in time and, in a flash of blinding light and pain he was plowing through the water on his back, cutting through like a speedboat. Stars erupted in his vision and it took seconds before he even recognized he wasn't standing anymore.

He sat up, staring at his hands in confusion. Why am I sitting in water?

Voices rang out in his head and he turned to the source. Oh yeah, he thought, we need to get out of this maze.

His mind caught up to the real world as his family's faces came into focus. Their expressions were heavy with fear - for him or their situation, he couldn't be sure. What kind of fucked up situation did we get into that they're all relying on me to save them?

The thought came in fast and unexpected, like a wrecking ball to the brittle confidence he'd been building. He realized that, as much as he wanted to save them - to be the hero they needed him to be - he just couldn't be the one responsible for keeping them alive. His heart hitched a beat at the ugly truth, but now that the barb had been planted there was no pulling it free.

They need me to save them, even though they don't think I can. He searched their faces through the panels of glass between them. Right now they just looked scared, but Cass was sure that he could see it creeping up behind their expressions; None of them expected him to succeed. None of them were going to be surprised if they all died because he couldn't pull his weight.

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What if it's inevitable, though? I don't want them to die, but if we're all going to die anyway then why stretch it out? And why have it be my fault? How bad have things gotten if they're relying on ME to save them? When it gets worse, are they going to rely on me again? What happens if I can't do anything about it then?

The thoughts turned dark even as they overlapped in his mind. What if I can't save them? They don't have to know that I gave up trying to find a way out. They could just think that there wasn't an exit - that this place had trapped them in a cage with no exit. They wouldn't blame me for it...

The thoughts didn't come in neat sentences and questions, instead they erupted into his mind as a ball of emotions, confusion, doubt, and fear mixed with half-formed questions and dark affirmations.

"CASS!" Three voices called out in the group chat at once. He sat up and shook his head, clearing away the thoughts as much as the pain. Blood dripped from his nose into the water, trickling and stopping even as he watched. He looked into the distance at his family, finding both comfort and disdain in their concerned expressions. They were always so fucking WORRIED about him! This really just had to stop, enough was enough.

He looked at them and gave a half-hearted wave, then dropped his hands into the water that was now covering his thighs. His head throbbed and it was hard to focus on his hands under the water.

"Cass, we need you buddy. C'mon man," Zavier said.

"Honey, please. We're going to die if you don't finish this. We need your help - only you can do this!" Tess's voice was laden with concern but carried an undertone of understanding. She knew what was going on in his head, and knew that there was a good chance they might not get him out of this in time.

Another voice came across the chat, this one decidedly less comforting. "Get your lazy ass up, idiot! Are you trying to make us beg or something? Get us to this exit or I'm coming over there and kicking you in the balls."

He chuckled at that. The scary part about Luna threatening to kick you in the balls is that you never knew if she was serious about it or not, and her timetable was unpredictable. She had no problem making you think that THIS was the time she didn't mean it, then the next day you'd find yourself on your knees, trying not to throw up while she said "I told you I was going to kick you in the balls."

He got to his feet again and banished his inner saboteur, burying it under a layer of bravado, both false and true. He was off again, waves crashing behind him like thunder.

Zavier breathed a sigh of relief as Cass began running again. "Oh thank god," he said, wanting to rest his forehead against the wall but not wanting to lose sight of the movements of the waves.

Then, in an anti-climactic instant, Cass was standing in front of the machine, the water rippling and bouncing off a square room roughly fifteen feet across. One minute he was running down a path, the next he was at the end.

Even including the thirty or so seconds that Cass had recovered from hitting the wall, his entire trip through the maze had taken less than five minutes. Zavier reflected and realized that it had taken exactly three minutes and forty-three seconds. I think my brain must be healing, he thought. It's nice to finally get to use some of this System-given power.

"Let's go!" he said and took off at as fast a run as he could, Tess and Luna close behind. He knew the route to take, Cass's successful route laid out like a map in his mind. As they jogged, power-walked, and sprinted sporadically, Zavier was running estimates and came to the grim realization that the water was filling in faster with each passing second. They'd be making it to the end with just enough time for their heads to be above water.

He thought about something Tess had said earlier, "Of all the things we could survive, I think suffocating would be the one we can do the least about. It's not like we can bring in air." He didn't think he could bring any in, but he might be able to preserve what they had. While they moved he let his body run on autopilot, turning his attention to his skill and the pen. He practiced patterns, testing them out as they ran. Some flopped, some fizzled, some never manifested anything that he could see. Once he even managed to shoot a beam of water straight back into his face.

"Watch it!" Tess shouted when he jumped back reflexively, knocking her backwards into Luna.

"Sorry!" The water was at their chests and the going was slow. They made swimming movements with their arms to push themselves forwards, leaning into the water.

"One more turn and we're there!" He called out over his shoulder. His internal map proved true as they swam into the space together.

"Okay quick! Everyone get close together, I need to try something." He pulled out the pen and worked on the patterns he'd been practicing with System Block. It didn't work great on capturing air, he just didn't have enough observational experience with air to be able to tell if his experiments were working or not. His original plan had been to create bubbles of air around their heads, giving them a few extra minutes. When that had failed it occurred to him that if he couldn't trap the air, maybe he could prevent it from being displaced in the first place.

His first pattern was complete and he pushed outward with his mind. His family could see the ripples as it moved through the water to block the passage that they had just entered through. He drew another and held out both hands, pressing downward with his palms. The water shuddered and suddenly rippled against an invisible barrier, looking as if it was trapped under glass. Luna gasped in amazement as she reached through and touched the water.

"How can I reach through it? I don't feel anything!"

Zavier responded through gritted teeth. "I'm not creating a barrier, I'm just blocking the water from going any higher. I can't stop it all, I'm just stopping the first layer of water molecules on the surface. Anything thicker would be too much. Even this won't last long. Someone needs to figure out this puzzle!"

They all looked with dawning horror at the machine that was now fully submerged.