Hey! Should I be scared of people who really liked Winter? I know! I'm sorry I killed Winter! But seriously, who didn't feel emotion from that chapter? That was my goal, to pull a twist at the end, and Winter got what he wanted. Also...just a side thought, people were 100% against the fact that Winter died, it got you all to feel emotional about the story, that's what I was going for, but everyone was completely fine with me dead...you gotta love the Internet sometimes man…(not really, I don't care :D) Anyway, enjoy the last two chapters of Jade Academy. Also, after much delay, Dazzle, Cuberman's character, is here!
Point of view for this chapter is...Carnelian!
Well, I've already made you all angry at this point so YES I DO OWN WINGS OF FIRE! (No I don't.)
No.
This couldn't be happening.
This just happened.
It couldn't happen.
This wasn't real.
This couldn't be real!
This was real.
This was very...very real.
No…
"Did...did that really just happen?" Umber asked very quietly, looking around at the sleeping figure of Scarlet, and the unmoving forms of Winter and Ash, and at Moon, sobbing, at Qibli, fuming, at Turtle, shocked, at Kinkajou, scared, at Frostbite, disbelieving, at herself...she had no idea what to feel anymore.
"Yes...yes it did." Qibli said, a tear falling from his eye.
"Call the cops, we have exactly nine hours before the first of them wakes up." Carnelian said, trying not to cry herself.
Dang it Winter! Dang it Ash! **** you Scarlet!
"No, no, no, not again, never again." Umber started saying to himself before breaking down on the floor, shaking, "I can't lose anyone else, no, no, no…"
"Umber…" Turtle gasped, kneeling behind him.
Carnelian couldn't tell who was more broken by what just happened, Moon, Qibli, or Umber. Why does the world have to be so cruel sometimes?
Moon had just lost both the kid who was like her little brother, and her boyfriend. Qibli just lost his roommate, his best friend. Frostbite had just lost two of his best friends. And Umber just lost two good friends after the traumatic event of losing his sister.
Sure, Carnelian had seen horrible stories before, but never had any stung as much as this.
Police sirens could be heard outside this literal hell, and she rushed outside to meet them.
"Miss, my name is Dazzle, we got your call, what's going o-" said the officer.
"Dazzle? Help us!" Carnelian yelled, realizing who it was.
"Carnelian! What's going on?"
"Two of my friends just got murdered and we stopped an insane psychopath from taking over the country. Get it here before they wake up from the sleeping darts!"
"Right away, TEAM! Move in!" Dazzle yelled, going into the cave, Carnelian followed them, making sure they knew where everyone was.
"There are four of them, the first being right here in this cave, the one in the red." Carnelian said, pointing to the unconscious form of Scarlet, sleeping…peaceful. The exact opposite of her and all of her friends.
Carnelian helped Dazzle and everyone else grab all of Scarlet's followers and put them in handcuffs, Scarlet in a straight jacket, and put them in the police car. Then, Dazzle, turned to her, giving her a blanket and rushing in to grab her friends.
Moon came out first, unblinking, wide eyed. Qibli came out next, looking dejected and broken. Turtle and Umber came out together, Turtle helping Umber, stone faced, and Umber crying into his shoulder. Frostbite and Kinkajou came next. Kinkajou had her head down, and Frostbite had tears in his eyes.
They were all wrapped in the same blankets.
Carnelian had to look away when they came out with two body bags, though.
"Hey, Carnelian." Dazzle said, approaching her.
"Hey, Dazzle."
"So what happened here?"
"I guess I should start from the beginning."
"Yeah."
"So one day, Winter, the one in the blue who...died...got kidnapped by Scarlet, and used for ransom to get Moon to go to her."
"Why did she want Moon?"
"She-"
No, this wasn't her secret to give out. Moon should tell him if he wanted to.
"She wanted her because her dad was one of her followers."
"Okay, continue."
"After that, we went to go save her, and Winter lost his color vision in the process from a poisoned bullet that Scarlet shot at his shoulder. We thought we'd killed her, but I guess we were wrong."
"You guess?"
"We were wrong."
"Go on."
