Harry's POV:
Everything around me felt hot.
The air above me seemed to be scorching me, the substance my body was on burning my skin, and all the injuries etched into my flesh felt as if it were on fire.
It was dark and I couldn't see anything. I knew I was alive...but I couldn't move. My eyes wouldn't open. I was trapped. My body failed to listen to me and nothing I could do would make my eyes open.
Something made my head lift up, but I couldn't tell what. I thought it may be an Aluverian soldier about to kill me...
Soon, something cool hit my lips, and I was forced to drink something. It tasted bitter, but the liquid going down my throat allowed me to open up my eyes.
My hazy vision began to clear as I recognized the person over me, holding my head up and forcing me to drink. Blinking a few times, I tried to move, but still failed to do so.
"Louis?" I croak and he gives me a worried smile.
"Harry? Oh thank God. You had me worried for a moment you weren't going to wake back up." he says and I take in a deep breath, him helping me into a sitting position.
"What did I drink?" I ask and he holds up a large pouch. "It's medicine. The Aluverian soldiers have been carrying it around drinking it. It won't do much for those injuries of yours, but it will get your energy back up." he says, and I weakly reach out with my hand, taking the pouch from him.
I took a few more swigs of the bitter tasting medicine before letting out a long sigh, beginning to feel a lot better than I was a minute or two ago.
Memories of what happened before I went down came to my mind and my eyes widen as I begin to look around. "Where's Bella?!" I ask frantically and Louis puts a hand to my chest, making me look at him.
"She's over there, still down. I need to get to her, okay? Stay here and don't move yet." he orders, taking the medicine back, and I follow his movements as he walks a few feet over towards a body lying on the ground. My heart wrenched in fear as I realized that lump was Bella. There was blood underneath her body, and I could only pray she was still alive.
Louis lifted her head like he did mine, forcing the medicine down her throat, making her drink it. She stayed motionless for a long time and I swallowed hard, my heart thumping hard in my chest. I knew she had gone through the wringer before we met up, and then she overdid it fighting those two Generals.
Finally, Bella slowly opened her eyes and I let out a breath of relief, looking down for a moment and thanking God she was still alive.
Louis gently picked her up and moved her closer to me, setting her down on the sand beside me. She looked completely worn out. Her eyes were still glazed, and the blood covering her body made her look completely devastated.
Before Louis said anything, he gave her more of the medicine, her drinking it more and more once he explained it would help her get strength back.
It took us a few minutes before we were fully coherent and awake again, but once we were, Louis didn't waste any time explaining what was going on.
"The Queen's assistance has helped us greatly, but we're still outnumbered. As far as I know, the last General nor the Emperor has been killed. It seems they've been fighting in the back somewhere. They're both great fighters though, from what I gathered," he begins and I nod my head, trying to absorb all of this information.
"I met up with Phillipa on the battlefield and we discussed what was going on. She provided me with enough cover that I was able to slip away to find you two. She said she was worried about how reckless you'd be, and it seems she was correct. But you've killed another two Generals thanks to that." he says with a small chuckle and I smirk.
"As if you'd expect anything less." I remark and he gives me a small glare, not liking my humor at the moment.
"Anyways, we need to get back to fighting soon. The way this is headed, we'll be fighting well into the night. And it'll be their advantage if that happens." Louis says and a frown comes to my face.
"How long do we have until sunset?" I ask and Louis pauses for a moment before shrugging slightly. "I'd guess about three or so hours. It's past noon. You can tell by the sun." he says and I nod, believing him.
A lot of thoughts began to come into my mind as I tried to think of how to end this battle quickly. There was no way to do it though. Unless we could get to the Emperor, this battle would continue for a long time. But...
"Wait. Where's Niall?" I ask, looking at Louis, who looks away from my gaze. "Louis, where's Niall?" I ask again, more serious this time, and Bella looks at Louis sadly.
