Luke

I don't know how many we had killed so far.

Only that it hadn't been enough.

People were still being killed, this town having descended into madness, and there was only so much we could do.

The pandemonium had taken an order to it, almost, if it could be described as such. The truth was, it was difficult to discern just what it was I was seeing. In one moment, it was only chaos, people desperately rushing from home to home, chasing fleeing civilians, cutting them down as desperate defenders of all nationalities gave their lives to save them. In the next, it felt as though I was witnessing kill squads, deliberately moving from one populated area to the next.

One thing had become clear throughout the fighting, however. The numbers of the maddened far exceeded those of the sane.

Assuming I even am sane at this point.

It had been by some strange stroke of fortune alone that we'd managed to find some of the only few in this city yet untouched by the bloodlust that seemed to dominate all others. Primarily consisting of Revanchist soldiers, those most disconnected from whatever vengeance it was consuming the field, we stood together as best as we could.

What is this? I tried asking myself at some point. Revenge? For Jingping? Is that what this is all about?

I cut through the chest of a Fire Nation soldier who had mistaken us for hostiles, approaching us with his spear raised, leaving me no other choice but to defend myself.

The defense had left me vulnerable, however, to an approaching earth bender who seemed to recognize our group as the selfsame ones who had been cutting down those attacking civilians, his friends likely among them.

He would have claimed me as one more kill for the day if not for the interference of a spout of water that solidified mid air into a contorted mass of ice that penetrated the man in a dozen different places, melting then, dropping him to the ground a bloodied mess.

A wave of relief over me, glad to see that our northern flank had been close enough to provide me the life-saving support.

"North is hell!" the waterbender said, approaching me. "We're going nowhere fast that way!"

"What about the east?!" I called back.

"Haven't heard from them yet!"

Damnit, Zare. Don't tell me you were next.

"We're right here!" came her voice then, of no shortage of relief to myself, joining us now where we took cover behind the ruins of a building that the fire had already claimed and had its way with, thankfully not yet burning as did the rest of Shibi around it. "East is no better, but it looks like some are gathering and fighting against the killers. I think they're hiding wounded and civilians inside."

"Our guys?"

"Fire Nation too," she answered. "They're being besieged, but most of the Revanchists have taken up their side. They're holding the line."

Fire Nation and United Front, taking up a common cause against a force that had been reduced to nothing more than savagery. Savagery? Was that really all it was? Was that what had done this all?

"Then we should get there! Now!"

"It's far East!" she yelled in return. "Lot of hell between us and them!"

"The others might be there. Besides, we're sure as hell not getting back to the ships!"

And those who had gone south came back not long ago either, telling of how the ships were on lockdown, guarded by Cholla's men. It could have meant no shortage of things. Perhaps they were protecting it from the Fire Nation, or, perhaps, they were part of this all, ensuring none got out. It was hard to know, but not worth the risk, not with our limited strength.

There were only 5 of us. Me, Zare, a waterbender named Torvak, and two other Revanchist warriors whose names I hadn't yet caught. There had been more.

Now there weren't.

We had yet to find the others. I had no idea where they were, or if even they were still alive. I had to believe that, wherever they were, they were alright. I could scarce afford let my mind now wander to the possibility that they weren't. Such line of thought would only take me somewhere far from good.

"Seems our best bet," Torvak said, turning and nodding towards me, myself thankful for his support of my suggestion. "We go East, break through their siege lines, and help those outside."

"And what then?" Zare asked. "We leave the city? We're in the heart of contested Fire Nation territory."

"One thing at a time," I spoke up now. I knew she was right, of course. Our options were slim, the best one now seeming, with the beach occupied, to trek by land to the Water Tribe's swamp. Beyond that, it was hard to think of any alternative aside from submitting and giving ourselves up to either imprisonment, death, or both

She nodded to me. "Alright," he said. "Let's go."

No more time was spared. We had to move quickly. Idling for too long, it had been what cost us the lives of others we had gathered along the way: Another Revanchist warrior, 2 Earth Kingdom soldiers, even a firebender. It was hard to call it aligning with one another. It was moreso just not killing one another as you focused your attention on those deliberately trying to kill you and those simply trying to escape the fighting.

