The last thread controlling her anger snapped. Rage roared to the forefront of her brain.
Kira launched herself at Pallas, her hand withdrawing the sheathed akieri blade that had once belonged to her father. A flex of her ki and the blade unfolded, the pieces snapping together with a snick that made her soul sing. Almost as much as the glowing lines that riddled the length of the metal. Like fine cracks on an egg's surface.
Pallas threw his head back as he shouted with laughter. It stopped a second later. His smile insane. "Finally."
Kira slashed the akieri at him. "Fucking psycho."
He was just as unhinged as Kira remembered. Normal people didn't seek out constant battle.
Pallas watched the blade getting closer and closer, doing nothing. Only at the very last second did he shift backwards. Just enough to let the blade whistle past his nose.
"I've been looking forward to this," he informed her, his expression orgasmic. "You have no idea how much."
Kira reversed her slash, aiming the blade at his eyebrow and the stupid piercing winking at her there. "You talk too much."
A black shield blocked Kira's attack. Her arms shook with the force of the collision, the reverberation reaching all the way to her shoulders.
"Shall we dance, little sister?" Pallas taunted.
"I thought we already were."
Pallas's smile broadened. His wrist flexed. The whip he'd had concealed in his hand shot out, the end wrapping around the hilt of Kira's akieri. "Then let's get rid of this."
The sword was ripped out of Kira's grip. The blade remained for a brief instant before the lack of ki caused it to collapse back into itself. The hilt fell, clattering against the stone.
"We wouldn't want another accident," he said meaningfully.
Pallas tossed his whip away, holding up his hands to show he was unarmed.
"Fine by me."
Kira preferred it this way anyway.
She punched him in the face. The sight of blood spurting satisfying in a way that should have concerned her. What did it say about her that she got off on causing harm to another living creature?
Then again, his chortle as he wiped away the blood under his nose was worse.
Kira snapped a kick at his chest. "Fucking crazy asshole."
He took it without even flinching, his grunt the only indication she'd connected.
"My turn," he said with a bloodstained smile that should have warned her.
It was like something exploded as Pallas went on the offense. Kira was forced to retreat, taking a blow to her cheekbone. The second to her sternum.
She ducked, barely avoiding a backhand to the face.
"More!" Pallas screamed.
Kira turtled in on herself, using her arms and fists to protect her core and face, unable to cope as Pallas rained blows down on her.
"Is that all you've got?"
Kira erected a shield as he hammered at her defenses. It collapsed less than a second later.
"Gonna have to do better than that," Pallas called.
Kira sidestepped his next charge, wrapping ki around her fist and then sinking it into his stomach. His breath exploded out of him as he folded forward.
"How's that?" Kira snarled.
She hammered a fist into the back of his head.
Or at least that was her plan.
Pallas vanished, a cocoon of black energy enveloping him before it, and he, disappeared.
Kira whirled, her guard up to protect her from what she knew was coming. Only his attack didn't land from the direction she anticipated. It came from the side.
She had an instant to push ki out of that side of her body then Pallas was on her. He lifted her and threw her across the room.
Kira hit the ground and rolled.
Pallas barreled toward her as she fought to her feet. Two hundred plus pounds of pure muscle belonging to a sadistic madman.
Kira braced, only having time to think that this was really going to hurt. Then Pallas was on her.
The next few seconds were a blur. Kira a fury of fists and teeth as Pallas egged her on.
"That is enough!"
There was a clap like thunder as Pallas and Kira were shoved apart. A sheet of pure ki descended between them.
Kira panted, catching her breath. She was in a box. A prison. Temporary but a prison nonetheless.
Curious, she knocked her knuckles against the wall in front of her. It felt real. Solid.
No matter. She could break it. She just didn't want to waste her energy was all. Instead, she'd be magnanimous and leave it standing. At least until she got bored.
"Are you two children? What is wrong with the both of you?" Selene demanded, descending the steps to stalk across the room toward them.
Her sister's heart-shaped face was creased in a thunderous frown. The serenity that normally defined her personality missing. Her expression was all exasperation and frustration as she glared at the two she'd separated with her soul's breath.
Pallas didn't acknowledge her presence, pondering the smear of red on his fingertips as if he'd never seen his own blood before.
Selene made an aggravated sound as she switched her attention to Kira. "What were you thinking?"
Selene had not just asked her that.
"Are you blind?" Kira threw her arms out to indicate their surroundings. "Look around us, Selene. At where we're standing. You kidnapped me. Off my ship. During a rescue mission. A rescue mission aimed at saving Elena. You tell me what I should be thinking right now."
Selene sent Pallas a horrified look. "Tell me you didn't."
"She needed an extraction. I gave her one."
"I had a ship. A crew. Allies. How the fuck do you expect me to do anything now?"
Because the forty three sure as hell weren't going to help her. Kira had been down that road before. She'd be lucky if they stayed out of her way long enough for her to accomplish anything.
She'd be alone. Against a planet of her enemies. No back up. No plan. Nothing.
Buzzing filled the space. Like a thousand insects swarming together.
Sparks flickered from the spot where Pallas’s rift had deposited them earlier.
"That's impossible," Pallas snarled.
The air parted. A black slash opening as a figure leapt out of the void. He landed in a crouch.
"Graydon," Kira gasped.
Pallas stared at the emperor's Face with an expression Kira had never seen on her brother's face before. An emotion somewhere between repulsion and fascination.
"Pallas, how did this happen?" Selene asked, the intrusion leaving her unsettled.
She wasn't quite hostile. Yet. But Kira could see on her face what they were all thinking. That the forty three were not going to like this. Not one tiny bit.
At least, they’d blame Pallas this time.
Pallas shook his head, his expression locked down tight.
Kira stared at him in dawning realization. "You can't explain, can you? You don't know how he followed you."
How delightful. If she didn't already love Graydon, this would have changed her mind. Any man who could get the best of Pallas deserved her esteem. If only so she could worship at the altar of his greatness.