Chapter 29: Through the Flames

Vincent shouted when he shoved Jonathan off him. The young soldier fell onto his rear. Steel beams groaned overhead as Vincent turned around and marched back to the blaze that had consumed the path in the hallway. He was losing time. Every second expended signified another chance for Alice to be lost forever.

“Damn it, Vincent! I’m telling you-”

The raven-haired boy backhanded Jonathan the moment the other teen’s hands seized his arm. When the youth fell a second time, Vincent concentrated on his own palms, focusing as much as he could. For a moment, he felt it. Something innate. Nostalgic even, like he’d done this many times before.

Moisture in the air pulled into a concentrated liquid ball. It was about the size of a tomato. Seconds later, the water ballooned into the shape of a sphere about a foot in length.

With a yell, he flung the mass of liquid into the roaring inferno. A segment of the fire retreated from the projectile. Wonder coupled with relief emerged on the boy’s face.

His elation lasted only two seconds. Vincent watched in horror while the flames reclaimed lost ground. The boy fell to his knees as another groan resounded overhead, like the building itself was disappointed in his performance.

“No!” Jonathan shouted.

Vincent looked up and saw a thick beam dangle above him. An unusual arch had formed along the center, forming the shape of a v.

The groan came again, bending the rolled steel further before the structure gave way to stress. The snap that followed sounded like a bullet, one that was aimed directly at him. Vincent barely rolled out of the way as the significant weight of it crashed onto the spot he’d been resting. Thunder roared in his ears as the ground shifted from the collision. If he’d been a second slower in his retreat, every bone in his body would have undoubtedly been broken from the impact.

Jonathan helped him to his feet. The soldier let out a cough. “Come on. This isn’t the place-”

“I have to find Alice,” Vincent declared, pushing the youth back once more. He turned around and began his walk to the flames.

Upon taking the third step, something hard struck him. He collapsed onto his knees as a dull throb ached at the back of his head. Another blow came and the world around him formed into hues of red and black.

“Al….ice.”

Slurring her name was all the power he had in him before the darkness conquered the red world around him.

****

Alice Lynheart paced back and forth. Her shoes scuffed along the metal floor of the airship they’d boarded an hour earlier. She found a semblance of composure, if one could call a perpetual teetering along the precipice such a thing. Her heart ached to thoughts of Vincent.

He has to be alive. That mantra repeated itself in her head. She even muttered it aloud a few times. At this point, those words were the only defense she possessed; they kept her from going mad. They helped her ignore the orange skies fogged by the rising smoke. They helped her turn a blind eye to the missiles that decimated the cave above their facility.

No other ships were going to leave that place. Not when rubble buried everything. Even if the hangar remained intact, a rock ceiling would have impeded any exit. While earth wielders could do wonders, there was only so much debris they could clear.

The woman squeezed her hand as that rational part of her mind callously briefed her on the logistics surrounding the situation.

“Alice!” Seth shouted.

The verbal intrusion, along with the physical one now seizing her hand, jerked her from her thoughts. The teen ran something along her palm. A lilac towel from what she could tell. Though, with a few wipes, the purple shade found itself stained in red. Her blood.

She looked at her palm.

In her grief, she’d dug her nails deep along the center, piercing her flesh. Truthfully, she hadn’t noticed. How could she when her home had been enraptured in fire?

Again. This wasn’t the first time. The timing proved awfully suspicious. Hours after they’d arrived, the attack took place. It felt like she’d led the enemy right to them. In a way, she might as well have blown up the place herself.

“Alice, are you alright?” Seth asked.

She looked at him, barely resisting the urge to laugh in his face as she did so. How could he even ask such a thing?

“As right as rain, Seth.”

Rain. The words made her chuckle. A more apt description would have been a deluge flooding the entire world. Here they were cooped up in their ark in the sky while everything she knew around her perished in a flood. There was nothing right about it at all.

