"Wh—where am I?!"
Craig's words came out broken, barely a whisper. His eyes darted across the hellscape.
Corpses littered the ground—children clutched in their mothers' arms, bodies stacked like cordwood.
Explosions rippled across the horizon. Boom. Boom. Boom. Each blast collapsed another house, another street, another fragment of the world.
The sky churned black and orange, backlit by distant detonations. Rain Dragon mechas streaked overhead, their sleek forms cutting through smoke as they rained fire on the city below. Angel-like mechas led the formation, their white armor gleaming against the darkness like vengeful beings.
Screams layered over screams along raining laser arrows from the heavens on to humanity. The air stank of burning ,and black metal and flesh. Then came a blinding flash on the horizon—white, pure, erasing everything in its path.
Craig's stomach lurched. "This can't be real. This can't—"
A sound split the air. Terrible. Inhuman. So piercing that Craig clapped his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.
Then—BOOM!
The shockwave hit.
Craig's eyes snapped open. A tall man stood before him, silhouette sharp against the burning sky, hands buried in his pockets. He stared at the wasteland ahead—the same area Craig had just watched get erased—as if witnessing nothing more than rain.
Who... who is he?
The man turned his head. His features blurred, then sharpened.
"Are you okay?" The voice was soft. Familiar.
Craig blinked. His sister's face had replaced the man's.
Craig jolted into present, eyes wide, chest heaving. The last night nightmare clung to him like smoke.
"Are you okay?!"
His sister's voice cut through the fog. She stood in his doorway, concern etched across her face.
"You said something, Ani?"
Craig leaned against the school fence, pale fingers gripping the iron bars. His black hair fell across his forehead as he stared at nothing. The school uniform—black blazer, short pants stopping just above his ankles—hung loose on his thin frame. Other students flooded past him, their laughter and shouts fading into background noise.
"Didn't quite catch that, mind repeating that?"
Craig turned, stepping away from the fence. His faint smile never wavered.
Ani planted a hand on her hip, eyebrows raised. "May I remind you we were heading home?"
It hit him then. School was out. His friends had left a minute ago—he'd waved them off before drifting back to stare at the sky.
Ani sighed and tilted her head, studying him. "Don't tell me you're planning to join that resistance group again."
Craig's smile widened. "How'd you know?"
"Because you're Craig! The knucklehead of the house!" She leaned in close, practically shouting in his ear.
"Alright, alright!" Craig plugged his ears, wincing. "Not directly in my ear, weirdo!"
"Weirdo?" Ani's voice shot up an octave. "How dare you!"
Craig was already walking away.
"Or do you want me to tell Mom and Dad you're still obsessed with joining those terrorists?" She followed close behind, her footsteps quick and sharp on the pavement.
Craig glanced back. "Terrorists? According to who?"
His sister was unbearable sometimes. She snitched on him constantly—every little thing Mom and Dad warned him about.
"And while you're at it, give me the definition of a terrorist." He kept walking. "Because they're freedom fighters. Nothing more."
"Freedom fighters?" Ani jogged to catch up. "You know our government calls them terrorists too, right? Not just Atrial!"
She grabbed his sleeve. "And they're making everything worse for us. For everyone."
Craig stopped.
She was right. The war had dragged on for years. Astra was under Atrial's boot now—colonized, stripped down, controlled. Then the resistance emerged from nowhere and turned everything into a bloodbath. Atrial's military crushed any town where fighters were spotted. Civilians paid the price.
But Craig's argument hadn't changed. The resistance wasn't the problem—Atrial was. They'd gutted the land, left neighborhoods in ruins, starved out schools and hospitals. Poverty had spiked. The lowest districts looked like graveyards.
Sure, civilians suffered when the fighters struck back. Sure, entire towns got punished for harboring them. But the reality remained: Atrial had started this.
"It's pointless talking to someone so closed-minded." Craig pulled his arm free and kept walking.
He glanced back with a smirk. "Besides, I'm sure you've taken history class. You know what's really going on."
Ani's jaw tightened.
She knew. Everyone in their class had known—until their teacher was fired. Rumor was the Atrial government had dragged him away for questioning. He never came back. A week later, the school banned history lessons entirely.
Ani watched Craig's figure shrink into the distance. She cared about him. She hated the thought of him throwing his life away for a country that might already be lost.
She clenched her fists, her nails biting into her palms.
"Nothing I say will stop you, will it?" she whispered.
Craig didn't answer. He was already too far ahead.
Craig's eyes drifted across the street. Children chased each other between market stalls. Vendors shouted prices. The smell of grilled meat and spices hung in the air.
But one thing ruined it all.
The wall.
Massive. Valuted Iron. Stretching around the entire town like a prison fence. Atrial had built it with Astra's own tax money—built it to cage them in while hunting the resistance. Touch the wall, and the Atrial tax collectors would know. Touch the wall unauthorized, and you'd be killed.
"Almost like they're the real government here,"Craig thought, his faint smile never reaching his eyes.
He walked past butchers hacking at slabs of meat, past shopkeepers haggling with customers. Ani trailed a few steps behind.
"I'd rather die freeing us than join spineless puppets," he muttered under his breath.
The rumors weren't rumors anymore. Astra's government took bribes. They sold out their own people. Poverty spiked. Schools shut down. Kids dropped out to scavenge for food. No wonder people joined the Guardians—the so-called terrorists.
And when Atrial bombed a neighborhood? When they slaughtered families in retaliation? Astra's government said nothing. No apologies. No compensation.
Craig's jaw tightened.
"So why are they so desperate to convince us the Guardians are the enemy?"
Not everyone in Astra believed the propaganda. He certainly didn't.
His gaze caught on a caged cat in a pet store window. Kids ran past, laughing, rolling tires down the street.
"How do you convince a caged cat it's evil for trying to escape?"
He exhaled sharply, his smile bitter now.
"Absolute nonsense."
"You're still bent on this?"
Ani's voice cut through his thoughts. She stood beside him now, arms crossed, studying his face.
"Seriously, what can I say to make you stop? What's it going to take?"
Ani grabbed his hand and yanked him forward.
Their mother had warned Craig a dozen times. He was too young for this. Too reckless.
"You're twelve years old, Craig! This shouldn't be any of your concern!"