hey friends! here is chapter six!

i can't believe i'm already almost done with shattered sun...i literally just started it! man this fic is going by so fast...i don't want it to end! hopefully this installment is still well-written even though i'm going so fast! please let me know how it's going! I would love to hear from you...especially you, silvie! i've missed your reviews!

just to remind everyone we're on Tadashi's perspective!

thanks everyone for reading!

peace out!

Fifteen minutes later, everyone has made it back to base, including Momokase. Megan isn't here to go through the whole should-we-trust-you process, so I make an executive decision and just say she's in. I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll need some very sharp blades to break Hiro and Meg out of wherever they're being kept.

"We've gotta go get Hiro and Meg," I gasp as soon as we're all gathered in the hollow. "Oh, wait—is anyone hurt? I've got my first aid kit—we should probably take care of that first."

"Al got grazed," Liv says worriedly, and Krei huffs indignantly, though his hand is pressed to his cheek, presumably covering the wound. "I'm fine!"

"Let me see," I request, crossing the hollow over to Krei. He sighs and removes his hand from his face, revealing a long, bloody gash. I gently run my fingers over the cut, relieved to discover that while it's a long cut, it's not deep—no stitches required.

"I'll just rub some bacitracin on it and then get you some gauze," I tell Krei. "It should start healing pretty soon." Unzipping my first aid kit, I pull out the antibacterial ointment and gauze and apply the dressing to the cut.

"Just remind me to put a new dressing on it in a day or two," I request when I'm finished.

"I will do that," Krei promises. "Uh—thank you, doctor."

"Oh, I'm not a doctor yet," I say with a sheepish smile, my hand drifting to the back of my neck. "But you're welcome. Anyone else need treatment? Don't try and be heroic—I don't want anything getting infected."

No one comes forward, although I'm sure some people must have minor abrasions at least. I'll corner them about it later. For now, I decide to patch up my own cut—it's even shallower than Krei's, and only bleeding a little. I rub bacitracin into the cut and then wrap gauze around my ankle, thankful that it's the only injury I sustained. I could have been shot multiple times.

"What are we gonna do about Hiro and Megan?" Honey asks, her eyes wide. "We have to go save them!"

"We must first locate them," Momo decides. "But you do not have your scanning robot. Still, I have some idea of where they could be—before you arrived at the art institute, I heard Jeong discussing the dong-gul prison with her comrades. I do not know Korean, so I alerted GoGo on her journey to find you. She informed me that the translation of the word dong-gul is 'cave.' I believe that the place Hiro and Megan are being kept must have something to do with a cave of some sort. And the only cave in San Fransokyo that I know of is in these very woods."

"Yes—Tsuki Cavern!" Krei exclaims. "It's only a few miles away!"

"I request that I be allowed to assist with the rescue mission," Momo puts in. "I possess valuable weapons that I believe could greatly assist us in retrieving the prisoners."

"And I'll go too," I volunteer. "Hiro's my brother, after all. Honey, would you come, too? I bet we'll need your chem balls."

"Of course," she agrees. "And I think everyone else should stay behind. We can't have too big of a group—we'll be a lot easier to spot if we all go. Everyone staying behind could get everything ready to go if we need to leave—we might need to find a new camp if we're chased out of the prison."

"I don't think you should go, Honey," Wasabi warns. "What about—you know—"

"The baby will be fine," Honey murmurs, stepping closer to her boyfriend. "I'm only two weeks pregnant, Wasabi. I promise we'll both be okay."

"When can we go?" I ask. "I think it should be tonight—Jeong could do anything to Hiro and Meg while we're planning the rescue."

"I would advise against that," Momo tells me. "Better to let North Korea think we've been defeated. I would suggest tomorrow night, in order to divert suspicion."

I sigh. "Okay. But we'd better hurry."

—HIRO—

I manage to get to my feet, leaning against the wall and testing my weight on both of my legs. I'm still shaking a little, but the pain has abated to a slight ache. It'll wear off soon enough.

Aunt Cass passes the graphene blade back through the crack in the wall, and Meg begins to saw at the lock on the door. After only a few moments, it falls off, and Meg catches it in her outstretched hand. Laying it down on the floor, she whispers, "Okay, let's go. I don't know how we're gonna get out of here, but the exit can't be far away."

Clutching her ribs, Meg stands up and quietly pushes the door open. I creep out after her, trying to be as silent as possible. But I can't keep back a quiet gasp as Aunt Cass steps out of her cell, showing the full extent of her injuries.

