Kayla fell on her back after reading those words. She couldn't seem to understand what was happening. His body was still dripping blood which told Kayla that he didn't die too long ago. He had indeed died in agony. The door which was previously locked was now busted open. The words engraved in his chest were bleeding as well. Kayla ran outside the door after collecting herself once more. She stumbled and fell a couple of times as she frantically ran towards the sunlight coming from the outside. The only exit was the giant hole in one of the walls. It brought her back to the world she had known all her life. Kayla found herself in the ghettos of her hometown.

Traversing through them proved to be very difficult for her as she had no idea where to go. The paramilitary forces had not covered this part of the city yet which was why there were plenty of lowlifes wreaking havoc on the automated stores and businesses. Her clothes were covered in various spots of blood and so was her body. This served a a deterrent of sorts against the criminals for her. She had yet to see a single intellectual on the streets. Kayla remembered that she was doing something with Ray at the lab they had discovered. She also remembered why she was there in the first place. She made haste to reach her home. She was desperate to know what happened to her parents.

On her way back she also got to witness the mayhem which had occurred when the terrorist attack happened. Looking at the destroyed buildings and marketplace brought her to tears. The whole city was filled with sirens and the same announcement over and over again. She walked by the tents which were assembled to hold the survivors of the massacre but found them empty as well. She didn't see a single valuable thing in the streets. At one point she almost collapsed from exhaustion but she found the strength to carry on. A homeless man made eye contact with her as he ran with his loot. She could sense the madness in his eyes as he made his way towards another settlement. Minutes later she heard a scream followed by sound of automatic gun fire. At this point she was crawling on the floor, desperate to reach her home.

A military vehicle pulled up near her and demanded she get off the streets. Kayla pleaded with the lieutenant to take her home which he did after judging the condition she was in. On the way she saw Zandra's bike in a dumpster near her home. After they pulled over to her home, they found it empty and devoid of everything. She couldn't believe that this was all real. While looking around, she caught a glare of her phone resting peacefully in the lawn. She picked it up and tried to use it but it was damaged badly. Kayla was dropped off near her school as per her request. Walking towards her school seemed odd to her. Breaking into the school was even weirder for her. She had stored a change of clothes in her locker for emergency purposes. On her way towards the lockers, she passed by her classroom. It seemed like she had attended this school a lifetime ago. So much had happened in such a short time. What was even more weird was that Ray and Zandra were also present in the school. Kayla bumped into them right after visiting her locker. Kayla fell on her behind, though she didn't get up. Silent tears began to form in her eyes. The same also happened with Zandra and Ray. Although they did not have the words to say it, they were glad to be back together again. Apparently Ray had escaped along with Zandra and brought her here in hopes of using the school's communication antenna to reach Kayla.

However their reunion was cut short by an explosive going off on the floor below them. The building lost one of its primary supports and started to collapse from that side. The trio started running towards the stairs but the floor collapsed before any of that happened. Ray was separated from the girls who fell on the floor below them. Another explosion occurred on the supporting beams of the other side of the building. Ray had retrieved the gholo he had hidden inside of the school before the explosions took place. With it, he found out what was really going on. 3 mech warriors had surrounded the building and they were the ones who had blown out the lower floors with explosives. Ray sent out a distress signal to Qestial which was resting on his desk back at home. Kayla had hit her head whilst falling down which knocked her unconscious. Zandra had to move her body to avoid the falling debris. She located the stairs and took Kayla down to the basement and started working on waking her up.
"We're gonna get out here alive, I promise!" Zandra whispered to a passed out Kayla.

On the other hand, Ray had hacked into the mechwarriors communication grid to see what they were planning to do. Qestial was able to sneak up to them using its camouflage mode and successfully jammed a blade into the chest of one of them before disappearing once more. This stirred up some confusion between them and mechs started firing erratically towards any slight sign of movement. Ray was watching all this from the safety of one of the classroom windows while also trying to hack into their control modules. During all this he heard something over the radio chatter which he shouldn't have. The school had taken massive structural damage in just a few seconds. The former hallways had turned into dust and debris. Ray was forming a plan in his mind of escaping the place silently. Zandra on the other hand had safely dragged Kayla's body in one of the classrooms on their floor. She began to scribble something on a piece of paper she found because she somehow knew that her time with Kayla was limited. She decided not to think much about it and took a deep breath. The unfiltered golden sunlight which was coming in from the windows, highlighted the dust particles blowing in the air, sometimes disturbed by a light breeze.

Everything got interrupted by the building shaking wildly and Zandra blacked out for a short second, but got a better grip on Kayla and ran. Her lungs were filled with the dust which was slowly settling down on the floor. Oddly enough, running through the school reminded her of the times she spent with Kayla, the school was filled with memories of when there still were happy times. With each passing second the building grew weaker and weaker. Ray was trying his best to not let them drop the building on them but he was running out of options. Qestial was taking heavy damage by the mechas because Ray couldn't control it manually. Suddenly the attackers started retreating which left Ray in a sense of confusion mixed with a hint of relief. However the feeling quickly bled away when he found out that the building was going to collapse soon. He made haste to reach the girls wherever they were.

Zandra was holding tightly to Kayla's hand as she sung their favorite song in an attempt to hopefully calm her nerves as the world around them reduced to rubble. She was crying uncontrollably while doing so, almost wishing she never got out of bed today. Zandra looked towards the entrance of the class they were in and briefly saw her younger self setting foot inside on her first day. She saw herself walk up to the front of the room and sheepishly give a short introduction about her. Zandra also looked towards where Kayla used to sit but she found that place empty. She looked towards her younger self who was by now crying loudly. She pointed towards the ceiling above her and gave out one final shriek before disappearing. Zandra looked above herself and saw that it was about to fall on them. Whimpering she looked at Kayla, curled around Kayla with her body. "I will protect you" She whispered bittersweet.