A bead of sweat dripped down Oliver's temple, streaking through the thin layer of ash and burnt gunpowder collecting on his skin. Metal crashed against metal as he bisected an Atlesian Knight with his claymore before moving to lop the head off a second. Three others fired their rifles at him, but the bullets fell uselessly to the ground as the huntsman blocked them with his Semblance. Rolling toward the nearest mech, he sliced upward through its knee before coming back down across its chest. Before it even hit the ground, he'd charged forward, impaling the next Knight and charging through to skewer the final droid as well.

Freeing his sword from the two robotic bodies, Oliver took a moment to get his bearings. Beacon was in chaos, with Grimm of all types running around attacking anything that moved, White Fang soldiers running around shooting at anything that moved and, to top it all off, Atlesian mechs running around shooting at anything that moved. Despite all that, Oliver didn't think he'd be any safer standing still. He and Tawny had done their best to find anyone in need and keep them safe, but with only scattered military support and a handful of students to help them out, it was far from easy. If there was a bright side, it was that there didn't seem to be that many civilians left to save. Splitting his weapon back down into hand cannons, he ran off toward where he'd last seen Tawny.

Gods, Laurel… This night might have been easier to get through if he'd known she had his back, but after what she'd said? The bombshell that, after all these years, she blamed Gray for her own death? Lifting one arm, he fired off a trio of shots, bringing down a pair of Beowolves ahead of him. That thought alone hurt worse than thinking she blamed him. And what had she meant by comparing Aspen to Gray? He shook his head, slowing to a stop to listen for any sign of where Tawny might be. Like he told her, this issue needed to wait until later. She was still his partner, and he still cared for her as such.

The familiar staccato of Timekeeper reached his ears amidst the roars and gunfire of other combat. Turning, he followed the sound to its source. He found Tawny crouched behind some rubble, exchanging fire with a group of mechs. Behind her was a pair of civilians, a man and a woman. Holstering one of his guns, he fired off a few shots at the Knights, clipping one in the shoulder before sliding into the cover as well. Tawny didn't look at him, continuing to fire as he focused his attention on the civilians.

The man was unconscious with a bullet wound in his leg, entry and exit, no major vessels hit. The woman appeared to be unharmed and was attempting to put pressure on the wound, but she was too frightened by the firefight to be as effective as she needed to be. Holstering his other gun, Oliver placed his hands over hers, helping her out. She looked up at him, clearly terrified, and he gave her a smile. "It's going to be alright," he said reassuringly, taking her focus off of the combat surrounding them. "What's your name?"

The woman blinked at him, flinching as a nearby Grimm roared. Oliver pressed his hands onto hers a little tighter, drawing her attention again. He knew how difficult it could be to focus when your life was in danger, so the best thing he could do was to make her feel like she wasn't in danger. "K-Kat," she stammered, keeping her head low.

"Hey, Kikat," Oliver said with a smile, intentionally imitating her stutter. "I'm Mantis. I doubt she introduced herself, but the woman behind me is Tawny. She's my partner, and we're going to get you two out of here." He nodded down to their hands on the man's leg. "You're doing a great job with this wound, but I'm going to need you to hold it for just a second, alright?" He held her gaze until she nodded nervously. Lifting his hands off, he reached into one of his pockets to find a bandage.

"Mantis!" Tawny shouted, an audible ticking sound coming from her weapon as it ran low on ammo.

Oliver rolled his eyes dramatically for Kat's sake. "One more second." Drawing one of his weapons as he stood, he fired the remainder of his magazine into the group of Creeps and Beowolves advancing on their position while Tawny reloaded her weapon with one of the spare drums she had brought. As he ran dry, he swiftly dropped the magazine and loaded another to continue firing.

He only got a few shots off before Tawny stood back up and he was able to return to the civilians. "Sorry about that," he apologized to Kat, re-holstering his weapon and pulling the bandages out. There wouldn't be enough to completely bandage the wound, but it would do until he could get proper attention. "So, how are you enjoying the Vytal Festival? Everything you hoped it would be?"

A choked laugh escaped the woman's throat as he began wrapping the strip of cloth over the man's wounds "I didn't expect to be this close to the fighting."

Oliver chuckled, a genuine smile on his lips. "I know what you mean," he replied, tightening the bandage with a jerk of his hand. The man groaned and stirred, but otherwise remained still. "Just think, though; you get to go home and tell people you saved someone's life. Or, at least, their leg." She looked up at him, and he winked. "Feel free to embellish how you like."

