“War does not determine who is right - only who is left.”

“Storm, slow down!” Harmony called out as I raced down the hall towards the elevator. “Just, explain what’s goin’ on. Y’all can’t just go runnin’ around sayin somethin’ like that without sayin’ nothin’ else!”

“I can’t simply explain it.” I snapped at her as I mashed at the elevator panel with my hoof. “We have to get word to Sunshine city!” Her hoof wrapped around mine and held it still. I’d been about to tell her to let me go when the elevator gave off a ding. The rusted and squeaky doors rolled back to reveal Longbow inside, already wearing a tarnished silver suit of power armor.

She looked at me with worry in her eyes. “Sunshine city, right?” Her gaze moved to Harmony. “Stay here.”

“Now y’all listen here,” Harmony grunted as she pushed the two of us into the elevator, “if somethin’ is wrong with mah home, then ah ain’t sittin’ around!” Stuck between a suit of bulky power armor, and the strongest mare I know, I’ve never been so cramped before in my life. With a firm press of her hoof, she hit the lobby level and waited for the door to close. “Would one of yah like ta at least tell me what in the hay is even goin’ on?”

“The necromancer is going to attack Sunshine city.” I spoke up.

“The necromancer?” Longbow almost sounded surprised. “But, on my monitors...” She looked unfocused as she thought, her eyes going wide as the elevator slowed. “Goddesses, are they?”

“Mom, could yah use words, maybe?” Harmony rolled her forehoof through the air impatiently.

“Sorry,” Longbow shook her head, returning her worried gaze to us, “my monitors didn’t show ponies on the ground, but an enclave raptor headed for the city.”

“A… a whole raptor?” This was news enough that I had a hard time even saying that. “How? Where did it...” As much as I didn’t want to entertain the thought, the only enclave I’d even see down here was Shadow’s fiance. “How do we fight something like that?”

“I don’t know.” Longbow sighed softly. The elevator came to a stop, and the doors slid open. The lobby was a flurry of tower ponies, quickly trotting back and forth with supplies. Others hurriedly secured metal shutters over the many businesses that occupied the foyer. “The tower is on lockdown from this point on. The refugees outside are going to panic as soon as the fighting starts. Even from this far, they’ll be able to see what’s coming.”

“So, they haven’t attacked yet?” Harmony sounded at least hopeful as we stepped out. “That’s good, right? Ah’ mean, maybe they’ll just up an’ leave us alone.”

Longbow shook her head and nodded for us to follow her. “No. They’ve turned the raptor broadside to the city, and are waiting. For what, I don’t know.”

“She’s waiting for the strike teams.” Shadow came trotting from one of the entrances to outside. He’d already gotten into his power armor and met us down here? If it weren’t such a dire situation, I’d have told him I was impressed.

“She?” Longbow snorted without even trying to hide her disdain at him. “Great. All I need is another crazy Enclave commander like Silver Star in my life, coming down to ruin my day.”

Shadow stiffened up and nearly dove at Longbow. He shoved her over against the marble wall hard enough that it shattered from the impact.

“How do you know that name?” He snarled at her.

“Shadow!” I snapped and took a step toward him. The scorpion like tail on his armor twisted and snaked in front of me. “Let her go.” The sharp blade on the tail glinted under the hall lights, but didn’t move from my path.

“Not until she tells me!” He growled. It wasn’t until Harmony pressed the barrel of her shotgun against the side of his head that he even took his furious gaze off of Longbow.

“Y’all might want ta reconsider that.” Harmony sounded to me like she was the most pissed off pony of all of us. I hadn’t known what had gotten into him, but three on one odds were finally enough to make him take a small step back.

“Look, I ran into her years ago,” Longbow said as she pushed Shadow away from her with an ease that only power armor could afford. Stupid cheat suits. “I’d love to tell you the story, but if we don’t get moving, ponies are going to die.”

“Hate to dampen the mood,” Predious called out as he trotted down the hall. Alongside him, trotted the still heavily bandaged Gauge. She was still using Tasteless’s cyberleg, but seeing as the ghoul herself was still out like a light in the infirmary, it would have to do. “But it’s a half hour’s trot back there.”

“If they’re waiting on the strike teams, then we have minutes at most.” Shadow remarked.

