School's suddenly a thing, so that took up a majority of my time this week.

DarkJelly—That's okay, I'm just glad you take the time to write them. That's really all I ask for. And thank you!

RenThePyro—Hey, you're back! Thanks. Of course, like usual, I can't confirm or deny any kind of prediction, but Zoeya and all that will be explained. Not here, but eventually. Also, I am worried people can't keep up with everything that's going on in this story so it ultimately just confuses them. Hopefully it's not too bad, though.

Okay, I do remember saying in chapter 30 that we were entering the last third, but clearly that it NOT the case. My guess now is that it'll end before 55, but yeah, I still don't know.

-{0}-

Xavia's knees shook and she fell, collapsing in on herself. She couldn't watch but she did—she could see the bright red from where she was, the blood. She could smell it.

Footsteps. The unpleasant jolt of heat down her spine was fear, but not the fear she knew and could comprehend—no, it was terror. Terror as several shapes burst from around one of the houses, each dark in the somber shadows that cascaded from above.

It was a guard, albeit a short one, followed by a woman carrying a baby in her arms. A shorter kid stuck close behind, flanked by a younger man and an elderly one. The guard had his sword out, the blade held out menacingly despite the lack of blood.

She knew who it was. "N-Nathi," she breathed. He didn't hear her.

Instincts taking over, she sprang to her feet to run before he shouted in a low whisper, "No—Xavia! Come with us!"

A few more people stumbled out from behind the building, some bleeding profusely. Xavia understood—he was trying to save them.

Poor innocent Nathi, she used to think when she saw him. He tries way too hard to please everyone.

Guilt held her. She knew, as she sprinted towards him and followed the tiny group up the stairs, that she would've died there, crouched in the fetal position till the traitors found her and shoved a sword through her back. Would've if he hadn't come by.

She also knew, as her foot hit the last step, that she'd climbed the staircase for the last time.

"Nathi," she coughed as they turned sharply down the tunnel. She put on a burst of speed and ran next to him, saying, "What's going on?"

"I—" he began.

"G-go!" the short kid suddenly cried from behind them. "They might follow us!" His mother shushed him.

Nathi ran faster. "I don't know, I swear I don't," he muttered. "The moment he said the tunnel's finished, the superior guards drew their swords and started killing everyone they could. And you know what I think?"

"Wh-what?"

"I think they were sent down here with us by Sky Master, just to make sure we never made it out."

"Oh, Notch," sighed one of the men. "We never had a chance."

Cold claws tore into Xavia's heart, or at least the empty space in her chest where she would've had one. "No," she panted, "we didn't. But the tunnel's done, so if we get out and keep running, we can survive, can't we?"

The only response was heavy, ragged breathing.

A thought occurred to her. And even more terror poured into her veins, shooting through her chest, bubbling up from her throat in the form of a word. A name.

"Bailey!"

-{0}-

Azure stepped forward, just far enough to shield Bailey's limp form from this slave woman. Her sword was raised, a blade made of terror—but at the end of the day, it was just a sword, fear was just fear, pain was just pain, and if will could trump both, they were dead.

Caelum's will, to defeat them.

"I said who are you!" she snarled, voice so loud in the darkness that tried to make every sound quieter. Azure shook herself, having been in some sort of daze when the woman first asked. A nebulous fog was rolling throughout her mind, sifting through her thoughts and fragmentizing them. Till they were scattered like stars.

It was familiar. Not the Blithe—the other kind of familiar, the kind that stretched as far back as she could remember. Her fear.

No, she thought. Nonono. Not now.

Her…'episodes'. But it didn't make sense—they only happened every few months, not every few days.

No matter. She'd fight it. She'd fight everything she could, right now, in this moment.

Azure flung herself forward, sword arcing towards the woman, trailing its menacing light. The scream of agonized fury she released resonated deep within her mind, her bones, her blood. Through her feet and into the earth, where Xavia and all the once-rebels could hear it.

Yelping, the woman dove under the blade with a moa's grace, the shink sound of a sword being pulled from a sheath instantly putting Azure on a tighter guard. Because there was none before, just blind offense. And now, unbalanced, her back was to her enemy, and at once she knew she was going to die.

But she didn't. She turned with the small momentum she could salvage and reverse, only to watch the woman crumple to the ground in a writhing ball, screaming as she wrestled with a smaller figure. Bailey. Her sword had been tossed aside, disarming her.

