The pirates burst out through the crumbling stone wall and jump on the nearest soldiers. In an instant, the camp erupts into a battle. Grunts and shouts ring out as the soldiers do their best to hold back the pirates. Like Winry said, none of the soldiers use their crystals or even touch their belts, and instead fight with their swords.

Vio and I snake through the camp and rush straight for the large black ship by the cliff. A tall soldier with a scruffy beard jumps out from a nearby tent and stands in our way. 

Julius flies in from my periphery and tackles the soldier out of the way. He wrestles the sword out his hand and tosses it towards Vio. “You’re better with this than I am.”

She swipes the blade out of the air and nods to Julius as we rush by. 

In the final stretch before we reach the ship, a group of four soldiers draw their swords and point them at us. “Stop this nonsense. Lay down your weapons.”

Vio holds out her arm in front of me and we stop. “Aliyah,” she says, her eyes still locked onto the soldiers’ blades. “Back me up here. Winry, you as well if you can hear me.”

“Winry? That’s not my name!” Eren shouts in my mind. 

“Sorry, Eren. She asked for Winry, so…”

“Bah, whatever. I’m going back to sleep.”

I sever the connection to Eren’s mind and with a jolt, my mind connects to Winry’s instead. “Winry, we need to help Vio somehow.”

“Oooooooooookaaaay. All my power is yours to use.”

“Don’t even think about it,” one of the soldiers shouts at me.

I wince at his words but raise my arms and focus on generating wind in my palms. Normally, I would freeze up if someone spoke like that to me, but with Vio here, a warmth spreads through my body and gives me the courage to continue. “I’m going to knock them off balance, Vio.”

She nods.

The soldiers lunge forward. “We gave you a chance.”

A gust of wind flies out of my fingers and slams into the soldiers. They stumble, nearly tripping backwards, and in that instant, Vio moves. She swings her sword swiftly and with grace, as if she were performing a deadly dance. Her blade a shimmering blur, she disarms and knocks out each of the four soldiers. 

My eyes fixate on Vio as the soldiers fall to the ground around her and my heart leaps for joy. 

“That was soooooooooo cool,” Winry says, eloquently putting my own thoughts into words.

“Now’s not the time to stare,” she says, glancing back at me. “Let’s go.”

I quickly shake my head and follow her. We cross over a wooden plank used to bridge the cliff to the boat and scan the deck. The ship’s layout isn’t much different from the pirate’s, albeit quite a bit bigger. We rush across the deck to the captain’s cabin and peek inside. A messy room full of crumpled papers and maps stares back at us, with no sign of Captain Swift. 

“He has to be below deck,” Vio says, running back to the front of the ship. 

We descend a flight of creaky stairs into a hallway that looks eerily like the pirate ship’s bedroom hallway. Descending another flight of stairs, we enter a room similar to where I was held when I first got on the pirate ship. 

A small man with long dark hair stands in front of a metal door. He raises his eyebrows as he notices us. “Hello there, what are you—”

Vio leaps at him.

He draws his sword and blocks Vio. “Where are your manners?” He pushes her back and sheathes his blade again. “Do we really need to resort to violence? I’m sure we can talk this through. So, what are you here for?”

Vio glances at me and back at the soldier. “We’re here to rescue Captain Swift.”

The soldier nods. “See, that wasn’t so hard, now, was it? Unfortunately—” he redraws his sword. “—my job requires me to stop you from doing that.”

“So much for manners.” Vio readies herself. “Aliyah, let’s do ‘that’ again.”

I nod and focus energy into my palms. “Now,” I say and release the gust of wind.

The soldier stomps to brace himself and the wind bounces off his uniform. He blocks Vio’s attempted attack and kicks her away. Her sword skitters across the wooden floor as she falls to her knees.

“A nice strategy,” the soldier says, nodding at us. “A bit simple, but good, nonetheless. Although, if you want it to work better, you—” he points to me. “—need to work on that gust of yours. It’s too weak and predictable. Making it stronger, having it come in from a weird angle, or even using multiple separate gusts would make it much harder for your enemies to deal with it. Now then, how about you try again?”

I raise my hands to try again but lower them after a moment. That gust was the strongest I could manage. Even if he tells me to do all those things, I’m not skilled or talented enough to do them. 

