D E L P H I N I U M

My heart pounded in my chest as I stared over at Gigi. I could practically see the gears working in her head. Feeling sick to my stomach, I glanced over at Benny, who was simply sitting and watching the tense situation in triumphance.

I'd been afraid of this taking place for a time now. Originally, I'd thought that he was just going to make her aware of the fact that I watched him kill her mother without stopping it. But this was so much worse.

"Deny it, Delphinium," Gigi said in a strangely quiet voice, like the calm before the storm. "Deny that you were there that night."

I couldn't lie. They'd know if I did. "I can't." My response was a whisper.

Glancing over at the rest of my team, I felt like I might vomit. They were clustered together, away from Gigi and I, watching me with shock and horror painted onto their faces. They didn't know what to do. I didn't blame them. Benny had made them believe that I'd murdered Gigi's mother and I was hardly even denying it.

Ever since it had happened, I'd been holding it in, unwilling to tell anyone about that night. I knew they'd look down on me because I'd let it occur. But now, it was happening and it was worse than I'd imagined.

"How could you do this to me?" she asked in that same odd soft voice. I shook my head, wanting to tell her that I was sorry, that I never wanted for this to happen.

She said it again, this time screaming, "How could you do this to me? You murderer!" The echoes of her voice rang out in the massive concrete-walled room.

With lightning-fast movements, she unslung her bow off of her back and nocked an arrow. She let it fly towards me, not caring if I got injured or not. Holding my hands up with fingers out as if I was preparing to catch it, I stopped the arrow midair. For a moment, it levitated in the air. Then I snapped it in half with my mind and let it fall.

She let another arrow fly as soon as I'd let the first one drop. I stopped it midair as well, but this time I let it slowly spin around until the razor sharp edge was aimed toward her. The rage still burned in her eyes. She was going to kill me unless I did something about it.

So I let the arrow soar towards her. Gigi only dodged it with mere inches to spare. She nocked another, determined to shoot me through the chest.

"Stop fighting!" Finn yelled, trying to break us apart. "This isn't our biggest problem!"

Gigi returned his pleas with another arrow sent toward his face. That sent Finn ducking down to avoid it.

When she was distracted with Finn's interjection, I ran for the archer. This needed to end before anything worse happened. An arrow whistled over my shoulder as I lunged.

She aimed an arrow a few inches from my face and I knew that she probably wouldn't hesitate to let it go. Whipping to the side, I kneed her in the stomach. As she instinctively bent down from the impact, I shot back and kicked her in the face, not powerfully, just enough to stun her. I pulled her bow out of her hands and threw it as far away as I could. It skittered to a stop on the ground near the rest of our team, most of which who were screaming for us to stop.

She took a swing at my face, which I dodged. While she was off-kilter, I knocked her down so that she was kneeling before me. I unsheathed a dagger for the first time and held it to her throat. Her head was bent down but she was glaring up at me through her dark eyes. A trickle of blood leaked out of her left nostril. The deafening noise in the room faded to the background.

"I didn't kill your mother," I told her, knowing that it probably wouldn't do much good now, especially as I held a blade at her neck. "Hundsen tried to make me, but Benny killed him when I wouldn't."

"You know what you have to do. End her, Secerător!" I heard Benny command from behind me. I forced myself to focus on the moment and not the memories that threatened to resurface With the mention of that name, memories that were just like this fight with Gigi. I wouldn't remember.

For a moment, the only movement Gigi made was the healing of her ribcage as she panted. My heart hammered in my chest. Then, I felt a squeezing sensation in my chest, like my heart itself was tightening.

"Are you-" I couldn't even get the words out when the pain worsened, making me stumble back as I clutched at my chest. What was she doing to me?

Through short breaths, I opened my eyes, forcing myself to focus on the fight. It was then that I saw Gigi's fist tightening. She was going to crush my heart in my chest without even touching me. My vision started to go blurry and the figures around me swam. My knees hit the ground.

"Stop!" Someone screamed. Maybe me, I wasn't even sure.

I raised my heavy head up with all the strength I could muster. With her hands thrown out towards me, Gigi watched me crumple with hate burning in her eyes. This couldn't be happening, especially not now.

Thrusting my arms forward, I managed to tear part of the concrete walls off and send them towards the girl crushing my heart. She flew back against the wall as the rubble pushed her up higher and higher, making the slabs of concrete press harder into her body. I pushed myself up as my strength returned; her grip on my heart was gone.

She screamed, pinned up against the wall above us. "You murderer! You killed my mother and now you're coming for me!"

"You shot an arrow at my face!" I retorted just as loudly. "You listened to Benny and gave in to his mind games. This is what he wanted to happen!"

"You were supposed to be my friend! When you comforted me after my mother's funeral, I thought I'd finally found someone who understood me. I thought that we were going to bring down Imperium together; they've taken away so much from the both of us. And it turns out that you're just as bad as them! You've lied to me, telling me that it was Imperium. But it was you!"

I shook my head fervently. "No. No, I did not lie to you. I'm telling you the truth!"

"I defended you when Kane told us that you'd left his brother behind!" She spat. "I stood up for you. I was there for you. Now look how I was repaid. Bitch!"

Voice and facial expression dropping to a mask of almost-calm, she vowed, "I'll stab you through the heart with the knife you stuck in my back."

That was it. I shot out another hand. The concrete blocks pushed into her, grinding her into the wall. Behind her, the wall began to crack, small crevices traveling outward. The room was filled with screaming: my own, Gigi's, and the the rest of my teammates.

Someone gripped my shoulders, tried to pull me away, make me stop. But I stood my ground. She wouldn't kill me. Not today.

The concrete wall behind her smashed to pieces, sending her flying backwards in a rain of concrete chunks. I could see into the next room, which happened to be exactly like the one we stood in, though the glass box was empty and now the floor was covered in rubble.

For a moment, I didn't see Gigi. Then, I saw an arm, and then another. She pulled herself to stand up on the uneven ground.

Before she could injure me again with her power, I let parts of the roof rain down on her, trying to stop her in her path. The whole building shook. Gigi dodged debris left and right while I simply looked on.

The pain in my chest returned and the building stopped shaking. "I could crush your heart in your chest," she told me, walking forward, step by step. "I could wipe the air from your lungs and let you asphyxiate where you stand. I could stop the blood flowing in your veins and watch you turn blue. But I won't." The look in her eyes was insanity. "Because I'm going to kill you with my bare hands. My mother didn't live to see her attacker brought to justice. I will."

She was too close to me now. Either way, it didn't matter. She could crush me from the inside out if she wanted. The pain in my chest was unbearable.

With one sweep of my arms, the chunks of rock all around us began to raise off of the ground. I spun them all into cones with barbed points all directed towards her. One foul move and they'd chop her into pieces.

There was a deafening bang behind me but I didn't dare look back. The spikes were nearing her. Voices shouted, echoing off the walls. I heard the cocking of guns.

The next thing I knew, a bag was pulled over my head. My arms were pinned at my sides and chained down to prevent any more harm being done.

I knew the same thing was happening to Gigi because the pain in my chest was suddenly gone and I could hear her screaming. There were a few thuds as she brought down ONNT workers with her newly-revealed power.

Blind to the world, I was led away by numerous soldiers.