The lift was slow. It was always so fucking slow. How do they have the tech to fly around the world in a couple of hours but they can't make a lift that rises faster than an arthritic erection. Reese needed her. He had the spy cornered, she would help flush them out.

"Was somebody with him?" Lara asked the soldier beside her.

"A soldier." She answered. She was far from chatty.

"And he asked you to come get me?" Lara continued.

"Yes."

"Did he describe the spy?"

"No."

"Did he say how he found them? If it was who he thought it was?"

"We did not chat. He ordered me and I left."

"What's your name?"

"Lynn."

"Lynn what?" Lara asked. This soldier lacked the respect for command that most within Elysium had learnt from their first days.

"Lynn Stun, Corporal." Her accent was heavy. Lara assumed English to be a new language to her, she wrote her attitude off as unintentional miscommunication.

"Well then, Lynn. You ready for a fight?" Lara joked.

"What?" Lynn shifted away from Lara and took a less relaxed stance.

"With... The spy?" Lara explained.

"Oh, yes. I am ready." The woman responded. The lift reached the checkpoint and the door slid open. Light flooded in and Lara winced. The corporal had began marching forwards by the time Lara's eyes could adjust. There was something strange about her. Lara had never seen her before and Reese would have sent some kind of confirmation. Besides, there's no way Reese would have asked Lara away from Iris and Ade.

Lara took a step out of the lift. The power had only gone down in the research lab, in Raptor's deck. It had to be done intentionally. Lara looked a guard in the eyes and shrugged him over to her.

"Get some men behind me." She whispered to him before following Lynn forward.

They walked the halls together in awkward silence, a group of marines trailing behind them. Tension rose between Lara and Lynn. The strange woman walked with her head down and face obscured. She walked a full pace ahead of Lara. Her short raven hair was tightly held in a ponytail. Her uniform was dirtied and scuffed. She wore it awkwardly but correctly, as if she wore it straight from a catalogue. It had clearly never seen combat sharpening despite how dirtied it was. Her boots were the biggest giveaway. They were the same kind Reese wore. Stealth soles, nearly silent. Not the kind of boots given to a corporal. Lara knew that this was the spy. She could stop her here but she wouldn't win. If Reese was right, if this was Akemi... She had no chance. She needed an opportunity. Iris knew that she was heading to the hangar, she would tell Reese and he would head there.

Akemi would have traps. That would be the priority. Lara was fast, probably faster than Reese. She could dodge attacks for a while, wait till Reese arrived. The traps would get her though. She would need more men to buy her time to disarm the traps. Five marines behind her. Hundreds of infantrymen would pass her by en route. She needed to signal them. She looked at Lynn who didn't look back. She just kept marching.

"We need more men." Lara whispered to the soldier behind her. He nodded and whispered for his men to gather their forces.

By the time they arrived at the hangar, they had gathered at least twenty-five men. Mostly infantry and marines. Lynn waited, facing the door, as Lara caught up.

"Shall we begin?" Lynn asked.

"Dropping the act?" Lara laughed as she raised her rifle. All of the men around her did the same.

"I'm not great at the chatting part of spying. I'm much better at the assassination bit." The woman said, still facing the door.

The emergency shutters dropped behind them, trapping Lara and her soldiers in the airlock between the hangar and tower.

"I always heard you could do it all, Ms. Ito; I guess Reese just thinks too highly of you." Lara mocked.

"You know me?" The spy asked, still not turning to face her.

"Look me in the eyes and you might recognise me, babes."

The woman turned and for the first time, Lara could see her. Where she expected to see a grizzled old woman, she instead saw a young woman. Maybe a year or two younger than herself.

"You're not Akemi." Lara said in mumbled surprise.

"No." The girl responded.

"I thought I'd have to fight her. Lucky me, all I need to beat is the off brand." Lara said with a laugh. "Now, hands in the air."

A wicked grin beamed from the woman's cracked lips. A vicious taunt as he hands slowly raised. Two marines moved in to arrest her. "I will be too much for you, Black. Then I come for your pilot, then your brother. The rest will fall in the siege."

An explosion ripped through the back walls and half a dozen corpses fell from the scaffolding above her. The two marines were dead long before Lara could regain her composure. She was gone? Two corpses lay where she had stood. Lara stepped over one of the bodies that had dropped from the roof, it had been dead for a while. At least a day. All of them had. How had nobody noticed them?

