The Return of Twelve (A Lorien Legacies Fanfic)

23. Another Florence Destruction

(Fifteen's POV)

I thought we're never gonna wake up anymore. But I can feel lights flashing on my eyelids as I open them and realized somebody is pointing a flashlight on my face.

"Oy, ragazza? Ti dispiacerebbe se te ne andassi di qui?" A man says to me in hard European accent and language I don't understand. "Alzarsi! Alzarsi!"

I stand up, feeling light-headed as if I've been asleep for years. I check on my skin and my hair just to be sure I'm oriented with the present situation.

"Where am I?" I ask the man, still flashing the light on my face. "Could you removed that! It's so, ugh!"

"You an English girl, huh?" He asks with still hard accent. I nod. "Where is you family?"

I shake my head. "I'm alone."

He knits his eyebrows. "Here? Alone? Then who is she?"

He points at another girl laying on the asphalt. In front of us is a store, almost about to close now since there are only few people in there. I guess it's already midnight. The man checks on the girl, flashing her with his flashlight the same thing he did to me. Just then, I notice it is Eleven.

"Hey, stop that. She's my friend," I tell the man. He looks at me and give me a concerned look. He stares at his mini store-like cafe, then back at me.

"You can rest in for a bit if you want..."

I nod and carry Eleven. She wakes up groggily when the man and I help her up. Once she realizes the environment, she gasps.

"Where the hell are we?" She confusingly look at every direction alarmed.

"Calm down, Eleven," I say. "We're fine. Let's just... follow this guy while we, I don't know, figure things out?"

The man seems nice as he let us enter his store. We are welcomed by a normal store atmosphere, with background sounds from the TV and normal customer conversations everywhere. He motion for us to sit along the counter and feel free to rest for a bit. He give us two bottles of water.

"So, where are we, exactly?" I ask the man. Good thing he knows how to speak English.

"This is Florence, Italy," he says from behind the counter across us. "But I got really curious of how and why you girls accidentally. Here..."

He stick out his hand for a handshake as Eleven and I take it. "I'm Horacio."

"Nessie," Eleven says.

"Uhm, Rose," I tell him.

The man looks at Eleven aka Nessie. What kind of name is Nessie? The man looks back at me.

"You call her... Eleven a while ago, is that right?"

My heart pumps. "Oh, uhm, yeah! That's her other name."

Eleven nods. "Nessie Eleven Peters. Such weird name isn't it?"

The man laughs. "Not at all. I have a foreign friend named Stephen Peters. It's fine."

Eleven laughs too. "Must be a distant relative."

"Anyway, we are here as tourists. But a while ago, we ran out of money. We end up sleeping in front of your store..." I say.

"We greatly apologize, Sir," Eleven adds.

The man nods. "I understand. But forgive me if this is only I can give."
He looks at the bottles of water he gave us.

Eleven and I nod. "It's okay, Mr. Horacio."

"Say," Eleven leans at him. "Do you happen to know anything about... uhm, weird occurrences here in Florence?"

The man narrows his eyes. "Uhm, like what?"

"Like... you know, alien activities?" I laugh as I say that. The man laughs as well.

"Alien activities? Ohh."

"Yeah, we just..."

Suddenly, we got distracted when we heard something from the background sound. The TV's news. It displays a young woman anchoring a live report about running boy being chased by black cars. There are helicopters and gunshots. We can't clearly understand the Italian language.

Horacio seems to realize we are drawn by the TV. He increases the volume and watch too.

"What does it say?" I ask.

"'Florence Destruction,' the News Headline says. That's the kid who show up this morning in the news also. He was a subject to a school saying he killed a university student with electricity. That was it."

"He's being hunted..." I say. I look at Eleven and know that it may be Twelve. Nobody can cause electricity that way. My heart throbs and excites. This is it. This os the guy we're looking for.

I stand up as Horacio look at me in disbelief. "Where are you going?"

Eleven follows me as we go out of the shop.

"Thanks, Horacio!" Eleven yells before we close the door. We run through the city and try to look for the place where there might be the firings are happening.

"Do you you think, it's him?" Eleven asks.

"I don't just think. I believe it's him, Eleven! We're almost there!"

Eleven can't help it but smile. "Oh, Twelve."

"Good thing we survived the jump..." I tell her. My illusions are getting stronger. But I think if I train more, I will be able to control it more as well.

"I told you it will," she says.

We come to the part of the city where people meet us. They run past us, screaming with fear and terror. We're almost there.

We keep on running up to the center of the city and into the park. We can already hear the helicopters from the news. We can hear the guns firing; Eleven and I duck from time to time and hide in corners.

The Mogadorians are here.

There will be a big lose if the Mogs captured us, or there will be sure success if we otherwise save Twelve. Or whoever this guy is.

He can't be Fourteen. Because the Loric Locator clearly says he's apart from us while Twelve is in here, Europe.

"Fifteen?" Eleven asks. We are behind a tree almost near the park. I'm thinking of a way to help Twelve.

"Yeah?"

"What did you feel when you first saw Greyson?"

My throat forms lump. "I-I don't like Greyson like the way you like Twelve."

"I mean, as a Loric. You know..."

I did a facepalm. "Oh. You know... excited and astonished to see him. To see someone like me. That we are close to unity."

Eleven smiles at me. "I feel that also just now."

I smile at her back. "Now, will you ready your dagger? Because I'm ready to throw illusions."

Suddenly a voice says. "And I'm ready to kill you both."

We turn to the voice and realize who he is.

"MOG!" I yell, dodging the blaster.
Eleven throws her dagger at him before anything can happen. When I look back, the Mog is already disintegrating into ashes.

"Nice one," I say. I take the Mog blaster and throw it to her. "Use this." She nods.

We run again, but we pause once we saw a boy running across the park. Cars stopped at the park's fence followed by the Mogs. This is bad. He is cornered.

"Fifteen, come on!" Eleven pulls my arm towards the park.