After the Fall

Chapter 8: The Battle

The entire band of rebels, save Addison, Holly and Brenna, were running at top speed. Except for Shawn, naturally he was holding back his speed; in fact he was running right next to Verena. I was at the front right next to Damon and every few minutes he would turn to smile at me. If ever the war were to end the four of us could easily go on double dates.

Finally, rather abruptly in fact, Damon stopped. Shawn didn't notice and kept running another ten yards before realizing he was alone. In the blink of an eye he was back beside Verena. I scanned the area and heard Dominic lowly whisper to our group. "Be alert."

I was feeling a little nervous; now the entire government would know I hadn't really died. That, along with the fact that I'd never actually been involved in a battle that could result in death for either side made my stomach turn. Damon must have noticed my nerves and moved closer to me gently grabbing my hand. As he laced his fingers through mine I immediately felt myself relax, all that mattered was remembering my training and staying focused.

As soon as Damon gave my hand a squeeze I knew it meant the officials were there. Lo and behold six government officials and a large amount of Aziz's civilian army appeared out of the forest. Three of the officials I recognized, Emerson, Demetri and Laura, the other three looked young and more frightened than murderous; Aziz had done a terrible replacement job. It wouldn't be such a difficult battle after all; I could take Laura, Dominic could take Demetri and Damon could take Emerson. The other four would work on the three new officials and we could all finish the civilians.

But before we had a chance to begin the fight Emerson started talking. Demetri was smirking on Em's right and Laura looked bored on his left. "Rebels, the almighty Aziz has sent us to this place to destroy your group. However because the master Aziz is so generous he is prepared to offer you a deal." Emerson paused for a moment before continuing. He must have known how irritated we already were. "Aziz will allow you all to live if you surrender now and join with him in the Great War."

It was the only time I wished I could have manipulated fire because I would have loved to set Emerson on fire. My thoughts weren't exactly lady like, but what else could I say? Like we would actually give up and join them, the only reason Aziz had sent them to battle us was probably because Aziz himself knew we were close.

"Oh and Antoinette, it's so good to see you again. Demetri and I were very upset over your loss, weren't we Demetri?" Emerson began to smirk as well.

"Oh terribly Emerson. Why without Toni around we don't have any fun. Of course I see she didn't waste any time moving on. Nice catch little brother, wonder how long before the whore leaves you too?" Demetri's words finally set me over the edge.

The entire rebels echoed yells of "Enough," "Shut up," "And go screw yourself," courtesy of Shawn. I took my turn to speak now. "Listen up little minions, you can take your little peace treaty back to Aziz and tell him where to get off. Because we rebels aren't going anywhere." I said looking them both in the eyes, one at a time.

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Emerson said but his smile didn't disappear. "Oh well, guess its just time for us to kill you all." And at Emerson's words the fight broke out.

I went straight for Laura but I had already lost her in the large group, she must have morphed into another person. Instead I went for Emerson, I definitely wanted two minutes alone with him to make him feel the pain I'd felt and then some. As I ran towards Em he phased through my body causing me to go right through him. I used air to stop my running and immediately began lifting all the heavy rocks or large items I could find. I tried to hit him and came close a few times, but mostly the objects just went through him. "Toni, I got this one." Shawn said from beside me and he and Emerson immediately began going at it.