Station 2-14: Chapter Seventeen
The Semi-Finals: Ley faces her biggest fear to fight Ellah
Previous Chapter - Station 2-14
Chapter Seventeen: The Semi-Finals
The quiet of the elevator is a relief from the noise of the past few days. Tessa was gone. Voss couldn’t be trusted. And her mother was yet to wake up. She knew that it was the machines keeping her alive at this point. But so long as she was still in the game, there was hope that she could change things. So long as she could win, she could pay for the treatment that her mother needed.
Ellah is standing next to her in silence. Ley couldn’t begin to imagine what she’s thinking; she knows barely anything about her. All she’s learned about her is how she fights. She knows that she has a single band but is more determined than anyone she’s versed so far.
She’s strong, quick and hard to knock over.
But Ley has fought her way through match after match to get off the losing rank to the semi finals. So she wasn’t intimidated by her resolve.
Still, she feels that she should say something. She turns to Ellah just as they arrive and holds out her hand:
‘Good luck,’ she says.
‘Hmph,’ says Ellah, ignoring the gesture. ‘I heard you can’t swim - careful not to drown.’ The elevator doors open and she leaves Ley behind her, with her hand extended, too stunned to think of a reply.
It doesn’t matter, she assures herself, as she steps out and heads in the opposite direction to her own starting gate. She doesn’t need to know how to swim. She wasn’t going to let a drop of water touch her.
She makes her way to her starting point, beneath the thrum of the audience in the stands directly above her. She can’t see the water yet but she can smell it. The air is thick with the dampness bleeding through the walls. It feels like it’s closing in around her. She runs the final distance, desperate to get the match started so she can get the hell out of there.
The gates open and Ley looks out onto the new stadium. They’re 200 feet from the ground with the audience in the stands surrounding the expanse of water in front of her. She’s closer to the fans than she’s even been before in a match and the sounds of their cheers are deafening.
The light of the boundary line shines in perfect precision onto the water and Ley looks from Ellah’s starting position to the island floating in the centre to her own starting point floating in front of her.
There’s nothing else in the stadium this time. No weapon that she could hurl at her opponent, or one that she has to dodge. It’s just the two of them and the ocean between them.
Ellah steps out onto her starting point, just beyond the boundary line and Avery’s words float back to her: just get rid of it. But the sheer size of the water in front of Ley is overwhelming. She looks into its’ depths and through the crystalline-blue water she glimpses the ground beneath. She sighs a breath of relief.
It was deep but it did end.
She steps out onto her starting point and the countdown begins on the screen above them.
Three.
Ley steadies her floating isle beneath her feet.
Two.
She draws her attention out to the water around her, feeling the movement that ripples just beneath.
One.
The Siren sounds. The match begins.
Ellah draws her power in, readying a wave of water, preparing herself to hurl it at Ley and push her across the boundary line. While Ley sends her power out across the surface, feeling the way that it reacts beneath her grip as she flattens the water onto itself.
She understands it now.
It wasn’t a matter of moving the water at all, it was a matter of keeping it still.
She watches as Ellah struggles to move the water under her grip. She could show her that moving it was easy. She could send her isle gliding over the surface to Ellah and push her across the boundary with her bare hands, but where was the fun in that? Ley wants her to know that she’s stronger. She wants everyone in the stands to know her power.
So instead of sending her TK out across the surface, she burrows down beneath it. She pushes her isle down into the water, disappearing from the surface and away from the cries of surprise above. She holds the water out away from her, creating a tunnel from the surface to the ground.
When she lands on the stadium floor, she looks up to see the water holding form above her and smiles. The drone flies into her sights above, desperate to catch a glimpse and show the audience.
She can see the shadow of Ellah’s isle on the surface. Before she has a chance to react, Ley pulls her isle to the ground to join her, pushing aside the water between them and clearing a path.
Ellah falls over on her platform at the impact while Ley stands tall across the stadium. For a moment, they stare at each other - is that it? Is the match over? But neither of them have fallen into the water or crossed the boundary line. The work isn’t done yet.
Ley hesitantly steps onto the ground, waiting again to hear the siren sound. But with the water pushed to the sides, there was no risk of her touching it. When no call is made, she sets her sights back on Ellah and strides across the stadium towards her.
She can hear the water threatening to break against her hold and crash onto them but she’s not afraid of it.
She’s in control.
Ellah, on the other hand, is terrified. She watches Ley draw closer and scrambles back, not knowing what to do, but there’s nowhere for her to go. Water surrounds them both with a slim path between them and the boundary line glows bright behind her keeping her in place.
She throws up a hand, trying to move some of the water out of the wall surrounding them and hit Ley - but she can’t shake Ley’s control.
Ellah screams a deep guttural cry, trying to gain power over Ley’s hold but she can’t. Ley stops in front her; she should say something clever. She can almost hear Voss whispering lines into her ear that would look great on a tee-shirt.
But she was done with him and his tricks. She’s following her own rules now and all she wants to do is win and get back to her mother. With a final step forward she shoves Ellah across the boundary line where she lands with a thump on the sodden ground.
The siren sounds. The match is over.
For a moment, it’s quiet. Ley turns to the crowd, daring them to challenge her success. The drone flies in for her close up and she stares it down.
‘See you at the final,’ she says down the lens and the crowd erupts into a frenzy as if her words gave them permission to cheer.
Ley waves to the crowd and welcomes their thunderous applause. She can feel the weight of the water pressing on her mind, threatening to crush them both if she lets go for even a second. It was starting to make her dizzy but it doesn’t matter - she’s won.
She’s shown everyone what she can do and she’s won because of it.
It doesn’t matter how hard it was for her or that her hands are now shaking from the strain of it all. Nothing can stop her now. She’s going to the finals and she’s going to win.
Ley drags Ellah back onto her starting mark and lifts it into the air, letting the water crash into place as they rise.
