Lia and Lily

"New Corrupt Stone? Don't be ridiculous. Even if that's a derogatory name, you still don't deserve the title." I told Orion.

"I don't think you understand how big this new problem us White Stone's are facing. We're in new territory now, dealing with somebody who has the power of a God. Deity, as she calls herself. When you Corrupt your System, you meet her for the first time. At least, I did. She talked about the 'reawakening' of a figure. There are a lot more things going on that you don't understand because we're all Corrupt Stones now." Orion told me.

"That doesn't matter to me. I leave the White Stone stuff to Sky." I told Orion, but he scoffed at my response.

"You shouldn't. This will start to involve you. Remember who you are, Lia Danafall. You have a lot more importance than you did before you knew everything I just told you. Generation Three Arkians are the rarest breed of Arkians. You'll be hunted as I told you. Kind of like your White Stone." Orion told me.

"Are you serious? You told me I had to go hunt him. You're the one who made him undergo that suffering, you piece of shit." I told Orion.

"And? I was doing what I had to. After all, he's the most dangerous man alive, isn't he?" Orion asked me.

"Depends if you hurt me. Now, I'm leaving. I don't understand the point of you talking to me." I told him.

I knew that I had to leave immediately. Even as bold as I was talking to him, I knew I still didn't stand a chance in fighting. "Suit yourself, Lia! Just... you should know something before you go..." He muttered.

I walked off, walking down the stairs while holding back the fear. "Asterio." He said out loud. I ignored him and walked down the stairs, and ran as fast as I could to the room with Lily in it. I ran further down the hallway, up the stairs, and out of the front door of the throne room.

The forces on our side were almost invisible in all of the black smoke, but I knew by the sounds nearby that we were winning. We were pushing up and should be close to the dock by now.

I burst into the door leading to the room, realizing it wasn't locked at all.

Finally, the real Lily sitting in front of me, asleep in a chair with duct tape all over her mouth, wrists, and ankles.

"Lily!" I shouted out. Lily slowly woke up and upon realizing it was me, struggled in her chair. I freed the duct tape over her mouth, then her wrists, then her ankles, and then her body to release her from the chair. Lily instantly hugged me after being freed, and I reciprocated the same action.

"It's been so long... you're still alive... thank God..." Lily buried her face into my shoulder and sobbed.

"Your big sis is still alive. We have somebody specific to thank once we get you to our med bay, so hang in there, okay? Can you walk?" I asked her. Lily nodded, but I noticed she had a limp. She was practically uninjured.

We walked next to each other the entire way, searching through the black smoke for Xavier and Helen. I couldn't see that well, but I caught a glimpse of deployable shields and grouped up within the square created by them.

I saw Carl and Mandi lying in beds with bandages wrapped all around them. Carl looked terrible, as his skin was pale... but he was still breathing. Mandi, on the other hand, was sitting up with stumps where her hands used to be put together as she looked to the floor.

"Mandi? You did it?!" Mandi nodded, not acting anywhere near as excited as me.

"Yeah, Amera is injured beyond repair, she's over there with a blade stuck in her face. But... I didn't get to Carl in time." She said. I looked over to Carl, who was fine. I was confused by what she meant.

Once I turned all of my attention to Carl, I could understand exactly what he was upset about. He was throwing his hands down from his face, scattering his tears all over the floor, mumbling, "Why am I so useless?"

"Carl? Nice job... fighting June... are you alright?" I asked him. Carl shook his head while wiping more tears.

"I'll never walk again. I can't feel my left arm, I can't see... I can't do anything... why... why am I so useless..." He started mumbling again. It broke my heart to see him like that. Yeah, June might've lost or had been killed... but Carl was acting like he was the one that lost. This was disgusting... Orion had to pay for all of his crimes.

"Lia! You're okay! And Dani?" Xavier asked me. My heart dropped through my stomach for a moment. I didn't hear any fighting going on...

"Lily! Stay here and get medical help! I need to go see Dani and quickly! Where is everybody else, Xavier? Are there any soldiers to spare?!" I asked him.

"I can go," Noboki said. She practically appeared from out of the black smoke with a wave of her hand and offered her help.

"Great, then let's hurry up!" I told her. Noboki nodded and moved right beside me as we both ran over to Dani's position. Soon after we started running, I came to a stop, staring at Noboki as she ran in front of me before stopping with me.

I wanted to make it back to Lily alive... I had to take every precaution possible. "Is that part of your ability?" I asked Noboki.

"What are you talking about?" She asked me. I couldn't tell if she was playing stupid, but I was hoping I could figure out if Orion was concealing himself under Noboki's appearance... or was he Xavier?

Shit... that ability he had changed everything now... if it had a cooldown like Sky's abilities, I shouldn't have to worry about it at all. But, I still had to test. "Noboki, come here," I told her.

Noboki walked over to me and while she got closer, I rose my hand slowly to her cheek, pulling on it. "Should I ask what you're doing?" Noboki asked me.

That meant she wasn't wearing a disguise... "No. I just had to check. Orion can disguise himself as other people. I didn't know if I could trust you." I told to Noboki. She only nodded, then continued forward.

We made it to the surrounding area by the fountain, when Noboki dropped her sword, put her finger on the ground, and put it near my face.

"Blood... and a lot of it. Most of it is still wet, but some are dry. There's a lot that happened here." Noboki told me.

I ran all around, looking around the fountain with cracks in it and blood mixed in the water. The glacier around us was severely marked by some cutting motion, and the final straw before anxiety took over my calm state of mind was bumping into something fleshy that was no longer attached to the person's body.