G I G I

As soon as the army was spotted on the horizon, we snapped to action. Since the battle two days ago, we'd set up a series of tents to temporarily live in. Knowing that Imperium could be watching at any given moment, we had a strong guard that would warn us at the first glimpse of attack.

And now it had finally come.

The mass of black lined the place where the sky met the earth, stretching far out on each side. My first instinct was to scan the sky for an aerial attack. It had become second nature for me ever since—

Bombs falling, blowing bodies apart. A noise that threatened to shred my eardrums. That surreal, shell-shocked feeling when I finally got to my feet.

Ringing. An incessant ringing.

Blank eyes. Blank eyes.

I blinked.

Sometimes the chaos of war distracted me. But when it was over, I was still left with that emptiness boring through me. If I didn't have such a strong purpose, sometimes I wondered if it would be better to join Neve and my mother. It would undoubtedly be less painful.

As I stared at the approaching army, I expected to be fearful or overwhelmed. Instead, I felt nothing. Not even when faced with the prospect of death. There was a time when I would have been overjoyed with bloodshed. Now, I was just...tired. Tired of fighting, tired of loss.

The tents were rapidly deconstructed and put into the backs of trucks. We were being called to form the lines again. I relented, wondering how much more fighting I could take, especially so soon after...

I felt as if I wasn't even really there on the battlefield, even as the armies engaged. Bullets flew, blades glinted in the afternoon sun, Scorpions razed the land. And I didn't even care. What was the point? Imperium was just playing with us. They weren't sending out their entire armies, not to mention the absence of their enhanced soldiers on the battlefield. Our spy had claimed Imperium was building a weapon meant specifically for us, but it was nowhere to be seen yet. They were trying to wear us out, sending wave after wave of soldiers after us...

Or they were reeling us in.

Finally, a spike of dread stabbed my heart. If that was the case, we were halfway to the fortress anyway, having moved forward with each attack. They were getting what they wanted.

I had no idea why they would want us close to the fortress. But I had a horrible feeling we were going to find out.

My hand met nothing but air when I went to nock another arrow. There were none left. I'd been killing off any Imperium soldiers overpowering one of our own. But now...

I made a break for the front line, wondering if its chaos would distract me from the fact that this was the exact same setting Neve was murdered in. Bullets whizzed by me, and I remembered why I once loved the fight. The fight for my life was always enough to make me forget what haunted me. Temporarily.

For a split second after I stopped running, I took in the Imperium soldiers themselves. From far back, I didn't have to look into their faces; from far back, they were just targets. Now I could see their hate-filled eyes, the brutal way they went right for the throat. I knew how Orion had trained them to inflict the most pain possible. Not only were they killing us, they were also liking it.

A cold, empty anger returned and I was partially relieved I was feeling it. For such a long time, all I had was rage. Now, a different kind of fury filled me.

They killed thousands upon thousands of our soldiers in the invasion they caused. They dropped bombs, not even looking into the eyes of the soldiers they killed. Neve was gone because of their hatefulness. And they'd liked it.

I uncurled my palms and held my arms out on either side, feeling a sneer twisting my features. All that loss and anguish I felt for my fallen sister, all the emptiness from my time in the asylum, all the madness I'd let myself succumb to, poured out of me.

Before I knew it, I was letting loose a scream. Hearts burst, bones snapped, necks broke. Soldiers fell in waves around me. I would be lying if I said some dark part of me didn't enjoy it. A life for a life. A murder for a murder. And they had a lot of blood to repay.

Their deaths wouldn't bring Neve back. But it would prevent any more innocents from being torn apart.

It didn't make the loss hurt any less. Nevertheless, I would be their nightmare, their killer, even their target, if it meant no more children had to be parentless. I would take everything Imperium gave, because I wasn't innocent. But I was still good enough to know that no child should have the life I did. Or the life Imperium would push on them if they won this war.

I was partially aware of Delphinium decimating soldiers nearby. Again, we shared the battlefield, and not against each other. Never again. We didn't have the friendship we used to, but by no means did I want to see her hurt—I no longer wanted to see any of my teammates hurt. The loss of Neve made me realize I couldn't lose anyone else.

For a moment, that constant gnawing fear receded, for we were winning. Our soldiers outnumbered theirs, and we were beginning to push them back once again.

And then a Scorpion turned on us, incinerating our own soldiers just feet away. The heat threatened to burn my own flesh off my bones. And it would, if I didn't get away. But the remaining Imperium soldiers were too close...

After exchanging a second's look of understanding, Delphinium and I dropped to the ground, letting the burning ray of plasma raze the air above us. The Imperium soldiers who'd been waiting for us to be completely cornered were burned alive, their screams barely audible over the crackling of the Scorpion just a foot above our heads.

It seemed to be hours before the Scorpion's wrath receded, our Scorpion-destroyers blowing it to pieces. My body felt as if it had been slowly cooked on a spit and I had to pay myself down to be sure my clothes weren't on fire.

I was the first to get to my feet, slowly pushing off the rocky ground. After a quick survey of the land, I saw that we'd come out victorious again, with the rest of Imperium's troops collapsing in huddles of bodies. The last of the Scorpions was exploded as soon as I looked up.

Glancing to the ground, I saw that Delphinium was still down; she'd taken the sudden dive to the ground harder than I had. Before I knew what I was doing, I held a hand out to her.

For a moment, she simply stared up at me, like I would pull her up only to attack her. But then she grabbed my hand and I hauled her to her feet.

Her voice was soft when she said, "You didn't have to do that. Thank you."

"Yes I did," I replied, knowing it was true.