Mevia wasn't sure whether to scream, laugh, or cry. So she just sat still and stared at the wall.
She'd sprinted as far away from the armor room as possible before ducking into a nearby broom closet and shutting the door. She could hear people talking and asking questions, occasionally passing by the door she was behind but never opening the door. Honestly, her chest was starting to hurt with the amount of emotions trying to dominate her right now.
There was an almost hysterical amusement at the fact that Hadrian had threatened to kill Jesse, and then Mevia- the one who was against the idea of doing so in the first place– was the one to nearly murder Jesse. With a wooden sword, no less.
There was a sort of disgust at herself for allowing herself to get into combat mode in a practice fight. With wooden swords. Against a girl who was almost more like a little kid than, well, a seventeen-year-old young woman.
There was an intense fury directed at Hadrian for having even half a mind to kill Jesse. And the Games and the fact they existed, because if they didn't, surely Hadrian wouldn't be so intent on making sure Jesse wasn't a threat to the Games. And herself.
Mostly herself.
"Hey."
Mevia jumped and proceeded to bang her head on a low shelf that was just behind where she was sitting. Letting out a low swear, she looked up– and blinked at the sight of Nell carefully shutting the broom closet door behind her.
Mevia really didn't know Nell well– she just knew that the blonde girl was a competitor on the Green Team in the Games, and that she was oddly calm about most things. Including the Games themselves. She almost seemed to have no problem with participating in said games, despite the fact that she'd basically been kidnapped and forced into doing it.
At least Nell hadn't called her 'bro' or anything yet. If that had happened, Mevia would probably have started laughing hysterically. With how messed-up her emotions were right now, any little thing could shove her into becoming completely hysterical.
Although it had to be noted that since this was a broom closet, there was almost no room for either of them to move right now, so... that was awkward.
Nell crouched down so that she was more on Mevia's current eye level, with Mevia practically curled up on the floor as she was. "So... about what just happened in the armor room..." the blonde girl spoke, slowly.
Mevia could feel her heart sink. (Which, in itself, felt a little like a miracle... she'd started wondering if she had a heart.) Of course that was why Nell was in the broom closet. Nell had been in the room earlier. She'd just watched Mevia tear out of the room like a bullet. She didn't know what else she'd been expecting, especially with Nell popping in here.
"I know what Hadrian said to you in the woods."
Mevia blinked at that.
Well, she didn't know what she'd been expecting but it had definitely not been this.
"... what?"
A slight smirk tugged at the corner of Nell's lips, which seemed out-of-character for the blonde girl, although it didn't seem to be a victorious one or anything– just a slightly amused one. "Uh, yeah... you might wanna check the area you're about to talk in before you actually start talking, dude. Just a tip for the future."
"... oh."
Mevia didn't know what else to say in response to that. She was torn between laughing and having a mental breakdown. The laughing was because of the comment Nell had just made, and the mental breakdown was because of... well... everything else.
There was a slightly awkward silence as Nell looked at Mevia and Mevia blinked back. It wasn't like the two of them were on good terms... or any terms at all, really. Mevia had exchanged about ten words in passing with this blonde girl.
It really didn't help that she'd pretty much kidnapped the blonde girl so that she could participate in the Games.
"... I could warn Jesse and the other dudes she's with about Hadrian," Nell offered after a full minute of the awkward silence and the two of them looking at each other awkwardly within the cramped space of the broom closet without knowing what to say to each other. "It wouldn't be–"
"No."
Nell paused, blinking at Mevia in surprise. At least Mevia hadn't shouted this at the top of her lungs like back in the armor room– she was sure somebody would've heard and tried running into the broom closet if she'd yelled that. "Huh?"
"It... if Hadrian found out that you heard, he might try to make a move on Jesse more quickly." Mevia paused, realizing the awkward phrasing of what she'd just said. "Uh, you know what I mean."
