The One Who's Fallen

Chapter 117

**(Graphic depiction of death!)

My eyes fly open when I hear some loud yells coming from outside the tent. I jolt awake, adrenaline flooding my system and making me more awake than I would usually be five seconds after waking up. I turn and look at Lexa, who of course is already awake.

We get up from the floor and grab our weapons. I guess it was a good idea to sleep in our armor. It was a little uncomfortable, but that's better than taking the time to put on clothes when something's going on outside. Raven rushes in, making us slow down while we pay closer attention to her.

"Okay, so the Maunon's Beta team or whatever is here. They have a bunch of snipers in the trees." Raven blocks me as I try to exit the tent. "Oh no you don't."

"Raven-"

"No, listen. You and Lexa are more than just our leaders in this war. You're symbols of our hope, of how we can win against the Maunon. You're what's keeping us optimistic in the face of a more technologically advanced enemy. So we're staying here. You just get my presence as a bonus, free of charge."

I hate that she's right. I squint at Raven, not buying that she's here willingly.

"They made you come in here, huh?"

"More like encouraged with threats." Raven sighs. "If I don't stay here, Anya and Luna said they won't kiss me for an entire day."

"That's rough buddy."

Raven gives me a half hearted high five for my reference and flops down on the bed. "Come on, you might as well get up here. This might last a while."

I groan and lay down beside her, gesturing for Lexa to join me. After a second of hesitation, she rests her head on my chest. Despite her comforting weight on me, my body refuses to relax when the sound of gunfire and pained cries come from just outside.

"If this goes on too long, there's nothing in the world that can stop me from going out there." I say.

We wait for what feels like forever but in reality is probably twenty minutes. There has been less gunfire, so I guess we have succeeded in taking down some of the snipers.

Lexa and I switch when my arm starts to go numb from her cutting off its blood flow. I rest my head on her shoulder, curled up against her side. Raven's on her back, staring at the ceiling of the tent as we wait.

It's now that someone bursts into Raven's tent. I sit bolt upright, alarmed immediately. If the fact that someone came in without announcing themselves wasn't enough, it's a Maunon with a large gun. I reach for my weapons with wide eyes. Before my fingers can even wrap around a knife, the man's head is knocked backwards by the force of a dagger being thrown at it.

His arms pinwheel as he tries to keep himself from falling. The glass that protected his face from the radiation is shattered, with Lexa's dagger embedded in it. The man in the hazmat suit falls onto the ground, his gloved hands going up in front of his face.

I almost tell him not to pull out the dagger but he's dead no matter what. Plus he's Maunon and just tried to kill is, so I have no sympathy for him.

The shattered glass reveals a distorted image of his terrified, panicked expression. He yanks out the dagger and immediately drops it, broken glass falling like hardened teardrops from his suit. His eyes roll into the back of his head and he lets out a spine-chilling, agonized scream.

Boils break out across his face and he claws at his skin through the rubber material of his hazmat suit. All of the sudden, he's cut off and he makes one last choking noise in the back of his throat. His eyes go blank, no spark of life left in them as he slowly falls from his knees face-first onto the floor.

"Damn," Raven breathes.

As soon as she says that, a frantic Luna and worried Anya throw open the tent flaps and hurry inside. They pause at the entrance wearing relieved expressions when they see we're all okay. Anya's eyebrows raise when she sees the dead Maunon on the ground and Lexa's dagger by his fallen body.

"Nice kill, Heda." Anya says, stepping around the body so she can look us all over more closely for injuries.

"I did not kill him. The radiation did. I merely broke the seal of his suit." Lexa shrugs humbly.

I turn around from where I'm practically sitting in her lap to give her an unimpressed look at her attempt to play off her amazingness.

"Lexa, you had thrown a knife by the time I was reaching for mine." I point out. Lexa shrugs in response but she has a small satisfied smile on her face.

"Good throw, strisis (little sister)." Luna praises. She bends down and retrieves Lexa's favorite dagger, tossing it back to her. Lexa catches it by the handle effortlessly. "You are all unhurt?"

"We're okay," Raven reassures.

"Thank the gods for that." Luna sighs out, taking one of Raven's hands in hers. "We heard that awful screaming coming from in here after seeing that Maunon burst in here. We thought..."

Raven softens and squeezes Luna's hand before reaching out to take one of Anya's as well. "We're all okay. I promise."

"So the screaming was just from him dying from the radiation?" Luna asks after a short pause.

"Yeah. It was even worse up close. He..." Raven hesitates for a moment. "He was in a lot of pain before he died."

"At least we know our last resort works." I say, trying not to think about what could happen to so many innocent people if we end up having to do that.

The others nod somberly and we lapse into silence, reveling in the fact that we're all okay, we're safe. For the moment, at least.

That last resort tho... Will they end up having to use it? Or will it all work out? ;) We'll find out! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!