"Ow."

"What?"

"I stepped on a sharp rock."

"Let me see."

The journey was not going very well. The clothes they had were not the best. The terrain was really getting to them.

Should they have asked for help. Probably. But, they were too proud to ask for it. This was their problem. They couldn't drag anyone else into it. That wouldn't be fair to them.

"So... this is going well..." Maya sighed as Eve checked out her foot.

"Hey, it could be worse." Eve responded, "We could be getting chased down."

"Don't jinx us, Eve." Hina whined.

"Sorry." Eve apologized, "I'm just trying to find ways to be positive about this."

"I don't know that we can make this positive at all." Maya grumbled, wincing as Eve touched the cut.

"They're alive. That's a positive." Eve stated.

But was it really? They had no idea how bad the two girls were. They could already be on their deathbed as it was and they wouldn't know until they got there. Even if they rescued them, that didn't mean they'd live. It was bad not knowing that.

"Can you walk?" Eve asked.

Maya tried, "Ow! No... it hurts..."

"Alright. I'll carry you then." Eve picked her up.

"Stupid terrain..." Maya grumbled, "I hate not being able to see..."

"I bet." Hina replied, "There's only so much you can do to try and determine your surroundings without it."

"At least we have a doctor in our group."

"I'm not really that good..." Eve mumbled.

"Eh? You are, though. You seem to know how to handle any injury we get!" Hina protested, "How are you not good?"

Eve blushed at the compliment, "Well... I just always feel like I can't do enough to help..."

"That's not true. You do more than enough." Hina insisted.

"I... I'm glad you think so."

DIVIDER--

"Have you found the other three?"

"No, but they should have gotten our message. They'll be on their way here as we speak."

"Good."

Aya and Chisato didn't like the sound of that. They had no idea what they were talking about. They were being left in the dark.

"Do you... do you think they told them something to make them come rescue us?" Aya asked quietly.

"I fear that may be the case." Chisato replied.

"What do we do?" Aya asked next, her voice cracking in fear.

"Stay alive. Try to stay out of anymore harm." Chisato said, "If they are coming, we must be as good as we can. We can't slow them down too much or else we will all die."

"I see..."

"It'll be alright, Aya. I promise we will get out alive."

DIVIDER--

"Okay. I see the base. Let's rest here and think up a plan." Hina stated.

"Okay. I'm gonna put you down, Maya."

"Kay."

The three of them sat down. Eve took another look at Maya's foot.

"So, how do we get in?"

"I don't know. We never really went into this place."

"We have to scout it out then."

"But that's really risky!"

They were at odds about what to do. They needed to get a better look at the building, but it would be littered with guards. They could easily get caught with one wrong move. But they didn't know the layout at all.

"There has to be something else we can do..." Eve sighed.

Unfortunately no one had any other ideas. Without any knowledge of the base, there was little else they could do. They could possibly just go for it, but that would probably end in disaster.

"Is there really no other way?"

"It doesn't seem like it..."

"How do they do their rounds? Maybe we can sneak in during a shift change when they'll be occupied?" Maya suggested.

"But we don't know the layout and that won't be enough time." Hina protested.

This was a disaster. No matter what they brought up, it just didn't work. They needed to know the layout of the building. But that seemed impossible to learn now.

...

"Chisato?"

"Shh..."

"I got a chain undone."

"What?"

"I almost have the other one. I think we can get out."

"Be very careful. If they find out, we'll be dead before we know it."

"I will."

DIVIDER--

The three girls still had no clue what to do. As of now, they were hiding. They couldn't be spotted until they came up with a good plan. And that seemed impossible at the moment.

"Who even knows about this place?" Hina sighed.

"Only the top demons evwn have a chance of working here. No one we know would have the info we need." Maya replied.

"We have to think of something. We can't just let them die." Hina stated.

"Hina... I'm really sorry, but if we can't think of a way to do this, we will have to retreat." Maya said, "It's way too risky to go in without a plan."

"We can't abandon them!" Hina protested, "They need us."

"Hina, please calm down." Eve said, "I know it's hard... this isn't what we want either. But, risking our lives foolishly won't solve anything."

"I'm not leaving until they're out."

"You're going to be very stubborn about this, aren't you?"

"Yes. I'm not giving up."

"Hina, there's really nothing we can do. If we can't navigate, we can't get in and out easily. We don't even know where they're being held at." Maya stated.

"We can chance it. I know we can."

"We aren't, Hina. It's too risky." Eve said, "It's better we live than all of us die. We should just go."

"No. I'm not going unless we get them out or we know they're dead." Hina huffed.

Hina really wasn't going to budge until she had to. They were her friends. She couldn't just leave them to die without trying to save them. But... what could she do?

DIVIDER--

"Alright. Do you remember the way they brought us in?"

"Yeah. Are we gonna run that way?"

"Yes."

Aya and Chisato had managed to get out of the restraints. They were now planning their escape. It was going to be tough since they were both injured. But, it was either this or they'd die. At least now they had a chance at getting free.

"Ready?" Chisato asked.

Aya nodded, "Ready."

They had unlocked the door as well. Thankfully, it didn't make a sound as they opened it. They both peered around the corner to look for any guards. At the moment, the coast was clear. That was good for them.

