A/N: Okay, had some minor troubles working on this, but they're all over now, thank God. Anyways, here it is. You know the drill, so let me know what I need to in order to make this better.

Chapter 25

I involuntarily grabbed Sara tighter as I stared up into the sky, wishing with every fiber of my being that I was merely hallucinating the massive battle station that loomed overhead the tiny village of Zari-Bars. The sand swirled around us, covering us all in its deadly and menacing promise of destruction. Sara stiffened as she pushed herself over to me and she shook violently, undergoing memories better left to never recall again. I just wanted to talk to her, to say something encouraging, but I knew that I would just be lying.

However, just as Sara moved over to me, she noticed the limp form of Sis that was still hanging from the ropes that bound her to the double pieces of wood that stood fifteen feet away from her broken body. She let go of me and rushed over to her, holding her intently, and staring off into the sky with fear all over her normally calm face. I leapt over to her to make sure that I knew that she was by me at all times, something that really isn't as heroic as I make it sound. I'm amazed to this day that we didn't just start to panic and give up there. Some strange feeling kept us from falling into despair. I'd like to chalk it up to hope, but it was as far from it as possible.

Shu was holding Lala-Ru from behind her as he gazed up at Hellywood, with the telltale look of shock on his face. I don't think any of us could have been prepared for what we were all witnessing, but I sure wish we could have. It had been bad enough just knowing that they were coming, but worse still to know that everything we had done to save ourselves from them had dissipated the moment that hulking abomination came over the village. Helplessness is a feeling no human being should ever experience.

However, none of that compared to hearing the voice of the one man that I had solemnly wished never to see or be near again. It was a triumphant voice, one that told us all that there was no hope and that we were as good as dead.

"Traitors of Zari-Bars!" the self-proclaimed King Hamdo cried out from his battle station, safe from engaging us openly. "Listen up! You are all guilty of conspiring to commit treason and deserve death! And I shall deliver it to you! Atone for your sins!"

There was a slight pause, one long enough for me to bemoan the fact that there was nowhere for us to run away. We had effectively sealed ourselves in the valley that made up Zari-Bars.

"My name is Hamdo," he continued, "the ruler of the Earth!"

The connection cut off from there, and Hellywood descended to the ground, and the shockwaves cost the majority of the people watching to lose their balance.

How can they be doing this? I asked myself, still clutching Sara, who in turn kept holding onto Sis. It was a wreck when we left it! What happened that allowed Hamdo the ability to give life to Hellywood?

I didn't know it at the time, but I was later told of how Shu and Lala-Ru had both indirectly caused this rejuvenation of Hellywood when they escaped from Hamdo. Lala-Ru had used her pendant there, thus providing Hamdo with more than enough water to use the battle station to its full potential.

But that didn't matter; none of that mattered anymore. Hellywood was there, and we were going to suffer the consequences. It lowered itself closer to the ground, blotting out the crimson sun that I had come to get used to. Shadows permeated the area, causing darkness to ruin our vision, but what little sight we had left was more than enough to go and talk about the horrors that happened afterward.

The moment Hellywood collided with the rocky walls that normally protected Zari-Bars from invaders it caused them to collapse upon themselves, leading the way for vast amounts of rubble to come slamming down onto us and killing hundreds instantly. Both Sara and me grabbed each other even tighter than before, as I tried to locate Shu, Soon, and Lala-Ru, but to no avail. The populace screamed as they tried to flee from the destruction before them, most of them able to get away from the boulders that rained down from the heavens, but not all were as lucky.

A massive dust cloud entered the center of the area we were at, covering us in a brown mist that forced me to close my eyes to prevent it from ruining them. Everyone there coughed as the dust filled their lungs, and I spat out a nasty combination of the dust, phlegm, and my own blood. As the dust cleared, I looked up once more at Hellywood, and feared for my life.

"Attack!" Hamdo's voice thundered over the loudspeakers. "Kill anybody that moves! Destroy everything in sight! Kill! Kill! KILL!"

