Gareth felt the ground beneath him become warm with his blood. A faint dusting of snow was coming, blinding the hillside where the final horde of the Pendragon troops was marching down. Gareth could feel the blade in his back, a numbing and cold pain that radiated through his body.

"Una, I can't lead my army. You must take my place."

"No, you are a fool!" Una cried.

"Take my armies and leave before they come."

"No! This is our last chance! We are so close to the castle we can't abandon this last stance!" Una said, trying to pick Gareth up.

"Ahh!" He cried out in pain.

His vision was blurred and his hearing muffled, but he could still make out the deafening cries that Una tried desperately to convince him to stay with.

"Please, try to sit up so I can take you out of here! We must go to the forest!" Una begged him.

"No!" He relied upon.

"Please!" Una cried as she used all her strength to try to pick him up.

"You must leave, leave me!"

"No, Gareth! No, I won't! I refuse!" Una wept.

"You must!"

"Please!" Una sobbed brokenly.

"Una," Gareth said breathlessly as he tried to grab her hand.

"Gareth?" Una cried.

"Run, there's too many. I'm down, and Ingrid." Gareth said softly.

Una pulled him up and let him lean on her shoulder.

"Laurel!" Una bellowed out for him.

He heard her and nodded. She watched Laurel cry out as he impaled the last soldier off of his horse. He grabbed the horse and jumped on, and rode fiercely over to Una and Gareth. His face was red. He was crying as much as Una was.

"Gareth is injured. Take him somewhere safe!" Una demanded.

"No!" Gareth insisted.

"I'll lead!" Una begged him, looking down, and finally pried Gareth up off of the ground.

Una forced him to stand balanced against her as she heard the sword slide out of his body and hit the ground.

"Ahh!" He howled as a gush of blood exploded out of his back.

"Gareth!" Una shouted, holding him.

He could barely hold himself up, and he was weak beyond return.

"My king!" Laurel cried out.

"You must hurry! Take him away!" Una said, leading him to the horse.

Laurel grabbed his arm, and Una pushed up on his leg. He cried out in pain as his back twisted being hoisted up. Laurel and Una were distraught, hearing his wails of misery. He heaved and cried out again as Laurel wrapped his arms around his waist to keep him balanced in the saddle.

"Go, I'll lead!" Una begged.

"No, Una. You will not. You are not reasoning right now. You want blood. I want brotherhood in our kingdoms. I understand how tired you are. I want this over too. We have been fighting for days, but now we cannot go on like this. They can't claim victory until we are all dead or surrender. We are doing neither."

"Gareth, I can lead!"

"No, you can't. You must know when to stop...look at us!? We must regather our army. Half of our men are dead or injured. Look at yourself, look at me? We are failing... you must understand this! You have never lost a battle, so you cannot see the signs that my father taught me. These were signs that he knew personally. To be a great leader, you must know defeat, for that is where true strength lies."

"He told me when the army breaks." Una hesitated.

"Ingrid is dead." Laurel cracked.

Una felt her heart tear out of her chest.

"What!?" Una hesitated as a million pictures of her friend Ingrid flew through her head.

Gareth knew she was dead by the expression on Laurel's face and how Alaric held her in his arms.

"You can't be brave all the time." Gareth trembled.

"No..." Una said barely above a whisper.

"It can't be."

"Una, Ingrid is dead, and I fear I may be soon. We must stop. You cannot lead this army alone. You know that."

"But Gareth." Una wept.

"Ahh!" He cried, hunching over.

"Please, Una. He's right." Laurel said.

They could hear the men in the distance marching closer.

"They will soon be upon us. We cannot fight this, Una. We all know you are courageous, but as Gareth said, sometimes we have to realize some battles are not meant to be won. That does not mean we lost entirely. Sometimes strength comes from within, the strength to hold back and not to continue. Sometimes mercy is harder than revenge. We will fight another day, not this day." Laurel sobbed with broken words.

Una bowed her head down and silently wept in defeat.

"If it means that you will live, promise me you will, I will walk away now," Una said with regret in her voice.

She wanted so desperately to fight, to plow through the last grand army making their way down the hill, hidden in the blinding snow.

"I'll live on for you, Una, for Wessex. You must live on too." Gareth said with pain in his tone.

"Go then, leave me! I will fight no more. Go where you are safe. I will find you later with Alaric." Una said, crying and running away with her sword.

"Una!" Laurel shouted after her, but she would not turn around.

Una was distraught. She had never run from a battle before.

"Alaric!" Una shouted to him as she could hear the battle cries of the Pendragons approaching.

She stood still, like a stag being approached, and glared at Alaric. He was in so much anguish as he held his lifeless sister in his arms. An arrow had found its way under her armor somehow and pierced her, though. Una turned to see Laurel galloping off, disappearing in the forest beyond the field.

"Al...Alaric." Una hesitated as she approached.

He whimpered like a pup as he gazed into his sister's lifeless eyes.

"I didn't want this," Alaric mumbled.

Una knelt next to him and gazed into his forlorn eyes. The red from the whites of his eyes made them appear a light sea green.

"Neither did I." Una hesitated?

There was a long silence. Una waited there, crying next to him, looking down at Ingrid.

"We have to go now," Una said, putting her hand on Alaric.

He was trembling violently as his eyes darted left and right. He stared down at his dead sister, who was fighting so well earlier. Within a second, she had fallen.

