Chapter 23
Hanging in the Balance
Part 2
"I did not think you would come," Leah said slowly, seeming to choose her words. Alice had her lips pursed as she glared at the pirate in front of her.
"Why? Because you think I'm a coward?"
"Because I think you are smart and a cadet of the Interstellar Academy does not often act as naïve as this," Leah answered. "It was reckless, what you did."
"Would you prefer if I walk right back down this mountainside then?" Alice demanded, her posture bristling with anger and suspicion.
"No. I am glad you came."
"I hope you won't delight in proving my actions were wrong," Alice said.
"Your actions were not wrong. I am glad you're here, but I suggest in the future you step wisely," Leah responded, her voice ever calm and collected, very different from the past few times Alice had seen her. The young girl narrowed her eyes.
"I don't take advice from a pirate," she growled. Leah's eyes flashed with a hint of sadness.
"You will, Alice. Trust me, you will," she sighed and shook her head. Alice pondered her ominous reply before she took a threatening step farther into the cave.
"I thought you were going to tell me about my past. Well? What's the story? Are you going to finally tell me how you killed them? Killed my mom and dad? Murderer!" Alice spat as she took a few more steps forward. The look Leah gave Alice next was one the girl would soon rather forget. It was a look that was so pained, so desperate for a lifeline that had been cut, never to be retied. It was a look that suggested sorrow and guilt beyond Alice's wildest dreams.
The girl caught her breath as Leah motioned for a boulder close by.
"Have a seat, Alice. This is going to be hard to explain, and you won't believe me when I'm done."
"Then why tell me?" Alice asked as she cautiously took a seat on the massive rock. Leah rubbed her eyes and for a long time she didn't reply.
"Because your mother would have wanted me to."
A heavy silence seemed to settle around the cave. It was a silence so thick Alice was afraid to breathe lest it infect her and wrap around her windpipe. Leah turned away, facing the brilliant blue afternoon sky as her lips parted her breath caught in her throat and she began.
"Your mother and I knew each other, Alice. Long ago, when we were only teenagers. No older than you are today…"
"Ha! Got ya there, didn't I?" Charlie smirked as she slid off the roof and twirled the coin between her fingers.
"That's not fair!" Leah whined. "You cheated! You –"
"Pick pocketed?" Charlie smirked as she held up the golden coin. "You gotta act tough if you're gonna live on the streets, prissy pants!"
"Give me my coin back," Leah demanded and held out her hand. Charlie winked and tossed it back to her.
"Come on, that man over there looks like he's got some plunder. Let's see if we can…borrow some of it for a while."
"She was like my older sister," Leah whispered with the ghost of a smile on her lips. "Taught me everything I knew about the streets. Charlie was short for Charlotte of course, but if anyone used her real name it wouldn't be long before she'd beat you to a pulp and toss you into Hubble deep field."
"Charlie?" Leah whispered as she crawled over the mass of sleeping bodies under the stone bridge that night. "Charlie?"
"What's up, Leah?" Charlie whispered back. Leah sat beside her best friend and stared up at the stars.
"I've been thinking. We do a lot of plundering, eh?"
"Yeah, so?"
"What if we took it to the next level? Like pirates and stuff? We could actually set sail then, take off to distant worlds." The look Charlie gave her made Leah flinch.
"We're not going anywhere and I ain't no pirate so shut your trapper about that stuff or I'll stuff a tuber down your throat so far you'll suffocate, understand me?"
"I did understand her. It didn't take me long to figure out why she wanted to stay. She stayed because there was a connection to her past there. She was an orphan. A lot of the kids in the street rat gangs were, but Charlie took it worse than the others. She'd spend days just staring at the orphanage hoping one day someone would adopt her, but no one ever did. At eighteen she finally gave up I suppose."
"Hey, Leah," Charlie whispered, rousing her friend who slept beside her in the dirt. Winter was coming to Planet Seillesa and that meant less food, no warmth, and lots of sickness.
"What is it, Charlie?" Leah yawned and sat up to see her friend had painted her face black with mud and held two knapsacks up.
"Let's be pirates."
"So we were," Leah shrugged. "It was the start of our pirating days. We stowed away aboard a Royal Light Ship and got off on the next port. We took any job we could at first all the while pick pocketing and stealing anything and everything shiny within a two mile radius. We began stashing our funds. The more we plundered, the more we were able to buy."
"How much for the knife?" Leah asked the clerk.
"Since when do you know how to tosser knives, Leah?" Charlie laughed from where she'd been observing the guns in their cases.