Bright red gashes run across my aunt's face and arms, quite obviously infected. Her eyes are dull and glassy, almost unseeing, and her slashed hand is held to her chest, resting on her torn and bloodstained shirt. Aunt Cass looks terrible, but she's at least here.

"Hiro," she whispers, holding out her arms, and I fling myself into her embrace, wrapping my arms around her waist and for once allowing tears to come to my eyes. Aunt Cass hugs me as I sob, trying to be as quiet as possible but also wanting to never let her go again.

"It's okay, baby," my aunt murmurs, stroking my hair. "We're gonna be just fine."

And then I hear footsteps.

"We've gotta get out of here," Meg hisses, and I step back, wiping my eyes.

"Down the hall!" Aunt Cass whisper-shouts. "There's a window in a chamber—we can carve a hole through that, it'll be easier than cutting through the rock!"

And so we run. But Meg's ankle is still injured, and she stumbles. I stop and wrap an arm around her shoulders, and we pick up the pace as much as we can, running from the footsteps coming down the hall. I really hope it's not Jeong.

"In here!" Aunt Cass exclaims, stopping in front of a set of double doors. "Get inside!"

We pile in through the doors but pull up short when we catch sight of what's in the room. The whole place is covered in shards of glass, and an army cap lies abandoned on the floor. In the center of the room is Jeong, standing up and spinning around. Her face is bleeding and streaked with tears, her gray eyes tortured.

And she's raising her rifle.

"Run!" I gasp, and we do. Spinning around, we bolt back out the door, running for our lives.

We hurtle down a flight of stairs, then a long corridor, then into what must be the basement of the cave. The cavern is enormous, its ceiling at least fifty feet high and its walls several hundred feet apart. A stream runs across the floor, undoubtedly a tributary of the River Kawa, and stalactites hang from the ceiling, dripping water onto the floor. The whole place is lit with weakly flickering lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, and dark, damp tunnels stretch away into the shadows.

"Tsuki Cavern," I whisper. "It's amazing."

"No time for sightseeing, Hiro!" Meg snaps. "We've got to go!"

But a voice suddenly echoes through the cavern. "Freeze."

Slowly, we turn around, and my wide eyes are met with the sight of Jeong standing in front of us, her rifle loaded, ready, and aimed at my chest.

"Come back to your cells and I will not hurt you," Jeong commands, her voice soft and shaking. "I do not wish to kill you. If you come peacefully, I will spare your lives."

"How can there be peace when you've imprisoned and tortured innocent children?" Aunt Cass demands, stepping forward. "You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"Believe me, I am," Jeong hisses, her eyes bright with what looks like tears. "But I will still complete my mission, whether they are a part of it or not. Now—come back with me, and I will not kill any of you."

"Never," Meg hisses, and draws her graphene blade. "Put that gun down or I will kill you, Jeong."

"How did you—" Jeong cuts herself off. "Lower your weapon, Cruz. I do not wish to fight."

"Well," Meg snarls, "I do."

And to my horror, my girlfriend leaps forward, slashing her blade at Jeong's throat. I gasp and jump toward them, trying to pull Meg off the chasu, but she has Jeong pinned to the ground. Jeong still has her rifle, though, and I dodge it as she swings it through the air, trying to aim it at Meg's chest.

Jeong leaps up, throwing Meg off her, and locks the rifle into position. I rush toward Meg, desperately trying to reach her, to push her out of the way, but Aunt Cass gets there first.

The gunshot shatters the silence, and a high-pitched shriek echoes around the cavern, repeated a thousand times over. Jeong stumbles back, clutching her rifle, and I hear a soft thud as Aunt Cass collapses to the ground, limp.

"Aunt Cass!" I gasp, rushing over to her. "Did—did she—"

And then I see the blood, spreading across my aunt's chest and abdomen. There's so much of it, coming so fast, that I know she's dying—at least, my head knows. But my heart refuses to believe it.

"Hiro," Aunt Cass whispers. "I'm so sorry…I couldn't get you out…"

"Aunt Cass, no," I beg, my voice suddenly choked. "Don't go, you never got to see Tadashi—or Mochi—or the Lucky Cat—please, Aunt Cass, don't leave me—please—"

Tears drip from my eyes and onto my aunt's mangled chest. She manages a weak smile, her eyes already beginning to glaze over.

"I love you, Hiro," she whispers. "More than anything…tell Tadashi…I said goodbye. Go…win this war, baby. I'll be…watching."

