I pulled the chain I wore out of my shirt. "Look."
He opened his eyes, and I slid his engagement ring off the chain and onto my finger. "Yes, I will marry you. So don't die."
Chapter 133 - Lucy
Lucy sat on a rock next to Luke and threw pebbles into the lava. Her mind couldn't quite settle on the fact that they'd won. For real. All the bad guys were either dead, turned good, or in custody. Emotions bubbled in her, like the lava below her had, and she couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry, or both.
Everywhere she looked, IPI agents ran around doing something useful, but Lucy couldn't move. Hunter had called in IPI support, and they'd finally listened once they heard about Steele. Darren and his team had been freed of the rock prison and were being treated for injuries. The businessmen Steele had hung over lava were in custody, awaiting arrest and indictment of some kind.
Panic filled the streets of Honolulu, according to reports she'd overhead—ironic that they would freak out after the threat had been neutralized. Diamond Head would never look the same. Its guts had been exposed by the expulsion of power, and instead of dirt and shrubs littering the top, it now showcased a sea of hardened ballast, the cooled black lava that remained from the fiery hell it had been not so long ago.
Two agents pulled Simmons away. Her face contorted in a mix of madness and rage and she screamed out obscenities, followed by denial. "They disobeyed my orders. They were helping Steele. It's all a trick. I've been framed!"
She kicked, punched, and even bit one of them, but they finally got her into the helicopter and cuffed to the seat.
Lucy sighed in relief.
With Steele defeated, IPI believed Sam's story, especially after she showed them images of what happened with her through some new mind trick she'd learned. That, and the fact that everyone backed her story, and Simmons had clearly gone mental, was enough to convince them.
Once Steele died, his powers over others perished with him. Adam towered above an agent who looked scared out of his mind but dutifully took his statement. Adam was clearly doing his best to appear non-threatening, but nothing he did helped the agent any.
Lucy laughed at that, but wondered what would happen to him and the other Grunts now.
Sam had rescued Ana as soon as she'd saved Drake's life, and now the three of them huddled together away from everyone else. Drake still looked beaten up and exhausted, but he'd be fine. It was nice seeing them together as a family. Drake had really stepped up when it mattered, and Lucy admitted a begrudging but growing respect for the guy.
The familiar comfort of the sphere in her hand pulled Lucy back to her current dilemma. She stroked the cool metal and stared at its glow.
Sam had returned it to her, but Lucy hadn't wanted it.
She'd pushed it away. "It's dangerous."
Sam pushed it back. "It's a tool. People are the danger."
So now Lucy sat and contemplated what to do with the sphere.
She turned to Luke. "What do you think we'll do next?"
He tossed a pebble onto the hard lava. "I don't know, Luce. I'm done saving the world for awhile, but I know this work is in our blood. It's who we are."
She nodded. If they hadn't been there, all those kids would have been sold instead of rescued by IPI when the Grunts stopped following Steele. Sam and Drake would likely be dead. Hell, the whole world would probably have gone into World War III, with Steele and Simmons leading the charge.
She couldn't believe she'd ever doubted this mission.
She felt Beleth before she saw him, his wings fluttering in the air. "Wait here, Bro. I'll be back." She stood with the sphere in hand and walked away, past the jutting cliff.
An IPI Agent walked by with a cuffed man that she recognized—the man who had brought Ana out.
Bill. She stopped the agent. "I need a word with this one, for just a sec."
The agent looked around, then looked back at Lucy and nodded, shoving the guy toward her.
"You're Bill, yes?"
The man stuttered and nodded.
"Any other Bills work here?"
"N-no."
"Good." She raised her knee and slammed it into his crotch, then pulled back and kneed him in the gut. She held his shoulders as she did, pushing hard, then leaned in closer to whisper in his ear. "That's for Mr. K. I'm going to make sure you are kept in a very special place after this, as payment."
The agent stood wide-eyed as Lucy shoved Bill, who whimpered and slobbered and couldn't stand up to walk properly, back to him. "He's all yours. Make sure he gets extra special accommodations, will you?"
The agent nodded and pushed Bill ahead of him and toward the others, and Lucy resumed her walk to the edge of the cliff.
Beleth stood there, smiling. "Thank you for setting me free. You could have killed me." He still had the unearthly calm about him, but now it soothed rather than aggravated.