A relative silence fell over the area as Tawny stopped firing. "We're clear for now," she announced, leaning against the rubble pile to catch her breath.

With a nod, Oliver looked to Kat. "Think you can help me get him out of here?" The woman dipped her head, reaching to grab one of the unconscious man's arms. Together, she and Oliver pulled him up and draped his arm over their shoulders. The clatter of approaching feet caught the Huntsman's attention, and he turned his head to see a group of soldiers running up to them. Leading Kat over, Oliver passed the unconscious civilian to one of the men. "Get them to safety. We'll make sure the area's clear and keep looking for others."

The soldiers nodded and began leading the two away. The woman looked back briefly and called out, "Thank you!" With a smile, Oliver gave her a parting wave before turning back to Laurel.

As the two Hunters made eye contact, memories of their conversation came back into Oliver's mind. He grimaced, and he could see Tawny was having similar thoughts as she looked away uncomfortably. "How are things looking here?" he asked, refocusing on the matter at hand.

His partner stood up from the rubble, hefting her weapon as she looked around. "Like a war zone," she said frankly. "Only a few casualties, thankfully, but if more Grimm come, I don't know that we can hold out with what we have now."

"I know what you mean," Oliver said, looking around at the ruined buildings and fires that had sparked in some places. It was a lull in the combat, to be sure, but it was guaranteed not to last long.

In fact, it didn't even last as long as he thought it would. Tremors shook the earth in a rhythmic pattern, and they were approaching fast. Drawing his weapons, Oliver checked to make sure he would be ready for a fight, and Tawny did the same. The quaking spread to the nearby buildings, shaking the glass still left in the windows. The two Hunters shared a look. "Shi—"

Oliver's curse was cut off as the building in front of them exploded and a Goliath crashed through it. Stone and dust went flying as the massive Grimm shook its head, drawing deep furrows in the rubble and dirt with its tusks. The Hunter looked around quickly, trying to find some advantage against the beast that they could exploit, and his mind went back to Aspen's fight in the forest. Base of the skull is vulnerable.

"Tawny!" he shouted, pointing toward a nearby light post. The woman acted immediately, transforming her weapon even as he rushed toward the charging Grimm. He stopped after only a few yards, however, bringing Venation back together into a claymore as he spun around. Tawny had done as he'd hoped, wrapping one end of her weapon around the post and holding the counterweight so that the chain was stretched taut. Sprinting toward the makeshift slingshot, Oliver leapt and turned around again, feet coming to rest against the weapon's handle. The chain flexed back beneath his weight and momentum, but when Tawny wrenched her end back again, he was launched out toward the Goliath. As he fired his own weapon back to give himself a bit more speed, one thought prevailed in his mind: I hope I live to regret this.

(- -)

Fires burned down below the airship, spots of lights amidst the darkness of Beacon. Rhys's forehead was pressed firmly against the window glass, his eyes wide as he looked from spot to spot, picking out the pockets of fighting. His tail twitched, bumping against the seat behind him. There was so much chaos, so much destruction. It was… It was all just…

It was all just so beautiful, yet soul-crushingly far away. Why was the airship moving so slowly? A Goliath just crashed through that building! Did they really expect them all to be patient when there were fights like that down there? The boy pushed away from the window, exhaling agitatedly. Looking around the ship, it seemed like that was exactly what they expected. Most of the other students were just standing around, looking sad and talking with one another. Ruby was about the only other person who looked at least a little bit anxious, walking in a not-quite pacing kind of way and tugging at the edges of her sleeves, though he doubted it was for the same reason as him.

He liked Ruby. She was younger than the others like him, loved weapons about as much as he did, and was really fun to fight, even if she was better than him sometimes. Plus, she was one of the few people to actually put in effort to talk with him despite his deafness. He'd only been able to teach her a few signs, but it was still more than most. From what little interaction they had, though, he knew she didn't enjoy fighting as much as he did unless it was to protect people. If anything, that was probably what was bothering her.

Casting another impatient look out the window, Rhys made the decision that they were close enough. Turning to the back of the airship, he began to walk toward the doors only to be stopped by a hand falling on his shoulder. Rolling his eyes, he turned back around, expecting Ilex to yell at him for something. Instead, he got Aspen looking at him quizzically. "Where are you going?" she signed.