"Three... two... one."

At the end of the countdown, they booked it the way they had been brought in. They didn't run into an guards until they got to the entrance.

"Aya! Here!" Chisato pulled Aya to an open window and they jumped out.

Gunshots whizzed past them as they both ran for their lives. Both of them were in considerable pain from their wounds. Running was definitely not helping them at all. But the pain was temporary. It would go away. Being desd wasn't. They had to keep going.

An alarm started blaring, alerting everyone to the escape. Now even more guard were on their tail. This was hard. How did they lose them? They weren't in any condition to take down that many guards. They'd be easily overwhelmed if they tried.

Thankfully, the other three weren't far away. The moment they heard the alarm, they went running to see what was happening. They spotted the two girls running for their lives.

"Five demons are chasing them. I think we can take them. Just be wary. They're armed with guns and who knows what else." Eve stated.

"Go!"

The three of them joined the battle and stopped the demons from continuing their pursuit. Aya and Chisato didn't stop running. They kept going until they were safely hidden. It was best to hide out until they handled the rest.

The three girls were struggling a bit to take down the demons. They were all pretty tough opponents. But, they were slowly pushing back and getting them down. It just took a considerable amount of time.

Thankfully, no other demons came to join the fight. They were far enough away no one spotted them. That was a big relief. They weren't sure how many of these demons they coukd handle before getting to tired to fight anymore.

"Let's go find them and get out of here. This peace will be short lived." Maya stated.

"They should be hiding. It would be the safest thing to do." Eve replied, "Let's just go into the woods and see if they'll come out."

Eve led the way. It didn't take long to find them. While they were hidden, they were also panting a lot. It kind of gave them away.

"Guys, we're here." Eve said.

"Are we safe?" Aya asked.

"For now." Maya replied, "They won't give up the search that easily."

"Yeah." Hina added, "So we should really get out of here fast. Can you guys walk?"

"I think so." The two of them finally came out of the hiding place.

"We can take it slow once we're a bit farther out of range. We can't stay anywhere near here."

They couldn't go as fast as they would have liked to, but it was still considerably fast for the two injured demons. They were both struggling to keep up.

"This isn't working." Hina stated, "I think you two should go first so we don't accidentally get too far ahead."

"Okay..."

The two of them moved up to the front. They all continued onward. They were still too close to the base to relax at all. They were easily in range to be spotted during a patrol.

"Where are we going to head to?" Aya asked.

"It depends on the route we end up taking." Maya replied, "It will either be to Afterglow's base or Roselia's. It just depends on which path we end up going."

"Alright." Aya was satisfied with that, "Can we stop soon?"

"Not yet. They have a lot of demons. This distance will be nothing for them to cover quickly." Eve shook her head.

And so they continued onward again. Eventually, they found a small cave that they took shelter in. Hopefully it would protect them enough for now.

"How are you guys doing?" Eve asked, "We didn't bring anything with us, so I can't really help much if you're in pain."

"It's nothing too bad. We'll be fine." Chisato stated.

"We can rest for a bit and then continue."

DIVIDER--

As night fell, they made it to Roselia's base. Unfortunately, there had been some organization members around and they had to dodge them. They didn't like having to stay with them as it was very crowded in the house.

"Ah! You guys are back!" Ako was the first to spot them as they approached.

"Do you need any medical attention?" Lisa asked.

"It would be best to look your wounds over." Eve said.

They entered the house. Lisa got to work examining Aya and Chisato's wounds. Eve helped as well.

Their wounds were not too bad. They just had to redo the bandages already on their wounds. It seemed the organization didn't want them to die from those wounds.

"So, what do we do with them, Yukina?" Sayo questioned, "I don't think there's enough space for everyone to stay here."

"We can rearrange some things. I'm sure we will find space." Yukina replied.

"So... now they're going to be looking for us even more than before." Chu2 stated, "They'll assume they came here."

"There's not much we can do about that." Pareo said, "They're our allies."

"I know. But, things are going to get more chaotic."

"At least their group is no more. They don't have their personal assassins now." Masuki added, "We have that going for us."

"Unless they make another group." Rei deflected that point.

"Do you think they will?" Lisa asked the girls.

"It is not... impossible." Chisato stated, "There are many demons like us there. They can choose whoever they want and make another group."

"But how can they make sure they won't disobey like you guys did?" Rokka questioned.

"They have many tricks up their sleeves. They'll find a way." Maya said, "Never underestimate them. They'll play as dirty as can be if it means winning."

"Guess we'll just have to wait and see." Yukina stated, "Only time will tell what happens."

"Should someone go tell Afterglow they're okay?" Ako asked.

"That is a good idea." Sayo agreed, "We should make sure they aren't worrying about them any more than they have to be."

"Who will go?"

"Ako, why don't you take Rinko and go do that?" Yukina said.

"Okay!" Ako nodded and went to go fetch Rinko from her room.

"Masuki, Rei, could you help make some room for them to rest? They're going to need a place to sleep." Chu2 said, "Just depends where you want them to go, Yukina."

"Seeing as Ako doesn't use her room anymore, I think if we move her stuff to Rinko's room, we can use that as their place." Yukina decided.

"Alright. Let's go do that then."

All was calm for now. But, how long would that last for?