"Please," I sob again, taking her hand and squeezing it. "Don't—you can't go—"

"It's okay," Aunt Cass murmurs. "Heaven…is a better place. Don't…ever forget…how much I love you."

"I won't," I whisper, the tears coming faster and faster now. "I promise."

And then she goes limp, and Aunt Cass is gone.

Gone.

The world may as well have ended for all I care. Darkness starts to creep in on the edges of my vision, which is also blurred with tears—so much so that I can't see a thing. My hands are shaking violently, covered in blood from Aunt Cass's wounds and my own, and I'm gasping for air, unable to take in anything.

And then someone is pulling me to my feet, strong but exceedingly gentle, and I dimly recognize that this person is not Meg. It's Chasu Jeong, steering me out the door and back up the stairs to a cell—a new cell, since Meg sawed the lock off ours, I guess. I'm vaguely aware of Meg entering the small room and sliding down the wall beside me, and then a very soft, quiet voice, whispering words I never thought Rinah Jeong would utter.

"I'm sorry."

—TADASHI—

"Here's the plan," I whisper, pulling a map of Muirahara Woods up on my phone. "Momo will scale the wall and figure out where Hiro and Meg are, sneaking in if needed. Oh, and of course we'll all be invisible. Once she knows where they are, Honey and I will fly up to the room—hopefully it's on a wall with a window. We'll airlift Hiro and Meg out, then fly back to camp. If we're chased, the rest of you need to be ready to head out as soon as possible. We can head to Basemax if we need to—take the stuff there if there's North Koreans after us or we're not back in three hours. Sound good, guys?"

"Yeah!" Fred exclaims, jumping up and down with his clawed fist in the air. "I am ready!"

"It's a good plan," Liv agrees. "We'll be ready, Tadashi."

"We have no doubt you'll succeed," Callaghan adds. "But we'll be ready."

"We should, like, do a faction cheer before the mission!" Fred says enthusiastically. "You know, put our hands in the middle and then cheer."

"Um, okay," I reply. "Hands in the middle, then."

It is pretty cool to see all our hands, covered in various gauntlets and guards, placed on top of each other in a rather enormous stack. When Momo has placed her hand on top of mine, Fred exclaims, "'Echo!' on three! One—two—the three is silent, everyone knows that, right? Never mind—three!"

"Echo!" everyone says quietly, except Fred, who bellows it so loudly several birds actually fly out of the trees.

"Awesome," I whisper. "We're gonna head out now, guys. Pack everything up—and be careful."

"Good luck," Wasabi whispers, kissing Honey on the cheek. "Don't die."

"We will certainly try," Momo tells him, and then we set off through the darkened woods, with only Momo's graphene blades and Honey's glowing fingertip for light. The moon is barely a sliver tonight, providing almost no light, and the stars are too dim for my liking.

"We are nearing the prison," Momo whispers after about twenty minutes. "Lights out. Engage invisibility mode."

Honey's fingertip goes dark, and Momo sheathes her blades as Honey and I go invisible. Ahead of us, a massive, rocky outcropping looms out of the darkness, much larger than our camp—at least a hundred feet high and far wider. Peering closely at it, I can see faint lights shining out of holes. There's no doubt that people are inside.

"I will climb to the top and locate Hiro and Megan," Momo declares. "I will comm you once I discover their location. If they are not in any room with a window, I will cut my way in and search the interior of the prison. Be ready for the airlift as soon as I give the signal."

She pulls up her hood and goes invisible. I hope this doesn't take too long—the invisibility mode does wear off after about twenty minutes, and then the suit has to recharge for at least five before it'll work again.

I assume Momo has begun to scale the rocks, although I can't see her. After several minutes, my earpiece crackles to life.

"They are here," Momo tells Honey and I. "Engage invisibility mode and join me beside the third window on the right, three floors up."

Honey and I go invisible and flick our wings out, soaring up to the window. My heart is pounding, nearly in my throat. I hope Hiro's okay—what if Jeong has hurt him?

When we reach the window, I peer inside and have to keep back a gasp. Hiro and Meg are slumped together against a wall, both asleep and rather battered. Meg looks worse—her eye is swelling up and her face is bloody—but Hiro doesn't look great, either. His cheek is bruised, his hand is bleeding, and he looks tired even in sleep. Both teenagers just look so small, so weak, so helpless.

I turn off invisibility mode for a moment and whisper, "Hiro."

My baby brother's eyes open, and he looks up at me, blinking as he tries to focus. "Tadashi?"