“Look, it’s going to be-”

She flipped the soldier onto his back, planting her shoe directly against his neck. Her hand awkwardly held his arm. It’d be so easy to snap it like a twig, something she intended to do if he finished that sentence. She didn’t need him to mindlessly tell her things would be alright. That clearly wasn’t true. The woman couldn’t even begin to imagine the lives lost in the fresh hell raging miles behind them.

“Shut your mouth,” she said. Her tone sounded less harsh than the yelp he let out as she began to pull on his arm. “You took me away. You…” her words faltered as she unhanded him. The fight in her dissipated as she took notice of the many eyes watching her keenly, Matthew among them, looking scared. She sank into the nearest seat. The leather material rustled with her sudden descent. “…I’ve lost everything again.”

Her cadet rose from his spot on the floor. She pieced together as much when he sat next to her.

A regular glutton for punishment, she thought.

“You have every right to be mad at me.”

Of course. And she did. Seth held her back from saving the one person who had picked her up at her lowest. She bit her lip. One who had accepted her for what she was. One that didn’t see her as a weapon, but as a woman. How could she not be furious?

“But I’m not losing you again,” Seth continued. “You had no right to do that to me.”

Anger surrendered to confusion as she locked eyes with him.

“You made me so happy, Alice. And then you were gone. I saw you killed over a broadcast. They blew your brains all over the wall. Do you know what that is like? Watching the person you love most die in front of you?”

“Stop it.”

“Powerless to do anything about it?”

Hot coals pooled within the woman’s eyes as she glared at the brunette sitting adjacent to her. The words hit too close to home, not that she could say she had one to go to at this point. She still wasn’t sure where they were going, though she had a few ideas. None of them mattered. Not while Vincent was gone.

“Alice, I…I love you.”

“I said stop it.”

He looked taken aback by her words. She didn’t care. He didn’t have the right to confess anything to her; not after what had happened with Vincent. Not after he pulled her away from him.

He hesitantly touched her hand. “Alice, I couldn’t lose you again. You weren’t going to get through that wreckage.”

His words stopped when she struck his cheek with her open palm.

“You could’ve let me try. Damn you, you could’ve let me try.”

“I did, Alice. It wasn’t going to happen. And with the fire growing…” he paused his words, studying the woman carefully as she began to cry again. “I couldn’t let you kill yourself. Not for some stranger. Not for someone you didn’t even know.”

She looked at him through the hot tears welling in her eyes. “Him and I went through so much together. We suffered through beatings, through long nights that felt like they’d never end. He made me feel.”

Alice lost her composure, loose as it was, after saying he made her feel. She fell into sobs. It was futile. Seth would never understand her plight. He couldn’t. No one could.

The soldier gently touched her shoulder. “He might be alive. I…I can’t say. But it doesn’t matter. You’ve seen how things are. How they’ve fallen apart since you’ve left. Worsened since you’ve returned. It can’t keep going like this.”

She looked at him confused.

“Look, Leo has lost his mind. And with what Vincent did in front of everybody, he’s going to kill him anyway.”

“You’re assuming I’d let that happen!”

The male soldier gave a weary sigh. “This assumes he’s alive. I don’t know. What I do know is we are. It’s not too late for us.”

“It is.”

“Damn it, Alice. We could still run away. When the ship docks-”

She grabbed his hand, getting him to stop. She placed it to her chest, which only seemed to expand the bewilderment upon his face.

“My heart belongs to another. No.”

His hand limply fell upon the armrest of her chair. Seconds passed before Seth contended with realization. “No… No. Not with him.”

“I’d say I’m sorry,” Alice said as she wiped her hand across her mouth, now acutely aware of the pain from where she’d bled herself. “But that would imply I should have to answer for how I feel. I won’t do that, Seth. I won’t.”

A downcast expression formed upon his face. “There isn’t anything worth fighting for,” he declared before he rose from his chair. “I’ll be up front if you need me.”

She wouldn’t be going to the front of the ship anytime soon. Alice allowed her eyes to look outside the window. The sky awaiting her wasn’t colored in orange or obscured by black smoke.

Matthew touched her hand, seizing her attention. “Alice, Vincent will come for you. He’ll find you. He loves you too much to give up.”