“Which is why I was eternally grateful that an old friend had stopped by last night.” Longbow sighed and continued toward the doors. “Shadow will take us via Ditzy Doo’s skycart. We won’t be able to drop into the city on account of their anti-air defences, you’ll have to drop us a block away. We’ll use that to our advantage and use it as our fallback point.” She propped open the door and waved us over. “We do this quick. Strike fast and hard enough to draw their attentions on us, and we’ll buy the city enough time to evacuate.”

As the others went outside, I watched as the friendly wall-eyed pegasus ghoul carefully landed a skycart down in the dirt. Most of the refugees in the camp seemed to wonder what was going on, but none of them showed any immediate concern. I remembered that I still owed Ditzy for the Pipbuck she delivered me, but I knew she also understood the gravity of the situation we were all in.

I put my foreleg up and onto Longbow’s shoulder as I approached the door. “What you said back in the elevator, you mean to suspect that the Enclave is working with the necromancer?”

She nodded. “I don’t know how you knew the city would be under attack, but if you were to tell me that the necromancer told you this would happen, I’d believe you.” She sighed and brushed her striped mane from her face. “If he managed to turn a whole bunker of Steel Rangers to his side, I can only imagine it would be possible to turn an Enclave raptor commander as well.”

“Then you know that trying to pull their attention won’t work.” I watched as the others loaded up into the skycart, all except for Gauge, who stood there tapping her hoof impatiently. “He’s attacking Sunshine city because he knows it’s important to me.”

“Even so, we have to save as many as we can.” Longbow turned and looked at me with worried eyes. Eyes that have seen more pain and suffering than I hopefully ever will, yet still carried the light of hope in them. “I have seen what you have done, and I believe in the idea that you can be the pony to lead everypony through this.”

“I hope so.” I turned back toward the skycart, watching as Grumpy floated around the corner of the refugee camp. As it floated up to Gauge, she gave it an annoyed smack and pointed it at the back ramp of the cart. With an almost sad sag in it’s three motorized glowing eyes, it hovered up and inside.

The elevator chimed behind us, and out from it stepped Ficha. He looked around hastily for a moment before spotting us. He looked geared up, and as much as I didn’t want to ask him to, I knew he was onboard with going with us. On his back, draped over his own weapons, I found him carrying Skyline’s battle saddle.

“They are ready, just as you asked.” He shouted as he Trotted over. “When they begin the attack, the evacuation will start.”

“Why not evacuate now?” I asked at the risk of sounding stupid.

“If we start now, we risk forcing their attack.” Longbow spoke as she stepped out through the doorway, both Ficha and I hot on her hooves. “While they’ve needed time to prepare, so have we.” She tossed a quick glance to him before she checked over the sniper rifles mounted to her power armor. “You did get Vox to contact the Rangers as well, right?”

“Correct.” He nodded as we approached the back of the Skycart. It looked much smaller on the inside than it had from the door, and with everypony outside of Shadow crammed in there, it looked as if it were going to be more cramped than the elevator ride. “Shadow, I have something for you!” Ficha turned and pulled Skyline’s saddle off of him, holding it out. “Seeing as you don’t have any weapons, you might want to make use of these.”

Shadow looked at them before looking over to me with an uncertain gaze. He had sacrificed his own weapons in order to protect us all, and he saved my life in doing so. I couldn’t speak for Skyline, but I think that if anypony deserved to use her guns, it would have been him. I gave him a small nod, and turned to walk inside the cart.

With little warning, I found myself being held in a very squishy embrace. Ditzy offered a sad smile along with her hug, and I simply patted her on her back. She was a small miracle in the wasteland, and never once had I seen her without a smile. Sky and Ditzy had been rival traders, but good friends over the years, and I think I understood why. She stood by those she knew, and she understood at heart why we did what we had to do.

“Thank you, Ditzy.” I whispered. “For everything.”

“We’ll try to bring this cart back intact.” Longbow spoke with a smirk as she walked up the rear ramp of the cart. Poking her head around the back, she eyed over Shadow. “You sure you can fly one of these things?”

“A few years back, I took an evaluation course to be the pilot for a skytank.” Shadow called back with a hint of hesitations to his words. With Skyline’s guns strapped onto his armor, he trotted up to the puller’s position at the front of the cart. “How different could this be?”

As it turns out, it can be a whole lot different than a skytank.

“Sorry for the bumpy ride so far!” Shadow called back. “This thing is a touch more sensitive than the skytank trainer I flew!”

Predious rolled his eyes in annoyance, wedged between Gauge’s robot and the young mare herself. She looked like she was about to be sick, and the green color she gained really contrasted the purple of her coat.

