Rising Action (17.2)

"What the hell was that!" Kaedan yelled, gripping the edge of the table tightly. Leon, who had been closest to the window, opened it, and immediately, what he saw sent him reeling, grabbing the windowsill to steady himself.

The town was visible from the window, but what he saw wasn't simply just the town. Smoke billowed from most of the buildings, and some buildings seemed like they had been leveled entirely. There were warships hovering above the town. Leon watched in horror as another bomb was dropped on the town. He could hear the distant screams.

As he turned back, he was sure his face was as pale as everyone else's.

"Oh shit, oh fuck, the kids—" Xander said, gripping his hair.

"They're down there. Fuck, they said they would be in town," Elliot finished, his voice trembling.

Bella shook herself out of the terror first, "Everyone, get moving! I need two teams, stat! Chaewon, Elliot, I need you to take Xander, Kaedan, Lumina, and Mina to the escape shuttles!"

"Are you fucking serious, my brother is down there—" Kaedan began to yell.

Bella grabbed his shoulders, "I know! I know he is, Kaedan, my brother is down there, too! But you have to trust me, Kaedan. I need people who know how to use the escape shuttles and I know you know how to use them. After all, that's how you evacuated people from Sector 1 when the war got bloody, isn't it? This town is innocent, they had nothing to do with the White Lotus or the rebellion. I'm not going to get them killed for something they didn't even know about!" She half-yelled.

Kaedan looked at her for a moment, before pulling her into a tight hug, enveloping her, "Okay. I understand. We'll go get those escape shuttles, you go get our brothers. Get all of our kids back."

"I will," She whispered.

He let go of her and grabbed Xander's arm, "Come on, let's go. We've got a job to do. All of us get separate shuttles except for Mina, she's never operated one of those things before, so she stays with one of us."

"Kaedan, I can handle it," Mina began to say, her voice slightly tight with annoyance, but Kaedan cut her off.

"Mina, I love you. I know you can handle this. But we can't afford any possible mistakes. We have many escape shuttles and not much time. At least for the first round of shuttles, stay with one of us and learn how to do it. Then you can start bringing them shuttles," Kaedan said. Mina didn't think about it, she simply nodded. Kaedan knew what was best for her, "Thank you, Nana. Let's go!" He grabbed her arm and their group sprinted out the door, following some of the rebellion members towards the back where the escape shuttles were kept.

Bella turned to Hyunwoo, Leon, and Risále, "I need you three to come with me. We're going up ahead to find the kids and make sure they're safe. Of course, we'll help anyone who needs help along the way. The rest of the rebellion members should be in town by now."

"How are we going to get there?" Risále asked.

Bella smiled, "I'm glad you asked," She threw her what looked like a key before gesturing for them to follow her.

A few moments later, all four of them were outside the house with two motorbikes on the road. Bella tossed a helmet to Risále, "You and Leon get one bike, Hyunwoo and I'll take the other. Just drive as fast as you can while being safe."

"Oh, we'll be fine," Risále grinned back, swinging her leg over the motorcycle and patting the seat behind her, "Come on, Leon, hurry up."

"Do you even know how to drive this thing?" Leon muttered as he swung his leg over as well, settling behind her. Risále grabbed his hands and wrapped them around her waist.

"I'll figure it out along the way. Apparently, my cyborg brain knows how motorcycles function so I've got a good idea of how this works," She turned to see that Hyunwoo and Bella were mirroring her and Leon, "Alright, you guys good to go?"

Bella nodded, revving the motorcycle up, "Ready when you are."

Within seconds, they were off. Bella turned her head slightly, looking back at Hyunwoo. The man hadn't said anything in a while and had seemed to be pretty shaken.

"She'll be alright. She's a strong girl," Bella said, after facing forward again, "Don't think the worst. Our Val is strong. She's going to be okay."

Hyunwoo's arms tightened around her waist, and he buried his face in her shoulder, "I really hope so, Mira. I really, really, really hope so."

She let go of one hand, reaching back to pat his head before focusing on the road in front of her. Risále and Leon were just behind her. It seemed she was keeping up alright but Leon was certainly terrified out of his mind. Bella was also sure he was blushing very hard as Risále laughed loudly, the motorcycle speeding up even more.

"Val looks up to you. With someone like you as her role model, she'll be alright, Violets. Trust her," She said back to him. She felt him nod against her shoulder. 

They had to believe she'd be okay. They had to believe all of them would be okay.

Meanwhile, in the town, there was smoke and fire everywhere. Fights had broken out on the streets, with White Lotus members and the Royal Guard fighting against civilians and rebellion members alike. 

Val coughed, turning their head wildly, "Owen, Fenix! Where are you guys?!" She yelled. She felt a hand grabbed and she almost hit the person out of reflex.

"Anything?" Nia asked, using a piece of cloth to cover her mouth.

"No, nothing. God, this is the worst time to be split up," Val said, stressed, "We need to keep looking for them, we can't give up," She went to run but stopped when she felt Nia's grip on her wrist.

Looking down, she heard Nia speak again, "Stay with me. Please. Let's go together," Nia said softly, "I don't want to leave you and…And not see you again after. Let's just stay together."

Val shifted her hand to intertwine her fingers with Nia's, "Alright, Nia. Let's go," She said, and the two began running.

People were running everywhere, trying to escape the falling bombs and the bullets being fired. There were so many dead bodies piling up on the streets already, adults, elderly, and children alike.

