Finally tired of being a little piece of shit, I drained the last bit of my beer down the drain. Of course it could have been easier to just take it to the kitchen, but this was symbolic.

There was some chance that we could could get Sonja back. A minuscule chance, sure, but a chance. I had to stop being useless and do something about it. Do something about that chance. If Mianite saw me in the state I was he might have smited me, which would have been easy since we were now in the same dimension as Mianite.

Wag had been working in his room all night, at least that's what I had heard from Matthew Gaines when he was grumbling around me. I remembered that, and having it only be a few minutes before I would get knocked out by that blue liquid, I had to go to Wag and get information yesterday.

I somehow meandered my way to Wags room. Lots of students were running in and out of the halls, which was strange since I was so late at night. They became obstacles, not a single one trying to help me anywhere.

Being a hero is extremely overrated if you hint learned that by now.

I grabbed the doorknob to Wags room, my knees started to collapse on me. I hit the door, leaning on it for a support, almost crashing through it.

Wag opened the door suddenly. I staggered backwards as I blinked my blurry vision at him.

"Yes?" He asked, still mildly worried about me. Except I was fine now. A whole new fresh breath of bitterness had intoxicated me - and whatever was in the potion.

I tried to keep myself afloat. "I nsneed the anslerwers now."

He was confused, but only for awhile. His face then relaxed and he understood. "Did you drink that blue potion in the kitchen?"

I nodded my head yes, to the best of my ability. My limbs were being shitty and useless.

He sighed, which had been everyone generally reaction to me lately.

This must be what Tom feels like.

Wag glanced both ways in the hall. All to see was bustling students. "C'mon." He grabbed my hand, and silently dragged me into his room.

I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting something that was more of a mess than Jordan's set up.

"What the Fuck dude!" I got that out neatly.

He ignored me, piecing together all of the random pages he had open together.

I didn't care what he was doing now, though. I only cared about what he had figured out already.

"You halve to tell me," I slurred out.

"Are you going to even retain it if I tell you what I predict happened to Sonja?" He asked.

"It's not alcohol!" I retorted. "It's the shit they gave me!"

Wag continued to circle his room. A multitude of books were out on the ground. Some were about potions. Some were the late history of Mianite. Some were even about necromancy. I wasn't sure how Wag got his hands on those.

"It's a parasite."

"Excuse me."

He didn't answer, and my mind was going to then worse. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means what I said," He let our abruptly, to busy to make eye contact with me. "She had a type of hive mind magic take over her body as a host, which is how King Ragnar kidnapped her."

A host. I thought of the dolls. How they were lifeless, but were they sentient, or were they under control too? Was Sonja just as lifeless as those dolls now?

"Is she still alive?" I asked. I struggled to keep my words in tact. Everything was hazy now, my vision blurry, my words braking.

"Yes," He answered calmly, all of a sudden being understating and quiet. "Much like possession she is still their, in the back of her mind. She's watching from the outside in her own body."

I started to bob my head up and down. That liquid was nasty stuff, and it was giving me the biggest headache I had ever had. I believed that I had a thousand bricks stacked on my head for awhile.

Wag sighed, staring at his door wistfully. Commotion was going on around me, I could tell, but there was nothing I could do.

"You should rest," Wag declared. "We have a long ride from now on."

I somehow knew what he was talking about without even being filled in. Every time something strange happened, we were thrown into the epicenter of it.

I struggled to sit on one of his chairs. My limbs were heavy. My head felt light and breezy.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the sound of Wag flipping threw an ungodly amount of pages.

Never understood the hype up about war.

They classify anything as war now. They'll start war over anything now. Two kids slapped each other over animals crackers - war. Someone gets into a bar brawl with the wrong side - war. Some terrorists kill your archduke - war. Left the popcorn in the microwave and it all burned - war.

"Hope," someone nudged at me. A familiar voice. "Hope." I rolled over to my side. My eyes hurt and my thoughts were clouded. "I know, I'm sorry, but you have to get up now."

"What?" I murmured out. When I finally opened my eyes I saw Andor surrounded by darkness. The only light shedding in the room was from an open door behind him. Someone was waiting for me there.

"What time is it?" I tried to pry myself against my elbow. My limbs were tired and sore.

"It's 3 am." Andor answered promptly, throwing a random pair of draw string pants in my vicinity. "And they are now at war with the Ianite Raiders."

I got myself up as my back cracked in twenty different places. "You woke me up at three in the morning so I could be informed that we are now at war with the people they have already been fighting for years."

"This is how things are done officially."

I rubbed my pounding head. "It's so passive aggressive-"

"Ma'am?" A knock at the already opened doorway. The student at the door cleared his throat. "Your brother and sister asked for you immediately-"

"Oh my - fucking - god." I sighed into my blankets. "I forgot I had those."

I shoved pants on, and struggled to get up. I was to tired to even get angry, which was lucky for whoever was at this doorway.

I walked out of the room. The light of the hallway was blinding compared. I squinted at the light, and at the kid who just woke me up. A blond - tragic. Someone on my side had betrayed me.

