"Sorry," I said.

I'd just let got of the contents of my stomach in a rather spectacular fashion, all down Viktor's back.

"I have had worse," he said, continuing his sprint. "Feeling better?"

"Actually, yeah." I realized that the dizziness had subsided substantially. The world had stopped spinning, which was good, because I wanted to get off that awful ride.

"Now where?" Viktor asked, swiveling his head around next to me.

"I'd be able to tell you better if I could see where we are going." He'd had me slung over his back like a bag of rice. The running had hammered my ribs and stomach against his shoulder, which hadn't helped the nausea at all.

"Oh, right." He replied, swapping me around, setting me on top of his shoulder. It felt oddly familiar sitting perched up there like a bird, for some reason.

Now that I was facing the right way, I pointed, and he sped up his long strides again. It was like riding a freight train, our momentum felt unstoppable. Together, we ran past the clusters of people that had gathered to look at the towering phenomenon in the sky. Between the rumbling and the fact that it split the very heavens, it was impossible to miss and more and more people had gathered to watch the spectacle.

The range of reactions was interesting to see. I pointed as we rounded a corner, and saw a man on the side of the road curled into a fetal position, howling with sobs about how the 'end of the world was here'. His words laid a distinct chill into my soul - what would happen when that monstrosity got here? The sheer size meant that it was very difficult to gauge exactly how far away it was, but it could't be that far. You could feel the static and the earth shaking in a very direct manner.

If I squinted just right, I swore I could see debris on the edge of the horizon swirling in the air, but it was hard to tell against the nothingness that was inside that vast tear in reality.

We came around the last corner, just in time to see that the Umbral Veil had beat us to the punch. I could see them dragging Liam, who was throwing a capital tantrum if I'd ever seen one. Gran and Alessa were being led away from the door, the latter with her face a mess of tears, like she'd been crying for hours, and the former a picture of silent defiance, her spine straight as an arrow, her hands bound in front of her.

At this sight, I felt an unbridled anger welling up inside of me - who the hell did these bastards think they were, stealing my family!? Thoughts flew through my mind, before I settled on the best one. "Throw me!" I shouted at Viktor.

A man of action, the big guy didn't have to told twice. I felt a welling of Nebula in his arms, and then was I hurtled forward at a frankly obscene speed for a human to travel without a vehicle. My sluggish Streams spun up almost instantly, my core exploding with a violent outflow as an entire swarm of angry Motes spun into existence, all of them seemingly out for the same vengeance I was.

A wave of power blasted out of me as I flew, collecting in front of my fist as I swung it forward at the tall man in the lead. His head was just turning towards the prior sound of my shout at Viktor. He was off to my left, but that didn't matter as tall wave of raw destruction hurtled out of my swing and blasted towards him, ripping a long furrow into the ground in its wake. I looked away before it even reached the target and focused on the second man, who was fighting with Liam and was about to find out the meaning of mess around and find out.

I tucked into a roll as I hit the ground, ignoring the scraping feeling on my back as I sprung back out of it into a kick directed squarely at his midsection. It landed with all the force of one of Viktor's punches, folding him in half like a piece of paper and blasting him backwards into the wall of rubble and refuse behind him, embedding him so deeply I doubted he'd ever see the light of day again.

I knew from the first glance that there were more, so I spun around, hands out wide, bent into claws like a feral animal looking to tear apart anything that was near. A pulse of Nebula flew out from my feet, kicking up the loose dust and dirt, squeezing into every space. The feelings poured back into me in a tidal wave of noise and vibrations.

"Found you," I said, whirling around. I'd felt a distinct cluster of consciousness from behind a chunk of concrete, a broken down roadblock that had just been left there by someone too lazy to take it back. I bounded over the obstruction and crashed my knees into the chest of the hapless lackey behind it, knocking him flat into the ground, hearing the crunch of either his ribs or his sternum in the process. He'd have screamed out at the pain, but I recalled Viktor's words and silenced him by bringing down both fists directly on top of his nose, using enough Nebula in the process to blast the ground behind his skull away.