“The teams must be ready, so what is she waiting for?” Longbow muttered beside me. I turned to find her looking through the floor, presumably lost in her thoughts. “Something isn’t right here.”

“Waiting for us to make the first move, perhaps?” Ficha offered.

“No.” Predious gave out sternly. “She wants us to watch.”

“Shadow, set us down further away.” I shouted up to him. I didn’t know if he’d heard me through all the wind, but I thought that Predious’s idea had some merit to it. Filius specifically chose this place to harm me, he wanted me to be there when it happened.

With a sharp turn, and a jostling shudder that resonated through the old cart, we pitched downward. The levitation talismans under us whined as we pulled back up, our momentum still carrying us down. In what was the sharpest landing they’d probably ever had to handle, the talismans slowed us just enough that we set down with only a minor bump.

The second we were down, Gauge bolted for the back door. She clawed at it furiously with her hooves, pushing it down as fast as the old pistons would let it open. It wasn’t fast enough however, as she whined and threw up her dinner all over the opening door.

“Good, get it out now.” Longbow sighed and pulled herself sharply to her hooves. “What will happen probably won’t be pretty. We’ll do what we can, but we can’t save everypony.” She turned and looked at me, giving me a look of understanding. “Remember that.”

The readout in my vision shifted to pink, and Pai popped up in front of me.

“I’m happy to inform you that we’ve entered secure comms range for the raptor.” She seemed like she was back to her old self, no longer sounding as cold and calculated as she had when I spoke with her in the resort. “I’ve managed to bypass their encryption algorithm, allowing you to listen in if you’d like.”

The lot of us, with the exception of Grumpy the robot, disembarked the old skycart. The air felt colder this far from the tower, and the snow that coated the rubble was more heavily piled up here than it had been when we left for the Resort. At the very least, it didn’t look like anypony had been through here, as there wasn’t a single track to be found.

“Good.” Predious nodded as he carefully made his way around Gauge. “We’ll be able to see if the DJ managed to get us our backup.”

I was about to ask what that meant, but Shadow interrupted me as he unhooked himself.

“From what I could see, it was the Lenticular alright.” With a stretch of his wings, he hopped into the air and hovered for a moment. “If we’re lucky, they haven’t taken her in for her retrofit yet. The capacitors for the anti-dragon cannons are due to be replaced, and overheat after each shot. We’ll have a window of four minutes between volleys.”

“Four minutes?” Gauge coughed out as she still sat huddled over her puddle of sick. “That’s it?”

“It’ll be enough.” Harmony snorted. “Okay, here’s the order of action. Evacuation prep for the city has the foals and elderly shored up in the Garage. With the rubble all around it, I’d reckoned it’s the most fortified position in the city. It might take a volley from the cannons, but Ah’d rather not trust it taking a single shot more than that. It’s priority number one for evacuation, got it?”

We all nodded before she continued.

“Good. Adult civilians not fit fer defence should be sheltered in the bar at the west end of town.” She was remarkably calm as she spoke, looking around at each of us and using her hooves to keep our attention. Unlike me, she was a community leader, through and through. “They’re next, but don’t bother with an escort. Y’all just instruct them ta flee, and get ta defending the city. The rangers’ll know to concentrate their fire on the Enclave attackers who will be flyin’ over the city. We need ta cause casualties, convince them that we ain’t worth attackin’.” She looked around at each of us and gave us a stern look. “We can rebuild the city, but we can’t lose too many folks doin’ so.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Ficha laughed. “The night isn’t getting any warmer! Isn’t that right?” He nudged shadow, who was simply staring down at the dirt.

“I have to go.” He spoke up. His eerie tone and blank stare made us all sit quietly for a moment, waiting to hear what the hell he meant. “That’s Iron Cross’s ship. If she see’s me, she might be distracted enough to slip up during the attack.”

“Shadow, she still wants you dead. I won’t risk...” I stepped forward. Without warning, Longbow’s hoof reached out and stopped me.

“Any advantage might save lives, Storm. Even if it’s a couple of seconds.” She kept her hoof pressed against me, and she tensed up as she spoke. “Silver Star deviated from protocol when she attacked us before, and that was because she was too focused on her emotions to see clearly.”