"Four o'clo-" A marine called out. A hail of gunfire punctured the air before a single arrow punctured his lung. Arrows?

Two more arrows whistled out from two completely different directions. It was as though the spy had split herself up. The arrows landed safely for a moment. They had not been aimed at anyone.

"You missed!" A marine called out. As if on cue, the arrow exploded into a cloud of smoke. The soldiers sputtered and coughed. Their skin burned and reddened. Lara was protected under her mask and contact lenses but her hands still burnt under it. It was mustard gas. She had to get her men away from it. She pulled a small package from her belt, low explosives. Not enough to get through the wall. Maybe enough to take the door down? She walked over to the door but tripped over. A corpse's leg had snagged her own. She tried to free herself until she noticed the corpse jump up at her. It was the spy, wearing an all black helmet with a small red visor crossing around the front half. She had a dagger in hand and lunged towards Lara.

She fired off a round at the spy, it hit her firmly in the belly and held off her knife attack. Lara rolled away and raised her rifle to fire again. She was missing again.

Lara wouldn't be tricked twice. She enabled her thermal view and looked at the corpses. All stone cold. The spy didn't hide amongst them. She scanned the roof above and saw her climbing between darkened scaffoldings. Two shots rang out and two shots hit. Normally, she would assume three bullets would be enough to win the fight but after Reese's last mission - a mission he had yet to fully recover from - she doubted it would be that easy.

She had time enough to detonate the door. The gas flooded out and the soldiers followed soon after. The hangar was vast, open and a blatant trap. Lara pulled the soldiers to the far side of the hangar, enough space that she would have the advantage. A bullet is faster than an arrow, afterall. She lay down prone with her rifle aimed at the doorway. It should be the only way in or out of the hangar, but that wouldn't stop Lara so it won't stop this spy. She kept her weapon trained on the door but let her eyes scan the room. Her soldiers sat in recovery, washing their eyes out and panting for breath. This would be a one-on-one.

"Akemi wouldn't have used gas on a Mack!" Lara taunted. "Bit daft of you, to be honest!" She had no reply. She decided to keep prodding, see if she could find some weak point.

"It's almost embarrassing. Reese warned me about how dangerous she was. How she would kill me in seconds. Here I am... Thoroughly unkilled." An explosion rang out in the rafters. She still didn't appear. She must have blown down the wall above them. Lara swung her rifle high. She scanned the roof, first in thermal then in infrared. Nothing.

"What's your name again. Lynn?" She shouted. "Nah, that's not it. As far a fake names go, I usually pick Kelly Wu. Bland and easy to forget. It's okay... I know you're still very new at all this!" She prepared a smoke bomb in her off hand.

"Sergeant." A marine behind her coughed. Lara crawled backwards, never taking her eyes from the roof.

"Sergeant." He repeated. She stood beside him, her weapon raised.

"What?" She asked. A crookedly pointed finger raised to the sky was all the answer she would get. She followed the finger all the way up.

The arrow skirted too close. It took a chunk out of her forehead. The soldier had tried to warn her, he was too late. Three more arrows rained down from above. Lara dodged away. She rolled and sprung to create distance. By the time she could raise her rifle, the spy was already gone. She was sneaky, something would need to change if Lara was to have a chance. She wished she had brought Hou Yi with her instead of Reese's rifle. What could she do?

"What's the matter, babes? Don't want to fight?" Lara shouted.

"You talk too much." A voice from behind her whispered. Good. Lara dropped her smoke pellet and span around with her rifle held like a bat. She cut through the smoke and missed the assassin by a hair. A blade whirred out and Lara ducked under, climbing back up with a dig to the spy's ribs. She followed it up with a leg swipe but missed. Instead she felt a boot come down hard on her knee. The crunch and crack probably didn't bode well for the rest of the fight to come. The blade that slashed away at her jacket - and forearm - really didn't help. Nor did the arrow tip the spy swung towards her kidneys.

Lara managed to grab her arm in time, and twist it around to flip her. It bought maybe a second before the spy had her legs wrapped around Lara's head. She dragged Lara to the floor and started beating... and beating... and beating. Had it not been for alloy plate inside her mask, she'd not have withstood the onslaught of punches. She needed to fight on. Lara was taller and stronger than the spy, an advantage she had never had in a fight before. She finally had the chance to do to somebody else what she had suffered all her life. She grabbed the spy's arms and stood up. The spy kept herself wrapped around Lara as she continued letting off punch after punch. Lara jumped and flung herself to the ground, putting all of her weight onto the spy. She stood and did it again, and again. She almost had the advantage until the spy pulled her bow from her back and unfolded it into a staff. She stabbed the sharp tip of the staff into Lara's thigh before sweeping her feet out and stabbing an arrow through her hand. She rolled on top of Lara and pushed the staff against her windpipe and held it. Three; four; five seconds before Lara began to fade. The spy held her free hand down with her boot.

