A/N: Unable to finish the story this weekend :(. But I'm gonna try to write over the course of the week. Maybe I'll finish it by next Sunday. But for now, enjoy Chapter 12. I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE TITLES LISTED HERE. I just enjoy them.

Chapter 12: Firepower

Makie stared into the black, charred section of the forest with a blank stare, and a terrified face. Leon released her as she tried walked into the area.

"He..... He couldn't have died....." She said. She fell to her knees, and began crying. Her tears poured down her cheeks, and blurred her vision. She didn't know what to do. "He promised me nothing would happen...." She thought. She buried her head in her hands, and cried more as she thought harder about what just happened. "No, no, no, nooo. What should I do? WHAT SHOULD I DO? Where could he be?He isn't really dead, this isn't really happening. Wh.... Why isn't he here? How could he have died? That fire never happened. I'm.... NOOOOOOOOO!" Her mind was spinning. Her head was pulsing. Her vision was blurred, she was confused, and scared. She couldn't believe what happened. It seemed impossible. "He..... promised......" She whispered.

She heard a rustle. She looked up, her vision still blurry, to see small movements. Ashes were falling off an object. At first, the object was unclear. Then, it was starting to become clearer. It was a person. A man. Anthony had survived, somehow. He got up slowly, staggering. He held his head, as if he was dizzy.

"Damn, that uses up way too much energy...." He said. He looked around, and saw Leon and Chief standing up and staring at him. Leon in utter shock, and Chief probably had the same or a similar face, but Anthony was only guessing based on him taking a step back and raising his arms, as if he was looking at a ghost. He looked around, and saw Makie on the ground, on her knees, face covered in tears. She slowly got up staggering, still staring at Anthony. She started walking to him, slowly at first, then faster as she got closer until she was at a full on sprint. She held out her arms as she was right in front of him and jumped at him as she screamed.

"YOU FUCKING PROMISED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She landed on him in a hug, and he fell back. She continued to cry as he recovered from the tackle he received. It didn't hurt, but the fact that she thought he was dead saddened him. He hugged her back in an attempt to comfort her. "Say it again...." She whispered as she cried silently. He stopped, trying to figure out what she meant. "Please, just say it once." Anthony sighed.

"I will never let anything bad happen to you." She looked up at his face, into his eyes.

"Then don't die on me." She said, tears still in her eyes. Anthony relaxed. He picked up his hand, and wiped the remaining tears off her eyes.

"Me? Die? Really, Makie...." he said as he smiled. She smiled back, and hugged him tight. Leon and Chief walked over to them. Leon was concerned.

"Now we need to know what the hell you are. But once again, we have to move." Leon said. He offered his hand, Anthony grabbed it, and pulled both him and Makie up. Anthony looked at Leon and smiled.

"Your anxiety's killin you, eh?" He said sarcastically. Leon smiled back. Anthony walked away, and Makie followed, with Chief behind. Leon chuckled to himself first.

"Let's hope it doesn't" He turned, and followed behind Chief.

The team of 4 had followed a trail for about 4 hours. It was starting to get dark as the nearby star started it's descent. They hadn't slept for quite a while. They were far enough away from the base to set up camp for the night without being detected. Chief was at the head of the pack. He turned to everyone, and gave everyone the OK to settle. Makie sat down quickly and sighed in relief as her body rested.

"I'll get wood for the fire" Anthony volunteered.

"I'll come." Makie said as she started to get up. Anthony laid his hand on her head to stop her.

"No, it's fine. Stay here and rest" Anthony turned around and walked into the dense woods. Makie sat back down, and looked at Leon. He looked at her, and smiled slightly.

"It's surprising that we're the only one's left." Leon said to her.

"Yea." She looked down, sadly. Remembering Nathan. Leon caught himself as he realized it was making her depressed.

"I wonder what we could possibly say to the higher ups to make our situation look good." Leon asked out loud as he looked down. Makie looked back at him.

"What do you mean?" Leon looked back at her.

"Well, not only did we lose almost our entire team, and find out that the general was actually working for the covenant, but we also lost him." Leon said. "I don't know what we could possibly say to make things look even remotely good for us."

"Well, what about that whole thing with Nathan? He sent the entire covenant database to HQ." Makie stated.

"Not quite. That was just one base. It seemed like a fairly large base, but I don't think that even the largest base has EVERYTHING in the covenant's database. We'd be lucky to get anything useful out of that batch of information." Makie looked down, sad. This world was anything but fair. For someone to give up their life to help their comrades, only for it to dubbed useless.

