Midas Touch ➸ Taekook

- Forty-sixth -

The building still stood in an eerie darkness, as if its worn walls were silently watching the chaos that was about to erupt. Inside, the great hall was frozen in a mixture of stupor and palpable tension. Bella Dona, as immobile and upright as a marble statue, dominated the space with her incandescent gaze.

"Bella...?" whispered one of the assassins, his voice tinged with disbelief.

A hubbub quickly erupted into nervous murmurs and muffled exclamations. The mere fact that she was here, alive, shattered the coherence of the gathering. Alexandre, for his part, froze. While his face showed a forced neutrality, his clenched fists revealed an anger rumbling beneath the surface.

"It's impossible!" he suddenly roared, breaking the surrounding tumult. "Bella Dona has been dead for five years! Who are you really? An impostor? An illusion?"

Bella gave him a cold smile, her eyes staring unflinchingly into Alexandre's. She took a step towards the centre of the room, her boots echoing on the stone floor.

"I am neither a ghost nor an illusion, Alexandre." she replied calmly. "I am Bella Dona, daughter of Marius and legitimate heir to this guild. I have nothing to prove to men who hide behind their fear."

A wave of murmurs ran through the room, dividing the assassins. Some looked at her with admiration, recognising in her the undeniable aura of Marius, something they had missed terribly since his death. Others, on the other hand, stared at her with suspicion and contempt, muttering words like 'sorcery' and 'demonic pact'.

Jungkook, still hiding with Taehyung, Yoongi having decided to join Jimin the very moment Bella had shown herself, exchanged a worried glance with the youngest X-Men. The situation was rapidly getting out of hand.

"If she attracts their support," Jungkook whispered in Taehyung's ear, "Alexandre could lose his influence. But if she divides them further..."

Taehyung nodded, his eyes fixed on Bella.

"She's playing a dangerous game. But it could give us an opening. We'll just have to hope that the Walker doesn't get scared and run off with the potion."

In the centre of the room, Alexandre suddenly burst out laughing, a mirthless laugh full of contempt.

"And what do you expect us to do, Bella? Take your word for it? You're dead. And now you turn up here, claiming to be Marius' heir. If you're not a fraud, then you're worse: a monster. Only those who make pacts with the devil come back from the dead."

The murmurs began again, more intense. Some of the assassins nodded in agreement with Alexandre's words, while others seemed to hesitate, torn between their loyalty to Marius' legacy and their fear of the rumours surrounding Bella.

The woman clenched her fists, her fiery gaze challenging Alexandre.

"Don't hide behind beliefs that aren't yours to mask your treacherous ambitions, Alexandre." she spat. "This position wasn't yours to begin with, and now that I'm here, you have no reason to dream of it. Marius' blood runs in my veins, you have no authority over me."

The room fell suddenly silent, interrupted only by the rapid beating of the spectators' hearts. The Walker, until then impassive, tilted his head slightly, as if intrigued by Bella's words.

"She has a point." murmured a voice from the back of the room, breaking the precarious balance.

Alexandre turned round sharply, looking for the source of this dissent. But doubt had crept into the minds of some.

From their position, Yoongi and Jimin exchanged tense glances.

"We've got to move!" Jimin whispered to him. "If we wait too long, they'll kill each other and we'll never get the potion back!"