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"Where the hell is she?" Camilla's voice echos across the field.

"She'll be out soon." Divante says dryly.

Lila scoffs from her hiding spot knowing damn well that they didn't have her in possession. She was just waiting for the perfect time to make her grand entrance.

"Make the alliance with us official." Jaxon speaks up as he nervously shuffles from side to side.

Damon found this act strange as to why he was suddenly nervous compared to before. Damon glances over at the others and notices that they all share the same observation.

"Her first." Enzo speaks with a deadly tone.

Veins from Enzo's forehead were slightly bulging and his muscles were tense form underneath his black shirt. It showed off his large size and his confident aura. The beautiful gray eyes were almost pitch black as the anger in Enzo was rising and was not going to be tamed until he sees his queen safe.

Lila knows she should be afraid of Enzo in this angry state but for some reason she found it more attractive than intimidating.

Meanwhile, Jaxon was internally shitting himself because he knew he didn't have Lila in possession anymore. She escaped just a few hours ago and he spent that time trying to fish information out of her father by pummeling him.

Divante then chuckles and gestures with his fingers. The two men holding Zhi Xingyun push him into view.

Lila feels a familiar pit in her stomach. The kind that made her sink to the lowest of her thoughts. The kind that blossomed to other emotions and dragged her down. The kind that stuck with her stronger than anything else ever since her mother was murdered.

Guilt.

She shakes out those thoughts because she knew better than to get lost in her self hate again. Especially when there's a war that's about to break out.

The Barachi side watch in confusion and then recognization at who the man standing in front of them was.

"He's alive." Enzo says emotionlessly.

Enzo knew better than to show any form of surprise factor to satisfy their opponents. So he remained nonchalant as he watches them present Zhi, otherwise known as his queen's father.

"Yes, he is. Now, accept the alliance." Divante deadpans getting impatient with this matter.

All the while, Lila remained hidden as her nerves were beginning to jump all over the place. She was beginning to become itchy from the tension in the dark night. Even the stars weren't out tonight. Nor the moon.

"And I said I wanted to see her first." Enzo signaled for everyone to raise their weapons which they followed.

Jaxon signaled for his small, pathetic alliances to raise their guns.

Lila almost bursted out laughing at the comparison of the two sides.

"Why do you need her?" Jaxon spat in annoyance.

"You don't have her." Nathalia says, bored.

"Yes I do." Jaxon snarls.

Guess this is my chance, Lila thought as she quietly and efficiently makes it into the field.

She stabs multiple men on the Millas side who did the injuries on her father, catching them all by surprise.

Lila then runs back to the center of the field and stand in between the two teams.

At this point no one knew who this mysterious person was as she was covered up in a black overall outfit with combat boots and a knife belt. Her face was covered by her hood and a mask.

"Who the fuck are you?" Divante roared getting ready to shoot this persons brains out.

Before he could, the woman bursted out laughing.

Everyone looked at the woman in surprise.

"Guess I should reveal myself now." She says with a sigh as she discards the mask and hood.

Underneath the disguise revealed none other than Lila herself. Her whole demeanor changed from the timid and kind girl she once was to a dangerous and confident woman who only tasted revenge.

Enzo stared at his queen in awe as he sees her perfectly toned body move into the air as if she owned it. He couldn't believe this was the same woman who cried after watching disney movies.

"LILS?!" Damon screams as he looks at his best friend in astonishment.

Lila gave them a thumbs up before her eyes landed on the one person that always made her smile even when she didn't want to.

The man who everyone else saw as the devil itself but he was an angel to her.

Enzo Roman Barachi.

She smiles brightly at him while her eyes were brimmed with tears. Enzo feels his breath hitched in his throat as he takes in the few bruises and slashes that were visible on her face.

Anger flooded through his veins as he knew Jaxon must've been the one to put it there. He knew he would torture him until he begged for death and then torture him even worst until he begged to never be reincarnated if there was an afterlife.

As Lila was about to run into the safety of Enzo's arms, shots rang out through the field killing some of their people.