"It's me," I say quietly. "Honey and Momo are here too. We're here to get you out. I'm gonna go invisible, and Momo's gonna saw the bars off your window, okay?"

"Okay," Hiro whispers, then gently shakes Meg's shoulder. "Meg, wake up."

Meg takes longer to come out of sleep, but when she does, a look of wonder passes over her face. "Tadashi?"

"Hey, Meg," I greet her. "We're gonna get you out—just wait while Momo gets the bars off the window. Hiro, I'll carry you, and Honey can carry Meg. We're just gonna airlift you guys back to camp—but we have to be fast."

I engage invisibility mode again, then fly back a few feet while Momo pulls out her knives. The stone bars are difficult to cut, even for graphene, but she manages to get them all off in about ten minutes. I really hope the window is big enough for Hiro and Meg to fit through—we could cut a bigger hole, but it would take forever.

"Okay, you guys," Honey whispers, turning off her invisibility. Momo and I do the same as she continues. "Hiro, you come through first. Tadashi will grab you under the arms—sorry, I know it's really not that comfortable. Megan, I'll take you next, and we'll fly down to the bottom of the—mountain? Would you guys call it a mountain?"

I shrug. "Yeah, albeit a very small one."

"Mountain, then," Honey decides. "We'll fly down and back to camp. If we're chased, we'll pass the camp and go to Basemax. If we're attacked—well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Tadashi and I will probably fly on to Basemax with you guys, and the others will fight. Don't worry about any of us, though—the important thing is getting you out of here."

Hiro and Megan nod, their eyes wide and terrified in the pink glow of Honey's fingertip. Man, I hope we can get them both out—they look like they've seen some stuff in this prison. We need to get as far away from here as possible.

"You go first," Meg whispers to Hiro, nudging him gently. Hiro gets to his feet and crosses the room, poking his head out the window. It's a tight squeeze, even for such a skinny kid, but he climbs up enough that his head and shoulders are accessible, and I grab him under the arms, pulling my brother the rest of the way out. Clutching him to my chest, I whisper, "I'm so sorry we didn't come sooner. Do you wanna talk later?"

"Yeah," Hiro mumbles into my breastplate. "There's something I need to tell you—but it should probably wait until we're all out of here."

I watch as Meg approaches the window, one arm clutching her side. That's not good—it looks like her ribs are injured. We're gonna have to be careful about pulling her out of there.

It's an even tighter fit for Megan than it was for Hiro, but she seems to be making it work as Honey slowly pulls her through the hole. I think Meg's ribs are causing her pain, though, because she has to keep stopping.

Finally, both Hiro and Meg are out, and Momo balances the bars in their original positions so it'll be a little less conspicuous. But no sooner has she done this than I hear a shout—"Balaboda!"

I don't know what the word means, but I understand it to mean that we've been spotted. I realize in horror that both mine and Honey's wings are lit up brightly, shining blue and magenta against the darkened sky. We must have turned on the lights without realizing—now everyone can see us!

I try desperately to go invisible again, but I must have had the mode on for too long—the button isn't working. I manage to get the light in my wings to go off, but I still feel very exposed. From the looks of it, Honey is having the same trouble.

Shouts echo below us, and footsteps thunder across the rock. After that comes a gunshot, and I gasp, "Fly! They're firing on us!"

Honey and I both take off, and Momo leaps down the rocks as fast as she can, but she skids to a halt in front of the phalanx of North Koreans, then turns and bolts back up the mountain, leaping from rock to rock like a mountain goat.

"We have to help her!" I gasp. "They'll kill her—she doesn't stand a chance against that many North Koreans!"

"Call the others!" Honey exclaims. "We have to get Hiro and Meg back to camp—Momokase can distract them long enough that we might not have to vacate! We can send reinforcements back to help her!"

"Hiro, can you push the button on my comm link?" I ask desperately. "My hands are kinda occupied right now!"

Hiro reaches up and taps my earpiece, and I gasp into it, "Come in, Echo! Come in!"

Fred's voice crackles from the comm link. "We're all listening! How's it goin', man?"

"We've got Hiro and Megan," I tell him hastily, "and we're flying back toward camp, but we were seen—Momo's back there, and she's trying to fight off everyone at the base! We need reinforcements, fast! I don't think we'll have to evacuate camp yet, but Momo needs help—now!"

"I'll come!" Fred declares, and Callaghan and Wasabi both volunteer themselves as well. Liv and Krei stay behind to keep the weapons safe and be ready to fly away with them if we have to evacuate.

