The Winged Rebellion

Chapter 24: A choice I wish I wasn't forced to make

Sebastian

It was a trap. The words echo dimly in my head as the battle rages on around me. Liz is grabbing my arm, and helping me move towards the exit. There's a loud ringing from the explosion.

How could I not have seen this coming?

Liz is pushing me into a room, throwing gear at me, stripping her dress off, and dressing quickly. I'm still shocked, clutching the gear, as Liz is moving. She ties her hair back, and frowns at my lack of movement. She grabs the gear back from me, and slaps me quickly across the face. I flinch, and give her a dirty look.

"This is not the time for you to be in your own world Sebastian!" She snaps, and throws the gear at me again.

"You didn't need to slap me!" I protest, and she gives me a quick smile.

"But I wanted to," she says, and I quickly strip my clothes off, shedding the formal wear in favour of the tight White Wing uniform. Liz is having some trouble with her strappy shoes still, so I kneel and do them for her.

"Did you see Alex, Topher, and Nate get out?" I ask her, in between shoes. She looks down and nods.

We grab our weapons from our formal gear, and walk out back into the midst of the battle. Alex, Nate, and Topher jog up to us, and we're a team again, us against the world.

Andy's team is defending a section of the wall, destroying every team daring to come near them. Caelum shoots row after row of fire, Christina darting out from the flames and stabbing, slicing, and dismembering people. Saura is controlling the light, her entire body glowing and sparkling as she concentrates, blinding her enemies so Leo can destroy them. Vega is levitating masses of rock and dropping them on people, crushing them effectively. Vela is rendering anyone trying to attack her useless, the two of them working like one person. Lyra is singing commands to people, forcing them to bend to her will.

Together, they look, well they look almost like the group of superheroes in those action films, fighting as one to save mankind. Except in the real world there are no superheroes, only people who think they're doing the right thing. And only people who don't care about the right thing. I dispatch my team to attack them, maybe if we fight them none of us will get killed. I'm not sure we could take that.

The other teams back off, and we each pick some of them to attack. I challenge Caelum, dodging his fire and hitting back with attacks from my swords. Not my usual weapon, but the swords looked better 'aesthetically' for the ball. Something about us all looking like knights and blah blah blah.

I can see Nate and Andy whirling and slicing, both of them turning into blurs of steel and flesh and fabric, Nate eventually falling to Andy's sword. Not dead, just unconscious. I tell myself, she wouldn't kill her brother, would she?

Andy moves onto Liz, who had recently frozen Christina from the neck down. They spar, and I turn my focus back onto Caelum.

Suddenly, there's two soldiers in front of me, shields deflecting the flames. I turn around to a battered General Claude, who is smiling his wicked smile.

"Come here boy," he gestures, and I approach him cautiously.

"We aren't going to win this war with injuries. We need to do some real damage. That boy there, the one you're fighting, seems especially close with this team's leader. It's time we got some payback for their kidnapping of your team, don't you think?" he says, pointing a knobby finger at Caelum. I feel sick, as it sets in what he wants me to do. He wants me to kill Caelum.I look back to General Claude, and shake my head no desperately. I don't want to kill him. Please. Don't make me do this.

"It's an order, Sebastian. Kill Caelum James Proditeur tonight."

Only later would I question how he knew Caelum's full name, but for now I would do what I was told. I used the shield as a lift, and landed gracefully behind Caelum. Then I stabbed through his back, laying down a killing blow upon him.

I'm sorry. I thought desperately. I'm so sorry.
It was too late, too late for Caelum, too late for me, and too late for Andy to save him, as she let out a scream and ran over.

Wow. Deep stuff. Caelum got shanked.
Wasn't expecting that. Or was I???
Loveeee, -Alexa Gaudet