A/N: Hey, if y'all could offer up a quick prayer or well-wishes for those hit by Hurricane Harvey, that'd mean a lot to me. I'm from the area, and my family's fine, but others aren't. My tumblr's got a tag, "hurricane-harvey", that has information on how to help people, if you want to take a more active role or even just reblog. Address is just my username, no dashes or anything. Thanks for your time.

Disclaimer: I hate writing combat scenes. I am not very good at writing combat scenes. I apologize in advance for this upcoming combat scene. I researched best I could, but describing it is another matter entirely.

Disclaimer #2: There are some direct quotes from the anime here. They are obviously not mine.

AlphAOmegA151: Hi! Welcome to the fic and thank you for reviewing! Don't worry, your comment wasn't too long—comments are never too long for authors!

She didn't sleep on the ride over. Chiaki was distantly aware that she should at least try to catch a quick nap, but her mind was buzzing too much. Instead, she busied herself looking over her equipment—camos, bulletproof vest, SIG Sauer pistol, ammunition, headset and mic…standard reserve military fare. She knew the main military had even more, helmets and rifles and wearing jet-black head to foot.

Not long into the flight, Hayami-sensei poked her head out from the cockpit, one hand clutching a hanging strap tightly. "There's an update on the situation." Her face was grim, a poor sign.

"Togami and those with him breached the building. While they explored, they triggered an explosion somehow, and now they and the entrance are buried under rubble. And we still don't know where any of the people from the meeting are."

They accepted the news with solemn nods. The helicopter forged on.

Sometime later, the island's harsh black cliffs came into view, solid shapes against the red sky. In contrast, the landing pad below was in stark definition, brightly lit to guide the helicopters in touchdown. Chiaki could see figures scurrying back and forth on it as they drew closer, and the collapsed tower. From this distance, they looked like ants swarming around fallen building blocks.

Their descent was smooth and uninterrupted. A short distance away, Chiaki saw that the second helicopter, carrying the other half of the seventh division's forces, had already landed, and Akagi-san was striding towards them. He had to yell to be heard over the loud whip of the rotorblades. "Listen up, everyone! There's a network jamming signal attacking the wi-fi. We can hack a way past it if we connect directly to the computer network. To the west there's a vessel traffic service tower, that's where we're going. Group A, we're setting up surveillance to watch for Remnant forces. Group B, you're combing the corporate building for clues. Everyone follow me!"

The collapsed building was surrounded by two thick, circular strips of pavements, connected by bridges. A single bridge led from the landing pad to the entrance like an inverse castle and moat. The two groups walked around the circumference of the inner ring, passing a few other buildings and people carrying equipment or stretchers.

When they set foot in the VTS tower, ten of the twenty therapists stayed on the first floor to make defenses. The other half, including Chiaki, followed the cyber department up. She split off from them at the elevator, looking mournfully at the stairs before bucking her shoulders and starting to climb.

She was the last to arrive, emerging from the stairwell to see everyone else setting up. The visual control room was circular, completely glass to watch the air and sea for incoming traffic. There was another stairwell, and when Chiaki explored it, she saw it led to another, smaller room, filled with computers and stacked atop this one like layers of a wedding cake. Two guards were already stationed inside, right by the entrance. She quickly went back down, helping to overturn tables and push consoles to create cover. When that was done, she took up her appointed position and stood guard.

It did not take her long to realize that sentry duty was boring. It varied between watching the radar, watching the horizon, watching the occupants, and watching the room's entrances. And that was it. Just watching and rotating positions every twenty minutes.

As time crawled by, the cyber department sent down reports. They hadn't found anything in the building, and suspected that the killing game was being held in a secret, nearby location, with a separate computer network. Without knowing where a mainframe to that network was, they couldn't connect directly, and thus couldn't do anything. Currently they were browsing Future Foundation files to see if they contained any clues. Other divisions reported they'd started rescuing a handful of people from the rubble. Chiaki held her breath every time a name was reported, but she heard no mention of Yukizome-sensei, or anyone at the meeting at all.

"We're under attack!"

