"What... What the hell are you saying?!" Diana asked, shaking and so confused she couldn't even bring herself to shout at him.
Outside Dekka was lifting the hydra in the air. She cancelled gravity until she could no longer see the thing, then let it go and ran back a safe distance. She was furious at them for abandoning her and was relying on hope that they didn't just abandon her completely and were going to come back. The hydra landed and Dekka was thrown forward by the force that felt like a great earthquake. Anything else would have been road kill but the hydra was already walking towards her again. She tried to crush it but was inexperienced and couldn't hold down gravity for long before it broke free and was heading for her again.
"I haven't told you everything." Caine mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Diana whispered, feeling suddenly cold as if she already knew what he was going to say.
Dekka growled and tried to trip it like she had with Taylor back when she was annoying her in the FAYZ. It worked but then she had to duck out of the way and roll before the falling creature crushed her under its weight. She jumped up and ran around behind it, hoping to confuse it but its many other heads that hadn't cracked against the ground watched her and soon it was standing and turning to face her again.
"The truth is... I know why I am here now. I had my dream and I understood it all. The truth is that Little Pete wanted to thank me for letting me help him kill Gaia and then find peace when he died afterwards... The truth is that he sent me back with the last of the power he had left. It's why I'm actually younger than when I actually died. Because he sent me back when I was at my most healthy." Caine explained.
"So... What the hell does that have to do with you killing yourself?!" Diana snapped.
Dekka couldn't help but wonder about Emily fighting the hydra. This was how she was nearly killed by it. And she had the power to jump out of the way at the last second! Dekka wouldn't last much longer! She had to... She had to do something! Would they hurry up in there!
"He sent me back only something went wrong. I know now. I understand it all now because of my dream so I know why these animals are here. They're here to right the wrong." Caine explained.
"Right what wrong?!"
"The wrong of me being alive again." Caine went on. "I was never meant to come back alive again. I was dead. I was meant to stay dead but Pete broke the universal law by sending me back here. That's why these animals are here. They're here as punishment from trying to rewrite the laws of the universe. Mutated animals from those that died were just blood thirsty because they had no human parts to hold onto. Mutated animals from those alive are less deadly and so instead just defend their territory. My animal was neither and so his goal was to find me and make things right."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Diana whispered.
"It all came back to me in my dream." Caine explained.
"What are you saying?!" Diana demanded.
"I am saying, that I think I know how to make things right. I think that if I die then all these animals will too and everything will go back to normal." Caine explained.
The hydra shrieked from outside and Caine looked out the window. Dekka was running down the street, clearly exhausted. He knew he should speed it up but he didn't care about her and instead decided to take his time explaining it to Diana. He wanted to take his time saying goodbye to her.
"Caine that's crazy." Diana snarled.
"No, I-"
"You think! You think! You don't know! You're the strongest guy we have here. We can't just kill you on the off chance it will stop everything." Diana snapped.
"Fine then. I don't think. I know."
"You guess! How can you ask me to do that! I mean even if you're right! How can you seriously ask me to do something like that. Why not ask Dekka, why not ask anyone else or do it yourself, why would you seriously ask me to do something that might or might not work?!" Diana shouted.
"Because I can't do it. I'll chicken out. I know I will." Caine shrugged and smiled. "It's horrible to ask this of you but I had to."
"No. This isn't true. You're guessing and you're probably wrong anyway!"
"DIANA! CAINE! GET YOUR BUTTS OUT HERE!" Dekka screamed.
She was growing tired and running and could only hide for a few seconds before the hydra found her and she needed to run again.
Caine looked at the door and then back at Diana. He reached over and took out the knife she kept in her backpack, pushing the handle into his hand.
"Why... Just tell me why you are doing this to me again?" Diana whispered, crying.
Caine looked down then up at her again. "I'm sorry. I am. But I am doing this for you. I am doing this to save you. Dekka's right. We have no way of killing this thing and without a way to kill it we're just going to die or end up as experiments. This all needs to go away now. We need to get rid of them now."
Diana shook her head, throwing the knife down onto the ground with a clatter and glaring at him. Caine stared back at her, ridiculously calm for what he was asking her to do. She hated him for asking her this. She hated him for having to leave again. She just got him back in a normal life where it might seem like they could make it and now he was asking her to do the worst thing he could ever ask.
