Harry

He is here. He is really here. The person whose death has haunted me countless of times in the past two years, whose face has been a constant in my nightmares and hallucinations. My brother, the person I thought I lost, the person that died before my eyes.

Zayn.

"I- I can't- what is- how. . ." I stutter as I press my palm against my chest, hoping my painful heart palpitations will stop. My eyes are teary, but I manage to keep any tears from sliding down my cheeks. I ordered my soldiers to go back to their duties, leaving only Niall, Louis, and Liam with me.

My eyes trail to Elena, her hazel eyes I've missed so much looking at me worriedly, my arms itching to wrap around her body and hug her, but I can't focus on that now. Not now when Zayn - my brother - is standing before me. Alive.

"W- we have to go," Zayn says quietly, glancing at Elena.

I can't stop staring at him. He hasn't changed one bit, he looks a bit more mature perhaps. This is too much for me at the moment, the scene making me freeze in my spot, complete shock overtaking me. Maybe none of this is real after all, it seems too good to be true. 

"You've got to be kidding me," she tells him harshly, her eyebrows pulling in a frown. "You're Zayn? You're his- I- what?"

"There's no time for explanations, I- look-" before Zayn can finish his sentence, a string of loud explosions booms from above us, shaking the walls, the lights starting to flicker.

"Harry, they're fighting back," I hear David's voice coming through the earpiece. "Americans. . . there's so many of them, they have planes and they're dropping grenades."

My eyes widen and I momentarily forget about the shocking discovery my brother is, in fact, alive and Elena knows him, turning to face my team, blinking a few times to clear my vision.  I'm trying so desperately to stay calm, my mind refusing to deal with this unexpected turn of events because it would surely result in me breaking down completely. "We- we have to go up there right now."

"What's going on?" Elena asks me softly.

"Americans are attacking us," I tell her, feeling sorry for having to leave her again. "Just. . . just go. Run and be safe."

"Wha- we're just gonna leave them all here?" Louis asks, widened blue eyes meeting mine. "Zayn is standing right there! Zayn! And- and Elena, Alex. . . come on, I'm fucking shocked."

"I know how all of you feel, but this is the most unfortunate time for dealing with this," Niall says, directing his harsh glare at Zayn. "But once we win this war, we'll deal with all the unresolved issues."

"Let's go," I order, watching as they reluctantly turn around, starting to move down the hallway. I don't feel happiness nor sadness at the moment, I simply feel numb, every cell in my body rejecting the possibility of any of this being real. Maybe if I convince myself I'm hallucinating I could get out of this mess sane and alive.

"Harry," Elena calls after me, making me look at her over my shoulder. "Take care."

My heart clenches and I nod, giving myself a silent promise we'll see each other really soon and I'll ask for her forgiveness. My eyes trail to Zayn, giving him one final look before running ahead, leaving them behind me as I decide to fight with all I've got. We've come here to win and that's exactly what we're going to do.

. . . .

My eyelids slowly open to the half, a throbbing pain in my head making me grimace, a groan rumbling from my chest. Everything around me is a blur, a lot of white surrounding me. I blink a few times, realising I'm lying on a hospital bed, all kinds of wires attached to my arms while the liquid in infusions flows into my body, my heart beat heard from a monitor aside. I raise my hand, noticing bandages over what appears to be burn wounds, tentatively touching my head only to realise there's a bandage around it too.

A slight panic takes over me since I have troubles with remembering what the hell happened, but the worst part is, I'm not in Hazard, this is definitely not our infirmary, this looks like a real hospital room. The monitor starts beeping as I get upset, my heart starting to beat a lot faster, my chest rising and falling heavily. I can feel pain in almost every part of my body, but luckily I can move my limbs, meaning my spine wasn't severely injured.

"Harry?" Niall's voice comes from my right, my head turning to look at him entering the room, immediately feeling relief. "Hey buddy, calm down, you're good." He quickly takes my hand in his, placing his other one on my shoulder.

"Niall, what the hell happened? Where am I? The- the attack on Vortex . . . how- how did it go?" I ask, images of earlier events slowly coming back to me.

"I need you to calm down first, okay?" He says, his blue eyes worriedly searching my face. "Do you want a bloody version or less bloody? I personally prefer the bloody one, man it was so fun to fight them, you should've seen me. I threw a bomb at the group of Vortex soldiers approaching me and boom, the next thing I saw were their body parts falling all around-"

"Fuck's sake Niall, I don't care about your creepy ass fascination with blood and killing, I'm talking about this!" I motion to my body. "Why am I here?"

"Ooh right, right. Well, first of all, we're in the war hospital on the North, it's three hours away from Hazard, but we flew here with you to give you the best care. And don't worry, all of us are fine, just a few minor injures, honestly you're fucked up the most," Niall explains. "Listen, what I'm about to tell you won't be easy to hear and will probably be shocking-"

"Oi, did you tell him about Zayn?" Liam asks as he pokes his head into the room, making me widen my eyes.

"I was easing into it, you idiot!" Niall snaps at him over his shoulder.

