He couldn't see or hear anything—all he was aware of was the smell of burning wood and the choking taste of ash in his throat. His eyes stung from something in the air, blinding him to his surroundings.

Painfully, he lifted himself off of the floor. He blinked rapidly, feeling grains of soot lodged in his eyes. As blurry shapes slowly came into focus, he found himself gasping at the sight before him—the entire house was ablaze. Flames licked the walls and threatened to inch ever closer, and a thick layer of black smoke hovered a few feet off the ground.

"Val?! Val!"

He couldn't see who was calling him, but he could hear their shrieks above the crackling of the fire from somewhere else in the house. "I'm okay! I'm okay, just looking for a way out—"

He heard something snap above him, and looked up in time to see the wood planks above his head splintering apart as they became too weak to support their weight. Diving forward, he barely managed to evade the carnage as his bed and other contents of his room came crashing through the ceiling and into the kitchen.

As he landed, he cried out at a sharp pain in his left leg. Looking down, he saw a shard of glass sticking out of his calf near its base. Grimacing, he reached down, grabbed it firmly, and pulled it out in one quick yank.

There was a sting as it left his body, but he didn't have time to worry about stopping the bleeding. What was happening? One moment they were all sitting at the table, and the next everything was on fire.

He caught sight of the kitchen window off to his left. Limping his way over to it, he cautiously stood and glanced out through it. The house hadn't been the only victim—the fields had been engulfed in a similar inferno, all of the okinlas shriveling away into charred powder as the fire greedily ate through them.

Craning his neck higher, his face turned pale. High above the land, observing the destruction they had just unleashed, was a group of ships—and familiar ships, at that. The last time he'd seen them had been two years ago, but they'd been seared into his memory ever since.

The Cell had found him.

A sudden sound made his head snap around, a deep wheezing cough from somewhere in the debris behind him. "Ten? Prag!"

A moment passed, and someone responded with a weak shout—he couldn't make out what they were saying over the increasing roar of the flames, but he knew that there was someone stuck in there. "If you can hear me, just hang on! I'm coming!"

How he was going to pull this off, however, was a matter he hadn't entirely figured out yet. The only way through the fire was a path to the left of his upturned bed and the rubble that had come with it from above, but it might not be there for long if the fire kept spreading ...

Val shook his head. He couldn't think about that now, he had to help whoever was trapped. Gritting his teeth against the pain in his leg, he darted through the opening and evaded the growing tongues of flame on either side of him. He couldn't help but inhale some of the copious smoke that hung in the air, and he felt his throat constrict as he coughed heavily.

Unsteadily, he lowered himself towards the ground and tried to peer beneath the smoke to see if he could catch sight of whoever was still—

"K-Kid ..."

The raspy groan combined with the suddenness of a hand grabbing his ankle directed Val's attention to a spot under the debris and smoke where a dull, orange-colored arm poked through.

"Prag!" Kneeling down, he scrabbled away at the rubble. After a few pulls and pushes, he managed to uncover the irva's face. Pragley's skin was dark and coated with black soot, and one of his head-fins looked like it had been torn off.

"Alright Prag, let's get you out of there. Easy does it—"

"No, k-kid, get out of—"

Val had already placed his arms underneath Pragley's, and began to drag him out—or so was the plan. Pragley gasped loudly, obviously in great pain. Val let go out of shock, then tried to move more rubble to see what was hurting him—

Val felt a fist close over his heart as he uncovered Prag's torso and saw the source of the irva's agony. Sticking out of his chest was a large, broken bar of wood, one that had pierced straight through his sternum and out his back.

"No," Val breathed, refusing to believe what his eyes were plainly telling him. "No, you're going to be fine. I'm going to get you out, and then we'll get you help—"

Above him, he heard the faint sounds of more beams and supports beginning to crack and split from the flames. The house's structure was starting to fail completely.

"You n-need to get out of here—"

"Not without you!" Val refused, shaking his head vigorously. "I need you!"

"No," Pragley said with a sudden calmness, "you don't. Not anymore—you're strong, k-kid. Stronger than you know, a-and ... and certainly stronger than I gave you c-credit for." The irva coughed, drops of navy blood flying from his mouth. "I ... I s-shoulda told you about all this ... s-sooner ..."

With a shaky hand, he wiped the spittle from his lips and then reached into the pockets of his overcoat. "The ... t-the Umbra. What y-you're looking for ... is there. Find the t-temple ... and y-you'll find the t-truth."

Pulling something from within his pockets, Prag grabbed Val's hand and held it under his own. Val felt something small and round drop into his palm before Pragley weakly closed his fingers around it.

