In the previous chapter, The trial of Nicole Greenester, the trial of “The State vs. Jeff Platinum” draws to its close. At first, prosecutors White and Wilson held the advantage and were quick to show damning evidence of Jeff’s kidnapping charges, among other things. In a desperation move, however, Jeff’s attorney made quick work to force Ms. Thew’s troupe, and more importantly, Nicole, to take the stand as material witnesses. Each of the members attempted to deflect from Nicole’s presence at the crime scene, but in the end, she ended up having to reveal the most explicit facts of the occurrences at the Platinum estate, and how she had survived battling the E.R.O.S. mech. In turn, this resulted in her having to reveal intimate details of herself, details she wasn’t ready to bring into the light.
The jury was dismissed to deliberations, and while all ears were on what they would determine, the key witness herself was planning to disappear from the courthouse. Only one person was equally swift to notice: the victim herself, Hally. Before Nicole could make herself scarce, her best friend was already giving chase. This chapter begins toward the chase’s conclusion.
“Nicole, wait!” Hally had chased her friend to the outskirts of town, where the empty fields and busy streets met at an intersection of dreary wasteland, made even more gloomy by the storm overhead. “Please, you can’t go!” she couldn’t even make out her own words amongst the downpour and thunder, and even if Nicole could comprehend the words, she continued to increase the distance between them. Hally attempted to keep pace, and soon the pair found themselves in a muddy clearing. Hally was finding it increasingly harder to breath between her general lack of endurance and the intense humidity in the air, but as she was almost about to give in, Nicole tumbled into the mire. She screamed in desperation and frustration. “Nicole, please,” Hally repeated her plea.
“Don’t call me by that!” her first response in the exchange.
“Just, please, come back home. You can’t go on like this…”
“There is no home for me! Not anymore!” Without looking back at her, Nicole flung an aura hammer in Hally’s general direction. Even without her ducking, it would have missed, but the moment it touched ground a lightning bolt struck with an awful amount of power. It took most all her willpower not to collapse outright.
When she looked back up, Nicole was prepared to break into a sprint again, another hammer in hand, face filled with mud, rain, and tears. “Please, just leave me alone. I can’t be here anymore.”
Hally’s thoughts were a complete scramble. She knew she wouldn’t be able to continue a pursuit if Nicole started to run again; her legs and lungs could not compete with those of a somewhat practiced performer. She also understood now that the storm wasn’t just an independent factor of today’s court proceedings; it was responding to Nicole’s aura and her emotions. They were going berserk, much like Hally’s did back in the Platinum estate. And if that nearly flash-froze the entire mansion over while she was unconscious, what could a live hurricane achieve?
More importantly, Hally could not let her friend destroy herself.
As Nicole’s legs began to move, an aura chakram formed in Hally’s hand. In a swift motion, she thrust the weapon into the mud, and her aura began to spread across the wastes. Walls of bright blue formed around the two, preventing Nicole’s escape.
“Hally, what are you-"
“I’m sorry, Nicole. But I can’t let you just run off to who-knows-where! Our friends need you. I… need you.”
“No you don’t!” Nicole was starting to shift her weight to a fighting stance, as Hally’s chakram reformed. “You saw what happened in the trial! Jeff’s lawyer forced me to fucking out myself to the whole city! That’s checkmate, Hally!”
“But Jeff can’t-" Hally was going to finish her thought, but Nicole was right. This gambit may have doomed him to his kidnapping charge, but it also gave him the last say in harassing the pair. “That… may be so, but I should be the one held accountable for that. Where will you go?”
“Somewhere! I… Just-“ she loosened the grip on her hammer and looked down at the depths of the mud. Hally looked onward at her, forlorn. Was she being selfish for trying to keep her friend here, in a world that was quick to turn on her? And was there a just reason to, or only an excuse? Hally’s feelings shouldn’t matter here, right? For several seconds, the only sounds between them was the torrential downpour and occasional rumble of distant thunder. The only source of light, their auras, flickering by the drops.
“Hally…” Nicole broke the silence, as the hammerhead was raised behind her back, “I don’t want to fight you. Please, please let me go…”
“Well, I…” Hally pointed one of the ends of the chakram at her friend. “I can’t do that. I can’t lose you after all we’ve been through! I…” She clutched her chest in her off-hand, “I couldn’t live with that! I’d rather die.”
...
“AUUUUUUAUUUUUUGH!” Nicole clutched her head, her aura sending sparks all over the place. Several more lightning bolts arced through the air above them. “JUST! GO! AWAY!”
