For Exceeds Expectations (Paula)
seconds
before
three hundred seconds before
Your heart pounds as you crouch behind the burnt out Volkswagen and you put up your gravity field with shaking hands. You know that there's a distinct possibility that it might not work. You know from what Diana has told you that Gaia is stronger than any of you here at Perdido Beach. You know deep down that everyone in Perdido Beach is going to die tonight; you've known that ever since you were warned about Gaia and her powers. You've fought so hard, but you know that eventually it will all be for nothing, because the gaiaphage will win in the end and everyone's suffering would be at an end. But that doesn't mean you aren't going to try and fight for your life. You're going to fight for your freedom, your rights, and most importantly, Brianna.
Brianna.
The name still makes your heart flutter and as you think about her all burned up and beaten up at Clifftop you can't help the little slither of doubt that creeps into your mind. What if she can't get up and make it out to fight? What if she's out cold and Clifftop starts to burn? You know that Lana would make sure that only herself, her dog and maybe Sanjit got out alive. Suddenly, for the first time in the history of the FAYZ, you're really, properly scared.
You've never felt this way before, not even when that bug was eating open your stomach, not when Caine and his cronies were throwing people around and taking control because they could. Not when your hands had been cemented into a brick to stop you from using your powers. Those times were nothing, nothing, compared to how frightened you feel now.
two hundred and ten seconds before
You take a deep breath in hopes of calming your nerves. It doesn't work. You know that once you get off the highway and down towards Perdido Beach that the world will be watching you fight. There will be cameras and parents of children that may be alive now but mightn't live to see another day.
You wonder if your parents will care if you are struck down in tonight's fight. Will they cry for you? Will they grieve? Will they hold a funeral for you and weep for ever sending you to Coates Academy in the first place? Or will they be glad that their embarrassment of a daughter is gone. You feel that it's closer to the latter. You haven't seen your mother or father around the barrier at all, why would they be? They shipped you off to Coates as soon as they had the chance.
one hundred and five seconds before
You hear footsteps and you tense slightly, making sure that your area of no gravity is still in position. You glance back down the road to see Edilio and his shooters all crouched behind burnt out cars, waiting, watching.
ninety eight seconds before
The sudden sound of gunfire makes you jump and almost lose your control over force field. You regain your composure, refusing to look around the side of the car you're crouched behind out of fear of giving up the ambush. You don't feel anything but when you glance up through a hole in the metal of the car, you see Gaia running through the air and all of your breath comes out in a whoosh. You've done it, you've caged the beast. But everyone knows it's not for good.
Bullets pepper Gaia and blood sprays everywhere. You breathe out.
The bullets start to miss as the monster begins to rise higher and higher out of their range. You draw in your breath and fight to make the force field lower.
Seventy seconds before
Rays of light shine out of Gaia's hands and it takes everything in you not to cry out and scream for the people she was burning up. Edilio's shooters go running as he takes his stance in the middle of the road, so steady and poised, his hands perfectly still as he shoots shot after shot at Gaia.
A bullet clips the monster's ear and you yell in triumph as blood sprays everywhere, landing on your face like droplets of rain. You feel a force resisting your powers and realise that it was true, the little girl could harness everyone's power for her own.
Edilio's three remaining shooters run. The monster laughs and uses a car from the side of the road to bowl them over. You choke back tears as you think of their families that were probably waiting for them on the other side of the barrier.
Edilio doesn't move and you can see the pain and the hurt in his eyes. You can't imagine what it must be like for him after losing Roger at the lake. You can see in his eyes that he is daring Gaia to kill him, daring her to let him join his loved one. You don't know what you would do in that situation.
He yells for Jack and Orc and a telephone pole goes flying through the air, clipping Gaia's shoulder and knocking her around hard. Edilio had not stopped firing at her and it was with a sick smile of satisfaction on her face that Gaia threw an invisible fist at him and he flew off the road and into the darkness.
"No!" You cry and before you know what you're doing, you've thrown yourself at the little monster with nothing but your fists for protection. She grabs your chin with Brianna's lightning speed before you can even lay a hand on her. Your arms flail everywhere as the little monster sneers at you.
"You're the one with the power over gravity, aren't you? I could almost do without you," she says, blood still spurting from her ear. You glare back at her, hatred written across your face as she squeezes your face harder and harder, "so don't annoy me."
She twists your face and you fly through the air and land five metres away. Your head smashes into the road and your vision immediately goes hazy. You know it's vital to get up and keep helping your friends. You pick yourself up off the ground and stagger to the left, slipping in and out of consciousness as you hear gunfire again and a pressure is released from your heart. Edilio, he's alive.
As quickly as the gunfire starts, it stops and you cry out his name in anguish, hoping against hope that he's not hurt too badly. You raise a hand to your head as Gaia says something to you with a sneer. You stagger over to a car and sit down on the bonnet, blinking furiously to clear your head. You look around for a weapon, anything will, anything to stop Gaia from getting into Perdido Beach, anything to stop her from getting to Brianna.
twenty seconds before
You see Orc step out of the shadows and you see Gaia look at him quizzically. You search around more frantically for a weapon, hoping to help him bring down the beast. But she ducks this way and that using Brianna's speed. You feel anger boil up inside of you as you see Gaia using Brianna's power. That power was Brianna's and Brianna's alone.
