"That was, incredibly, close," Chia wheezes, leaning against the wall as a glowing orb presses against the back of her head, Kaya right beside her with her hands out and brow wrinkled in concentration as she directs her Starsong.

"Agreed," Tam says, bent over and trying to catch his breath before looking up to glare at Yara. "How are you still –" he gestures at her, not a hair out of place and not even slightly winded after having run about ten blocks to get away.

"I'm perfect," she says simply, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't know?"

"Shut up," he grumbles. Kaya laughs, even Allioni can't hold back a grin.

Yara makes a noncommittal noise. "Duly noted and ignored," she says, flicking off an imaginary speck of dirt from her skirts and looking up at the sky, trying to gauge the time. "We should probably get moving, though. We need to find another way out of the city – perhaps the airfields. They're on the outskirts of Altissia, if I recall correctly –" she glances at Chia, who nods confirmation.

"Should take an hour or two by cart ride," Chia adds. "If we want to take off today, we need to hurry – though I'm not even sure whether there'll be any seats available when we get there," she grimaces, "since air travel is probably a lot busier in a city like this."

"I can try to arrange something," Yara says. "Anya did mention she has connections of sort – they might be of use, though I'm not sure –" she frowns as her eyes lock onto something drifting into the sky in the distance. "Is that smoke?"

"A fire?" Allioni asks, his expression mirroring hers as he follows her gaze to the thick, black column, lazily rising through the air.

Her frown deepens, a niggling feeling at the back of her mind, telling her she's forgotten something. "Possibly. I –"

That's when the vision hits.

Crackling sounds, heat at her back, acrid smoke burning the back of her throat as the smell of burning flesh pervades her nose, screams, pleads, the loud "BANG!" of a gun and blood –

It's gone as quickly as it came, leaving her stunned and shell-shocked, blinking blankly as Tam waves his hand on her, repeating "Hello? Earth to Yara?" (she doesn't even have the presence of mind to smack him).

Her eyes lock onto that black column of smoke.

In the section of town where the hotel the Rivyets are staying in is.

Where Raine should've gone after the consultation.

Her stomach churns, every puzzle piece falling into place with a terrifying sort of clarity as her mind calls back on Argus's words about how he had notified every person after Kaya, and how, if someone were intent on destroying the competition instead of directly fighting over Kaya, were they to find out about Raine they would definitely know where to hit –

She spins to face the four of them. "I have to go. Get to the airfield, stay low – I'll meet you there in the evening."

She's taken off running down the street before their questions even reach her ears.

---------------------------

She ducks into the first dark and quiet alley she can find, immediately picturing Raine's face, pulling on that sense of stillness and inner peace and attempting to Realmwalk – but she can't.

It's not like with her Starsong, when she gets violently rejected and thrown back every time she reaches for it – it's more like the calm is shying away from her, taunting her from just beyond her reach, moving just a hair's breadth away whenever she attempts to grasp it and slipping through her fingers the instance she feels like she does get ahold of it.

Well, then again, no wonder she can't calm down when it feels like her mind is in turmoil and the world has been thrown into chaos.

(Or maybe it's just that even that ability has decided to reject her, but she'd prefer not to think about it that way.)

And so, she tears through the streets with only her legs and a rifle to support her (in all honesty, for a moment she had even forgotten about it), taking sharp lefts and rights and skidding around corners, her thighs burning as she tries to call up a mental image of the city – where she is, and where the hotel is – turn right here, turn left here, go straight ahead for two streets, another left, over a bridge –

In all honesty, the logical solution is to let Raine die – that would be one problem taken care off. In fact, she should let Raine die – should've killed her the moment she discovered her.

She should, she thinks to herself. It would be easy. All she has to do is slow down a little bit more, not push herself so hard, say she was a few moments too late. It wouldn't even be her fault – she wouldn't even be directly killing her.

It's easy.

It's something she should do.

