Chapter 26: The Priestess I

As Monday rolled around, Duncan was sitting on one of the benches in the open area of the school. It was a free period in the afternoon for him, but instead of relaxing, he was doing assignments as always with the affable Gwen Stacy.

The weather was bright and pleasant today, so the girl suggested they sit outside and soak up the rays while they could.

They were given two pictures, the anatomy of a male human and a female human, and they were tasked with naming the organs that were circled or pointed, along with their functions and other information that is important to the subject.

"Come on, I'm a male, and you're a female." Duncan said it was not obvious enough. "So I should do the male picture, and you should do the female picture."

"But it's not fun, is it?" Gwen chuckled. "Fine, give me that."

Duncan just quickly gave the female anatomy paper to Gwen, and she gave him the male anatomy.

"Hey, are you free Saturday?" Gwen asked abruptly while researching the answers to the picture.

"Maybe. I might have football practice, why?" Duncan asked back.

"The band needed input." She said, "So they asked me to bring you to practice Saturday."

"Just me?"

"I mean, I would recommend you invite Parker too." Gwen shrugged.

"Peter?" Duncan chuckled. "Is that MJ's idea?"

"Well, it's obvious," said Gwen, continuing to do the assignment.

"Didn't she know she could just ask him right away? They are literally neighbors." Duncan pointed out.

"Neighbors that barely talk to each other." Gwen stated. "It's better if you just invite him. Oh, don't tell him that MJ was the one who invited him."

"I'll try." Duncan shrugged. "He'll probably get weirded out though that he's been asked for input for a band that he barely even knows the members of. So I can't promise you that I won't tell Peter that MJ was the one who asked for him."

"Hey, at least you've passed the message." Gwen continued. "It's up to him to accept it or not. I'm honestly starting to get annoyed at MJ. She talks about him all the time; she barely even sees him anymore."

Duncan just hummed at Gwen's statement and continued to do his assignment. It was quiet for a while as the two of them focused on what they were doing.

But then both of them could see the principal escorting a family towards the parking lot of the school. He looked at who it was, and it was Cindy Moon, with her parents.

"What happened to her?" Duncan asked Gwen.

"You didn't hear?" said Gwen. "She's moving out of state."

"Really? Why?"

"Don't know." Gwen shrugged. "Probably moving because of work."

Duncan hummed once again, focusing on his assignments again.

—

When Duncan and Gwen finished their assignments, they hurried up to close their laptops and walked back toward the building to Mr. Harrington's office. There, they met with the teacher, submitted the assignments, and exited the office again.

"You have any classes after this?" Gwen asked.

"History," Duncan answered.

"Oh, I'm free again, so I guess I'll see you later."

Suddenly, before Duncan could say anything, both of them heard a loud bang from the corner of the corridor. They quickly turned towards the source of the sound, only to see Peter fighting with Thompson.

Peter had slammed the football star against the lockers, producing the loud bang. Peter looked very fed up, and Thompson looked very surprised.

Gwen and Duncan just looked at each other before rushing towards the fight.

Duncan quickly drew Peter away from Thompson, who had a bruised face as a result of Peter's punch. He's probably lucky that Peter restrained his strength, because it could have been disastrous...

"Let go of me!" Peter shouted, struggling as hard as he could. If a normal guy was doing it, they would probably let go of Peter already.

"Calm down." Duncan asserted, tightly grabbing Peter's body so he couldn't move.

The boy struggled a bit, but then he realized what he was doing, and his eyes widened. He instantly stopped what he was doing and turned back to look at Duncan.

"Duncan? How do you—"

Before he could say anything, Flash had recovered from his shock and practically tackled both Duncan and Peter. With Duncan's enhanced strength, he managed to stay standing, making Thompson's tackle pointless.

Peter quickly moved away from the both of them as Duncan grabbed Thompson, staring him in the eyes.

"You're doing it again, are you?" Duncan frowned. "This is just bullying, and you can't keep your mouth shut. You want me to take you off the team? The coach already hates you; you're only on the team because you're good at what you're doing."

"You're not going to take me off the team." Flash chuckled as he spat some blood, even though Peter only punched him once.

"Flash." Duncan warned. "Try me."

Thompson frowned deeply at Duncan's word and pushed the boy to let go of him.

As if on cue, the principal appeared, looking pissed as fuck.

"Parker, Thompson, my office," he said. "Plagmann, you too."

Duncan just sighed. Twice in a semester, what bad luck...

He just looked at Gwen, who was looking at him with a weird face, and shrugged at her.

—

Duncan exited the principal's room after getting a short talk from him. Once again, he was just let go because he was just separating the two guys who actually fought. Only his mother was called to inform her of what just happened, which she was not happy with.

After him, Thompson entered, leaving Duncan with Peter alone.

Duncan stood in front of the boy, who was looking at the ground calmly.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Duncan asked with a sigh.