"Alaric...let's go."

"N... no. I can't...I can't leave her." Alaric peered into Una's glowing emerald eyes, red from crying her heart out too.

"Alaric, they're coming." Una cried.

"I know," Alaric said.

"Leave me here." He said breathlessly, closing his eyes.

"No!" Una said.

"Please, just leave us." He cried.

"No! I can't leave you. You mean too much to me." Una said.

He knelt and cried on Ingrid's body. The cold air made her feel like ice now. Not a trace of life was left within her.

"She's with God." Una cried.

In Una's mind, she can see her now, smiling. She ran barefooted in a golden field. It was shining as lovely as her lengthy hair, the hair she always wanted. Her loose white dress dances in the wind. Her bright blue eyes shined vibrant. Her cheeks were flushed, and a crown of flowers adorned her head. In her hand, she pulled Una and Alaric through the field with her, leading them to a fawn nestled in the tall grasses. She laughed and smiled. She no longer felt pain or sadness. She did not know what torture was, and the thought of Wilona has dissolved away in her miseries. She had forgiven all. Now she was free, the thing she always wanted to be.

Una could see a horse running with an empty saddle. Its tail was smoking at the ends. Una jumped and ran to it, blocking its path.

"Woah, easy girl!" Una said calmly.

The horse reared to a halt and whinnied.

"Easy!" Una said, patting her neck and then mounting her back.

She trotted over to Alaric.

"Give her to me," Una said.

Alaric looked up at Una. His eyes were swollen with tears. Alaric then looked down and scooped Ingrid in his arms, picking her up. He walked over to Ingrid, and Una reached down for her.

"God bless you." He cried as he let her go.

Una held Ingrid's lifeless body in her arms. She still smelt of her rose perfume, even amidst the blood and soot.

"Come on," Una said, relinquishing her power as the last leader on the battlefield.

She held a hand down for him as she held Ingrid tight against her chest.

"Okay." Alaric sniffled as he grabbed her hand.

Una pulled him up, and he sat behind her on the horse. They watched for a few moments as the soldiers made their way through the snow. It began to pelt them in a thick blanket. Gareth was right. He was wise like his father. Not only would Una have to fight by herself, but she would also have to do it in this snow. She was already frozen to the core.

"Yah!" Una cried as she spun the horse around, and they galloped off into the woods, leaving the battle.

She was a fool for questioning Gareth, for wanting to continue. She didn't know why she had to stop. She did not know how to stop. She sees now that Gareth had been wiser than her all along. He knew what Una didn't, how to stop for the sake of the ones he loved. Una thought she was protecting them, but she was putting them in harm's way in actuality. She would lose the battle if she continued. It was Gareth who won. They had made it for so long. It was a divine miracle that they lasted. They decimated the pendragons. All that was left was the smallest but most formidable army the kingdom of Mercia had. The army was built of men who shared the same strength as Laurel, Gareth, Alaric, and Una combined. It would be a formidable army to beat. They would need to save their power for this one. It was wise to stop. Gareth knew they would kill everyone, including Una.

Una rode for a long time. She didn't know where she was going. All she knew is that she needed to leave that place, away from the plumes of smoke, away from the stench of blood, away from herself losing her mind again. Alaric did not talk at all. She could hear him sniffle, but he tried to remain strong through his agony and torment. He lost his sister a second time this day. The snow had finally stopped, but the white glare was disorienting. Everything began to morph and shift the same way. They started to walk in circles.

"Una. Let's stop here for the night."

"We have to meet Gareth and Laurel," Una said softly, trying to drive the horse up the same slope they had gone up before.

"We need to bury her, Una." Alaric hesitated.

Una stopped the horse.

"Okay," Una said as she stopped the horse.

They stood there until Alaric jumped down. Una gently handed Alaric the body of Ingrid, who's body had already seized up by this time. Her hands and arms were stiff and cold. This did not feel right to Una or real. It all felt so surreal. They were lost, they had lost the battle, and they lost Ingrid. Una feared deep down that she had lost Gareth too. She was supposed to see him again. How could she ever look at him also after this?

"Here," Alaric said, setting her down in the snow.

Alaric and Una were too weak to bury Ingrid. The ground was frozen, and they had no tools. They only found a small satchel of gold in the saddle along with some stag jerky and intense wine. They found a blanket, but they decided to wrap Ingrid in it and lay her in the snow. They stacked rocks they found poking out of the snow around her and covered her with smaller stones so the wolves couldn't get to her. They sat next to her body, shivering. Una recounted how she had lost a good friend long ago. Ingrid was just as good, but this time Una didn't feel sadness. She was glad that Ingrid got to be the warrior she dreamed of being. She was delighted that she stood up to Wilona, and she got to be with Laurel momentarily. Most importantly, Una felt honored to be her friend.

For all the months they spent together, it seemed like time didn't exist. Una felt like she had always known Ingrid somehow. Una had numbed herself from her death because she knew the torment that this would cause her. She wouldn't be able to handle it. Her pains would be too great, so all she felt was numb. She knew that this would soon digest and become a significant burden. Now she could only kneel and remember her shining face. She was taken too soon, but all great warriors die on the battlefield. Her sacrifice would not be forgotten. Ingrid had become immortal now. She was a part of Una's family.