"But…but that’s impossible…" Armand gasped. He jaw fell to the floor and his skin turned pale, as if he had seen a ghost. However, Helen and David had almost the exact same reaction.
"What’s wrong, Armand? Are you suddenly afraid of me?"
Armand stuttered in response before getting a hold of himself. "You’re dead," He hissed, "Why can’t you stay that way?"
The only response he got was the sound of a bullet echoing through the corridors.
Helen hardly had time to blink before Armand fell to the ground, completely lifeless. The bullet had pierced him through his head, right between the eyes. Helen reacted quickly and pulled free of the terrified soldier restraining her. David was quick to follow suit.
"You are supposed to be dead, you know."
Brittney smiled and nodded. "I know," She heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway and glared in their direction. "We need to get out of here, come on." She dashed off.
David looked at Helen skeptically.
"We don’t have much of a choice," Helen sighed, she then took off after Brittney.
"So how did you survive?" Helen asked the redheaded girl as they ran for the hanger.
"It’s a long story," Brittney smirked. "I’ll tell you later." They stopped at the hanger and took a rest.
"I saw Armand destroy the detonator." Brittney panted. "What are you going to do now?"
"There’s still a way," Helen said reluctantly. "But…"
"But what?" Brittney urged.
"I won’t do it, we’ll have to drop the mission and come back."
"What! Drop the mission! You can’t do that! You’ve gotten so far, you’re so close to ending this!"
"Forget it! The only way now is to set off the mother explosive manually. Which means…"
"Someone has to die…" Brittney finished for her. She lowered her head and sighed deeply. "I see where you’re coming from, Helen. You don’t want anyone to die."
"Especially not now that we’re so close to ending this dumb war." David seethed.
"Don’t worry about it Helen, I’ll do it for you."
Helen’s head shot up and she stared at Brittney. "You can’t be serious."
Brittney shook her head. "No, I’ve already caused so much damage. Think of this as my way of making it up to you."
"No…Brittney, you can’t do this for us! You’ve already saved David and I, that’s enough!"
"No it’s not!" Brittney snapped. "It’s not and you know it! I only wanted to kill Armand. You know that…"
Helen nodded slowly.
"Brittney, you can’t really think…" David started, "You can’t just sacrifice yourself!"
Brittney was about to reply when she heard someone calling them. It was Jason and Indigo.
"Helen! David! What’s going on? Seth lost your signal and…" He stopped when he got closer and saw the redhead standing with Helen and David.
"Brit…Brittney? But…but they said you were dead."
"Not me," Brittney smiled weakly.
"Ha ha! This is great!" He ran and gave Brittney a huge hug.
"Don’t celebrate just yet, Jason." She warned.
Jason pulled back from her, "What do you mean?" He laughed, "Are you worried about what the others will think? Trust me Brittney, after all the help you’ve given us…"
"Jason!" Brittney screamed, cutting him off. "I’m trying to tell you that I’m going to die!"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"The remote detonator to the bombs has been destroyed. Someone…someone has to stay behind and set them off manually."
"What? Wait a second…Brittney no…"
"It’s the only way, Jason."
"No! You don’t have to do this." He said angrily. "I won’t let you!"
"Jason, shut up! You aren’t going to talk me out of this!"
"But Brittney, why would you do this?"
"Think of it as redemption for my sins."
Jason was speechless, for once.
"I saw them go this way! Hurry up, they killed General Norris!"
The teens all looked over towards the direction of the voices. A swarm of Neo Zion soldiers were heading their way.
"You guys need to get out of here." Brittney urged them. "Don’t worry about me anymore. You need to save the world."
"This is insane." Indigo muttered. "I don’t understand it."
"Uh…guys? What is taking you so long? Joel and Jazz say they’re ready to go."
"We’re coming Seth," Indigo answered.
"Is that Seth?" Brittney gasped. "Please, let me talk to him."
