The street groaned as the dragon climbed from the asphalt. Buildings shiver and tremble as the earth surrenders to allow the passage of the dragon. A spray of gravel chunks litter the street as Helen and I hunker down together.

"Not yet." Helen hisses under her breath; her body emits waves of heat as she attempts to rein in the wolf, gripping her side as her teeth grind. "God damn, this hurts--" Correcting herself, she slams her fist on the ground, forcing herself to focus. "We can take this; our priority is to conserve your energy. We don't know how many there are or what to expect. If we can't handle this without a dragon, we're doomed. We don't need to defeat him; if we scare him off, it's a battle won."

Her words bring me to a pause. I hadn't expected so much maturity out of such a young fighter. After considering it for a moment longer, I decide she has a point. While I was feeling quite strong, calling a dragon could put a considerable drain on my reserves, and with Tyler occupied in trying to protect her, he could potentially be of very little use to me. 

I spy Gabriel, hood pulled over his head, his hand casting to disperse the fog. "Fair enough. Then, I'm going to focus my energy on getting him out of here. Instruct our people to fan out. We aren't looking for total victory today, but I'd like them to be on the run. Gather the injured and take them to the pub, get those who don't wish to fight off the streets."

The police force crowd around an overturned machine, cracked and broken, it writhes like an animal on the ground, and they use it to buffer the gunfire from the active street sweepers. "Senator Campbell!" I call to the crouching governor, who appears frustrated that I spotted him. "Start gathering civilians. Get them out of here."

"Be careful," It's a gentle plea.

 Helen had seen me in action, but this was actual combat. Motioning to Tyler, she works her way back into the crowd, and her direction begins to take hold. The droves of people start to separate and fan out, beginning to gain ground. Rebellion heroes join with small groups of civilians to aid in the push; it's only me who remains to do my part.

Sending a gust of wind under my feet, I push myself off the ground and stand on the fog's remnants so that I can be at eye level with Gabriel. His shoulders hesitate, though I can't see his face; I'd wager he was surprised to see me.

"There you are." His voice is even, throwing me off with its lack of malice as I would expect from someone here to kill me. "This is impressive. You've done a lot in a short amount of time."

Preparing an ice ball in my hand, I cast the tentacles of water extracted from the remaining fog toward him and freeze them on impact. The dragon belts out a roar as hot magma boils in its throat, fangs exposed when the ice spears strike its scales. The inferno dragon answers with a resounding roar as he twists from the sky and meets the inky black creature head-on.

 Gabriel leaps from its back, copying my trick effortlessly as he lands in the fog. I send another attack his way, narrowly missing, and yet he moves so quickly that it's almost inhuman. It was as if he could predict my moves before I even made them.

He inhales, and I feel the agony in my chest; he must be drawing from Fergus. It brings me to my knees, and before I can fathom it, I fall from the sky and narrowly pull a platform under my feet in time. I curse under my breath as I quickly roll out of the way of a shunt of ice, piercing from the ground up as if to impale me.

"Curious," Gabriel comments, with a casual step in my direction. "Did that cause you pain?"

I grit my teeth, sending a flurry of ice shards toward him as the dragons tangle across the sky. "You're killing the planet; of course, it causes me pain! You're a Solomonari; it's supposed to hurt you, too. If you hadn't turned your back on your trade!"

 He deflects easily, sending the shards into the ground before quickly redirecting. I clasp my hands, turning the shards into a disc that I project back at him. This time, he must lift his hands to catch it, flinching as the blood spatters from his palms from the impact. Dropping the disc, he watches his hands in amazement. I jut my fist up, grasping his feet with the ice, then jerk down with all my force into the pavement.

The asphalt cracks as the ice penetrates its barrier. Yet, Gabriel does not panic.

"I haven't turned my back on my trade." He tells me. "I'm doing what I think is right for my people."

I can't hide the shock that crosses my face, and without thinking, I gesture to the brawling groups, peppered by gunfire. A sickened laugh leaves my lips, and for a moment, I don't even realize it's me laughing. In a fit of rage, I sling my hand, and it lifts a street sweeper as I cast it down the street in a satisfying whip of my wrist.

"Your people are dying at your very feet from your selfishness!" I shout at him, unable to control myself with the audacity of the statement. But his stillness reminds me that this was what they wanted. I can't lose it, not here, not now. "If you learned anything from the teachings, it should have been to do no harm."

Through the odd light of the streetlamp overhead, playing with the cloud cover that darkens the sky, I see his lips pull down in the slightest frown. "You know as well as I do that the school is not a place where one learns empathy." Tilting his head to watch the destruction, the dragons collide, and the impact sounds like cannon fire. "I see humans who want us dead, who outnumber us, who will wipe us out. I'm merely taking the task to stop this from happening, to protect my people. It was a mission that I've always held dear."