I wondered how much of Shibi was left, I wondered to myself as I cut my way through a Separatist I could have sworn I recognized, and, by the look in his eyes, recognized me as well.

I didn't dwell on it, only ducking at Zare's command as an arrow flew overhead, straight into the neck of an earthbender who'd held a boulder directly aimed towards us.

We kept on running through the burning town as we made our way East. It would have been easy to say that our priority was defending those of Shibi, but the truth was, in that moment, we were only trying to survive. It did not stop us from trying to do what we could, namely Torvak holding an earthbender at bay while screaming at a woman clutching her child to run in the opposite direction, buying her enough time to escape, and for me and one of his warriors to ambush the earthbender and kill him on the spot.

As I retracted my blade from where it'd been lodged in the man's neck, the warrior covering me as I did so, I found myself wishing more than ever now that I could let myself free, let the breath flow through my body and allow the flame to grow, and really allow myself to make the difference here.

Why don't I? I wondered as we moved along further, down East, and plunged my blade through the spine of a Fire Nation soldier who had been sneaking up on Zare as she'd fired on a Separatist who had been readying to cut down a fleeing family, unaware of her intent.

For her? I thought as the blade left him and he toppled to the ground as she turned to watch his body fall, then looking up to me in a nod of thanks that I returned.

For the others? I thought as we carried forward and I stumbled upon a body that looked eerily similar to Zek's, thankfully coming to the realization upon further inspection that it was not, in fact, him.

For me? I wondered last as I watched helplessly as a family of Fire Nation civilians was corralled into a home that was promptly set ablaze by a combined group of Earth Kingdom soldiers and Separatists.

And they call us the ash makers.

"Damn you!" I called, charging the group that watched as the family screamed, laughing. Laughing.

I'll kill you all.

I'll kill all of you fuckers!

They didn't notice me charging, only becoming aware of my presence as my blade cut through the Earth Kingdom soldier's leg at the knee, dropping him to the ground. The Separatists hadn't even had his weapon unsheathed, and he reached for it desperately to not avail as I grabbed him by the neck, and plunged him backwards into the flame of the house he'd lit ablaze, the screaming from within having since stopped.

I couldn't avenge them, but I could make him feel that same pain.

The flames danced up his head, his screams falling on uncaring airs as I only plunged him deeper. The cinders tickled at my arm, the heat almost comforting. It didn't burn, not anymore. I'd since learned how to deal with the heat, the pain, the burn. It'd been a lesson I'd learned the hard way at Ba Sing Se. Now, I allowed myself to become immersed, plunging him deeper until suddenly, his struggle ended, and he found limp.

It wasn't the flames that had killed him, but rather, a knife that I saw to belong to Zare as she quickly retracted her hand from the blade now plunged into the man's skull with a yelp of pain, pushing me away from the fire.

"What the hell are you doing?!" she yelled at me, quickly grasping at my arm, her eyes going wide to realize I was unscathed while her own arm, just from having stabbed the burning man, already showed the pink of minor burns. Even grabbing my arm then, I could see, sent a fresh stint of pain through her, causing her to recoil, but it took no time at all for her sight to return to my arm, free of any such injury.

I overstepped, I realized. "How did you-?" she began, but shook her head, cutting herself short. "We lost one," she said then. "Torvak and the other are moving further East. We need to catch up, now!

I did no as she grabbed my arm, pulling me forward yet again as I looked back at the man writhing on the ground whose leg I had cut through, the flames of the house he'd help burn slowly creeping towards him. Justice if it ever did exist, I surmised with a worrying thought.

It's getting to me, I realized. The anger, the hate.

I looked at my sword arm, caked from shoulder to individual fingertip in blood, my blade itself no different. How many men had I killed? I wondered as the faces of just those I had slain in the last 2 hours washed over me since this invasion had begun. I was feeling the fatigue beginning to weight in, but I forced myself to keep on moving as Shibi drew ever closer to ash.

Why? I asked myself again, looking around. Why all of this?

Ahead, Torvak and his other warrior, indeed minus another who, according to Zare, had been lost.

