Parker’s heart stopped. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The world around him froze. A bolt of lightning hung still in the clouds above. Everything was still.

He felt like part of his soul had been ripped away. The lightning finished its streak and Parker appeared at Master Sora’s side in an instant, teleporting from where he’d been. So full of fear, that he couldn’t even take a moment to appreciate that he’d just teleported on purpose.

Master Sora let out a pained breath and grabbed for Parker’s hand. “Parker. You’re the one. The only one who can fix all of this. You have the power to save so many lives.”

Parker’s eyes filled with tears. “No. I can’t do this without you.”

A cough escaped Master Sora’s lips. “You’re the one with the power Parker. You have the ability to stop Lara from ever doing this,” he coughed again. “I’ve believed in you from the moment I met you. It’s all in here,” he said, pointing to his own heart.

The master’s eyes went wide and his pupils dilated. Parker could tell that the master had passed. The world froze for a moment again as Parker’s own world caved in around him. Rage began to fill every ounce of his being and he let out a scream loud enough to reach the heavens.

A burst of wind and fire ripped away from his body. The ground quaked beneath his feet; sharp pillars exploded from the earth all around. In an instant, he was standing over Terra’s quivering body.

“Why?” Parker asked, ready to kill Terra before he could bleed out. “Why did you attack us?” Parker spat out with more fury than he’d ever felt before.

The dying man glared up at him. “You all should die! You, the old man, Lara, all of you! If it weren’t for you, Hailee would still be here. Everyone I ever loved. Would. Still. Be. Here!”

“We’re trying to stop her!” Parker screamed back. Lightning flashed again. Thunder boomed louder than before.

“If you all just died, it would all be over.”

Before Parker could yell back at him again, Terra’s eyes went blank and his breathing stopped. Parker stared at his dead body lying before him for several moments before looking around. He could see Caleb crouched down on the ground near Master Sora. How would he explain this? It was his fault. He should’ve stopped Terra before he had the chance to do it.

He teleported to Caleb’s side, but he wasn’t looking down at Master Sora. Alexis was laying on the ground, burnt and bleeding. Her skin was charred, blood seeped out of numerous wounds and her breathing was labored.

Parker’s eyes went wide and he fell to his knees. “Lex…” He acted quickly and streamed the water from her side and began mimicking her movements from when she tried to heal Master Sora. The water began to glow faintly as it enveloped her wounds. The cuts and scrapes began to close up and the scorch marks began to fade. He continued the movements, trying to heal her for over twenty minutes.

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When he finally lost his stamina and the water poured over her body, most of her wounds were closed and the burns had been reduced significantly. Parker sat down next to her, watching her breathe slowly. Caleb was standing right next to him and put his hand on Parker’s shoulder.

“What happened to her?” Parker asked.

Caleb looked at him uneasily. “Well…” he stammered. “Your little explosion…”

Parker thought back to when Master Sora died, and wind and fire exploded from him. Had it really hurt her?

“She was just at the edge of it, luckily she wasn’t any closer. But it looks like it’s okay now so don’t panic.”

“Don’t panic?!” Parker yelled. “I just about killed the love of my life. You’re going to tell me not to panic?”

Caleb squeezed Parker’s shoulder but didn’t say anything. Several minutes passed in silence. Neither of them knew what to do next, but they both knew they had to wait for Alexis to wake up for they could go anywhere.

Several hours passed and the sky began to clear. Parker lay next to Alexis, hoping his company would help her somehow. Random animals roamed through, not many though. Caleb would be there for a while and then wander off and come back. He did this several times before Alexis finally started to wake up.

She blinked time and time again, staring up into the darkening sky. Turning her head to the side, she saw Parker lying on his side next to her, peacefully sleeping. Sitting up, she saw Caleb leaned up against a tree and it looked like he was dozing in and out, head nodding forward.

Parker sat up, bolt upright. He looked around, blinking rapidly. When he noticed Alexis sitting up, he threw his arms around her and squeezed her as hard as he could.

“Ow!” she yelped.

“Sorry!” Parker jumped. “I’m just… You were just…” he threw his arms around her again.

Caleb jerked awake at the commotion and made his way over to them, sitting down by Parker. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay… I still don’t exactly remember what happened.” She rolled her shoulder around a little bit. “Did I get hurt?”

“Terra dropped a massive pillar on you and Master Sora. You just got out of the way, but it crashed into your shoulder.”

Alexis grabbed at her shoulder a little more, remembering what happened. “How’s Master—” She had started looking around and stopped her sentence when she saw his body. Tears erupted from her eyes immediately and she began sobbing silently.

Parker, still holding onto her, squeezed tightly again. He could feel her sobs start to fade away after a few minutes. “What are we going to do?” she asked. Parker squeezed tighter, not sure what to tell her.

The rest of that night seemed to drag by. They didn’t have the energy to travel anywhere, and they still couldn’t decide what to do with Master Sora’s body. For the meantime, they covered it with leaves, mostly so they didn’t have to still see him, even if they knew he was there.

In the morning, the sun came up just like it did every day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and that made Parker’s heart race. How could the world have the audacity to be a bright, sunny day when his world was being turned upside down?

Parker rolled over and saw Alexis lying next to him, staring right into his eyes. “May I help you?” Parker asked in a mock butler voice.

“It’s just… this is the most peaceful I’ve seen you in ages. I miss it,” she said with a smile.

Parker’s lips curled up as he thought back to all of the peaceful times they had at school. Everything was so fantastic until Lara showed up. He’d give anything to be back to that.

Almost at the exact time her thought of her name, Lara appeared twenty feet away from them. The sudden presence of another person made Parker jump to his feet in an instant.