Trying to Survive Sucks: A Tiana KOTLC adventure.

The actual endgame.

Tam's POV

This might take me a while to explain, so I'll give you the shortest summary possible. 

I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?

Sucks for you, I'm not giving you either. Just read.

After we left that creepy hallway, Dex led the way through the maze of halls and doors, occasionally making a wrong turn. We made it to the central area in less than twenty minutes despite the wrong turns.

Nothing against Dex, of course. He's doing great. He already shut down three or four traps and alarms, keeping us incognito.

We met Sophie, Keefe, and the other three elves at a junction in a red hallway painted with the white eye Neverseen symbol.

"'Sup, guys. Make it through okay?"

Keefe was the picture of confidence, but he was too loud. Sophie touched a finger to her lips, shhhh, and rolled her eyes. Linh nodded.

"Yeah. We had to go through this hallway... Let's not talk about that right now. How did you guys get passed all the traps and alarms?"

Keefe noogied a small girl hiding behind Sophie's legs.

"This is Selia, a technopath in training. She got us through everything pretty well, but it tired  her out."

Selia waved and hid behind Sophie again. She had jet black hair that was darker than Linh's, and pale skin with plenty of freckles. She had blue eyes so dark, they almost looked black. Dex waved hello and Lex couldn't seem to stop staring.

Dex looked from Selia to Lex and then back to Selia, and shot Sophie a look. Sophie smiled, and Dex flicked Lex's ear. Lex got him back by dumping snow on his head.

Biana rolled her eyes.

"Come on, guys, let's get going. We don't have all day."

Everyone nodded, and Dex took the lead again. After another five minutes of walking, we reached a large, round room and stopped. 

"Vanishers, please vanish. We want the Neverseen to think there are less of us than there are."

Four people, including Biana, disappeared. Dex stepped into the room, but before he could signal anyone, A blast from a melder made him collapse. Sophie gasped and sheathed an arrow, not even looking where she shot before releasing it into the room. A muffled gasp and a thump came from the room. Sophie had hit someone.

Biana, invisible, peeked around the corner. Fintan was on the floor, with an arrow sticking out of his throat. Three Neverseen members were around him, and four others were charging toward the door Dex Sophie had shot from. Biana's hand flashed into view. She held up four fingers to tell everyone four people were coming.

Then she stuck out an invisible leg and tripped two of them. 

That's my girl.

Linh called up a ball of water and set it over a third member's head, letting him run around unable to breathe until he dropped.

Dead.

Then everyone rushed into the room, shooting snow, arrows, water balls, and shards of shadowflux into the room full of Neverseen. The shadowflux was me, of course. A few flashers called up swords made out of purple light and slashed their way through Neverseen members like butter.

It was all really, really fast. Dex was stirred by Sophie, who had un-frozen him by triggering a nerve at the base of his neck.

Linh was in the middle of a fight with another hydrokinetic.

Selia, the little technopath, was fighting back to back with Lex, combining gears and snow into a weapon.

It seemed like we were winning.

Until the bad news slapped the hope away.

More visions like the ones in the hallway appeared, disorienting everyone. 

Except for the Neverseen. 

It was like they couldn't even see the scenes. 

I did my best to hold them off, and I did.

Mostly.

Rex and Bex, Dex's other siblings were hugging each other on the ground, sobbing.

Biana was screaming Fitz's name. 

Everything was chaos.

But then the bad news happened.

The actual bad news.

A Neverseen flasher formed a huge sword out of black and purple light. He was very close to Rex and Bex. Rex looked up just in time to see the sword coming down on them.

He pushed Bex away.

But Rex didn't get out of the way in time.

The worst part was, Dex watched the whole thing with his arms pinned behind his back, being held hostage by the Neverseen. 

I never knew Rex personally, but the scream Dex let out was enough to make me angry.

Really.

Really.

Angry.

I let all my shadowflux out in a wave. I willed it not to hit my friends or any elves fighting on our side. 

I hit every surviving Neverseen member with a shadowflux spear, right on the chest, where I knew they would suffer a slow, painful death.

The war was over.

We had won.

But at great cost.

That was the good news.