My fists curl as I lay helpless on this bed, as if that mere act could actually change anything. It doesn't matter if I want to go out and help, I'll die if I'm away from Lukas for too long. Petra really did say it, we are totally and utterly screwed.

"What's your name?" I don't look at the lady, just stare up at the ceiling. Every thought that was trying to come up with a plan just not strong enough. Whispers of ideas falling short every time I try to grab them.

"Hallita, he is called Inkosi."

"Jesse, that's Petra and Lukas." 

What is this feeling? It's so numb and cold, sucking out of the life of anything that tries to make its way up. Just breathing takes up strength, and I can't even bring myself to try and think of a way out of this. I'm so tired, beyond the point of tired. It's amazing that I can even keep my eyes open.

"Petra!" Lukas's fierce snaps vaguely gathers my attention, but it doesn't just the fact that I just want to sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep it all away. This heavy feeling sapping so much strength, I just can't do anything. The demons win, it's over. I don't know what to do anymore.

"Get a blaze rod from Jesse's blaze-"

"Blake."

"-along with a normal one and bring it here." I tilt my head at Lukas, curious as to what plan he has. I'm inclined to think there's no plan to get us out of this one, every inkling of a plan I get I can already tell leads to a painful death. If I spend the energy to think about a plan that long.

"As for you," Lukas glares at Hallita, the old woman clearly fretting about something. Probably her impending death. "Explain, now. Who are you and where did you and the demons come from?"

"Inkosi and I were the inner fire-"

"Which is?"

"Leaders of our fortress. He was one of the most powerful among the Feuern, except for the one fire child we had. Despite that though, the Suare were getting smarter in their attacks against us. We were rapidly losing colonies. So all the fortresses came together, and we attempted to banish them to the Ash Lands."

A shadow passes over Hallita, yet her depressed state doesn't get a flicker of empathy from me. We're most likely not going to live anyways. "The Ash Lands, we don't know how it came to be or why only portals from our flame could access the dimension. But it does require tremendous amount of flame to support, one person alone could not do it. And generally it was done with three or four people depending on their strength."

Lukas looked at me, biting his lip before turning his attention back to Hallita. Face screwing up into a glare at the man... Inkosi or something.

"But then scouts teleported in, claiming there were numerous Suare closing in. People from other colonies began to teleport in too, saying they couldn't keep the Suare at bay. Which is when tried to escape to the Ash Lands instead. But we were prey, the predators followed."

"The portal collapsed at some point, the Suare killing us all. Until they realized they couldn't get out of that wasteland. The scraps of their intelligence keeping us alive so we could open a portal out. They wouldn't let us die, but one Feuern cannot open a portal. We needed two, so that's why-"

"Okay." I stop the lady, completely done listening to her depressing tale when I'm already too depressed myself. "So basically, this sort of thing has happened before and we have no past idea on how to do anything about it."

Lukas swats me with his free hand, and I roll my eyes at him. "Since when did you become so pessimistic? You've done the impossible before."

"Well, I didn't have a charred spirit then."

Petra bursts in, a green fiery Blake behind. Petra clearly looks pissed, although she's holding one normal orange blaze rod. While Blake immediately darts up to me, his black beady eyes scanning me.

"Hey buddy, it looks like you finally got out of that storage room." He moans, the blaze somehow able to sound concerned. Am I really that bad looking?

"Here's your blaze rod Lukas, and that thing doesn't want me to grab any of his so have fun with that."

"Jesse, can you grab one from Blake?"

I sigh, turning to Blake. "I know I took one only kinda a day ago, and this time I won't be able to give you any flame to regenerate a new one, but will you let me have another?"

Instantly, Blake floats forward and somehow has his blaze rods stop for me to grab. I lift my arm, but the muscles go numb and vanish. The limb falling limp as my eyes flicker shut as the linger fatigue all around me descends.

But I decide to keep them open, a huge feat for my utterly dead will, so I can watch Lukas lean in and grab one for me. The green rod pulsing in his hands along with the normal orange one, but I can't image it being strong enough to substitute for my spirit.

"Hallita, is it possible for me to push my energy into a blaze rod?"

The old lady nods, and my groggy mind slowly tries to figure out what Lukas's doing. "Yes, but you shall faint if you push in so much heat for it to be of any value. Besides, you had to give heat earlier. It is impossible-"

"Talk to me about impossible after you witness a madman try to bedrock the sky."

