Chapter Text
Run.
Such a small word, for yet such a big meaning.
You could be running in a field, under the light blue sky, with the promise of sunshine in the summer, or you could be running with your friends, companions for life.
However, Eleanor was dealing with much more than that.
She was running for her life.
Sure, Eleanor always loved the feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins, but it did not accompany well with the constant sounds of explosion, swords clashing and buildings falling apart, as well as the constant fear of getting hit by falling debris in the sky.
With the high crime rates in L’manberg, it was not very rare for hero-villain fights to suddenly take place out of nowhere in the city, and it was even less rare for citizens to unfortunately run into them, and they were experiences that most do not want to get involved in, including Eleanor.
She wished that these experiences would only happen in the movies she shot in, but she just happened to be one of the hundred unlucky people who were just trying to live their normal lives in this part of the city.
While she bolted, hand grasping tightly onto Eliana’s and following her lead, she could have sworn she saw several heavy corpses on the road, some among the blunder, others just lying in a very distorted position.
Did the villains kill all of them?
Why did they have to be so wicked?
Eleanor didn’t know. All she knew was that either she or Eliana, or both, could be next.
The girl suddenly sensed a shadow looming over her.
She looked up, only to meet with a huge piece of cement.
The grip on her wrist grew tighter all of a sudden, and the girl felt herself get pulled away from the debris. She fell hard on the ground, and gritted her teeth as he skin came in contact with the cracks on the concrete road. She must have scrapped her knee, but that was probably better than getting crushed by a building.
Eliana, who also fell on the ground due to the fast momentum of pulling Eleanor away from the obstacle., quickly got to her feet, and reached her hand towards Eleanor.
“Come on El! We need to get out of here!”
Eleanor held onto her sister’s hand, and with her support, got herself off the ground, wincing from the burning sensation on her knee. got herself off the ground
She was overreacting, as it should be nothing compared to Eliana’s bleeding head. Besides, a scrape on her knee should not stop her from getting to the safe zone.
So they continued running.
By now, they were already out of the most dangerous zone. But it was still close enough for Eleanor to see the fight between the Syndicate and the heroes.
Blade and Dream were still going against one another strongly, sword clashing with rocks Dream summoned from the ground. Eleanor did not remember Dream having levitation abilities, but she remembered him having absorption powers, and judging from the fact that the entire syndicate was here could only mean one thing; Dream took Apollo’s levitation power.
Meanwhile, Flame and Jubilee were having their own fight, Jubilee trying to escape and Flame running faster him.
Wait,
Then where was Zephyrus and 404?
As if on cue, the sisters felt a sudden gust of wind as something big flew above them, sending Eliana and Eleanor to the ground due to the impact.
As Eleanor threw her head up to the sky, she saw a figure with wings as dark as the night, dodging something shooting at him.
Zephyrus.
Eleanor looked behind, and spotted another figure on a building, and she immediately recognised the hero’s stance and weapon.
It was 404, the powerless hero.
The hero and the villain seemed to be having their own game of tag, the hero trying to shoot down the flying villain.
And that just made it way harder for Eleanor and Eliana to escape.
The two immediately got up again, and this time, it was Eleanor who grabbed on Eliana’s hand and started sprinting first.
Things were starting to get out of hand.
Eleanor knew that very well.
The fight had just gotten more intense, with more and more heroes and villains appearing. First, it was just Blade and Dream, but now, it was the entire syndicate and the top heroes. And while Eleanor did not manage to spot Apollo or Shadow, the Syndicate’s newest addition, she knew they were somewhere, among the shadows or the blunder, but that did not matter.
All that mattered were Eleanor and Eliana’s safety.
Just then, Eleanor sensed something amiss.
Something changing in the air frequency.
Something…
She turned around, only to see a metal arrow, heading towards her as fast as a torpedo.
Fuck.
Everything happened way too fast.
One moment, the arrow was a meter or two away from Eleanor’s face.
The next moment, Eleanor felt a push on her back, and she was on the ground, face first.
