Back in the main hall, the first thing that Lumina noticed was that Mina was not anywhere to be found, and she wasn't responding to anyone either, "Leon, did you find her?" Lumina yelled over the noise, fighting to be heard.
"No, I didn't but…" Leon froze for a second, a shiver going up his spine, and then he turned to look Lumina directly in the eyes, "You need to go look for her now. I don't know why but—I feel like she's in danger."
Lumina looked around nervously, Chaewon and Elliot were here with Leon too, but to leave them to have to supervise the four youngest? She was hesitant, what if something happened to one of the kids because she wasn't there—
But she couldn't just ignore the idea that Mina could be in danger. If she couldn't protect the woman, then her life would be just as meaningless as it would have been if she couldn't protect the kids.
At least they have a backup. She had no idea if Mina had backup.
"Hey, don't worry about us," Leon said softly, as though reading her mind, "We've got this, go get our Mina."
Lumina nodded before running off, asking into her earpiece, "Has anyone seen Mina? I haven't heard back from her, has she talked to any of you guys?"
"...I tried to stop her," Xander's voice was haggard, as though he was heavily injured, "I'm sorry, A'Li, if I hadn't gotten caught by Julian, she wouldn't have gone after—"
"Cheng-Ge, are you alright?" Lumina asked, worried, "You…You don't sound alright…"
"I'm alive. Injured, but alive. Though I don't know how much help I can be for now. Mina might need to take a look at me. Kaedan is with me right now," Xander said, explaining softly.
Lumina bit her lip in worry, "Kaedan, take care of him."
"I will," The other man responded, "But Mina—Alex, love, where was she going? Who was she going…After…" As Kaedan said it aloud, it seemed that the pieces clicked together for all of them.
Lumina cussed under her breath, "Oh, fuck. Mina why—"
"I know where she is~" A familiar, sing-songy voice joined in the conversation, and Lumina froze, her limbs locking up as she remembered that tone, "Come back to the ballroom if you want your precious Princess in one piece, okay, Jiali? I'll be waiting," And with that, there was almost a fizzling sound, the sound of Mina's earpiece being destroyed.
There was silence for a moment, and then—
"I have to go. I won't—I won't let her touch Mina, I won't let her hurt her, I'm going to fucking kill her—"
"Be careful, please," Xander said softly, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to stop her, "We know what Veronica can be like, just…Don't take any unnecessary risks, alright?" He added.
"I'll try my best," Lumina knew she couldn't promise anything at this point, all she could do was try her best.
As she entered the destroyed ballroom, her eyes immediately focused on the person standing at the edge of it, near the broken debris and shattered arched window. Or, well, the two people that were standing there.
Lumina could see Veronica's eyes as she got closer and closer to them, and her own eyes only shifted to Mina for one moment, just to take in the state of the woman. She had been roughed up quite a bit, bruises and wounds all over her body but overall, she didn't seem to be in any worse state than any of the others. That made her sigh in relief, but the gun at her head didn't relieve her entirely.
"Ah, I knew you'd come, Jiali," Veronica crooned, "It's sad, my own girlfriend will show up for this wench," She jabbed the gun against Mina's head and the shorter woman winced, "It breaks my heart that you'd come running for this wench, but not your own girlfriend."
Mina scoffed, rolling her eyes, "You're calling me a wench? Way to self-project, don't you think," She muttered under her breath.
"Mina, please for the love of God, shut your mouth," Lumina said quickly, and Mina didn't hesitate to listen to her, "And for the record, I'm not your girlfriend and I haven't been your girlfriend for at least eight years now."
Veronica's eyes flashed, "Don't forget, I have your precious little toy with a gun to her head, Jiali. If you so much as anger me…"
"Alright! Alright, what do you want?" Lumina yelled out as she saw Veronica's finger hovering over the trigger. She let go of her own gun, holding her hands up in the air.
