Chapter 25 Gianna

You no doubt heard stories about what happened next in the meeting, but I got to see it on the security cameras.

The Prime Minister, his hands shaking, stood up and started for the door. “I’m just as happy not to watch this, you know.” His voice trembled. Adorable. This was not a man who had ever seen bloodshed.

As he reached the door, ready to flee into the oncoming sound of violence and death, the King spoke again. “It wouldn’t have mattered what you did,” his voice rasped. “This was always going to happen. The choices you’ve made, they didn’t affect the outcome.”

A hail of bullets snapped me to attention from my drifting attention. The enemy had come as the King had prophesied.

And he cackled.

His laugh was once a rich and full laugh, but now it was reduced to this. From under the table, his other hand drew a tome– a book. The same book I had once helped create at that black lake all those years ago. As the thud of the book hit the table, the thunderous ring of bullets rang out and rent the room. For at least a full thirty seconds I counted as they ripped through his corpse-like body, the arc of electricity the bullets carried to disrupt Sychakenetic energy fizzling with every contact. But there was no blood, no visible damage to his body. As their guns fizzled and exhausted, the King’s eyes rolled over to look at the book. The book now shined with darkness. It was a black that only exists in the furthest voids of outer space. In that moment, the King became that same manifest blackness, and the room was engulfed.

###

A scream wrenched her eardrums, bounced around and registered far too late. As Gianna turned her head, Joshua tackled her at full force sending them both sprawling through the gap and crashing to the floor below. Joshua's left arm cracked. Gianna's ribs smashed into the floor and three splintered. They fell apart in a fit of agony leaving a spider web of lights leaving a bubbly crater between them.

Gianna lay staring at the ceiling, a giant grin across her face. She haphazardly poked at her ribs hissing in pain. Oh well. Nothing she hadn't experienced before. She drollfully rolled over to look at Joshua and had to puzzle what he was up to. He lay feet away, nursing his arm that she heard crack, but more than that, he was checking something in his pocket, a relieved look on his face. She couldn't even begin to fathom it. He might be the smartest of the Rasgard siblings, but he was also such a dumbass.

Her teeth clamping down into a hard grin, Gianna worked up to her feet, feeling her chest scream against the act. Throwing her hands high into the air, feeling her back stretch out, Gianna said, “Son of a bitch it’s good to be back.”

“What the hell!” Joshua screamed. Asked. Tears caught in his eyes, he regained his footing one clumsy foot after the other, the damage to his own body too white hot to even notice yet.

“It feels good you know.” Her fingers crawled under her shirt, feeling each rib at a time. “To hurt like this again.”

Joshua’s jaw was slack, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“Comparatively, I mean. There’s always pain in the Element, but damn does it feel better than the pain of having to lie with every second of your existence.” Her hand rose and swept her bangs back, traveling to her ear to wipe away a trickle of blood. “It wasn’t all bad, playing adventure. I considered staying for a time, but we all have our homes to get back to at the end of the day. Mine is with the Element, always has been. Yours is with Taerose.”

“You were in prison when we found you!” He looked at her like he didn't know her. Fair. He looked at her like she was a monster. They always did.

“Blah, blah, blah,” Gianna whined, mocking Joshua. “You talk too much. Hero this. Adventure that. You’re so desperate for your life to be a story, so I give you a damsel in distress. We knew where you were headed; we knew what you were looking for. One stop at that farm was enough for that. Rushed to the base before you, locked myself in the dark with the one person in the world you wanted. Do you have any idea how many times I slipped and said things that I shouldn't? Knew things I shouldn't? Didn't know things I should? You never questioned any of it. Never questioned why Mal needed a new lieutenant to play with? Where oh where, I wonder, did that last one get to?” Her lips curled, fighting a smile as she stood face to face with Joshua.

“Mal pops up wherever you go,” Gianna continued, “knowing you'll be there before you ever arrive. You didn't question a single thing, didn't question me. In a lot of ways, I was the worst person to assign to this task on my social skills alone. Yet it all worked out because you see a helpless little girl and jump on it. It's borderline offensive really.”

“And all for, what?” Joshua's voice caught, croaked. “Just so dad could bring us home?”

“Bringing you home was always the easy part. Mal hoped you would come willingly, hoped you would help him. Just like the Serians. The King does love his children if nothing else. But we're past that I suppose.” Gianna took a long drought of dry, stale air and grounded herself, feeling the energy of her powers pulsing like a current within. “Now we deliver you like we're supposed to. There's no getting out of this.” Swinging her arm around and cracking the loose joints, she bore down on Joshua.

###

No getting out of this? Joshua ran the words back through his mind. He didn't even understand not fully, but that didn't matter now. Gianna was coming for him, and she had a look in her eye he'd never seen before. Everything she was was something he'd never seen before. He wasn't ready to reconcile the fact, but this was her; this was who she really was.

It was sudden. Lighting fast. Her fist swung around aimed at the side of Joshua's head, and yet it was she who fell backward gasping for air. In turn, Joshua reeled back and he screamed in pain from hitting her with the broken arm. As he sucked in air and backed away, trying to calm himself, she rolled on the floor laughing and coughing.

