Iolite's POV:

I knew I couldn't hold them off forever. My arrows and smoke were deadly, but it also largely drained me of my energy. Without reinforcements, I might even die, right here, right now. For no reason. I furiously pressed on, despite these dangers, drawing my bow back in one second and releasing the arrow the next. I had perfect aim, after centuries of practice. It was what I was born to do.

"We need to find the leader and Iolite's assistant, Isara!" I heard one Galena citizen yell. He was a tall, muscular man with a thick beard and bushy eyebrows, and a glare that told me he would stop at nothing to have those two dead.

"You will do no such thing!" I screamed, diverting my attention from my attackers to send an arrow flying at him. It embedded itself into the back of his skull, and he fell to the ground instantly. Painlessly. He deserved worse, I thought as I looked as his lifeless body.

"GALENA!" someone from the back called, someone who looked to be very important. "RETREAT!"

Everyone seemed just as shocked by that order as I was. They were clearly winning, and could overpower me and everyone else here if they pressed on. Why were they giving up now, having accomplished nothing?

"We can't retreat now!" a female guard, who was pointing a clunky machine at me, called back to the leader. "We've almost taken her down!"

I released an arrow in her direction, and she too fell to the ground without another word. The machine fell with her, shattering into hundreds of pieces upon striking Chrysoberyl's stone streets.

"RETREAT, I TELL YOU!" the person yelled again, and people began to follow his order. "WHAT WE NEED IS IN ZINCITE!"

"What you need?" I cried, my heart pounding as I thought of Safire.

"Who has been found?" I heard someone call back. They were within close range, and I could've struck them down as well, but I let them live so I, too, could hear the response.

"Safire and Elaina are almost dead, and her laboratory has been broken into," the leader called back, and I felt myself freeze for half a second. My worst fears were coming true, and there was nothing I could do about it.

"RETREAT!" another person called, and the Galena guards listened this time. As they turned and raced back to the station, a huge angry mob whose footsteps sounded like thunderclaps, I fired arrow after arrow at their retreating backs. One by one, they fell, but it wasn't enough.

I would have to take further measures.

I tore after them, throwing my bow to the side and letting it vanish into the middle of the air. All around me, Chrysoberyl citizens gasped as I threw away my weapon, thinking I was crazy. They just didn't know my plan.

I didn't tend to use the smoke that often, since it seriously drained my energy, but now was a desperate time. I surged forward with the smoke in my palms, few Galena citizens noticing what I was doing.

One by one, they climbed into minecart after minecart, speeding away in the direction of Zincite. As they took off, I shot huge clouds of smoke after them. The smoke wiped out every single person in its path, and spiraled menacingly toward the fleeing guards.

The collision could be heard all throughout the city, I was sure of it.

A huge explosion sounded, and screams filled the air. There had been screaming during all of this, but now the screams were from the citizens of Galena. Hearing their agony and terror, because of something I had inflicted on them, brought a cruel sense of joy to me.

I sent cloud after cloud, ignoring the fact that I was becoming steadily more tired and even dizzy. Dozens of people were going up in flames, and the carts they had been trying to escape in were crushed and smoldering, nothing more than a pile of ashes.

Try hurting my friends now, why don't you?

Andor's POV:

In most situations, when a guy and a girl have to be brave together, it's the guy protecting the girl, sheltering her and comforting her. Between Alyssa and I, however, despite the fact that she was younger and smaller, things were the opposite. I didn't know how she could be so brave, and hold her head so high, when we were faced with such incredible danger, but she managed to do it. 

It seemed like this girl couldn't run out of ways to amaze me. 

"Stand close to each other, and keep your hands where we can see them," Malachai growled at us. "We don't want them mistaking you for enemies and shooting you."

My heart sunk at my alternate's tone, but I forced myself to forget about it. Alyssa and I raised our hands ever so slightly, just so it could be determined that we didn't have weapons in our hands and were incapable of fighting back. 

"You doing okay?" Alyssa whispered, looking worriedly at me. "You look like you're going to be sick."

"We almost died," I hissed back, mostly annoyed at how calm she appeared. "How are you doing okay, even after going through all of that?"

She opened and closed her mouth wordlessly for a minute, looking confused, as if she had never thought about that question before. "I... I guess it's what I've had to do my entire life." When she saw the horrified look on my face, she smiled ever so slightly. "Look, all we need to do is stay calm, and we can get out of this. It's not going to be a problem."

"We might get shot here, though," I muttered as we edged closer to the front room. What I didn't tell her was that I was mostly afraid of entering and seeing pools of scarlet blood across the marble floor, the lifeless bodies of our new friends lying in the middle of them.

We were all too young and too innocent to die. 

"What happened here?" Malachai yelled as he stepped into the room. My heart beating almost out of my chest, I peered over his shoulder and saw, to my relief, that Safire and Elaina were not laying dead on the ground. A few Galena citizens were, though, and blood was splattered across the white tiles. What Malachai seemed to be most concerned about was that the room was now almost completely empty, with the exception of a few injured soldiers. 

One of the soldiers sat up, wincing due to the deep gash in his lower leg. "They pushed past the guards and escaped. One of Safire's machines, I think. But don't worry, reinforcements should be here soon to aid us. I see you found the two who were kidnapped?"

"Yeah," Malachai grumbled, turning around to glare at us. "You two, stay close to me. And remember what I said, keep your hands where we can see them."

As we walked with our hands slightly up, I saw Alyssa turn to look at me. Seeing the terrified look on my face, she moved closer to me, and slipped her hand into mine. When I took it, she squeezed it gently, as if to encourage me. 

Be brave, I told myself. Be brave like Alyssa, and everyone else you know. Be brave, because it's what they would want you to do.