"Mooom!" Sammy and Keiko buried their faces in her shoulders and wept.
Sam felt numbness and a cold emptiness in the pit of his stomach. His mouth opened but no sound came out. Sam stared at San-Li's unmoving body as if he expected her to get up at any moment and be okay. Or any minute now his alarm clock would go off and he would wake up in his dorm room.
But then the full force of reality hit him. San-Li was gone. Gone forever. No more laughter, no more passionate kisses, no more violent outbursts.
Sam's knees buckled and he fell to the cold stone floor. There was a light clank and he looked down to see that the pocket watch San-Li had given him had fallen out of his pocket. It felt like forever since she had given it to him.
The latch had broken open when it hit the ground. The watch face was a light cream color with dark brown hands and black roman numerals for the numbers. The second hand made a soft ticking sound as it moved. And carved onto the inside of the lid in an elegant script were the words, tempus nullus speravit.
"Time waits for no one." Sam whispered.
He then gasped as something clicked in his mind. This watch had been passed down through San-Li's family for generations. Passed through a family of time travellers for generations. Tempus nullus speravit. Time waits for no one. Well maybe it would have to.
"Sammy," Sam said in a hoarse voice. "Give me your shoes."
"What?" Sammy's tear stained face turned red with anger. "Why the hell do you care about my shoes!?"
"Just do it Sammy!"
Sammy looked completely pissed but yanked off his shoes and practically threw it at him. He buried his face back in San-Li's shoulder and Sam was disturbed to notice that the twins were already starting to fade. He quickly pushed that out of his mind though and shoved on the shoes.
An explosion sounded behind him, but he barely heard it. Instead he crawled over to San-Li and cupped her cheek. Already it was starting to feel cold.
"I'll be back sweetheart." He whispered. "I promise."
Sam picked up the pocket watch, wound it back ten minutes, and pressed in the dial.
For a moment Sam was blinded by a bright yellow light and his entire body felt like it was made out of air. Then cold stone slammed into his knees, sending a tremor throughout his body. The reast of the world slowly came into focus and he found himself next to Sammy on the other side of the room again. Even better, on his feet were the rocket shoes.
"It worked." He said breathlessly. "I-I'm back."
There was the sound of an explosion. And when the dust disitaped he could see Joe and Anna firing beams of magic from their hands which swirled around Joleena who had fallen to her knees.
Which mean he didn't have much time.
"San-Li!"
Sam leapt up and started to run. A bit of rubble rained down on Keiko's head. She looked up just as San-Li shouldered her out of the way. But then San-Li fell and it was clear that she was too hurt to move out the way.
Sam clicked his heels together and shot across the floor. San-Li looked up just as the concrete was about to crash down on her.
But this time, Sam reached her before it did.
The stone crashed down a fraction of a second before he tackled her, carrying them both with the force of the shoes. They crashed to the ground, the wind knocked out of both their lungs, and tumbled across the floor. When they finally stopped, Sam was on top of her shielding her body with his.
"Sam?" San-Li choked on dust and looked at him in concern. "What the hell are you doing? You could have gotten hurt."
"Y-you're okay. Thank God, you're okay!" Tears filled his eyes and he kissed her hard on the mouth.
San-Li gently pushed him off and grabbed her side. "Yeah, I guess I owe you one huh?"
Sam smiled, tears still running down his face, and hugged her tightly. "You don't owe me a thing."
San-Li looked behind him and when he looked he saw Joe staring at them with an unreadable expression on his face, while he was still trying to contain Joleena. And it was clear that he had seen it all. Sam felt uncontrollable rage build up inside of him.
"Do you see what hap- what almost happened!?" Sam screamed at Joe. "She could have died!"
San-Li put a hand on his shoulder. "Sam don't."
"I told you something like would happen!" Sam continued to scream. "You need to end this and this now!"
Joe's magic faltered for half a second and he slowly shook his head. "Sam, I-I'm sorry, I-"
"Joe!" Anna suddenly screamed. "It's breaking!"
They had the shadow couple cornered against the wall. They were clearly too weak to fight, but too stubborn to give up. The two backed against the wall, their eyes darting around, trying to calculate a way to get of this but it was clearly no use.
Fred felt elated that they won, even though the room was beginning to spin around him. He knew from years of football games and being tackled that it probably meant he had a concussion, but he was too relieved to care. Finally this nightmare was over.
"It's over!" Nathan yelled. "Tell us how to break the spell on Joleena!"
The man and woman looked at each other with shaky smiles. "We'd certainly love to, but-"
"-it wouldn't be part of the Tenebrosi Sanction's plan."
"We don't care about your stupid plans!" Fred yelled.
The man and the woman exchanged another look of shaky fear. This was it, everything was about to finally end. But then Fred heard Sam yelling something at Joe and when he turned his head he saw Joe and Anna firing their magic at Joleena while for some reason Sam was holding San-Li in his arms.
Joe became distracted by Sam's yelling and a bright purple glow began to emenate from Joleena. The pink and green magic surrounding Joleena began to crack and expand. Oh, no.
