The Ghostwalker was drawn out of Dominance’s head. Blood splashed on the floor, the Illumina no longer wielded by him.
Josh and Hope seem to be nearly huddled together, as Josh collapses to the floor, struggling to walk. Zephyr walks across the corpse, approaching Cynthia slowly.
Silence. Just the footsteps of Zephyr approaching her until he reached The Illumina, halfway between Cynthia and the body. Zephyr inspects the Illumina, and suddenly it begins to emit a strange pink light. He attaches it to his back using a back scabbard.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Cynthia takes a step towards him.
“Take another step and I’ll slice you in two just as I did with that old friend of yours.” Zephyr held Cynthia at swordpoint.
“Zephyr, you don’t have to do this. You… you can’t kill me! Do you know what will happen if no Guardian is left to protect the world? Don’t do this!”
“Yeah, wow. Some Guardian you are. Getting beat by Dominance and even ‘protecting’ your own teammates so well, you let the most OBVIOUS traitor ever destroy your team.” Zephyr smirked, slightly moving the sword closer to her neck, pressure building up against the blade and her neck.
“I know you… you want to be… worthy… again, and I’m sorry that our duel ended with me winning, but it WAS a fair fight, and I DID win. I am worthy of the title of Guardian. You have lost your authority and you just have to accept that-”
Zephyr pushes Cynthia to the floor using Ghostwalker’s hilt, before holding her at swordpoint again.
“You are NOT worthy.”
Cynthia’s heart drops, but she still attempts to be as brave as she can.
“Hey! Stop that!” Hope screams at Zephyr, but the Illumina was directly hurled towards Hope, quickly raising her shield from what could have otherwise been a fatal injury.
“You really wanna know what I want? I want you all DEAD. Got it? DEAD. You, Cynthia… are a scumbag! If it wasn’t for you, I would still have my job, I would still be able to do my duty properly, I would still be able to have a PURPOSE!”
Cynthia hasn’t felt this kind of fear before. She CAN’T fight back. Skye will never forgive her.
“You think that’s what Skye would want?”
Zephyr hesitates. He moves away slightly, lowering his Ghostwalker down to her chest.
“Oh, don’t guilt-trip me. She’ll get over you. I’m pretty sure she would love her brother more than the person who ruined his life. Now come on.” Zephyr moves the Ghostwalker away from her as he drags her up to her feet. “Fight. Me.”
Zephyr backs away a couple yards away from her. The soot and fire from the explosion was still lingering, making Cynthia cough as she too, backed away to the other side of the arena. Forced with no choice but to go against Skye’s request, she raises her sword.
“You two, you gotta go somewhere! This is between me and Zephyr. If you get in the way, you’ll get… hurt.”
Hope runs, carrying Josh’s exhausted self to a corner of the arena.
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The battle begins. Cynthia runs straight towards Zephyr, who decides to take his time to walk towards the centre, slowly raising the Ghostwalker.
The Linked Sword is swung but Zephyr slashes the Ghostwalker directly into the Sword, shattering it.
“W-wait!”
Zephyr lunged at Cynthia as she managed to dodge the attacks, but it did not take very long for Cynthia to become exhausted.
Everything that had happened, her injuries and fights had caught up to her in one go as she began to unsteadily collapse on the floor.
“You… You call yourself a warrior? A Guardian?” Zephyr prepares to stab into her, but small bullets begin to shoot from the sky!
A static noise is heard from Cynthia’s D.F.E. It seemed to be coming back online. Zephyr reattempts a slash towards Cynthia, but something quickly pierces through his arm.
“HE~~O?”
He abruptly comes to a halt.
“Skye!”
“Wait. Is that… Zephyr..?”
Zephyr looks into Cynthia’s eyes.
“You… don’t have to do this, Zephyr.”
His look was interesting. He seemed scared more than surprised and regretful rather than vengeful. That voice made him almost… frozen.
“Wh… Are you two fighting? Cynthia, I thought you kept a promise!”
“I…”
“Whatever! The D.F.E’s should be reenabled now so get over here now!”
Zephyr realized this was going to be the one chance to end this. He quickly attempted to jab his sword into Cynthia but…
she was gone.
They were gone.
And so was the Illumina he threw at Hope.
“God. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! STUPID! STUPID!”
His hands shook. Legs following. As much as he wants to claim the life of Cynthia, he can’t resist the feeling that he’s taking the cowards way out. Should he stab the Ghostwalker in the ground to make his job easier? Should he unleash the true horrors inside the Ghostwalker..?
..
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The three had arrived back at the Base, with no Buck, no Linked Sword, no Firebrand and no happiness.
Hope nudged Cynthia to show her the Illumina she managed to obtain after Zephyr’s reckless choice. She immediately received a hug from the Guardian.
“Thank you.” She whispered to Hope. It was too hard for the two to even smile.
You would think being able to claim the Illumina after all this time would allow them to feel any sort of positive emotion, but only dread had filled the air.
The team gathered around the screen that Skye prompted that they should watch.
“If you can hear me now, Cynthia, MARK MY WORDS. By the time I get my hands on you again, you will not escape them alive. You hear me?! So enjoy your little luxurious Illumina, because the next time we meet, your life and that sword will be mine. This Ghostwalker holds unbearable power, Cynthia. Once I stab this… beast into the very floor of this arena, next time you enter you will be ripped apart by the lives you have claimed over the time you have been ‘so called worthy’ of being a Guardian. Even if it doesn’t, I’ll do it myself. You do NOT deserve your title. GOODBYE, CYNTHIA.”
Skye immediately turned off her projector.
“What happened over there? I made you promise that you wouldn’t fight him, so what happened?”
The question was ignored.
“Maybe he’s right.”
“Right about what?” Hope raised an eyebrow to Cynthia.
“…Nevermind.”
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After her injuries were healed, Cynthia walked back down to Skye, staring at her screens in the tech room, just waiting for something to happen.
“You… ok?”
Skye rotated her office chair towards Cynthia.
“Yeah. I just don’t understand what happened. You won’t tell me. Josh is in too much of a critical state to speak, and Hope is too traumatised to even talk about what happened.”
Her chair turned back to the screen, her eyes focusing on her keyboard. Keys began to clack.
“Just go back up. I don’t need to know if you don’t want me to.”
“It’s not that. I had no choice but to fight back. If I didn’t, he would’ve killed me.” Cynthia took a step forward to Skye. “But I don’t understand why he would fight to kill me instead of killing me when he had the chance?”
Skye stopped typing.
“It’s fine. I understand. But you have to know that he will come back, and as of right now, my feelings are split. Just don’t expect me to turn on my brother, ok?”
“Ok.” Cynthia sighed, turning back around.
“I’ll see ya later.”
“Bye.” Skye unenthusiasticly waved.
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Cynthia brought herself back up to the Base, checking up on Joshua.
“How is he?”
“Well, his right leg is completely broken, shoulder dislocated along with other wounds and injuries. He’s really hurt, Cyn.”
Ring… Ring…
Beep!
“Hey Cyn.”
“Hi, Axel.”
“You uh… free to talk? It’s really important. You gotta come.”
“Come where?”
“D.I.E.”
“What?” Hope glares at Cynthia, confused.
“The Delightful Incredible Eatery.” Cynthia claimed. “Just somewhere local to us. Anyway, what’s wrong, Axel?”
“Just trust me! You gotta get here… now!”
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and then Add to home screen.