Indigo stared for a moment and then nodded and handed her communicator over to Brittney. "Here,"
Brittney shakily slipped on the headphones and took a deep breath. "You guys get out of here, now!" She cried. She started to shove them away.
"I was wrong about you," Helen said. She held out her hand to the other girl. "I’m sorry."
Brittney smiled, "It’s OK, you had every right to hate me. Now go!"
Helen nodded and headed off after the rest of them. Only Jason remained there with Brittney and the approaching soldiers.
"Jason, get out of here, quickly. I don’t want to have to blow this place up with you still in it."
"Brit, I can’t just leave you here…"
"Jason, come on!" Helen called to him.
"You should go, they need you more than I do Jason."
"I can’t…"
"Yes you can!" Brittney snapped. "Stop treating me like I can’t take care of myself!" Her voice with filled with fury, but there were tears in her eyes.
"Jason!" Helen grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away. Jason wouldn’t let her.
"Just get out of here!" Brittney screamed. Finally Jason turned and followed Helen towards the exit.
Brittney watched him go with tears welling in her eyes, threatening to spill. She saw the soldiers were in sight now, she didn’t have much time.
"Jason!" It was an irrational split-second decision, but she couldn’t help herself. Jason stopped and turned and Brittney ran to him as fast as she could. She threw herself into his arms and locked her mouth over his for a passionate goodbye kiss.
Jason eagerly wrapped his arms around her waist and returned the kiss, until Brittney suddenly pulled back. "Bye Jason."
"Brittney, I’m going to miss you." He said softly. Helen looked on at the two in concern.
"Me too," She blinked her tears away and forced a smile. "See you in Hell, Jason."
"Can’t wait," Jason managed a weak smile before forcing himself to turn and run out.
It took all of Brittney’s strength not to follow them. But she knew she couldn’t. She finally had a chance to do something right for a change, and she was going to take it. When Jason was out of sight, she flipped the Com Link switch and took a deep breath. "Seth, Seth are you there?"
"I’m here, who is this?" Came the crackling response. "This is Brittney, Seth…" She could almost see his eyes widening in shock.
"Br…Brittney?" She could hear the tears in his voice.
"I don’t have a lot of time too talk Seth, I just need you to listen."
"Brittney, what are you talking about? What are you doing in there?"
"I’m going to set off this bomb manually Seth,"
"No!" she shouted.
"Don’t try and stop me Seth, there’s nothing you can do anymore. I just wanted to tell you that…I love you, and I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused."
There was a long pause, "…Brittney…" He choked down a few sobs before he spoke. "You don’t have to do this Brit, we can just come back another day. Norris is dead so it won’t be that hard. Please Brit, don’t just end it now."
"I’m sorry Seth," the soldiers were almost on top of her, if she didn’t act now they could stop her. "Goodbye, brother." She took a long, deep breath.
"No Brittney! I lost you once already! I don’t want to lose you again!" Seth screamed. It was the last thing she heard. The bomb was detonated and the blast shook the entire building, sending it crumbling to the ground.
~
Seth heard the Com Link explode into static, and it was the most devastating thing he had ever heard in his entire life. He knew she was gone for good this time. There was no coming back from and explosion like that. The windows of the shack rattled, and a wave of energy shook it so that pieces fell from the ceiling. He didn’t care about any of that. He slammed his fist into the table and broke it in half. He was no longer able to control it, and he fell to the ground and curled up on the floor, shaking with sobs.
~~
Jason had heard the last conversation between Seth and Brittney. They all did, and all were speechless as they ran at top speed for the exit. They heard a deep rumbling from within the base, followed by a sickening explosion. The explosion ended in a wave of energy that pulled all the teens off their feet and sent them flying. The heat was almost unbearable and the force of the blast was enough to knock them unconscious. Still, Jason tried to maintain consciousness. He felt himself being thrown out of the base just as he reached the door. He was able to cover himself before a mass of debris and rubble fell on top of him and buried him.
