Parker watched Lara look around and take in all of the destruction that surrounded them. He waited for her to say something and right when he thought she was going to start, she squinted passed him and vanished.

“Where’d she go?” Caleb yelled, looking around panicked.

They scanned the area and immediately saw her standing over Terra’s body. Parker stood there and watched as Lara raised a hand to her mouth. He’d seen several people do this before, typically before they were about to cry or throw up.

Caleb took a step in her direction, but Parker held out his hand in a gesture for him to stop. They stood and stared at her for a moment and then she vanished. “What now?” Caleb asked.

“Now, you join me,” Lara’s voice said from behind them.

Parker wasn’t liking how easily she could teleport herself now. How had she figured it out so quickly? “Why the hell would we join you?” Parker demanded, tired of her attempts.

“You’ve done it! You’ve done what I couldn’t! Tell me, how did you manage it?” Lara had a huge smile on her face as she spoke.

Parker noticed she was looking around still as she waited for their response. “Just leave us alone. Take the hint.”

“Where’s the old man?” she asked. The silence gave her her answer. “I’m… sorry. I know he meant a lot to you.”

Caleb’s head was about to explode. “What’s your deal?” he screamed. “One moment you hate us, the next you need our help, the next you hate us again, the next you want to help us, then you hate us again, now you want us to team up with you and you’re sorry for our loss? You make no sense!” The ground began to rumble around them, and small craters began to form. “What would you even need us for at this point?”

Parker couldn’t believe that Caleb was screaming at her like this. Before he could do something that he regretted, Parker grabbed his hand and Alexis’s and the next moment they were standing on the bridge to Lancastre.

Caleb looked around, registering what happened. “Why’d you do that?” he snapped at Parker.

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“To keep you from doing something you’d regret.”

Caleb laughed. “There’s literally nothing that I could do to her that I would regret.”

“You don’t mean that,” Alexis said.

Caleb stared right into her eyes. “Yes, I do. She took everything from me!”

“Not everything…” Alexis’s voice trailed off.

“You still have us,” Parker chimed in.

Caleb walked several paces away. After a moment he turned back around. “You know what I mean. It’s time she pays for what she’s done. We were heading to her to stop her anyways. I say we do it. That’s how we avenge Master Sora.”

“We’re not ready. Without Master Sora, I don’t think we’re even close to being ready.” Parker’s voice quivered as he talked. It was clear that he was terrified. Without Master Sora, it looked like he had no direction.

They sat around for a while in silence. Everyone knew what they needed to do but had no idea as to how to accomplish it.

“Why do you think she wanted us to join her?” Alexis asked. “I mean, Terra is dead. What else would she want us for?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Caleb asked. Parker and Alexis shook their heads, no. “We’re the only ones that can stop her. The only ones willing to stop her. If she can get us on her side, she has less to worry about. That’s why we have to do it. She’s got the rest of this world under her thumb!”

The day drug by slowly. They didn’t know what to do with their time yet. Caleb wanted to start training to get ready to stop Lara. Parker’s heart rate was through the roof, terrified that Lara was just going to appear again, and Alexis seemed to be in her own little world.

As the sun began to lower in the sky, Alexis sat down next to Parker by the waterfall. “I’m scared, Parker.”

Parker squeezed her hand. “Me too Lex…”

“What about Master Sora?” She asked. “He’s still back there.”

Parker hadn’t thought about that. How was he supposed to find that spot again? It’s not like there was a core for him to sense. He tried to picture the area they had been in as best as he could, but it was just a place. There wasn’t anything special about it. His mind went to Master Sora. Picturing him lying there under the leaves. It wasn’t right. He had to do something.

The next moment, he was standing over the pile of leaves and no one else was around. He reached out to sense any cores nearby, praying that Lara had left. After a minute, it seemed like he was in the clear.

Terra’s body lay on the ground where it had been. Parker half expected Lara to have taken it with her. Before taking Master Sora back to Lancastre, he decided to go and bury Terra’s body so that no one else had to happen upon it. That wasn’t fair to the stranger.

Parker stomped on the ground and a perfectly rectangular chunk of ground dropped below his body. Once his body was out of sight, Parker closed the hole off and went back to Master Sora’s side. Leaning down, he placed a hand on the master’s shoulder and teleported them back to Lancastre.