Original Stories Fan Fiction / Realism Fan Fiction ❯ Aqua ❯ Flames ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter Eighteen

Flames

 

 

Aqua hesitated to get into the car that the Letrangra had just gotten into and looked at Hangman's Forest against her better judgment. Indeed, she saw Darain's shadow standing against the trees, waiting for her to return to him. For a moment, she thought she actually saw his white-cat like ears before they disappeared.

 

She squinted at the shadows as something moved against the trees. It was Darain standing in the shadows of those trees. He raised his hand to her. Aqua turned her eyes away as she climbed into the car and slammed the door shut.

 

* * *

 

“I told you, prince,” Fay said. “I told you she wouldn't come to you, not now. She's trying to protect you.”

 

“It should be the other way around,” Darain muttered darkly.

 

“Why? She's the one that saved you from drowning and the one that protected you from prying eyes,” Fay pointed out. “So if you look at it logically she's still following the same pattern by not leading that Letrangra to the forest. Besides, by the looks of it, she's reverted back to what she was before she met you.”

 

“What's that supposed to mean?” Darain snapped.

 

“She's as cold as ice now,” Fay said.

 

“Why?” Darain exclaimed.

 

“Because she has to be,” Fay said simply. “If she was anything other than emotionless, she would hurt that much more.”

 

* * *

 

“So, why am I such an interesting item to the Letrangra?”

 

He glanced into the rearview mirror of the car and saw that Aqua was staring at him. “Why suddenly so interested, little fledgling? You have no need to worry about such things, not for another week anyways,” he said smoothly, his voice holding a hint of metallic ring.

 

Another week until what? Aqua thought passively as she said, “Curiosity killed the cat. I just want to know.”

 

“Your powers, dear child, are the rarest of the rare. Your parents really had no idea what they possessed when you were born, so we took you from them and raised you to be the weapon that we so desired,” the Letrangra said matter-of-factly.

 

“Your father was easy enough to dispose of, since he had no real control over the powers he possessed. Your mother, on the other hand,” -here he grimaced- “she was real piece of work, it took nearly four years to kill that…thing off and even then she still didn't die.”

 

“So my parents were killed and you took my fathers place?” she questioned coldly.

 

“Yes,” the Letrangra stated smoothly as they turned the corner and entered the airport.

 

“What would you do if I were stronger than you?” she asked passively.

 

The Letrangra again stared at her from the rearview mirror and noted, with some relief, that her eyes had drifted shut. Even he had to admit that she frightened him with the way she had changed.

 

“You didn't answer my question,” she said sharply.

 

The Letrangra gave a short, derisive laugh as he said, “You, child, would never be able to overpower me at your current level. All you could ever ho-” Here he made a choked gagging sound and splattered the glass in front of him with the blood he coughed up. He let go of the steering wheel, causing the car to begin spinning out of control.

 

Aqua leaned forward in her seat and whispered, “I may not have reached my full potential, but with the way you've tormented me over the years with your powers I knew exactly when mine would be enough to overpower yours.”

 

“No, don't,” he choked, grasping at the springs that thrust through his driver side seat and clear through his chest.

 

“You should have thought about that before you killed my father and drove my mother away,” she said scornfully. With a simple twist of her hand, she bent the springs and made them pierce his heart and neck with deadly accuracy. He gave one last choked gasp before his eyes dimmed as his life left him.

 

As the car continued to spin, it struck the concrete fencing of the airport and burst into flames. Aqua covered her face with one hand and used the other to blast the car door off its already melted hinges. The flames licked at her like skin, searching for something to grasp, but something was blocking them, pushing them back.

 

For one wild moment, Aqua hung suspended in mid air, then she leapt out of the car just before it exploded in a great ball of flame, the force of which pushed her up higher into the air than she had intended to go. She came tumbling down like a sack of potatoes. Her left palm struck the ground before the rest of her did. The rest of her body struck the ground a moment later with a nasty cacking noise.

 

Aqua groaned slightly in pain before she rolled over onto her side and pushed herself up with her good arm. She looked down at her left arm and nearly screamed in shock, a bone had broken through the skin.

 

“Quite nasty, isn't it?” a smooth voice asked her not far away.

 

She looked up to see about a dozen or so men dressed in the same uniform not standing four feet from her. “Letrangra?” she asked suspiciously.

 

They shifted some and muttered amongst themselves as Aqua sat back on her heels and gritted her teeth. Seizing her left arm, she yanked on it and the bone popped back into place with a sickening crack!!! Even the Letrangra had to grimace at the sound.