Nicole’s first move was to rush her friend in a flurry of swings. Hally backstepped from each, parrying blows when possible. The follow-up was a sideways chop, powerful enough to slide Hally several feet through the mud. Through the pushback, Hally threw the chakram, and grasped what ground she could as the momentum slowed. Nicole deflected the projectile but had no opportunity to counter as Hally threw several more, opting to neutralize each by spinning her hammer in front of her. Eventually, one of the Chakrams was bounced back, and Hally had to cease in order to dodge her own attack. Nicole continued her advance, attempting an overhead strike. Her friend haphazardly sidestepped, barely missing not only the attack but a mixture of sparks, mud, and rain thrown up in the process. The two were face-to-face at this point. Hammer and chakram clashed in an instant.
“Please, just let me go!” Nicole’s voice cracked as she pressed her weight into her weapon.
“I still… won’t allow it.” She replied in a stressed tone. “You’re still my best friend!” The gap in power between the two was sizeable, yet she could feel the hesitation in Nicole’s attack. “Even if you don’t feel the same, I still can’t live with the idea of never seeing you again!”
“But I can’t belong here in your life anymore!”
“In…my…life?” This stalemate wouldn’t last; Nicole’s aura was so out of control that both her body and hammer were exuding static electricity throughout, enough for it to become unbearable to feel up close. Still, Hally continued to hold her ground. “Nicole, you will always h-have a place with me… Going away just means Jeff gets his way!”
“He’s already won! I won’t ever be safe here, don’t you see!?”
“Th-then…” The amperage was starting to cause Hally pain, and her voice began to shake “Let me protect you. Jeff has d-… Jeff has done everything to pull us apart from our lives for his own gain… I won’t- I can’t face him without you.”
Another bolt struck the clearing, prompting the pair to unlatch from one another. Nicole’s next action was an uppercut swing, thrown with little discipline and much distress. Hally attempted to dodge, but found herself flung into the air as the hammerhead connected with her feet. As she righted herself midair, she could see Nicole, eyes closed, focusing her aura at the tip of her weapon; she was charging the Infinite Spiral. Hally brought the chakram up to her chest to brace for impact, as the hammer splintered into countless missiles of light. They flew and drilled into the chakram, and Hally could feel the fear and anguish in every blow; stinging to the point of numbness over and over again. After what seemed as an eternity of rapid impacts, Hally was grounded, arms feeling as though they were on fire. Nicole wasn’t finished; she swiped at her friend’s feet twice more. It took all she had left not to not get clipped again. One more badly placed parry, and Hally’s stance was all but broken at this point, the aura walls she had formed earlier fizzling fast.
“I-it’s over.” Nicole said with no confidence. She looked as though she was preparing for a final strike, and while her aura still violently glowed, there was no will to her motion. “Again, please, Hally… Just let me go…”
Hally stayed silent. She tried to refocus herself, but she was too exhausted to bring back up her chakram. The walls faded even quicker.
Still, I won’t- can’t-…
“Fine then… I *sniffle*, have no choice.” Nicole began to charge one last time at Hally, complete with a not even half-hearted battle cry. Hally reciprocated the charge; there was no other option. The gap between them narrowed, and before the moment of impact, the final clash between the two…
The last strike was the most blinding and deafening. Neither knew what happened in that last moment. Only what came after.
The rain continued, still constant but no longer torrential.
All traces of aura had disappeared from the field.
And both friends held each other in their arms. Nicole clutched onto Hally for dear life. Hally held to Nicole firmly and would not let go. An innumerable amount of time passed, and the only sounds during were Nicole’s sobbing and the rain. Eventually they collapsed into the mud, and words began to flood out of both in an unintelligible exchange.
“I don’t want to go! The trial-! I just wanted… To save you!”
“Pl-please… don’t leave! I need you here!”
“I don’t know… what to do!”
“I don’t want to lose you, or hurt you or-”
This continued for several minutes. Eventually, it shifted back into an awkward silence, although both continued to shed tears. Hally, unable to think of much else to do, laid her back down onto the ground, though she continued to hold onto Nicole by the hand. The other followed suit.
“I’m sorry.” They said simultaneously. The awkwardness expanded. After another experienced hour of rain, Hally's voice opened, weakly.
“It was entirely selfish of me to hold you here.” She didn’t turn to face Nicole, focusing instead on a clump of cloud. “It’s my fault you were ever put into this situation, my fault you had to out yourself to the whole city. I-“
“Hally.” Nicole interrupted, but also didn’t turn to her friend. “It was the only way to ensure he was convicted. I didn’t want him to come back and kidnap you again. I wanted to keep you safe.”
“But you don’t deserve that! I don’t want you to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder in order to protect me! Especially without…” Her voice trailed off. Nicole wanted to press, but ultimately let it go.
“I don’t think I want to leave anymore, to be honest.”
“Why so?”
“Well, you did ask a very good question. ‘Where would I go?’ I don’t think I’d last long without a plan in who-knows-where. And besides, I don’t think I could skip town without Simone, or Ronia, or Ms. Thew or any of the troupe for that matter. My heart couldn’t take not seeing them anymore.”
