Reyna hated storms. She always had, and always would, but at least they provided cover. The waves rose and fell heavily all around her, the ship tossing and turning across the waves, but she could see it, see her target. The British warship was in front of them, and they hadn't been spotted yet. Rain pounded down hard on the deck, she looked over her grew. 11 fully trained fighters, ready for combat against who knows how many soldiers.
"Alright, you know the drill!" she yelled and they nodded nervously. Reyna felt that cold, empty feeling in her chest spike painfully, but ignored it, "the Royal Guard is mine, once we have her, we're out of there. Understood!" she yelled and the crew stared at their shoes. She took a step forward, and suddenly appeared to double in size. "I said, is that understood?!" she screamed and they all jumped back.
"Yes Captain!" they yelled in unison.
"Di Angelo, bring us port-side!" she shouted over the howling of the wind. Thunder cracked, lightning flashed, outlining a girl against the black night. Hair spilled over her shoulders like ink, eyes like coal. Her face was hardened, and eyes empty. For so long she had lived like this. Two years. Two years, 11 months, and 19 days since she'd told the British soldier to run. As much as she denied it, she did remember the soldiers name. She remembered everything about her, but forced herself to forget. Forced herself not to imagine what kind of monster she had turned Thalia into. For sweet, kind Thalia would never kill anyone. She refused to believe that she could've become the same thing she had. No, storms can't lose the ability to feel. Storms are wild, reckless displays of nothing, but emotions. There was no way in hell that the Royal Guard was Thalia, but it had to be. It was her sister's dagger. A demon with blue eyes and the speed of lightning. That was Thalia, and that meant that she had turned the last person she had cared for into a monster, just like herself.
Thalia stood in the Captain's quarters, next to Octavian, the British officer had half a glass of wine poured over his shirt, and he was clearly drunk, but Thalia had long since gotten used to the sight.
"Captain, sir. You should go to sleep," she urged the young man, setting a hand carefully on his shoulder, but the man only pulled himself away from her.
"How can I sleep when he's gone!" the captain screamed, and Thalia winced instinctively.
"Sir, I know. You've told me a million times before, but if you don't sleep you'll only be worse off later," she said in a soothing tone, but Octavian slammed his fists against the wall, a loud crashing noise followed as the shelves broke.
"Who gives a damn?! He's gone! Goddammit he's gone! No one cares!" Thalia, swallowed the urged to just pick him up and throw him onto the bed, but this had become a regular routine for them. Ever since Dakota's death Octavian had only been getting worse, but his drinking problem was now so badly out of hand, he was beginning to remind Thalia of someone else. Maybe that's why she stayed, why she had turned down offers to have her own ships and leave Octavian. He reminded her too much of her mother, and she felt guilty for not trying hard enough.
Another crashing noise came, this time from outside the cabin room and the ship shuddered violently. Thalia fell backwards, slamming the back of her head on the deck, while Octavian, drunken and only half standing, poked his head out of the door, and snatched up his gun.
"Octavian!" she called after him and stood. Pirates, why did it always have to be Pirates? She ran to the door as the waves of pirates poured onto the deck almost as heavily as the rain. It was like pure chaos out there, soldiers and Pirates screaming as they fought, but then, in a flash of lightning she saw her, and Thalia's blood ran cold. Reyna. She looked older, her eyes were darker, her face colder, her hat pulled lower, but she knew the moment she saw her who it was, and her heart ached. Her legs trembled with the want to give out, and a noise like a sob made it from her throat. The captain turned and looked her way, and for a moment it was nothing, but eye contact. Emotionless, empty Black eyes, against broken, shattered blue ones. Thalia smiled sadly, and the Other girl'd face hardened, reminding Thalia of a certain Sister of hers. She quietly closed the cabin door and faced the wall.
Reyna's blood boiled, the cold feeling in her chest was now so painfully cold she could practically feel the boiling blood freezing over. Anger was making her fists shake, at least she thought it was anger, but maybe it was that other thing. What's it called again? Greif? Eh, close enough. The idiotic British girl stared at her from the captain's quarters of the ship. She didn't look like a monster. Her eyes were so sad, so... lost, so. . . broken. For some reason that only made the freezing feeling worse. She stomped towards the captain's quarters and nearly ripped the hinges off the door. The other girl only stood facing the wall.
