Unpredictable

Chapter 33--- Serein

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Serein (noun)
Meaning: the fine, light rain that falls from a clear sky at sunset or in the early hours of night; evening serenity

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<Lloyd's POV>

My face is slack, frozen. A thousand things well up instead of me and flush onto my face. 

...What's even going on at this point? I thought I knew, and then I realized I didn't, and now I really, really don't.

My entire life has been guided by a prophecy. I knew I was the Green Ninja, and that molded me, made me. It wasn't always the best feeling, and I didn't always love it, but it did keep me from feeling lost. 

After all, I knew where I was heading. The Final Battle. I knew who the enemy was, I knew who my friends were—-

I tug on the end of my hair and stare at her.

I know nothing about her. 

Rose lays on the blood-stained ground. She breathes in gritty wheezes. Her body shakes. Her face is flushed. 

"Rosie?" I croak. I place my hand on her forehead.

She's ice cold. That's a good thing, right? Corpses go warm. She's not dying. I... I don't know what's going on, but I know I don't want her to die. 

Jay slaps Rose's face. "Congrats, Shortie Rosie, you get the reward for the most melodramatic element reveal ever! You gotta wake up now!"

Aquila shoves Jay away with her snout and growls at him. Jay skitters away. She nudges Rose's face and licks her up and down. Rose does not stir, and Aquila's head hangs. 

This is wrong. This is all wrong. She's never... If I hadn't...

Kai grips the ends of his hair. "Guys, what the heck was that?" 

Cole snorts, mouth stumbling open and shut as he gestures forward. "Well, Rose here—" 

"Alaula. Her name is Alaula." My eyes snap up.

Don't call her that. It's an old name from an old time. 

Aquila clinches her teeth. I hold my hands up in surrender.

Cole nods slow, his eyebrows pushed together. His hand fists. "...Right." 

So we're back to square one with her name, then. Great. More unanswered questions well up. My fists clench. 

After the whole power fiasco, we're really back to square one all around. We don't know who Rose is, what she's capable of, what she's done. And she's not about to answer those questions in this state.

I sit down behind Rose's head. I keep one eye glued to Rose's chest, making sure that it rises and falls. I lean forward, and I stroke her cheek with my thumb. 

Zane scans both the women lying on the blood-stained ground. 

In contrast to Rose, Jezebel looks at peace as she sleeps beside her savior. Every wound that Jezebel had is closed. Some blood from before dries across her skin, forgotten. The only off thing is that her skin looks a couple shades darker than before.

"Jezebel is... fine. Her vitals are steady. In fact, she's healthier now than she was on her duration on the Bounty. Rose on the other hand..."

My eyes flick to her. Her mouth bobs open and close, like a fish's. She wheezes. 

"My scans show signs of internal... what seems to be internal burns along her veins and in her organs. Quite frankly, I do not know how that came to occur, or how she is still alive."