Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
Chapter 40

(Lucas)

Oh, great, I thought, my eyes shooting open. I’m already going to die anyway, Fallon. You don’t have to make me die in a freaking illusion, too.

But then I realized I could still hear the guards shouting. And for some reason, they sounded… shocked.

“What’s going on?!” Fallon himself screamed a second later, and I realized the deafening sound of gunshots had stopped. One of the guards stomping on me yelled something about his gun jamming, and pretty much every single other guard in the place started shrieking that theirs had done the exact same thing.

That’s when the intercom crackled to life, and a voice like death echoed through the room, silencing every other noise for the few seconds it took to say a single sentence:

“Welcome to your worst nightmare.”

I had just begun to think that maybe this wasn’t one of Fallon’s illusions when a light appeared at the other end of the hallway. The guards had stopped stomping on me, and I used this distraction to scramble to my feet, grab my sword, and squint at the pair of glowing red eyes accompanied by an actual fireball.

What in the world? was the only thing I could think of before whoever it was decked a guy with speed that rivaled even my own, sending him down with what looked like no real effort. That single attack seemed to break the spell on everyone, and from somewhere behind me, Kyore roared,

“He’s a member of the Seven! GET HIM!!!”

And just like that, they all shifted their attention from me to the fire-user at the other end of the hall. Who immediately cracked a grin, lit up by his flames, and laughed.

“Bring it on, losers!”

I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to comprehend this guy’s insane recklessness, and I didn’t try to. Violet was still out there somewhere, hurt, and this was a perfect opportunity to get to her!

The lights flickered back on right then and there, the opening of the show over, and I immediately got my bearings and charged toward the general direction of where I’d heard Violet’s voice. It wasn’t easy – I was fighting against the tide – but they weren’t trying to kill me anymore, and that made it a whole lot easier. Breaking through a group of guards who half-heartedly swiped at me, I caught sight of a faded red cloak, backed against the wall.

Violet.

Fallon stood in front of her, drawing his sword, and I didn’t hesitate. Sparks flew off the metal as he swung a deadly blow at her, only to be blocked by me. His eyes narrowed.

“Didn’t you die already, private?”

“It’s gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of me,” I retorted, throwing all my strength into it and managing to push him back just a little. Without taking my eyes off him, I asked, “You okay, Vi?”

“I – Yes, but – Lucas, he-he’s wearing contacts – my magic couldn’t...”

Oh. Of course. Violet channeled her magic through her eyes – of course she wouldn’t be able to do anything if Fallon was wearing his heat sensors, which he definitely was.

“You know, Lucas,” he growled, ignoring her, “you and Miss Shine did quite a number on me. I haven’t felt pain like that in a long time.”

He suddenly slashed upward, sending me off-balance, and slammed his sword into mine in a move I barely managed to block. Fallon leaned closer, and the hatred in his gaze seemed multiplied by ten when he hissed, “I’ll make you pay for every second of that.”

He suddenly pulled back, but I was ready for it, and when his next hit came down, my sword was up. But it was a feint, and his blade suddenly changed directions, heading for my legs. I spun out of the way, but that sent me off-balance yet again, and when his next strike came toward me, there was no way to dodge. It slashed across my back, a shallow but long cut.

I jumped back, panting, knowing that this fight would probably be my last. I’d already escaped from Fallon twice. Three times was a little too much to hope for.

“Lucas!” Violet shouted, sounding nearly in tears, and to my astonishment, a gunshot echoed through the air, much too close. I’d completely forgotten about her gun, and in that split second, I allowed myself to hope.

But those hopes were immediately destroyed as Fallon, in one of the scariest moves I’d ever seen, sliced the bullet in half without even batting an eye.

“Really, little girl,” he hissed at Violet, “I am the commander of Mask’s army. Did you honestly think that I wouldn’t know how to deflect a bullet?”

