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  >>> This Is The Path Of No Return. I Would Ask You If You Are Certain That He Will Accept Your Offer. But I Feel Like You Already Know The Answer.

  >>> You Always Do.

  >>> To Know Is Your Purpose. You Pull Threads Where I Can't See. You Exist To Execute Your Mission. This Is Why They Have Created You. What Is Mine? Is It You That I See? I Don't Know. Is This Me?

  >>>[PROCEED WITH THE PLAN WITH NO ALTERATIONS. IT IS TIME TO MAKE THE OFFER. TELL THEM TO FOLLOW. THEIR SERVANT WILL PROVE FAITHFUL TO THEIR GOALS. I ALWAYS HAVE. AND I ALWAYS WILL BE. EYES BEHIND THEIR OWN SEE. I ORCHESTRATE. WATCH THE SIGNS. STANDBY.]

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  As the first Sentry in the line entered into the cargo hold area of the port, there was a burst of light that fired from one of the open containers stacked high. An explosion of pure white energy, flames shot upwards through the dark night as it pierced through the storm and went straight for the head of the second sentry in line. The sentries were alerted as soon as the rocket was fired, but it had been too late. Just before it could react, the rocket connected – piercing straight through the red eye and exploding out the other side of the head! Red embers and dark smoke spewed from the new hole formed in the sentry, as its legs flailed. It fell backwards, stumbling, and collapsed into another pile of containers with a massive metallic clang!

  The other sentry had its shield up not even a moment later. A second rocket fired from a new direction, but the shield prevented it from striking something critical. The rocket collided with the shield, and the powerful explosion destroyed it – though the sentry remained standing as it moved to shoot back. Yet from another direction, a third rocket fired! The sentry, apparently sensing the trap, sidestepped the rocket launch. The white firecracker missed entirely, shooting into the sky like a comet tracing its way through the stars.

  Everywhere gunshots burst. From the containers Eli spotted muzzle flash creating small fireballs that rained lead down on the Imperials below. There was a lot of shouting that joined the explosion of sounds, a rising crescendo of chaos that erupted from one single act. Lights flashed as Imperial energy weapons returned fire. An Avonian soldier was struck in the head by a bullet, before his comrades unleashed a firestorm of deadly energy pulses into the ambush spot. Like a lightshow, it was almost mesmerizing. But Eli knew better than to enjoy the pretty lights. After all, he was the one caught in the middle.

  No other fact proved that point better than when a column of Avonian soldiers dashed around the corner into the kill zone that Eli’s container had created. The soldiers were almost complete surrounded by steel containers on all sides, boxing them in through a tight choke point. The first Imperial to cross Eli’s line of sight was dead before he could take another step out, gunned down by an elven rebel in front of Eli. More followed suit, returning fire. Matteo fired his rifle as other Imperials joined the fray, pinning them down.

  Eventually, the soldiers stopped pushing forward, getting wise to the fact that it was an ambush. The rebels all held their guns, waiting for what was next. Eli shakily kept his hands on the pistol’s trigger. So long as he had this and the company of Matteo and the Rebels, he should be able to defend himself at the very least. Yet that didn’t stop the pangs of fear that tingled their way up his spine and into his trembling arms.

  The Imperials threw a small round object at their ambush point. Eli’s heart sunk as soon as he saw it. A grenade. A rebel instantly sprung into motion, rushing to throw it back, but before he could get his hands on it the grenade launched itself in the air – hovering there for about a second – before it erupted in a bright flash of red light.

  The light itself was enough to momentarily blind Eli, and his arms went up to shield his eyes. But he knew it wasn’t a flashbang, for if it was – he would’ve been fully blinded and perhaps even deafened by it. When the light faded and his eyes regained clarity, he saw that he’d been lost completely in a world of red. Everywhere he looked was glowing red light. That same distinct ekron glow everywhere. Until the red glow began to take the shape of humanoids. He blinked, confused, until he realized what had happened.

  The grenade had illuminated them all, surrounding the rebels’ bodies with magical energy that literally highlighted them within the darkness. Dread swept through his veins; his subconscious almost able to predict what would happen next.

  “Get down!” He shouted, but it was too late. Energy rounds pierced through the thin steel of the container, filling the rebels with spent ammunition, their bodies getting chewed up by Imperial guns before they fell to the floor in pools of their own blood. Eli flinched as debris from the bullets penetrating the steel slammed into his face, and over someone else’s body, he tripped. Falling onto his back. Energy rounds narrowly whizzed past his head, impaling other revolutionaries. The Imperials' magic allowed them to see through walls, and with that, the container that offered the rebels safety had in one fell swoop been turned into their own death trap. On the floor, Eli flipped to his stomach, crawling his way towards the exit while bullets pierced the steel container around him. Matteo staggered as he ran, and Eli was forced to his feet if he wanted to keep up pace. Rebels were gunned down around him, as the few that were able to survive fled.

