"A what now!?" The colonel couldn't hold his excitement and rushed out of the tent. He gazed towards the direction the soldier pointed out, but of course he was unable to see anything. With a swift movement he took the binoculars from the soldier's hands and looked again.

A beautiful, majestic, huge zeppelin was indeed on its way towards them. The only problem was that it was too far away and it was impossible to tell if it would arrive before the creature did.

"Cancel the evacuation plan, we'll wait for the zeppelin." Ethan said with his imperturbable smile. He knew that waiting for the zeppelin was the same thing as giving up, not only they might arrive late, but he also didn't know their purpose or if they were willing to help.

One thing he knew, though, was that the only corporation that could have a zeppelin nearby was the Mapple company and his father, Matt Jacobs, was good friends with some of the higher ups in said company.

As time passed, Uriel was able to notice a change in the soldiers' attitude. They were moving quickly from side to side and they were breaking camp too soon. For a minute he thought that maybe they intended to move during the night, but that wouldn't make any sense.

He tried to peek here and there, but he wasn't able to gather any information and even Tina was starting to worry because no one was saying anything.

At last, when the sun was preparing to hide and give way to a beautiful starry night, a soldier came looking for Tina.

"Miss Tina Celes?"

"Yes, that's me." She replied quickly.

"Colonel Windfire sent me to look for you, if you are so kind as to follow me..."

"I refuse, I won't go anywhere without Uri."

"I can't make such a decision, my job is to take you to your unit, but he may come along and then join you if the colonel allows it."

When they reached the 'elite' unit comprised of the richest students and the strongest soldiers, colonel Ethan greeted them with a kind smile.

"Where have you been Tina? I was worried sick!" He smiled.

"I've been with my... uh... friend, can he join our unit?" she said, hesitating on how should he introduce Uriel to the colonel.

"I'm sorry Tina, but he can't join this unit. If I let him, what would stop the rest from complaining?" Ethan squinted his eyes amiably and spoke in a sweet condescending voice, like a father speaking to a child.

"Then I'm not joining you either, I'll be with him." She pouted, much like a child being scolded by her father.

"Come on brother, can't you make an exception? he is my friend and it will make Tina and me happy if he joins this unit." Said mark thinking that the old plan of sending the weaker ones first was still in action, with the only intention of delaying Uriel's return to the city. What he didn't know, though, was that not only no one was going to be sent back first, but they were in a desperate position where not even his brother knew if they could survive.

Ethan's mind was elsewhere, he was too worried about his current predicament to care about stuff like that.

"Not a chance, I can't let someone, who I don't know anything about, join this group." Even if it was a weak student, he couldn't let anyone who didn't belong to the elite of society join his unit. There were several secrets that only rich families would pass on to their families and it was his duty and on his best interest as well, to keep them a secret.

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Although Uriel hated Mark's guts, resented Tina and distrusted the handsome soldier in front of him, he would have been relieved if he was allowed to join them. He actually thought that Mark was really trying to put a good word for him out of good will.

If anyone was to survive that night it was precisely that unit. Not even the army would be able to withstand the fallout that would follow after the deaths of so many rich students, especially Tina's.

"Uri... I'm sorry, I really tried..." Tina apologized with a dejected look on her face as Uriel was being escorted towards the group of the weaker students by two corporals.

Once they were at a distance, one of the soldiers said loudly under his mask.

"It's fine, I'll take it from here." The other soldier shrugged and left while the first one grabbed Uriel by the arm and took him to a secluded place.

"What's going on? Where are you taking me?" Uriel was starting to fear that he would be executed for some unknown reason as the corporal led him as far to the crowd as possible.

'Is it going to be like one of those old movies where they take people into the desert and put a bullet through their heads?' His imagination ran wild as he struggled to release himself from the soldier's iron grip.

"Shush! don't you recognize me?" The corporal took off her mask revealing her shapely face and her real voice.

"You- You are the corporal from miss Dragonfang's unit!"

"I am, now stop struggling and follow me."

Uriel nodded in silence and did as commanded. Although they haven't spoken directly and didn't even know the color of her hair until now, which was dark purple, he felt he could trust her, at least more than he could trust the other soldiers.

After a couple minutes Uriel noticed that a group of people was waiting for him.

"Uriel, you're finally here, where have you been?" Luna asked.

"Hey! don't you remember his name is Sage now?" Medusa chuckled.

It was his unit, for some reason Uriel couldn't understand they were all reunited far from the rest of the students and the army alike, but he had a hunch that lieutenant Dragonfang would soon change that.

"Listen, I'll tell you everything and then you can do whatever you want, but there's not much time so please don't interrupt me." She said hurriedly.

She proceeded to tell them about the giant creature that was cutting off their path and colonel Windfire's plan to abandon the weaker students. Even those who had a strong trait were taken aback by her words and couldn't get themselves to believe that the army would go as far as using students as cannon fodder.

"This can't be real, it's a lie, the army would never do something like that!" Medusa cried, but Sam barged in.

"I- I don't know about the army's plan, but I saw the creature with my own two eyes, I saw it..."

"Can you describe it? the creature I mean." Luna said completely unfazed by the awful news she just received and excited about the possibility of an unknown creature.

"It was humongous, it looked dreadful, it's the scariest thing I've ever seen in my entire life."

"No, I mean, what did it look like... as in, how many legs, does it have wings? that sort of description."

"I can't be too sure, I just acquired my trait when I saw it and it was so far away that finding it again will be too difficult to me. I can either have a wide field of view or a long distance view, not both at the same time." Sam replied.

"Guys, you're missing the point entirely, the army wanted to send us to our deaths!" The geeky student shouted. "How can you be so calm?"

"Calm? who is calm? we just found out we're all going to die and there's nothing we can do about it!" The cute girl cried.

"There's something I still don't understand, if what miss Dragonfang says it's true, why did they wait so long before sending us? I mean, wouldn't it be better for them to send the weaker students right away?" Uriel asked.

"Not really" Miss Dragonfang shook her head. "They can't risk some of the students spotting the beast beforehand, that's why they'll send the first group once the sun sets, that way by the time the students see the creature it'll be too late for them..."

"Wow... that's cruel..." Luna muttered.

"Why are you telling us all this? Didn't you say that they forbade soldiers from telling the students about the plan?" Uriel wasn't satisfied yet, he needed to get all the information he could before making a decision on whether he should run away or return to the camp and beg to join Tina's unit.

It would be a hard hit on his pride, but what good is pride if he dies to preserve it?

"Because I don't care about the army anymore and it doesn't matter what I do, I'll probably be judged and found guilty anyways. Our unit lost more than half of our students, I killed one with my own hands, she was a good girl that deserved better, but she didn't listen to me... I didn't know if she was the shapeshifter." Lieutenant Dragonfang took a pause to look at her hands as if they were stained with something only she could see. "There's also the thing about the zeppelin..." She continued.