United We Fall
Oliverara stood like a statue in between her brother and sister. Their matching black and gray body suits blended with the stone walls around them. Evangeline sliced her knives against one another in a soothing metal on metal hiss. Ptolemus ground his metal against his palms until drops of silver blood dripped to the floor. Oliverara wound her own metal up and down her arms in a nervous frenzy. It had been quite some time since anyone had participated in a Bowl of Bones event. And quite some time since any of the siblings had participated in such a public display of execution. Especially a prince. An innocent prince. Oliverara knew it, Evangeline knew it, and they both suspected Ptolemus knew it too. Yet here they stood; the executioners awaiting the signal like rabid dogs await their next victim. All around them stood the others, glaring and raring to brawl with the traitors. The roar of the crowd as a single shot sounded alerted them that it was soon time to begin. The new victims were entering the arena. An arena that would soon be soaked by their blood.
She could hear Maven's muffled voice from the stands above them. It was impossible to catch his words, but Oliverara didn't care to hear his lies. His lies about how the king died, his lies about Cal and Mare, and of course his biggest lie: Mare's powers.
But what if it's the truth? What if she's not like Shade? What if she did lie? It wouldn't be the first time a Red did.
Oliverara shook away her thoughts. The doors were opening and it was time to finish Maven's little game. The Silver's in the stands excitedly looked down on them from the safety of the electrified barrier. Maven stood with his mother and some patriarchs in special stands. They were dressed in black. As if any of them cared.
"You guys take care of Cal. I've got Mare," Oliverara gave her orders to her siblings. She would make sure Mare didn't suffer. All the people cared about was watching Cal die. Their attention wouldn't be on some Red girl. The executioners readied themselves as the traitors were brought fully into the ring. They looked like absolute hell. Blanche and thin with about as much energy as a rug. It would be a quick fight, but it would not be merciful. Oliverara could see the sadistic smiles on the other's faces. They would take pleasure in the suffering of Cal and Mare.
The strongarm and the shadow both went flying after Mare. Oh no you don't! Oliverara cracked her chain under the shadow's legs and tripped him headfirst into a wall. She pulled a metal spike out of the floor and in front of the strongarm. "She's mine Rhambos!" Oliverara yelled. The sounds of fire and water clashing together sounded as Cal and the nymph faced off. Evangeline and Ptolemus circled from a distance, cutting jabs and slices when his back turned.
Mare braced herself against the wall as Oliverara stopped in front of her; unfurling her chain from her arm. "I'm sorry to do this Mare," she said as she swung the the metal back and forth along the ground. "But Maven won. We need to give them a show." The chain swung over Mare's head and hit the wall behind her in an earsplitting CLANG! Mare had rolled out of the way.
"You're right we do need to put on a show," she snarled.
As the two paced around each other Oliverara could feel the metal in Mare's body twisting within her grasp. It was hyperactive. The neurons in her brain were going overtime. She was trying to pull up her powers, but the lone figure of an Arven in the corner of the arena kept her from such a feat. The anger and frustration was evident in Mare's eyes. She wanted to die fighting.
Mare charged Oliverara suddenly and dove for her legs. Oliverara lept over her and came down hard on Mare's knee. The sound of breaking bone drew attention from the onslaught encircling Cal. Rhambos and Haven started coming over, finding themselves useless in a fight alongside a nymph and two magnetrons. Mare saw them coming too as she scurried out from under Oliverara, dragging her leg with her.
"What part of 'she's mine' didn't you understand?" Oliverara growled as the two approached her.
"And what if we want a piece of her too Samos?" Rhambos glared menacingly down at her from his stance of muscle. Oliverara met his eyes easily with a menacing glare of her own. She had dropped larger soldiers than him in her time. She was so busy in a mental showdown with the strongarm she forgot about the Haven who had slipped right by her.
Mare's bloodcurdling scream reminded her.
The Haven had the Red against the wall, invisible hand closing off her air. She was kicking and fighting by he easily dodged every move. With Oliverara's head turned Rhambos knocked her to the ground and approached the struggle, massive club swinging. A cheer from the crowd went up, but for which fight Oliverara didn't know. He swung the club and Mare dodged it with her head. The wall shrieked with the force of the hit. Haven tightened his grip on Mare's neck and the paralyzed Red lay still as Rhambos readied his club again.
"I'm going to regret this," Oliverara whispered to herself. She called a metal spike from under the arena up, and through the body of the Rhambos. His club dropped and he went limp, silver blood spilling out of his wounds. An audible gasp went up from the crowd. 'I said she's mine!" Oliverara roared at the corpse. Haven reappeared with a bit of horror written on his face. Before Oliverara could tell him to start running, Mare kicked in between his legs with her good leg and dropped from his grip. She uppercut his chin, sending him flying. His head smashed into a spike sticking up and the silver blood ran in rivulets down his face. Oliverara knew that look in the eyes; he was dead.
"Not too bad Red," she said.
