I thought the most horrific night of my life had passed long ago. However, as we ran down the hallway as we heard voices from down the hall, accompanied by grunts and screams, it became evident that this night would reach the peak of my list.

"The Reach! Ulfric will march on the Reach next." It was Kara's voice, no doubt succumbing to whatever torture was being delivered to them. It wasn't true, so she must have made something up to make them stop. We were too far away to know an exact location, but Aela and I could sense a general direction. The three of us sauntered quietly down a dark hall.

There was more talking, more blows, loud enough for us to hear. "Stop! Please! You're killing him!" Cassius bolted ahead of us, running toward the sound of his sister's voice. Aela and I, too, started running, the word 'him' burning a new fire in my heart.

Then, we heard the growling, the chains clanking, and the howling and snarling that came soon after. Cassius slowed to a stop, our explanation to him finally becoming believable. He looked back at us, but we pressed on, unafraid of something that we carried under our own skin.

The screams of men came soon after, and we were finally able to locate the room where they were being held. We stood outside the door, listening to the sound of death on the other side. Cassius ran forward, grabbing the handle.

"Wait!" Aela said to him, putting a hand on his arm. "You have to listen to us first."

"What the hell are you talking about? They're in there!" His eyes were frantic.

"Whoever transformed can seriously hurt you." I told him. "Do not get in their way. Stay against the wall."

He stared at us a moment, then nodded. I pushed the door open, and the three of us wedged our way in.

Inside, a large, dark wolf was ripping the arms off of an elf and eating them over him. The room was splattered in blood and cluttered with dead men. Nearly twenty bodies to step over, and we all snuck quietly around the edge of the room.

I saw my brother chained to the wall next to ours, surrounded by the scraps of leather armor, and I inched toward him. I passed Cassius, who looked absolutely horrified as he realized it was his sister eating a man alive. As the elf screamed, the wolf version of Kara used a single claw to rip out his tongue. He gurgled through his blood.

I moved slowly toward my brother, whose face was bloody and broken. Both of his eyes were swollen shut, and his jaw was hanging open. At first glance, one would have thought him dead. I could hear his heart beating, though, faintly in his burly chest. When I reached him, I tried to free his wrists of the chains.

"Brother?" he mumbled, his head moving to look up in my direction, though I doubted he could see me.

"Aye. It's me." I fumbled with the lock a bit more, but it wasn't coming off. Aela was searching bodies for a key, to no avail. Cassius was still pressed against the wall, watching as Kara finally killed the man.

"Talk to her." Farkas said quietly. He meant my ability, of course, though I wasn't sure I could speak to her outside of my wolf body. "She'll listen to you."

I turned toward her, standing with my hands on my brother's shoulders. I waited for her to finish tearing at the dead elf's body and straightened to speak.

Kara.

The wolf turned toward me quickly, seeming to have heard me. She looked at me, blood dripping from her jaws. The entire front of her body was caked in crimson, matting her fur to a state of stiffness. I could still smell the beast's control over her, but her mind was her own. She waited for me to speak again.

I patted the binds that held my brother. Chains.

She paused a moment, then stalked toward us. Cassius was staring with his mouth hanging open, and Aela walked toward him to try to mask his scent. The beast was likely to be calm with other wolves, but she may not be able to control herself if she smelled Cassius' blood.

As the wolf approached, I stiffened, but Farkas seemed completely at ease, even free of pain. The wolf leaned down to his face, bumping my brother's face with her nose.

My brother laughed a little, then coughed. "Thank you, Lissa." he mumbled. The wolf grabbed the chains with her paws, easily ripping them from the wall. I supported Farkas as he was released, helping him stand. He walked toward Aela, who wrapped her arms around his torso and walked him to Cassius. He looked away from the wolf finally, and took full support of Farkas' bodyweight.

The wolf still stared at me, waiting for me to speak again. I moved toward her slowly, trying not to startle her. The wolf breathed heavily, panting in exhaustion and thirst. As I reached her, I put my hands on either side of her snout.

Safe.

The wolf whimpered, pressing her head against my face. I scratched the side of her face, trying to calm her enough to return to her human form.

Aela came up from behind, her hand on the wolf's back. She looked at me. "I'll take it from here, Vilkas." she said, then tilted her head toward my brother. "Help Cassius get Farkas out of here."

The wolf's head whipped toward the men at the mention of Cassius' name. It whimpered again as she saw him, still looking absolutely horrified. I gave the wolf another pat before I moved to help my brother leave.

With one of his arms draped over each of our shoulders, Cassius and I easily supported Farkas as we walked through the halls and out the front door. Outside, snow had covered the terrain once again. It was a cold night, not that it bothered us much. We leaned Farkas against the walls of the fort, waiting for Kara and Aela to join us.

Cassius was still dumbfounded, but he pulled several potions of healing from his pack and helped my brother drink them. He spat at the horrible taste, but drank them very eagerly. His body relaxed, and some of the swelling reduced in his face.

When he could see again, he reached for me. I walked toward him, pressing my forehead against his. He relaxed even more, having the comfort of being reminded of our youth. I relaxed too.