Doors opened from the bottom of Hellywood, issuing forth the limitless multitude of Hamdo's forces, which consisted of his regular foot soldiers, the snakelike mechas that had taken Sara and me away from home, and other monstrosities I can barely begin to try and describe, let alone wish to remember.

"No!" I cried out in horror. "No! No! No! No!"

Soldiers came down from grapples, killing any in their path, while mechas with flamethrowers disintegrated anyone in the homes they investigated. Zari-Bars had just become a slaughterhouse, and we were the cattle.

But then I saw something that only could have happened because of me: Soldiers from different divisions attacked civilians with strange devices that struck them, shook them violently, and then killed them.

Tasers.

I had designed those…and now they were killing people.

"No!" I shouted again. "Oh God, no!"

I heard Elamba yell out an expletive from near us, but I didn't care about him; I didn't care about him at all.

Kazam, I thought, this is all your fault! You led them right to us! We were safe!

It became apparent to me later on that I wasn't holding on to anyone, and I looked around frantically for Sara, who had taken Sis from her bonds and placed her to the side, away from all the carnage. Jumping off the platform I was on, I made my way to her, making sure no bullets or tasers were headed in my path the entire time. I dove into the dirt and ended up by Sara's side, as she checked Sis over. Shu, Soon, and Lala-Ru all sat by Sis, looking at her with concern on their faces. Even with all the carnage going on around them, they at least understood the value of looking out for those you cared about.

"Sis!" Sara whimpered. "Sis!"

Sis opened her eyes and looked at Sara, but suddenly got up as she gasped.

"You shouldn't strain yourself!" Sara declared.

"Oh God," Sis said. "Look at the village. Oh God." She paused for a moment, lying in Sara's arms. "The kids!" she suddenly shouted out.

"Sis!"

"Calm down, Sis!" I shouted, trying to prevent her from wounding herself more so than she already had. "Lie back down!"

"Somebody's got to help them!" Sis cried out, tears filling her eyes.

It says a lot about a person when they could really not give a damn about their own problems, and instead worry about those they care for. I wish I could be that selfless.

"I'll go get them!" Shu announced, standing up.

"Not alone, you're not!" I shouted, also standing up with him. "You're taking me with you!" I turned to Sara. "Keep them here, Sara! We might still have a chance to get out of this mess! If someone pulls a gun on you, then don't act like you're going to attack them! I'll come back for you as soon as I can!"

"Hurry, Matt!" Sara yelled. "We're losing time!"

"Right! Come on, Shu!"

With the only weapons on hand being a shinai and our fists and brains, Shu and I started our foolhardy decision to enter the senseless bloodbath, looking for children that I still could not remember the names of, but I'll be damned if I was going to let them get killed and slaughtered without at least trying to reach them in time. Little did we know that someone else had followed us, sealing her fate in the process.

We ran through the carnage, stepping over dead bodies that had once been people who'd only wanted the chance to live in a barren world. I hated everything about what was happening…the violence, the dying moans of innocent civilians, the fact that I had some part in some of their deaths, and the likelihood that we would most likely never see another day on this planet. There was no rational thing for me to do.

So I did the irrational: I prayed. I prayed for deliverance, for some way out of this predicament that kept us safe, and for help to rid me of my doubts.

I haven't gone on this long to die out here, Lord, I said to Him. And I sure as hell haven't gone this long to just have everyone I love die, so please help me…help all of us out of this mess. I need Your help…because I can't do this on my own. Please help me.

Shu and I entered the remnants of what had once been Sis's home. Providentially, it was intact enough to allow us the chance to get inside without trouble. Shu entered first, but I was close behind him, ready to do whatever it took to save those kids.

"Hello!" Shu shouted through the emptiness.

"Kids!" I cried out. "It's Shu and Matt, come on out!"

"You guys!"

