Every movement, no matter how small, was a monumental struggle to achieve. The earth that had rushed at him in a relentless, unstoppable fury now surrounded his body so tightly that any motion felt stiff and subdued.

Marc felt a small trickle of blood moving slowly down his forehead and he fought to stay conscious. Where was he? Was he even sure what had happened? There was a shadow over his vision that seemed to fall whenever he remained still, so he forced himself to keep moving. Some part of him that grew stronger with every effort he made begged him to stay awake.

“Reyes! Reyes, Jesus, man- you alright?” a voice called from nearby and, despite the suffocating dirt and rock that surrounded him, Marc managed to turn his head to the side in an effort to find the source. “Reyes! Marc!”

His name was enough to rouse him for good and suddenly his eyes flew wide and drunk in the severity of the situation. The mountain blew, he remembered. A flash of light as the missile had struck home, then another and another until the whole skies rained soil and stone in a horrifying, raging current of earth that had swept him clean off his feet. He was alive, but the more awake he became the worse his pain became. His already injured ankle pulsed angrily, and a thumping pain in his head spoke of further injuries. All across his body were aches and pains where stone and hard earth had struck blows against him that he had not first noticed- now they all came forth in a vengeance.

“Marc!” A hand reach out and grabbed his collar, trying to lift him out from his earthbound prison. “Shit- can you free an arm, anything?”

“Flash!” Marc gasped. He began to wrestle his left arm against the flow, then his right- the right felt lighter, which likely meant less weight was settled upon it. If he moved it back and forth, he might be able to free it.

“You hurt?” Flash asked, kneeling down beside his friend and digging furiously with cupped hands, trying to aid in Marc’s extraction.

“Not bad- just some bruise and scratches, I think,” Marc grunted, moving his right arm all the more furiously. “Try to my right, I think my arm is about to come loose- almost out!”

The ground erupted and Marc’s filthy, dirt-covered arm was freed from the grasp of the earth, reveling in its newfound freedom above the ground-

Flash grabbed hold and began pulling, the effort so great that Marc began to fear it would be pulled out of its socket-

Pain shot across his arm like lightning. “Too hard, too hard!” Marc cried, feeling the muscles within beginning to strain. “Stop, stop, stop- keep digging, I’m moving as best I can!”

“Shit, man, what do you want me to do?”

“Just keep digging at my side- maybe if we get one half loosened, I can work my way out,” Marc grunted, trying his best to ignore the relentless pain that struck his tired frame. The weight that rested upon him was horrendous, and even the smallest of movements brought little relief.

Bit by bit, piece by piece the two men worked, Marc writhing beneath like a fish caught on a line as Flash continued to dig further, eventually reaching down to Marc’s chest. “Do you want to give it another try?” the young officer asked.

“Go for it,” Marc said.

Flash reached from behind and wrapped his arms around Marc’s chest, pulling with all his might as the earth refused to relinquish its prize. Slowly but surely the ground began to crack and open up, Marc coming forth like a deep root buried in the dirt and being free to the open air.

“Shit,” Flash breathed, falling back beside his friend. “You good?”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Marc grunted, checking his weapon that was now smeared and marred by thick dirt. “You hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

Marc struggled to catch his breath but knew time still was not their ally. “Where are the others?” he asked. “Where’s CO?”

“He’s further up, I think. Can you walk?”

Marc took Flash’s outstretched arm and rose to his feet, hobbling his way across the sprawling landslide that had devastated the landscape. Wherever his eyes turned, the sight of half-buried boulders and loose earth met his gaze, and beyond lay a broken spire of rock and earth that stood shattered and hollow, a glorious mountain that had been all but destroyed-

Marc slipped and began to slide further down the newly formed hill, stopping a few feet later and halting his movements. “Watch where you’re stepping!” he called.

“Reyes! Reyes, is that you?” A voice choked by dust called forth in the darkness and Marc’s gaze peered out into the deep black. “Reyes, over here- move carefully, the ground is still loose on this side!”

“Sir!” As carefully as he could, Marc pushed onwards through the unsettled sea of soil and stone towards the sound to find Cpt. Armor on his knees beside a bloodied Featherweight, who now sported vicious gash across his young face.

“Featherweight- what happened?” Marc cried, kneeling down beside his soldier. “You with me, kid?”

“I’m alright, Sergeant,” Featherweight said, though his voice possess a tearful hint to it. “Just a bit scuffed up, that’s all.”

“Where’s Lt. Sentry? Joel, go look for him!”

“I’m right here, sir,” Flash replied, his haphazard pace bringing him to his comrades. “You alright?”

“They brought down the whole damn mountain on us,” Cpt. Armor growled, ignoring the man’s question as he scrutinized their surroundings. “They had us like fish in a barrel, why did they aim for the mountain?”

“To cut us off,” Marc guessed. “They knew the Iron Guard would be able to catch up before too long. They’ve got us trapped.”

Marc’s words worked their way through the battered group of Cavalrymen until they had become a poison. Featherweight’s face grew pale and his head darted this way and that looking for a means of escape, desperate to flee his leader’s defeated words.