“She’s right, Storm.” Shadow’s stern gaze shifted up to Longbow. “Silver’s daughters are just as prone to emotional outbursts as well.” A smirk crept across his muzzle slowly as her gaze locked on his. “So, you’re the grounder mare she was always bitching about? She never let what happened go, you know that? Told her daughters to keep searching for the whole lot of you all these years. She’s probably up there right now watching this unfold.”

“That’s right.” Longbow snorted. “To be honest, I’d hoped that she’d forgotten about what happened long ago.” She paused with a short gasp. “Shortstaff…”

“What?” Harmony turned and looked at her with a puzzled expression. “What about him?”

“He’s the spitting image of his father!” She snapped, turning around and bolting away faster than any mare her age had a right to.

“Alright! Everypony, get moving!” I shouted, turning to bolt after her. My heart beat against my chest as hard as my hooves slammed into the broken and snow covered pavement. Shadow dipped down along his flight path, cruising next to me for a moment. I caught his worried gaze, and returned one of my own to him. “Be safe.” He nodded and pulled away, gaining altitude and speed as he flapped hard. “I love you...”

We had so much to lose.

The bright red beams arced through the night sky, turning the old rubble filled streets a dull red. As we raced toward the northern city gate, the beams cut through the western defences like a hot knife through butter.

Even from two blocks away, the scent of ozone was so thick in the air that I couldn’t even breathe without tasting it. The night air filled with screams of pain and panic as the light dimmed, and the beams flickered out. A window popped up in my pipvision, a countdown timer handily put up by Pai.

Four minutes, I thought to myself.

Even with the fact that I’d been patched up, there was no way I was going to keep up with Longbow. I’d lost sight of her well before I even rounded the last block, and I could see the mare sized hole she’d left in the sheet metal gate. Above the gate, I noticed a pair of silver flashes streak by. Chariots flew over the city, and only seconds after they passed over, a line of explosions tore through the streets.

Another silver flash caught my vision, but this one came from my side. Ficha stormed past me, galloping ahead with his sword grasped tightly in his jaw. He reached the gate moments before me, slipping through and disappearing into the smoke in the street beyond. With a deft leap, I too entered into the city.

Gunfire erupted from all around me as steel rangers took up defensive positions around the streets. Never before had I been so relieved to see the metal clad ponies appear from seemingly nowhere. The low drone of a minigun was sharply followed by a bright multicolored explosion. The twisted wreck of a chariot slammed down through a sheet metal shack down the street, sending a pillar of flame and smoke up into the night sky.

I skid to a stop as a pair of bright beams lanced through the dirt around me, narrowly missing me. I looked up just fast enough to catch a blur fly above me, passing over me to attack the rangers down the street. One of the beams struck a robed ranger in the chest, right as her anti-machine rifle punched a bloody hole through the enclave soldier’s head. The mare screamed as she glowed brightly before whisking away as pink ashes. From my pipbuck radio, the quick and decisive reports came across the Enclave channel.

Outside of a soft ringing in my ears, I froze up.

I’d thought I knew what it felt like before, but this was war. Not like Dodge or Chasm, and not street fighting against raiders. This wasn’t just one side fighting for survival, this was an all out fight of eradication. No emotions about this, no hesitation, just kill the enemy even if you went down swinging. This was what I was bred to do, wasn’t it? This is what my purpose would have been had my ‘powers’ shown themselves to be controllable during the war.

My vision twisted, and I tumbled onto my side as a pony barreled into me. It knocked me from my thoughts, and back into the fight. The pony whined and kicked at me as he got back to his hooves in a panic. A high pitched whine filled the air, and a red beam lanced across his back. He let out a scream before collapsing next to me, the soldier who hit him zipping past overhead.

Predious jumped through the city gate, wide eyed in fear as he watched me climb to my hooves. As much as I wanted to keep staring at him, I found my eyes drawn back down to the stallion next to me. His eyes were still and unfocused, his body rigid and unmoving.

“Storm, we have to get to the garage!” He snapped and smacked me in the cheek. “Come on, move!” A beep from my pipbuck prompted a look at the timer still in my vision.

Three minutes, I thought again.

“Y-yeah!” I turned my gaze away from the stallion and down the street. Another set of explosions erupted from the south, illuminating the night once more. The two of us got moving, galloping down the street towards the monolithic form of the Garage. Another silver flash passed over us, this one traveling lower than the others. It wasn’t a chariot, but what looked like a large bulbous shell with a gun sticking out of the top of it.

Carefully, it maneuvered to the top of the garage, and set down without even taking a hit.