"Thank you." he mumbled, his breath hot on my nose.

"I would go anywhere to save you, brother." I said to him. "I'm sorry I was too late."

He pulled away from me, shaking his head. "You came. That's all that matters." He looked at Cassius. "Are you okay?"

He stared at both of us for a moment, then nodded. "Is my sister okay?"

Farkas and I exchanged a look, and my brother shrugged. I offered a look of comfort. "She'll be fine, Cass. She just needs to calm down enough to shift back to human form."

He looked confused. "And Aela can help her?"

"Well, yes. But that was mainly because…we lose our clothes in the transformation."

"Ah." he said quietly, nodding. He was thoughtful for a moment. "Who made her like that? A beast."

I tilted my head side-to-side. "Aela, ultimately, but Skjor made the offer. Just as he did for the rest of us."

"All of you?" he asked. He was just trying to make sense of it himself.

"Not all of the Companions, but yes. All of us." I said. Farkas nodded. I looked to my brother. "How long were you two being…?"

Farkas seemed confused a moment, but then he understood. "Oh, the beatings? That was just today."

"How badly are you injured?" I asked him.

He shrugged. Not wanting to talk about it.

Cassius straightened up. "And Karalissa? How badly did they hurt her?"

Farkas shrugged again. I put my hand on Cassius' shoulder, asking him silently to leave my brother to think.

We didn't have to wait much longer for Aela to come out with Kara. She was wearing a very baggy tunic to cover herself. She was covered in blood from the mouth down, her eyes distant. Aela went to Farkas immediately, holding him as tightly as she could.

Kara waited a moment, but as her eyes focused on me, she stumbled towards me. I pulled her into my arms, clutching her against my chest as she began to cry. I ran my hand over her hair, trying to soothe her. As I noticed the hair on the right half of her head had been cut off jaggedly, a new kind of anger ruptured in my chest.

She felt it, and cried harder. "I'm sorry, Vilkas." she whimpered. "I'm so sorry."

I held her face in my hands, wiping the tears away from her face. "You did nothing wrong, pup. Everything is okay. You're okay now."

Kara was frantic. "I killed all of them, Vilkas. I killed them."

I hugged her against my chest, trying to calm her down. "You had no choice, Kara. It's okay." She continued to cry, clinging to my armored torso.

We stood like this for a moment, but the sound of voices outside the fort interrupted us.

"We have to move." Aela nodded toward the woods, she and Cassius supporting Farkas, and we all moved quickly and quietly to the cover of the trees.

We had built camp near the water several miles away from the fort in the Rift. A small fire burned at our feet, low enough to leave us undetected but bright enough to keep us warm. Cassius and Aela were sleeping on the left side of me, facing away from each other.

Farkas was asleep, his eyes shut above purple bruises on his cheek bones. Kara was out from the moment she sat on the ground, and it was apparent that she hadn't slept the whole time we were trying to find them. My brother had fallen asleep cradling her, still covered in the blood of her victims, with one arm under her head and the other on her back, shielding her from the world. It was odd, to see my brother holding the woman I loved, but he needed the comfort more than I did, and they had endured things I was likely never to endure.

Kara sobbed most of the way back from the fort, clinging to me and stumbling along with us. She had killed before, of course, but this time was different. When we unloaded on the Silver Hand all those months ago, it was a collective effort. We both transformed, we both avenged Kodlak, we both killed. This time, she was pushed to the point of transformation, and savagely butchered nearly twenty men on her own. No matter what I tried to comfort her, she didn't stop crying until she had fallen asleep.

Farkas hadn't spoken once since we were outside the fort. He didn't respond to questions, he didn't react to anyone's words. He was absolutely traumatized. It was too early to ask what had happened to them, and I didn't plan on it. But whatever they inflicted on him was bad enough to drive Kara over the edge.

I sat against a tree across from my brother and Kara, watching over them and the fields around us. I was utterly alone, though surrounded by my family, and I took that opportunity to explore my own thoughts.

During our expedition to find them, I had run through all of the possible outcomes. What if we never found them? I never would have stopped looking for them, even if it took weeks or months or years. Until I found bodies, I wouldn't have stopped.

I didn't want to stop now, either. I wouldn't stop fighting until Ulfric Stormcloak sat in his throne as the High King. After this, the Imperials taking two people who were absolutely innocent in this war and nearly killing them, I wanted the Empire out of my city, out of my country, and out of my sight.

I looked out at the fields of Skyrim around us, remembering how easy things were a few months ago. Kara had her brother back, Farkas and Aela were content to spend their days drinking and laughing. Even with my father gone forever, I could rest soundly knowing Kara was down the hall, reading a book and humming to herself.

Things would never be the same again, not after this. If I knew my brother, and I was certain I did, he would take weeks, maybe months to recover from this. And Kara, she was so sweet and kind, and she may never recover from something this brutal.