We’re going to fail. Because of me.

“No, stop that Aliyah!” Winry says. “Stop doubting yourself. You can do this.”

“But, how? I’m not strong enough.”

“Yes, you are! Were you not listening to me earlier? You can use alllllllll my power, so just focus a little harder and believe in yourself.”

I take a deep breath and focus. On the energy coursing through my body. On the feeling of the wind swirling around my fingertips. On my connection to Winry, and what she means to me. The gust in my hands swells, the wind whipping my hair and clothes around. 

The soldier’s eyes narrow. “Now you’re going a little too far.” He lurches towards me.

Vio clambers to her feet and tackles him, stopping him before his blade reaches me.  

The gust grows into a small whirlwind, and I lose control. My body flies into the air, hurtling towards a wall. I try to release the wind, but my body won’t listen to my commands. I close my eyes and prepare to slam into the wall.

My fingers move. But I’m not the one that moved them. My eyes open, but I’m not the one that opened them. I try to move, but my body doesn’t listen to me. The wind between my hands compresses and my body floats to the ground, landing on my feet. “Vio, move,” Winry’s voice says, coming out of my mouth.

Vio jumps away and the blast of wind explodes from my hands. It smashes into the soldier and carries him through the air, slamming him into the wall with a loud thud. 

He gasps upon impact. “W-well. That was better. You pass.” His eyes close and his body slumps to the ground.

“W-Winry? Did you do that?” I ask, still unable to move my own body.

“I guess my full power is a little too much for you to handle right now.”

“What are you talking about? How are you controlling my body?”

“I’m toooooo tired to explain. I’ll tell you later.” She reaches down and touches her own crystal with my hand. 

A shock runs through my body as she disconnects her mind from mine. I wince at the pain, and my body winces. 

Vio glances at the soldier on the other side of the room, and back at me. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

“I don’t think you could do that even if you tried,” I say, still dazed. “Although, you might be able to if you denounce muffins.”

“My code of morals won’t allow me to do something so blasphemous.”

She takes the sword from the unconscious soldier and rummages through his pockets until she finds the key to the metal door.

The key cooperates with us and lets us through the door into a room full of empty prison cells; empty except for one. Captain Swift sits in the middle, chains around his wrists, ankles, and neck. 

Upon seeing us, he stands. “This is awkward. I was just about to break out and go rescue you guys.”

Vio unlocks the door to his cell and shakes her head. “Sure you were.”

“Do you not believe your beloved captain? You know I'm capable of breaking out of a pathetic cell like this."

"Then why didn't you?" Vio asks as we enter the cell.

Captain Swift glances around, as if looking for an answer. "Anyway, more importantly."

"You're just going to ignore the question?"

Vio and I begin to undo and remove his bindings.

"I kept the map safe, at least," he says, still ignoring Vio's question.

Vio unlocks the final chain and looks him up and down. "Are you lying to me? I don't see that box anywhere."

Now free, he chuckles and grabs a folded piece of worn-down paper from his pocket. "Motin took the box, but I swapped the real map with a fake before he did."

"That's really smart," I say. "Good job, Captain."

He puts his hand on the back of his head. "Oh, it was nothing, but praise me more anyway."

"Don't," Vio says quickly. "It'll go to his head." She walks through the cell door and motions for us follow. "Your precious crew is fighting for you out there, captain. Let's go before Admiral Motin comes back and tears you away from them again."

We leave the hallway of jail cells and return to the small room. The captain swipes the sword from the unconscious guard. The sounds of battle grow louder as we rush up the stairs to the deck of the ship. We cross over the plank and step over the group of soldiers that Vio knocked out. 

“Excellent work, boys,” the captain shouts as we rush into the center of the camp-wide brawl. “Now let’s get the hell out of here!”

The soldiers freeze at his words, and in that moment, the pirates strike. They push back and knock down their opponents, clearing a way to the edge of the camp. Using the opportunity, everyone dashes towards the wall of tall grass. Joshua appears beside me, a new bruise above his left eye. He grins and gives me a thumbs up, and we enter the maze of grass. 