“No, no, no!” I screamed out as I pushed myself harder to get there. I refused to lose anypony else in this fight! The enclave wouldn’t slaughter helpless colts and fillies even if I had to throw myself on their guns to do so!

A blue flash of a pony zipped around the street ahead of us. Thatcher tore through the street toward the Garage, quickly followed by the bulky form of Longbow hot on his hooves. With little regard, he slammed into the door to the place. The door splintered and broke open against his weight.

Predious and I joined Longbow, squeezing in through the wrecked doorway with little regard for ourselves. The huddled mass of young ponies inside gasped at our entrance, cowering in the corner. The sounds of a scuffle up the stairs to the kitchen got us moving again without even a word.

“That’s far enough!” The bitchy and arrogant voice of Iron Cross was one I’d hoped to never hear again. “Mom was right about this place being where you stayed.” She laughed as I pushed myself up the stairs.

“You expect to win?” Shortstaff snorted. “We have you outnumbered.”

Reaching the kitchen, an odd scene sat before me. An enclave soldier had Shortstaff restrained in his grasp, his power armor’s energy rifles pressing against his back stiffly. Next to him, sat Iron Cross. She too was in a suit of power armor, but her’s didn’t have any weapons on it. Instead, the scorpion-like tail of her suit was wrapped around Thatcher’s son’s neck, the blade pointed precariously close to the side of his head. Thatcher, Longbow, and now Predious and I stood across the room from her.

“Oh, I think you misunderstand why I’m here.” She smiled as she spoke, her hate filled red eyes turning to me. “Oh, what a surprise.” She laughed lightly. “Of course, mother said that this was all for you.”

“She’s being controlled.” I spoke plainly. “Filius is just using her.”

“Oh, I know that.” She laughed with the same mirth as Tempest had during her little ‘game’. “I made a deal with Filius. I knew shadow was still alive, and he needed you out of the picture.” She traced the tail blade around Huckleberry’s face, eliciting a sharp whimper from him. “And like a moth to the flame, he knew you’d bring him right to me.”

“So let my son go.” Thatcher demanded.

With another beep, the timer counted down to halfway.

“See, there was one more requirement in our deal.” She canted her head as she looked right at me. “He needed her to suffer.”

The room glowed bright red, and the air itself heated like we’d been placed in an oven. The crackle of energy filled the air as screams erupted from outside. I had to sheild myself from the light that poured in through the window, the fur on my forehoof feeling like it was melting from the intense heat. With a quick flicker, the beams again died down.

“What happened to four minutes?” Longbow growled through her clenched teeth.

Iron simply shook her head. “You ground folk are such simpletons. Only an amature commander would commit all of the guns to firing at once.” She paused and put a hoof up to her ear. The most grotesque smile pulled across her muzzle. “I hope that there was no pony in the bar you cared for.”

The radio in my pipbuck cracked and silenced the constant soft chatter from the enclave attackers.

“This is the raptor Mammatus,” The words wiped the smile away from Iron’s face. “Raptor Lenticular, you are engaged in an unsanctioned assault. Cease and desist your actions or we will fire upon you.”

Iron raised her forehoof and spoke into it. “This is the captain. Belay that order and continue the assault until I return.”

“Fucking cunt!” Longbow snapped, leveling her rifles at Iron.

Everything then went so wrong, so fast.

Iron’s tail drove through the side of Huckleberry’s head effortlessly. Longbow locked up as Iron dropped his lifeless body and Thatcher screamed out. The other soldier fired off a pair of shots into the back of Shortstaff, who collapsed forward onto the floor in pain.

Predious dove forward at the soldier, his horn firing a red beam right into the muzzle of the stallion. Longbow’s rifles fired off, blinding me momentarily with the muzzle flash from them. Iron screamed out in pain as she twisted toward the kitchen window, a bloody hole punching through her side and splattering blood onto the wall behind her.

Thatcher ran at her, nothing but pure rage filling his eyes as he did. Predious screamed out in pain as the soldier he was fighting used his tail to snap his foreleg backwards. Longbow’s rifles fired again, this time firing across my front at the soldier.

Again, I was blinded from the flash. The soldier’s helmet had split almost in half, and the exposed half of his head was a smoking hole from where one of Longbow’s rounds punched through it.

It was at this point, that everything crawled to a stop. Time froze, my vision shifted to a deep blue color, and pai appeared curled up in the corner.