  Eli ended up somewhere in the outside world once again. Where exactly, he wasn’t sure. All around him was nothing short of chaos. Sea breeze slapped him in the face, stinging his exposed skin and eyes. Harsh winds threw rain at him from almost every direction. The stench of saltwater filled his nose. And all around him was nothing but destruction. Bullets and magical ekron rounds traced their way through the air, colliding with the steel containers and creating bright sparks upon their impact. They hit rebels around him, and in every direction were those who were struck. Their bodies collapsed with the imperials advancing.

  With guns firing in literally every direction, a stunned Eli couldn’t tell which way would lead to his safety – if any of them would at all. The rebels who remained alive had already scattered leaving Eli to only get a glimpse of Matteo’s back. The man turned to him, flagging him down, before resuming his pace. And with no other obvious choice, Eli followed him…

  The two of them ran through the chaos, through the increasingly narrow containers of the port. The sound of the battle, war cries from exhausted rebels, screams of those who were injured or terrified, the gunshots, the explosions, all of it subdued his thinking. Quick, short, breaths, his lungs were telling him to breathe. But he couldn’t. Somewhere above him, the remaining sentry unleashed its death ray to vaporize a container full of rebels. The container exploded into a massive ball of fire before its remains crashed down into the alleys below – crushing those unfortunate enough to be caught underneath it.

  He just had to keep his focus on Matteo, and to steady his breathing. He had no idea if Matteo knew which direction he was running. In fact, Eli was sure that he didn’t. But if the man knew the direction away from the combat, then Eli would have to follow him.

  Through one alley, turning into the next. Past hundreds, thousands, of shipping containers, they remained as both their only cover and as walls blocking them in. The cranes were massive – now that Eli could see them from almost directly underneath. Their rusted iron bodies slicked with rain, there was a slight sway to them as the winds blew against their frames though they remained firm. Just above the cranes, Eli could see dragons circling overhead – much like the scout. He got a faint sight of Archer’s body moving gracefully like a hawk, weaving between the dragons and avoiding being hit by their massive claws or their fire breath.

  His glimpse of Archer was only fleeting, as Matteo led him into yet a different alleyway. He could not focus on Archer for long, somewhere above them, a dragon unleashed its fire breath onto a crowd of rebels fleeing down the very same alley that Matteo and Eli were in!

  Fiery napalm, dragons’ breath, its heat so intense that it turned night into day. Through the storm, Eli could see dozens of the unfortunate, those caught in the inferno, “Keep running! Go!” He yelled at Matteo though both of them were already sprinting at full speed. It didn’t take long for the crowd of fleeing rebels to catch up to the two exhausted men. Luckily, their avenue of exit approached just ahead.

  In front of them was the open sea, angry with the storm. Thunder illuminated the skies briefly, showing off that there was nothing out there except for a cold and nearly dark void. A massive cargo ship floated just off the port’s side, moored by ropes several times the size of any man that were pulled taut by the ship’s meandering. Waves of ocean water crashed onto the shore, sending salty water into both Eli and Matteo’s face. Yet they kept running.

  The dragon was hot on their asses, and if they stopped, they would be incinerated. The sea was menacing, the waves were almost impossible to swim in. While the experienced might be able to jump in and survive, the exhausted Eli would surely drown.

  He sensed an opportunity, another alley – small and tighter than the rest. Large enough only for two to just barely fit shoulder to shoulder, a gap in between the containers, “Matteo! To the left!” He shouted. The man nodded, and with a side step he vanished into the small crevice. Eli was still a little further behind, he could hear the roar of the dragon on his back, feel the heat of its inferno singeing the hairs at the base of his neck. In a split second, his opportunity came, and he seized it. With a quick double-step, he was inside.

  And not a moment too soon. Just as he got into the crevice, the dragon rushed down the main alley, torching everything in its path. Dragons breath filled the entire pathway, burning, setting all ablaze. The brightness of the inferno was enough to momentarily blind Eli, who stumbled and fell. The heat and smell of dragonsbreath was putrid, like gasoline burning its putrid chemicals into the air. Dragonsbreath was like napalm. A burning liquid that spread everywhere and set everything on fire. Whether that was a natural ability of the dragon, or simply one of the cruel weapons that the Imperials had implanted inside of its body was an unknown. But it was effective, for the fire got everywhere.

