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Chapter 30 - Still Beating Heart

"It's because," Amelia began, "I understand you Olivia. I know what it's like to live up to someone else's expectations; I know it better than anyone and I know that you're only doing this because you want to impress your father, you want him to look at you as an adult and not a child, even if it means destroying my world."

Olivia gritted her teeth, shaking her head in denial.

"No. I'm doing this because I WANT TO, it has nothing to do with my dad. I don't care, I don't.."

Olivia stopped mid-sentence and for once, Amelia saw Olivia shed a single tear, not of water due to her biological inability to, but still a small droplet of lava. Amelia squinted closer at her face and with a shaky voice, she asked," are...are you crying?"

Emotions like sympathy, remorse, and sorrow do not exist in the underworld, only pain; it was hard for any deity or god to believe that a demon could feel such sensations. "You don't have to be Hades' daughter, you only need to be Olivia." Amelia quoted.

With that said, Amelia released Olivia from the endless chain, freeing her from her suffering and holding out her hand as a symbol of respect. Olivia met her hand with her own, pulling her in with the same smile she had when they first met, except it felt genuine this time around, warmer and more lively.

"So how do we stop the moon, tell me what we have to do."

Wiping the stains from her tear burned cheeks, Olivia replied, "When i first shot my beam, i used enough power to hit it super hard so it'll take a lot of power to stop it as well. At the speed it's going and how heavy it is, we'd have to either destroy it together and let the debris fly off into space, but some of it could possibly hit your planet or we could try to use brute force to stop it by pushing it backwards."

Biting her lip, Amelia went with the safest option, "Then it's settled. Let's stop it from hitting earth by just pulling it away with all of our strength."

Nodding in agreement, Olivia replied, "I don't have much Energia left, so I'll use the last bit of power I have, follow my lead," and took a deep inhale, holding her breath for a while as the space around them became warmer. She held out both of her hands in front of her and faced the moon while her body became immersed in a purple blaze. "Flame transformation," she whispered before slowly exhaling. From Olivia's palms, a pair of violet flames erupted and wrapped around the moon like a rope being tied around her hands. The flames began to harden, transforming into a pair of brilliant purple chains.

In an attempt to mimic this, Amelia spat chains of ice from her palms that coiled around the moon like a tetherball, with the other ends being melded to the ice shackles that formed on her wrists. Together, both of the girls used all of their strength to pull the hurling moon back towards them.

The skin on Amelia's forearm began to rapidly tear as time passed while healing itself in a torturous cycle of tear and heal. She was going beyond her physical limits, having been heavily fatigued from her battle with Olivia, she was putting everything remaining she had into this grip. Olivia could only help so much, being much more tired from Amelia, she felt as if she wasn't doing enough but still put all of her remaining strength into her tugging as well.

The Moon began to slow; their attempts were somewhat working, but it wouldn't be enough to stop it in time. Both Amelia and Olivia were on the clock, only having a few minutes before it scraped the atmosphere. In desperation, Amelia yelled in pain as her skin began to tear more giving it her all, chunks of ice falling out of her and forming into clones of her to help pull the chains. First five, then ten, then twenty; they all pulled until the Moon came to a stop before flinging back in their direction. They both released their chains and waited for the moon to get near its original position.

"Amelia, go!" Olivia shouted.

Amelia could feel the breath of her Energia slowing as she kept using more and more Energia, but that didn't kill her ambitions; it empowered them. Out of instinct, she gripped her chest, squeezing it tightly from the physical trauma.

"Kinetic Freeze: Second grade," she whispered to herself.

The space around the moon came to a halt, freezing everything around it including The Moon itself.