There was always this one verse my Bible study teacher would say whenever two of the kids would get into a fight, usually over something petty like crayons being stolen during quiet time: treat others the way you want to be treated. That was a simple enough rule to follow, right? If you want people to be nice to you, then you be nice to them, and so on. So then I had to wonder, what was it with people sacrificing themselves for me?

First Ronnie so heroically shoves me out of the way of a collapsing building, getting crushed in the process, and now Demi throws himself at a group of murderous psychopaths just to give me a few moments to escape Con Rồng's grimy clutches. Did they expect something out of this? Was it a golden rule manipulation? They were trying to trick me into owing them something? Nothing made sense!

I wasn't worth it! There was nothing special about me, I was just some bratty kid with authority issues, what have I ever done in my life to warrant people caring so much about me that they were willing to lose their lives or put their sanity on the line just to keep me safe? I hated it, because I couldn't do a damn thing about it.

I wasn't strong enough to do anything, I wasn't brave enough, I acted so tough and calm and collected, but I was just a kid who still got nightmares, I was still scared of the dark, and spiders freaked me out. Sure, I was a better shot than Cass was, I was willing to shoot a man or a woman if I seriously had to, because there was nothing else I could do, but what good was that when everyone I wanted to protect kept sacrificing themselves for me?!

The guilt and self-loathing was heavy in my chest as I shoved the back exit of the bunker open with a loud creak, panting from the strain of running like a lunatic as I looked over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't being followed by Vinet or Roy, or whoever that third man had been, before sprinting away. The tears were burning my already raw eyes as I grit my teeth and just ran, uncertain of where I was going or how long I would have to run before I got there, or if I'd even be safe. All I knew was I had to get to a radio so I could contact Kailas and the rebellion. I had to get help and get Demi out before they hurt him, before they traumatized him even worse than he'd been when we first met.

He'd been so jumpy; every action was based solely on raw instinct and nothing more. There was no humanity in him, no conscience, the only time I ever saw any kind of life in him was when he was around Kailas, usually protecting him, otherwise he was nothing but a mannequin. I didn't trust him, and why would I? Everything I'd been through had given me trust issues anyway, and I'd heard plenty of negative things about the Con Rồng from the moment those bombs fell on my hometown, I couldn't willingly trust anyone.

When I first met Kailas, I couldn't trust him for months. I don't know why, maybe because he was so nice, and somehow that made him untrustworthy, maybe I was scared because everyone who was ever nice to me ended up dead or hurt, and I didn't want him turning up the same way. Well, after a few months, getting attached to him, a dangerous mix of trust, loneliness, and mourning, ended up with me throwing myself at him and tearing my clothes off.

I just wanted to mask the pain, I wanted to forget Ronnie, for just a moment I wanted to pretend I was in love again. I wasn't, not really, it was just me trying to force myself to live like Ronnie said I should, he wanted me to fall in love again and I tried, for a while I almost did, then Demi showed up. I guess it took an assassin to show me that when Ronnie told me to fall in love again, he didn't mean go off and get married.

He just wanted me to have connections, family, somewhere I could feel safe and happy. I found it, I just didn't realize it until Demi showed up. Like he wanted, I was in love, with the rebellion and my friends. I loved them all so much I was willing to risk everything for them. Just like Demi, just like Ronnie, I had something I wanted to live and risk dying for. Someone I considered my brother, someone I was forced to leave behind.

After running for what felt like hours, I reached a group of cars surrounding the outer perimeter of the Con Rồng base, maybe three miles away from their settlement, probably some kind of fence or warning system. I had expected an alarm to go off when I opened one of the cars, or soldiers waiting for me in ambush, but the area was completely vacant, and what's more the keys were in the car. Part of me felt like it was a trap, but when I got to the car, I realized the Con Rồng were probably too busy taking care of Demi to pay me any mind.

Their carelessness gave me plenty of time to steal one of their lovely vehicles and drive off down the road towards home. Just like I'd hoped, there was a radio in the car, which I dialed to the correct station before holding the mouth piece up and hitting the button located on the side of the device, "Breaker, breaker, or something. Anyone there? This is Bailey!"

Static came through for several minutes before I finally got a reply in a voice I happily recognized, "Dakota?"

I sighed and pressed the radio to my forehead, nodding before dropping it down to my lips and hitting the button again, "Malachi, hey, yea, it's me."

"Where are you?" he asked, "Where's Demi? It's been nearly three days, we've been worried sick about you both."

"I'm sorry," I choked, scrubbing at my eyes, and sniffing to fight the burn in my nose, "Fer-de-Lance grabbed us when we were checking the edges of town. We got away, hijacked the van, but we crashed and the Con Rồng...... they got us instead."

"What?" Malachi bit out, and I could hear shuffling chairs and muffled voices, "Where are you now?"

"In a car. Demi... Demi distracted them so I could escape. I don't know what's happening now, I just jacked a car. I don't know what to do, Mal! I'm scared as shit, what do I do?!"

