The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 34

A knock sounds at the door and Natasha and I jump from the sound. We glance at each other before Nat responds.

"Come in," she says.

The man comes in and smiles at the two of us. "Thank you," he nods at Natasha and she leaves us alone. "Are you ready for the gala?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." My stomach twists when I accept the arm of a man who made all of my best memories disappear, who tried to change who I am for his benefit. I try to control my breathing, but it continues to get heavy and catch in my throat with the mixture of fear and anger entangling themselves in my chest.

"Are you alright?" He asks after a while. I nod and smile the best I could at him.

"I'm just nervous about being with all those people," I say, "and I'm just anxious to get my sister back." The lies roll off my tongue so easily that I almost believe them. He nods as we turn the corner and I feel my steps stop when I see two guards standing over two wooden doors.

"Come along now, you are the guest of honor." A memory plays into my head of Zaydon showing me off as his own trophy, then he began an auction for me. Fear trickles its way into my skin and I force myself to hold onto his arm. He nods to the guards before the doors open. We walk onto the balcony and I feel my heart skip a beat when I see the sight.

At least three hundred sets of eyes turn towards us, but one doesn't. One pair of boy's eyes that I can't see. He stands at the other edge of the platform we are on. It must be the boy Natasha was talking about. Draven notices my gaze onto the boy and chuckles.

"I see you have eyes for him?" He says leaning into my ear. I almost didn't hear him from the beats of my heart in my ears. "Why don't we introduce the two of you, hm?" He leads me towards the boy before speaking to him. "Peter, I would like to introduce you to Agerathea Almoradea." He turns around and his eyes widen.

"Grace?" My heart flutters in my chest from him saying my name, a stranger saying my name somehow does this to me and I don't know how to stop it. Draven looks at me with his eyebrows lifted and I shake my head.

"Who?" This is the only way, the only way I can protect him while I figure all this out. "Who are you?" I can hear his heart break as sadness creeps onto his face, my chest aches from his expression but I keep my face steady.

"Agerathea this is Peter, Peter Agerathea." I can hear the smirk on his face, he must think he had succeeded with all this, this must have been his final test to see my reaction. We walk onto the edge where a mic sits at the top of a podium, he releases my arm before stepping up to it. I glance back at Peter who continues to stare at me, it takes all my might to keep the redness from spreading across my face as I turn back around.

"Welcome, welcome to the 71st gala. We are not only here to celebrate our leader, Red Skull, but also an advancement in our legacy. This young lady here," he gestures for me to walk forward and I do, a few gasps are heard from the crowd once I stepped into the light, "has agreed to work with us so we can complete it. The Valiant is the strongest of her kind as an Attolian and the last of them, but she carries a very special gift, or shall I say 'abilities' as she likes to put it. Such abilities come from the power of what our great leader had a conquest to obtain, the Infinity Stones." More gasps emerge from the crowd and a chill runs up and down my back when I look at them. "She possesses three of the stones' abilities including Mind, Power and Time; these abilities make her one of the most powerful beings in the universe." My eyes flick to him, he grins at me. "With this power, she has the ability to control other beings, manipulate time and tear planets apart. A person once told me 'Intelligence is a privilege, and it needs to be used for the greater good of people,' and with what we know about this girl, we will have the capability to do what we are destined to do. Enjoy the party everyone."

The guests erupt into applause before throwing their fists in the air chanting, "Hail Hydra!" I feel my feet begin to move backward but a hand wraps around my wrist before I can move too far. Draven looks at me as if waiting for me to follow suit and hail someone who killed hundreds of people. I feel my head begin to shake as I try to loosen his grip on my wrist.

"Why won't you do it?" He cocks his head at me and scrunches up his eyebrows. My body twists around and I look at Peter, he's not doing it either. "I promised you so much and yet you won't do this one simple thing?"

"This one simple thing?" I can feel the anger in my voice. "This thing," I gesture to the crowd that's still doing the chant, "represents someone who killed many people for power. It represents fear and I will have no part of that." Draven sighs at the last statement before turning towards the guards standing at the door. The four guards walk towards him and get submerged into whispers. Two of them turn towards me while the other two twist towards Peter, realization hits me.

"No!" I run towards Peter but the guards' arms wrap around me before I can get to him. "No! No!" I scream as the men grab onto me and place their hands over my mouth as they carry me out the door. Sounds of Peter struggling come from behind me and I try to twist around to see him but the guards' grip won't budge. A door opens into my room and they toss into there. I kick my shoes off and hear the door to the cell next to me. The guards carry in Peter and throw him to the floor before they begin to throw punches and kick at him.

"No! Stop it! Stop!" I shout as I hit the glass, the only thing keeping us away from each other. Screams escape my mouth as I watch them hit Peter over and over again. A prick comes from my back and I twist around to see Draven there, smiling at me, at what he's doing to me. I continue to hit the glass feeling myself continue to get weaker and weaker at each punch. Tears burn my vision. Red comes out of his mouth and pain shatters my heart as anger boils into my veins. My legs quiver and buckle. Dizziness erupts into my head and my hands go down to the floor to keep me balanced.

"Peter," comes from my lips and I look up to see him looking over at me. His eyes are almost swollen shut, lips are puffy and blood escapes from his nose and mouth.

"Grace," is all I see come from his lips. A scream erupts from his throat when one of the guards hits him in the arm. White hot rage fills my vision and I feel myself rise from the ground. I twist around to see Draven staring at me with disbelief.

"Did you really believe it would be that easy?" Flames slither around my arm and I direct them towards him, sending his body flying back into the cement wall with a purple explosion. I turn around and look at the guards staring at me and Peter smirking. Purple flames travel around my body and I smile before breaking through the glass and attacking the guards. I spread my arms out and clap them sending all the men standing fly back in a bright ball of purple fire. I slide to Peter and place my hands onto his face.

"Peter?" I whisper. His eyes are now swollen shut, I feel for his pulse on his arm and sigh in relief when I feel it. Footsteps sound behind me and I spin around to see Graven standing there, a gun pointing right at me. Blood trickles down his hand with the gun as he holds his other close to his chest.

"Grace?" Peter whispers under me. Flames slither around my arms once more and I look at Graven, a smile at the edge of his lips.

"Get up," he says through gritted teeth. "Get up!" He says once more when he saw I wasn't moving. He moves the gun to be pointed at Peter and I cover him with my body. A man comes up behind Graven before he cocks the handgun. "One way or another you will come with us." I still don't move away from him. Graven nods at the man and he walks over to me and pries me away from Peter's body. "I gave you two warnings, Grace, but yet you still refused. Now, that must be punished." He looks at Peter and my gaze travels to the gun, to his finger about to pull the trigger. I send a ball of flame towards Graven before I summon time.

Green flames surround my entire body. The bang of the gun is what triggers time to slow for me. Memories flash before my eyes as the arms unwrap around me. The bullet and the ball of fire slowly increase in speed as I run over to Peter. I can feel my abilities begin to quiver from every step as fatigue travels throughout my body. The bullet only a foot away from Peter as I cover his whole body, the flames unwind themselves from me and warmth is replaced with pain.