Valkyrie (Complete)

18: Guess Who's Back

He unzips his jacket and she sees blood seeping through his undershirt. It must have gone straight through his torso. 

"I don't know what we can do about it right now," she says softly. "I'm sorry, this is my fault."

"It's not." His face is crossed by spasms of pain and he zips his jacket back up with shaking fingers. "There's nothing we can do right now. We have to keep going."

She shakes her head. "You can't. You'll only get hurt worse. I'll lead them away again and you have to go back to Kaj and the others. You can help them after Kaj takes care of that."

He shakes his head. "I won't leave you alone."

She feels torn but knows what she has to do. She backs up a few steps and he doesn't realize what she's doing until it's too late. "I'm not giving you a choice. Go find Kaj."

She turns and runs off, shouting at the Ankathians. They follow and she makes sure to leave an obvious trail before disappearing into the trees. The soldiers stop and look around slowly, pointing their guns all around as they search for her.

She's perched on a tree branch high above them. She can see them perfectly but they can't see her. She looks up at the sky and with a wicked smile, decides that it's too light out. She brings in storm clouds and thunder rolls deeply across the sky. Lightning cracks and strikes several soldiers until there's only about fifty left.

Lightning strikes close to the branch that she's on and illuminates her position for a second. It's long enough for a soldier to see her and start firing in her direction. She leaps off the tree branch and scrambles for another one, the rough bark cutting into her palms and causing pain to flare in her hands.

She hoists herself onto the branch and begins traveling from tree to tree until she's a little ways away. When she's far enough, she circles back around to where she left Phoenix. He isn't there anymore, but she spots him a short distance away. He's sprawled out across the rocks, almost to where the hideout is.

She runs over to him and wraps his arm around her shoulders. He looks at her and his eyes are dull and unfocused. She sighs and he tries to walk but his feet drag across the ground. She lifts him up a little more and wraps her arm around his waist. He cries out as her arm brushes his injury. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. We're almost there."

She shoves the boulder out of the way, her adrenaline running so high that it seems easy. She closes it behind her and then runs down the hallway.

Kaj appears out of nowhere and flips her onto her back. She drops Phoenix so he isn't caught in the crossfire and as Kaj's forearm presses against her throat, he groans beside them. Kaj lets up as soon as he realizes it's her and she sucks in a deep breath.

"What happened?"

"He got shot," she wheezes. "Can you take care of him, and then lead everyone out?"

He nods. "Of course I can. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to stop this. Make sure to give him something for the pain. We're going to need his help too, and he can hardly walk right now."

Kaj nods and lifts Phoenix easily. He groans and his head falls forward so his head is resting on his chest. "Valkyrie," he mutters, lifting his head and looking around with bleary eyes. "Where are you? Why did you leave me?"

She places a hand on his cheek, ignoring the biting pain of her torn palms. "I'm sorry, but I came back. I couldn't let them kill you."

His eyes seem to clear when he hears her voice and though it's obvious he's still in pain, he isn't in as much of a haze. "Val?"

"I'm here," she whispers to him.

"Don't leave," he begs. "Please, I know what you're going to do. Don't do it."

She kisses him gently. "I have to. I'll meet up with you guys when this is over."

Kaj takes Phoenix back into the room as he cries out for her to come back, but she keeps walking back to the entrance. Her heart is pounding and it feels like it's breaking, but she steels it. Now isn't the time for weakness of any kind.

When she gets back to the opening, she can hear the shuffling of a big group on the other side. With a sigh she uses her powers to send the boulder flying into the group. Guns go off immediately but she forces out a shockwave. It turns all the bullets back the way they came, taking out several soldiers and many more are crushed by the boulder.

Suddenly she stops in her tracks. A familiar silhouette is above her, holding a massive boulder, even bigger than the one that was covering the door. 

"Guess who's back?" She sings.

"Mother?"