I'm really back into writing right now! We're nearing the end of this arc (finally), so I hope you guys are ready for this!

Enjoy!

Drake was using his sound magic to find if there was anyone in the homes around the city. This gave him an excuse to stop thinking about running off and trying to save Nashi, which was still the only thing he could think about. After getting a family which was freaking out away from their home and into the rest of the stampede of people trying to escape, he sighed. He wasn't so well of mentally at the moment, between the Etherion explosion, Nashi's life in danger and him not able to do anything, and the lives of all the innocent people trying to escape.

"This is insane." He growled. "I just want to find her, but I don't know where or how..."

"Drake!" Drake turned to find Terra running up to him. As she did, he spared a thought to wonder why she was so cold. "Did you check all of these houses?"

"Yeah." Drake replied, gesturing to the ones he'd just done. "They're all empty." Terra nodded and rubbed her arms.

"I think the cities basically empty." She said. "Ken ran a thermal check and couldn't find anything on the western half." Drake nodded and crossed is arms, leaning against the wall.

"This is crazy." He whispered. "Nashi's doing all the hard work solo and we just have to evacuate people?" Terra nodded.

"It's insane, yeah." She agreed. "But it's Silverridge or Magnolia at this point, so..."

"I know." Drake said, looking over at her. "That's why I'm mad. Why is it either or? Why is there no third option?"

"Sometimes there isn't." Terra said. "There won't always be an easy out where everyone is satisfied." Drake shook his head angrily and looked down the now vacant street. "...You really care about her, don't you?"

"Huh?" Drake asked, looking back to the earth mage.

"Nashi, I mean." Terra said. "She's all you can think about, isn't it?"

"Of course she is." Drake hissed. "Her life is in danger. I can't stand that I'm so useless to help her while she could die at any moment." Drake got off the wall and began to walk by Terra towards the Christina near the front of the city. "She's family, I hate everything about this."

"I can guess." She replied. "I suppose we better check near the back this way." Drake nodded and walked in the direction Terra was referring to. As the odd person passed by the two of them, a dull hum came from underneath them. Drake froze and focused his hearing, the hum getting louder. "What is that?" Terra asked.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't sound good." Drake replied warily.

The humming only spurred Nashi to run even faster. It was clearly a sign of the cannon coming closer to firing, which meant she needed to hurry. Taking a left in an attempt to lose Apocalypse, Nashi found herself in a lab like area. Frowning and looking around, Nashi walked over to the shelf near her and observed the ball like objects sitting on it.

The small objects glowed various different colors, in various sizes.

"What is this?" Nashi asked in a low tone, reaching forward to pick it up. Once she touched it, her eyes widened.

It was a bomb, that much was clear from the magical pressure the small device gave off.

"Wait a minute..." Nashi murmured. "If I'm in the Etherion Experiment Sector..."

It was an Etherion grenade.

Nashi finally realized just how dangerous this object was, and felt like she needed to slowly place it back down before it detonated in her hands. Before she could, however, she paused. Nashi had no strength left, which meant her plan to cause damage to the cannon could fail.

The Etherion grenade gave her the damage she needed to destroy the cannon. As she pocketed it, someone laughed. Whipping around, Nashi found Apocalypse standing in the doorway.

"Are you stupid?" He asked. "Why wold you run here?"

"I'm trying to stop the launch." Nashi replied angrily.

"I know that," Apocalypse said. "I asked you why you ran into here."

"...?" Nashi had no idea what Apocalypse meant by that, but she really didn't like the smirk on his face.

"My magic causes ether-nano to explode." Apocalypse said, his smirk making Nashi's blood run cold. "And you just ran into a lab full of ether-nano grenades." Nashi stiffened at these words. Looking around, every single grenade on the shelves around her now had a small green magic circle on it.

"This is bad..." Nashi murmured.

"Hey. Nashi." Nashi turned back to Apocalypse, who tilted his head to the side.

"Every been in the center of an Etherion explosion?"

The magic circles against the grenades lit up.

"Come on, people!" Damien shouted, flying above the ate out of Silverridge. "You can all see the flare, go to it! We don't have a lot of time here!"

