The blood in Lian’s veins suddenly seemed too loud, too hot,
too fast. She wanted to scream, wanted to scream until Connor
understood, but he was being so damn rational himself that her
own temper was simmering down. She was losing purchase,
spiraling into nothing other than frustration && despair over what
she’d witnessed today. She’d liked the anger better, it was more
comfortable, easier to deal with. This feeling that was left was just
hard && mucky && it was dragging her someplace she didn’t want to be.
Someplace that was conflicted over her own convictions, conflicted
over everything she’d ever know && everything she’d ever been.
The tears in her eyes were still stinging her. A few fell.
But she wouldn’t let it become more than a few.
She refused to give in to the urge to cry like a little girl.
She wasn’t a little girl anymore.
But that was the problem, wasn’t it? That was what she couldn’t
bring herself to reconcile--what kind of hero would let this man walk
from here? Just how many evils had they turned over to the cops just
for them to get out a month or so later, or not get convicted, or... or...?
“ That’s the point, ”
she breathed, not changing her stance, not lowering her bow, not giving
even a hint of evidence that she might be changing her mind.
“ He is unarmed, beaten, defenseless. Just like his victims.
Why should I afford any honor to those who have none themselves?
Why should I be more merciful than he was? I’m calling in the debt.
Blood for blood. ”
Her gaze burned hot, but there was something beyond it. Something
vulnerable. && that vulnerability sharpened to a terrible edge when
Connor drew his bow. She was too lost in the moment to see it as
anything more than a signal that the conversation was over, that there
would be no more words. The need to scream intensified, the need to
yell && shake && hit && claw until everything made sense again,
until the images of small, broken bodies chased out from behind her
eyes && laid to rest someplace safer, warmer, loving. She let out a
small choking noise, a strangled something. Killing this man
wouldn’t give his victims their lives back. It wouldn’t take back the
suffering he’d inflicted, it wouldn’t make anything better except
maybe she’d be able to sleep tonight knowing there was one less
monster under her bed.
She turned her eyes away from Connor, gritting her teeth && keeping her bow steady.
“ I do know what happens if I shoot him, Green Arrow... ”
she turned her body quickly, flipped, shifted stance,
“ but I wonder ”
from where Connor was positioned relative to her, now, he didn’t have a clear shot at her string. Her body was in the way. She’d left him with a choice to make,
“ if you do. ”
snowghoul
titsay
gummygunk
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romaincrisis
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