Leonandace

Candi eyed the tools table.

There was a a hammer, some pliers, a pair of scissors, a knife, and a bundle of rope. They were the usual generic tools that could tackle most any situations.

Unfortunately for her, this was not one of those situations that could be fixed with a hammer or a pair of pliers.

On one side was a bomb with less than five minutes left to go.

On the other side was a chained Prince of Erenveil in desperate need of medical assistance.

There was no way to cut through the iron chains.

The hammer would be useless. Even if she used it to beat down on the knife to see if she could shatter one of the iron links, there was still the matter of time.

There was not enough time to extract Leonardo from his chains before the bomb exploded. It would take too long to even break a single link of that iron chain.

She glanced at the doorway on the other side of the Pantheon.

If she ran really fast, she could easily make it out of the Pantheon before the bomb exploded, but that would mean leaving Leonardo behind to die when the bomb exploded.

She could never do that.

Candi turned back to look at the bomb. It was set up in the normal way, chained to the box with the same type of chain that was used on Leonardo.

She leaned in closer to look at its timer mechanism. It was a simple set-up.

There were two obvious wires that connected the timer to the bomb. One was pink and the other was yellow. The wires were even pre-exposed for her to choose.

Candi looked at the tools table.

She had a pair of scissors that she could use to cut one of the wires. The problem was, there would be no way to know which wire to cut. Snipping the wrong wire would mean she and Leonardo kissed this life goodbye.

The other option would be for her to drag the bomb away from Leonardo.

A quick glance at the table threw that idea out the window. Not only was it was bolted to the hard concrete floor, it was also too heavy for her to lift.

Dragging it using the rope was no good either. She wouldn't make it past the stage area before she ran out of time. With only three minutes left to go, Candi was quickly running out of options.

She gritted her teeth and ran to the tools table.

Reaching out, she grabbed the pair of scissors. Wasting no more time, Candi ran back to Leonardo.

Damn.

He was bleeding all over the floor from the cut on his head.

She leaned in closer to him and checked his breathing and pulse. He was cold to the touch, but his vital signs seemed to be functioning.

"You're going to be fine, Leonardo. Don't worry Honey. I'm right here." She leaned closer and kissed his cheek.

Blood from his head smeared onto her hands and face but Candi disregarded the mess. The most critical part of his injury was his bleeding. She had to try and stem the blood loss.

She grabbed one section of her skirt and snipped a few sections of the fabric. In quick motions, she tore long strips of the priceless mugo silk into bandage sized sections.

With deft hands, she bound his head with the silk, effectively stemming the tide of blood that was flowing from his head injury.

A quick glance showed that she had less than a minute left of time before the bomb exploded.

Taking a deep breath, she called out.

"Avgo, get your ass out here!"

Instantly, the pink Avgo hovered above her, refracting its deep inner brilliance and throwing its faceted light around.

With fierce eyes, she raised herself onto her toes and wrapped her arms around Leonardo, sheltering his head into her shoulder and covering his ears.

"Hang on Honey!" She called out to him and closed her eyes, bracing for the impact of the explosion.

…

…

…

BOOM!!!

The blast was so loud, for a moment, she could not hear anything. She could feel the force of the heat that the blast generated, but it was a diffused heat and not one that would be able to kill her.

The pink Avgo gemstone had done its job by throwing a force shield around her, and because she was holding onto Leonardo so tightly, it had also protected him from harm.

"Oh thank heavens." She muttered, rubbing at his golden head that was still sheltered within her embrace.

"And there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen! That concludes our exciting Brilliance and Intellect Event!"

The sound of Lorem Ipsum reverberated through the Celestial Pantheon as the cheering and clapping rose to fevered pitch.

Candi opened her eyes and saw Leonardo's aqua blue eyes gazing down at her full of love and adoration.

Was this all a fake unfunny joke?

"You're not hurt." She mumbled, still in shock.

"Thanks to you, I'm perfectly safe, My Love." He leaned down and kissed her with a desperate fierce intensity that he had never shown before.

Leonardo found himself falling into the abyss with no way out, and he was welcoming the fall with open arms. If there was ever any doubt that she was heaven sent—the perfect woman for him, it had completely been dispelled.

This was a woman who disregarded her own safety to protect others around her. She had shown that when she ran into danger to save Slate.

She exemplified it again today, when she used her own body to shield him from the effects of the bomb blast.

He muttered a couple of words, disengaging himself from chains that fell away at his magic command.

Reaching out, he picked her up and carried her to the center of the glass platform.

The blast had damaged everything within the vicinity, but it did not damage the platform itself.

He spoke another power command and reality shifted. Suddenly, Candi could see the interior of the Pantheon.

It was filled with people!

Lorem Ipsum was standing on a small floating platform among the crowd, smiling at her and Leonardo. He waved a hand and a virtual screen showed the close up image of Leonardo holding onto Candi, their faces mere inches apart.

They were both bloody and disheveled, their clothing torn and ripped, but they were apparently unharmed.

From everywhere, the audience began a chant which sounded suspiciously like Leonandace.

"LEONANDACE!!! LEONANDACE!!! LEONANDACE!!!"

"What's going on?" She murmured into his ear.

"It looks like you did well at this event," he turned to look at her with aqua eyes as warm as a summer day.

"You saved me, Cancandi." He whispered as he once again leaned down and kissed her in full view of the entire audience.