Finn and Tyse hurried onto their feet to follow as she began to walk farther into the forest. It was still very dark outside so it was easy to assume that it was still night time. At first Finn was going to ask if she knew the way, but then stopped himself and just assumed she knew how to get to Briedon. As time passed the sun slowly rose in front of them, now clearly showing the direction which they needed to go. It must have been early in the morning when they exited the forest, but they continued to walk for hours to the point where it was nearing midmorning. During the entire hike, Nova didn’t speak a word and neither did Tyse nor Finn, but they were still recuperating from waking up so early. Nova, on the other hand, was preparing herself for what she would find back in the ruins of Briedon.

Tyse and Finn lagged behind Nova. “So what’s her deal?” Tyse said.

Finn looked at him in question, “Hmm?” He replied.

Tyse asked again, “Well you know her the best, so I was just wondering why is she so harsh all the time?”

Finn processed what he said and answered back, “I’m not sure. To be honest I know her just as much as you do.”

Tyse looked surprised, “Wait, I just assumed you two had been travelling together!”

“Nope! You and I just happened to have met her on the same day. I met her the morning Pyrium died, when she ran from the angry mobs. But if I had to guess, it looks as if she has had a string of bad days, and that is just putting it lightly.”

“I see… well what about towards me?”

Finn looked confused, “What about you?”

“Well ever since the jail break, she seems to be somewhat resentful towards me. I get that she stated her reasons why and I can’t say I disagree with her… but I just feel like… like her words are coming from somewhere.” He stopped speaking for a second and said, “Never mind, I’m just saying things now.”

They continued walking in silence for a while, until Finn began talking again, quietly enough so Nova couldn’t hear them, “Well I think I get what you’re trying to say. Earlier that day she asked about why I followed her around and I said that she reminded me of him. She seemed like she was in a lot of trouble and out of help, so I decided to help her and that’s where I was coming from in following her. Maybe she’s the same with you or maybe not. Who knows? There is a lot that we don’t know about her, let alone about each other. I’m just hoping that we all figure this thing out.”

Tyse took his words in and looked at Nova in a slightly new perspective. He frowned and Finn seemed to have pick up on this, “Hey what’s that face for? Like I said, I just hope we figure this thing out.”

They continued walking and Tyse quietly said to himself, “I hope so too.”

Nova stopped in her tracks as she reached the top of a hill. In the distance she could see faint traces of grey haze in the air. Before it was something that looked like charcoal in the distance. She was looking at the ruins of Briedon. Nova began running towards the town shouting, “There it is!”

Finn and Tyse hurried after her, trying to catch up, but she was too fast. Nova was in a full sprint towards the town. As she came closer towards the town the smell of smoke and burning wood became more distinct. Despite it being just two days ago, the shrouding haze covered the area in a thin blanket of smoke, slightly obscuring the sun light. As she made it to the town center, Nova slowly came to a halt, looking at the damage around town. Many of the buildings were burned down or destroyed. The streets were blackened from the soot off of the fires and scorch marks could be seen on nearly every surface. Some fires still persisted on stray piles of wood and collapsed buildings. Embers scattered from the flames which continued to eat away at wood and Nova looked at it all in disbelief. However, despite the destruction before her it was not what had mostly caught her attention. Instead it were the bodies lying around, some piled together, but most of them scattered, hugging sides of the roads and buildings. Many of the bodies were charred and burned, however, some seemed to just be blackened with soot. She took it all in and was filled with a mixture of disgust and horror. All of these people where there with her on that day, and no one had any idea of what would happen. She could probably recognize some of them. People working their shops and stalls in the market. She could have sworn that a group of bodies were the men chatting near the TV store when they heard the news of the so called ‘parade’.

Finn and Tyse had finally caught up to Nova and witnessed the horror around them. At first they didn’t know how to react as they saw all the burning and destruction. Tyse felt as if he was going to puke. Dismay filled their hearts the longer they took in the details of their surroundings. Nova snapped out of her state of shock and tried her best to ignore the ruins. She turned towards Finn, “What do you say about all of this? You still think this is something you can fight?”

Finn continued looking around and then looked at Nova, “I don’t know… I don’t know if this is something that we can fight… but it sure as hell is something worth fighting against.”

Nova looked disgusted at his answer, “Unbelievable.” She said, “Even after I showed you all of this, you still believe that we can make some sort of a difference?”

“I believe that we can try!” Finn shouted, now feeling agitated with Nova’s negative attitude.

“If you think so then you can go ahead and start your own revolution if you want. Just leave me out of it, because I’m done with all of this!”

Finn snapped back, taking a step closer to her, “With what? I see now what you’ve seen and I get it. I’m not you and I get that you’ve been through hell, but wouldn’t that mean that you of all people should be the one stepping up to put an end to this?”

“What is it with you two? Why is it that everyone I meet always assumes I’m the hero?!”

Finn yelled back, “Because she said you are!”

Nova looked at Finn in question, and Finn had realized what he had said, his face showing regret. Nova took a step forward, looking Finn sternly in the eyes, “Who are you talking about?”

He tried to avoid eye contact, rubbing the back of his head in anxiety. Tyse didn’t say a word as he tried to look like he was studying the surroundings. “Sorry, my mouth slipped.” Finn said, “I meant to something else.”

“You’re lying.” Nova said, “Who is this ‘she’ you are referring to?”

Finn remained quiet, but Nova walked closer and closer to Finn until she was right in front of him. “Answer me! You were saying someone said I was a hero. I want to know who! Who are you really?”