Shu reached the storage room door first and opened it, revealing the children that Sis and I had left behind to keep them safe earlier from Elamba, but now it seemed that all of that had been for nothing. They were all crying and whimpering in the darkness of the storage room, afraid that the person who was opening the door would be the one who would end up shooting them and ending their lives.

"Is everybody alright?" Shu asked.

"It's okay, guys, we're here to help you," I said, offering a weak smile.

"It's Shu!" one of the smaller kids shouted, rushing forward to meet him.

"And Matt!" another announced, heading for me.

This time my smile was genuine. At the very least these kids were alive.

"Whoa, hey," Shu said as they pushed us out of the door.

But the moment we got past it, a gunshot that almost hit me in the head ran itself into the door, causing us all to flinch.

"Freeze!" ordered a voice I had heard before, many months ago.

Shu and I turned over to the doorway, finding—to my utter surprise—that both Nabuca and Boo were staring back at us. Nabuca had his gun aimed at me, a fierce look of defiance on his face, while Boo meekly stood by him with his own weapon, which still looked childish in his small arms.

"Shu!" Boo proclaimed, and then looked at me, a well-deserved shudder along with it. "Matt!"

Nabuca lowered his rifle for a moment, staring at us, as Shu and I created a body shield around the little ones, hoping to take the full brunt of any shots Nabuca might let out in anger. I didn't know that Shu, Boo, and Nabuca all had a history together serving in the same unit, there hadn't been time to ask those questions, but I could sense that there was something about Shu that made Nabuca hesitate.

A massive silence followed. Nabuca and Boo stared at us, while Shu and I kept on defending the children. But, as what must happen, the silence was broken.

"Get away from them!" Nabuca ordered, aiming the rifle once more at us. "It's an order; I'll kill them!"

"What?" Shu asked. "Have you lost it? They're just kids!"

"We can work something out here, Nabuca!" I said, holding one hand out. "We don't have to do this!"

"That doesn't matter!" Nabuca thundered. "We can go home as soon as we destroy this place!" He turned his head toward Boo, saying, "Watch him, Boo."

Nabuca looked at us once more, while my eyes turned to Boo. He had his eyes shut, and seemed to be suffering from some sort of aneurysm. What was going on inside his head?

"What are you doing?" Nabuca demanded of him.

Boo didn't answer him. He opened his eyes and dropped his gun on the floor, giving off a triumphant grunt.

"No more," Boo said. "It doesn't matter if we go home or not. We'll pay for this until we die!"

"Pick up your gun!" Nabuca roared.

"No!"

Nabuca huffed. "If you don't want to kill, I will! This village sent those assassins! All conspirators must be executed!"

"Nabuca!" Shu shouted. "Think about what you're doing!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" He paused. "If I don't kill, I can't go back to my village! I killed the intruders, and I killed the assassins! I killed them all! What's so wrong about that? Only killing can stop the war! The battle never ends until one side is wiped out! I've killed enemy soldiers! I've killed assassins! I've always killed! What's one more?"

I gazed at the finger Nabuca held at the trigger, and watched as it twitched. For all his talk he was still not being true with himself. Either way it didn't look good for any of us. Someone was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it.

"Move!" Nabuca ordered.

My eyes flashed over to Boo, who seemed to notice something or someone who was outside of the house. He mouthed something and his eyes widened in response to the unknown threat. I peered in that direction, finding Soon holding the rifle that Sis owned, and she was pointing it at Nabuca's back.

Where did she come from? I asked myself, just as everything began to fall apart.

"Nabuca!" Boo squealed, jumping out in front of him to take the shot for his best friend.

It happened so suddenly, that I wasn't even sure it had happened. Soon shot the rifle and hit Boo in the body, stealing his voice from him. I tried to shout out something to Soon, but my voice failed me as well, just as Soon reloaded the rifle and began to try to take out Nabuca once more. She aimed the rifle at him to end his life, just as Nabuca realized what was going on, and, in a panic, turned around and fired off the shot that would kill Soon, who accidentally fired her bullet off target, ending with it hitting a water jar in Sis's house, while Shu and I stared at the scene in horror.

