Adam's POV

We practically begin racing the crack in the earth, with every passing second it only seems to extend faster and bigger. "Hurry up!" I yell at them lacking behind me.

"Wait!" Athena alerts us, looking down at the floor from a new line appearing and going down a completely different pathing and instead towards Oracion's Tomb.

I growl in annoyance, "Ignore it, we're following this line"

"But I could just-"

"No! We're staying together" I command albeit I know that rough tone has annoyed her. I continue running, turning my head to speak. "W-" Bumping into a rock hard figure just as we pass Nimue's house.

"Nimue!?" Arthur yells, going in to hug her but she doesn't show the same excitement. Discouraging him from completing the hug.

"Are you okay?" Athena asks, stepping forward to her but Nimue continues walking past us.

"I need to head back to the castle, I feel like there's something there for me." Her stride practically tries to bolt away but I grab her arm.

"You-"

"UNHAND ME!" She belts out, quaking the ground and accelerating the cracks within the floor.

Jackson eyes her with a glint in his eyes as she tears her hand from me, letting her go further on before talking. "I'm going to go with her, you guys keep going on ahead"

Arthur doesn't say anything, already turned to go follow her alongside Jackson.

I nod, unsure of her current stability. "We're going" I alert Athena.

'Alex are you here?' I try to reach him knowing he's probably patrolling around here.

'Yes, I'm here. Need me for anything?' He immediately responds back.

'I'm following what appears to be a crack in the ground, can you come back to the village and track it alongside us?'

'I...this thing?' He asks confusingly

'Wait...' I look around, noticing it's gone way past the forest lining. 'Chase it!' I shout.

'Will do!' He confirms as me and Athena shift with a small howl, uncaring of our later appearances.

-

Yasmine's POV

"I was just heading over to join the others, what's up?" I question the woman leading me towards an oh so mysterious place. "Was it Alex that put you up to this? I try and ask her with a small laugh.

"Maybe...maybe not..." She hums out.

"C'mon just tell me, I can already tell where we are anyway"

"So where are we going then?"

"Is this not the direction of the old Rainmakers pack?" I clear my hair from my eyes as she continues to walk ahead of me.

"It is" She confirms just as my ears fill with the drumming beat of rain. "Someone said we could find something over here that could help us with fighting and I just wanted your help really".

"Are you alright now, Nimue? That outburst from earlier scared me honestly." I try to question her.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'm sorry. I've got so much running through my head at the moment" She shies away with a head rub while looking back at me.

"Of course, I'm here if you need me. But wha-" We step into the rain, unable to communicate further as she leads me towards the pack house. Simply shrugging at me as a response.

We step in, getting hit with that same mouldy scent. "Hey-" I try to talk to her again but she covers her ears as if trying to block a sound out, assuming it's the rain I close the doors behind us. "So-" I try speaking again but she opens the back doors, filling the space with sound once again.

She points towards a pit in the mud, urging me to go forward. Just as I approach it I remember Ryan speaking about Keyon's spare housing. Something about scratch marks? He wasn't describing it as just scratch marks though, it was more like the interior itself was being...dug at? I look back at her, unsure of what to do next.

She tries to mouth something to me, 'There'. I think she says, again pointing at something inside of the now pit of muddy water. A small glint, reflective of something...iridescent you could call it. I would use my flames to grab it but all this water would just extinguish it. Plopping my hand in and realising that I can't reach down without putting my face in. Tugging a few times until I cut myself on the sharp object, gritting my teeth I tug one more time as a crack from behind me drills down into the pit and connects to the object, releasing it for me.

I shake my hair off a little bit, "What's this?". I try to mouth to her while wiping the mud from my face and noticing that she's no longer here. I look around with a tensed gaze as nothing but a blacked out figure lingers within my vision, eventually blending in with the background.

Quickly running to the pack house I close the doors, finally able to hear my own thoughts. "Damn it Nimue where the fuck did you go?". I lean against the back of the door, interrupted by only the acute sense of pain coming from my palm, looking down to see the shard cut me a little bit. I push off the doors, going further into the pack house as the shard glows within my hand.

"What even is this thing?" I call out while holding it in front of me like a magnifying glass.

"Yasmine" A woman's voice whispers to me.

Someone who I recognise immediately, "Joy?" I whisper back in denial. A smile quickly whipped across my face as I chase the woman.

A recognisable scent overcoming my senses as I reminisce about her cooking, "Where are you going!?" I yell to her, continuously looking through the shard every now and then to make sure she's still there.

"I'm right here" She calls from the other room as I practically leap into the brightly lit space. "Here" She wraps her arms around me, embracing me in a warmth I haven't felt before.

I feel myself beginning to tear up, "Where'd you-go? You ju-st left m-e all of a-sudden" I press myself against her as the warmth builds up from her hands, extending to my legs and torso eventually.

"I've always been here Yasmine, right...here" She smiles, placing a kiss on my head as I close my eyes to stay in the moment. She pulls away from me a little bit, plastered with a bright smile, "Can you do me a favour real quick actually?"

"Sure!" I cheer.

"Repeat after me. It's you."

I bury myself back into her, "It's you." I repeat back.

"It's me." She hums out.

A little chime rings through my ears,"It's me."

"It's us." She whispers.

The comforting scent of her lavender fills me, "It's us."

She strokes my hair as a weight comes off my shoulders, making my body feel lighter and hotter with each delicate touch of my hair. "Goodbye Yasmine" She holds me tighter, her touch almost feeling like she's melting into me. Becoming one.

-

Alex's POV

I run along the grassy terrain, filling my paws with the passing dirt as I failed to keep up with the cracking earth. "Alex", Adam breathes out from behind me, catching up with ease.

"I'm sorry" I huff, feeling disappointed in myself.