Nell grinned briefly at the comment, before her face fell into a slightly thoughtful one. "Oh yeah... and he'd assume that you told her about it, too, so that would put you in danger, so that idea's a no-go."
Mevia blinked again at that, before Nell snapped her fingers as another idea entered her head. "Oh, I know. I'll just tell a couple of Jesse's brahs."
Mevia's brain (somewhat unfortunately) misinterpreted that statement for a moment, before it managed to decipher Nell's surfer talk and translate it to what Mevia considered proper English. (And into a much less... inappropriate statement, too.) "... isn't that even worse?" she asked, finally.
"No no no," and Nell's blue eyes gleamed a bit as she considered the idea. "Think about it– as long as they don't tell Jesse, they can just stick near her and make sure she's not by herself. Kinda doubt the Old Buil– uh, I mean Ancient Architect dude would go after Jesse if she has people with her."
Now Mevia was honestly considering the idea, casting her mind back to the conversation to check over the little details. It was a good point. Jesse's friends– especially Petra– were quite capable of keeping the smaller girl safe. And what Nell had just said was true– Hadrian was less likely to try to attack Jesse if he knew that there were people around her. And it wasn't like it was a suddenly noticeable difference– most of the time, Jesse's friends tended to stick around her anyways.
And when she thought about what Hadrian had said... well, Hadrian had said if she'd told Jesse. He hadn't said anything about Nell telling Jesse's friends.
"I think that's a good idea." Actually, Mevia was a little surprised that Nell could think up anything serious what with all the 'brah'ing and 'bro'ing and surfer talk she spouted.
Nell grinned toothily at Mevia, looking rather excited. "Great, then I'll go tell 'em now. I know where they all are anyway. You just..." Nell paused, before making a slightly awkward shooing motion in Mevia's direction. "I dunno, sulk in the closet or whatever you wanna do, brah."
Before Mevia could reply to that, Nell shoved open the closet door and was already charging down the hallway.
Mevia furiously stifled the urge to burst into slightly hysterical laughter. The 'hysterical' aspect of it was slightly lessened from before Nell's visit to the broom closet, but she didn't want anyone to find her in the broom closet yet.
Especially because she'd have to explain why she was in the broom closet and why she was laughing slightly-hysterically in the broom closet as well, and that was a rather difficult answer.
"Is Jesse okay?!" Axel shouted, banging the door open so loudly that even Olivia, who was dashing in with him and looked just as panicked, recoiled in shock.
Ivor's arm made a weird circling motion as he tried to keep the potion in his hands from spilling all over Jesse, Petra jumped sideways and slammed into Lukas, and Lukas got knocked off of his chair and onto the floor. Harper, who was anxiously standing off to the side, jumped backwards and rammed her back against the wall.
"Shout louder, would you," Ivor snapped, turning to scowl at Axel once he'd made sure that none of the potion had spilled, "I don't think you woke up the dead yet."
Axel let a slightly sheepish grin cross his face. "Sorry, dude." His expression became more worried a second later. "But is Jesse okay?"
"Well, she's asleep, at least." Lukas frowned at the bed, where Jesse was nestled in a partial-cocoon of red blanket. "We couldn't even get near her for ten minutes, she just kept trying to get away from us."
"And then she calmed down?"
"Well, no, then Ivor smashed a Splash Potion of Drowsiness at her feet and she nodded off after a minute or two."
Everyone winced a little at that, before Petra's expression darkened into a glare. If looks could kill, the wall would've currently been a smoking ruin from the ferocity of the glare Petra was delivering to it. "I can't believe Mevia– she just... just started hitting Jesse with that wooden sword. Even after she beat Jesse, she just kept going!"
Lukas frowned as well, clambering back into his seat and rubbing the bruise that was currently forming on his leg from when Petra had knocked him off. "Yeah... just when I thought she wasn't that bad, either."
Harper's lips twisted. "Hm."