Lukas stares at his hand, before closing his eyes with a deep breath. And for the first time in awhile, the depressed fatigued state wavers. A sharp pang of guilt hitting me that I couldn't have thought up anything, and I'm giving up and forcing Lukas to do all the work. How... how freaking helpless of me.

His shoulders slump, his face falling as the orange rod now turns blue. But even seeing Lukas struggle to stay awake isn't enough to keep that guilt alive. All too soon it dies away under the numb coldness infecting my being.

"Here, take this." Lukas mumbles with eyes half closed, forces the blue into my hand. I access it, and instantly strength flows through it and straight into my head.

I gasp as a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts held away from exhaustion break free. Screaming urgency to do something and fix this before it becomes unfixable. Part of me yearning to comfort the lady to at least say something nice. A bristling fury that I'm not even trying to do anything to help Lukas or solve this problem.

Then all my thoughts come together and click. Lukas is trying to find a way for the both of us to be separated and have the energy to work. With this blue rod, I don't have to be next to him all the time and with Blake's green one, he can access energy to keep him going. So now we can actually do something to protect everyone.

I try to sit up, but remember instantly that Lukas's energy has more to do with mental strength than physical. My muscles flat out refuse to do their job, leaving me helpless on the bed yet again.

But I'm not going to let myself give up quite yet. "Hallita, can you force his fire into a blaze rod."

"Yes-" I nod at Petra, who dashes out of the room again. "B-but that could have serious implica-"

"He possessed me, that had serious implications too and is why we're even in this mess. It's happening, live with it."

Lukas chuckles, his weariness gone as his eyes glow green. "There's the Jesse we all know and love."

I smile, but then my thoughts are bombarded with all the citizens at risk now. "Yep, and I've already wasted too much time being a stick in the mud. We need to figure out how to get the Suare into the Nether or how to kill them all."

Lukas turns to Hallita, who is looking quite sickly. "Are there any weakness of the Suare we can exploit?"

"They do hate water, a popular method to away from a Suare if it has you pinned was to spit on their scales. It does something to their acid and makes it burn them, but we could never use more water than our spit on them."

I grin, an idea beginning to shape. "Oh, we're going to do a lot more than spit."

"We can't exactly flood the streets to keep them out though, well we can, but that's only a last resort kinda idea."

"No, hopefully everything we've done for the refugees will be enough for awhile. Once I can stand again, every able Beacontowner gets to arm themselves with bottled water. And we'll have to tell Nell to take another message to Stella."

Lukas grunts, his green eyes though far away in thought. "We might as well make her the official messenger at this rate."

"As for protecting the entire town, we'll put waterfalls over the walls. A wall of water all around the town." I nod to myself, liking the idea coming to mind. "For emergences, and once the walls are completely defended, then we can have buckets around the town too."

"What about Olivia, Axel, Ivor, and the Redstonians? They have no means to use water as defense."

"That's why we're going to be go looking for them. Once Beacontown knows what to do and Nell is on her way, we have to go find them ourselves. To help them get here and protect them. So the hospital will definitely have to be ready."

Petra bursts in again, but fear this time her eyes are hard with lips screwed up in a frustrated scowl. Lukas gestures for her to hand the blaze rod to Hallita, and while she gets to work on that, Petra takes a deep breath. To which I use the moment to brace myself.

"There are people clamoring behind the door, threatening to destroy the thing. So I opened it to tell them off, when they basically begged me to do something about the demons. They said there were numerous sightings of them running around the walls."

I groan, mentally pleading to Hallita to hurry up so I can move. "The blasted demons must be scouting or something. Thank you Petra, but get out there and tell everyone to stop what they're doing, except like doctors, and arm themselves with water. It's their weakness and I want everyone to know about it in five minutes, preferably less, and get as many buckets as possible to the walls."

She nods and dashes out the door, and I briefly wonder how I got such great friends. I glance at Lukas, debating if I should tell him to go now too. It'd be really helpful, but the sooner he leaves the quicker I'll collapse later on. I'll hang onto him for as long as I can.

Although it is quite painful waiting for Hallita to finish. My heart pounding frantically but my body unable to move. Fear screaming at me to do something, while the hot streak of anger wants to go kill all those demons once and for all.

I grind my teeth as I watch Hallita, the blaze rod in her hand paling into a bright yellow. I know this isn't easy, Lukas and I surely have had our fair share of problems with this sort of thing, but she's like a million years old, she should be an expert at this. Particularly when everything is so time sensitive right now.

"There." She looks at me, exhaustion woven into her face, and tosses the yellow blaze rod. "This should help."

