"No…"

Venus, for once in her life, wished now that she could take back her orders, make them all go in reverse. She never wished so much in one moment, for a chance to redo something. With pain in her heart, she released her hold on the knob, but begged more than anything, that she would've made them stay put…

She wished she never opened that door.

"AH–!" Amoly's scream soon muffled into Larota's plastron, when she saw the scene. Her sister covered her mouth in panic and turned her body to herself. Amoly couldn't look at it, and Larota wished she didn't have to.

Larota stared and her eyes dried as they wouldn't blink. She shook in horror, but held her sister close with a strong arm, while her other balled into a tight fist. She breathed only through her nostrils in rage.

Talena's throat swelled and threatened to choke her. She attempted to brace her lightheaded body on the closest wall as she involuntarily moved closer to perform a task she deemed necessary. She swayed slightly as she immediately pulled her hand back from having ripped the torn wallpaper more.

Talena took a small lead this time. Slowly, she took heavy steps forwards and moved in fear. Her sisters moved the same.

When she came close enough, she forced her wobbly knees to crouch beside what laid on the floor.

A body.

A male body seemingly built with muscles hidden beneath many layers of black combat padding. He laid haphazardly draped against the wall and on the floor. He was still and dirty. His eyes behind a thick mask, remained closed. A large gun in his hand, bullet casings laid around him.

As Talena made herself crouch lower, she trembled, and her arm she needed to extend, seemed glued to her side.

Venus acted quickly, and came to her sister. She stared at her and not the body, as she only looked at her and brought herself in the same kneeling position.

Larota walked forward cautiously, still an arm extended to her baby sister who was fighting her hardest will not to cry or scream again. Larota said nothing to Amoly, but knew her arm around her would remain in place until her sister could look anywhere but down. She had both of them move forward, however stopped when around their sisters.

Talena seemed to have her eyes fixated on the man in black, she wanted to, but her arm hadn't moved. The look Venus saw in her eyes spoke nothing but fear, and fear of a conclusion she was too scared to draw.

"Hey…" Venus still saw her sister's eyes elsewhere, so she delicately took her chin between her fingers, lifting it. "Hey hey, look at me. Don't look at anything else, look at me. Listen to me." She spoke and made sure her sister could see purity in her eyes. "You're okay. It's scary. I know it's scary, but we're here." Venus took her hand. "We're here with you."

While Venus knew this was something only Talena was well versed in, she wasn't going to let her do it alone.

Talena's eyes became glossy, as a frightened tear broke below her eye, as she let out a choked sob, but sucked air back in without another. Venus knew she had gotten through to her.

Talena breathed, and her mind's fog thinned enough for her to do the task. She forced her eyes in the direction of the man, and made her arm stretch out, but it shook as she feared; Venus squeezed her hand.

When Talena's two main fingers finally touched the man's neck, Venus felt her tremor, and she gently grabbed her shoulder. Talena breathed out again.

Feeling through the thickness of the man's armored clothing was difficult, but Talena persisted. She applied a two finger pressure to his neck below his jaw.

It took agonizing seconds, with each sister holding their breath for every millisecond, but Talena soon felt it… his pulse.

She let out her caged breath, and the burning tension in her body released only minorly. "He's not dead."

Her sisters exhaled. Larota still held fire in her body, Venus seemed not at all soothed, but ever so slightly less bothered by it, and Amoly finally took the risk as she looked away from hiding in her sister's arm.

Talena looked at her sisters then back at the man. "H-He's just unconscious. I, I-I can't tell if t-there's a concussion, but based on what appears to be, blunt force trauma, it's very likely."

The sisters' bodies remained clenched, while their minds swarmed with confusion. Venus helped Talena stand back up on her taught legs, and held her shoulder until she knew she was steady enough.

Talena swallowed a lump in her throat, as she spoke again. "His-His pulse was there, but it was slow and rather weak. He'll be unconscious for hours."

Larota's eyes held a hateful stare towards the unconscious figure on the floor.

"Who is he?!"

She spoke gravely. The question on each of their minds had come out, and the answer was nonexistent to any of them.

Talena looked back at the man. "I-I don't know! I didn't see an ID on him, and I really really don't want to look more for any–"

"No No Tally." Venus turned directly to her sister, with a reassuring voice. "It's ok, you've done plenty."

Talena's arms wrapped around herself at the thought of going near the man again, and was grateful that she wouldn't have to, and that none of her sisters seemed the least bit bothered that she wouldn't.

