Two figures darted through the dark streets, teeth chattering in the cold as they ran further towards the city edge, their breath ragged. They kept looking behind themselves, expecting someone, or something, to swoop right for them, even though they knew there was no one around. Ducking into the next alley, they collapsed to the floor, nearly coughing their lungs out trying to recover.

“Are they gone, Arty?” the girl asked, her eyes half-opened. The blood on her arm clashing with her pale skin as it dripped down to the cold hard floor.

“Feel for yourself,” the boy replied, just as tired as the girl. His blood-stained hands fell to his sides, his own blood mixing with those of others. “How long 'til we reach the train yard?”

“It’s just up ahead,” she grimaced as she raised her good hand to her arm. “Just a little further and we’ll be safe.”

“I hope so,” he winced, checking himself for any open wounds. His jacket was singed at the seams, providing little to protect himself from the biting cold. Red clashed with blue, as the now dried blood stained his clothes. “Just as long as we don’t ever face-”

The two stopped their banter abruptly, heads turned towards the street they had entered from. Just behind the cold hard concrete building, the sudden appearance of a heat source caught their attention, causing both to scurry deeper into the alley. The heat radiating from the figure was a contrast to the freezing cold of the night, burning a warm orange to the eyes of the twins.

“Do you think...” the girl started, not bothering to finish her sentence. Her hands were now clasped together, face white from the cold and blood loss.

“Don’t jinx it, Eli,” he mumbled, also clasping his own hands. He watched as the figure revealed itself, just an old man in winter gear, walking past the alley in no particular hurry to get out of the snow. “Let’s head to the yard now.”

The two slinked deeper into the alley, pacing themselves through the back streets in silence. Their steps echoed in the silent night, reverberating all along the claustrophobic path. Shadows danced about in the light as they moved under the scarce, dim streetlights.

Emerging from the dark, the two squint at the brightly lit train yard, their eyes adjusting to the bustling groups of workers scrambling to load containers onto the boxcars. The din of the place could be heard even from where the two were standing, muffling some of the noise they made in the alley.

Arty stared at the chain-link fence surrounding the train yard, a simple yet effective obstacle to their ticket out of the city. His eyes darted about, looking for some vulnerability in the fence to exploit, but none appeared in sight. Looking at his sister, he noted how tired she looked, grimacing at how much she had gone through for the past day.

“I’ll cut the fence,” Arty started, clasping his hands again. A soft orange glow engulfed his hands, enveloping both Eli and himself. “You just stay here until we can sneak in.”

“No,” Eli replied, leaning heavily from side to side. Her eyelids were nearly closed, fighting hard not to succumb to the embrace of deep sleep. “I’ll do it. You used up too much of your stamina back then, you should take a break for now.”

“Are you sure? If you lose control-”

“If I do, help me out. Take a rest, Arty. You need it.”

Arty sighed, deciding to listen to his sister. He sat back down onto the muddy floor, still keeping watch as Eli limped across the street, clasping her hands again before separating them. Her clothes rippled about as the winds howled, frost covering her skin as she conjured a small blade in her palm, glowing and steaming in the cold.

Then the wind shifted.

A slow updraft formed around Eli, causing the air to whip into a frenzy, loose bits of trash flying up in its wake. The surrounding snow melted away, leaving an uneven circle of water that steamed underneath the bright orange glow of the blade. Gripping it in her hand, she plunged it into the chain-link fence, cutting a hole in it swiftly before she collapsed on her knees, the blade dissipating into the dying breeze.

Arty rushed towards his sister, groaning at his kneecaps cracking from the sudden movement. He reached her just as she began tipping over, holding her tight in his arms and grimacing at the heat trapped in her body. Taking a breath, he channelled the heat outwards, starting from her hand, then outwards to the rest of her body.

Slowly, her body cooled down to the ambient temperature, the fever now dispersed into the surrounding air. Her quiet, ragged breathing evened out, and her glassy eyes slowly showed life. “You dumbass!” he held her tightly in his embrace. “I told you to let me cut the fence.”