"How's it going, Damien?" Damien looked down to find Simon, Ultear and Elise standing below him.

"I think we've gotten most of the people out by now." he replied, landing and looking behind him to judge just how many people had evacuated. Judging from the amount of people already at the flare and the trail of people running there, it must've been a lot of people. "Save for people Terra and Drake find, I think we're goo...!"

BOOM!

The earth beneath their feet shook violently, and the four mages struggled to keep their footing as it shook.

"What the hell is that? The cannon?!" Elise asked.

"No, it's too small!" Ultear replied. "Earthquake?!" Slowly but surely, the ground stopped shaking. A few buildings started to collapse around them, and Damien flinched.

"We need to get out of here soon too." he said. "That just proves it."

"What about Nashi?" Simon's question silenced the four. They had no idea where to look for the girl to save her, and they couldn't detect the location of the cannon themselves due to it being protected from magic.

"We...We aren't seriously going to hope she can get out on her own, are we?" Elise demanded. "Because... The odds of her doing that..."

"Are minuscule." Damien finished. "You don't need to say it, it's obvious." He clenched his fists, thinking about the pink haired girl. "If that idiot gets herself killed..."

"...We have to believe in her." everyone looked up at Ultear, who seemed deeply troubled, but set in her ways.

"We have no choice."

Nashi slowly lifted her head and looked around the destroyed hallway. She'd managed to get out of the lab by surprising Apocalypse by sprinting past him, but the size of the blast had caught her and thrown her into a wall.

"Holy shit..." She whispered as she attempted to move, body screaming in protest. "That hurt..." As she attempted to use her arms to support herself, they gave out on her. Trying again and managed to get on her knees, she looked around the destroyed area. So many different holes were open to her to try and escape, but she doubted her bodies ability to run much longer.

"Well, that was huge." Nashi was once again greeted by his satanic voice. Turning to look behind her, Nashi could see Apocalypse there, juggling a few ether-nano grenades in his hand. "I suppose I should watch it, or I could bring the whole underground down on top of us."

"H-How did you..." Nashi started, stuttering in disbelief that he'd survived the blast from where he'd been.

"Survive?" he finished for her. "I have my ways. Besides that, I think these could be used for some fun, eh Nashi?" one of the grenades left his hand and flew towards her, and Nashi was forced to get to her feet and sprint away from it. The controlled explosion sent her flying once more, and her back connected with the wall. Slowly struggling to her feet again, She saw Apocalypse frown.

"What?" She asked.

"Just surprised is all." He replied. "The Nashi I knew from back then would've died three times by now. I guess that shows just how much of a monster you really are."

"I-I'm not monster." Nashi managed to croak out. "I'm just a person." Apocalypse shook his head and sighed.

"It actually saddens me how uninformed you are." he replied, only confusing Nashi further. "Well, no matter. It won't matter soon enough." Another grenade left his hand, and this time Nashi forced herself to run through a hole in the wall next to her and avoided most of the blast. Taking a few twist and turns to try and distance herself from her enemy, Nashi soon found herself lost in the partially collapsed Sector. Looking around for any sort of guidance, this momentary stop made Nashi realize just how hurt she really was.

Her lungs hurt, her throat dry and voice raspy, and her entire body aching with a pain that was overriding her ability to move.

"I don't have a lot of time left." She whispered. "I need to hurry up before my body reaches it's limit..." Deciding on a direction to run it, Nashi looked around frantically for something, anything that would point her in the right direction. Finally reaching a locked door, she stopped and read the sign on it.

"Level 5 clearance needed?" She asked. "How high is that? Ah who cares, how the hell do I get in here..." Nashi tried pushing on the door, but even after the near destruction of the entire tunnel system it refused to give. "Where the hell am I suppose to get Level 5 clearance?"

Tap tap tap

Nashi's eyes widened and she looked down slowly. Sitting near her foot and glowing brightly was an ether-nano grenade.

BOOM!

Once Drake and Terra had returned to the front gates of the city, everyone else was waiting for them.

"Looks like the gangs all here." Elise said once the pair reached them.

