The flight from Spain to Greece took two hours and a half mostly because of turbulence, and by the time they landed it was still raining but compared to what they faced in the sky, it was more of a shower.
Nicoleta was nervous, her heart racing, the rain was the last of her worries when they landed. She was up all night, thinking about how she would be able to help any injured when she lacked any kind of control over her powers?
They couldn't turn back now and get an actual healer who knew what they were doing, if anyone was wounded, that would just aid in their quick death.
She shivered, what if her lack of control killed someone? What if she tried and failed and burned them just like Jackson.
When the doors of the croft gusted open, the General and the Commander both stood up.
All of them unbuckled their seatbelts, and stood up as well, hands tightly beside them pointed down like an arrow.
"Glass, and Alexander were located before their connection cut off, so just follow me and Costa" They all nodded, two officers joined them all as they stepped outside. Athens was mostly intact, for a place where most of the fights took place, it looked mostly untouched.
There were some ruined buildings here and there, but compared to other cities Athens was perfectly okay.
What fighting went on? Did most of it happen in the sky? Is that why the city looked so perfect?
Nicoleta didn't have time to ponder in it too much before being urged to move foward. They went into a half ruined building that looked oddly familiar to Nicoleta.
She looked at the side as they all went farther inside.
Inside they all split up and searched through rooms, and offices, bathrooms, suites, the building felt familiar too familiar.
Nicoleta placed her hand on a black knob and twisted it, it felt as if she had done it before, in the past, when she was just a child.
When she opened the door, and went inside. Laura Glass groaned and splashed Nicoleta with the rain coming inside the room through the broken window.
"Ariti?" Laura's eyes widened, her gaze traveling up and down Nicoleta's form. Nicoleta tapped on her bud, ignoring the discomfort that came with the wetness.
"I've found Laura Glass" she told the group, before offering a helping hand to Laura who gladly didn't seem injured.
"Is she alright?" Costa asked, Nicoleta beeped him "it seems like it" "thanks" Laura said as she stood up.
They joined the group in a lounge inside the ruined hotel. Beside them all was Leonardo looking just as he did the last time Nicoleta met him.
"Why is Ariti here?" Laura asked Commander Costa as she limped over to the exit. "She is the healer" his voice was thick with an Italian accent, his words almost indistinguishable.
Leonardo cocked his head at her, a question behind his eyes.
They all went into the hover croft, and got settled in, "check them for any injuries" said Lane as she got buckled in, Nicoleta led Leonardo and Laura into the Infirmary.
As she suspected they had no injuries, save for some cuts on their arms, they were alright.
"Why of all people did they send you?" Laura asked, as she swallowed a pill, "where did you get that?" Nicoleta asked Laura, eyes fixed on the pills, Leonardo butted in.
"I was to aquire about it" Nicoleta sighed, "I discovered that I had healing abilities some time ago" Laura shrugged accepting it just like that, Leonardo however, stared at Nicoleta curiously.
He seemed to want to hear more, or learn more she wasn't sure. She dragged them out of the infirmary before Laura could take more sleeping pills.
Only when he shook his head after keeping his eyes on her for an uncomfortably long time did she realize he was restraining himself from reading her mind, which was only somewhat of an open book since he trained her.
Nicoleta sat down by Levi, he leaned in and whispered, "do you know Alexander?" He asked, Nicoleta nodded.
"Zamans ran into some neighborhoods a few miles from here" Nicoleta heard Laura say, as answer to a question she couldn't catch.
"Since when?" She turned to Levi, he was staring at Leonardo, who was talking to Costa, she couldn't make out a single word, they both spoke Italian.
Leonardo was Italian? She thought turning to Levi once more. "When I was in sector 1" it nearly stung to reference to Westinsenson son knowing that it was in ruins, no doubt many bodies buried under the rubble.
She shivered at the thought.
"I met him in the library" Levi nodded, his gaze lingering on Leonardo before being called on by Costa.
Nicoleta watched them all talk, and not understand a word, she and Laura glanced at each other, both confused, Laura shrugged, a rigid smile drawing her face before she turned away.
The hover croft landed in Ekali in a couple of minutes, everyone stepped out except for Leonardo and Laura who were put on rest, and to enforce it Lane decided to stay behind.
The wind was familiar, the homes were familiar, the ground was familiar, Nicoleta was home, yet it was barren, lacking any life.
She expected the next time she'd be in Athens much more differently than what she was seeing, she pictured it being so much more warming than the cold that surrounded her, she expected it to be bright and her father to be waiting for her arms wide open, beside him would be Liam, she would be annoyed that Valarie was there, but angry when every neighbor would pop out of nowhere to say hello to her.
