Reo stirred, finally waking from the heavy, dreamless void of exhaustion. He winced, placing a trembling hand against his aching side as he slowly forced his eyes open.
He was the last of the vanguard to regain consciousness—save for Ingis, who had long since retreated back into her master's core to heal and watch over him. She would not surrender her master to the abyss until her last gear shattered and her core went dark.
Blinking against the dim, oppressive gloom, Reo looked down. His chest and torso were wrapped tightly in coarse white bandages, his top chest-armor entirely gone, reduced to scrap metal in the garden. They were back inside the same fortified safehouse where they had spent the night before everything went catastrophically wrong.
Across the room, in the far corner, Lyra was softly tending to Maya's violently fractured arm. Near Reo's feet, Alpha whimpered, letting out a low, relieved chuff the moment he realized his master was finally awake.
On a makeshift cot nearby, Azula lay flat on her back, staring rigidly up at the ceiling to avoid straining her severely injured neck. Further across the room, Silvia stood by the window, a white bandage wrapped neatly around her head, quietly staring out into the eternal, bruised twilight of the ruins.
A heavy wave of thoughts crashed into Reo's mind. *If we're here, and we're alive... does that mean the battle's over? Did we win?*
He sat up slowly, teeth gritted against the protest of his ribs. "Where's Luke?" he asked to no one in particular.
The atmosphere in the room instantly plummeted below freezing.
No one answered. The heavy, suffocating silence and the deep, dejected expressions worn by his teammates said it all. They hadn't won. They had failed utterly.
Luke had been taken.
Rage and helplessness boiled in Reo's chest. He slammed his fist down against the wooden floorboards—only to instantly regret it as a fresh spike of pain shot up his arm.
Lyra finished tying off the bandage on Maya's arm and collapsed backward onto her own makeshift bed with an exhausted, bone-rattling thud. *Damn it all...* Every inch of her body hurt like hell. They were in the absolute worst shape of their lives.
"What are we going to do now?" Reo asked, his voice strained.
Maya scoffed, turning her head with a bitter expression. "You're the one we're meant to be asking that question to, Reo."
Reo stared past her, looking back out the window toward the towering, distant silhouette of the castle piercing the grey sky.
"Are we going to make our way to the castle, try and get Luke back... or stay here and wait for help to arrive?" Reo challenged.
Silvia didn't turn away from the window, her voice dead flat. "Going back to the castle is suicide, Reo. You saw it yourself—the closer we get to the heart of this place, the stronger and more monstrous those creatures become."
Reo snapped his gaze to Silvia, then turned to Lyra, who let out a weary sigh.
"What difference will it make if we march back out there after the skin-walker that took him?" Lyra muttered, rubbing her temples.
"I'll tell you the difference," Maya piped up sharply, stepping forward. "We die. That creature spared us out of sheer apathy the first time. Do you honestly think it's going to do that again if we cross its path a second time?"
"Are you saying we just abandon Luke?" Azula cut in, her voice like grinding ice, her eyes flashing with dangerous intent.
"Calm down, Azula, no one's abandoning—" Reo started, trying to defuse the brewing explosion.
"That *is* what I'm saying!" Maya shouted, her voice cracking with suppressed panic and grief. "And it's the only logical thing to do! The creature explicitly stated that if we handed Luke over, we'd be allowed to leave. Why don't we just take that chance? Let's leave this cursed place, regroup outside, and come back when we actually have a remote chance of survival!"
"You're a coward," Azula hissed, venom dripping from every syllable.
"And so what if I am?!" Maya fired back, tears finally spilling over her lashes. "Isn't it better to be a coward than to throw our lives away on a pitiful, meaningless death?!"
The tension in the room snapped, the air turning thick and toxic.
Silvia turned away from the window, looking at the fractured group. She let out a hollow breath. "Tell them, Lyra... don't you and the others feel the same way? Be honest."
Reo stared at Silvia, his heart dropping as she purposefully avoided his eyes. "Silvia... do you truly agree with abandoning your friend?" he asked, his voice cracking. He desperately hoped he had misheard.
"We're not abandoning him, Reo, we're just... we're coming back with better odds," Silvia tried to explain, though her voice lacked any real conviction.
"You're just lying to yourself to make your cowardice feel righteous," Azula retorted coldly.
Silvia's expression hardened, a flicker of defensive anger breaking through her sorrow. "Silvia, he's your best friend's brother!" Reo cried out, the deep agony in his voice impossible to mask any longer. "How would you ever bear to look Olivia in the eyes after everything she's been through with Kyle, and tell her that her brother was dragged off by a monster?! Tell me, Silvia... would you truly be able to live with that? Looking your friends in the eyes knowing you just walked away?"
Silvia flinched as if struck, her face contorting in pain. She stared at Reo, her voice rising in defensive frustration. "And so what?! What am I supposed to feel, Reo?! Heaven's knows I did my absolute best out there—!"
"We *all* did!" Reo cut her off.
"But it wasn't enough!" Silvia yelled back, tears finally streaming down her silver-haired cheeks. "No matter what we throw at them, it won't be enough to bring Luke back! Don't you get it? We are weak! We are mere insects in the face of that creature! Look at what happened to us out there—and that thing was barely even trying!"
Reo fell silent. He couldn't argue. He slowly looked down, finally avoiding Silvia's gaze.
Silvia's expression instantly softened, the anger draining out of her, replaced by a desperate, pleading exhaustion. Her tone dropped to a quiet, breaking whisper. "Do you honestly think it's going to hold back a second time, Reo? Or is it going to give us a quick, painless death? Grow up... please. Is it really worth it to throw your life away in this abyss? What could you possibly gain?"
She pushed herself off the window ledge, wincing as her injuries pulled at her muscles. She looked at the divide in the room: Reo and Azula seated on one side, isolated and unyielding; Lyra, Maya, and Silvia standing together on the other.
Alpha whimpered, pressing his head low as he felt the heavy, tearing grief in the room.
Silvia drew in a shaky breath, wiping the moisture from her face. "There are people who care about you, Reo. Would you really want to make us watch you die here? Please... come with us."
She stood at the threshold, waiting. They had already made up their minds long before waking him; they had simply waited for Reo to wake up and make his choice. Azula had already chosen to stay and burn the world down to get Luke back.
Reo looked down slowly. His hands rested on Alpha's silver fur. The loyal beast leaned into his lap, letting out a soft, low whine.
Reo offered a small, heartbreakingly bittersweet smile. He reached out, gently stroking the fur behind Alpha's ears.
"Alpha... take care of Silvia for me, would you?" Reo whispered, keeping his eyes fixed on the dog, refusing to look up.
He had made his choice.
Silvia's breath hitched. A fresh wave of tears spilled over her silver lashes. She turned away without another word, stepping out through the doorway into the ruined hallway.
Alpha let out a hesitant whine, looking back and forth between Reo and Silvia, before dutifully trotting out to follow the silver-haired elf.
Sitting alone in the quiet rubble, Reo watched the holographic rune bracer on his wrist. He tracked the blue and green dots in real-time, staring in dead silence as the dot representing Silvia slowly drifted away, blinking out of range until she vanished entirely from the tracker's reach.