"I refuse."
"Diana! Do this for me! I don't give a shit about Sam or Astrid or Edilio that wet back or his queer boyfriend or that stupid girl whose name I can't even be bothered to remember! I am doing this for you...!"
G*O*N*E
"Do you think I want to die?"
It didn't take him long before he found them hiding. Anna shrieked and Edilio stabbed Roger's smaller knife into his face but it bounced off like it had hit metal and instead his wrist just twisted to the side. Little Pete shrieked and a clawed foot grabbed Edilio by the shoulder, lifting him up into the air while his orbs surround the others and left them helplessly battling again. The bird lifted Edilio but somehow he twisted and kicked, forcing it to let him go before he was too high. He landed on the slide and slipped down, hurrying around to free Roger and Anna from the orbs again.
"What we do?!" Anna sobbed.
"Just keep running!" Edilio shouted.
"Do you honestly think that I want to die after everything I- we have been through?"
Little Pete's orbs began to stalk them and they pushed themselves harder to get away from them, Anna was openly sobbing as she stumbled to stay on her feet. Roger looked like he wanted to cry but somehow held it back and ran beside of Edilio. Little Pete was going to attack them any minute now and they were unable to defend themselves because none of them had any powers!
"Keep running!" Edilio gasped and realised he was crying too. "Just keep running!"
"No one wants to bloody die! No matter what they say... When they say I'm not afraid of death its bullshit because everyone is afraid deep down!"
Edilio collapsed and Anna ran ahead of them for the fence. Roger stopped, grabbing Edilio and dragging him back onto his feet, pulling him along and they began to run again. They hurried until they felt like they were going to collapse at any moment and still kept going. Little Pete followed, flying now and making horrible shrieking sounds as he followed them. His orbs stalked them too, dashing along and swirling around their faces to distract them as soon as they were close enough.
Anna sobbed and beat at them, tripping and falling into the road. She started to crawl, trying to force herself up but the energy was leaving her and she was weak. Then Roger and Edilio were behind her, grabbing her and pulling her back up as they ran from one house to the next.
"Hide! Split up and hide!" Edilio cried, struggling to breath.
"No one wants to die..."
"I don't want to die." Anna sobbed.
"Hide!" Edilio snapped.
They split up, running in three different directions. Little Pete, confused, paused long enough for them each to disappear. Even his orbs paused at his hesitance. By the time he was moving again they were all hidden.
Anna crawled under a bed in a downstairs spare room, covering her mouth and curling into a corner against the wall as tears streamed down her cheeks and she struggled to breath when her nose began to run and block. Her body was shivering uncontrollably and she clung to herself shaking as she tried not to vomit when her stomach twisted and her chest tightened.
Roger shut the door of the boiler closet and twisted behind it, gasping and half wishing he could cry because instead all he felt was tight burning building in the back of his throat. His eyes itched and he had soiled himself making his trousers stiff and uncomfortable as he was forced to stand still even though he was already getting pins and needles and wanted nothing more than to keep moving. As it was he found himself twisting and twitching on the spot begging for Edilio's safety.
And finally Edilio kept running to another garden where he found himself pushing against the wall of the back garden because he wanted to make sure there was plenty of space for him to run if he was caught. He was also crying sniffing and shivering as he struggled to get his breath back and resist the urge to cough even though there was an constant scratching that was driving him crazy.
Little Pete shrieked and the orbs all drifted into different directions, searching for them all and getting dangerously close.
"Do you think, if there was any other way, I would want you to kill me? Do you think if people could, they wouldn't sell their souls to live for just one more day? They would give anything not to have to be scared of death..."
G*O*N*E
"I don't think this will work. That's the worst part!"
Gaia had destroyed the phone when she threw him against the wall. He dropped it and fell down beside of it moments afterwards in a painful heap. It felt like everything was broken and Sam struggled onto his feet, whimpering as he reached for the phone but it was dead and broken. He had no time to worry over the hydra because he had to worry for his own life and Gaia first. He was too busy worrying over Gaia killing him now to even think twice about Drake again.