Where has her dedication gone? Hadn't she promised to help Kaya break the Starcurse, no matter what it takes? Hadn't she promised her friend? Her duty, her mission, should be to uphold that promise, not go fraternizing with the enemy's daughter, which would in turn be an enemy as well – and not just the daughter of any enemy, but the person who had directly caused Kaya a lot of pain.

And yet –

She thinks of fire and blood and screams, thinks of Raine dying and her not being able to get to her in time and she feels like breaking all over again, like something inside her is shattering to pieces and it hurts so much even when she doesn't even understand why, and then suddenly she's pushing herself even further, lungs screaming and every muscle in her body straining, thinking go faster, go faster, go faster –

Before she can even realize it, she's skidding to a stop in front of the hotel, looking around to see people rushing in and out, firefighters and policemen and medics, a barrier around the building with the fifth and part of the fourth floors on fire.

A quarter of a second as she registers the fact that she's here, entire body aching and her severely overworked lungs desperately trying to suck in more air, and then she's running again despite how every part of her is pleading for her to stop and rest, vaulting over the barrier and charging through the doors before anyone else can even register what she's done.

The lobby is hastily abandoned, like everyone had just upped and left – no signs of a scuffle, which means these people are careful about revealing themselves to the public eye (though the fact that they're burning down a building just to get rid of evidence should be proof enough), no smell of smoke or heat either, which is good since it probably means the fire is spreading slowly.

She has time, she tells herself. She can get there in time. Visions only come true less than half the time anyway, and often not in the ways you'd expect.

It does not help the panicky squeeze in her chest and the insistent voice in the back of her mind that tells her she is already too late.

She scans the signs – there, a panel on the wall, pointing the direction to the nearby stairwell – and runs, wrenching open the door to reveal stairs leading upward (likely a fire escape, definitely not used for running towards the fire instead of away, but while in another situation she might've laughed at the irony, now she does not), then taking the steps three at a time, the rifle banging against her shoulder blade on every landing a little bit too hard.

First floor, second floor, third –

She can feel the heat now, emanating from upstairs, smell the faint scent of smoke carried on the wind, hear the structure creaking a little as the fire spreads (she can only hope it holds long enough for her to get Raine and whoever else might still be in here out).

But other than that, there's no sound.

What if –

What if she's already –

No, she thinks vehemently, she can't go down this road, can't follow this line of thought, she can't she has to move –

"BANG!" the gunshot is loud, the loudest one she has ever heard (or maybe it's just her panic that makes her feel this way) but either way, it is enough to spur her into action once again, even though she knows that it might mean death, it could also mean that someone is still alive, someone is still fighting. And that's more than enough for her to get moving again, racing down the hall and checking each room number, repeating room 203, room 203, room 203 in her head and trying not to think about what happens if Raine is not, in fact, in her room.

There! Screeching to a halt once again, she grabs the doorknob and twists it –

It rattles, jammed. She curses.

From beyond the door, thuds, a yell, another sudden gunshot.

She flinches, jiggles the doorknob again, especially hard this time. Still nothing.

Alright, she thinks to herself, trying not to panic despite how she swears she can feel the heat now and how the acrid smell of smoke is getting stronger by the second, next room over, then. And then she's running again, shoving open the (thankfully unlocked) door to room 205 and vaulting over an upended chair, sprinting past the king-sized bed towards the glass-sliding door of the balcony before she yanks it open so hard it nearly shatters as it slams open.

She looks to her left.

And freezes.

Because right there, on the neighboring balcony, is Raine, the back of her wheelchair pressed against the black iron railing, a cut on her arm that had torn through her sleeve leaking blood, red smeared on the side of her face, her expression terrified.

In her shaking hands is a gun, pointed right at the man advancing towards her.

"Don't move," she says, voice trembling, "or I'll shoot."

He leers. "Can you even aim, little girl? Don't go thinking you're actually capable of defending yourself after getting off a few lucky shots."

Belatedly, Yara remembers a conversation she had had with Raine only a few days ago.