Torvak moved his mouth, about to speak, until, suddenly, a flash made itself present in the air.

What? Was all I could wonder before the loudest boom I had heard since the fall of Ba Sing Se's walls enveloped the entirety of Shibi, the shockwave knocking us to the ground, rising shortly after to turn around and witness just what it had been.

To the southwest, a fire, but not just any fire. One that already engulfed an entire portion of the town that had yet been untouched. But not anymore. The fire was unlike anything I'd seen before, rising high and violent, and it was no question what it belonged to.

The fuel silos.

We looked on in horror. How? How had they been destroyed?

Then the debris began to fall—shards of steel that had once encased the refined fuel for Fire Nation vehicles and warships, raining down upon the city, forcing us to desperately seek cover best as we could.

Was it just part of their rampage? I wondered, curious if the onslaught against civilians had now extended towards infrastructure. No. It made no sense. There was no value, no bloodlust to satiate.

The Fire Nation? Had they given up on the city? Destroyed their own fuel to deprive us of it? No, it couldn't have been that either. They were scattered, their command in disarray. If they were going to try anyway, it would be escape, not sabotage.

So what?

My mind reverted back to the briefing of two weeks ago, and of the contingency, the fuel's detonation. Cholla's plan. No, but Shibi is secure. The Fire Nation is practically all dead here. Why would we? Why would he?

"It's him," Zare whispered to my side. "Cholla. You told me he had made plans to do it, right?"

"Yeah, but only if Shibi was lost. The Fire Nation is gone. We hold the town, so why…he doesn't plan on holding the town, does he?"

"We never had the manpower for it," Zare confirmed. "He…he had plans to hold it, did he? This wasn't an occupation. This violence, it wasn't unplanned."

"We…we trusted him. After Jingping, I thought-"

"We thought he was different," Zare confirmed, closing her eyes. "Shows how well we know somebody, huh?"

It was only for a moment, but a single clasp of her hand over mine where it rested by my side, flinching even as she did so, but holding it there for but a second before retracting it.

Our eyes met for only a second before we understood we were far from out of the woods. We had to keep on moving.

Hey eyes darted outside before returning to mine. "Wait," she said. "Boss was there, right? That's where he and his men were?"

I nodded, the fact haven't even occurred to me, but no. No way. With everything happening around us as it was, there was no way in hell he was still there. I shook my head. "If there's anywhere he is, it's to the East. No way he's just letting this happen."

"He's that kind of man?" she asked, I knew just taking advantage of the conversation to reclaim her breath, as I did likewise.

I nodded. "The best," I said.

And I knew he'd want us to keep on moving, to do whatever it took to help our own, and the others of Shibi.

How we were both still alive, I still had no idea. I prayed whatever luck it was we had had thus far, it extended to the others as well, wherever they were. Both of us were quite worse for wear, cut, bruised, covered in ash, soot, and blood, both ours and theirs.

I thought I'd left the war, but no, it never ended. Not for the a moment. I'd defected from the army, but I was still fighting the same battles. Again, and again, and again.

Damnit!

"Get up!" Torvak called. We keep on pushing east! We're nearly there!"

Zare and I, we nodded to one another, and rose with each other's help, leaving the building the had been using for cover, entering a street now that much brighter than before, an unearthly light from the fire of the fuel silos lighting nearly the entire town.

If there was a sense of the conflict dying down before, then any bit of it was gone now. Debris rained, new fires raged, and all combatants, believing one another responsible for the newfound destruction, waged war with one another once again, and all we could do was run.

Death and destruction dominant, we made East as best as we could, the fighting growing all the more intense, the concentration of killers growing, and growing, us evading them best as we could, weaving through and past one killer after another until we could get no further together. Somehow, we lost track of one another in the chaos, becoming separated, but I pushed east still, praying they would do the same, trying all I could to avoid the chaos around me until I could no longer, watching as an Earth Kingdom soldier dragged a woman off to spirits knew where.

And remaining uninvolved sufficed for me no longer.