The heart monitor starts beeping again at the mention of my brother, his name triggering my memories. I squeeze Niall's hand and close my eyes, feeling myself drifting away, suddenly being in the middle of the attack from earlier.

Explosions. Gunfire. Smoke. Death. All of it was surrounding me as I ran, shooting at the enemy while giving out orders. Our pilots were fighting against Americans in the air, our soldiers were fighting against Vortex on the ground. I don't know for how long had it lasted, all I know is that my muscles were aching from all the running, fighting and carrying heavy weapons.

I was so desperately trying to take my mind off the fact I saw Zayn. I actually saw my brother alive and well, dressed in a Vortex uniform. I don't know how or why, all I know is that he is alive and the thought made me want to cry and laugh at the same time. I believed the inital shock still hadn't worn off, so I couldn't exactly process it entirely.

Louis, Niall, Liam, and I had split, losing each other in the chaos. I'm sure they'll be able to handle themselves, I have to try to reach David. When a random enemy soldier approached me and aimed her gun at me, I immediately pulled the trigger on mine, ending her life. I didn't like the fact I had to kill, but there was nothing I could do, I had to fight for what I believe in, I had to ruin Vortex once and for all. Just as I turned around, another enemy soldier was about to shoot me.

Before I could fight him off, his eyes widened and he slumped on the ground, a knife pierced into his back. I looked up, seeing Elena running toward me with a frown on her face, her messy brown hair swaying as she moved quickly. She bent down and pulled out her knife, her hazel eyes worriedly scanning my appearance, searching for any sign of injury.

"Elena, why- shit. Why are you here? I told you to run-" I shot the enemy soldier behind her "-and get to safety. Why do you always do the opposite of what I tell you?"

"I couldn't leave you and neither could your brother," she told me, suddenly pushing me away as she swung the knife, throwing it at someone who was about to shoot me. "Listen, now is literally the worst time to talk, let's do it later, okay?"

My eyes immediately searched for Zayn, unable to find him in this chaos. She was right, though, we have a war to win. Determined not to let her out of my sight, I reached for her hand but she was already gone, grabbing her knife from the soldier's neck where it was pierced. I ran toward her angrily, making her confused as to why was I like that, my hand grabbing hers and pulling her body closer to mine.

"Stay close to me," I ordered lowly, our faces close as my eyes flicked down to her lips. "Let's go, Tiger." I pulled her with me as I started to run, determined to find my father to discuss our strategy now that Americans were here.

Elena was shooting at the enemies and since she was wearing the Vortex uniform, she wasn't bringing their attention to herself. We were quite a team, having each other's backs as we ran through the chaos around us, skillfully getting rid of any threat and danger. I felt less anxious with her beside me.

We were nearing the edge of the woods surrounding the base, seeing lines of Hazard and Wildfire vehicles in front of us, my father being somewhere among them. "Dad, where are you? Elena and I are-"

I stopped in my tracks when I saw Elena running toward a dying soldier lying on the ground, crouching beside her, leaning close and whispering something to her. The girl grabbed her wrist and nodded, half of her leg missing, blood and wounds all over her body. Elena stood up and aimed her gun at her, making me look away, knowing what she was about to do.

We exchanged glances and I motioned for her to come to me, watching as she ran toward me. My eyes suddenly widened at the sight of a few Wildfire soldiers aiming their weapons at her, making me signal them not to shoot, but they didn't see it or simply didn't care, all they saw was the brown uniform she was wearing. I frantically ran and threw myself at her, shielding her body with mine.

She groaned underneath me, her face slightly grimacing as she locked gazes with mine. "Can't help but save the damsel in distress, Charming?"

I smiled briefly, the moment being completely ruined as someone opened fire at us, making me stand up and pull her up, both of us running toward the safety of the trees where I knew we would find David. I had no idea where my team was or even where Alex and Zayn were, I could only hope all of them were safe. Zayn. . . it still felt so unreal he is alive.

"Harry we see you," David said. "Keep going! Fuck, where are all those planes coming from, you need to get out from the open, go go go!" He panicked.

My eyes looked up and I saw military planes directly above us, starting to drop the grenades. It all happened so fast, grenades falling one by one, hitting the ground, creating huge clouds of dust and dirt, the vehicles exploding, its burning parts flying in the air and crashing on the ground. Elena and I happened to be in the middle of it all, getting separated at one point, our bodies flying metres away from the blast wave, colliding with the hard ground.

I was lying on my back, coughing dryly from the smoke in the air from the burning vehicles and bodies nearby, my whole body feeling sore and heavy as if there's a building on top of me, my limbs refusing to move. There was a high pitched tune present in my ears, muffled shots and voices yelling surrounding me as I turned my head, trying to find Elena.

I could almost feel my heart shatter at the sight of her lying nearby, her body completely still, noticing blood over her uniform where the heat had presumably burned her skin. But when she moved her head and lifted it, a huge wave of relief washed over me. I blocked out everything around me and tried to move my hand, my fingers twitching, the action being painful for me but I managed to do it. I watched as she mustered up enough strength to start dragging herself toward me, her eyes focusing on mine.