"None of that matters now," Val said dismissively, cradling Prag's head gently. "You hear me? None of it matters, just hang in there—"

Pragley reached up and grabbed the collar of Val's shirt tightly, cutting him off.

"You're going to see things out there t-that might frighten y-you. And t-that's okay—it's okay to b-be scared, Val. But d-don't ... don't ever let fear s-stop you, or change y-you into someone you're not."

Val felt a stinging wetness in the corners of his eyes as it built up. "And who am I?"

Prag smiled. "Go find out."

The tears he'd been holding back finally spilled over, running down his cheeks and dripping onto the irva's chest. Slowly, the strength in Pragley's fingers waned, his grip loosening until his hand finally slipped from Val's collar and fell to his side on the floor. Prag's smile remained frozen on his face as his eyes stared unblinkingly at something that Val couldn't see.

Another crack sounded above him, and he looked up in shock to see the walls beginning to tilt. He'd almost forgotten about the flames rising up all around him. Quickly shoving whatever it was Prag had given him into his pocket, and giving one final, remorseful look at Prag, he rose up to his feet and limped back through the thin gap in the fire he'd used to get here. Making his way back into the kitchen, he saw that the only way out was through the window.

Looking around the room, he spied a metal pan that had been left on the stove from this morning's breakfast. Moving with a frenzy inspired by the encroaching wall of heat at his back, he gripped it by the handle, pulled it back, then threw it full-force at the window. The glass shattered easily enough, but getting through the opening was going to be the hard part.

Stepping back as close to the fire as he could manage, he gritted his teeth against the throbbing in his leg, then ran full-speed at the newly created escape-route. Leaping into the air, he tucked himself into a ball, and felt the edges of the broken window scraping along his back and sides as he hurtled through it.

A second passed, and then he collided back down to the ground, pain flaring up in his side and leg. Unfurling himself from his ball, he coughed heavily as his lungs tried to expel the smoke he'd been inhaling for the last several minutes.

He heard footsteps as someone slid into position next to him, then felt two pairs of hands searching his body. "Val? Val, are you hurt?!"

He looked up through teary eyes to see Ten giving him a thorough once-over, her porcelain-white skin marred with cuts and black grease. "The fire was spreading, and I heard you shout—but then you never came out, and I thought ... I thought ..."

She threw all four of her arms around him and pulled him into a hug. He heard more footsteps from behind her and saw Note running over to them. "Oh, you're alright? Not dead? That's good."

Ten looked around, suddenly realizing an absence in their midst. "Where ... where's Prag?" She looked at him fearfully. "Val? Where is he?"

He swallowed hard, blinking against the tears that were forming once more. She looked into his eyes, seeing the trails of water that cut through the grime on his face, and realized the truth. "No ... no, no!"

"Uh, guys?" Note interrupted, pointing up at the sky. "We have to move!" Both Ten and Val redirected their attention and followed her finger's trajectory. Several of the Cell's ships were beginning to descend, evidently preparing to land. Others remained in the air, watching the event as it unfolded from afar.

"What do they want?" Ten cried.

"They could have killed all of us easily if they just wanted us dead," Note answered shakily. "They've got to be after me and Val."

Val glared at the ships, his despair rapidly transitioning into rage. He balled his hands into fists, his face becoming warm as his blood flow increased in earnest. After everything the Cell had done to him, they wanted more?

He felt a loud pounding in his skull, a powerful tempo that blocked out all sound other than his own breathing. His sole focus was now on the congregation of vessels touching down in the okinla fields. What more could they take away from him? For two years, they'd haunted his nightmares, plaguing his sleep with dreams of running through that cold, silent ship, and now they dared to attack his home, to destroy this new life he'd built for himself—?!

He held his arms out, unleashing his fury in the form of twin beams of light upon the creatures before him. He tore through the puppets that surrounded him like a hot blade ripping through their flesh, relishing in the distorted screams that escaped their warped forms—

A stabbing pain shot through him, causing him to seize up and double over. Something was burning in his mind, a fiery ember that danced in his memory and burned through the tunnels of neurons in his brain—

He could hear their shrieks echoing in his head, a choir of tormented souls as their last tether to this world was ripped from them. He watched as their twitching bodies burned away into ash in front of him—

"Val? Val!"

Ten shook him where he lay on the ground, trying to provoke a response, but he remained paralyzed as some kind of episode overtook his body. He was breathing rapidly, quick and shallow breaths while his eyes darted around at things unseen by her or Note. Turning back to the fields, she saw the ships finally touching down in the burning fields, their landing ramps lowering to the ground. She felt a trill of horror as she made out several arachnid-like forms scurrying off of the ramps and rushing towards the house.

