I hear the gunshots, and an unwelcome chill settles over my body. My breath leaves me as I watch the droves of people running out of the building, shoving the doors open. It happens almost in slow motion as I watch them run, and for a moment, I'm back on the battle field.

It's a harsh flash, ripping through me like warning bells that send me on high alert. 

My first experience with a memory happening around me in such vivid detail. I'm standing before Ziduri, soldiers in full swing all around me, and I watch the retreat of our men as we're fired upon. The trees explode around us; I remember seeing the stony face of a dead man propped up as if he were just resting behind a fallen log. 

"Is that supposed to be happening?" Tyler asks.

I blink it away, inhaling sharply as reality fades through the terror around us. "What?"

"These people, I thought we were supposed to be discreet?"

The memory blurs away, and I'm back on the street, surrounded by screams as I hear more gunshots. In the distance, a wail of a siren rings in continuous succession. 

"No. No, something's wrong." 

I motion to Tyler and Rhea to follow behind me as we jog up to the doors and push our way into the depths of the entrance, the people pack in tight all around us as if to block us out. 

"Damn trigger finger." I see Marisol, her gun pointed at Verando. 

My voice catches in my throat, I reach as the gun goes off.

 Bang. Bang. Bang. 

The rapid fire makes me rush a few steps only to see him stumble out of her immediate fire and hide behind the desk. He grins, dimpling his cheek in that boyish way that I find so charming only today it cuts me to the quick. 

He flashes her my favorite look, annoyed by her audacity but amused by her poor humor. 

"I'll take that as a deal then, watch your damn mouth or I'll shoot you in the ass for real next time."

 How is it fair? How does he get to smile like that while I'm suffering? 

He cheated on me, he slept with someone else, and it seems to have done him very little damage as he almost lost his life to Marisol's joke—my life. 

"Are we done playing? Mind telling me what the hell is going on?" I demand, stiff. "Discreet. I thought you two could easily manage this, was this not your job when you were but children?"

 My expression turns to one of disgust as Tyler and Rhea come to stand alongside me. I notice the two women exchange sneers and I roll my eyes in disbelief. At this moment, they could both have him. If he was hoping to get back in my good graces, flirting with his wife was not the way to do it. 

"Where is Marcello?'

"On the roof," Marisol tells me quickly.

I nod at the reveal. Of course, he's doing all the work while these two have a laugh. 

"I expected more. Much more." My eyes fall on Verando. "This is our only shot to utilize this building, and you are wasting precious time. Get it together or get out of the way, that goes for both of you." 

Glancing around us, I note that the lights are off and I pinch the bridge of my nose. Fifty flights of stairs were not on my agenda, it wasn't what I wanted to do with what little time we had to get this job done. 

"The power is out, isn't it?" 

They nod in response. 

"Perfect. It's the stairs then. Come on. Lead the way. One in front, one in back." 

"I'll take the rear... leg slows me down sometimes." Verando's grumble makes me want to launch into him all over again, what right did he have to be frustrated? 

My mood was his fault, he chose this. He chose to hurt me, to kiss her... to have disgusting sex with that vile French woman. 

We mount the stairs, and beginning the slow climb with all our gear is no easy task. It brings to the front of my mind just how out of shape I am. 

When was the last time I trained? The last time I devoted any time to my physical fitness? 

As I fight for air against my respirator, I wonder if this is why he has gone astray. 

Was it me? 

But, looking at Marisol who was a good deal fuller-figured than I was, it was hard to say. Glancing behind us, the only one who looks comfortable with the climb is Verando even with the slight grimace of discomfort from the effort on his right calf and knee. 

"Must it of been stairs?" Rhea complains only to get shushed by Marisol. "Really? You're going to hush me like a child?" 

Marisol shushes her again, slowing her pace. 

"Do you hear that?" She asks lowly. 

"Yes. We need to move." Verando responds quickly, eyes tracking the flights of stairs as if to follow the distant clang echoing down the chamber, his voice barely above a murmur. 

We quicken our pace, and my pulse begins to quicken. It's Marisol's bar all over again only this time I'm too upset with Verando to get any amount of comfort from him. With each turn we make, Verando slips to the side to soundlessly lock the door to the next level. 

