Above the compound—
Or what remained of it—
They came.
Not in waves anymore.
From every direction.
Some had seen her.
Others hadn't.
But the destruction she left behind had carried far enough—through ground, through air, through whatever instinct drove them—that it pulled them in all the same.
Feet slammed across broken terrain.
Others tore through the air, uneven flight patterns cutting across the sky, bodies angled toward her position.
Some dragged limbs behind them mid-flight, others hovered with twitching instability, yet all moved with one purpose.
Toward her.
Redstar hovered in place.
Still.
Her gaze moved across them slowly, scanning without urgency.
One cluster to the left—three grounded, two approaching from above. Another group further out—faster, less damaged, moving with more cohesion.
She took it in.
All of it.
Movement.
Sound.
Breath.
Even the faint shifts of air as distant bodies displaced it.
What she couldn't see—
She found anyway.
