==Hi, everyone! My name is Tessa and I'm officially the new writer for this story :) I inherited this account from a good friend of mine and promised to continue the story she so desperately loved. Unfortunately, she had to let her fanfiction career go, but her intent and desires for this story will live on. I have been provided with more than enough information to know this story inside and out, and I'm so excited to get this trilogy back on its feet. I promise to provide content satisfying enough to the regular readers and to listen to any criticism/praises about anything I'll be doing from now on. Please enjoy!==

Ibranovski - "Vicious"

Haunted: Collapse into Caliginosity

Chapter 48:

Operation: Hypothermia

They were gone. Just like that. The strength of the Serpentine warriors overcame us after we stopped at the sight of three bodies being hurled into the malicious and relentless storm. They could no longer be seen. The curtain of frozen matter swallowed them without trouble. And now Cole and I lay flat on our backs, disarmed, and defeated. We failed the mission…miserably.

"Freedom!" the Hypnobrai General declared to the tribes.

The blue and red snakes looking down at us suddenly lifted their heads and turned their attention to their Generals. Cole and I gazed at each other, unsure of what to do next.

"Now that Lloyd and Hannah have been properly taken care of, I sssay we walk together asss brothersss and finisssh what our ancessstorsss ssstarted!" he continued. "Overthrow the human raccce!"

The Serpentine praised the idea. They all began migrating away from the area with the snake-bitten vehicles, completely forgetting about us. A single hypnobrai traveled in the opposite direction, not bothering to pay attention to us as he vanished from sight. Cole and I got to our feet again with our weapons in hand.

The first thing I did was run to the spot where Macca and the kids got launched. I absorbed how it was impossible to see anything within five feet of where I was standing. The view was full of fast-moving flurries of snow and nothing else.

"Nya, please tell me you still have a signal from Macca's tracker," Cole pleaded through his ear piece.

"Yeah I got it," she confirmed. "She suddenly traversed a lot of ground. What happened?"

"We got a big problem. We lost Macca and the kids, and the kids don't have trackers. What are we gonna do?"

"Okay, don't panic. I'm headed to your location now."

"You think they're still alive?" I asked him.

"They have to be. We'll find them–"

A loud rumbling became audible within the sound of snow pelting our coats. We turned around to find Zane and Jay on the Ice Speeder coming to a complete stop. The vehicle disappeared from beneath them.

Zane saw how there were only two of us when there were supposed to be three. "You really lost her?" he asked, devastated.

I felt very small when he approached me. His blue eyes burned into my soul. I gulped. We promised to keep Macca safe this time. Now she could die. "Z-Zane, listen–"

His hands gripped the front of my coat before I had time to blink. I felt myself being lifted from the ground. "You promised me you wouldn't lose her!" he angrily shouted.

"Zane! Stop!" Cole and Jay urged, yanking at him to no prevail.

"You're the reason why she came, and now you've killed her!" he wept. "This is all your fault!"

A large bright light came over us from above without warning. "Why are you fighting each other?" Nya questioned us from our ear pieces. "This isn't going to help us find Macca or Lloyd or Hannah any quicker."

Zane let me fall out of his hold on me. I got to see a very indistinct outline of the Bounty above us. It was the spotlight that was on us right now.

"All of you need to stay as a group and let me lead you to where she is. Then we'll look for Lloyd and Hannah. Are you in or out?"

"We're in," Cole answered.

Zane glared at me before summoning his Ice Speeder. I broke eye contact with him out of shame. He was right. This was my fault.

I was the last one to mount the vehicle. The spotlight began moving away from us, so Zane followed it. We traveled through the heart of the blizzard, experiencing unexpected rises and dips along the way. Nobody fell off even though Zane pursued the light with determination.

Throughout the ride, I prayed that there were still three heartbeats out there. As long as blood was circulating and breath was filling their lungs, everything would be okay. I was sure of it.

"You're getting closer," Nya voiced in our ears.

Zane slowed down his speed. We kept gazing around to see a body lying in the snow somewhere.

"She's not moving, is she?" I asked Nya.

"No, she hasn't moved at all. Almost there…" her sentence trailed.

No, she hasn't moved at all, the sentence repeated in my mind.

I sighed.

Please be alive, Macca.