I hear a bang, coupled with a rolling purr as if something was growling. 

His fingers skirt silently over each latch as we pass, carefully switching them. 

My pulse pounds in my ears, drowning out our footsteps as we shuffle up the stairs. The lights flicker, painting ghostly shadows on the walls as we walk in what feels like blackness. As I glance down the distant shaft, I see at the bottom of the stairwell the outline of a beast. 

I hear the rumbly chuff of a feline sampling the air. 

Tyler follows my eyes and swallows hard as the flash of light illuminates the creature that circles as it tries to decide where we went. Their hearing, at least, was not as good as a lycan. Verando urges us to keep moving as Marisol rounds each corner at a quick clip, staying ahead just in case. 

He runs his hand along the wall, finding the latch and freezing when he's met with resistance. I clutch Tyler's arm instinctively as I hear the shattering of glass. A fist punches through the small window and reaches for the gray-haired man, he grasps the wrist, and I hear the sickening snap as he breaks the man's arm with a forceful shove. 

In a hurried movement, he snaps the bottom of one of the handles and wraps it around the other. 

"That won't hold them for long. We need to get off this stairwell-" He's interrupted by a roar as the man throws his body against the door. When I look down, I see the cat is gone. 

"Move!" Marisol shouts to us as I hear the skittering of claws. 

I search desperately, spotting the number 38 on the wall. Twelve more floors, we can do this. I'm conflicted between putting Tyler in front of me and trusting that he was safer the closer he was to my warlord. Rhea boxes him in behind me as we move in quick unison up the stairs. 

The door erupts as the man breaks through, I hear gunfire behind me. 

"Keep an eye on that cat, Doe!" Marisol calls down.

I want to beckon him to keep moving, to ignore all else and stay with us. Every flight we get further and further away from him.

"Not just one cat. Keep them moving, don't worry about what's behind you." Verando responds sharply, I want to cover my ears as the gunshots echo in the narrow hallway. 

We're running now, climbing the stairs clumsily as if in only moments we would be at the top if we could just go faster. Rhea takes over for locking the doors, fumbling with her fingers as she jerks on the locks. 

"Rhea, move!" Verando snaps at her as the door flings up, separating us from him. 

The speckled beast swats at us, claws flying as it slides across the tile. I instinctively swing a gust of wind into it, throwing it up and over the railing. The cat belts out a roar, grasping the guard rail as it tries desperately to right itself. 

Verando fires two shots, one in the stomach and one in the head. 

"Down!" I shout at him. 

He obediently dives, and I swing my arm in a quick motion, blowing a strong gust into the approaching beast. 

"Get to the top! Now! Stop fighting!" He shouts at us as he climbs to his feet and shoots over his shoulder.

"You're welcome!" I shout back at him in frustration as Rhea pushes me from behind. 

"Both of you shut the hell up before I push you down this stairwell myself! Come on!" 

Marisol shoots through one of the windows as she leads us up the stairs, I direct a blast of air through the doors to back off the creatures yet every time I do this, I know I'm leading more and more to us. 

Verando aims for the ceiling, shooting out two cameras. "Not the best time for thank you's, darling!" He retorts with a tone that I don't quite appreciate. 

"Never is, is it?!" I snap; in my frustration I take my hands and aim them down the stairwell, directing a gust of wind that irritates the lights enough to illuminate the passage. At least six beasts climb the stairs. 

They're heavy and slow, they can't run after us as a wolf could. 

"Are you really doing this now?" He uses the light, aiming pointed shots at the closest targets.

 Keep talking to me; that just means you're alive. I have to know he's okay; I have to know he's not being slowly eaten behind us. 

"Might as well! We're about to die anyway!" As I shake my head, Marisol wheels around to put the gun in my face. 

"Stop distracting him!" She commands me, blowing a warning shot over my head at a camera that makes my ears ring. I flinch away from her; the sound echoes in my skull, trapped in my fragile ears. "Doe. Stop arguing with him! Do your damn job!" 

Verando scoffs from behind us at the demand. 

The doors swing open as a man leaps for Tyler; my solomanari in training throws his hands at him, slamming him against the wall with a gust of wind. 