"Talk less; win more." The spy gloated with her helmeted face inches from Lara's.

"I've tried telling her." A man's voice rang out from afar. The spy span around to face him but was met by a bullet to the side of the head. She fell heavily to the ground but no blood seeped from her helmet. Lara gasped and dragged air down into her lungs. The ecstasy of oxygen left her barely awake on the floor.

Reese stepped over to her with slow, mocking steps. "Are you okay, kid?" He asked as he knelt beside her. Lara's throat was too sore to speak so instead she elected to give a thumbs up. "Good, I'll deal with her, you rest up." He said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Right, missus. You aren't Ito Akemi. So who the fuck are you?" He asked, looking to the spy as he rose to his feet. She writhed on the floor as she held her head. "And why the fuck are you pretending to be her?" He continued upon looking at her helmet and bow-staff.

"Not yet." She grunted as she dragged her head along the floor. "You're third." She spat.

"Somebody's a little enthusiastic. Can't take out one, let alone three." He mocked. "Come on, I've come all this way. Let's see how far from Akemi you really are."

"How do you know I'm not Akemi?" She said with a bloody laugh. Reese looked at this girl, struggling to pull her head from the ground and all of the soldiers around her that she had failed to kill.

"You've been fighting for ten minutes and nobody's dead. You aren't her." He laughed. "Now stand up and die."

She did. She lunged, blade in hand, at his throat with a rising spiral. The lack of effort it took Reese to grab the knife from her and throw her onto her back would have been enough to bring Lara to embarrassed tears. The spy didn't give in. She pulled yet another blade and swung and slashed. To be completely fair to the woman, she was skilled. She slashed with speed and grace. Her footwork was impeccable and her agility was a sight to behold. None of it mattered though. She was completely outclassed. Every slash met naught but air; every stab lead to a twisted arm and lost blade. She tried punching but quickly gave that up once Reese matched her hit for hit. She shifted towards grappling and again had to roll away once Reese picked her up and dropped her hard on the ground.

"I was going to call you a knock off, but this is just sad." He said as he ducked a punch. "Take this stupid ass mask off." He grabbed her by the throat. A firm right hand knocked the dark helm flying the air. Raven black hair tumbled into her face.

She was young. Nineteen or twenty. Short cut hair, dark eyes and a darker smile. It was Akemi... Though thirty years younger than she should have been. It dawned on him all too quickly. His heart sank and his spine froze. "Yua." He whispered. Her wide eyes betrayed the truth. He was right. This wasn't Ito Akemi. It was her daughter, his sister, Ito Yua. The babe he held in his arms, looking at him with raw murder in her eyes.

"It's you..." He whispered. "Kiddo... I'm- I'm so sorry." The rage boiled within her. Her eyes lit aflame and she pulled away from his grip.

"Third." She spat at his feet. Reese didn't move, he couldn't move. He hurt her. How could he hurt her? His baby sister. She lay in the palm of his hand; so fragile, so perfect and he hurt her...

"Where..." Reese started but couldn't finish. He wanted to know where she had been, where Akemi was. If Yua remembered him. He had so many questions and so many apologies, none came out. He stood frozen as she walked past him and disappeared into the dark. She was compromised and wouldn't come back...

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His breath was shaky, his eyes were heavy and a phantom pain ran across his cold right arm. He was frozen stock still with his gaze fixed on the air in which she had stood. Why hadn't he considered her? It seemed so obvious, Akemi would be too old. It had to be Yua from the start and yet he couldn't wrap his mind around it. The violence in her stance. The pained eyes and scarred hands. How could it be her?

"Reese." A breathless voice gasped through gritted teeth, a sputter of blood punctuating the plea.

He pulled himself together. Yua was gone, his sister needed his help; Lara needed his help. He ran to her and took her chest carrier and jacket off. He checked her over for wounds, of which he found plenty, and lay her in recovery.

"Look at me." He ordered. He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes and she blinked hard, though she looked straight through him.

"Marine!" He shouted. "Are your boys alright?"

