Chapter 25

The Guardian

Meredith slashed, a chunk of the building flying off at Rico. The man broke that attack with his spear, sending the rocks at both Meredith and Vivian. The latter dodged, firing rapidly at their opponent’s feet to force him on the move. When Meredith reached him, she jabbed forward, nicking him on the arm. He grunted and held to his spear with one hand while his fist soared out to clock her on the head. It didn’t hurt as much, thanks to Vivian’s enchantments, and Meredith responded by headbutting him.

“Get him!” Meredith called. Vivian raised her arrows high.

“Max-strike! Area Shot!” Shortly after the arrow fired, it split into a rain of energy. Rico clasped his spear once more, raising it up and twirling it rapidly. A vortex of wind appeared, blowing away many of the arrows that struck the building and the streets below. Some of the screens showcasing their battle were cracked and damaged from the deflection, falling on the asphalt. Chapman’s muttered voice could be heard commentating with fear. “I’ve got enough magic for another max-level spell. How do we want to play this?”

“I’ll leave that up to you. It’s not my magic!” Meredith created a stone behind her foot, using it to spring forth. She put her full weight behind her blade and swung. The weapons clashed, another shockwave making the whole tower shudder. She could feel Terrill there, supporting her, pushing her on and reminding her why she fought. Rico, however, wasn’t conversing with the soul of his weapon at all. “That’s sad…”

Rico didn’t care. He smacked the butt of the spear out, and Meredith barely caught it. The soul inside it cried out, and images flashed through her mind. Images of loss and pain, though they weren’t Rico’s. It did, however, reinforce her point. She snapped her elbow up into Rico’s chin and Vivian blitzed past, slashing at the man’s side. He finally bled. With a guttural cry, his spear sent a gale that pushed the girls back.

“What’s so sad to you, trial girl?”

“It’s sad…you can talk with souls, but you don’t. You can understand how their pain made them stronger, but choose not to,” she said, straightening. Her body was glowing red, even as Vivian’s was slumping. She didn’t want to voice it aloud, but Meredith knew what Vivian had done. “I’m starting to understand you, Rico. I know why you hate the Corps so much, and it’s not about what they did or didn’t do. It’s because they’re something you could never be!”

Meredith ducked, avoiding Rico’s swipe, and she slapped her hand on the roof. Her soul communing with Terrill’s caused a great stone dragon to rise from the roof, caving it in a bit. The dragon flew high and soared back down, its jaws opening in an explosion of rubble once it reached Rico. Vivian nocked her arrow and fired, the attack splitting more of Rico’s wound on his arm.

“As if you can judge who I am from our few encounters. You’re just like the rest of them, never understanding what we’ve been through!” Rico shouted. He leapt high, carried on the wind, and came screaming down. Some of the televisions flickered and popped, the lightning being summoned around the man’s spear. Vivian moved front, raising her blade as he hit. The electricity sent a shower of sparks raining on all of them, the flecks burning at Meredith’s skin. She grimaced. “You got to fight for the Corps at the tournament, instead of people that I’m sure had much more experience. You’ve cleared trials. Earned the respect of people despite being so green. Yet what about the people who worked just as hard, but didn’t have life handed to them? Why should we forget them?”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” Vivian retorted. She barely had the strength to hold Rico off, and Meredith ran to her friend. Vivian ducked at that moment, allowing Meredith to use her body as a vault to reach Rico, the sudden attack sending him off-guard.

“I know I’ve gotten luckier than most people,” Meredith shouted, “but I’ve been where you are. I’ve been in that place where I was lost and drowning. Everyone had magic, but I didn’t. Everyone took the trials, but I didn’t. Every day of my life I watched as people praised my brother, but I was just the mechanic. And I was okay with it. I was okay, even if it meant my dream was ignored.”

“Then you should understand!” Rico and Meredith clashed once again, the Renegade pushing her off and sending her stumbling backward. He snapped his spear to her side, cleaving into her shoulder again. She returned the favor. “You were abandoned by them as well. Disregarded.”

“Yeah, so what?!” Meredith stomped her foot and took her blade out of Rico’s shoulder to slash. Rocks came from the walls to strike Rico and toss him to the edge of the roof. With him distracted, Meredith pulled Vivian up. “Everyone has hardship, or did Felix and Eddie not make that clear? We don’t have perfect lives, free of troubles. And nor would I want one.”