Venus took another look at Talena; when she seemed not as appalled in terror, she turned to all her younger sisters. "It…" She swallowed. "It-It'll be fine. But c'mon. We still have to find Mama."

As she took hasty steps forward carefully, she turned her neck back but kept her body forward to tell her sisters "Be very careful… there's… debris everywhere."

Venus tried not to, but ultimately failed. When fighting her hardest to not look at the rest of the house as they walked forwards, she did.

She took labored gasps of air as her way of breathing, as she rounded the corner and saw, and once again with no less effort from herself, she had to stop. Her sisters closely behind her, whimpered, shook and groveled. They did nothing but stare at the massacre around them. The open floor plan of their one level house, once peaceful and loving, was a horrifying canvas painted in misery, mixed with ashes, char, and blood.

The sisters didn't need to look, to spot countless more men. Dressed in the same attire as the man back beyond them through a small maze of hallway they had come from, they were all motionless. Some seemed like they must have been thrown, some bent in a way they shouldn't be, all terrifying, but meaningless to the rest of the scene.

Walls that remained standing were impaled with patches of tiny holes, unmistakingly bullets. Thrown in the ever disturbing mix, small patches of deep red stained wherever they fell.

Venus never felt more unnerved, in the tiniest ounce, she was grateful the patches of red were seemingly minimal, but nonetheless horrid.

None of them spoke. They only stared. They moved on instinct and not that of want or will.

As if they were walking across minefields, the floors were littered with shards of pieces of everything that was around them. Wooden beams of the home's structure flew into splinters across the ground. Previously beautiful wallpaper, was torn about in clusters of paper mache and dull confetti. Every last window or effortlessly peaceful sliding doors to their backyard or porch were shattered and cracked with no room for repair. It seemed as if the pieces of the brokenness thrown across the floors were mocking every step they still took.

Walls and doors were busted in, and some burned with the remains of the fiery explosion that now were a haunting memory fresh in the girls' minds. Every light fixture and hanging bulbs shattered with just as much veracity.

The only light illuminating the madness, was the sunlight. Shining easily into the remains of their home, as it was high in the sky, it seemed as if it was theoretically a welcoming to a mid-day adventure. Not the cruel highlighting of a never-ending nightmare.

The sun seemed to make its best efforts for comfort and warmth, but all were forever in vain. The sisters still moved, and never once in their lives could they remember their home this… cold.

Dreary, gloomy, dark, and cold. It seemed unorthodox; the sun lit up the designs of destruction, and illuminated everything they saw, every once in a while as they trudged across the floor a beam cast on them.

It burned more than it warmed.

Everything was just so… cold.

Venus continued to guide her sisters forward despite their surroundings. She refused to look back at the moment when she felt her eyes shedding more drops of painful tears. She could only think and not speak. It wasn't a time where her crying would help, it did nothing, but nonetheless it continued.

She heard chokes, whimpers and quiet sobs, behind her; she let out a breath followed by heavier tears.

She glanced around again, and squinted, as if it was a nightmare she could wake up from at its darkest moment, that she could wake up and it would change.

She blinked and stared, and nothing changed. Years worth of work previously put into this home decades ago, beloved memories made at every inch of these destroyed floors, memories she would always turn to in times of strife and need, everything, was left in ruins below their feet. And a hope for its revival, became extinguished like the last flame of a single candle.

What was left of anything… was nothing.

Every aspect of their home, of something to shelter and protect, something they treasured and cherished, was no more.

It was gone.

Venus stopped looking around them. She couldn't take the sight anymore. She wiped her cheeks, and made her steps more purposeful, and kept moving forward; her sisters in tow.

None of them had the strength remaining, to be able to look around. Even though they hadn't realized it, they all were turned down, their heads feeling of a painful weight, weighed their gazes down.

(bang)

Only when they heard a clang and a clatter, were they able to look up and straight forward. Venus instinctively stuck out her arm, guarding her sisters by her single limb, as she stalled her pace, but they all took more steps towards a wall blocking their kitchen from view.

Not until they heard a small sigh and soft footsteps, did they tense a different way, when they heard a voice they knew.

"Girls?"

At a single moment, their mother stepped out from behind the wall, and each and every one of them, froze.

"Girls?!"

"MAMA!"

Not a single second was wasted, and the sisters ran to their mother. With each of their arms stretched out did they envelop each other and their mother in a crushing hug.

