Mother Earth.

Chapter 28: Restorationists.

Anthony Romanov.

Russian Bastion: 'Our Place,'

The year 2173.

The walls of the factory fell in droves, cascading to the ground as Anthony vaulted over the broken mounds of concrete and metal. His hand burned against the searing hot stone, still maneuvering past, silver eyes scanning the destruction at large with frantic breaths.

Green neon swept the landscape, pinging up with four indicators of lime green pings in his vision. "Erik!" He shouted upon seeing him chained by electromagnetic force fields to the cuffs on his wrists and legs, his head perking up as he heard Anthony's voice. "Boss?!" Erik shouted back, turning his head side to side until Anthony ran in front of him, face frantic and eyes wide, sweeping over the lay of the decimation.

"Anthony, is everyone-"

"The volunteers are dead. Every single one was lost."

Anthony knelt, and Erik's nose scrunched up, looking down as he bit his lip at the news, tilting his head as he shut his eyes for a moment. "It was going to work. This wasn't supposed to happen, Erik. I didn't mean for it to turn out like this..."

As Anthony's eye twitched with his head falling lower, he exhaled in a huff. His stomach churned in a sickly, shameful twist as the reality of the horror surrounding him shocked his very being.

"You gotta stop thinking like that."

"I can't! All this, the lives lost, the destruction that is happening right now! All of this was supposed to be left behind! With Lydia turned over, this would never happen again..." Anthony said, picking up a nearby charred brick in his hands, lifting it over his head as he clubbed the glowing, neon silver disc trenched in the concrete. "You, Rurik, the twins, none of you would have to be hurt anymore. If Lydia just let herself-"

"Anthony, stop. It isn't her fault. It's yours."

Snap!

The disc on the ground bent, and the glowing stopped as the filament broke in half with the glass shattering. Erik's right hand fell to his side, the cuff still on his wrist.

"..." Anthony was silent, moving on to break the next electromagnetic cuff link.

"We're gonna get hurt. It's a fact. Same as how we are going to hurt people. This raid our doing."

"It's different, Erik-"

Snap!

"-When people die, it's on me. All of it is my fault."

"And you're gonna do it anyway. Even though you know that, you lead, right?"

Erik's arm became free. He rubbed at the cuff still latched around his wrist, looking toward the silent leader as he sighed, dropping the brick on the ground. Erik stayed kneeling, as the echoing, booming rumble of a strike of lightning rang through the Bastion in the skyline with a flash of light. "We follow you because we believe in your dream, not 'cause you're perfect. We gotta learn sometime, I guess, it's not fair that others die because we didn't sooner." Erik said, looking up from him at the dilapidated factory debris. "We want what you believe in, the sanctuary. We'll follow you anywhere to get that life that you dream for us. You're the first to give us that, after all."

Anthony's head picked up, and their eyes met, his neon green glowing eyes beaming a low light onto him, inhaling deeply. "When we build it, you don't have to hurt anymore, Erik. I promise."

He laughed, patting Anthony on his shoulder as another strike of lightning scarred the earth, reverberating in their ears as the sonic boom reached them. "Don't promise that with a trait like mine."