First of all... 10,000 views already?! Thank you guys so much! <3 I'm really sorry for how badly I've been slacking on these chapters. A lot's been going on in my life recently, and it's starting to get tough to keep up. However, I won't be leaving, and I will do my best to update as often as possible. Thank you once again for being absolutely amazing :D

Spark's POV:

A long time had passed, and all the explanations had been delivered. We were sitting in silence, surrounded by bloody towels that Tom had brought over. Martha was cleaning off my face, and pressing the towels against my bleeding wounds.

"You're not as young as you used to be," she whispered, looking nervously at the towels. "It can't be good for you to just sit here, in this condition."

"What choice do I have?" My eyes met hers, and I added, "I may be old, but I'm still strong. I'm going to be fine, Martha, I promise."

Still looking upset, my daughter stared at my wounds for a few minutes more. "I wish I had Mom's healing powers."

I raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you call her Mom?" Ianite had been unable to watch the kids for most of their lives, so they had had difficulty referring to her as their parent.

A look of pain washed over her. "I didn't call her that while she was still here. Now, I wish I had." She looked away, and I didn't press her further.

Tom, who was peering out the window next to the couch, looked incredibly uneasy. "Guys... the sirens haven't stopped."

"Because they haven't found Spark," Waglington answered with a shrug.

"Yeah, but didn't they think that Spark escaped from Galena? Why would the sirens here still be going off?" His nervousness started to scare me, because Tom wasn't a person who became tense easily.

"Maybe something's happening with Deviser Gaines," Martha said with a sigh. She stood up and walked to the window, her elegant purple hair flowing gently behind her. "Are there people out there?"

"Yeah, loads of 'em," Tom answered, pressing his face against the glass like an excited child. "They're all running for the visitation center."

"They don't look like guards to me," Martha muttered, beginning to look uneasy herself. "Come over here and take a look, would you, Dad?"

Trying not to wince, I made my way over to the couch and squinted at the streets. If only the lights weren't so dim, and my glasses weren't partially broken, I might have been able to see a lot better. However, I could just make out a row of unarmored people carrying small machines hurrying toward the place where dozens of guards had disappeared an hour ago.

"Maybe they need to fix something," Waglington suggested, taking a look for himself. "When I was working with the machines, I saw a few that looked like that. Ambrosia said that they were used for fixing any machines that weren't working properly."

"Maybe something went wrong with the railways?" Martha added. "Although, no matter what happened, it isn't really our concern. All we care about is that they don't know you're here, and that..."

"Guys!" Tom yelled suddenly, making all of us jump. "I think some of them are headed this way! And I don't think they're going to fix something..."

I turned back to the window and saw what were, to my dismay, guards headed straight for our area. I prayed that they weren't coming for our building, but we knew that there was a very good chance. Everyone scrambled to their feet, except me, who had to get up with a lot more difficulty.

"We need to hide you guys," Tom said, rushing around to find a place for us to stay. "And I'm guessing we don't have much time.

Iolite's POV:

I half-wished Isara had been at my side, complimenting me on how I had stopped the guards from going to Zincite, or maybe scolding me for using up so much of my energy on the explosion. Her confidence and determination were always helpful to me. Goddesses needed companions too, of course. But I knew she was better off in hiding, protecting Ambrosia and Cypress, saving herself. 

I wasn't losing her. Not today, and especially not to Galena. 

"Iolite!" a citizen gasped from next to me. "You just trapped them in our city!"

"No," I responded, keeping my voice cool and level, "I prevented them from going to Zincite. The track back to Galena is wide open. They can flee back to their own city, and admit to their people that they failed."

"What about the people in Zincite?" the citizen continued, staring at the ruined station with a horrified face. "The Galena guards are trapped in their city."

"I'm joining the fight," I answered, shooting at any guards who were attempting to reenter the city. "Our guards can hold off whoever survived the explosion. I'm checking the laboratory for Safire's teleportation device."

"Leaving so soon, are we?" I whirled around to face an extremely tall guard with a long beard, swinging a massive sword right at my head. Not having enough time to move or even cover my face, the blade struck me directly in the forehead. Shocked, I collapsed to the ground.

This wouldn't have been a problem had I not already spent so much of my energy. 

"Help!" the citizen screamed as the guard charged at them. "Chrysoberyl guards! Help! PLEASE!"

I flipped onto my stomach and grabbed my bow, which had fallen out of my hand and onto the pavement beside me. Acting as fast as lightning, I drew an arrow back and shot it right at the spot on the guard's neck that wasn't covered. 

Aim as good as mine after so many years of training proved to be very deadly for the opponent. 

He fell to the ground, choking, as the arrow lodged itself into the back of his neck. The citizen, not badly injured but bleeding all the same, scrambled to their feet and ran, screaming, for help. 

I turned and faced the rest of Galena's guards, who were making their way back over to the laboratory. The place I needed to go. To my dismay, I spotted that there were a lot more that were barely injured than I had originally thought. 

This was going to be a more difficult battle than I had originally anticipated, but it didn't mean I couldn't win.