"Mama!" Any control each of the girls had, slipped from their grasps for mere seconds and counting when they felt the warmth of their mother's body. They cried and sobbed, and at this moment they didn't care. They're mother was still here, and she was standing, that's all they needed at the moment.

Maya gasped in a moment of weakness from fear. When she saw her daughters, a light lit in her eyes away from the darkness that had been clouding them, and could have noticeably shined by the reflection from the wetness leaking from each of her eyes in hysteria when she saw them. All four of them. She had almost lost her breath when they came to her. Squeezing her in a hug she was the center of, and never had she felt so much relief in her entire life.

"G-Girls…" Maya looked around her. She was surrounded by her daughters by the only things in this world she loved more than anything. They were with her, here… here…

Here. Not there, here.

Maya's eyes considerably widened. She became horrified as her thoughts tormented her with how exactly they were here with her. At this moment, they weren't supposed to be here, they were supposed to be there. They weren't supposed to be here, they were supposed to be safe, secured, hidden.

They weren't hidden.

Maya involuntarily let out a pained scream in a moment where she felt herself elsewhere, but cut it off. When her daughters' watery smiles immediately disappeared, she knew she had made a mistake, but couldn't control her hysteria now.

"Mama!? Are you ok–!?"

"GIRLS WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!"

The sisters cringed and flinched at their mother, and unconsciously each of them released her from their hold. They stared helplessly at her, and of any emotions they were feeling now, they were taken aback by uncertainty and sorrow, seeing their mother like this.

"How are you here!? How did you get out!? Are you hurt?! ARE ANY OF YOU HURT?!

She looked completely broken. She seemed hysteric and crushed by sorrow and clenching pain that refused to let her go, she continued to wail in agony.

"DID THEY FIND YOU!? DID THEY HURT YOU?! Please, I thought I STOPPED HIM! He got close but I thought he was…"

The sisters eyes became swollen to painful reaches as they couldn't stop their panicked breaths that led to tears.

Him? He?! Was their mother referring to the man in the hallway with her hysteric 'hes'?

They didn't know how to help. They were left standing there helpless. They wanted to reach for their mother again and be with her again! They wanted to hold her, for her to hold them, they wanted it so badly, but they couldn't move closer. Their mother was in an attack of her own, and she was panicking beyond being comforted by a single touch. She shook uncontrollably like clothes on a line in a tough summer wind. Her lips quivered more than the movement that came with her trying to speak.

"Did he… did they…!?" Maya cried and wailed. She couldn't control herself, and she collapsed to her knees.

Each sister broke their helpless trance and came before their mother's groveled form on the destroyed floors. They couldn't let their mother succumb to her fears any further.

"Mama MAMA!" Venus grabbed her mothers trembling shoulders and spoke. "MAMA WE'RE OKAY! I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry! B-But we're okay, we're okay, we're not hurt, none of us are hurt!"

Venus acted first, and pulled her mother into a hug again, and while a tighter one, she felt the force was necessary. Larota, Talena, and Amoly immediately followed her lead, and on their knees they surrounded their mother by their arms, hoping to submerge her in all the warmth their cold-blooded bodies could do for her. They didn't let any more of their tears fall at that moment; their mother had to get through her own, and they would let her do that in their facade of their peace. They squeezed her gently, their force only used to ground her, and they surrounded her with their love.

It took minutes, and they waited unmoved with no complaint. Each sister couldn't imagine what their mother would have had to go through to bring herself to this point, but at the time they didn't care. All they cared about was her. They encompassed her as long as she needed, and it took several minutes, but their mother had managed to calm down.

Her cries and screams had turned to sniffles as she reigned herself in. When her breathing slowly evened out, Maya spoke without thinking. "You girls have no idea how much you do for me." And Maya meant every ounce of that.

Maya berated herself relentlessly, but in her mind did those thoughts stay, as she refused to let her daughter's hear any more of her self-remorse of her horrible behavior. Maya stared at her four daughters still holding her with the smallest fraction of their physical strength, but with every ounce of their supportiveness.

Maya would forever never know how she had ever been deserving enough for them to be hers. She cared nothing of how they came to her from their bunker in this moment. They were with her, together and unharmed now. Now, that was all she needed to know, and that was all that mattered.

They weren't hidden, but in her arms at this moment, they were safe and secured. Her arms around their shells as tight as she could, she held them so close. They were safe, and that was all she wanted.

