The Endless Torment of an Admin (MCSM Fanfiction)

Chapter 20 - All the Power in the World

It felt like the whole world crumbled around Jesse. Suddenly her knees felt weak, her chest tight. Xara's words were like a punch to the stomach, a cruel and cold confirmation of everything she had been afraid of.

"You can't just say that!" Binta exclaimed, lowering Petra's sword again. "Not after everything they went through to track you down!"

"Well I'm sorry the truth hurts." Xara growled at Binta, her voice not the least bit sympathetic.

"You said it was no easy task, but an admin can be stripped of their powers!" Petra exclaimed, her blue eyes alight with flames. "Romeo took your powers and somehow you're still alive, we must be able to do the same for Jesse!"

"Look, it's not that simple." Xara said, casually leaning back against one of the fences. "You're lucky to have survived that in the first place, taking those powers from you now will kill you instantly."

"At the very least..." Lukas said, gritting his teeth. "You owe us an explanation."

The ex-Admin looked between the members of the group with a grim expression, not looking like she wanted to get into details. But then she sighed and waved her hand at them.

"Fine."

Everybody exchanged glances, before silently sitting down. Lukas, Binta and Petra simply sat down on the grass, while Jesse hesitantly lowered herself onto one of the fences like Xara. They all waited eagerly, not knowing what to expect.

"Since the beginning of time, there has always been three Admins." Xara explained, her voice retaining it's dull tone. "Each of us carried a different type of power and had different capabilities. Of course we all shared the basic abilities, teleportation, moving things around, flying, immortality. The usual."

"The usual?" Lukas asked in exasperation.

"I won't go into detail, I'm sure you already figured out the basics. Engineering and building was my speciality, Romeo's was combat, and Fred specialised in knowledge." Xara went on. "What the powers do isn't important here, the point is that these powers are a part of the world itself and can't be removed."

"The world needs an Admin." Petra whispered, repeating one of the last sentences Romeo ever spoke.

"Correct." Xara nodded at Petra. "When Romeo killed Fred, his powers didn't just evaporate into thin air, they had to go into another vessel. In that case, the other Admins. Fred's powers got split between us, although there wasn't much time for me to actually take in what that felt like. Romeo stripped me of my powers to stop me interfering with his plans which, of course, transferred everything over to him. For years he's had the powers of all three Admins inside of him."

"Is that why removing those powers killed him?" Jesse asked uncertainly.

"It's too much power for any person to harbour." Xara went on, only giving Jesse another nod. "With so much power, that became all Romeo functioned on. He no longer needed to eat or sleep, while all that power slowly began to destroy him."

Jesse gulped thickly, looking down at her pinkish hands.

"So when that power got removed, he was no longer physically able to survive on his own?" Lukas asked softly, shuddering slightly.

"I knew it would kill him, but what can I say." Xara shook her head. "The bastard deserved it, he brought it on himself. It had to be done."

"But now Jesse has all those powers." Binta said, looking between the others worriedly.

"I must say, it's impressive." Xara said, the corners of her mouth flickering upwards for a few seconds. "Having all that power channelled into you at once and actually surviving? Most people would have been fried from the inside out."