Sam stood and lifted his hands. The light just left his palms when he was thrown across the room into a nearby shop with so much force it broke his arm with a clean snap. Sam screamed and nearby children that Astrid were leading to safety screamed with him. Astrid shushed them and pushed them towards the staircase, watching them run to safety before she went to the next shop to get the next people. Luckily no one left until Astrid got there to lead them away so it wasn't chaos like before.
She wished she could help Sam. She wished she could save him but if she went over all she would do would be to get in the way and then all these people would suffer for it. But still, she found herself being reckless and hurrying faster than she should in order to get them all out so she could at least try and do something to help him.
"The worst part of this all is that I know it will work but I said think because part of me is still hoping Sam the Big Hero Man is going to come running with another answer."
Sam was lifted into the air and slammed against the glass hard, cracking it but not quite breaking yet. Gaia chuckled a blood thirsty baby laugh and he was slammed twice more before the glass shattered and Sam was thrown into the men clothing store. A young boy lay with his father both cried when Sam fell by their side by their hiding place in between the blazers. They scrambled onto their feet and ran for the door away from him. Sam gasped and quickly stood, firing beams of light to make sure Gaia didn't follow them. Unfortunately she pulled the young boy from his father and Sam accidentally burned the boys ankle as he was used as a human shield much like Astrid had been before.
"Coward!" Sam snapped, struggling to stand and face the girl. "Let him go!"
The boy cried and his ankle bled from the burn onto the floor while his father hovered by the door, wanting to help but a part of him actually seemed to be considering ditching his son to save his own life.
Sam snarled and ran forward. He ran straight at the boy, grabbing him in a hug and throwing a beam of light over his shoulder at Gaia. She let him go to avoid the blast and Sam was able to throw the boy at his father before running over the glass right at her again. Everything hurt but anger burned away the pain and he roared while trying to aim and burn her. As soon as everyone else was to safety he could be reckless but until then he had to be ridiculously careful.
"Sam is the big hero that always has to save everyone."
Gaia took advantage of this finally and turned to where two teenage girls crouched behind of a phone stall. She laughed and lifted both girls into the air. Sam shouted for them but it was pointless. He couldn't get them down and if he attacked Gaia she would let them drop.
"PLEASE!|" The girls shrieked. "Please help us!"
Sam winced. He wanted to help them! He wanted to help them but he couldn't! Sam hated himself as he pointed his hands at Gaia and fired. Both girls dropped suddenly. One hit the ground hard with a crack before she fell still and silent, the other hit the ground just as hard but lay there sobbing and begging for help but unable to move where her legs were twisted.
"Only the problem is he can never seem to actually save anyone!"
Sam shouted and ran at Gaia while Astrid ducked back and tried to help drag the alive teenager towards the stairs. Thankfully a mother sent her children out with her older son and hurried to help carry the injured girl to safety.
Soon people were all coming out and helping one another. The dead girl was carried out on the slightly hint of a possibility that she might still be alive...
"He can't save me and I think that sucks! I hate how some people are saved but others die."
Sam shot lights at Gaia and sent her into an empty store Astrid had already evacuated. She went through the glass and he immediately chased after her. He fired again and again until she was pressed against the solid wall, cracking the cement under the pressure but the whole time she didn't stop laughing.
Astrid ran over towards another store and began to call people out.
"Move! Quickly! Stay together! Help those that fall!" Astrid demanded, taking a woman's hand and leading her along.
"Who decides who lives and who dies? Who decides who gets saved? I don't know."
Sam fired at Gaia again and again. His anger burned and he fired repeated, only giving her time in between so that she knew when she was being attacked. He wanted to hurt her for what she had done. For those children bellow! For those families! For those innocent people!
Gaia laughed and suddenly Sam was throwing out of the shop, across the mall and into the shop opposite, through the open doors and smacking into a bookshelf. It topped back and hit the ground and began to slide down into the large hole that Sam had made early to fall on Gaia. It was larger than he remembered and Sam scrambled to grab on. The bookcase he sat on slipped through the hole but he managed to hold to the side of the floor that hadn't yet crumbled. Sam gasped and shouted as he dragged himself up out of the hole but then Gaia was on him again.
"Die die now." She said waving.
"Bitch!" Sam roared and tried to fire up at her with one hand.
