Third-person POV

Electra finally broke the silence after what felt like a long moment, her voice calm in a way that didn’t match the tension around her as she turned slightly toward Irina. Her eyes dropped briefly to Irina’s hand before lifting back up to her face, and in that same steady tone, she asked, "Did it hurt?"

The question came out so simply, so casually, that for a second, it almost didn’t register with anyone else standing around them what she was referring to, but Irina knew exactly what she meant.

Irina stared at her, her face tight with both pain and disbelief, her brows drawn together as she tried to process the fact that Electra had just asked that like it was a normal thing to say. Her injured hand trembled slightly, the pin still lodged deep in her palm, and even though she was trying to hold herself together, the strain showed clearly on her face.

"Of course it hurt," she snapped under her breath, her voice low but stern, anger slipping through despite her effort to stay composed.

There was something in her tone that said she couldn’t believe Electra had even asked, but at the same time, she wasn’t surprised enough to truly react the way anyone else would have.

Before Electra could respond to her, Jella’s voice cut through the air, loud and filled with anger that didn’t try to hide itself. "Have you completely lost your mind?" Jella shouted, her composure cracking as she stepped forward slightly, her eyes fixed on Electra with a mixture of shock and fury. "Why would you hurt your own friend like that?"

Her voice carried across the space, drawing even more attention to the scene, and the reporters who had already been watching everything unfold now looked even more disturbed.

The looks on their faces were hard to miss. Shock, confusion, and something close to disgust all mixed together as they stared at Electra like they were trying to make sense of what they had just seen. To them, it probably looked like she had snapped for no reason, like she had just attacked someone who was standing right beside her, and in a way, Electra knew that was exactly what they were thinking. She could see it in their eyes, in the way some of them shifted uncomfortably, in the way others looked at her like she was something dangerous that had finally shown its true nature.

But she didn’t care.

Without even sparing Jella another glance, Electra turned her attention back to Irina, her expression unchanged. "Just bear with me," she said simply, her tone quieter now but still firm, like she expected Irina to understand what she was about to do next without needing any further explanation. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Then, without hesitation, she reached forward and pulled the pin out of Irina’s palm.

The reaction was immediate. Irina let out a short, sharp scream, her body tensing as the metal was removed, and even though she tried to hold herself together, the pain was too sudden to hide completely. Blood followed instantly, spilling from the wound as the pin came free, and for a moment, it looked worse than before.

The reporters reacted again, some of them stepping back slightly, others gasping under their breath as they watched the blood drip from Irina’s hand. It only made the situation look worse, more violent, and more unsettling, and if they had already thought Electra was unhinged, this only confirmed it in their minds.

Electra didn’t react to any of it.

She tossed the bloodied pin aside without looking, and it landed near Jella, who flinched slightly at the sight of it, her expression tightening further as she stared at the object like it had personally offended her, but Electra was already moving, already focused on the next step of what she intended to do.

She placed her hand over Irina’s bleeding palm, her touch firm but controlled, and for a moment, nothing seemed to happen. The blood was still there, the wound still open, and the tension in the air only grew as everyone watched, unsure of what they were about to see.

Then, slowly, something changed.

The bleeding began to slow, then stop entirely, and the wound itself started to close, the skin knitting back together in a way that shouldn’t have been possible. It wasn’t dramatic or flashy, there were no bright lights or loud sounds, but it was unmistakable. In under a minute, the injury was gone, leaving behind nothing but clean skin, as if the stab had never happened at all.

Irina let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, her shoulders relaxing slightly as the pain faded completely. She flexed her fingers once, testing it, and when she felt nothing, not even a hint of discomfort, relief washed over her face. Then she leaned slightly closer to Electra, her voice dropping to a whisper that only Electra could hear.

"When this is over," she muttered, her tone dark despite the relief she had just felt, "I’m going to kill you."

Electra smirked faintly at that, the corner of her lips lifting just enough to show that she wasn’t bothered in the slightest. "Thank you for your trust," she replied just as quietly, her tone almost amused, before straightening up and turning back toward the reporters.

They were all staring at her now, not with disgust this time, but with confusion, curiosity, and something else that was starting to grow in their expressions. Something closer to fear, or maybe awe, as they tried to process what they had just witnessed.

One of them, a man standing slightly ahead of the others, cleared his throat before speaking, his voice uncertain but steady enough to carry. "Did you just... heal her?" he asked, his eyes fixed on Electra like he needed confirmation of what he had already seen.

Electra looked at him for a moment, her expression calm, almost bored. "I believe you’re not blind," she said simply. "You can see clearly."

The man hesitated, clearly not expecting that kind of response, but he didn’t argue.

Electra let her gaze move over the rest of them briefly before continuing, her tone shifting slightly, becoming more deliberate now. "That was just a demonstration," she added, her voice carrying enough weight to pull their full attention back to her. "A small glimpse of what I’m capable of."

There was a brief pause, just long enough for her words to settle.

"Which brings me back," she continued, "to what I asked for earlier."

Her eyes shifted slightly, but she didn’t look at Jella yet.

"I want my father’s body," Electra said clearly. "And the body of the one who killed him."

Another murmur spread through the group of reporters, their reactions immediate as they exchanged looks, clearly trying to understand what she was planning. One of them stepped forward slightly, his curiosity outweighing his hesitation.

"Are you asking for the bodies because... you can bring them back?" he asked, his tone careful, like he wasn’t sure if he should even be asking.

The question hung in the air, and this time, it wasn’t just the reporters who reacted.

Jella did.

Her heart dropped instantly, a sharp, sudden feeling settling in her chest as the possibility took shape in her mind. She hadn’t considered it before, not seriously, not fully, but now that it had been said out loud, it was impossible to ignore. If Electra could heal like that, if she could reverse something as severe as a wound so easily, then what else could she do?

From what Jella knew, phoenixes weren’t supposed to bring the dead back to life. There was no record of it, no story, no proof that such a thing was possible, and yet, standing here now, watching Electra, she couldn’t say for certain that it was impossible, and that thought alone was enough to make her uneasy.

Electra turned her attention back to the reporter, her expression unreadable for a brief moment before she answered. "Something like that," she said simply, not confirming it fully, but not denying it either.

She paused, just slightly. "But until the bodies are brought to me," she added, "I can’t say more."

That was enough.

The uncertainty in her words only made it worse, only made it more believable, and the tension in the air shifted again, becoming heavier.

Then she turned to Jella. Her gaze locked on her, steady and unyielding, and whatever calm had been there before was gone now, replaced by something colder.

"Can you bring them to me now," Electra asked, her voice even but carrying an edge that was impossible to miss, "or do I need to forcefully have them brought to me?"

Jella held her gaze, doing her best to keep her expression steady, but there was a slight tension in her posture that gave her away. "Are you really thinking of raising them from the dead?" she asked, her voice controlled, but there was a faint strain beneath it. "Are you even capable of that, or are you just bluffing?"

Electra didn’t react to the question the way Jella might have expected. She didn’t get defensive, she didn’t explain, and she didn’t try to prove anything. Instead, she simply looked at her, her expression calm in a way that felt almost unsettling.

"You can find out," Electra said, her tone firm, "after the bodies are brought here."

She tilted her head slightly, her eyes narrowing just a fraction. "So how about you stop stalling," she added, her voice dropping just enough to make the warning in it clear, "and do what I asked before I lose my patience?"