Persphyni: I am Determined

93

"Isn't that why you killed Gideon?" I turned to the offense. Spinning and bringing my daggers down aggressively.

"Why you had threatened his child? Because you couldn't stand that he didn't put on a show? Or did you kill him because you couldn't stand that he had a solution? Because he could save Wonkru." I saw her break each time I brought up a point. Each question I asked, I attacked. She struggled as I whirled around with fury.

My daggers calling for more blood as I fought my sister.

"Or was it because he challenged you in my name?" I cut open her cheek and her arm as she failed to block me. My voice was powerful as I spoke, my actions speaking louder as I backed her into a corner. "Which was it, Strisis?" My words came out as a hiss.

"They will not follow you." I heard the defiance in her voice as I sent a punch to her face, avoiding cutting her with my dagger still in my fist. I sent another punch with my other hand before I kicked her sword free, my daggers at her throat and stomach.

"I do not want them to follow me. You of all people should know what happens to those in power. They start to crave it. Need more. No, I want them to follow a commander. Someone who has not been consumed by the darkness as we have." I kicked Octavia making her fall to the floor before I turned, walking away as I looked at the crowd.

"For six years, Blodreina has kept you alive. You have all made sacrifices. You have all experienced darkness. You have fought that darkness and are alive to tell the tale. It will not be easy, but I have been given the chance to help you live on as I once had to. I survived loss, pain, and even death just to end up here in front of all of you. I believe there was a reason for that. I left this bunker six years ago in Blodreina's hands. I left to try and save my family. I would have died."

I took a deep inhale. What I was about to do is risky. I could lose them all. I hoped their respect for me is strong enough to see through the complicated nature of me now being a hybrid. I sliced open my left hand, the black blood rising as I squeezed it out onto the red floor.

"But I was given a second chance." Gasps filled the air as I did the same to my right hand. The two bloods dripping into one pile and swirling around each other.

"I do this to show you I bleed true. I have both bloods within me. I am living proof that there is hope for us all to escape the darkness. A hope that we can all work together. You survived in this bunker as Wonkru and some of you hid inside it as Sonchakru. Today, we will live together in peace until we can make it to the valley. I promise you, we will eventually make it there, together!"

Roars filled the arena as Wonkru and Sonchakru called out my name. A victorious smile on my lips as I turned around in the arena looking for Bellamy.

Only to be met with the edge of a sword flying past my face. Octavia's sword to be specific. I moved fast enough that it only nicked my cheek. A matching wound to the raging girl who was within a few feet of me.

The onlookers grew silent again as Octavia rose from her knee.

"I'm not dead yet." She spat blood on the floor.

I wiped my blood from my palms in three lines below my eyes, my left side black and my right red. A smirk pulling at my lips.

"I was kinda hoping you'd say that."

I watched her pick up a blade from the ground, the sword Bellamy had been using.

"Octavia, Persphyni, listen to yourselves." Bellamy pleaded.

"Bellamy. There is no point." Indra spoke softly as the three of them stood to the side. He looked like he was getting ready to jump in between us as Octavia and I both stood watching the other.

"Indra, Gaia, please hold him back." I spoke softly, the words and tone not matching the blood covering my body. Some of it my own, most of it not.

I sheathed my daggers, wiping my bleeding palms on my shirt. I drew my sword, holding back the slight wince as the hilt bit into my shallow wound.

I didn't have long until I needed to bandage them. Which meant I had to make this quick.

"Come on, Strisis. Show me what darkness has consumed you. And I will show you mine."