"I don't know, Harry. I couldn't find him anywhere." he says lowly and I close my eyes, looking down at the sand.
"No news is good news. We'll have to have faith he's still alive." Bella murmurs and both Louis and I nod our heads. That's all we could do for now. Until we saw him or found him...we'd just have to believe he's still out there fighting.
"Speaking of which, have either of you seen Shayla?" Louis asks and I shake my head. "I haven't seen her since we began." I say and look over at Bella, who looks really pale.
"Are you feeling sick?" I ask and she blinks a few times before nodding her head, putting a hand on one of her injuries.
"I've lost a lot of blood." she whispers and I turn to Louis, who hands her the pouch again. She takes a few swigs of it before Louis holds out some bandages.
"I nicked these off of some soldiers I killed. It seems they came prepared." he says and I frown for a moment before taking the bandages, beginning to wrap some of Bella's injuries. The more I began to wrap, the more worried I became. There were so many injuries on her body, so many bruises, and her body was slightly discolored.
"What happened?" I ask and she shakes her head, not saying a word.
Knowing she wouldn't talk, I finished wrapping her the best I could before Louis took the bandages from me, beginning to wrap my wounds.
"What about your injuries?" Bella asks and he gives us a tight smile. "Phillipa's soldiers took care of that for me when we met. I'll be fine until the battle is over, hopefully. Right now, we need to look after you two." he says and I chuckle.
"Seems we've caused quite the spectacle." I muse and Bella nods her head, still silent. Something was going on in that pretty little head of hers, but I knew I wouldn't be able to pry anything out of her now.
"By any means, we have to regroup and fight our way back to Phillipa. She'll want to know we're fine." I say and both nod to me in agreement. Louis slowly helps us to our feet and makes sure we're steady before he begins to lead us back towards the fighting.
It was odd that we were so far away from the fight.
"How long were we out?" Bella asks, echoing my own thoughts and Louis gives us a grim look.
"Probably an hour, at least, judging by how long it took me to get you two up. The fighting has shifted mostly into town now, although the beach is still a hot spot. We shouldn't linger too long." he says and I curse under my breath.
"Phillipa's near the front then? Keeping them from advancing further in?" I ask and he nods his head. "What about Layla? Is she still safe?" I ask and Louis gives me a smirk.
"Don't worry, Capt'n, I got her in the most secure place." he says and I raise an eyebrow, curious to know what place that was, but I didn't get to ask.
"You said the Emperor was in the back somewhere fighting?" Bella asks as we walk, finding our weapons and taking them with us.
"Yes." Louis says simply and Bella nods her head.
"We're in the back. So that means we should be finding the Emperor, as well as the General, soon." she says seriously and I nod, looking ahead as we got closer to the fight. The last General...the one who killed Edward.
He was the one we were trying to find.
I clenched my fists tightly as we pressed on, trying not to let my anger flare up right now. But it was extremely hard to do so. This has gone on long enough...it was time I finished this.
"Look for a purple cloak," Bella says and both Louis and I look over at her with our eyebrows furrowed down. "Layla said he was wearing purple. Blonde hair, yellow eyes, no facial hair. Our age. That's the last General. If we find him, we find the Emperor." she says and both of us nod.
"It's a good thing Layla had such a great memory, or else we would've been at a loss in this battle." Louis mutters and I nod my head again, agreeing with him. Layla's saved us on so many things...and she's only a six year old child.
"Our daughter is a badass." I say, realizing everything she's done, and Bella actually laughs at my comment.
"Agreed. Although don't say that in front of her." she says with a laugh and I smile. "She's heard me curse enough." I say and she swats me on the arm.
"But I won't." I say with a chuckle and Bella smiles at me. Our little moment didn't last very long, but we both appreciated the lighthearted moment. It made the war we were about to walk into again seem far away for a minute.
"Louis, I want you to go find Phillipa. Harry and I will take care of the Emperor and General." Bella says, her statement shocking the both of us.