"I can throw a knife," Leah bristled, trying to maintain her dignity.
"Oh yeah? Prove it," Charlie smirked.
"I was atrocious at it. Thankfully your mother and I met someone in port a few days later that taught me a few tricks. I kept on practicing and eventually got it down. Your mother favored swords herself. She was an excellent fencer. She could take down full grown men by the time she was nineteen which was when we decided to move out to a pirate port, get our hands a bit dirtier. It wasn't long before we made a name for ourselves. We were the unstoppable duo. We pillaged, we plundered, we murdered. Well, at least I murdered. You can be thankful your mother never killed anyone. Threatened them, she did. Injured them and sent them fleeing to the hospital, she did. But she never took anyone's life. Her slate was clean, besides all of the thievery on her hands. The two of us were sisters. We were partners in crime and no cop could catch us."
"Let me go!" Charlie shrieked, wrestling with the men who held her hands behind her back. Leah was next. The women bit and clawed at every inch of skin they could find, but it was no use. Both of them were forced on their knees in front of the Captain.
"But that moment ended when she met him."
The Captain looked down at her and arched an eyebrow. His eyes were a stunning shade of forest green, his face handsome, his hair a wispy brown. He would've tempted any other fair maiden that crossed his ship, but with his luck he had to collide with two dashing pirate rogues.
"What's your name?" he asked Charlie as she blew a strand of her disheveled straight brown hair out of her face.
"Why should I tell you anything?" she demanded. The Captain passed her a smile. It was not a threatening smile, nor dark. It was cheerful and kind and amused at her resistance.
"Well, the both of you can give me any name you like, I suppose. You're still going to be put on trial in front of Her Majesty's Parliament," he shrugged.
"I'm your worst nightmare," Leah passed him a devious grin.
"Charlie," Charlie whispered at last. "You can call me Charlie."
"That's an odd name."
But she said no more on the subject as she was dragged below deck to the brig aboard the Royal Light Ship (RLS) Nightingale.
"That was only the beginning of their relationship. At first he only visited our cells to interrogate us on what we might've done, but as the days went by it became more and more apparent that he was taking a strong liking to your mother, Alice."
"What was his name?" Alice choked out.
"Theodore."
"You look cold," Theodore whispered as he sat in front of Charlie's cell.
"Well, it's not exactly a furnace down here," she grunted but gave him a tiny smile. Leah sat in her own cell watching them in disgust.
"You can take my jacket, if you want," Theodore grinned back and removed his blue coat while unlocking her cell and opening it just enough to toss it inside before closing it and locking it once more. Charlie looked at the object as if it were foreign to her.
"Sorry, but that'd bruise my ego."
"Okay, but it's there if you want it," Theodore smiled and left the hold.
"He was very soft spoken. Very kind, even to me despite the fact that his attentions were always on your mother. As more of this unfolded I began to figure out that your mother didn't want him to find out about her life and law breaking habits. She kept those things from him. I think she was afraid that if she told him, he would think less of her despite the fact that he already knew she was a pirate."
"What are you doing?" Leah demanded.
"What do you mean?" Charlie asked in mock ignorance as she wrapped his jacket around her shoulders.
"All of that? You're fraternizing with the enemy!"
"I am not, he's being nice to me and I'm taking advantage of that, just like a pirate," Charlie argued although she seemed to struggle with the last word. Leah scoffed.
"Yeah, right."
"I didn't believe her, and the more I saw the less I liked. The more she became smitten with your father the less she thought about escape, about our bond, about being pirates, about being rich. Love had overtaken her. I do not blame her. She had finally found the only family she'd had."
"I'm escaping," Leah growled as she pulled off the iron bars from the window on her cell in the prison yard. "You can be hanged with your precious Theodore, for all I care."
"Leah, please, it doesn't have to be this way," Charlie pleaded from where she stood beside her friend.
"Yes it does!" Leah whisper-hissed. "Yes it does! You may not have killed anyone, but I have. I'll be hanged, but you might get off on parole. That doesn't mean you shouldn't still come with me. Those stuck up Navy twits hate pirates. I'm giving you a choice now. Me or him, but if it's him you will regret your decision and I promise you that," Leah replied in such a deadly voice Charlie took a step back.
"Please don't make me choose," Charlie whispered as tears pricked her eyes.
"Well, I am." There was a long pause before Charlie shook her head and took a step back as if to say she was staying behind.