The woman hugged the boy, rubbing his back as she did so. She wanted desperately to believe that. Wherever they’d land, she wanted to see her boyfriend emerge from the crowd with his disarming smile that made all her troubles wash by the wayside.

“I know,” she said. It surprised her how easily she said those words.

Alice looked out the window once more.

Please. Come find me.

****

General Vladsco smiled from the observatory of his ship while he watched the destruction unfold before him. Oh, how the mice scattered with a little fire. He paid no mind to the stragglers. They’d be caught sooner or later. Right now, he wanted to make sure their nest was decimated.

“Sir, should we be this close?” asked one of his advisors.

Vladsco turned around to face the meek man that had spoken to him. “I’ve wanted Derwent’s head mounted on a spike for years. You’d have me miss the sight in my hour of triumph?”

The advisor shook his head as he adjusted his glasses. “It’s not that. I just don’t think it wise to be this close-“

Vladsco grabbed the rotund man and slammed him against the glass window of the observatory. A small crack formed along the base of it. The man yelped as the splintering became more audible to the pair.

“One more complaint out of you and I’ll show you what close really is,” the general barked before he flung the man along the floor. The glasses belonging to his aide slid along the ground, landing onto the lower platform below the observatory. From their current elevation, they likely shattered from the fall.

The general resisted the joyous laugh that nearly escaped him as another missile detonated the front of the cave. The rubble buried the entrance. Anyone left behind in that mess would either be doomed to burn or suffocate.

Only five ships got out. It was doubtful his son and Golden Phoenix escaped with their lives. A shame too. He wanted to thank them for leading him to the base of operations for the Resistance. Once he discerned his prisoners were heading home with his drones, the game changed to one of patience.

He licked his lips. Those fools gave him Leo Derwent. If he got blown away in the crossfire, The Resistance would dissolve, maybe even overnight if Vladsco’s lucky streak continued.

A beep resounded from the communication panel. The general hummed as he clicked the button to answer the call. The disapproving face of the commandant formed on the screen.

“Ah, the late emperor’s idiot nephew. How is Deinan treating you these days?”

The blond man glared at him. “Who gave you permission to rally an army? No one in the Holy Council granted you authorization.”

“Well holy shit,” Vladsco declared with another bout of laughter. “Looks like they don’t know what’s going on. Allow me to catch you up to speed: I’m winning your war.”

The commandant blinked, looking flabbergasted by the claim being made. “My uncle’s war, you mean. How, pray tell, are you accomplishing that?”

“We found the rebel base. Even as we speak, it’s being reduced to ashes.”

“That’s…how did you discover it?”

Vladsco snorted. “Prisoners talk. We just hadn’t found the right ones until now. I’d had an approximation of the location about a month ago. Tried to share that detail with the late Shiro Munchausen.”

“He never told me.”

“Our emperor seemed a bit too preoccupied with his own issues to really care. I suppose getting stabbed by your own daughter and torn apart by an angry mob would do that.”

The commandant glared. “I need you to come back to Deinan.”

“It’s nice to know I’m needed. Warms my reptile heart.”

“This isn’t a game. The capital is in shambles. Once you’re done, I need your assistance to maintain order.”

Vladsco brushed his tongue across his lips. “Maintaining order for The Order. Sounds poetic, don’t you think?”

“As the current head of the state, it is my sworn duty-“

The general cut off the feed and resumed witnessing the hellish landscape lit ablaze beneath his ship. He bore no interest in hearing lectures from someone as depraved as Eric Munchausen.

Emperor Shiro had been grating enough on his nerves. He didn’t need another pompous member of that family to condescend to him.

The advisor looked at him aghast. “Did you just-“

“If the situation at the capital is as dire as he claims, he needs to get off that floating fortress of his and deal with it himself.”

The beeping on the panel started again before the advisor could respond. He looked between it and the general frantically. Vladsco sighed before he capitulated and turned on the screen.

Eric’s face emerged reddened from fury. “That better have been a technical issue. Because I could’ve swore you hung up on me.”