"Will you all grow the hell up?! Take this seriously! Jesus almighty, I want to see my wife again!"

"This is how they are, Tyler. It's either laugh or cry, baby." Rhea pulls out her tablet, tapping in a code. "We are about to miss this northern wind. We need to hurry."

Floor 46. Almost there. 

Our footfalls are drowned out as the stairwell fills with the clammer of massive bodies climbing metal structures. Hisses coupled with throaty roars echo off each other as fatty large bodies slip and fall, fighting over which of them will get to us first. When I steal a glance, I see they're climbing up the railing, jumping from one to the next. 

The tunnel is filled with gleaming eyes captured by the glinting light of the opening at the top of the stairs. 

Marisol fires her gun in front of us, and we tread over the dead bodies of two men dressed similarly to us. 

Why are they doing this? Don't they want this just as badly as we do? 

No one gets to survive if the earth is gone. Tyler urges me to run faster, and I feel Rhea hanging back. 

I cover my ears over the gunfire, encouraging Tyler to do the same as we reach the final flight. A pair of hands pull us out of the doorway, and I note it's Marcello. 

"Took you long enough!" He says through his teeth, only to make an exasperated noise as Marisol runs back into the darkness. 

Tyler takes in our surroundings, and I note that the visibility is minimal. Compelled by my love for him, I follow suit, only for Marcello to snatch my arm. "Absolutely not, let them handle it. You need to save your strength. Get started; we are running out of time." 

The darkness flickers with the dancing light of guns firing. A cat bellows from the depths, hell's cavern, warning us that they are coming. I nod; I have to separate myself from this; from him. 

I was angry with him. But- I didn't want him to die.

Dragging Tyler with me, I spot movement and direct my energy towards it only to realize it's Tonic and Reid, their tattered lycra suits suggesting they had met a similar fate. Tonic rushes toward us, and where I'm hesitant, he remains professional. "We have had a hell of a time..." 

Reid eyes him, separating us with his body. "Get into position; we have to protect Nic and Tyler."

"Are you ready, Tyler?" I take the stance as I near the front of the building. 

He follows after me, copying my movements. "We're going to go slow, wind first; if nothing else clearing the smog will help." He nods, reluctant as he looks out into the vast nothingness of silt and haze. 

I begin to move my hands, stepping through the movements as I start the process of winding the wind through the haze as if I were weaving a basket. Over and under, under and over, back and forth, curling the element to do my bidding. 

Tyler follows me closely, mirroring my actions and while I know he's not as experienced, I can feel the extra charge. The heavy haze moves easier, pushes with less effort, and rolls as if obedient. 

"Now start to add weight," I command him, adding the push necessary to begin to create pressure. The dense air begins to move, swirling and diving as if it's attached to the very bones of this suffocating city. Moving the smog is like pushing mud; it clings and pulls, reluctant to change. 

"Take your eyes towards the east and commit to it. We're making progress." The movements are precise. Air is playful; it's hard to motivate it to shove such an opposing force. The wind begins to howl, complaining against its command. 

I feel it snag and tug at my hair, protesting, wanting to stay instead of go. Sweat beads on my forehead in the extreme heat of the density, slowly but surely, it moves like a solid wall through the streets. 

"Keep going!" I encourage him. I block out the gunshots, the sounds of roaring and claws, the shouts and commands flying all around us. I had trained for this, it was just another battle in the war to save this planet.

Space begins to clear, slowly becoming more visible as the fog lifts. I watch the haze roll and tumble, moving down the street quickly as it heads for the ocean. 

 Above the smog is crisp, clean air that begs to come to the surface of the scorched earth. I pant as the remaining whisps roll after the wall of pollution, exiting the city in an orderly fashion. My body feels heavy, weighted down with the burden of such a task. 

"Push a little longer, Tyler. It's almost gone."

"Nic... I'm exhausted." Tyler manages, I see the fatigue clearly on his face. He's still young; this is new to him, new to me; magic leaves so quickly when you hardly get to use. I curse, excusing him as I finish creating the breeze to remove the remainder.