"Look out!" Fred screamed and tackled Fina to the ground, covering her body with his.
There was an earth shattering explosion and the world turned white, all sound became muted. Fred felt several pieces of flying debris hit him, but than thankfully the biggest pieces zipped over him. Once the high pitched buzzing in his ear began to fade, he cautiously looked up.
Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust and large pieces of rubble and broken stone lay everywhere. Fina shifted under him and he quickly got off of her.
"You okay?" He asked checking all over her for any sign of injury that she didn't already have.
Fina nodded and coughed weakly. "Y-yeah, I think so. You?"
Fred nodded despite the throbbing pain in his ankle. He checked to see if Nathan was okay and saw him staring at something with a semi-horrified look on his face. Fred turned to see what it was and quickly covered Fina's eyes.
The shadow man had been stabbed several times with large pieces of sharp stone sharpenel. Blood poured from his wounds and he slowly slumped to the floor, dead. The woman stared at her dead husband. Her lips formed a shaky, manic grin but her eyes showed pure terror. Trembling, she turned to them and gave a heartbroken wail that was also filled with rage before disappearing in a swirl of black smoke.
"Is, is it over?" Fred asked in a shaky voice. "Did we win?"
"What happened?" Fina asked in a small voice. "Are they dead?"
Before either of them could answer her, Joe gave a terrified scream that was all too familiar to Fred.
"Annaaaaaa!"
Joe and Anna fired at Joleena as soon as San-Li told them that she was starting to falter. Their blast met an eye blast from Joleena, something that he didn't even know she could do, but combined his and Anna's magic went through it and was able to surround Joleena. The magic caused an explosion, but Joe stood his ground.
Everything as going as planned, but then he heard Sammy and Keiko scream. He looked over and saw San-Li lying under a piece of concrete that had fallen from the ceiling. Joe knew even without having to ask that San-Li was dead. Her wailing children and Sam's blank stare said it all.
But then there was a bright yellow light and he felt everything shift. And this time he saw Sam cradling a very alive San-Li in his arms. Sam glared daggers at Joe and began yelling.
"Do you see what hap- what almost happened!?" Sam screamed at Joe. "She could have died!"
Could have died? Joe knew for a fact that San-Li did die. He didn't now how he knew, but he did. He started to stammer out an apology, but then Anna screamed. He turned back around just in time to see Joleena's magic burst out and completely destroy the magic barrier he and Anna built.
The ground literally came apart and a blinding light filled the room. Joe came to on his knees with a painful buzzing in his easr that seemed to vibrate through his bones. He was an idiot. Such a stupid, stupid idiot. If only he had maintained his focus. The spots in front of his eyes faded and he coughed.
"Anna?" He called hoarsely. "Anna, I'm sorry. I'm such an idiot, I should have..."
His voice trailed off when he looked over and saw his sister laying unconcious against a piece of rock and blood running down the side of her face.
"Annaaaa!"
It was like deja vu. Horrible, horrible deja vu.
Mad Jack's maniacal laughter. A blinding green light. Anna laying unconscious with blood pouring from her temple. Fred and Sam trying desperately to keep pressure on the wound.
And it was all Joe's fault.
Dead. His sister was dead. San-Li had died. How many people had to die because of him?
"Ughn..." Anna groaned and began to stir.
Tears of relief sprung to Joe's eyes. He scrambled over to her and caught up her hands in his. Anna groaned again and slowly opened her eyes.
"I screwed up." Joe shook his head. "I'm- I'm so sorry Anna."
Anna started to sit up but gave up with a small cry of pain.
"Fina! Get over here!" Joe screamed.
Fina ran over with Fred following close behind. Fina leaned down and peered closely at Anna. Without a word, Fred whipped off his shirt and handed it to Fina who pressed it against the gash on Anna's forehead.
"She'll be fine." Fina whispered. "But she can't fight anymore, Joe."
"I know," Joe licked his dry lips. "Get her somewhere safe. And you stay safe too. All of you."
Fina nodded and Fred scooped Anna up in his arms. There was a rustling noise and he looked over to see Joleena rising from the jagged dent in the ground. Her face now looked weary, but it was clear she was still possessed. Black smoke leaked from her mouth and she turned towards Joe. Their eyes locked before her expression went blank again and Joe felt something burst in his chest.
He stood up on shaky legs and felt his magic course through his body, much stronger than it had ever been.
"Joe?" Anna asked in a weak voice. "What are you going to do?"
"Sam's right." Joe whispered, not taking his eyes off Joleena. "I have to end this. Now."
Joleena stared back at him blankly and her dark purple magic filled her hands once more. Joe stared back at her and forced himself to focus only on her. This was either going to end with Joleena cured, or both of them dead.
"Joleena, if you can hear me I want you to know one thing." Joe forced himself to swallow back tears. "I love you."
Joe then streaked forward, propelled by his magic, and headed directly towards her.
A/N- Thanks for reading and don't forget to review even if its completely anonymous :)