It lands on me, but when I let the yellow flames flow into, my arm can finally move and pick it up. A small smile even rises when I finally sit up and stand like the hero I'm suppose to be. About time I'm not a heap of helpless limbs.

Although I instantly feel it when Lukas is no longer touching my mark, relying on my blue rod more now. I shake that off, there's nothing I can do about that now, and put them both in my back pockets.

"Hallita, you can rest and take care of him, even eat something in the kitchen, but don't mess with anything." I turn to Blake, seeing him float with me. "And Blake, do whatever blazes do to recover while keeping an eye on them."

I run through the Order Hall, wasting no time to get out there. So much to do... so much to do, and I spent a large chunk of it laying around feeling sorry for myself. Ugh, stupid charred spirits making my life even harder.

"Lukas, get on Nell to go to Champion City. Tell her to go fast, and have water on her. Be sure she knows exactly what to say to Stella."

"Got it." We run out of the Order Hall, the frantic streets of Beacontown bustling this way and that. "What do you want me to do once I'm done with that?"

"Get water yourself, and stock water buckets on the gate with whoever's up there. I'll meet you there."

We spilt apart, and I quickly get to the hospital as fast as I can without crashing into anyone. I can feel the strength pulsing from both blaze rods, and I can feel how it's finite. I have to use this energy as efficiently as possible. No wasted energy can be allowed.

Although I just can't help but notice those surprised looks I see out of the corner of my eyes. It was what? Twenty minutes ago my limb body was being hauled through the streets and now I'm running out here as if that didn't happen. I really hope I don't run into my doctor, I don't even want to try to come up with an excuse.

I burst through the hospital doors, and immediately have to halt with everyone running around the place. Random, but urgent, shouts soaring across the room.

The yellow blaze rod radiates strength, as I know I'll need it to get all of their attention. I take a deep breath, already deciding on my words throughout the chaos of calls flooding my ears.

"STOP!" That was definitely flamed enhanced, and everyone did stop and turn at me. "Anyone who isn't doing anything important, grab water buckets, get to the walls. Water is the acid scale's weakness and I swear if you aren't armed there's nothing I can do about that."

With that shocking them into action again, I bolt out before anyone can stop me. I got to spread the word, find Petra, and then get to the gate. And I'm so glad I never bothered to take off my sword, Lukas's technically, from over a day ago.

I spot a group of people simply filling up buckets and bottles to lay them out for anyone. I run by and swipe four bottles and two buckets, calling out thanks to them as I continue to run to the gates. 

During my run, I spot the glimpse of blue armor that could only belong to Petra. I pivot and race towards her, knowing my shout will never make it over to her and I don't want to spend too much energy already.

I run at her harder, the yellow blaze rod pouring an endless seam of strength to me. But it's not endless, if it stops or runs out I'll go limp. I'll go limp and be utterly helpless again. I can't have that.

"Petra!" The redhead turns to me as I run up to her, the few people around her scampering off. "Petra! Come with me, we're leaving to find the Redstonians."

She nods and follows me as we dash off to gates. I should probably tell her we're waiting for Lukas, but she probably also has figured that. So it's good, all good. If everything keeps going like this then we'll all be fine.

Instead of being hunted down and killed by all the Suare like with the Feuern.

I growl and force that thought away. I've already lost if I think I'm going to lose. The Suare just stumbled out of a portal in some dreary place. They aren't attack at their strongest, and we can use that to wipe them all out. I'm sure they needed to eat something else before they could try to get us.

We weave our way around people, desperately getting through as quick as we can. A constant stream of apologizes flowing from my mouth as my legs snap forward to push me across the ground as fast as possible.

The bigger main street is more open, and once we get there Petra and I dart to the gates. Hopefully Lukas is moving as faster than us and is there already, or right behind at least.

We're careful not to bump anyone, as almost everyone is carrying something of importance. If the water wasn't so important for our safety, I'd be worried about us drying up the river. We have enough water to flood Beacontown at this rate.

The sad thing is we might have to if this doesn't work.

"I don't see Lukas!" I curse under my breath, wondering if Lukas can't find Nell or something. Hopefully he won't be too long.

I slow, double checking that Lukas isn't here. And Petra's right, he's not. I do see two ladders though, a bunch of people climbing up one and a bunch of people climbing down the other. A very clever thing to do.

"C'mon," I nod over to that area, simply jogging over to it. "Let's see if we can help out over there."

