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It was sad how his crush had escalated so fucking quickly. Orion had moved from Paris, France nearly three weeks ago, started attending a new high school after his family’s first week in Austin, and already he had developed a crush on the guy who sat next to him in English. Orion hated how quickly he could develop a crush, but could anyone really blame him?
Cole Lancaster was extremely attractive. Although the teen spent most of English glaring at the clock or muttering expletives when Ms. Atkins wasn’t teaching, Orion was explicitly attracted to the other teen. His seemingly physical only attraction quickly took a harsh left turn onto full blown crush street when the two started talking. Cole was way smarter than he let on, and could match Orion’s sarcasm and wit with a seemingly effortless ease that was not at all common in Orion’s experience.
(Sure, the only reason they started having real conversations was because of a group project - that Ms. Atkins had chosen the group members for prior to announcing the project no less - was unimportant.)
So here they were, Orion and Cole discussing how best to present their powerpoint project to the class while the other two group members typed on their laptops momentarily ignoring the boys.
“I think it’d be better for you to do the whole speaking thing, more people would listen.” Cole said abruptly, and Orion glanced up at the other boy.
“No one really knows me though, I’m not sure that’d be the smartest idea…” Orion trailed off as his attention shifted back to his laptop, having heard an email notification. Orion grumbled as he saw what the email was. He cursed and ran a hand through his short hair.
“You good?” Rose asked, and Orion saw Illya raise an eyebrow before Rose quickly signed to her what happened. Orion sighed, before turning his computer around to show the three the email.
“I’ve been getting this email since I moved here. Every day after I delete it. I’m pretty sure it’s a junk email but I don’t think even junk emails are this persistent. I just-” Orion stopped talking as he saw the other three teens freeze, their posture stiffening.
“Uh,” Orion started, before Rose stood up from her sitting position on the floor of her bedroom.
“I’ll be right back.” Rose gritted out, before leaving the room. Orion blinked, and frowned. He saw Cole reach out to Illya, the girl seemingly frozen in place.
“It’s just a junk email though?” Orion said, feeling incredibly confused. Cole shook his head, his eyes downcast as he squeezed Illya’s shoulder every few seconds.
Suddenly, the three heard a shout from outside. Orion frowned, before setting his laptop on the ground and standing to look outside the window. All he could was the forest and empty land that surrounded Rose’s house for miles before he saw… something.
“What the actual hell?” Orion gasped, mouth gaping as his brain tried to comprehend the shadowy figure that was easily as tall as the third story window.
“Jean we need to get out of here, hurry the fuck up.” Cole commanded, and Orion startled, not sure why, on top of the weird shadow thing getting closer to the window, this guy he had met literally not even half a month knew his birth name.
“Jean!” Cole shouted, before Orion felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull.
Orion blinked and he was outside, and then started to feel sick and way too disoriented. He was inside just a few seconds ago, so why on Earth was he outside now?
“Illya, go help Rose, I’ll provide backup from further away.” Orion heard Cole say and Orion whipped his head to look over at Illya and Cole, and just stared at Illya.
Illya had her hands pulling her long black hair into a bun with a hairband, her eyes shining bright gold as the white hair clip she had had in her hair now held in her mouth.
“Got it, keep him safe.” Orion heard in his head, and it was clearly Illya’s voice, but how he knew that, Orion had no idea. He had never heard her voice before, but before Orion could process it fully, Cole was already grabbing Orion’s arm and running. Orion kept up easily, track and field and common sense to run in the opposite direction of the giant fucking shadow monster kicking in.
When the two had run a distance Cole seemed to find suitable, well that’s when Orion just flat out assumed he was dreaming.
Cole raising his hands and trees being engulfed in what looked like some kind of purple oil and then being unrooted and thrown at the shadow at breakneck speed was, frankly, way too cool to be real.
“I’ll answer questions later, after this thing is gone, for now just sit tight and don’t say anything.” Cole ordered, and Orion decided it was probably best to listen.
Orion turned his attention back to the giant shadow monster and saw Rose, sans her glasses, in the air, flying and throwing punches. Her hands didn’t make contact with the shadow, but blasts of fire did. He noticed ice at the ground, and briefly saw a flash of bright blue, and he figured it was Illya.
