Purple String {EDITING}

The Second Horseman

"It's pointless." Juniper sighed, looking completely unfazed as Rust kept stabbing at her. "You can't kill me."

"Where there's a will, there's a way."

"That may be true for most cases, but I'm afraid this isn't one." Juniper folded her arms. "Now, although it might seem like this isn't bothering me at all, it's still quite painful to be impaled with a sharp hunk of metal... so please stop. I have feelings too, you know."

"Shut up and die!"

"I keep on telling you..." She said, fluttering about from side to side, narrowly missing his increasingly irritated sword swipes. "I can't..."

"Which part?" Thorn asked, merely observing the situation from afar. "Shutting up, or dying?"

Juniper shrugged. "Both, I guess."

"And now we've got that figured out..." The Alpha turned his gaze back to the other blonde. "When are you going to stop playing with your food, Horseman?"

"I suppose I might as well get my revenge for earlier." She sighed, smiling slightly. "You ready to die, Rust?"

"Nope." He muttered, disappearing in a flash, just as Juniper did the same.

Metal clashed on metal, sparks flying as they both raced through the air, becoming blurs to the ordinary eye, their swords meeting occasionally.

"Trying to beat me with speed?"

"But apparently I can't."

"I suppose that's your trump card wasted then..." Juniper smirked. "Too bad."

"I suppose it is." Rust muttered, sending shards of ice flying towards her with a simple wave of his hand. "So I guess I'll have to beat you with sheer force..."

"And luck." Juniper added, just as purple flames exploded out from every pore on her body, turning the ice back into vapour. "Because you should know by now that I'm stronger than you in every way possible."

He bit his lip.

"It's written across your face." Juniper closed her eyes. "So I suppose I might as well stop kidding around."

"I won't make this easy for you."

"You've already lost too much blood." She said, glancing at the weeping cut she'd made only a few minutes beforehand.

A small sad smile pulled at his lips.

He'd known all along that he wouldn't have a shot at beating her ever since she'd come back from the dead.

"I know."

"I'll make this quick, then..."

"Juniper." His eyes met hers. "Promise you'll do right by this country."

"What kind of request is that?!"

"Make sure those idiotic Alphas do their jobs properly." He continued, smiling sadly as her blade sunk into his chest. "So they aren't too late..."

***

"Will we be OK, ma?" An eight-year-old Rust cowered into his mother's side, staring at the people around them.

"Shhh." His mother whispered, stroking his head, the marriage ring on her finger catching on his blonde locks.

"It'll be OK." His father said. "We just need to wait for the Alphas to find us..."

"Shut it, you." A gun was waved in his face. "The Alphas are the reason this country is failing..."

"Oy! Hadley!" Another armed man called, pointing at the TV that was switched on. "Look... The city is on the news..."