As a child, you would wait
And watch from far away
But you always knew that you'd be the one
That work while they all play
Warriors by 2WEI (atlantis ❀ playlist on Spotify)
I thrust my hands forward and narrowed my eyes, and I could feel the water droplets pulling from the air to circulate in my palms before launching out in a directed stream at Hawkes. The man was quicker, clawing his fingers up in the air to order his Elemental army in front of him defensively. Some were knocked down by the pressure while the others used their own water powers to try and deter my attack.
"He's going to get away!" I heard Amy snarl behind me, and I looked over my shoulder just as she punched a fiery fist through a soldier's chest. The girl was swaying, blood still dripping from her back where her wings had previously been. While we all possessed minor healing skills, hers evidently were not working fast enough as she directed Elemental power somewhere else. As if on cue, Amy fell to her knees with a loud grimace, but I had to turn away as an Air soldier swiped speedily at my face.
"Rude," my younger self snarked, and my vision flared a darker blue as my Elemental side took more control. My hands grabbed the soldier's shirt before she could run away, and my muscles tightened as I pushed off the ground, water droplets materializing from the soil and boosting me. I flipped over her head with my hands clenching the fabric, the water from the ground running up my arms in thin strands that laced around my wrists and fingers. As I touched back down in a crouch, letting go, the Air soldier was suspended in the air with water molecules growing around her from where I had made contact.
I jerked my head up from the ground toward the soldiers heading in my direction, and my attacker was thrown at them. The watery strands I had placed on her sprung out and attached to my enemies, pulling them away and out of the field. I had created an opening, but it quickly closed as more soldiers filled in and disregarded their fallen brothers and sisters. My vision returned back to normal colors, and there was a full ache in my chest as I regained control. I glanced back at Amy, who was kicking fireballs from the ground as she became surrounded. Thomas was trying to reach her, but other Earth soldiers were preventing him from making any progress. Attacking alone was no longer the best solution.
"Zane!" I shouted, despite having no idea where the other Elemental was. I couldn't feel his presence or sense his thoughts, but I hoped he could read mine. "I need backup!"
"On it!" I heard the Air Elemental yell faintly, and I raised my arms to the sky. The wind was picking up, and the clouds in the sky grew darker and heavy. I could smell the rain brewing in the air, a chill going up my spine. As the wind grew louder in my ears, I lowered my head to stare out and see the white flash speed past me every other second in a circle. It carried the currents from the sky and kept the soldiers from passing by, knocking them down or through the air depending on how they tried to come forward.
I grimaced from the weight of the rain as I pulled it from the sky and swung my hands out to the airy force field, swinging the water as another protective barrier and separating the four of us from Hawkes's army. It carried up into the sky, preventing any entrance. Zane tumbled out and rolled a few yards on the ground, the white aura from his powers steaming around his suit. He looked up at me with his dark hair sticking in every direction and gave me a massive grin.
"That... was fun," he told me breathlessly, and I gave him a small smile back. My arms shook as I kept them elevated to continue the barrier, my muscles burning. My fingers were twitching through the strain, almost as if it could help relieve the pain I felt. Zane's face fell quickly, and he pushed himself up on his feet. "Shit, Amy."
Amy sat on the ground cross-legged while Thomas had his hands placed over where her wings had been, her face scrunched up in pain. The Earth Elemental's hands flowed a sickly green as he worked his healing abilities on her, trying to speed up the recovery process. "There's no way we'll last another hour," she gasped to Zane as we approached, who quickly fell to his knees to check on her. The redhead looked up at me in a mixture of helplessness and anger. "We've got maybe ten minutes tops until they break through. I know you can't hold that forever."
"Our main concern is you right now; let me worry about that," I shushed her, but she was right. I was growing weaker from both my power usage and the Elemental time limit on my life. Hawkes and Colin were going to get away, and we were absolutely swarmed. "As much as I want it to be the four of us to finish it the way it started, we need backup. What happened out there?"
"What, the initial ambush?" Zane clarified. "They came out from the ground, the sky... you name it. Most of the Dragons were killed. Stacy... she and the rest, I don't know. I was knocked out before I could see what happened."
"There's a portion of the Air and Water soldiers holding them unconscious just off this field," Thomas answered. He looked up at me guiltily from the ground on his knees. "The plan was to find you three and only you three. I used half of my squadron to keep as many of your people alive."
