A Leap of Faith (Part 2)

Chapter 380 - Flashback Part 1

Nyssa now turns the page of Talia's journal, moving on from the last entry in 1945 where Talia finished things by explaining how she is going to follow their father while he tries to heal himself in the Lazarus pit, in an attempt to kill him at the ideal moment. As Nyssa turns this page, she gets the feeling inside that this is the moment where things change for Talia, where Talia starts to become the person she is today, instead of the loving sister before this point. Nyssa soon sees this to be true, as the very next entry in this journal is dated 1946, and the first line of the journal entry reads 'This is all Nyssa's fault! Nyssa is to blame for everything! Everything that went wrong, is on Nyssa! I will never forgive her! She didn't listen to me! She is to blame! She is at fault! I HATE HER. I HATE WHAT SHE DID TO ME!'. After reading this, Nyssa doesn't even attempt to read any further, as some tears appear in her eyes, and now fall down onto the paper of the journal. Reading this, this change from Talia, it hurts Nyssa, so much. A large part of Nyssa reading this journal has not only helped with Nyssa's curiosity, and filled in some blanks in her memory, but it also has been emotionally satisfying, and helpful to her heart. This is because, it is clear, from almost all of these journal entries, that at some point, for several decades, Talia cared for her, and loved her, so much. Talia spent years protecting her from their father, and shielding her from harm, even in times where she was unaware, or maybe didn't deserve it due to being influenced by father. Talia wasn't just a sister to Nyssa, she raised her, she cared for her after her own mom died, even though she didn't have to. At first, Talia may not have really liked Nyssa, but when things got tough, and Talia saw what could happen if Nyssa was simply raised under their father's watch, Talia stepped up, and got her away from their father, and raised her herself. Talia may be her sister, but she was also essentially her mom too, who ultimately loved her, more than anything, and was willing to die to protect her. So seeing that, and thinking about who Talia is today, it is truly heartbreaking. It has created a longing inside Nyssa that she didn't even know she had, because until now, all the memories of these times, they had been erased from her mind. Now she does know though, and it hurts, so much.

Nyssa now steadies herself for a few moments, knowing that she has to read what comes next, even though it's likely going to hurt more than anything she has ever experienced in her life, and from the memories that Nyssa does have at the moment, she remembers one time when a sword went clean through her shoulder, and that hurt a lot. This though, this will hurt even more, as while physical and emotional pains are different, and hard to compare, emotional pains tend to be much deeper, as they are things that you carry with you, and can't shake off quite as easily. With a physical pain, you can heal, most of the time with a little help from modern medicine, and then over the next few weeks and months, your body will be back to normal. However, emotional pain, that can linger for years, decades, and perhaps forever. It is usually just something you have to learn to live with, and carry around with you, and not let it overwhelm you. Nyssa though, she can't think about things that much in the long term, in regards to this emotional pain. So, after taking a few more deep breaths, Nyssa finally has gathered enough courage to actually start to continue to read this journal entry. However, just as Nyssa does this, more memories come back to her, all her memories, including her memory of everything that happened that Talia is just about to describe in her journal entry.

Flashback (not journal entry)

It is 1945, and Talia is preparing, in her room, for her journey, and what she is planning to do, following father, and his Leviathan guards who he is bringing with him to the Lazarus pit. Talia isn't too sure on the location of this Lazarus pit that father will be going too. From what Talia knows, father has been able to find Lazarus pits all around the world on his travels. However, Talia presumes that her father will likely go to the closest Lazarus pit available, as why would he risk his own life be going to one further away? Either way, Talia knows that her travels, following father, and his Leviathan agents, will likely take weeks to complete, which she knows will give her opportune time to take some of the Leviathan agents out. However, ultimately Talia knows this is going to be a difficult thing to do, as not only is there only one of her up against 10 Leviathan agents, making her odds of fighting them all in direct combat and winning unlikely, but Talia is also aware that she will need to take some of the guards out in certain ways, so as to not raise suspicion. After all, if Talia were to do something such as come into a camp father and his agents set up at night, and then slit the throats of several of the guards, that will certainly ring alarm bells, and likely put her father's guard up even more than it already might be. So, Talia knows she needs to be careful, and she won't be able to take out all of the guards on this journey. Talia thinks she can take out maybe 3 or 4 of the guards, but not all at once, and not all in the same fashion. Talia has to make the deaths look like accidents or something natural, rather than someone targeting in the group. After that, if Talia is actually able to reduce the Leviathan agents with father to around 6 people, then Talia is much more confident in her abilities in a direct fight. Talia thinks that in that situation she will be able to go into the base where the Lazarus pit is, and hopefully take out multiple of the Leviathan agents, in mostly a stealthy way, before then getting to father, and having her ultimate battle with him. That said, Talia also knows that she will need to be very careful, and save up her strength getting to father, as there is absolutely no point in her getting herself hurt, or using up most of her strength, in fighting the Leviathan agents prior to getting to her father. Even though Ra's is ill, and likely not at his full strength right now, Talia knows that it will be a tough fight. A fight which she isn't sure she can win, even despite her father not being at full strength. Talia is going to try though, as she needs to, for her sake, for Nyssa's sake, and for the world's sake.