Azure lunged for it. Something pulled her back, pressed a cold, sharp thing to her throat, dug clawed hands into her scalp.

"Just where did you come from, girlie?" an oily voice spat in her ear, so close she shuddered. One of the tower guards. A shadow darted past her and tore Bailey off the ground, pinning him against the nearest building wall with a knife to his neck, just like her. The woman, who had been winning the struggle anyway, leapt to her feet, retrieving the blade she'd dropped. All at once, motion faded to non-motion, and time had slowed to a standstill. If Azure hadn't been about to die then, she was now.

No fear. No fear. No fear. Her mind was spiraling out of control. She wouldn't be able to hold it for much longer—it was collapsing, crushing down with the strongest emotion, the one she had absolutely no resistance to: terror. She grunted, twisting and struggling till her windpipe collapsed, a slamming blow to her neck sending white comets of pain across her eyes like brighter stars. She tried to fall, but the claw hands pulled at her hair to force her to keep upright.

"Intruder, hmm? That's impressive. But it's also impossible. Who are you, a slave trying to revolt?"

"Clever way to go about it, then," snorted the man holding Bailey. He hardly paid any attention to the profanities spewing from the small boy's mouth. "Attacking one of your own."

"Fuck yourself," Azure snapped, if only to say something. To draw her focus outwards, not inwards. Let them think she was a stupid slave, let them put her in the slave quarters and ignore her. She just had to play the part, and insulting them seemed like the best way to go about it.

"Hmm," he drawled, voice so close to her ear, too close. "Feisty."

Wheezing, Azure summoned all her strength and tore away, but she didn't get anywhere. The guard wasn't letting go. He gripped her head in his hand and hurled it towards the nearby building corner, connecting it with her right temple. Black and white flared across her eyes, the pain exploding everywhere at once. The man let go and she forgot all about getting away, playing the part—she just fell, every bit of her strength fighting off the pain. She couldn't move.

"You sick bastard," hissed the woman with halfhearted anger. "What's wrong with you? And can't you see she's not a slave?"

There was a barking, rough response, hardly there beyond the fuzzy haze of white pain. The terror had receded, just a little, the agony bringing back a bit more of her sanity. She wouldn't lose it quite yet, she couldn't—Azure was falling unconscious.

The white thickened, darkened, turned black. Falling, falling, gone.

-{0}-

I knew they were coming, so I wasn't shocked when an old man threw himself up out of the hole, hands tearing at the dirt. More poured after him, faces whitewashed. Like they were terrified.

We—Jordan and I—jumped back, scrambling to our feet to watch them exit. The man pulled himself to his feet and tried to take off running, but his flitting eyes went up and all the strength seemed to drain from his body. He collapsed, and I could see the whites of his eyes take on a strange light. What the Nether were they reflecting? Or maybe that wasn't light at all.

Xavia appeared, and my attention was instantly on her.

"R-r-run," she wheezed, stumbling about, head turning. Jordan stepped forward and gripped her shoulders, holding her in place. "Which way…takes us away from Caelum?"

"Xavia?" the orange-eyed kid asked, gaze slipping past her to land on the hole. Only a few more had crawled out, but just a few. Her, the man and another, a short guard in oversized armor, a younger kid. A woman holding a baby, a girl slightly older than Xavia. Hardly anyone. "Where's everyone else?"

Her eyes were blank. "Dead." So was her voice.

"Wh-what?!" Jordan leaned back, away from her. "What are you talking about?"

"Or they will be," the guard muttered. I recognized him as Nathi. "Look, something happened. It's a massacre down there, I don't know why. The guards drew their swords and started killing."

Shock was hitting me, over and over again. Repeated blows to the gut.

"Then Caelum planned it," Jordan breathed. "They must've told the guards to do it."

"But why?" Xavia wailed it, drawing out the last word in a caterwaul. Her voice, I suddenly realized, was loud, way too loud, carrying what had to be chunks and chunks away.

Caelum was chunks and chunks away. No…just a few.

The girl—and it was only now I realized how young she was, and how I wasn't that much older—tipped backwards, head lifted, eyes closed as tears leaked out of the corners. We both jumped forward at once, and I beat Jordan to her this time, catching her under her arms. "Oh, Notch. Xavia, be quiet, it's okay—open your eyes! Look…look up…" Show me the sky, she'd said.

