The sound of steel scraping on concrete was the only warning Rebecca got before a burst of pain erupted in her lower back and hips and she was sent sprawling forward to smash face up against the wall. “You’re dead,” Matthew told her coldly, gravel in his voice.

“Wha… What the hell!” Struggling to shake off her shock, Rebecca slowly turned to stare wide-eyed over at Matthew, who was now standing nonchalantly on the blade of her sword and pinning it to the ground with a deep cloak of darkest shadows floating freely in the wind behind him.

“If I was an opponent,” Matthew told her once more, “you’d be dead. Or worse than dead,” he growled warningly. “You let down your guard, dropped your weapon, and simply sat down to die. And all for what?” He asked, mockingly, “Just because you fell a little guilty for something you’ve done?”

“Pathetic,” he spat. “Utterly pathetic.”

Slowly standing up to face him directly, Rebecca denied, “I’m not pathetic,” Brows furrowing in anger, she clenched her hands into fists so tightly the knuckles were all turning white. “Where the hell have you been,” she demanded to know.

“Watching over you, like I told you I would be,” Matthew assured her calmly, as he nudged the blade of her sword with his boot several times, before finally kicking it into the air where he caught it with one hand.

“You… You’ve been watching me this whole time?” Rebecca sputtered, drew back a fist, and then swung it at his face as hard as she could. Without even trying to dodge, Matthew took the blow at full force, and then simply nodded his head slightly at her. “I have been,” he reconfirmed.

“Then why didn’t you save her?” Rebecca demanded to know, pointing a finger back to the headless corpse of the girl still impaled on the window.

“Why should I?” Matthew asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly at her.

“Why?” Rebecca blinked a few times stupidly, and then repeated the question. “Why?”

“Was she someone special to you?” Matthew asked, staring directly into her eyes. “Did you know her?”

“No, I didn’t know her,” Rebecca admitted. “But she was…”

“What makes her so special?” Matthew interrupted. “Why save her and not him?” Turning, he pointed a finger at the body of a dead guy out in the parking lot that the crows were pecking at. “Or her?” This time he pointed over to the body of another girl who had been crushed and trampled near the exit.

“But... But… They’re dead?” Rebecca blinked several times, rubbed her eyes, and stared at Matthew completely confused.

“They are,” he confirmed with a slight nod of his head. “Not that it matters. The rules of the old world have changed. Death is just another state in a game, and in most games it’s reversible. Even in our own history,” Matt pointed out calmly, “weren’t there stories of heroes going into various hells or underworlds and pulling their loved ones back out from beyond the grasp of death?”

“It’s more difficult than saving one who’s alive,” Matthew shrugged unworriedly, leaving the impression that it might not really be that difficult at all, “but it is possible. Why save that girl and not all these others?” Once again, he repeated his question while staring unblinkingly into Rebecca’s eyes.

“Is it that you’re only going to save those that are easy to save?” Matthew asked, frowning slightly. “Let the others suffer their fates simply because it takes a little more effort?”

“But… But… You could’ve saved her…” Rebecca’s head was spinning again and her knees buckled underneath her once more as confusion and doubt started to replace her anger.

“I could’ve,” Matthew confirmed softy once again, “and I probably still can. But why her? We can’t save everyone. What makes her so special that we’d save her and yet none of the others?”

Rebecca didn’t say anything. She simply shook her head from side to side several times, before slowly raising her hand to rub at her temples.

“Everyone dies,” Matthew told her softly, as he eased over and sat down beside her, “and we can’t save everyone.” Gently, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her up against him so he could hold her. “The effort involved in saving her would have been huge,” he explained, whispering gently into Rebecca’s ear. “She would have required healing to restore her blood loss. Then we would’ve needed to pull her from the window and dug the broken glass out of her gut – all while constantly healing her over and over to keep her blood strong. Finally, we would have healed her back up…”

“… where she was likely to suffer and die from some small fragments or shards which we’d missed and left inside her,” Matthew finished, as he gently rubbed her shoulders. “A life saved, but for what purpose? Simply to extend her suffering? Saved perhaps, but for how long,” he asked, gently.

“And most importantly,” Matthew pointed out, “would it be worth the risk to you, or to I, to go through such trouble for the girl? What if I was to get injured by something after, or you, and there was no magic left to save ourselves? Would it be fair to the next survivor you found who had half her injuries, but who we’d have to pass on helping because all our magics were used to save this girl?”

“Death comes for us all,” Matthew pointed out gently, “and we can’t save everyone. In this new world, we have to think first and foremost about ourselves. It seems like nearly anything is possible in this new world,” Matthew whispered while holding her close. “The question isn’t whether we can do something anymore. It’s whether we should do something. Whether the reward is worth the risk we’d have to take to do it.”

“Do you really think it would have been worth the risk to ourselves to save the girl?” Matthew asked, barely loud enough for Rebecca to hear.

For several moments, Rebecca sat huddled against Matthew’s side without saying a word, before finally reaching over and taking her sword back from him. Turning her back on him, she slowly strode back into the school, completely silent except for the soft sound her footsteps made on the moss-covered floor as she walked back into the hall.