"DIE!" Gaia lifted a burning hand when one of the innocent bystanders tackled her away from him. It was elderly man that looked like the kind of man to need a cane to walk down the street and a chair to help him up the stairs. Yet he tackled her away and quickly crawled back to take Sam's hand and pull him up.
"Thanks." Sam gasped.
"I wish I knew because then I would argue my case but I don't."
The elder man turned as Gaia glared at him. She moved and Sam stepped in the way, protecting him as he lifted his hands and fired again.
"I know this will work."
"What is that thing?" The man asked, sounding nervous.
"It's a long story! You have to get out!" Sam shouted, pushing Gaia away with his light.
"I know once order is restored to the universe these things will leave."
"What about you?" The man blinked. Obviously Sam could handle himself but the man still didn't seem happy to just leave him.
"Help my friend!" Sam gasped. "We have to get the rest of these people out of here!"
"Okay, son, be careful!"
The man ran around Gaia while distracted and over to where Astrid was pulling people out of the way of a shop that looked ready to collapse in on them from damages.
Gaia sneered and lunged for Sam again.
"And I hate it because you're right it isn't fair! I don't want to die! I don't want to leave you! I want to stay and live my life and it's not fair!"
G*O*N*E
"But I worked this out seconds after my dream. That's why I had to run out and get some air after you had all gone. Because I knew and it killed me."
Taylor seemed to be refusing to leave Lana behind. Instead she stood by her side in silence and they waited for the Sekhmet to come down the last of the stairs and face them once more.
"I mean. I am so sick of standing and fighting all the time."
Lana was reminded of when she fought the darkness that time in the cave, how she refused to back down until it was killed even if it meant taking herself down with it. She ever planned to collapse the cave like she was now planning to collapse the building. But that didn't come out too well for her and she had decided to do it for different reasons. That was to stop its hold on her. Now was because she was just sick of running from everything that insisted on ruining her home and killing her friends.
"So many people spend so much time fighting and even when they have done their bit, people still ask more of them. I am sick of people asking more of me to fight and I am sure many other people are too..."
"You can go, if you want." Lana whispered to Taylor.
Taylor just shrugged like she hadn't yet made up her mind.
"Okay then. Just so we're clear."
"I mean when are we free?! When can we stop?!"
The Sekhmet appeared and made its way towards of them, smirking. Lana swallowed and took a firework, lighting it and throwing it at her but she easily knocked it to the side and the firework went off against the wall, setting more of the building alight. Maybe that was how they were going to kill it. Burn it down with the rest of the building.
"But even tired I didn't want to accept that I had to die again."
"Light them all!" Lana snapped at Taylor. "Light them all and throw them all!"
Taylor did as told. She light each of the fireworks, lifting them into the air and throwing them towards of the Sekhmet. She knocked a few away but most of them landed at her feet and Lana covered her face as they all went off. She felt a burn along her arm and knew one of the flames had come her way but she didn't care. When she glanced around the smoke Taylor was gone.
Lana looked forward and suddenly the Sekhmet was in front of her. She shrieked and it grabbed her arm, dragging her away from the door and throwing her down onto the ground. It towered over and prepared to finished what she had started.
"But it has to happen. I hate it and I feel sick and I curse God but if I want you to be safe then this has to happen."
G*O*N*E
"And you know I do this for you. I don't do this for anyone else, even me."
Connie shivered and looked up but instead of a ceiling crushing her body she saw an open sky with clouds and even the sun above her. She looked around and realised they were lying in the garden of her own home. Just ahead of her was the crushed remains of the house she had been in just moments before. She glanced over and saw Emily standing, arms pointed out, shivering but still there. Derek was covering his head and crying before he realised there was a breeze and he was still alive when he finally lifted his own head.
"What... What the hell just happened?" Derek sobbed.
"I... Saved... Your... Life... AGAIN!" Emily laughed and then fainted, falling to the floor.
"EMILY!" Connie gasped and crawled over to her while Derek dragged himself to his sister. They were both alive and okay just exhausted and injured. It was a miracle Derek had held on for so long. "We have to get them out of here."
"I just do this for you and I ask you because I trust you and as crazy as it sounds I need you to be the one to finish me off."
"Where?" Derek moaned.
