A/N: I think it was @charlottepiggy who requested some Jolie & Brant content, so here it is!
Just a warning...this one is going to be tough.
Jolie couldn't remember ever feeling so nervous.
She felt like her whole world was falling apart. She'd gone back and forth with herself, utterly heartbroken when she'd realized that Brant had joined the organization that was causing trouble for the Black Swan.
That Brant had tried to recruit her.
Brant was secretly a Pyrokinetic.
Brant had tried to get her to torch a human nuclear facility and had burned her when she'd refused...and then had tried to have her memories of the event washed.
Brant.
The boy she'd loved since she was six years old.
Fourteen years she'd been in love with him, spilled all her secrets, gave her heart to him so fully. And he'd always done the same with her.
Or so she'd thought.
He couldn't help what he was. Couldn't help the ability he manifested. It wasn't his fault, and she wasn't really convinced that banning pyrokinesis was the best decision.
It had certainly made Brant angry. She had thought he was angry at not manifesting an ability. At knowing he'd face an eternity of judgment for that and for being a bad match.
But now she knew he was also angry that he had an ability that was banned.
But why would he keep it from her? Why would he not have told her? Not trusted her with that information?
It had been a few days, and she hadn't seen him since. She'd been leaping to Havenfield whenever she could, just to talk with Vertina. As far as Brant knew, she was still in the Silver Tower.
Jolie knew Vertina was just a mirror, but...sometimes Vertina felt like the only one she could trust.
She couldn't quite explain it, but felt she needed to leave a trail. Needed to leave some information behind, just in case.
In case of what, she didn't really know.
But she knew working for the Black Swan would be a risk.
Part of her wished she hadn't. Then she wouldn't have tried to go double agent. She wouldn't have discovered the secrets Brant had been hiding.
Ever since she found out, she'd been beside herself. She couldn't sleep. She had even resorted to hiding the dark circles under her eyes with glimmer dust so no one would know.
After she found out, she'd asked her mother how to handle finding out someone wasn't who she'd thought. She hoped her mom wouldn't realize who she was talking about.
Her mom's advice had been to decide whether to forgive the person or walk away.
Jolie was terrified by the prospect, but had seriously been considering walking away.
But...this was Brant.
She'd vowed to love him no matter what.
And now?
She had just left Havenfield after telling her mom she was considering walking away.
And had been given the best advice she'd ever gotten.
Her mom had told her not to ever be driven by fear. To make decisions with more logic and reason. She had told Jolie that her emotions could be an asset—could be there to tell her something that instinct sensed even if the rest of her didn't—but that those emotions should not be the driving force behind a major decision.
So Jolie knew what she had to do.
She had to tell Brant that she knew the truth, that she loved him no matter what, and to beg him to walk away from the dangerous game he was playing.
To give him one last chance to see reason.
But for the first time, she was unsure of him. She didn't know what he'd do when he found out. Would he leave her? Would he choose his pyrokinesis over her? Or would he go with her to the Black Swan and seek to incite change on the right side with the right methods?
So it was with some intense trepidation that she leapt to his house.
And the way his eyes widened in surprise and his face broke out into a huge grin when he saw her made her wonder if she'd made some sort of mistake.
"I didn't expect to see you today," he told her as he stepped aside to let her in. Then his arms wrapped around her. "It's definitely a good surprise though."
Jolie smiled. This was the Brant she knew and loved. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. "I've missed you. I just had to see you today."
Before he could say another word, she kissed him.
And clung to him.
But then she started to cry.
"Jolie, what's—"
But she shook her head, let out a little sob, and clung tighter to him, kissing him fiercely.
When they broke apart, he looked at her with suspicion in his eyes.
He gently reached up and wiped her tears, sending a shudder through her at how warm his touch was—why hadn't she noticed that?—and asked, "can I ask what has you so upset, and why that kiss felt strangely like some sort of a goodbye?"
Jolie knew him well enough to see that his eyes were very guarded.
She took a shaky breath. "I love you."
Brant sighed. "You're ignoring my question."
"Please, Brant," she begged. "Please tell me you love me."
Brant ducked his head down and kissed her again. "Jolie, of course I love you. You know I do. Now tell me what's wrong."
She wasn't an Empath, but she could tell by Brant's expression and tone of voice that he was anxious and even a little bit angry.
Which meant he probably suspected that she'd figured out the truth.
Reminding herself to be bold, but also to cut him some slack, she took both his hands in hers, looked him in the eye, and said, "you should've told me you were a Pyrokinetic."
Anger immediately took over as his primary emotion as he let go of her and narrowed his eyes. "What, so you could tell me to stop using the ability? To deny myself the call of the flames and eventually start to lose my mind because of it?"
"No," Jolie answered honestly. She'd given it a lot of thought. "I would have asked you to try to submit to the Council by telling them you'd manifested, and we could begin petitioning that they lift the ban on pyrokinesis. But you didn't do that."