“We’re not done yet,” Cpt. Armor snarled, rising to his feet and slowly making his way up the hill. “That choke point was just up ahead, it might still be open.”

“Sir.” Flash’s voice was tremulous-

“I don’t want to hear it- come on!” Cpt. Armor roared, charging forward against the slow flow of silt and rock that threatened to sweep him off his feet. “It’s right up here, we might still be able to make it-”

The narrow pass that had once been empty and devoid of obstructions now lay covered in an menacing wall of earth, as though nature had seen fit to fill the gap. The open space had been sealed off and in its place lay a mountainous doorway built of freshly broken stones and dirt.

“Dammit,” Cpt. Armor said, rushing up to the wall and examining it. “Maybe-” He gave a leap and tried to find some measure of grip in its sides, only to slip back down to the ground as a small current of silt fell upon his head.

“Sir, please,” Flash said again-

“Don’t!” Cpt. Armor cried, rushing forward again and scrabbling for a makeshift ledge along the wall, any possible grip that he might find- only to fall back down and stumble backwards. With a roar he charged a third time, leaping forward and failing yet again, loosening more fresh earth and sending a small landslide down the new hill.

Marc felt a bubble in his brain, growing stronger with every second. He knew what it was, but he could not heed it now- not now, when the hour was so close. All around him the terrain had been devastated as the Empire’s air power had struck without mercy. The already treacherous terrain had been turned into a death trap from which they could not escape. Their long, wearisome, bloody night had finally found its close.

Cpt. Armor fell to his knees and screamed out into the heavens, a sound of unmitigated rage and grief that tore through the sky like a jagged blade.

“So- what do we do?” Featherweight asked, his small body beginning to tremble. “There must be something- there’s gotta be something we can do, so we can get out of here!”

Marc gave a deep, sorrowful sigh as he looked at the young man. He had suffered greatly these past few days: his best friend had been killed, he had seen the ugliness of death up close, watched as his brothers had been torn away in the skies, seen the ravagings of a sniper’s bullet, and now would have to answer to death himself. It was so grossly unfair that Marc was sickened by the thought. “Featherweight,” he said heavily, “there’s nothing we can do.”

“So- Sergeant- so- so we’re gonna die?”

The moment it was said, there would be no turning back. “Yes.”

The truth had been revealed. Featherweight trembled violently and fell to the ground seemingly stunned. Marc suddenly saw just how young he was; the boyish face now stricken with impending terror, a figure that spoke more of a child than a warrior. Joel sat beside him, his gaze darkened and lost in his own thoughts.

Flash stood beside his old friend from years gone by. They had not always been this way, Marc knew full well. But after time had softened his arrogance and malice, as they had become adults in a world on the verge of chaos, they had found that they could indeed be friends. Marc knew he would regret the time he had wasted, glad that he still had a friend left to face the coming wrath.

“So, do we wait for them to show up?” Flash asked, his playful tone shaky and revealing his true fears. “Offer than a light and all that?”

“We give them everything we have,” Shining Armor said, rising back to his feet with a bright light now blazing in his eyes like a great wildfire. “They want us? Over our dead bodies.”

“Sir-”

“Don’t go quietly into that goodnight,” Shining Armor said firmly. “We won’t quit, not now! They want to take us from our friends, our families? They’ve killed our brothers tonight- so let’s make them fucking pay for it! This whole area is a bowl now, so we’ll branch apart and spread out. Grab your weapons and get set, we’ll make five men seem like fifty tonight! Flash, take the far left side. Joel, get about ten meters to his right and set a position in the dirt- Featherweight, you’re next. Marc, take the far right, I’ll be to your left. Now let’s do it!”

It was no true plan, merely vengeance and rage given form into action. But the empty blackness that filled their souls lessened somewhat and they found courage in the emptiness. Despite their hopelessness, they would not descend into Hell without a fight.

Marc, hobbling as quickly as he could manage, threw himself behind a pile of rocks and checked his sights. The weapon was dirty and battered, it might not even fire; it was still more than enough to fight and to kill. It would do both in one last act of service for its master.

“Look at that,” a voice called, Marc recognizing it to be Featherweight. “The sun’s coming up!”

A tinge of pink and gold, against the broken spire of the shattered mountain behind them, began to rise into the sky, growing stronger with every passing second as they watched the cold winter flee from before them. It would be the last dawn they ever saw, but their hearts were gladdened; they would not fall in darkness, but in the bright colors of a new day.

“Marc,” the voice was so calm that he almost mistook it for another. “You ready?”

“Ready as I can be, sir,” Marc replied. “You?”

“Always.” Shining Armor’s voice was taut and he settled beside his old friend. They had been there since the beginning, when Almeria had fallen upon them in all its wrath and fire. They had fought across foreign lands, through time, against enemies far greater than they. The two of them had hoped to see it come to an end. Instead, they would merely be another stepping stone for the final defeat. Discord had fallen, the Crystal Empire was dying. It was a future they had dreamed of, and would not die for.

“Marc?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.” Marc turned to face his friend, his brother, and was ashamed to see tears in his eyes. “You deserve better than this. I wanted to get you back home. I wanted you to see your family again.”

