Xander did not respond, and in fact could barely even hear Genblade over the roar of his own veins.
“It wouldn’t be no different,” he snarled, throwing Natasha at Xander with such force that she rose up off the ground. He turned and bolted toward the courtroom’s exit, the crowd parting for him as he went as if through Devine intervention.
Xander eyes went wide as he lunged forward to catch Natasha, his eyes breaking from Genblade for the first time in what seemed like forever. He felt his hands connect with her armpits as the force of her weight made his leg want to buckle and snap all over again, but did not.
Their faces within inches of each other, Natasha looked at him and almost smiled as their forward momentum finally stopped and she heard the sound of the large wooden doors of the courtroom opening. “Well, that was--”
-BANG!-
Xander felt the bullet rip through him and out the other side, jolting forward from the sudden impact and sending him into the crook of Natasha’s neck. He didn’t see the look on her face, but her felt the tiny pat of two tears as they hit his shoulder almost simultaneously, and he saw her blood force its way out through the hole that had been torn in the dark blue suit that her daughter had said looked perfect on her that morning. He felt her entire body shudder as her last breath shook its way from her lungs, her body not fighting death as it barreled down and overtook her.
He looked up and saw Genblade standing with his hand on the door, the smoking gun still pointed at the spot where Natasha had been. “Lied,” he said simply, before disappearing outside. The door slammed shut behind him, its sound echoing throughout the courtroom.
Xander lay Natasha down on the floor before him, the weight off his leg a welcome relief. Her brown eyes stared up at him lifelessly, blood spatter covering her face. The exit would on her chest was massive and had showered his shirt and neck in thousands of tiny droplets of blood, bone and pieces of her lung. For a brief second, she almost looked like she was still alive... but then that was gone too, and there was nothing but her and the hole in her that didn’t even look real under the harsh incandescent lights.
“Xander?” Mike called out from across the courtroom, Cathy standing beside him but turned away from the grisly sight.
Xander stood up, shaking his head slightly as he started walking toward the door, his leg pulsating with pain and making him limp, though not as badly as he had been.
“Where do you think you’re - -” Mike started, then stopped when Xander turned to glare at him.
His eyes were completely black, so much that they looked like dark holes in his face instead of gel-filled balls. The womb pumped with such ferociousness that he cried black tar, making his face look like his mother’s did when she cried with mascara on. He didn’t stop walking, brushing past people as he headed for the doors.
Mike stepped back and watched his friend go, then turned and looked at the still-warm body of Natasha Mayer. After a moment, Megan Greene popped up from behind the bar and into his field of vision, rubbing her fingers through her curly red hair.
“What the hell happened?” she asked, unable to turn away from the corpse.
“What always happens when people get too interested in death,” Mike said, turning just in time to see the door close behind Xander. “They find it.”
The courtroom doors slammed behind Xander, the sound echoing off the empty marble floors and stone walls until it felt like it was coming at him from all directions. The halls seemed to stretch on forever in front and behind him, with nothing in sight but eerie reflections and shadows.
“I know you’re here,” Xander breathed, his eyes darting one way and then the other, always seeing something in his peripheral vision. “Come out and face me, you coward.”
“Coward?” came Genblade’s voice from somewhere in front of him, though with all the echoing it was impossible to tell from where. “What makes me a coward?”
Xander raised an eyebrow slightly, then started walking down the corridor in the direction of the voice. He stepped lightly, trying to make as little sound as possible for Genblade to hear. As he looked around, the gothic mouldings and images that danced along the ceiling of the courthouse mocked him now, like grinning gargoyles laughing at his efforts. Though he tried to fight it, the feeling of the cold floor beneath his feet couldn’t help but remind him of their fight at Engen. “You said you wouldn’t kill Natasha,” he answered finally, keeping his eyes peeled for any movement. “You’re a liar, Genblade.”
“Said no such thing,” the voice chuckled. “Said you should let me go before I killed her, and that’s the order it happened in.”
Xander growled deep in the back of his throat, but did not respond as Genblade’s laughter filled the hall. He stepped out into the main foyer now, with its gaping stone pillars and magnificent statues. There was a painting on the wall he hadn’t noticed before of Judge Pike that now had blood smeared over her neck and eyes, making her appear ghostly and as dead as the bodies back in the courtroom.
-BANG!-
A bullet ricocheted off the metal frame of the painting, making it fall to the floor. Xander backed up quickly to avoid being hit by it as it fell forward onto its face, showing the grey-brown matting behind it.