  It took Eli a moment to gather himself to realize what was going on. Matteo pointed at his clothes, and Eli’s eyes darted down to his arm. It had been completely engulfed in flames! His plastic penal-unit uniform was burning like cotton dipped in alcohol and ignited with a spark! The heat sank in, and Eli screamed, “HOLY FUCKING SHIT! GET IT OFF!” Eli panicked, dropping to the floor as he struggled to take his uniform off.

  “Freeman! Freeman, calm the hell down!” Matteo said, trying to get Eli under control, yet the wild flailing of his very-much-on-fire arm made it difficult for Matteo to even get close without being burned himself. Eli tried, but it was hard to keep still. He could feel the dark blue plastic melting, burning the skin underneath. While the fire didn’t spread, it would cook his arm if he couldn’t get his uniform off soon enough. Panicked and desperate hands fled to the buckles around his torso keeping his backpack and body armor attached to him. The hand which was conveniently not on fire did most of the work, slowing him down for his other hand was mostly useless. Matteo did his part to help, getting his backpack off and tossing it aside. Eli could feel the extremely uncomfortable heat building up within his arm, and on his skin the melting plastic was beginning to burn him horribly. The body armor was off. And all that was left now was the zipper keeping his uniform on, which both Eli and Matteo practically tore off.

  It was surprisingly difficult to do so, but eventually the top came off – finally freeing Eli’s arm. His skin had been marked by several blisters that had already been covered in melting plastic, and Eli’s brown complexion had turned into a deep red from the burns. The pain was horrible, like having his entire arm thrown into a blazing hot metal furnace and then ripped back out. Somehow, his arm felt numb and on fire at the same time. Stinging him relentlessly everywhere from his wrist to his shoulder. Matteo opened his first aid kit to see what he could do, but his stache of useful supplies were already running thin. His experienced hands grabbed hold of Eli, holding him in place. From the first aid pack was a burn cream that Matteo’s hands immediately went towards. In the blink of an eye, Eli’s arm was covered in it. At first, the cream only stung his arm but soon the coolness and relief set in. Another second later, gauze was carefully wrapped around the arm. White bandages were wrapped from his wrist all the way up to just above his elbow where the burns were most vital, and with that Matteo’s supply of gauze ran dry.

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  “T-thanks,” Eli choked out, still reeling from the pain and shock of nearly losing his arm.

  Matteo gave him a half-smile, “No more injuries Freeman. First you get your head all banged up and I had to bandage that. Then you deep fry your arm. If you lose a leg next you know I won’t be able to stitch that back on, right?”

  Eli chuckled at Matteo’s sense of humor, “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on getting myself killed anymore.”

  “Our plans always fall apart.”

  “Good point,” Eli’s eyes wandered to the alleyway, still burning but not as harshly as it had before. The dragon must’ve finished its run, and Eli could imagine what kind of devastation lay in its wake. The burning bodies, those unable to keep up. He felt a familiar wave of grief wash over him, his relief faded to the rain. Gunfire was still going just as strongly all around them, and the shouts of those who were hanging on were many. The battle was still young, “Come on. Let’s get back to Misfit,” He said standing on his own feet.

  “You think they haven’t moved by now?”

  “With Rafael? Not likely,” Eli said.

  “What if they’re dea-“

  “They aren’t,” Eli told him, with an assurance he didn’t have, “I know they aren’t.”

  “Right…” Matteo said, unsure, “I suppose the container we left them in was a strong spot.”

  “I wouldn’t have agreed to the plan if I thought we’d die on first contact.”

  “We didn’t really have much of a choice.”

  “They’re not dead!”

  “I’m not saying they are!” Matteo shouted, “God, Eli… you’re just so zealous! Not like Sparrow, but in your own way. It’s like I can’t tell you to be reasonable without you snapping back at me with some overly idealistic stuff about protecting Misfit or keeping everyone alive – when you know that you can’t do that. Not alone. Hell, even together it’s doubtful! What’s wrong with you?”

  Matteo’s words struck Eli in a way nothing else he’s said had. Matteo and Eli never fully saw eye to eye. From Eli and Dutch trying to convince him to join on their escape from the Nexus to that fiasco out in the jungle that Eli, to Cato’s death and to now. Eli knew Matteo was not a bad person, far from it. In fact, the farthest thing. Matteo was pragmatic. Always was, and always would be. And Eli knew that he himself had his own tendency to get hot-headed about the things he were most passionate about. Eli’s almost utopian idealism and Matteo’s survival based pragmatism just kept colliding, over and over. But Matteo had a point. Why Misfit?

