Thea

I leapt through the air, laughing as I landed on top of a bipedal mech. I punched through the visor to get to the pilot.

But my fist didn’t pass through the clear material, instead a web of cracks spread where it impacted. I cocked my head to the side, unsure of what had just happened. I tried punching the mech again, and the web spread further, but my fist was still resting on the surface of cracked synth-glass.

Realization hit me in the gut, and I quickly searched for the pact connecting me to Bryce. It was gone.

Panic overcame me as my mind raced with horrible implications. I needed to act fast, she could still be alive. She had to still be alive. Leaning back, I summoned the soul-blade from my storage, stabbing it through the damaged visor and into the pilot. I jumped down and looked across the dirt covered field.

The Syndicate had stopped trying to take back control of the FTL array, focusing instead on the main building. So, Rashka and I had started intercepting the incoming forces.

A lot had made it past us while we were waiting in the array building, but it seemed like there weren’t any more coming at this point.

Rashka was busying herself by fighting a half dozen heavily armed Syndicate soldiers in her crazy werewolf form with a pair of daggers. I called out to her.

“Rashka! We need to go! Something happened to Bryce!”

“Then go! I’m busy here!”

That wasn’t an acceptable response, so I growled before sprinting over to her and dousing the entire area with fire.

My fire was pitifully weak compared to what it should have been, but it was more than enough to kill the soldiers and get Rashka’s attention.

“The fuck, Thea?”

“I said something happened to Bryce. We. Need. To. Go. Right the fuck now.”

Rashka nodded, finally understanding. “Yeah, okay, let’s go.”

We ran into the building. It was just some shitty cafeteria or something.

“Where are they?” I asked.

Rashka pointed to our left. “Probably just follow the gunfire, right?”

Yeah, that made sense. I nodded and sprinted towards a staircase without saying anything else.

At the base of the stairs, just past the doors, the Syndicate had set up some sort of forward command. They seemed nearly as surprised as I was when I burst through the doors.

I slammed my sword through the chest of the most important looking guy there, pulling it out and frantically slicing a horizontal gash across the chest of a woman.

I left the rest of the Syndicate for Rashka to deal with and sprinted past them, climbing up the stairs two or three at a time.

The hallway at the top was lined with Syndicate soldiers, taking cover and occasionally popping out to shoot into the distance.

I stored my sword and ran through the hallway with both arms outstretched. Fire poured out of my palms, igniting everything and everyone on both sides of the hallway. I made it to the open office just in time to catch a bullet in my right shoulder.

I spun with the impact, landing face first on the ground.

“Fucking ouch!” I yelled. “Don’t shoot! It’s me, Thea!”

I tried pushing myself up, but failed as my right arm collapsed, unable to hold my weight. The bullet had gone right through my shoulder, severing something important. It hurt like every single one of the nine hells.

“Thea? What are you doing here?” Lysc called out from behind the barricade.

I used my left arm to push myself onto my back and sat up, from there I stood slowly. My right arm hung uselessly by my side and was throbbing in tune with my heartbeat, which was pretty damn fast at the moment.

I approached the barricade and saw that a few of the pack members were injured, but none of the injuries looked serious. “Something happened to Bryce. I lost connection with her through our pact.”

Lysc looked back towards the elevator behind her. “Nobody has made it past us and we haven’t heard anything from upstairs.”

“Boss, the feed is back up,” Daria said.

“Shit. Everybody wait here, Thea, let’s go,” Lysc said.

I nodded and ran with her to the elevator. The stupid thing took forever to arrive and twice that time to ascend the single floor to where Bryce was supposed to be.

My foot wouldn’t stay still, and my left hand kept fidgeting the entire ride.

Finally, the doors opened, and what we saw was a bloodbath. Dezra was lying dead on the floor in her half-wolf form. Her head was turned almost completely around, and the human pack member was lying on her back with a hole where her heart should have been.

I stepped into the room, careful to avoid the bodies, and looked to my right to see a woman holding a barely conscious Bryce against the wall by her neck, nearly half a meter off the ground.

She wasn’t even trying to fight back.

Seething, my vision went red with barely controlled rage. I pulled the soul-blade from my storage, gripping it in my only good hand, and sprinted the distance to the evil thing that was hurting the woman I loved.

The blade slid in up to the hilt, easily bypassing whatever armor or physical resistance that she might have had, in order to destroy the creature’s spiritual self. She let out a gasp as she dropped Bryce to the floor.

I released the sword and rushed to Bryce’s aid, helping her sit up just in time to see the foggy haze lift from her eyes. I held her tightly, thanking the gods that I made it in time and cursing whoever did this.

“It’s okay Bryce, I’m here.”

“Thea? What are you doing… Thea! Esme, she’s…” Bryce trailed off, her confusion was probably caused by whatever charming effect that she had been under slowly wearing off.

"Bryce, you were just under a charm spell. It’s me. Esme isn’t-” I froze, mid-sentence as a sense of dread slowly washed over me. No, no, no, It can’t be. Why would she even be here? It’s not possible.

I released Bryce and slowly turned to see Esme desperately grasping at the blade sticking through her chest.

It was cutting into her palms, and I could see wisps of pink light escaping from the wounds as it continued to damage her soul.

“Thea? Wha-what?” Esme fell to her knees, arms going slack to her sides. Tears were running down her face as the trickle of pink mist slowly escaped from her wounds.

“Esme! No, please, I didn’t mean to! I didn’t know it was you!” I moved over to her, not sure of what to do. She was fading fast, the evil sword doing exactly what it was designed to do.

“Thea,” Bryce’s voice was hoarse, but I could still barely hear it over my own sobs.

“Please Bryce, I didn’t know it was her. I don’t know what to do. She’s going to die and I can’t stop it!”

“Thea, the stone. Check her soul stone, quickly.”

Right! Her soul stone! If Esme dies, then we can just revive her using the soul stone. I quickly pulled the gem out and wiped the tears from my eyes so I could actually see it.

The light was dim, like really dim. The normally energetic soul wasn’t moving, and it was barely even lit. “She’s dying, Bryce, her soul is dying.”

“But it’s there?” Bryce asked.

“Yeah, it’s still there, barely.”

“I knew it, she couldn't sever the connection. It had to be an illusion,” Bryce said. “Lysc, please kill her. Do it quickly, before her soul is gone completely.”

Lysc stepped up behind Esme and took her head into her hands. My eyes went wide and tears streamed down my face as I begged. “No please! She’s my sister, we can still save her! Maybe we can just remove the blade. We can still save her! Just let her go!”

Lysc stopped and looked at Bryce for confirmation, but she just shook her head before responding. “Do it now. We don’t have time.”

There was a loud crack as Esme’s neck broke and she fell limp to the ground. The pink mist escaping from her wounds stopped entirely. I screamed, throwing myself on top of her. I felt Bryce’s hand on my back and I tried to push it away, but couldn’t find the strength to do it.

“Why?” I asked. “She was just confused. She didn’t know, and we could have just talked to her. She didn’t have to die.”

“Thea, please. I need you to check her stone,” Bryce spoke gently. “She could still be in there.”

It took me far too long to process what Bryce was saying, but when I realized it, I quickly pulled out Esme’s soul stone. She was still there. Thank the gods, she was still there. The light was faint; it was barely enough to illuminate my palm, but it was still there and that’s all that mattered.

“Bryce, she’s there!” I hugged Bryce, laughing and crying equally. We could bring Esme back. She wasn’t gone.

Bryce sighed before returning my hug, and I was so happy that I ignored the pain from my bullet wound.