"Isn't this-home?" Athena comments, speeding ahead to the cursed zone without further warning.

She stops at the edge of it, 'What's wrong?' Adam pings through our heads, aimed at her.

"Warm" She comments before dashing inward without hesitation.

Me and Adam run alongside her, trusting her instincts. Our heads suddenly raised to peer within one of the windows...many of the windows. A blazing light gradually creeping its way towards the other windows.

'Mate' My wolf cries out, aching my heart suddenly. I pause, letting the rain beat my head, staring back at the window I open my mind to the voice within the home.

'I'm so-'

'I'm sorr-'

'Alex'

'I'm sorry my love, Alex.' She whimpers out.

Athena and Adam take a moment to look back at me, the lack of facial features still able to express the emotion they're feeling...and it's dread.

I feel the energy within me take over, throwing myself through the door and into the radiating space of heat. Athena immediately shifts back, shouting and reaching out to me, "ALEX WAIT! THIS ISN'T NORMAL HEAT!" She screams but I'm already clawing my way to the top of the staircase.

My hurried breath clearly growing thin but I don't care. The furs on my pelt only remaining in tact cause of the rain drenching me prior. The interior up top becoming a tunnel of flame, one that I would gladly walk across for her. "ALEX!" Athena screams once again, this time with a croak in her voice, clearly recognising the situation.

Adam's eyes glow a bright yellow as a window bursts, wrapping his and my own paws in a coat of water that seemingly feels ineffective to these prominence flames. At the very end I can see her...her figure kneeled down in the magma like terrain. Her hair blazed and scorched, still intact but replaced by a frenzy of flames.

"That's..." I try to talk but my throat immediately dries out.

'The Megalo, the pact of life for power...but why?' Adam finishes.

Yasmine faces us, opening her mouth for a whisper of breath, "Dream". Her words thrown like daggers to my chest as my vision turns fuzzy and body sways. My consciousness only staying awake due to the pain of the flames.

"Dream" She whispers again but another burst of flames keeps me awake.

Her jaw cracks in annoyance, "I'M NOT GOING BACK, YOU CANNOT MAKE ME!" She yells. Opening her eyes wider and allowing me to see the true colour of white. "DON'T YOU WANT THIS!?" The flames display memories along the walls of the tunnel, happy memories, sad memories...time...all of it was the time I spent with her.

"HEM-SA!" I ignore the molten flooring peeling away at the flesh between my nails and my scorching breath filling my lungs. Diving towards the figure trying to take over her body.

"WOLF!" She shrieks, diving at me with the flames exploding even further all across her body. "SLEEP!" She tries to command but the flames coat me, once again keeping me awake like a blanket of thorns.

We meet midway, crashing into each other and crumbling onto the lower floor. Her blazing figure coming apart piece by piece, gritting her teeth in rage while trying to rip at me while we fall. "ALEX!" Athena and Adam scream after watching us both land onto the bottom floor.

Both their eyes illuminate as the pack house wall falls down, gushing a torrent of water towards me and Hemsa.

"LET ME LIVE!" She screeches, making the flames move erratically like living extensions of herself, slowly but surely changing their very colour, dissolving the water as Athena looks towards me with rage written across her face. Her hair extended and digging into the manor's rotten floors.

"LET HER GO!" She dives from the stairs, tackling Yasmine's body off of me. She raises her hand ready to swipe at her face, "Pl-eas-e. Don't take her too." She whimpers, letting go of her raised hand and dropping it.

"FORGET!" Hemsa tries casting it again but the flames Athena sits on top of briefly spike around her, keeping her awake similarly to me. "WHY ISN'T ANYTHING WORKING!?" She yells, thrashing about until she lays eyes on a shattered mirror, staring back at none other than her own face...Yasmine's face.

I painfully shift, my stomach, hands and wrists burnt, "The flames aren't yours". I drag myself from the floor, holding my scorched flesh. "Athena...please...hold her." She picks Hemsa off the floor from behind, locking her arms in place.

"Adam...please" I whimper to him knowing his gifts. "Take away the pain" I beg, watching as he bites his lip through the pain of the flames, gripping her held arm.

I walk to her face, seeing eye to eye with her defeated gaze. "I jus-t...wanted to live" She cries to herself.

I ignore her plead, "Yasmine please...burn it away." I cup her face, the flames around us beginning to glisten with a radiant pink. Gushing around us like gathering water and crumbling the interior around us...the place we grew up in. "Keep going..." I whisper to her, "You're not alone. You don't have to feel it." I cry out. Adam and Athena's eyes tearing up as the flames avoid us, only aimed at the memories of our home no matter what was done here, those were our memories.

"Goodbye my mate...Yasmine" I kiss her, hearing the flames roar louder, bursting through the ceiling and what I would normally thought to be the heavy rain...was nothing but a gentle tear running along my shoulder.

"I love you...Alex" She finishes, pulling away with a smile, cuing Athena and Adam to let go before backing into flames, sparking up into rose gold crystals into the newly clear sky.

I fall to my knees, accepting I've lost once again. And there was nothing I could do about it...again.

"A-" Adam tries holding my shoulder but drops with a shake of the ground.

A small shard drops from the place of Yasmine, bouncing a few times just as I throw my arm over the gap to prevent it from falling into the crack within the ground.

"Is-n't that...the Un-derworld?" Athena wipes her tears away, focusing on the downward view of the realm. "That's no-t possible" She stutters, "They're not connected!" She cries out with both confusion, rage and sadness. Ultimately giving up and kneeling beside me for a hug.

I look up at the sky, a newly formed rainbow from the passing of the eternal rain and burning sun. "Thank you" I whisper, hoping she hears and understands the time we spent together were moments I will not forget.