Iris Wilshire was sitting at the window's rim watching , enjoyment flaming her blue eye at the two fighting fleets; her eyes followed every cannonball blazing with more fire. Leaning on the shutter feeling every breeze the battle brought to her face as she listened smiling to the approaching hurried footsteps the sound her last guards' screams as they fell down. She turned her face at the door as it opened roughly greeting with her snide smile the sharp blade pointed at her.
"I see nothing can hold you down anymore."
She looked at the man she had captured but not seen yet from tip to toe. He was different from the Alex she had loved and knew. His hair was getting a light tenting of grey, his features had hardened with thoughts and tiredness. He owned much of this to herself. She was not surprised how he had managed to break out of his cell, after all, the battle going out was shaking the whole place eating at it and that seemed the least of her concerns right now. Alex did not reply on her taunting comment. And while the years she had spent in luxury and grace, did not permit time to leave any marks on her beauty, the man was standing panting heavily, sweat dropping over his face and hair. How he made here, she was not sure but she was sure that he would. Honestly, she would have far more disappointed if he had not. Otherwise, all of this would have been for naught. Maybe he was not even in the cell to begin with. Maybe he had escaped since he was on the boat carrying his hostage and made his way through slickly and sometimes recklessly as days had taught him to act. As she had forced him to become. The tip of his sword was never more steadier, unlike his shaking breaths. Iris could not stop eyeing the man aiming the sharp blade at her, to her the blade was nothing, no dangerous than a rose presented to her. She thought, she thought of how much time she spent waiting this moment, of how much time she spent with him before the incident; interwoven hands, locking eyes never parting from each other. However, right now, even though their eyes still did not break contact, the feelings held within their gazes were different this time. She had expected of Alex many things; but not these deadly cold and murderous eyes but they were not about to break and melt the smile of ice that covered her face all these years.
"I gave you roses, and you gave me nothing in return but thorns."
Iris spoke again, wondering what he was waiting for. Was he hesitant? Did his will and resolve weaken in her presence? No, that was not the Alex she knew and changed.
"Iris, it's time you pay for everything!"
Alex decreed calmly while remaining in the same position he was standing in since he charged into the room, as if the announcement of the Wilshire's defeat was his cue to act. Iris merely huffed bemusedly at the threat not carried out yet, her provocative smile not wavering on her lips for a second. The smile that had not left her face, and the blade that did not make a move were still frozen on each of them since that fateful night at Claudine's house. They have been both waiting for this moment and drifting the circle of fate to make it happen faster yet they stood still, as if the wheel of time had stopped when their eyes met after these long ten years, bare to the judgment of the other, no masks attached this time.
"What is it? I've murdered your beloved fiancée yet you can't even threaten me properly with this sword you're waving!"
Again, nothing changed in the scene except for the battle rumble growing louder and more brutal. The mighty palace started to shake with more violence and the servants' noise while running in panic were clearly heard. The island had started to fall into the royal's fleet hand but the family head showed no expressions and no intentions for escaping. An apple rotten to its core could only be destroyed from the outside, but even while she devised the plan, her survival was not a part of it. Again, it would accomplish nothing.
Alex raised his head listening to the chaos dominating everything around them except for them.
"It's your end, Iris... While we're talking now, the king's fleet and my Amphitrite are pulling down your fortress on this island and destroying your mighty fleet... and soon, your life too!"
Did he want to put her on a proper trial? Of course not. Then why stalling? Iris approached from the tip of the sword, her lithe fingers touching its tip before retreating.
"Can you truly do it? Long time ago, we shared more than this mutual desire for revenge... can you remember?"
Alex frowned; he was not fond of these memories nor was she. She looked at him sneering, tracing the finger that touched the tip on her lips and went on:
"You have lost everything too, more than what I have; you've lost your crew's love and support, your beloved ship and your dear fiancée..."
The hand holding the sharp blade shook for an instant, he'd traveled the seas seeking power and determination to avenge the innocent woman. He'd become who he's now, a distant emotionless man, because losing her was too painful. Every decision he had made, every action he had taken since was to reach this place and live this moment so losing all what the Wilshire girl had mentioned didn't matter, because after he kills her everything will be over. He needed it anything of it. he did not deserve in the first place, and the thought crossed to the blonde woman, making her eyes widen in a darting flash of surprise that did not last for long. They truly understood each other more than anyone could. When a wish, twisted and mutilated such as theirs is fulfilled, what to aspire for after? But the woman could not stop herself.
"I'll tell you why you're here, Alex."
Alex raised an eyebrow in indignation. His thoughts and motivation were quite clear, she did not have to guess. Iris had known this moment will come no matter how much time shall pass and she had always believed that she would never defile its pureness with her hidden thoughts. But as what she had been awaiting for was taking the shape of reality, even her stony hear remain unmoved.
