Feeling the cold touch of the ground, Tomoe wakes up, with the blue sky greeting her back and the sound of rain being replaced by a high pitch sound. Dizziness shakes her perception, as she moves to her right, getting over her shoulder, and looks around her. Bran is a little farther away, in the same room, sitting against the wall. Bran meets her eyes and points up with his hand, and following the direction, she sees Lacus, over the ceiling of the room they are in.

“What happened?” Tomoe asks.

“The wall… it was destroyed.”

Tomoe doesn’t react immediately, letting those words sink for a moment “What… what do you mean it was destroyed?”

“I wish I had the answers for that. I just… stand up and look for yourself, there, through that window” Bran points towards the window that is closest to Tomoe.

Struggling to stand up, Tomoe engages her Aura in order to give herself more strength and stability. Looking through the window, she catches a sign of the remains of the wall, and where it was standing before a large collection of brown-yellow blocks, now lays a giant hole that gives view to the Port City. Tomoe felt her heart sink.

“How?… how… did this happen?”

“Beats me. That is something that even Cinders can’t do though.”

“You… no way, but… you think it was the enemy army? But how?”

“Can’t tell, but it is the only explanation left… at least that I can think off…”

Tomoe felt a familiar sensation was running through her body, piercing and burning, making her tremble “Lacus, are you alive?” she says, as she turns and looks towards Lacus.

Lacus only raises his fist, giving a thumbs up.

“Can you move?”

Another thumbs up.

“And you Bran?”

Another thumbs up.

Tomoe snorts “What is this about? This is serious.”

“We know.” Bran says “We need to go back and reunite with everyone.”

“Yes, we do.” Lacus finally speaks up.

“So? Come on, we need to start moving” Tomoe prompts the other two, “So easy to say for a blue Aura” Bran remarks, but both stand up, engage their Auras to strengthen their bodies and start moving.

“I wonder how long we can go without eating… I’m starving right now” Lacus says as he crouches, grabs the border of the broken ceiling, and slowly drops into the lower floor.

“An orange juice would do it for me” Says Bran.

“Please, no food talk, we… we can’t lose focus” Tomoe says, then adding “I would kill for a simple glass of water right now.”

Bran snorts as Lacus says “Come on, no food.”

“Sorry… it is true that we barely filled our stomachs last night.”

Once there are out of the house, Bran asks “Well, let’s focus. First of all, do we know where are we?”

“Let me take a quick look” Lacus says. Jumping to get on top of some rubble and another house, Lacus gets a mostly complete view of the city.

“I see the Starlight Forest.” Lacus says “we need to take that direction, and we should be there in around five minutes.” He says, pointing towards his right.

“Very well then. Let's get moving.” Bran says.

Tomoe nods.

Moving between the rubble, ruins, vegetations and remains, Tomoe notes how different the city truly is, in comparison with the Port City. Nature has started to take over it from the outskirts, conquering some buildings and some streets for itself, and already starting to reach, little by little, the center of the city, with the many high bushes that are around there. Tomoe couldn’t ignore the feeling of awe, of being in a different place in a different time.

Is this what Lia was talking about two days ago?

As they keep moving, Tomoe starts thinking about how unbelievable is what just happened. Looking back to Bran and Lacus, she notices that she has been hearing the sound of rain for a while now. Both are safe, but what would happen if they are able to do this again after all? What guarantee there is that one of them or both will not die from the attack then?

She looks back again, now directly to Lacus. It amazes her that the rage that she was feeling just yesterday against him is now nowhere to be found. Every interaction since with him has been awkward at best.

But as she opens her mouth, something muffles all sound coming out. She doesn’t want to leave things as they are now, yet she is unable to muster words to try and fix things between them.

Both aren’t safe. Yet, she can’t- no, she doesn’t want to say the words.

This realization flustered her. How prideful can she be in a moment like this? Just moments ago at the top of the tower could’ve been the last moment she ever had to fix things with Lacus. She now has another chance, and here she is, unable to act on her feelings.

Lia is right. I can be quite the stubborn mule…

“Hope everyone back there are ok.” She whispers.

A sound reaches Tomoe’s ear. Taking point in the group, she raises her hand, to stop Bran and Lacus from walking.

Bran crouches, and coming closer to Tomoe, he asks “What is the matter?”

“Can’t you hear it?”

From behind, Lacus says “I do hear it.”

“What?”

“Metallic sounds. Sounds of a large group, moving.”

They stay in silence. Putting his hands to his ears, Bran focuses, only to almost instantly say “That little flight we had must have hit me harder than expected. I didn’t notice until now.”

“Lets crouch and move” Tomoe says. The other two nods back, and crouching, they continue walking.

As they move closer and closer to the sound, Lacus says “Let's keep ourselves to the shadows.”

The other two nod. Lacus then moves forward and stops Tomoe and Bran. Leaning from a tree at the end of a street, Tomoe sees how his shoulders jolt, then how he puts his fingers on his chin, and nods. Coming back, he says “No mistake about it. It is the enemy army. They are moving towards the Starlight Forest right now.”

“Really? Why? We weren’t stationed there, we already passed the main plaza.”

“Then I guess we aren’t there anymore. The enemy army wouldn’t bother moving in the opposite direction unless we moved in that direction first.” Bran says.

“I see. Guess it is better to move to a more advantageous position than to wait and die on equal footing.”

“Shouldn’t we keep moving?” Lacus asks.

“You’re right.” Tomoe replies “We need to go back.”

“Let's keep us to the outskirts of the city. We will see how the situation is developing once we get to the Starlight Forest.” Lacus and Tomoe nod and continue their way.

Entering the city, now being closer to the Starlight Forest, the group moves between empty streets, only to hear the constant stomp of the enemy army, now that it is beside them, just at the other side of a couple of buildings. Tomoe stops, turns to Bran and Lacus, and points towards a building, shaking her shoulders. Bran turns to Lacus, nods, Lacus nods back, and he too nods back at Tomoe. Tomoe finally nods, and they enter the building. Getting to the snail stairs, they reach the third floor, only to be assaulted by the complete clear cut sound of the battlefield.

Keeping himself to the ground, Lacus crawls towards the window, giving a look at the fight. Signaling the other two to keep a low profile and come closer, Tomoe peeks through the window, only to see the center point of the fight: The entrance of the Starlight Forest.

The enemy army has flooded the main street with soldiers, all pushing towards the forest, while a large group of Beheaders is defending it, blocking their pass, being aided by the advantage of being in a higher ground. Aquamarines are getting into the forest, one by one, with still a large group being left to enter the forest. All sorts of thing fly towards the Aquamarines, from arrows to stones and even swords, that the Beheaders deflect against, with the cooperation of some Aquamarines that have offered to help to resist the invading army. Seeing how the Aquamarines are entering the forest, some enemy soldiers try to enter the forest from other points, only to be hit out by the deafening blasts of the forest, being dismembered and thrown away by a couple of meters.

“So, we are getting into the Starlight Forest.” Lacus says.

“The only thing I can think off that we would accomplish by doing this…” Bran starts saying, but Tomoe completes the thought “We are going to hole up in the Grand Castle. My mother is the only one that can open it.”

“So it is like that.” Bran says “It was only a rumor before, but now we have confirmation that it is true.”

“We are holding well so far at the entrance of the forest.” Lacus says.

“By now. But look at those numbers. I don’t think the Beheaders will be able to hold on the defense this long. Can’t we do something to reduce the stress they are under?” Tomoe says.

Looking around, Lacus puts his fingers on his chin, and gives a slight smug “I have an idea.” He says as he pushes Bran and Tomoe towards the floor “hear me out.”