"Why wouldn't you just kill them?" Amy asked crossly before her mouth opened in an inaudible gasp of pain. "Shit! You little-"
"If you could stay still while I try to get you walking, that would be nice," Thomas groaned, rolling his eyes. "You're a little fireball, you know that?" Amy narrowed her eyes, but she stayed still for him to continue.
"I don't care if you're healing me now, I could've used that back when you helped keep me prisoner."
"We can bicker and fight later," Zane tried to steer everything back on track. "Tom, where exactly are they?"
"Under Great Hill; we're in North Meadow currently- or what used to be North Meadow." I stepped away as he continued to talk with Zane, slowly sitting on the ground as I kept my arms up. I was starting to see spots, but I needed to plan. I needed to think.
I felt pressure on my shoulder, almost like someone had laid their hand on it, but when I looked, there was nobody behind me. "Let me back out," my younger voice said. My vision tinted again, and I watched as my arms slowly moved in front of my chest. My middle fingers began to circle around each other while the rest pointed upward, and I could see my control over the barrier like smoke from my fingertips. "You're weak. You need me. You let me come out before... why not now?"
"Some people like to have control over themselves," I muttered under my breath. I moved my legs into a criss-crossed position and slowly pulled my hands away from each other, resting them on my knees with my fingers flared out in concentration. "Why do I hear you in my head? The others don't have a split between them and their powers."
"You're asking a question I don't know the answer to." My brows narrowed at the response.
"You... you don't know?"
"I'm the personification of your powers. This was the age you received them," my younger self told me bitterly. "It was supposed to be a smooth process, but something was messed up and that's why we're fractured. You've only made this process worse the more you try to use your powers without me." My face softened at the statement, and I looked out through the watery walls at the Elemental soldiers trying to break through. They were barbaric, clawing and throwing themselves over each other in an attempt to continue the fight. None of them would've lost their lives to Hawkes if I had killed him that night when we reunited... not that I ever would've guessed this to be the repercussion.
"You know we're going to die today, right?" I asked the voice quietly as I watched the scene in front of me. "All the pain... I guess I'm freeing you."
"Do you wish you said a proper goodbye?" she said back. I hung my head. When I tried to tell Peter about my fate, it broke him. It broke my father when he thought the date would be later. As much as it hurt me, this was best for them.
"Isabel?" I looked up and over my shoulder to Thomas approaching me slowly, his face grim as he looked at our surroundings. His hands were stained with Amy's blood, who followed closely behind him with Zane's hand on her waist to help her walk. "Do you have a plan for that?" In my time conversing with the other part of myself, I hadn't even started to think. Still, I opened my mouth to try and come up with something on the spot, but my younger self was quicker.
"I do." I winced as my head flooded with a plan, the orders spiraling in. I couldn't move my hands from their position, so there was a struggle to keep my balance. Thomas quickly tried to come to my aid at the sight, but I shook my head immediately.
"I'm fine," I told him, and I stood up shakily to face the three Elementals. My heart was beating in my ears, and I could feel the pressure from their gazes on me. "We've got three issues on hand: finding our own troops, Colin, and our reigning psycho. Amy, Zane- wiping Colin off the grid is your priority."
"Gladly," Amy grumbled, and her eyes flashed red. Zane, on the other hand, looked skeptical.
"He has your powers," the Air Elemental reminded me. "Including the blood control. How do we even sneak up on him?"
"Colin doesn't have the mind-reading," I explained. "There's a barrier like most of us, but he doesn't have that skill. He would've noticed Thomas changing sides if he did. Plus, there's no way he could try to control you if you're moving too fast for him to tell where exactly you are. Amy and I tried the control thing before- there's something inside her that prevents my abilities from doing anything like that. It'll be an even battle... sort of."
"Where am I then?" Thomas questioned.
"You find Stacy and the Dragon soldiers. You said that you know where they're being kept, so you have to be the one to get them out from the ground. They already came into this battle knowing not to attack you. Colin will definitely try to throw his people at Amy and Zane, so they'll need the backup. With Stacy's powers, it could be a real game changer."
"Wait, no," Amy shook her head. "You're left to deal with Hawkes by yourself then. No chance."
" Look, we don't exactly-"
"No!" she exclaimed angrily, and I stopped talking. "You might be the leader, but we're a team. If you go alone, there's a heavy chance you won't make it."
She wasn't wrong on that.
The muffled noise of the battlefield suddenly grew, and we quickly looked at the walls. The soldiers were beginning to break through, held barely but still fighting to move closer to us. There wasn't much time left before it crumbled on its own.
"You make a distraction to get us out of here," Amy told me. "Hold the battlefield until help arrives, and then we'll take Hawkes down together."
