Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 50

I'm sorry for this chapter. It's pretty bad, again. I apologise profoundly for it in advance, but I was completely stuck, and completely lost track of days so had to write it in about an hour XD Promise the next one will be a) better and b) longer!!
MiddleEarth4eva 

Andres had been aware that their base was under attack, but hadn't cared for it at all. At the end of the day, whoever was attempting to attack them would have to retreat, or be crushed. That was the way it was going to go. Although he knew that their own counterparts were supposed to be strong, he had no doubt he wouldn't be needed, so had continued in his daily itinery. He hadn't seen anyone that might have shocked him if he hadn't known the base was being attacked yet, but had seen Klaus running around, alone, looking slightly over frantic with everything.

It was because of this, that when he turned a corner to head towards the kitchen and he came face to face with Antonio, he spat out the mouthful of water he'd just gulped from a bottle, staring as though he was completely unaware that this might happen.

"You" he snapped, wiping droplets of water from his chin. "What're you doing here?"

"That's none of your concern" Antonio spat.

"It sorta is" Andres said, gesturing to the corridor, the few doors leading off it and everything else. "I mean, this is sorta where I live. You can't just barge in here and then tell me it's none of my business, coz it damn well is my business."

Antonio shrugged and then reached over his shoulder to where his halberd was strapped.

"So we're going to go through this again are we?" Andres pulled a face. "Really? Remembering that last time, I killed you."

"And I killed you" Antonio pointed out, swinging the halberd down close to the floor.

"Only because I had to deal with that Italian of yours" Andres scoffed. "Anyway, how is he? I heard Luciano sent him insane or something? Hit his head hard right?"

"Shut up" Antonio hissed.

Andres smirked. "Bet he didn't even remember you right? Or that brother of his? Or anyone else?"

"I said shut up" Antonio's voice had risen to a shout now and he charged forwards, madly swinging the halberd around violently.

"This isn't exactly fair is it?" Andres asked, side stepping one blow and ducking under another. "I mean, you have some huge long weapon that could cut me in half in a second, and coz it's that long, I can't even get close enough for a punch or two. I don't have anything on me you know. Unfair!"

"I don't care" Antonio snapped. "When is anything ever fair? Life isn't fair, and anyone who tries to tell you differently is most definitely selling something, so ignore them."

Andres clicked his tongue against his teeth irritably and leapt backwards, completely out of the way of the blade, thinking. He was sure that he could take Antonio on and win if he could find anything. He took a quick glance at the doors lining the corridor they were on. One, just past where Antonio had paused to catch his breath, was labelled laboratory. Andres couldn't remember them ever having a laboratory, or even the need for one in the building, but out of all the rooms nearby, he was suddenly grateful for it, being the only one which had any chance of helping them.

He waited for a moment, waiting for Antonio to move slightly. It took a moment, but Antonio, predictable, lunged for him again. Andres sidestepped him and ran for the room. Antonio's halberd cut through thin air and Andres was already at the door to the lab before he noticed his counterparts absence. He growled and ran after him, kicking the door open. Andres, on the other side of the room, was fumbling about in a cupboard and when he came up to glare across the counter in the centre at him, there were two scalpels clutched tightly in one hand, and in another, was a flask of some sort of light green liquid that coughed up bubbles every few seconds.

Antonio hesitated, sensing that he didn't have such a large upper hand in the fight anymore, and in that second, Andres threw one of the scalpels at him. He'd never seen a knife thrown so fast before: one second it was in his counterpart's hand, the next it was right in front of him, yet somehow, he managed to escape with just a few hairs from the top of his head missing.

It took him a moment after that to pluck up the courage to peer over the counter, and when he did, he wished he hadn't. The first thing he saw wasn't Andres, but the light green, bubbling flash coming towards him, and he didn't have time to duck.

The flash shattered over his face, glass slicing through layers of skin and burying itself around his eyes, in his cheeks and across his forehead leaving red smears everywhere. Straight after that came the liquid that seemed to get larger as it separated out, splashing across him, burning his face. But that wasn't the part he was worried about. The liquid that found his eyes was burning the worst, stabbing thousands of tiny knives into the jelly like substance, bleeding his iris and pupil together and when it was done with the surface, it seeped behind the eye, continuing its burning inside. Antonio screamed and went to clutch at his face, but left his hand a few inches shy of the bloodied, flaking skin through fear of making it all worse.

Across the counter still, he could hear Andres laughing, probably clutching his sides or pointing, or both.

"You idiot" Andres laughed. "You should know not to turn your back on your opponent! You've been fighting for that long I'd have thought you already knew that! Dumbass."

Antonio wanted to shout something horrible back, to tell him to shut up again, but he couldn't find the voice to do it with, and he didn't want to open his mouth in case any of the liquid that hadn't burned yet was waiting to drip into his mouth, so instead, he bit his tongue. Maybe, it might have made things a little better if he'd have cried, or at least let a few tears leak down what was left of his face, but there didn't seem to be any there.

He heard footsteps sound off the pale tiles and tried tuning his ears to focus on them. They were coming closer, that he knew for sure, and he didn't have to be a genius to know it was Andres. The hand that wasn't hovering in front of his face was still resting against the handle of his halberd, and now, it tightened, a movement that Andres didn't seem to notice.

"What a shame." Antonio felt a hand on his shoulder and flinched, making Andres laugh again. "Looks like you won't be seeing anything again with those eyes of yours. May as well put the mongrel down." He felt the hand leave his shoulder and traced its movement back to its owner. Antonio swung his halberd out in the direction of where the hand had gone and felt part of the weapon hit a target. There was a sharp intake of breath and a hiss followed by what sounded like a step backwards. "You idiot. Look what you've done... wait a second... you can't now can you?"

The voice was all Antonio needed to tell him where Andres was and he swung the halberd again. This time, he heard the squelch as it sliced through flesh, another sharp hiss that was cut short and a thud that sounded like something heavy hitting the floor. He waited a second, breathing heavily, waiting for any other sound to indicate that Andres was still alive, still in front of him, still a threat.

After a few minutes of waiting, and no other sound heard, he dropped his guard and sighed. The pain in his face suddenly became more prominent and he fought back another scream. Clutching to the side, he found his way around the room, searching each counter for a sink, not trusting any bottles he found to contain any pure water. When he finally found one and splashed water over his burning face, it only made things worse, and this time, he did scream, crumpling slightly to the floor, still clutching to the edge of the sink. He tried to open his eyes, if they were closed, tried to see anything even if it was the mess of the lab, or Andres' dead body, but all he was met with was darkness.