--Ines POV--
"Let her go, I don't like repeating myself." Malachi smiled. And I knew, all too well, how much he hated repeating himself.
"Let her go, Vivian." I said, looking at the woman who turned to look at me, eyes asking if I was being serious to which I nodded, not wanting to risk her life over Cordelia's.
"Unless you want to be the first person to test out if this gun works or not." The black fog quickly diminished, and Cordelia fell to the ground, panting and coughing for air while Vivian was left, an angry scowl plastered on her features.
"I know you all think of me as a mere Human, but even for a mere Human, I'm quite successful, you know. How many people do you know of that grew to success as quickly as I did? Ines helped, of course, but a voice isn't enough to succeed in this line of work. With this brain of mine that you mocked, I conjured up this bullet which guarantees death to anyone who falls victim to it, and even this Witch that's never taken me seriously is now beneath me."
One thing became clear to me as he spoke, and I shot my head up, my fingers itching to move. I couldn't stay standing here forever waiting for something to happen; But my father noticed, and he subtly shook his head, warning me not to move.
But how could I listen to him? When, potentially, I was the only one that could survive getting shot by that bullet?
"What do you want, Malachi?" I asked, garnering the attention onto myself.
"Ines, what are you doing. Just stay quiet, and then when he's not paying attention, jump into the water and get to safety." Halcyon whispered. But no matter what, his suggestion was out of the question; I may not have been the best fighter, but I'm not so weak as to abandon people.
"You've already lost everything; This gun doesn't change anything. Your reputation? The world already knows of your messed up code of conduct. The police are looking for you as we speak, and the curse is broken. There is no chain linking me to you anymore... So, what are you aiming for right now?"
"What I want?" He raised a brow, I nodded.
"I know, Ines, I've already lost everything. And that's exactly why I'm here right now with this murderous weapon in my hands. With everything lost, there's only more to gain; Because why should I be the only one to go down?"
"W-What do you mean?"
"Other than me and Cordelia, everyone here is someone you care about. If I shoot any one of these people then you would lose someone too, not just me." My blood ran cold, the colour sweeping off my face, and my body freezing in shock as I looked at him.
Is he being serious right now? How far into his insanity has he fallen to be serious about this crazy stunt? I don't remember him being such a cold-blooded creature before, if I recall correctly, there was some warmth of Humanity in him... Where did it all go?
"I've lost everything, it's over for me. But if I'm going down then, at the very least, I want to make sure that you aren't at peace when I'm gone. Because, dear Ines, let's be honest, this is all your fault." He smirked, knowing full well that he was hitting me at my lowest points.
"...What?" I whispered out through trembling lips, not wanting to hear it, but knowing that I didn't have a choice.
"That smile of yours is a bigger weapon than this gun, and I was the first victim. If you weren't there that day then none of this would have ever happened; I may have had a chance for Heaven, greed would never have found me, my brother would have still loved me, and even you yourself would have saved yourself from so much pain-"
"-Don't listen to him."
Two hands came down from behind to cover my ears, and through widened eyes I watched as Malachi stopped speaking, an amused smirk on his face despite the angry jealousy shining in his eyes.
"Don't listen to him, none of what he's saying is true."
Alaric's words spoke to me like an assuring prophecy, his words laced in desperation and sadness, but the intent was obvious. Even in this situation, he was worrying about me over himself.
"But-"
"It doesn't matter if what he said is true or not, it's too late to change it because time is both an enemy and an ally. Yes, all of that may never have happened, but then you would have missed out on so much. Sandra and Maxwell, your first friends. Making music, it wasn't easy but you were good at it and you liked it. Your concerts with your fans. And me. I would never have bumped into you in front of my apartment..."
He spoke fast, and desperate, and I almost missed some of the words, but as I turned to look at him, watching as he begged me through glossy eyes to hear his words over Malachi's, any fear, or guilt that had been in my mind a second ago was long gone.
"Meeting you..." I started in a quiet whisper, turning to look at him as his hands fell limp by his side, but my own raised to hold his cheeks in mine.
"... Has been the biggest gift in my life." And a smile graced his features as he blinked the tears away, slowly nodding his head at me in agreement.
"You make me better, and braver, and more confident. So, I can confidently tell you to trust me because it's my turn to protect you; I won't let anyone hurt you, not over my dead body." And the smile turned into a confused frown as I got on my tiptoes, pecking his lips.
"Ines? What are you talking about?" He asked as I turned to look at Halcyon over my shoulder to see him already watching me, knowing that something was coming.
"Like we used to train. But you distract this time, I will do the rest."
There was no time for rebuttal, he knew that. So, he nodded firmly, his eyes telling me to trust him, which, of course, I did, with no questions being asked.