"As much as I love that, both he and Colin have to be separated, and that won't be possible unless they're kept occupied," Zane interfered. "There has to be something else."
"If Isabel gives me some time, I can meet her and we can take Hawkes together," Thomas piped in. Amy began to open her mouth to retort, but he shushed her. "Listen, if anyone knows his weaknesses, it's me. Isabel and I have worked together before... though it was in a mind prison and her gifts were a little different. We can do this."
"After everything that's happened, do you really think we could trust you with that?"
"We can," Zane answered for him, his irises glowing white as he read Thomas's mind. I glanced down at his outstretched hand touching the Elemental's forearm, then back to his dimming eyes. "He's telling the truth."
The walls gave another shake, and I grimaced as I pulled them closer to us in a futile effort to give us more precious time. "I'll be back before you guys know it," Thomas promised, looking at the battlefield warily. "I just need some time." I knew arguing wouldn't get us anywhere, so I merely gave a curt nod. The corners of Zane's mouth upturned slightly, but Amy wasn't fully convinced.
"This isn't over, you hear me?" she told him, pointing an accusing finger. "There's a lot to address. You don't get off the hook that easy."
"Warranted," Thomas admitted, and all three heads turned back in my direction. My head was already racing. I had to find Hawkes before Thomas came back to me. This battle needed to end.
"Back into the fray," I sighed, and I slowly lifted my hands to the sky. My arms ached tremendously. I took one final glance at the group. "When the wall drops, get the hell out of here."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Zane nodded. With one final breath, I twirled my wrists and swung my arms down, relief hitting me as the walls crashed. The thundering water moved out like a massive wave, knocking down the soldiers who had been trying to infiltrate. Some of the Air soldiers took to the sky to avoid it, and I could see their hands pointed in our direction.
"Go!" I yelled at the other Elementals. Amy hopped on Zane's back, the two becoming a white blur as he sped off. Thomas gave me one final look before swinging his own hands up and out, causing the earth below him to launch him into the sky and out of the area.
There was little time to think as the Elemental soldiers surged toward me, the Air-based ones moving at speeds slightly slower than Zane but with staccato stops every once and a while. I jumped backwards as one went to deliver a powerful punch, earning a literal roar of dissatisfaction. I swung my right leg to kick the soldier's out from beneath her, sinking with the action before jumping up in the air with my arms above my head. An icy spear formed between my hands, which I swung down into my opponent's chest.
The Elemental glow in her eyes faded along with her life, but there was no stopping now. I gave a yell as I pulled it out of the soldier and stabbed the next one, pushing hard before snapping the spear in half and using the new end on someone else. The brutal fighting method worked for about a minute until a Fire soldier dove at me, knocking us both in the dirt. His fists burned my skin as he tried to land punches, only some I managed to block while attempting to throw my own back. One managed to pass by my defenses, smashing my face and just hitting my nose. I couldn't help but cry out at the impact, blood immediately gushing from my nostrils,
"Ow!" I cried out, recoiling my hands from the punching bag Ward had instructed me to hit. My eyes were welling with tears, and I rubbed my knuckles gingerly. "It hurts too much. I wanna stop."
"That's not an option!" he snapped, annoyance taking over him. It was clear that after everything he had done for the organization, babysitting wasn't anything he had in mind. "Now quit whining, or someone else is gonna see you and they won't be as gentle."
"You're being mean!" I sobbed, stopping my small foot on the cold cement floor and throwing my arms down as I turned to face him. "I want to go home!"
"This is your home!" the agent yelled back in my face, his own growing red. I was in a full breakdown mode, my bottom lip trembling and my breaths shaky. "Don't you get it? You aren't leaving here! This is your life!"
My vision tinted as my Elemental self grew enraged at the recollection of the memory, and my legs curled up into my chest before kicking the soldier off of me. In that brief moment of him being in the air, I summoned a water whip into my right hand and wrapped it around his body and yanked. The momentum pulled me back up while slamming the soldier harshly into the ground, who I landed back on with icy feet that froze him in place while expanding around me. I quickly flipped my head back up to face my enemies, my arms pulled into my chest with my hands closed into fists, ready for the next wave.
Limbs were swinging left and right as the soldiers kept coming, the blue hue growing more vibrant as I continued to fight. Thin blades of ice formed in the space between my fingers as I fought, flying out into my attackers similar to throwing knives. I thrust my leg upward with a side kick to an Earth soldier's jaw, pulling back quickly into a lunge and doing aerial over a fire blast intended to strike me down. My landing was wobbly, my shoes crushing down on one of the fallen's hands with a sickly crunch. The bodies were beginning to pile up, and the newcomers filling in were having to climb over them.