"It's just stupid. This meaningless fighting." She thought. Anthony came out from behind the trees, holding two armfuls of wood. Leon looked at him, and smiled as he walked towards him.

"Let me give you a hand." He said as he took some of the wood in Anthony's arm. They both walked to the center of the camp, and Leon began to make a fire. Anthony looked at Chief, who was inspecting the area.

"Maybe a little paranoid, but probably needed about now." He thought. Anthony tuned to Makie, and sat next to her. They both looked at Leon. He had already gotten a small fire started, and was working on spreading it to the wood. It was catching well. Leon sat back, and looked at Anthony.

"You know what I'm gonna ask you, and all of us want to know." He said with curiosity. Chief joined them, and sat down. Anthony looked at Chief, and sighed. He looked back at Leon, and then down. He looked back up at Leon. "I don't really want to say, mostly because I don't understand it all myself. But you guys deserve an explanation. And no excuse can cover up what happened." Anthony began to explain. "I don't know why, honestly. But, for a while I have been able to control fire and anything pertaining to a fire- like substance...." He said. Leon looked at him, both intrigued and dumbfounded.

"How in the hell?" Chief asked. "That's impossible. Nobody can CONTROL fire...." He complained.

"Like I said, I don't understand it myself. I have no idea why. But the things you've seen are undeniable."

"If that's the case, what can you do with that?" Leon pointed to the fire he just started.

"Quite a bit, actually." Anthony said. Anthony lifted his arm slightly, and extended his fingers. The flames of the fire began to move rapidly, then stopped altogether. Then they began to move again, but the flames themselves were beginning to float midair. Then the fire began to get smaller and smaller, until only a small spark remained. Everyone stared at the flames the entire time. Then, the fire began to get bigger until it returned to the size it was before Anthony began to move it. Then, it was lowered back onto the wood.

"I could do a lot more, make a fire ball, turn it into lava, make it disappear and reappear inside something like a tree or inside someone. I can do a lot, but not things that would prove to be useful now." Leon looked into Anthony's eyes. He didn't exactly know what to say, there wasn't much to move in on. Chief was the first to break the silence.

"How long have you been able to do stuff like this?" He asked.

"I noticed small things when I was a kid. One time, a lighter blew up in my friend's hand, and the flames that doused his hand just disappeared when I got close. He had absolutely no scarring. I didn't know what that was about. That was the first time anything happened. I was around 8 or 9. When I was 14, I was camping with my family. I was to get the fire started. I gathered the wood together, and stacked them up, and got everything ready. Then, I lit the match, and looked at the fire, and then at the wood. Then the flames darted to the wood, and lit up like fireworks. That's when I started thinking I was doing those kinds of things. Then I started practicing, and eventually, I could control it at will." Anthony explained.

"I see." Leon said. "Well, I guess there isn't much to talk about, then. We should get some rest. We don't HAVE to move anytime soon. But, stay on your guard. We may still be watched." Leon looked around, into the darkness of the forest. Everyone nodded, and began to take their time to rest. Anthony laid down, and looked at Makie.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Makie asked.

"I didn't think that I would ever need to use it."Anthony said.

"You still should have told me."

"When exactly would I have brought it up? 'Hi, my name is Anthony, I like cats, my favorite color is blue, and, oh, I almost forgot, I can summon and control any fire like substance.' Not exactly subtle or anything...." Anthony said sarcastically. Makie chuckled, looking down.

"Heh, true." She looked up to Anthony, who had obviously closed the distance between them. "Hey! Whaddaya tryin' to be smooth?" Anthony brightened up.

"I'm sorry, should I have not?" He asked. Makie smiled.

"If you wanted a kiss, just take it." Makie grabbed the back of his neck, and pulled it close to her. The kiss was short lived, but they both enjoyed it. Anthony looked into Makie's eyes, and held her tight. The two found it easy to sleep with each other's warmth.

A/N: Alright, well, I'm not gonna lie or deny it, but this chapter was only focusing on Anthony's explanation. It was only meant for that, but it needed to be longer. I was originally going to include the next chapter in it, but I thought this was a good way to end it. It wasn't hard to write, not nearly as bad as last chapter, but hard to make it stretch like I did (Obviously, I wasted a bunch of space just talking about starting a fire and gathering wood!). So, review if you enjoyed (That means you, aurion23! No, just kidding :P) and I hope to get another chapter up soon!.