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One moment everything had been silent and peaceful.

The next screams and roars shattered through the air along with the sounds of guns cracking.

I sprang out of bed, half slipping half falling down to the floor. Tzuyu's and Irene's Marks came blazing to life and Krystal also scrambled up, swearing profusely.

"What the hell is happening?" She blinked rapidly.

"We're under attack." I gasped as something loud and heavy slammed against the door, rattling it on its hinges. "The Purists are here."

"What?!" Irene stumbled to her feet, eyes dilated. "They're supposed to be at the North City!"

Unless...

My eyes widened.

Unless it had all been a diversion to draw away the main troops from the base, leaving it unprotected and vulnerable— perfect to strike true and hard. It made sense. It explained why the main troops had barely gotten into any fights with the Pure Reformists in the North City. Because they weren't even in the North City.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Tzuyu's wailed.

Irene grabbed Tzuyu and shook her shoulders, hard, snapping the violet Marked girl out of her hysteria. "We fight. We've been training for this exact kind of thing."

Another loud gunshot cracked through the air. Closer. We all flinched at the scream of pain followed.

"We don't have any weapons though!" Krystal protested. "And we can't morph."

Irene's sharp eyes snapped from the door to us. "The training rooms hold lots of different weapons."

"That's ten levels—"

"Let me finish!" Irene snapped, slicing through Krystal's voice. "Tzuyu and I are going to morph and get us all down there so we can get weapons. Got it?"

"But Irene!" Now Tzuyu protested. "We're not Exclusives! We might not be strong enough to carry them all the way."

Right. When Exclusives morphed, they literally became what they morphed. Which included all the strength and primal instincts of whatever they morphed into. Meanwhile, normal Outworlders when they morphed possessed only the strength they had as human form, and didn't connect as much with the instincts of what they morphed into.

Irene pursed her lips. "We have to try." She grabbed my arm. "Jiyeon and I will go first. Tzuyu and Krystal, you follow. And whatever happens: Don't. Stop."

I didn't have time to say anything else before Irene abruptly morphed into a large, golden-pink horse. Any other scenario I would've found a pink horse humorous. Krystal and Tzuyu yelled and ducked as Irene-horse's body took up most of the room's space.

I'd never ridden a horse before. Swallowing hard, I clambered halfway up the bunk latter until I could swing my body over the her broad back. Uncertainly I grabbed a fistful of her mane, and shrieked when Irene lunged forward.

Her hooves slammed against the door. Three blows and it caved out. I ducked, narrowly avoiding getting knocked off from the top of the doorframe.

Horror seized me as we leapt out into the hallway. The thump that had shaken the door earlier was a slumped body. I didn't have time to take a closer look before we were streaking down the hallways.

I almost slipped off several times, holding on to dear life. The loudest of the fighting sounded like it came from the level above, but even in this level trainees were running around shouting. A few other Outworlders had similar ideas and were morphing into predatory beasts and charging after us, with us.

The training rooms were ten levels down and we had gotten eight levels down before we encountered the dreaded white uniformed Reformists.

"GENERAL THERE'S A WHOLE GROUP OF—" One of the Reformists began to scream before a blazing azure leopard beside us launched itself at the enemy and hurled the body away.

Irene charged on and I only vaguely heard the sickening crunch of the body hitting the wall.

The damage had been done though. More Purists were appearing, alerted by their companion's call. They began lifting guns. Just like at the training center, they had alternating guns of Moonsbane and real guns.

And Irene and I were at the front of the group.

I gasped. "Irene wait—!"

A crack of a gunshot. A scream. I felt a bone-jarring shudder run through Irene— but she kept going. More predatory animal-Outworlders were charging to the front now, hurling themselves at the Reformists; felines, canines, even a bear.

Roars and screams lit the air into one hellish cacophony as Moonsbane and bullets fired everywhere.

And still Irene kept going until we reached the level of the training room— where a mass of trainees and Reformists were locked in battle.

I shrieked as Irene abruptly collapsed underneath me, hurling me to the ground. Pain flashed through my body as my side connected solidly to the floor.

I whirled around just as Irene morphed back into her human self, covered in blood. Ice filled my veins as flashbacks to the last time I saw so much red burned through my mind.

Tzuyu and Krystal arrived seconds later and Krystal had barely enough time to spring off before Tzuyu had morphed back again and crouched beside Irene.

A shadow fell across me and I looked up just as a Reformist, face twisted in fiendish hate, loomed before me with a gun in his hand. A flash of steel. Shock dissolved his scowl. He glanced down at the knife protruding from his chest, as if confused on how it got there.

Then another knife slammed home and the Reformist fell.

I whirled to look behind me where a grim-faced Suho stood in midst of the fray. His hair was mussed from where he'd obviously been rudely awakened and several scratches covered his face. He strode up and emotionless ripped the knives out of the fallen Reformist. "We need to move, baddie," he said, shoving a blood covered knife into my hand. "There's more still coming."

On cue a fresh wave of white uniformed Purists appeared at the end of the hall, charging. Bullets rained all around us.

"Jiyeon! Switch." Krystal leapt to my side and shoved a gun she'd found somewhere into my hands in exchange for the bloodstained knife. "I'm better at the knife than you."

"Let's go." Suho snapped and for a moment he sounded exactly like a trainer.

Krystal and I obediently ran after him towards a specific group of Reformists who had cornered several trainees.

I didn't think. My emotions had shut down once again, just like when I'd seen Yoongi's body slump over. Except this time, I was seeing Irene's body on the ground.

I lifted the gun and fired. A Reformist's body went down. Something, a distant feeling pushed far back in my mind, shrieked. I might've just made my first kill.

I shoved aside that distant feeling. Displaced it. There was no room for doubt on the field.

Everything seemed to slow down, yet pass in a blur. At some point I felt something warm running down my cheek. I couldn't even recall where I might've gotten injured. Maybe it was that short grapple I had with another Reformist girl. Maybe it was when that Purist man had disarmed me and thrown me to the ground before Krystal's deadly aim brought him down.

I saw familiar trainees' faces flash around me— sometimes alive and coming to fight beside us for a little bit, other times on the ground in a pool of Moonsbane or blood.

Krystal never left my side once, nor did I hers. White uniform after white uniform, stained in scarlet, went down before us. Yet for every one we brought down, another took their place.

Exhaustion was filling me. The muscles the training had brutally built up the past few weeks were beginning to tire at last. Krystal had tackled a Reformist to the ground and I'd just locked into combat with a young Reformist, who looked just as ragged as me, when a loud roar cleaved through the hellish cacophony around me.

"EVERYONE DROP YOUR WEAPONS OR I SHOOT HIM."

The Reformist slammed me into the wall. White flashed across my vision and blinding pain exploded in my skull. It took several long seconds before I could see again. When I could I found myself staring at another Purist who was holding a Moonsbane-and-blood-covered General Konu.

A gun pressed against the Infinity Council member of warfare's temple. Bullet clicked into place.

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