The sound of firing guns was deafening. Muzzle flashes lit the night, shining through the rain for brief seconds before fading away. Screams from the wounded and dying echoed across the field over the sound of battle. Explosions shook the ground, and debris flew through the air.

Alex ran through the downpour, covered in layers of mud and other gunk. His small team followed behind him, with Amanda in the back to make sure they weren't ambushed. The first tank came into view, and he signaled them, calling a halt. Amanda joined him and he faced the rest of the team.

"We'll take out the soldiers on the outside first," he said. "Then gas the guys inside the tank and get rid of any remaining soldiers. After that, we keep a low profile. Hojo, we brought you because you said you could drive a tank, so once we get in you'll drive us back up to where the other tanks are. Take them out as quietly as possible, got it?"

Everyone nodded, and Alex looked at Amanda. "Sure you want to come?"

"Yes." Her face was hard. Emotionless. He didn't like seeing her like that. It wasn't normal for her to hide what she felt. He honestly hadn't known she could.She used to be so open. But he could tell she wouldn't go back to the relative safety of the castle, regardless of what he wanted, so he allowed it.

"Okay, let's move out," he said.

The first couple of soldiers to go down didn't see it coming. One minute they were marching into battle, and the next they had collapsed, blood oozing from multiple bullet wounds. Someone shouted and everything went to chaos after that.

Amanda ran straight into the fray, emptying her gun into as many guys as she could. Once she ran out of bullets, she moved on to her knives. They sliced through the air, followed by arcs of blood.

Beside her, Alex fought, watching her back and keeping her safe. When the whole squad was finally killed, she came out of her battle fury. She looked over the field, and Alex couldn't help worrying about her. As far as he knew, she'd never killed. She couldn't say that now and he knew it would haunt her.

Hojo jumped on the back of the tank and knocked on the hatch. It cracked open, and one of the soldiers popped his head out. "What?" he asked. In the darkness, the guy didn't even realize he wasn't talking to a comrade.

"Here," Hojo said, and handed the man a gas grenade. Then he knocked the man back into the tank and slammed the hatch shut. There was a muffled boom, the tank shook, and ground to a halt. When Hojo opened the hatch again, a haze of gray smoke drifted up from below. He pulled on a gas mask and hopped in.

Alex and two others joined Hojo, leaving Amanda to command the remaining six men on their squad. "Alright, let's move out," she yelled.

Everyone nodded, and they trudged into the midst of the battle. She turned on her earpiece and surveyed the battlefield. "How many tanks have we got?"she asked.

"So far we've got eight of the twenty that Akram brought," Rogue answered. "Head for the middle. The rest of them will meet you and you can fire from there. Try to take out the tanks first."

"Alex, you get that?"

"Yep. Let's do this thing."

"For Zephyr."

"For Zephyr," the others replied.

***

The plan worked out better than expected and they managed to takeout most of Akram's tanks before anyone even realized what was happening. The traps, combined with the snipers and the tanks, reduced Akram's numbers severely, but it wasn't enough. The castle was taking damage, and their own numbers were being whittled down almost as quickly as Akram's.

Three of the men on Alex's team went down, and Amanda nearly died twice.

That was when the sound of jets echoed across the field over the noise of the battle. Alex noticed it first, and then Rogue was yelling over the coms.

"There's a whole fleet of them! Akram is going to..."

And then the bombs hit. The explosions from before caused the earth to tremble. These bombs ripped through the earth with a loud boom. Chunks of earth, stone, and flesh flew everywhere, and suddenly there was only one enemy: the fighter jets flying above them.

The pilots made no distinction between friend or foe. They loosed missiles anywhere they saw movement and the results were catastrophic. Alex and his team ran for it, taking cover behind the trees and watching as everything was destroyed.

Fires lit the night, raging on despite the rain, and eating up anything still intact. Blood ran into the water from the rain, turning everything red. Coms went out, and they were left to fend for themselves.

As the bombs began to get closer to their position, Alex had the squad move out. There was nothing they could do anymore. They trudged through the forest until they found a space to set up camp, far enough away from the castle to be safe.

The explosions continued for hours, shattering the night and making it impossible to sleep. Amanda sat on a tree stump, staring in the direction of the castle. Her hands moved almost of their own accord, dismantling and reconstructing her pistol over and over again.

No one spoke. It wouldn't have made anything better, and they all knew it. Alex sat next to Amanda and peered through the trees. They were too far away to see the destruction happening, but he searched for it anyway. Somewhere, all of their comrades were dying. Rogue was probably already dead, and hundreds of others with him.

Sometime during the night, the rain had let up, and when the explosions finally stopped, the silence felt unnatural. No birds sang as the sun rose on the horizon. Not a single leaf stirred in the forest. Everything was still. Eerily still.

Amanda was the first to move. She got up and headed straight for the castle. Alex got up to stop her, but when he saw the look on her face, he knew she wouldn't listen. The others joined them, and they made their way back through the forest.