"I have a chance to turn my life around. Theodore cares for me as a person, not an object, not a criminal, but as an actual human with feelings," she breathed. The pain Leah felt at her decision was enough to push her over the edge. She felt abandoned, betrayed by her oath sister. The one girl who had ever looked out for her was now leaving her behind and reaching for new peaks while Leah had to return to the streets. The harsh reality was sinking in faster than the eighteen year old girl had thought.
"Fine, stay behind. Like I need you. Like I ever needed you," Leah spat and climbed out the window into the night leaving Charlie to sink down on her jail bed and sob.
"I did escape but I didn't leave the planet until I was sure I knew how her trial had gone. She did get off on parole. Her crimes were not nearly as heavy as mine, but she was forced to stay grounded for a year and perform community service of sorts in an attempt to right only a few of the wrongs she had done over the years. Meanwhile, your father was with her every step of the way. He loved her for who she had become, not for who she once was."
"Charlie," he smiled as he leaned across the table to kiss her cheek. He'd heard pretty much everything in the trial, and that didn't stop him from loving her. She was clean now and he knew she was willing to start anew.
"Charlotte."
"What?" he whispered and pulled back. Charlie passed him her all too familiar devious grin.
"My real name is Charlotte."
"Well, they were just smitten with each other, I suppose. I was angry and confused. I spend most of my time planet hopping and stealing and escaping and killing when necessary. I can't say I'm proud of this, but I do not feel guilty for my actions either. I believe they are rightly justified. There is one act, however, that I cannot make right," Leah trailed off, her eyes becoming hollow and distant. To Alice's surprise tears had pricked the pirate woman's eyes.
"What happened?" she whispered, but dreaded the truth. There was a long moment where Leah appeared to be unresponsive.
"I killed him."
A foot lashed out and broke down the door with a satisfying crunch of wood.
"What?" Alice whispered.
Glass shattered as she threw the precious vase off its shelf.
"I killed your father, because of you."
Leah had heard. Oh yes, she'd heard. She had capped the anger over the years like pounding a cork into an erupting volcano. It would only delay the imminent annihilation. The pavement was wet beneath her feet as she stepped forward with an almost deranged speed. Toward the house to kill him. Kill the man who had stolen everything from her. Kill his child. Because that baby could never be hers.
"Take Alice and go!" she heard him shout from inside the house. And then she was there. She'd prove to Charlie that she had made a big mistake. She'd drag her back to the life she once lived. Her foot lashed out and broke down the door with a satisfying crunch of wood. Leah stood in the doorway wearing a sickening smile. She swept through the house, approaching a room at the end of the hallway. She noticed a vase sitting atop an end table. With one push the fragile object hit the floor and shattered.
She knew where he was.
Entering the room the image engraved itself in her mind. He stood there in his rumpled clothing. The window behind him was open and Charlotte and Alice were gone. He had his pistol cocked and loaded and pointed at her heart.
"Freeze!" he ordered. "Lower your weapon!"
Her hand found the familiar place around her pistol's hilt. The design was smooth to the touch, the paint on the trigger beginning to wear from years of use. She was smiling. It was an act of revenge and it was absolutely beautiful.
"Oh dead man, you are dead wrong. I know you can't pull that trigger. I know it."
She pulled the lever. It was so easy to take his life. Too easy. Just pulling the lever and he was dead. How could someone's life be that easy to take away?
"I don't know what came over me," Leah choked as she pulled out of the memory and she was shaking now, her eyes welling with tears. "All I remember was the rage. The anger. And then he was dead." Turning her back to Alice she wouldn't let the girl see her tears. "And I am so, so sorry for what I did. I have been forced to relive that day ever since. Your mother took you away but I didn't know where she hid you. I knew what happened to her, though. I knew what happened to her."
"Batten down the hatches men!"
Charlotte stood at the rim of the black hole, her brown eyes filled with horror. This was it, she thought. There was nowhere else to run to. The horrible understanding came over her. Alice. She'd never get to see her daughter again.
Her eyes welled with tears, but she could do nothing now as she sank into the abyss.
Maybe, just maybe Alice would live a better life and someday, perhaps, she'd touch the stars and find the face of God.
"She didn't make it. She hid you somewhere and took a voyage to erase the sorrow for losing your father. She intended to come back. She always intended to come back, but then the black hole...I'm the reason your parents are dead, Alice. My actions killed them both, and I don't ever expect you to forgive me, because I don't even forgive myself."
