Opposite Sides

Eve woke to screaming.

She painfully moaned and slowly opened her eyes to see black all around her. She couldn't even tell if she was looking at anything. Was she dead? The fact that her side and legs were painfully on fire contradicted those thoughts. She slowly moved her hand an felt around her, patting her way across the rocky ground towards the direction of the screaming. Her hand brushed up against something metal and quickly felt the familiar worn leather of her sword's handle. She took the sword in her hand and applied a tight grip allowing the blade to light up the black cavity around her.

Her hair was a complete mess... which was kind of a funny thought to think of after coming from a fight with a magic wielder and the earth crumbling around her. Her uniform blouse was ripped, and she lost part of a pants leg in the rubble she crawled out of. There was a fairly large bruise by her ankle that was painful to the touch, and her side was making it hard to breathe, but it didn't feel like anything was life threatening. A miracle in itself.

The screaming echoed beyond her location in the dark cavity she was in. Eve slowly crawled to her feet and instantly fell to the floor due to the terrible pain on her badly bruised leg. Using the wall as a support, she got herself to stand and was able to look around her. Behind her was a complete cave-in, with the legs of an unfortunate soldier sticking out. The other end seemed to keep going beyond the light the blade gave. Her other blade had to be somewhere, but as she slowly followed the noise down the tunnel instead.

She tried to limp most of the way before giving up an using the wall for support. She held her sword out like a torch and shined it in the tunnel in front of her. She didn't really know what to expect to see at the other end of the tunnel, but the black haired man was not one of them. The man was clawing at the rubble around him, but barely moving anything. He saw the light first before he saw Eve. She couldn't tell if he looked worse than she did or not. His nice robes lacked any shine and were nearly ripped in half. His face looked terrible, the blood, dust, and scrapes were bad enough, but tears made it worse.

He held his left arm close to his body trying to protect himself. He was bleeding terribly and she just realized that she actually sliced off his left arm just above the elbow. The magic blade had the power of flames, so it should have cauterized the wound, but that clearly wasn't the case. She just stared not really knowing what to think.

Once he recognized Eve his face turned ugly, he tried to use his right hand to try to use some kind of magic but sparks of purple and black shot from his hand which exploded in his face. He tried once more, but it shot him backwards into the rubble which caused another painful scream to erupt from his mouth.

"Stop it!" Eve finally yelled. Everyone knows that magic needed a balance of two hands to make it work. It was just painful to watch him do that to himself. It was even more painful to think that she was the one to do that. Eve lowered her sword and rested her head on the cave wall and tried to push back any ounce of emotions that were trying to bubble up.

She needed to be strong. Just as always. Oh, she hated war. She always wanted to help people, not hurt them. She had already convinced herself that this was fine, their plan to blow up the land. After all, gravity and surprise was the cause of their harm, not her. Her job was complete, but was it really? Her Commanding Officer would tell her to kill the man, or let him suffer. She just didn't know what to do.

"What are you doing?"

Eve placed the rough leather handle of the blade in her mouth and grabbed the black haired man by his right arm with both of her hands. Her leg was on fire, and the blade was growing dim with light, but she still held on tight and pulled him out of the rubble. It took her two times to lift him out fully, and he couldn't catch himself in time. Eve and the black haired man, both in pain and appearance in shambles, stood only inches away from each other's faces.

They stared at each other for a moment too long. Though this time sounds of war didn't break the moment, rather fear of the other failing to stand did. Both were trembling to stay supported and it was clear that even though they were alive, both were terribly in pain. Just before the light from the blade disappeared, Eve took it back in her hand. She was far shorter than the man, but she also took his good arm and wrapped it over her shoulders trying to support him.

"I'm not going to let you die down here. Every person deserves a trial, and you will get one."

She felt silly for saying the words, but knew that it was something to hold onto to get out of the cave they found themselves in. She didn't know if he would harm her, or if he thought the same about her, but while both were pumping with adrenaline and standing, it was best to keep moving forward.