“Merely a test. It turns out the disconnect button works as intended,” Vladsco declared before he pressed the button to terminate the call a second time. He swiftly punched in the necessary sequence to disable further communication from the commandant. Quite frankly, he didn’t answer to him, despite that insect’s delusions of grandeur. With Shiro gone, he fully planned on storming the capital in time. He’d crush the mob rampaging in the streets and dismantle the theocratic regime. He’d replace it with a true order. A military state that would bring peace to the land.

Straightening his tie, the general began his march from the observatory.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” the advisor asked as he desperately clung to him like a shadow.

They reached the side door of the ship. Vladsco opened the docking panel as a blast of air entered the interior. He looked at the man with pure malice. “Merely tossing out all of the things holding me back. Getting rid of rubbish, useless men, the complainers.”

The man’s expression faltered as the general’s earlier promise echoed in his head. He realized too late where he ranked on that list. He began to run before Vladsco snagged a clump of his hair. The man let out a cry before he found himself unceremoniously chucked out of the ship.

“And splat,” the general said while he clapped his hands. He closed the panel before he returned to the observatory. The plan was simple: he’d move his forces back to Fort Brein. He had much to do. So much work. Prisoners to dispose of and experiments to conduct.

True, he no longer had the compound for VC-10. Not a problem. He did possess a plentiful supply of that woman’s blood. There was at least enough of it to try to replicate the compound, possibly even produce more people like her.

Now that his children were gone and his prized Golden Phoenix was decaying in the rubble, he had to look to the future.

Children are the future, he thought as he began to thumb through a list he had printed before the attack. Orphanages. Hospitals. There was so much territory to explore. So many possibilities to consider. He planned on being busy for the coming months. Maybe even send a few of the failed experiments to Deinan to rot in the street or blow up in a spray of fire and blood.

Vladsco leaned in his chair and laughed. Things were escalating. He loved it. He honestly hadn’t felt so alive in years. The game would conclude soon enough. Whether the commandant and everyone else realized it or not, he was playing to win. And win he would. He’d dance along their graves as the world burned down. From its ashes would rise something far greater than Golden Phoenix.

The clocks were ticking in unison. The future was coming. He’d lead everyone to an era unlike any other. One rife with innovation and prosperity. The dogmatic relic that The Order had become would be purged and brought to the modern age.

“Tick-tock-tick-tock.”

****

A rumble disturbed Vincent’s slumber. He winced as his eyes acclimated to the room around him. The boy rolled to his side before his hand began seeking stability. He rose from the floor as he scanned the area.

Strangers surrounded him. From the uniforms, Leo’s people.

The only familiar face in the crowd was Jonathan. The teen sat in a chair looking at him in disapproval.

“Where am I?” Vincent asked as he took notice of the cut split along the boy’s upper lip.

“On one of the only ships that made it out. Congratulations.”

He cocked his head at the soldier. “What happened to your lip?” he asked, pointing a finger towards it.

“You.”

Vincent looked down at his feet, admittedly ashamed for having struck him. All because he was trying to prevent him from getting to the lieutenant.

His eyes widened as he took a step forward. His hands latched onto the armrest as he towered above the soldier. “Where is Alice?”

“Don’t make me knock your ass out again,” Jonathan declared. “Sit.”

Vincent looked over his shoulder and saw people looking at him. A multitude of expressions greeted him. Worry. Disgust. Fear. He’d no doubt invited these reactions from them with his bombastic response.

Jonathan gestured to the seat directly across from him.

Rather than agitate him further, Vincent acquiesced to the demand. He sat down on the leather cushion. The seat felt like it could’ve pulled him deep in it. At least the fabric felt relaxing on his back. Though material comfort did little to ease his anxiety. Not when she was missing.

Jonathan sensed his apprehension, finally making it a point to address the concern. “We don’t know where she is. Not many ships made it out.”

Vincent felt his heart tremor at the bluntness of the news. If he had a mirror on hand, he likely would’ve seen the color drain from his face. No. No, no, no, no!

