One day to NovaTopia

I throw myself at Lara to shield her from the blast. She has the same idea, and we both leap towards each other, collide, and roll to the back of the elevator. The metal floor groans under us. Outside, the explosion continues. I can feel the scorching heat on my back. It isn't quite as hot as it was next to Lara a while ago, though.

Squinting, I peer out of the elevator.

Fighter jets swarm the sky, and flames are erupting everywhere. I see a few NovaTopian soldiers stomping around and shooting at people. There are screams, crumbling buildings, and bloodied bodies. My chest tightens.

"We need to get out of here," I say.

"Should we go back underground?" Lara suggests.

"Yes, but let's get out of this elevator first."

The metal box is rocking and creaking loudly as we stumble out of it. We rush into the building, away from the chaos outside. I don't see any stairs to go underground, but a few armed GaiaTopian soldiers—or Guards, as Lara previously mentioned—are running out. I wonder if they are getting their weapons from a storage room somewhere. The Piranhas' headquarters always had one of those in case we needed to grab something to defend ourselves from a raid.

After a few minutes of fruitless searching for stairs or storage rooms, we run into Arthur and his reinforcements. Their armor and firearms are now upgraded, all ready to fight the NovaTopian soldiers.

Arthur freezes to a halt when he sees us.

"Did you send them?" he barks.

"What? No!" Lara protests.

"Did you?" I snap. "What did you do to get Liam to come here just now? Which of my comm devices did you press?"

He frowns. "What do you mean? You said they were both his."

Frustration fills me. So GaiaTopia eavesdropped on what I said to Lara about these devices, told Arthur, and caused this whole mess. "Well, I lied. One of them notified another NovaTopian General."

"General Caelum?" Lara guesses.

"Yes," I grumble, annoyed at both Arthur and myself for bringing up my betrayal again.

Arthur is also fuming, but another detonation rattles the building, and we stop arguing. He roars an order for his people to go to their posts and turns to us. "Go straight down this hallway and turn left. You should see a large storage room. Put on some armor and grab a weapon. Help us buy time so we can evacuate the civilians in the area."

That is a reminder that GaiaTopia was more than Arthur spying on us and trying to capture Liam. There are innocent people to protect. I look at Lara, and we nod at each other. We will be on GaiaTopia's side for this moment. For the civilians.

We rush to the storage room. The stairs we were looking for are next to it, and a few GaiaTopian Guards are leading groups of civilians down the steps.

I put on a bulletproof vest and grab a rifle. Lara does the same. Long-ranged weapons are her specialty, after all. Our eyes meet, and she raises her rifle to clank mine. It feels as if we are back to our practice days, trying to beat each other at the shooting range. My lips curl at that memory.

And then we're off, dashing out of the building. NovaTopia has already done a great deal of damage to the area, but the debris everywhere gives us sufficient cover as we advance, our backs to each other.

I take out a few soldiers easily. Lara is doing well too, from the sound of it. I glance back, and I notice the soldiers she sniped are all groaning on the ground, shot in the legs, incapacitated but not dead. Not yet, at least.

"You're still so soft," I tease, but a knot of shame twists in my gut. And something warmer, too. It's relief—and a little bit of pride—that even after everything that happened, Lara is still the person that I know and love.

"Shut up," she grumbles, "and don't look back at me. Focus on your targets."

When I return to my position, I adjust my aim to the limbs as well.

NovaTopia must have realized there are two great shots here, and soon, there are no more soldiers in the vicinity. Instead, fighter jets flock above us. We evacuate, letting GaiaTopia's planes handle them.

We are halfway back to the GaiaTopia Legwork's building when Lara screams behind me.

"Get out of there!"

I turn to see a young boy, who couldn't be older than ten, picking up something from the ground, oblivious to the war raging above him. He looks up at us questioningly.

Lara lets out an exasperated sigh. She leaves our cover and runs to the boy before I can stop her.

"Lara!" I yell, but the blast makes me look away.

When the heat subsides and the dust clears, I blink my eyes and see Lara curled up into a ball. Soot covers her, and smoke rises from her skin. Then, I see the boy enveloped in her embrace, shaken but safe. Lara stands, grabs his hand, and runs towards me.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

Her skin is still smoking, and most of the clothes under her bulletproof vest—it's fireproof too, it seems—are scorched, but she is smiling, so radiant, so full of life.

"I'm not sure why, but I think I still have General Caelum's Gift, so I can absorb these blasts," she explains. "So I'm gonna use this Gift to protect the people here. In the mean time, you should get him underground!"

I suspected she still has General Caelum's Gift with her flaming hands from when she argued with Arthuer, but if she can absorb the blasts, she has the Gift in almost full effect. It has been more than a week since the Gift transfer process though, so the nanoids should have all been degraded by now. Maybe she went through multiple Gift transfer processes?

Even with the Gift, her plan still sounds dangerous, but once again, she runs off before I can stop her.

I sigh and look at the boy. He is trembling with fear and clutching something in his hand. It's the toy he risked his life to retrieve. A knitted lizard doll. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and lead him back to GaiaTopia's building.

The storage room is empty now. Great, I won't be able to restock my ammunition. As I lead the boy to the stairs next to the room, we almost trip over the bodies sprawled on the ground. Dread washes over me. Did NovaTopia find out about GaiaTopia's underground lair?

