Sententia in progress.
As soon as the words left Georgiana's mouth Comet picked up Cat and ran. No one saw where she went, least of all Rumor. She was too occupied with her mission. Space gave her a quick motion with his hand and she slipped into the shadows. For the first time in years she felt a fighting thrill and adrenaline. She hoped it would stay.
Quickly she went back stage and started climbing the service ladder. It creaked ominously and Rumor paused. She waited for a minute to see if anyone had heard and was following her. When she didn't hear anyone she resumed climbing. Her destination; the stage lights.
Sounds of fighting echoed through the theater far below her. She felt confident that it was okay. None of her siblings would be stupid enough to get themselves killed, at least not yet. She even heard what sounded like damage being inflicted on the other side. Maybe they wouldn't even need what she was about to do. Fat chance she would be that lucky though.
Rumor tried not to look down. She had never been afraid of heights before, not even as a small child, but suddenly she decided that it was time to start. Not only was the service walkway very high up but it was also in disrepair. Everything looked like it would fall down with the slightest pressure. Cautiously she edged her way along the walkway towards the lights. Her hand rested on the switch and she took a deep breath. Even though she kept telling herself not to she hazarded a glimpse of the battle.
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Georgiana walked carefully along the fringes of the battle with a black suitcase in her hand. No one noticed her. They were far too wrapped up with what they were doing. She couldn't blame them. Under any other circumstances she would've been watching intently like everyone else. So far it looked amazing.
She could see Space battling Reaper and already bleeding heavily. Reaper on the other hand looked cool and confident. This was probably for the fact that the shadow of Ghost was effectively blocking all of Space's blows. Doing so was becoming harder for her though as Séance had joined his brother. Now Reaper and Ghost had to deal with two of the Hargreeves.
The rest of the Umbrella Academy was faring slightly better. Kraken hadn't managed to inflict much damage on the fire-producing Phoenix but neither had Phoenix managed to land a blow. Over to the side .05's time jumps and Comet's speed were basically cancelling each other out.
What could you expect? Lenore and Hargreeves had chosen their pawns well. Only one more thing was left to do. Her heels clicked on the aisle as she walked up to the motionless Vanya. It was interesting how her skin had turned that color. She should've taken a sample of what was in that vial.
She set down the suitcase next to Vanya. Vanya didn't look up or react. Georgiana shrugged her shoulders and turned away. She needed to get back to her viewing spot. She decided that she was going to delegate solicitation out to someone else after this. Hargreeves's tasks had been just too odd. For instance, what she was doing now. If he knew that this was going to happen, then why did he want her to give a violin to a comatose girl? Madness.
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Something seemed wrong. Rumor slowly she counted the Cains as the battle raged below her. One, two, three, four. Only two of them died before Sententia stared. Where was the fifth?
"Hell-oooooooo?!" sang a voice on the other side of the lights.
Rumor looked up to see Alchemist waving at her from the other side.
"Shit," she muttered.
"You are hard to find," she said as she started walking down the service walkway, "Do you know that?"
Edging her hand along the controls Rumor flipped the switch for the lights. They came on, still blazing hard after all of their years of neglect. All of them lit up the stage where no one was fighting. At least she was lucky in that respect.
"Whoo!" shouted Alchemist, "Puh-retty! In any case, I have to kill you so I can get on with better and more interesting things. It would be too much to ask you to hold still, wouldn't it?"
Rumor glared at her.
"I heard a rumor that after years of disuse lights can spontaneously combust when air is fanned into them by say, walking by."
The light next to Alchemist exploded in a shower of burning sparks. Alchemist screamed and quickly covered her face. Rumor used the opportunity to complete her real mission.
"I heard a rumor that light weakens supporting beams."
Alchemist started to get up. Burns decorated the right side of her face with nasty red marks and rapidly forming blisters.
"I liked that face," she hissed as she pulled off one of her gloves and turned it into a rather large knife, "I'm gonna fucking kill you."
"I heard a rumor that Icarus was constructed on an unusual plan," said Rumor rapidly as Alchemsit advanced, faster this time, "It was made so that the supporting beams for the western part were built on the stage."
OA crash was heard from the western part of the buidling. Slowly but with the force of thunder the roof started to collapse. Alchemist shrieked with rage. She leapt from the service area and ran towards the stage. On the way out she lashed out at Rumor with her knife. Out of shock rather then instinct Rumor clutched her throat as it bled. Alchemist hurried past her.