"My, ah, music teacher – his husband taught me how to shoot," Raine explains.

"Shoot?" Yara raises an eyebrow, intrigued, and Raine nods.

"My mother even allowed it, on account of letting me learn self-defense. My, well, impromptu self-defense instructor, he said – wielding a gun isn't just about sight. It's about spatial awareness, being able to tell where your opponent is, judging distance and other factors like wind and sort. And because my hearing's good, not being able to see doesn't really affect me all that much. I might not look it," she grins, "but I'm actually quite a good shot, y'know?"

The gunshots she had heard – some of them had actually come from Raine.

But Yara knows that they weren't lucky shots at all.

And yet, because of how these people are underestimating her, they still don't think she's much of a threat – there are likely more people inside the room, but they seem content with letting this man have the kill.

It's not all that hard to shoot someone fatally at point-blank range.

If they keep this up...

Raine might just kill the man in front of her.

Yara is seven, knife clasped in her shaking hands, looking down at the beautiful, shivering, golden songbird in front of her, wings bound and tied down to the table, and her mama squeezes her shoulder and leans down and says: "Come on, sweetheart, I know you can do it. You'll have to face worse than this in the future. Do it for our sake, for your mother's sake, alright? For the sake of the Hwa Orbit.", and she drives the knife down –

Into the heart of her first kill, first human kill at thirteen, one of the people after the Star who had gotten just a bit too close to the trail for Mrs. Rivyet's liking, tears streaming down her face, and all the while her mama's words are still ringing through her ears: do it for our sake, do it for your mother's sake, do it for the Orbit's sake –

Never once do it for your own sake, a small part of Yara suddenly realizes, and it feels like something important, like something finally beginning to move into place but what?

What do you want, Hwa Yara? Anya's voice says again, and no, she still does not understand, nor does she know what she wants, but what she knows is this –

Raine is about to kill the man in front of her.

She is going to kill a person, is going to do something she will regret, is going to do something that will change her forever, that will break her and kill her light and her kindness and her heart –

And Yara absolutely cannot let that happen (because she knows, because that's exactly what happened to her and even now, she wakes up with screams ringing in her ears and scrubs her hands raw every time she washes them because there is blood, too much blood and it feels like they'll never be clean again).

And so, standing on the railing of the balcony right beside them, feet balancing on that thin band of iron, Yara opens her mouth and says quietly: "You do know tunnel vision is bad for you when in combat."

The man turns in surprise, and she leaps.

She crashes directly into him with all her force and drops him like a sack of potatoes, and, by the time her name leaves Raine's lips, the man is unconscious on the ground and she's turned to face the four other assailants in the room, all alert and guns at the ready – that's the immediate problem taken care of, at least, though the next, now immediate one...

She is one girl with an old rifle against four trained assassins with shiny new guns.

The odds are stacked against her, impossibly high, and she knows that if she charges in like this, she is absolutely going to get herself killed.

But still.

She'll be damned if she lets herself and Raine just die like this without even trying anything.

"Alright," she says, a thin veneer of calm hiding the raging maelstrom of panic and fear and rage beneath, "let's do this."

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath – a brief moment stretched out to infinity, an eternity in a second – and once again, she reaches.

And no, she is still not sure of anything – in fact, she has never been less sure in her entire life, and she admits it, embraces it, does not shy away or lie to herself or fear that she won't get an answer if she does so (because fear has no use, not now).

But she has to save Raine.

She does not know why, does not understand in the least but she has to.

And it's not enough, and she isn't sure of anything at all but just once, she pleads, just once, please answer.

Please.

Galatheia.

Her eyes flash open, and she draws, she pulls and for a moment there is nothing –

And then it surges forward, a torrent of unstable, uncontrolled energy, in no way refined and in no way able to be properly aimed or directed but that is enough –

Come, Galatheia!

Her Starsong explodes forth.

