Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20181223224329/@comment-5543592-20181224004850

The nullifier snapped shut, cutting off the mutant’s powers. But the effect was not the same as before. It did not turn Hades back itno what he had been before. Instead he thrashed and buckled, still an abomination of flesh, and tried to rid himself of the nullifier. Tanner turned Hades over, overpowering the mutant with recentless strength, and pressed the hand to Hades’ snarling face. It glowed with light.

“Rest now, old friend.”   He murmured.

Hades screamed agonizingly and submerged completely beneath the water. He writhed beneath Tanner, but the psyker would not be moved. He had a determined, unyielding manner to him now. He would finish this, whatever the cost. The pair of them grew very bright, so much so that they hurt to look at.

When the light receded, the screaming mutant was gone. In its place was an old man, the most old person any of them had ever seen. He was naked, but his lower body was tastefully covered by the murky water, his upper body resting across Tanner’s knees.

He looked up with eyes full of awe. “Tanner?”   The old man’s voice was rough, perhaps powerful once, but now weak, just like the man himself.

Tanner nodded. He looked more exhausted now than he ever had. Pale and weak from his overuse of the power. Bags under his eyes from hours without sleep. He was someone who had come to the end of a long journey, and now only wanted it to be over.

A question willed itself to the old man’s lips. “Why?”

“Because you were sick, boss.”   Tanner said softly, clasping one of the old man’s hands in two of his own. “But so was I, once. And you helped me get better.”

A single tear found its way out of the old man’s eye. “Thank you.”

Tanner smiled brokenly.

“And now I die.”   The old man whispered.

Tanner mouth twisted into a bittersweet expression. He both loved and hated this man. Hated him so, so much for what he'd done, for what he'd taken him from him. But loved him all the same. “Yes. But it's a good death. You die as yourself. As you were.”

“What a thing…”   He grumbled, as if the idea surprised him. Tanner gripped the hand tightly. The old man passed, clear from the way his gaze drifted away, and his chest stilled.

“It’s done.”   Tanner declared, delicately laying the old man’s arm down in the still water. “Finally, it’s done.”

The fog still rose from the fissure.