“Mhmmm…”
“More importantly, I can’t imagine never seeing you again in particular.” This piqued Hally’s enough to break the stalemate of no eye contact. “I know I said it before that we’ve been through so much together, but I don’t think I understood until recently how much that meant to me. Take these past 3 weeks for example.” She sat up while gathering her thoughts. “I’ve only been able to keep it together between the kidnapping, the hospital, and the trial because otherwise I would have lost you, so many times. It’s honestly pathetic of me that I can’t maintain composure…” she paused for a moment. “I feel as though at this point that I’m a bad friend, and that all I’ve been doing at this point is holding you back and causing you more problems.”
“Nicole…”
“I even fought you just out of a childish tantrum.”
“Nicole.”
“You deserve a better friend, really.”
“Nicole!” Hally remembered where her hand was and gripped her friend’s arm. “I don’t want another friend! I never do!” Nicole was stunned by the newfound sharpness in her words. “I still meant what I said earlier, I’d rather die *sniff*, than just not have you!”
“B-but you can’t mean tha-“ Hally yanked that aforementioned arm towards her. So much so that she and Nicole ending up bonking their heads together.
"Ouch!”
“Ow!” Head pain to add to the aches that fight had brought on.
“Why…?”
“Ah, I meant to…” Wait, what were you trying to do? No, wrong digression. “Uh, Nicole. I do mean that, though.” Hally sat up as well. “I too, can’t just not have you here anymore. You’ve given me so much I hadn’t had before. Trust, camaraderie, commitments to others. As cliché as it might sound, you gave me friendship in many ways. It feels like my life before meeting you is unrecognizable, and if I’m being frank: I don’t think I could ever return to that. And yeah, a lot of it was stressful. You know that as well as I.”
Nicole nodded solemnly.
“But that’s why I can’t even begin to imagine you just not being here anymore. You give me so much confidence in being myself, maybe even to the point of… questioning what that exactly is? You’re so spontaneous, and energetic, and compassionate. I don’t have the aptitude to be as friendly as you; I’ve never been able to act any way other than ‘rigid’, if I were to put a name to it. But then you’re always here to talk to me, to keep me involved and to listen to my words. I don’t know if I have anything to offer in return at times.”
At this point, Hally realized she was speaking before thinking. “Er, I digress. What I meant to say is that I’m not sure I could even function without you here. I still feel selfish for imposing that on you, though. Sorry, again.” She sunk back down into the mud and went back to gazing at the rainclouds.
“It’s okay.” Nicole replied after a long pause. “And you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. Remember, before the Tempest- before I met you and all that jazz- I had no one to talk to. I was alone, trapped with my own thoughts and constantly feeling this vague sense of misery. I think I might have been angry at the world for a long time, but without knowing why. And I’d never know because everyone would just say ‘Michael's so smart, he’ll figure it out on his own’. Ugh!”
Hally could sense Nicole’s aura flaring up just mentioning her deadname.
“Anyways, it wouldn’t be fair to say that I do all the listening; you’ve listened to me figure out myself through this whole ordeal, between the start of masquerading as ‘Nicole Greenester', all the way to realizing just that that’s just who I am. And who I wanted to be all this time. Actually, more than listen, because you always supplement it with information and research. And not just me; you’re always looking to help the whole troupe doing that, beyond the duties of writing for us all.”
It’s too cold and wet to be blushing right now, right?
“So I think at least you sell yourself short. You’re a good friend, and my very best friend. Alright?”
"Mhm. Okay..."
“And again, I’m very thankful you came back here for me. I’m… still very scared to go back to the courthouse. Extremely so, actually.”
“Me too, Nicole. I don’t want to think about anything to do with Platinum ever again…” They both sighed.
“Everyone’s probably waiting for my return, aren’t they?”
“Yeah.” In her mind, Hally was screaming a little. The only person she ended up telling about going to chase Nicole was Maurie, and unfortunately that was like telling a negative number of people that you and your best friend are caught out in torrential downpours.
“Maybe we could just continue to just lie here a little while? At least until the rain stops.”
“No objections from me. Mud's ruined this wack ass suit. What’s a little extra water damage?” They shared a light giggle.
“I’m glad I didn’t bother dressing up for court, then.” Hally traced a finger down the soggy sweatshirt she was wearing, full of surface level frays from the prior combat. It made her intrigued about the extent of power a berserk aura could do, enough to lull her back into quietness as she thought again of why so much of it influences the weather. It also made her think of why a hug could break the hold of such power, just like when she herself lost control. She knew the implicit answer, of course, but held back on turning it into explicit cognition.
Looking back over to her friend, she saw she had closed her eyes. Possibly an attempt to meditate on her thoughts, or just let go and sleep in the mud. Whatever the case, she looked to be in relative peace, a sight she hadn’t seen in possibly over a month at this point. Hally smiled to herself. Even though the dreadful conclusion to the trial would come back to them soon, she felt she had achieved something the jurors, judge, or attorneys would never. Something far more precious.
They were still holding hands, after all.