"You told me to think about what I should do with this thing." Peter stated. "And so I did. I fought back."

"In the middle of the school?" Duncan raised his brow. "Do you want to be expelled?"

"Of course not." Peter murmured bitterly. "I'm just sick of it. He kept taunting me, calling me names. Obviously, I snapped."

Duncan just sighed once again as he sat beside him. "Look, it's not like you're wrong; it's your 'thing' after all. but… just be more subtle about it."

"Subtle?" Peter raised his brow.

"Subtle," Duncan repeated.

Peter then looked at the principal's office, and he saw Thompson getting told off by the principal.

"He's your friend, right? Why do you hang out with people like him?" said Peter.

"Firstly, he's my teammate, so I don't really have a choice." Duncan shrugged. "And, Flash is more complex than you think."

Peter scoffed. "Complex?"

"You have a loving uncle and aunt that supports everything that you do, Peter." Duncan stated. "A lot of people didn't have that luxury. I'm not saying that his actions are justified; you clearly suffered because of him. But… instead of love and support from his parents, he received pressure, and he vented his frustration over that on something, in this case, you."

"He told you all that?" Peter raised his brow.

"Not explicitly..." Duncan murmured. "But he told me stories."

"Huh…" Peter hummed. "Wait, you stopped me earlier. How? Did you get bitten too?"

"Of course not." Duncan shrugged. "I'm a wizard."

"What?!"

"Anyway." Duncan stood up again as he stretched his body. "This Saturday, I got invited to hear a band's music; you wanna come?"

"A band? Music? What?" Peter was confused. "Wait, you're a wizard?!"

"It's MJ's band." Duncan spoke flatly, making Peter's eyes widen, already forgetting the previous topic.

"S-she asked you to come?" Peter stuttered.

"No, Gwen asked me to come." Duncan answered. "Though she told me that MJ wishes that you come,"

"W-What? D-dude, don't j-joke like that."

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Duncan raised his brow. "So you coming or not?"

"I-I might be grounded after this..." he murmured, regret in his eyes.

Duncan shrugged. "Your loss."

"Come on…" Peter groaned.

"You shouldn't punch Flash then."

"H-hey, I'll go…" Peter murmured. "I-I'll just sneak out. Yeah, I'll do that. I can climb walls, that'll be easy…"

"Great, I'll tell Gwen then." Duncan hummed.

Suddenly, Duncan could hear footsteps approaching them. When he turned to see who it was, he saw a familiar face.

It was Jean Grey.

"Hey…" she muttered to Duncan. "Can we… talk?"

Seeing this, Duncan just turned to Peter, who just shrugged.

—

Duncan now stood alone with Jean on the corner of a quiet corridor. Duncan could sense that the girl was half afraid and half nervous, though even if he couldn't sense her vague emotions, he could still tell.

"You okay?" Duncan said. "He didn't do anything to you after last weekend, right?"

"Yeah, he called me a bunch of times, but I didn't answer." She said, "Thank you again, for the last time."

"It's fine." Duncan said. "So what are you going to do?"

"I-I don't know," she muttered. "I don't know if I can do it."

"Jean, can I call you that?" Duncan said, and she just nodded. "That relationship, that's not healthy at all, he almost hit you that night. Has he ever hit you before that?"

"N-No, but—"

"He hits a lot of people because of jealousy." Duncan said, and the girl just nodded. "Look, I can't stop you if you want to come back to him, I don't really get this 'love' thing, but in my eyes, you should break up with him; there ain't no way that a guy that would hit you wouldn't do anything worse to you."

"I-I'll think about it." she, again, nodded. "W-What would you do to him? Please, just don't take him off the team because of this."

"Why?" Duncan frowned.

"It's all he wants this semester. That night when you won, he looked really happy, and I just—"

"Jean…"

"Just please…"

Duncan sighed. "Technically I don't really have the power to do that; it's the coach's. As long as he doesn't hear about this, well, probably even if he hears about it, Matthews won't be taken off the team."

"Okay… just don't tell him. "

"Jean, this is not healthy." Duncan pointed out.

"Duncan, I… Thank you again for last week." Jean ignored Duncan's words. "God, it feels weird that you both have the same name."

"I guess..." Duncan murmured. "Just be careful around him."

"I will." She nodded and walked away from the boy.

Suddenly, Duncan's world turned dark, and the temperature dropped.

Then a familiar voice echoed inside his mind.

[I am Thou, Thou Art I…]

[...Thou hast acquired a new vow…]

[...It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity…]

[...With the birth of the Priestess Arcana, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall guide thee to freedom and new power…]

When the voice stopped, the world turned back to normal.

Hearing this, Duncan just sighed deeply, shaking his head as he watched Jean walk away from him.

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The Priestess - [I] Dia: A spell that could heal low-level damage of one person.