When the sisters finally had come to notice their mother controlled again, they let out their own breaths, and in the smallest amount, despite the destruction around them, regardless of the hopeless revival of their childhood home laid with intruders, they smiled. They didn't care about the men, not with their mother holding them safely.

Venus felt her heart unclench in a surprising amount, before she had to let out the smallest feeling of guilt. "Mama I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"

"Venus, honey, no." Maya wouldn't let her daughter berate herself for something beyond her control. "You have done nothing wrong. You have done so much for your sisters and I, and I am forever grateful for it."

Venus crushed her head back to her mother's secure warmth at her heartfelt words. Suddenly she could feel the parts of the embrace belonging to her sisters had squeezed her more, and she could've cried right there again if she didn't immediately regain her composure as quickly as she did.

Her sisters each knew, and they silently agreed with their mother, and thanked their big sister and each other silently, with their encouraging embrace.

Maya's eyes became shiny again, as she spoke more. "You each have done so much. I'm proud of you all." Maya lightly pulled away from her hold on them, and looked at each of their eyes with nothing but honesty.

Each sister smiled again. As they were about to embrace each other again, did they feel their mother remain firm, and the look they saw in her eyes now, made them realize an again painful but very true fact.

Maya stood, and soon she saw her daughters stand after her. She was ever grateful and would be forever grateful for them, and the blessing they were to her, but in a moment of her coming back to a realization, she knew their moments of relief and loving reassurance would have to be put on hold.

The sisters felt no lack of reassurance from their mother, and they knew she was right. An involuntary look from each of them around their home again, only reaffirmed just how right their mother really was. That the threat surrounding them, may be stopped, but not for long.

They still had to proceed.

Maya could see the worry in her daughter's eyes, and their reluctance to see the horrifying scene around them.

"I'm sorry about our home." Maya knew her daughters were having just as hard a time with this as she was.

Maya had never wanted to, but it was something that couldn't be helped. She fought and she never regretted it. She did it for them, and she would easily do it again. But with the fighting she had done, and the destruction they had caused, their home lay in ruins. A building giving her life, and giving that to her daughters, was left destroyed by those who didn't even think twice about it. It made her blood boil, what they wanted to do, what they had come to do, and what they did.

And an even more terrifying thought, what they would have done. Maya wasn't going to let that happen. Her meager suspicions of what exactly they had come to do, were easily confirmed. The bullets they had for her, and the tranquilizers they wanted for her daughters, as well as the hatred and the orders, left no room to the imagination.

Maya knew exactly what they wanted. They wanted her daughters. She could effortlessly understand she was left of no value to them anymore, and that thought did nothing to soothe her. Her daughters, were the ones they wanted…

That HE wanted. And she was never going to let that happen. He was never going anywhere near her daughters, and they would never again be around the corrupted man who created them. Never again, would she let that happen. And during the battle, she made sure that the clan understood that, of course she knew they would never act to listen if they had a choice.

Maya knew she hadn't reigned herself in when they engaged. She struck down these soldiers with power driven by determination and hatred, however none of her strikes she had done to these men shrewd about around their house left them in fatality. None of them she had killed and she knew that. They were only unconscious.

That was one of the reasons she now felt more a need for them to hurry.

She realized that thought quickly.

Maya immediately caught her daughters' attentions. "I am sorry about what has happened, but we need to move forward."

Each of the sisters did not argue, whether they were comfortable with it or not, they knew it was what they had to do. They nodded, so their mother could know they understood.

"Okay…" Maya began again. "Come on." Being careful of the dangerous scene and the debris left from it, Maya quickly began making her way towards the open doorway facing the rear of their house.

Venus, Larota, Talena, and Amoly, were quick to follow their mother, and close behind her with no complaints. They saw, right before she could take the last step to take herself outside, she hesitated. Before they could even ask her, the hesitation was gone and she walked out onto the grass. They continued to follow, and forced themselves to swallow their own hesitations, before they all, one by one, walked outside, until they were now in the backyard of their home.

To the girls, the outdoors, and the serene nature of their yard and the enclosing miles of forests around them had always seemed so peaceful. Something that could always provide calm to any crazy, but now, it seemed to lack that touch. Still as beautiful as ever, the grass a glowing green, and the mazes of trees and forests standing tall to the reaching of the sun in the sky, now beginning to set, beautiful, but it wasn't comforting.

The sisters refocused again, and they huddled around each other, as they noticed their mother had stopped.

Venus knew the first thing she was to ask. "Tally, you mapped out the aerial view. Which way is our route?"

