Standoff - Skeletons of the Past Chapter 13

Collection: Age of Youth
Chronicled by: Ghasty

Skeletons of the Past: Chapter 13
Standoff

​ After Desmofýlax, Eoin, Hallr, Mech, Petra, Ren, and Xanthia left the well area, Alexa snuck down to the holding cells. Alexa went one by one to each of the cells containing prisoners, freeing Dullahan, Mictecacihuatl, Grim, Zenon, and two other prisoners in the process. Alexa handed the Harbingers their weapons, Zenon her lupara, along with supplying the other two prisoners with revolvers. One of the prisoners was an older woman. She wore a woolen blue dress and blue silken scarf around her head. The other prisoner was a man wearing a bandana over his mouth and goggles covering his eyes.

“You all have something against the Authority whether it’s a bounty on its members, a revealing of the truth, or a family member dead at their hands,” Alexa’s distorted voice came out from the mask, “now you can finally enact your plans.”
“And what do you want from us in return?” Mictecacihuatl asked.
“Only your help in destroying this puny insurgency.”
“And how will we enact our plans?” Dullahan asked.
“They’re currently in a group searching for me, we’ll sneak up on them, and overpower them.”
“Sounds good,” the woman in the dress answered.
“Now follow me.” Alexa left the well area followed by the six prisoners. They walked through the halls, sneaking up behind several rebellion guards, before tying them up and taking their ammunition. The group eventually came up to he group. Alexa’s group took aim at the backs of the rebels.
“Hello, Petra,” Alexa’s distorted voice eerily greeted Petra. Petra turned around towards Alexa, with the rest of Petra’s group doing the same. Petra’s group drew their guns. Alexa and Petra stood facing each other, Alexa’s revolver aimed at Petra and Petra’s rifle aimed at Alexa. Ren stood at Petra’s left, aiming his rifle at Mictecacihuatl, who was aiming her pistol at him. Mech stood at Petra’s right, aiming his rifle at Dullahan, who aimed back at him with her crossbow. Desmofýlax stood at Petra’s left, aiming his pistol at Zenon, who aimed back at him with her lupara. Xanthia stood at Mech’s right, aiming at Grim, who aimed at her with his pistol. Hallr stood at Desmofýlax’s left, aiming at the older woman with his revolver, was aimed back at by the woman and her revolver. Eoin stood at Xanthia’s right, aiming his pistol at the man in the bandana, who aimed back at him with his pistol. The group stood motionless, nobody wanting to shoot lest they themselves get shot. They stood like this for two minutes before Petra spoke.
“Why are you doing this?” Petra asked.
“Vengeance for my sister’s murder,” Alexa’s distorted voice answered.
“And why do you think we have anything to do with that?”
“Before you people institute the ‘no killing’ rule, you would shoot and kill Authority guards if it came to it. My sister, Lana, was an Authority guard when she was killed during one your excursions for resources. I allowed myself to become adopted into this rebellion in order to narrow don who Lana’s killer was. I used accounts of the excursion in order to construct what happened. I narrowed my search down to him,” Alexa explained gesturing towards Ren, “I could have simply killed him and abandoned the revolution, but I was persuaded to stay and enact a larger plan.
“Persuaded? By who? And to do what?” Petra asked.
Alexa seemed to avoid the topic and began to address Mech. “Have you noticed the slightly darker spot over your workbench that doesn’t become fixed no matter how much maintenance you do?”
“What about it?” Mech responded.
“Have you ever noticed any weird voices, or odd occurrences around it?”
“What do you mean?”
“No whispers when nobody else was around? Or when you tinkered with prototypes of machines that were supposed to alter time?”
“I have, but I thought I was just going crazy.”
Alexa began to address Petra again. “Whoever’s whispers they were, I serve them.”
“Who follows someone they don’t know?” Petra asked.
“The whispers told me things about he future that no one knew which came true. They promised me great power if I took on their image and destroyed the rebellion.” The light in front of one of Alexa’s eyes began to subtly flicker, which only Mech noticed.
“And how do you know this whisperer will keep their word?”
“They have granted me part of their power before. They’ve given me inhuman strength in order to destroy the backup generators. Why wouldn’t they help me again?” Alexa’s light began to flicker more often, which Petra and Ren took notice of.
“What is their endgame? Why do they want us gone?”
“Probably the same reason most people want your group to be wiped off the face of this ever-changing desert, your belief.”
“Great, now we have an army, a group comprised of bounty hunters and prisoners, and a supernatural whisperer with inhuman powers who all want to kill us for our faith,” Ren pointed out sarcastically.
“But soon you have no worries, nor any other emotions,” Alexa’s distorted voice whispered. Alexa’s finger slowly began to curl around the trigger. Instead of going out, her light would flash briefly to red. Everybody on Petra’s side of the fight had noticed her light now.
“That won’t happen for a long time!” A voice rang out behind Alexa. Alexa’s light began to flicker quicker. Behind Alexa stood Lacea, rifle raised at Alexa’s back. With her stood Aileen, Antonin, Jehan, Marius, Melody, Lukas and Zenobia.
“I would suggest standing down, it will make our work easier,” Lacea declared. Alexa’s light began to stay mostly red, but would flash back to white.
“You won’t kill me,” Alexa responded, “you’re too weak.” A look of anger spread upon Lacea’s face. Her finger moved over the trigger, and before anyone could stop her, she pulled it. What would have unfolded next would have involved death, a corpse, and a bit of blood, had the bullet not stopped mid-air and dropped straight to the ground. Several people gasped in shock, including those on Alexa’s side.
“So it seems you do have the guts to try to kill me,” Alexa said impressed, “but it seems the whisperer has other plans for me.” Alexa’s light now stopped turning to white and stayed fully red. After Alexa had spoken these words, a wave of coldness and paranoia passed over everyone present. It seemed as if eyes peered out from the very fabric of reality. Another distorted whisper echoed throughout the halls, but it was had not originated from Alexa. The whisper began in an unknown language lost to time, but it then suddenly switched to English.
“You are right, Alexa Gunn, but these plans do not benefit you. I only stopped the bullet because I myself intended to rid you off the face of this bleak desert. You no longer have any use to me, so why keep you around longer to become a simple petty annoyance. And Petra, your next opponent will be a worthy one.” Alexa fell to her knees and began to writhe in pain. This lasted for only a bleak moment before the inner mechanisms of the light broke for, shattering the glass in the process. At this event, Alexa became limp and slumped to the ground. The six accompanying Alexa quickly put their weapons down. The feeling of cold and paranoia lifted from the twenty one fighters, instead, a somber silence fell over them. Mech was the first to speak out.
“What did I just witness?” Mech asked in a mix of shock and wonder.
“I don’t know,” Petra responded.
“Is… is she dead?” Lacea asked. At Lacea’s question, Aileen approached Alexa. Aileen felt around for a pulse, and found a faint one.
“She’s still alive, but barely,” Aileen responded, “she needs medical treatment, but I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“If that is so, she probably needs to be brought to the AUthority City,” Petra said, “Antonin and Zenobia, accompany Aileen and Alexa to their for protection.”
“Understood,” Antonin and Zenobia said in unison. Antonin and Zenobia picked up Alexa and followed Aileen to the garage.
“Now, what to do with all of you?” Petra asked.