The quickest way back would have been the tunnel. It would take too long to dig through the cave in, so a subset of us jumped into the nearest vehicles and followed a Sandworm up to the surface. We took surface streets back across town. We took the final left turn that would lead us to the Beacon but stopped suddenly.

I looked around at the buildings across the street from the Beacon. Yes, those were the same buildings. I looked back at the Beacon, only there was no Beacon. A huge pile of rubble stood in its place.

I panicked and opened a chat up to the team, "Wen? Sara? Noa?"

I didn't hear anything for what seemed an eternity. And then Sara's voice came through. "What's up James?"

Oh thank God. Charlie, Eyal and I all looked at each other in a mixture of relief and confusion.

Wait, she said that much too nonchalantly. "What's up? Have you seen the Beacon?"

Sara responded, "Oh yeah, Wen did that. Can you clear the building off of us so we can come out?"

What had Wen done?

It took us two days to clear the debris. The site looked grizzly. Mixed into the rubble of the building we found parts of bodies. Blood coated much of the site, making building materials slick and hard to lift.

As we worked our way down we noticed something peculiar. In a few spots a dim blue light glowed from between parts of the building. We pushed on further and found that the chunks of dirt, concrete and glass would slide across a glowing blue, semi-transparent material. We cleared a bigger area away, revealing what looked like part of a gigantic snow globe. When we tried to look through it, the image resembled the fogged-up glass of a fish tank. We could see movement inside, but we couldn't make the details out.

We got most of the material moved away. That’s when we received a message from Wen, "Stand back, I'm going to deactivate the field."

The blue light blinked out and the remaining rubble nearest the field fell into the previously clear space. After everything settled we made our way inside.

There were about 300 people huddled in the middle of what used to be Wen’s lab. Many of them looked wounded. Some lay on the ground as others attended to them.

Our team rushed in to help. Many of them left their families behind, assuming the Beacon would protect them.

"Took you long enough." Sara said as she walked up to us.

I hurried over to give her a hug. She pressed her hand against my chest, "Woah there cowboy, not a hugger."

I smiled. We saw Wen heading over slowly. He lent his support to someone else, who limped by his side.

"Noa!" I shouted, "Are you ok?"

"Alive.” She sounded exhausted Her face looked haggard and I worried that something more than physical had broken inside of her. She must have seen the worry on my face. The line of her mouth transformed from a grimace to the slightest smile. I relaxed.

I looked over at Eyal to see his reaction and he nodded once. I looked over at Noa and she mirrored the nod. Few words, but I could see in both their eyes, relief.

"So, does anyone want to fill us in?" I asked.

Sara made a dismissive wave of his question. "You haven’t watched the video yet?"

“What video? You didn’t say you had a video.” Sara shrugged. I didn’t let it go, “Perhaps you could have while we were digging you out?!” How quickly my tone changed from concern to annoyance.

Anyway, I didn't want to watch the video. I wanted the Cliff notes version. I looked at Sara again and noticed bags around her eyes. I looked back at the med crews helping the injured and realized they had their own hands full. They had just been buried by a building after defending against an attack with no soldiers left behind to help them. I could eat my frustration.

We piled into little Jefe. It felt nice to be together again in Charlie's original creation. We didn't have O, but still, it felt like turning the clock back to a time when we all had less responsibility. A reunion of sorts. Sitting inside the back cabin, Sara sent the security feeds up on the screen and we watched together.

The Beacon stood there, gleaming against the lights of the city. My eyes welled up. Such a beautiful creation, gone now. The scene changed as dozens of Rhinos raced towards the glass walls of the first floor. Seconds before they arrived at the glass, the entire building slammed down on them. My brain could not interpret what I saw.

Charlie smiled, "The entire outer shell of the building was designed to drop down in the event of an attack."

I paused the video. "What?" I said incredulously. "Does that mean the entire lobby was crushed?"

