Shots were fired. The back windshield shattered. This sent glass flying everywhere. I shielded my head with my arms, feeling the shards slice my skin. I clenched my teeth against the stinging. Cracking my eyes open, I saw that everyone except for Midori was doing the same.

Midori was focused on getting us as far away from the helicopters as fast as possible. She accelerated the vehicle faster and faster; she seemed to give it more energy the harder she gripped the wheel.

It started raining. The car started drifting on accident, but Midori quickly corrected it. Tatsuo had an arm wrapped around Giin. Roan was directly behind me and had a hand on my shoulder, although for whose comfort and reassurance, I did not know.

Teruo looked out the gaping hole that was once the back windshield. He let out a panicked gasp.

"They're gaining on us!" he screamed over the helicopters, beating rain, and roaring car engine.

He, too, has been cut by the glass: he had a large gash along his left cheekbone. Blood was gushing out of it and pretty soon the whole left side of his face below his cheekbone was crimson. Even his neck had drops of blood splattered on it. He was lucky the glass hadn't hit his eye.

The rest of us had cuts and scrapes mostly on our hands and arms. Mine still stung.

"I see people holding on to the helicopter. I think they're gonna jump onto the car!" Teruo yelled again, true terror in his eyes.

Sure enough, dark figures I couldn't make out in the night were clinging to the outside of the helicopter nearest us, grappling hooks in their hands.

Lillianna leaned up between Sin'ichi and Midori from her place in the floorboard. "We have to lose them before they can jump!" she told Midori calmly.

Midori nodded once, a determined glint in her eye. An uneasy feeling made its home in my stomach. What was Midori going to do?

"Everyone hold on!" she screamed before jerking the wheel to the right.

We were crossing an overpass, which was directly over train tracks. We went through the overpass railing and were airborne for what seemed like an eternity. Several people screamed.

Then, we landed on something with a jarring thud. With a start I realized we were on top of a train.

Sin was absolutely having a panic attack. "Have you lost your freaking MIND?" he was screaming at Midori. "We're in a CAR on top of a FREAKING TRAIN!!!"

"I know!" Midori replied levelly, shifting gears and speeding forward on top of the train.

"I've just about had it with your driving, woman!"

"Oh DO shut up, Sin! I can't concentrate on the road with you shouting nonsense in my ear," came Midori's response.

"Concentrate on the road? The ROAD?" Sin screeched incredulously.

"Uh, guys, hate to interrupt, but I think we have a bit of a problem," piped up Lillianna again.

"What is it?" Marge asked her anxiously.

The princess pointed. "That tunnel."

"Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods!" came Teruo's horrified outburst.

"Everyone duck!" I screamed, sliding down into the floorboard next to Lillianna and crouching as low as I could

Everyone else followed suit and the next moment there was an excruciatingly loud screeching noise as the metal of the car met the stone of the tunnel. Sparks were being sent in all directions; it's a wonder nothing caught fire.

About thirty seconds later we emerged on the other side of the tunnel. We looked up, and the entire top half of the car was completely gone. I also noticed with a tiny sigh of relief that we had lost the helicopters.

Then we noticed the train was turning, the car still barrelling forward.

"Stop!" Roan shouted.

Midori glanced up in her mirror worriedly. "I can't!" she said. "The brakes are out!"

"We have to jump!" Lillianna told everyone.

"Are you nuts?" Sin'ichi screamed at her.

"Is there something else you had in mind, O' Wise One?" Lillianna shot back sarcastically.

I think the others would have laughed, had the comment been made in different circumstances. As it was, we were barrelling toward the edge of the turning train more quickly than any of us were comfortable with.

"She's right!" I shouted to the group over the whistling wind, roaring engine, and clattering locomotive.

I stood up and made to jump. The rest of the group followed, securing weapons, bottles of water, food.

"Okay, go!" I shouted.

We all jumped.