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Using the hit as a springboard, I bounded to my feet, searching for the last one I knew was there, only to see him hanging limply inside Viktor's grip. The big man tossed him away like the trash he was and only then did my anger start to subside a bit. I felt the Nebula and Motes sway around inside me, like they were debating with each other with the best course of action. The Streams flowing in my legs and arms were still whooshing through the pathways I'd made for them, the noise of thundering water in my ears from their exuberant flow.

Liam was still standing where I'd left him, his little fist clenched, his whole body shaking. I walked up to him from behind, wanting to console him. I was reaching out to him, words of apology on my lips, when he spun around to face me.

"That. Was. So. Fucking. Awesome!!"

I was completely speechless.

"Language." Came Gran's very calm and quiet voice from behind the two of us, and I had to suppress a giggle as I watched all the color drain out of Liam's face. I mouthed "oops", to him, and he nodded with just his eyes, somehow.

I turned to Gran as the my Core, Motes, and Nebula concluded their deliberations, and my power winked out like a snuffed candle. Suddenly it was very hard to stand, and Gran caught me in a hug I needed for reasons other than stability. It had been rough watching my family put in harm's way like that.

"Thanks Gran," I said.

She patted me on the back. I went to pull away, but she held me tight. "I don't know how to say this to you, dear..." she said, with a sigh so deep that I felt in my bones.

"Your mom is no longer with us."

She looked very peaceful, lying in her bed.

Gran had told me that she'd never woken up, she'd just silently passed in her sleep. They'd been seated around the table when the Umbral Veil broke in - just her and Alessa, discussing how to tell Liam and I while my sister cried, which explained her teary face I'd seen earlier.

The men from the Veil had come armed, so they hadn't put up any resistance, except Liam. He had completely freaked out when he saw the tear in the sky, and screamed like a banshee. Apparently they'd wanted my family alive, although they had been debating what to do with Liam when I'd shown up. Fortuitously, Liam's fit had preoccupied them long enough for Viktor and I to arrive.

Speaking of my brother, he was still practically vibrating with excitement. We'd left him in the kitchen. I'd told him I'd show him my 'magic fire' - as he called it - if he sat quietly. Viktor had stayed outside the door, standing guard.

Well, that and he literally would not fit into the house.

The three of us had come to the conclusion that we'd wait for later to let Liam know. His mother was more of an abstract concept for him at this point, as she so rarely made her presence known. The rest of us would pay our last respects, choosing to leave her in the space she'd spent so much of her life in as of late.

The room itself was the largest in the small house, but that didn't mean much. It was still a very cramped four walls to keep yourself inside all the time. She'd adorned every nook and cranny of the room with little trinkets - pieces of things Alessa and I had made as children, mementos from Grandpa and Gran, and a whole corner of the space dedicated to my father, all surrounding a picture of him he'd been fortunate enough to have made for work.

I imagined that if the rest of us had pictures, we'd be there too, but this was the first time I'd seen one in years. I'd known of his, as it was a big deal when I was little, but I will admit I had totally forgotten it still existed.

I reached out and carefully took the picture from my mother's 'shrine'. In it, my father was smiling, and I felt my heart lift a little looking into his green eyes, as if he'd somehow reached across the intervening years to leave something for me.

I held my hand out to hand the picture to Alessa, but she waved it away, giving me a teary smile that somehow made her look even more beautiful than normal. I tucked the photo away inside my jacket carefully, making sure not to crease it.

I leaned over my mother and closed my eyes, going in to give her one last kiss on the forehead. She'd been gone several hours at this point, so I was expecting a cold, lifeless skin to meet my lips. Instead I got a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Mer merrr… purred Steeve, having somehow interposed herself between me and my mom. I was about to be frustrated with her when I saw her face. Her wide eyes seemed to have a boundless sorrow in them. Startled, I remembered that she was bound to my soul somehow, and was therefore feeling all I felt.

The delicate fox was faintly glowing as she bent her little snout down to my mother's forehead and gently booped her nose on it, transferring my kiss to my mom, allowing me the privilege of a final memory of love untainted by the chill of death.

The glow left Steeve's body and entered my mother's as an explosion of tiny lights filled the space, sparkling and shimmering, filling up my sight as I realized these were a form of my Motes - only tiny, soft, and fuzzy, just like Steeve herself.

"Thank you," I murmured, closing my eyes as tears rolled down my cheeks. When I opened them again, nothing remained on the bed but a faint shimmer of light.

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