Val stopped. Elderly. Elderly.

"Oh, shit. I think I know where they went," Val whispered, just barely loud enough for Nia to hear.

"What? You know where they are?" Nia asked.

Val went to answer, but then her eyes widened as she saw the bomb that was falling close to them, "Watch out!" She screamed, pulling Nia into an alley and ducking behind a bunch of crates. She went to cover Nia with her own body but quickly was knocked down by the smaller girl as if she was protecting her, "Nia!"

The bomb exploded, and the shockwave broke the crates into pieces, sending both girls sprawling, Nia still managing to cover Val's body with her own. The younger slumped against her friend, "...I won't let you get hurt to protect me," Nia said, struggling to hold herself up.

"Nia! Nia, what is it? What hurts? What happened," Val asked, sitting up and gently raising Nia with her and cupping her face, "Why would you—Don't ever do that again! I can handle myself!"

Nia smiled a bit sheepishly, "No promises. Now, come on, we need to go find Owen and Fenix."

Val moved her hand away from Nia's back, only to find blood on it, "Nia, your back!"

"It's fine, it's just a big scratch. Val, please, we need to go find them. Where are they?" Nia asked, wincing as she stood up. Val was hesitant to leave Nia's injury the way it was but at the same time, she couldn't just leave Owen and Fenix.

She drew in a sharp breath, "Alright. Let's go quick. Come on," She took Nia's hand and began running. They took a few turns here and there, and the streets slowly started looking more and more familiar. It seemed that Nia had realized what Val was thinking, from the sound of her gasp and her picking up speed.

Both of their hearts sank as they heard hysterical sobbing. The voice was almost unrecognizable.

Almost.

As they turned the corner, they couldn't help but freeze entirely at the sight in front of them. Owen's crying was almost animalistic, the way the sobs wracked his body made it seem like he was almost having a seizure, tightly holding the body in his arms. 

Fenix seemed to be in shock, the tears streaming down his face but he seemed unable to move or even take in anything going on around him, just the sight in front of him.

And then, the thing they couldn't ignore over everything. The limp body in Owen's arms. Val's body moved on autopilot, and just from where they were, she knew who it was.

When she stopped in front of Owen, her knees gave out and she fell to the ground, the tears streaming down her face as she moved closer, her hands trembling. She gently moved the gray hair out of the old woman's face, knowing from the glassy-eyed stare toward the sky that the woman had been long gone.

"Abuelita," Owen's voice was agonized, but it still couldn't even begin to convey how much pain he was in, "She…She had nothing to do with this, she was just an old lady. Why would they…How could they…"

Val realized Owen's hand was covering something and she saw someone else gently move his hands. Nia.

She didn't have time to thank Nia. All her senses completely came to a stop when she realized that Owen hadn't just put his hand there, he had been applying pressure to a wound.

A stab wound.

Which meant that most likely, Abuelita had been alive when Owen and Fenix had gotten there.

She must have died in Owen's arms.

And as they heard the footsteps of the Royal Guards approaching them, all Val could feel was pure, unbridled, uncontrollable anger. How dare they. How fucking dare they. Someone had been so heartless that they had been able to stand face-to-face with an innocent old lady and stab her brutally.

But before she could react, someone was already moving.

Nia.

As she had gotten up, her face was wet with tears. She grabbed the metal pipe from the ground and swung it hard, knocking the guard off his feet and as soon he hit the ground, she began hitting him over the head. She may have been determined to bash his head in if not for the other guards approaching.

This snapped Val out of her trance and she put a hand on Owen's shoulder, "Look at me. Owen, look at me."

It took a few tries, but the boy finally moved his eyes away from the dead body in his arms and looked at her, "Val…"

"I know. I know, Owen, but we have to—We have to go. She's…There's nothing we can do for her anymore. We have to get out of here, we need to find the others. You know they must have seen what happened and come looking for us," Val said softly.

Owen looked up at her, "I can't…I can't just leave her."

"We won't. We'll find a place for her where she'll be out of danger. We can't do anything right now, we have to come back later," This wasn't working, Owen seemed to be responding less and less. Val was desperate, "Owen, your brother has to be here somewhere."

This snapped Owen out of it, "Kaedan?" He asked quietly,

"The house is close to town. You know they must have seen what happened and gotten worried. I bet they're here looking for us. We need to go find them quickly before anyone else gets hurt, Owen. Please, come on," Val was beginning to rush him, seeing out of the corner of her eye that Nia seemed to be getting tired, "Please, please, Owen, come on. I don't know how much longer Nia can hold them off and I still need to get Fenix to snap out of it."

Finally, it seemed Owen had entirely returned to his senses, "Help me move her," He said softly, and Val nodded. Both of them gently carried the frail old woman and made it to a small alleyway nearby. They gently put her down inside and leaned her up against the wall, and Val leaned down to close the old woman's eyes. 

She looked at how Owen was looking at Abuelita and put a hand on his shoulder, "We'll come back for her, I promise."

"Let's go. Fenix and Nia are still back there," Owen said softly. Val nodded and placed her hand on his back, guiding the shorter boy back.

They returned back in time to watch Nia bash in the head of the last guard in the vicinity, and Fenix was still on his knees, staring at where Owen had been sitting before. Nia finally stood up, breathing heavily, bloody metal pipe in hand. 

And just as Val went to speak, the other girl crumpled to the ground, completely unconscious.