She shuffled forward, holding to Vivian, whose arm was hanging limply. She spoke once again, and could hear Terrill speaking alongside her. “Because if we don’t experience pain and hardship, how can we protect those who do? I’m glad for the pain I’ve experienced!”

“Not everyone’s you! Not everyone’s foolish enough to grin about it and others’ suffering!”

“But I’m not!” Meredith yelled. Rico was growling, looking like a caged animal who wanted to lash out at the closest person. He stepped first, aiming right for the two girls and slashing. They fell away, with Meredith barely able to intercept. Pain shuddered down to her shoulder, her hand shaking from the effort. “I would never ignore people who are in pain, but I can’t save everyone unless they want to be saved! I can’t…”

“You can’t what?” Rico roared. He twisted his spear round to turn it into swords, and started beating upon Meredith’s blade with impunity. She found her knees slipping as Vivian scrambled to make another attack. “You can’t protect us? Can’t help us? If you’re a Guardian, you should be able to erase our pain! Isn’t that what they do for the ignorant populace?!”

“I can’t erase pain, Rico! No one can!” Her knee finally slipped. The scimitars came for her, but Vivian acted. With a guttural cry that tore at her very body, Vivian sliced, knocking Rico’s attack back. Meredith huffed, but pushed to stand as Vivian spun, only to catch a blade on her arm. She screamed. “The trials. My life without magic. My friends being hurt. Me being unable to stop things. They all hurt inside me. I wouldn’t want to get rid of them, because erasing that means erasing me!”

“Then what good are you?!” Rico’s roar was followed by the whole building shuddering, boulders becoming suspended in midair. “Come on, Meredith! Erase my pain! If your Corps is so great, do it!”

The gravity slipped on the boulders and they fell towards the girls. Meredith stood, readying herself to make another wall of stone to block them, until she felt a hand pushing on her chest, knocking her to the floor. Vivian looked back, offering a smirk before her trembling hands pushed forward, a shield erecting itself. Rico’s attack battered the blue shield, making Vivian wince with every strike until the assault ended. The shield dropped immediately after it had, and Vivian began to fall with it, her magic gone.

Meredith crawled over, placing a finger to her neck to make sure Vivian was all right. Confirming she was, Meredith sighed and pushed back up, the Earth-Splitter quivering in her hand. I’m sorry, Terrill…

For what?

I don’t agree with you. It was a slow step, but Meredith took it forward. She took her blade in both hands, even if neither of them would stop shaking under the weight.

“I can’t, Rico,” she said. Every breath was becoming an effort, every movement a trial. She needed to say it, though. “I can’t erase your pain, Rico. I can’t erase Emil’s, or Lovelia’s, or anyone’s.

“But I can take it! I can take on your pain and your burden! I can shoulder it for you so you don’t have to! That’s what it means to be a Guardian!”

She grabbed her sword, and with her statement, she swung it with all her might upward, knocking the spear up just enough. Her fist came out, beating into Rico’s chin for a second before it was caught. She froze. “You wouldn’t be able to handle it. Not a single Guardian could, trial girl.”

Meredith choked. Pain, white hot pain seared along her side. Blood drenched what was left of her robes, tearing apart at Rico’s spear slicing through her side. She whimpered, unable to stop it amidst the agony. Rico let go of her, and Meredith fell, hacking and squealing from the wound that jarred her body. The Earth-Splitter clattered.

“Is this all you’re worth?” Rico asked. His voice had become softer, but no less heard through the city. The stadium shots had gone quiet. The Guardians had stopped struggling. Meredith found herself becoming hazy, though she could see the few screens displaying the stadium. “You make bold claims, but can’t back them up. You’re just running from the truth!”

“Hah…ah…” Meredith gasped in pain, her hand feeling the warm blood as she held it to the gash on her side. Rico stepped aside, as if he wanted to fill her with the despair of watching all the people, their faces close up and quivering with fear.

“Your Guardians are scared of pain. They will never understand that. Just look at what your Corps is doing, unable to save the people from being filled with horror and despair! Look, Meredith Childs!”

