The extraction teams watch as wave two, their friends and fellow residents of Lamar, descend into the chaos of battle. Stan considers carefully the scene before him, watching the ebb and flow of the insanity that is life and death in war trying to find some tactical edge not seen by others.
Pius, his eyes never having left the Justicar once again speaks, “I think it would be prudent to pull His Grace out now.”

“He’s very near the front… we’d have to fight our way through and what about all the dying we’d pass to get to him. No. Let’s begin our work and when we get to him, we’ll help him just like the others.” Otto says, not angry but assertive as his station demands of him.

“I agree with Otto, the suffering is equal across the battlefield. Status matters little here,” Sister Sophia voices, coming to stand in support of Otto.

“I don’t think the choice to get him out of there is about Status. If we can get him on his feet again, and he clearly is alive… I can see that from here, he could help turn the tide of the battle back to our favor. I mean, look how Morgan is fighting!” Sabboth adds.

Stan’s eyes narrow as he catches sight of something important but he doesn’t speak up at first, instead he simply walks to the edge of the ‘secure’ area… making sure his eyes aren’t playing tricks on him.

“We’re heading out.” Tamas says. “Let’s get started… the longer we talk about what we’re doing, the more are dying.” Tsuritsa nods and joins her brother in leaving to retrieve the dying.

“Shall we?” Otto says to the Sister beside him and the two also head into the din of battle determined to make a difference for those who still scream for help and those who can do so no longer.

Stan turns then to the three remaining kindred: Pius, Sabboth and Massimo. “And then there were four. Gentlemen?” Stan asks the unspoken question, looking back to the line on the battlefield that his mind had drawn out for him.

Massimo shrugs and jokes. “I’ve always wanted to save a Justicar.”

“I’m in.” Sabboth chimes in.

Pius’ only answer is to stride past Stan, determined to get to the Justicar no matter what stands in their way.


+++


Tamas rises from the ground wiping ash from his mouth and smiles at his sister. Tsurita watches from a short distance away, her hand on something in her pocket. He smiles at her and while a part of her can’t help but smile at him in return, other parts of her have begun to question… to reason… to prepare for what was to come next. She longed to tell him the truth, to tell him of her sacrifice and how in the end it would all be okay but that would rob her of the power to make it true.

“Vengeance.” Tamas breathes. Tsuritsa nods but does not reply, somberly following behind her brother as he seeks out another helpless soul to “save.”



+++


Cicero rages inside his own form but try as he might, nothing seems to break him free of the creature’s hold and Gangrel after Gangrel find their end under his might. Twice now he’d fed on the men who he’d come here to call comrades only to burn through their sweet vitae in the slaughter of others.

For a moment the world seems to slow to a crawl and he can take in the events about him and it’s then that he clearly see’s a teenage girl striding confidently towards him, emotionless eyes transfixed on him, an archaic looking bow slung over her shoulder.

He knows how this should end, again, hope springs to life in him that somehow he’ll be stopped. It’s only as the girl speaks softly to him that he realizes the din of battle has faded from his hearing, “This will hurt.” She says frankly, balling her fist and pulling back her hand.

Fire wreathed hands, his own, also rise and the titans collide into one another. The teen is thrown backwards but so is Cicero’s already wounded form. As pain explodes through his whole skeletal frame his mind finds a renewed strength to fight back. Hissing he leaps to his feet, the immediate world around him … still, unmoving, unnaturally frozen – all except the teen and himself.

“Another time this would have ended far differently, Prince… but things are…” she chooses her words carefully. “Changing …again.” She nods as if deciding that this is an appropriate answer. Looking across the battlefield she finds the Ravnos and she raises her hand slowly, as if there was no rush at all, “Her. Get her to the beast… she alone has the power to stop it for good.”

Cicero’s eyes lock on the Ravnos.

“Perhaps we’ve both learned a lesson about judging people based on their blood… yes, son of Troile?” The girl all but spits the name.

It’s then that everything comes to life once more. Cicero only spends an instant looking for the mysterious teen that had disappeared before his very eyes before he breaks into a run… this time, his legs under his own command.


+++


“Then for as long as you walk the earth, you and your children will fear the dawn, and the suns rays will seek to burn you like…” Pius intoned, preparing his most vicious attack on the gangrel who was relentless in trying to kill them. The Justicar was in sight of them now. He would not be stopped!

A set of claws burst forth from the thing’s chest then and the gangrel fell off Stan’s hand.
“Well,” Massimo quipped “… or you could do that.”

The group ran up to Xavier who was dragging himself with a twisted arm off the battlefield. Stan could see the insanity swirling around him as Pius and he reached out to the broken man. Yes, Xavier saw with a new clarity now… but it would not serve them, even if they could fix what the thing had done. His arm, shoulder, all of it was uselessly twisted backwards and beyond that there were wounds that only a great deal of blood would heal.

The man gibbered, “Antediluvian…”

Sabboth shook his head. “We need to hide. We can’t fight our way back through bringing him with us.”

“Stay close to me.” Stan commanded. “Don’t let your guard down.”

With that the group disappeared from sight.