Stocks of the grass fall behind us as the soldiers cut them and chase after us. We duck and weave through the field, getting closer to the ship with every passing second. No matter what the soldiers do or say, they gain no ground on us, always just a little too slow to ever catch anyone. My nerves begin to fly away and a smile creeps onto my face as a single thought enters my mind. “We’ve done it. We’re free.”

The temperature spikes. A wall of flames engulfs the grass before us and forms a ring around our group. Zenron walks through the fire with his hand on a red crystal on his belt. “You lied to me, little Krehn. I thought you weren’t brainwashed anymore.” He lifts his hand and the flames inch closer to us. “Don’t worry, I’ll save you for sure this time.”

My nerves that had flown away land back down and my heart sinks with them. Even if I could use Winry’s full power again, I wouldn’t be able to match up against Zenron. His precise use of fire shows how much experience he has, and with it, he would easily crush me if I stood up to him.

“Miss Krehn, Jarvan,” the captain says.

“It’s Joshua.”

Captain Swift’s demeanor changes. An intense aura pulses from him as he draws his sword. “Clear a path with your aether crystals. I’ll buy time while everyone escapes.” He steps out of the group to meet Zenron.

His icy voice snaps me into action. I connect to Wallace’s mind and focus on clearing a path through the flames with water. Beside me, Joshua does the same. Together, we create a path and escape from the ring of fire with the rest of the pirates. 

I peer back over my shoulder at the raging wall of fire as we run away. “Is he really going to be alright? Zenron is very strong.”

Vio snickers. “Oh, don’t worry about that idiot. He’s reliable when he needs to be.”

Loud stomping from behind quiets Vio. “Wait for me!” The reliable captain shouts as he sprints after us, the ends of his shirt singed by the flames.

Vio’s eye widens. “Captain?”

“That guy is way too scary! Seriously, aethers are so unfair.”

“What happened to buying time?” I ask. “You didn’t even last ten seconds.”

“Ten seconds against that monster is an accomplishment! Praise me!”

Balls of fire rain down on the field from behind us. “I’ll be in so much trouble if you get away, so I am not letting that happen,” Zenron says as a wall of grass vanishes into ash in front of him. 

Dodging the barrage of fireballs, we burst through the jungle of grass and out onto the beach with our ship. Captain Swift points to it and cheers. “See! Ten seconds was more than enough.”

“What are we going to do if one of those fireballs sets the ship on fire?” Vio asks.

The captain responds with silence.

“Captain!”

He coughs. “We’ll worry about that if it happens.”

“Are you serious—”

A ball of fire sails through the air towards the ship. The flames won’t be enough to destroy the ship, but they’ll cause enough damage to make it unable to sail.

Joshua shoots a bolt of water and barely puts the fire out before it reaches the ship. “Princess, help me out here.”

“S-stop calling me that,” I say as I raise my hand and gather water into my palm. 

 With our efforts combined, we shoot down the fire Zenron attempts to throw at the ship as we cross the sandy beach. 

“If you’re going to use water, I’ll just have to change my approach!” At the top of the hill, in front of the now burnt wall of tall grass, Zenron kneels and places his hands on the ground. A spear of rock twice as big as him rises out of the earth above his head. He stands and motions for the rock to fly towards us. 

The rest of the pirates focus on the ship in front of them, trusting Joshua and me to deal with Zenron. I scan the hill one last time, and that’s when I see it. 

A spear of rock, twice Zenron’s size, rises from the earth above his head. His hands move, and the spear flies. 

My eyes track the path, my breath caught. Not the ship. 

Vio. 

She doesn’t notice. She’s turned toward the ship, unguarded. 

I wait. Wait for her to turn around, to raise her hand, to stop the rock with one of her divine miracles. That same effortless strength she’s shown before. That same confidence. 

But she doesn’t. And the thought, like a seed that’s been budding, a cruel, painful seed, finally takes bloom.

“Vio isn’t a Goddess.” 

She can’t stop it. And if I wait another second, she’ll die. 

Before I know it, my body moves. I sprint across the sand and slam into her. 

Sharp stone tears into my side. 

I scream as fire and lightning course through me. My vision fractures, blurs. I try to hold onto something, her, the sky, anything, but I can’t. 

The world is a blur of noise and pain. And then,

Darkness.