She was looking. Could see everyone, and could hear their voices of terror. They were all part of Rico’s message, inflicting those lashes of doubt to all who were watching the world over. Meredith coughed, her hand struggling to push up, but knowing it had to. It just hurt.

“Is…is that it…?”

“No, she can’t…she…” Meredith’s cough nearly caused her to tumble.

“The Guardian Corps is…if even the last hope can’t stand against the Renegades, what hope do we have to believe in the Corps?” someone screamed, cowering in his seat. Rico stood back, triumphant as he looked down at her. He was still challenging her, but he had won.

“But who will fight for us? The Home Guard suffered a blow, too…”

“Are you all blind?!” Meredith felt her vision clear. She knew that voice. “You have a Guardian fighting for you, right there! She hasn’t fallen!”

“Brynn…” Meredith choked out. Her limbs shook, but she found it in herself to finally wrap her fingers around the Earth-Splitter’s hilt.

“She stands, fighting! She is a pinnacle of the Corps! Would you abandon her because of some few cowards who ran?” Brynn demanded, her voice overriding all others. Rico looked confused, not expecting it to happen, but Meredith could see. On the screen, the pink-haired girl was standing in the commentator’s box with a freed Chapman, Masters and the presidents. The people were saved. Meredith stabbed the ground, beginning to pull up. “Meredith won’t lose, so don’t lose hope! Don’t lose faith in the ones that have protected you thus far!”

A confused silence succeeded Brynn’s statement, not one person sure of what to say. Not one, except her parents, raising their voices amidst the crowd.

“Mera! If you can still move, you can fight!”

“Stand and win, honey!” That emboldened Meredith, emboldened the people to rise up.

“Yeah! She hasn’t given up! She’s still going!”

“She can still win!”

“Come on Guardian, win! Don’t give up!”

“We believe in you!” Meredith finally drew herself to her feet, gasping for air against the pain in her side. She glared at Rico, wiping the tears away.

“WIN, MEREDITH CHILDS!”

“You heard them, Rico. I can’t stop,” she whispered. All eyes were on her and her ragged breathing, but still she stood. Her soul flared, touching to Vivian’s, and before she knew it, Vivian’s soul was offering energy back, stitching her wound, temporary as it was. “And that’s the difference between us. Between the Renegades and the Corps.”

Rico didn’t care to know what that difference was. He jabbed his spear forward, a slice of wind flying at her. She dodged it, running at him with the Earth-Splitter bared. Like fangs of the earth, she swung it, grating against his spear, the souls inside them clashing. Rico was pushed back. She swung a kick out, fueled on pure adrenaline to knock him aside. He retaliated with a thrust that sliced at her arm. It was Eddie’s turn to have his soul reach out.

“It’s not about our pain or our ideals. It’s not about the individual things of our lives!” Meredith shouted. She echoed around the city, her wound stitching up. She stabbed, and Rico tried to block, only for Meredith to sweep her leg with a round of dirt that struck his side as stones. “It’s about the fact that we don’t give up! We don’t sit and complain about how horrible our lives are! We make them better! You just think about it, hoping someone will reach out the hand to you. Hoping your family will make you feel better about yourself, when the reality is that the only one who can save yourself from all that misery…the only one who can move you forward…is you!”

“Quiet!” Rico roared. His spear came at her, but its soul cried to her, telling her to move. She did so, knocking the weapon upward before she slashed at Rico’s exposed chest. It struck him, if just barely, and he went tumbling back. “No one helped me when I had everything taken from me! You can’t blame me for-”

“I can, and I will!” Meredith charged forward, her blade cutting and slicing, blocked at each turn by a flailing Rico.

You can’t reason with him, Meredith! Terrill shouted from within, reminding her of what she already knew. The only way you can make him understand is by beating him into the ground. By doing what you promised! Connect with him! Connect with his pain!

Connect with mine, and strike him down, Meredith Childs! Because you are a Guardian!

“You’re lost Rico, drowning in your own darkness, not wanting to find a way out! But you have people there for you!” Meredith finally yelled. An aura pulsed around her figure, the earthen color reaching the sky while everyone watched on. Her and Terrill were connecting. She could feel his past, his pain, and every bit of it inspired her to step forward. “You’re not alone! So, stop acting like the world owes you any favors! Stop acting like you’re the only one that matters!”

