We were young, and we were insane. That's how we got into this mess.

My stupid brother thought it was a good idea for our puny little group of wannabe heroes to go to war with the government. Become a resistance force, if you can believe it.

In that moment, I swear I hated Snow Villiers.

"What do we always say, guys?" he called out to Maqui and Yuj.

"The army's no match for NORA!" they replied, striking a pose. Behind them, Lebreau giggled at their antics.

I groaned against the fallen pipe. "Dammit, Snow, why do you hafta keep telling them that?"

"Oh, calm down, Remus," my idiot brother slammed his hand on my back. "It's true, ain't it?" He grinned.

"I hate you."

There was a barrage of gunfire from the opposite side of the runway. PSICOM was really hitting us hard.

"Damn PSICOM," I heard Gadot murmur.

"If you don't like it, you can still go home," Lebreau told him.

Snow broke cover and ran at the PSICOM troops, his fists raised.

"Dammit, Snow!" I shouted, drawing my twin swords and rushing after him.

There was the sound of scuffling feet behind me. Gadot and Lebreau had followed me.

"Good to know I won't die alone," I said pessimistically.

Lebreau smacked me on the back of the head. "Don't be a downer, Remus."

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't see anything to be uppity about, Lebreau. Do you?"

She scoffed, her gaze flicking briefly to Gadot. It wasn't long, but it was enough for me to realise.

"Oh, I get it." I smiled for the first time since we arrived.

Lebreau blushed (which was totally out of character).

PSICOM opened fire on Snow again, who dodged the bullets even as he marched towards the soldiers, landing punches to take them down.

Gadot roared his defiance and ran towards the PSICOM troops, his gun flaring. Meanwhile, Lebreau was strutting (literally) with her gun resting on her shoulder. Every once in a while she would lower it and fire.

"Cover me!" I shouted at them.

Gadot complied immediately, his gun working overtime. I dashed past him and stood side-by-side with Snow, who was clenching his fists.

"The usual?" he asked me, grinning.

"I still hate you, but yes," was my reply.

He roared and ran towards the soldiers, landing punch after punch.

I leapt over him and flailed with my swords, cutting down troops as I fell. Any who were distracted by me were immediately felled by Snow.

When I landed, Snow grinned at me. I couldn't help but grin back.


Gadot, Lebreau, Maqui and Yuj walked towards the people who'd been on the most recent Purge train.

Snow followed them. "Everyone OK?"

The crowd did not respond.

I moved forward and smiled kindly at them, particularly at some small figures in the 'uniforms' of the Purge. "Listen, no matter what happens, we'll keep you safe, and…"

A bearded man interrupted me. "We wanna fight too!"

"You can't expect us to just sit here!" another man added.

I looked hesitantly at Snow.

"Please! Let us help!" the first man pleaded.

"Could help," Gadot murmured.

Snow nodded slightly. "Okay. Volunteers front and centre."

Maqui and Yuj started handing out weapons they'd picked up from fallen members of PSICOM.

I turned to see a commotion in the crowd. A woman with grey hair was standing up, despite protests from her son. "Mom?" he murmured.

"It's okay," she assured him. She stepped forward and picked up one of the last guns.

I eyed her seriously. "You're sure?"

She cocked the gun and gave me her own serious look. "Yeah. Moms are tough."

Snow picked up the last gun and held it up in front of the crowd. "Okay, who wants it?" He held it out to the boy.

"No-no-no-no," he stuttered, backing away.

A girl in the Purge robes got up onto her knees, her arms out. "Here!" she said in an odd accent. It wasn't one I'd heard before.

Snow handed the gun to her. "If worst comes to worst, keep 'em safe," he told her.

She tossed it around in her hands before pointing it at Snow. She said, "Bang!" childishly; Snow made some show of being hit by the imaginary bullet.

I chuckled and put my hand on his shoulder. "You're all talk, you know that?"

Snow grinned and punched the air. "We're going home together!"

The group looked puzzled.

"Come on!" Lebreau told them. "Everybody up!"

Gadot started running in the opposite direction. "New recruits, on me!"

"Lebreau, stay with them," I said to her.

"But…"

"Please?"

She laughed and acquiesced.

I gave her a sardonic salute, shifting the swords on my back in doing so, and ran after my brother.


We waded through the waves of PSICOM, the Purge recruits covering us. The sneering voice of the Primarch continued to spout nonsense about the Purge being for the better of Cocoon. We all knew that was complete bullshit. Especially Snow.

A small air unit started to hover near the roadway; on top of it was a monster. But not just any monster. It leaped down onto the roadway, blocking the path of myself, Gadot and Snow. It roared, a sound that instilled fear in many hearts.

"Shit!" Gadot shouted. "It's a Behemoth!"

"Worse," I said glumly. "It's a PSICOM-altered one. Cyborg."

Snow grinned. "Heroes never back down from a fight."

"Yeah, but we're not heroes," I disagreed.

Gadot laughed. "Yeah we are."

"Don't egg him on!"

The Behemoth charged at us and we dodged.

"Look, we can fight each other when this is over," Snow told us. He ran forward and landed a hammer blow on the monster's tail.

The Behemoth roared and flicked its tail. Snow was thrown into a pile of boxes.

"Gadot, cover fire!" I shouted.

He dropped to his knee and started pummelling the Behemoth with bullets. While he did that, I ran up its tail and tried stabbing it in a gap between its armour. All that did was make it mad.

"Oh, way to go, Remus!" Gadot shouted sarcastically.

"Just shut up and shoot it!" I roared, clinging onto my swords for dear life.

The Behemoth thrashed again and my swords came free; I was thrown to the ground.

The Behemoth suddenly soared into the air. Backwards.

Snow had delivered a sharp uppercut to the Behemoth, sending it reeling.

The monster landed on its back. "Remus! Gadot! Now!" my brother roared.

We nodded and leapt up to the Behemoth's exposed underbelly. Gadot shot it while I plunged my swords into it.

The Behemoth's roar cut off in a horrid gurgling; its struggles ended as it died.

I jumped off and put my swords onto my back, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Uh-oh," Gadot said then.

"Now what?" I asked him, exasperated. I turned around to see a flying mech priming a weapon to fire at us.

Snow started running towards a nearby rocket launcher. He dove at it, but missed.

The rocket careened into the mech, destroying it. We all turned.

The woman from before, the grey-haired mother from the Purge train, smiled and lowered the weapon. "I told you. Moms are tough."

I helped Snow up; an explosion suddenly roared nearby. The roadway had been sabotaged.

The mother gasped as a piece of shrapnel became embedded in her back.

"No!" I roared. A metal shard scratched my arm, ripping a hole in my black jacket. I cried out in pain.

The woman collapsed onto Snow, her breaths shallow. Suddenly the roadway began to separate and collapse.

I fell and began sliding towards the edge. My gloved hands gripped onto the now-exposed wires to stop myself from falling.

Nearby, Snow was clinging to the roadway with one hand; the other contained the hand of the brave mother. She looked up at him with tired eyes. "Get him…home…please…"

"Just hang in there," Snow said hoarsely.

Her grip went slack and she slipped from his hands.

"NO!" Snow shouted in anguish, his hand clawing for her.

His grip on the roadway began to slip. He screamed as he fell.

"SNOW!" I roared, my own grip slipping.

I let out my own yell of fear as I fell into the blackness.