Love-Love || OLD DRAFT

twelve - twelve

Wurzel had underestimated Super Storm – clearly. I felt bad that the thought was making me happy, but it was making me happy. I tried not to smirk when Storm used the air to grab Wurzel and fly upwards with him, two hundred feet above the ground, far removed from his element. Plants needed earth to grow and Storm had fought me enough times to know 'Plant-Boy' won’t do well with heights either.

“I’ll handle him,” Aspen said over the earpiece. “You get Garnet.”

Replying an affirmation, I made my way towards Garnet. She was lying on the ground, unmoving. Shattered glass laid all around her in the pool of water that surrounded her. I made the earth soak it all up. I mean, the river was nearby so I knew it was useless to soak up a few litres of water but it was still a necessary precaution.

I stood next to her and, looking down at her, I was suddenly unsure of what to do.

“Roux –” I didn’t get to finish the sentence.

She jumped up, caught me by the wrist and pulled me down to the floor. She then sat on my back and twisted my arms in a painful, inescapable hold.

“Fuck, Roux! Stop!” I cried, narrowly avoiding getting stabbed in the eye by a piece of glass littering the floor. “I’m on your side. I’m playing Storm!”

My words had the desired effect and she hesitated. “What?” she said.

“There are so many things I have to tell you,” I breathed. “Let go of me and listen to me for a second.”

“I don’t believe you, Ridge.”

“Satan, just hear me out once.” I was desperate and I didn’t hesitate to let that desperation leak into my voice.

“You need your mouth to speak, not your legs,” she hissed, not loosening her grip. “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

That was such a Roux thing to do, I was low-key proud of her, despite the fact that my neck was hurting and my arms were getting sore.

“I – I have something for you,” I said. “Left pocket.”

Her weight shifted slightly as she went through my pocket and pulled out the gift box.

“If it explodes in my face, I will kill you,” she informed.

I didn’t reply because I knew I didn’t need to. She was already unwrapping it. A while later, her hold went slack and I took it as a cue to whisper, “Happy birthday, Roux.”

There was a long pause where I could feel my heartbeat pounding against the ground. Finally she said, “You can’t bribe me into forgiving you.”

“I know,” I sighed. “It’s not a bribe, just something I had been planning to give you –”

“You’re not playing Super Storm, are you?” she interrupted. “You actually chose him over us?”

“I didn’t,” I cried. “I just –” I sighed and dropped my forehead to the ground. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Linden is alive. At first, I honestly did not know and after I found out, I – I just didn’t want to burden you with –”

“Burden me?” Roux cried. She shoved at my back and got to her feet, stepping away to glare at me. “Burden me? He’s my friend too, you know. I deserved to know! You had no right to keep it from me!”

I didn’t get up. “I know. I know, Roux, I’m sorry –”

“You’re just like them,” she hissed. “Just because you’re the man, you’ll make the decisions for me?”

“What?” I sat up on the glass littered floor. “No, Roux, that’s not what –”

“I’m not your pet, Ridge! And I’m certainly not weak. I’ve killed more men than you could even dream of and I can kill many more with just –”

“See, that’s the problem, Roux,” this time I interrupted her. I pushed to my feet and stood facing her. “That’s the problem. You think violence proves your strength, that killing people is the solution to all your problems. Isn’t that why Linden liked you in the first place?” I shook my head. “I didn’t tell you about Lin being alive because you would’ve gone in there to seek revenge, to rescue him. And I’m not saying you’re weak. Satan! I, of all people, know what you’re capable of. I was only afraid that if you went after Them, to get Linden back, I might lose you too. And call me selfish, because I am selfish, but I didn’t want to lose you.”

She stared at me and said nothing.

So I carried on. “Lin wanted you to kill the President. That’s what we were arguing about that night of the fire. I think it was a slip of his tongue, that he never actually planned to tell me. He would’ve gone to you and you would’ve obeyed.”

I left her the space to argue but she didn’t. Both of us knew it was true.

“It was a stupid plan,” I continued. “The government was creating the Zotak and a Super killing the President would’ve had irreparable consequences. It wasn’t because I thought you’d fail, I tried stopping him because I knew you’d succeed.”

For a brief while she looked conflicted. But then she clenched her jaw and said, “It still didn’t give you the right to hide the truth from me.”

“I know. I know I should’ve trusted you but I – see, killing Super Storm was not the solution. He made the government ban the production of Zotak. He made things easier for us. It’s easier to fight one guy over and over again than an entire system, or the entire world, Roux. Super powers give us an edge, not make us invincible.”

“You – you’re fucking pathetic,” she hissed. “We’re bad guys, Ridge, fighting and killing is what we do.”

“But we don’t have to,” I said, as surprised as her about where it came from. “You can go to Uni. I can work in a… a museum! If we ever need anything fancy, we’ll go steal it. We can go graffiti again. We’ll go to the movies, get stuffed on popcorn, go to Italy for vacation!”

Roux scoffed but I could make out the uncertainty in her eyes. I knew she wanted these things, that under her tough facade, she wanted to be free of the mask. “You’ve lost your mind. Did Storm put these ideas in your head? You’re sleeping with him now, so you want to change sides?”

“I – I’m not.”

“Not what? Not sleeping with him or not changing sides?”

I let out a groan. I couldn’t help it. “Satan, Roux, please –”

“Gravel!” Aspen’s panicking voice broke in through my earpiece. “Get out of there, RIGHT NOW. GET OUT!”

Before I could react to his warning, a small metal ball fell in through the window and rolled to our feet. I did not even get the time to shout at Roux to take cover.

The bomb exploded right at our feet.