Rhys huffed as he moved his hands to reply. "We're low enough. I'm going to jump." He liked Aspen too, probably more than Ruby even after only a few days. She didn't talk much, sure, but when she did she always made sure to sign for him, even though he could read her lips. It was a small thing, but everyone else his age who actually knew sign—just Ilex, really—didn't bother most of the time. Also, she was really strong and her armor seemed cool, even if she wasn't done yet. He didn't really get why Carmine didn't seem to like her or why Ilex pretended to, but if she was going to try to stop him from going to fight like Mantis had, it wouldn't matter how much she liked to fight. "You're not going to stop me."

Aspen furrowed her brow, looked out the window, then to the back of the airship. After a moment, she stepped past him to approach the door. Rhys's heart jumped in his chest as he followed after her. He could feel others in the ship looking at them, but he was too excited to care. He was finally going to get to fight! The door slid shut behind them as they walked into the small storage area in the back of the ship. Sensing another presence, the teen glanced over his shoulder to see Carmine and Ilex had followed them out. |What's going on?| Ilex asked, glancing nervously between him and Aspen. |We haven't landed yet.|

Rhys grinned, signing as the rearmost door opened. "We're going to jump!" He let out a delighted laugh at the way Ilex's face paled as wind began to whip through the space. Carmine didn't look frightened, though, just hardening that serious expression of his as he stepped out onto the ship's ramp.

Still smiling, Rhys stepped forward as well, stopping alongside Aspen, who had sloppily tucked most of her hair into her hoodie. That didn't stop the rest of it from being carried into Rhys's face, but neither of them cared. They were flying over one of Beacon's smaller courtyards, just over two dozen yards off the ground. Grimm and mechs were in the middle of fighting each other, and it was difficult to tell which side was winning. Rhys glanced up at Aspen, and she nodded. Needing no more incentive, he took a half-step back before launching himself off the ship, cackling as he went. As he fell, he unslung Bullrush from his back and gripped the handles. With a pull, the weapon expanded to its full glory.

The Ursa never knew what hit it. Semblance flashing bronze as it absorbed the impact, Rhys hit the Grimm with enough force to shatter its skull plate and snap its neck. The skirmish paused as both beast and machine turned to look at him. With a wicked grin, Rhys charged the nearest Grimm, a Beowolf, and swung Bullrush into its chest. True to its purpose, the battering ram practically exploded the Grimm, sending fragments of bone spikes into its nearby allies. The teen stepped off quickly, butting one of the stunned Beowolves in the chest with the top side of his weapon. It wasn't as powerful as a head-on strike, but it was still enough to knock the creature down and allowed him to finish it off with a trio of stomps to the neck. With his weapon barely to his shoulder, he fired a rocket into the remainder of the stunned Grimm, sending rapidly evaporating chunks of flesh in all directions.

Rhys reflexively activated his Semblance as he was peppered with bullets from several of the nearby mechs. He scowled in annoyance as the rounds bounced harmlessly off. His Semblance may have prevented the bullets from chewing up his Aura, and he may have developed a higher tolerance for pain than most people he knew, but getting shot was still one of the more painful experiences he could think of.

Growling, he made to fire another rocket at the offending mechs, but a dark blur dashed into their line. Three of them were cut down violently before any of the others could react, but by then it was too late. With a flash of metal, Aspen decapitated two more, sliding effortlessly to the next to cut it in half at the waist and then to the next to slice it down the chest before finishing it off by stabbing it through the head. She had a special style of fighting that Rhys had seen during their fight in the forest and now saw here, a blend of brute force savagery and near-fluid motion. Her blood-red eyes and wild hair, which had come loose already, only served to highlight her ferocity.

The two met each other's gaze across the courtyard-turned-battlefield, and Rhys grinned. The smile faltered, however, when he noticed one of the larger, tank-like mechs bringing its guns to bear on his partner. Quickly lifting Bullrush back to his shoulder, he fired a rocket directly at the robot. Unfortunately, Aspen had also seen the threat and was moving to engage when the rocket hit.

The explosion threw the girl back, sending her rolling across the ground. Panicking as he remembered that her Aura didn't protect her the same way his did, Rhys sprinted over to where Aspen lay on the ground. As he slid to a stop beside her, she was struggling to lift herself to her hands and knees. He dropped his weapon to the ground though, as soon as he did, he was uncertain of what to do with his hands. How was he supposed to help her? He knew he'd taken classes on this sort of thing, but he'd never really listened. They were supposed to fight monsters after all, not help them. Now he wished he had paid more attention.