***

It didn't take long to find the beginning of the destruction. Fire had spread through the trees, destroying everything in its path. Ash floated around them, and embers still burned on the ground. Gray and black dominated the area. There wasn't a single sign of life left.

Further in, they started to find the bodies. They were little more than burnt skeletons, blown to pieces and scattered through the field. There was no way to identify any of them. Everything was too burned. Some of the bodies were barely recognizable as human.

In them midst of the rubble were the tanks that had fought back. They were no more than twisted piles of junk now, useless. But Amanda didn't care. She pushed aside the rubble to find the bodies within. To see them. She had to see them. Had to understand the depth of the destruction she had caused.

She emerged from the first wreck covered in soot, her face covered in black grime. Alex looked at the rest of the team. "Search for survivors," he ordered, even though he knew there were none.

They nodded and split up, leaving Alex to watch Amanda. She moved on through the battlefield, heading for the castle. The people who had died in there were all allies. She wouldn't look at them and wonder if it was a friend. She would know and it would tear her up inside.

"You don't have to go into the castle," Alex called. In the quiet morning air, his voice echoed across the field and she turned to face him.

"I do. But you don't have to come. You should stay and look for survivors like the others," she answered.

"I go where you go," he answered.

She accepted that, and continued on.

The castle was little more than a pile of collapsed stones when they reached it. The wall had crumbled and amid the rubble lay the bodies of the brave soldiers who fought for their lives.

"Rogue is in here somewhere," Amanda whispered. "And Phantom, and Jackal... so many others. Entire families lived here. People who trusted us- trusted me- to keep them safe."

Alex shook his head. "You couldn't have avoided this. We knew there was a possibility Akram would bomb the castle, and we took every precaution we could."

She whirled around to face him. "It wasn't enough! I should have done more for them!"

"You couldn't!" Alex yelled. "There wasn't anything any of us could do!"

"Then I should have died with them," she said, and walked further in. "I always survive. It's not fair. Not to the people who die for me."

The bodies were more recognizable in here, saved from the devastating effects of the fire by the castle's stone walls. Each room they entered was full of them, and when they finally reached the monitor room, Amanda saw his body immediately. The man Zephyr loved.

"Take care of them for me." It hadn't just been a message for Rogue. Amanda had understood it as a message for her, too. To look out for Rogue, and make sure he didn't destroy himself over Zephyr's loss. It was another one of her failures. They just kept piling up on her.

His body lay under a pile of rubble, dried blood smeared across his face. His head hung at an odd angle, and there were deep gouges in his arms where some of the rocks had hit. Alex pulled Amanda away before she could stare at Rogue any longer, but it was too late. The image was already ingrained in her mind.

***

She walked out of the castle as if nothing had happened. It was almost scarier than if she'd just reacted. The rest of the team met up with them. No one else had joined them. There were no survivors.

"Let's get out of here," Alexsaid.

"Hai," Hojo said. He looked back at the castle, a strange look on his face.

Hojo had grown up in the mountains, but the castle had become a home to him since he became a general there. Now it was nothing but rubble, and Alex knew it was affecting the other man. Still, Hojo hid it well and Alex knew better than to pry.

They left the area, heading into the woods. It wasn't until several minutes had passed that Alex realized Amanda wasn't with them.

"Stay here," Alex said. "You're in charge until I get back, Hojo."

"Wait, why..." But Alex was already running through the forest.

He thought he would hit the destruction almost immediately, but instead there was just more green forest, and then an open meadow. A blanket of tall grass swayed in the wind, topped by orange, red, yellow, blue, and purple flowers.

The castle stood on the hill, the sun coming up behind the mountains and outlining the castle with a bright orange glow. Flags blew in the wind, and soldiers stood watch on the parapet.

Alex stood in the grass, staring at the scenery around him. It was as if Akram had never attacked. As if the whole battle had been erased, and Amanda with it.

"Wren!" he called.

There was no answer, and after scanning the area for several minutes, he knew he couldn't leave his team waiting for much longer. Maybe she just fell behind. He hoped that was what it was, but he doubted it. He would have seen her if she had.

Hojo looked up as he came into the clearing, and stood. "Nighthawk, what were you doing?" he asked.

None of them seemed concerned about Amanda's disappearance, which puzzled Alex. "Where's Wren?" he asked.

"She's back in the US," Hojo answered. "Where she's always been."

Everyone was looking at him funny now. "Right, I knew that..."Alex said. "Just... uh... had a weird memory lapse."

Hojo frowned, but accepted the excuse. The others weren't so easily convinced. "Maybe Zephyr and Rogue should have headed this mission..." one of them muttered.

Hojo glared at the offending soldier. "Come on, we've got a mission to finish," he said.

 "Lead the way. I'll watch to back and make sure we aren't ambushed," Alex answered, still trying to figure out what had happened. Did I dream up the battle? He was left wondering while they walked through the forest toward their destination.