The Last Hope

13 - Branded

SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER - Runaway, Aurora. Linked above! If you enjoy the chapter please vote, it means a lot. Also, I actively encourage commenting and am trying my best to reply to any as quickly as I can. Want a chat? Don't be shy!

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Still trembling, hands shaking in her lap and Keenan rubbing soothing circles into her back over the material of her tank top, Mercy said quietly, "I have to go alone."

"Not an option." Lincoln leaned against the wall; arms crossed over his chest with an expression that said he wasn't going to be messed with.

"It's the only option. You heard what Dylan said, they'll kill them both if I don't show up alone." Mercy locked eyes with him, his expression revealing nothing. She tried again to convince them, "Dylan said they wouldn't hurt me-"

"Are you really this naive or just really stupid?" Ariah scolded, expression full of disbelief as she sat sprawled on the kitchen counter, half-eaten apple forgotten at her side. At some point, they'd moved to the other sofa to talk more easily, Mercy couldn't remember getting there. "You don't even know if it really is your human – it could be any Grunt with a shifting ability." Ariah finished, expression marred with a frown.

"They won't kill you - they'll take you back to Cressida so she can do it herself," Keenan said, tone calm despite the words.
"I don't care." Mercy looked each of them in the face.
"How can you say that?" Lincoln admonished, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Because I can't let Felix die!" The words tore out of her, she didn't expect the desperate tone. Neither did the Sentinels judging by their shocked expressions.

"I know you don't get it. But that boy means the world to me. And I lied to him because I thought I was protecting him, but it just put him in even more danger. I failed him once - I can't do it again. I can't lose another friend."

Ariah, who was just as angry as Mercy, talking animatedly with her hands yelled, "the lives of two humans are not worth-"
"Don't you dare. Don't you dare finish that thought." Mercy stood from the sofa in a fluid movement, striding to where Ariah sat with a face like thunder. "Felix is my best friend and Dylan is just some innocent bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I won't let them die for me. So, I don't care if you think human lives are worth less than your own! I'm going and if you don't like it – don't watch."

"There's that typical Moldonaldo charm," Ariah spat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mercy yelled back.

Keenan crossed the room, standing between the two women, who glared daggers at each other around him, "I think we all need to calm down-" He started.

"-If they die tonight, I will never help you get your realm back. You can all stay here for the rest of your miserable, long lives, and rot away. I would rather die than live in a world without Felix, so if that's the way it must be - then fine."

"What about your human parents? If you die-" Lincoln tried bargaining, also coming closer, the four of them now huddled in the kitchen.
"Oh, so now humans matter?" Mercy yelled at him.
He visibly recoiled. "Hey! I never said that they didn't, I just think-"

Mercy couldn't listen to it anymore, they were wasting valuable time, and the Grunts could be hurting Felix. The image of his bloodied, battered face appeared behind her eyelids, her fists clenched at her side. Enough was enough. She didn't have to listen to these people, she had to save her friend. She pushed past them, angling for the door to the shop when Lincoln gripped her by the back of her vest. She turned on him, baring her teeth like a wounded animal. "Let. Go."