Ending Aston

Chapter 10

We run behind a large building far across the street and stop there.

"The Piazza San Marco..." I say, leaning against the wall. "That's in Venice, right?"

He nods.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to fly again..." I mutter.

"Maybe you don't need to fly in an airplane this time." He says. I look at him, I automatically know what he's thinking.

"No." I say. "No, no, no. I am not doing that!"

"Do you not trust me?"

"Erik, I trust you. But for that'd be a long trip!"

"You carried me all the way to England over the sea when I was unconscious and you were wounded. I think I can do it."

Suddenly I'm lifted about five feet above the ground. Erik obviously using his powers.

"Erik put me down!" I say, grabbing onto a thin water pipe to keep me from rising any higher. "Or I'll zap you."

Erik immediately lower me back down to the ground.

"Thank you." I say, lightly tugging on the hem of my skirt.

"It's only because it hurts when you zap me."

I smirk at him. "Come on. Let's get to Venice."

A few hours later we arrived in Venice with no problems, and we immediately headed for the Piazza San Marco.

"It's not very crowded." Erik says. He's right, the Piazza San Marco is nearly deserted. We walk to the middle of it.

"He said it was under the Piazza San Marco..." I say, looking down at the ground beneath us. "How are we supposed to-?"

I was interrupted when we heard someone clapping behind us. We quickly turned to see a figure standing right by a nearby pillar at the edge of the giant square.

"So...you finally found me." Aston says, stepping out of the shadows and into the light where I can see his face. "Good job Elsa. Who's your friend? He looks familiar."

I don't answer, I continue to glare at him.

"Metal mutation, eh?" Aston says to Erik. "I remember you from the last time I saw Elsa. You stopped a few bullets from hitting you."

He walks closer to us, and I outstretch my arm, palm facing him.

"Don't come any closer!" I order, my voice echoing.

"M-m-m..." He said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Suddenly a bullet fires and hits me in the knee. I shriek and crumple to the ground.

"Elsa!" Erik says, kneeling down beside me.

"It's fine...it's fine..." I manage, stifling a scream of pain as the bullet makes it's way out of my kneecap and falls onto the ground. The skin seals itself back up and the scar which would have been there if I weren't immortal, fades away as if something never hit me there. I get back to my feet and look towards the direction of the gunman, who's on top of the roof of a building.

"Five gunmen." Aston says gleefully.

"You're annoying." I say.

"And you're a masterpiece! Look what has become of you! A pretty, immortal young girl with wings like an angel!"

"Those wings aren't there anymore." I say. "They were cut out."

He gasps. "You cut out your wings?"

"No. Someone else did. I didn't know they did until I woke up again." I say.

"You're here to kill me, aren't you?" Aston says about a minute later. He looks me in the eye, then starts laughing. "Sorry darling, but that's not going to happen." He steps backwards to the spot where  he was before. "Oh, and by the way..." He looks at Erik. "Those bullets...they're not metal. Neither are the guns, so...you can't stop them." He laughs. "Good-bye." He waves his arm in the air and instantly the five gunmen start firing at us. Luckily missing us.

We turn and start running away from them, dodging as many bullets as possible. The gunmen pursuing us on each of their own roofs.

"Where're we going?" Erik says.

"Away from them! I have no idea where." I answer back as we turn a few corners, now under the cover of one roof. "They're going to be down from the roofs soon." I say.

"Well, we can always-"

A gunmen leaps out of nowhere and starts shooting at us again. We turn and run as more come, running by the canals.

"Over here!" Erik says, grabbing my wrist. "Get ready to dive!"

"What?"

We turn a corner, running alongside the canals.

"Dive!" Erik says, then let's go of my wrist. Before I can think twice about it, I dive off the platform and I'm engulfed in the dark, murky water. I can barely see Erik's figure motioning for me to dive down deeper and swim alongside him and bullets streak past us. I dive down deeper and soon the bullets stop streaking past us.

They've lost us.

Soon we come up to the surface and collpase against shallow stone steps which are barely above the water.

"I never want to do that again." Erik says. "That was...disgusting."

"It's Venice." I say. "Of course the canals are disgusting."

"Think we lost them?"

"Yeah." I answer.

I look over at Erik as we sit up and see that he was hit in the side and on his shoulder.

"Erik-"

"It's fine." He says, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It just grazed me." He glances down at his side.

"Let me see."

"It's fine." He repeats, but takes his hand away and lets me examine the wound.

"Take off your shirt." I say as I make a piece of cloth appear in my hand, luckily it's dry and clean. He quickly takes off his shirt and I carefully wrap the cloth around his shoulder. He winces as I start to wrap it and I finish quickly and make another cloth appear in my hand. I wrap that around his side and then hand him a shirt which I also made appear in my hand. "We can examine that later." I say. "I'm not a doctor, so I don't know much about this."

"It'll be fine. Thanks."

"Welcome."

I sit back and curse under my breath.

"What?"

"I lost Aston when I could have killed him and all his gunment. Damn it, why didn't I use lightning to my advantage?!" I say, frustrated. "I got you hurt in the process too." I lean against a pillar behind me. "I shouldn't have done this..." I shake my head. "This was just a foolish quest of revenge and look what happened; you nearly died, then got hurt not long afterwards. Possibly 50 or more innocent lives lost, now residing at the bottom of the Atlantic..." I pause. "Erik, I'm so sorry for dragging you into this..."

"It's not over." He says. "And besides, I agreed to this. Anything that happens to me is my fault, not yours." He pauses. "So come on, let's go find Aston, wherever he is. He can't have gone far." He stands up and offers me a hand. I take it and stand up.

"Are you sure you still want to do this?"

He smirks. "Until the very end."