A fresh scar burns itself into my leg.
It dawns on me that it's either Nine, Six, or the missing Five. Marina screams as she clutches her leg. Eight gasps. Someone is dead.
"What's going on?" Sarah stares at me worriedly.
"A new Garde is lost," I say, holding on to my burning leg. Ella doesn't have a scar, but she starts crying at the aspect of one of us dying.
*NINE'S POV*
When we found out that there was a group of Mogs in Chicago, Six and I decided to go investigate. It didn't make sense that everyone was going to come, so it was just her and me.
Two dozen Mogs is nothing to worry about, so when we found them, lurking in a street corner, we went full attack because we thought if we killed them, it would be a boost of confidence.
Six is currently invisible, cooking up a storm over us as I shoot at the Mogs. One of them throws a punch at me, but I use my free arm to grab his fist in midair and throw him backwards.
More Mogs surround me, each trying to get a hit. Others start shoot from afar and I have to dodge the bullets while fighting at the same time. I look up at the sky. The storm is brewing. I can't distract Six.
I use my telekinesis to let a few Mog blasters shoot their owners. There's about ten of them left. A blast of lightning hits a couple of them. Thunder blasts overhead. Finally. As I drive a punch in one of their stomachs, another Mog shoots himself, so Six must also be helping with her telekinesis.
We cooperate. Her storm is amazing, and soon there are only three Mogs left. Six is still invisible when she blasts one of them. Two left. I shoot one of them. Only one more. "NIIIIINE!" Six screams. I spin around, and there's a bullet coming right at me. Another one of them was hiding.
The bullet stops in midair. Could it be that Six has used her telekinesis to stop it?
She shimmers and appears. I shoot the Mog in front of me and then shoot the one who came out of hiding, the one who almost got me.
The keyword is almost.
Six interfered. I stare at her now visible body, fallen against the pavement. They're all gone now. I just shot the last two, but their presence lingers as I stare at the red spot on her white shirt.
I fall to my knees beside her. "Nine," she whispers, her face frighteningly pale. This is the scariest thing I've ever seen. An entire Mog army isn't as scary at this. The only other time I felt so helpless is while I watched Sandor being tortured in that cave.
"Six, I'll take you to the penthouse. Marina or Four will heal you," I say, sliding one arm under her knees and another under her back.
"No," she says. "Nine, I…" She falls silent. Her body goes limp in my arms as a new scar sears itself on my ankle.
For the first time in a long while, I actually cry. The great, mighty Nine is crying. I clutch Six's body and I rest my head against her cold forehead.
It all starts coming to me at once. Our rivalry, our times spent arguing about who could lift more weights at a time, our duels in the Lecture Hall. I also see the few moments where Six let her guard down, and I let my guard down, and the two strongest were sitting on the roof and she told me about Katarina and I told her about Sandor and Maddy. We opened up to each other, and the next day it was forgotten, but we didn't argue much after that. Instead of dueling to see who's the best, we started dueling to push each other towards the best. I helped her improve her weak points. She helped me improve mine.
At times I watched her look at John and Sarah with sadness in her eyes, but sometimes she looked at me differently, like maybe she was over John. I never inquired. I never told her how slowly, I was falling for her. It was fun to flirt with her at first, but then it all became so serious because I found someone exactly like me.
And now she's gone, in my arms. She was going to tell me something, and the fact that she died before I told her I loved her is a burden I'll live with forever.
I slowly get to my feet, still carrying her, and I start running, as fast as my feet can take me, careful to slow down around the humans. The pain in my leg is nothing compared to the pain in my heart.
She died for me, so I'm going to fight for her. I'm going to kill every last one of the damned Mogs. We are going to win. She won't die in vain.
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