"Of course I didn't," he said harshly. "Because that never would have worked. It's going to take something far more drastic. I thought you of all people would agree with me on that. Aren't you always going on about how outdated and archaic the matchmaking system is?"
"That's different," Jolie argued. "I'm not going around leaving threatening messages and attacking humans because I don't like what the matchmakers are doing."
Brant clenched his hands into fists. "You don't understand the bigger picture," he told her. "And if you hadn't been too afraid to do what needed to be done, you'd be a part of the plans now and would not be so naïve."
"Naïve?" Jolie asked, wounded. "It's not naïve to want to avoid arson like some common human criminal."
"Naïve and ignorant," he spat.
She'd seen him angry before, especially after it became apparent that he would be labeled Talentless and they would be branded a bad match, but the anger hadn't been directed at her then.
Brant was always so kind and gentle and loving with her.
He was tender. Unbelievably romantic.
This Brant standing before her was someone new. And she wasn't sure how to bring her Brant back.
"It's imperative that you understand this," he told her loudly. "The only way to change the world for our children is to join me and partake in Fintan's vision. It'll mean some hard choices," he added, snapping his fingers and making flames dance on his hand, "but it'll be worth it when we are calling the shots and making things right."
Jolie took a step back, eyes wide as she stared at the flames, which somehow burned along his skin without consuming it.
He scoffed at her. "Oh, please. You need to learn to see the beauty of the fire. And stop acting like you're afraid of me. I have it perfectly under control. I won't hurt you."
The words would've been comforting if they hadn't been so full of venom.
Not to mention the irony. "You already did," she reminded him, rubbing her wrist and remembering how she'd had to take a burn ointment from Slurps and Burps when Kesler wasn't looking so he wouldn't ask any questions.
If she had expected Brant to back down at the reminder, she would have been disappointed.
He merely shrugged as he clenched his fist, snuffing out the flame. "The occasional minor injury is nothing."
She gasped. How could he be so cold hearted?
This was the same boy who'd, when they were nine, cried alongside her when she'd fallen and sprained her ankle so badly he'd had to carry her back into the house to get an elixir from her mother.
The same boy who'd sat next to her in the Healing Center, tears in his eyes as he worried over her while Elwin treated a cut she got on her hand while trying to bottle a tornado.
That same boy was now standing before her, apparently not even sorry that he'd intentionally burned her because she hadn't done what he'd wanted.
"Who are you?" Jolie couldn't help but whisper.
"No!" Brant shouted. "You do not get to act hurt and surprised. You promised you'd always love me, no matter what. I can't help what ability I manifested and you know there's no way to turn it off. This is part of me and if you really love me, you'll come to terms with it."
Jolie began to cry again. "I do really love you," she assured him, pleading with him to understand. "It's not your ability—I don't care about that. It's what you're choosing to do with it. I can't..."
"Can't what?" He shouted.
Jolie let out a small sob, wanting nothing more than to put her arms around him beg him to hold her close. "I can't just sit back and say nothing," she told him. "I can't condone what you're doing."
"You won't make me out to be the bad guy," he spewed at her, his anger seeming to build the harder she cried. "Just because I'm the one who loves you and loves our future children enough to want to make a more accepting world for them. I'm the one willing to make hard choices for the greater good."
"I don't think you're the bad guy, Brant, I don't," she said, trying to placate him. He was noticeably shaking now. Since when was he so easy to anger?
She stepped closer. She knew from experience that having her close usually had a very calming effect on him.
"I just think you were put in a difficult situation and were given a very tempting offer," she continued, placing a hand on his arm. He tried to jerk away but she held on. "But I'm begging you to see reason. Come back to the right side. We can fight this but you need to be in the right organization. We also believe the world needs to change but we don't want to do it by being cruel."
"Another organization?" Brant's voice thundered, his anger rising even more. "Don't tell me you're in the Black Swan?"
"Yes," she told him. "I did it for you, Brant. I wanted to make the world a better, more accepting place for you. For our marriage. Our children."
"By joining an enemy organization?" He yelled. "Now it all makes sense. They're poisoning you against me!"
"No," she sobbed. "No, Brant, I love you, I'm not turning against you, but I need you to stop—"
"Enough!" Brant shouted.
And then the world fell apart.
In just an instant, his anger seemed to have hit its peak and he'd completely lost control of himself.
Flames erupted around them, separating them, flinging them both back.
She saw the horror in Brant's expression for just a second before the smoke was too thick and flames too high for her to see him.
Shock immediately gave way to terror as she saw the gravity of the situation.
She was surrounded by flames with no means of escape.
She screamed, fear coursing through her as she realized that death was imminent.
"Brant!!" She couldn't help but scream, though somewhere inside her, she knew he had no way to get to her.
And the smoke began to fill her lungs, causing her to cough, keeping her from being able to scream anymore. She could scarcely even breathe.
Yet she could hear him screaming for her even over the roar of the flames.
She could hear a muffled "NO! JOLIE! NO!"
But then the flames reached her and somehow she found the breath to scream again, this time in agony.
The last thing she thought, as the flames consumed her, was, I love you, always.