I bump into Torch, fighting back to back with him. "We need to start pushing that way." Torch tells me, shaking his head towards another corridor. "Can you inform everyone while I hold these guys off?"

Knowing better than to fly into the chaos (there's plenty of broken shards, fireballs, and other debris up there), I race across the tiny battlefield, yelling to everyone, "PUSH THIS WAY! PORTAL OVER THERE!"

I see Spritz hurl an Obsidian against the top of the metal hall with savage strength. Spritz's blue fur stained with red streaks and fractured bits of ice covering up painful wounds. A smaller, sky blue Ocean Canira with green eyes and a battered shell necklace stands by his side, blasting Obsidians with ice and freezing the floor below them.

"You made it." I note, "You're hurt."

"That's not important right now. Avery can heal me." he says, keeping his head up. "I'm with Snow Hare again and that's all that matters." He heads into the safer center of our little fighting force with Snow Hare at his side.

An empty void fills my heart as I realize there's no one like that for me. Storm Runner, my mate in a different life, is gone. I saw him die. I turn back to the battle, feeling numb and empty. Resolute but tired, I scratch another Obsidian, doing no damage. I jump in front of a wayward projectile and deflect back with my paw. I dance around the battlefield, jumping from one fight to the next, helping anyone and everyone until I get back to Torch. We fall into a steady rhythm. He burns a part of their body and I blast them while they're reforming.

We stay at the rear, taking care of the Obsidians coming up from behind. A griffon with red eyes guards a few of them, screeching at us to back off, and I hesitate. Only a few months ago, I would've sacrificed myself to protect the Obsidians. Now I'm taking them down.

I sit there for a second, unsure of what to do, when another Obsidian jumps over the griffon's wing and I blast it with a beam of multicolored light. It's a power I've honed since the days in the Factory, but it's become more powerful after my time in Dreamland.

We're almost to the portal. I can see the room now in the distance. It's one of my most vivid memories. We reach the door and I break it down myself. Torch and I walk in together, and the room is completely dark. Luckily, my night vision is good, but even with Torch's firelight I don't see the blur of black on black. They must've removed the portal when I escaped, and now...

"They laid an ambush!" Torch yelps, an Obsidian slicing deep into his tail and him blasting it with a full blast of fire, and then his tail putters out. "I can't get it to light!" he says nervously. Once again, we're surrounded with no way of escape and about thirty Obsidians around us.

I pick up his injured tail with my own, and back to back we hold a few off, each one of us wrestling with another. Avery, leading a battalion of small but feisty warriors of all shapes and sizes, from a tiny bunny with leaf ears to a huge sea serpent with fins that function as primal feet, charges into the room, her wings glowing blue as she swirls, sending blades of blue energy everywhere. "Shine taught me that one!" Avery says with a smile.

I continue fighting right above Torch, holding off aerial attacks with as much grace as possible.

From the deep darkness, I see an Obsidian in the shape of a leopard pick up a small shard of stone that must've once been one of his comrades. I know what will happen next, because I saw it. "That would normally be against the rules, but since destiny will inevitably change if you go back... Very well."

The Unknown Canira knew this would happen. I see the Obsidian flick the stone and without a moment's hesitation, I drop down, flinging myself in front of the shard, trying to protect Torch as much as possible. It hits me straight in the chest, a perfect shot, and I fall to the hard ground, blood seeping out of the wound.

"Dark Rainbow!" he screams, fur on end. He runs to me and brushes the strand of fur out of my face. "Oh Verhamera, please no..."

The flare on his head highlights a bloody piece of obsidian lodged in my chest. It's in really deep, and when he tries to pull it out, someone runs over to us and warns, "Don't do it! It's too far in! You could kill her."

"Then what do you suggest I do?" yells Torch, ducking an unsuccessful shot.

"She's too far gone." he shakes his head.

Avery runs to me, placing her pink, glowing paws on the wound but the shard stays firmly wedged in there and bloody. "It's not working..." Avery whimpers, "Why isn't it working?!"

Torch says nothing and puts his paw on the wound, lifting me onto his own body. "We have to get you out of here."

I get down, struggling to stand on my own paws. "I can do this." I wheeze. "We just need to defeat the Obsidians and get out of here." I know I won't get out of here alive, but the least I can do is provide the illusion of any optimism to Torch.

"I'm not going to lose you. Everyone, we're going to have to find a portal!"

Avery's gang retreats, helping Dark Rainbow and I escape the room. There's nothing but dead bodies and obsidian shards in the hallway, but I can hear the roar of the battle far off in the distance. I keep next to Torch, my strength draining by the minute. I can feel another pelt brush against mine, the pelt of Storm Runner. He supports me, his muscle and kind but fierce amber eyes real as Torch is.

My breathing is beginning to rasp. I see the others up ahead, Spritz coaxing everyone into a room while fending off five or so Obsidians at once. Snow Hare is at his side. "Go." He says to her, and she nods, the bracelet cracked but still against her chest.

"I love you, Spritz." She walks into the room with the portal, and picks up part of her seashell and hurls it at the Emergency Stop button on the wall. As the portal closes, she turns back for a second to look at Spritz, and then she's gone.

Spritz's trident glows gold and the Obsidians all slam into the wall, as if they've been pushed. "Okay, from what I gathered from the prisoners here, they have only one leader, Queen Nethera. Her second-in-command died a long time ago (sent to Dreamland or something... how odd) and she hasn't assigned anyone else to the position. She's a single leader at the top of the heap. I say we kill her, close the mainframe and exit the place on emergency power."

Avery and Torch nod. That's my Spritz, so strategic. It's a shame I'm leaving him now, but it can't be helped. Focus. The queen. I kill her, shut down this awful place forever, and leave.

I stagger again, and regain my footing quickly. I hope I have enough time left...