 

Aqua swayed dangerously and then fainted from the pain. She landed on her right side and avoided doing additional damage to her left arm.

 

* * *

 

The next time she awoke, she found herself staring at a green landscape that was hundreds of miles below and flying by. She glanced up and saw that one of the Letrangra was holding her around the waist to keep her from falling.

 

“Aren't you going to scream?” her captor asked.

 

“Why? Should I?” she asked coldly.

 

“You're not afraid of heights?” he asked.

 

“No.”

 

“What about falling?”

 

“Falling would bring death and death isn't something I'm afraid of.”

 

“Brave words for a stupid girl.”

 

“Stupid or just cold?”

 

“You're hardly bold, child.”

 

“I said cold not bold, you stupid, hard of hearing jackass.”

 

“You said bold.”

 

“Cold.”

 

“Bold.”

 

“Cold.”

 

“Bold.”

 

“Bold.”

 

“Cold. Hey!!!!!”

 

“I said cold and you just admitted it, dumbass.”

 

“Quit arguing with her. It's getting on mine and everyone else' nerves,” the Letrangra leader snapped. “She said cold and you admitted it, now shut up!!!!”

 

Her captor fell silent at once and she just quit talking to them for the moment. For a time, they zipped over the land and changed direction twice. After what seemed like forever, Aqua recognized the landscape: East High school grounds. With a sinking feeling, she realized who they were after.

 

They landed near the forest and her captor set her on her feet. She brought her foot down on his, hard. His face turned a slight red in an effort not to shout in pain. His leader rolled his eyes at Aqua's actions and his reactions. “Girl, lead us to that filthy prince brat of the Night-n-Gales.”

 

* * *

 

Fay stood at the edge of the forest, barely repressing the urge to scream. She hadn't planned on a small force of twelve Letrangra arriving barely a day after they had been warned of their comings. The plans that she had made were useless unless they had time to complete the traps and the fact that Aqua was with them only meant that Darain would be against attacking them at all for fear of hurting her. They were defenseless with no plan of attack, all they could do was run and keep hiding and hope that help would arrive before they were captured.

 

She leaned forward a little as the leader demanded that Aqua take them to Darain. Now she would find out just who Aqua really was. If she obeyed the Letrangra's demand she was a Letrangra and if she refused she was at least half-human.

 

Aqua stood uncertainly for a moment. Then she spun around and decked the Letrangra leader and sent him flying into the cherry tree behind them. Fay smiled to herself and raced to find Darain.

 

* * *

 

“You brat,” one of the Letrangra snarled as he punched her. Aqua ducked and elbowed him in the stomach. Her icy demeanor gave her razors edge clarity; she saw through the attacks before they were launched at her, and she wasn't even fighting them with magic.

 

One circled around her and went for her. She saw his shadow move and jumped in the air and brought her feet down on his back. He collapsed to the ground under her weight.

 

“Enough,” their captain said and they halted their attacks and looked to him for further instructions. “Her strength is impressive, but her aim is wild. With a bit of work, she could be a fine weapon, but if you kill her now her corpse will be of no use to us or our king.”

 

They hesitated, but lowered their fits. Aqua stepped off the one under her and allowed him to get to his feet. His face burned with embarrassment, but there was nothing he could do to win back his dignity as their captain had forbidden them from fighting her.

 

“You will take us to the prince brat if you don't want that precious school of yours to be burned to the ground,” the captain said smoothly.

 

Aqua sized him up and decided to take a risk. “You're bluffing.”

 

“What makes you say that?”

 

“It's written all over your face. When I first saw you, you were relaxed because you thought I would do as you say, but now that I'm not, you're worried how this will reflect on your reputation.” Her voice was fluid and strong, with no a hint of uncertainty. “You know that if you destroy the school, I'll kill you.” It was more of a promise than a threat.

 

She smiled coldly at him and waited for him to retaliate, but he merely scowled and gestured to his men to spread out and begin searching the forest on their own. The Letrangra captain seized her upper arm and pulled her along after him.

 

* * *

 

Lackardel, Terald, and Jonathan hovered above the blue and green orb that was Earth. “This is it?” Lackardel asked hollowly.

 

Terald and Jonathan glanced nervously at each other before Terald answered, “Yes, captain, this is the planet that Arisan was talking about. It's the only planet outside of the Letrangra control due to a very powerful barrier set up around it some years ago by an almost extinct race.”