Aspen managed to steady herself on all fours and slowly lifted her head to look around. She didn't look in good shape, blood running from her nose and left ear and various gashes and scrapes across her face. her eyes were unfocused even as they wandered, until they eventually settled on him. She blinked slowly, almost painfully, before looking down at his weapon. Rhys's face twisted with regret. "I'm sorry," he signed. "I didn't see you—"

The girl cut him off by placing one hand over his, gripping as she tried to stand. Scrambling to his feet, Rhys helped her up, still uncertain of what he should be doing. For as bad as she looked while on the ground, though, the simple act of standing seemed to make Aspen appear less injured. Even her face looked less bloody. As she found her balance, she met his eyes and lifted her free hand. "We kill it," she signed, gesturing toward the large mech, also climbing to its feet after being knocked over by the rocket.

Faced with the prospect of battle, Rhys quickly picked up his weapon again, getting it ready for the fight. The lumbering mech before them whirred and clanked as it rose to its feet, the damage from the rocket clearly visible in the scorched plates and exposed wiring. Shifting his weight from foot to foot, Rhys looked up at Aspen to see if she was ready to fight. "I'm behind you," she signed. He grinned and laughed as he charged the war machine.

Best partner ever!

(- -)

Aspen grimaced as Rhys ran off, a wave of… dizziness momentarily pushing her off balance. Something inside her wasn't right. Whatever had… exploded against the large machine had done something to her, something she couldn't just fix, like a broken bone or dislocated joint. There was an unnatural pressure in the left side of her abdomen but no external sign of injury, and her head pulsed painfully with every beat of her heart. And her ears… There was a persistent ringing sound in the right one, and she couldn't hear anything at all out of the left.

Rhys had something to do with the explosion, that much she knew, but her getting caught in it hadn't been intentional. Simply distinguishing auras at the moment was difficult but, even still, she had sensed his regret. He had been trying to stop the machine from shooting her. He'd been trying to help her. No one had ever helped her before, at least not like this. She had never needed it before since she had always fought alone, but now she had someone to fight alongside. It was a… new experience. A good one, explosion aside.

Gritting her teeth against the unsteadiness draining down from her skull, Aspen stepped toward the machine. She had seen the smaller ones, the ones that looked like people, but this one looked big enough to have a person inside. There was no aura, though, not that she could—

The pressure in the girl's abdomen suddenly rose up and forced itself out through her throat. She dropped back down to her knees as blood spattered on the ground, thinned by digestive fluids. With every successive heave, the throbbing in her head grew in intensity, and spots of black began to consume her vision. Aura moved and swelled around her, her last connection to consciousness.

As quickly as the fit began, however, her body stilled and the pain in her skull receded. It was still there, but the worst seemed to have passed. She lifted herself shakily to her feet, the sword in her hand sending vibrations up her arm as it dragged through the dirt and stones. Her vision cleared as she found her balance, and her eyes resettled on the machine, turning to chase Rhys. Tightening her hold on her weapon, she stepped over her vomit and broke into a sprint.

With a wide, arcing strike, Aspen carved a long fissure in the armor on the machine's left leg as she passed. She continued around to attack what she could only describe as the knee, scoring a deep but superficial gash in the thick armor. The machine turned its red eye toward her. The light inside flashed once, and then one of the machine's mechanical fists was swinging down toward her. It moved with a speed that defied its great size but, even in her current state, Aspen was faster. She sprang to the side, letting the stone of the pathway take the impact. Bits of dirt and rubble fell over her, momentarily obscuring her line of sight to the machine. A faint whirring sound reached her right ear, the briefest warning of a second attack before the debris cleared. She lifted her sword in an attempt to deflect the blow, but there was no point to the action.

Metal crashed against metal in a violent cacophony that split the air, a physical force that slammed through Aspen's body. She staggered back a single step, eyes narrowing as she watched the shattered remains of the machine's arm scatter across the ground. Rhys stood between them with a wide grin and a glint in his eye as he swung his bulky weapon back into the same leg she had attacked. The metal buckled under the force before yielding entirely, crumpling under the weight of the rest of the machine.

Despite having lost two of its limbs, however, it continued to fight on. Propping itself up on its ruined arm, the machine attempted to crush Rhys with the other. Aspen rushed past the boy, springing off their opponent's leg to pierce the arm through the wrist. As she dragged it bodily to the side, she cast a look toward Rhys. The faunus understood her intent and, with a gleeful cackle, swung his weapon down on the elbow.

