The Other Side: A Second Chance

Isa dove through the small hole in the door and was greeted with a torrent of gunfire. Half a dozen bullets ricocheted off the bubble shield I had enveloped around her, causing each impact to send a spike of discomfort through me as I maintained focus on repairing it. I watched through the small hole as my mentor roared, drew the handgun I had given her just before, and began to unleash hell upon the invaders.

My father was the second to dive through the hole behind her and join in on the fray, and eventually, I went through as well. Isa and Papa stood at the bend, sending death down the lane as I got back to my feet after climbing through and joining in behind them.

Stopping just before them, my father turned to me and asked, "Are you able to bubble us?" I gulped and nodded before flinching just as Isa ducked out of the way of incoming bullets that slammed against the wall.

I took a deep breath, looked at my father, and held out my hands as I focused on projecting a protective shield around us. As the shimmer of magic radiated around us, my father turned to Isa, nodded, and the two dove around the corner.

My gut lurched as I followed behind them, and the world I knew erupted into gunfire. Everything became a blur as both Father and Isa dove into the remaining soldiers in the winding hallway. With my protective bubble around us, the two of them were able to quickly rush ahead, and I saw Father tackling a Rusivite to the ground while Isa jumped and wrapped her legs around another's torso while blasting his partner behind them in the chest her pistol before falling with the first due to him losing balance.

Swiftly, everything crumbled into a violent melee. A fight in which I tried my best not to watch as my father viciously pistol-whipped the Rusivite, repeatedly turning his face into a bloody mess. The one Isa had shot in the chest writhed on the ground while one hand clutched the wound in his chest. Over the screaming of those being beaten by my allies, I heard them wheeze and sputter as they tried to shout for what I assumed to be help.

Taking out my wand, I pointed it towards the man as he tried to crawl away. "Spark," I muttered softly as my wand's tip ignited before firing a bolt of fiery energy into the man's back. Within a second, his uniform caught fire, and the man released a panicked cry as his body violently jerked and his lower back and right leg caught fire.

He began to panic and scream as his body thrashed, and despite his chest injury, he was able to start rolling back and forth, trying his best to put out the raging inferno that now lit up the corridor. My eyes widened at the realization of what I'd just done.

Father stood up from the corpse he'd just made and gripped his handgun tightly as he looked at me. Following my gaze, he glanced at the burning man, who had at this point stopped struggling. "No use dwelling on it now," he said softly. "Surely they would've heard the commotion. Let's get moving." He raised his gun and mercifully shot the man on the floor.

Isa stood up as well and said, "Slyran, take this." She picked up one of the Rusvite rifles and tossed it to him, which he caught effortlessly. "It's an auto-gun. Only pull the bolt once," She quickly explained.

"I'm aware," Father muttered as he checked the rifle's ammunition. "I've come uncomfortably close to these a few times." He sighed and nodded in thanks.

Isa picked up another rifle from the ground and did the same. After checking the ammo, she nodded to the both of us, and I silently followed along behind them as we made our way back through the winding corridor.

To my surprise, we did not encounter any more resistance as we returned to the blast door. The facility shook violently as the sounds of external explosions came muffled through the walls.

"What the fuck is happening out there?" My father asked as Isa ran over to the control panel and began to open the door.

"Heinmaran counterattack," Isa said. "Did you honestly think Luna and I came alone?" She looked toward him with a smirk.

Father grabbed me by the hand and tugged me over to the edge of the door so I wasn't in front of it when it opened. I obeyed without a second thought.

"Honestly, kind of." He chuckled. "I expected you wouldn't have any issue sneaking into a place like this, and with Luna's magical prowess, now you'd make a great team." He smiled at me but immediately stopped when he noticed my expression.

I'm done with this. I just want to leave. I took a deep breath.

Father sucked in some air through his nose as the heavy door groaned and the gears began to turn as it opened. "Don't worry, Luna," he said as if having read my mind. "Once we're done with this, we're getting as far away from here as possible."