"Calm down," Kailas' voice came through, and I nearly sobbed, squeezing the radio piece tighter.

"Kailas I'm so sorry, this is my fault!" I cried, "He threw himself at the guards and told me to run, I didn't want to! I didn't want to leave him!"

"It's okay, Dakota, calm down, take a few breaths and try to tell me what happened."

"We crashed," I tried to explain, my voice weak and stuttering, "Some.... Different Con Rồng assassin grabbed us, I think Demi knew him or something, I can't remember, I got a concussion in the crash, but when I came to we were in this.... Room. Demi's old cell, it was.... Creepy. Th-they called us just now, a few minutes ago, I don't know what they wanted, but considering what Demi was put through, you can probably guess what could've happened had we both stayed."

"Alright," Kailas sounded like he was struggling not to yell, but I couldn't exactly blame him; I just left his lover with the very people who destroyed both their lives, "Get to the nearest town, ditch the car and hide out, I'll send someone to come get you."

"What? No! What about Demi?! We can't leave him!"

"Dakota, don't argue with me on this! We're getting Demi out, I will not leave him there, not again, but I can't leave you in the crossfire either! I can't let you get hurt any more than anyone else in this group! Get home, do you hear me?"

I was slowing the car, teeth grit, "I'm not a kid, Kailas."

"You're not even nineteen yet, Dakota," Kailas snarled back.

"I want to help!" my foot stomped on the brakes and the car screeched to a stop, "He sacrificed himself to keep me safe, Kailas, I need to help, please!"

"No!" Kailas barked, "I'm not losing anyone else! This is the end of the discussion, Dakota. Get somewhere safe, and don't you dare move till we get there, do you understand me?!"

I ground my teeth together, squeezing the radio in my hand and glaring at the dark road in front of me, shaking my head, "Fine," I snapped, slamming the piece down and grasping at the wheel until my knuckles turned white.

I couldn't believe this. After all this time, he was still treating me like a baby. I may have been young and impulsive, but I wasn't completely incapable, and scared or not, if I was fighting with a group from the rebellion, I would be capable of at least helping them free Demi! If I was cruel I would have reminded that piece of shit that he didn't treat me like such a child when he was pounding me into the mattress, but I couldn't do that to him. He felt bad enough about "taking advantage of me" without me rubbing his face in it while his lover was in prison. Even then I couldn't just sit here, hide; I had to do something.

I needed to save Demi, I needed to help, he'd already saved my stupid ass more than once, I owed him enough to at least try to get him out, but what was I supposed to do? I didn't know enough about the Con Rồng and their base to just go storming in, I had no weapons so defending myself was out of the question, and sneaking around wouldn't get me far either. I had no choice but to sit back and hope for the best if I couldn't think of something.

A heavy sigh fell from my lips and I leaned back in the driver's seat, head tilted so I could see outside the windshield and up at the black sky. I wasn't sure when the sun went down or how long it had been nighttime, how long I'd been driving, but I was tired, and the headache that hadn't really stopped since the crash was making it just a bit hard to concentrate, but I could easily see the stars shining brightly in the darkness.

It had me silent and just staring numbly at the sky, lips sealed as my eyes automatically searched for the familiar constellations. I think it was the light that made me love stars so much, they were just.... Thousands and millions of tiny, brilliant, sparkling lights that somehow survived in total darkness, against all odds. That gave me hope.

Stars, constellations, collections of light that survive in pitch black, with the hunter at the forefront. In my mind, at least. I was never what people would call strong, so the hunter in the stars was like a role model, strength. The necklace still miraculously hidden beneath the collar of my shirt, Josie's last gift to me, always gave me strength, purpose, it helped me remember the people I'd lost, and it helped me fight for them and their memory by never giving up.

You'll always carry the strength of the hunter with you.

"Damn it," it was just luck I was such an idiot, twisting the key of the ignition and turning the car around with screeching tires as I snatched the radio up and squeezed the side button, "Kailas, are you still there?"

"The boss just left," Cass was the one to answer, "I'm heading out now to help. What's going on?"

"Just.... I can do this, okay?"

"What?" Cass drawled out, sounding insanely irritated and anxious, "Are you crazy? What are you doing? Dakota I swear you are the most infuriating little shit-!"

"Save it, Worm!" I yelled back, "This is important, Demi is my friend too! He saved my life, more than once, now it's my turn! I'm helping and you can't stop me!" I pulled the mouth piece away, hesitating for a long moment before hitting the button again, "Cass, I need you to trust me. I know you all think I'm just a kid-."

"You are a kid, Dakota! Damn it you're not even legal yet! You can't even drink!"

"Cass, the world ended years ago, do you really think anyone gives a crap about legal drinking age?" I sighed in exasperation, rolling my eyes, "Your counter argument sucks. Just listen, I know you think I'm just a kid, but I.... I've seen some shit too. I can do this, I just want him safe! He's practically my brother, what do you expect me to do, just hide and hope the rest of the rebellion can sneak him out?"

