They Called Her the Devil

Chapter 10, Xander

So there she lay. The Devil herself, the second most powerful person in the world, lay on the ground, so close to death. It was hard to believe that this girl had killed five highly trained soldiers only moments ago.

Without a word I gently lifted her off of the ground. Her body was stiff and cold, but I could feel her faint heartbeat in her chest. We only had a little over an hour to get the MC-57 if she was going to survive.

I carried her inside as Izzie, Leo and Ian followed. I gently placed her on the long, sturdy, kitchen table before turning to my friends. We had to save her.

"I'll go get the MC-57," I said, I was the best for the job being the only one who could drive a pre-war car, "you guys can stay here and guard the house, hopefully the Gold Order won't return."

Leo spoke up, he seemed strangely apprehensive, "Maybe...maybe we shouldn't get the MC-57."

Then Izzie chimed in, "He's right Xan, you saw her fight. She escaped from her cell and killed those men, what if she escaped again and killed us."

Even Ian, who usually stayed silent, spoke, "It's a quicker death than a monster like her deserves. She'll drift off to crazy land for a few hours and fall asleep at the end."

"No." I found myself saying. "She may be a monster but she doesn't deserve to die like this. She deserves a fair trial and a fair sentence for her crimes. Not to mention the fact that we still need her for the plan."

"But..." Izzie interrupted.

"But nothing." I snapped, "I love you Iz, but I'm the leader here, not any of you guys. I'm sorry but this is my decision and I'm making it."

Then I cemented my decision "If she's dead when I get back you're all out of the order."

Without another word I grabbed the truck keys from a side table and stormed out the back door slamming it behind me. I'd never asserted myself to the group that way. It felt good but scary at the same time.

I knew I couldn't continue that way though, my friends and I had always been equal and I wanted it to stay that way. What had I done?

Now was not the time for questioning my leadership choices. I had MC-57 to get. I got into the car and turned the keys pushing down on the clutch and the break. My dad had taught me to drive stick the minute I turned fourteen and could reach the pedals.

I slowly eased up on the clutch until I reached the catch. I then started driving forwards in first gear. I switched to second gear, then third, then fourth, before finally landing on fifth gear as I sped down the abandoned road. I didn't dare go past fifth; the old truck would break down if it went over 50mph.

I passed an old sign reading Speed Limit 30mph. It didn't really matter out here with no law enforcement. The neighborhood has been abandoned years ago after a pink mist bombing killed most of its inhabitants.

My father and I had just moved out the week before. He'd felt guilty about the bombing until the day he'd died. The Legion had been aiming for him.

Having someone die under your leadership was the worst part of having power. 32 people had died in the year since I'd taken over the Order. Two had been directly my fault. Killing is hard, but losing a friend due to your mistake is harder.

Even losing the Devil due to my mistake would be hard. She was the enemy, but she was still a person who I had the power to save. She was still human and deserved a chance to redeem herself.

There was good in her, I just knew it. She hadn't killed us when she'd escaped. And when she did kill it was quick. I just knew that behind those cold electric blue eyes was at least a hint of kindness.