He was on the ground a second later, now a few pounds lighter as a chunk of his head was no longer connected to his body, and I retracted my blade, no words necessary to the young woman, the blood caking me in a grotesque image enough to send her running.

Whatever works.

My actions, however, hadn't gone unnoticed.

3 earthbenders, having previously been occupied lighting a street alley ablaze with torches, the flames dancing up to the ornate archway, then turned to face me.

I raised my blade. They raised their boulders. I was outnumbered, outgunned. I didn't care. I would kill them. That was all that mattered.

Of course, I knew that wasn't the truth of the matter. They would kill me. Quickly at that, but in that moment, I believed in a different future, one where the 3 of them lay dead at my feet. And I charged forwards towards them, and them towards me, my life nearing its end one millisecond at a time until, suddenly, nothing happened, and I still lived.

In front of me, a barrier of water, 3 stone reduced to dirt and dust as they collided with the far stronger barrier, having demolished the earthbender projectiles upon first contact.

And my eyes opened, for real this time, and I finally understood just how close I had come to death, Torvak's intervention the only thing between me and a bloody pulp on this already gory Shibi road.

"What are you doing, kid!" he yelled as he faced towards me. "Run!"

The earthbenders conjured an assault once more, directing it towards the 'traitor' who battled them now, but to no avail. The full moon, the advantage they thought their own, now turned against them in a cruel vein of irony, and Torvak demonstrated just that as 3 simultaneous barrages of ice shot out of his watery barrier, cutting down the earthbenders to ribbons in the span of seconds.

But they were not alone. A new attack from the north. 2 earthbenders. Above us, from a roof to our west, 3 archers, whom had been luckier than the other, however, their arrow grazing past my left cheek as I'd been turned away, looking around just in time to see the fall of one at the hand of Zare's bow. The remaining 2 archers pulled back, but a Separatist, earthbender, and 2 Earth Kingdom soldiers emerged from the alleyway to our South now.

"Stay close!" Torvak yelled as he formed a bubble of water around us, manifesting what seemed to be not only a defensive barrier, but, from the rain, a defensive position he could manipulate at well, using it instantly to grab one of the earthbenders, the other narrowly dodging out of the way, and crushing him against the ground with a red splatter like a ragdoll.

The same was done to another one of the archers on the roof, but he instead would simply see a stream of water immediately wash over him, leaving him seemingly unscathed, until suddenly, a cold wind washed over, and the water that had entered through every orifice, every pore of his body, instantly solidified into ice, breaking him apart on the spot.

The other attackers, now quite wary of what they faced, stepped back, and Torvak held his ground.

We're safe here, I convinced myself. We're safe.

It truly was something to behold, the full moon.

There was something amusing about it. All my life, the full moon, beautiful though it was, had always been something I would avoid. On the streets of Citadel, I could be seen as I tried to steal, sneak across the slums, avoid those who considered me too much of a pest to leave alive. In Ba Sing Se, we refrained from moving positions, especially once we were past the first wall, knowing Earth Kingdom longbowmen would pick us off the first chance they got.

Now, now it was a savior, what stood between life and death for us. It was the catalyst of change we needed, what would save us from this hell.

Or so we thought at least.

And almost at once, the world became just a small bit darker.

With the fires that reigned supreme around us, it was almost unnoticeable, but it was there. Of course, at the time, none of us had noticed that most subtle of change. Our focus was on the barrier that kept us alive in this moment.

No, what we noticed first was as the flowing streams of water seemed to grow slower, weaker, and the first fault in the barrier could be seen. We, naturally, turned our attention to the man we believed responsible as fear washed over his eyes, and his muscles tensed as he endeavored to keep it standing, but it became clear he was no longer in control, the water around him no longer obeying his commands.

The barrier slowed, weakened, and withered, the droplets falling around, losing form, until there was that final splash on the ground.

And there we sat, in the middle of it all, defenseless.

What? What the hell? What the hell happened?

I don't think any of us knew, and both Zare and I could only stand there, helpless, as those who had been working to take our lives now found renewed strength within them.

We would have died if Torvak hadn't done what he did next.