Talena had pulled up a display of a three-dimensional map hovering above her wrist in light purple holographics. "The route in our plan is North-East. The forest thins out shortly in that direction and it'll leave us a better range and possibility for finding a safe haven quickly."

"Okay, Mama… Mama?" Venus went to face her mother's direction, but stopped short when she saw her mother facing their home. She stood still as stone.

For moments the sisters worried their mother would become critically distressed again, however their worries were quickly cut off when their mother quickly turned back around, as if the home had shunned her away.

Maya turned away from staring at her forever home. It was hard and she knew that as much as she knew anything right now, but now was a time she had to focus on the present. Her past in this home was something she would always hold dear in her heart, but she knew they had to do this. They had to leave their home behind. Maya knew it was for the safety of her daughters. As soon as that thought was brought to her mind, she turned back around quickly, and made no effort to look back.

As Maya looked directly towards her daughter, before she could even act, did she hear each of their sudden gasps, and she saw concern and fear back in their eyes. Almost in a moment of confusion she was about to ask them of their worries, but couldn't get a word out before they exclaimed.

"Mama… you're hurt!"

Only then did Maya fully come to the complete realization that the sun, now her internal enemy, was fully lightening everything each of them saw, including her body that she came to understand her daughters' hadn't noticed in their dim home was battered and bruised. She saw it as nothing of importance at the moment, but was worried as she knew her daughters would panic and feel differently.

"Girls no it's not–"

"Mama, why didn't you tell us you were hurt?!"

"We need to stop, we'll help you!"

"Are you in a lot of pain?! I'm so sorry you got hurt!"

"Mama, don't worry I'll-I'll be right back, I'll go back in the house and get one of our first aid kits then I'll–!"

"NO!" Maya panicked at the immediate words that her daughter was about to go back into their home. "Talena don't! Please honey just don't, we can't go back in the house!"

Venus was confused and slightly appalled, just as her sisters were by their mother seeming to be brushing it off. "But Mama you're hurt! If we had only known–!"

"No Venus!" Maya had to get them to at least understand. She knew they wouldn't agree but she needed their understanding. "Look, yes I am hurt, but please trust me when I say it's not as severe as you think. I need to get you four out of here! That is our priority!"

"But–!"

Maya again cut off any rebuttal. "Listen to me, I have first aid supplies. I packed as much as I could in this satchel–"

As their mother said that, each of the girls couldn't help but notice their satchel their mother still had that they hadn't realized was still there before. They saw in a small ounce of confusion how it seemed to have considerably at least doubled in size.

"I'm still able to move, and none of my wounds need immediate attention. Please trust me now that this isn't what we need to do."

The sisters wanted to argue much much more, even if it was for their mothers' sake, but she seemed absolutely adamant about it. They had to agree she didn't appear that phased by what injuries she did have. Each of the sisters looked between each other then back to their mother, they then averted their eyes but made no argument.

Maya took this as just as much understanding as she needed. She knew they disagreed and would have wanted to do anything for her to let them help her, but she knew they couldn't. She might not have been as eased as she was hoping they believed, the burning in her cuts, and the intense soreness from her many bruises, seemed to be telling her a different story, but one at the time she refused to listen to.

"Okay, now listen please." Maya spoke to them firmly but with care. "I need you four to follow me, when I start running, stay close behind me. I need you four to trust me, and if I say I need you to do something I need you to do it. Most importantly I need you to stay close, but if I say run, you have to run. I know you four are more than capable. Just stay close."

As their mother spoke to them, the girls felt they had no room for hesitation or to speak against anything that their mother was telling them. She needed them to trust her. A guilt ridden burden plagued their minds and they knew of the last time she asked for their trust and in some form they felt as if they had cracked it, and they would do what they could now to mend it.

Venus would trust her mother now, in a moment where she was leading them again, she would follow.

The sisters did not speak against their mother, and as she turned back around, as she wanted, they followed close behind her. Their mother quickened her pace, and soon speed walking turned into jogging, and jogging turned into excelled running. The sisters followed her with ease, and as she ran, they ran, and very soon the yard was long behind them, as they quickly broke through the barrier and entered the forests.

But soon, when they each quickly realized something, they were reminded of the fact they had to trust their mother, and it was something that should be so simple. They hated that they felt it wasn't, but as of now, they held their questions.

And as the plan they had embedded in their minds of years ago seemed forgotten again, they were trusting their mother, as they all ran West.