The voice in her ear was loud, unexpected, and startling. She gasped, one hand going to her headset. It was her second turn standing guard in the upper room, and the calmness of the atmosphere had lulled her into relaxing. Around her, the cyber department, who had been buried in their computers since the jamming signal went down just a few minutes ago, jerked in shock.

"Keep working, I'll focus on this," Akagi-san told them, then tuned into the headset. "Arakawa-kun, right? What's your status?"

They waited with bated breath. Silence was all that greeted them.

"Arakawa, what's your status?!" This time it was Hayami-sensei who demanded it, loud and angry and wrought with worry.

"Hey," one of the technicians called nervously, making Chiaki start—she'd almost forgotten there were other people around. "There's a ship approaching."

"Hail them, obviously!" Akagi-san snapped, only half-paying attention. "Arakawa-kun, come in!"

Chiaki tuned the cyber department out as the headset crackled to life again, the man on the other end finally responding. But his voice wasn't as clear, broken up by gunfire and static. "Main military—nowhere—attacking us! Our own—need backup! We need—"

There was a shot, a scream, and then nothing. Chiaki touched her headset in hesitant shock. Questions flew by in quick succession. Did I just hear someone die? Did he say our own soldiers were attacking us? Why would they do that? What's going on?

In the stunned silence that followed, the voice responding to the hail rang loud and clear. "...to help."

She actually stumbled backwards, rear hitting the console behind her softly. That voice. It was soft, masculine, and slow. It was a voice that made her heart pick up and her stomach flip. Kamukura-kun…!

Chiaki almost threw herself forward and screamed the Konami code into the radio. Only her shock and a tenuous grasp of her surroundings, of Hayami-sensei yelling orders in her ear and the fight going on down below, kept her in place. Still—her heart soared. He's back! He's here!

"Reinforcements? What division are you in?"

"We aren't in one. We're...unofficial help." We! He said we! Everyone else is here too! "Togami Byakuya called for us."

The technician glanced at Akagi-san uncertainly. "Sir?"

"It's fine," he said. "Tell them to head over to—"

"Are you sure? We can't get in contact with Togami-san to verify—"

"That's a Future Foundation vessel." Akagi-san sounded as if he were fighting to keep his voice even. "I think that's a good source of credibility. More than that, our own military has apparently turned against us. We need every bit of help we can get."

The technician quietly obeyed, telling Kamukura-kun to dock at Pier 6. Chiaki was all prepared to ask where Pier 6 was and run there herself when Hayami-sensei's impatient voice rattled in her ear, unwelcome. "—understand, Watanabe?"

"Huh?" she stammered, having not heard whatever the combat instructor had said. There was too much going on—too much begging her attention—her head was spinning from ping-ponging between things like this—

"I said, you and Honda are staying up here to guard the cyber division. Everyone else is heading down for backup. Do you understand?"

Her spirits sank. "…Affirmative."

There was no way she could leave now. There was a fight going on, and there were people who needed her protection, and…and she couldn't go running off on her own again. Not with no idea of where she was going. But oh, she wanted to see her friends so much. She wanted it so badly.

More than ever, determination flared deep in her. They absolutely had to succeed here. She would see her friends again after this. They'd help, they and Naegi-kun would explain everything, and surely that would be enough to get them pardoned. She'd been waiting years already, she could wait just a little bit longer.

It was not long before Hayami-sensei called them up on the headset again. "Watanabe, Honda, be on guard. A couple of soldiers slipped past us. They're heading up for you now. I'll try to get there as soon as possible, just hold out."

At this they glanced at each other, then at the cyber department. They were on the same frequency; they'd also heard the warnings. Though their faces had paled, they still focused on the monitors before them. "You should start preparing," Akagi-san said, and only the slight waver in his voice betrayed his careful composure.

"Barricade yourselves in," she told them. "Don't come down until we tell you it's safe."

Her nerves buzzed as she slowly crept down the stairs. Chiaki peered around. The tower's height and glass windows gave an excellent overview of the island; down below were flashes of light on the ground and wisps of smoke rising into the sky. It was a strange, silent world, and she stared, wondering if her friends were caught up in it.

