So this was it, Anissa thought as she put all of her strength behind her and punched an agent in the face. This was the end, one way or another.
She’d been in Atlantis long enough that the end had started to seem like a far-off event. Sometimes, it even felt like an impossibility. Anissa had never asked Shamara about the end of the war in her timeline, even though she was sure that Shamara had heard stories. It might not be the same, she’d always reminded herself. The timelines might have already diverged. (And, deep down, Anissa really hated thinking about what Shamara’s presence in the past even meant. Could she stay? Would she? How much had they changed?)
But there was no ignoring it anymore, and the world seemed to have devolved into chaos. There were agents fighting everywhere, and Anissa had lost sight of Shamara for a moment. All it took was a moment of distraction, and one of the COS agents sent her flying into a wall with a loud thump.
All things considered, Shamara was at least thankful she would fight alongside her father and Anissa, if she couldn’t fight alongside everyone she loved. She was both terrified and relieved that they had arrived at the final assault and she was here to help. It had been all she had wanted when she had stayed. Where she came from they had won but she was taking nothing for granted. She knew better.
She put all her training in use, focused on the battle above all else, but there was only so much she could do. When Anissa was attacked with greater prejudice Shamara couldn’t help but to refocus her efforts on her girlfriend’s attacker. She cut him to shreds with her lightsaber and confounded some others nearby to give her time to check on Anissa, whom she rushed to.
“Niss, you okay? Need help getting up?”
The blow had knocked the wind out of Anissa, and she was pretty sure a couple ribs were broken again, so it took a moment before she could respond verbally. All she did was grimace and shake her head before pushing herself back up to her feet.
“I’ll be fine,” Anissa insisted, though her voice still sounded strained. “C’mon.” She reached out for Shamara’s hand to give it a reassuring squeeze. “We don’t have time to worry about me.”
Though she tried to avoid it, Shamara felt past Anissa’s words to her true state of mind and bit her lip. She wanted to keep fighting, and she probably could, but she was hurt and of course Shamara worried. Sighing through her nose, she nodded, squeezing her girlfriend’s hand right back. It was all Shamara could do not to beg Anissa to withdraw. She wouldn’t either, if the tables were turned.
And they soon might be because Shamara felt a projectile heading their way as she was busy making sure Anissa was truly in fighting condition before they went back into it. Shamara raised her free arm to protect them from it, and some kind of shrapnel or throwable buried deep in her forearm, causing her to gasp loudly.
Blood was trickling down her arm while Shamara scrambled to find some way to wrap her wound.
“What we don’t have time for is this” she grumbled. “Think you can cover me while I wrap this up? If you really feel okay.”
It was Anissa’s turn to take on a protective stance as she stepped in front of Shamara and the person who’d hurt her. Nothing else was going to get through Anissa now, not as long as she breathed. “I’m fine,” she muttered through gritted teeth, though they weren’t gritted out of pain as much as out of anger that now Shamara was hurt because of her. If she’d been more careful, if she’d paid more attention --
She shook her head a little to shake the thoughts from her mind. That wasn’t going to help either of them. “It’s nothing I can’t heal from.” The bruised and broken ribs would patch themselves together quickly, thanks to Anissa’s metahuman gene. It’d happened before, under her mother’s watchful gaze.
An agent aimed his gun at them, and instead of letting it ricochet against her armor, Anissa clapped her hands together, sending the agent tumbling to the ground from the shock.
Using the cutting object to tear off some of her shirt in order to wrap it around her deep cut, Shamara hissed as she went about it, but wasn’t worried about being safe for the duration. Anissa had her back, she had no doubt about that, and in the middle of all this chaos it felt preciously reassuring.
She was finishing the makeshift bandage when Anissa clapped back at an attacker quite literally and Shamara felt a pang of pride that came with a pained smile. Casting a quick glance at her dad, who seemed to be doing fine, Shamara turned her lightsaber back on and went back into a fighting stance beside Anissa.
“I love you, queen. Thanks.” She threw her lightsaber with one hand, turning around to catch it on rebound after it cut own another COS agent. They were set upon immediately, though, and Shamara let Anissa take a more active stance while she cast a field of confusion over their enemies.
“Love you too,” Anissa answered, glancing at Shamara quickly with a grin before pressing forward to meet the agents coming for them. Whatever Shamara was doing worked, and it allowed Anissa to knock two of them out before they even knew what was happening.
A third she tossed over her head. “Got anything to tie ‘em up with?” she called out to Shamara as she dodged a punch from an agent who was shaking free of his confusion. If they could manage to take some agents alive, all the better.
“What? No!” Protested Shamara, who up until now didn’t even have anything to tie off her wound with. She looked around and found some duct tape on the floor, which she held limply towards Anissa. “This won’t do anything. Can’t we just… put them to sleep? Lock them up somewhere?”
Anissa ducked another punch and then looked over at Shamara quickly, wrinkling her nose at the duct tape. That wouldn’t work, so … “Knock ‘em out it is.” It wasn’t a perfect plan, but tying them up somewhere hadn’t been, either. She was just going to have to hope that another agent didn’t pick them up in the meantime.
An agent swept their leg behind hers and knocked her over, but Anissa didn’t let them get another leg up. She waited, holding her breath until she couldn’t anymore, and then she used her own strength to flip them around. It took a few more minutes before the agent went limp - alive, but unconscious.
“All right there?”
Shamara had been busy using her persuasion powers to convince the enemies, whom she held at a chokehold, that they were terribly exhausted and sleepy. A more elegant way to put them to sleep, maybe. It took a little longer, and some others she’d had to fight and kill. Still, as she let the last one slip onto the floor, she looked up and grinned through loose strands of hair.
“Sleeping like babies.” And her hand bled, a bullet had scraped her torso in the meanwhile, plus she had a number of bruises but hey. Any landing you could walk away from.
Though she’d already known the extent of Shamara’s powers, seeing them in person was another thing all together. “Huh.” Anissa pushed herself to her feet slowly, trying to gauge where her body hurt most so she didn’t jar anything more. “So much easier than what I did.” The chuckle that escaped her mouth made her wince -- definitely bruised ribs, she thought, or maybe even broken.
“Well,” Shamara smiled. “That depends.”
But that was going to be a problem for future Anissa. Her body would heal itself quickly, hopefully. She held out a hand. “C’mon, hot stuff. Let’s go find some more butt to kick.”
Happily, Shamara took Anissa’s hand and let her lead. There really was something to be said about fighting alongside your loved ones. It worried you less and bolstered you up. Shamara’s heart was full and she felt more powerful than ever before; probably the best way to win a war.