"What? No way, I've lost sight of you two times now, I'm not going to-" Louis gets cut off when Bella puts a hand up.
"I don't want you to be in the line of fire. You have better chances of surviving with Phillipa and her forces. If this Emperor and General are half as good as we expect them to be, they'll be a force to be reckoned with. And if Niall shows up, we need you there so you can keep each other safe." she says and Louis looks at her with disbelief in his eyes.
"I thought you'd want me by your side. I can help you fight so much more here than I would be able to-"
"I made a promise, Louis!" Bella shouts, cutting him off again and he looks at her confused, not knowing what she was talking about.
"You have to stay safe. I don't want anyone I love dying on me. That's why Harry chose you to take Layla away in the first place. It got you out of the fight for awhile. We need you alive." Bella says in a nearly pleading tone and Louis's eyes soften as he looks at her.
"Please, Lou, just please do this for me. And then when this is over you'll understand." she says and an uneasy feeling comes into my stomach at her words but I push it away.
Louis looks at me and I slowly nod my head, and he lets out a long sigh.
"As much as I hate the thought of not fighting with you, the thought of me helping end this war on the other side must mean you trust me. So I'll go tell Phillipa. And I'll help in any way I can." he says and Bella smiles at him, giving him a small hug.
"Thank you." she says and Louis gives me a nod before holding out his hand. I take it, shaking his hand firmly as he gives me a tight smile.
"See you after this is done." he says surely and I nod my head, watching as he goes off in a different direction, leaving Bella and I alone once again.
"A promise?" I ask Bella as he leaves and she continues to walk towards the back lines of the soldiers, a certain firmness in her walk.
"I'm not losing anyone else today." she mutters and I furrow my eyebrows, not understanding her, but following her nonetheless.
We neared the lines of soldiers and took out our swords, ready to begin fighting again. The medicine we had did the trick, and now that we were bandaged, it made moving a lot less painful than before.
"We really owe Louis one." I say and she nods to me. "And that's exactly why I sent him away." she says lowly and I frown, but say nothing as we charge the soldiers.
They weren't expecting anyone to come from behind, and we were able to easily cut down ten of them before they even realized what was happening. They began to attack us soon enough, but they weren't as tough to battle as the Generals.
Bella and I fought together, in sync like we were against the Generals, making our way through their lines, trying to catch a glimpse of the Emperor or the General.
Luck was on our side, because it took only two minutes before Bella shouted that she spotted the purple cloak. We fought our way through the soldiers, injuring some while killing others, to get to the General.
Bella broke through first and I followed soon after, both of us standing still as the General stood with his back to us, the purple cloak flying in the wind. Slowly he turned around, the blonde hair tied up in a ponytail out of his face. A small grin came to his lips as soon as he saw us standing on the beach, a long line of dead soldiers behind us.
"I knew you'd come." he says and I narrow my eyes, my anger beginning to build once more. Bella narrowed her eyes, holding her sword in front of her, obviously not liking his attitude either.
"Where is he?" I ask and the blonde looks to the man behind him. I hadn't noticed him before because I was so focused on my brother's murderer, but I soon followed the gaze of the blonde, seeing a tall man with a black cloak.
He turned around to face us, taking off the helmet he wore over his head, revealing slightly graying hair and a sharp looking face.
"Looks like you've finally showed yourself, Captain Styles." he says in a deep voice and my eyes widen as he looks at me, staring me right in the face.
"There's no way..." I whisper, staring at the so called Emperor with shock. The man looks at me with a grim smile, his dark eyes fierce and cold, nothing like they used to be.
"What's wrong, boy?" he asks and I feel my hands shaking. Bella gave me a curious look, but I ignored her. I thought he was dead...I haven't seen him in years...
"Uncle?"
It's about to go down! For those of you who are confused, don't worry. Everything will be cleared up in the next chapter!! I really hope you like this one! Love y'all!