A red head demigod rushed down the tunnels of the Great Colosseum in Rome, Italy, searching desperately for someone. She felt the traps in the tunnels, using her godly abilities, and she felt one shift. "Don't take another step!" Askira shouted as she came around the corner in the tunnels. She felt the gears of a trap about to spring, pressure sensitive and the older teen standing on it about to activate it if he moved.
She saw Gadreel turn around before his back arched. Pain painted itself on his face as his legs gave out from underneath him, dropping onto his knees, struck by the trap she had just tried to prevent him from activating.
Letting out a mangled cry, Askira rushed forward towards the son of Ares. She grabbed onto one of his arms and pulled him out of the way of the swinging ax. He stumbled after her, barely able to keep himself up as Askira tried her best not to cry. "No no no no no no no," she kept repeating as she helped him to a wall. The son of Ares leaned heavily against it, panting heavily as the poison that was on the ax began to work its way through his system. "I told you to stay away." Askira choked out.
He gave her the best grin he could summon around his pain before grimacing, sliding down the wall till he was sitting. "I... Obviously didn't... listen to... you." He managed to squeeze out of his lungs.
Askira couldn't help but to laugh softly at that, her heart too heavy to not allow the relief a laugh would bring her, even if she couldn't help Gadreel. Her laugh soon killed itself a couple seconds after it started, sobs taking its place. The daughter of Hephaestus threw her arms around Gadreel and buried her face in his shoulder. "You can't leave me, Gadreel," she sobbed. "You can't. Please, Gadreel! Don't leave me! You can't die."
Gadreel rested his head on her shoulder, drained of all energy. "I'm not going to die, Askira," he managed to murmur in response, though he knew it was a lie. Neither of them would be able to get to help on time to save the son of Ares. The poison was too strong, and had the added support of bacteria that had adapted to it. And she knew it, too, and her sobs only became worse. "I'm Mister One Man Army, remember? I can handle anything. I can handle this. I'm not going to die..."
Askira clutched onto his blood soaked shirt, trying to pull him closer to her body as though she could help give him life, help him fight off the poison, the closer she held him to her. "Promise me?"
The son of Ares nodded, light-headed from the amount of blood he was losing, and from the amount tainted by poison. "I promise..." And with what little strength he had left, he wrapped his arms around Askira, pulling the redhead daughter of Hephaestus closer to him.
She wiped at her eyes when he did that, not caring that his blood was getting on her face now. "I'm so sorry, Gadreel. This i-i-is all m-m-my fault. I sho-should have m-made sure you l-left the Colosseum for good! I sh-should have gone with you..." She let out another sob before she stopped talking, unable to get anymore words out.
"Sh... sh... It isn't your fault, Askira." Gadreel mumbled, his pale blue eyes drooping. He struggled to keep them open, wanting to live every last moment he had with Askira. "You know how I can get, sometimes... I can't resist the fight of war... It's... in my blood..."
"I hate it! It's stupid!" Askira suddenly shouted before clutching onto him tighter. "It got you killed, Gadreel! Why couldn't you do as I had told you and stayed the hell out of the tunnels?!"
He rubbed her back soothingly to get her to calm back down, and she did, returning to her sobbing. "Hey. I'm not dead, yet, am I...? I still have some time left... Can we not waste... it... yelling at me...?" It was starting to become harder for him to find the words he wanted to use, the different sounds and vowels getting caught on his increasingly thicker tongue and constrained throat.
askira nodded, and Gadreel managed a tiny smile. "Good..."
"I love you, Gadreel," Askira suddenly choked out between her sobs. "I-I don't care if you still like both me and Maggie, Gadreel. I need to tell you that I-I love you before you die. I-I need you to know that I do. I don't care if you don't like me anymore, knowing that I've sided with the monsters. I love you, Gadreel. I love you so, goddamn much..." She started to sob again.
Gadreel's tiny smile managed to widen the teeniest bit, and he allowed his eyes to close for a few seconds before he opened them again. "Thank you for... telling me that... Askira... It means a lot..." He managed to turn his head and give her lips a small, weak kiss before pain shot its way up his back. He let out a pained scream-like sound, and Askira quickly laid him down, more tears than before in her eyes as she settled his upper half in her lap. She quickly wiped away all of his tears of pain once he was settled in her lap, somehow managing to keep back her own.
The son of Ares reached up with a hand and grabbed one of Askira's hands to hold in his own, needing the extra comfort as he slowly and painfully died. She managed a tiny smile, and gave Gadreel's hand a small squeeze. He smiled softly at that before speaking. "Can I... retry that kiss... that I was trying to... go... I mean give... you...?"
Askira managed to smile a bit more and she nodded. She bent her head down and pressed her lips softly to Gadreel's, hers warm and still full of life, and his almost cold to the touch as his life continued to escape him. Both the demigods closed their eyes, softly kissing each other, trying to make their first and last kiss the most memorable for the both of them.
After a few dozen seconds, another wave of pain shot up Gadreel's spine, and he broke off the kiss, his back arching in pain. Askira bit back her sob as she watched the son of Ares continue to try and fight off the poison for as long as possible, knowing in the end he would fail. "You can't leave me, Gadreel." She choked out. She pulled off her top most layer , not bothering to flatten out the tank top she was wearing beneath, and began to use the cotton fabric to wipe away the collecting beads of sweat developing on Gadreel's forehead. "You just promised me you won't."
He was panting and gasping as his pain subsided once more. He gave Askira's hand a weak squeeze, his skin alarming pale compared to his naturally tanned skin before. "I'm sorry, Askira... I can't help it... I need to go, okay...?"
She shook her head, desperate that her sheer will could help Gadreel live out the rest of his life until he made it to eighty or beyond. "No. N-no, i-it's not okay. I-I'm wasting y-your time. I-I could have gotten help b-by now. You could have been s-saved by now. We c-could have been together. W-we could have loved each other until death did us part. N-not until this death did us part. This death is too soon, Gadreel. Please. You can't die now! W-we just k-kissed. I-it's not polite to l-leave a girl w-with her heart broken in m-more ways than ju-just one, Gadreel."
Gadreel managed to lift his hand up and cup Askira's cheek. "Askira, you are... not wasting my time... You're making my... my... final moments more... more worth it..." He managed to give her a loose grin. "Especially since... you were always... my favorite between... the two of you..." He closed his eyes as he felt his time draw near, dropping his hand back onto his chest. Askira took it back up in her own, barely able to hold up the barriers keeping back her tears as she did. "Thank you... for the kiss... by the way... It helped me know for a fact that... that you love me... because... I know you wouldn't have done it... if you didn't... And... I love you, too... Askira..."
Askira smiled a little at that, her tears almost falling free once more. She brought Gadreel's hand up to her heart and held it there so he could feel her heart continue to beat for him as he died, silently telling him that she was going to carry on his memory. Gadreel smiled a little at that, and he let out a small sigh.
"Talk me to sleep... please... I want to hear your voice... as I fall asleep..."
Askira nodded and wiped at her eyes and cheek before she began talking to Gadreel. At first she was only talking about nothing, nonsense, really. But eventually her words changed, expressing to Gadreel how much she loved him, and she continued to speak those same words as wails of grief began to escape her, blood soaked in her clothes as well as those of the once gruffy and huffy demigod in her arms.