Honda-kun cautiously lowered his gun. "We should probably—"

He didn't have time to finish the sentence. The door was kicked open by a man wearing a Future Foundation military uniform. The light gleamed off the visor of his helmet as he levelled a gun around the room. For a moment, she and Honda-kun were too surprised to move. It was one thing to hear you were being attacked by your own side; it was quite another to see proof in its entirety.

Then the intruder started firing. They both dropped down. Glass shattered. To Chiaki's left, Honda-kun screamed. Her breath caught. It didn't matter she didn't know him very well, all she could think of was that a comrade was hurt, and there were people behind her needing protection, and that she couldn't afford to screw up again.

Future Foundation body armor covered much of the chest, but left the limbs unprotected. Chiaki saw this, got up on a knee, raised her handgun, and fired twice. She didn't even think about it. She just acted.

She rarely missed in target practice. She did not miss now.

Blood blossomed out of both the man's legs. He screamed and crumpled, clutching at them. Chiaki froze. She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Inanely, wildly, she thought, that man is hurt.

I should help him.

Nevermind that she'd been the one to shoot him, or that he'd attacked first. Natural human empathy took over, and she lowered the gun a fraction, blustering, "Oh my god, are you alri—"

Two more soldiers rushed up. She broke off mid-sentence, diving behind the barricade. Gunfire rang out, ripping through the space she'd been moments before. Honda-kun was already bunkered down, bleeding from his hip. His eyes were stretched wide, the whites completely visible, and his hands trembled around his pistol. "Why are they shooting at us?!" he screamed.

Frustrated, confused, and scared, Chiaki yelled back, "I don't know!" What's going on? Where's the rest of the division? What about my friends? I can't lose them, not when we're right on the cusp of—

Her ears perked up at a notable lull in the fire. Reloading. Taking a deep breath, Chiaki poked her head over the barricade. She had seconds to pick a target, and her eyes darted between the duo, trying to choose—

No time. They were slamming the magazines into place. She picked one at random and fired off a quick round, this time into his upper arm. He dropped his gun, mouth twisting in pain, but didn't go down. Two more shots to the chest fixed that. One from Chiaki, one from Honda-kun. She prayed the body armor was enough to cushion the blows. She didn't want to kill anyone, she just wanted this to be over. And limb shots clearly weren't enough.

She ducked back down, flinching at the rat-tat-tat of the rifle, mere milliseconds later. Mentally, Chiaki counted how many bullets she had left, peered around the side—oh god, another three had arrived, how many were there? But they couldn't enter the fight; the stairway was narrow and clogged with two bodies, now, preventing more than a pair at a time from coming up. And for whatever reason, they weren't using cover. These were only slight advantages, but they were just enough.

The battle went on in this manner for a few minutes, and then, fast as it started, it ended. All was quiet except for low groans. Despite all the guns that had been fired, Future Foundation's cutting-edge headset technology had done its job; Chiaki's ears were ringing no more than if she'd been in the range alone.

Chiaki shook slightly as she crouched to examine Honda-kun. His breathing was rapid and shallow, face contorted with pain. His eyes were closed, but he forced them open when her shadow fell across him. "It's over?"

"Yeah."

Footsteps. She raised her gun again, but it was a group of familiar faces. The rest of her squad, supporting each other over the bodies in the stairwell and entering the room. Surprise and respect were written on their features.

"I'm sorry, Watanabe, Honda," Hayami-sensei rasped. Her face looked pale, her breathing ragged. Chiaki could see her pressing a hand under her right armpit, red spreading around it. "They slipped past us, and the situation was so bad, we couldn't leave until we finished up. I should have left more with you. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but Honda-kun's hurt. What about the people downstairs?"

Her face became shadowed. "I've got a couple injured with me. Everyone else is dead. Matsumoto, help Honda."

As the brunette moved to do so, Chiaki balked at Hayami-sensei's words. "Dead?"

"That's what I said, Watanabe. Us fourteen are all that's left of the guard, and less than half of us are in good condition."

"What about—what about those people who said they came to help? Did you see them?"

"Nah, they must have gone somewhere else. Dunno where." Hayami-sensei turned to the rest of the room, still clutching at her wound. "You two, sweep the halls and make sure none are left. Everyone else, see to the injured. Including the attackers."