Marc struggled and forced his breaths to come steady and slow. “It’s not your fault,” he said. “And if it has to be now… I’m glad I got to fight with you.”

“They never were able to defeat you, Marc,” Shining Armor said. “Not the Iron Guard, not your own demons, no one. Remember that... I’ll see you on Fiddler’s Green.”

Marc chuckled at the thought. Fiddler’s Green, the resting place of the Cavalrymen. Where the dead settled and found solace before the mouth of Hell, where friends long past awaited their comrades. The peaceful realm of the Cavalryman alone- it was a thought worth holding to.

Sunset, Marc thought, speaking within his own mind as though she stood before him. Far off in the distance, as though his brain had begun to play tricks on his eyes, he could see her resting elsewhere in a maelstrom of grief. Sunset, my beautiful, wonderful Sunset. I am so sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. I tried as hard as I could- I promise I did. I wanted so badly to see you again… but I don’t think I’m going to. I’m sorry. If you were here right now, I’d tell you how much I love you, and I couldn’t wait to get back to see you and our child. I really wanted to be a Daddy, you know that? I wanted it all so bad. But I’m not going to be able to make it. So, if you can hear me out there somewhere, just know that I love you. And until the day comes that you join me, I’ll be waiting for you.

Off in the distance, the smoky silhouettes of their foes finally came into view; a menacing throng of heavily armed foes that hungered for their blood. Waiting diligently, Marc hesitated to fire until they had come to the perfect spot. Just as a face, fresh and clear, sought him out, Marc squeezed the trigger and let his bullets fly.

The two sides fought with all their rage and fire that they held within, The Iron Guard’s malice raining down upon Knight Troop like an unrelenting storm. Outmatched, outgunned, pinned down, Knight Troop threw all they had against the tide as their enemy broke against them. Body after body fell, the five men fighting without fear of the pain or death that now hungered for them. The dawn grew brighter and onward they fought, an unremitting frenzy of bullets and wrath that seemed as though it would consume them all before the sun could rise-

A bullet struck the rocks before him and Marc staggered back. They had him now, he needed to move positions before he was struck-

A Thoom! And the ground before him erupted in a flash of heat and shrapnel as a mortar fell dangerously close to him. Another fell behind him and Marc knew he had been bracketed. It was time to move-

Marc rose to his feet and stumbled as his legs failed him, sending the warrior staggering to the ground. He rose again, trying to stumble away from his hiding place but he could already hear the whistle that fell through the air and he braced for the impact-

Flesh was met by heat and metal, muscle was frayed and cut like rope as bone was broken and torn away. Marc flew through the air as his legs vanished in a sea of fire and he fell to the ground in a writhing mass as blood gushed into the skies-

“Marc!” Shining Armor was upon him in an instant, abandoning his position and running into the fray, dragging the screaming, blood-covered hunk of meat that had once been his friend. “I got you, I got you!”

Marc could not hear him, trapped within a storm of excruciating agony-

Shining Armor looked beyond him and saw Joel fall as a series of rounds made their mark- then Featherweight was struck in the chest, and Flash disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He had lost them all in the hurricane of fire and death-

A scream that rivaled the greatest of warriors burst from his lips and Shining Armor rose to his feet, firing blindly into the melee. A round struck him in the chest, then another- and more followed until he staggered to his knees, his armor cracked and he bleeding profusely onto the mountain rock-

Another roar and Shining Armor stood one last time, delivering one last bellow out against his foe-

The world exploded in fire. The Iron Guard scattered as a hailstorm of rockets and machine gun fire tore through their numbers with ease, the densely packed soldiers becoming easy targets. Shining Armor, his vision clouded by the sudden dust and pain, saw a series of aircraft soaring above him- friendly birds of war, a pair of them now hurriedly setting down before him. As he fell to his knees, he saw the figures of men rushing towards him and hands wrapped around his arms to pull him into the steel bird. He called to them, as though from a distance, to bring his men, do not forget his men. If anything was said to him, he could no longer hear it.

He was settled into the helicopter and Shining felt hands pressing against his chest. What were they doing? They were fighting, still fighting, just like he was still fighting. He must still fight for his soldiers, his brothers. He tried to lift his arm, but a weight had come upon him with such force that the effort was simply too much to bear. He fell to the floor in a heap, each breath a painful, unsteady rasp. He reached out for his soldiers as his vision clouded, his blood-stained hands grasping out-

A cold, weak hand met his and tried to hold on, but so faint was its strength that Shining knew it had to be Marc. He reached out again and held tight to his friend, urging him to hold on for just a moment longer- they would hold on together. But even has he reached, he could feel the weakness in his friend’s hand, and what little strength had been held began to quickly fade.

Shining Armor took another breath. Then another. And another. Each breath was a struggle, but he would fight on. He had to fight on. He would fight on, so his brothers would fight too. But the weight was so great, and so heavy was every breath that he wondered how long he could manage. He was tired, so tired. He had given everything he could hope to give, and more. He hoped that would be enough.

He closed his eyes.

Author's Notes:

May 13th, 3:00pm EST. The last chapter will be revealed... and the future for what comes next will be said, too.

Comments and corrections below. Enjoy.