"снова," the Winter Soldier ordered me in his usual monotone voice. My hands shook as I clasped the handgun tightly, my ears ringing from the fresh release of the bullet. I shot again, flinching at the noise and missing my target by half a foot. "No fear. Fear makes you messy. Messy will kill you. Go." I narrowed my eyes, and my grip relaxed ever so slightly. "снова!"
I formed a gun symbol with my fingers on my dominant hand and cocked my head to the side as I turned my arm, my other hand curling as if I held a sphere in that palm. A watery blast erupted from my 'weapon,' and my shoulder jerked back from the recoil. The blast knocked the Elemental soldiers down in a singular fatal blow, their clothes steaming from the heat. I kept shooting, spinning on my feet and sometimes hitting people almost a foot away.
"Duck!" Despite my inner voice's warning, I looked over my left should just as an Earth soldier sent a thick vine flying at my chest. An inaudible gasp escaped my mouth as the air was knocked out of me, and I felt myself flying backward. Right before I was about to hit the ground, an Air soldier barreled into me, sending me off course. Another repeated the action, but this time, grabbed me by the suit and slammed me into the ground. The trampled grass and dirt cratered from the impact, and my head ached horribly. My ears were ringing, and my vision was blurry. Still, that did nothing to shield me from the continuing pain. I saw a soldier position herself standing over me, and then I felt her fists barrel into my stomach. The taste of my own blood was filling my mouth, flying from it as I coughed in desperation for air. The soldier's head lifted abruptly, and she quickly stepped off of me.
There was barely any time to try and recover when I felt two thin vines snake around my neck and waist, lifting me up into the air and turning me around. Hawkes's hand was raised as he commanded the vegetation to bring me to him, his fingers moving back and forth slowly. The older man glanced down at the fallen soldiers of his army and clucked his tongue in disappointment toward me, the alive ones running off to find the other Elementals to attack.
The area around us was deathly quiet, the sounds of screams faintly filling the air out of sight. Central Park was completely and utterly destroyed, the grass overturned with small fires scattered across the field. There was a thin cut under Hawkes's eye, the dripping blood trailing into his panting mouth. The older man's muscles kept twitching as if his body was ready to give up, and his veins would flash different colors as they fought to keep him standing. My blood was keeping him alive. My blood did all of this.
As we glared at each other with equal hatred, only one of us actually touching the ground, I felt the vine around my neck move tighter. Tiny thorns grew out as he examined me the way I did him, digging into the tender skin and piercing through. I hissed in pain, and my vision flashed in its blue hue for just a second as my Elemental side attempted to aid me.
"Part of me wants to watch you die right here." I tried not to struggle, but the slowly increasing lack of oxygen made that impossible. "Another wants me to round up your friends and kill them right in front of you so I can watch you break the same way you did when you handed over your DNA. It worked once, didn't it?"
"Why..." My body spasmed as I attempted to form my sentence. "Why didn't... you bring her back yet?" Anthony Hawkes's brows furrowed, and the vine released ever-so slightly around my throat. "I... I saw her. Marie-"
"Don't you ever say that name to me!" The vines holding me slammed into the ground, and I gagged painfully. Slowly, I was pulled back up again, just so I could see the black smoke coming from the man's eyes as his Elemental powers took form. "Don't you ever fucking say her name!"
"Her name was Marie Hawkes," I stated stubbornly. I was forced to kneel in front of him, and I saw the back of his hand before I felt it across my face. My head hung from the force of it, but I made myself look up at Hawkes with my watering eyes. "She had long wavy blonde hair... she was beautiful."
"Shut up!" he screamed, and a blast of air cannoned into my chest. I coughed up the blood pooling in my mouth on the ground as he backed away, his clouded eyes frantic and wide. "Shut the hell up!"
"She was a kind!" I shrieked over him, each spoken word coming with a metallic taste. My hair had come undone from the battle, sweat holding different strands together in clumps that hung over my face. "She cared for others more than herself! She loved you!"
"No!" Hawkes wailed, and he fell on his hands and knees. He shook his head violently, trying to rid himself of the pained memories he was recalling. The vines holding me captive fell as the man lost control. I stood slowly, my hands out slightly in case he noticed my movement. To my luck, he didn't, still a sobbing mess.