Charlie shook his head, "No, just the outer shell came down. The building has an outer and inner shell. It's like a huge rollup garage door, so normally you don’t see the outer shell. It’s in those big things at the top.

“Those things that look like Battlements? I thought that was just because you liked castles.” I said.

Charlie scratched his head, “Oh, I guess it did look kinda like that. I just needed a place to store those outerwalls. Anywho, when it drops down, all of the floors are protected with a thick metal shield."

The force of those walls coming down on the Rhinos must have been like a meteor impact.

I started the video again. Those Rhinos unfortunate enough to be under the walls became pancakes, with limbs sticking out where the wall touched the ground. Those further back stared, uncertain what to do. Then they all took several steps back. I switched to a broader camera view and we saw why. A wave of those flying Regulators attacked the light armor coating the building. As each one attempted to cut the metal with their modified talon limbs, they would shutter and fall to the ground. I paused the video again and looked at Charlie.

"I electrified the walls." Charlie said sheepishly.

I smiled, "Of course you did Charlie."

I started the video up again. It looked like the attack stopped. Nothing happened for a good long time. I looked around, “Did they give up?” If we stopped the attack, why would Wen blow up the building?

Then I saw him. Gods he looked huge now. John walked into the image and up to the wall. His gorilla sized arms ended in razer sharp nails. He cut into the walls like a can opener and began tearing the metal apart. We could see blue arcs of electricity cross into John's body, but they just appeared to dance around him.

I felt anger, but also a pang of jealousy. I should have been developing my physical self far more than I had. If I had to go up again John again, I don't think I could take him, even with Charlie's magical gadgets.

John finished making a large hole across the shell and entered. Glass broke as he barreled through the lobby wall. His mutated Regulators followed him in. The image cut out shortly after that.

Sara turned off the screen. "Not much else to see here. We evacuated to the lab. John and his regulators almost made it to us. That is when Wen turned on his generator. The building came down on all of us after that."

I looked with hope, "John?"

Sara shrugged, "No idea. Did you find his body?"

I checked the records from the cleanup crew. Nothing that matched John’s description. We were a long way from digging through it all, but deep down I knew John got away. My blood boiled with rage. I had been in fight mode so long, adrenaline still raged through my body.

I crashed. The weight of everything that had happened finally washed over me. The people we lost, the people John twisted. I felt suffocated. I pushed out of the truck and looked out at the rubble that once was the Beacon.

The others came out and stood by me. I felt nauseous, but I eked out a few words. "John will pay for this."

Wen shook his head, "James, you still don't get it."

I looked over at him. How could Wen not be as angry as he was.

Sara spoke, "Wen's right James. Even if you kill John, someone else will take his place. We are still just a small part of what is going on in the world."

"Then we grow our numbers. And we start making our people stronger. I was wrong to hold O back. I see that now. We barely won. Manipulating our code is the only way."

Sara smiled, "James, you are an idiot."

My mouth dropped open.

"I..."

Sara interrupted, "We don't need to get stronger. We need to find the source, just like Wen said."

"And if John attacks us again? None of us are strong enough to stop him," I snarled.

Eyal spoke, shaking me from my killing trance, "We will do it together."

Charlie smiled, "The power of friendship." And he put his hand into the center of us.

Oh my god. That was the cheesiest thing anyone has ever said.

It was perfect.

I kept putting the weight of the world on my own shoulders. I looked over at Sara, the one who organized and drove us all. I looked at Wen, the one that kept us focused on the big picture. I looked at Noa, the one who called out the simple truths when we were too close to a problem. I looked at Eyal, the stead rock who kept us safe. I looked at Charlie, the one who always reminded us that we can be more, that we can do more.

I put my hand on top of Charlie's. "The power of friendship." Charlie looked hopefully at the others.

The shook their heads. "No way I'm doing that," Sara said.

I gave it a moment longer, then shrugged and pulled my hand off Charlies. "Sorry Charlie, maybe next time. So Wen, what's the plan?" I asked.