"Be careful," I heard Andor from the room. He was sitting on the bed, just staring at me.

I didn't know how to answer without giving him a heart attack. "I am always."

I saw him shake his head as I was rushed by the kid to get down the hallway.

Most other students were rushing beside me, somehow briskly walking to there work stations. Somehow alive.

"I have the right to ask whatever the hell I want, right?" I asked. My question made the teenager even more nervous. "I mean I sorta run this place."

I always had this glint of anger just pop up when I saw Faith and Liberty do anything with this Kingdom. It was dead weight. Dead weight they were forced to keep because there uncle is fucking useless. It would be my dead weight soon. It was already becoming my dead weight.

"I don't know how that works," he answered, shrugging off the question just as I would. "I'm just the closest kid they saw."

"Hate to brake it to you, but you don't get any more respect when your older."

He smirked at that. Cute.

Suddenly we were at a double wide metal doors. It looked like they had prepared to be burned down. This kid was taking me to a legit bunker room.

"What the fuck-"

"This is far as I'm allowed to take you," he said, backing up. Some hint of wonder and exasperation were centered at the room. Curious boundaries. "That whole place is a planning and defense room now."

I stared up at the big iron doors. My head was pounding and nothing could process. I would have to make it process, though. A feet that I was not ready for.

God dammit.

"Where will you all train now?" I asked him, hoping to waste some time.

He didn't bite for the bait. "You should probably go in their."

I sighed out, realizing that he wasn't giving me any more options. I couldn't be anymore difficult. This kids academy and teachings were on the line.

"Welp, see you on the other side Herbert," I said, swinging the door open.

"My names Patrick."

"You look like a Herb."

The door slammed down behind me.

"The settlers in Athoria listen better when you speak their native tongue," Faith explained. Mot and I were awkwardly watching the chaos we had created close up. Even after fucking up so horribly I was still there only hope.

The door slammed shut. Not even this stopped Faith from continuing to talk.

Hope walked into the armory. Dark circles were under her eyes and she had sweatpants, which meant that yet another member of our team had completely given up.

I handed her the coffee I had gotten before even trying to talk to her.

She took a sip of it. Faith was still going on about the people who had settled Athoria. I thought we had made it a wasteland after our battle with Dianite, but people were still finding someway to live there.

Hope cringed at the coffee. "What the fuck? Why the sugar?"

"Because that's how you drink it," I whispered back.

Hope glared at me like I had insulted all of her dead ancestors. "You're so weird."

"Although, Athoria may not seem useful!" Faith cleared her throat, grabbing our attention. "It houses lots of plants that are useful for medicine and first aid that could be life saving for battle."

Life saving. I couldn't screw this one up.

"No one else in Mianite has their agriculture," she started to stare at the floor. I think that's how she spirals. "No one who will ally themselves with us at least."

Her voice didn't crack at all, but she could barely stand herself up. We all needed sleep or something worse was going to happen. Of course that wasn't in the horizon any time soon.

"Does anybody know how to speak their language?" Mot asked, which was his first mistake. He asked.

"Good thing you asked," Faith said, grabbing a book and placing it on the table.

Mot's shoulders tensed up so strongly that I thought they were actually going to say "son of a bitch."

"We don't have an Ianarian to Mianite dictionary so we had to go from Ianarian to Latin." Another thick heavy book was placed on the desk. "And then Latin to Portuguese." Another thump. "And then Portuguese to English." Faith swept her hair back, and than motioned to all of the books. "English is basically our native Mianite language, except for the fact that this a 'So you want to visit New York' addition and has a bizarre dialect-"

"Oh!" I spoke up, trying to poke the dictionary in my direction. "I can do that."

The tension in the room grew higher. They had figured out my blunder just because of how I was acting. I ratted myself out by being awkward.

Faith sighed, somehow still wholeheartedly trusting me. "Okay, it's a plan then."

"You're seriously planning to put us back in the ring," Mot said. His eyes huge. This whole operation continued to be in the hands of us, and we're idiots.

"Does anybody else want to do it?" Faiths voice was stern. The lack of sleep was finally kicking in.

Tom and Hope both shook their heads, getting ready to slowly back away.

Faith let another quick breath, trying to keep herself afloat. Suddenly she looked up. The iron doors opened. Her eyebrows were corked and tense, but she still had a welcoming smile on.

"Oh, hi," She greeted the three men walking in with surprise.

They didn't answer, stopping in the middle of the armory. Supposedly because this wasn't their native language.

"Mot, Jordan," Faith spoke quickly. "Please tell them they have to meet us in the dining hall."

Mot sporadically flipped through page by page, searching for a phrase. I was just standing as the tension in the room her bigger. "Uh-" was all I uttered out.

The first man reached to his side. His hand layer under his shirt. He ripped off a dagger that was taped to the side of the stomach.

We ducked as he lunged at us. Everyone parted like the Red Sea. Everyone went to grab their weapons, or a weapon.

"I didn't say anything!" Mot yelled out, dropping the book on the floor.