"You're here because you believe it's the right thing to do, the only thing you can do to repay your fiancée for betraying her silently in your heart throughout the years you have spent together... am I mistaken?"
Alex bowed his head and didn't say a word. Was this true? It was a question he couldn't figure an answer for it until now... he loved Iris, he loved her so much but at the same time he couldn't break his promise to Claudine yet what he believed to be right choice back then brought nothing but the girl's untimely demise, he could never forgive himself. The least he could do, the right and just to do was avenging her, the pain he would feel of no importance. It was the same loop, played with different words this time. First love and betrayal, now justice and revenge. Iris waited a few seconds but no words were spoken, no explanation, no defense which managed to infuriate her at last.
"Why Alex? Why did it have to come to this?"
Iris broke the meaningless silence; their cards had already been put on the table and uncovered. There was no win or lose for themselves. There was nothing but feelings circling the same thoughts, going through the different options but reaching the same conclusion but Iris did not give up, stubborn and determent as the woman she had always been. Her voice cracked a little as she went on:
"If we were honest to our hearts, if you frankly spoke to her about your true feelings, then nothing of this would have happened! If you have just braved one step for the sake of my love the same way you have braved many for the sake of my demise..."
"Enough!"
Alex demanded in an asserting voice, still unable to raise his head and look at Iris. The woman looked at him, her eyes softening for both of their doomed souls. He was punishing himself just as she was. They were too similar at the end though their paths had diverged long ago, they were not that different. This whole war was a stage she had set, a game she played for both of them to find their redemption. At her former lover's refusal to discuss anything, her eyes once again regained their crazy furiosity. Just at that instant, the wall surrounding the palace was destroyed, the barrage of cannonballs and fire reaching the palace setting it ablaze. The ceiling of the room began to crumble declaring the end of the family ruling it, but the two lovers didn't try to escape or to run, they couldn't feel any fire except the one in their hearts, they didn't care about the collapsing walls except of the ones separating between themselves and their hearts. Iris stepped toward Alex, his sword was still pointed at her heart but it had already stabbed her once before so it didn't matter. For once she wanted herself and him to be honest to their hearts, to be free, both of them. She wanted to revive his heart, the heart she had killed with her own two hands. Although she'd tainted her hands with blood and her soul with sin, although she'd tainted her image with the people's hatred and despise by refusing to give up the sacred spring for their sake to make this war break out and put an end for the Wilshire's ambitious cruel domination and disdain of the commoners yet she was still a murderer and she was waiting for her punishment but never imagined it to come in this brutally ironic way. As she was walking toward Alex, wishing to rest in his arms through his sword a cannonball hit the decorated wall behind her and split the ground beneath her feet, ruining the labyrinth of roses she had created. The shock of the assault was so powerful it pushed her far and down, and soon she found herself tripping over the splattered veins entangling her limbs the more she tried to get up and avoid sliding into the fire hole. The smoke and dust breathed by the unforgiving attack blinded her eyes, she could only feel the ground beneath her feet crumbling, sucking her down. She held to the vines and the more she struggled to drag herself up, the more viciously they embraced her limbs, warping around her neck. Their thorns making it difficult for her to hold on tightly to them, and nipping at every exposed pore on her skin, even tearing at her sleeves. Breathing became difficult at she slipped down more and more, frantically waving her hands in every direction, none of her elegance remaining at the face of death. How cruel she thought, the same roses she loved were the same thing killing her. Such a poetic justice, she thought as her mind was going hazy with past images of the four of them and before her vision was completely blurred she could discern a hand extended at her but she could no longer believe what her eyes were showing her. Whether that hand was reaching down to her to deliver the final blow and strangle her personally, or if it was to help her out, she could not tell but still reached weakly in its direction, never managing to reach it. A storm of petals surrounded her, glittering and gliding like the tears falling down her suffocating face. Was the hand getting closer? Was her mind playing one final wish for her sake, softly yet cruelly? No sound could reach her hearing though the lips were moving. Iris did not care what was being said to her; she smiled bitterly as breaths left out her body, falling down in a loud crack over the splitting layers of ground, cold and motionless, choked by the merciless hand of death who chose to pick that young rose for himself.
Alex watched her falling down, his eyes telling nothing. A word slipped from his mouth but it was lost to the quakes of the wailing island. He collapsed on his knees near the hole Iris had slipped into, surrounded with the fumes of fire, he looked up at the ceiling that continued to fall piece by piece but did not attempt to dodge any hits.
There was nothing left for him to do, or to look forward to.