Eli groaned, not having the strength to push her brother off. Arty quickly leaned her against the fence, wincing at the burn marks on her palms. Unconsciously, he looked at his shirt sleeves, hiding the scars scorched all over his arm.

“Stop scrunching your forehead…” Eli’s voice was a whisper, barely audible in the slow wind. “You always have that habit when you’re worried or thinking hard.”

“And why do you think I’m like this?” Arty snapped, his fatigue dissipating. “You’ve been pushing yourself since the start. You know what happens if you lose control of White Lily.”

“I’m fine…” she told her brother, even though she clearly wasn’t. She clutched the fence while trying to catch her breath, but her laboured breathing was clearly audible, and when she tried to stand, she could only hold onto the fence to prevent herself from falling again. “Just... give me a while to catch my breath. ”

“Don’t take too long, we need to leave-” He started, before tensing up, hair standing on ends as he felt the same familiar feeling as he did just hours ago.

The same ones they’ve been running from.

“They found us.”

Spinning around, Arty clasped his hands, ignoring the biting cold enveloping his body as he forced the surrounding heat towards his palm. He imagined himself holding two swords of different length, both curved, single edge blades, before he collapsed onto his knees, unable to breathe. His palms erupted in pain, then numbness, as the heat rebounded back into the surrounding air.

“Arty!” his sister screamed, her voice coarse. He was aware of his sister crying out his name as his limbs fell lifeless to his side, unwilling to move at his behest. His chest tightened up, making it more and more difficult for him to gasp for breath.

All of a sudden, he could breathe again. He looked back to see his sister’s arm on his back, motioning for him to match her breathing. “No more conjuring,” she told him, a look that could kill on her face. “Don’t need you to burn yourself up like a pot.”

“Not planning to, kettle,” he answered, slowly getting into her breathing rhythm as she brought his body temperature down, the same thing he did with her earlier. “But we still need to get rid of them.”

“They are armed, so we could just do what dad always does.”

“Alright.”

They closed their eyes, sensing the heat around them before pulling them into a single point some distance ahead, concentrating it into a sphere of heat. Snowflakes melted into water that rained down onto the floor below

Just in the nick of time.

Silently, armed and fully clad in black armoured men emerged from the shadows of the alley, guns trained onto the twins as they spread out. “Hands up, now!” One shouted, their helmet obscuring the voice’s owner. “We will shoot if you don’t comply.”

Neither twin responded to the growing shout to surrender. The sphere of heat snaked out around the men, reaching out to their pouches. Their hands glowed a soft yellow that quickly caught the attention of the men. “I said put your hands up! This is your final warning. Put your fu-”

The man didn’t manage to finish his sentence before he and his men’s magazines exploded simultaneously, throwing them onto the floor and writhing in pain. At the same time, both twins doubled over, coughing out blood onto the white ground below. Their bodies convulsing violently for a moment before they recovered, still coughing away as they used the fence for support.

“I think we’re done for the morning,” Arty hunched over, trying to avoid falling to the floor. “Let’s go.”

“No objections there,” Eli answered, still holding onto the fence for dear life.

The twins left their pursuers in the cold, hobbling away into the train yard as a blown whistle punctuated the unsettling silence. The slow groan of a train made its way around the yard, announcing its departure as it dragged each boxcar one by one out into the night.

They increased their pace to a jog, moving as fast as their aching bodies could move, catching up to the departing train. With one last push, they threw themselves onto an empty boxcar, lying there on the floor as the remaining adrenaline wore off, slowly dragging them into clutches of deep sleep...

---

“Monarch, Paladin. Mission failed. Secondary targets escaped. Requesting instructions.”

“Copy Paladin, return to base. We’ll reevaluate the situation after the other teams complete their objectives.”

“Are they in any need of assistance?”

“Negative. We’ve accounted for that for Frostbite. Out.”

“Good... Guess we’ll have time to chew Prophet out for giving us faulty intel...”

---