And I turned back to Malachi, waiting for Halcyon to move first. This needed to be timed precisely, one slip up and the wrong person will end up getting hurt, and I couldn't afford that risk, so it has to go right.
"Your words don't work on me Malachi," I started, taking a cautious step forward.
"Ines?" Alaric whispered, but I held his hand and squeezed it, hoping that this assurance would be good enough for him to understand.
"You cursed me once, and you've scarred me. But it's not going to happen again. I am a Mermaid, a being more graceful and stronger than you, you cannot hurt me." He sighed, a tired smirk on his face which told me he didn't take my words seriously.
"You can't hurt me." I repeated.
"Daughter... Don't." Father warned, his trident on hand.
"No, I'll let you; Whatever you're trying to do, try it. Let's see if it'll work... I'm so used to seeing the fragile Ines that only knows how to threaten, she's all bark and no bite, so let's see just how powerful you are. Go on." Malachi nudged me on.
"Brother, you can't do this. You can't have stooped this low." Maxwell begged with trembling eyes, taking his own little steps towards Malachi.
"Don't call me brother as if this blood relation means something. You picked another species over me, I'm not your brother anymore." He turned the gun to his brother.
"Don't do it, Malachi!" I yelled, watching as he put his finger on the trigger. It seems that out of all the people here, the one that caused most of the anger was Maxwell. More than me, he was angrier at his brother.
"I saved you. I got beaten up by that man instead of you. We promised that no matter what the world throws at us, we'll at least have each other. But you didn't even know her, and you picked her over me. You betrayed our lifelong relationship for that short one." His anger was seeping out, his finger hesitating on the trigger.
"Don't do it, he's your brother, isn't he!?" Halcyon yelled, trying to get the attention onto himself, but to no avail. No matter how close he was getting to Malachi, Malachi's eyes were firmly placed on his little brother.
"Family don't hurt each other, Malachi. He never picked me over you; He saved me to save you, so that you wouldn't fall deeper into your greed, it was all for you!" I, like Halcyon, took steps closer to Malachi too, but the distance between us only seemed to grow larger as he grew closer to pulling the trigger.
"I gave everything! And I have never once asked for anything! Everything I did, I did for us to live comfortably. I sent you to school while working myself, I gave up my dreams to make yours come true. I felt guilty for taking our source of income away by leaving those abusive people, so I tried to make it up to you by earning more money..."
"It's not your fault." Maxwell whispered, tears pricking his eyes as he stood at the mercy of that destructive gun. "...It's all mine."
"I hate this world." Malachi spat.
"I know, we both hated this world." His brother whispered.
"I hate it. I detest it. It disgusts me down to my very bones. It's never given me anything, and when I tried to leave it, it threw her to me like some sort of miracle, so I took the chance and covered my dirty self with the shine that came with her, and people finally saw me. But you left me all alone, was it worth it? I lost my brother to fame, but was it worth it? Tell me."
"You're my brother, I'd never leave you."
"You hate me, don't lie to me." Malachi scoffed in disbelief.
"No. No matter what, I will never hate you."
I caught Halcyon's eyes as he stood a few feet behind Malachi, and he shook his head, knowing the thought going through my mind; I could almost hear him. Don't do it.
But my body moved on instinct, without any warning, like a switch being flicked. I moved, and the pain washed over me like a strong wave before I knew what was happening.
But I didn't regret it.
I didn't regret a single thing.
"...Liar."
He pulled the trigger, the resounding echo of the bullet leaving the safety of the gun pushing passed and ripping through the air without mercy. Fast, and strong, it flew in a clear line towards its victim with no hesitation.
Halcyon had, in the nick of time, wrapped a firm arm around Malachi's neck, pulling him back and trying to disable the gun from his hand, which he succeeded in doing. But he was a split second too late. And that split second made all the difference.
Taking the gun from Malachi, he threw it to Alaric who caught it just in time before Cordelia could intervene, and Cordelia fell to the mercy of Vivian who had wrapped her black smoke around her neck, dragging her towards herself where she thrashed and yelled.
And me? I wasn't going to let Maxwell die, so I had jumped into the line of fire as if I knew exactly where the bullet would be going. And thankfully, my prediction was correct.
Because the bullet had hit me instead of him. But after all the pain I had gone through in the past five years, a single bullet was nothing, and my hypothesis was proven correct.
"Ines!" Some worried voices yelled, but the adrenaline rushing through my body didn't let me figure out who it was that the voice belonged to.
"Are you okay?" Maxwell was the one holding me in his arms.
"Yeah," I nodded, looking down at my body to see where the bullet had hit, and I placed a hand over my abdomen, applying pressure to prevent myself from bleeding out, but even then, blood was pooling around me onto the sand.
"How are you okay? The bullet hit you." Malachi struggled to speak as Halcyon kept him hooked under his arm, his strength overshadowing Malachi's.