"I expect you to trust us. We all do!"

"I do trust you, if I didn't I wouldn't still be in the rebellion. For once I want you to trust me. I'm a kid, fine, but I'm also crazy as shit, if you haven't yet noticed. Crazy enough to do something very, very stupid."

I passed through the line of black cars first, bulleting the three miles to the chain link fence that surrounded the Con Rồng settlement and crashing through it, hitting the gas and barreling through the settlement itself, consisting of houses, tents, and people throwing themselves out of the road. A dozen or so tried shooting at me, shattering the windows and probably missing me by a hair's length, but I just ignored them and the glass that rained down on me.

The towering building that I was driving towards was like a shadow, it reminded me too much of the building that crashed down on Ronnie, my heart raced in my chest as I got closer and closer to the glass double doors at the front, baring down like the portal to hell. I was all too happy to crash the fuck through them. There was a lingering thought at the back of my head, that I probably wasn't going to get out of this, not easily at least. I was too reckless, and god knows I couldn't keep my mouth shut to save my life. Honestly it had me chuckling, a smile pulling my lips up when I imagined how pissed off Ronnie and Josie would be if they knew I was doing something so stupid.

There wasn't much choice in the matter, though, I had to save Demi. Every second he was with those monsters was a second his mind was being twisted and torn, and I couldn't let that happen.

"Cass."

"What?"

I hesitated for a moment, squeezing the steering wheel, and pressing harder on the gas, "Blue shell."

"What? Dakota, what are you doing?"

"Getting Demi."

"Don't you da-!"

I turned the radio off, because Cass' lectures are actually pretty boring, and tossed the mouthpiece aside before gunning the car, both hands squeezing the steering wheel and my eyes pinching shut as the car collided with the glass doors of the skyscraper. The sound of shattering glass was almost deafening, with my eyes closed I could see past flashes of memories, of my house getting blown to shrapnel, Ronnie dying.

I'm certain I committed first degree murder hitting the soldiers I did, and I obviously ran into several of them, the screams and thuds I heard were pretty telling, but the spree ended when the front of the car collided with a wall. My head jerked forward violently with the collision, my head slamming hard into the steering wheel and sending bright lights into my vision.

A sharp ring sounded in my ears, ramming around in my head like a bad song, and I tried to move but everything was sluggish, I could feel the throb of pain in my forehead beating around to the back of my neck. I couldn't even lift my head up; my eyes were peering open but I could see double of everything below me.

I would have blacked out if someone hadn't grabbed onto the top of my head by my hair, yanking me back so I could stare dizzily at the soldier who'd moved me. Roy, of course, the assassin that made us crash after escaping Fer-de-Lance in the first place, a snarl on his face, which was blurring in my eyes.

"You're a dumb piece of shit," he snapped at me, "You get out, Inou sacrifices himself for you, and you come right back? Why?"

I laughed weakly as something hot slid down the side of my face, probably blood, "Go fuck yourself," I mumbled, laughing again, "It's already been established. I'm a dumb piece of shit. Why else would I throw myself back into the fire?"

Roy grinned and leaned closer to me, whispering to me, "Maybe you like the burn," he suggested, yanking at my hair, "That's what I'm hoping for, at least, because you're deep in it now, bitch, and don't think you're getting out anytime soon. After all, Blu is very, very interested in meeting you. One on one."

I coughed on my next laugh, closing my eyes, "What about Demi?"

"He's being dealt with," Roy promised, throwing my head forward and slamming my face back against the steering wheel and making the pain in my head a hundred times worse.

The car door was yanked open after Roy was satisfied my concussion was bad enough, then dragged me from my seat, dropping me onto the ground. My palms shredded against the glass that had shattered, pain racing up both arms as my head slammed against the tile, making me groan, struggling to push myself up.

"Here's the deal," Roy said, crouching down in front of me and folding his arms over his knees, "You're probably going to have a talk with the boss, and I can tell you're completely harmless, but if you try anything, if you hurt him," he snapped his fingers, "I'm going to kill you. Got it?"

"Eat shit," I suggested, in a completely friendly way of course, pushing myself up onto my hands and knees and spitting out a mouthful of blood, "Don't think I'll make this easy for you, I'm not telling you a single word, and I may be weak to the eye, but believe me, if I get the chance, I'm running your boss through."

Something flashed in Roy's eyes, and he reached out, grabbing onto my throat and squeezing, grinding his teeth, "If you touch him, I will rip you to pieces."

"Good," I whispered.

"Stand down, Thompson," Blu ordered from behind Roy, his hands planted on his hips and his dark eyes locked on me, "Mr. Bailey is a guest. Help him up, patch his wounds, give him some food and...," he smirked, his thumb rubbing his chin, "Invite him to a sleepover."

"Sorry," I shrugged one shoulder, "I was never good at sleepovers."

"Well we'll have to change that, now won't we?" Blu hummed, stepping forward and grabbing the front of my shirt, pulling me up and holding me inches off the ground, "Now let's go have a chat, beautiful."