"Rest for a moment; we have to create the storm, still." The dismay clouds his expression so absolutely; he doesn't think we can do this. "Tyler, we have to try. The smog will come right back if no rain dampens it." He falls to a sitting position and I crouch to put my hand on his shoulder. "We can do this. You can do this. I know you can-" 

He shoves me out of the way as the cat leaps over the edge of the building. 

"They're coming from the windows!" Reid shouts as I punch a blast of wind into the beast, sending it up and over the edge. 

"Of course they are!" Marcello aims his gun over the edge, firing away at the muscular bodies. My eyes and ears open to our surroundings, and I'm finally able to take in the carnage surrounding us. 

Cats, massive men, surround us in droves and seem to come out of every corner and crevice that could contain such a beast. The numbers were astounding, taking my breath away at the volume of men that poured from the stairwell and the fire escape. 

"We are losing it. Nic, what's the time frame on this storm?"

My lips part. "I-" What can I say? "Tyler's spent. It's going to take a minute-"

"We don't have a minute!" Marisol says sharply. "Come on, kid, get it together!" She shouts at Tyler, and I shield him from her. It's too much for a new Solomonari; why did I think he could do this? 

We'd trained, but not enough; we weren't able to build his stamina, we weren't able to practice maintaining.

"We'll make time. Let him work." Verando comes to my defense. 

"Eddie is down, and Reid is losing blood; we must fall back!" Marcello tells him shortly. 

"If there is a lycan able on this roof, we will remain." 

I pull Tyler to his feet. "Come on, give it a go, Tyler. I don't need much help, just support." If I hadn't used so much in the hallway, this would have been nothing for me, but my lack of practice was wearing on me. 

"Helen-" He manages, dreary-eyed. "Helen. Where's Helen? I need to see Helen." He pulls his power from her just as I do from Verando, the mental strength at least. If only he understood the actual value of that hidden wolf, he might have worried about her sooner.

Helen? My own cold heart rejects his concern. 

"She's right here- She's..." I look around. "Helen?" I breathe, scanning for the white hair, pleading to see her meek form hiding somewhere. "Helen?" I try again. Marcello observes with me; I watch his eyes widen. "Helen!" I shout.

Tyler grasps my arms, the desperation evident in his eyes as he waits for me to recognize her. Yet, I don't. I don't see her. 

"Randy!" I shout, catching his attention as he bears down on some poor man's throat with his foot. "Helen! Where is Helen?!" 

Breaking away from the group, I know he's looking for her scent. I grab Tyler's arms, holding him as tightly as he's holding me. "She's fine. She's alright. Verando is going to find her."

"Find her?!" The panic was apparent, and I gave him a firm shake. 

"Listen to me. To do this, you must put the cause before anything else. Do you understand?" 

He shakes his head, trying to pull away.

"I'm going to find her-" 

I force him back in front of me, slapping him hard, angry at him. Angry at me, because I had to make this same choice.

"You have a job and a duty to your people, Tyler! The world sends us trials, and we must answer them; there is no room for love in the life of a Solomonari."

I can feel the pain I cause with my words without even looking at him. A part of me is thankful that I can still hurt him; maybe he would know a moment of my anguish. 

"I won't turn my back on her. Not for the world, not for you, not for anything-" He pulls away from me to run to the edge, and Marcello points, breaking his concentration. 

"There! That car. Artifice has her vest pinpointed to that car." 

Verando joins him at the ledge. 

"We'll never catch it."

The gray-haired man takes a deep breath. "You won't. But I can. Get that damned storm going. I'll get her back." Where he once stood, the wolf takes his place. 

The cat's freeze,  pinpointed on the wolf that stands before them. He bounds to the fire escape and jumps down it, followed by a flurry of felines. I run to Reid, placing my hand over the injured leg and sending healing energy into it. 

"Go!" I beg him. "Go after him!" 

The chocolate wolf rips through Reid's body, shoving through the armed men to chase after him. I meet Marisol's gaze, and she can see my silent plea. One of our last lycan defenses chases after the assailants. Our attackers split into those interested in collecting the lycans and those interested in stopping us. 

Marcello backs to join Tonic, standing between them and us. "It's our turn," I tell Tyler firmly. "Let's make a storm."