Frost's head turned, following his sister as she carried her child away. He shook his head, his words soft. "I told you you shouldn't have bothered coming here you know."

Swift turned back to Frost, waves rippling across her fur with faint blue lights. She raised her nub, staring at it for a long moment. "You may not be my heir, but you'll never be hers. Is that not what you said, when you chose to make her fail?" Her eyes flicked up to his, "Are you so afraid that I would be that much better with training?"

Soft fur brushed her mind, surging back into her space in a heartbeat. "Swift, I- it didn't work. I'm sorry."

"Kiri?! No! Why are you here? You were supposed to-" She turned to the door, Frost's knowing smirk haunting her.

"I told you." He purred, his tail brushing across her shoulder as he slipped out of the room.

"Alpha! Rogues! Outside the west gate! A massive pack of them!" Someone howled, their cry heard both mentally and physically.

Kiri tackled her, burying his face against her chest. "They wouldn't listen."

She pressed her face to his shoulder, soothing him with a quick lap of her tongue. "Where is Loki? Where are you?" She leapt, surging past Frost in a blur, each press of feet to earth sending her forward with ground eating strides

"He went... To the road. To the place where we met Alpha Jeremy. You had no connection to me when you were there, I can only pray it works again. Only Lana and Daf went, and Daf only went because Lana scruffed her and carried her there. We saw them through."

"Where-"

She skidded to a stop, the sight before unnerving her to her very core. Kiri met her eyes, their pack at his back. They sat, heads held high, a wall of people standing for her.

"They wouldn't leave you at risk." Kiri whispered. "They broke orders for you. I tried, I really did..."

Ryker stepped forward, flecks of light inversing as Vrennik tackled him, his fangs bared. "Why'd you come back, rogue?" He snarled, his voice cracking. "Why did you come back here again, when you said you wouldn't. You promised you wouldn't!"

Ryker wrapped his paws around the little fox, pulling him against his chest. "I'm sane, little brother. My new alphas kept me sane. They rebuilt the crumbling sections." He pressed his head against Ren's. "They brought me back, Remy."

Ren buried his face against Ryker, his tears soaking into the male's fur.

Dukari cast wary glances to Firestorm, creeping ever closer as they scanned the pack for their own families.

"Freeze." Her voice trembled, "It's a trick, pack. A trick brought on by an insane alpha, lending false clarity."

"No." Snowlily pressed herself close, her head shoving against Firestorm's chin. "No! It's not. Stormy, please." She slipped away, trying to catch Firestorm's eye. "Remember.'

She held herself still. So very still. Like porcelain, millimeters from the edge of a cement pad of ruin.

"Kill them. Kill the traitors. Kill the rogues." Like a mantra, drilled into her mind. Elders, the basis for knowledge, keeper of the libraries. Denying her with every turn, hiding memories of her past.

"Kill them. They will breed your ruin." Came the whisper, memories sticking her fur across her feet. Her father, his body torn apart, snarling beasts fighting to feed on his corpse. Her friends.

She raised her head, "Kill them." she whispered, tone soft. She drew a breath, her voice hovering on the edge of command. "Kill them all."

Ren rested his chin across his brother's back, "Alpha, you told us there was no choice, no chance for life. My brother stands here, perfectly mentally stable with an alpha too young to have any of the abilities you do, and you want me to kill him?" He straightens up, his eyes closing. "No." His mind twists, severing itself from her pack link.

"Remy, no!" Ryker swore, catching him as he fell. "Alpha Kiri! Please!"

He dropped, his scream deafening as his mind began to splinter. He convulsed, foam bubbling at his lips. "Al- I... Sorry. Please! Hurts!"

Firestorm fixed every member in her pack with a soul wrenching stare. "Will none of you stand with me, for the safety of our people?"

They glanced aside, not an eye to meet hers.

She paced, her tail twitching with every step. "Fine. We let the world burn. That's what we want in a pack? Our final death, infected with the very existence of-"

"Alpha." Snowlily whispered, "Don't."

Firestorm snarled, veins of crimson swirling around her, twirling in the breeze. Her voice deepened, smooth honey pouring across the field. "Your pack is gone. You feel no bond."

Kiri shot towards her, slammed against the ground with a sickening crunch.

"Firestorm!" Swift howled, "They aren't rogue. They are pack. They are my pack. Your pack by proxy. You do this and you'll never go back."

She turned those fang like eyes to Swift, "You have no alpha. Break. Break like the rogues you are." She slammed her power down, splintering the pack bonds in one sudden jolting scream.

Bladen surged forward, stilling Swift in her mind in a vice like grip. "No."

"Bladen. Bladen please. Please, please! I- you can't do this! They're my family! Bladen they're your family!"

"They came to save you Swift!" Bladen screamed, "YOU! NOT ANYONE ELSE!" His voice broke, tears clogging his voice. "You told me this wasn't your point in life Swift. I- don't let their sacrifice, their standing be for naught. I won't let you waste it. Not for kids no one wanted to help live."

"GET. OUT." She seized him by his throat, shaking him hard, her teeth sinking in as she threw him aside, cracks shifting through her mind. "Get out of my mind Bladen. You are no pack of mine."

He took a step forward, tail low. "Swift."

She snarled, her powers blasting through their mind, scorching him. Burning across his coat as he was catapulted from their mind.

Firestorm raised her head, her mind silent. Her people, blocking her from their pack link. A dismissal. She shook herself hard, her next words easy, her command of the power far far too easy. "Die, rogues. Take your last breath and depart from this coil."

