Eagles Peak

Eagles Peak Pt.11

My eyes darted around the room, still shocked from the brutality I just witnessed from Shaoni. Katrina had strutted out of view and when my eyes turned to where Brooke's crumpled form should've been he was gone to. At some point both Robert and John had run off towards the growing sounds of gunfire. Shaoni and I still stood in the coliseum, shaken to our cores but both for very different reasons.

*CLANG*

The sudden noise startled me, the sound of metal on metal. The sound came again, this time I heard it clearly and turned around to face the noise only to be met by a few familiar faces.

"Don't mean to bother you but their shootin up the place, could ya let us the hell in!"

Rocco shouted as he beat Brookes stolen lighter against the metals bars that closed off the back entrance to the coliseum. Bianca gave me a sheepish wave as I looked over their faces again. Frank, Stein, and Tuck were with her. They must have come through the same way Bianca and I had a few days before.

"NOW!"

Rocco shouted in irritation as my brain finally kicked into gear and I ran over to let them through the barred metal gate.

"What's going on up there?"

I wondered out loud, concerned by how shell shocked they all looked.

"I'd guess something involving the government, with equipment like that I doubt it would be anyone else. Just as we got to the hole Bianca mentioned several men in black tactical gear came out of the forest at our sides. When we didn't clear out like they demanded they started firing so we dove in."

Stein explained.

"I take it that's Shaoni?"

He added, pointing towards where she lay, hunched over and taking shaky breaths on the ground.

"Is she alright?"

Bianca chimed in, craning her neck to get a better view of her past everyone else.

"The hell should we care!? Isn't it her fault we're doin' any of this in the first place?"

Rocco grumbled up at us as he laid back on the ground. Glad to see he wasn't taking things to seriously. Tuck just stared at Shaoni with this intense anger in his eyes, he didn't say a word.

I know I shouldn't care what happened to her at this point but a part of me just couldn't leave Shaoni like this. Sure, she probably didn't deserve the sympathy but I couldn't help feeling a little bad for her now that the anger had passed. When I made my way over to her I got the sense I was seeing the real Shaoni for once. I was seeing someone who witnessed her people rise and fall, saw the country we live in change and grow as it became what we know today. Someone who'd lived countless lifetimes as a piece that just didn't quite fit the puzzle anymore. I thought about everything Bianca had learned about Shaoni, how she was given her powers, no, her burden in the first place. Suddenly I had a pretty good idea of what exactly she brought everyone here for.

"Shaoni?... Are you... uh, you ok?"

I said like I was trying to comfort a dying animal. The closer I got the more I could hear, she was crying. It was that held back sort of crying right before the dam breaks into full on sobs. She was cracking but still trying to put on a tough face, still trying to be every bit as imposing as she had been the first night I saw her. But she wasn't, now she just looked pitiful.

"You... you're right you know Keith. I'm not Justice anymore... I...I don't think I have been for a very long time."

She choked out through tears that flowed freely down her face as she rose to her feet.