"We better make it quick," I said loud enough to be heard over the door. "We don't have much time?"

"Time?" Isa blinked. "We should at least have another hour or so before the Heinmarans bomb this place."

"Wait bomb?" Father blinked and looked at Isa, who nodded.

"The Godhammers are going to wipe this fort off the face of Enora when the clock strikes twelve," Isa said, and I shook my head.

"No, that's not what I mean!" I said this as the door began to rise high enough for us to duck under. "What I'm saying is that something big is coming—"

Suddenly, bouts of gunfire came from beyond the door as the sound of bullets slamming into metal sent me back first against the neighboring wall. Dozens of rifles from beyond the door continued to suppress us as Isa shouted over to us from the control panel.

"There's too many of them! Luna, blast them!"

I fucking hate this! My mind screamed as I recast my bubble shield and began to concentrate on the spark spell once more, yet knowing what I do now. I channeled the anger and frustration I've felt since the start of all of this, and instead of a measly spark, I pictured a raging torrent of fire, similar to what I saw Zora casting earlier.

As the large blast door continued to rise and rise ever so slowly, I got down on all fours, pointed my wand through the open gap, and unleashed a ray of fire down the hall—

Suddenly, a blinding flash caught my eye, and the force of something large slammed into my shield, shattering it instantly before penetrating my left shoulder. The wind was forced from my lungs as my back slammed into the tile floor and I rolled. A searing, throbbing pain struck my mind as I tried to move my left arm, yet I couldn't.

My ears were ringing, and my vision was hazy. Mixed with the pain, I could feel an immense heat, and I could hear screaming. Was it my screaming? Their screaming? I couldn't tell, at least not at first.

Then it dawned on me.

We were all screaming.

Fuck not again! I've been shot. I've been fucking shot! My mind panicked. I had my shield, and I still got fucking shot!

I reached over to where I had been struck, I needed to know how bad. Yet when I went to grab my upper left arm…

Where's my arm? My arm?! Where's my fucking arm?! Oh god, my arm, my arm, my arm?! Where's my fucking arm?! Where is it? Why isn't it there? Oh god, oh god, oh god, where's my arm?!
My heart raced, and my stomach churned. My eyes flicked towards my wound; through the blurry vision, all I could see was red. Red light from the fire, and red from all the blood. Vomit rushed out of my guts, and I puked all over the floor.

My arm. It was dangling. Still attached… but dangling by threads of charred flesh.

The pain! The pain oh fuck it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, hurts!!

"Calm yourself!" The voice shouted. "Calm yourself, Luna, or else you'll go into shock!"

It hurts! Sweet fucking Jesus!

Something grabbed ahold of me, and I couldn't tell if I screamed as I was dragged across the floor. The agony shook me to the core as my mind screamed with fear and pain. Despite how difficult it was, the voice was right, I needed to focus so I could heal myself. Yet I couldn't I couldn't. My body was frozen. I was dying, bleeding out.

Memories of the gas station. The robber, the pain of being shot in the back. It was happening again. Once again I'm going to die so pathetically… maybe I'll die and be reborn again? Maybe I'll have a happier life this time, maybe—

"If you die here, you will not be brought back again." The voice said it coldly. "Do not give up. Get up and fix yourself, Luna Ashflow. Your companions need you."

As if calmed by an unknown force. My mind stilled. The pain was immense, yet the fear and panic had vanished. My hearing began to become more clear.

"Which one of you dead mother fuckers hit her?" I could hear my father shouting, followed by men screaming, before being silenced by a gunshot.

Closing my eyes I began to softly mutter the words to the rejuvenation spell and held my right hand over what was left of my other arm. I spat on the floor, trying to rid myself of the taste of blood as I focused on the spell. I looked away as I finished the incarnation as I did not want to see the horrific mess of my body stitching itself back together.

Thank god it was still dangling on… I shuddered. If it had been completely severed, I'd have to use restoration. A spell that required much more power and was one I had hardly used.

