Knowing Naught of Love

 A bullet whizzed past Maya’s face as she dodged out of its path. Normally this would be an easy feat for her, but the lack of footing she had now that Axel had collapsed the floor and only left her with a sliver of ground to stand on limited her capabilities.

“You’re starting to get on my nerves, sniper girl!” She shouted enthusiastically as she threw her daggers of light at Cora, but she quickly drew out a pistol and shot the incoming projectiles down from her own sparse footing.

Seeing the firearm and deeming it a threat, Maya threw a barrage of daggers at her opponent. They would either hit Cora or disarm her, either way, it would end in her own advantage.

Acting in self preservation, Cora shot a few daggers down before dodging out of the way, but she was unable to spare her right hand and her pistol from being caught and pierced. Seeing Cora still standing, even down a hand, caused Maya to sigh.

“Could we wrap this up soon, please?” Maya twirled her blonde hair with one finger, shouting across the chasm in hopes the girl she was against could understand her. “I need to go help out Axel, that’s my job after all.”

A bullet slipped past Maya’s head as it severed the lock of hair she had been playing with.

“Funny, I have my own business with him once Slater’s done with him.” Cora moved her head away from her sniper’s scope, smirking through the pain of her wounded hand that had caused her shot to miss its target. Her mind, however, dulled the pain by thinking about her secondary mission. That guy is the only one who knows what happened to my dad, from what Slater told me…

Maya, on the contrary, had a wildly different interpretation.

“You want to steal Axel from me?” Her eyes burned with a rage never before seen by Cora, and one that was completely unfounded.

Cora found herself being thrown off her guard by the wildly unexpected statement. Seeing something to exploit, though, she continued the conversation.

“You love him that much, huh?”

Putting her hands on her hips as if explaining to someone how to breathe, she replied. “Of course! Axel is very precious to me, and I won’t let anyone else take him from me.”

What started as a fight to the death had suddenly become more akin to a counseling session, with Cora threading it along as she placed her attention somewhere else. She ripped off a sleeve from her uniform, wrapping it around the bleeding spot on her and flexing it to make sure it could move properly still. She looked up as she continued exploring Maya’s motivations.

“Can you not love him if he’s not fully devoted to you?”

“He’s not devoted to me.” Maya stated blankly. “He’s my beacon, the man that shows me where to go. I can’t follow my beacon if it’s being blocked out by others trying to take it for themselves… Like you.” Maya launched yet another batch of daggers at Cora, but she had seen her throws enough to dodge them all this time.

“Sounds to me this relationship is a bit unhealthy to me.” Cora turned to Maya with her rifle in hand, but didn’t take any shots.

“And what would you know about love?” The blonde girl spat out, trying to erase the words she had said from her brain.

“Plenty.” Cora smirked. “From my dad, from my friends, and most of all… From the man I love.” She trailed off, gripping her rifle and crouching down. “The thing I’ve learned time and time again, is that love is a two-way street. It’s not love…” She pounced forward into the great chasm between the two of them, spinning her body as she maintained eye contact with Maya. “Unless you’re willing to sacrifice for one another.” The sniper rifle was now pointed to the side, as far from Maya as it could be, instead aiming for the building Axel and Maya had emerged from earlier. Cora took the shot, with the bullet speeding out of the building and through the skyline, penetrating the glass of the floor she was targeting. She gave a satisfied smirk, before starting her freefall directly into concrete.

Once the bullet had pierced the glass, it was only a fraction of a second before it collided perfectly with the lock keeping Blitz’s limbs bound. The lock was blown across the room, breaking it off of the chains as they fell to the floor in a metallic symphony.

Droite turned from the window, with a shocked expression of horror on his face as the bruised young master stood from his chair and cracked his knuckles. His lightning core began to jet to life as the crackle of thunder filled the empty room and purple lines of energy appeared on his normally black steel legs. Droite’s face was corrupted into one of pleasure as all he could think of now was every way he could shatter Blitz’s miraculous hope before killing him once and for all.

Blitz walked forward, finding his mace on the ground between him and Droite. He slid his foot under the weapon and kicked it up, grabbing it as it spun midair. Once he rested it at his side, he took his purple headphones, which were slightly singed but far from nonfunctional, and placed them on his ears. He tapped his pocket, which contained what Droite assumed was whatever device started playing the music in his headphones he started snapping along with the beat to.

“Let me make up for all those years ago.” Blitz said, walking towards the man who no longer was his torturer or his butler, but just an opponent to be defeated. “This hand will kill for the second time tonight.” He threw the head of his mace forward, which Droite deflected away with a roundhouse kick and a crackle of lightning.

“Let’s see you try it, Blitz… But I’ve gone pretty far ahead of you since we last saw each other, do you think you can catch up?” He planted his feet in the ground as the floor filled with stray bolts of violet electricity.

The boy in the headphones prepared for an oncoming attack, but when Droite pushed off of the ground, his entire body vanished.

A bead of sweat dripped from Blitz’s brow as his eyes darted around the room. What the hell? He thought, with nothing but that phrase taking over his entire mind. Not even the music in his ears could overpower his confusion. That is, until he saw it.

Violet streaks of light were being painted around the edges of the room. No human body was discernible from the speed at which it was moving, but Blitz knew it couldn’t be anything else but him. Blitz braced himself for an attack from any angle, but spreading himself so thin meant his defenses were ultimately meaningless when the violet blur burst into his back with a kick and sent him skipping across the floor like a stone in a river, tumbling into one of the glass windows of the building, not breaking through it, but sliding down as he felt the only thing which broke had to be some assortment of his bones.

Droite stood in his form with his leg still outstretched, slowly lowering it to the ground as he let out his final taunt before he got serious:

“It’s nice seeing you try so hard… But, you can’t beat what you can’t catch.”

He showed his familiar devilish smirk as he waited for his prey to stand back up and enter the fray once again, even if his chances of victory were slipping by the second.