The joint was crushed completely, practically severing the hand from the rest of the machine. Freeing her sword, Aspen stalked up to what remained of the body. As it struggled to move, it seemed to look down at her, its red eye flashing once more. Aspen scowled, turned her sword sideways, and stabbed deep into its head. The machine shuddered, and a low droning sound emanated from within its body. After a moment, however, it fell silent and collapsed. Dead.

Dead. Aspen glared at the machine as she removed her sword. There was no feeling of euphoria from striking it down, no rush of adrenaline. It wasn't dead. It had never been alive, just a machine. There was little satisfaction to be had.

Rhys seemed to disagree, though, hissing and whooping as he danced around in front of her. When he came to a stop, he lifted his hand up between them, palm facing out. She didn't recognize the sign—at least, not in context, of which there was none—but the look on his face indicated that he expected something from her. When she didn't react the way he wanted her to, he cocked his head and, after a moment, reached out and grabbed her free hand to position it in the same way. With a grin, he lifted his hand again and clapped their palms together. Aspen blinked, hand hanging in the air as Rhys chuckled. |H-I-G-H F-I-V-E,| he spelled out, before mimicking the action with his own hands. |High five!|

The girl looked down at her hand quizzically. High five? The origin of the name seemed obvious, but… what was it supposed to mean? Some sort of celebratory act? It certainly wasn't something the rephaim had done. Sticking the point of her sword in the ground, she lifted her hands and carefully made the same action Rhys had. |High five?| Rhys nodded happily.

As Aspen processed this information, she heard what sounded like shifting metal somewhere to her right. Immediately, she pulled her sword from the ground and pointed it toward the source of the noise, only to see nothing but dimly lit ground. She narrowed her eyes. She couldn't sense anything either, but that only meant it hadn't been human or faunus.

"Over here," a familiar voice said, even further to Aspen's right. Switching her sword between hands to keep it pointed in the same direction, she rotated her body to look at Ilex as he approached. False confidence rolled off of him like chilled air, a poor mask for the fear he truly felt. Behind him, Carmine stood by with the same silent suspicion he'd had back in the colosseum. "Are you alright? What are you looking at?" Ilex asked when she looked back to the source of the noise.

Kill him.

Aspen ignored the voice. "I heard something," she said, her own voice sounding strange coming through only her right ear.

Ilex furrowed his brow in confusion. "I'm pretty sure that was me," he said, pointing back over his shoulder. "I kicked one of the mechs… Unless you heard something else?" He looked out to where Aspen was pointing as she looked over to where he had indicated the "mech" he had kicked was. All she saw was the remains of several of the smaller, humanoid machines. Was that what they were called, then? Mechs?

"There's nothing over there." Ilex turned his attention back to her with unusually genuine concern, a hesitant warmth in his frosty aura. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked, eyes flicking over the cuts on her face.

Aspen lowered her sword, deciding to accept his judgement. "I'm fine. I'm just having difficulty hearing."

"Difficulty? How bad?"

She nodded, reaching up to gently touch her left ear. "I can't hear anything on this side." It was a strange feeling, the imbalance of sound. The right side wasn't quite normal yet either but, compared to the heavy emptiness on the left, it almost felt light. In fact, had she not just felt it, she would have believed that her left ear was gone entirely.

Ilex's face grew pale as disbelief swelled within him. "Can't… And that's…" Aspen watched as he looked around at the others, searching for something he evidently didn't get. "You were down here for, like, ten seconds. What happened?"

The teen looked over to Rhys, and Aspen followed his gaze. |I… kinda blew her up,| the shorter boy explained, embarrassed.

As Ilex pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered under his breath, Aspen began to walk around the fallen machine, toward the school. She was still having trouble separating auras from one another, but that didn't stop them from reaching her. Fear, anger, grief, and hatred all cut and burned and speared her from every direction. It should have been overwhelming. In the wake of what she'd felt in the colosseum, however, it was nothing.

"Aspen, shouldn't we get you medical attention or something?" Ilex continued behind her.

She opened her mouth to respond, but Carmine spoke first. "I'm sure she'll be fine." Despite the way he seemed to be giving her his confidence, his tone was insincere and bordered on accusatory. "She heals fast, after all." Sarcastic.