"Minus one." Drake pointed out, referring to Nashi. This made everyone tense up. "Anyone seen her?"

"...No." Simon said quietly. "She must not have found a way to blow it up yet."

"Do we wait?" Winter asked. "I mean, what if she sets it off and we're just standing here?"

"That's a good point." Mami pointed out. "Should I have Taro pull the Christina around so we can wait close to the city and wait for Nashi?"

"That seems like the best course of action." Ultear agreed. "Go ahead and do that." Drake watched Mami busy herself with telling Taro to pick them up, before he turned and looked out over the vacant city.

Where the hell are you Nashi?

All Nashi knew was that she was lying face down. her body was irresponsive, as was almost every other part of her. Slowly lifting her head, Nashi looked around.

She'd found it. The Etherion the cannon was going to fire was right in front of her. The door she'd clearly been thrown through had led to an area jut above the Etherion, with a steel bridge as a walkway across the vat.

It's right here...I just need to...

Nashi tried to move the arms she saw right in front of her face, but they wouldn't move. Neither would her legs. Nothing was working anymore.

She'd reached her limit.

"Wow, your body is still intact." Nashi knew the voice but had no energy to properly acknowledge him, and he stood directly behind her. "Are you dead? No, I can see your back rising and falling still." He brought his foot down on her leg, and she winced in pain. She was actually surprised she felt it at all.

Please...I'm so close...

"I think it's about time we end this, eh Nashi?" Apocalypse asked, lifting his foot and this time slamming it down on her back. "After all, I've finally broken you."

Please...

"What should I do with you? Just blow you up? Or maybe fly your corpse like a flag of victory to your friends? So many options." As Nashi tried to move, she felt something bulge in her pocket.

The ether-nano grenade she'd taken. Somehow it had managed to survive the onslaught Apocalypse put her through.

I just need...To throw it at the vat...

Nashi's hand twitched, and slowly it moved forward. It took everything she had to crawl just that millimeter forward. Apocalypse made a weird sound.

"Would you look at that." He said. "Looks like that fire of yours still burns, huh?" His foot connected with her stomach, and she coughed up something wet. Blood. "I like it when my prey fights until it's last breath."

I'm so close...

Another foot to her stomach, this time sending her further forward. She was at the start of the bridge across the gap now. She just need to throw her grenade and...

"Oh? What's that?" Nashi ignored Apocalypse and slowly reached for her pocket, but her eyes widened.

Her pocket was empty.

Apocalypse walked closer and bent down, picking up the grenade that had rolled out of her pocket.

"Amazing." Apocalypse said. "Through all of that you managed to smuggle one of these puppies out and planned to use it to destroy the cannon. You really are something, aren't you?"

No...

"It was valiant, Nashi." Apocalypse said. "But alas, you've lost. And I've won." Tears began to flow from Nashi's eyes. She really had lost. After all the running and all the hiding she'd lost. She didn't even bother to crawl forward anymore, it was all in vain. Slowly, Nashi let her head rest on the floor as her tears escaped her eyes.

I failed everybody...

Nashi looked down over the edge and saw the Etherion swirling violently below her. It was a strangely pretty sight, watching pure magic.

Don't ever eat Etherion, Nashi. Tastes like shit.

Nashi felt her eyes widen as her fathers voice echoed in her head. She slowly looked back down and focused on the Etherion again.

Don't ever...Eat Etherion...

If Nashi could just get down there...

But no, she had no energy left. It wasn't possible. Especially not with Apocalypse right behind her.

"Maybe I should wait until the cannon fires to kill you." Apocalypse wondered aloud behind her. "Then I can watch you died inside as your family dies."

Her family.

Her mother.

Her father.

Her little sibling.

Nashi growled. it was a pathetic sound that came from her throat, but it contained all the resistance she had left.

"On the contrary, Apocalypse." She hissed weakly, fingers gripping the edges of the container.

"Eh? What did you say?"

"If anyone's dying here...It's going to be YOU!"

Using every single ounce of strength left in her body, Nashi flung herself off the edge and plummeted towards the Etherion below.

You guys are going to hate me for this cliffhanger, I can tell. I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get six!