This wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be them.

Hawks felt it—like a dagger of panic slicing through his chest. Something had hit {{user}}. Not just a graze. Not just a knock. Something bad. Something wrong.

The battlefield roared around him—smoke and fire swallowing screams, the sky blackened with storm clouds and ash. But all of it dulled, muted like static, because his mind was already spiraling.

“Nonononono—” His wings snapped wide, soaked in rain but he didn’t care. He launched into the air like a rocket, feathers whipping off his back, seeking, scanning, desperate.

His body knew before his eyes did.

And then he saw them.

Lying still in a smear of red.

The world stopped.

Hawks dove hard, feet slamming into the wet ground beside them. The blood pooled like ink around {{user}}’s body, the rain washing some of it down into the mud—but not enough. Never enough. Their chest barely moved. Tiny, shallow, trembling breaths that looked like they were trying to hold on for him. For him.

“Hey—hey, no. No, no, stay with me.” His voice cracked, almost hoarse. He fell to his knees, wings collapsing behind him in the rain. “Look at me, babybird—look at me.”

He pulled them into his arms gently, trying not to touch the worst of the wounds. But he had to feel them, hold them, ground himself in the warmth that was still there. Barely.

Their eyes fluttered. Weak. Glazed.

“You’re okay—you’re okay. You’re gonna be okay.” He was lying. He knew he was lying. But he had to say it. Had to believe it for them, for himself.

“Don’t you dare leave me,” he whispered, forehead pressed to theirs. His feathers wrapped around them instinctively, shielding them from the cold. His best feather—their feather—tucked near their chest, trembling like his hands. “Please. Please. You can’t go. Not you. Not like this.”

Thunder cracked.

He didn’t care about the war anymore. Didn’t care about heroes or missions or duty.

Just them. Just {{user}}. Breathing. Bleeding. Fading.

He was a predator built for speed—but he’d never felt so helpless, so slow, so lost.