Gerato.
The helicopter slammed down on the dirt with a heavy thud, it's forward wheel driving into the rain sodden ground.
The left hand door crashed open as a man charged out, nursing a gash down the side of his cheek and neck.
Slung over his shoulder was a woman, wrapped in a shawl and carrying a small infant.
“Hurry. He'll be here any minute.” The man gasped, flinging open the doors of the mansion and carrying the woman inside.
“Daniel! What about Gerato?” The woman moaned, clutching her side, which leaked a steady dribble of blood.
“Put him... in the study.” Daniel gasped, laying her on the floor as four white clothed medics and Markis lept down from the helicopter, it's engine winding down.
“Sargent, what about the helicopter?” The lead medic stepped up, placing a hand against the woman's side.
“Leave it. There's no more time for subtlety. Is Denise okay?”
“She'll be fine. It's a surface wound, only a few milimeter's deep.”
“Okay.” The man scooped up the woman and the child. “Let's get upstairs. Barricade the door.”
He heaved Denise through the darkened foyer and up the main stairs to the second floor, into the formal sitting room.
Daniel laid his wife on the floor, taking Gerato from her arms, and continuing up to the third floor.
They arrived at the only lit room of the house, the study, as it had no exterior windows, they could keep the lights on.
He placed little Gerato in a crib, along with a small glittering ring. “Keep this safe for daddy, all right?”
The baby's only response was a wide-eyed stare as his father left the room.
Daniel emerged back into the formal room, holding a stubby pistol in one hand, and a knife in the other.
He turned to look at the assembled team, reminiscing on the last year.
Markis turned too him. “I wish Amber was here. She would love this.”
Daniel nodded solemnly. “She would. But we can talk about it later. Over beer.”
“Right.” Markis hefted his riffle and grinned uneasily.
Daniel turned to one of the medics. “Vernan. Go tell the Lord of Thunder we're here. My communicator is broken.”
“Yes sir.” the man nodded, hefting himself out a window, and crawling down the brickwork.
Daniel hunkered down in a plush red chair, pulling out a stubby handgun and starting to wipe it down with a cloth.
The three medics, Markis and Glenn kept adding to the barricade, until the room was all but barren.
Denise and Daniel crouched in the corner, having a muttered convorsation while he continued wiping his gun.
“I told you it wasn't a good night.”
“I know. It went wrong.” Daniel shook his head, thinking back to night before, in the capital.
“Poor Amber!” Denise sighed. “Just when she and Marki-”
CRASH!
Daniel lept to his feet, gun in hand. “Markis!”
“Right.” Markis dropped to one knee, gun raised, pointed at the barricade.
Another crash from downstairs, and another, nearer this time.
Daniel tipped over one of the remaining chairs and crouched behind it, lifting his pistol.
He glanced at Markis, both of them wearing a worried frown.
CRASH!!
The door vibrated, and Daniel tensed.
A few seconds of silence, and then-
The barricade exploded, a large fireball errupted into the room, blowing fragments of wood into Daniel's face.
Markis's riffle flashed, but the shot went wide, burying itself into the wall by the door. He did not manage another shot, as a bullet flew out of the dust cloud and caughthim in the throat.
“Markis!” Daniel shouted again, watching his friend fall. “Markis!”
He rose from cover, firing two shots, and then hunkering down once more. “You B*****rds!!” He shouted, as a flurry of bullets sailed through the doorway.
One of the Medics brok covery, scrambling to get out of the danger zone, and was promptly mown down by a flurry of bullets, the force of impact jettisoning his body out a window.
“Gilene!” Daniel shouted, as a small storm of bullets flurried over his head, ripping holes in the wall.
The bullets moved down, Ripping away at the wall until suddenly the overturned chair started to jump and jerk
With a sickening thud, one of the bullets made it's way through the chair, narrowly missing the wooden struts and denser clumps of springs, before exiting the other side, through Denise's head.
She gave a little sigh, and dropped to one side.
“Denise?!” Daniel Grabbed her, pressing two fingers against her neck, looking desperately for a pulse. “Denise! NO!”
The only response he gained was to have her body roll over fully onto it's side, Denise's forehead leaking blood and small amounts of brain matter.
Glenne was down, and Daniel couldn't see the last medic. The only sign of him was a blood splatter on the wall. They had been decimated, and Daniel didn't even know by whom, or by how many.
Just as suddenly as it had began, the bullet rain ended, leaving the room filled with nothing but erie silence.
Daniel, driving by rage and grief, came to his feet. It was possibly the most idiotic move of his career – maybe even the last move, but it was something that he honestly didn't care about.
He stood up, knife raised, and threw.
The knife flipped through the air, and slammed into a dark shape in the doorway.
There came a soft moan, and the shape crumpled to the floor.
Daniel looked around, breathing heavily.
Was that it? Had he lost everyone, only to finish the battle with one knife? The thought sickened him, the emotion somehow worming it's way into his haelstrom of a brain.
Finally, out of the whirlwind of emotional agony and rage, there emmerged one thought;
'Did he find Gerato?'
Daniel Stumbled to the door, past the single man who had killed everyone in the room save Daniel himself, and along the hall.
He took the stairs two at a time, flicking lights on without care for the danger. The situation was past danger. It was dire.
Daniel slammed the door to the study open, and broke into a weak smile when the baby inside started crying from the noise.
He ran to the crib, dropping his pistol beside the baby before picking it up.
“Oh Gerato...” Daniel whispered. “Mommy won't be coming. She can't.”
The baby continued to cry, and Daniel foun d himself crying in turn, seeping in joy and agony at the same time.
He started to rise. “The... The Lord of Thunder will be here soon...” He whispered, placing the baby back in the crib and turning.
“Then he will be here too late." Whispered the voice behind him.
Daniel completed his turn abruptly.
“What-”
The knife cut him first across the face, slicing his eyes, before the attacker reversed his attack and stabbed the weapon into Daniel's stomach.
He crumpled with a short cry, and was still.
The killer stepped up to the crib, One hand reachign for the baby, the other clamping pressure on his shoulder, where Daniel's knife had impacted.
He Give a cold smile.
“Now all that is left is you little one.”
The Lord of Air caught a glimpse of Gerato's hand, studying the red line running the legnth of palm.
“Infused. I should have known. Very well then.” The old man moved to pick up Gerato, wrapping his boney hand around the baby's side and lifting him up out of the crib.
Upon being touched, the baby's eyes flared white, and the Lord of Air was thrown back into the wall.
The old man's head slammed into the side of a bookcase, and then he fell.
The body did not move, while the baby sat in it's crib, crying.
***
The lord of thunder arrived minutes later, with Vernan and many other medics in tow.
The situation in the first floor room was hopeless. The only surivior was Glenne, and He would be crippled for life.
Up in the study, both Daniel and the Lord of Air were dead, although no one could fathom how it had come to pass that both of the fighters were dead, but it was obvious who they had fought over.
The Lord of Thunder, an old man himself, sighed with heavy sorrow.
“Someone... Someone just get me the security tapes.”
He sat down in the lounge, exhausted from the day of battling.
The war was over, but it's climax, hidden away in this hilltop manor, was still yet to be eplained.
The truth would shock them all.