From his spot leaning against the barricade, Honda-kun protested, "They were firing at us!"

"They're still members of Future Foundation," the combat instructor snarled. "And until we know what's going on, we'll treat them as such."

As the rest moved into action, Chiaki's legs buckled. She'd help in a bit. She just—she needed a moment. Now that the adrenaline was fading, she felt—drained. Elated at surviving. The slightest bit remorseful, as she heard one or two pronounced dead.

But that was it. Only a little remorseful. Beyond that…nothing. And that was disquieting.

Why were remorse and guilt so scarce?

Maybe it was because she wasn't sure she had killed them? It wasn't like there was any way to know for sure she'd fired the fatal bullets. Maybe it had been Honda-kun.

But maybe it had been her. So, shouldn't she be feeling worse? Shouldn't she feel different? Wasn't killing supposed to leave some sort of mark on you?

It had been kill or be killed. She knew that. She just thought…

She didn't know.

Her phone rang in her pocket.

"Ignore it!" She jumped at Hayami-sensei's bark, but it hadn't been directed at her. The scarred woman was clutching a radio and glaring at a startled-looking therapist, who was frozen in the act of taking his phone out. It hadn't been just hers that had rung, Chiaki realized. Everyone's had.

"I—but it might be—"

"Ignore it!" Hayami-sensei stopped, gasping for breath. Someone had dressed her wound, but it was soaking through again. Even though she'd taken a seat, she was sweating heavily, and her face was red. Chiaki wondered, with a flash of concern, if a major artery or an organ had been hit. "Togami came back online…he's figured it out. Someone's…sending out a brainwashing video…"

"A video?" Someone squeaked.

"Yeah…the main military wears…these helmets with built-in video…and special frequencies. They got hit first…now this person…is trying to broadcast it…to everyone else…"

Chiaki suddenly had the urge to throw her phone far away from her. Judging from the shocked and scared expressions on everyone else's faces, they were fighting the same reaction. Those poor people…they didn't have a choice…

What a horrid, tragic, despairing affair this was.

Hayami-sensei's eyes fluttered closed, and she groaned. Chiaki gasped and started to move towards her. Matsumoto-san beat her there, hurriedly pulling out more bandages and the field IV equipment. Biting her lip, the gamer turned away, reaching for one of the first-aid kits they'd brought. Now that she was up, she might as well help.

And for a while, that was soothing. Now that she had a task to focus on, she could compartmentalize all those emotions away. The two scouts returned, reported the building to be clear, and then dove in. It wasn't truly peaceful, but Chiaki still felt herself calm somewhat.

"Hey, um, this might be a stupid question…" Matsumoto-san said after a while, breaking the silence. "But…shouldn't someone from the cyber department have come to check on us by now?"

"Oh," Chiaki said, glancing up, "we told them to barricade themselves in and not come out until we said it was safe."

They all paused.

We told them to barricade themselves in.

There's a brainwashing video being broadcast.

The room they're in is full of monitors.

It sank in for everyone at the exact same time. "Shit!"

Chiaki fumbled with her headset. "Cyber department? Can you hear me? It's Watanabe! Don't look at the computers, just come straight down! They'll brainwash you! Cyber department?"

No answer. She glanced at the stairwell, indecisive. Should I go up to check? If they were brainwashed, they might attack her. Or maybe she'd get brainwashed too. She didn't know. She didn't know!

She swore softly. "Hayami-sensei, they're not answering—"

Chiaki turned to see Hayami-sensei lying still, eyes closed and complexion gray. A trickle of blood was running from the corner of her mouth. "Hayami-sensei?"

"S-She's not waking up!"

"Oh god, is she dead?!"

"Shut up and let me check!" Matsumoto-san shrieked, voice cracking with stress. She crouched by their squad leader's side, searching for a pulse. Everyone quieted.

"She's still alive, just unconscious," the brunette reported after a few seconds, to sighs of relief. "But...I think the bullet hit something inside…and there's no exit wound, so it's probably stuck there. Or maybe it hit a bone and broke apart? I…I don't know…"

"Is there anything we can do?" Honda-kun rasped, eyes fluttering open.

