Ophelia lets herself be held by her family, but she’s startled when Reyna comes barging through the door and attacks Jonas. Stop, she wants to say. I don’t want to see you fight. I don’t want to see you destroy each other. But she’s too weak, and her breath is coming out in short pants now. I’m sorry, she wishes she could tell Reyna. It’s my fault we got separated, it’s my fault for running ahead of Jonas. Instead she turns her face to her daughter, if she was going to die any second then she’d rather see Isla’s sweet face than the way two people she loved go at each other’s throats.Â
The tension is broken, however, when someone else comes through the doors. A redhead. The one who told her how to pull the stars down, she recognized her voice. She forces her eyes to open wider now, noting the interest the older woman takes in Isla. But then it starts to make sense, if this woman could amplify and direct Ophelia’s powers to kill that man then maybe she could do the same for Isla. Only Isla didn’t kill, she protected. She gives Isla a reaffirming nod the last time she looks to her for guidance. “You’ve got this baby.”
And boy did she. She lit up like the cosmos themselves, and it was like she didn’t even have to try. Breaking her long gaze at their daughter, she looks to Jonas with a proud, albeit pained smile. “Look at her glow,” she says, voice thick, before staring back at Isla. She grips Joey’s forearm, pride making her face beam despite the fact that it’s growing sallow from her blood loss.
Jonas can’t believe the pride in his heart as he sees his daughter literally save the entire school. He feels Opi’s grip on his arm and blinks back tears, filled with pride and love as well as an aching fear and sadness. It’s a strange feeling, having so many emotions inside of him at the same time. “She’s amazing” he finally whispers.
He looks at Opi for a long moment And he knows what he has to do. He takes a deep breath, and focuses. He’s never done this before. So he thinks about Opi, about meeting her as children, about playing with her and teasing here and flirting with her as teenagers. He thinks about kissing her for the first time. And he thinks about healing her, thinks about giving her all the life he has.
And then he feels it. He lets out a shaky gasp from the strange feeling of his own life force leaving him and going to Opi. He stops for a moment, just to make sure it’s working. And he can see some of the color returning to her.
“Opi,” he says quietly. “I love you. I love you so much. I always have. And I always will. You and Isla are my life. I’m... I’m sorry. For everything. You were right. And I love you.” He leans over and he kisses her, trying to put every ounce of love he feels for her in that last kiss, trying to make sure that she never doubts, to make sure that she remembers this- remembers them.
When he pulls away, he can feel his eyes filling with tears and he looks at isla. “I love you,” he tells her. “And I am so proud of you. I always knew you’d save the world.” He looks at them, his family, his world.
And then he closes his eyes and focuses, sending Opi every bit of life he has. It’s strange - he’s not wanting to think about it, but it plays in his mind like scenes from a movie. he remembers being a child, looking at his parents and thinking they were the best he could have had. Then he thinks of his father spitting venomous words of how Jonas had to live up to what was expected. He had to be strong, to follow the family business- whatever it was. Joey doesn’t even remember.
And it doesn't matter. Because then he sees Opi, when they were just 12 and 14, and he remembers thinking she looked beautiful, and wondering if it was completely disastrous to be in love with his best friend. He remembers standing at the foot of the stairs in Opi’s house and watching her care of her siblings, remembers helping and spending what ever money he had keeping food on the table and clothes on their backs. He remembers going from being rich to being broke, and he remembers loving the time with no money more than anything in the world. He remembers Opi telling him she was pregnant and swinging her around and kissing her and crying tears of pure joy because yes they were young but they could do this.
He remembers holding Isla for the first time and looking into Opi’s eyes, both of them crying and telling her she did good and h loved her and he was proud of her.
And then.. And then he opens his eyes, his body feeling weak, his mind slipping, his vision going in and out, his hearing fading. so this is what dying feels like. He knows he’s dying. He doesn’t have long. His life for Opi’s... It was more than a fair trade.
His eyes go to Isla and he gives her the faintest but most loving smile he can muster. and then he looks at Opi, and takes in her healed body, her face, everything. He opens his mouth to speak, to tell them he loves them. But he can’t. They’re the last thing he sees before he collapses into blackness.
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