Jordan gave me a glance that held nothing, as far as I could read into it. But maybe it didn't. He came forward and pulled Xavia from my arms, pulling the dazed girl to her feet. "We have to go," he muttered. Nathi was nodding, helmet bobbing on his head.

"Okay," the young guard said. "That way, right?" He was pointing away from Caelum, in the exact opposite direction. I confirmed it, and he didn't hesitate; he started to run, pulling at the arms of the old man that had fallen. "Get up, get up!"

He got up. He knew the alternative would be death, in some way or another. When he stumbled, I grabbed his shoulders, supported him, pushed him on. On into the blackness of night, of uncertainty, of fear and pain. And then his head turned, and he said, "Thank you. You're our savior."

I flinched, turning my head. "Not just me."

We ran. Again, like the million times before.

"N-no," Xavia sputtered, suddenly stopping. "Bailey!" Jordan scooped her up in his arms, his pace visibly slowing at her weight, but it was still fast enough. She yelped, squirming and writhing, but he kept on, ignoring her kicks and flailing blows.

"And Azure?" I said it to Jordan, and he didn't respond. Best not to talk about them, it wouldn't do any good.

But if they were anywhere, then it was together. Together with a Voidmatter sword and pure lack of sanity between the two of them. Who in their right mind would try and attack them?

Of course, I had to convince myself they were okay. It would make me feel better about leaving the two of them behind, wherever they were.

Wherever they were, they had to be okay.

-{0}-

Bailey knew where they were when Azure came to. It took awhile, so he had time to figure it out.

"The tower," he'd said. Scratchy voice and tired eyes. Scared eyes. "It's almost dawn."

He was right—they were in a circular room, arms bound in small iron chains around one of the many wooden support beams linking the floor to the ceiling. The place barely had walls—just occasional columns, rectangular patches of dark blue dawn sky glowing in between, just past a large wraparound balcony.

Azure's first reaction was to start struggling—and she found out pretty fast she couldn't move. Looking down where her legs were folded beneath her, she saw her ankles were bound as well.

"Your sword," Bailey moaned miserably. "Do that weird summon thing you do."

"Can't," she responded, not sure if that was right or not. For a brief moment, she tried to focus on it, to feel the warmth and frigid cold in her hands as the sword formed itself, but nothing happened. Maybe she was too weak. "I'd end up stabbing you in the back, anyway."

"The shockwave might break your chains, though," he muttered. "My life's not that important right now, okay?"

"Watch it," she suddenly snapped, and he flinched. She didn't see—their backs were to each other. "You made a promise."

"So what, if we're gonna die anyway?"

"Just shut up," she hissed. "You don't know that."

He fell silent, and so did she. Nothing to say anymore. No reason to say it. All was quiet; no voices nearby, no whistling of wind, even their breathing was muted. Azure was angry, but not at Bailey, not at Caelum. At herself. Because she wasn't afraid. In her mind, she felt for the haze or terror, but it had dissipated. It'd be back soon—no telling when—but for the first time, she felt herself wishing for it. She wanted to be scared. She wanted to share Bailey's fear so he wasn't alone. She wanted to feel human.

"Who's that?"

His voice broke her from her thoughts. She jerked her head up, looked around. Found the short, lanky figure of a boy younger than Bailey. Dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes. He stood there, in the very center of the room, having appeared from a trapdoor in the floor.

"You here to kill us?" Bailey snapped. The boy didn't respond or react. Azure studied him more closely, noticing his lank dark hair, long and choppy in length. Knotted and tangled. Dirt covered his rags—his rags. Was he a slave? Why was he in the tower?

He crept forward, and Bailey took a ragged breath, preparing for death. Azure doubted this tiny kid could do any harm till he drew a sharp but small stone dagger from under his tunic. She tensed, pulling at her wrists, but the chains were adamant.

"Don't," she growled, not desperate enough to beg yet. He came closer, huge eyes darting every which way like he was afraid of being seen. Azure noticed something else—a huge, pale scar down his neck.

He lunged, and Azure gave one last heave, but to no avail. She braced for the stab, but it never came; just the grating sound of metal on stone.

She realized with a cold shock he was cutting the chains.

"The Nether are you doing?" Bailey snapped.

"Quiet," she demanded. "He's helping us."