Alice felt dizzy. She felt as if the world had just been turned on its opposite axis. She felt like the universe was a glass window that had just shattered raining down on her, slicing into her skin. She was suffocating. She couldn't breathe. Her gaze was transfixed on the wall across from her as she processed everything Leah had said. The pirate was the reason her parents were dead. Alice's suspicions were proven true.
It was an effort just to move her eyes, but Alice did. They focused on Leah who still had her back turned. She wanted to feel that anger. She wanted to reach deep down inside of her and find the same rage that she had expressed in the water mill when Leah wouldn't tell her. Now that Alice knew, she wasn't sure if it was any better than before.
Her eyes watered and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she cried. At first the tears were silent as she buried her face in her hands and gave little chest-chokes. Leah was the one who killed her father thus setting off a series of unfortunate events that had altered Alice's life forever and could never be undone. Leah was the reason she'd grown up in a school full of people who pushed her around. Leah was the reason her parents were dead. Leah was the reason for the years of loneliness and hurt and longing and mystery Alice had felt for fifteen years of her life.
But no matter how hard Alice tried to discover that inner fury and direct all of her sorrow and vehemence toward the disgusting woman in front of her…she couldn't do it. She couldn't even find it.
And Alice knew why.
Leah might have been the reason Alice grew up and never knew what a parent was like, and she might have been the reason Alice hadn't had many friends…
But she had been the reason Alice had met Jim.
She had been the reason the two fell in love.
She had been the reason Alice was able to go to the Interstellar Academy and meet Doug and Ray and Dalia and Josephine.
She had been the reason Alice got to experience an incredible adventure with pirates, meeting B.E.N and Morph and Silver, who was more a father than she could ever ask for.
She was the reason she had met the stoic Captain Amelia, the bumbling Doctor Doppler, and even Jim's mother who had treated her with utmost kindness ever since they had let Alice stay with them.
Alice pondered for a moment that if Leah hadn't done the things she did, would she have fallen in love with another boy? Would she have different friends?
It was like what Jim had been trying to tell her all along.
Maybe Alice didn't have her parents, but she had him and her friends and she had been surrounded by people who cared about her.
Alice wiped her eyes as more tears came when she realized that they were probably on their way right now. They were probably worried sick. Alice shakily got to her feet as Leah turned back around to face her, her eyes dry once again. Alice sniffed and shook her head.
"I can't forgive you," she breathed. Leah said nothing as the girl stood there. "I can never forgive you."
"I understand."
"No, I don't think you do. How did you know I was Charlotte and Theodore's daughter?"
Leah was silent for a moment.
"Because you look exactly like your mother. You fight like her too. You have her fire. But your eyes…"
"They're my father's aren't they?" Alice choked out and Leah nodded.
"And you have his heart. Everything about you is soft spoken, Alice. Your father would be proud that you're following in his footsteps at the Academy. He attended that school himself," she whispered. Alice tried to hold back another sob as she wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve. The thought of her father, her real father, looking at her proudly was almost too much to handle because Alice knew she'd never see his face. Never experience the care he and her mother could have given her.
"What's my last name?" she muttered when she had finally collected herself.
"What?" Leah asked.
"What is my last name?" Alice annunciated, shooting the pirate woman a fierce look. Leah's lips parted.
"Perez," she answered. "Your full name is Alice Renee Perez."
Alice almost seemed to sway on her feet once again. She had spent all sixteen years of her life always wondering if she'd ever find her parents, always feeling left out because her friends had full names and she didn't.
But now…
Alice Renee Perez.
The words echoed in her mind, swarming her heart and making her feel so alive that Alice actually cracked a grin.
"My name is Alice Renee Perez."
Just like James Pleiades Hawkins or Raymond Wesley Peters.
She had a name and a place in the universe after all.
"After your mother's year of being grounded your father proposed. They moved to Planet Hora and were married which is where your house still stands," Leah began again.
Alice's heart seemed to stop.
"Hora?" she gasped. "But I lived there the whole time! I never thought – I never thought my real home was so close! What town did they live in?" Alice demanded.
"North Portmore," was Leah's response. Alice's heart was beating a mile a minute now. If they lived there, they could have been buried there. Alice's head raced with the possibilities. It wasn't much, but maybe, just maybe she'd get to see a fragment of her parents after all.
Alice looked up, her mouth hanging open yet she was unable to utter a sound. At last she shook her head.
"What made you want to tell me? This whole time you've been trying to kill me," she said in a quiet voice. Leah paused as she sucked in a deep breath.
