The Traitor

Chapter Thirty-Four: A RAY's Weakness

As my strength slowly increased, it allowed me to return to my feet. What did I just do? I asked myself. I can't beat her. There is absolutely no way I can win this fight.

I groaned inwardly as Savannah and I began pacing in a circle, boxer-style. I flinched every time she moved. There were only so many things I knew how to do, and I knew for a fact that she could do them all ten times better. I tried to mentally prepare myself for any surprises she might throw at me, but I knew it whatever she did would be beyond my expectations. We continued to circle, waiting for the other to make the first move. Just then Savannah stopped, a cruel grin spreading across her spurious face. I stopped in sync with her unexpected move, her almost sinister smile bearing a hole right through me and destroying any ounce of confidence I had left. This was it.

Just then time seemed to speed up, everything traveling at rapid speed. Savannah jumped about eight feet in the air and all at once curled her hands together, revealing a small, softball-sized fireball as she brought her hands apart. She flung the ball at me and my first reaction was to shield my face with my hands, But when I looked up, I realized I had caught the ball of fire and was now holding it between my fingers. I chucked it right back at her and she did a swift round-off, dodging it as it flew past, right into Jasper's hold.

"Jasper, wait. I got this," she told him. The fireball disappeared out of his grip and into thin air. She must have been thinking exactly what I was thinking because almost in exact sync, we stretched our arms toward each other and lifted the other off the ground. With both of us controlling each other in mid-air, it became a wave of confusion as we struggled to get close enough to fight. I brought her up towards the ceiling, then dropped her, which meant I fell too since she lost hold. We tumbled toward the ground, but neither of us dared to stay there long enough for the other to get back up first.

We began circling again, and I enclosed her in a large, spherical force field in which I kept her trapped, away from me. But it didn't hold for long. Inside the bubble, Savannah made her own basketball-sized force field and used it to outgrow mine. In a split second, my means of holding Savannah off had shattered, like a ball through a glass window. My jaw dropped. How was that even possible?

But Savannah didn't waste a second. She spun in a circle, almost like a ballerina, but unlike a ballerina, she kept going. She turned faster and faster until she was a blur of blonde hair, spinning like a twister across an empty wasteland. Soon she looked as though she was turning at 50 miles per hour, and I began to feel a draft, which only increased in intensity. My hair whipped about my face as dust and other loose articles kicked up from around the room. Jasper stood far out of the way, on the other side of the room, but even he began to be pushed back by the wind she created.

The wind was now what had to be 70 miles per hour and I watched as Brandon rolled out of the way just as a large armchair hit the wall right where he had been lying. I noticed a long black thing in Jasper's hand and realized he was still carrying the remote that controlled my energy level- A.K.A my "battery life." I wondered if it was the same one that controlled all RAYs' energy levels or if it was just mine. I decided it was worth a try to find out. Now I just had to get the remote out of Jasper's hand, though I wasn't sure how I was going to pull that off.

Savannah was spinning even faster now and Jasper wore a smirk that spread almost across the entire width of his face. It was now or never. I took a step closer to Savannah, hoping I could provoke her enough to draw her nearer to me. It worked- she began to aim her whirl-wind toward my side of the room and I slowly backed away, keeping about four feet of empty space between us just to be safe. I needed her to be as far away from Jasper as possible.

"Teya, what are you doing?" Brandon asked from where he lay on the floor on the opposite side of the room. His voice was drained and I could hear the pain clearly in his voice. Despite my need to keep a careful watch on Savannah, I stole a glance over at Brandon and noticed that he was clutching his torso, his face twisted and distorted in what I figured had to be the immense pain from a broken bone. I figured it must be his ribs by the way he had his arms tightly wrapped around them as if cradling them gently to prevent further injury.