Alex is dying,
Jack is crying,
Mike is gone,
What went wrong?

Our home is burnt,
For the evil we weren’t,
And our army is large,
But we’re not ready to charge.

I saw the uprising
That left me surmising.
What could be done
For the battle yet to be won?

Alex is dying,
Jack is crying,
Mike is gone,
What went wrong?

These words of what had happened recently went through my head as I watched Jack slide off Kellin’s back, taking Alex in his arms. Kellin immediately Shifted back and collapsed into unconsciousness from all the energy he had expended.

“What happened?” Vic immediately came to my side, flanked by Kally and Alan. There were two dozen other Shifters spread out in the field where we had met. It was a secret spot so far out of the Range that the Guardians never came here. Unfortunately, it was far out of any known house.

I gave them the quick low down on what had happened with Jack, Alex, and I. I didn’t sip a detail, from the streets to the crowds that had rebelled. In turn, Vic told me what had happened to the house.

“We saw the crowds that had escaped start coming our way. Suddenly, Guardians entered the house, knowing the location they were headed to. Alan was upstairs and warned us that the house was on fire. Kally and I grabbed some food, first aid kits, and water bottles from the downstairs hide out room before we ran, got the Shifters, and came here.” Vic summarized. Around us, the twenty four escapees were spread out around the large clearing. Trees crushed in as a barricade for the little meadow. Men and woman tended to the sick and injured, even if they may not have personally known one another. We were all united in this devastating war now.

“Let me go check on the two.” I told Vic, who stopped me just as I turned away.

“Mike, is he okay?” Vic asked. I closed my eyes. Oh yeah, Mikey.

“He was captured.” I told Vic, who just collapsed on the floor, stricken with the loss of his brother.

“He’s alive, but was taken.” I tried to console, but I had to go check with Jack and Alex first off. Although all my energy was depleted and I just wanted to sleep, I walked off to where I heard Jack’s sobs. He had brought Alex just into the tree line, sitting under a tall pine. Alex was writhing in pain and clutched Jack’s hand. I felt hot tears sting my eyes as I knelt beside my friends.

“Alex, it’ll be okay.” I whispered over and over. He had to live! HE HAD TO!

“Wyn….No….special bullet…not many….made….but, deadly.” Alex gasped and stared me in the eyes. He lay with his head propped on Jack’s jacket. Jack sobbed as I wrapped one shoulder around my friend with the dyed hair. He turned his head and sobbed into my shoulder.

I found myself in a position like this many years ago. When I was broken and in drowning in sorrow, Jack had been there to help me alongside Vic and Mike. Now it was my turn to help him.

“Alex, you’re strong. You can make it.” I patted his arm. Alex gasped out, feeling the agony.

“No….I designed it….it was my…undoing….Poison is rare, hard….to find….but, kills slowly….”Alex trailed off, taking deep gulps of air. Jack had wrapped a bandage around the wound to slow the blood flow, but I could see Alex was right. It wouldn’t be the blood loss, but the poison that killed him.

“There has to be a cure, right?” I asked him. Jack was still sobbing into my shoulder, clutching onto my own hoodie.

“No….not enough…research for….cure yet.” Alex finished. I sighed and took his hand from Jack’s, who shook like a leaf in a hurricane. I sighed, feeling the tears slip. This would’ve been me if it wasn’t for Alex’s heroic act.

“Wynter.” Alex whispered, trembling at the amount of energy it took to speak.

“Yes?”

“Thanks for…being my sister…to me. I love you…like family….even if…you hated me…at first.” Alex let out a cough while trying to laugh. Jack sobbed even harder.

“Aren’t sisters supposed to hate brothers?” I added, feeling the feelings flow like hot lava from the corners of my icy blue eyes. Alex wouldn’t die tonight, oh no. It would be slow and painfully tomorrow.

“That’s….true.” Alex whispered. I smiled, leaned down and hugged him. I quickly kissed him on the cheek, whispering a thanks for saving my life.

“I love you to, Alex. You’re like a brother for me. I hated you at first because I was afraid you were going to take Jack away from my side.” I slowly smirked. Alex squeezed my hand.

“Promise me.” He barely breathed. I leaned down to hear him.

“Anything.”

“Take care of Jack for me.” He sobbed. Yep, I just burst into tears. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Jack and Alex were supposed to be together. They were supposed to grow up with their Sempiternal Continuum bond. They hadn’t gone Rogue. No, they needed to be together forever.

I guess things don’t work out like they should.

“Always.” My voice broke through the tears. It was a promise that I would never break. Jack was just as much of a brother as Vic, Mikey, and Alex were. I’m not letting him go just yet. I ruffled Alex’s hair affectionately, whispering a goodbye as I hugged Jack, still broken in my shoulder, and left the two. I could hear a faint rustle as Jack curled up beside Alex.

“I want to hold you one last time.” Alex whispered to Jack. I had lingered just long enough to hear what they had to say.

“This isn’t the end.” Jack muttered back, curling up at Alex’s side.

“Of course not.” Alex murmured back an agreement. I made my leave back to the ring back to the broken group of Shifters lay.