"Because you remind me of your mother. I've murdered before, Alice, and I've never felt guilty. It's just my way of life and I am not sorry, but I have been running from these nightmares since the day your father died. I can't fend off the guilt anymore. I thought that when I killed you they'd stop, but when I saw you in the water mill…when I saw you react just the way she would –" Leah broke off and clenched her shaking fists. "You're just like her. I still resent the part of you that is your father, but I can't ruin that. I can't take away the last memory of her. And as much as I wish I could erase my wrongdoings for doing what I did to your father, I can't. I'm sorry," she finished as more tears stemmed from her eyes. Alice watched Leah growl and wipe them away.
"I still can't forgive you," Alice shook her head as she took a step back. "But you are letting me go, then?"
"Yes. I'll come after you again someday, but not now," Leah shot her a grin. Alice didn't return the expression.
"I can leave and you won't attack?" the young girl clarified as she backed toward the mouth of the cave. Leah gave a small nod. Alice's heart wrenched painfully as she kept her eyes on Leah and hesitated. A fleeting thought that Leah was lying did cross her mind, but Alice banished it when she reasoned that Leah had no incentive to lie especially since she was letting Alice go.
"I can't forgive you. I don't know if I will someday, but not now." Alice's eyes blurred again as fresh tears escaped her. "But thank you, for telling me the truth."
Leah opened her mouth to respond when her eyes focused on something over Alice's shoulder and her expression concocted to one of horror.
"What a wonderful reunion!" bellowed a crazed voice.
Alice froze, her eyes wide. She'd know that voice anywhere and it sent chills up and down her spine. She couldn't believe it was even possible! He had been captured by the Procyons!
But when Alice turned around there could be no mistake.
Dancer was back and ready for bloodshed.
"This time I'm not letting any of you get away. Very clever to sneak off after the incident at the water mill, Leah," he spat, waving around his pistol.
"I choose my battles," Leah shrugged. Alice was glad at least one of them was in control. For a moment she was taken aback. Leah was on her side now, and both were up against a common enemy: Dancer. Though for how long Leah would stay on Alice's side the girl had no clue.
"Well, then you should have no problem choosing this one. You're going to help me kill her. I will barbecue her on a stake if I have to. I will throw her off this star forsaken cliff, but oh little Ally will pay," Dancer cackled. Everything about him screamed insanity. He had lost every battle he had picked and now that the necklaces were in the hands of the Procyons his only sense of victory came from killing Alice.
Alice's brow was beaded with sweat but she knew Jim was coming. The others couldn't be far off now. She had to buy them time. Keep Dancer talking.
"How did you know I was here?" she asked, her eyes following the barrel of Dancer's gun.
"I have acute ears and I know how to hide. It wasn't that hard to overhear you and that brat Hawkins' conversation," he scoffed. "But I've learned my lesson. Today you die."
Alice dropped to the ground as Dancer pulled the trigger, the shot narrowly missing her. Something jumped over her toward Dancer and when Alice looked up again Leah was wrestling with the pirate captain over his pistol.
"Go!" she bellowed as Dancer pressed forward trying to throw her off, but Leah was quick and threw an uppercut to his jaw, hearing a satisfying crunch. "Alice, get out of here! I'll hold him off!"
Alice scrambled to her feet and sprinted out of the cavern, but when she turned to flee back down the mountain, Dancer, who was wrestling Leah quite close to the opening and the winding path down, grabbed his pistol and shot at her missing her skin by inches. There was only one other way Alice could take and it was up. The girl didn't hesitate; she sprinted up the rocky path that twisted around the mountain.
Meanwhile Dancer then pointed his gun back toward Leah and when the woman froze he used that hesitation to twist her arm causing her to cry out in pain before he kicked her hard in the gut and sent her sliding across the cavern floor watching with satisfaction as her head slammed into a rock close by and lay still. He very well could have shot her, but he only had four shots left and he knew he'd have to save those for Alice. The girl had fled farther up the mountain and Dancer laughed as he chased after her in a hot pursuit. Eventually there would be nowhere else to run.
Alice's heart was racing faster that a comet as she pumped her arms and legs to go faster. Her fear had not only erupted from Dancer arriving, but because she was now running up the side of a mountain on a path that was narrowing rapidly. Sparing a quick glance over her shoulder, Alice nearly was sent flying off the edge when the road took a sharp turn. Sliding to a halt, she lost her footing landing with an agonizing thump on the rock and skidding across the ground until her legs were partially dangling off the edge of an impossible height.
