Triumphant

-1:31 P.M.-

--Lia's Perspective--

I bumped into the arm on the floor and desperately picked it up. It didn't feel light... this wasn't Dani's arm! Thank...

My eyes wandered even further, approaching a body lying on the floor in another puddle of blood.

I walked up to it with Noboki, looking at Dani.

Her face was cut into, she was bleeding everywhere, her arm was missing, there was so much wrong with her...

I pulled out my last stim-shot and shoved it into her arm. Noboki had given me hers since mine had been used.

Her heart was still beating... but her breathing was shortened. After the stim-shot, she started to become more stable. I was absolutely astonished Dani was still alive at this point. She had so many cuts, her left arm was missing, and her right eye was cut out now. There was an out-of-place bone in her leg as well... how did she manage to do all of that, yet still beat Moon?

She really was scarier than anybody had thought before.

"We can carry her back to Xavier and the others. Noboki, can you help me?" I asked her. Noboki was crouching down by Moon's side.

"Yeah, as long as we can bring Moon back as well," Noboki commented. It looked like Moon was still alive after all.

"Sure... but I'm not sure I can carry one of them on my own," I told Noboki. She shook her head and picked up Moon with her right arm, slinging her over her shoulder. Afterward, Noboki picked up Dani by her hips and had me help her.

"Is this really a safe way to carry Dani?" I asked Noboki.

"Probably, if there's something twisted or broken in her leg, putting more pressure on it would hurt her and wake her out of her sleeping state. Hey, Lia, are these people Arkians?" Noboki asked me.

"Yeah, they woke up on the beach. Why?" I asked Noboki again. Noboki explained that Arkians can heal pretty fast if they're asleep... since I was Generation Three, I could heal almost as fast as Sky, given the right conditions.

"Good, so we need to keep her out completely. The adrenaline she used... on top of three stim-shots and their adrenaline, I highly doubt she won't wake up screaming her head off. Just let her heal for the time being." Noboki told me. I took some of the weight off of Noboki's body by helping out with Moon and Dani.

"Hey! What did you do to my Mom?!" I heard Nathan's voice, alerting Noboki that Orion may be close by. I drew both of my daggers after gently putting the weight down and back onto Noboki's shoulders, and waited for that voice to get closer.

"Leave, Nathan. You can make it out alive if you hide for the time being." I told him.

"I thought you knew my ability by now..." I instantly braced for an attack as Nathan's voice malformed into Orion's, taking the brunt of a longsword into the crossed position of my daggers. The pure force behind the swing launched me backward.

It even cleared most of the black smoke from around me. There he is! Orion is this close now! He's behind our army, we could corner him, and win this!

Just as Orion got closer to us, a body dropped from the sky from the glacier above, clearing out most of the smoke from the area now. I could even see the entrance to the throne room at this point. When that figure stood up, I saw familiar brown hair and a red stone.

Sky?!

"You have some nerve showing up in the middle of our forces. I take it you want to die?" Sky asked Orion.

"Oh? You have interesting markings over your body... look at that! It's even growing? Are you sure you'll be able to fight me? You seem pretty driven by anger at this point, I don't think you're able to perceive why I'm this close in the first place." Orion commented.

Noboki and I slowly backed up, but while I was joining Noboki, she put her hand on my shoulder. "Stay with Sky. He might need it." She told me. Soldiers started to surround Orion at this point. Why was he just standing there?

"I remember when I was a White Stone just as yourself. Driven by rage, by anger, by that feeling that the things I love were going to be stolen from me... I must ask, Sky. What are you doing here, if not the same thing I've been doing to you? You're taking everything I love from me as well. My son, my daughter, my wife, my family. Why are you fighting me on the same grounds as I fight you? Aren't you supposed to be the good guy?" Orion asked Sky.

I inched closer to Sky's side, watching his bones shake. Something told me they weren't shaking with fear, however.

"I don't ever remember preaching myself as the good guy. I'll murder everything you love because you started this," Sky told Orion.

"Oh, well, if I'm the one who started this, that makes it okay, right? I thought your kind would imprison me for my crimes and keep me alive. Isn't that what the good guys do?" Orion asked Sky again. They were going back and forth... Orion was buying time for something, but what was it?

I looked all around. Nothing on the tower on the top of his cliff, his castle was empty, and his soldiers weren't anywhere to be seen. Noboki was running back with Dani and Moon, and Carl and Mandi were back there as well. Tavian and Ellie weren't spotted either... Dante, Amera, and June were defeated... what was his move?

"I won't imprison you. I'll kill you. You killed my friends, you've threatened my safety. I don't know what kind of bullshit heroes you know, but I won't do the good thing because it's morally correct," Sky told Orion again. Orion shrugged with his arms wide. Could that have been a signal?

I pulled my shield from my hip and stared at Orion. Somebody had to be within view of that signal he just pulled off. If that was a signal.

As Orion's arms were still raised, Sky shifted his eyes upwards towards that tower. I thought I already deemed that tower safe... nothing was up there...

But something was under it.

Violent and loud explosions erupted from under the tower, tearing the glacier in half and collapsing the throne room with the fallen bits. I ran back to retreat, but Sky stood in his exact position with Orion.

"SKY! WE NEED TO LEAVE!" I yelled out to him. He still didn't move.

"Fear not, Lia. This demon doesn't have much time left on this Isle left. I'll take care of him for you. You have bigger fish to fry." Orion said, pointing up towards the collapsing tower.

As if a saving grace from God, ice shot up from the glacier as if to create a wall, blocking all of the debris from the tower. The ice sheet risen had cracked a little, but we now had time to get out of the vicinity before it all collapsed.

Orion seemed confused, but Sky was stuck looking at Orion. Did Sky do that?!

Sky summoned his sword and attacked Orion, sending him back into the collapsed throne room. Before he proceeded, those red strings shot out of his stone and grappled to his arm. Shortly after that happened, he fell to the floor.