Swift stalked, embers burning holes through her coat with every step. Sparks lit, hanging in the sky like stars as smoke blotted out the sun.

Flames lapped, sipping from every tuft of hair, exhaling their pale breaths in thin, whispy lines.

Her coat smoothed out, gentle winds buffeting each hard earned breath. "Look." Curled the flames, screaming out the names of every pack member laying dead.

Shadows leapt, gleaming red eyes flickering between every flash of heat. "At."

Firestorm spun, her fur raising. Her claws struck heat, blistering her feet. "What."

They closed in, their cries begging for recognition, closure. "You've."

"DONE!" Swift screamed, her voice merging with the dead.

Firestorm froze, her paws locked to the ground with the chill. Those brilliantly red eyes, captured by a vivid ray of icy blue. Not lost. Not insane.

"Is," Her voice rose to an unearthly shriek, torn asunder by the grief, "This the way you wanted to treat your own bloodline? Your only heir of a child?!" She took a step forward, the beautiful pale blue vanishing into a sea of ruby. Glittering like a perfect multifaceted gem. "I hope you're proud, mother."

She drew a breath, her daughter's scent finally registering in her mind. "No."

"Because as far as you should be concerned, I am nothing more then blood spawn. Rogue. Something no more worthy of life then the children you swore to protect, only to discard them. LEAVE them to drown. Drown in their minds." Blood ran freely, dripping into the ice with every pounding heartbeat. "You abandoned them, like you've abandoned your people for years."

"Aba-" Chilled strings crept across her whiskers, burning with every brush across her skin. They wove, tearing through her lips, snapping her jaws shut.

"I. Am. Not. Done." Ice burrowed beneath her skin, bubbling it with every inch it covered. Lighting every nerve until a soft cry escaped Firestorm's lips. "You have abandoned your people. People desperate for a heartbeat of attention. Terrified of your name as much as they fear your brother's."

"Swift." Illandria begged, "Let her suffer with the knowledge. Her death will be no better then her attack on us."

Shadows split, jagged violet edges dripping with maroon. Embers wept, crimson droplets twisting, writhing as souls returned. Her people stood by her side, and more. Lit with their eternal fires, the packs from the last 200 years stood at her back. Slipping between realms, fading away with a faint gust of wind, but there they stood.

Swift let her head tilt, her fangs dropping without a thought. "You abandoned them, Mother. You and your kind, casting them aside for a curse in which they couldn't change, no matter how they begged and pleaded. Left for insanity for your own foolish lies."

Frost stepped back, his lips lifting. "Abomination. Harvesting the-"

Kiri fixed him with those unholy eyes, deep maroon lit with a violet iris, his words clipped short. "They came for her." His tails unfurled, each braid spreading to spark with the control he held as he stepped to his partner's side.

Her flames deepened, taking on a lavender hue. They spoke in unison, their power backed by the thousands who came to their call. "Weep, alphas and rediscover your liking for change, or crumble with the monuments your elders find so dear."

"You were right, Father. I will never be an heir to either of you. You have far too much to learn." Earth rumbled, bucking and heaving as heavy slices of ice slid free. Thin caging curled close, each web crossed through hearts.

The elders writhed, ripped through the earth by a thought. Ebony ribbons, so graceful under the day's foggy light, spiking high into the sky. Snuffing out every drop of fire Firestorm had bothered to light. They rose, faint shimmers of red and blue entwined in a perfect spiral weave.  Jaggedly ridged, serrated to the very tip, they cradled the bodies they held dear. 

The ice hummed, throbbing with every faltering heartbeat. Heat burned, a single flame lighting itself atop of their heads, burning into a beautiful rose.

The ice spun it's weave, it's dagger like stingers poised at the rose's heart. 

"Tell me again, mother, the tales that these so called wise ones wove." She hissed, 

Her abilities struck, sinking deep into their very minds. Silence took the bonds, fraying each edge, peeling them back. 

Firestorm staggered, pack bonds crumbling beneath her desperate grasp. She gritted her teeth, her abilities racing. Winds tore, howling through the packs as she dropped to her knees. she dropped further, her head pressing against the earth as she tried to catch her breath.

Frost's heart raced. It was his chance. The moment he had needed since his brother was taken oh so long ago. His chance to be able to leave once more. That little nugget, that trace of power buried so deep in her mind was back, surfaced with the agony of its cousins wasting away in a fiery heap.

He struck, draining power from nearly every Dukari. He spun it, twisting it into a fine tipped point. Laser like. "Kiri." His eyes met the little fox's, colour showing without hesitation, "Help me." He whispered. "Throw your power behind mine. Please. It is for the good of our people. Oath upon my soul."

Kiri swallowed, nerves sealing his throat. Oath. From Frost. There was no breaking oath. He tilted his head back, gazing up at Swift as he rested his paw across Swift's. "Trust me?"

"Always."

He caught her abilities, her energy, almost the essence of who she was, and pulled. He threw it back, threw himself to Frost's whim. "You have it, do what you will."

Frost caught it, shock numbing him. He grinned, basking for but a moment as he centred it, his mind's eye solely focused on that little blip. The pock mark left on his kind.

It lit up, every root burning clean with one masterful stroke of the laser.

Frost's eyes cleared, their people tumbling around them in a flurry of fur and feet. His eyes wandered, drifting to the limp cat, blood soaking them all. He blinked hard, his body failing him as he dropped to the ground. He smiled, watching the pale blue sky ripple as his eyes rolled back.