This is what it's like to be Kate Shepard, right now:

Rain is tearing through the leaves of the high foliage that canopies the rusting, abandoned prefab unit where you're hiding. Your hands are sticky with blood - your little brother's - and the air around you simmers with dark energy. Rifle fire peppers in the periphery of your hearing, but your entire galaxy has narrowed to one fluid motion.

Up-down. Up-down. Up-down.

His name is Leo. Short for Leonard - fourth-born of seven. Guilt rips through your chest as a memory drifts to the forefront of your mind: your voice, light and teasing, trying to entice Leo out of his cool, air-conditioned schoolhouse to scour the forests with the rest of you.

"But there's bugs," he laments, even as he slides his well-worn computer into its protective case. "And dirt."

Leo always has clean fingernails and a neat school uniform, and gets into trouble for going over his water ration because of all his handwashing. Your school uniform is always rumpled, your hands have a permanent layer of dirt, and half of Mindoir's plant life is probably growing under your fingernails. You are as much a part of the forest as the trees.

"I'll protect you from all the scary bugs," you grin, motioning him forward. He's only fourteen, and hasn't hit his growth spurt yet, so you're still taller than he is. You sling your arm around his shoulders, and he gives you a dubious look. "And the scary dirt."

That was two hours ago. He would be appalled, now, to see the wide, dark stain spreading across his crisp blue school shirt. The four-eyed alien saw him first, and fired - you laminated the intruder to a nearby tree, blue fire lighting up the clearing - but not before it was too late.

You're perched on Leo's chest, folded hands compressing a heart that has long since stopped beating.

Deafening sound rattles the walls of the prefab unit; though whether or not it's thunder or an explosion, you don't know. It shakes you, though - draws attention to your brother's glassy eyes and fixed expression, and all of a sudden you slump back against the unit's wall, your long, wet hair clinging to your face as you shake for a single moment before scrambling to your feet. You can hear voices, over the rain - men shouting to each other, calling out over the storm. You can't hear what they're saying, but they're obviously looking for someone.

With a trembling hand, you reach over and close your brother's fixed eyes, the flickering blue corona crawling up your arm and enveloping your entire body. You stand, straightening your shoulders. There is steel deep within you; you take a deep breath, and embrace it.