I felt his arm on my shoulder, but even then, the sensation of it was fuzzy, the next moment like a blur, his only word, "run!" distorted into something horrific as he shoved us off of the street, into an alley, below a burning gate that collapsed behind us just as I turned to watch the man receive an arrow immediately in his heart, and a sword point through his stomach.

She had caught her footing before I had, and we were running even before I knew what was happening.

"We need to go back for him!" I yelled as she dragged me along.

I only heard her scream of, "It's too late! We need to run! It's over!" in reply as I put one foot in front of the other in my desperate attempt to keep up with her.

What? What's over?

I saw then what it was as she came to a stop, and I now found the opportunity to look ahead.

I hadn't even realized that we had already made it, but there it was, a massive clearing in the town of Shibi, devoid of structures, but was, perhaps just a few hours ago, a natural park.

I could see where the trees now stood as twisted images of their former selves, lakes sat dried out, designed to defend against the enemy, and trenches that had been hastily dug by earthbenders on either side, at war with one another.

But there was something strange. Something I saw. The defense, why were no waterbenders fighting. They said that the waterbenders were there, right? Making up most of the defense, right?

But as I watched, bearing witness to the sudden realization of the attackers that the defense have somehow, in the span of seconds, been cut down to nearly nothing, I saw them charge forward, over the trenches, eliminating the diminished defenders, and charging into the building itself, casting its humble defense of still-functioning archers, infantrymen, earthbenders, and firebenders aside.

How? What?

"What? I thought we-"

Then a voice I did not recognize, but belonging to a figure I did. He sat there at the end of the alleyway overlooking the capital building as it was now stormed. The figure of the other Revanchist warrior. So he wasn't dead. Then, why was he-

"You see it, don't you?" and he craned his head up.

I saw it then, following the same direction of sight his own head took, and raised my sight to the sky.

The rain had been falling, but had grown considerably weaker, and I saw why now as I looked above me. The gray clouds that had filled the sky were parting, fading away into the night sky, revealing above it, a red mass I did not recognize. No. Of course I did. How could I not. But it couldn't be. Our moon wasn't red. What is-

"The red moon," the man said, drawing in the attention of both Zare and me as we stood there, just now hearing the clamor against the debris that had collapsed behind us. The earthbenders were trying to get to us, but still, the man spoke. "It's gone. Our bending. The moon, all that which is holy to us, has gone red, and we know that the spirits have abandoned us."

The banging grew louder. "We need to go!" I yelled at the man, attempting to pull him up by the shoulder, but he only sat there.

"Tui," he said, a tear rolling down his cheek. "I'm sorry. We have failed you."

The sound of crashing behind us. They'd broken through.

"We need to go!" I cried in one last effort to lift him, but was pushed aside with a cry of "Luke!" as I was sent toppling to my right, losing grasp on the man as I could only watch as a javelin of earth pierced through his torso, and he slunk over limp, still in his same sitting position.

No sooner was I on the ground than being lifted once again, Zare nearly tripping in the process, relying on me then to pick up the slack and help her along as we ran alongside one another, due South.

South? No!

I stopped us, and she turned to face me with a look of both confusion and horror on her face as though asking in a nonverbal scream, "What the hell are you doing?!"

"We need to get inside there!"

"You heard the man! Their bending is gone! We can't hold it!"

"The others might be in there! We need to get them out!"

"You don't know that they are!"

"But what if, Zare?! I'm not leaving them!"

I pulled my wrist away from her grasp and made my way East. I would only realize as her arrow pierced the heart of an attacking Earth Kingdom soldier that she was still by my side. You better not fucking die, I thought to myself. I won't have your death on my hands!

The fashion in which they were constructed, carved straight from the ground, I couldn't help but think of Ba Sing Se as I navigated through and over the trenches, making our way however fast we could towards the structure.

The front entrance had been lost. We could see that much, watching in horror as they cut through the meager remaining defenses and the useless waterbenders, tossing them aside as though they were little more than a nuisance, storming in.

Rather, we navigated through the trenches, beyond the numerous bodies left their to rot—the scattered corpses of those who had given their lives trying to do some last good in defending the people of this down they'd damned by their own earlier intent or otherwise.