Gasping for air and scrambling back Alice felt like screaming but found that no noise could come out. Her whole body shook as the fear infected her brain, wrapping around her like a poisonous snake and suddenly she couldn't breathe, but she had to keep going especially since she saw Dancer round a similar bend down the path.
Jumping to her feet, Alice pressed on despite the horror. If she slipped and fell she'd die for sure. It was her worst nightmare. Her biggest fear. The path narrowed again as it turned once more, but Alice kept going, facing her panic, trying to calm herself by thinking about Jim and the shrouds. She could climb the shrouds. This was no different.
But this wasn't a ship. This was a mountain.
Alice refused to look down. One glance would cause her whole body to lock up in horror. As she turned the final bend to the top she realized that her luck had finally run out. And this time her whole body did freeze as if someone had turned her veins to ice. She couldn't move. Something was constricting her chest. She couldn't breathe. She was panicking only she couldn't calm herself down this time.
Because what lay in front of her could not possibly be considered a path.
The rocky road became nothing more than a thin sliver of a ledge, twisting the rest of the way up.
Below it was nothing. Hundreds of miles of air and sky, but no way down, and no way back.
Alice shook her head as tears pricked her eyes.
"No!" she screamed, grabbing at the roots of her hair, because she wasn't strong enough to face this. She just wasn't that strong.
"I'm going to kill you Alice!" came Dancer's shout from behind the turn. Alice thought about her parents. She thought about her friends. She thought about Jim.
You can do this, she thought she could hear them whisper. It's the ledge or Dancer.
You can do this.
Just as Alice saw the fox man round the corner, she made a snap decision. Forcing herself up against the mountainside wall she took the first step out onto the ledge. Her whole body shook. Tears fell from her eyes and she kept her gaze focused on the horizon despite feeling the limited foothold space.
Don't look down, she thought. Don't look down. Alice took another step and then another. Slowly, but surely she was edging out onto the ledge, further from safety, or harm, depending on how you viewed the situation. If she could just make it around the last mountain turn she'd be out of Dancer's range.
But the girl was moving far too slow, and Dancer was not a patient man.
He slid to the edge of the road and let out a triumphant bark of laughter.
"You're mine now!" he cried as Alice's eyes met his in a single moment of fear. He cocked his pistol and pulled the trigger. Alice flinched, but contained her natural reaction to maneuver out of the way as Dancer missed, his blast missing her by inches. One wrong move and she'd be gone for good. Breathing heavily, Alice turned her face toward the cliff and took another two steps to the side when she felt another shot narrowly missing.
Dancer cursed in rage.
Only two bullets left and she kept getting farther away.
Cocking the gun once more he narrowed his eyes as he focused on her tiny frame. She was shaking so bad she could hardly take another step. A smirk curled at the corners of his lips. This time he wouldn't miss.
Alice whipped her head toward him, her whole face beaded with sweat when she saw the barrel of the gun aimed at her heart and she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, she wouldn't make it out alive.
How stupid could she have been?
She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye.
Dancer's finger put pressure on the trigger before pulling the tiny lever back discharging a laser blast to end all laser blasts that flew toward Alice…
…And missed by a mere inch.
Leah had returned, Alice had no idea how the woman had made it to the rocky outcropping above Dancer when she did, but somehow the pirate had managed to jump down on Dancer in a surprise attack throwing off his precision. Dancer let out a caterwaul and Alice watched with a heaving chest and scared stiff posture as the two of them wrestled. One moment Leah was on top, the next was Dancer. She knocked his gun out of his hands sending it sliding off the cliff.
"No!" Dancer shrieked as the woman grabbed his throat in a vice like grip, but Dancer was fast. Kneeing her in the stomach he managed to throw her off before pulling out the knife in his boot and straddling her so her head was right beside the edge of the cliff.
Pinning her arms to her chest, Dancer held the knife to her throat with a sickening expression as he pulled it back, getting ready to go in for the kill.
Just as suddenly as his moment of victory had come, it ended with Leah kicking him in the place where the sun don't shine causing him to let out a howl of pain as she grabbed his wrist still holding the knife and twisted it so the blade faced his chest. Just as Dancer tried to turn the knife around and gut her, Leah pushed up with her hand, nailing him in the chest cavity.
Time seemed to stop.
Dancer froze.
For a moment Alice wasn't sure what had happened until the pirate captain released a violent shudder and reeled back just enough for Alice to see the knife sticking out of his chest and the blood soaking through his shirt. Leah was panting for air. Her lip was split and there was a nasty bruise and a trickle of blood on her forehead, but she looked otherwise unharmed.
