Finn watched this all happen on the monitors, while he also waited for the guards to come through the doors at any minute to restore the lights. He looked at the cameras eyeing the hallways of the second floor, and surely enough he saw guards coming close by with weapons drawn. Without wasting a second, he ducked down in front of the monitoring console and took out smoke bombs from one of his pockets. He waited for the guards to come as he anticipated the door to be kicked down at any second. Almost as soon as he thought that, the door was kicked down with several people coming in, guns searching for a target. One of them ran towards the corner of the far wall while the other towards the corner next to Finn. Before he let them see him, Finn threw his smoke bombs spread out, scattering them across the room. On impact the room was filled with smoke, giving the gunmen almost no visibility. They tried waving the smoke away to no avail as Finn took down the guard next to him. He then scaled along the console to the opposite end of the room to take out the other guard in the corner. He grabbed his gun with one hand and struck him across the face with his bow twice. He then swept his feet causing him to fall on his face, and then twisted his arm to make him release the gun from the pain. Finn finally knocked him out with a swift stomp to the back of his head and let him go once he went limp. Quickly, Finn closed the power box and locked it, throwing the key somewhere in the room. There were two other guards at the door, blocking his escape, but Finn charged at them while the smoke was still thick. He jumped between them, striking one with his bow while kicking the other. He elbowed one and took him down with strikes with his bow, he switched to the other with a strike across the face with his bow and a hard tackle against the door. Once they were dealt with, Finn exited the room.

It was much clearer in the hall, but before he could rest, there was another group of guards heading his way down the hall. He threw down more smokes their way and ran for the roof exit.

Nova and Tyse were already at the cell controls and Nova took out the guards inside, trying her best not to kill any of them. After the short while fighting them off, she had finally subdued them and Tyse went on the cell panel. He could see the cells that were holding the students from Durosa and opened them. They promptly run out of the room to meet them a little further down the hall. Some of the other captives called out to them to release them as well, but Nova ignored them while Tyse had heavy feelings for having to leave them. They met and rounded up all of the students, all of them surprised to see Tyse there. However, before they had a moment to praise him for his bravery to help them breakout, Nova called on to all of them, “All of you keep up with me and don’t stop for anything!”

She then began running back the way she came towards the front entrance. Tyse immediately followed while he could still keep up. The other student followed his lead, some of them called to the back to not get left behind. In the midst of all this, Nova hadn’t realized that so many students were arrested from earlier. She hadn’t paid no mind during their protest the number of students that were present, and as she glanced behind her she could see just how many people were following her lead as they were clustered in the halls, almost blocking off the entire hallway.

There were guards in the way, but Nova kept charging, fighting any that got in her way. More and more guards appeared in the halls trying to stop them. The other students fought back trying not to use magic. It was all chaos in those halls as police and Durosa students fought each other in the dark halls and any flashlights on the ground were blocked off by the rushing feet of the students. They made it to the front entrance of the station and the desk workers were just stunned to see all of this happen, most of them not daring to fight a large group such as this. The front doors were kicked open as students flushed through them. Tyse was at the front of the group shouting at them, “Meet up at the alleys near the Legion base, this isn’t over yet!”

As he shouted this to the escapees coming out, Nova was at the backing fighting off guards and making sure no one was left behind. Some of the guards took out their guns to shoot into the crowd of escapers, but Nova used her blades to disarm and block the shots. Once she saw that they had made some distance, Nova yelled out for Tyse to follow behind them. With only a moment’s hesitation, Tyse stood looking concerned until Nova barked at him to get moving. He began running after his fellow students, only looking back once at Nova. She continued fighting the guards, keeping them away from their guns as much as possible, by swinging her sword at them. They jump back at every swing, until they realize that is exactly what Nova was wanting. They were inside the stations lobby and Nova picked up a baton from the floor, shutting the door and blocking it off with the baton. The police officers banged at the door trying to force it open, only wiggling it slowly out of place. In this time Nova took the opportunity to get a head start and ran off towards the meet point.

She ran for a while not stopping to look back or take a break. What had been minutes felt like hours as she ran in the cold night. She eventually made it to the meet point where everyone waited for her. She could see the cluster of students in their own little area of the alley while she saw Finn sitting on a pile of boxes off to the side. He had his arms crossed, looking down at his feet. She approached him and noticed her when he looked up. “There you are!” He said, “You had some of us a little worried if you wouldn’t make it.”

She ignored the comment and scanned the crowd for Tyse. He found him after a few seconds, standing with some of his fellow students in the middle of the small crowd. They were talking and having a good time, all excited from the jail break, no doubt. Although, he didn’t seem as cheerful as his friends, instead his eyes had a hint of stress and anxiety in them. Finn looked at Tyse as well, “You know he told me to let you know that he wanted to talk to you about something.”

Nova looked at him in curiosity, “He already told me what it’s about, but insisted that he wanted to talk to you about it too before we start this thing. He made it pretty clear that this was important.”

She stood and looked at Tyse in the crowd. She walked towards him, but stopped at the edge of the group of students. She just stood there staring at him, waiting for him to notice her presence. Not long after he looks up and notices Nova. He leaves his group of classmates, all still praising him for his bravery in such an endeavor, walking towards Nova while holding his breath. He moved somewhat dreadfully and slowly towards her as she waited with fading patience. He finally made it in front of her and she crossed her arms, waiting for what he has to say. He stood there, avoiding eye contact with Nova, clearly nervous, “I just wanted to say…”

Nova waited for him to finish, “That… uh… I wanted to say, thank you for bringing me along.” Nova stood and listened, not saying a word, “If it weren’t for you guys then we wouldn’t be making things right.”

