[Winter - Parso]

Rosemary was barely able to comprehend the sight witnessed before her, as Brody's blood rested across both her and Ollie's shocked expression. She lied in a pool of red from the remnants of her close friend as well as her own, due to her exposed injuries.

Jennings sat up a short distance away, brushing off the debris from the wall that had collapsed on top of him moments earlier. That which Jennings had feared most had manifested before him. Losing more close friends was exactly what he had intended to avoid by accepting this mission, yet he peered forward at the two remaining Sharks in the battle with what looked like war paint splayed all over their shocked faces.

Jennings stood to his feet, unaware that the light-blue glow from his ice-Agi was now surrounding his entire body in an eerie, unforeseen, aura.

Just as quickly as the situation turned into despair, Ollie's appearance of sorrow and fear changed into anger. His eyebrows narrowed inwards, dripping sweat as he let out a warning for the grounded Rosemary.

“Stay back and safe, we got this one!”

The relentless Agi-abomination retained focus, and peered down onto his two still-battling targets. While Ollie remained shouting and running alongside, sending bullets flying at every angle towards the beast, Jennings' silent aura developed into two giant-sized pillars of ice set on opposite-sides of the raging creature.

The glistening of the embered surroundings reflected a bright glow from the column of frozen Agi. In between, the beast was disoriented. It stumbled to the floor, almost as if it took an aggressive knee. It couldn’t move for the time being. How long would they remain incapacitated? It was anyone’s guess.

Stumbling backwards onto his rear foot, Ollie saw an opportunity to get up close and personal with the titan of mass. Running upon his collapsed palm, he heard Jennings shout from his emanating position.

“Hold him steady!”

The long-time Shark ally scurried his way towards the creature's agape mouth.

A loud, shaking boom followed Ollie finally reaching it's jaw, propelling it upwards, directly into an awaiting crash of the two massive ice blocks slamming into each other. Ollie was launched a dangerous distance to the ground.

Dust and fire spewed out into the shrouded night, raining Agi shards on flame-reflecting ice debris. The wind lay dormant, although when seldomly illuminated, it looked as if a swirling sandstorm had ravaged the area. The creature was no more. The remaining sharks had prevailed.

Jennings fell over onto one leaning-knee and grabbed a fistful of sand, splashing it into his face. It burnt to the touch, yet it felt like a wave of cooling mist. Ollie sprinted to the side of his broken comrade, Rosemary. She knelt forward, face-first into her lackluster palms as streams of tears fell desperately from her eyes.

Ollie winced heavily, expelling diffused curse words in the air. As he arose, he realized limping was a probability, if not a potential injury. Standing in a shadowed outline, he reached into his pocket and retrieved a ring that sparkled a doomy, red tone due to the blazes near. He knew no time would be fit.

Stumbling to his colleagues to check on their well-being, he arrived in a bloody mess. He nods to Jennings as if to assure him. Jennings appreciated the gesture. He would never admit it, but he had needed any semblance of support, in fact it was likely long overdue.

Rosemary raised her scrunched, balling face and saw Ollie positioned next to her dropped frame. Ollie was compelled to give her any flavor of hope. In a solace tone, he spoke.

“He was a great man, and he wanted you to be an even better woman, with or without him...” he said aloud before sliding the ring into Rosemary's closed palms. “Time to regroup.”

[Winter – Parso]

Back at the group's nearby residence, Ollie woke up to a face full of sunlight as the star shifted into position to start the morning. Rising to his feet, he glanced behind where he rested his head the night before, only seeing the silhouette of his partner Rosemary and feeling a sharp pain at the bottom of his feet. Turned out he had stepped on shards of glass while walking away, but he’d recover, as always.

Slight snoring could be heard escaping the covering sheet as Ollie limped over to the only door leading out of the room. Swinging his fist into the door frame, he swayed his head in both directions with every struggling step, intent drove him forward and down the hall.

After passing several doors within the house, he had arrived at his destination, the room where Jennings lay unconscious. It had been two full suns since the fatigued criminal had closed his eyes last. When the adrenaline rush had ceased and he was sure that everyone who had ventured out and returned alive was well before he finally made the conscious decision to rest.

Since then, rest was the only thing Ollie and company could see him do. They concluded that his body probably called for it. For someone that had been in and out of Jennings' life since childhood, he had never seen Agi ability like what was on display against the elemental creature they faced. From either side, the beast, or the renegade Agist.

In the giant chair directly next to Jennings' bedside sat Penny, engaged in a conversation with Anette.

“So you made it up, still a dreary sight huh?” asked Penny in Ollie's direction.

She couldn’t help but fight the last words through her hurt expression. Ollie cranked his neck to the side to relieve some strain that was persisting from the excessive sleep and replied.

“Figured I was being hopeful by thinking anything had changed overnight.”

Penny couldn't help but react with a pessimistic whimper before covering her mouth and sobbing into it gently. Meanwhile, Anette consoled Penny with a hand on the shoulder as the mood of the room eerily veered back into a depressing state.

Ollie wanted to explain how this type of life wasn't pain-free, but survivable. Instruct them to focus on the positives, but he knew it would be helpless. The inspiring words that had helped him get through the stickiest of situations with a clearer mind wouldn't have the same outcome in this personal scenario. So instead of saying the wrong thing, he decided to answer with silence.

Anette retrieved her hand from resting on Penny. Looking only downward, it was as if her greatest fear was hiding on the ceiling and nothing would force her to peer up. Maintaining focus, she began to venture out of the room with a gloomy face, yet halted abruptly at the door frame.

“I'm going to try and help.” under her breath as she exited the bedroom. Ollie remained dumbstruck as he watched her disappear into the shadow-riddled hallway toward the exit. He regretted being so empty in that moment.

[Winter – Shadow Valley Desert]

“I can't just sit there being a shoulder to cry on. That's not what Pavo died for. I didn't hire them to get someone killed. If I convinced J.J., I can find someone else. And- someone else-”

The inner words escaped from Anette and haunted her with her own true feelings. Her pessimistic mentality was at an all-time high. She had isolated herself against her own wishes.

Each swaying step in the relenting Shadow Valley Desert wind added an extra invisible weight to her already burdened shoulders. Each breath filled her lungs with progressively hotter air until the moment everything went black. Anette collapsed to the floor face-down in the depreciating sand.

Unprepared seemed to be an understatement. If it wasn't for the happening of a Native man, Anette very well may have perished alone and been another victim of the wild heat.

Instead however, the unknown man wore a cloud-designed cloth over his blotchy face, paced over to Anette's lifeless body. The man bent to a knee and unraveled his sky blue cloth to reveal his face with defined facial features, yet a caring concerned look at rest. Carefully rolling the woman in need over by her closest shoulder, he gently placed a buffalo-skin water flask to her motionless lips and tilted softly. She became animated as soon as the liquid made contact even as most of it spilled to the side of her face.

Coughing to alertness, Antette awakened to a deep voice emitting a soothing voice over her frail self.

“I’m Wolf Skyrunner, I will lend help. Inexperienced one, hang onto my word, see that the harsh elements of this land are no match for us on this day.”