They say that the worst moments of your life always happen in slow motion, and I tend to agree with them. In real time I'd say maybe five or six seconds had gone by from the moment Boo jumped out in front of Nabuca to the time Soon died, but to me…they all felt like eternity. I'd never been able to fully apologize to Boo for what I'd done to him that day with the first taser, and now I never will in this world, and maybe not even the next, because I have no idea what Boo believed in. Do children get a free pass for not being old enough to know these things? Did God have mercy on them? I don't know the answers…only the questions. I never will know the answers in this life. I wish I did.

Blood began to form pools alongside the bodies of both Boo and Soon. Then it hit me: They were both dead. Why was this happening?

Nabuca took two steps back, shocked from the senselessness of what had just occurred in front of us. "Boo?" he asked, pathetically, as if expecting the corpse to just be some massive prank, and for Boo to still be alive.

I was speechless, so unable to collect myself that I wasn't even thinking straight. I just looked out at the bodies and stared at them blankly.

"Soon," Shu said, horrified.

I looked over at him, regaining some of my senses, and cringed as I saw Shu's face lose its normality. Even when he was stressed Shu looked easygoing and carefree, but back then, something had taken a hold of him that temporarily destroyed the face that I was used to. It started simply as mild twitching, but soon developed into a full-fledged show of anger.

"NABUCA!" Shu roared in a voice not his own.

Before I could stop him, Shu leapt away from the kids, grabbed the rifle from the floor, and pointed at Nabuca, while his countenance displayed the unbridled fury that had lain dormant for so long in his life. Shu pulled the trigger and a bullet launched itself from the rifle, yet didn't hit anyone in the room to my surprise. Instead it had impacted the ground right in front of Nabuca, who was just as shocked as I was that he was still alive. We both looked at Shu, who was drooping his entire body and panting from the decision he had just made.

Suddenly Shu threw the rifle to the side, clearly unhappy that he'd been around it at all, let alone fired it. He dropped to his hands and knees and trembled viciously, all the while crying as well.

Nabuca looked up quickly as he noticed someone else coming inside the house, and I turned my eyes over to see who it was for myself, finding the gray-haired and foul-tempered Tabool stepping inside. My anger flashed, recalling the time he'd taken Sara away to be used against her wishes. He stared at me for a while, our mutual hatred for each other setting our hearts on fire. Huffing when he noticed I had no weapons and that I was defending small children, Tabool aimed his sidearm at Shu's head, ready to blast his life away at a moment's notice.

"Don't do it!" Nabuca shouted, surprising me with his resolve.

"Deserters are to be shot on sight," Tabool said, not looking away from Shu.

Nabuca seized up, while I knew in my heart that if something drastic didn't happen, then I was next in line to get a bullet in my head.

"Don't!" Nabuca ordered, grabbing Tabool by the red handkerchief that most Hellywood soldiers had around their necks. "No more killing! I don't want to kill anymore!"

Tabool pushed Nabuca back with disdain in his face. "Get out of my way!" he growled, as he approached the children and me.

"No!" Shu cried out, as he jumped up and got in front of us, still showing off more courage in that one instance than I have in my entire life.

Tabool, nonplussed, aimed the pistol at Shu's heart, a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

"All personnel: Cease fire!" Abelia's voice commanded from an unknown spot in Zari-Bars. "Round up the hostages and prepare for departure!"

Tabool stiffened, but held up the gun once more, but Nabuca stopped him by pushing the gun out of the way. "Tabool, that was an order!"

Tabool gave one last look of defiance, but grunted and walked away from us. Shu and I continued to hold the children close to us, not knowing what to do.

Soon enough soldiers entered the room and located us, the first of which tried to take the children away from me, but I struggled against them, just in time to received a blow to the back of a head from a rifle butt, rendering me unconscious.

A/N: Alright, then, so next chapter will focus on the reintroduction of Matt to Hellywood, as well as a certain despot's plans for him. Until next time.