"Tha-" before Mare could finish that sentence Oliverara's chains were wrapped around her legs and Mare was thrown across the arena. Red blood pricked at the marks where the chain dug in. Mare started quickly trying to undo them as Oliverara marched closer. The chains trapped her hands as well. Oliverara pushed her onto her side and drew an obscenely long sword from her assortment. The tip was curved and serrated to cause ultimate damage. Oliverara knew how to use it for extreme pain and also for a quick death, but the people would never know the difference.
"This was fun," Oliverara said as she bent down and put her knee on Mare's neck. The Red coughed up a bit of blood. "But I'm afraid this has to end." Oliverara wielded the knife above her head in a faux display of might before bringing it down into Mare's arm. She screamed and Red blood gushed from the wound. Oliverara drew the knife back and raised it again. Down into Mare's shoulder. She raised it a third time, for the killing blow, but Mare was ready. She swung her head forward, her whole body throwing Oliverara's off balance. The two girls toppled out of position and Mare ripped the chains off. She got up, holding her bleeding arm, and started hobbling backwards from Oliverara.
"Why you gotta make this so difficult?" Oliverara asked as she pulled the knife to hover next to her. Her gaze traveled past the inured Red and up into the stands of people. To where the shadows of Maven and Elara stood watching. Everyone was waiting for the Red to die.
But Oliverara couldn't do it. The words from earlier nagged in her mind. "By a mechanical trick this Red deceived us into believing she was a Silver princess!" Oliverara could not believe that was true. Not after meeting Shade. Not after coming to terms with her own abilities. Not after knowing the depth of lies in the palace. Of course, there was always a way to prove it. Oliverara's cold stare found the Arven standing solemnly in the corner. His shadow was slightly visible but she could detect his blood all the same.
"How would you like to put on a real show for them?" Oliverara asked the scared girl. Mare kept backing up, seemingly not hearing her. Oliverara aimed her weapon and she swore she heard a cry from the crowd. Then she flung her knife over Mare's head.
The knife sunk into Arven's chest with a spurt of Silver blood. Mare's eyes watched his body collapse and Oliverara picked up the sizzle filling the air. A surge of electricity knocked her backwards and to the ground. Oxygen fled her lungs and her limbs went numb. The burn of electricity on her skin told Oliverara she had been struck. You're wearing metal you idiot! Of course she hit you! Oliverara pushed herself off the ground to see Mare, Red blood dripping down her body, spewing electricity from her hands and up into the electric netting above them. It spit and hissed as she overpowered it and sent it exploding in a display of sparks.
The Little Lightning Girl was real.
Then Mare turned her gaze on a new target: Osanos. The nymph had abandoned his position of attacking Cal and was now herding his water towards Mare. Water turned to mist as the heat of her lightning touched it but the battle proceeded. The crowd above them had fled in terror but the Queen and Maven could no longer deny who Mare was. Their plan was in shatters.
Meanwhile Evangeline and Ptolemus were keeping up the show of attacking Cal. The fire prince had been drained of his energy by the nymph but, like two cats, the Samos siblings wanted to play more. As Mare took care of Osanos, Oliverara joined the team-up against Cal. Once he saw her step into the ring he hung his head in defeat. He knew better than to take on three powerful magnetrons in his state.
"Please Oliverara," he pleaded and panted, "don't let my brother win. I did not kill my father! Please believe me!"
"I want to Cal I really do." Oliverara started circling him with her siblings. "But in this arena I cannot."
"Then promise you'll protect Mare." His eyes traveled to the crackling lightning as Mare dodged nymph controlled water attacks. "Don't let her suffer."
Oliverara nodded. "I'll do my best." With that she flung a small dagger at the prince. It hit him dead in the side. "For you I'll make no such promise," she hissed as he choked out a cry of agony.
Evangeline and Ptolemus restarted their random slicing attacks as Oliverara slipped her dagger in and out of Cals's skin. Back, shoulders, stomach, arms, anywhere she could get a hit in. He tried to put up a fiery defense but the random attacks kept his energy too low to muster up even a small flame. Silver blood stained his clothes and the ground around him. His breath came in short gasps and his shoulders heaved with the force of each breath.
The great Tiberias Calore was dying.
As if to enunciate the point, Cal dropped to one knee as Oliverara threw a second dagger alongside the first into his back. Instead of rising again though, he remained down. Ptolemus swiped a chain across the back of his legs and he toppled face first completely into the ground. As the Samos siblings closed in on him he put up no resistance. Oliverara briefly looked back up through the broken net to see Maven and Elara staring down; watching. They wanted to watch Cal die. Oliverara refused to give them that joy.
She stepped around Cal's body, blocking his crumbled frame from their vulturous views. Evangeline and Ptolemus did the same. Oliverara reformed her chains into one long serrated knife with a hooked top. This one would get the job done. She took a handful of Cal's hair and pulled him back up on his knees with his back to her. She dragged the knife over his face and neck. The Silver lines it left behind betrayed its sharpness.
"Just get it over with Oli," Evie said quietly next to her.