“Storm?” She sniffled as she talked. “You… you have to do something, Storm.”

What could I do? Every time I tried, every pony I wanted to save, ended up dead. Thatcher’s son didn’t have to die, but it was my fault that he had even been involved.

“No. This is what he wants!” Pai whined and climbed to her hooves. “You have to act, Sis! You can’t…. you can’t sit here like he wants you too!”

I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do anymore! Filius had the amulet. Nopony knew where he was, and I couldn’t even stop one single fucking mare from slaughtering countless innocent ponies!

“You can try.” Pai sniffled, forcing my vision to shift across the room.

Bleeding, and halfway through the window, Iron cross stared back in an endless scowl at Thatcher. He’d gotten up to her, and was desperately trying to drag her back in through the window.

The S.A.T.S. targeting overlay highlighted the two of them. In the lower right hoof corner of my vision, under Pai, flashed the word ‘Bon Appetit’. I knew what she wanted me to do, and I thought about putting a bullet between Iron’s eyes. The system registered that it would take half of the spells power to do so, and that I only had a twenty five percent chance to hit her at all. Thatcher on the other hoof, had a thirty six percent chance to be hit instead.

Rather than risk hitting him, I had to rely on the spell to guide the one round I had to it’s proper home. I wouldn’t chance on killing Thatcher when he still had his other son, Finn to raise.

I accepted the spell, and watched it resolve.

It guided my muzzle down and over the revolver’s chocolate tasting grip, drawing it up and out of it’s home in one fluid motion. Slowly, it swung up, the whole room itself shifting in the altered time. I watched in horror through the spell as Iron’s tail rose up to strike, the sharp blade glinting in the flickering lights from the fires that burned outside. With a sharp, distorted report, the single shot rang out from my gun. Even in the slowed down flow of time, the round traveled across the room in the blink of an eye.

The soft lead round slammed into the armored tail appendage, not even leaving a scratch on it.

Time slowly crept forward, starting to reorient itself. With my attack failed, and Iron still alive, her bladed tail shot forward. The curved blade imbedded itself through Thatcher’s eye, the pointed tip of it emerging through the back of his head as he went ridged.

My gun slipped from my muzzle as the blade slipped out of his corpse, and Iron Cross slipped from sight out the window. I sat down hard as my gun clattered across the floorboards, my head blank from the events that had just unfolded.

Longbow pushed past me as she rushed to her son. She was screaming things at him as she levitated out medical supplies from her armor to him. Predious whined out in pain from the floor beside her, cradling his twisted foreleg. All the while, across the floor lay the two bodies of ponies who didn’t deserve this.

The ringing in my ears returned, drowning out the rest of the world as I just sat on the floor and stared out the window. If this was what war felt like, I don’t know how ponykind managed it for ten years. Even so, maybe what ended the world a century and a half ago was less of a tragedy, and more of a mercy.

Amidst the ringing, a soft voice called out from the depths of my minds, and despite how unfocused I felt, I grasped on to those words and listened to them like everything I was depended on it.

“You cannot save everypony,” It was the voice of mama, “Others still require your help. Go to them.”

Without thinking, I stood up, turned around, and did just that. No thoughts in my mind, just the drive to help others. I practically flew down the stairs and out into the streets, running toward the sound of screams. In the sky, a second cloudship hung above us, sitting between us and the retreating pegasus forces. I doubted that this would be the last time I’d see Iron Cross, but I knew that the next time we met, I would end her life without so much as a thought.

My mind felt scattered without the feelings I normally had running around in it. I moved through the streets in a daze, helping pony after pony from the rubble. I glossed over those who were already dead, in an attempt to help those who still could be. Part of me knew that I needed to keep moving, and the more I helped, the less everything phased me overall.

My friends had spoken to me while I worked, but I simply ignored them and worked. Even Shadow had come back to me. Still, I found myself unable to stop from doing what I could for the wounded. I didn’t have the time to talk, because I was still very much alive. Others didn’t have this luxury, and I intended to fix that.

As the sun crept up over the wasteland, I finally had exhausted all of my strength and laid myself down to rest. It was on a dirty mattress in one of the ruined shacks in town. I didn’t know who it had belonged to, but for now, it was mine. Closing my eyes, I sat in the blissful darkness and listened as the soft ringing in my mind carried me off to sleep. It was simply the end to another day for me. Tomorrow, I’d get up and try again.

Tomorrow, I thought to myself, Tomorrow we’ll win this war.