The fragile, the broken, sit in circles and stay unspoken…

I saw everyone, but not a word was heard. No, not one person spoke. Not even the birds sang. I saw Vic in the corner, still broken on the ground. Alan came up next to me. Kally was helping to tend to the weak and wounded.

“Hey, Wyn….” Alan started off. I stopped walking towards the only Fuentes brother that was with me and looked at him, trying to rub the red sadness out of my eyes. Nothing seemed good anymore.

“What?” I asked him softly. He wrapped two arms around me in a tight hug before I could ask anything else.

“I’m sorry, but Ronnie dropped by to tell me the news. He just saw Austin being taken away in handcuffs by the Guardians. I don’t know why, but he’s gone.” Alan’s voice cracked. I clasped both hands around his shoulders and just let all the pain go.

Austin was taken.

Mike was captured.

Alex is dying.

Jack is broken.

There are two dozen people around me who are injured.

Vic is sobbing.

Alan is heartbroken.

I am shattered.

Hold me close, don’t let go, watch me burn…

As soon as Alan let me go, I walked over and dropped down to my knees next Vic, grasping my hair. How could this happen?! How could, in the span of an hour, I lose so many people?!

Vic wrapped a shoulder around my shoulder, pulling me into his chest as he leaned against a tree. A few people looked at us with sorrow filled faces before going to stare at the floor.

We all wondered the same thing: Why us?

I howled into Vic’s chest, screaming my lungs out with the agony. It felt like I was losing my parents all over again. My friend howled with me. I gripped his shirt in my hands, as if it was the only thing anchoring me to this world. There were no words, nothing that could describe this pain.

Seeing what had happened to our fellow Shifters, watching Alex get hit by that bullet and falling to the ground, seeing the man who was like a brother to me sob over his love who had died.

I couldn’t even imagine Jack’s pain. The Sempiternal Continuum bound two people like nothing else ever could. You could feel the pain they went through. You could tell, even from miles away, when the other was hurt or coming towards you.

What did it feel like when they died? Did they die as well? What happened to them? It was like half their heart was ripped out, like the world didn’t matter anymore. Did they go Rogue?

So at these questions, I leaned into Victor’s chest and cried for my friend and the pain he was going through. I let the tears run free for the slow death of someone who had changed my perspective of the Guardians. I howled for not having Austin by my side, for him being taken.

Vic screamed in anguish for losing his brother, not knowing if Mikey would live through it or not. What were they doing to Mike right now? Probably experimenting on him, tearing him to pieces, and killing him slowly.

So as the evening wore on and our voices wore out so we couldn’t so much as speak a word of tender kindness to each other, Vic held me in his arms as I laid my head on his chest, trying to remember the good old days.

But they were burned down with my last happiness in the Sanctuary.

I tried to remember what being a whole family was. Nothing seemed pure anymore. It was tainted by unclean war. I just wanted the loss to be over.

I broke down again as I wrapped my arms around Vic’s neck, burying my head into his chest. He sniffled and stroked my hair kindly, trying to make up for the man who was gone.

I could feel him. I could feel Austin somewhere deep in my heart. There was that hollow center in my chest where that could only be filled when he was in my side. He didn’t seem in pain or dying, just not….there.

As the moon rose over the horizon, I heard the soft snores of the escaped Shifters as they fell asleep, one by one. Vic kept rubbing my back, trying to lull me to sleep, but it wouldn’t come. My thoughts wandered too far and too dangerously.

Why us?

I got up as soon as Vic was asleep, sometime in the dead of night. Gently treading around the edge of the small open area, I went to where Jack and Alex were. Alex’s chest rose and fell in shallow breaths, but I knew that only one of them was asleep. Jack’s eyes watched me as I approached. Jack and Alex were tangled in one another’s arms, waiting it out until the end.

I sat down next to where Jack lay and he turned to look at me. I rubbed his hair with a fond smile. Jack patted my knee affectionately. Alex moaned and rolled over, still asleep.

I took Jack’s hand and pulled him up. He groaned, but followed me as I pulled him a little way away. His cheeks were tear stained and his eyes still red. Jack glanced back at Alex, still breathing.

“How are you doing?” I whispered to him. He shrugged, not trusting to speak. I could feel myself start to break as well. Instead, I just wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him into me. He instantly fractured.

Why must there be so many tears tonight? Why must there be so much sadness?

“I don’t want him to die.” Jack shook. I patted his back, calming him down.

“He’s strong. He might make it.” I responded. With a nod, Jack detached himself and instantly went back to Alex’s side, laying against the tree. Alex stirred, sleepily looking at his partner. Jack pulled the man into his arms, where he passed out with his head on his chest.

“Goodnight, boys.” I whispered. Jack waved his hand and went back to tenderly rubbing Alex’s back. I went back to my own boy, who had woken up and was looking around anxiously. I went back and we curled up.

It was almost like old times.

“Go to sleep, little Wyn.” Victor whispered to me. I grumbled an agreement and curled up in his arms.

I never wanted to wake up.

Notes

No words to describe this pain.

No.

Words.

I'm sorry, but I am literally sobbing when I wrote this chapter. Please....give me a moment....