Sister's Destiny

Hawthorne

Four days since the incident and we still didn't find Houka. We had called for her and searched every place we could, but came up with nothing in the end. Zivaya had since lightened up, but still wasn't as lively and wild as she normally was. We had traveled through the woods for the past two days. Up ahead I saw a falcon sitting calmly on the top of a large boulder. It was directly facing the three of us, but only I noticed it. We walked closer to it and it let out a call and then flew ahead. I was worried about food and water, but then Zivaya jumped.

"Look!" She said pointing forward. It took me a moment, but then I saw a pole sticking up from behind a large pile of rocks. There was a torn red cloth at the top. We walked up to the rocks.

Below the rocks there were white sheets with metal boxes on top of them. The pole we noticed had a few satellite dishes on it. There were life preservers, old torn cloth, sleeping bags with holes and blood stains on them, radio transmission machines, discarded canisters, and loads of other stuff. The most noticeable and most upsetting thing were the rotting bodies of lightless Guardians. They surprisingly had no stench, but the flies and maggots covering the corpses were clearly visible.

"These Guardians...." Gigani began. "They had no chance without their powers.."

"So if we die..." Zivaya began.

"I can't revive you..." Gigani said softly.

There was a silence for a short time. The only sounds were the peaceful elegance of nature.

"Then we just try our best not to. People have been doing that for centuries. Just because we don't have the Light, doesn't mean we're defensless. Look! Here are some weapons." I said. I gestured to a small rack. It had fallen on its side, but it still was holding weapons. I searched myself to get rid of the unecessary empty weapons. I felt something in the belt of my cloak. I pulled out the special dagger I had found in that armory. God, that felt like ages ago. I hid it before Zivaya or Gigani could see. I picked up a submachine gun that was laying on an orange tarp. Zivaya had found a Pariah and loaded it. We then heard rustling in the nearby shrubbery. We quickly turned in the direction of the rustling pointing our weapons. We then saw Houka emerge from behind a tree. She was badly beaten, her hair was a mess, and the arm plating from her left arm was gone revealing a dark red sleeve. I immediately dropped my weapon and ran up to her, squeezing her in a tight embrace. I felt my nose burn slightly and my eyes fill with tears as Zivaya ran up hugging Houka also. Houka said nothing, but I could hear her crying and could feel the jerks of her breathing that indicated she was crying. I tried to say something, but couldn't over the wailing of my sisters. We just stood there crying. 

"Um...Houka?" Gigani asked after a while.

Houka turned to face her as she wiped tears away. She had a full smile on her face.

"Where's.....Hovo...?" Gigani asked. She sounded as if she was going to cry, even though she couldn't.

Houka's happy expression left as fast as a bolt of lightning. I suddenly felt the previous joy leave and it felt sickening. She looked to the side and motioned for all of us to follow her. She led us deeper into the woods. Finally we reached an area bare of grass and bushes. I looked on the ground and saw Houka's missing arm plating sticking from the ground. There was a lump underneath the dirt and I slowly realized what the lump was.

"No....please..." Zivaya said. I could see the tears forming in her eyes and felt my own eyes fill with tears.

"How....just...how..?" I managed to choke out the words.

"I initially didn't survive the fall and died....Hovo used every ounce of his life force....and most of his physicial self.....to...revive me for the last time. When I woke up, his orb shattered and I couldn't find the other half of it..." Houka said. She looked up at Zivaya. "Where's....Nycta?" She asked. She almost sounded afraid. Zivaya looked away slowly and then reached into her pocket. She slowly pulled her hand out and showed Nycta's orb to Houka. Houka looked down.