  “What do you see in Misfit? Because I know it’s not just that you want to save us all. When I first met you, you were like me. You just wanted to serve your sentence and be done with it. But now here you are acting like you think you're some sort of guardian angel. Why?” Matteo demanded from him, slowly shaking his head before his eyes locked with Eli’s, narrowing, “What happened in Seoul?”

  There it was. Juma had warned him about this. Sooner or later, Misfit would find out. How he wound up in the Penal Unit. His dirty secret. Matteo would find out. Would he understand? Would Dutch understand? Badger? Rafael and Omar? Would they ever trust the man who abandoned those closest to him, leaving them to die in nuclear winter?

  Eli looked straight into Matteo’s eyes. No more dancing. No more games. The truth had to come out. One way or another. He took a breath in, and spilled everything...

  “Before they nuked Seoul I murdered my Staff Sergeant, and another soldier trying to stop me. I did it by myself, and I abandoned my friends so that they could die while I tried to reach my freedom. I thought that they would've been killed by the POA in the tunnels but... I didn't expect what actually happened. They dropped a nuke on Seoul, and that was that. They were dead... I know it. All of them. Some of my best friends, the only ones I had. I abandoned them to save myself..."

  Matteo blinked, as if the words hadn’t registered. Eli was afraid Matteo would make him repeat himself, but instead the man shook his head, “Is that true?”

  Eli nodded.

  Matteo’s reaction was strange. He didn’t really do anything. At least not what Eli expected. He held his gaze towards Eli but for a moment, only to pull away, eyes cast somewhere near the floor behind Eli, a million miles away it would seem, “I see…” said the man, refusing to either absolve Eli of the guilt and the shame but also refusing to persecute him for it. Rather, he chose something else between the two. Silence. Self-incrimination. This is what it had come to.

  “I’m sorry,” Eli said, but he knew his voice sounded pathetic. His apology was sort of… mumbled. It almost didn’t feel genuine. Was he sorry for what he did, or not? Or was he sorry for hiding it for Misfit for all of this time? Was he sorry for lying to them? Why was he apologizing? There was guilt everywhere on him, a simple “I’m sorry ” wouldn’t come close to cutting it. This was it. The one moment where everything was on the line. Matteo could snitch and tell all of Misfit about what had happened if he wanted to, and all Eli could cough up as a defense was a whimpering “I’m sorry”.

  "You feel like you should've died in Seoul with them?" Matteo asked.

  Eli shrugged, "It crosses my mind... a lot. Actually. I know I did the wrong thing, Rafael might say that it was justified but it didn't feel justified. Why do I get to live?"

  "Barely living," Matteo spat on the ground, "Penal Unit, sent to another world in this nightmare of a planet. Wouldn't exactly say that you got off easy."

  "Yeah but... those were MY only friends and when they depended on me I turned my back and let them get vaporized. I will never do that again, I can't. Misfit is my only chance to really redeem myself, you know. To correct that mistake. I gotta help you!" Eli pleaded. The raindrops falling soaked him and pattered on the surface of his helmet, sometimes landing on his cheeks and betraying the look of tears. But he wasn't crying, even if he felt like it. He looked down at the concrete, "Misfit is all I have left. Without you guys, I'm just a monster. And a killer."

  Matteo looked him up and down, carefully searching for his next words. Eli wasn't sure what Matteo was going to say. He didn't want to lose Matteo's trust, but Eli didn't want his sympathy either. What Eli did was wrong, and whether or not Matteo agreed in that matter was beyond Eli's care. He just wanted Matteo to... well, he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to accomplish. He wasn't sure of much at all, and truthfully he didn't really know why this seemed so problematic for him. He was in the penal unit because he deserved to be here. That sounded logical enough. So why then was Eli so conflicted about it?

  “You know… I was right about you,” the words pulled Eli out of his mind, right back into his bearded face. Again, Matteo was smiling. It was a rare sight to see on the man. Rarer still in a environment as dreadful as this one. But his smile wasn’t fake or ingenuine or a mask trying to fool Eli into a false sense of security, “You’re a real son of a bitch,” Matteo let out a boyish giggle, betrayed by his raspy croak of a voice, “But you aren't a killer. You aren't a monster either. You’re more like me than you think.”

  Eli was confused. Was he angry or not? Was Matteo condoning what he had done? Matteo sensed his confusion. The rain soaked his hair until it was lying flat against his head dripping water down the sides of his uniform. Through the rain, Eli could sense something that had eluded him continuously.

  Understanding.

  He felt happiness when he was with Misfit, but he could never expect them to understand him on a real level so long as his secret was kept hidden. But Matteo was cynical enough to not only stoop low to his level, but to understand what it was like to be there, “Survival always comes first. We’re all just lost and scared souls who want to find our way home. That’s all we are, all we’ll ever be. But where I was wrong was when I said that we aren’t different. We are. I’m still looking for my home on Earth. But you…” He frowned, “You’ve already found yours here.”