She just stood there, arms crossed and giving Tyse a stern look. He looked up to say something, but Nova cut him off, “Cut the crap.”

Tyse winced at the reply and looked shocked, “What… what do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

He stood there in confusion, feeling a little hurt from the aggression. Nova continued, “Finn already told me something was up, and I’ll be damned if that’s all you have to say. So stop holding back and say what you really mean!”

Tyse took a step back unable to say a word. Looking at Nova she was giving an intense stare, waiting for whatever he needed to say. Tyse bit his tongue, knowing that he should tell her the truth, but was too scared to do it. Eventually he finally found the strength to usher out the words that he was meant to say, but did so as if talking at this point pained him, “I just… what I meant to say was…” He took a deep breath, “What I really wanted to say was… if I could join you and Finn when you two go inside the base. I want to help more, and I thought I could do that by helping get the sword back, or at least carry it out.”

He stopped after that, eagerly waiting for what Nova would say. She stood there looking mildly annoyed, at this point she really pitied him. “So he told you the plan huh?” Nova said.

He nodded, “Well what do you say?” Tyse asked.

At this point Nova turned around, looking almost angry at this point, “No.” She said, “You’re better off with the distraction team.”

Tyse felt like it was a smack to the face. “What do you mean no?” He said, but Nova remained silent, “Well you may think I’m better off in the back as a distraction… but really I can help you get the sword back. I won’t hold you back this time I swear!”

Nova barked back with more intensity in her voice, “You just don’t get it do you?!”

Everyone’s eyes were on them now. Tyse jumped back a bit, “Nova…?”

She clenched her fist, “Why do all of you take this so lightly? You think that this is fun and games? What do you think will happen once we step in there? That we’ll all save the world together and go home after all is done? How naïve are you, all of you? Don’t you get it? When we finish this, there will be no home to go to! You will be hunted for the rest of your lives and put down before you can even hope of making a dent in the Legion’s forces.” She looked to Tyse, “And you. How do you even hope to be any help, if you can’t even fight for yourself? You’ll just be an easy target when the legionnaires start shooting away, or even worse, you’ll be nothing but dead weight on us! So just know that you are all just means to an ends. After this you can think what you want, believe you helped saved the world or made a difference in the world, because I don’t care. I just know that I’m going to get the sword back.”

She was about to turn and walk away, but stopped as Tyse raised his voice, “Just let me prove myself!”

She stared at him, holding back her anger, “I know that you think I’m a coward, in fact both of you probably think I am.” Tyse clenched his fists, “But I want to make up for it, I’ll prove it! Just let me go with you!”

Nova moved towards him, hands tightened into a fists. Anger was clearly visible in her eyes, “You want to prove yourself? Then do it right here!” She swung a fist at him, but he fell back on his hands. “Get up!” She yelled, “Defend yourself!”

Tyse staggered back onto his feet, but Nova threw another fist at him, this time connecting and pushing him back. She came in, grabbing him on the collar and punching him again. He stumbled back again. “What’s the matter, you said you wanted to prove yourself? Well here I am! Fight back!”

She kicked him down on the ground, “You want to go in with us? How can you ever hope to do that if you can’t even defend yourself? You won’t even use magic on me!”

A couple of the students came to Tyse’s aid, ready to back him up. Nova was ready to fight them too. In this moment she was overwhelmed with anger. Tyse rejected the help of the others and got up for himself, “You want to know why I didn’t use magic.” He said while dusting himself off. He looked at Nova dead in the eyes, now with a new intensity that she has never seen before, “It’s because I can’t use magic! All my life I look up to mages and all that they can do with the power of magic, but for me, I couldn’t even if I tried. I am one of the rare cases on people who can’t use magic, and when growing up I looked up to those with magic. I grew up in a struggling family and couldn’t even afford to learn how to fight either. So is that what you want to hear? Have you proved how weak I am now?”

Nova shut up after his remarks and couldn’t find anything to say. Tyse’s eyes were filled with pain and no one dared talked. There was a pause and then he spoke again, looking down at Nova’s feet, “We’ll still help with the distraction… we owe you that much. Good luck with whatever.”

He slowly turned away and walked, he didn’t know where, but he only knew that he wanted to be away from everyone. He felt all eyes on him as he walked, but didn’t care for it. Nova thought about what he just said, now feeling like she had overdone it, even Finn didn’t even dare talk or try to lighten the mood. Instead he just got his gear ready, knowing that they would have to go soon. The students just gave Nova some dirty looks and kept quiet as they shuffled around, not knowing how to be acting after all of this. Nova tried to ignore it as she walked the opposite direction towards the sewer entrance, but as she walked she couldn’t shake the guilt which slowly built up inside her. She was halfway towards the cover, but then stopped. Finn following her lead also stopped, questioning the sudden stop. Nova then turned quickly walking towards Tyse. She bit her tongue as she did, just looking at him sulk made her pity him even more. She yelled out to him, telling him to stop. He did and slowly turned around, not saying a word but instead looking at her with dead eyes. Everyone was curious on what she would say next, if she would apologize or attack him even more. For Nova she tried to speak, but couldn’t get it out of her, she spoke under her, “Damn it, why is this so hard?” She spoke louder, “You have guts, I can give you that. Yelling at me like that. What I guess I’m trying to say is…” She trailed off before finishing.

Tyse just looked at her, eyebrows crunched together, trying to figure out what she is trying to do. Nova felt a weight on her chest as she said all of this, trying to hold her back from saying another word, but she pushed it out of the way as she forced herself to finish what she was saying, “If you want it that bad then follow us into the base!”