Finn just stood there, looking everywhere in a futile attempt to ignore her. Nova didn’t like how quiet he was in resistance to her questions. This angered her, so she grabbed him by the collar of his jacket tightly, pulling him closer. She spoke in a quiet rage, “So did you lie to me this whole time, about why you followed? Did you lie to me in the sewers too? Because right now I can’t even trust you!”

Finn now looked at Nova concerned, “It wasn’t my intention to. She made me promise that she’d be the one to explain!”

At this point, anger and frustration had gotten the better of Nova to the point where she couldn’t control herself. “Stop trying to cover it up! You really are just a common thief, let alone a liar!”

The comment seemed to have taken an effect on Finn, as his look was agitated, “What was that?” He said, trying to give her a chance to take it back.

“A thief and a liar, that’s all you are at this point! Your parents didn’t care about raising you properly did they?”

Finn swiped Nova’s grip off of his jacket and shoved her back, “Don’t you dare bring my parents into this!” He said.

Nova looked at him surprised on his action, but more angered than anything. Finn continued, “You think you can put up that tough façade and fool everyone, but you’re not! In the sewers the empathy was real, cause in reality all I saw was a scared little girl hiding from her own shadow!”

This hit Nova’s nerves as she lunged at him with a punch to the face, “I’m no coward!” She screamed as Finn was pushed back from the impact, “Everyone just stop calling me that!”

Tyse looked surprised at how far the situation had escalated and just stood watch, unsure of what to do. Finn looked back at Nova and narrowly dodges another strike, but this time it was her blade. She had drawn her weapons on him in a fit of rage. He pulled out his bow and readied some arrows, “Is this how it’s going to be? Fine, then come get me!”

Nova charged at him yelling, “Just shut up already!”

Finn let her come close, dodging her attacks and moving around her. He got in some hits with his bow, but narrowly dodges he attacks as she counters. He jumped back and began firing arrows her direction, but she swats them out of the air with ease as she advanced towards Finn. He began to deflect her strikes with his bow, struggling not to get hit. He then took some kicks and pulled back, he wasn’t going to win an up close fight against her. He shot a trick arrow at her feet and Nova just looked at it in confusion when suddenly there was a flash and she couldn’t see or hear for a moment. Finn ran at her landing flying kick, pushing her back and then striking as much as he could. The effects of the arrow wore off as she then countered and fought Finn back. Again he pulled back, running circles around her and shooting arrows. She stood in place as she deflected them, but then Finn shot another trick arrow at her feet and she readied herself in anticipation for another flash. However, it wasn’t a flash arrow, but a zip line arrow. Finn reeled himself closer, sliding across the ground at great speeds. He was now in front of Nova who now realized what was happening and tried swinging her sword back. But Finn threw the knife on his side, causing her to lose focus of her attack as she blocked, and slid under Nova and swept her foot with his bow, causing her to fall. She landed with a thud and Finn quickly launched himself in the air with his momentum and shot arrows at her. Nova turned out of the way and deflected the rest as she got back to her feet. Finn shot his last arrows as he dove to get the knife he threw, which was now sticking out of the ground. He didn’t waste time in charging back, now with his bow and knife. He dodged the first attacks and then began swinging his weapons at her. They both defend and take hits from each other. It was a vicious fight between the two, both of them encompassed with anger. They attack simultaneously, pushing each other back. They took a second to catch their breath and compose themselves, then charged at each other. They neared closer to each other, determined to land their final blows, but before their weapons could come in contact, Tyse had stepped in to stop the fight.

He had jumped in between them with his shields drawn, blocking off both of their weapons. They could feel heat radiating off of him as there was a slight glow to him. “Enough!” He said.

Nova didn’t take kindly to his meddling and yelled, “Don’t interfere!” As she swiped his shield out of the way with her free hand and swung with her sword. Immediately Tyse switched sides, pivoting on one foot towards Nova to block her attack with one arm while keeping Finn at bay with the other. Tyse tackled Nova back by pushing all his weight on his shield towards her. She staggered back from the force and flinched as an arrow whizzed past her head. Tyse looked back as Finn was still concentrated on Nova, but during his distraction this allowed Nova to get the jump on Tyse. “Out of my way!” She said, while she swung madly at him. Tyse kept his guard up, but then Nova yelped in pain as an arrow landed a hit on her arm, however, her spirit was able to protect her from serious damage. Finn jumped over Tyse to continue his attack as Nova was occupied with the graze on her arm. They fought again, and Tyse was fed up with the fighting. Tyse ran towards them, throwing Finn out of the way and shoving Nova back. He distanced himself equally between them as he threw his shields at their feet’s. He yelled out, “I said that’s enough!”

The shields had impaled themselves in the ground in front of the two, erupting in a wall of fire dividing the three. Finn and Nova backed away from the immense heat, forced to stand down. Nova still stared Finn down, untrusting of him and Finn looked back, irritated with Nova’s stubbornness and hot head. Tyse didn’t cower in the back like he was a few minutes ago, now he only felt annoyed with the situation. They all stood there until the situation calmed down and everyone decided to put away their weapons. Finally Finn and Nova put their weapons away, looking bitterly at each other. Tyse took it as a sign the fighting had stopped, so he summoned back his weapons as they burst into embers and reappeared back on his arms. Everyone took a breath, unsure of what to say now. Almost immediately after the mood had calmed, there was a bright green light shining beside them blinding the three. The winds gust around them violently kicking up dirt, soot, and smoke. The surrounding fires were blown out and the three just watched, covering their eyes from the light and debris. Soon the winds and the blinding light faded, and the three looked to see what the cause of the phenomenon was.