My fingers trembled as I felt my powers activate, beads of water collecting in my palms. This was it... this was the moment I had been waiting for. It was just the two of us alone, and he was at my feet. The water droplets connected with each other and froze slowly, extending into long ice spears. My fingers wrapped around the ends, and I lifted my arms above my head to end everything once and for all. It felt like my movements were in slow motion, my breath held as I wondered if I too would feel the pain I was about to inflict. My weapons were coming down-
A droplet of water dripped from a spear, darkening the dirt right in front of him.
Hawkes moved with lightning speed, his hands grabbing the spears and snapping them in halves before I could even stop to think. He spun underneath me, and I gasped as a broken end was thrusted into the left side of my lower stomach. My vision blurred, and I felt woozy.
"This is not how I will die today!" Everything went blue, and my right fist went flying into Hawkes's face. My knuckles burned at the contact, but it knocked the man backward. He was quick to get up on his feet, barely fazed. I grit my teeth and ripped the spear's end out of me, cursing under my breath at the sight of my blood covering it. I could feel my powers working quickly to heal me in desperation, but I was back into the fray when the older man summoned a large rock from the ground. He threw it up in the air before splintering it into tiny pieces and sending them my way. I held my left hand to my injured side, my right swinging upward to create a wave barrier and stop the projectiles.
I pushed that hand out and gave a quick twist of my wrist, and the water hurled at him in a large spiral. Hawkes retaliated by throwing his hands up to freeze the liquid in place, the weight of the ice sending it crumbling down. He opened his mouth and screamed, fire erupting from his lips like a dragon. There was nothing to do but run, my heels digging into the mud and burnt grass as he chased. My eyes wandered to a jutted stone a few yards ahead, and I planned accordingly.
The moment both my feet landed on it, I spun around and jumped, drying the soggy dirt as I pulled the moisture out to push me higher and above Hawkes's body. His head lifted, the fire singing my pants, but I made it behind him. I formed my thin water whips into my hands and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him down and into the ground. The mud froze him in place, and I sent my punches flying into his face. I felt his nose break out of place and his bottom lip split. Blood was everywhere, and it was hard to distinguish who it belonged to. His dark black mixed with my thick blue. In a feral move, Hawkes opened his mouth and jerked his head so that my fist was heading for it. Lava spat out of it, and I screamed as I felt my flesh burn.
The injury sent me stumbling, clutching my wounded hand in agony. The skin was bright red and already swelling. My legs shook from the pain coursing through my body, and my knees gave. I held my hurt arm against my chest, my fingers hovering just above my stab wound. The blue was fading, and I was almost gagging on the blood dripping steadily from my mouth. I titled my head forward blearily as Hawkes broke himself free, the once grey sky behind him now dark from the smoke of the battle with twinges of a sickening red.
The wind was picking up, blowing the man's matted hair as he shook with insane laughter at my state. His eyes had lost the Elemental hue as well, one so swollen from my blows that it might as well have been closed. He took a slow, heavy step toward me, raising an arm to point an accusatory finger in my direction.
"Can't you feel it?" he hissed gleefully- no, victoriously through his split lips. I narrowed my eyes, unable to try and make a snarky remark of any kind. "That is how it feels to die." Hawkes stumbled as a coughing fit overtook him, and fresh blue blood splattered on his arm. Dumbfounded, he dragged a finger across the lower part of his mouth, pulling it back to examine. Not black like he had been bleeding before, but blue.
He was right about me dying, but that meant he was too. The plan was almost complete. His eyes darkened murderously, and I knew that he now understood the fate that laid ahead of him if he continued on with his plan. "No..."
"Yes..." I shot back, forcing myself to stand. My legs ached, but I paid them no attention except for a wince. I had the upper hand now. "It doesn't matter if it's me... or Zane, or Thomas... or Amy. If any one of us dies today, you, your son, and your army... no one will make it off this field. You lose." Hawkes snarled, and I turned my left palm in his direction by my side.
"Then I'm dragging you to hell with me!" With a feral, unhinged scream, the man thrust his arms forward. All four elements shot from his hands, mixing and melting together to form a tar-like form toward me. With a yell of my own, I threw my left hand out, and pale blue water shot like a torrent to meet it. I dug my heels in the ground as the two forces fought against each other, almost pushing me back. I couldn't see through to the other side, yet over the harsh noise of Elemental power colliding, I could hear his manic laughter.