 

At the mention of Arisan's name Lackardel felt a sharp pain in his heart, but quickly pushed it away as he asked, “How do we get through such a powerful barrier, then? The Letrangra force that left before us isn't any where near us, so that means they got through.”

 

“Well, that just means that they blasted a hole in the barrier large enough for their forces to get through, but my guess would be that the barrier sealed itself and destroyed half the unit, reducing their numbers to about twelve more or less,” Jonathan said promptly. He was a barriers expert and knew that if it was the barrier he thought it was, then they would have no problem getting through to the beautiful planet below. “I think all we have to do is just go through.”

 

Lackardel glanced at Jonathan for a long moment, then descended through the barrier. There was a momentary discomfort when something shot through him. Hovering just above the planets atmosphere he looked back at Jonathan and Terald and said, “Its perfectly safe.” His men soon joined him.

 

Together they descended on the planet below. “Can you tell where the prince is?” Lackardel asked of Terald.

 

“To the east, among a cluster of this planets young. It seems that the Letrangra have found his location as well, I can feel them in the same location, rapidly approaching him. There is another Night-n-Gale with the prince, so I think they can last until we get there. Also…” Here Terald hesitated as he tried to figure out the presence among the Letrangra. “It feels like the Letrangra have…someone powerful with them. They could be trouble for the prince.”

 

Lackardel was gone before Terald finished speaking. Terald and Jonathan raced after him and caught up as they passed over a rolling green landscape. They spoke naught a word as they rocketed east towards the location that Terald had indicated.

 

* * *

 

Aqua yanked her arm free and walked quickly beside the Letrangra captain, tense and ready to pounce if needed. “What sort of weapon am I?” she asked, more to break the silence than anything.

 

“Your skills will be honed to perfection so that you can battle hordes of Night-n-Gales in place of our battalions,” the captain answered absently, his eyes scanning the surrounding area for traces of the prince. “Where is the bastard hiding?”

 

“Touch him and I won't hesitate to kill you,” Aqua said quickly.

 

“You seem attached to him,” the captain observed.

 

Aqua smirked. “So what if I am? It doesn't change the fact that I'll kill you if you touch him.”

 

The Letrangra captain shot a sidelong glance at her, suddenly wondering what this particular weapon was truly capable of. She seemed strong and in control of herself, confident yet not cocky. Any threat she made she could clearly follow up on, which made her dangerous and unpredictable at best.

 

“The previous weapon seemed a lot like you. She became fond of the Night-n-Gale military commander and got herself recaptured because of it. Love, I believe it was, was what brought her back into our clutches and it will do the same for you,” the captain said calmly, though he was curious to see her reaction and was slightly disappointed when she gave none.

 

For a few moments they walked on in silence before, “Captain, I found something.”

 

The Letrangra captain shoved Aqua in the direction that the voice had come from. They emerged in the clearing where Aqua and Darain had first met. Aqua was relieved to see that Darain was nowhere to be found.

 

“What did you find?” the captain asked eagerly.

 

“Traces of resent magic. We're not far behind th-” one began, only to stop short as something sliced through the air to take his head clean off of his body.

 

Aqua stared at the corpse for a moment as the other Letrangra around her cursed and were instantly set on their guard. The captain gripped her upper right arm and yanked her back as more invisible blades sliced through the air around them and soon had them surrounded.

 

* * *

 

Darain watched with a detached sense of amusement as the traps he and Fay had set worked perfectly. If everything went according to plan, then he would be off the planet with Aqua and Fay by nightfall with the Letrangra dead or dying.

 

Fay stood beside him, watching as the Letrangra gathered around Aqua and their captain. It didn't take them long to blast the blades apart and continue on their way. They ran into the six other traps and lost seven more men, reducing their numbers from twelve to five and Aqua.

 

“Should we attack?” she murmured to Darain.

 

“No,” he said reluctantly. “If we attack now, they'll overpower us or use Aqua as a hostage.”

 

“Why would they do that?” Fay asked, but he ignored her.

 

Instead, he concentrated on keeping pace with the small Letrangra force. He studied the way they circled around their captain and Aqua. Left, right, right, left, circle around and trade, left, right, right, left…

 

“Fay,” he said softly.

 

She was at his side instantly. “Yes, prince?” she inquired just as softly. If the light that shown in his eyes was any indication, the prince had a reckless plan.

 

“Now we attack.”