Looks like she would be having more scratches, but that was not important.
What’s more important was,
How was she still alive?
The arrow was clearly aimed at her face, so how was it that it had not impelled her face?
As Eleanor sat up, cleaning the blood of her face, she froze as she turned around.
Behind her, the arrow had not shot through her face, but it shot through someone else.
Eliana.
The older girl was still standing, but the weapon had shot through her abdomen, and while Eleanor could not see her face as her back was facing her, she could make out the blood slowly dripping onto the concrete floor.
Eleanor’s world became a standstill as she tried to process everything, including her disbelief and impeding fear.
And then, it happened.
Eliana fell forward and onto her knees, supporting herself on the ground with her hand and vomiting even more of the red liquid, and then she swayed sideways till she landed on the ground.
And finally, Eleanor’s throat was no longer choked.
“ELIANA!!”
The girl crawled quickly towards her older sister, her eyes wide with shock.
Eliana was bleeding, a lot, and at closer inspection, the weapon was not actually an arrow, but a short spear, and Eleanor wanted to slap herself for forgetting that 404 used other weapons to substitute arrows to deal much more damage on enemies.
But this time, 404 shot a civilian.
An innocent being.
“Fuck, fuck, FUCK! ELIANA, STAY WITH ME!!” Eleanor shouted, tears pouring from her eyes like a waterfall as she lifted her sister’s left arm and ran her body under it to lift her sister up.
Her shouts should have attracted some attention from the heroes and villains, but no one seemed to care at this point. And she couldn’t blame them, as after all, they had their own fight to continue.
But she was not going to wait for help.
The safe barricaded area was still a distance away, so Eleanor’s next choice was the alleyway a little further from where she was, where it could probably shield her and Eliana from incoming attacks due to its narrow passageway.
As she trudged, trying her best not to drag Eliana across the floor, the weight on her shoulders wanted to make Eleanor scream. It was too heavy for her, and the pain in her knees were starting to become too much. But she needed to get out of here no matter what.
For Eliana.
And after what seemed like an eternity, the pair were finally in the alleyway, but Eliana was not looking good.
The spear had pierced into Eliana’s chest and out of her abdomen, in a slanted diagonal manner tangent to the ground, which means that her lungs could have been pierced. That was something Eleanor could not fix, but there was still another way she could help.
Recently, a few days ago, Eleanor had discovered her power; the ability to manipulate blood. Although she discovered it pretty late for her age, it was still better than being powerless, even though it served no use in acting.
However, Eleanor was not sure whether she could control blood to this extent.
But she needed to try.
And if she could, she could at least stop Eliana from losing too much blood.
Taking a deep shaky breath, Eleanor placed her hands on her sister’s abdomen, where the spear pierced through.
However, nothing happened.
The blood continued to seep through Eliana’s clothes, not in the direction Eleanor had controlled it to be. At least, how she wanted it to be.
“Come on, PLEASE!!” Eleanor shouted to herself, as she wiped her hands clean from the blood, Eliana’s blood, and tried again.
But to her horror, nothing happened again.
It was then when she made a terrifying discovery that crashed her whole world like a tsunami.
She could only control her blood, but not others.
A single tear drop formed in her eyes, and before she knew it, she broke down.
What was she supposed to do now?
She did not have healing powers like the villains Apollo or Shadow, and she was failing in her science classes.
What could she do?
Pulling out the spear would not help at all, as it would only cause the wound to bleed even more, but she needed to pull the spear out to stop its bleeding with a cloth, or something?
Gwen didn’t know what to do.
…
…wait.
That was it.
If Eleanor couldn’t save her sister, then someone else could.
Maybe Apollo? Or Shadow?
But would they be willing to?
And was it the best option? They were villains, after all. But Eleanor was getting desperate, and would be willing to look for anyone for help. Even if it was a villain.
She needed to try.
But just as she wanted to get up, she felt a hand hold onto hers weakly.
