As if they were actually heeding Finn’s words, the helicopters pulled away, leaving him in darkness. An uneasy feeling overcame him. For a moment, he began to wonder if they had actually left him. Had they listened to his pleas? He glanced over the top of the bolder again, hesitantly, and saw nothing. He ducked back again, just in case. Listening intently, he froze. In the darkness around him, he no longer heard the footfalls of the LIGHTS team members. The helicopters were far enough off now, he could hardly see or hear them. Keeping his gun drawn, he slowly stood, preparing to run again. Just as he got to his feet, a force hit him squarely in the chest, the impact jarring him much like a runaway freight train colliding with the side of a mountain. As he careened through the air, he realized that whatever—whoever—it was that hit him still had a hold of him, and he braced himself for impact as the rocky ground came up to greet his face. He still had his gun, and though the force of the fall knocked the wind out of him, he did not lose his weapon. He was pinned to the ground, just inches from the edge of the mountain, but he was able to pull his gun up just enough to turn it in the general direction of his assailant. He managed to fire one stray shot before the gun was yanked from his hand and hurled into the blackness on the other side of the cliff.
“It’s over, Finn,” Aaron said, not releasing his grip on the renegade.
“The hell it is,” Finn shot back. “What are you going to do? Kill me?”
“I think I’ll let Christian have the honor,” Aaron shot back, waiting for the other Guardian to catch up.
Finn realized they were only inches from the ledge. He could tell that Aaron was much stronger than him, but he was hopeful he would have the element of surprise. Hoping to create a distraction, he said, “Please, I don’t want to die.”
Before Aaron could even reply, Finn threw all of his body weight into the general direction of the drop off at the side of the cliff. Aaron wasn’t expecting it at all, based on Finn’s statement that he didn’t want to die. Without warning, the Guardian Leader suddenly found himself flying over the edge of the mountain, the renegade’s grip on him uncompromising.
Cadence was only a few feet behind Aaron when she saw him disappear over the precipice. “Aaron!” she screamed, somehow managing to run even faster. She wasn’t sure what she might see when she reached the ledge. His IAC had become a blur with the sudden change in position.
She exhaled deeply when she saw he had managed to grab on to the rock by his fingertips, finding a hand grasp about a yard below where they had gone over the ledge. Finn had him by the leg, and was either trying to drag him down with him, or suddenly had second thoughts about testing his ability to bounce back from a drop into what appeared to be a canyon several hundred feet below. Even as she stood there surveying the situation, tiny pieces of rock began to crumble around Aaron’s fingertips, and it was evident his grip would not last much longer.
Without hesitation, Cadence dropped to her knees and reached for Aaron’s hand. She couldn’t take the chance on him losing his grasp on the face of the mountain, and she couldn’t quite reach him enough to pull him up. She knew he wouldn’t die if he fell; she’s had plenty of opportunities lately to ponder that possibility with his new affinity for heights, but she did want to spare him the pain of what could only be bone-crushing impact. Unlike her drop into the ocean in Maine, there was no water to soften the landing below him. She strained with all of her might, attempting to somehow lengthen her stretch. With all of his remaining strength, Aaron flung his other arm up and grabbed onto Cadence’s hand.
While she was certainly strong enough to pull both males up over the ledge, she didn’t get the opportunity to do so. Just as she began to pull Aaron over the rim, a shot rang out from over her shoulder, another from over toward her right, almost simultaneously. She watched as Finn’s eyes widened in horror, his grasp slipping despite his desperation to hold on. Once the strength in his fingers began to fail, he began to fall, still clawing at the air around him, his long hair bellowing out in the wind as he careened closer to the rock-covered gully below. He landed with a sharp thunk and a groan, letting them know he had been alive upon impact. A few seconds later, however, it was quite clear that the renegade had expired as blood seeped out around the two gunshot wounds and his fractured skull.
By the time Finn hit, Aaron was sitting on the ledge next to Cadence, watching him plummet, still firmly grasping her hand. After the impact, there was a long pause before anyone made a sound. Despite Finn’s involvement in the Sierraville Incident, they had just lost someone who used to be on their team, and there was nothing easy about that.
As the helicopters circled back in an effort to locate and clear the body, Cadence turned to Aaron and said, “Are you all right?”
“I think so, thanks to you,” he replied, pulling himself to his feet. Then, he turned to Christian who was standing nearby. “Nice shot,” he said, patting him on the shoulder.
Christian’s expression was solemn, and he just nodded, clearly feeling vindicated. They looked down to see Jamie ascending the side of the cliff, certain he had fired the second shot. It took him a few moments to scale back up the face of the mountain from where he had dropped to an overhang just a few yards further down, and they waited patiently for his arrival.
“We got him,” Jamie said quietly, taking Christian’s hand in his.
Again, Christian said nothing, simply held Jamie’s grasp for a few moments before pulling him into a hug.
A few moments later, a breathless Aurora caught up to them, followed closely by Cale and Morgan. “You kicked me,” she said, clearly addressing Jamie.
“I’m sorry,” he replied, his voice sincere. “But it was the only way I could get away from you.”
“But I was supposed to keep you safe,” she reminded him.
“And you did,” he assured her. “I just couldn’t stand by under the circumstances. I’m really sorry, Aurora. I can heal you, if you need it,” he offered.
She shook her head. “I’m fine. I’m glad you are, too,” she said embracing him.
As they began to make their way back down the mountain, they collected the rest of their team members as they went. “That was amazing,” Morgan commented, picking her way carefully through the rocks.
“How in the world did you do that?” Cale asked, both of them clearly addressing Aaron.
He glanced at Cadence, who shrugged at him, letting him know she had no idea how he was going to answer that question, before he said, “I don’t know. I’ve been working out a lot more lately. I guess it was that, and I was just really angry.”
“Well, it was pretty incredible,” Morgan stated, clearly stating the sentiment of the rest of the team as well. “It looked like you were flying. I’ve never seen anything like it.” As she put some distance between herself and Cadence and Aaron, she muttered, “And I thought Cadence was supposed to be the fast one.”
Cadence was only offended momentarily before she realized it really didn’t matter what Morgan or anyone else thought of her capabilities. She knew the real reason why Aaron was able to perform the incredible feats he had pulled off in pursuit of Finn. She held his hand tightly, contemplating if this would change the way they hunted—if she would now be trailing him, instead of the other way around.
“I’m sorry I left you,” he finally said. “I didn’t intend to.”
“It’s fine,” she replied. “Morgan’s right, though; that was pretty impressive.”
“In the future, I will figure out how to stay with you. After all, I’m supposed to be guarding you. I just needed to make sure that he didn’t get away.”
“I told you, it’s fine,” she repeated. “Maybe I just need to get myself a second dose of Transformation serum.”
“Uh, no,” he said, turning to look at her.
“I was just kidding,” she said, eyes wide. “Green Aaron is overly sensitive.”
“Green Aaron is done experimenting with serum,” he replied. “As soon as we get back to headquarters, I’m going to ask Jamie to check those blood samples to see if he can figure out exactly what is going on.”
Cadence was alarmed now. “Everything’s okay, right?
“Yes,” he reassured her. “Everything is just fine.”
She wasn’t sure that she believed him, not completely. But she also knew now was not the time to discuss it. Right now, they needed to celebrate knocking two more vigilantes off their list and then use this momentum to hunt down the others who had betrayed their trust
