Hello my Readers! :) 
I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit confusing, so to clear things up first let me tell you that I've written the same scene from a few different points of view. This chapter doesn't just flow chronologically like normal, but repeats itself from the perspectives of the main characters. This is all a very critical part of the story, and you'll see what I mean when you read it! :) and the time frame for this scene is really only less than a minute. 
I hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments! I'm so excited to finally share this chapter with you, and I love hearing your thoughts :)
~Emmy <3

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"Cyrus! Watch out!" Jace shouted as he ran up the hill, slicing through any Tiritians who were foolish enough to stand in his way, then jumped up the steps of the courtyard and ran towards Cyrus. The old man was holding a rusted sword, his white robes stained with blood and dust, and his face was bruised. Had he been fighting the Tiritians? He was supposed to be hiding safely away in the underground safety room that had been built under the mansion for a time such as this! What was he doing in the thick of the battle?

Cyrus was stumbling through the courtyard, trying to get to the safety of the mansion, but he was too slow.

He turned just in time to see the nearest Tiritian raise his sword. With one quick movement the skilled soldier thrusted it towards Cyrus' heart.

Jace leaped across the stone pavers and pushed Cyrus out of the way of the sword, the setting sun reflecting off the polished metal. Jace felt a sharp stab of pain in his lower back, then groaned with a heavy thud as he crashed onto the cold marble steps that led through the mansion doors. Through blurred vision he made out the form of Cyrus sprawling across the steps in front of him – alive!

But for Jace, the image lasted for only a split second – then everything went black.

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Haemon saw someone charge towards him out of the corner of his eye and swung around just in time to block the sword as it crashed down on him. Sparks flew as the metal clashed, and Haemon forced his opponent further back as he deftly countered his blows. The helmeted man was quick on his feet though, and darted around Haemon, attacking him from all angles at a speed Haemon struggled with. He used brute force to push him to the ground before swiping his helmet off with the sharp point of his sword.

The face that met him completely surprised him. It was the face of a woman; a woman with short brown hair and big brown eyes. The smile that tugged on the corners of her mouth sent waves of frustration and anger through his masculine heart.

"The battlefield is no place for a woman!" he yelled as she jumped to her feet while he distractedly held his sword idly by his side for a split second. She instantly had her sword aimed at his chest, so he quickly deflected it to the side before jumping out of the way of her well-aimed kick. "This battle is between the men of the land," he tried growling between his huffs. "I will not fight a woman!"

"Oh, good! Then it will be so much easier to beat you!" Amy laughed as she fought this man whose grey eyes flashed in anger at her persistence. She had never imagined she'd be able to fight this well, but in this universe the atmosphere had definitely done something to her and she was able to hold her own against this fearsome warrior with the wavy brown hair and broad shoulders. She tried not to pay too much attention to those last attributes. After all, she was here to protect the Land of Sen Cyrus against the Sea Tirites, so if this man was killing them, she'd have to kill him. She'd never killed before, and she didn't know if she'd be able to. Maybe he was right; maybe the battlefield was no place for a woman. She kept ducking from his mighty blows, countering his swings with kicks of her own. She was growing tired and couldn't find the stomach to actually end this fight, so just kept defending.

Suddenly, a strangled cry tore her attention away from her opponent and she saw Jace sink to the ground with a sword protruding from his back. She heard a sickening thud as he fell on the cold marble steps of Cyrus' mansion, and saw the look of shock on the face of the Tiritian holding the other end of the sword. Cyrus himself was stumbling a few feet away, and Amy realised the sword was meant for him, her brave brother having pushed him out of the way in order to protect the creator at any cost. Even at the cost of his own life.

"NOOOOOO!!!!"

The cry was wrenched from her own heart before she could even think, barely feeling the sword that grazed her arm as she ran towards Jace, her every thought willing him to be okay. The warrior behind trying to kill her was forgotten as every sense screamed that her eyes couldn't be telling her the truth, couldn't be telling her that Jace, her sweet little brother William, was lying on the steps bleeding to death. 