"No, she needs—she needs more than what we have! A proper doctor, a-and surgery, or she's really going to die!" Matsumoto-san began to cry.

Panic started to spread. In a couple moments, Chiaki knew hysteria would break out, and then the situation would be unsalvageable. Someone had to seize control, and fast. Buried deep in her, unused for so long, the part of her that had been leader of Class 77 emerged. "Everyone!" she yelled. "Okay, look, I have a plan!"

Everybody stopped instantly and looked at her, wide-eyed relief spreading. She suspected it was less because of her and more because they were just glad to have someone taking charge. For a moment, she quailed under their expectations, the ghost of failure whispering in her ear.

Chiaki licked her lips. "Okay," she said, mentally organizing a list. There are fourteen of us, eight wounded. If this were a video game, what would I be doing? "First, we need two people to barricade the upstairs from this side and keep watch, in case the cyber department does try to attack."

She pointed at random, and they scrambled to obey. Chiaki continued, "You two, stand guard outside. Matsumoto-san, keep watch over the injured. Now, we need a doctor for Hayami-sensei. She was using a radio to communicate with the other divisions, right? Can someone pass it to me?"

Sweaty palms pressed it into her hand. Chiaki fiddled with it for a few moments, trying to remember how it worked and what frequency the fourth division was on. Hoping for the best, she pressed the button down and spoke. "Um, this is the seventh division. Is anyone from the fourth division listening?"

A pause. "We hear you. What's your status?"

"We've been attacked. One of us has serious injuries, we need a surgeon."

"Can you bring them to the field hospital?"

She looked around. "I—no, we don't have enough people for that. Can you send a surgeon?"

"We're pinned down. We can't divert any of our soldiers to play escort. You'll have to come and do it yourself."

She swallowed, throat going dry. "Affirmative."

Closing the connection, she turned and saw quiet fear; the radio was loud enough that the entire room had heard the exchange. Chiaki bit her lip. "Well, you heard them. Don't worry; I'll run down and fetch the doctor myself."

"You're going alone?" Matsumoto-san's voice wavered.

"I have to. You're pretty much the last uninjured person here, and someone has to stay with the wounded." Don't bring them with you like Komaeda-kun. "Oh! Don't forget to tie the attackers up and take their weapons away."

She paused, looked around. They probably need some encouragement now… "If more soldiers come in, we can defeat them, even injured. You saw them fighting earlier, right? Like amateurs. I think…I think the brainwashing, this version at least, affects their higher cognitive functions. They only did so well before because they took us by surprise, but now we're prepared. So, let's stay strong and not give up hope!"

Someone called, "If more attack…should we kill them?"

Chiaki closed her eyes. She suddenly felt as if the weight of the world was pressing on her shoulders. It wasn't the first time she'd felt the burden of a leader's decisions, but it was the first time she'd properly appreciated just how heavy it was. "Incapacitate them if you can, but if you can't…" She sighed. "Do what you must to protect yourself."

As she headed downstairs, Chiaki started to shake. Somehow, she'd managed to keep calm when everyone was staring at her. But now that she was alone, all her repressed fear was rushing back.

What if I gave the wrong orders? What if I've done something wrong again? What if people die because of me? What if I die this time?

She paused in the stairwell, sinking down as the tears finally came. And for a moment, she let them. She let herself cry, let herself be Nanami Chiaki, the girl who may have just killed, the girl who just wanted to be with her loved ones again, the girl who was so, so, so scared.

And then, as she stood, she took all those feelings and placed them in an inner box. Her legs began to shake less as she mentally strapped the box's lids down. Her steps were more even as she locked that box behind a huge, enormous safe. Her shoulders relaxed as she imagined the safe's door slamming into place. By the time she'd reached the bottom of the stairs, slightly winded from her run down, Chiaki had felt herself enter 'gaming mode'—that tunnel vision she got when her attention was centered solely on the game at hand.

People were relying on her. She had a job to do. She could deal later.

As she stepped into the lobby, ignoring the corpses of her comrades, Chiaki raised the radio again. "Fourth division, where are you located?"