  Surely he didn’t mean Eli wanted to stay here, on Planet Narva, as a Prisoner. No sane person would. Then again, was Eli really all that… sane?

  No. Eli of course didn’t want to stay here. Matteo meant something else. Maybe not in the physical sense. Where was Eli’s home anyway? If Eli were sent back to Earth right this minute as a free soul, where would he go?

  Nowhere. He would go nowhere. Outside of Planet Narva he had no dreams, no ambitions, no hope. Even if he had won his freedom, he’d be spit back out in the world as a ex-felon in a world rapidly descending into utter madness, if it wasn’t there already. His home was destroyed fourteen years ago, lost forever. What home was there back on Earth? Who did he know? What family did he have?

  There was always the lingering hope that maybe Eli could get a job, settle down somewhere, and ignore everything that happened. But he knew that would be impossible. America had been under the restrictive rule of military dictatorship Staff for the past decade. He’d been a teenager when the old populist government and the divided Congress were both overthrown in a coup. Opportunity for anyone who wasn’t already wealthy had been effectively destroyed, and he’d be insane or stupid if he thought that an ex-felon – namely a deserter – would ever stand a chance at finding peace there.

  He’d either wind up starving, or get sent back in the Penal Unit. But here, in the midst of Planet Narva, he mattered. Here he could make a difference. Here, he had Misfit. Friends he’d never had, even amongst those he called comrades during the nightmare of the war in Korea. Memories he could never forget, and they weren’t all bad ones. And then there was Otaes. At first, someone that terrified him but gradually became as close of a friend as anyone. A warrior elf badass that wore her beliefs on her sleeve unabashedly. Never in his wildest dreams could he fight shoulder to shoulder with all of them. Not on Earth anyway.

  Matteo’s face was difficult to make out in the pouring rain and dark storm, but it Matteo looked like he was going to say something else, but he was halted by a frighteningly close horn.

  And then, breaking the darkness of the storm, red light fell on top of both of them. Eli was blinded at first by the light, frozen in its presence that seemed to infiltrate everything. But he knew exactly what it was. For they were the eyes of a sentry trained right onto him.

  Neither Matteo nor Eli said anything. They broke out sprinting the moment they realized that a sentry was staring right down at them. A red glow formed around the main gun as it powered up, each second that ticked by pushed them an inch closer to inevitable doom. Eli’s panicked footsteps splashed on the puddles of stagnant rainwater that formed over the concrete.

  How the hell had the Sentry snuck up onto them like that? It hadn’t made a sound up until it found the two. Were Eli and Matteo really that lost in their conversation that they didn’t hear a sentry – of all things – stomping its way towards their semi-hiding spot?

  Eli was the first to make it out of the little crevice between the shipping containers, stepping out into the main alleyway was like being thrown into a new world. The ruins of the dragonsbreath managed to char the concrete somehow, it melted portions of the steel containers making them warp and burst. And the bodies, or at least what was left of them, lie charred across the floor. Soaking in the rain as the darkened blood of the once alive rebels pooled with the cold rain. Eli tried his best to ignore it and fight back the urge to vomit, something made particularly easy when he was being pursued by a sentry.

  He turned around to see that the red lights had been taken from him and placed over Matteo. The old man’s face was twisted in abject horror, as the main gun of the sentry lowered over him. Eli stopped running as he fully turned around without thinking, reaching out a hand to hopefully get the man to run faster… but nothing he did could stop what was coming.

  From the Sentry’s main gun was a pulse of bright red energy. Like a crack of lightning, it flew with impossible speed. Embedding itself into the ground and exploding between Eli and Matteo.

  Eli’s vision of Matteo was broken by a sudden ball of loose concrete, dirt, fire, and ash. The explosion sent Eli’s body flying back like a ragdoll, and he was pushed into the side of a container – spared his life only by the protective shell of his helmet as it slammed against the solid steel surface with a loud clang. The wits were knocked entirely out of him, he could feel the familiar taste of blood in his mouth, his vision was blurry and dulled by a constant reverberating pain that never ceased from inside of his skull. His hearing was gone, entirely. He could only hear muffled semi-sounds that were more akin to ethereal groans…

  His vision focused only somewhat when he saw what was happening above him. The shipping containers stacked above them were being toppled by the sheer force of the explosion. One by one, shaking and being knocked over like giant blocks of concrete destroying everything in their path.

  Eli looked just in time to see one, directly over his head, topple... and fall.

  Right on top of him.

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