"Anywhere! We have to move! If he heard us then he can smell us. Grab your sister and just try and get her back to the house." Connie grabbed Emily as best as she could and moved towards the crumbled building.
Derek moaned but began to drag himself and Jill back towards the house. He had no idea what it was Connie was planning but he followed her anyway.
As soon as they were close, Connie began to hide Emily under the broke bricks and wood, rearranging them all to cover her small body. "The smell should be covered with dust and he'll think were inside. Do it for Jill and yourself."
Derek did as told, covering his body and hiding himself and Emily under the remains of the house. It was warm without crushing them like if they had actually been inside and difficult to breath without taking in smoke and needing to cough so Derek gently cupped Jill's mouth and nose and held his own breath. He had just finished covering himself when he heard the noise of the fox walking on the broken house and jumping onto the garden barely meters away from them.
It growled and turned its head, listening for them. It must have heard them again but wasn't sure and began to sniff the area. Derek looked up at Connie. He could just about see her from the light getting through gaps to show her face, tense and worried. She hugged Emily and held still, Derek copied her and swallowed hard.
"I feel right if you finish me off..."
The fox turned and seemed to be walking away...
"Uh... Derek... Get off me..." Jill moaned, horrible loud in the eerie silence.
"No!" Derek hissed covering her mouth firmly but that just made her cough loudly.
The growl told him it was too late, the fox was back, growling and preparing to send another sonic wave that would surely finish them this time.
"I love you, Jilly." Derek sobbed, burying his face in the dirt and shaking in fear.
Even Connie seemed to frozen to do anything for a moment as the fox got itself ready. She held onto Emily and looked around. She wished she had made things up to Sam before now...
"I don't want to feel like I have left things undone."
"Stay here." Connie hissed and crawled out. She opened her arms to the fox, then turned and ran. He took the bait, snarling before he turned and chased her, leaving Derek, Jill and Emily safe but giving herself up in the process.
"Because I really do love you Diana. I act crazy sometimes and I want power but above all of that I want you... I love you and I will die for you, twice!"
G*O*N*E
"I love you. Please do this for me." Caine whispered.
He held out the knife again and Diana openly sobbed. She shook her head and covered her ears, trying to block it out. She just wanted to stop time and think, she wanted to have a moment to think. This wasn't fair! She just got him! She needed to think.
"Diana... We don't have time." Caine mumbled, taking her hand.
She expected him to put the knife into her hand instead he pulled her against him and kissed her a final time. This time she wrapped her arms around him and kissed back like she would never get a chance again. She sobbed and kissed him again, clutching his face in her hands and hating him. She hated and loved him. That was the way it was meant to be.
"Please..." Caine begged. "Do this for me, Diana."
"I don't know if I could live with myself if I do this." Diana cried, turning and burying into his shoulder.
"You will. You're tough." Caine chuckled. "That's part of why I love you so much."
Diana sobbed and clung to him, kissing him again and wishing they could make love just once more before she had to do this. Finally she pulled back, kissed him again.
Dekka let out a shriek and it was almost like she could hear similar screams from everyone else. She could almost hear the screams from Anna as the orbs found her and began to drag her out to Little Pete's mercy while Edilio ran to save her and Roger cried for Edilio to help when orbs found him too. She could hear Lana screaming as the Sekhmet wrapped her hands around her throat and began to choke her to finish the job she had started. The screams from Sam as his leg was broken and the children screamed as Gaia finally turned and moved to find them all off along with Astrid while Sam lay defenseless at her feet. And finally the screams from Connie as the fox hit her hard and sent he scrapping along the ground.
"I love you." Diana cried.
"Love you to." Caine smiled and kissed her as she took the knife in hand.
Diana held the kiss as she brought the knife around and, before Caine had time to show any signs of fear that would immediately keep her from doing the job, she stabbed him in the chest. Diana sobbed as she stabbed Caine and dropped to the floor in tears while his body dropped with her, already disappearing into similar ash and oil they had seen before.
Diana opened her mouth, covering her face and screaming as loud as she could until her throat burned. She screamed and cried, collapsing as every part of her body broke at once... But the worst pain was in her chest. The worst pain was in her heart.
45) WHO WAS EXPECTING THAT?!