"There's a gray building on the outermost ring, directly across the control tower. See it?"

She looked out the window. "Yes, I do."

Clipping the radio to her belt, she took another breath, psyched herself up, then stepped outside. A world of gunfire, rain, yells and smoke rushed her senses. Chiaki peered around. The worst of the fighting was probably around the meeting building, where the bulk of the main military and rescue forces had been congregated, but even halfway around the perimeter, there were still a few battles.

Okay, try to remember. These two rings have bridges connecting them. I think the closest one was…that way? Mustn't get this wrong…

Chiaki took off running, trying to move cover to cover. There wasn't much, only a few parked vehicles, knocked over crates, and stray sandbags. The strip had far too much open ground for her comfort, and she stayed low.

A spray of bullets exploded into the ground right in front of her, sending tiny slivers of pavement flying. She stumbled to a halt and raised an arm to shield her face, wincing as tiny cuts were torn open on the limb. Chiaki searched the area rapidly, heart beating panicked wings in her chest, but no one was looking at her. It seemed to be stray fire. She took a precious second to force her breathing back under control, then kept running.

There it was. The gray building. Despite her misgivings, she'd reached it unnoticed. A sandbag barricade was raised around it, still bodies lying on the ground. The soldiers on the other side tensed at her approach. Her heart stopped as she found herself staring down a dozen muzzles.

"I'm not brainwashed!" she yelled, raising her hands. "I'm from Seven! I talked to your leader on the radio!"

They lowered their weapons, waving her in. She scrambled over the sandbags, hopping down onto the other side. "Surgeon?" she gasped out.

"Tsushima-kun's getting ready in the back. Last tent on your left." One pointed, and she barely gave a nod of acknowledgement before sprinting in the direction he'd indicated. Wait, tent? This is indoors.

She soon saw what the man meant by tent. The building was evidently a garage or warehouse of some kind, massive enough to hold many camo green tents. It was a bustle of activity, people rushing to and from, carrying patients on stretchers, moving medical equipment, and yelling orders. Her heart twisted—how many wounded are there? How many casualties?—but she didn't stop.

Reaching the designated tent, she pushed through it, calling the surgeon's name. She found a young man in his late mid-thirties at the back, shaved bald and sloppily dressed, bent over an unconscious woman. He muttered angrily to himself as he injected something into her veins, checking a monitor.

"Tsushima-kun?" she called, and he started, glancing up. His eyes were wild, dark half-moons formed underneath them.

"You're the one from Seven, right? Just—give me a moment—Doi-kun!" He yelled into his own headset. "Doi-kun, this is Tsushima. I need you to take over here!"

Chiaki gritted her teeth, hopping in impatience as precious seconds ticked by before a young man finally scrambled in. After whispering hurried instructions, Tsushima-kun broke apart. "Sorry! I was going to pack, then she started going into shock, and I had to attend to her—"

He talked very fast. Seeming to realize she could barely understand him and that he was wasting time besides, Tsushima-kun took a deep breath, shook his head, and slowed. "Nevermind. You said someone needed me. What's the injury and what are the symptoms?"

Chiaki felt so stupid. Why didn't I think to say that over the radio? "Shot under the armpit, probably from a standard military-issued rifles. Labored breathing, sweating, fainting, and she started bleeding from the mouth just before I left."

Tsushima-kun was moving around, throwing equipment into a tattered black bag as she spoke. He paused at her final words, gaze darkening. "Was she shot on the right side or left side?"

"Right."

He relaxed a fraction. "Alright, that's good. Harder to hit the heart on that side. Blood type?"

"I don't know, but we've already set up a field transfusion."

"That's good, that's excellent...still, just in case…" He grabbed a small cooler, hefting up his bag in his other hand. He must have done this dozens of times before, she realized as he gestured for her to lead.

Unfortunately, her luck did not hold on the return trip. As they approached the bridge, a pair of soldiers rounded the perimeter. They spotted each other instantly. Their rifles came up.

The only thing resembling nearby cover was a parked helicopter. Chiaki dove behind it. Too slow. Pain exploded along her left arm, and she couldn't hold back a scream.

