Dron barely had enough time to make sure that Tempest was safe in the transport before Gerax used his wrist device to get them moving.

"What is the rush? What is going on?" Tempest asked from where she was sitting.

Dron wanted to know what was going on as well. He felt as if he should be mad with Gerax for interrupting them as they were just getting through a breakthrough. But something about how the thin beta male looked let Dron know that whatever was happening was important.

"Someone...something... I don’t know." Gerax seemed to be at a loss of words.

"What do you mean you don’t know? Where are you taking us now?" Dron asked.

"The poor class." Gerax spoke through gritted teeth. "I just don’t understand how or why they would do that. I don’t understand."

"Don’t understand what?" Dron asked, his panic already building inside of him.

"Oh god... what’s happened?" Tempest asked, her anxiety on the rise as well.

"I’m not sure who did it, but based on what I’ve heard, the poor class was attacked. Someone must have known we went to visit. But how? I don’t know." Gerax banged his hand against the wall of the transport.

Dron had never seen the man angry, at least not to this extent.

Dron looked to the side. He hoped that it wasn’t as bad as Gerax was making it seem. He hoped that he wasn’t about to bring Tempest into a war zone. Surprisingly, he hoped against all hope that everyone there was okay.

They could rebuild. Material things could be replaced, but the people there didn’t deserve to die.

The transport was silent for the few minutes after the initial conversation, but soon Tempest started to cry. Dron didn’t want to lie to her and promise that everything would be okay. He didn’t know that for sure. He didn’t know that everything was okay. He didn’t know anything besides what Gerax had told them.

Seconds later the transport started to descend to the ground. Dron didn’t need the door to be opened to know that it was his worst fear.

He could hear the screaming through the thin metal of the vehicle.

"Stay behind me." He ordered Tempest.

She didn’t fight him. She simply nodded her head and took her place right behind Dron. Gerax stepped in front and pressed the small panel on the side wall for the transport to open. The door wooshed open, and instantly a plume of smoke raced into the small car.

"Let’s go! We have to get out of here." Gerax raced out of the transport. Dron grabbed hold of Tempest and did the same.

"Oh god! What is going on?" Tempest asked as the three of them came to a stop in the middle of the usually cramped poor class.

Dron was in shock. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Fire, real fire, was raging all around them. Men and children ran around trying to escape the blaze.

Besides that, there were pieces of what looked like the poor classes’ people’s homes in tatters all around.

"We have to help them." Tempest tugged on Dron’s arm as if trying to get him to get into gear. Dron was absolutely at a loss for what to do. At least for the moment. Then he realized just what kind of danger they were all in. Not just the people of the poor class but Tempest and Gerax as well. Dron needed to get things under control and fast.

He turned to Gerax; he was about to trust him with his life. "You and Tempest need to go from home to home and make sure that everyone is out. If there is someone trapped, do not let Tempest go inside. You go if you can. If all else fails, I’ll try to go in and get them."

Gerax nodded his head. "What are you going to do?"

"I’m going to try and knock these fires down before everything is destroyed."

It was a good plan. It would’ve been a better plan if Dron had more people there to help him. He was alone trying to stop a whole community from burning down to ashes.

Gerax gestured for Tempest to follow him. She looked over her shoulder for a moment and mouthed, "Be careful in the drone direction."

He knew that she was concerned about him, but it was nothing to the fear that was overtaking him just thinking that something would happen to her. He had to trust that Gerax would do whatever he could to make sure that she would be okay. Dron had to believe that she would do everything that she could to be okay as well.

Dron rushed to the main road of the village. There was a small well there. He didn’t know how much water there was, but he hoped that it would be enough.

Dron moved as fast as his body would let him, finding every last thing he could that would hold water. He pulled up as much water as possible and quickly started dosing the nearer houses. Fortunately for him there wasn’t much in many of the houses that could burn down. Unfortunately by the time he got to many of the houses, he was simply putting out the remains of what was left. The houses themselves would all need to be torn down and rebuilt.

Dron looked to the side to check on Gerax and Tempest and was happy to see that both of them were busy getting people out of harm’s way. Tempest didn’t look to be in any more distress than she was moments ago. She wasn’t harmed.

Soon after Dron started, another alpha ran up to help him. They didn’t speak. They didn’t need to. They both knew what needed to be done. Moments later, another and another. The community was coming together to save what little was there. Dron was proud, but he couldn’t focus on that. They’d managed to get most of the fire in the main area beat down, but there were still alleys of homes that were either crumbled down or still engulfed in flames. The work was nowhere near done.

It felt as if it took hours for them to make a dent. By the time the water was at the bottom of the well, all the fires had been put out, and the people of the poor class were celebrating the fact that they hadn’t all died.

Dron, Tempest, and Gerax didn’t celebrate, though. Not when they could look around and see all the dead. Children, men, merchants, everyone who couldn’t save themselves lay still on the ground.

"Pinat." Tempest gasped.

The word was so low Dron had a hard time hearing what she had said. It wasn’t until his Omega took off down the alleyway that he figured out what she was concerned about. They’d spent all their time trying to rescue the countless people that they didn’t know in the poor class that they never thought to go check on the ones they did.

Dron raced after Tempest, who was running at full speed down the alleyway.

"Tempest stop!" Dron barked from behind her, trying to get her back in line so she didn’t get hurt trying to maneuver over all the down wood and walls.

Gerax kept pace with him. He hadn’t said much since they made their way to the poor class. Dron could tell that this was really weighing on the beta.

There was no time to address it.

Tempest got to the small house that the three of them spent upgrading only the night before, a split second before Dron and Gerax, but the wail that pierced the air stopped Dron in his tracks.

It wasn’t a scream of fear or surprise; it was one of utter heartbreak and pain.

Dron didn’t need to walk around the corner to know what Tempest was seeing.

He walked around anyway.

Lying there in a puddle of blood and ash were both Aixen and Pinat. The crippled alpha was lying over Pinat’s body as if he were trying to protect her in his last moments. Pinat was still and covered in blood. Blood that didn’t come from her being in the fire. In fact it looked as if the fire hadn’t touched Aixen’s home at all. Someone else was here. Someone started all this, and Dron couldn’t help but believe that they were the cause.

Seemed as if Gerax had the same thought.

"We did this. If we hadn’t helped them, no one would’ve known they were here. That she was here. This is our fault." Gerax sounded broken. As if he were on the verge of losing it all.

"No. We didn’t do this. The people that were charged to protect them did this." Dron squeezed his hands into fists. He was tired, exhausted from all he’d tried to do to help these people, but anger still pulsed inside of him.

"Dron..." Tempest whispered.

Dron faced her and realized that she was no longer looking at Pinat and Aixen but behind him.

Dron turned slowly and realized that he’d made the biggest mistake of them all. He didn’t check to see they were alone.

They definitely weren’t.