The blonde haired rogue stared deep into Dancer's hollow eyes as he opened his mouth to gurgle out a sentence but none came. Leah watched him a moment longer before she used her knees to throw him off of her, over her head and off the cliff, sending him tumbling to the ground below.
Everything in Alice's vision began to spin as Leah sat up and wiped the sweat, dirt, and blood off of her face and shirt before getting to her feet panting for air.
"It's safe now," she told Alice. Alice let out a squeak of horror because she was still stuck on the edge of a precipice, looking down into an abyss. "Baby steps, Alice," Leah told her as Alice nodded, shuffling her way back along the edge to the safety of the road. Once her feet touched the solid ground, her legs gave out and she fell to her knees trying to catch her breath as her whole body shook from fear, adrenaline, and exertion.
She closed her eyes.
The knife entered Dancer's chest.
His body flailing like a ragdoll as he sped through the air.
"How did you get up there?" Alice breathed, still not opening her eyes. Leah understood what she meant.
"I explored the caves earlier. One of them leads to the top of the mountain, just above the end of the road," she explained. Alice gave a curt nod, trying to calm down but finding it impossible to do so.
His body flailing.
The knife in his chest.
"Alice!"
Alice's eyes snapped open when she heard the familiar voice. She was too weak to stand. Leah turned to look back down the road just as Jim rounded the corner followed by Captain Amelia, Delbert, Silver, Smithy, and all of her friends.
"In the name of her Majesty's Empire, I command you to get down on the ground!" Amelia ordered as she pointed her gun toward Leah. The pirate woman let out a little chuckle as she got down on her knees and put her hands behind her head.
Jim sprinted to Alice's side along with the others the minute he knew it was safe. Dropping to his knees and wrapping his arms around her he gave her a slight shake.
"Alice, are you okay? What did she do? What happened?" he demanded. Alice looked up with fresh tears in her eyes as her lower lip wobbled and at last she broke down, sobbing against him in deep helpless cries as she wallowed in his arms, in her friends' arms as they held her close and consoled her and in their fortress of warm limbs (except for B.E.N, whose metal appendages were quite cold) Alice felt safe for the first time in what felt like days.
"Shh, we've got you, Alice. We've all got you," Jim whispered in her ear, his warm breath tickling her skin making her swallow back another cry. Here she was safe. Here she was sound.
At last.
All of them waited, with Leah properly restrained for Alice to pull together. They had no idea what sort of traumas she had partaken in and they weren't about to force it out of her. Once Alice was finally strong enough to stand, Dalia and Jim helped her to her feet as she wiped her eyes and thanked them.
"Alice, if you can give us any information at all right now on what happened, we'd all be grateful," Delbert spoke in a soothing voice as he approached her.
"Yeh take yer time now, Alice," Silver added respectfully. Alice frowned.
"Didn't Leah tell you?" she choked out when she caught the pirate woman's eye and saw Leah give her a very indiscriminant shake of her head.
"She has nothing to say that would interest me. It's all very clear that she lured you here to kill you," Amelia snarled, her ears flattening against her head as she and Smithy kept firm grips on Leah's bound hands.
"Yeah, nothing she can say. Putrid pirate, thinking she could pull the wool over our eyes! Put 'em up!" Ray sneered as he raised his fists.
"Ray, her hands are tied behind her back," Doug pointed out. Ray seemed to deflate at this added knowledge.
"Oh, right. Well, I'll deal with her later."
"I'll be on her for target practice as well," Josephine volunteered.
"That won't be necessary, Miss Lozenge. This woman will be judged before parliament at last and if I'm not mistaken, she'll more than likely receive a healthy end at the gallows," Amelia responded.
"What? No!" Alice cried, pushing past Jim and Dalia. "Captain, Leah saved me! She didn't try to kill me at all!"
"Then why were you on the ground with her standing over you when we got here?" Smithy inquired. Amelia arched an eyebrow as if to say he had a point. Alice then explained, in a very condensed manner, all that had happened since she left the ship, conveniently leaving out the story of her past. She concluded with Dancer's death and she procured a violent shiver when she saw the knife in his chest as if projected on the inside of her eyelids.
"She saved you?" Jim asked in disbelief. Alice had no more energy to fight back. She was exhausted, scared, and weak which is why her response was but a curt nod.