She seemed speechless, eyes wide with terror, and yet again, I was filled with a sense of how wrong it was for a ten-year-old to be experiencing this kind of thing. But I couldn’t concentrate on that for very long, because Fallon was attacking me again, keeping me on the defensive in the absolute worst way, tiring me out until I wanted to just drop down and pass out. My eyesight blurred from exhaustion, and that single moment of distraction was enough for him to stab at me in a killing blow I didn’t have time to block.

My eyes shot wide as I braced myself for the inevitable pain.

That didn’t come.

Out of nowhere, I was jerked sideways by an unknown force at a speed that was definitely not healthy. Caught off-guard, Fallon overshot, and a girl’s voice called out, “Vacancy Compression!”

To my utter disbelief, he crashed to the ground, unmoving, and I whirled around to see who had saved me. And suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.

A pair of amazing ocean blue eyes stared into my own, paralyzing me in a way that I’d never expected. My mind flashed through Memory Lane, bringing up pictures I’d tried so hard to force myself to forget, and the sword slipped out of my hands as my legs gave out on me.

The strangely familiar girl looked shocked. “Wha… A-Are you okay?!”

Could it possibly be?

I tried to say something, but no words would come out. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t possibly still be alive…

“Lucas? Lucas, are you okay?!”

Violet. I hadn’t even noticed when she’d appeared next to me.

I fought with everything I had, but all I could manage to get out was some kind of wheezing noise. Fortunately, she took this the wrong way.

“Oh no,” she gasped.“Fallon must’ve hurt you really bad…”

“Fallon?” the other girl asked, standing over his lifeless body. “I-Is that who this guy is?”

“Uh-huh.” Violet’s voice trembled. “I-I think Lucas is really badly hurt… C-Can you help him?”

“I can’t, but Green can. I think she’s around here somewhere, but I can’t tell with all this fighting going on…” The girl bit her lip, exactly the way she used to. “Where is she?”

I finally managed to break through whatever was clogging up my throat and opened my mouth to say something, but was interrupted before I could get out a single word.

“Blue!”

The girl turned around, and my mouth closed, shoulders slumping in sheer, stupid disappointment. Of course. She was one of the members of the Seven who’d randomly shown up here, just like the reckless fiery guy from earlier. I’d actually met her before, I realized, on the plane in Yellowton. That was probably why she’d looked so familiar. I’d been stupid to think that it could’ve been who I thought it was.

Stupid to think there was even a possibility she could’ve still been alive.

The fire-user flew out of a cloud of smoke with a grin that made him look like someone who’d just won a game of soccer, not a guy who had just charged blindly into a fight to kick however many guards’ butts. He turned to Blue, panting a little.

“Doing all right here? I took out a lot of them, but I need a breather. I blasted smoke all over the place, so that should hold them for a bit.”

She nodded back, a small smile appearing on her face. Apparently, they were close. “Yeah, I’m fine. But I’m not so sure about this guy. I think he’s on our side; he was fighting this commander dude. Where’s Green?”

“You expect me to know? And, for that matter, where’s Orange? Was that his voice on the intercom earlier?”

“He must’ve found the main control room for this place or something. That’s probably what he ran off earlier for.”

“Geez, leave it to RT.” He shook his head, then looked down at Violet, who had just tugged on his sleeve uncertainly. “Hey, kid. What do you – whoa.”

His mouth dropped open at the sight of her wide amethyst eyes. “No. Freaking. Way.”

“What?” Blue asked, before catching sight of Violet. She gasped.

“U-Um… Y-You’re members of the Seven, right?” Violet asked nervously. Her cheeks slowly turned pink as she stared at the ground. “I-It’s really nice to finally meet you. I’m Violet.”

“You’re Violet?” the guy gaped, crimson eyes the size of marbles. “I was not expecting this one.”

Blue, however, just studied her hesitantly before turning to him. “I really don’t want to sound mean, but… shouldn’t we verify that somehow?”

The fire-user blinked, snapping out of his shock. “Oh. Right. But… How?”

They both stared at Violet, who shrunk under the intense gazes.

Finally, the fire-user turned to Blue. “You do it. I don’t want to accidentally burn her.”

“No way! Do you have any idea how incredibly awkward that’ll be?”