She imagined it so much more differently.
She took hurrid steps through the barren neighborhood, ignoring the blood she saw splattered on her neighbor Theodore's door step.
Evan followed close behind her, as she began to run, her heart drumming, mind racing.
Her flame bubbled in her stomach, heating up her skin.
She burst into her home, it looked the same, the living room was the same kitchen had been burnt, she wanted to laugh but when the pressure of laughter rose up to her throat a sob tore out of her mouth.
She burned down every door she touched, hoping to whatever would hear her prayer that she wouldn't find a drop of blood, in any room, let alone a body.
She searched room, study, library, pool, fashion room.
"What are you doing Ariti?" Evan asked as he tried to catch up with her, "how are you doing that?" His voice seemed a million miles away.
Nicoleta finally opened -not burned- the master bedroom door, and walked inside.
Her heart tore apart, she could feel her heart break, she heard it crack loudly in her ears, she felt it split apart inside of her blood in her veins, inside her mind, even an image of it in her eyes.
What lay before her was heart break, it was the end of her, she stopped breathing, her grip around the knob loosened, her knees buckled.
Sweat dripped down her forehead, her lungs screamed at her to breath, she didn't oblige.
Ambrose Ariti was laid almost peacefully on his bed, in his favorite tux, wearing the bow tie Nicoleta forced him to buy, his dirty blonde hair tugged neatly, his eyes closed his lips crooked into a small smile, a smile of satisfaction.
He looked so peaceful, so beautiful, even in death.
Greece's renowned architect was dead, Nicoleta's reason for living.
Nicoleta's heartbeat, Nicoleta's soulmate, Nicoleta's everything.
Evan caught her when she fell, "I'm so sorry" he whispered, she didn't respond, she only stared soullessly at her father.
"Nicoleta I- " he wrapped his arms around her pulling her into a tight hug.
Nicoleta pulled away, she pushed him away, and ran to her father.
Nicoleta fell on her father's unmoving chest, she grasped his face in her hands, tear streaking down one after the other.
She wanted to say so much, there was so much she wanted to say to him, so much she planned on saying to him, so many conversations she didn't finish with him.
Her mouth hung agape, her gaze never leaving his face, his unharmed, cold, dead face.
She placed her ear on his chest, waiting for a heart beat.
.
.
.
.
Yet nothing sounded, his chest stayed deathly still, his breath nonexistent.
Nicoleta let her white flame consume him, lighting him up in the most immaculate fire she had ever seen, if he were- ... alive
He would admire it, he would hug Nicoleta.
"Come one" she panted, "wake up" her voice grew louder, her shoulders tensed, she poured out even more of her energy into him.
"Come on- " the fire grew more and more, the white colour transforming from transparent to completely white.
"WAKE UP!" She screamed helplessly, "WAKE UP- WAKE UP" she hit his chest with all her strength, a crack sounded, "Please please" her breath hitched, she continued to hit his chest.
Nicoleta grasped his face again, shaking his head, "πατέρας"
"Πατέρα σε παρακαλώ ξύπνα - για μένα, σε παρακαλώ ξύπνα" Nicoleta begged, her flame slowly disappearing, as the reality settled in.
She fell on his neck, and cried.
She gripped his suit, holding his cold body close.
Planting a kiss on his forehead, his cheek, his hands, "will you wake up now?" She asked already knowing the answer.
"Nicoleta we have to go- Comma- " she waved a hand at him, sending a flame of fire toward where she knew he stood.
"I won't leave" she said solemnly, Evan took a step forward, "I can't go without you"
She blasted a whirl wind of fire toward him, "LEAVE!" She growled, her chest vibrating.
Nicoleta fell on her father's neck again, holding him tightly.
"I'm sorry for what I'm about to do- I really am- believe me when I tell you that I did everything in my power to plead for you" he wrapped his arms around her, sending an icy chill through her veins.
"Let go!" She squirmed in his arms, but he was much stronger, "No!" her voice cracked. Tears streamed down her face as her father grew farther and farther away from reach.
"No- let me go!" She tried to combat his flame with her own, but the coldness burning through her blood didn't allow her the chance.
Nicoleta's eyes blurred with tears, she stopped kicking, after they left the house.
When they arrived in the croft Evan sat her down and began verbally abusing his commander, she didn't understand a word.
But he shouted at Costa, and Levi who was confused for a moment got it, and also began to speak to the commander his tone a mix of anger and sadness.
He glanced once at Nicoleta throughout the whole interaction, his eyes glassy.
"If anyone steps out of this croft he or she" Lane looked at Nicoleta, "will be left behind" the doors began to close, and Evan turned to Nicoleta the boy she knew to never lose his composure was deflated.