“Shut uuuuuuup!” Rico made to lunge at her, but froze. His body wouldn’t move, his legs finding it an effort to even lift themselves. Scattering was heard behind Meredith, but she didn’t turn. Rico, however, turned his head to where Eddie and Emil were laying. “Emil…why…?”

Emil was sitting up, his hand stretched towards his old friend, pushing gravity down upon Rico’s figure for as long as he could hold it. He answered.

“Because they’re my friends, and I promised to protect them…” he said. His control was faltering, Rico beginning to move again. Meredith began to run for him. “And because they saved me. Eddie…Eddie was right. I’m not alone.

“I’m making that choice, Rico. I’m moving on.”

His control slipped. Rico was free, running for Meredith with a feral expression, only to catch the brightness in the corner of his eye. He pivoted to find Vivian there, one last arrow loaded and shivering with energy.

She fired.

He blocked.

It didn’t matter. Vivian screamed.

“Mera, nooooow!”

Rico whipped around, unable to react in time to Meredith approaching, her entire arm encrusted with stones. Energy radiated from it, the tower they were on shaking with it. He wasn’t fast enough, and Meredith punched forward, her fist sinking into his face with more strength than she’d ever felt before.

“Don’t wait for others to save you, Rico! Save yourself!” Meredith screamed, and she pushed forward. “Soul Scream: Stone Fist!”

Her punch followed through, and heaved downward. Rico screamed, and Meredith punched him straight into the roof. The tower exploded, gravel firing every which way as the roof caved in. Rico fell, the attack knocking him unconscious before he could hit the bottom, crashing through floors upon floors as his body slowed, Meredith’s soul beginning to unconsciously use Emil’s magic to halt his descent until he flopped upon the ground, defeated at long last.

It was done.

Meredith’s feet slipped, about to fall from exhaustion, and she heard nothing but the trickling of stone from the destruction she’d just caused. The dust swirled around her as she nearly fell once more, but she could see enough to know that all eyes were still on her, the helicopter still circling with worry for their fallen leader. The people in the stadium were still waiting.

Meredith breathed in…and then raised her arm to the sky.

“It…” Chapman began tentatively. Not long passed before he raised his words to a cheer. “It’s over! Meredith Childs has defeated Rico of the Renegades! The Guardian Corps wins!”

“YEAAAAAH!”

The cheer of relief could be heard all the way in the city, and Meredith felt tears in her eyes, the pain coming back to her, mixed with the joy of victory. In the few shots of the stadium left, a different kind of chaos ensued. The people raised their hands in relief, and those Renegades that hadn’t been knocked out were either staring in disbelief or making their way for the nearest exit. The Corps would no doubt pursue them, but to Meredith, it was finally over.

She fell.

“You idiot!” Vivian’s harsh voice scolded her, catching her before she could fall all the way. Meredith couldn’t help the laugh, which Vivian emulated. They both winced from their wounds, but it didn’t stop them. “Nice job, though, Mera.”

“Yeah, you, too,” Meredith said, tapping her fist against the girl’s. On the next roof down, Eddie was smiling, his eyes open, while Emil rested on his palms, tears streaking his face. “Emil…we have a lot to work out. Dumbass…”

“Yeah…”

The screens that remained unbroken from the battle changed images, the four members of Tempest Squad that had been in the city now present and accounted for on them. Behind the quartet were restrained Renegades. That gave another chuckle.

“Captain, Communique Plaza is secured! Bruce and Trent are on the scene!”

“With our help!” Sal scolded, knocking the two on the head. Kenny chortled, but said no more. “It’s done, captain. We’ve succeeded.”

“Yeah, we have,” Vivian blew out. “Haaaah…I’m tired…”

“I’m hungry…” Meredith agreed. It was a quiet moment, even if the city rocked with cheers that spelled an end to the terror. One last time, Meredith raised her hand to the sky, and her teammates, though they had once gone astray, joined her. “WE WON!”

And on that day, the cry of Meredith Childs’ victory and her conflict with the Renegades traveled the whole world, leaving an indelible mark on everyone who had seen it. The message, though filled with doubt to the people, was loud and clear.

The Guardian Corps was still very much alive.