AN: So sorry about the delay, I've been having some personal stuff going on that's been rough on my creativity levels :P Tell me what you think - I couldn't decide on a good way to set the barn off, despite the many fantastic suggestions, so I kind of left it ambiguous. Thanks - enjoy!

Roar

It could have been the lantern Mason left out after sitting up all night, thinking of Jade.

It could have been the tractor fuel Robbie spilled trying to impress Trina.

It could have been the book of matches Beck dropped while daydreaming about torching Mason.

It could have been a faulty wire in the electrical system, which Alexander the Great himself might've wired.

It could have been one of Laurie's cigarettes, forever smoldering in an overflowing ashtray.

It could have been the storm, the second one in so many days, brewing directly over the barn.

It could've been any of those things. It could have been all of those things. At the end of the day, all that really mattered was Bethany's scream at four a.m.

"FIRE! FIRE! HELP!"

Beck was the first out of bed and into his boots in his cabin, André right behind him and Robbie struggling to pull on jeans over his "nightie-night boxers". They didn't say a word to each other; André sprinted for the Big House, where Tori still slept in the infirmary, and Robbie bawled for Trina. Beck simply stared, trying to reconcile what his eyes were telling his brain with the idyllic farm of that afternoon.

The barn was on fire, great monsters of flame roaring through the roof and walls. Even as he watched one of the rafters tumbled inward with a great crash, punching through even more wall. It was a miracle it was still standing, although it was hard to make out through the great billowing sheets of black smoke.

Beck lunged forward – to do what, he wasn't sure – but a hand caught his shoulder. "Are y'all crazy?" Bethany shouted in his ear.

"The horses –"

"We let them all out before dark, remember? They're fine!"

She was crying – no, it was raining – no, both, tears spilling down her cheeks to mingle with the raindrops smeared across her face. By now the girls had spilled out of their cabin, wide-eyed and bushy-haired. Jade still had her jeans on, the hollows under her eyes worsened by the fire's shadowy light. Trina was shaking violently, her teeth chattering as if with cold. Her eyes skimmed over the group, unrecognizing, and then suddenly snapped back to focus on Robbie, by the far end of the cabin.

"Don't worry, baby, I'm coming!" he called heroically.

He ran to her. And tripped flat on his face two feet away.

Trina rolled her eyes. "My hero."

And she passed out cold on the ground.

André and Tori arrived, hand-in-hand, as Robbie struggled to his knees and attempted to revive her. "Where's Laurie?" Beck demanded as Tori stepped lightly over her sister's stomach.

"In the Big House, calling the fire department," André called over the inferno. "But this place is in the middle of nowhere, it might take a while."

"We should probably find somewhere a little safer –"

He was cut off by a scream of absolute agony.

Cat had arrived on the scene, eyes so huge the fire was clearly reflected in her eyes. Her mouth stretched wide as she screamed again, an almost animal sound of utter horror that rose over the snaps and crackles to echo off the surrounding hills. Before anyone could recover from such a hellish noise spilling from such a sweet creature, she was past Mason, past Tori, past Robbie, Bethany, and finally Beck himself to hurl herself into the open door of the barn, still screaming.

After that, one event blurred into the other.

"CAT!" Beck was running, sprinting after her like the fire was behind them and not before them, thinking of nothing but Cat choking on smoke, Cat hit on the head by a blazing shard of wood, Cat overcome by the heat and falling to the ground, helpless . . .

"BECK!" Jade bolted, but only made it two steps before jerking back, yelping as her shoulder and her arm tried to go two separate directions. "Let me GO!"

"No!" Mason's grip only tightened as she squirmed. She twisted around to tell him where she'd like him to go, but the burning steel in his eyes made her stop short. "I'm not gonna let you kill yourself!"

"But Beck –"

"I can't do much for him at this point and neither can you!" he said fiercely, jerking her chin up with his free hand so she met his eyes. "All I really care about now is you being safe!"

She felt tears stabbing at the corners of her eyes, but ignored them, looking up at him desperately.

"I said you were gonna have to choose," Mason said, just loud enough for her to hear. "Choose, Jade."

She spared one last look over her shoulder, after the boy who'd already disappeared after the girl he loved. And who loved him.

She collapsed abruptly, giving him just enough time to get his arms around her before her legs gave way. She buried her face in his shirt, hard enough to press the acrid smoke from her nostrils, the roaring and crackling from her ears. And Jade West sobbed.

...

Hell, Beck thought.

He wasn't swearing. That was the first impression he had, from the smell to the burning in his eyes and lungs to the red-orange light searing his eyes. He pulled his shirt up over his nose and mouth, praying Cat had thought to do the same. What was she doing, anyway? All the horses had been cleared out. She'd helped with that herself.

Except . . .

Oh, God.

Sure enough, he could see the petite figure just ahead of him, stumbling and coughing, calling out in a small, choked voice.

"Lakota! Lakota! Mommy's coming!"

Lakota. Gray Lady's newborn, left in a stall with her mommy for the night.

She had to be in the last stall, of course. The barn's main hallway was fifty, seventy-five feet long max, but for some reason it felt much longer. The fire had started in the roof just above the front entrance; miraculously, there were less flames as they went further, though just as much smoke. Beck's foot caught on something, and he fell. A bare hand brushed something metal, and skin blistered and charred as he screamed.

"Beck!" For the first time the shape ahead of him slowed, hovering between his howl of anguish and the faintest shrieks of a panicking horse.

"Come on, keep moving!" He scrambled to his feet, clenching his fist against his chest. There was no point in stopping or turning around at this point. There was another exit in back, they just had to get to it without getting burned alive.

Cat, somehow, had managed to make it to the stall. Beck watched through streaming eyes as she reached out, then recoiled with a cry of pain, waving her hand crazily. A final jolt of adrenaline hit Beck's veins, and he was beside her in an instant.

"Don't touch it, the metal hurts!" Cat shouted, but Beck was far ahead of her. He came around to the front of the latch and kicked out with all his strength. The first kick it wobbled, the second kick it groaned, and by the third the heat-weakened metal snapped cleanly along the doorframe. The door swung open, and Cat was knocked to the ground as the near-crazed mare barreled out, determined to save her foal or die trying. She reared at the fire, as if attempting to distract it as Lakota galloped out the open back door, and then thundered into the open pasture and the hopeful shelter the far-off trees offered.

There was no time to check for injuries. Beck grabbed the scruff of Cat's neck and slung her over his shoulder in the same movement, charging for the door. The barn shuddered and groaned as he passed over the threshold, as if it's only reason for holding up had just left. Slowly, painfully, the entire front end of the barn crumbled to the ground, still burning, but less furiously. The battle was lost; it was only a matter of time before the rest of it followed suit. But Beck and Cat were clear, splayed out where Beck had fallen on the mercifully cool dirt road from the barn to the pasture. She stirred in his arms, just enough to face the sky, clotted with smoke but with a few brave stars still visible, and he sucked in enough clean air to shout to the others "WE'RE CLEAR!"

And then they both went completely limp, utterly spent, gasping as if to purge any last trace of smoke from their lungs. They stayed like that, tangled up in each other, heads tilted just enough to meet each other's eyes, until the firefighters found them and dragged them over to the trucks for shock treatment. They endured the questions and the medical once-over patiently, and then as soon as the EMTs turned their backs they were over by their friends, his arms wrapped around her from behind, staring at the smoldering wreckage of the barn in the steely light of dawn.

"Look," Cat said softly, her head bumping Beck's chin gently as she lifted her gaze to the sky.

Later they'd all spoken briefly to agree that none of them had ever seen a rainbow quite that bright.