Reality gradually came back to Aeris; she opened her eyes to darkness. Panic set in and she tried to move, but something weighed down on her back, preventing her from getting up. She breathed in and out to calm herself, but the rustic smell of wood and dirt caused her to cough. Once her eyes adjusted, she realized it wasn't pitch-black—light slipped in-between spaces for her to identify wooden beams and various colors of fabric. Dust floated in the light and she waved it away, coughing again.

"Aeris?" A rough voice coughed beside her. "Are you alright?"

Geryon was somewhere to her left. "I think so." Her body ached from multiple bruises, but mainly from strain. She tried to push up against the wooden beam on her, but it was too heavy. "There's a beam on me; I can't get up."

Shifting sounded all around her. Her dim hole brightened as Geryon found her. He moved more debris so he could reach her, then lifted the beam off.

Now she could breathe. "Thanks." She checked for serious injuries and luckily didn't find any. He helped her up.

"How are you?" she asked as she turned to him. His face wasn't pale or drawn in pain; he was dusty—probably what she looked like too.

"Still alive." He looked back to check out the damage, and she did, too.

From how it looked now, the Command Post had never existed. Nothing still stood: everything had been torn apart, tossed into twisted piles of wood, torn fabric, and metal sheets. The blast had jammed a large wooden beam into the cliff wall. Bodies of Rovaneim that had fought on the beach had been blown up here. She had never been on a battlefield before; the complete and utter destruction was terrifying.

Other than the occasional distant moan, it was eerily silent. Death hung heavy in the air.

"Zelenia!" Geryon startled her by calling out.

"I'm here! Everyone's safe, but we can't find Aeris!" she answered from a distance. "Is she with you? Is she hurt? Are you okay?"

"We're both fine!" Aeris answered.

"Are you sure? I can find some way over there—"

"Help others!" Geryon said.

"Alright, but call if you need help!"

Aeris looked out at the sea; now that Fangril had disappeared, it was tranquil like nothing had ever happened. The sky also had turned back to normalcy. The beaches of Lausane were meant to look like this, peaceful and inviting, and without the devastation littering everything.

"Do you think many survived?" she asked Geryon.

"Few do," he answered.

She looked at him, wondering how much devastation from Fangril he has seen. Because of his earlier statement about his first group of Elementals fighting a battle like this one, Aeris knew he had seen a lot. Probably too much death and destruction for one person.

He felt her gaze and turned; their eyes locked, igniting the small space between them. Every nerve in her body awoke and turned highly sensitive. They were so close she could feel the heat radiating off him. She had an urge to touch him, but clenched her hands and turned away.

"We can still look." She walked away without waiting for his answer.

He puts her on edge. She was aware of every move he made, everything he said, and she was definitely conscious of everything she did, hoping he saw. Teenage girls acted this foolishly with their first crush. Her ex-fiancé never made her feel like thi—

Stop. I'm not thinking about him.

Geryon was indeed handsome, but gruff and detached; unfriendly personalities usually put off attraction, but Aeris was drawn to him like a magnet. She had always attracted men, but none of them acted like him; perhaps his indifference toward her was the main part. But she swore she could feel his eyes lingering on her all the time—it was both unnerving and exhilarating. She glanced over after rummaging through some debris for anyone trapped to find him doing the same with his back to her.

She huffed in frustration; she wasn't going to hope that something could develop between them. After the fallout last time, she wasn't making that mistake again.

Aeris removed some rubble to find a man underneath, lifeless eyes staring at the sky. She didn't know what to think about seeing death for the first time. Maybe that was why she had frozen when Fangril attacked. But seeing him conjured up her imaginations of what the people in the café had looked like—burned, missing appendages, staring at the ceiling...

She ripped her focus off those thoughts and tore her eyes away, leaving him to search again. Geryon's deep voice rumbling caught her attention. He offered support and comfort to some survivor, but the sound of his voice distracted her.

She tried to ignore him, but it became impossible. She walked along in a trance by his voice, not really seeing her surroundings. Geryon's talking drifted off, and she turned to see him closing the dead man's eyes.

Aeris turned before he could see her watching and continued moving through the debris strewn about. His eyes weighed down on her back for a moment before they lifted off. It left her so cold anytime the heat of his stare moved off. No one had ever made her long for their attention. She wondered what explosion would happen if she gave in to those ruby eyes...

An odd shape caught her eye, and she moved to it. Picking it up, she found it to be a badly splintered neck of a guitar; some still-attached strings had been snapped.

Heela.

Fear shot through her, overtaking her mind and body. Why wasn't he the first thing she thought of? How could she have forgotten him?

"Heela! Heela! Heela, answer me!" Panic strained her voice after his refusal to answer.

She dashed through the debris maze, eyes frantically sweeping across the piles of rubble for any sign of him and still calling his name. A repressed noise answered one of her calls; she turned to the mound of rubble it came from, and there was a hand.

"No. No. No! No! Heela!" She sprinted toward the pile and tore through the debris to find a dirty, bloody, and pale Heela. A large splintered piece of wood protruded from his chest.

Aeris dropped to her knees beside him as her hands fluttered above him helplessly; she didn't know what to do. She heard Geryon stop beside her. "Zelenia! ZELENIA, PLEASE!" she screamed.

When she placed her hands on the sides of his face, his eyes fluttered open to reflect immense pain.

"Aeris..."

"Shh. Shh, Heela. Don't talk." She wiped some of the blood and dirt off his face. "You'll be okay; Zelenia's coming."

"No... I won't be okay," Heela said weakly.

Water lined her vision. "Yes, you will. You're going to stay with me." She barely registered Geryon yelling for Zelenia to hurry.

A bloody hand came up to touch her face; he forced a smile, but it didn't have any happiness behind it. "You would be proud of me. I fought some demons."

She held the hand to her cheek as she, too, forced a wavering smile. "I am proud."

Heela's eyes dimming with pain, shook with fear. "I'm scared, Aeris."

"I am too."

"Don't leave me."

"No, no; I won't leave you. I made a promise, remember? Have I ever failed a promise?"

The smile faded as his eyes steeled in pleading. "Sing me to sleep, Aeris. Please."

Her heart dropped. "Don't give up yet. You're not leaving me."

"Aeris... please. The last thing I want to hear... is your voice."

Tears flowed as she shakily began her mournful lullaby.

Lost in a valley,

Waiting far away,

Hidden by the clouds,

Kept veiled by the wind.

Through a moonbeam ray,

And shifts in the air,

A temple awaits,

To welcome you home.

There is the place,

Where I'll find you.

Should clouds block the moon,

And your wind dies out,

To here you'll travel,

To where you'll rest.

Be comforted and

Transfixed by old runes,

All woes shall cease, and,

Sleep shall find you soon.

There in that place,

Always, you'll be.

As she sang, a small smile of gratitude came across his lips and his eyes fluttered closed.

Now she had lost everything. She cradled the lifeless Heela to her and buried her head into his shoulder and cried.