In The End

Section 1: Chapter 6

Silvana covered her ears, trying to drown out the screaming of the people as they burned to death. Immediately, she heard a voice coming from just in front of her.
"Beta Squadron to base, we are under attack. Repeat, we are under attack."
Automatically, Silvana notched her bow, and fired an arrow at the soldiers, before twisting her hand. They were lit up by a second, smaller explosion.
"Requesting backup!" said the voice again, faster and a little scared, "The enemy has explosives,"
Silvana turned to Naoki, "We need to run," she said. She could already hear them getting out of cover. She had a sudden fear that the direction of the arrow had given their position away, and she doubted Naoki had enough explosives for them all. She had to delay them.
She began muttering something. It was her last resort. She'd never done it before. She'd only seen someone else perform the incantation.
"I'm getting us a head start," she said, looking pale and tired,
Naoki pulled Silvana to her feet, and the two of them ran, holding hands.

Naoki's explosive had done a great deal of damage. Some men looked dead. Others looked as if they might not be alive for that much longer. There was a general smell of burning flesh and gasoline in the air. One of the bodies looked particularly bad. It was covered in burns and one its arms no longer seemed attached. Its breathing was shallow, but present. Its eyes were open and full of pain. Without the tattered remains of a white coat, it would not have been recognised as Charles.
Sergeant James Ross couldn't think about any of that. Already, he was ordering his squadron to chase the girl. Charles had wanted her alive, but seeing the damage she had done, that was no longer an option. He didn't really care what had happened to Naoke, or whatever that boy's name was.
Without a sound, the girl walked out of the bushes, directly opposite where they'd expected her to come from.
"I am the girl you want," she said, sweeping back her green hair to reveal her ears, "Don't.."
"Fire!" cried James Ross.
Round after round of bullets were sprayed at the girl. She hardly seemed to notice. Eventually, James Ross, shaking his head, gave the command to stop.
"Charles was right about one thing," said the girl, smiling, "I do have magical powers,"
She began to walk forward, and at that point, a large hunting knife caught the girl in the face, and she dissolved into points of light.
Everyone was frozen for a while, staring first at the space where she had been seconds before, then at each other, and then back at the space. James Ross was the first to come to,
"Don't just stand around! Find her!"

................

Naoki saw the girl still muttering something. Like before, her face suddenly drained of colour and she collapsed. Naoki picked her up bridal style and kept running. One way or another, she gave them a head start.
They kept on running, but then Naoki heard more voices around him. They were searching for them. Whatever Silvana had done was no longer working. He heard her soft breathing and realised she wasn't going to wake up soon. Now, she was just slowing him down. He looked around for a place to hide. But the only thing was a steep cliff on one side. There was a dense thicket of gorse in between the trees.
He stopped caring and jumped for it. He landed very hard on his left leg, most the way down the slope. He twisted and fell sideways. He half-fell, half-rolled down the slope, dragging his legs behind him, before hitting a tree with his back. He turned around, slightly dazed, and crawled to the gorse, dragging the girl behind him. Once he got there, he breathed a sigh of relief. No-one from above would be able to see them.
He placed the girl on the ground and saw the glow. She was regenerating. Good sign. He tried to shift his position and felt an acute pain in his left ankle. Well... That jump was reckless. But right now he didn't care. They were relatively safe. He sat down next to her, with his hurt leg outstretched in front of him, watching the sleeping girl.

.................

The pain of healing Naoki, back in the compound, had been intense. The pain of doing this was something else altogether. She'd never actually done this before, only seen it done, long ago, in a time that she no longer wanted to remember.
Argenta Cain had five doppelgangers to help her take care of affairs of state. It partly explained how the woman seemed to be everywhere at once. Silvana had seen her summon and dismiss them many times, and managed to work out how it had been done. She'd underestimated how much it would drain her powers. Argenta had made it look much easier than it was.
There had been no dreams, no strange lights, no beaches with black sand. She woke up to the sound of soldiers, marching up by the clifftops. She tried to move, and noticed she was paralysed. Sometimes her brain took longer to wake than her body, sometimes it was the other way around. She heard a loud, deep voice,
"Looks like she jumped. Don't think we'll have to worry about her again,"
"I don't think so, sir," said another voice, cracked and full of pain, "The girl can heal herself. We need to find her. Bring the dogs!"
"We won't use all our resources to chase one girl, Charles,"
Charles, thought Silvana. The traitor lived still.
"You saw her powers, sir." said Charles quietly, "And you obviously haven't seen her cells. Nothing like them has existed in this world before,"
"You'll have to experiment with that when you're on your leave, Charles Walker. You are in no state to serve any more time in the army, even as a medic"
A little later, they left. After a few minutes, Silvana felt a warm, trembling feeling, as if she was a melting block of ice. Soon, she could move her limbs again.
"They may be back soon." she said, quietly,
"And Charles is still alive."
.................