"Once we were sure she was still alive, we made a plan to get her in prison. In the process, Kinkajou and Ash got kidnapped."
"And Ash is?"
"The other...dead...one."
"Okay."
"They told us that if we called the police, they would fire a missile at our school. And...wait a second...we didn't see any controls for anything…"
"You're saying?"
"They never had a missile, they were bluffing, all of this could have been avoided! We just didn't want anyone else to get hurt! Dang it!"
"I know what happened after that, you don't need to explain anymore, thank you Carnelian." Dazzle said, putting down the notebook that he'd been writing in down.
"Dangit dangit dangit dangit dangit!"
…
...
...
She yelled that the entire ride home, and in her head for most of the night.
…
…
…
Two days after the Scarlet Jade Escape, two days since they'd lost Ash and Winter. Two days after they'd stopped Scarlet. It was time for the trial of Scarlet. It was time for her and her followers to be put to justice.
"And court is now in session." declared the judge. "Today we are on trial for the case of Scarlet Sky, in the case for one first degree murder, one second degree murder, and four cases of kidnapping. Scarlet, how do you plead?"
"I'll plead not guilty." Scarlet said, trying to keep things 'thrilling' as usual.
"THAT'S A LIE!" Moon shouted, standing up from the seat at the table she, Carnelian, Umber, Turtle, Kinkajou, Qibli, and Frostbite were at. "THAT IS A LIE! HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT? YOU MURDERED MY FRIENDS!"
Moon tried to leave the table, looking like she was about to attack Scarlet but was stopped when Carnelian grabbed her arm.
"Not now." she said, it hurt. She wanted to get Scarlet, too, but she'd learned since her time at Jade Academy, violence isn't the answer. Man that school changed her.
"Settle down, Moonwatcher, if she is guilty, she will be served justice. And if she is found guilty, punishment is death row. And because she's pleaded not guilty, it might even be more."
"Mother," said a voice from the prosecutor's chair, "I will take you down, no matter the cost."
"Well then, Ruby, not much I can do in this position, but I got revenge on you brats, it's kind of a bittersweet ending, isn't it? You get the bad guy, yay! But you lose two good people, boo hoo. So thrilling, isn't it?"
"Nothing you do will even be good or thrilling in any way, Scarlet." said Carnelian.
…
…
…
After a very boring court session, the evidence was pulled on Scarlet, and she just laughed, walking off into the room with the electric chair smiling.
…
…
...
"Was it all worth it?" said Carnelian when she, Moon, and Kinkajou were back in their dorm room. They'd gotten a week off of school again, and now it was just time to relax...they'd saved the world, after all.
"Yes...it was…" Kinkajou said, smiling for what seemed like the first time in days.
""I agree." said Moon, "Sure, I don't like what happened…no one does...but we need to look at what didn't happen. We probably got the best possible outcome. Sadly, it was the best case scenario."
"NO IT WASN'T!" Carnelian shouted, surprising even herself. "THAT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF I'D ACTUALLY HIT SCARLET THE FIRST TIME!"
She had missed Scarlet when they found her. She had taken her falling asleep act for real, she had failed, and her failure cost their friends lives.
"No, no…Carnelian, it's okay, we're okay. No one's angry at you. You don't need to hate yourself." said Moon, trying to comfort her.
"I already do, it's not like that's going to change anytime soon, I'm stupid, I'm useless, and I killed Ash and Winter."
"Stop...now." Kinkajou said, getting a stone face again. "Do you really think after all this we're just gonna turn and start hating you? You were the only one to do anything when the police arrived, you were brave enough to try and stop Scarlet, you came and saved me."
Nothing was said, they were looking at Carnelian with the most heartfelt expressions she'd ever seen, so she had no choice but to believe them.
"Alright, I believe you." Carnelian said, flopping down on her bed, exhausted, but before she fell asleep, she said one last thing. "Thank you, so much."
Alright, so ends chapter 19. The second to last chapter of the series, and guess what? I GOT MY FIRST OFFICIAL HATE COMMENT! Yay? Anyways, thank you all so much for reading, and there's one more chapters after this. I am so excited to bring this story to a close.
AshEmber out!
