The Day to End It All

"Do you want anything to eat?" Mandi walked up behind me and frightened me, but I responded with a simple nod.

"Yeah, I could go for some food. Are you making it for everybody?" I asked her. She held up a wooden spoon by her side and smiled, which pretty much answered my question.

"Tavian said we can hold a funeral for Red, but Sky needs to wake up first. He told me some other things as well, come with me to the kitchen." She said. Mandi led me over to the counter, where Charlie, Xavier, and some of the other men named Alex and Ellios were standing. Then, there were the two women Dani worked with... Rin and Ren, I believe.

"I seriously couldn't believe that he did all of that... he's pretty insane, but kind of in a good way, right?" I overheard Ren and Rin talking about what I assumed to be Sky and the whole fight that just happened.

"Tavian wanted to make it very clear to us that we wouldn't just be freeloading off of him for shelter… he needs help with a huge project," She said.

Mandi extended the reach of her arms to emphasize how huge she was talking, and then continued on.

"Tavian said this Isle will be destroyed in an apocalyptic event. He said on February Twelfth this event would take place, but when I asked him how I knew, he just told me that lining up all evidence he's gathered, it makes sense." She said. Mandi took a second to take a drink of water before continuing. Everybody else began to look at each other in doubt.

"He told me more, but the thing I found alarming was that because Sky corrupted his System, or so he called it, the Isle has been sent into an apocalyptic state. No wildlife is present underwater and all of the regular oak trees are starting to die out. Their leaves, which shouldn't even be present in the winter as is, are now starting to fall." Mandi explained. At first, I was skeptical about her thoughts... but now I could believe them a little more.

"Tavian chalked it up to his System, but then he started to talk about Orion. Tavian stated several times that he worked for Orion in the past but soon broke off after a certain event. He talked about a boat too… to be finished on February Twelfth. There was one more thing he mentioned… a meeting of the White Stone's we saw on that bay, an annual one held every year, is to be held on this Isle at Orion's castle, on the exact day you're thinking of." She explained again. We all nodded.

"That sounds convincing enough, but there's a lot of time between the Twelfth and right now. It's around three weeks, isn't it?" Ren nodded at Rin's question and started to stare out of the window.

"So, we all really don't mean anything, and we're meant to die?" In a much more sinister tone of voice, Ren took the cake for being the most negative.

"That's what he said, but his friend died instead. Nobody is meant to live or die by anybody else's decree, but it's important to note that even the most pretentious people we've met are killable, doesn't it? And to top it off, they can't kill us!" I claimed, but I knew that was wrong. The ice didn't just disappear under both Red and Dani's feet, it was removed due to his ability.

However, without ice, he's left without any power. That had to have been why they all gathered on that bay.

Just as I feared, Xavier saw right through it, "We both know that isn't true, they can't inflict a wound that kills, otherwise, their Systems will fall just like Sky's did. I haven't really noticed anything odd with him since he Corrupted, I don't think it's as big of a problem as they're making it out to be, but I can't help but wonder why they care about a System Corruption…" Xavier explained. This time, I knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Tavian said it himself, the Corrupted System set this Isle in an apocalyptic state… there's something much bigger going on here, isn't there?" Mandi added. Mandi began to put some stuff in a pot while everybody else began small talk after our discussion.

"This is all so insane… this Isle is gigantic, these trees are too, Orion is going to move Isles… there's too much right now. We should wait for Sky to see what we should do." Mandi suggested. I nodded, moving to her side.

"This is interesting… have you noticed Sky's behavior ever since he Corrupted?" I asked, but nobody seemed to have seen what I have.

"He's violent, a lot more than any of us. I don't know much about White Stones, but I assume they call it Corruption for a reason. He seems worse and worse as time goes on, but he still protects us. His behavior is confusing to me, but I was just thinking about what it means for us to associate with him. Are we bad people? Where do we fall?" I handed Mandi a knife, turning back to look at Ullr open up the door.

"Oh, you're here. Do you want some food?" Mandi asked, but Ullr only went and sat down near one of the windows, intertwining his fingers and putting his mouth against his hands.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save Red, Carl." I was stunned. That was the first time Ullr had used my name.

"I-It's fine… you tried, and I can't be mad at you for that... it doesn't really feel real yet... but thank you, for trying." He nodded and turned towards the window, leaving his old stance.

"I don't know if I should've grabbed this, but I picked up Sky's sword from the beach." He said. Ullr held up Sky's old sword and the blade was completely shattered. Nothing but a broken blade and a handle that had bent out of shape.

"Just how hard did he grip this thing?" I asked him. Ullr handed it to me, and I could feel how crunchy the handle was. Originally made of wood, it felt like grainy sand underneath the fiber-wrapped handle.

"Drake, can you fix this?" I asked, but he shook his head.

"I don't have a station to do anything like that, maybe somebody else here can..." He said.

…

…

…

--Lia's Perspective--

"What do you mean you have to leave?!" I grabbed onto Talion's arms, but he shook away.

"I have to go find Xian and group up with him. I think I know what's happening finally. You can go with that man you said escaped with, Tavian, wasn't it?" I nodded, but he was avoiding my requests.

"I can go with Tavian, but I want you to come with me! You're like my big brother, I can't be alone again!" I yelled at him. Did he even understand what it was like to be alone?

"Lia… I don't want you getting hurt, I know Tavian will protect you if I ask him, just trust in me, okay?" He told me. I slowly let go of his arms and nodded, gathering my things in our house.

"Where do you think Sky went?" I asked him. I slung the backpack around my arms, and he stared out into the bay.

"Not sure. He definitely didn't die in that water or else I would've been notified. He probably went back to his old home, that would make sense, right?" Talion suggested. We began walking towards the Redwood Forest.

"I guess you're right… what happened over there?" I asked him. Talion looked glum about something...

"One of the White Stones was killed by Sky… and on top of that, one of his friends died, Red, I believe it was." He explained. I nodded slightly, staring at my knives.

"They would've gone back to bury her, that's what I believe," I told him. We continued our walk.

The forest was as dull as ever, leaves falling on top of the snow, the bark looking dead, but I didn't notice anything until the lack of wildlife caught up with me.

"That's weird… where is everything? Why is everything so gray?" I asked, but the concern on Talion's face only grew.

"Dying… this is what he meant…" He muttered. Talion caught a leaf falling from one of the trees.

"This is the apocalypse Zeal once told me about, this is happening faster than I thought… Lia, go, run for Tavian's and tell him Talion, the Fifth White Stone, demands him to take care of you. I need to go see Xian right now." Talion said.

He ran forwards, leaving my grasp. I felt almost sour he would just leave like that… ever since he got back from that sheet of ice Sky was on, he's been a completely different person.

I decided to accept his request and ran for the distant Redwood Forest. I ran at a constant pace until I hit the hidden elevator in one of the trees, blocked by a fake boulder. I pushed it aside and replaced it, covering my tracks as accurately as possible. Looking at the elevator, I had no idea what button to push, so I just hit the button labeled 'Infirmary'.