I won't die here! I absolutely won't die here! I'll see everyone again!

The problem with gunfights was, there was so little that would drop a person instantly, and she couldn't stick around. Someone would die if she didn't finish this escort mission quickly. Headshots were pretty much a guarantee, though; at worst, the pair would be knocked out good. They might even survive, depending on how much the helmets dulled the impact. And they were only three or four meters away. She could make that shot.

Pressing her injured arm under the right for steadiness, Chiaki spun out of cover, raised herself onto a knee, and fired off two return shots. Her grip wasn't good enough; the recoil knocked her arm into her nose. Stars winked in front of her eyes. But the soldiers' heads jerked backwards. They fell, rifles firing uselessly into the air.

It was getting easier. That was disturbing. She didn't want it to get easier.

Now that the danger had passed, Tsushima-kun was instantly by her side, pulling out bandages. "It can wait," she insisted, and he glared.

"Blood loss is not something to be trifled with, especially when there isn't time to check how bad that is. It won't take more than a few seconds."

She pursed her lips, but recognizing the truth of that, allowed him to tie a hasty tourniquet around the limb. Blood dripped from her nose, staining her lips, but there was less they could do about that except wipe it away. "Can we get going now?"

"After you."

This time, Chiaki kept her pistol out of its holster when they resumed running. Each step jostled her arm, sending a fresh wave of agony up it, but she gritted her teeth and shoved it aside.

This pain is nothing. Compared to the maze, this pain is nothing.

They'd almost made it to the VTS tower when Chiaki saw more soldiers approaching. She swore, glancing between the doors and the military. Run or fight? She didn't want to expose her back, but there wasn't cover here—

But then, to her astonishment, the soldiers stopped short.

"What's happening?" she hissed at Tsushima-kun, poised to run, unsure if it was a trap of some kind. He looked just as lost as she.

"I think," he said slowly, watching the soldiers with cautious eyes, "the brainwashing's been undone."

That…made sense. She couldn't hear gunfire anymore; the island had fallen deathly silent. Even as she watched, the unmoving figures were lowering their weapons, shaking their heads in confusion. A beam of sunlight hit her in the eye, and she squeezed them shut.

Sunlight?

Her eyes popped open. Chiaki looked up. And she stared. It hadn't registered with her before now, adrenaline pumping through her system and mind focused on the task at hand. But the rain had stopped and, for the first time in ages…the sky wasn't red. It was growing lighter, in shades of pale yellow and pastel pink and baby blue.

…Dawn…?

…When was the last time I saw a dawn?

She'd been lucky enough to catch a few sunsets when the sky whimsically cleared up, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen a sunrise.

If it was dawn, then…did that mean they'd been here all night? Had everything from Gekkogahara-san's death 'til now really happened in just one day?

The reminder suddenly sent waves of exhaustion crashing into her. Her arm throbbed painfully. She swayed. Dimly, she could hear Tsushima-kun yelling in alarm, but she couldn't seem to focus on it. Her vision was going dark…

Softness under her. Silence around her. Grimacing, Chiaki opened her eyes. Her head was spinning; her mouth felt full of cotton. She groaned, waiting for the winking spots in her field of vision to go away. She vaguely remembered the sun, and people running around, and being hurried away...

She rolled her head from side to side, searching the room. She was in a hospital bed, an IV trailing from her right arm. A portly nurse was nearby, checking something off on a clipboard. She looked up to find her patient awake, smiled, and put it down. "Up, dear? You're in the field hospital, safe as can be. You haven't been out long, just a few hours. Plenty of time to get treated."

"...What happened?"

"You passed out, dear. Exhaustion, primarily, and a bit of dehydration. You kept drifting in and out of coherency."

Chiaki glanced at her arm, now swathed in proper bandages, as the nurse continued, "Two of the bullets just grazed you, and the one that actually went in went clean through. No structural or vascular damage, I'm happy to say, so you get to keep full function of that arm!"

She blinked as a pair of unnecessary glasses were placed on her nose. "Here you go!"

Oh…right. Her disguise. She'd fainted while still wearing it. "Um, thank you."