For a few thrilling seconds it felt like I had sprouted wings and was soaring through the air. Soaring away from this disarray. This mess. This hell.

But it ended all too soon.

Thankfully the sand dune cushioned my landing somewhat. I laid there for a few fleeting moments, feeling an odd aching sensation in my chest, causing me to gasp for air.

Roan crawled over to me. "I'm guessing... you got.... the, wind.... knocked out of you.... too?" he asked, panting.

I nodded numbly.

Looking around, I noticed that Teruo and Lillianna were the only ones who had actually stuck the landing with surprising ease and accuracy. Were all well-to-do familes' children trained in acrobatics?

"I think we lost the helicopters," Lillianna said quickly, glancing up at the dawn sky.

The sun threw streaks of violet, magenta, pink, yellow, and orange across the sky in great arcs. The scene was breathtaking. For once the weight of our mission and all of its many worries and nagging questions seemed to be lifted from my shoulders.

I sat up on the sand dune and just stared at the sky in awe. But then the that nagging voice in the back of my skull returned, again.

"How can something this beautiful exist in such a cruel, hearses place?" it asked.

As much as I wanted to tell the voice to shut up and leave me alone, it was right. How could something so seemingly cheerful and beautiful show itself as if all was right with the world? As it continued to display its wonder and beauty, the rest of the world continued to wage war against itself. It was like the sunrise belonged to a completely different realm.

I was snapped out of my musings by a sudden intake of breath from Marge as she tried to stand.

"I think I've sprained my ankle," she said, sitting back down in the sand. She squinted at her ankle studiously, as if simply staring at it from the outside would give her the answer.

I hobbled over to her slowly on my own aching limbs and squatted beside her. My calves and thighs screamed in protest. I ignored the burning and focused instead on Marge.

"Do you gave anything straight in your backpack we could use as a splint?" I asked her.

She rummaged through it and pulled out a metal ruler. "This is about the only thing that would work."

I nodded and took the ruler, holding it next to her leg to make sure it wasn't too long or too short. It was actually around the perfect size for the job.

I took the strip of fabric that Roan had given me for a make-shift bandage and unwrapped my arm. The cut was healing nicely; already a scab was covering it. It would definitely leave a scar, but I could live with that.

After helping Marge with her ankle, I looked around at everyone else. They all had scrapes and gashes from the glass in the windshield, but nothing super major.

"You should all grab some water bottles and wash your cuts," I told them.

The rest of the group nodded and began to obey. Lillianna was one of the first ones finished with doctoring her wounds and came to sit beside me on my sand dune. She sighed.

"You probably think I'm awful for betraying my own flesh and blood, don't you?" she asked hurriedly, turning to me. For the first time I noticed she had the same accent as Teruo.

I looked at her, taken aback. "Not at all." I turned to gaze back at the landscape. "I'll admit, I was a bit shocked to find you underneath that helmet, but I think it's noble and brave of you to face your mother."

Lillianna's expression turned sour at the mention of the Empress. "Oh, yes, she's deplorable. She manipulates and bribes and connives; she plays mind games with you to get what she wants."

I looked at her. "Mind games?"

She nodded, still staring at the ground and not meeting my gaze. A dark shadow seemed to pass over her elegant features.

"She... She gets inside your head. It's like she finds the thing that hurts you the most and uses that. She blackmails, and lies, and stabs people in the back, all because she's crazy for power."

She pressed her mouth into a thin line and glared at the sand in heavy silence.

I didn't know what to say. I mean, what can you to someone who wants to abolish their own mother? I could never have understood what Lillianna had gone through, or was going through right then. Because, yes, I and everyone else had suffered loss and sorrow in some shape or fashion because of the Empress, but what about Lillianna? And her older sister, Isadora? They had had to live with that monster for their entire lives. There was no imagining what both of them had gone through.

So I put a hand on her shoulder and said the only thing I could say: "I'm sorry."