Bending Light

The End

    The woman standing in front of them seemed like the kind of person who would put the "laughter" in slaughter. She rattled the cage with the ymbrynes inside and smirked in satisfaction as they crowed terrifiedly. (Y/N) watched Emma's hands begin to glow, but the woman only tsked and pointed at her henchmen, who had taken control of the ship's guns and were pointing them right at the peculiars. From their short distance away, (Y/N) could tell that their eyes were completely blank. Of course the wights would work with the Nazis.

    "Look at you two: Abraham's pitiful little grandchildren. I'm sure your grandfather would be utterly disappointed—no, revolted—to see what a waste his children's children have become. A waste of breath. A waste of talent. And a waste of power," she paused dramatically. "Speaking of, where's your sister, Miss (Y/L/N)?" she inquired with mock sympathy. "Did she get lost somewhere along the way? What a shame," her voice bled with sarcasm.

    "Who are you?" (Y/N) shouted, ignoring the twist of pain she felt at the mention of her sister.

    "Calling me Madame X will do for now," the woman replied. "I'm sure you'll come up with all sorts of names for me when I'm breaking all the bones in your body. People always talk when there's torture involved."

    I'm going to punch all of your teeth out, (Y/N) thought to the woman. She didn't have the chance to act on that thought because something dropped from the ship into the water. (Y/N) realized too late that more soldiers had been setting up an inflatable motor boat as the lady spoke, which they now used to reach the twins—who were being guarded fiercely by Bronwyn.

    "Don't bother putting up a fight," the crazed woman warned, gesturing towards the weaponry being pointed at the children. "It'll only delay the inevitable. Besides," she drew her gun, clicking the safety and aiming at the birds inside the cage. "I have weapons of my own, and I'm sure it would crush your little hearts to see your Headmistress' skull shatter to pieces."

    It didn't matter what she said: Bronwyn wasn't letting the twins go easily. She circled her arms around them protectively as the soldiers tried tearing the three apart. For the time being, the Nazi woman was taunting Bronwyn more than she was guarding the cage. Taking advantage of the distraction, (Y/N), having gotten some sort of a break, decided she was going to pull off an illusion. She motioned for Emma and Jacob to stay quiet and not attract attention, for as a famous French emperor once remarked: "Never interrupt your enemy when [she] is making a mistake."

    (Y/N) slid quietly into the water, pushing off the rocks and gliding as far as she could under the surface. Behind her, a not-quite-opaque image of herself stood staring at the twins with a shocked expression on her face. (Y/N) pulled herself up the submarine's grating and onto the deck where the ymbrynes were being held. At that moment, she let the illusion drop as she shoved Madame X into the sea, grabbing the bird cage from her as she fell. However, the cage wasn't latched properly and the door fell open, dropping one bird into the sea.

    Before (Y/N) could dive in after the ymbryne, a wight grabbed her by the hair, tossing her backward. "Hey!" (Y/N) shouted, blinding the man with whatever light she could summon. I'm seriously going to have to work out these peculiarity muscles if I want to survive another fight like this, (Y/N) thought before shoving the wight aside and picking up the bird cage. She hurled it across the water to Jacob and jumped into the ocean after the other bird.

    "Filth!" Madame X snarled, pointing her gun and aiming at (Y/N) the second she resurfaced. However, the pistol had gotten submerged along with her, and it made only a clicking sound before the woman threw it at (Y/N)'s head. It was easy enough to dodge, but Miss Peregrine (or Miss Avocet) continued screeching shrilly as Madame X pulled a gleaming dagger out of a pocket hidden underwater.