Persphyni: I am Determined

94

The crowd couldn't help but watch. They were speechless. Their voices stolen as they watched fire and fire collide. The sparks flew as darkness swirled around the two like smoke.

The flames rising higher.

Bellamy had stopped resisting once the fight started, he knew he could not jump in. He would get burned. This had to be a fight between them.

His little sister and the woman he loves.

He only hoped they would both come out as such.

Two flames that were lit by the darkness. One burned a bright blue, too hot to touch. The other a softer red, older but twice as deadly.

The clash of sharpened iron rang throughout the arena. Sparks flying as the blades connected over and over again.

The darkness swirled faster as the flames rose higher and higher. Each collision fueling the flames.

The world would burn if the flames weren't contained. But here, in the arena, several meters under ground, the fire was kept from spreading.

Controlled chaos.

Neither flame was going out, but one was burning brighter than the other. The inferno blue had turned darker. The red shone with sparks of yellow, a beacon in the dark sphere around them. A hope of light.

"There is one thing I never got to teach you." The red flame said as she began to drive the blue to a defensive position.

Her sword striking downwards before she spun away only to return and attack.

"You didn't teach me anything. Indra taught me. You were too busy with my brother." The blue spark hissed, seething as she tried to fight back into the offensive position. "Or trying to save the world. How'd that go?"

The red flame laughed at the spark. The blue spitfire growling as she did not see what was so amusing.

"I never taught you how to control the darkness. How to bend it and use it to your will." The red flame locked swords with the blue spark, drawing closer tell the spark could feel her breath on her face. "How to shape it. How to tame it."

The red flame advanced. Throwing the spark backwards unlocking their swords. The flame beat and struck the spark with power and precision. Slowly showing her will over the young inferno.

The blue spark growled as she felt herself losing. Tears in her eyes as she tried to find the strength in her to fight back. To win.

"You fight well. You always have. You are strong. But you are young. A baby." The red flame hissed as she sent the blue spark to the ground on her knees. The blue shakily rising as the red attacked again.

The crowd held their breaths. Watching. Waiting.

Because they couldn't do anything else.

They were ensnared. Trapped. Enchanted by the dancing flames. Flames that would kill them in a second. Flames that would consume the entire world if let free.

"You let your emotions control you. And don't try to lie to me. I see them. You still have them." The red flame struck again. Slicing the spark on her left arm. "Buried deep. But still there nonetheless."

"Then what should I do? Tell me. Leave? Maybe I'll come back with a conscious like you." The red flame burned as a grin crossed her face. The blue spark's attempt at wounding her did nothing.

"You will never be able to win against me, until you have conquered your demons. Until you have conquered your darkness." The red flame did not taunt as she finally broke the blue spark. The blue spark falling to the ground weaponless.

"Tell me. What makes you burn, Octavia? Power? Control? Do you think this would bring him back?" The red flame extended her arms out. Darkness swirling around her as she towered over the spark. "Did you think that your pain being pushed onto others would lessen it all together?"

"You have no idea what we've been through. You have no right to speak in such a way." The blue spark rose from the ground. Her fists rising as she prepared to fight the sword wielding woman. "You have no idea what suffering has happened down here. So how dare you speak to me like I'm some child." The spark hissed.

The flame rose her sword, sheathing it as she faced the spark her own fists up.

"Prove to me you're not a child." The flame hissed as she dodged a punch, sending one back. "Control it." She ordered, catching the spark's fist in her hand and twisting it behind the blue's back. "Use it to your advantage. Best me." The flame challenged, shoving the young spark away.

The blue spark crackled, sizzling as she attacked. Each hit forcing the red flame backwards. The crowd gasped as they watched the older flame flicker and be pummeled backwards into the cage.

The blue spark roared angrily, punching wildly as she connected with the flame's body. The flame took it. Punch after punch. The flame watched the spark carefully as tears formed in the blue's eyes.

The spark had begun to cry as she released her anger and pain on the flame. And the flame let her.

"What is she doing? Octavia is going to kill her. Move, Persphyni!" Bellamy's shout caused an uproar. The crowd beginning to call out to the two fighters. But it was all just noise.

"You're in pain." The flame grunted as the spark slipped through her defense and landed a hook to her face. "You must let it go. You couldn't save him. I couldn't save him. He sacrificed himself for his people. For love. He died a savior."

On the young spark's next swing, the red caught her punch, pulling her forward onto her knee as she rammed it into the blue's stomach.

"And you're tainting his death. He didn't die for nothing, Octavia. He died for you. Because he loved you. He loved you so much." The red sent a strong punch knocking the blue back. "And I love you too, damnit." The red kicked the blue away, sending her spiraling to the ground.

"I love you so much, Octavia." The red whispered as she unsheathed her dagger while approaching the spark who struggled to rise. A tear slipped down the red flame's face.

The red flame took in oxygen as she approached, growing larger. Her dagger pointed at the blue spark's throat. The dagger given to her by the spark's lover. Lincoln's dagger.

"But you will never be able to defeat me, because I am darkness. I am destruction. I am death." The red flame crouched, whispering lowly to tell the blue spark a secret. "And I am determined. I am determined to protect those I love. That is what makes me dangerous. That is what makes me burn."