After helping Hayley and Jaxon up, Susan said, "Okay, so we know Jaxon's ability now."
The yard descended into a long stillness. The group of five stared at each other. This continued for two minutes until Hayley mumbled, "I... I don't know what to do. I can't... I can't do this anymore,"
The rest's expression dropped, though they said nothing they agreed. Looking at her teammates Hayley continued, "Are you not tired? Tired of all this fighting, keeping our guards up, betrayals... Eventually, we'll have to fight those... things out there."
"Not only are we weak, we're inexperienced, scared and hungry. I'm tired! And it looks like the only person who could have helped us... We left her for dead!"
Hearing Hayley's last sentence, Jaxon lowered his head even more. The other girls' eyes slowly teared up. It looks like these past three weeks the group had been holding some pent-up feelings. The battle was the catalyst that made it explode.
Hayley held her face, low sobbing filled the desolate yard.
"We can't give up," a low mumble was heard.
Looking up, Jaxon repeated louder, "We can't give!"
June looked at Jaxon with her piercing sky blue and slowly asked, "Why can't we give up? It's our choice."
Frowning Jaxon replied, "We have gotten too far to give up. We don't know how many people died trying to get the opportunity we have. So I shall prove to myself, with my effort, that I, Jaxon Li, deserve this chance!"
The girls' expressions shifted slightly. The usually reserved Sierra yelled as she questioned, "Are you sure we deserve this chance?! If it weren't for January, we wouldn't be here right now!" She closed in on Jaxon and poked his chest in anger. Her expression slightly twisted. Her jade-coloured eyes showed immense guilt and agitation.
"That's life! If we don't take these opportunities we'll die!" Jaxon yelled back, pulling his black hair back.
"We all saw, January knew we were going to leave her behind but she did nothing! That was her choice! I don't understand why we should live in guilt for HER choice?" Jaxon pulled his hair when more as he continued.
Sierra, June and Hayley froze in place. Susan closed her eyes as she interrupted, "Jaxon's right. January knew all along."
The three girls turned towards Susan with perplexed expressions on their faces. Ignoring this she continued, "We must put away this unnecessary guilt and become stronger. If we're stronger, we'll live longer. I know January's still alive. So let's become stronger and find her ourselves." Finishing her sentence, she opened her eyes. Suddenly, the air around Susan got heavier as her fiery brown eyes glowed strongly.
Looking at Susan in shock, Jaxon asked, "Did she just advance?"
"Yep," Hayley responded, equally bewildered.
A look of realisation filled June's face. "Our guilt hindered us from advancing, so Susan coming to terms with her guilt..."
"Broke the bottleneck she didn't realize she had," Sierra added.
"It's like cultivation!" Jaxon suddenly exclaimed.
Hayley: "Cultivation?"
"Yes?" Jaxon nodded enthusiastically.
"In my culture, we believe in reincarnation, transmigration, etc, etc. In the records of our history, they say our ancestors had techniques aka cultivation that could help them ascend to immortality. Things like bottlenecks or devil in the heart stopped most of them for enhancing."
"Where are you going with this?" June asked holding her head in exasperation.
"I'm saying if we use the method my ancestors used then..."
Jaxon stopped there as he looked at them, hope filling his eyes.
Susan, who had been advancing continued, "Then we can advance our abilities."
Gasps were the only sound in the yard. The once-dark sky brightened, reflecting the mood of the group.