#i went to urgent care for the exact same problem last summer and they did a lil surgery that was supposed to fix it

[unityrain24]

need to schedule a doctors appointment bc my foot got hurt and the earliest possible opening is MARCH? if u waited until then i don't think i'd be able to walk anymore!!

[enchantedtomeethyun]

Cruel Summer Part Four-Chan

The street was busy with people as usual. Chan and I walked hand in hand leisurely observing the life of others. A group of school kids excited to finally be on vacation make their way into an ice cream shop shouting and laughing. A street performer taking a break outside a McDonald's. People pushing passed each other to get to work or some where they are urgently needed. Then there is us. After what had happened earlier in the morning I thought it would be a good idea to spend the day out together. Chan wore his usual. A black Vetements hoodie and sweats. A mask to cover his face and pair of shades. He did look suspicious to be honest but he said it would attract less attention. I went for a much less black look with my pink hoodie and shorts. My favorite Chanel wallet and a mask. It was moments like this that made it seem easy to be together. Just him and me walking in the street. He would point out something in a window and I would agree it looked worthy to look at so we would walk in the store to snoop around. Window shopping was fun with Chan.

"Oh look at that! Wow it's so pretty!" I cooed looking into the window. Chan chuckled to himself and moved closer to see what I was adoring. He arm went to the small of my back which made me jump a little bit blush at the little things he does that makes my heart flutter.

"What are you looking at?" He said confused.

"That!! Right there in the front!!" I said jumping excited.

"Baby that's....a kids watch?" He said giving me a look. He didn't understand what drew me to it.

"It's Hello Kitty though!! Look at the little flowers on the band..." I said pouting a little. I read for his hand and hold it looking at him for a second. I then leap over towards the door of the shop dragging him along with me. Chan laughed again mumbling something this time I can't hear. The bell dinged as we entered alerting the sales lady to greet us.

"Welcome in! Are you looking for anything or for anyone?" The lady said approaching us. Her eyes were deep brown and hooded. Her lashes long and elegant. She stood confidently in front of us in her short black dress and heels. Her hair was long and black. It flowed to her elbows as she reached out for a hand shake from Chan.

"We are looking thank you." Chan said nodding his head politely and shaking her hand firmly. Her eyes looked him up and down smiling in a flirty way. This made him uncomfortable and he stepped back bumping into me.

"Ah sorry my baby are you ok?" He said concerned holding my back and my shoulder.

"Ah yes ummm good heh..." I said brushing off his touch walking towards the Hello Kitty display. He bowed shyly towards the lady embarrassed or his actions and followed behind me.

"Ahh wow look there's other characters too!" Said looking through the glass case careful not to get my finger prints on it.

"I like that one it would look cute on you haha.." Chan said nervously stepping over to the other side of me to look at it closer. He took off his mask looking over at me smiling. I take mine off as well and he reaches for mine to hold. I nod at him thanking him for his gesture.

The lady returns over near the case display we are looking at. With a bottle of windex in hand and a cloth she stands by waiting. I look up at her expecting her to say something. She just gives me a warm smile and continues to watch us.

"Um can I please look at this one please." I said pointing to the one Chan liked. He steps back to give the lady space and stands behind me closely so his arm can drape over my shoulder. The lady unlocks the case and reaches inside for the glove, putting them on. Taking the item in her hands she holds it in front of me to show off the items.

"How much is it?" I asked reaching to touch it. The lady quickly moved away and placed it back in the case. She giggled quietly before speaking.

"Maybe a little too much for you dear.."She said swiftly then spraying the case and cleaning off the non existent fingerprints. A little annoyed I huffed.

"She asked how much it is? So tell her." Chan said seriously placing his hands in the case. The lady was startled by this move and stepped back.

"Oh I'm oh it's... one moment.." She said trying to gain her composure taking a look at it again.

"800." She said confidently looking over at me as if she had defeated me.