As she staggered to her feet, Joshua looked around. There was only the one exit on the other side, directly behind Gianna. His eyes ventured up, he couldn’t see anything through the hole, and his heartbeat sounding loud in his eardrums deafened him. How was Avonly? Kael? He needed to hurry.

He regained his focus just in time as Gianna lunged at him with the tell-tale red-lighting sign of Scyhakentic energy flowing around her hand. His feet danced along the floor of the volcano, his eyes flashing every which way to keep track of her movements. It was all different than before. Gone was the odd little girl who couldn’t look him in the eye, who fought like a mouse timidly staying in the shadows. What remained was psychotic. She flailed, struck, moved without any concern for her own well-being. Joshua had ten opportunities for counterattack in any given second, but each time she would inflict far more damage on him than he could to her. At least she wasn’t staying on his injured side.

His only relief is that she wasn't using her powers. For all the crazy that dripped from her being, there was no death wish there. Joshua could recognize that in a second. She needed to hit his clothes or make direct contact and blow her own skin. Attacking through the Sy field and obsidian would kill everyone.

A punch into a jab. Pirouetting into a knee. Joshua struck out with his one good arm and then threw a kick at her head. But Giannini had transformed into lightning itself, always faster than Joshua, always sliding behind in the instant he made a mistake. He never made such a large mistake as to be touched. But it was close, and he was losing ground by the second.

Is she really this fast, or am I moving slow? Joshua thought. It wasn’t the time to be in his head, but his mind wandered. This was the same fight with Zagan, only now he was the giant slowly losing. The fifty or so pounds he had on her fragile frame became a hindrance the second he couldn’t use them. Joshua was used to fighting those materially stronger, not weaker. As a flurry of slashes dashed past, Joshua’s frustration overtook him and he broke his rhythm and bore down on her with the strongest blow he could muster, catching her under those dark eyes that glowed in the ember aura of the temple. His bony fist slammed into her left temple and a single finger grazed the side of his shirt.

The burst was powerful; The pain was immediate. Joshua was halfway across the room before realizing what happened. Too much force though. That could have ended him if she had focused the energy like her attack on Avonly. Still, he was on the ground and not sure if he could get back up. He rolled onto his belly, feeling his seared skin tug and scream. And there she was, already up, already marching to meet him.

Damn it. I can't get up. He brought his uninjured arm up and ripped what little of his shirt remained off and flung it behind him. It was weird in practice, but theoretically it made him less of a target. If she wanted at his upper body, she'd have to hurt herself. As she bore down on him, he got to his knees. He wouldn't be up in time though.

And then she screamed. High, piercing, deafening. Five feet away, he watched as she fell to one knee and grabbed her leg.

Joshua blinked, confused for a moment, before seeing a dark cylinder poking out through her calf. Confused and not sure he was seeing things as they were, Joshua looked around before finally noticing the ceiling. Pressed to the edge of the pit, Zagan lay on the ground, eyes barely open and unseeing, one arm lazily drooped over the pit bleeding. Did he help? Well it doesn't matter now. I need to stand.

Slowly, painfully, Joshua and Gianna grunted and stood through clenched teeth in unison, like some horrific dance. That shiv of frozen blood still stuck through her left calf and Joshua didn't think it would be coming out any time soon.

But to his surprise, she started forward again, in a hobbling run. What is she made of? Her hands cupped together, shielding something unseen as she shuffled through the gap between them. An old favorite of hers.

Her hand opened with a dazzling white light as Joshua wrenched his eyes shut. She approached him boldly as he looked into the distance vaguely. A cold shock shook her spine as Joshua's gaze immediately snapped to her.

His knuckles cracked and bled as they dug into her chest in the spot she was holding before, knocking her off her feet.

“I closed my eyes.” Joshua smiled, remembering when he had seen her use that trick the day he met her in the Tyré. “You hid the real you well enough, but lies are based on truth. Don’t treat me like a stranger, I know you. And damn it, you aren’t going to kill me that easily.”

“Kill you?” Her eyes were laughing at him. “I’m not allowed to have that sort of fun. You just have to not die.”

Could that possibly be true? It felt like she was trying to kill him. He gingerly touched the side of his abdomen which was one nasty welt now. How much further can she take this without killing me?

As if reading his thoughts, Gianna outstretched her hand a small burst of flaming energy reared its hand between her fingers. What had to be a small Sy Field of combustion constricted and almost took solid shape as a jagged and pulsating dagger-- never quite with solid form. The trick from Dania weaponized. “I can tell you from experience, there are a hell of a lot of ways to not kill someone.”

“If no one is dead, then you still have a choice. You don’t have to be this thing. To be with these people.” Joshua was holding back tears at this point, choking on his words. “Let me save you.”

"Piss off." She moved forward with a shuffle.

Joshua’s muscles clenched in frustration. He wasn’t about to give up finding a peaceful solution, but to get there he was going to need to make that option look more attractive. Luckily, he now realized he was wrong before. There was one thing here he could use. One more tool in this fight to deal some damage.