He grunted as he lifted her over his shoulders. She slumped onto him and her hands fell limply towards the Earth.

"Sir, We'll survive! Take care of the Sergeant!" One marine called back. There was pride in his tone, respect. He beamed through his burns upon looking at Lara. Reese nodded and ran off without regard.

"Put her on the table." The nurse ordered. She got to work quickly, plugging Lara with drips and needles of all sorts and colours.

"Can we take her mask off?" The nurse asked.

"I will." Iris called from across the temporary medical floor. She shuffled breathlessly past corpses and those soon to be. The floor that previously been a small cinema was now covered in medical cots and respirators. The walls were lined with a blue plastic and the floor had been covered in a beige fabric matt. All were stained in blood.

"Reese!" Iris shouted. "Focus." She got to work, excusing the nurse to other patients. She pulled out a pair of scissors and tore away at Lara's left pant leg. A gaping, and bleeding, wound was revealed.

"Pressure." She said while she worked to remove Lara's mask. Reese held tightly at Lara's thigh, just above the wound. Iris fed a large tube down Lara's throat and attached a much smaller tube to her nose. "She isn't breathing." Iris coldly reported. "Tie off the leg. I need your help."

Reese removed one hand from her thigh and a spurt of blood sprayed a foot in the air.

"Iris." Reese worriedly said.

"I know. We will deal with the artery once she's breathing." She commanded.

Reese grabbed a thick band with his free hand and tied it off around her thigh. Once he was confident it stemmed the bleeding, he moved up towards Iris.

"Compressions." She said as she pulled out some surgery tools and sanitised her hands. Reese started pressing down on her chest. He counted out in his head along the beat of some old dance song. He kept going for what felt like an eternity. "Keep going." Iris told him as she plugged a bag of blood into the sergeant. He felt her ribs cave, crack and crunch beneath him. He saw blood spurt from her thigh as a nurse spread the wound open so Iris could pull the retracted artery out. She dug around for an eternity too long before she could pull it out and apply a small tube graft that linked the blood flow to another route around the leg. The leg would survive, now to make sure Lara would.

Iris filled Lara's forearm with insulating foam and wrapped it in bandages. She worked quickly, it would have been an incredible sight - had it not involved so much of his dying sister's blood and gore.

"Enough. Respirator is working." She said. Reese stepped back and wiped the blood from his hands. He looked at Lara, blood soaked and bruised, on the table. She shouldn't have been so easily beaten. Now wasn't the time for lectures, though. That would come later... When she survived.

The machine breathed for her. The bags gave her somebody else's blood to bleed. Most of her ribs were broken, her zygomatic bone had been fractured and her hand had a hole in it. A pretty impressive score for Raptor squad. He wiped the blood from her left arm to reveal the Raptor crest tattooed beneath all of the blood and dirt.

"Iris?" Reese whispered as he stood over Lara.

"She's okay. She needs surgery, blood, grafts and probably a few weeks bed rest before she can so much as consider walking again... But she's going to be okay" Iris told him without raising her head from her patient. The words filled him, consumed him. Relief, worry, anger, confusion. She would be okay. Normally had somebody hurt Lara like this, he would have already set out to kill them; but how could he now? Could he really avenge his sister by killing his other sister? He needed answers to a great many questions and there was one man alive who could answer to him. Hosun Akyama.

Reese stroked back the hair from his little sister's broken skull. "Where is Ade?" He asked.

"Safe." Iris answered. She placed a chart board at the foot of Lara's cot before walking over to Reese. She stood next to him, wordlessly. She stood so close he could feel the heat from her body on his own. "What happened?" She asked, taking her glove off and placing a hand on his cheek. He wanted to sink into it, into her... But he couldn't. He needed to find Hosun. He had a mission. He needed to leave her. It was always the hardest part.

"She lost." He answered as he turned away from Iris. She sighed and placed her head against his shoulder.

"That's not what i'm talking about, and you know it." She whispered without response. "It isn't like you to let somebody slip past, especially not after hurting one of us. W-" She hesitated in her question. It seemed she dreaded the answer she had not yet sought. "Was it her?" She asked. "Was it Akemi?"

"It's so much worse than that." He answered in hushed anger.

"Who?"

"It-" He choked. "She's... Yua."

Her face dropped. She hadn't known Akemi well, and had never actually met Yua, but she knew what family meant to Reese; what it would do to him to fight his own sister.

