Orion VS Nova (3)

"Don't! Don't... bring the next generation into this! Leave them out of our conflict!" Nova shouted out through raspy breaths into a pool of her own vomit.

"I wonder if you could tell Nathan that, you know, after he died? You poisoned him, you brought the next generation into this. I never planned to stick around until the next generation, but you dragged me back into the life that I wanted to stay away from. If you wanted to leave the next generation out of that, you would've followed those ideals a long time ago," I told her.

I knew Nova was only desperate now because she was about to lose.

I walked up the steps and knocked on the door lightly, pushing it open and peeking inside.

"Mizu. That's your name, right?" I asked her, setting my sword down against the wall as I walked in.

"What do you want?" She asked me, hiding behind a plethora of pillows in her bed.

"Your mom thinks I'm going to kill you. Do you know about your mom?" I asked her, waiting for her answer.

"Know about her? What do you mean?" She asked back, slowly releasing a pillow from her tight grip.

"Your mom is a monster... and I'm going to prove it to you... can you play pretend with me for a second?" I asked her.

Nova was right... as much as I wanted to kill her daughter for payback... I'm going to leave the next generation out of our conflict.

The keyword there in my method is the word 'our' conflict.

The next generation will not be absent from conflict entirely... Mizu will solve my problems down the line for me, and it will greatly help me out.

"I'm going to swing my sword into your wall, and you're going to scream. I guarantee you, you'll find out something about your mom that makes her evil. I know, as her daughter, that might seem impossible... before I do this, I want you to know that I raised you, Mizu. Your mom killed my wife, a wonderful lady who never even let you get a scrape on your knee," I told her.

I swung the sword into the wall and in conjunction with my movement, Mizu started to scream.

I heard the stairs start to rattle as Nova was emotionally cornered her.

"HEAR THAT NOVA?! THAT'S THE SOUND OF MOONLIGHT'S REVENGE!" I screamed out toward the door to Mizu's room.

"SHE DESERVED IT! YOU ALL DO! I'LL KILL YOU ORION! YOUR SON DESERVED IT! YOUR FAMILY DESERVED IT! IF I COULD, I WOULD TORTURE YOUR FAMILY AND KILL EVERYBODY YOU EVER LOVED!" Nova screamed, kicking at Mizu's door... which seemed to be the strongest door in the house.

"You hear that, Mizu? Your mom killed my family... and she says they deserved it... she'll try to make me seem like a bad guy, but your mom is the devil in disguise..." I mumbled. Mizu nodded with a shocked face, backing further into her bed, and screamed as I slammed the sword into the wall.

"OUT OF ALL THE PEOPLE I'VE KILLED, THEIR SUFFERING WON'T MATCH YOURS, ORION!!!" Nova shouted out through teary-eyed sentences.

She finally kicked the door down and witnessed what had actually been happening.

Mizu, in the corner, started to cower away from her mother, and I stood across the room, waiting to slit Nova's throat as soon as she thanked me for sparing her daughter.

"You... didn't kill her...?" Nova muttered, walking closer to Mizu's bed.

I put my hand on the desk right behind me, hitting a bottle of ethanol on the counter.

I picked it up... ethanol? Used for preventing infections? What was this doing here...

Right before I finished the thought, Ultima grabbed my sword and plunged it through my chest in Mizu's room.

"We're monsters so our kids don't have to be... you wanted Aegis to live a free life here on Earth, right? Good luck with that. When I find her, I'll gut that child like it means nothing," She said.

I picked up the bottle of ethanol off of the desk and sprayed it into Nova's eyes, which caused them to burn intensely.

She let go of the sword while rubbing the ethanol off of her face, and I pulled out the sword from my back, and slashed over her throat with it, pushing her up against the window with her cut throat spilling blood all over Mizu's room.

I pushed her out of the window with a bout of strength that came from the adrenaline of being stabbed in the chest, and Nova and I fell out of the second story to her house, colliding with the porch again.

Nova grabbed her throat, and while choking on blood, she gurgled through the blood suffocating her.

"Why... isn't... healing...?" She muttered, clawing at it.

It's not healing...? Why would it? Don't tell me! She can heal?!

But... ethanol is stopping her from healing... that's not possible, is it? Strands can heal anything, that's why Sky came out of our fight unscathed.

"MOM!" I heard a tiny pitter patter down the steps as Mizu ran out of the house without shoes, crouching down beside her mouth while holding down her throat.

"Not... healing..." Nova gurgled some more. Mizu nodded, and just like it was nothing, cut a piece of the skin off of her arm. I was disturbed by the scene... but Mizu placed it over the cut on Nova's throat, and it healed. Nova started to gasp for air after the white strands healed her body...

Why did Mizu do that?! I had so many questions...

I decided not to sit around, tearing a part of my bloody shirt off, and using my own blood to write something.

I wasn't going to survive this, not with Nova alive... but I could pass down the information in the worst-case scenario!

I dabbed my finger in the blood leaking from my chest and wrote...

"ETHANOL STOP STRAND"

As simple as I could make it, I blew on the shirt to dry it right as Nova got up on her feet, and shoved it in my pocket.

I couldn't help but smile as Nova walked toward me.

Good... kill me and keep me dead this time. I never asked to come back, but I sure as hell slowed Nova down from joining her mobilized soldiers.

"Remember what I told you... Mizu... even your mom is not immune to being a monster," I said, smiling.

"You're right, nobody is immune," She said, grabbing her staff, and hitting me on the head with it. My vision went dark, and my soul finally felt peaceful.