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Winter

The blood was everywhere. It was lapping at Winter's feet, splashing her face, filling her nose with its stench. She wondered if she would ever rid herself of its stain, if her skin would forever be tainted red, if she would ever smell anything but that disgusting coppery stench, if she would ever feel anything besides its uncomfortable warmth.

Winter flinched as another dying gasp slithered its way into her ears and tightened her grip on Jacin's hand. She hadn't let go of him since the battle started. He was her only anchor to reality, and in a time as horrific and bloody as this, she was more likely than ever to get swept out to sea.

Jacin gave her hand a quick squeeze, but didn't divert his focus from the Lunar soldier in front of him. She wasn't one of the wolf soldiers, just a regular prodigy. Winter wasn't even sure what her powers were. She didn't get a chance to use them before Jacin levelled his gun at her and pulled the trigger. Winter choked back a sob at the blast of the gun and buried her face in his shoulder so she wouldn't have to watch the girl fall.

Jacin wrapped a comforting arm around her. "I'm sorry Winter. I know you don't like this-"

"I hate this." Winter corrected quietly, "There's so much blood, so much pain. The city will never stop bleeding after this battle, never. The wounds will be too deep."

Jacin seemed to have no response to that, only hugging her closer to him and trying to cover her ears as the gun went off again.

Winter sobbed and fell to her knees, suddenly finding her muscles to be made of jelly. Jacin knelt down to, even going so far as to drop the horrid gun to cradle her in his arms. "Winter! Winter look at me! It's – it's going to be alright. I'm here. Focus on my voice. Winter!"

Wearily, almost painfully, Winter opened her eyes. She couldn't make out the details of Jacin's features through her tears. His form was nothing but a vague outline of blurry and smudged colours, with the battle around him like an artist just dumped all of their reds, blacks and blues onto a canvas and swirled them together. There were no people, only blobs with emotions.

She blinked, and some of the tears spilled out of her eyes, clearing her vision just enough for her to make out the worried light in Jacin's ice-blue eyes, and the wolf soldier coming up behind him, hands outstretched and eyes on Jacin's neck.

"Jacin!" She cried out in panic. He turned, but he wasn't turning quickly enough. The soldier would come to him. The soldier would grab his neck in those giant hands, and… and…

Forcing herself to block out the pain and destruction around her, Winter focused on the soldier's emotions. She could feel his malicious intent, his sharp-edged drive to kill. She quickly smothered that with a blanket of sorrow, pain and guilt. The blanket didn't smother the soldier long, only a few moments before that drive sliced through it, but it was enough.

In those moments of hesitation, Jacin had turned the barrel of the gun on the soldier, and in the moment the blanket was shredded, he fired.

Winter didn't close her eyes this time as the soldier fell. She forced herself to watch as the light left his eyes, and as the flush of life in his cheeks faded away. Jacin noticed and tried to cover her eyes with his hand, but she gently pushed it away.

"Winter?" He asked.

"I had a hand in his death." She whispered, "I made him stay still so you could shoot him. As punishment, I must watch him die. I made him suffer, so I must suffer. It is only fair."
Jacin sighed in exasperation. "No, it's not fair. Your whole life, you've done nothing but suffer! That man was about to kill us, you did what you had to do. If it was you bleeding out on the ground, he wouldn't stop to watch you die to punish himself."

"It wouldn't be a very good punishment anyway." Winter murmured, "He's been trained to like it. People have tried to train me to like it, but they weren't very good coaches, so I hate it."

"That's not the point! The point is, why do you insist on making yourself suffer for the sake of fairness, when not once in your life has anyone been fair to you? What makes you think that it's you that has to give back, while all the people who've ever hurt you get away punishment-free?"

"Just because the world is unfair, doesn't mean that I have to be." Winter told him solemnly, "And you're wrong. People have been fair to me. The servants, our friends in the Rampions, and you. You have been nothing but fair to me Jacin, at the cost of being fair to yourself. I'll never forgive myself for that."

Jacin frowned at her. "You stop that, right now. I'm not letting you beat yourself up over my decisions. I wasn't going to sit back and let my best friend suffer. You needed help, still need help, so I'm going to help you, and nothing you say is going to stop me from doing that. Speaking of which," he added, glancing around them cautiously, "we'd better keep moving. This is not the time or place for a conversation."

Winter looked around herself in surprise. She'd almost forgotten about the battle raging around them and, if she was being totally honest, she wasn't too glad to be reminded of it. The last thing she need to see was more blood. But she nodded nonetheless.

Jacin turned and started clearing a path in the roiling mass of fighting prodigies. Winter moved to follow him, doing her best not to let the pain and hatred all around her seep into her soul. It was bloody enough as it was. But nothing could prepare her for the stab of jealousy and seemed to shoot through her body, passing through flesh, bone and spirit with the efficiency of a bullet.

A choked gasp tore from Winter's throat and she collapsed to her knees, pressing a hand to her chest. She looked up, already reaching out a hand for Jacin, but he wasn't there. Pulled away by the fighters. She wondered how much she would bleed before he found her again.

She turned her head wearily in the general direction she thought the envy had come from. A shadow turned away inside the doorway to a haunted house attraction.

Winter groaned and pushed herself to her feet. She'd only met one person with such painful emotions. She knew it was foolishness to go investigating. Jacin wouldn't want her to. But it was like he said: she couldn't just sit back and let her friends suffer. And, if she was right, that person would gladly make them suffer.

A/N: Well. This chapter was heavy.

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