I glance around. The bloodstains are only along the stairwells, and I don't hear any movement. Whoever attacked must have moved on. Suddenly, I spot someone familiar among the bodies. I take in a sharp breath.

It's Lucas Lorensky. He's dead.

I step backwards, trembling, only to bump into the boy. The boy I need to bring to safety, except, where is safety now?

Returning to the storage room, I find an empty closet that used to hold firearms and have the boy sit in there.

"Stay here, alright? I'll be back once I find out where I can take you."

The boy does not nod or give me any signs of acknowledgement, but he slumps into the closet, hugging his toy next to his heart.

I run out of the building, careful to avoid NovaTopian soldiers and the fighter jets in the air that are battling a whole other war.

Someone pulls me behind a fallen aircraft.

"Where's Lara?"

It's Liam. He is still wearing his general uniform, which is now covered in burn marks.

"General?"

"Where's Lara?" He repeats his question.

"I'm trying to find her too."

He shoves yet another one of his comm devices into my hands and pats my shoulder. "Let me know when you find her."

"Wait," I say before he teleports away, "there's a boy inside the GaiaTopia building. First floor, in a closet inside a storage room next to the stairs. I brought him there for safety, but that building was raided by NovaTopia."

Liam glances at the place he only escaped from moments ago. Weariness settles over his face. He sighs. "Okay, I'll lead some GaiaTopian people towards it. Meanwhile, you focus on finding Lara, alright?" And he disappears.

I pocket the comm device and return to the spot I last saw Lara. She's no longer here, of course. Since she is protecting people from bombs or fire, I cautiously head towards the region where the fighter jets seem to be circling. I must stay as concealed as possible, so it takes me a while to approach. I definitely cannot survive an explosion the way Lara did.

And then, I see her.

She's shielding a mother and a daughter while guiding them away.

When she sees me, she breaks into a smile. And it's such a genuine smile, so full of joy and relief. It shines through the chaos and war, a reminder that there is still good in the world.

This is the Lara I want to keep forever in my memory. The Lara who uses her powers not to fight but to help civilians. The Lara who is smiling as her skin is smoking from the burns, as her vest is so damaged that it is barely hanging onto her body.

This is the Lara I want to elope with.

We can escape to a place on Ground Earth where no one can find us, not NovaTopia, not GaiaTopia. No more comm devices, no more trackers. Just the two of us.

Her expression twists, and she yells something at me. I cannot hear her, but I feel the heat engulfing me from behind. I cannot even move before the heat overwhelms me, and everything goes dark. Lara's worried face is the last thing I see.

And it's pretty dang adorable.

***

The world is hazy around me, but I hear a familiar voice.

"Yes, Director... Yes... They are family, after all, and she cares for him... Yes... She has been very good and loyal all these years indeed... Alright, we'll bring her in."

The more the voice speaks, the more familiar it becomes. It's General Caelum! Who is she talking about? Is it Lara? Where's Lara?

Where's Lara?

I try to sit up, but my body is stuck. As I struggle more, I hear footsteps nearing me. And everything goes dark again.

***

The world is no longer hazy when I wake up, but it's so brightly white that I am sure I am back in the Tower.

I jolt up—relieved that I am no longer bound—and look around. The room has just enough space for the foldable mattress I'm on. To my right, a toilet and shower are behind a glass wall. On the other side, there is a door with a small window slit.

Where the hell am I? Am I really back in the Tower? This does not look like a living unit in the Tower, though.

Then, I register the ache in my body. Every part of me is screaming in agony. I try to stand, but a sharp pain shoots up my right leg, making me wince. I pull up my pants, and sure enough, my right ankle is bandaged. When did I injure it? And these pants... they are not mine. Who changed me to this ugly grey jumpsuit? What happened?

The last thing I remember is an explosion that must have taken me out. Lara was there, but she should be fine because of the Gift she still has. And General Caelum... she was there too. She was next to me, I'm sure. I've come to recognize—and loathe—that icy, condescending voice. Did she get to Lara as well? Is Lara here too?

Despite the pain, I push myself to stand and peek out the window slit at my door. It leads to a hallway with many doors just like mine. Realization dawns on me. Is this... the Tower's prison?

A blaring alarm pierces my ears, and the doors open. As I step out, the other prisoners also emerge, stretching and yawning. When they notice me, they approach, and soon, a small crowd gathers around me. There are about twenty of them, with a wide age range. Some inmates look my age—they may even be younger than me—and there is an elderly woman in a wheelchair at the end of the hall. Every one of them has the same skin tone as Lara's, and they are staring at me and my darker skin with wariness and bewilderment.

"Whoa, hey there, newbie," a young man says.

"You're not from here, are you?" a young woman says, narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah, I've never seen you before, my dear," says a middle-aged woman whose cell is next to mine. "Are you from another shuttle?"

"Another shuttle?" I frown. "What do you mean? Where am I?"

"You're in prison," the older woman says gently, "in NovaTopia."

***

End of Part II: The Prototype 

A/N: The next chapter is yet another bonus chapter in a different character's POV! Guess which character we're getting this time? ;)