"She blew up, Carmine! She could have a concussion or something! How is that going to—"

"I am fine," Aspen interrupted, though she knew that wasn't quite true. There was still something wrong with her head, and concussion… sounded right. Like Carmine had said, though, she would heal. She always did. "There are still people who need to be protected," she continued, eyes scanning the academy grounds. "They need…"

Aspen's words fell off as something settled on her skin. It was aura, but not a sensation she had felt before. It was sharp. It was urgent. With no hesitation, Aspen ran in the direction the feeling was coming from, ignoring Ilex's shouts behind her and the wave of dizziness that accompanied her sudden movement. There was no time to pay them heed.

The scratching pain led her to a large pile of pile of rubble at the foot of one of the buildings. A sharp spike of panic shot up through her chest into her throat. Not stopping to question the unexpected internal emotion, the girl pierced her sword into the ground and began to tear at the stones. The edges were rough and the rubble heavy, digging into her hands as she dug through and moved it. Soon, the others caught up to her and, though she could feel their confusion, they started digging with her.

Finally, as she lifted one end of a massive piece of rubble, she felt the aura she was searching for directly on her skin. Ilex was the first to react, a surge of panic and worry pouring out from him as he rushed forward. "Oh, shi— Carmine!" Holding the rubble above her head, Aspen looked down. Amidst the dirt and stone and glass lay a woman, clothes stained with blood. Dull blue eyes looked weakly up at her, accompanied by a feeling of hope and relief like a warm breath against her neck.

Then the woman closed her eyes and the warmth was gone.

"Hey, watch it!"

Aspen sank to her knees as she was swallowed in cold emptiness. The slab of stone pressed down on her, threatening to fall on her and crush the woman before the others could pull her from the pile. There was no point to it. She was already dead. They'd been too late.

Once the woman was out of the way, Aspen let the slab fall, kicking up a cloud of dust that stung her eyes. Moisture began to blur her vision as her body attempted to clear the particulates. She blinked it all away. She'd felt people dying on the colosseum but, somehow, this felt different, even from Penny's death. Maybe it was proximity, maybe it was because this woman was flesh and blood, but the coldness had felt more… absolute. It wasn't anything like what she got from killing the Grimm. Was this what Deirean sought, this coldness? Was this why he wanted to kill the humans and faunus?

A hand settled on her shoulder. The warmth of Rhys's aura seeped through her as he looked at her with concern. |Are you sure you're okay?| he asked.

Aspen nodded. |Yes.| Physically, she was the same as before. She could push through. This, however, wasn't something they could understand, not if they weren't rephaim. Behind her, she could tell that Ilex and Carmine were working on the body, trying in vain to revive her. "Do not waste your time," she said, her own voice sounding dull in her ear. "She is dead."

After a few more moments, Ilex stood, muttering curses to himself under his breath. Carmine, however, remained kneeling. "How did you know?" he asked, anger and fear welling in his aura. "How did you know she was even here?"

Annoyance flared up in Ilex's aura as he turned on his partner. "Dammit, Carmine! This isn't the time!" His voice seemed to catch in his throat as he looked down at the body between them all. "A woman just died."`

Aspen felt Carmine's shame brush against her skin briefly before it was quickly replaced by anger. "Fine." Standing, he looked down at the woman. "We should find wherever they're evacuating from. Take her there."

"I will carry her," Aspen said, rising to her feet to move over to her. Pulling her sword from the ground and holding it in a reverse grip, she knelt beside the woman and slipped her arms beneath her.

Aspen didn't know why she felt like she had to be the one to carry this woman. It had just felt right. Now, though, holding her felt wrong. She was still warm, her blood still wet, but with no aura pressing out, she didn't feel real. It seemed to Aspen that if she were to drop the body, it would just disappear.

Focusing her mind away from her burden, Aspen reached out, searching for the greatest concentration of people. That would be the most likely location for the evacuation. Once she'd found it, she broke into a jog, leading her team toward their destination. As she did, she made a promise to herself. No one else dies. Not if I can help it.


It's interesting that, as I get into the Battle of Beacon, I realize I don't really have a plan for what's going to happen. There are certain critical moments that need to come up, sure, but for the most part, it's all just happening. This chapter, for instance, was almost just the first two scenes which, to me, mirrored each other really well. Then I decided to flip that little "formula" I'd stumbled upon with the third scene and that ended up being almost half the chapter. That one didn't come together as easily as the first two, but I'm still happy with it.

Speaking of happy, Rhys finally got a scene! Ever since I decided on how I was going to differentiate signed dialogue from spoken, I knew I wanted to flip it whenever I got around to writing from Rhys's perspective. Having quotes around spoken words doesn't really make sense when the person can't hear it, right? Happy to get to that.

Happy, happy, happy. Au revoir!