Scenes of a valiant battle fought played out before my eyes as I saw what was now left, only bodies and ruin.

I wondered if Boss or any of the others were among them.

They'd tried, I understood. They gave it everything they could, but fate said otherwise.

I look up to the sky again, where the moon sits red above in the heavens, and I find myself wondering once more, What the hell is that?

It was fortunate for us that the defenders had managed to drive off the attackers long enough that they diverted their attention to a single flank, leaving the rear uncontested. Neither attacker nor defender focused here, instead fighting for dominance of the interior, though we could see incoming Earth Kingdom and Separatist soldiers, eager for the chance to surround their enemies.

Our time was short if even it was there at all, and we fled within to the scene that awaited.

It was a nice building, that much was true. There was no doubt that some had certainly benefitted from the Fire Nation takeover, and the collaboration government was certainly among them. The capital building that served for both administrative as well as housing purposes for the governor's family was a case-study of cultural cohesion when it came to architecture.

It was almost amusing, I thought grimly. Now Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation soldiers fought alongside each other to the death to protect the people of this town. Of course, more yet still of the Earth Kingdom made it their intent to do quite the opposite.

An Earth Kingdom defender was cut down in front of us by a similarly garbed man, dropping to the ground in a haze of blood and gore as a Separatist threw a bomb into an adjacent room I had just seen civilians fleeing into.

Zare, switching now to her knife given the close-quarters proximity with the enemy, shoved her blade into the throat of the attacking Earth Kingdom soldier, driving him to the ground as I maneuvered past, the Separatist as my target, until a sudden force knocked both him and me to the ground just as he noticed.

The room to our right burst into flame as a brilliant explosion proceeded. I managed to reclaim my footing first, cutting in an upward arc a flash of my sword that claimed the center of the man's face, forcing him back and to the ground, no longer recognizable to even his parents, I was sure.

From the burning room, a screaming pair emerge, flames dancing at their backs as their agonized wails somehow became even louder than what the explosion that rendered them so had been.

Their misery did not last long however as the warhammer of an earthbender careened through the air with the force of an earthen jumpstart behind it, slamming straight through the skull of the first civilian to flee, sending them to the ground instantly.

I didn't find out what happened to the second as the next assault was that belonging to a firebender who seemed to believe me one of the attackers. I narrowly avoided his blast, cursing under my breath for it having taken away my attention from the earthbender, myself hoping to have killed him before he could take another life, but alas, I was sent into a run, dodging into a hallway to my left alongside Zare.

The interior of the building was lit ablaze I saw, flames rampaging across the wooden hallways. I suppose it mattered little what the outside of a building was constructed of when the source of danger originated from within.

We stormed through the blazing halls, navigating through the chaos as defenders were pushed back and attackers stormed into rooms that had been safeguarding civilians and wounded, putting them to the sword as though it was nothing.

A defenseless waterbender and a revanchist soldier alongside a Separatist, a woman at that, one of the few here, attempted to carry a civilian away to safety, but were summarily cut down, us unable to do anything to intervene.

We could only run past, seeing that the first story was all but lost.

Please tell me they weren't down here, I thought to myself as I took those first steps up, looking behind to ensure Zare was still with me, feeling relief in seeing that she was as she turned around and drove her dagger into the eye of an escalating Separatist. I did likewise, cutting through the heel of an Earthbender above us who had bent away an entire corner of the building, seemingly intent on producing a collapse.

I had expected better on the second story, only to find the circumstances around us that much worse, the fighting somehow even more intense, and the structural decay to the building even more severe. The flames of the first story had creeped up above and no shortage of fighters fell victim.

Another explosion to our right, that of a catapult's flaming boulder, tearing away a hole from the building, inciting a collapse of that corner, taking a number of men down with it.

There were 3 stories. If our guys were here, they would be fighting to the bitter end, I knew.

We carried on, attempting to slay those we knew to be contributing to this building's demise as we went, myself cutting down a Separatist whose name I knew to be Laoshu, attempting not to think anything of it, and Zare throwing her dagger as a last ditch effort at an Earth Kingdom soldier, striking him through the armor, but he remained standing, pushing his advance, forcing us to carry forward.