Orion stood his ground for what felt like an hour, but when the monster shuddered and turned to ashes, and then nothing, he knew he was going to lose it.
Before passing out from the sheer absurdity of the situation, Orion noticed Cole didn’t have his choker on, and briefly noted that Cole looked less appealing that way.
———
Orion came to with hushed whispers taking up the air.
“We’re not scratching him, you saw that email! It was easily a tier ten, and none of the recruits have ever gotten a tier ten, not since my grandmother was targeted!” Cole hissed.
Orion groaned, and the whispering stopped abruptly.
“From the amount of words you’re using that straight up do not make sense, I’m going to guess none of that was a dream.” Orion said as he sat up, before blinking when he realized none of that was in English.
“Uh. Sorry. I said since none of the words you said make sense that wasn’t a dream I guess.” Orion explained sheepishly, noticing the three other teen’s curious expressions.
Rose made a noise of understanding, and Orion could see Illya nod slowly, but he couldn’t see Cole’s face from where he was.
“Well, alright. Guess we’re explaining things, since the only person who could wipe your memories is refusing.” Rose said, before sitting on the chair next to the couch Orion noticed he was presumably resting on.
“Okay so, essentially the three of us have superpowers. I’m able to fly for any length of time, and I can control and create fire.” Rose said, speaking slower than usual. Frankly Orion appreciated it, considering the blonde could talk a mile a minute.
“Yeah, I noticed that. Illya has ice powers right? And I’m gonna assume telepathy, since I heard a voice right Cole told her to go help you. And Cole can teleport people, if the whole pull thing happened like I thought it did. And… can control shadows?” Orion guessed, and if he was being honest now that the giant monster thing was gone he was kinda excited.
“... Yes, you’re right. To be more accurate though: Cole controls what we call shadow fire. It’s why it looks kind of shiny and oily.” Rose clarified, blinking a couple times.
“Cool. What does any of this have to do with me though?” Orion asked, and Illya rolled her eyes. Orion noticed her white hairpin was still out of her hair, and he saw her eyes sparkle.
“My hairpin is my tool, it’s essentially what let’s me use my powers freely. When it’s in my hair I can only communicate telepathically when looking at a person and focusing. Rose’s tool is her glasses, she has to break them everytime she wants to use her powers at all, thankfully they snap back together when she holds the pieces together. Cole just has to take off whatever choker he has on.” Orion heard Illya explain. He nodded slowly, before frowning.
“You’re going to be like us soon. That email you kept getting was essentially a target on your back. Believe it or not, Fate herself sent it. The Blight - the big shadow monster - was completely coincidental.” Cole said, and Orion saw him come into view, and he looked tense.
“So. I’m getting superpowers because I got an email sent from Fate, who is apparently a person, and the Blight thing didn’t seem to phase any of you. I’m assuming it’s a normal occurence to fight those?” Orion said, rubbing the back of his neck. Rose nodded.
“Oof, okay. So. Scratching, tier ten, and recruits. Could you explain those?” Orion asked. Cole nodded before opening his mouth.
“Scratching is erasing a person’s memory. It’s a family power I inherited through my mother. Tier ten’s are emails, texts, letters, et cetera that are incredibly rare and get sent by Fate to declare a new Line. Line’s are basically powered family trees. My grandmother was the one before you, and before her was… Uh…” Cole stopped, frowning.
“Abraham Lincoln.” Illya said, and Cole nodded.
“Yeah, Abraham Lincoln. He had less… ‘powerful’ abilities. He was just really tall and abnormally charismatic. Anyways, Recruits are… Well I guess you count as a Recruit if you choose to not forget. You’ll be trained to be a Reaper. You’ll take down Blights after you get your tool and your powers, and eventually you’ll become a Grimm which is basically the Grim Reaper, but less skeleton and more badass.” Cole finished explaining, looking less tense with each word.
“So. I get a choice in this? Even though Fate chose me to have powers?” Orion asked, and looked at Cole.
“Well, you’ll get powers regardless, but you’ll forget the three of us, Blights, and everything about Reapers.” Rose said matter of factly. Orion stared at Cole, before shaking his head
“I think I’ll pass on being Scratched then.”
That sentence would seal his destiny, and Orion knew he wouldn’t regret it. No matter what happened, he refused to regret keeping his memories.