Two hours later, all the survivors sat or stood in a grove of trees littered with abundant rocks, sufficiently far from the battlefield that they no longer smelt the metallic tang of blood. Battered outside and broken inside, their numbers only managed to reach 1,000. A mere thirty members of the Insurgence had survived, the rest being Innutukian soldiers. Trackenkaken had lost all but one of his captains. 

"So, now what?" Ace demanded, "This is the part where we surrender, right?" 

Brant frowned. "Why would we do that?" 

"Look at this! We're toast! Done! Anybody who was in one of the armored cars vanished. In the temple, charred. And we're the only ones who survived the bombing! We're through." 

Brant let out a deep sigh and glanced over the others. Aaron held a barely conscious Wendy in his arms and draped a warm rag over her swollen cheek. Sila stood beside him, missing an arm that had never been rediscovered, and not from any lack of searching. Wires strung out of the empty socket. 

Keira sat atop a boulder with her chin resting on folded hands. Somber and pouty, her lips matched her lusterless eyes in attitude. Track and his remaining captain stood not far away, their faces like those of men containing floodwaters of tears. Kemarian and Innutukian alike, the other soldiers appeared equally despondent. 

Finally, he brought his eyes closer, and even Hannah standing beside him lacked her usual spark. Sure, no pout or tear appeared on her face. Instead, she appeared dead in the eyes, which Brant felt was almost worse. Like the pain numbed her. 

"I just wanna know where Baird is." Aaron croaked, "And Khemera." 

Ace glared at him. "You have no right—" 

"Cut it, Ace!" Brant roared. "That's an order. Now, you're sure there weren't any soldiers hiding in the area around the cars?" 

"There weren't." 

"Then best case scenario, they got captured at some point." Keira muttered. 

Aaron didn't appear comforted by that prospect. 

Brant's brain felt like mush. It raced with thoughts, yet it also felt sluggish, weighed down by all the sorrow and grief. And all the ideas came muddled together like a tangled ball of rubber bands. So much work to be able to use any of them. 

He turned to his men. "If any of you want to desert, I don't blame you. The Kemarian Insurgence has never been numerous, and at this point, it's little better than suicide." 

Three men bobbed their heads eagerly. They tossed their weapons to the ground, bowed slightly, and ambled off, never looking back even once. A handful of their comrades eyed them longingly as they departed, indecision in their eyes. But nonetheless, all the others stayed. 

"My question remains." Ace said. "What is there for us?" 

"We'll fight." Brant answered with conviction. "I, for one, will fight to my last drop of blood to end this abomination before it consumes the continent. See, this isn't just about a few thousand men gathering together to enter into physical combat with a few million. That'd be foolish on our part." 

When he paused, Ace met his eyes. "What is it about?" 

"It's about standing up for what we can't afford to lose. Yes, it's risky. But the only alternative is standing by passively and watching our rights get trampled. I wanna have a family someday. And I don't know about you, but I would rather never have a child, than to have them grow up in a world where Dove exists. Where the vindictive gods roam free and use the world as a canvas to paint their pleasure on." 

"So you're fighting for family." Track muttered with a nod of his head. 

"Yes. And if I die...so be it. It was still worth fighting for." Brant turned to Ace. "What do you fight for?" 

Ace bit his lip and stared blankly into the distance for several long moments. He eventually shrugged, but still appeared to think it over. Finally he sighed. "I came from a bad place. I just wanna redeem myself." 

"And is that worth the risk?" 

He nodded. 

Brant gave him a hint of a smile and turned to Aaron. "And you?" 

"I'm like you, man." Aaron replied, staring down at Wendy and returning her weak smile, "A world where Alconte's prominent isn't a world I'd want my kid to live in. Not only that," he added, glancing between his sister and his girlfriend, "but their agents have done horrible things to the ladies in my life. I plan to make them pay." 

Bobbing his head, Brant glanced at Sila in passing, not expecting the robot to answer. 

But it replied nonetheless. "I serve master." Sila declared with conviction. 

Even Ace let out a light chuckle at this. Brant found himself surprised how much one little laugh lightened the mood. 

Next, he locked eyes with Keira. He asked the question with his eyes rather than his lips. 

Keira shifted in her seat and narrowed her eyes in thought. "I don't really know." she admitted before a smirk found its way to her mouth. "I guess I'm here to make sure my brother doesn't get himself into trouble." 

Aaron threw back his head in laughter. "First off, you failed. Second, that's what Wendy's for." 

"But you can't silence me with a kiss." 

"That's true." 

Brant eyed the bantering siblings with a grin on his own face. Any levity was greatly appreciated, and the fact it was strengthening a family bond made it all the better. 

He questioned the other insurgents one by one, and received a variety of answers. One woman said her family had been redistributed, and she had been detained several times from visiting them. Another, this one a surprisingly old man for a soldier, claimed to have had a personal quarrel with Emperor Emil's father Pietrovo, muttering something about a defiled granddaughter. The last man admitted he'd only joined because he had a crush on Keira, to which her cheeks reddened and many of his comrades erupted into laughter. His cheeks reddened too, but in anger, and he stormed away, never to return. 