Emily was by his side in a fraction of a second, holding his head in one arm while pressing her hand to the wound under his ribs, disbelief etched on her face, exactly mirroring the single emotion Amy was feeling.

Amy reached him a second later and she dropped to her knees as the deepest heaviness she'd ever felt threatened to rip her heart from her chest. She would do anything to save Jace, give her own life if need be to protect him as she had always tried to do as his older sister. But there was nothing she could do now.

Jace's face was deathly white as his life force spilt onto the white marble, the battle around them fading from her awareness as Emily whispered his name over and over. Yet her courageous brother remained still. This couldn't be happening. This could not be happening.

The pool of red was spreading over the white steps, staining everything it touched including Emily's gray battle dress. But she didn't care. Her best friend, and possibly the man she loved, was bleeding out in her arms. And she was powerless to do anything save hold him tightly as he breathed his last breath.

"Emily, I lo–" his eyes closed and his chest sank before the complete sentence left his lips.

"Jace, no! Please Jace, come back," Emily couldn't, wouldn't believe he was gone.

The fighting and shrieking seemed a thousand miles away as her world started crashing down around her. Sobs rose from her heart and escaped her lips while tears poured from her eyes. Amy was breaking down as well, in just as much disbelief as she about losing Jace. Emily leaned down, her forehead on his, her tears spilling onto his white face.

They had known this was a possibility, how coming here to fight a battle and protect the Land meant killing and being killed. But to have Jace, her best friend and Amy's only brother, lose that fight was more than she could bear right now.

She was oblivious to what was going on around her in the first minute after Jace's death.

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"Ka'leisha, is....is it really you? You...you're alive?"

The look of shock on the woman's face sent shivers up Meredee's spine. What was she seeing? Who was she mistaking her for? Who was Ka'leisha?

"NOOOOOO!"

Meredee had no time to process these questions as Amy's anguished cry split the tension-filled air. The woman looked up, briefly loosening the choke hold on Meredee's neck, and in that split second Meredee rolled out from under her and jumped to her feet, grabbing her sword off the grass in the process. Her stance was ready to continue fighting, but the battle around them seemed to have paused, every eye either on Jace who had ceased to breathe or on King Haemon whose left eye was twitching as he decided his next move. For at the same time Jace took his last breath, Cyrus had disappeared. One moment he was sprawled across the pavers, the next he was gone.

The king had lost sight of his target. The battle no longer had a reason to continue if the goal had been removed.

The Sen Cyrians were just as surprised. But only for a split second. Each one raised his sword to continue defending their land and creator. But Haemon was puzzled. "Fall back! Retreat!" he shouted while ducking a hard blow from a soldier. He had noticed for the past few minutes that they were losing the battle, so now was as good a time as any to turn tail and run, even though that was never normally his back-up plan when things didn't go how he liked.

The woman who had been fighting Meredee watched her king with a wild light in her eyes. She then stared at Meredee for a fraction of a second before turning around and running to the edge of the battle field. Leaping on her horse, she spurred it into a fast gallop, her heavy tunic flying behind her as she disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

Meredee fought off a shiver. Who was she? And why did she give Meredee the strangest feeling of a distant connection tugging at her soul, as if this woman had something to do with Meredee's past – no matter how sickening the idea felt?

The rest of Haemon's soldiers looked at the Tiritian king, puzzled for a split second before dropping their weapons and running for their horses or any other means of transportation out of the Valley. They had no idea what had just happened in the last 30 seconds, but if their king had lost courage to face the Cyrians, then they too had lost the strength to push on. They were just followers, not leaders.

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Nothing. Nothing was all Jace could feel – that is, if you can feel Nothing. It was the most glorious feeling! No weight, no pressure, no heat, no cold, no pain. Every pore on his body was soaking up the feeling of complete Nothingness.

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Sooo......what do you think??!! I almost cried just writing the part where Jace dies.... :'(