"There was one thing you failed to predict when you came up with the idea of this bullet, as genius as it is, there's always going to be one person it doesn't work on. The owner of the mermaid scales used to make the bullet, Me." I pulled my head up, smirking at him.
Of course, it still hurts. But this injury isn't enough to cause death. If anyone were to get hit by the bullet, I would be the best option. My scale just returned to me, so there's no defensive reaction, meaning I'm going to be all right.
"See. I told you I was better than you."
"You! You-" Oh, this was a beautiful sight. I never thought the day would come where I get to see Malachi so triggered. Even when I broke the curse, he was able to keep himself composed, but this... This was a good revenge.
"That's enough!" With my fathers' commanding voice cutting him off, all eyes turned to look at him as he looked at Halcyon.
"Bring him to me." Nodding, Halcyon, dragged Malachi's struggling self to my father without breaking a sweat, and my father lulled the water to wrap around Malachi, holding him up at eye level as he glared at the man.
"Have you got anything to say? You've lost this meaningless fight, and what have you gained from it?" He asked the flailing man who struggled against the water.
"I will take responsibility for my actions, but I alone can't be blamed for the monsters that made me like this. Give me whatever punishment you see fit, but make sure you do it right by hurting the ones that made me like this too." He struggled to get his words out.
And Alaric rushed to my side, the gun in his hands which he made sure to turn the safety off of before he took me from Maxwell's arms, sitting me down on his lap as he looked down at my wound, eyes darting from there to my face before going back to the wound.
"Does it hurt?" He whispered in his worry-filled tone.
"I've felt worse." I shrugged, keeping my trembling voice at bay. But with the seconds that passed and the adrenaline fading, the pain was slowly growing worse.
He leaned down, his forehead bumping against my own, lips trembling to hold back the tears, and I smiled at the sight, breathing out a small sigh.
"I'm okay." I assured.
"Clearly. I've never felt so useless before now."
"Even though you were my biggest supporter?" I cocked my head to the side.
"I have never and will never support you getting hurt." He glared, offended as I laughed at him, resting my head on his shoulder as he peppered kisses on the top of my head.
"I'm sorry... Ines. It's all my fault." Maxwell mumbled from beside me, head hanging low with the guilt weighing him down. What could I tell him to let him know that it wasn't his fault? He's my first Human friend, I couldn't leave him be after what's just transpired.
"No one got hurt. We're all okay, right?" I spoke.
"But you-" His eyes shifted to my wound.
"Oh, this? It's just a little scratch, I'll be okay." I assured. He scoffed out a laugh, not taking my words seriously, but they seemed to do the job for now as the three of us turned to look towards the Ocean where my father was speaking to Malachi.
"Your time is up, Malachi. For kidnapping, cursing, and wrongfully taking advantage of my daughter as well as attempting to hurt your own kind, you are sentenced to death. May the Ocean have mercy on your poor soul."
"What's he going to do?" Maxwell asked.
"The Ocean will carry out his death. The sustainers will do the rest."
"And what does that mean? Is it going to hurt?" Even after being held at gunpoint by his brother, he still couldn't stop worrying about him. If only Malachi knew how much Maxwell genuinely cared for him, these tragic brothers could have lived better lives.
"He's going to die at the hands of the Ocean, he'll drown. And once he's dead, his body will be taken by the water, and his soul will be judged." I didn't sugarcoat it. At the very least, Maxwell deserved to know the truth of what would become of his brother.
"Oh... I see." He smiled sadly; His eyes unable to look away from his brother, and for the longest time, the cogs were turning in his head, his hands itching to move the rest of his body.
I knew it then.
This game that Malachi started didn't have a winner or a loser. Death didn't mean the end, but the ones living would have to keep the memories. In this case, that was me. I had underestimated this one thing; These brothers' relationship was stronger than blood.
I have to say goodbye to my friend.
"Alaric. Ines." Maxwell shifted his gaze to us, the tears sliding passed his eyes with the wavering smile on his lips which he hid as he leaned in to hug us tightly.
"I'm sorry for everything, I really... really, love you guys so much, and I wish you the happiest life. You deserve the world... Take care."
And he was gone.
I had no time to process it as I watched after him, running as fast as he could to catch up with his brother who was walking into the Ocean, the waves crashing against him as if trying to push him in faster, but he paused in his steps when he heard Maxwell's voice, looking over his shoulder at him.
My father halted him, and the two spoke for a while, but I couldn't hear. My vision was darkening, and the pain of this wound was getting too much.
I wasn't properly able to say goodbye.
"You can't... You have to stop him." I whispered out, desperate.
But my words were lost in my throat, and the last thing I saw before I fell unconscious were the two brothers, hand-in-hand, walking into the Ocean.
...