Oliverara dug the tip of the knife into his neck only slightly when a great explosion of water made her turn her attention. Mare stood in the center of the arena, dripping wet, covered in Silver and Red blood, while the half exploded corpse of the Osanos nymph lay in a puddle of his own water. She called her lightning back to her and it hung threateningly in the air.
"Drop him Samos!" She roared. Her bad leg dragged behind her as she stumbled towards them. "Let him go now!" The sky above them darkened and thunder clapped deafeningly loud. Evie grabbed Oliverara's arm tightly.
"Do it Oliverara," Ptolemus whispered. "Do it now." Oliverara didn't know if he meant drop Cal or kill him but it was too late to ask. Oliverara plunged the knife deeply into what she thought was Cal's neck, but the Burner had moved and instead her knife entered his shoulder.
The storm broke above them right as Cal screamed.
Lightning lit up the darkened skies as thunder shook the Bowl of Bones to its core. Rain poured down and choked Oliverara's lungs as the smell of charring bodies curdled her stomach. She keeled over in her spot, the darkness and sound too much for her to move. Phlegm forced its way out of her as she hurled into the growing puddles of water. More lightning struck ground and rattled through Oliverara's armor. She screamed. Hot tears coursed down her face, but maybe that was rain, or blood. Oliverara screamed louder as another thunder clap made her collapse over entirely. Someone was screaming her name. Someone, somewhere.
Oliverara was back in the Choke. Bombs and guns sounded as the ground shook beneath her feet. Bodies were nothing more than obstacles in her path to make it to the target. Smoke curled over her eyes and dust found its way into her throat. It would have bothered her if she had recently drank or ate but she hadn't. Instead she forced herself to keep running, running towards a target she didn't even know if she'd make.
As suddenly as it had started the memory faded, but the bombs and guns were still going off. The smoke was still in her lungs. Someone was still screaming her name. "Oli!" Evangeline was suddenly at her side. Oliverara's eyes focused enough to see the clouds had retreated. The storm was over.
"Did we win?" She coughed. "Did we make it?"
Evangeline looked confused. "What?"
"Never mind." Oliverara sat up from the wet ground. "That's something else." She turned to the center of the arena. Guards with guns drawn rushed past them to where Cal and Mare had been corralled. The two combatants were in no shape to fight all of them. And in the end Maven wins. Oliverara shook her head in defeat.
The ground beneath Cal and Mare was suddenly opened. Out of it lept none other than hundreds of people with red scarfs around their faces. The Scarlet Guard was pulling a rescue mission!
"Run." Oliverara grabbed her sister's arm. "Run Evie run!" The two sloshed through the watered down arena as the ran for their lives from the barrage of gunfire breaking out. More guards were swarming the group but the Scarlet Guard easily deflected them. Maven and Elara were gone from their perch.
The two girls got under the Bowl of Bones and ran through the network of tunnels. Water dripped through cracks where metal had been pulled up. Shots rang up and down the halls. "There they are!" An unfamiliar voice was following them with what had to be hundreds of other footsteps! Of course Oliverara could as well have been imagining those. The voice was getting closer and so were the footsteps. The Samos girls rounded the corner to come face to face with a couple dozen armed Scarlet Guard members.
They were trapped.
"Now lets talk this through," Oliverara reasoned as they were backed into a corner. "Can we work something out?" The Reds refused to answer. "Okay the hard way then." Oliverara spent the last of her chains by throwing it in a whip motion through the crowd. It hit nothing.
"You missed," one of the Reds snickered.
"Or did I?"
The chain found its mark, the electrical wiring for the lights. The wires snapped easily and the whole tunnel was plunged into darkness. Oliverara dropped to the ground with Evie right beside her as the Reds panicked above them. They pushed over people as they slid under legs and out of the throng. Suddenly an unfamiliar hand grabbed Oliverara's arm and began to pull her back down the tunnel!
"Evie!" Oliverara screamed as her sister's hand began slipping out of her grasp.
"Oli I got you!" Evie called back, but as soon as she spoke the arm holding Oliverara ripped their hands apart. Oliverara hit the floor of the tunnel, a body pressing down on her, as her sister's voice was swiftly pulled down the hallway. Oliverara's eyes tried to see as the person holding her dragged her back into the light.
It was Tolly.
"Tolly!" Oliverara threw her arms around her brother. His hug was tight and Oliverara suspected the water on his face was more than just rain.
"I thought they got you, or that the lightning killed you, or-" Oliverara put her hand over her brother's mouth to shut him up.
"I'm fine Tolly," she smiled. Then Oliverara glanced around. "Wait where's Evie? She was in the tunnels too!" Oliverara looked at her brother who hung his head. "Tolly what happened!" Oliverara shook him hard and pushed herself out of his grasp.
"I'm sorry but I couldn't get you both out. I tried! Oh believe me I tried!" Ptolemus let a small tear leak out of his eye. "I'm so sorry Oli."
"What happened to my sister?!"
"They took her."
"Who Tolly? Who took her?!"
"The Scarlet Guard."