Gabriel is not insane; at least he doesn't sound it. It's odd, talking to someone so calm, someone who is so practiced, when I'm accustomed to villains who are nothing but evil. Lowering my energy, I approached him; he had not tried to escape.

I can only figure it's because he didn't care about my ability to hold him here. I did not have the unicorn's power; challenging him could drastically shorten our time frame. "If that's true, if you love your people, you will see that we can not survive without humans. We must work together; if you continue on this path, you will kill us all."

He pulls his lips into a thin line, tilting his head up so that I can see his beard. "You're the second person to say that to me. I must say that it is curious that so many follow your cause. I can't kill them all off; the population could not support itself without these numbers. We would be extinct."

Shaking my head, I fight against myself. Don't engage; don't try to hurt him. "This isn't right, and you know it. You must give me back Fergus. Please.. Gabriel... let Fergus go."

 I finally succeeded in shocking him. "The unicorn?" His voice is even.

"Fergus is the only tie the gods have to this world. Without him, the world can not continue. You are dooming all of us. You must let Fergus go."

"I keep thinking about you, and I can't help but wonder who you are?" He demands, and in a quick motion, Gabriel steps out of my ice and strides towards me. I put my hands up to protect myself, but he doesn't attack; his body is only tense from concern, as if I could possibly do something to him that he couldn't inflict upon me tenfold.

"Nicolas Alexandru Matesscu. I come from four hundred years ago, before the fall of the empire."

His feet slow, but his breathing is quick. "Then go back. Just let us do our work and return to your own era. You do not belong here, you have--" He flinches, shaking his head, touching his temple as if the thought was painful for him.

"They brought me here to stop you because I died in my own time. Ghosts return if you repeat the same mistakes of the past. Fight for our people if you must, if this is your path, then take it, but-- Let. Fergus. Go."

I can hardly blink before he's on me, blasting ice, wind, and water. I deflect the best I can, using my limbs in a more calculated manner to redirect his brutal attacks. If there was one thing hand-to-hand had taught me, it's that most magic users are weak if attacked in a physical sense.

I work my way closer to him, hoping that those around us can get out of the way as the ice and water fly. Shards of ice nick my clothes, clip my skin, and leave tiny cuts from near misses. I must bide my time; I must wait for my chance. As he bears down on me, near frantic in his desire to eliminate my presence from his own, I finally succeed in landing a kick square in his ribs that sends him flying across the street and crashing into a building.

 His body hits the wall with such force that bricks and dust fly in all directions.

Racing after him, I intend to finish the job, yet when I arrive, he's already standing. His eyes were wide, bewildered at my audacity. With the hood fallen, I'm shocked once more at his appearance, my hands unclench, my knees feel weak. 

The man before me bears so much of my resemblance.

With a lurch, the machines grind to a halt and slowly default to a limp posture. The screens flicker and the buildings dim; I know that Landon has succeeded in shutting down Artifice. On the massive screen, central to the square, the camera shows us. 

Gabriel and I were standing about 10 feet apart.

"What if you are me?" He finally says. "Or perhaps, I am you? What if you didn't die? We have no idea how time travel is affecting this planet; we could be the problem--"

"Time travel doesn't work that way. You should know, you invented it." I remind him shortly. In a quick scan, I look him over, looking for weak points. His body is angled, guarding the spot where I kicked him.

Shaking his head, he seems less sure of himself. "Then why do you look like me? Why do I keep thinking about you? Why do you keep... changing.. things?!" He demands, his dark eyes finally fall on the screen that I, myself, gaze at.

"You're too smart to ask that question." I retort dryly, because I know how it feels to realize that your own family left you behind. I knew what he went through at that school, and I was well aware that my failures had landed him there. "You've got too much of your mother in you."

Lifting his hand, he shakes his head as he starts to form the energy ball. As the sky darkens and the lightning gathers, I recognize the move from the one I used to kill Corina. "Don't make such accusations. I don't have a mother."

There was no denying it. With his hood down, his red hair thick and short, and the shape of his face and jaw, Gabriel bore my lineage. Even so, the temptation was there to denounce him. If he wanted to be abandoned, then I could easily fulfill that wish; it would hurt me considerably less to relinquish his claim to my blood.

Yet, where would that put me? 

I couldn't, I couldn't possibly send him away, despite his views.

"You have a mother, and she was so brave," I whisper, as if it were a secret nobody else was allowed to hear. "If Caspian had not encouraged Red to employ Anuetta, if Anuetta hadn't convinced Mother that she was a danger, if Mother hadn't forced Verando to kill Anuetta... we would not be standing here as we are today. Gabriel, I don't know how you ended up in that school, but you can not deny your blood."

The stillness is worrisome; I adjust my heel to pivot more quickly as I can feel the build, sensing the impending explosion of power.