I vaulted over the bodies of a Fire Nation soldier and a civilian I imagined he had tried preserving from the death and destruction to no avail.

A sudden pain emerged from my leg, sending me to a stumble as I turned to see an Earth Kingdom soldier's sword finish its slash, blood trailing behind it. My blood.

I brought my own sword forward in a stab directed immediately at his ankle, piercing through, and sending him to a kneel. I would have stabbed once more, but lacked the range.

"Sword!" I heard the call from above me as Zare's voice boomed and I saw her approach, extending her hand to me. I abided, tossing her my blade, her catching it mid air and swinging downwards at the soldier's neck, cutting almost nearly through, but undoubtedly killing him there on the spot.

He fell and she extended her arm to me, lifting me back up to my feet and handing back my sword as she opted for that of the man she'd killed, still stained in my blood.

"Can you walk?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered through a grunt of pain resulting from putting pressure once again on the leg.

"Then move!"

We pushed forward, watching in horror as the tide of the battle became ever more obvious around us.

It seemed we were part of the retreat now, the enemy advance outpacing our own effort to flee to the third story in the prayer of finding those we were looking for there. Even the stairway was contested, soldiers storming up as they battled above. Is that? Is that them? I wondered to myself as I took a step forward.

I took another step forward, even as they were driven back, further up. What if they're up there? I wondered, taking another step forward. What if they need us?

An explosion sounded from behind us. Another artillery blast that nearly sent both me and Zare to the ground, just barely managing to maintain our footing. I looked back, watching where a new flaming hole sat in the wall of the structure, the integrity fading by the second. It's not going to last much longer.

I turned back to the stairwell, attempting to move yet again, but no further step was taken as I found myself immediately pushed aside and grabbed, turning quickly with my sword in hand, ready at a moment's notice to strike and defend myself until the familiar voice yelled out, "Luke!" Zek. "Oh thank you! You're alive!"

Zek, I though again, a surge of relief rushing through me upon catching sight of him, and beside, Ka'lira, who had momentarily raised her crossbow to Zare who held a knife to Zek's neck, retracting it immediately, seeing him now as friend not foe.

"We need to get out here! This place is lost!"

He pushed me away, turning immediately for the stairway leading down. Did that mean none others were here? "Wait, wait!" I called as I endeavored to catch up, adrenaline fueling me through the pain in my leg from the slash I'd taken, watching as he elegantly ducked under the swinging blade of a hostile water tribe soldier's axe, spinning instantly to slice along the man's side with his sword, Ka'lira providing backup and sending an iron bolt through an enemy Separatist's eye.

Zek turned towards me, curious, but suddenly turned back around to further guide us down the burning stairs towards the exit, the flames tickling at us as we passed through. "Are any of the others here?" I yelled over the cackling of the flames.

I received no response to the query, Zek continuing to push forward and yelling, "We're almost out! Keep running!"

It was a frenzy to escape, the building having been reduced to a free for all, the prospect of any defense being put up here since thrown out the window. There would e no holding of ground, no valiant defense, no honorable safe haven for the people of Shibi.

We ran, cutting through whoever we needed to in order to escape.

The exit was right before us, our breaths held as we pushed through, somehow managing to evade the attention of the others as they battled both within and without, the grounds of the battle stretching out before us as we ran, and ran, and ran, due south with Zek and Ka'lira leaving us as myself still wondered what it was that had happened, ranging from the beginning to all of this madness to now, to why the moon sat red in the sky, and just where the hell the others were.

We slowed to a stop, and still, it made no sense to me. If Boss were anywhere, he would have been fighting there, helping to stop all of this.

I was panting for breath, hands on my knees once we were far enough way to consider ourselves momentarily out of danger. Relatively speaking at least.

We were coughing, panting for air, myself on the verge of passing out, the only thing keeping me awake that one final question on my mind.

"Zek," I sputtered out, turning his attention towards me.

His eyes, they were afraid, the marks of dried tears at the corners. What had happened here?

"Zek," I repeated, for the last time now. "Where are the others? Where's Boss?"