"Reese, I- Im-" She sputtered. She fell to silence and placed a hand on his shoulder. She dragged him away from the medical cot to face her. Her eyes welled up and sparkled like jade starlets. She gave him no chance of escape, rushing into his chest and - by her very existence - demanding to be held, to be hugged. Words could fail them, missions could tear them apart, but there - in each other's arms was the last sparkle of solace left in the war torn world. He wanted to stay there, even amongst the blood and death, for so long as she was in his arms. He wanted to stand in the single spot, smelling her hair and holding her waist.

The mission comes first.

He peeled away from her and left without another word. He didn't turn to see her stood bareface with her head in her hands. He had left by the time she turned around and got back to work.

"Bernie. Come in." Reese called through his comm as he roamed the halls. He had no response.

"Oyo! Reese, what happened with Lazza?" Archi asked over the slightly muffled comms. Reese helped a squad of engineers pull a girder along a corridor before responding with a pant.

"She's out of the fight." He responded. "Where's the commander?"

"Wait, what'd you mean 'outta the fight'? Is she okay?"

"She'll be alright, Archi." He harshly answered. "Where is Garrison?"

"Erm, well... Last I heard he was still in the war room."

"Thanks, Archi... She's in temp bay eight." Reese finished. He walked on through the walls. He hadn't realised just how far the assault had gotten. The initial assault hadn't broken past Styx yet, but artillery had been pelting the central structure. He watched medical transports cart the injured back from the wall by the dozen. A fleet of body bags scuttling back and forth. A fleet of fresh meat sent to be ground up at the walls flew just above.

He watched a transport of fresh recruits load up. Their fresh, young faces smiling and laughing on their ways to die. He recognised one of them. A young lad, he had turned seventeen three weeks past. His father ran a Korean food stall. He must have volunteered to fight. Reese pulled him from his squad. His armour was attached wrong. He restrapped his ballistic vest and fastened the helmet for the boy. He span the boy around and counted out his pack, he was missing water. "Take mine." Reese offered as he poured a bottle out into the boys wetpack. He noticed a name tag within the bag, Douggan. It wasn't his name, it must have belonged to the previous foolish little boy who decided to die in somebody else's war. Reese ripped the tag out and sent the lad off to his death.

A bead of sweat made its way down his dirtied face. He wiped it away with the back of his hand. Blood came off along with the sweat, he looked at his reflection in a pane of shattered glass. He was covered head to toe in blood. It must have been a sight to behold for the young boy he had just helped. A rare grin crept across his face at the thought of walking through the command center, stepping before the Arbiter, while drenched in blood. A morbid reminder for her.

The guards noted his putrid saturation as he entered the war room. They stood aside further than usual as if to avoid getting any on themselves. "Soldiers afraid of blood." Reese thought with a disappointed breath.

"Lieutenant?" The old man questioned from behind a grand strategy table. He looked Reese up and down with either concern or disgust. Half of the room turned to face him but few looked him in the eyes, and none looked for long.

"We found the spy, sir." He reported as he stepped deeper into the room. It was no less chaotic than earlier, the flimsy hanging light quaked back and forth under the rumbling of the exterior bombings.

Clerical staff ran frantic, passing off logistic sheets and log books. Drone crews coordinated strikes with shouted demands and ensigns pushed through orders to men on the ground. One soldier, an older woman, had stacked requisition orders and ammo dispatch requests so high she could no longer see over her desk.

Reese stood before the command table, a large holographic map of Elysium island. Across from him stood the Arbiter, stressing over battle plans. A wisp of grey hair had snuck from behind her mask. Beside her was a man in a colonel's uniform. Reese didn't recognise him but knew his insignia, a gecko without a tail. He was a member of Lizard battalion; a logistics unit that ferried munitions between squads and emplacements. A half dozen colonels and generals stood around the table, all looking to Garrison - a mere commander - for answers.

"W- was it her?" Garrison asked with an uncharacteristic timidity. His eyes scanned Reese up and down, noting the clear lack of wounds on his body that could have resulted in such blood loss.

"No, sir." Reese began. He considered explaining further but thought it to be a matter best discussed in private, or at least not mid battle meeting. "She got away." He admitted.

"And the blood?" The Arbiter asked, not looking up from the battle map.

"Sergeant Black's I'm afraid. She sustained some serious injuries during an ambush." He explained.