The Earth under him seemed to shake violently and debris piled up on top of him until he could hardly breathe. He wondered if the others were OK. Finally, he lost his grip on reality and drifted into darkness.
~~
It was a faint, warm kiss of sunlight on Jason’s cheek that woke him from his troubled sleep. He slowly opened his eyes and listened to the sounds of morning. The sun was rising; he could see only a sliver of it through a break in the rubble.
"Hello!" He heard someone call, "Where are you guys?"
"Here!" I’m over here!" Jason called. He struggled to push the pieces of concrete and metal off him. Someone was digging from above, and soon he saw Seth’s face appear. His eyes were red and swollen, probably from crying over Brittney. Seth reached down and helped Jason out of the hole.
"Are you OK?" Seth asked.
"Peachy," Jason snorted. "Have you found any of the others?"
Seth shook his head; "I could use some help, if you’re feeling up to it."
"Of course," Jason answered. He and Seth split up to find their friends in the ruins.
"Hey! We could use a little help here!" Joel’s grumbling tone broke the dreadful silence. Jason and Seth both rushed towards him. The Chinese teen was waving his arms frantically from some distance away.
They reached him and saw the problem. Joel was there with Indy, trying unsuccessfully to lift a heavy piece of concrete off of his half-conscious sister.
"Hang in there, Jazz," Seth gasped. He moved in to help the other two lift it. When it was up, He dashed underneath and picked up Jasmine and carried her to safety.
"What about David?" Indigo gasped as she tried to stop the bleeding from her head.
They heard a moan from somewhere near and ran over to its source.
They found David with debris over his legs, rendering him helpless. "Remind me to never get blown up again." He moaned.
Jason laughed as he dug the dirt away from his friend and helped him out.
"Whew, that’s a relief. We’re all OK." David sighed.
"Not yet we aren’t, where’s Helen?" Jason said frantically.
"Split up and look for her." Joel ordered. He looked down at Seth and his sister and sighed.
"Look after her for me,"
Seth nodded and gathered the girl in his arms. For the first time he realized how small she was. It was hard to imagine her that way, since she carried herself like she was seven feet tall. Now she only looked tiny and fragile. She unconsciously slipped her arms around Seth’s neck and her head fell against his chest. Despite everything, She managed a genuine smile and pulled her close to him. It seemed to him now that everything would be OK.
~
"Helen! Helen!" Jason called, he ran through the ruined base, looking for the blue-haired girl.
"Helen babe, where are you?"
"I’m not going to answer unless you stop calling me ‘babe’" Helen couched.
Jason smiled and ran over to her. "Ow!" Helen hissed with pain as he lifted some rubble off her leg. There was a piece of shrapnel stuck in her shin, and it had cut all the way down to the bone.
"Hold on babe, I’ll get you out."
Helen didn’t have enough strength to complain. He shakily gripped the shrapnel and pulled...hard.
Helen screamed with pain and the metal tore through her leg.
"You idiot!" She gasped. "You’re such a moron!" She let out a string of choice words in between deep breaths.
Jason smiled at her, "Come on Helen, Let’s get out of here."
Helen sighed and nodded and allowed Jason to help her to her feet. However, t was soon discovered that she could not walk, so Jason scooped her up in his arms. Surprisingly, Helen did not protest. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and followed his gaze out of the ruined base.
Through the settling dust and smoke they could see the first rays of sunlight breaking through, and the birds were singing their early morning chorus. Helen smiled and let her head rest against Jason’s shoulder.
"We finally did it, Jason. The war is over."
"Yeah…" Jason agreed. He closed his eyes and thought of Brittney and her sacrifice. "Thanks Brit, I owe ya one." He looked up at the sky and grinned. He knew she was up there, with the angels where she belonged. He turned slowly and walked towards the rest of the group. "Come on Helen, let’s go home."