Ivor glanced up at Harper as he regarded the healing potion in his hands, taking some gunpowder and sprinkling it in carefully at regular intervals. It looked like he was trying to make a Splash Potion of Healing so that he didn't have to wake her up and feed it to her. "Is there something wrong?" he asked her, warily.
Harper looked up at him, surprise momentarily written across her face. She seemed to have forgotten that any of them were there, and her gray eyes gleamed slightly as she quickly assessed the situation and realized that she'd just made a sound– of course they would've noticed– before relaxing again.
"Well... I haven't seen Mevia in a while, so I'm not sure if this is still applicable. But... I remember that she had this sort of automatic 'mode' she'd go into when she was in a bad mood or when she was preoccupied, or in the heat of battle. We called it 'combat mode'."
Olivia frowned. "Combat mode?" she echoed, as if she didn't really get what those two words meant.
"Combat mode is where Mevia kind of snaps from reality into the middle of fighting– if she's preoccupied enough, or in a terrible mood, or if she was in the middle of a really intense fight, or sometimes all three together–" Harper explained patiently, "she will snap into combat mode and her swordfighting training will assert itself."
"Did she get official training?" Petra asked, despite herself. Her expression seemed a little less harsh than before– it was tempered with curiosity.
"Yes, but her teacher was a little... obsessed with making sure that your opponent was beaten," Harper said, after a short hesitation. "Even if they fell, even if they surrendered, even if they looked like they were beaten– her teacher pretty much hammered the point that you had to absolutely make sure that your opponent was beaten."
"How d'you do that?" Axel asked.
Harper's gray eyes flicked over to Axel, expression hardening a little. "The only way to absolutely make sure that your opponent is beaten, in his opinion at least," she spoke up, slowly, as if what she was saying was so unpleasant that she had to consider every word to make sure she didn't just say something idiotic, "is to completely ensure they're out of the way."
"Okay, but how do you do that?" Axel repeated. Judging by the way Lukas was no longer worried about his bruise, and the way Olivia was blinking uncertainly at Harper, they didn't get it either.
Harper grimaced a little. She had not liked that swordfighting teacher, as good as he was at it. And this wasn't a pleasant topic– even for Harper, and she was a full-grown adult. This was no topic for children.
She corrected herself. The four of them (she wasn't counting Ivor, he was an adult like her, and Jesse of course was knocked out on the bed) had helped to one of the world's worst monsters, not to mention travelling all over the worlds. They were much more than children.
"You kill them."
Lukas bolted upright in his seat, eyes bugging out of his head in surprise. "You–"
"Yeah. Mevia's kind of got that training... hammered into her head." Harper's face screwed up slightly. "So when she snaps into combat mode, her training completely takes over and she kind of... forgets what's going on around her."
Olivia scowled slightly, taking the whole idea into consideration. "So... Mevia might've snapped into combat mode?"
"Possibly." Harper shrugged apologetically, wishing that she had a better idea of what had happened in the room, with how intensely the others were staring at her. "It's definitely one of the first explanations I could think of."
"Or she's a complete jerk who enjoys Jesse's pain," Petra muttered, scowling at the wall. Judging from that little comment, Petra was still insanely pissed off at Mevia.
Not that Harper could completely blame her, of course.
"... that's possible, too."
What else was possible, they'd never know, because the door banged open right behind Axel and made him jump. Once doing so, he nearly knocked into Olivia and bowled her over. As it was, Olivia still ended up on her butt, and a large majority of the gunpowder Ivor had been holding earlier had gotten all over his pants.
"Hey, Jesse awake?" Nell was standing in the doorway, leaning over and looking half-ready to leave.
Ivor sighed, absentmindedly swatting some of the gunpowder off of his pants and onto the floor. "No, although I'm surprised that you all banging the door open hasn't done the job yet." He said this last part very pointedly, shooting a glare in Axel and Nell's direction.