"But she is well?" The commanded asked. Reese nodded, his eyes newly fixed upon the battle map. He had noticed what was being depicted, a vast force so large it could scarcely be displayed. The majority of the forces hadn't yet deployed and were still aboard their ships. It seemed they had two jets for every footman in Elysium.

"At least we have confirmation that Akyama is in charge." Reese sighed. It seemed small comfort in the face of almost impossible odds. Still, Elysium was well protected. The ministry would need at least fifty times the Alliance forces to take the towers and without Akyama at the helm; a force that large would collapse in on itself. "The spy was definitely one of his." He explained.

"Good." The Arbiter nodded. "Then go kill him." She demanded in a nonchalant tone usually reserved for picking food from a menu.

"Thats... A tall order, Ma'am." Reese mumbled. He scanned over the map, searching desperately for some exploitable weakness in the base camp. His search seemed in vain and so he turned his gaze to Garrison in hopes he would have a plan.

"I had hoped you and Black would be able to infiltrate the backlined." Garrison groaned. His scarred hand rose to rub his grey haired temple as he wrapped his other arm across his chest. "Obviously not." He continued. "This will be a backlines hit-and-run, your speciality." He said turning to Reese. "See you any options?"

"Nothing jumps out at me, sir. Hosun is good at what he does." Reese admitted. He leant forward over the table and rotated the display. Veins popped out across his head and his jaw jutted out as he gritted and ground his teeth.

"Perhaps we can be of service?" A colonel suggested. His face was new but, again, his sigil wasn't. A yellow lion's paw on a diamond plaque. Lion squad. They were the best of the best, the Raptor squad of the Marines. A purely infantry unit, designed for attrition warfare. Where Raptor would hit hard and leave fast, Lion would push and gain ground through frontal assault. Where Raptor was the scalpel, Lion was the hammer.

"Your men are assigned to defence, Marty." Garrison corrected.

"This takes precedence." The Arbiter ordered. "Pull your men back from the wall, we will move the rear relief force to take their place."

"Yes, Ma'am." The colonel saluted. "Lieutenant, where do you want us?"

"How many strong are you?" Reese asked.

"Twenty riflemen, twenty grenadiers, ten heavy gunners, five medics, five marksmen and a interceptor class shuttle." He listed. It would be a good strike force but not nearly enough for an assault on the base. Reese considered deeply, his brows furrowed so deeply his eyes must have disappeared behind them.

Without Lara on overwatch, he would be vulnerable sneaking in. He could use Lion as a distraction and sneak in on Daphi, but it would be suicide for Lion. If Elysium could repurpose an artillery battery towards bombarding the outer wall of the base, Hosun would assign the majority of his guards there under the assumption that Reese would assault there. He would bomb the North wall, send Lion to assault from the East while he sneaks in through the south west. From there, luck would play a greater role than strategy.

He explained his plan to the strategists before him. They each volunteered some force to aid him. The logistics unit offered to spare some explosives, the naval unit offered to direct some artillery at the walls and the rest offered up some other sacrifice to him. He realised upon looking at their hopeful faces that they all believed him to be the last hope for the Alliance. They believed that should his mission fail, Elysium would be sure to fall. Where they right? Could it truly all fall onto him alone?

An abyss swallowed him, darkness consumed all light. He was falling and falling, yet he was stood there - calm and collected. He thanked the assembled council of leaders for their aid as thunder crackled in his ears. He leant over the table again as calmly as he could, he wanted them to think he was continuing his plan, he didn't want them to know his knees simply couldn't hold his weight anymore.

He had been against terrible odds more times than he could remember, and he had always won but this was different. If he had lost those battles, he would have lost his life and the world would move on. Now? If he failed... All of this would end. Matias Malthines would truly reign at last.

Could he do this alone? No. He simply couldn't, he had never done anything important alone. He always had his family; Serah, Lara, Desh, Cass, Daxdan, Jackie... Max. He hadn't faced so much as a fever without one of them by his side.

"Sir." Reese Began. "Is Iris assigned already?" The nearly pleading tone in his words must have betrayed his falsely calm demeanor.

"She is." The Arbiter injected coldly. "She and miss Tempish are to dedicate themselves to Apotheosis above all else."

"Then it will just be me and Archie?" Reese questioned. "Not much of a squad."

"You'll manage, son." Garrison affirmed. He was sincere, the man truly believed that Reese could shift the whole world off its axis should he desire. Somehow his faith in Reese only drew him further into his anxiety.

"Mission begins at midnight." The Arbiter declared. "Prepare."