Jasmine and Mya lay next to each other, broken and bleeding, as the battle raged around them amidst a blizzard of snowstorm. The remaining soldiers and cadets around them, injured and defenceless, were being slaughtered by the hive that had finally found them after they had managed to kill most of the hacker-jackers.

With a subconscious groan, Mya rolled into the ground, crawling through the broken earth to reach Jasmine. Her own consciousness was slipping away, and she wasn't sure how much time either of them had left due to the extent of their open wounds.

Finally reaching Jasmine, Mya found her in a wheezing unconscious state, and knew that she might not make it before her. Blinking back tears, Mya's thoughts were solely focused on Mackenzie. She had wanted to hug her properly this morning and not to leave this world without being able to do so shattered her heart in ways she wasn't ready to cope with.

Mya struggled with the choices that this life demanded, knowing that they had to fight for the greater good or face something much worse. Grasping at the mildew ground again, Mya pushed on Jasmine's shoulder, "don't go to sleep," the exasperated plea came out.

Mya's vision was blurry and distorted from the wounds on her forehead and blood-stained body, and the cries of the dead echoed in her mind. When the sounds faded away, she realized that all the soldiers and cadets had fallen.

"Ja-zzy ple...ase," Mya sobbed, her throat coaxed with blood that she had been coughing up, "wake up." Jasmine's eyelids drooped heavily as Mya continued to beg her to stay awake, her voice choked with tears and blood. The reality of their impending deaths was all too clear.

"So-rry," Jasmine's voice was weak and trembling. " I-I don't w..want to d-d-die," barely audible above the chaos of battle. "I do...n't wa...nt t-th...is." Her eyes glazed with tears. She didn't want to die.

As the chaos and terror escalated around them, Mya's strength began to fade, and she knew that her time was running out. She whispered to Jasmine, "Nobody wants this," but her words were lost in the cacophony of screams and pounding footsteps.

Mya's eyes closed, and she thought of her family, praying for their safety. She had never prayed before, but in this moment, it was all she could do. Her heart ached with the desire to protect her daughter from the horrors of the world, a longing that consumed her thoughts in her final moments.

If there was anything in this world she had desired more, it was to keep her away from all of this.

It's all she ever wants in life now.

To protect their little girl from this cruel, cruel world.

---- ----

The aircraft had descended upon a landscape littered with corpses, where snow covered the ground and wranglers lay in wait.

Matthew, Toni, and Richie were momentarily stunned as the aircraft made landfall. Without a moment's hesitation, Richie darted past the others and flung open the side door, jumping out into the frozen terrain.

"Fuck," Matthew exclaimed, overriding the autopilot system to bring the craft down faster.

"Go!" he barked at Toni, which in turn forced Toni to use his powers, snapping from the craft to follow Richie.

Richie trekked through the field, horror gripping him as he took in the sight of the slaughtered and mutilated bodies. The snow fell softly around him, a serene contrast to the brutality before him.

"Mya!" Richie knew she had been stationed here, and his insides were churning, "Mya! Answer me!" 

As he continued his searched for Mya, Richie spotted Jasmine's unmistakable purple hair in the distance, along with a woman with raven locks lying face-down beside her. With a consuming rage, Richie charged forward, ready to confront the wranglers standing between him and the women.

Focused on their bodies, he pushed forward amongst the critters until he was standing before a Wrangler  more than twice his size, covered in spikes and raging, and screaming like a beast gone mad – in fact it had made him angrier, as though these these pathetic, loathsome monsters believed they could kill him.

Richie snapped, his anger controlled him, it was effortless in the way he managed to behead the creature as he continued his way towards the girls 

His determination set on Mya's body, it brought him back such painful memories, it brought back the moment it all fell apart for them in a snapshot of a flash.

***** WARNING ****** this is a trigger warning..... **** WARNING *****

As Richie regained consciousness, he found himself hanging upside down in the car he had been driving. A deafening white noise rang in his ears, disorienting him. Struggling to unclip himself, he felt the sickening crunch of his body colliding with the shattered glass of the overturned car.

It was only when he looked down that he realized the horrifying truth: the roof had become his floor.

The Wranglers refused to give up, making another vicious attempt on Richie's life. With Matthew and Toni at his heels, Richie fought back, killing the monsters one by one despite their relentless attacks to block his path to Mya and Jasmine.

As he fought, blood coated his skin, triggering memories he had buried deep within himself. Haunting images flooded his mind as he looked down at his bloodied hands. These were the very memories he had tried so hard to bury years ago, now resurfacing to torment him.

Heaving himself off the glass-covered floor, bloodied hands trembling, Richie spun around to catch sight of Mackenzie, strapped into her car seat, unconscious and hanging upside down.

Relief washed over him briefly, but his attention was quickly drawn to the woman beside him. Mya, heavily pregnant, was dangling upside down, struggling to breathe as her chest threatened to cave in on itself.

The memory jolted Richie back to reality, the pain engulfing him completely. Mya's body remained still, and fear gripped him as he approached her. With clenched fists, his anger fueled him, refusing to accept that this might be her end. He couldn't bear to be in this situation again.

As he fought off a smaller wrangler trying to reach the girls, the next wave of memories flooded his mind.

Desperately, Richie pulled Mya out from the wreckage of the car, her blood staining everything around them. He clung to her tightly, trying to rouse her from unconsciousness.

"Mya, baby, please wake up. Look at me, baby, please..." His voice broke as he pleaded with her, tears streaming down his face. He realized that no matter how powerful he could be, when death wanted to claim the person you loved, there would be nothing to stop him.

As the wrangler fell to the ground with its head severed from its body, Richie raced towards the girls. He stumbled over his own feet and fell before Mya's body, which was face-first into the ground. He desperately gripped her body and pulled her towards him, rolling her into his arms. He didn't care that his back was to the fight, he knew Matthew and Toni had it under control. 

"Mya?" Richie whispered, his voice filled with desperation as he assessed the damage done to her body by the wranglers. He focused his magic around her, forcing it to heal the open wounds. "No, no, no, please god no, not again," he pleaded, terrified.

He didn't want to be here again, hunched over her body, losing his entire world. He brought her chest against his ear, cradling her, listening for even the faintest of heartbeats. What Richie hadn't told anyone was that he had kept so much pain when it came to Mya inside of himself. He had held onto all the loneliness, all the anger, and it was now unraveling at this moment.

'lub-lub-dub' There his mind told him, there was the faintest sign of hope. With clenched hands, knowing his powers weren't enough, knowing that her screams of pain from the car wreckage forever haunted him to this day. Richie was going to make sure she was strong enough to survive anything now.

With his determination fuelled by guilt and love, Matthew turned with enough time to watch as Richie rose from the ground and vanished.

"Fuck!" Matthew roared back to Toni, trying desperately to keep the herd off of them. For neither of them understood Richie's fury nor where he had gone. 

"What the fuck!" Toni was ridden with rage. "Where did the idiot go!"

For what both Toni and Mathew knew little about, was that, guilt changed a man into something that he never was meant to be, transforming him into a person he no longer recognized.

**** *****

We cannot speak of love, without speaking death's name.