With a grimace, I pulled my right arm up to aid me, the water turning almost white once I did, fully pure against the darkness it was colliding against. Slowly, I started to see the tar growing closer through the water, and my heart began to sink. My elbows were bending as I struggled to keep him at bay. The tips of my fingers were turning the same shade as my Elemental color, spreading slowly as I continued to use the unadulterated power. With a final attempt, I pushed harder, screaming as I did so. My hair was flying in the wind, and blue electric waves were radiating off of my skin.
Our joint powers exploded, and the two of us flew backward from the force of it all. I tumbled through the dirt, crisp and dry now that I had sucked everything out from the section of the field we had been fighting on. I laid my head against it tiredly, glancing at my power-stained fingers defeatedly. Hawkes had crumpled to a similar position about ten yards away, stirring slower than I was. Even after everything, we both were still alive.
"Get up," my Elemental self begged, tired but ready to continue the fight. "He's right there! Get up!" I tried to listen, but I couldn't pick up the speed I needed to stand. I stared at my tinted fingers, the edges sparking as if they wanted to continue growing on me. "Isabel, get up!" The power was figuratively and literally taking over my body.
A bright light beamed up in the sky, a grey mixed with a fiery red, and I felt a painful jolt in my body. Hawkes curled in on himself and screamed, the pain much worse for him. I kept my head up in the direction of the light as it disappeared, and Amy took the view as she stop panting at the top of the hill. Her hair was singed, and there were horrific scratches all over her face. Her fist was clenched on something I could make out, swaying lightly back and forth. Zane zipped up beside her with about the same amount of injuries as her fingers let go, and I had to fight the urge to throw up as it gained speed rolling toward the two of us at the bottom of the hill.
Colin's head reached a stopping point about a foot from Hawkes, who couldn't help but stare in horror at his dead son for the second time in his life. He reached out with a scratched hand in its direction before stopping himself, and I saw doubt flicker on his face on if he could qualify today as a victory. Amy took a step forward, but instead of lowering with the hill, her foot kept her steady in the air. She continued to walk in our direction in the sky as she hovered, and fiery wings spattered behind her from where the ones she previously had were. I could feel the heat despite our distance apart. The Fire Elemental's eyes were a glowing yellow, and her lips pursed as she gave a high pitched whistle.
I covered my ears as while ground shook violently, turning away from the source of the sound to see Thomas approach from the other side of the field through the smoke. Behind him was Stacy, who held a hand over her lower stomach with a grimace while the other was twitching with icy sparks. The rest of the Dragons army, led by a limping yet fierce Kyla. Her male counterpart was nowhere to be seen, and I felt a pang of grief course through me as I quickly put two and two together. The three met each other and stood staring down at us, and Kyla swung her fist high in the sky.
"¡Tu sufrimiento está cerca!" she shrieked, and the group behind her began to scream in cacophony. Some were letting out guttural war cries or exclamations, but mixed in were threats to Hawkes in different languages. Though much smaller in number... this was an army. As her fist fell down to her side, the group began to run , charging into the masses of the superhuman soldiers. Amy clapped her hands together in the sky, and a ring of fire exploded from her fingertips that closed the battlefield. There was nowhere to run now.
"Isabel, down!" I looked up at the sound of Thomas's voice, the boy running in my direction. His hand was raised out toward me, and I dropped flat on the burnt ground. I felt the wind as something whizzed over my head, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Hawkes staggering back, his veins black from the power overuse. Several large thorns had been embedded in his chest, and the man pulled one out with a grunt.
"You fool," he wheezed with a chuckle as the Earth Elemental helped me stand up. Blackened blood was dripping continuously from his mouth, foaming like a rabid dog. "You don't know how to kill a god." Thomas gripped my left hand tightly with his right, and despite the ferocity and confidence on his face, his eyes were empty. This was a boy who had nothing left to lose.
"You never know until you try," he told the man, and Thomas's fingers slipped from mine. My eyes widened.
"No, don't-" My sentence was cut short as Hawkes thrust his arms high, and we were separated by darkness. Everything I could see was darkness, rolling thick across the ground and over my feet.
"Let's see how long it takes for you to crack."
Imagine not having month-long disappearances... couldn't be me lmao. This has sat waiting to be finished for ages because I couldn't find a way to write the last 200 words, but I'm so happy it's finally out for you all. Also, please check out the playlist because this chapter song has been picked since early 2020 and yes it's shown up already but it's best for this one, and I feel like a weight has been lifted from my chest finally using it. Last but not least, check out y'all's long awaited trailer for book three, coming this summer...
REVELATION
The Final Installation of the Atlantis Saga