She turned around, to see her sister semi-conscious, her eyes opened slightly, revealing a deep shade of blue, and cold sweat forming on her face.
“Eliana! You’re awake! Don’t worry, I’m gonna get help, just-just wait for awhile more, please!”
“El-Eleanor…” the older girl whispered, and Eleanor stopped in her tracks to listen to her sister.
“Just…stay with me…ok..?”
Eleanor shook her head in reply, biting her lips as more tears made their way down her face.
“I-I can’t, Ana, I need to get help-”
“Please, El, please…”
Eleanor was at wits end.
If she stayed, Eliana would die, but she did not want to disobey her sister.
“She’s gonna die anyway, just do as she says,” a voice said in her head.
She did not know who it was, but it was probably herself.
“No she isn’t! She’s gonna survive! She-” Eleanor argued back in her head.
“Look at hear, the thing shot through her lungs. She can’t survive for long,” it replied, this time in a much more taunting voice.
Eleanor wanted to scream in frustration, but she knew the voice was right.
Looking at things realistically,
Eliana won’t survive.
So, Eleanor only did the logical thing to do.
She sat back down on the ground, and placed Eliana’s hand on her hand.
The older girl smiled weakly, a tear falling from her left eye.
“It’s ok, El. It’s ok. Please don’t cr-”
She stopped as she choked, blood spilling out of her mouth.
Eleanor still stayed, even though the blood splattered on her pants.
“Please…don’t cry, El. I can’t…clean it off for…you…” she whispered.
By now, Eleanor was already choking and sobbing on her tears, as well as the disgust brewing in her gall due to the blood.
It was just Eleanor, her sister, and the sounds of fighting becoming softer, being replaced by the sounds of footsteps.
“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!!” A matured male voice said, and Eleanor saw a few of the Syndicate members, the Blade and Jubilee, who was carrying an injured Shadow on his back. Not to forget Zephyrus, who was flying in the air, as usual.
Following behind, Dream and Flame chased, trying to catch up with the villain who were fleeing, none of them noticing the two civilians in the alleyway.
However, when 404 ran past, Eleanor could have sworn she exchanged glances with the hero.
But, to her dismay, the hero continued running, not even batting an eyelid at the two.
404 definitely saw her, as well as the mess he created.
So why did he not stop to help?
Eleanor felt her blood boil, and she could feel the liquid slowly flowing out of her scratches and coming together in her hand, as if forming into something. However, it quickly disappeared, as well as her anger, when Eliana coughed again, gripping on her hand more tightly.
“It’s ok…El…he can’t do much…”
Eleanor wanted to scream back at her dying sister, and scold her for being to soft.
So what if he could not heal like Apollo?
He was a hero!
He needed to protect civilians as well, not just catch villains!
But she choked on her own tears again, not being able to say anything.
Eleanor never cried this much before, and it hurt, a lot, as the tears burned in her eyes.
She never felt so hopeless before. She felt so fucking useless.
Her sister was dying in her face, but all she could do was watch.
Why did this have to happen? Why did the villains and heroes choose to fight in the middle of a busy road?!
Why?!
If none of this happened, Eleanor would have made it for her movie shooting, and afterwards, get back home safely to have a delicious dinner, and then the two would be staying up all night playing games behind their parents backs.
Everything would still stay the same.
But no.
Eliana was dying.
Because of the fight.
Because 404 missed.
How could he even miss?!
Because Eleanor could not stop the bleeding.
Because 404 did not stop to help.
Because…
Eleanor felt a hand on her cheek. The warm familiar feeling made Eleanor calm down, but yet cry again.
Eliana smiled weakly again as her hand shook from exhaustion.
“Eleanor…”
…
“I love you.”
By the time the evacuation team arrived, Eleanor was already leaning on the walls of the alleyways, asleep, and too tired from the crying and the pain…
…and beside her, was an older girl, whose body was stiff hard and cold, the blood puddle that formed on the floor drying up.
But the older girl’s hand that remained on Eleanor’s still stayed warm.