My plane surged forth into the chaos.

As I drew closer and closer to danger, I couldn't help but imagine what I looked like from an outside perspective. A white plane in the middle of a black sky - the symbol of the iron cross painted proudly across each wing. A tiny body sitting in the cockpit.

The brown hair whipped back by the wind. The bulky black goggles on my face. The stiffness of every joint in my body.

Do I look like I belong here?

Surely not.

But does anyone look like they belong in the midst of war?

I looked down at the black leather gloves on my hands. My surgical gloves were tucked away in the medical bag by my feet.

I wanted to be a biologist.

Did I remember that?

I took a breath and looked back up just in time to catch a glimpse of Tanya's figure in the midst of the madness. A lot of the battle had been nearly instantaneous. Not many of the enemies remained, but there was one that seemed to be in close combat with Tanya.

She knocked the rifle out of his hand and he retreated slightly. Her bayonet swiped across him in a straight line and - I think - cut the hand that he held up to shield the blow. The enemy soldier took advantage of the inertia of her swing and grabbed the barrel of her gun in his hands. His strength overpowered hers and ripped it away.

I bit my lip and tipped the nose of my plane downward, straining the accelerator to its limit. I wasn't sure what I was going to do exactly, but I had to help her somehow.

I watched these events continue to unfold as I approached. The one soldier had such fury to his glowing eyes - an expression so powerful, only Tanya would be capable of rivalling it. Soon, I was close enough to see that she was holding her knife, slashing at him cautiously. They flew around each other in a game of bluffs and fast thinking. He had the longer blade - her bayonet - not to mention her rifle itself.

"TAN-YAAA!" I screamed. She glared up as she pulled her body away from him, avoiding another slash. I hoped she would understand what I was trying to do. If she could jump on my plane at the right time -

She glanced up at me and yelled something. "YOUR-" But I couldn't understand the rest. The rain drowned it all out. I passed by - close enough for her to have taken the opportunity - but she didn't. She didn't want to back down from the fight.

"-GUN! YOUR G-" A roll of thunder boomed, but I got the picture. I passed overhead again and hoped to God she would see it falling. Without so much more to secure my success than fear of failure, I chuckled my rifle into the air, sending it flying down toward Tanya and the enemy soldier.

My aim hadn't been perfect. She had to turn around and fly a second to catch it, putting her back to her opponent. He followed fast behind her.

I could see it all playing out like slow-motion. She knew that gun was her best bet, knew there were no better options, knew that if only I'd just thrown a little better-

BOOM!

Her body jerked in mid-air. I panned my gaze back in horror toward the enemy mage. Her rifle was raised up on his shoulder, and he was glaring down the sights. That wasn't the only shot he took, either. He shot again, again, again, again.

Tanya dodged most of the others, one more hitting her in - well, I couldn't tell where. There was so much going on, and it was too far away.

Wait, there was one positive thing. However precariously she'd grabbed it, the barrel just barely dangling between three of her fingers, Tanya had caught my rifle. She turned as she hoisted it up on her shoulder, all in one fluid movement, and shot him at first opportunity. The mage took a hit, then another, and another. She was a better shot than him. A true goddess with a gun. If only I'd thrown it to her better.

My face seemed to have frozen in some sort of grimace of horror. I was too shocked to react in any other way. I didn't even call anything out to her. Just tipped my plane down one more time to see if she would finally take the invitation for a ride. There were still a few enemies to be taken care of, sure, but Tanya was twice wounded.

I outstretched a hand to her, and to my relief, she grabbed onto it. I pulled her up into the cockpit with me just as a bolt of lightning lit up the sky. It gave me a split second to see the blood seeping through her already-soaked jumpsuit. One hole near her pelvis, another...it was right about in the center of her torso. She opened her mouth and said something to me, but it was too soft over the sound of the storm. I sat her down in the passenger seat.

"I'm going to land this plane!" I yelled. "You understand?"

Tanya shook her head. "I'm not done-"

"Oh God." A rush of blood came gushing forth as I unzipped her jacket. The equipment strapped to her waist was blocking me from getting very close to the other wound. I set the plane steering to straight forward and reached into my medical bag, changing out my gloves as fast as I could. I turned back toward Tanya with a roll of gauze. It was so frustrating - every time I unrolled a strip, it would fold over on itself and stick together in the rain.

"Lillia, stop-"

"Hell no!" I struggled to wrap it around her, straight over her clothes, just for the sake of getting some pressure on the wound. I pulled it around as tight as I could, but it was a half-assed job.

I blamed so many things at once as the rain poured down around us. The system, the man who shot the bullets, the war, the Empire, the quality of my training, myself... But all of my anger did nothing. It didn't open Tanya's eyes any wider when they began to struggle to stay open.

"Lillia... I've seen that man before...in my training...the ambush."

I only half-listened to her. She began to speak again, but a mouthful of blood came spilling forth instead. It got all over my jumpsuit and hers. "Tanya... Fuck. Stay with me, Tanya."

She nodded slowly, but her computation jewel stopped glowing, and so did her eyes. From what little knowledge I'd picked up around the battalion, a lack of magic flow meant one of two things: she was either out of energy, or out of consciousness.

If I wanted to save her, I needed to get down to camp. Now.

Then.

I began to feel it. My whole body turned a thousand times colder than the rain could ever make me feel.

A sort of...static, to the air. What was my plane made of again? Metal?

"No." I grabbed Tanya by the shoulders. What was I going to do?

My hair stood on end. There was a certain unnerving sizzle to the rainy air.

Seconds. There were seconds to act. I had to go.

Click. Click. Click.

As if the air were tsking its tongue at me. As if it thought I was helpless. As if the same tragedy would happen to me twice. As if "God" would never allow me a happy ending.

I decided to defy him.

Standing up, I used every bit of strength I could muster and lifted Tanya's body in my arms. With that, I turned myself against the edge of the cockpit, leaned backward, and let us freefall out.

I faced the sky as we fell. The air lit up with white-hot energy and, like the sound of a thousand guns firing at once, my little airplane exploded into a deafening burst of electricity and fire.

As the flash dissipated, I could just barely make out the bolt of lightning that hit it. My vision was muted by the brightness, but I was pretty sure Tanya turned her face down into my shoulder. She held on as tight as she could.