"What do I want?" Veronica growled, "I want you to love me again. I want it to be just like the old days, when it was just the two of us, before this brat," She nudged Mina with the gun, "Got in the way of everything. When everything was right, when we loved each other, and you were all mine—"
Mina couldn't stay quiet at this, "You mean back when you used to practically torture her? You never loved her, you bitch, you just wanted a plaything to help heighten your sense of control. And because of that, you manipulated a fucking child—"
This time, the gun was shoved right against Mina's mouth, "One more word out of you and I really will kill you, and I know that you know I will have no hesitation doing it. I would have already killed you now if it weren't for how much you matter to her, and I need her to see what happens to the women she lets love her. You're only relevant because she thinks she's in love with you right now—" Veronica noticed Lumina completely tense up, and it seemed that she picked up exactly what had done it.
"...Huh?" Mina said, almost dumbly as she stared at Lumina.
"Ah, I see. You haven't told her yet, have you? That's quite pathetic actually, all that spouting to me about how I ruined your ability to see what was right in front of you all this time, how you could have loved her and been happy, how it took you too long to notice that you were in love with her too…And you never told her. That would be a tragic ending to this story, wouldn't it?" Veronica laughed at this, "She only finds out about your feelings moments before she dies. Then, boom! End of the tragic lovers that never got what they wished for."
Mina's eyes held the question in them as well, but Lumina couldn't find it in herself to answer. If she answered then…Then it would mean that it was her feelings that had put Mina in this situation to start with. Instead, she squared her shoulders and looked into Veronica's eyes, "What do I have to do for you to let her go?"
Veronica hummed, almost somewhat playfully, "...You take her place. Don't worry, I won't kill you. You're just going to have to come with me," She smiled, "What will it be, Jiali, her life, or yours?"
"Lumina Liu, don't you dare—" Mina's voice was muffled by the gun, but Veronica didn't let her speak, shoving the barrel of the gun into her mouth, and the other woman choked.
"Time is ticking, Jiali. I don't have all day," Veronica said in a sing-songy voice, "I won't hesitate to shoot her head off."
It wasn't even a choice.
Lumina let out a shaky breath, "Fine. I'll come over there, just, let her go. Let her go and I'll come over there."
"Are you really in the position to be making demands of me, Jiali? No, you come over here first, then I'll let her go," Veronica replied.
Lumina knew she was in no place to argue. There really was only one thing she could do. Inhaling deeply, she took steps forward, trying to steady herself. No matter how confident she seemed, no matter how calm she seemed, she was still scared. She felt like she was a teenager again, and the same fear she felt when she was with Veronica back then was coming flooding back.
As she stopped two feet away, Veronica held her hand up, "Stop. Don't move any further," Her voice was cold, monotone. Without hesitation, she punched Mina in the gut, making the young woman lean over, groaning in pain. Shoving her to the ground away from them, Veronica grabbed Lumina by the arm and spun her around, holding her tightly and aiming the gun at her temple, "No funny business now, baby, you know I will kill you if I have to."
Lumina knew that all too well.
"I know who you are. What you really did to me. You betrayed me over and over, you used me for a damn—" Lumina cut herself off in frustration, knowing she couldn't talk about it, "If only you had separated your work from the rest of your life, maybe if you hadn't been so unhealthily obsessed, maybe you'd still have me. Really have me."
Veronica seemed surprised by this, completely thrown off, "You know everything? You're not…How do you know that? We made it so you wouldn't figure it out…" Her eyes narrowed, "It was that boy, wasn't it? We warned him not to come back here and yet…He's signed his death warrant by doing this—" She didn't get to finish her sentence before Lumina found an opening and flung her head back, smacking Veronica in the head. She cried out and suddenly, Lumina felt something fly past her side, pain shooting all through her body from that place. The scream from behind her was much louder though, and in an instant, she understood what had happened.
"I'm so sorry, A'Li, I only just got in a good enough position to shoot and there was no way I was getting her without you—A'Li!" She heard Xander screaming into the earpiece as she felt the gun being pressed into her temple and the click of the safety switch off. Veronica was leaning heavily on her now, and Lumina could feel the other woman's blood soaking through the back of her clothes.
She closed her eyes, knowing what was coming next.
I'm sorry, Gege. Mina. Everyone. I'm sorry, Leon. I know you wanted to save all of us.
In that instant, multiple things happened at once. Lumina was dragged down and away from Veronica by a heavy body strength while she felt someone else jump over her as she fell, tackling Veronica to the ground and pointing the gun away as it fired.
