"Fight me, then. The ultimate test."
☾
I ran to Delphia's place as fast as I can. I had left my weapons at home before going to the dropship so they wouldn't suspect, the only thing I was carrying was the knife I had hold to the guard's neck and I couldn't take anyone down with only that.
"Chit happa? Delphia biyu kom be hir by sonop." Onto comes running towards me as I almost collapse at their door. (What happened? Delphia said you would be here by morning.)
"Trikru," I mutter catching my breath. "Emo jomp op em." (They're attacking.)
"Did emo saw yu?" He helps me in towards Delphia who was getting dressed in their bedroom.
"They didn't go there. Biological warfare." I inform them as I get myself straight again. "Some kind of hemorrhagic fever. I got it but I'm fine now."
"They'll attack them. You know that." Delphia gets closer.
"You think they'll win? This fever... some of them died." I walk with them inside and to her bedroom.
"Not our problem," Onto says coldly.
"Don't be rude, Onto. She cares about them." Delphia tells him who just scoffs and walks away from the room. "Did you lose someone?"
"No, but I promised to go back." I look at her. "I can't leave him again."
"Love's a weakness, sweetie. Be cold." She touches my face so that I could look at her. "I won't do what I did for you to anyone else."
I nod at her swallowing hard.
"Go change. We have to practice your aim."
It was John or Delphia. I had to make a choice.
I had spent my night thinking about what I would do. I get up from my bed earlier than usual and walk towards Delphia who was sitting talking with Linn and Tiga.
"You're early. Wanna train?" She asks me and I nod at her. "You're fighting Linn today."
"Bring it on." I nod as he gets up.
He tries to hit me almost immediately and I get punched in the face, making my nose bleed. I don't clean it, instead, I cut his arm, enough to bleed but not enough to actually hurt him. I'm able to kneel down and cut the back of his knee making him fall but quickly getting back up and punishing me so hard I flew to the ground, hitting my back. Hard.
"Is that all you got?" I get up slightly groaning in pain.
He comes towards me and hits my face, breaking something in my mouth. When he gets close I spit the blood in my mouth into his face so that he couldn't see for a few seconds, sliding on the ground between his feet and I'm able to be behind him, kicking the back of his knee I had cut earlier, making him fall on his knees.
I put my blade to his neck.
"You're better at combat than with the bow and arrow," Linn tells me getting up.
"Tomorrow we'll practice that. I wanna fight today." I tell them.
"Fight me, then. The ultimate test." Onto shows up, smirking and walking towards me taking his sword out.
"Let's do it." I nod flipping the blades in my hands.
He walks towards me and I'm able to dodge his first try to cut my leg. I try to use that to my advantage but he knew that I would do that so it didn't work, instead, I almost fall to the ground, my nose still bleeding. He had seen my training he knew my tactics, even if I was trying my best to be as unpredictable as it got.
Onto flips his sword around him, slightly cutting my stomach, making me groan in pain and fall on my already wounded back, dropping both my blades way too far from my reach. When he comes to me, to put the sword on my neck, I grab the end of it, as I scream in pain, seeing the blood dripping from my hands. I roll to my side, forcing his sword to the opposite side of my body.
I get up and run to grab my weapons, he tries to go for my feet but I do what Delphia had told me to do. The jump. He notices it and is able to cut the side of my face.
I'm able to reach the two blades, my hands hurting from the deep wounds on them. We stood one in front of another. I see him going to his left so that he could hit my right without me noticing it, but I do, so I motion his exact movements.
"She trained you well." He smirks noticing it.
"You have no idea," I smirk before running around him, grabbing the end of his leg with mine, pushing him down.
He falls with his back on mine and I turn us around so that I was straddling him. Before he can do anything else I put my knife on top of the place his heart was.
"Good fight." He nods as I get off him and towards the room passing as an infirmary.
I grab one of the herbs they had told me had antibiotics so that the wounds on my hand would take less time to heal. I put them on a leaf and wrap them around my hands, forcing them there with two pieces of rope.
I walk towards the glass and take a look at the wound on my face. It would definitely leave a scar. I finally clean the blood that had run from my nose.
For the first time, I walk towards the paint Delphia uses on their faces and put it on mine without her. I put it around my eye and brow like she used to do, leaving the scar to be seen by whoever crosses me.
"You okay, kid?" Tiga knocks on my door.
"Yeah," I nod at him.
"I heard you talking to Delphi. She's wrong. Love's not a weakness. It's what makes you human." He tells me and I lick my teeth without knowing what to do. "You shouldn't be scared to love. I loved... she died but it was worth it. I don't know how I would end up if I hadn't loved her."
"I'm sorry," I mutter.
"Don't be. She died happily. As a hero."
* * *
I had been hunting in the woods with Delphia. It had been a week and I hadn't gone back as I promised him I would. I had left him once and I was doing it again. I hated myself for that.
"Hey." Delphia calls me, "I got a rabbit."
I nod in response as we walk back to our place. She knew I was affected by breaking my promise. Sometimes she seemed to know me better than I knew myself.
"Have I told you how we ended up here?" She asks me as we walked to where we stored the food.
"No," I say as I fill a wooden cup with water.
"My daughter died when she was ten. Mountain Men." Delphia tells me way more serious than she normally was. "When they came out one day, I killed them. Ten of them. It almost started a war and they took a bunch of our people in return, my boyfriend included. I went to save him but he was a ripper when I found him. I had to kill him too." She looks away. "My sister, Anya, couldn't kill me so she sent me away. Onto tried to change her mind..." She nods her head in denial. "He eventually confessed to a bunch of my crimes and was sent away with me. Linn had vowed to protect me so he came too."
I don't say a word, afraid to ruin the moment.
"We went to Lincoln, he was Tiga's friend. He showed us this place. It was abandoned. We're here since then." She finishes and I choke on my water.
Lincoln, in like Octavia's boyfriend Lincoln?!
"I'm sorry," I mutter not knowing what to say and not wanting to tell her about Octavia
"I don't want you to become me, Inanna." Delphia gets closer to me.
"Would you leave Onto behind after telling him you would go back?" I ask her and she looks away.
"No." She says firmly.
"Then why should I?"
"That makes us weak. You're a warrior-" She touches my arm slightly.
"I'm not. Linn was born to protect you. You were born to rule. Onto was born to fight. I was born to die." I state feeling a tear about to leave my eye, but it never does. "It's better to die with him than to die alone."
"It's even better not to die. You're not on the box in the sky anymore." Delphia reminds me of my time in solitary. "This is the Earth. If you want to live, you're either a cockroach or a warrior." I swallow hard. "Look at you. Is not that hard to say which one you are."
I nod at her cleaning the tears I hadn't realize had fallen, noticing that the paint on my face had run down with them.
"You have the will, you have the power, and you have the guts. You have what it takes to survive. Don't throw it all away."
A/N: Hi! It's me again. Tysm for the support and as always, don't forget to vote and comment. <3