We knew there's a slim chance we'd survive this, we both knew it, I could see it in her expression just like I imagine she could see it in mine. She managed to drag her injured body a few steps away from mine before she collapsed down, her strength leaving her. However, she didn't just give up, extending her arm and brushing her fingers against mine, the small action meaning the world to me.

I tightened my fingers around Elena's as much as I could, my eyelids getting heavy as we kept eye contact, no words needed to be exchanged. All I wanted was for her to know how sorry I am, I love her, but somehow I believe she knew. A strong surge of pain washed over me when I saw her eyes close and her body slump completely, tears filling my eyes as I refused to let go of her hand.

"Elena. . ." I whispered weakly, hoping she'd open her eyes. "I love you."
I don't know for how long had I been lying there before I drifted away, hearing faint echoes calling my name.

"Harry? Harry come on!"  Silence. "Harry!"

I snap from my daze, Niall's worried gaze meeting mine. I notice David standing beside me, Liam, Louis, and Tori in the corner along with a few nurses and a woman wearing a white coat, a huge needle in her hand for who the fuck knows what purpose. "Okay doctor Frankenstien, you better put that shit away and nobody will get hurt," I say.

"He's fine," everyone states in unison when they see me behave as usual, releasing breaths of relief.

The medical staff leaves the room, my eyes watching the people closest to me, but I see a few faces missing. "Wait, where- how is Elena? Where is she?"

Everyone looks away, exchanging glances between each other. "We don't know," David says. "You should know you've been out for two days and our focus has been mainly on you. We don't know the identities of every soldier that died on the field, I've been notified recently Vortex burned all the bodies, so it's hard to say who survived."

"The fuck, she's not dead if that's what you're implying," I say harshly, the mere thought making me want to throw up. "She was right beside me back there, how the hell did you not find her?" I'm starting to panic again, my chest heaving.

"Harry, we're looking for her and Alex, just calm down," Niall says, holding a syringe with a long needle in his hand, noticing my confused look. "Oh, I'm holding it just for fun. I love how sharp it is, imagine stabbing someone with it." His teeth grab his lower lip.

"Man, we've got to have him tested," Louis says quietly.

"And where is Jess?" I ask when I notice she's gone too.

"We don't know. . ." David says. "I don't believe she's dead, all I know is that she separated from her team at one point and disappeared, but we're looking for her as well."

"So all those people are missing, one of which is seriously injured, and we have no bloody idea where are they? That's- wow, that's great." I frown, feeling anger knowing I can't do anything when I'm weak and bandaged like this.

"Harry, calm down, we're doing everything we can. Since Vortex surprised us, the victory isn't exactly ours, but it's not theirs either. We have their base surrounded and we're searching for Seth. We blew up a few of their buildings and demolished their base and hundreds of vehicles. It would take them months to recover while we'd take two weeks tops considering we have Wildfire's support. We'll attack again real soon, change a few things in our strategy and that fight is going to be final," David explains.

"That's a lot of information for me at the moment, shit." I rub my forehead, somehow hoping it would soothe the throbbing pain I'm feeling. I'm actually glad I'm feeling the physical pain considering it's taking my mind off the emotional one.  I admit I feel fear for Elena's safety since I know in what state she was before I lost my consciousness. I knew there's a slim chance either of us would survive, but since I have, I know she has too. She's much stronger than I am, a few burn wounds wouldn't be enough to take her down.

"There's someone who would like to see you," dad tells me, squeezing my shoulder as if to give me support. He nods to Louis, who walks toward the door and opens it, beckoning for whoever is outside to come in.

My breath hitches in my throat when none other than Zayn walks in, looking perfectly okay without any major injuries, his usual blank expression on his face as he glances at everyone. He's wearing plain clothes, the Vortex uniform he was wearing now luckily gone. His caramel eyes finally look at me, fear and anxiety washing over his features as he approaches me hesitantly.

"I think this is the moment when all of you leave the room and the person I thought was gone explains to me how are they alive or why are they in the opponent base, ahh what a deja vu," I comment sarcastically.

"If you want us to stay we totally will and not only because we missed Zayn so much and looking at him actually hurts but also because we want to make sure you'll be okay-" Liam starts.

"It's fine, you can go," I assure them, keeping my eyes on Zayn. When all of them reluctantly leave, Zayn and I stare at each other while heavy silence falls between us, tension so clear in the air.

"Hiii, Harry," he mumbles, forcing a small smile on his face as he scratches the back of his head.

"Alright, here's the thing. I'm really close to completely losing it at the moment, so I hope you have one hell of a good explanation for being alive right now considering I've spent over two years of my life grieving and blaming myself for your death, replaying it in my head over and over and over again every single fucking day and as if that wasn't enough, I'd have nightmares during night. I couldn't see the damn Vortex tattoo without getting severe hallucinations, I haven't opened your room ever since you died, I- I. . ." I stop when I realise my chest is heaving, my eyes blurry with tears, my fists clenched.

Zayn looks down but I notice he's in the similar condition. "I'll tell you everything, Harry. I promise."

. . . .

a/n: out of curiosity, who is your favourite character? :)

so I know who to kill off

nah jk