Needledrop

17

"Don't take it easy on her." Giovanni tells me in his teacher's voice. I allow a small smirk to overtake my lips, holding onto my staff. Oriana managed to get me a morphing weapon of my own. It is my favourite thing to fight with. Keya has been able to defeat Oriana and Giovanni in battle, so now she gets to fight me. She sinks into a defensive fighting stance.

Everyone in the rebel base has gathered to watch the fight. I've made quite the reputation for myself. Athena stands with Brett, calmness oozing off her while Brett is a nervous mess. Giovanni stands between the two of us, holding up his hand. The moment his hand drops Keya throws a knife at me. I don't move at all, the only portion of my body that does move is my hand going up to my chest catching the hilt of the knife just before it hits my chest. The crowd around us gasps.

"Sorry princess, I'm not going easy on you today." I tell her, voice frighteningly calm. The crowd shivers as she throws another at me. I easily deflect it with my staff and charge. I easily get my staff around her throat, choking her. She wiggles out of my hold, standing back up and facing me. I swing my staff at her, aiming for nothing important if I hit. She dodges me, knowing my games well after years of watching me fight in the gladiator ring back on earth.

In the end, I end up winning. Again. She glares at me from the floor, gasping for breath. I smile at her, offering her my hand.

"You almost had me, you just need to build up your stamina." She smiles at the notion of almost winning. I smile wider at her with pride, hugging her tight before she goes to rub her sweaty body on Brett. He lets out a squawk that sounds like a dying bird making everyone laugh.

The crowd that gathered disperses, everyone going back to their work on the base. I smile at my brother, watching him run his fingers through his loose locks of hair. A lot had changed in the year that had passed. Giovanni and I work together to train Keya per her request. She'd been improving steadily and swiftly. Keya and Brett had figured everything out, talked and settled things. Just a couple months ago she moved back into the same room as him after spending most of her nights with Athena and I. She still can't sleep alone because of her nightmares.

All of us settled that Athena would always stay with me. Needledrop could somehow track her, even now that she was no longer trapped in her papery prison, however their troops are afraid of me. Through the past year Inezze had been teaching me how to use these strange powers I somehow possess because of my Celestial DNA. She was killed a couple months back in a raid. Through the past year she'd tried to repair her relationship with Giovanni, listening to all his favourite memories he had with Jake. She seemed like an entirely different woman.

Athena and I spent hours talking while Keya slept at night. She also struggles to sleep, having told me in the past that my presence calms her. She'd tell me about her friends from the past. Mystique, Fafnir, Loki, her brother Odysseus, his lover, and Artemis, her past lover that she lost. I'd talk for just as long about my own past on earth. My foster fathers and being a gladiator.

A soft hand touches my bicep pulling me from my thoughts. I look over to see the white-haired beauty that is slowly stealing my heart. She smiles softly at me as her fingers run down my forearm, stopping at my wrist. My heart leaps, skipping around my chest wildly.

"Keya seemed to have landed a hit on you oh great gladiator." She teases me. All I can focus on is her lips as they move. What did she say? I missed it. I'm too busy imagining those sultry lips pressed against mine. Or other places. "I'm assuming you'd like me to stitch you up." I'm pulled from my thoughts, shaking them from my head slightly as I look down at my arm. True enough there is a deep gash across my bicep. Just deep enough to need stitches.

"That would be appreciated." I say softly, looking back into her hazel eyes. Her fingers dance over my wrist, my hand slowly starting to lift to hold her in my arms and find out just how good it would feel to have her lips on mine.

"Giovanni!" I hear someone call pulling me out of my thoughts again. Athena sharply hops behind me, using be as a shield between the sudden intruder and herself. I look over spotting Billy, a morbid look on his face. "It's time." Is all he says when he reaches us. I feel my heart clench as I watch the warmth fade from Giovanni's face.

"Is there no chance he will wake up? If we give him just a bit of time," I cut him off, knowing exactly what he's feeling. It's only going to hurt him more to keep holding on like this.

"It's only going to get more painful for the both of you if we keep him on life support with his current state." I tell him softly, placing my hand on his forearm.

"But he'd be alive." Giovanni attempts to reason.

"But he'd lose his quality of life." I can see my words register with him, see the shattering of his last shred of hope in his ice eyes. "I'm sorry, but it's time to let Jake go." He nods sadly, reaching up to grip my hand tightly. I know that for the foreseeable future I am going to be his lifeline. I grip his hand tight, letting him know that I'm right here for him.

"Go and support him, I'll be on the ship when you're done." Athena tells me softly, going to hug Giovanni before going to my ship. I keep hold of my brothers' hand as we follow Billy to Jake's hospital room.

Jake looked slim before, but now he looks like skin and bone. His bright brown hair has turned muddy, his once deep tan skin is now pale, the freckles that cover his body that once glowed a bright blue now have faded to a dull light that is barely visible. I didn't know him long, but it hurts to see him go. Giovanni was really banking on the vision he saw where he was waking up to be true. He told me about it after he first saw it, but Athena warned him that the future is not always set in stone.

"I'll give you a moment to say your goodbyes. Lillian already said hers and does not want to be here to see him go." Billy speaks softly, with such care. I know he is imagining what he would be going through if it was one of his kids or his wife in that bed. Giovanni steps forward, taking hold of Jake's likely cold hands. He lifts it to his lips, placing a soft kiss to it. He leans down to stroke Jake's cheek in such a loving way. He doesn't say anything, I can imagine he conveys everything with his eyes as he usually does.

"I have loved you since the moment you fell into my life and I will love you until the day I die and join you." He whispers softly to Jake. Giovanni leans down to place one last, lingering kiss on Jake's lips before pulling away. He comes over to me and wraps his arms around me, letting his tears fall. I hug him back, nodding to Billy to do what he needs to do.

My fingers run through Giovanni's hair to calm him, something I remember him telling me that Jake did. Jake loved his long hair, so he kept it long for Jake to run his fingers through a play with no matter how impractical it was for fighting.

Billy unhooks the different things attached to Jake, finally removing the mask that was making Jake breath. You can see his body stop everything it was once doing. Jake was dead. Giovanni let out a whimper, his legs caving in. His full weight falls onto me as I slowly move us to the floor as Giovanni cries into me, soaking the shoulder of my top. We sit there for a little bit before I help him stand.

"Let's get you to bed." I say softly to Giovanni, pulling him away from his unmoving, dead lover.