Mina clutched her tightly, Lumina's head tucked under her chin and she could feel the woman sobbing, "Mina…"
"Don't you dare, don't even think about pulling something like that again, Lumina Jiali Liu, or I will never forgive you," She said almost angrily, but Lumina couldn't stop looking at the tears. She wiped them away.
"Hey, I'm alright. I'm here, I've—I've got you," Lumina said softly.
"No, in fact, I've got you," Mina laughed through her tears, "You…You're bleeding, we need to get you out of here—Val?!" Mina's expression switched to concern and slight fear when she looked past Lumina. She helped the taller woman stand up, allowing Lumina to lean on her.
She couldn't see Val's face, but she knew something in her had snapped.
"Val—"
"Both of you should go," Val's voice was so different, so devoid of emotion and joy that it was almost impossible to believe she was the same person they'd met, "Mina, you should get Lumina out of here. She's injured badly and so are you. Xander is also injured, you need to find Kaedan."
Lumina was just now aware of the buzzing of the earpiece and she adjusted it, and suddenly, she could hear Kaedan yelling frantically, "—He tried to run but I think his head injury was much worse than we thought, he's passed out, is Mina there?!"
At this, Lumina turned to Mina with fear in her eyes, "Minnie, Minnie, please, we have to go, it's Xander, he's—" Mina cupped Lumina's face in her hands, shushing her softly and rubbing her thumb along her cheekbone.
"Shh, calm down, sweetheart. We're going, let's get going, okay? He's going to be fine, I swear. He will be fine, he won't leave you ever again. He promised, and you know how Xander is about his promises," Mina said softly. She turned to Val, "Val, I don't want to leave you here alone with her…"
Val let out a sharp laugh, something that sounded completely off, "Oh, you don't need to worry about me. Doctor Veronica and I here have some personal grudges we need to settle. I'll be fine. Both of you get out of here."
Mina took a deep breath and nodded but as she helped Lumina limp away, she pushed Lumina's earpiece and spoke into it, leaning into the other woman's face, "Nia, Fenix, Owen, get to the ballroom and keep an eye on Val. I'm…Concerned."
"Is she able to keep up?" Nia responded.
"She's keeping up, more than keeping up. She took down Veronica. Or well, she's in the process of taking down Veronica. Something is…Up with her. You'll…Just get there, you'll see what I mean. I'm a little scared of what she might do, honestly. Veronica deserves it but…"
Bella responded, "Shit, she went for Veronica? Someone needs to be with her there right now or else she's going to go overboard. I hate that woman with my entire heart but I don't want Val to end up doing something she might regret or be horrified by later on."
"...Shit, what is up with her? She's like a fucking card dealer, literally, you just have no idea what she's gonna pull next," Nia said under her breath, "I've got her back. Fenix, Owen, meet up with me there?"
"We'll be there," Owen responded.
Mina stopped paying attention at that point though. She knew they could handle that on their own, right now her focus was on getting Lumina and herself up those stairs to where Xander was so she could take care of the three of them.
"Mina…" Lumina started quietly as they made it halfway up the stairs. She sounded cautious, and the younger woman knew immediately what this was about, "What Veronica said, when she was holding you, I—"
Lumina was quickly shut up by Mina pushing a finger gently against her lips, "We'll talk about it later, alright? First, we all need to get out of here safe and alive, then we can talk about it. I promise, we will. Now's not the time, is all," She said softly. Lumina let out a deep breath and then nodded. They continued to climb but Mina could tell the other woman was still nervous.
"Mina, I really…I don't know, I feel bad that I've dragged you into this because of…Well…" Lumina whispered.
Silly woman. I'm so in love with you.
The shorter stopped and faced her, looking at her. Leaning up, she pressed a kiss to Lumina's cheek before smiling softly, "For the record," She said softly, not moving away, "I'm the same as you."
Lumina's eyes lit up at this, and before Mina could think, she had been pulled into the taller woman's arms. She pressed her face to her neck and inhaled deeply, Lumina's perfume helping to comfort her while the other buried her face in Mina's hair, "...Later?"
Mina smiled. They had all the time in the world for this, "Later."