The Chase

-1:19 P.M.-

I bolted through the grand doors that sat in the throne room and turned to my right. There was a hallway there with dirty and bloody footprints that looked about my size. Then, it had to be Lily!

I followed the red carpet down, jumping over bookshelves and chandeliers that had fallen to the ground. There was a lot of shaking as I ran here and this must've been the result of it. Was it an Earthquake or something? I heard about those from my mom a long time ago but never felt one myself.

The red carpet took a sharp turn against a corner and when I looked down it, I could see Nathan running with Lily's hand in his. He was pulling her and the blood was even more prominent than it had been in the previous rooms.

"NATHAN! YOU GIVE ME LILY BACK OR I WILL RIP YOUR DAMN FACE OFF!" I yelled out to him. I picked up my pace even more and ran as fast as I could to the door he barricaded. I kicked at it twice before it swung open and became stuck like that, watching Nathan climb up a flight of stairs with Lily right behind him.

Where was he taking her?

I tried to remember what was on the second floor when images of burned and dismembered bodies filled my head. No... he wasn't taking her to that room, was he?!

I looked up through the cracks in the wood paneling to see his footsteps pick up. That means he was getting closer to his destination, otherwise, he wouldn't put that much stamina on the line to outrun me.

I quickly ran up half of the stairs and vaulted over the railing, running down the hall I saw him going down. I grabbed my knife out of my hip sheathe and threw it straight into his back. It stunted his pacing and I reached out my hand toward Lily as she got closer to me because of Nathan's stumble.

I grabbed onto her wrist and pulled her toward me, unsheathing my sword and slashing it right at Nathan's as Lily loosened out of his grip. I held my raised sword up, facing Nathan while bending my knees to prepare for an attack of any kind.

"Look at you... you're not that scrawny bag of bones you used to be, but you're not any less pathetic. Saving somebody with limited time left... you've always been a pathetic person, Lia. It's a shame you'll have to die here." Nathan told me.

"I'm not threatened by a small child like you. You are even scrawnier than I was that long time ago. And, you should watch your mouth before I kill you here." Lily wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. I wanted to do the same, but I couldn't before Nathan left. Something was bothering me about this situation though... why was he just standing there?

"My Dad will get here any second now... and then your life will end. You'll learn that you shouldn't have messed with me. You should've stayed home and died like the Humans you all are." Nathan said. He definitely got that side of his personality from Orion... but what part of him was like Moonlight?

Nathan still stood in the same position, not moving at all. "Lily... can you walk?" I asked her. She nodded at my question.

"Get to the front of the castle and turn right, walk up the staircase and get to the rest of the army, tell them you know me. You'll get the help you need. I'll be there soon." I told her. Lily nodded again and ran down the stairs right behind where I was standing. Nathan clicked his tongue in irritation as I heard the last step creak with pressure. She was safe... now, I could kill this little kid.

As I walked toward Nathan with my dagger in my right hand, I thought about my time on this Isle, and where it has led me. Each step was a memory that was replenished in full detail in my mind.

I went from knowing this kid, following orders blindly, joining a team of people with my same goal, and I eventually ended up here, attempting to kill this kid.

That wasn't all of my history, but it was everything recently. I did a full 180, and now I'm back to killing again. I didn't like him, that wasn't arguable, but did I have to kill him? I looked at him with pity. He was raised to be a monster. An impressionable kid like himself had no knowledge about the outside world and what it had to offer, he was just built to be like his father and mother. There wasn't anything complicated about that.

If I killed him, his suffering would end here and there wouldn't be a thing left for us to talk about. He wouldn't have to grow up like that disappointing father he had, and he could visit his real mother again.

"Do you believe in God, Lia?" Nathan asked me.

"God? I stopped believing when I met you. God wouldn't poison the Earth with somebody like you, or your father. But, if is he real, then I'll take this life he gave me and do the best I can with it." I told Nathan. He smiled, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"You don't have much longer left." He told me.

Chills shot from the middle of my back to all over my body. Like a burst of cold wind from the outside of this castle, my limbs were coated in goosebumps. I looked to Nathan, then out of my peripheral vision. Through the stained window, I could see somebody behind me with a dagger.

Nathan was stepping closer to me now. If I turned my body to attack the person behind me, I would fall victim to Nathan's attack. If I attacked Nathan, the person behind me would enclose me and kill me. Shit! I waited around for too long!

If he came up behind me... did he see Lily on his way out? No, impossible, his dagger didn't look bloody in the reflection.

I quickly cut the straps to my chest plate. I caught the stim-shot as it fell out of the pocket in my chest plate, and held onto it with my left hand. As my chest plate fell off of my body, I also grabbed it with my left hand and threw it straight at Nathan's face while running at him. I felt the wind of the person behind me pick up and while Nathan was blinded, I kicked off of his chest and dove right over the person as he ducked under my slash above his head. I landed cleanly on the floor and set my stim-shot aside, pulling out my second dagger and staring at Nathan and the black-haired man who tried to ambush me.

"We'll attack together, Raven," Nathan said. My eyes opened up wide as Raven turned around with a weird smile on his head.

Raven? No, that was physically impossible. Sky said he decapitated him... how the hell was he standing in front of me?! Raven's body wasn't even recovered.

"Impressive, isn't it? This is one of Dad's White Stone abilities," Nathan told me.