Adelaide paced around her tent, listening to the battle being fought outside. She wanted to fight – she wanted to avenge her friends and her family, but she knew that if she pushed herself too far, it might cause her to miscarriage. Sighing, she sat down on her bed and looked down at her stomach, a hand over it. "Listen, baby. Mummy needs to do this, daddy would've wanted this. So, just don't make me puke or pass out and then when we're done here, I'll stop fighting... for a week."
She didn't wait for an answer – not that she'd actually get one – before she walked over towards her pile of clothes with her weapons by the side of them. She brought out her jacket and stared at it in her hands, her fingers brushing over the leather material.
Placing her leather jacket down, Adelaide picked up a small pencil case with her war paint inside. Bringing out her war paint, Adelaide took one last look at herself in the small and broken mirror on the floor beside her knees before she began coating her face in the black make-up.
~#~
On the battlefield, the battle was in full swing. Sickos and kids alike were being taken down in the most brutal ways; blood, weapons and body parts littering the ground beneath their feet. The sound of screaming and metal hitting against metal and skin rang out throughout the otherwise quiet streets of London, giving the entire town an idea of what was going down.
Ed was fully invested in the fight, solely focused on the next sicko in front of him – it almost became like a game to him. Once he'd take down one enemy, another would appear, and he would take them down, too. Just like one of the many video games he used to play before the world went to shit.
Just as Ed was about to dig his sword into the sicko in front of him, two knives were shoved into both sides of the mother's head and she instantly collapsed to the floor. Ed looked up to see Adelaide who looked like she'd seen better days and like she'd already lived through forty battles already. She wasn't wearing a jacket or anything to hide her arms and the extent of her scars almost made Ed want to puke. Scars littered Adelaide's forearms stretching from her elbows to her wrists, some were fresh while others were old and had begun to fade a little.
Ed had heard the stories about South London warriors cutting themselves to distract themselves from pain, but he didn't realise that it was so severe, nor that Adelaide was also required to do it.
Noticing that Ed hadn't said a word, Adelaide spoke up. "I know, you had it sorted."
It took a while for Ed to fully register what was happening and for him to speak. "I thought Jordan told you to stay behind? The stress isn't healthy for the baby, and you'd be safer that way."
Adelaide shook her head, a small piece of her hair falling out of her braids and rested in front of her face. "The baby is the child of a commander and a knight, it's fine. We had a chat and made a deal. He wouldn't have backed down from a fight, and neither would I."
Ed nodded his head, knowing that he couldn't fight against Adelaide, especially in this situation. The pair looked at each other and brought their weapons back up to continue fighting, Ed having Adelaide's back the entire time, making sure that she was okay and not pushing herself too far with her fighting.
After taking down an ugly father, Adelaide looked ahead of her to see a mother just ahead of her, coming towards her with a slightly rusted and blood-soaked knife in her hand. Looking at her, Adelaide almost immediately knew who she was – she was there when DogNut died. She was the one who did it.
Feeling the anger rise within her, Adelaide turned towards Ed beside her. "You carry on here, this one's mine." She shouted towards Ed before she stormed across the battlefield, feeling everything move in slow motion but moving far too fast at the same time.
Adelaide felt hot tears fall down her cheeks as she moved across the battlefield, as if she and the mother were the only ones there. The sunglasses the mother wore obscured her eyes from Adelaide but somehow, she could tell the mother's eyes were on hers, watching and waiting for her.
It's now or never.
Stopping several feet in front of the mother, Adelaide took a deep breath to steady her rapidly beating heart. The mother took several strides towards her, the knife in her hands almost pointing towards Adelaide.
The pair stared at each other for several moments; the mother trying to intimidate Adelaide while Adelaide stood her ground, she'd been through too much shit over the past year to be intimidated by a sicko by now. She was the Commander of Death, after all – almost nothing scared her anymore. It was a stand-off; the first person who moves, loses.
Eventually, the mother shrieked an ear-piercing scream that made Adelaide's ears hurt a little and charged towards Adelaide with alarming speed. Adelaide brought her sword up and braced herself for impact and the mother delivered a hard one.
Adelaide kept trying to get the knife out of the mother's hand, but the mother always saw her attacks before she made them – proving that the mother was a hell of a lot smarter than any of the other grown-ups.
The pair fought for control for what seemed like hours until Adelaide finally gained control and cut off the mother's arms before kicking her to the ground before climbing on top of her and pressing her thumbs into the mother's eye sockets and pressing down hard, the struggling of the mother finally coming to a stop as blood and puss covered Adelaide's hands and wrists.
It's over. It's finally over.
Note
One chapter to go until the epilogue! I personally don't like the way this chapter ended up being, but hey, it's something.
Until next time;
Lorna.