Whether she follows or not, I can't tell. I just keep on going that way. I do however slow when I get to the ladders, it would be pretty jerky of me to crash into someone when I am the one who told them to panic and start getting water everywhere.

"Jesse!" I smile at the person who just hopped off the ladder, his black hair matted to her face in sweat and bloodshot eyes. "Do you have any water? We're trying to get as many buckets as possible up and-"

I fish them out of my inventory and hand them to him, starling him out of talking. I glance at Petra, but she just shakes her head.

"There you go sir, so how's everything going around here?"

He nods eagerly, eyes darting around madly while passing along the buckets to someone else. "Great! Well, as great as something can be when there are nightmarish acid creatures stalking the town." The man nervously chuckles, revealing the terrified glint in his bloodshot eyes. "But we're moving along pretty good, probably 'cause of the absolute fear running through our veins, but still great!"

His crazed and rushed words pierce my heart. This is my citizen breaking down and I can't do anything to help him. As the mayor, but let's be honest I haven't been acting like a mayor for a long time, I shouldn't be allowing my people to break like this.

"Jesse, here comes Lukas." I breathe a sigh of relief, smiling as supportively I can to the scared man.

"Don't worry, I'll make things right." With that I turn and run to the front gates, looking up to see if anyone is up there opening the gates for us.

The two big doors groan as someone does open them, and I run out. Not having to look to know my friends are following me. I know Petra's there and I trust Lukas is there now too, in fact, I'm sure Lukas is about to say something to me any moment now.

"Whoa, this is so rad. Running out with you all like this, awesome."

I whip around to face Nell, definitely surprised to hear her. My eyes flicker over to Lukas, he just gives me a light shrug as he focuses on running.

"I'm glad you enjoying Nell," I scan the area for any demons, and then spot the route that would be easiest for the Redstonians to follow. "But we have separate paths. Good luck."

I spilt away from her, holding back myself so I don't sprint and tire myself out. "Good luck to you too brah!"

Already her voice was distant, and I realize that even though I'm not sprinting all out, I am running really fast. I glance back at Petra, since she's the only one who doesn't have magical fire helping her run.

But she seems to be doing fine. Her eyes knitted together in concentration, her pale skin flushed with exertion, strong breaths coming from her lungs. I turn forward again, telling myself that I'll worry about Petra once her breathing becomes ragged.

For a moment, I let myself be incredibly thankful for Petra. I've nearly fried her with my fire, yet here she is. I've been too weak and tired to properly hang around with her, yet here she is. I've asked so much of her and she provided without becoming sleep deprived or starved or something.

Then panic snatches that moment up once we enter the forest. Visibility shrinking to just the immediate surroundings, the threat of those demons being around us looming in the air like a bad odor.

I grit my teeth and run faster, not caring if I'm sucking up more strength from the yellow blaze rod. I have to find Olivia and Axel and Ivor, they could have already been attacked by now. Even if I do faint again, at least Beacontown can fend for itself for the most part. These people need me now.

My brain tries to spurt out how long its been since we left Redstonia. I almost shock myself with how short of a time it is, only a couple of days that feels like forever ago. If Olivia waited to leave the day after we left, at best, then they have already travelled for a day and a half. Healthy people can walk that distance in a day, they must be close.

The spur of panic and urgency tries to convince to go faster, but I'm already pushing it. They should be pretty close to Beacontown so I can't burn what I have. I know a lot of them are sick and they have to go slow, but I'm sure Olivia would trying to move as fast as possible. I can't burn through the blaze rod.

"Jesse? Is that...?" I squint up ahead at the road, trying to see what Petra's seeing. There's a blotch of something, something is up ahead on the road. But we could be running towards a group of demons for all I know.

Lukas gasps, and he begins to run even faster than me. "It's the Redstonians! Quick! C'mon!"

Petra and I both race to meet Lukas's pace. Our feet pound against the dirt road, our pants fill the air around us, and our heartbeats rage in our ears.

Despite all of this though, none of us missed the hissing within the trees.

****

Yay! Publishing on time!

As a quick tid bid though, it has officially been a year since I've gotten this idea! Key word: gotten. I didn't actually start writing it until later on, but still it's a good feeling. I've never worked on a project so consistently until this guy came along.

Anyway, totally something random, I think I'm getting better at my titles. Only took 46 chapters, but hey, I think I'm seeing some improvement here. Maybe. But it's better than cringing at some of the older ones, so that's good.

SO, well, I think that's it. I'll leave you all with this, and I'll come back next week with the next chapter! Bye!