He and Levi sat beside her. Her eyes landed on Leonardo, he raised a brow, she nodded.
It was easy to detect him roaming through her mind, but she didn't hate it anymore when it permitted her to be quiet.
"You- " Nicoleta looked up at the general, "Zamans needs a healer" Nicoleta shook her head.
Lane crouched to her eye level, a wild look is her eyes, "I'm sorry for what happened to you, but we can't focus on the dead- when the living needs healing"
Her eyes burst into flames, her flame nearly burning through her suit if it wasn't for her holding it back.
"I. Can't. Heal. Him, and you would have known if you let me tell you before rushing me into the croft!" Nicoleta shouted, rising from her seat in a fit of anger, the General didn't seem fazed, she hated that she didn't seem fazed. Nicoleta wanted her to be afraid, for her to beg her not to cause any harm.
"Well you healed De-Luca didn't you?" She didn't answer, but the General wasn't waiting for her to, "then figure it out"
Zamans was badly injured, but stable, he didn't seem to care about his injury all too much, he encouraged Nicoleta when she tried to heal him and failed. Multiple times she failed, each time she would break into tears about failing to protect her father.
Zamans tried to cheer her arm as best he could, but he could only do so much, being injured, and depending on a broken healer.
He must have been just as scared.
After failing thirty times, she left the infirmary.
She fell beside an empty seat next to Leonardo, he wasn't sleeping.
He had his nose in a book, wherever he got that. When he noticed her, he didn't waste time to roam through her head. She wanted to laugh at that, at the fact that he couldn't wait to dig through her head, that he wanted to read her mind so badly.
"Wherefore do you presume you're wrestling to command your powers?" Nicoleta wiped away a tear, the laughter finally breaking through, though it turned into a bitter cry right after.
"I don't know Leo- can you speak normally?" He closed the book.
"I do not believe you"
"What?" He nodded, "I cannot believe your words. Whereby did you learn how to command your abilities?"
"I practiced- if that's what you're even asking" she sighed, leaning back on the chair.
"something motivated you Nicoleta- whatever was your motivation?"
"I wanted to control my powers"
"Why?" Nicoleta cried. For her father, for her family, she did everything to get home, and when she did- everything was in ruins.
What was the point then? Why didn't she just die at the hands of her flame when she had the chance?
"Did it hurt?" She looked up at him, "what hurt?"
"When you saw your father dead on the bed" she shivered, Nicoleta couldn't erase the image of her father, cold, dead, unmoving.
"That's cruel Leo" he shook his head insisting further, "do you wish for that to happen to others?"
"Zamans is not the only soldier in the elite force" Leonardo agreed, "however he is expedient for the team, he has a larger impact on the force than many"
"And you're nothing?" He merely shrugged, "how come you were able to heal De Luca?"
"He's my friend" again he shook his head, "not quite enough"
"Because I was scared"
"Of what?" Nicoleta stood up, frustrated, her chest vibrated lightly, "I'll keep on trying" she said before leaving him.
Zamans was sleeping by the time she went inside, notwithstanding, she tried again, failed, and tried again.
She nearly called her scarlet flame out of anger when she caught herself, and sat back down.
Sighing heavily, Nicoleta placed her hands on zamans's wound, letting out a slow breath, she searched through her flames, ignoring the two that burned to come instead of the gentle warm white one.
Letting out a breath the same time she let the flame flow through, Nicoleta managed to heal his wound before the white flame disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.
She returned to her seat next to Levi, and when she was reminded of her father, she cried again into her hands.
In a flower field in the mountain of Immitos was Ambrose, across from Nicoleta, he shone in the sunlight, his apparel completely white.
He smiled, that beautiful warm smile, his warm brown eyes glimmering, then he waved at his daughter, and moved farther away.
Nicoleta ran towards her father, the smile on her face widening more and more.
She reached an arm toward him, speeding up her run, yet it seemed the faster she ran, the farther he went.
"μπαμπάς!" She called out her voice like a child.
"μπαμπάς! Where are you going?" She ran even faster, but then he disappeared from sight, and it was just Nicoleta in the flower field, the wind blowing her way, sending a cold chill through her veins.
She stood still, watching nothing, filled with longing to even touch her father again, just his face, or maybe his hand, even his pinky, maybe just have him stand before her, look at her, smile at her, say 'I love you' for the last time.
The flowers moved with the wind, the sun disappeared, the moon took its place, Nicoleta took one step forward, then another, and continued, her body numb, her heart though beating, her soul though in her body.
She was a dead girl walking, the flower fields her dreadful after life.
She bursted into tears once more, calling her father hoping he would hear, and answer.
"μπαμπάς μπαμπάς!!"