As Honey and I speed into the trees, trying desperately to dodge them, I see three pairs of wings flash to life in the darkness—fire, sea, and forest—and the reinforcements shoot over our heads, heading for the mountain. I breathe a sigh of relief as the camp comes into view, and Honey and I coast to a stop above it, drifting down into the hollow. Liv and Krei rush over as we land, looking worried.

"Intern!" Krei exclaims, putting his hands on Hiro's shoulders. "Are you okay?"

Hiro stares at him for a second, and Krei steps back, clearing his throat. "Uh—sorry. It's just—what would I do without my intern? I wouldn't be nearly as efficient."

"I appreciate the sentiment," Hiro says with a wry smile. "I'm okay. But we've gotta get Meg patched up—the North Koreans beat her up pretty bad. Tadashi, could you—"

"Yeah, I'll check her over—but you're next," I tell Hiro, grabbing my first aid kit from the edge of the hollow. "Liv, Mr. Krei, could you keep watch while I do this? I don't know if we'll need to evacuate."

"I'll fly back and help the others," Honey volunteers. "I'll let you know how the battle's going. Be ready to fly, Tadashi."

She takes off in a flash of bright pink light, and I turn my attention to Megan's injuries. Her ribs are quite obviously broken or at least bruised, but I can't do anything to wrap those—it'll impair her breathing. I'll just have to give her ibuprofen for those.

"Where does it hurt?" I ask Meg. "Besides your ribs?"

"I'm fine," she mumbles. "Treat Hiro first."

"You seem a lot worse," I observe. "I won't take long—just tell me where you need bandaging."

Meg sighs and thrusts out her hand, revealing a long, bloody gash running across her palm. It's still bleeding a little bit, small, dark red droplets oozing out of the wound. One look at the cut tells me it needs stitches, so I pull my suturing supplies out of the first aid kit and clean out the wound, then stitch it back together. Apart from that, Meg only has a black eye and a cut underneath it. After treating those, I hand her a couple of ibuprofen capsules and a bottle of water, then turn to Hiro. "Your turn, buddy."

Hiro holds out his own hand, and I'm surprised to discover an identical cut on his palm.

"What did they do to you?" I whisper, lifting up his palm to inspect it.

Hiro stares at the ground. "Jeong marks all her prisoners like this."

"I'm so sorry," I breathe, starting to clean out the wound with a wet scrap of cloth. "I'm gonna have to stitch it—but I'll numb it first."

Hiro stays remarkably still during the procedure, even though he's terrified of needles. Once the cut is stitched back together, I check his burns from a few nights ago to make sure they're healing. Thankfully, none of them look infected, but I rub bacitracin into them just to be safe and then tape new gauze over them.

When I'm done, I ask, "What did you need to tell me?"

"We should probably go somewhere more—private, I guess," Hiro mumbles, his lip suddenly quivering. "Just up the rocks a little."

I pull him up, and we ascend the outcrop to a smaller, more secluded hollow. Hiro sits down, his back against a rock, and buries his face in his hands. Scooting in next to him, I put an arm around my baby brother and whisper, "What's wrong? Do you wanna talk about what happened back there?"

"Aunt Cass was there," Hiro breathes, and my eyes widen. "Jeong took her prisoner right after the first battle. She was marked, too, and it was infected. Meg had a graphene blade, and she gave it to Aunt Cass right before Jeong dragged us away to try and get information about Echo out of us. Jeong used some kind of pain simulation…it was terrible, Tadashi. But that's not the point. When we got back, Aunt Cass wanted to break out of prison with me and Meg. We got the locks off our doors with Meg's knife and then tried to find an exit. But we ran into Jeong and she chased us down into the basement, then tried to negotiate with us. But Meg jumped her with the knife, and Jeong tried to shoot her…Aunt Cass jumped in front of the bullet."

My hands are pressed to my mouth, shaking. Please don't let it be true…

"She was hit," Hiro whispers, his voice trembling like a leaf in the wind. "Right in the chest. There was so much blood…" He shakes his head. "She—she said to tell you—she said goodbye. She wanted us to win the war, but—I don't know how we can do it without her."

I wrap my arms around Hiro and pull him to my chest again, stroking his soft dark hair as he weeps into my armor and the tears start to drip down my own face.

My world is falling in. I can't move, can't speak, can barely breathe as the silent tears flow from my eyes, which are staring into nothingness.

She's gone. My aunt is gone.

And I never got to say goodbye.

I bury my face in Hiro's hair, knowing that I can never let him go again. He's all I have left.

How much more will we lose before this war is over?