Enzo signals everyone to go in and battle.

Bullets and knives and other weaponry fly through the air as men and women are tackled and lay limp on the ground.

People continue fighting all the while Enzo and Lila run up to each other to embrace each other after the torturing days of being apart.

"Fuck, I've missed you." Enzo's voice comes out raspy and strained.

"I've missed you." Lila whispers as tears dropped from her eyes.

They hold onto each other for a second longer, not caring that there was a war going on around them. They had desperately needed each other's touch.

"HEY SAVE SOME FOR ME!" Damon yells as he strangles one of the men with his rope.

"ME TOO!" Nathalia also yells from somewhere amongst the bloodshed.

Enzo grunts as a bullet grazes his bicep.

"Oh my god- OH MY GOD ENZO!" Lila screams in panic as she quickly detached herself from his embrace.

Enzo quickly turns and shoots the man right in between his eyes.

Before Lila could react, another person grabs her from behind. Lila lets out a yelp of surprise before twisting her arm around to stab the person.

The same person grunts in pain before landing a harsh punch on Lila knocking her off her foot and onto the ground.

Before the man can continue his fight with Lila, Enzo punches him so hard that a pop resounds indicating the man's jaw had been dislocated.

Enzo continues to pummel the person while Lila regains her awareness and pries Enzo off the man.

"It's okay, I'm okay." Lila whispers to Enzo who has her completely wrapped up in his arms as he continues to shoot at those who even glance their way.

Lila continues to the same.

Both of them continue to fight those who come their way and protect each other.

As the shootings die down, Jaxon is now limping into view with someone else in his grip.

Enzo feels Lila tense beside him as he too looks at who was in Jaxon's grip.

Lila's father.

"Alliance, or he dies." Jaxon says weakly.

By now everyones weapons have stopped firing and everyone is now awaiting for Enzo's command.

Enzo then glances down at Lila to see her conflicted expression.

"Stop, let him go." Lila pleads as she watched Jaxon dig the gun further into her father's temple.

"It's okay princess." Zhi barely even whispers as his throat has been completely bruised.

"N-no." Lila chokes out.

Enzo grabs ahold of Lila to keep her upright.

Lila has had enough of this. The constant leavings of people she loves. She had just gotten her father back and now she's was losing him again.

She cursed at the world for putting her in this position. She cursed at herself for always running.

She had had enough.

So Lila pries herself out of Enzo's hold and holds up her own guns and directs them at Jaxon. She runs towards them while Jaxon is too busy being distracted by her father fighting at him.

Just distract him a little longer. She thought.

She knew it was risky to run towards Jaxon who had a much larger gun than her and more skilled with guns than she was. But she had to distract him.

Jaxon quickly reacts and redirects the gun from Zhi's head towards Lila. As he was about to pull the trigger at her, Lila throws her knives towards his biceps. The grip of Jaxon's gun loosens and drops towards the ground as Jaxon falls to the ground gripping his bicep.

Lila quickly grabs ahold of her father's limp and weak body.

Enzo shoots Jaxon once in the leg because as much as he wanted to kill him now, he was going to torture him first. He signals his men to bring him into one of the SUV vans and send him to the warehouse.

"That's my girl." Zhi says as he weakly gives Lila a fatherly and comforting hug.

He was safe. Lila had saved him.

Lila hadn't even noticed that everyone was now surrounding her and Zhi.

"You bitch, come over here right now." Nathalia says as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Lila runs towards everyone as they all embrace in a tight group hug.

For the first time in a long time, Lila felt loved.

As they all pull apart, Enzo and Zhi greet each other.

Lila couldn't hear what they were talking about but both men had tense stances as they watched one another and talked.

"Don't threaten him papa." Lila said as she made her way towards the two initmidating men.

"I was simply making sure he doesn't hurt you." Zhi says innocently.

Lila rolls her eyes and goes to Enzo's side, Enzo gives her a loving temple kiss. Even though Enzo had wanted to kiss the life out of her, He knew better than to do that in front of Zhi.