She was on him now. And Joshua braced. He had to be precise. The first few stabs with her weapon aimed low and Joshua jumped back further and further.

And then she did it. A jab at his shoulder.

Joshua ducked to eye level and lunged forward at the blade with his face, putting his fate into the truth that she wasn't allowed to kill him.

Inches away from death and the heat of the explosive weapon burning, liquidizing his face, she jolted in panic. Like flipping a light switch, the weapon just turned off.

In a single movement, he brought her face into his rising knee, sending her whirling over backward in a writhe of pain.

Lying on her back, blood from her nose bathing her face a redundant red, she began breathing fast. Faster and faster. She flipped over as Joshua walked to the door, struggled to her feet. “Stop it. Damn you, don’t turn your back on me.”

“Or what? Can you even get back up? I have to go help my sister, but the next time we see each other, let’s not fight. I think we owe each other that much.”

“How are you so, frustratingly, naive. There is no next time.”

“And yet, the door is so close, and you don’t have it in you to chase.”

Gianna bit her lip, tugged at her hair. “Can I ask something from you then?”

“I’m in no mood. Don’t expect anything,” Joshua said. Gianna chuckled, gnawing at Joshua's patience. Was him being mad funny? He was just getting started.

“Just a moment of honesty. Answer me one question. We owe each other that much right? You can even go first.”

Joshua took a deep breath and sucked some air back rather than to make time to think. “Was there anything I could have ever done to stop you from going back to the Element?”

“No.” The way she said it so plainly, so blankly, he knew it was true. “My question is this: Have you ever killed someone, intentionally, personally. Not just making a mess as you gallivant through life?”

“Is that really your question?” Joshua's voice wavered, he had already resolved to give an honest answer. But this? She was silent. He waited for her answer but it never came. She only stared on. Pushing down a lump in his throat he nodded slowly. “You saw the grave. Well there you go. She was as much my mother as Kael’s, and I’m responsible for her death. And I’ve been earning my way back ever since. You and everyone else thinks I’m some jackass making jokes and doing the most exciting thing for my own entertainment, but-- but that isn’t it. I’m paying off my debt. If I died right here, saving Avonly and Kael, I’d be happy. That would have been a good end.”

"Is that your trauma? That's the great injustice you flay yourself over? You accidentally killed the woman you called your mother and so you mope about it for the rest of your life?" Gianna growled, forcing herself to her feet.

“Accidentally? No. I was careful. I planned it. She didn't even have a chance to see the knife plunge into her heart.” The words left his lips before he could catch them. There was so much more to it. So much to explain. He'd do it again as much as it almost killed him the first time. But how do you explain that?

And as he looked to Gianna, trying to put more words together, to give that explanation, he was shocked when she started laughing. Dumbfounded. She couldn't stop. Tears formed in her eyes and she doubled over in pain laughing so hard.

“Come on Joshua. You belong with us. Come with me. With Mal. We could do so much together.”

“Or you could come with me.” And he meant it. In that moment, there was nothing he wanted more. It didn't have to end. It didn't have to be over.

"Do you know what would happen if I just let you leave? What Mal would do to me? The scars I already have would be specs in comparison. If you want to make it out of here on your own terms, you are going to have to kill me Joshua!”

"No. I won't. You can barely stand. One more hit and you're not getting up for a good long while."

Gianna skewed her head sideways and looked at him wide-eyed. "You're nothing. With all your cleverness, you're just some guy. And I was born better.”

Joshua recognized it now. The fatalism. The scales had tipped and things were different. The death wish in her eyes, her speech. She was going to do the one thing she absolutely couldn't, shouldn't. His fingers crept into his pocket, twitching after the only thing he had brought with him-- the incendiary bullet. He had checked it after he fell and thank goodness it didn't explode then. He backed towards the door and drew it out, placing it between his forefinger and index.

Gianna howled with laughter again. The moment and its circumstances lost to her. She turned sideways and brought her hand up into empty air.

Joshua dropped the bullet to the ground and placed his foot over it lightly.

Gianna erupted a forceful orange blast behind that shook the cavern and ripped through the frozen molten core. She flew. Or more appropriately, she soared like a bird. Rocketed towards him. A second blast sounded and she gained height, practically flying. A plume of neon lava rushing and spewing behind her.

Joshua brought his foot up and slammed it down as hard as he could. The ground between them exploded in all shades of luminescent colors with a wave of magma jumping into the air, blocking the path between them. Joshua jumped back in searing pain from the heat, but hadn't turned to run. Not yet. She would expect him to run. She expected fear.

A circle of the magma curtain blew apart in every which way as Gianna flew through the hole, death shining in her eyes but paling upon seeing him face to face. And there it was.

His hand caught her in the stomach. That's all it took. She gasped and her face contorted in a look of shock and then a smile. She fell back into plumes of liquid earth with a look of genuine joy. The first time Joshua had ever seen her smile for real. At one point it had been all he had ever wanted to see. Now that he got his wish, he would be haunted by it until the day he died.

And then she was gone.