A/N: This is the second to last chapter! I'm going to finish this story out, then take a break from this account while I work on finishing a story on a different account.
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Chapter Nine: Hopeful Sorrow
"You need to stop this, Hertz!" I called. She didn't answer, continuing with her harvest. Suddenly, I noticed Eric, Alfendi, and Professor Layton moving towards the chain. I took a deep breath.
"We can help you. Please," I said. She looked down at me for a moment, before one of the large claws suddenly swung towards me. I threw myself forward, feeling the claw miss by less than an inch.
"I grow tired of you, Flora Reinhold!" she snapped, trying again. I dodged once more, beginning to notice that she was a little sloppy with controlling the machine. I also noticed a painful screech coming from the joints when they moved too much too quickly. Sparks admitted from those points.
She didn't oil that machine at all! How long did it sit before she brought it here?
Suddenly, Alfendi and Eric began to run around the metal monster's legs, tangling it in the chain they held between them. Hertz didn't notice, and tried to make the machine step forward. Between the lack of grease on the joints, and the machine fighting against the chain, more spark flew, landing on the flowers.
The flowers immediately caught fire.
"What!? NO!" Hertz cried. The fire spread among the flowers until the whole room was ablaze, showing that the flowers were highly flammable.
"Come on, Flora! We have to get out of here!" Eric yelled, taking my arm and pulling me out of the palace. I looked back, noticing Hertz was still trapped in the machine.
"You go ahead!" I yelled, slipping out of his grasp and running back in.
"What!? Flora, no! Come back!" he yelled. I ignored him, climbing up on the machine and over to where she sat, trying to disengage the buckle. Her hands were shaking too much, so I shoved them away, trying myself.
"Wha? Flora?" she gasped, looking up at me. "Why'd you come back?"
"Because I can't just leave you to die!" I snapped. "You're human, despite what you've done. And we're more alike than you know."
"What…?"
"I was an orphan, too," I said, yanking at the straps. "I lost my parents when I was young. I was secluded to a tower for god's sake. Even once the Professor took me in, I didn't have any control over my life. Not until Seacreast, and only because he was out of town." I yanked harder, slamming my fist into the buckle. "Dammit! It won't disengage!" I yelled.
"I've been so stupid…" Hertz suddenly said. I looked up at her, and noticed a look on her face that tore at my heart. Overwhelming regret. "All this time… I've been so mad… so blind. I could have made something of myself, despite my past, like you did… and I made myself into a villain." She looked up at me, tears in her eyes. "It's no use, Flora. These flowers are going to blow up at any minute. They're highly combustible. You need to escape."
"Not without you!" I snapped. She shook her head, grabbing one of the levers.
"I'm not giving you a choice." She pushed it forward, and suddenly, the large claw appendage of the machine grabbed me.
"Thank you, Flora." She snapped the lever to the side, and I was flung through the air. I crashed through a window, into the air outside of the palace, just as her predicted explosion happened.
"No!" I cried. Something flashed before my eyes, and I felt a sharp pain against my forehead, before blackness swallowed me whole.