Shuffling across from me brought my attention back to the people around me. Kara was wiggling free from Farkas, as quickly as she could manage without waking him. Once she was standing, she rushed toward the water near us, dropping to her knees and scrubbing at her face. She dipped her whole head in the water, trying to remove every spot of blood from her body.

As she washed the blood away in the moon's light, I stood and unbuckled the chest plate of my armor. Once it was off, I set it aside and pulled the loose, ratty shirt I wore beneath it off and walked to Kara. She had stood from the water's edge, looking down at her reflection in the surface.

After a moment, she walked back toward the fire. She noticed that I was watching her as I lowered myself back into my spot against the tree. She tiptoed to me and rested on her knees across from me. I extended my arm to her, offering her the shirt to dry her face with. Kara shook her head, not wanting to use my shirt, but I inched forward and dried her face and hair with it anyway.

I scooted back into my spot as she finished drying her face, resting my arms on my knees in front of me and relaxing my head against the tree. When she was finished drying, Kara crawled forward and sat between my legs. She clutched the shirt to her chest as she rested against me, her head fitting snugly below my chin. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her as close to me as I could.

"I thought I'd lost you." I whispered to her, feeling tears form in my eyes.

She looked up at me, her wet hair brushing against my bare chest. Her brow furrowed, seeing my tears, and she reached up to brush them away from my face. "You found me, Vilkas." With the crimson washed away from her face, I could see a small cut along her nose.

I shook my head, unable to stop myself from crying. "Aela found you. I couldn't." I ran my hand over her hair. "Look what they've done to you. I'm so sorry, Karalissa."

Kara's expression changed when I used her full name. She was confused for a moment, but she continued to wipe tears away from my face. "It's just hair, Vilkas."

"I know there was more than that, Kara. It took us days to find you two."

She furrowed her brow again, her eyes distant as she spoke. "They chained us up the moment we arrived, and they ignored us for hours. They asked us questions, the Imperial soldiers, things we didn't know the answers to. We didn't lie to them when we said we didn't know, but they didn't feed us to punish us anyway." Kara looked over to Farkas, who was still asleep. She continued at a whisper. "When the torturers came, we could take the threats and the electrocutions. We gave them information, what we knew. We made things up to make them stop."

Her face flushed of all color, and she clung to me tightly. "I felt everything he felt, Vilkas. They were beating him to death, and I felt everything."

I sniffled. "What do you mean?"

"The things he thought just before he died. The things he saw." She looked up at me again. "I felt all of it. He was so upset about something, Vilkas. He was being beaten to death and something was breaking his heart." She shook her head, trying to erase the memory. "It was the worst thing I've ever experienced."

I looked over at my brother again, who was still absolutely motionless. "Is he alright now?"

Kara shook her head. "I don't feel anything. He doesn't feel anything."

"You saved him, Kara." I said to her, holding the side of her face. "I can't thank you enough for that."

She just nodded and leaned against my shoulder once again. "I thought I'd lost him, too."

I pressed my cheek against the top of her head. "Everything I love was chained to a wall because I wasn't there to protect them. I shouldn't have gone with Cassius."

Kara sat upright, turning to face me. "Don't blame yourself, Vilkas. It's over now. That's all that matters."

"It's not though, Kara. There's still a war to fight, still so many cities to take." I put my hands on either side of her face. "I won't fight anymore. I'll stay with you, with my brother, with the Companions. I won't ever let something like this happen to you again."

"Vilkas, do you hear yourself?" She put her hands over mine. "This was not your fault. They would have taken anybody. Farkas and I just happened to be the easiest to take. You can't protect us from the bad that already exists in the world."

I began to cry again as I listened to her speak. "This is the second time now you've narrowly survived. I can't lose you, Kara. I won't survive it."

Kara's eyes spilled tears too, then. "You won't lose me, Vilkas. And I won't lose you." She ran her hands across my cheeks again, brushing tears away. "We'll get married and have children and grow old together. Farkas will train our children to be warriors and we'll sit on the steps of our house and read to them. You'll have to cook because I just can't, but I'll spend the rest of my days trying to make it up to you."

I laughed, brushing her hair away from her face. "Words cannot describe how much I love you, pup."

Then, Farkas stirred across from us. He was mumbling about wolves and blood, then he sat straight up. He looked to his side, then all around him, absolutely frantic.

"Lissa?" he yelled, waking Aela and Cassius. "Lissa!"

Kara stood immediately and walked toward him. "I'm right here, Farkas."

As she sat beside him, he wrapped his arms around her again. "I thought you were gone. I couldn't find you." He rested his head against her shoulder again.

"I'm here Farkas." She assured him. "You can sleep."

"Okay." he said, shutting his eyes. Within moments, he was asleep again. Kara rested her cheek on the top of his head, looking at me until she fell asleep too.

I looked over at Cassius, who stared back at me like he'd heard every word between me and Kara. After a moment, he gave me a nod, and went back to sleep. Aela, however, curled her legs to her chest, resting her chin on top of her knees. She watched Farkas sleep, curled up with Kara, alone with her thoughts.

I turned my attention back to the fields, waiting for the sun to rise again. Waiting for this day to end.