The man was panting on the ground. The other two were in fighting position.

"You didn't have to," Tom got out. He thankfully had his dagger. "They're the Ianite Raiders. They won't listen to anyone."

And suddenly we were in battle with the invaders. No medicine. No first aid. This was the sake of lives. These were our lives.

The armory had two floors. I noted that when I walked in because the bows were on the top floor. It was more of a bridge hanging around the room, with a ladder attached. Glass fence blocked it off from the rest of the room.

I didn't have my bow. I barely had gotten pants and myself down here, so I needed a bow. I could fight three people off then.

They were good fighters. One of them already had Tom by the wrist and was twisting him around. That's why I felt like we were outnumbered with only three.

Someone had come to back him up, so I started for the ladder.

I didn't look back, but I heard the first man throw Faith off of him. We needed more people to outnumber them if we wanted to use the strategy of strength.

I needed my bow.

I started to climb up. The metal felt cold against my burning palms that were already sweating. I tried to grip, with the yelling of my team making it increasingly harder to do anything.

My leg was yanked down from the ladder. I glanced down, gripping at the one rung so I wouldn't fall. I saw a man. A gruffy man with no sign of human life in his eyes. He pulled at my leg again. I almost slipped.

I kicked him in the face. I heard a crack. He backed up shoving his nose in his hands. Five people were having trouble getting through two.

The climb continued.

I got to the top. I could hear the clang of the metal ladder. It the rings rang in my ear. I ran towards the bows. I could see them. Closer and closer.

I saw rushing figures in the corner of my eyes. Everyone had to struggle to help someone else with one person. Punches were caught. Kicks were dodged. It's like these people were on war steroids.

It had felt like minutes, though it was only seconds. Adrenaline. It does that. Heavy breathing and electric heartbeats.

What they had was not adrenaline.

Suddenly I fell. My knees knocked away from under me. My back landed on the floor. My whole body cracked against my head.

That's a concussion. I thought, though it was hard to think about anything other than not dying.

I gasped for air as the big man had caught up to me. My head was dizzy. More dizzy than normal, and every move was a quick shock of numb pain.

He kneeled, wanting nothing more to choke whatever life I had in me dead, and that's exactly what he did.

My neck grew tighter. Everything was pain, and I knew this feeling. I got almost killed every day. I would soon feel light and airy and be gasping for air. Choking on his bare hands like I was now.

Most people got scared, limp, or shocked. I just got pissed.

I kneed him in the dick because that's what he was - a dick.

And again, and again, and again. The bastard continued to hold on with the highest pain tolerance I had ever seen.

Suddenly he got up. Only grunting out, holding his stomach. No words. None of the normal "you bitch!". A little disappointing.

I didn't have time to be disappointed, of course. I needed to grab that bow. End this. End whatever the hell these Ianites were supposed to be.

He grabbed for my ankle one last time. His grip on my foot pumping adrenaline back into my throbbing head.

"Fuck off!" I screamed out, kicking upwards.

His jaw knocked up on itself, and his gums started to bleed. His knees wobbled as he stood up on them. Slowly going back. He leant again the glass. Didn't have strength so I had to use strategy.

I punched him with a scream. I punched him through the glass. He fell, gravity throwing his limbs over himself. Glass shards falling around him like rain.

He landed on the table, braking on impact. Glass followed immediately after. All I left in my wake was a pool of blood.

The other men started to run towards me, and my team took notice to my plan. Mot lunged at them, knocking the first one down. They stalled time.

I ran to the bow, grabbing the silver rodded one and enough arrows.

Everyone was still a fury mess under me. A fight that felt for hours but only lasted seconds.

I grabbed my arrow, shoved in my bow. My hands were shaking, but I kept my aim straight.

Someone had grabbed Jordan by the shirt collar.

"Hey!" I screamed out. My bow aimed at the man holding Jordan. "Stop putting my friend through a chest wedgie, or I'll shoot your fucking heart out!"

He threw Jordan to the ground like he was a beanbag, started for the ladder.

I let go of my quiver. The bow bounced in my hand. With a swish the arrow let out.

The man let out a grunt as he fell to the ground, holding where I had shot him in the stomach. He struggled to hold his body together as blood started to leak everywhere.

They weren't invincible.

The last man noticed. I put another arrow into my bow, and aimed at him. He only glared at me.

Faith started to inch towards him. "Your under arrest by the kingdom of aura and will be put under trail by the high council-"

The man growled at her.

I snapped. "Listen to her!" I screamed.

Mot's eyes widened.

He did because my arrow was pointing straight at him. He was read his rights, or whatever bullshit that was, and was handcuffed. More of the students and backup started to swarm in by the I got down from the second floor.

I walked towards the doorway, done with war for the day. Done with whatever the hell that they had given those people. If I could call them people.

Over all the commotion I could still hear Jordan. Still ready to look out for me by still being the smartest one in the room.

"Hope," He yelled over the students and reinforcement. "You have a huge gash in your head!"

My head was still throbbing, and people had been staring at me. I didn't want to have to see that nurse again.