Thanks to: Auraya-of-the-White, B0N3S-FR3AK, Wizard-in-Disguise, kathiann, Collier World, GSRFanatic123, Ebony10, and Sophie Fatale.
Because of the terrific onslaught of reviews, I've decided to review early. Again. And I'll probably update early on the next one, too, because…
Azulia
There was only one option, really. Stop the shooter.
She launched herself over the seats, crashing bodily into the would-be shooter. The bullet went wide. Most students didn't know what was really going on- the bullet was silent, soundless. All they knew was Azulia had just attacked someone.
The teens on either side of the shooter didn't move, even when Azulia wrestled with the shooter, trying to take the gun away. The shooter was pulling the trigger over and over again, trying to hit her.
She dug her fingernails into the shooter's empty hand and struggled to keep the gun pointed at the ceiling. She was strong, but so was the shooter. By that time, other students saw the black object waving in the air, and had started to panic. At the fringes of the room, the CBI agents were struggling to get through the writhing mass of frightened teens.
Azulia fought to keep the shooter down, but the teen was putting up quite a fight. A knee bashed into Azulia's ribs.
Azulia gouged a deep furrow in the shooter's arm.
The shooter hit her in the head with the butt of the gun.
Azulia shoved the shooter's shoulders, a loud crack as the attacker's head smacked against the floor.
They barely slowed or weakened from the battering.
The shooter's empty hand got loose, but, thinking fast, Azulia screeched in the shooter's face, startling them into releasing the gun. The shooter shouted with anger, and landed an elbow in Azulia's eye. She cried out in pain, but still managed to kick the gun away.
By then, the agents were able to help. Rigby grabbed the shooter's arm and dragged the flailing teen out from under Azulia. Cho stuck a gun up against the shooter's head, and they stopped flailing instantly. Van Pelt was kneeling beside Azulia where she lay, panting, rubbing her rapidly swelling eye.
"Are you okay?" she asked. Azulia nodded, touching each injury in turn, assessing the damage. Nothing was broken or bleeding, but she was going to be pretty bruised. Definitely a huge black eye. The auditorium had mostly cleared, the teachers able to take control again and get everyone out. Lisbon ran over, Jane close behind.
Third Person (Omniscient)
"Oh my God," Lisbon breathed, looking at the scene with wide eyes. Jane looked triumphant, but slightly shaken from the close call.
It had taken all of his willpower to keep from cowering behind the podium, hiding from the attack he knew was coming. He realized how clever the would-be shooter was- her black, curly hair had disguised the gun almost perfectly. He fought down a shiver, glad that Azulia was sitting in the right place.
Azulia glared up at him, as much as one could glare with a swelling eye, askew hair, and rapidly blackening bruises.
"Ow, dammit!! You planned this!" she growled accusingly, her eyes cold flames. He smiled, slowly and hesitantly. Lisbon gasped.
"You… you planned this??" she cried.
"Um… yes?" he said, looking a bit nervous. She practically swelled with anger, and he held up his hands innocently. "It worked, didn't it?"
"That's what you've got to say for yourself?!? 'It worked'?? Yes, it worked, but Azulia got beaten to a pulp, Jay will never forgive us, and the students have probably destroyed the halls trying to get out!" she said furiously.
"I didn't plan this part. I knew the killer would try to eliminate me, and now was their best chance. The school is only a minute away from the hospital, so they'd be able to fix a chest wound so long as it didn't hit the heart, I knew Azulia was keeping an eye out, but I thought she'd handle it with more… finesse," he said.
"I'm right here," Azulia said irritably, blinking her bruised eye experimentally. They paid no attention to her.
"Finesse?? She almost got killed! And you did, too! What if the shooter aimed for the head, or got you in the heart?"
"She wouldn't aim for the head. At this distance, it was a much smaller target, and she didn't want anything really gory. And she wouldn't have hit my heart, she's not as practiced with guns as she is with knives," he said confidently.
"Can we argue about this later, and get back to the case on hand?" Van Pelt suggested, helping Azulia climb to her feet. Jane nodded, and they all turned to the would-be shooter, still held by the shoulders by Rigby and Cho pointing his gun at her head.
"I was right. Good try, Eliza," Jane said cheerily. She smiled back brightly.
"What's the line? Oh, yeah. 'I would've gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you pesky kids!'" she said. Azulia's eyes flashed, and she fidgeted nervously. Jane gave her a curious glance. She looked back at him, her eyes wide (one eye wide, the other as wide as it could go with it quickly swelling shut), trying to communicate something.
"So you killed Rhea?" Lisbon asked, oblivious to Azulia and Jane.
"Duh."
"Why?"
"Because Rhea took everything away from her. Popularity. Boys. She even took away your status of sixth-smartest in her class. You're the one who made her popular in the first place, the ungrateful slut," Jane answered in a soft, appraising croon before Eliza could open her mouth. "Then she caught you stealing money, and it pushed you too far. So you killed the little bitch. Serves her right, she's had enough goodness in her life to count for a lifetime. She had it coming anyway." His tone turned sour, low, and dangerous.
"You're still seventeen, so why not have a last wild moment before you can be thrown in jail? Well, I hope you enjoy your stay in Juvy, it's just as bad. They'll eat you to the marrow, and stick your head on a pike for all to see. You'll never live in peace again- one memory or another will keep coming back. You're going to die, scared and alone, like Rhea. But you'll know what you did to deserve an ending like that. Rhea didn't deserve it at all." He stared off with Eliza for a moment before she looked away, an angry blush rising to her cheeks. Lisbon noticed Azulia open her mouth, but then close it and swallow anxiously.
"I'm not going to die alone," Eliza bit back. Her smile made Lisbon nervous. She suddenly whipped her jacket open, and everyone staggered back, away from what she'd exposed. Azulia's breath hissed out in fear.
Lining her jacket was a mass of wires, black contraptions, and metal. She smirked, exposing white teeth. "And neither will you." She turned to Jane, staring into his eyes. This time, he was the one who flinched when she spoke.
"You know I had help. That was a curare on the needle that I got the two students with. I don't have access to paralyzing drugs like that. And I wouldn't have access to these lovelies, either," she said, running a finger over the hypnotizing whirl of wires. "Wanna know who helped? He said you know him. He knows you pretty well. And your wife. Daughter, too." Eliza paused for the effect.
"Red John."
Three things happened at once.
Eliza pushed the button.
The CBI agents, protected with Kevlar vests and their emergency training, took defensive action, diving behind chairs and such.
Azulia saw that, if she didn't do something, Jane would certainly be killed, as he appeared to be frozen in shock. Thinking quickly, she threw herself at him, knocking him to the ground. She felt a stabbing pain as her back took a mass of heat and shrapnel. Her senses were overrun with agony, and so, doing the only thing her body could in a situation like that, it shut down. She was unconscious before she hit the ground.
…of that. I am a cruel writer, leaving you two cliffhangers in a row, and I deserve to be forcibly fed bees for my scurrilous actions. Apologies! –sheepishly grins, and cowers under desk-