"Hi," she said quietly. She didn't look in the slightest different since she'd last seen her, except she wasn't bleeding from the knuckles, part of her dimly noticed they were nearly the same height now. Reyna didn't respond to the word. After so much, the word seemed a little underwhelming for the situation. Dull.. empty. Just like her.
"No answer? After two years, I'd think you'd want to talk to me," she whispered and turned to face her. For some strange reason, she wasn't angry, she wasn't laughing or smiling. She was... she was... Reyna couldn't tell. Thalia looked at her, her eyes were red and puffy, and... seemed to be leaking, for some reason. "Why are you here? Come to gloat? To tell me how much you hate me? Did you come here to kill me?" the last question came out so much quieter then the rest. Reyna was frozen, the cold feeling now so overwhelming she was stuck where she stood. She didn't understand what this British soldier was showing her. What, what could make you act this way, what? She gripped her sword, trying to regain control over herself.
"I'm here because you've been causing a problem, Royal Guard." she snarled quietly, her voice so cold she even shivered herself. Thalia just stared at her for a moment, then looked down.
"You're looking for Octavian," she whispered softly and turned away, Reyna's head buzzed. Wait, Thalia wasn't the Royal Guard, then, how? "He's a drunken bastard, but he's my drunken bastard, so please don't kill him." Reyna blinked. That... that was...
"Pathetic, you aren't even going to try to stop me?!" she shouted at the soldier. Thalia fixed her with those blue eyes again, so desperate, so... now she understood what she was seeing. Vulnerability.
"Why would I? We both know you're better at me in a fight, especially now," her voice was so quiet. Reyna felt her anger rushing back, hot and deadly.
"You!" she yelled, hand closing around the hilt of her sword, she took a step toward the soldier, "You're pathetic! You won't even fight, you piece of garbage, I can't believe you even carry that dagger, you yellow-bellied princess!" she spat, and swung the sword. The soldier didn't even attempt to dodge and blood sprayed across Reyna's front from the cut across Thalia's shoulder. The soldier stumbled backward, more on instinct then defense. Reyna, couldn't feel anything except the anger burning hot in her veins, consuming her every action, and she swung again, and again, and again, and again. She felt the hot, sticky liquid pouring down her front, covering her face, and spilling off the blade. Thalia lay sprawled out on the floor beneath her, her stomach and sides were covered in gashes, left nothing more than sushi from her blade. Reyna raised the blade over Thalia's neck and... and... and. . .
and nothing. She felt herself freeze again. The girl beneath her had tears streaming down her face, but not from the pain. Not from the blood, not even from the thought of death. Reyna couldn't put her finger on it, but she wasn't crying for herself.
"You..." she croaked in a voice so empty, so broken that Reyna felt the facade of anger, grief, and cold shatter. "you really hate me that much?" she asked and more tears spilled down her face. Reyna had long forgotten this feeling she felt right now, and instinctively, she tried again to stab the Red Coat through the neck, and nothing. Her arms wouldn't move.
"Why," she grunted, more to herself, than to Thalia, "Why can't I..." she trailed off and met the soft, sad, trusting eyes of the girl.
"You can't..." she whispered, and a smile, that held not even the smallest glimmer of happiness, appeared on her face. "You can't because you can't destroy something you love." Reyna nearly dropped her sword.
"What?!" she yelled, but Thalia only laughed. It was a soft, sad, laugh that held no joy. It was a sound so pitiful that it made Reyna's stomach flip
"I didn't believe it at first either. I tried to be angry like you, after I left. I tried to become empty. I tried, but I realized that no matter how much I pretended to hate you, I could never truly do so, because," she broke off into a coughing fit, and Reyna suddenly felt her vision blurring. "b-because... I love you. and I always will, even if you managed to convince yourself that you don't anymore." Reyna's sword shook, and lowered centimeter, resting it's tip on the other girl's jugular.
"Go ahead," the other girl whispered. "It's not that I won't fight you, it's that I can't. I can't hurt you, I can't do it. I already did this to you, I could never hurt you more," Reyna's resolve broke, and the sword fell to the ground. Emotions, emotions that Reyna had long since forgotten came flooding back. She crashed to her knees, tears pouring down her face. She had done this. Reduced this wild, happy, reckless girl to a broken shell. She had destroyed the last thing she.. she... she. . .
she loved.
A sudden crashing noise came from the door, and before either girl could move, something heavy slammed into the side of Reyna's head, and the world went black.