"Whether this pirate has saved you or not I am still at a liability to place her under arrest," Amelia answered as she took ahold of Leah's arm. "I believe I'll have to warn the local authorities about this incident as well and point them toward Dancer's body," she sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you, Alice. I truly am sorry. Jim, take Alice back to the ship quick. I believe she's earned some much needed rest," Amelia said. Jim nodded and wrapped his arm around Alice as she curled into his side and was led back down the mountain. The others followed after, but would stay behind to locate Dancer's body.
Alice squeezed out a few more tears and shook her head. Jim was worried. He had never seen her this quiet, this pale, this terrified.
"I wish I had been there," he muttered. "I should have kept you safe." Alice snapped him a look.
"Jim, this isn't your fault. It's mine, because I decided to go," she told him in a hushed tone before looking away again.
"You shouldn't have had to face your fear like that," he breathed. Alice shrugged.
"But I did. I think Professor Ingram's wisdom is finally catching up to me," she gave him a weak smile to ease his worry, but even that came off as strained. Alice just did not have the effort to try to console him when her own knocking knees were about to collapse.
"Are you sure Leah wasn't lying about your parents? Did you find out what happened to them?" Jim asked. At this Alice visibly sagged and Jim had to tighten his hold lest she fall over.
"Why would she save me if she was lying? She was going to let me go when Dancer showed up. I think she's sorry for what she did, but I still can't forgive her…" Alice trailed off as her hollow green eyes gazed at the horizon. "I will never forgive her."
"Forgive her for what?" Jim cocked his head in puzzlement. Alice bit her lip and shook her head again.
"I-I can't, Jim. I just can't. Not right now," she choked out as more tears flooded her vision.
"It's okay, Alice. I understand. When you're ready to talk about it, we can talk about it," he assured her despite the fact that he was now burning with curiosity. Alice muttered a 'thanks' as they reached the bottom of the mountain. Alice vowed never to return to the cursed place again as the Legacy finally came into view. When they once again stood on main deck Alice drew away from Jim, her face tilted toward the sky in a wistful expression.
"I'm going to go lie down," she whispered and turned away from him to walk down to the bunk house.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Jim asked, still worried about her. He couldn't imagine the grief she'd gone through up there. He knew, just be her expression when he'd asked that her past was not a cheerful one to reminisce on. Not only that, but she'd had to face her greatest fear of heights and watch a man's life die before her very eyes.
Jim had no way to compare and no idea how to comfort her.
"No," she answered. "I want to be alone."
And be alone she did. Alice was thankful the crew's quarters were empty when she sat down in her hammock and rolled onto her side begging for sleep. But every time she closed her eyes she saw Leah, her words snaking into her brain.
"I killed him. I killed your father."
Dancer's empty eyes as the life was sucked right out of him, the blood soaking through his shirt. His body falling.
Falling like Alice would have fallen.
By the time Alice's physical fatigue overtook her emotional attentiveness it was late in the afternoon and the others had returned. Hopefully in her sleep she'd find solace as her mind wandered to the cliffs of Planet Montis and the stars beyond.
Then came the nightmares.
A/N: Well it's about damn time I uploaded this :XD: Sorry for the wait, I'm sure you guys were expecting it sooner. Life caught up with me again. So this is finally the end to the climax chapter!
More to come soon! I just haven't been able to type on my laptop lately because my left wrist hurts really bad from typing so much. Sorry if the next chapter takes longer because of this. I have resorted to old fashioned writing with pencil and paper heh.
So yeah, I hope the climax wasn't bad. It always sounds better in my head -.-
You finally know Alice's past! And she has a full name now! A full name! Whu-what!? Plus, you got to see how Leah's flashbacks from previous chapters tied back in.
And, I don't know, I hope it doesn't seem to unrealistic that Leah suddenly joined Alice's side. She's still not fond of the girl, but she doesn't have the heart to kill her because she feels so guilty and feels like she'd be killing her friend.
Well hey, Darth Vader in Star Wars joined the good side when Luke was like, "Daddy! Save me! D:"
Yeah...
I dunno, and the action, let me know how you guys felt about that. The dream machine was certainly important, eh? It all ties back together. Alice had to confront her fear just like she had to in the dream machine.
And she's not willing to talk about it with Jim yet, she's sort of in a state of shock I suppose. Yeah, once again, it all sounded way better in my head until I puked it up on a page and...yeah...just yeah...
Anyway, leave a review and let me know how it was guys! :D
Special thanks goes to: lazyX1000, PartofYourWorld-ArielMermaid, and JessyHeick and of course all of my other readers! Thank you for reading this! Thank you for the support! :)