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.05 heard the roof coming down before he saw it. He twisted sideways to avoid Comet's foot and moved as far way as possible. Space and Kraken abandoned their fight and ran to the 'safe' area in the eastern section. .05 barely had time to register that he was standing next to Vanya before the roof went down in an explosion of plaster and dust.
When it all cleared he saw that Ghost had thrown herself over Comet and Reaper. Alchemist had turned the pieces of rubble that had fallen towards her into daffodils.
"Arkady!" she screamed.
A small moan answered from somewhere inside the wreckage. Yet .05 wasn't listening. It was completely unimportant now whether Phoenix was alive or not. There was only one thing that really mattered. Like his siblings, he knew that it t was time to press their advantage.
As Ghost stood there in shock Space quickly hit Reaper across the face. Kraken went to assist and Séance and .05 went for a combined attack on Comet. As fast as the girl was it would be difficult to avoid two Hargreeves when she was dazed. Kraken's knife met her shoulder and her blood splattered in a large arc.
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Drops of Comet's blood splattered on Vanya's face. Slowly as if in a dream Vanya raised her arm and touched some drop with the tip of her finger. Still expressionless she pulled it away and examined the red dot on her pale skin. Her head cocked to the side. She looked at it for a few minutes without blinking. Slowly a smile both innocent and insane spread across her face.
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Rumor was loosing blood and the world was becoming hazy. It seeped out through her gloved hands in crimson bubbles. Rumor was going to bleed to death like a stuck pig if she didn't do something fast. Trying to think clearly she wondered what to do. She was having trouble getting anything to work, let alone her vocal chords. It hurt so much. Was this how she was going to die? She didn't want to die. Not now, and definitely not this way.
She wanted to see her daughter enter the second grade. She wanted to get back at Patrick somehow. She'd planned something to do with paint and luggage. Rumor wanted to run off and be herself in the only profession that had ever seemed right. She was only thirty. There had to be something she could do to avoid this. Everything was swirling around her now.
Summoning up strength from somewhere she choked out the almost indistinguishable whisper;
"I heard a rumor it's impossible to die from throat wounds."
She hoped it worked.
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A column of flames alerted Séance that their pyro-maniac friend had woken up. He tapped Space on the shoulder to draw his attention to it seconds before it reached them. Séance jerked himself to the side in an effort to get out of the way. Even so it still singed his coat. How dare he!? That was his fucking best coat!
Space hadn't been quite so lucky as his whole body was like a coat. He howled in pain from the flames just as Reaper managed to dig his scythe into his arm. A long gash ran down the full length of his arm. It was probably the deepest wound Séance had ever seen. He could see that even the bone had been damaged.
Once more a cry of pain had come from Space. Of course, his other siblings weren't faring much better. Phoenix had resumed his war with Kraken and Comet had recovered from her wound. She looked at him for a minute. Almost immediately he heard felt his feet get kicked out from under him.
Séance stumbled back blindly. Ever one to press her advantage Comet moved forwards and gave him a kick that knocked his knees from under him. Or the soles of his shoes anyway. Before he knew it he was on the floor with what was most likely a terrible bruise forming on the back of his head. Quite reasonably he told himself that he had bigger things to worry about as Comet pulled a large hunting knife from her boot.
One thing you could say about Comet was that she didn't go in for dramatics. None of that silly raising the dagger insanely high over the head for her. She just started to push it downwards where his heart would be. Wanting to be sure to be able to tell all of his new dead friends about his death he kept his eyes open. Seconds later he wished he hadn't.
Instead of being stabbed in the stomach he heard a long, drawn out violin chord. Almost immediately following it was shower of intestines and blood. The blood got into his eyes and made them sting like a mother. When he finally stopped cursing to himself and wiped it out he managed to look at everyone else. They had abandoned their fights and were staring in horror.
His sister had gotten up. She'd gotten rid of the long overcoat and simply wore her floor-sweeping nightgown. It was definitely too big for her and it slipped down to expose one of her shoulders. She didn't seem to mind though. From her poise he might've thought that she was playing in a concert instead of a war zone. She looked at what was left of Comet and smiled.
"Practice makes perfect," The White Violin said.