"The Cell are coming," she whispered, looking back at Note. "Please tell me you have an escape plan."

"My ship," Note said in the same low tone, "we have to get to my ship. It's our only ticket out of here."

Ten turned to look at the red racing ship the synthoid had arrived in, no more than thirty meters away, and nodded. "Right, help me with him!"

Looping his left arm over her shoulders and neck, she stood up and allowed him to lean on her for support. He was still catatonic, forcing her to carry practically all of his weight, and now she could hear the chitters and shrieks of their hunters as they drew closer ...

Note ran alongside her and lifted Val's other arm onto her own shoulders. His feet dragged through the dirt as they made a beeline for the racer, miraculously untouched by the Cell's aerial bombardment. Note held her right hand out in front of her, a sudden web of pink light appearing in front of it, and she began to interact with orbs that sat upon the strands.

The racer roared to life, its engines and thrusters ready for takeoff. The back of its hull was still lowered into a ramp and ready to welcome them aboard. With no time to waste, the two of them sprinted up into the ship with Val's immobile form still between them.

With another flick of Note's fingers on the web, the ramp began to rise and close, and she left Ten to deal with Val as she slid into the pilot's seat and took hold of the controls. "Hang on, things are about to get a little shaky!"

With a speed that Ten wouldn't have expected of a ship so small, the racer lifted up off the grass and aimed itself toward the sky, causing her to stumble. Catching herself before she hit the floor, she looked back at the ground right before the hull sealed itself. She felt a wave of nausea hit her at seeing the Cell just reach where the racer had been, their fangs clicking angrily and their metal legs raised towards the sky as they watched their prey escape.

With the immediate threat of being captured now behind them, she took the time to strap Val into the only passenger seat on the ship; it seemed that he'd fallen unconscious. Once she was satisfied that he was secure, she walked over to Note's chair and looked up through the viewport that adorned the entire canopy of the racer, allowing for a full view of everything above and in front of them.

"Crap," Note muttered, "we're not out of the woods yet." Ten looked out through the viewport as the racer steadily climbed upward, and let out a moan. Two of the Cell ships that had stayed in the air were repositioning themselves, and she didn't think the sudden glow of various spots on their hulls was a good thing—

A volley of orange beams streaked towards them, and it was only Note's quick reflexes which swerved their ship out of the way and kept them flying. Ten grimaced. "This seems like a drastic change of mind from trying to take us alive."

"No," Note responded with a grunt. "These shots aren't meant to destroy, only to ground. They're targeting our thrusters—"

The hull shook as a grazing shot found its mark and skimmed across the nose. Ten yelped shrilly at the scare, and Note tried desperately to hold herself and the ship together—

As it turned out, she didn't have to hold for long. A sudden flash of light appeared beneath the Cell ship on the right, and something silvery manifested within it.

"Is that ...?"

"A sentinel," Ten confirmed in a hushed tone.

They watched as several other flashes appeared, each with a corresponding sentinel. The silver drones seemed to stare at the ship for a few moments, contemplating what course of action to take before reaching a decision. They began to circle one another in a large ring, angling themselves towards the ship—

A burst of bright blue light emanated from each of the sentinels, perfectly parallel beams that cut into the ship's hull and ripped through its plating without any indication of resistance. A clean circle had been cleaved from the vessel, and that section immediately appeared to depressurize, collapsing in on itself and sending anything not tied down spiraling into the vacuum. Satisfied with their initial work, the sentinels immediately set about flying up the side of the ship in the same synchronized spinning, firing their beams and making short work of the rest of it.

"Oh my god," Note expressed plainly, her voice filled with awe at the display of raw power.

The other Cell ships seemed to grasp the message, and began to scatter; it was clear that they were hopelessly outmatched. One by one, they disappeared in flashes of light that indicated null-jumps until not a single Cell ship was left in the sky.

With nothing left to do, the sentinels ceased their spinning. After a few moments, they simply disappeared in the same flashes of light that they'd arrived in, and the whole ordeal was over.

The racer flew past the remains of the Cell ship without issue, both Ten and Note regarding the incredible damage with a sense of shock. With a gasp, Ten suddenly turned around and stared back at the ground through the viewport.

Even from this distance, one could clearly see the burning fields and farmlands of the place she called home. She watched as her house, still ablaze, finally gave in to the overwhelming heat and collapsed in on itself, nothing more now than piles of wood to fuel the fire.

Holding her hand over her mouth, Ten couldn't help but begin to sob at the sight. She slid against the wall down to the floor, where she put her head between her knees and wept. Note said nothing, remaining focused on piloting the racer.

For now, there was silence save for the sounds of quiet crying as they ascended to the stars.