The blonde let out a slightly sheepish laugh as she stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind her. "Heh, sorry. But listen," and Nell's eyes gleamed with a muted urgency now, smile falling so that only a shadow of it remained on her face. "I've got something I need to tell you dudes."
A/N: Blah this is short and terrible because I have a cold but hope you enjoy anyway
Well, looks like Nell was the one who was listening in on them! Huh. Surprised nobody guessed her even as a joke xD
Also, listening to the song "Purple" by Mandopony (the new version he released on YouTube), the song... is surprisingly fitting for Romeo, if you do a bit of creative interpretation of some of the lyrics.
Replies to reviews!
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Well, there's still a chance... he's just gonna have to do some deep digging on his personality. REALLY deep. / What, you think I'd kill the protagonist of the story? Well, actually– ... mm. / Lol, not a bad habit xD
andie: (chuckles) / (pats)
Princess of Muffins: Yeah, I don't know why. I really like Mevia now. xD Because in every fanfic you read of him, he acts like an asshole? / That is an... abnormally specific number xD But sure, go ahead.
Destroyered: Go ahead xD
Emily The Avenger: (laughs) Yeah, I know how you feel.
Toni42: You are not wrong there, my friend. xD
RapidSammi: That's good! And yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of the dude myself xD / (laughs)
Kairi4ever15: I mean, you totally can if you want, there's nothing stopping you xD
KaosRuin: Ooh, that sounds frightening xD Good luck.
AquaK13: (laughs) I figured, but still. I have to agree with you there. / Yeah, I really like Mevia as a character, honestly. Even though we didn't see enough of her in Episode 8. xD / No, she can't catch a break apparently. And she has... more than I can count because I don't remember. xD / Nope, actually, it's Nell. xD
EndLifeKillPls: Oh I didn't really feel that bad for Jesse either, don't worry about it xD
Mikaza1498: That reminds me, I've gotta post my playthrough... / Yeah, I'm working on making that seem more natural, honestly. Though it's hard at this moment because I hAvE A cOlD. xD / I'm never offended, especially if I get slightly lost while a person is trying to insult me. xD
LunarTheMooncake: (pats)
PuzzleMaster: I'm glad you like the story, though!
LittleAngelbun: You have returned! / Haha, yeah, it hurt... a lot. / Nell. xD
homeworkoverload: I've got a new computer, so the playthrough should be up... fairly soon, actually! / Really, anybody could do it– just think of a wooden sword as a shaped stick. / Oh, lol! / Oh, I'm sure Hadrian would love to play Hide and Go Kill with you. Really, he'd adore the idea.
Pogi22609: Haha, yeah. / Yeah :/ / Nell!
Rabbits rule: Lol! Yeah, Hadrian's a jerk. And yeah, I feel bad for Mevia too.
ZenSpider: (laughs) He'll keep that in mind.
PoptartCrumbs: I mean, Mevia's mostly probably just surprised by Hadrian threatening her. Buuuut... yeah, I feel pretty bad for 'em too. Not THAT bad, mind you, since I caused them pain, but... yeah. xD
EnderKitty68: Yeah, that would be cute. x3 / Pfff xD Probably not gonna happen, but that would be pretty funny.
J.M.M.: Ah, I see, and apparently yes xD
DarkPrincess2001: Well, she knows that, but other people don't.
Darkbeast Dend: That sounds violent, but sad to say I think Hadrian deserves it... oh who am I kidding, I'm not sad at all xD / You spelled 'sword' wrong, by the way, but haha that's not a bad idea. I think Petra might just be tempted to do that.
Shadow: (pats)
Guest: The angst train is fun xD
Savannah-the-Caracal: Oh, really? I thought I made it way too obvious haha / Well, yeah, but I'm not a very good teacher and I feel like I'd be acting super pretentious if I did that lol xD
Welp, that's all for now! Hope to see you soon! And hope to actually turn out a non-crappy chapter when I'm not sick anymore. xD
x.X. A.L. X.x
