Imperium

Chapter 30: Spark, Pt. 2

Once Cree reaches the top of the stairs, he has to dodge a stray bullet that soars past his head. He growls and looks into the Command Chamber, seeing a lot of things happening all at once that he struggles to keep track of it all.

Elder Haegen is dead. He's laying motionless on the floor in his full centaur form with a bullet wound in the center of his forehead. The sight fills Cree with grief. He may have had an extreme way of dealing with things, but his heart really was in the right place.

He sees Regan also on the ground, leaning against the metal wall and he's holding his neck, but he's alive. However, he looks like he's in pain.

Then he brings his focus to the fight in front of him. Flashes of lightning zipping through the room, bullets countering it.

He doesn't recognize who Fritz is, but then his eyes fall on the other person.

That woman.

Jane.

His rage boils to the point of screaming in his ears, drowning out the sounds of any possible common sense he may have had. He ignores everything in his mind that might be telling him 'no' and lets his heart rule his actions as he brings his knives to his hands and sprints at her without a single thought.

He grabs her and throws her back, but she effortlessly slips out of his grasp and whips around to face him, and her face twists into a sickening smile.

"Aw, look who it is. Wow! I had no idea I was so popular! So many old friends coming to visit me!" she hisses, causing the fury in Cree's heart to grow until he's almost certain he's busted a vein from the rage alone.

Regan shakily looks over to see him, and at first he feels relief, but once he sees the unbridled anger plastered across his face, his fear returns. He tries to understand why he's so upset, when it clicks in his brain.

He remembers hearing Peace and Data talk about the woman known as Jane Harvey.

The woman who killed John.

"Cree..." he whispers and shakes his head, but his voice is hardly registered. Seems only Fritz heard him, as he points at him with a smirk and causes the terrible jolt to run through his body again, burning him at his neck and he screams against the pain, collapsing forward and making a futile attempt at blocking it out.

Cree sees the agony Regan was just put in because of this man, so he now turns and directs his blade at him, but Fritz flips to the side and grabs his wrist, shoving his hand and knife away and punching him across his face. Cree returns it by jabbing him in the throat with his metal elbow.

He got Fritz to release his hold on Regan, so he returns his strikes towards Jane, dodging out of the way as she sends a bullet his way and it hits the wall behind him. He sprints at the woman and takes a stab at her chest, but she ducks to the side and Fritz grabs her arm, yanking her towards him and knocking her back, but she flips to the side and slams her elbow into his cheek.

While Fritz's disoriented, Cree lunges towards Jane again with his blade held backwards, slicing it towards her face, but she grabs his wrist just as Fritz had done and she slams him down, slamming her knee into his face.

He grunts again and turns his head to burn his glare up at her, but before he can strike again, Fritz leaps onto her back and pulls her away. She growls and grabs him by his arms to pry him off of her and throw him forward, at Cree.

Fritz merely laughs as Cree ducks out of the way, letting the man hit the wall before he charges at Jane. He grabs her bicep, pulling her to turn around, but she wriggles free and grabs his arm instead, twisting it and pulling it behind his back with her arm hooked around his neck.