The soldier held up a hand. “There is still a chance. We’re not sure all who made it out. Till we get where we’re going, we won’t know.”

“And where is that?”

Jonathan propped his foot above his knee. “We have another base. It’s miles from the one we were stationed at. We should be safe to regroup there.”

“How long?” Vincent demanded.

“At the rate we’re going, we’ll be there in another hour. When we arrive, we’ll be expected to-“

“I’m waiting for Alice.”

Jonathan frowned at the interruption. “That’s not the protocol.”

“Well, I have a few suggestions on where you can stick that protocol.”

The soldier chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. You’re real original, buddy. Take my advice: Don’t get mouthy with the commander.”

“Leo is a-“

“Not Leo. Commander Stein. He’s the one manning the operations. You’re in enough hot water, loverboy.”

Vincent looked taken aback. Loverboy? Commander Stein? He wasn’t sure where that remark came from, and he most certainly didn’t know anyone named Stein.

“I’m not stupid. You can’t tell me nothing is going on between you and Alice. She wouldn’t have taken the risk she did in that auditorium if you weren’t important to her. And most men wouldn’t have plunged themselves in a raging fire like you did unless your passion for her burned with a similar intensity.”

I won’t tell, if you won’t. Those words echoed in his head, making him feel even more miserable than before.

Vincent looked away from him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, okay. Is that why it took two men to pull you out of the medical bay when she collapsed?”

“Three men,” Vincent corrected. “And you’ll have to forgive me, but with as much as we’ve been through, the last thing I wanted was for anything to happen to her. That’s why I did what I did. I…used my powers,” he said with realization as he looked down at his palm.

Jonathan nodded. “Looks like you aren’t a cripple anymore. With the way your eyes glowed blue, I was impressed. That required some mastery. Certainly not something we see with most first timers, that’s for sure.”

Vincent tuned him out and attempted to call his powers. Nothing happened. He kept squeezing his fingers together. He wrinkled his forehead as he continued trying to conjure it.

“You look like you’re straining to fart. Just quit it.”

Vincent looked at the ill-tempered soldier in frustration. “I could do it so easily before. Why not now?”

Jonathan eased his steely gaze, softening it into something resembling sympathy. “Because you did it for her. I don’t claim to know what happened between you two but be careful. Politics won’t make any flings with her an easy thing.”

“Leo and I need to have a talk anyway.”

“That won’t be happening. His convoy blew up.”

Vincent felt his heart seize as his eyes widened. “What?”

Jonathan made a sound mimicking an explosion. “He’s toast, Vincent. Done like dinner. Leo is the least of your worries now.”

The boy honestly wished he could say he felt sorry to hear that news. Given how crazy the man had acted, he wasn’t too torn apart about it. If anything, he felt such a tragedy couldn’t have befallen a more deserving person than that psychotic man.

“Sounds like he died as he lived: Going up in smoke,” Vincent said with a giggle. His laughter came to an end when the soldier stood up and smacked the back of his head.

Jonathan scowled at him. “This isn’t a joke. Leo Derwent was a powerful man. He held up our side. With him gone, there is no telling what’ll happen now. Pray to God Victor doesn’t come into power.”

“Who is Victor?” Vincent asked as he caressed the back of his head.

“Thomas Victor is the third commander.”

Vincent rolled his eyes. “Sounds like too many chefs in the kitchen. How many people are heading The Resistance anyway?”

“We weren’t always one group. There are multiple factions. Leo had gathered a coalition with those two. With him gone, anything, and I do mean anything, could happen. So, I suggest you keep your thoughtless jokes to yourself.”

Leo was a joke. Not that he’d verbalize that comment, no matter how accurate. He was in enough hot water after all. Not that he cared. The only thing that mattered to him at all was Alice. He needed to see her again.

Vincent remained silent for the rest of the ride. As advertised, the ship did dock. It had been almost a full hour. The noise was loud as people flooded out of the ride and into the docking bay of the facility.