She felt it before she heard it—a new voice said, "He'll try his very best. Won't you, Luka?"

The boy jolted so hard, the dagger clattered out of his hands. Azure looked and saw the pitiful progress he'd made against the chains. Next to none. He scrambled backwards, terror so hard-edged on his face and yet nonexistent in her.

She glanced in the direction of the voice—a man stood in a hooded cloak. Black silhouette against the dark sky. She hadn't seen him before and wondered if he'd been there the whole time.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Someone to fear," he responded. Azure was unsure of how to describe his voice—it was strange, rough, mellifluous, and after he spoke she immediately forgot what it sounded like.

"I don't fear you," she said. She was beginning to feel dazed again.

That was how it worked—she figured it out. Her terror attacks. They weren't on a timer like she thought. There was a limit to how much fear she was supposed to feel but didn't, so it'd build up somewhere in her mind and release when she reached the limit.

She was near the limit.

Bailey had fallen silent. Azure could guess why—he was near his limit too.

"That's alright," the man said. "I expected this of you."

"And why's that?"

"Tell me. You came from below. From Undersky."

Undersky? She wondered. The underground city, he probably meant. Maybe that's what Caelum called it. "Yes. I did."

"Interesting. At the time of the boy's rebellion, you would've been about ten. Strange, because none of who we lost fit the description of a young blond-haired girl like yourself. Certainly not one with a sword of this type. So, you're not nor were you ever a Caelumite. But that doesn't matter to me now."

He reached into the folds of his cloak, bringing out with an elegant motion of his hand, Yverise. He held it, he held it, the huge jagged blade giving off the light of a blue and black sun, more than it ever had. Behind it, the glow of the sky seemed to darken.

Her eyes drew wide. She breathed in, but air never reached her lungs.

"I assume this sword is yours? And you're somehow immune to the power of its Voidmatter. You see, you're not the only one."

Long pause. Azure spoke, and her throat was dry and her voice was rasping. The haze of her mind was thickening, darkening, to the color of terror. Black. "I guess not."

"It's a curse, girl. You never knew that, did you?"

Mutely, she shook her head. There was warmth beneath her hair, and she wondered if her cuts were bleeding again.

"It weakens you. It's alive. It eats away at your will, your strength. It kills you."

Azure looked down. Maybe he was lying, but the fragmented state of her mind didn't let her believe or even consider that. "Does it, now?"

"You're far gone, girl. Not long till you disappear from this world."

He's going to kill me, was her first thought. If she was all there, if she was sane, she'd realize that that would be an act of mercy. But she wasn't. So she didn't.

"Wh-what about you?" She wondered why her voice sounded unfamiliar.

"Ah." He let the sword point drop. Sparks leapt away from it, not close enough to reach her. "I'm protected. I posses an Enderman's power within a weapon, yet I get to keep my mind. You wonder why that is?"

Azure nodded. Shapes in her vision were blinking in and out of existence, and the space behind them was gray static, sparked with a billion colors too dull to be colors. It was empty, dark, cold, it was the Void. The Void. The nothingness that contained everything, the power beyond any god's control. The power, small pieces of it resting in the hearts of Endermen, and in Yverise.

Her fear was growing. The feeling of it was unlike anything, shutting down all her thought but one: run. But she couldn't run.

"She protects me!" he roared, spreading his arms wide. "I am invincible! Because of her, I can never die!"

Azure pressed her head back against the pole. She heard Bailey's sobs, but they sounded choppy, cut off, glitched. Not really there.

Aenj. Because of Aenj. She didn't know who that was, but she knew the man was talking about Aenj.

"You want that?" the man asked, quietly. Only his voice was solid. "You want to keep yourself and this power, don't you?"

Azure said nothing. Her mind was a black maelstrom.

"Master." Another new voice. To Azure it was a low drone, like a thought. Familiar but she didn't notice it then.

"Aadrak." Same tone, still solid. "Just in time. You haven't seen Undersky's first escapees yet, have you?"

"No, sir, I—"

Nothing. Silence. Then, "Az-zure?"

Aadrak. Other. But he wasn't.

"Do you know her, Aadrak? Surely you don't."

"I…I…"

Silence once more.

"Azure!"

Other. Not other. Brother.

Marcel.

Something like a sonic boom ripped through her head as she passed the limit.

-{0}-

Review, please.

-Angel