Chiaki had to spend ten or so minutes answering questions, the nurse checking to make sure she was no worse for wear from her fainting spell, before she finally got to ask one of her own. "What's going on? Is everyone alright?"

The nurse's face became sad. "Well, the killing game ended and the brainwashing's been stopped. But we had quite a number of causalities, unfortunately including nearly all our branch heads, and many injured."

Chiaki's chest constricted. "Our branch heads? W-Who made it from the game?"

"Naegi-kun, Kirigiri-san, Asahina-san, and Munakata-san…and he jumped on the first helicopter back to Tokyo as soon as we were done patching him up! Hmph. Never thought he'd be one to shirk responsibility…"

She ignored the nurse's mutterings for the one name she hadn't heard. "That's…that's it? No one else survived?"

"I'm afraid not. Even Branch Thirteen's leader died in the battle here."

Chiaki felt dizzy. Yukizome-sensei is dead? No matter how often her mind repeated those words, they refused to sink in. She couldn't be dead. She couldn't. Chiaki was supposed to save her, somehow, and all her friends, and they were all supposed to meet again, and—

That push in the elevator wasn't supposed to be the last time she ever saw her.

Grief threatened to crush her, but the reminder of the elevator, the events leading up to it, made her breath catch. My friends. They'd been here. If they'd died too—no, no, she couldn't even think about it."Where are my friends?" she gasped.

"You're from the seventh division, right? Yes, you came running in to get a doctor. Don't worry, he made it in time to treat your injured. Everyone's safe."

"No, not them!" Part of her was relieved that her efforts hadn't been in vain, that she'd actually saved people. But that part was drowned out by terror for her friends' fates. "They aren't in a division, but they showed up to help—they were led by Kamukura Izuru—are they alright?!"

For just a moment, the nurse's smile faltered, alarm and fear crossing her face. "A group led by Kamukura Izuru," she said after a pause. There was something indiscernible behind her voice. "Are you sure you're not confused, dear?"

"No, I'm not! They have to be alright—"

"Don't you know they're the ones behind the video?"

Chiaki swore she felt her heart stop. "Video? Th-The brainwashing video?"

"That and the other one… Oh, that's right, you fainted before it was broadcast."

She gaped, desperately lost and afraid. The nurse eyed her a moment longer, still wearing that strange—wary, Chiaki realized suddenly—expression. But looking at her upset patient must have stirred some pity in her, for the severity in her face diminished. Reaching for an iPad, she flicked through it for a few moments before turning the screen towards Chiaki. "Well, here's a recording we took."

The video was lit by a soft red glow, familiar figures lined up in two rows. Her breath caught, seeing her friends for the first time in years. But her eyes were drawn to Kamukura-kun, standing front and looked different. Very different. His hair was all gone, cut in a short and spiky style she nostalgically recognized, and he wasn't wearing his suit anymore. Something about his eyes looked odd, too. But it was the expression on his face that made her feel like she'd been plunged into ice water. There was a knife of a smile there, a cold, sharp thing. Enoshima's smile.

"Did you enjoy the game that we set up? Now, you all should understand. How boring the Future Foundation is.

"Don't you think it would be boring for the world to be saved with a happy ending? That is why we wish to plunge the world into despair once more.

"The world needs despair."

Chiaki did not say anything when the video ended. She did not move. She did not blink. She just sat there, eyes wide and burning. It felt like gravity had increased tenfold. Like the sky was falling down around her and the earth was swallowing her whole. In those conditions…of course it was impossible to move.

…What…?

This…this doesn't make sense.

They were coming to help…

How could this happen…?

…Ah.

This is…

Despair?

A/N: War is hell, and if there's one thing I really didn't like in DR3, it was that Ryota brainwashing a bunch of people into killing each other, as a distraction, was completely waved over. Show the effects that has, the damage that causes!

Besides doing the above, this chapter served a lovely two-fold purpose: to give Chiaki her redemption moment, where she successfully leads and saves a group of people…and a kick in the gut moment, where she's reminded that the most important things are still out of her reach. *scrambles away from pitchforks and torches* Nonono! It's always darkest before dawn! The greater the despair the greater the hope! The greater the despair the greater the hope!