Although Enzo was the most dangerous man in the world, he had to admit that his queen's father scared him.

As the group was about to go back to the empire, a resounding bullet grazes through the air.

Everyone drops to the floor before glancing up to see what happened.

There stood Mia with a pistol in hand and a determined wicked expression.

Lila gasps as she looks to where the gun had hit, and to her worst nightmare, a gaping hole rested on her father's chest.

Blood poured out of the wound profusely as he collapsed onto his back gurgling in his own blood.

"NO!" Lila screams as she drops her weapons and runs towards her now bleeding father.

Mia fires again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Until the pistol in her hand clicks and no bullets are left.

Mia drops to her knees as she doubles over in laughter.

Lila kneels beside her now pale father and places both her hands on his chest, applying as much pressure as she could. She then cut off the sleeves of her shirt in pieces and wraps up every gaping hole on his body.

You can save him. Just keep applying pressure.

She was so entranced in her effort to keep her father alive that she hadn't even heard him calling for her.

"You two will always be my baobeis." He whispered as he placed a hand on her cheek despite the raging pain it caused him.

"No..papa..p-please.." Lila whimpered in physical pain as her heart had shattered into a million pieces.

"I'm s-so proud o-of you." Zhi strains.

"Shut up. You'll b-be fine.." Lila yells at her father as she continues to try and help him.

Zhi grabs ahold of his daughters hands and clasps them together on his neck.

He gasps as more blood pours out of him.

"I'm going to finally see her. I'll let her know how beautiful and strong you've become." Zhi whispers now barely holding on.

Lila cradles her fathers body in her small arms. To her four friends she looked like a kid again, crying for her parents in this cruel world that took them away.

Enzo cautiously walks over to her and pulls her into his arms.

With her blood soaked hands, Lila grabs ahold of Enzo's shoulders.

"Please Enzo, save him. Save him. He's alive still. He can make it. He just needs a little help. H-he'll be okay." Lila pleads brokenly as she looks at each of her friends.

Zion, Nathalia, Lance, and Damon all shake their heads as they know that there was no way to save Zhi.

Lila continues to sob and shake her head in despair, "I love you papa. I love you."

Lila begins to do compressions on her fathers chest as his breathing becomes more narrow and hoarse.

Zhi holds onto his daughters last words as he looks up at the pitch black sky that lacked stars and any form of light. He continued to stare at it as his eyes began to droop and his breathing became ragged.

He let his eyes fall shut as he saw a glimmer of a star shine in the dark sky and departed from his body.

"NOOO!" Lila's screams echo through the field as she continues to do compressions.

Each time harder.

Each time with more pressure.

Hoping for any chance that his eyes would open again.

Just then Enzo wraps his arms around her and pulls her away from her father's limp body.

"Sweetheart, it's okay. Let them do their job." Enzo whispers into her ear.

Lila hadn't even realized the medical assistances from the Barachi empire coming in.

Lila watched helplessly as they get to work on her father.

Please. Please be okay. You're fine papa. Please.

Lila pleads and sobs and punches Enzo's chest in frustration.

"What are you doing?" Lila chokes out as she watches the medical group disperse and stop their work on Zhi.

"S-stop. What are you doing? S-save him." Lila stutters as she pries herself from Enzo and runs towards her father.

Before she can reach her father, Nhung and Nathalia step in front of her.

"They can't do anything anymore Lila. He lost too much blood. He's..gone." They say hesitantly as tears filled their eyes.

Lila doesn't hear any of this.

Just the bullets.

The piercing of the bullets that took her father.

The gaping holes throughout Zhi's body.

The blood on her clothes and hands.

Crimson.

So red.

Lila doesn't realize Enzo helping her into a car. Doesn't realize arriving at the empire.

Doesn't realize Enzo helping bathe her.

Only the crimson red tainting the waters.

Rub. Keep rubbing.

Scratch it off.

Peel it off.

Get it off.

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