---------------------------

Humming, singing, screeching, a burst of wild light that just about blinds everyone in the room, stardust under her skin and Yara thinks desperately reign it in, reign it in, reign it in –

It disappears with all the force of a black hole collapsing in on itself, the torrent of bright gold and white and purple-tinged energy folding into itself with a sound akin to that of a vacuum cleaner, like destroyed galaxies and torn-up nebulas but already Yara is off, launching towards the nearest black-suited assailant and kicking him in the head with as much force as her legs can carry –

And then she's thinking next, vaulting over a shattered glass table, overturned onto its side, halfway across the room and clocking a feebly-struggling woman in the head with the butt of the rifle as the previous man's body hits the floor, and then again, next, zipping through the room and dodging a speeding bullet that zings over her head before kneeing the shooter in the face so hard she can hear the crunch of his nose and feel the spatter of blood.

Adrenaline singing through her veins, a heady cocktail-mix of anger that is both simultaneously a white-hot fury and a cold, calculated rage, she doesn't even realize that she's already done till she's dropping the last person to the floor with an unceremonious 'thud'.

In some fuzzy, far-off corner of her mind, she thinks wow, that was fast, and also wow, she must have really exerted herself because she realizes she hasn't felt any oxygen in her lungs for a while now and there are dark spots swimming at the edges of her vision.

How many miles had she run to get here again? Two? Three?

That, she thinks distantly, is a lot.

Did she break a record?

Yeah, she probably broke a record.

She must black out for a second or two, because once she comes to, she realizes that a) she's now hunched over and leaning against her rifle, safety not yet turned back on (which is probably a safety hazard), and b) Raine is now in front of her, concerned voice asking something along the lines of "are you alright are you okay" (even though really, she's the one currently bleeding), hands reaching out to steady Yara.

And also, her face is a lot closer than before (a lot closer than it's ever been, than Yara has ever been to anyone really), and, a little bit lately, Yara has an "oh" moment when she remembers the hotel is still burning down and they should probably get out considering the heat of the room seems to be increasing by the second.

Yara tells Raine this. Raine agrees.

It still takes them another full second before they start moving again.

By the time they've gone down the stairs and gotten out of the hotel, Raine explaining what had happened along the way (apparently they had attacked while she was alone, though she has no idea what they wanted with her) the fire is dying down, the hotel's front sprayed by large torrents of water with an equally large number of hoses. Yara hands Raine off to a team of nearby medics (she is surprisingly calm, just questioning what had happened, though the calm is likely just from the shock) with a tired "I'll tell you later" before she's pulled aside by several firefighters and one or two policemen saying "that was extremely dangerous young lady do not under any circumstances attempt that ever ever again", and at this point Yara is just nodding along blankly, swaying like a leaf in the wind, very much dead on her feet and hoping someone will just take notice already.

They do, eventually, handing her over to the medics as well, and it's not until she's holding a steaming thermos of tea in her hands, a blanket wrapped around her and sitting on a folded chair right beside Raine (Raine, who is alive and safe and mostly unhurt), that she lets out the breath she's been holding the whole time, and the pressure in her chests lessens just a little.

She did it. She made it in time. She even managed to call on Galatheia and take down five of those goons on her own – who she's watching with mild interest as they're now led out of the hotel in cuffs, some of them dragged since they're only now waking up (well, she had hit them pretty hard, after all).

And without a doubt, there's a lot of implications to unpack from there and an entire can of worms she's not sure she'll ever be able to open, plus she still has a whole lot of things to do later, but sitting right here, evening wind tousling some of the strands of hair that had come loose from her ponytail, she's almost – well, not happy, exactly, and not really content either, but okay.

For the first time in a long while, she feels okay.

Raine does not yet ask what had happened, does not attempt to press and for that, she is also grateful.

And then a nervous, sweating man with a notepad and pen in hand approaches her and says something along the lines of "I would like to interview you about today's events, what motivated you to race into that burning hotel", and Yara feels her annoyance coming back again as she holds in a groan (so much for staying on the low), but beside her Raine laughs and well –

Well.

Yara feels more than okay.