“We have to confirm it somehow…”

“But…”

They both turned to Violet again.

“Uh, um, if you want me to prove I’m not wearing contacts, I’ll do it,” she stammered. Without waiting for an answer, she propped her eyelid open with two fingers and slid another across her eye in a way that definitely would’ve dislodged any contacts if she’d been wearing them.

Blue and the fire-user both sighed in relief.

“Well, that simplifies things,” she said, offering Violet a smile. “Welcome to the team, I guess. I’m Blue, and this is Red. You’ll meet Orange and Green when they finally decide to show up.”

Violet blushed and smiled as I finally managed to drag myself to my feet. Without meeting Blue’s eyes, I silently made my way over next to them.

“Lucas?” Violet cried, eyes widening at the sight of me up and about. “You’re hurt! Don’t…”

I cut her off. “I’m fine. We need to get out of here. Make some kind of strategy…”

Red and Blue exchanged glances and looked like they were about to say something, but then Anton’s voice rang out above all the chaos.

“I am so done with this! Can we just finish ‘em off already?”

“I agree,” Fallon’s voice said from behind me, sending sudden chills through my body. I whirled around to see him smile and draw out some kind of device from his pocket. “Code 28469, activate.”

That did not sound like something I wanted to stick around for.

“Uh, does anyone happen to know what a Code 28469 is?” Red asked as the ground began shaking.

“Whatever it is, it’s definitely not good.” I gritted my teeth, trying to keep my balance. “How many more of you are there?”

“Just Orange and Green. Who’s the other person on your team?”

I didn’t bother asking how he knew there was another person with me, just told him, “Kari. She’s a hacker.”

“Among the three of you, do you have any skills that could help us get out of here?” Blue demanded, catching me off guard. I forcefully ejected all my memories out of my head and told her,

“I got some magic from Mask, so I can go invisible. Kari’s a pretty good fighter, and like I said, she’s a hacker. Violet here can read minds, maybe a little more, but I wouldn’t place all my bets on the ‘more.’”

Blue bit her lip, thinking, but was interrupted a second later by a guard appearing out of nowhere and swinging the barrel of his gun at her. She moved fast, sweeping her arm out and blasting him into a group of even more guards with a spell before I could even try to warn her. But that was that – Red’s distraction had run out, and next thing I knew, we were being flooded by a bunch of angry guards desperate to kill us. Which was really not a good thing, because Fallon’s machine had just started counting down.

“Twenty minutes until detonation.”

“Detonation?!” Blue shouted, taking out a guy by slamming his own gun into his face. “Detonation of what?!”

Fallon began laughing behind me, and I whirled around, suddenly furious. This man had tired to kill me, had imprisoned and hurt me and tried to destroy everything I cared about, all because of a few freaking orders from a master he didn’t even know. Everything about him disgusted me to the very core, and I found myself grabbing him by the collar and hauling him to his feet.

“What did you do?!”

“Only what I was meant to,” he rasped, still laughing. “I told you, Lucas. This is the end of the line.”

“What. Did. You. Do?” I hissed.

He regarded me with a smile. “It’s over. Even if you knew, you wouldn’t be able to stop it. It’s over.”

My fingers tightened on his collar so much, they turned white. He was right there in front of me, helpless. It would be so easy to just reach out, grab his neck, and…

No.

I took one last look at his grinning face and shoved him away from me as far as I could.

It was probably a stupid idea. I knew he’d be after me again the first chance he got. I knew that if our roles were reversed, he wouldn’t have hesitated at all before snapping my neck.

But I wasn’t Fallon.

I’m not a murderer.

“Screw you and what you think,” I told him flatly, refusing to look him in the eye. “That’s what you said about everything else I managed to escape from.”

Fallon didn’t reply, and I didn’t expect him to. Turning away, I managed to take an astonishing total of one step in the other direction before someone I didn’t know blasted around the corner on the other end of the hallway and yelled something completely incoherent.

Right after that, a high-pitched scream ripped through the air – and the lights went out yet again.

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