"Stop!" Nya notified with the halt of the spotlight.

We violently halted.

"She's right in front of you."

The Ice Speeder disappeared again. We looked around to see nothing but mounds of snow.

"There's nothing here," Jay stated.

"Unless…" Zane began.

He gasped and suddenly began digging in the middle of the lighted spot. We joined in, frantically moving heaps of snow out of the way. I penetrated the snow with the tips of my fingers like a shovel, trying to touch something solid.

"Hey!" Jay signaled. "I found something!"

We watched him uproot a leg from underneath a layer of snow. Zane quickly uncovered more until he was able to pull out her entire body. Her eyes were closed, her hair was frozen, and her lips were blue. Zane slid off his coat's hood and held her face close to his ear to listen to any breathing. Then he felt for a pulse in her carotid artery.

"There's nothing," he exhaled, revealing his face to the harsh conditions. He opened her coat up and began doing chest compressions to start her heart back up. It was hard to watch, and I felt guilty for it.

Nya dropped the anchor a few feet away. One of us would have to bring Macca up and the rest of us would have to keep looking for the kids, without an exact location to go by.

Zane held her mouth open and pinched her nose to fill her lungs with two breaths of air. When he continued to push on her chest, he pushed firmer until she suddenly gasped for air. A wave of relief came over me at the sight of Zane opening his coat and pulling Macca into him to keep her warm as she coughed blockage out her system.

"We got her, Nya," Cole indicated.

"I think Lloyd and Hannah are nearby. One of you come up with Macca and the rest of you stay together and get the kids,"

"I'll take her up," Jay volunteered.

Zane handed her off to him and watched as both of them got lifted to the Bounty by sitting on the anchor.

His attention got ripped away, however, once they were out of sight.

"What is it, Zane?" Cole asked.

Without answering, Zane got to his feet and ran out from under the spotlight.

Cole and I chased after him, but were met with the assaulting winds and large icy clumps of snow. I pulled out my golden sword and made flames crawl up the blade to provide a source of light for us, but it was nearly impossible for us to see anything, especially Zane.

Nya found us with the spotlight again, revealing Zane kneeling down next to Hannah, who was crying. It was difficult to recognize her at first. A layer of snow was attached to her clothes and exposed skin.

"You're okay," he assured her, picking her up.

"Ow!" she whimpered, grabbing at her ankle.

"Do you know where Lloyd is?" Cole questioned her, taking her from Zane.

She shook her head and made an inaudible comment that was bombarded with more crying.

"We got Hannah," I informed Nya.

"Good. Anchor is on its way back down."

"I'll stay with her," Cole insisted. "Go and find Lloyd."

Zane made eye contact with me and nodded once. I held my sword up again and followed him as closely as I could, but he was running and I was getting tired. The taste of hot saliva filled my mouth as a sign of exhaustion. The coldness made my knees and lungs ache. There was absolutely no moisture in the air. Zane's ghostly outline was the only thing I could barely see within the blizzard. Soon the spotlight found us again, but I had already fallen behind.

"Can you sense anything?" I huffed over the noise of the howling wind.

"Not exactly," he responded. "But we mustn't stop now."

"Kai?" Nya's voice said in my ear. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," I honestly replied, breathing hard. "My joints are killing me."

"Go, Kai," Zane said.

I noticed that his outline was now gone. Not the even the spotlight was on him anymore.

"I can find Lloyd on my own. You go back to the Bounty and help take care of Macca and Hannah."

"And leave you out here by yourself?"

"It's a normal environment for me. I'm okay. It would be better for me to find him at my own pace than to be worried about your wellbeing at the same time."

"Okay, okay," I agreed, letting the flames on my sword die down. "Just promise me you'll stay alive."

"I'm the Ninja of Ice, remember? I know my strengths, but I do promise to stay alive. Just…keep Macca warm for me, okay? Comfort her."

The anchor dropped next to me and the spotlight moved away to shine on Zane, who was standing far away and looking in my direction.

"I will."

He nodded and turned his back to me, dissolving back into the blizzard as if he was composed of ice himself.

I climbed onto the anchor and felt it rise back up. Somehow, my brother was going to come out of this victorious. I believed in him.

Thank you for reading! More to come! Feel free to leave a review :)