Brant met Hannah's gaze last, and even though he already knew her answer, he listened, figuring it would be encouraging for the others to hear. 

"I reckon ya could say I'm fightin' for hope." Hannah said, "The hope tomorrow can be just a lil bit better than today was. But just hopin' don't mean nothin' if ya sit by and only do that. Dat's why I get up every mornin', honestly. Life's kinda like a story, and you gotta do today what it takes to make tomorrow's chapter count." 

Vigorous nods followed her words, and even a few clapped. Hannah accepted the applause awkwardly before flashing a grin up at Brant. It was almost as if being coaxed to voice her belief brought out the optimistic girl she always was beneath. 

"I'm a general." Trackenkaken said, "Fighting's what I do." 

Brant smirked. "I didn't ask you, sir." 

The Innutukian laughed for a moment before sobering. "So, what do you plan to do?" 

"Rebuild." Brant replied. He met Aaron's gaze. "You're gonna be a busy man." 

The sandy-haired man nodded. "I will. What've you got in mind?" 

"Well, most obviously, you've gotta fix Sila's arm and make repairs on everybody's equipment. But I was thinking about how we can get more allies from the other Insurgence movements. We've gotta all unite to resist Alconte together, and to do that, we need some way of coordinating a gathering." 

"Dove's festival is only five days away." Aaron retorted, "There's absolutely no way we could do all the traveling and persuading quick enough before we've gotta head over there and nab him while we can." 

"That's where my idea comes in. Do you have the know-how to hack into the APEAS?" 

He nodded. "It'd take a bit of work, but I think so." 

Track frowned. "What in the world is that?" 

Keira smiled at him. "It stands for Alcontean Public Emergency Announcement System." 

"Thank you." he said, the very corners of his lips twitching to return her grin. 

Brant's eyes darted about in excitement. "So if you can hack into that, we can run our own announcement and summon them where we want to gather." 

"Then they'll know exactly what we're doing!" Ace snapped. 

"Secrecy isn't what we need at this point." Brant said, "In fact, they'll be delighted. They'll see this as a blessing from the gods, gathering all their enemies together in one place to be crushed." 

"Isn't that in fact what you are doing? Helping them out?" 

"We can't stand against them one at a time. The only way is to create our own million-man force." 

"It's like something from the legends." Track said, "So many armies gathered against one tyrant. Whether we succeed or not, the bards will have to compose new songs about this." 

Brant nodded. "What about you? What's your plan?" 

The general sighed. "It's a tough call. We don't have enough time to trek back home, gather new men, and head back in time. But yet, I don't intend to be absent for the biggest battle of our time." 

The remaining captain met his superior's eyes. "We could try to convince his highness to send the deathbirds to the spot." 

"He'd still need to see our faces. You know hard he is to convince over the airwaves." 

Aaron perked up. "Okay, I don't know what these deathbirds are, but they sound epic. If I give you a speedbike, do you think you can make it in time? I've only got one, but anything's better than walking." 

Track nodded and glanced at the captain. "You can head back alone so you don't have to worry about fatiguing anybody but yourself. I'll stay with these men and keep you informed." 

The Innutukian coughed into the crook of his elbow and bobbed his head. "That's our best course of action, I'd say." 

Aaron smirked and glanced skyward. "Armory, Hellfire!" 

A dull gray pod dropped from the sky, and on impact, it split apart, revealing a shiny red speedbike with massive wheels and a gaping hole in the back for a thruster. Aaron tossed the captain a pair of keys, and with a nod, he leapt onto it. 

"Don't ride through any forested areas if you don't wanna cause a wildfire!" Aaron warned him through cupped hands. 

He nodded and took a deep breath before starting the engine. When he engaged the thruster, a mighty flame leapt out of it. The vehicle roared as he streaked into the distance.

******************** 

A/N: With renewed and clarified motivations, our heroes are ready to pick themselves out of the dirt and fight again! If you enjoyed that chapter, please do remember to vote and comment.

My apologies on the lateness of my posting today; my dad apparently switched the internet off for one reason or another last night, and he had a difficult time getting it to come back on in the morning. But here it is, and hopefully most of you are none the wiser anyway. 😝

Anyway, which characters' motivation resonates the most with you?

(I find them all fascinating, but I've personally always found Aaron's motivation really intriguing. Nobody touches his family, basically, and I've been amazed how many conflicts have spawned out of that one obsession of his. 😂)

For our random question, name the inverse of your favorite color and tell me if that's a good or bad one in your eyes.

(The inverse of my favorite [green] would be red, more specifically like a crimson-ish, if I'm correct. And red actually was my favorite color for a time when I was younger, so I can't go saying I hate it now.)

Well, have an awesome week, and I hope to see you on Saturday's update! Hopefully my internet won't go down then too. 🤣