Your vision blurs and seconds later, right next to Gaia and Orc, stands Brianna herself.
"Hey Gaia, did you miss me?" she says and you feel as if the fight is won already. Breeze is back on her feet and you know she won't let any harm befall the people of Perdido Beach.
six seconds before
The fight is a blur with the two of them both harnessing the same power of speed, it's almost impossible for you to make out who might be winning. Six seconds later, Brianna's limp body falls to the ground, a hole burned through her body where her heart used to be.
after
two seconds after
"NO," You scream immediately and charge at Gaia with Orc at your side. She fires the killing light at you, the same light that she used on Brianna, but misses and retreats into the darkness.
twenty seconds after
"No, no, no," you sob as you run back over to Brianna and pull her into your arms. Her head was still burned from the explosion at the lake and you can see where Lana has tried to heal it. You look down at her chest at the hole that had been burnt through it, taking away the heart that had saved so many of the kids still here today. It had been stolen from in less than a second. You feel tears fall from your eyes and onto Brianna's suddenly tiny body.
"Get Lana!" you yell, but even as Edilio assures you that he'll get her, you know that it's no use. Lana doesn't raise the dead. You let out a sob as you look into Brianna's eyes, they were the eyes that you loved so much. You can't bring yourself to shut them like you've so often seen grief stricken heroes do in movies. Because you're no hero and she was Brianna, the first girl you have ever loved.
three hundred seconds after
You can't move, you can't speak, you can't let go of the small corpse in your arms that used to be the girl you once loved – the girl you still love, because absolutely nothing can ever stop you from loving her.
You feel numb, almost as if your heart has been burnt out of your chest along with Brianna's.
Edilio is long since gone, leaving you alone with Brianna; you don't know how you can go on from this point. How are you supposed to go on now that the one person who has been keeping you going is gone too? How are you supposed to move, and fight and survive the attack from Gaia now that your lifeline has been cut?
She was the only reason that you are still alive. If it wasn't for Brianna, you would be dead and buried in that ground long before the FAYZ happened. She was the one that had shown you that life had a purpose, that it was possible to be happy. It's been a long time since you've been happy. But then again, what is happiness anymore? Is it eating something other than Nutella and Cup-a-Noodles? Is it surviving through another day? Is it defeating the enemy? You don't know anymore. The FAYZ has changed you in more ways than one.
You went in as Dekka Talent, the shy, closeted girl, harbouring a crush on a girl two years your junior. And when you come out, if you get out of this blasted dome, you will still be Dekka Talent, but you will be a survivor, a girl that has seen too much, a girl that has watched the heart literally burnt out of the girl that you have finally admitted to loving.
six hundred seconds after
Your heart, which has been aching with sadness ever since it happened, finally shatters and you let out a long wail that reverberates around you as you bring your knees up to your chest and curl up beside Brianna. You wish you'd thanked her for showing you that there was some other point to life than being accepted by society. You wish that you could've told her about how she saved your life at Coates multiple times without knowing it. She didn't deserve to die, not when she had saved you so many times. You wish that you were dead as well, you wish that you could've just told her how sorry you are and how brave she was. But you can't. Gaia has made sure of that.
eight hundred and twenty six seconds after
The sound of gunfire rips through the silence and you know that it's starting. You know that you are going to die tonight and there are two ways that you can do it. You know that if you sit here with Brianna, you will be out of harms' way, but Gaia will find you and kill you eventually. If you go and help everyone in Perdido Beach, Gaia will still kill you but she will kill you while you're putting up a fight.
It takes a phenomenal effort for you just to get to your knees. It feels as if your heart just wants to lie on the ground with Brianna and you know that's what your mind would rather do too. But you won't let it.
Bending down over Brianna's small, fragile body, you plant a soft kiss on her lips; the first and last kiss that you will ever experience with her. Tears spring to your eyes as you pull back from her lifeless form and finally, with the last ounce of your emotional strength, you shut her eyes.
"I love you, Breeze," you whisper as you stagger to your feet, "Always."
You're running on autopilot as you walk away from your loved one and you can't prevent the tears from streaming down your face. But you can't die sitting by her side, mourning her when you will be with her sometime soon. You're going to die in battle, just like she did. You're going to die trying to bring down the gaiaphage and you're going to die fighting, fighting for her memory.
You stop at the end of the highway just outside Perdido Beach and turn back.
"See you soon, Breeze," you say and as screams erupt from where the old church used to stand, you break into a run, embracing death like an old friend.
AN: I hope you liked it Paula! This gave me so much trouble with my computer you wouldn't believe. My computer glitched and I spent half an hour screaming at it before I realised there was such a thing as the document recovery :p
I would love it if you could all leave me some feedback about what you thought. Thanks!
DFTBA,
Best Wishes
~The Original Horcrux~