"You blame Caspian when Caspian is the only one fighting. We must-" Gripping his temple, he staggers a single step back, a trickle of blood seeps from his nose, darkening his beard. Hysteria crept into his eyes; the careful control had cracked. "I've been trying to repeat your work, I've been trying to save us." 

Chest heaving, for a moment shorter than a blink, he had lost it. Then, like the recoil of a whip, I see exactly what the school had done to him. A machine, just like these robots, he reels it back in. Composing his face, his eyes harden, his expression vanishes. "I can see now that some can not be saved." 

The lightning strikes his hand; I recoil from the ball as it builds in his palm. One thing Gabriel had not counted on was his technology defaulting.

Gabriel, smart as he was, ran on Artifice programming. His wrist cuff, which controlled his dragon, now malfunctioned. I see the spiraling, inky dragon coming towards us full tilt. The heads bellow, fire erupting from its bloodied jaws as I construct a shield to protect us both. In the same move, I put a barrier around my hand and captured the lightning bolt that danced across the street.

In one smooth sweep, I redirect the lightning towards the dragon. My stomach flips as it makes contact, striking the dragon on the chest. The beast falls to the ground in a heap, unraveling the street as it bounces and scrapes across the land. I hear the victorious cheers of my companions, but I take no pleasure in killing dragons. 

Without Artifice, there would be no escaping us.

 "Attack!!" A man yells as our small rebellion turns into a massive wave of righteousness rushing through the crowded streets.

I spy dozens upon dozens of backs, retreating in the distance. A small smile curls at the corner of my lip, only to drop as the blade pierces my chest. Lifting my hand, I touch my shirt as I feel the warm blood seep around my hand. Thankfully, my jacket is thick, but it hasn't completely prevented the damage.

With a quick jerk, I yank the blade out and spy that it is a karambit, one that I recognize. My blood runs cold, and I throw myself at him. Calling down my lightning, I blast the man who stands before me in such defiance. The bolt narrowly misses, exploding the corner of a building as I pivot off a light post and land both my heels straight into his chest.

Following him to the ground, I grind the man into the pavement. "Where did you get this?!" I shout viciously through my teeth.

"That should have damaged your lung." He points out, confused.

"Where did you get this?!" I shout again, crushing my heel into his neck. Gabriel reaches for my leg, only to flinch as I blast his hand with ice and seal him to the ground, using the same measure for the other side. "Tell me!"

"If you expect me not to act like a fool, then you must do the same. Where do you think I got it?"

Enraged, I reach to grab him by the throat and yank him out of the ground. I kick him again, utilizing the wind, and he soars down the street as the dragon takes off after him. Starved for magic, damaged beyond repair by my attack, and trapped in this world by the Artifice collars, it wanted its pound of flesh. 

I have half a mind to let it eat him, yet I know it's unrealistic. I need him, as much as I hate to admit it.

Beckoning to Tyler, we use the remaining fog to form a thin sheet of water. I shout into the air a final command as I summon the dragon's realm and slam the sheet over the dragon as if I were shoving the beast into the air itself. In an instant, it vanishes, and I lose my hold on the water. Dropping to my knees, my body throws me a warning sign, and I taste the metallic film as I start to cough.

My lung, did he say? 

Taking my hand, I touch my chest to see the red blood oozing from the hole in my jacket. I need a medic and to get off the street. Gabriel slowly stands, his body beaten and battered, and yet he looks just as ready for battle as he did when he arrived.

"Well played." He admits, mouthing the words so that I might not even hear them. Suddenly, he perks up, as if he had a grand idea. "Ah.. yes. A life for a life. You saved mine; I must repay that debt."

"You couldn't kill me if you wanted to." I retort, struggling back to my feet, pressing my hand over the hole. "Tell me what you've done with Verando."

The smile makes my skin crawl. "You know, you and your husband are a lot alike. I look forward to seeing you again, Nicolas. It's been fun, and I will grant you that the day is yours." With a burst of wind, he soars into the air. It was like I'd never fought him, powered by the unicorn, he was on an endless high, and I'd hardly made a dent in the magical power that man possesses.

As I stand here, fighting between the will to continue to breathe and wanting to go after him, I eye the karambit firmly in my hand. The smooth leather and the craftsmanship, I grip it tightly in my palm, willing him to appear before me. 

Surely this meant he wasn't far behind? 

Or had something worse happened?

"Something's not right." I tell Tyler, who regards me as if I've gone mad. "Something happened. Why else would he have this-"

A bolt of light flies overhead, the whistle is loud, and I cover my ears to avoid the sound. It heads straight for the harbor, past all of us, and in the distance, I hear the eruption of a boat exploding. Two more bolts follow, rapid-fire, and they produce the same sound as a plume of fire and smoke cascades from the water.

 Peaking over the building's top, I watch as the blackened smoke accompanies the annihilation of such a large vessel.

They had just blown up the boats we had sent to retrieve our companions in Spain.