After a few moments, I could feel the pain easing, replaced with an uncomfortable soreness now, though I could now feel it again. My hearing was fully restored, I could hear the sounds of crackling flames and an eerie silence only broken by heavy breathing.

Getting my bearings, I saw that I was forced into the corner. I was drenched in gore, my hair sticky and clinging to my face. I brushed it out of the way and saw that the door was fully open. The stark white hallway was now charred and riddled with corpses, and standing amongst them was my father and Isa.

Father turned around the anger on his face twisting into that of desperation as our eyes made contact. His desperation melted into relief as he rushed towards me. "Luna, thank the gods, you're okay…" He trailed off as he looked at my now restored arm. "Y-You fixed it…" He said stunned. "It's like nothing happened!" He beamed.

I glared up at him. "We have about fifteen minutes to finish this," I said to him relieved I could finish my sentence from earlier.

"Fifteen minutes?" Isa spoke up.

"The voice in my head, he said there's something massive coming. We need to shut off the power to the fighting machines and we need to get everyone out now!"

"The voice in your…" Father started but then blinked. "You mean the early warning thing?"

Isa grabbed his shoulder. "Exactly, but there's more to it than that. I'll explain later."

Isa pulled my father away from me and the two of them began to make their way down the corridor as I followed a handful of steps behind.

Voice. Was that your doing? I asked.

"Whatever do you mean?" The master responded in his usual monotonous tone.

You took control, didn't you? I was panicking and suddenly I wasn't. Like you… flipped some sort of switch.

At first, he did not respond as I followed behind my father and Isa, who was pointing signs out to us and directing us where we needed to go. Yet as we rounded a corner, the voice finally spoke, "I have some degree of control; I'll be up front about that. You've encountered it once before. The cave is in the Heinland Mountains. I'll not go into full detail, as we lack the necessary time. When need be, I can interfere, but only in places of power, as that is the easiest I can reach. Where you're at currently, this pillar of ether, seems to act as a substitute with how much power it radiates, thus allowing me to temporarily manipulate you. Something that I only did in order to help you, Luna."

I thought, "Let us keep it that way" as we quickly rushed down the hall.

Further ahead we could hear shouting and at the start of a T junction, I could see a group of men and women in white coats following a group of soldiers shouting desperately. Isa quickly gestured to a nearby room as the men and women turned towards us.

Throwing open the door, it looked to be a lounge of sorts. A large coffee table lay in the center surrounded by cushioned seats, and the sound of music seemed to be coming from a magical orb in the corner of the room.

Isa closed the door behind us just in time as the armed escorts and scientists went past us. "What's going on, Isa? What are they shouting about?" Father asked the serelli as her ears twitched and swiveled like radar dishes.

"Panic." She smirked. "Sounds like they're trying to get the labcoats out. Something about… an airship."

"They're calling out to daddy to come pick them up," I said lowly taking a brief moment to sit on the cushioned chair which I immediately sank into.

We don't have time for this… I mentally reminded myself.

"Don't get too comfy, kiddo," Father said as he sat beside me.

"I'm not." I lied. This chair was, in fact, very comfortable. "We need to get moving."

"We will," Isa said. "We just need to wait for the group to pass by." She listened some more, and after a minute, she nodded. "Okay, we're good to go."

"You have ten minutes before the behemoth arrives." The voice said just as the facility rumbled and the sound of an external explosion boomed.

My heart began to race as anxiety began to settle in. "Great, ten minutes," I alerted the others.

Isa nodded. "We're not far. There is a sky way which goes over the road. If it's not damaged we can cross that into the main facility."

"We're not in the main building?" Father asked with a smirk. "How big is this place?"

"Pretty big," I said stalely. "Did you not see it?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Can't see much when you're stuffed into as metal cage with dozens of others on top of you."

I shuddered. "Yikes…"

"Yikes indeed." He smirked.

How the hell can he and that halfling Drach be so upbeat?

Isa opened the door. "Come on, lets get going."

I took a deep breath in, and then let it out.

Back into the fray. I thought as we ran out.