The boy had to admit the sight of the place was as impressive as it was massive. A siren droned on as another ship traversed through the open ceiling. It landed on the opposite side of the hangar. His head followed the ship. Lingering above the landed vessel was a platform that led into the control tower. Several men were flocked along the edge of it, looking down at the lot of them.

“Hey, wait,“ Jonathan called to him.

Vincent brushed past the young man. He didn’t care to talk to him anymore. If there was a chance Alice was there, he wouldn’t allow himself to miss her for the world.

The ramp to the ship slid down onto the pavement. People poured out of it in droves. Mostly men. No Alice.

His expression soured as he took sight of Kurt leaving the ship. That miserable piss-stain beat the odds and made it out. If he could do it, why not Alice? The more Vincent pondered the situation, the angrier he grew.

Kurt got lost in the crowd that made their march for the building across from the hangar. Vincent was fine with that detail. At least he wouldn’t be stuck interacting with him. The last thing he needed to do was get into a fistfight with the condescending jerk. Wouldn’t make a good impression among his peers.

Minutes passed. Five. Then ten. Each passing second weighed heavier on the boy’s heart. She wasn’t coming.

He felt a hand touch his shoulder. Vincent looked up at Jonathan. Sympathy mired his rough-looking features. “Come on.”

Vincent wanted to say no. He wasn’t even strong enough to let out that single syllable. Instead, he hung his head and followed the soldier, considering what he was to do in the situation. Alice was the only tangible thing he had. Without her, he was being plunged into a senseless war.

He imagined how the days would be in her absence. The days when the conflict would be over. Where would he go? Where could he go? He had nothing. His only family was a sadistic rapist for a sibling and a father who didn’t bat an eye at killing people.

Kurt was the only other living soul he’d connected to, and that relationship had been adversarial. Vincent would sooner eat a gun than try to bond with the likes of him. The hatred he felt for him was mutual.

Before his mind lingered too deeply into tying a bedsheet onto a ceiling fixture, he heard a rumble in the distance.

“Look,” Jonathan whispered.

He already was. The front of the ship approaching the hangar had a beak like an eagle. The air hissed as it made its way into the facility.

Vincent winced as the wing of the ship tipped over a cargo container on its landing. Some of the men on the upper balcony swore. One of them barged back into the control tower while the others made their way down the long flight of steps. Their feet echoed along the metal.

The door to the ship opened. Like the previous vessel, a ramp slid out from the interior and landed onto the ground. Men began to pour out of the vehicle.

Vincent didn’t see Alice among them.

Jonathan tapped his shoulder. “I’m sorry. Look, I think you need to lie down.”

He lowered his head. Little did the soldier know he might be lying down for the last time. It wasn’t the ideal way to go, but at least he could see Alice on the other side. Heaven, she had called it. There’d be no bars to confine them, no bad men to torment them. It was a wondrous sight where all would become one. It’d be a better place than here.

Vincent gave one last look to the airship before he felt his feet freeze in place. A familiar figure with blonde hair stared at him from the distance.

Alice.

He took a step forward. Then another. With the third step, he made a mad dash to her. A smile unrestrained was unleashed upon his countenance as he swept the woman up in his arms.

“I knew you’d find me,” she whispered before they kissed.

In that moment, the base didn’t exist. The world had been replaced by heaven as he held onto the woman who gave life meaning to him. He couldn’t restrain the tears welling in his eyes. He didn’t care if she saw him blubbering like an infant. He had her again. She’d made her way into his arms once more.

They parted their lips and gazed longingly at one another.

“I’ll never let you go,” he declared.

“That might get tiring after a while,” she answered with a coy smile. Her amusement faltered as she studied him. “Then again, I don’t think I could take it if you did. Rules or no rules.”

Vincent put her down, but not before he stole another kiss from her. Their fingers intertwined as the rules were tossed aside like an afterthought. With the longing consuming their hearts, all that mattered was that destiny had brought them back together before he had crossed the point of no return.

Come whatever may, they wouldn’t be alone. They’d endure any challenge that presented itself before them. They’d face the adversity together, hand in hand. Precisely the way they advanced towards the base looming in the distance. Hand in hand. Together as one.