"We'll take it." We both said at the same time making us laugh a little. The lady smiled again and took it over the the check out space. I gave Chan a look of "what the fuck" and he did a sheepish smile. Rubbing the back of his neck he mouthed sorry. I eased my way over with Chan following behind taking out his wallet the same time as me.

"No Channie I got it please.." I said handing the lady my card.

"Oh you better let your boyfriend pay he seems to know what he's doing.."She said looking down at me. Did I look weird? I looked at my clothes and then his. I mean yeah his hoodie is designer but we are both wearing hoodies.

"No I think she can handle it actually." Chan said sounding a bit pissed off. His hand instinctively grabbed my free hand holding it tightly. I smiled at the lady to mock her placing my wallet on the counter. Looking down she notices the Caviar wallet and realizes her mistake.

"Ah yes of course ma'am would you like it boxed as well?" She said bowing her head to show respect.

"Yes." I said flatly earning a laugh from Chan who was looking over at me fondly.

"I'll also take that right there." I said pointing at the Hello Kitty bag on the shelf.

"Ah yes one moment of course!" She said dashing over the grab it. She stopped for a second then rushed towards the back yelling:

"I'll get you a fresh one!"

Once she disappeared through the wall that was a door Chan and I began to laugh. He pulled me into a hug still laughing while rubbing my back.

"Ah oh my god!" I said wiping the happy tears from my face. We gained our composure and look at eachother as we pulled out of the hug.

"You know you didn't have to pay." He said to me quietly.

"Yes I did Chan. You can't let people like that walk all over you ya know." I said pursing my lips in a teasing way.

"I'm just saying I could of protected you. You didn't have to-

He stopped after realizing what he said. His head raised to look in my eyes. I was confused why he stopped talking but I feel like he just had something click in his head.

The woman returned with my purchases and handed them to me in the shopping bag. I paid promptly then we left with the ding of the bell going off again.

Walking back to the dorm we were silent. It felt comfortable though. It was like nothing needed to be said and we knew that. Chan was insistent upon carrying my bag and I reluctantly let him. When we arrived at the dorm we were greeted with hellos from the members and their guests. Everyone was having a lively conversation when Hyunjin's girlfriend approached me.

"Hey! What did you get? I'm nosy sorry.." she said excited sitting down next to me on the sofa.

"Ahhhh baby don't be rude she probably doesn't want to show you." Hyunjin said walking over to her then pulling her into a hug sitting with her.

"No no I'll show you. It's no problem I like Hello Kitty so I got this watch I saw in the window with Chan.... then uh this bag aswell." I said as I took them out of the boxes to show her.

"Broooooo oh my god I got the same exact bag!! Holy shit we are meant to be best friends..." she said excited and she reached over to hug me. Hyunjin laughed and apologized to me for her excitement.

"She likes Sanrio characters a lot. Ah... sorry" he said shyly pulling her away. I hugged her back laughing.

"No it's ok! I do too.." I said as I watched her eyes light up. Without realizing Chan was sitting there observing.

"Hyung are you going to help your girlfriend carry her things back to your room or are you going to sit there like a creep and stare at her." Hyunjin said earning a loud laugh from his partner.

"Ahhh Hyunnie don't be mean to Chan! Don't worry Chan I got your back!" She said shooting finger guns at him. We all laughed and Chan got up and nervously began packing the things back into the boxes with me.

"Are you ok?" I whispered in his ear.

"Yeah I'm good.." he said whispering back picking everything up and standing. I followed him to his room and watched him put my things down on the unused chair. He walked over to the bed sitting down with a deep sigh.

"Oh no .. you only sigh when something is wrong.." I said cautiously approaching him and sitting next to him. He laid back and I took this as an invite to lay across his tummy. Our bodies making an X shape across the bed.

"What are you doing baby.." he asked chuckling a little. I laughed feeling his stomach contort from his laughing. We both began to laugh not being about to stop. The felt too funny. After a few moments we fell silent and he reached for my hand.

"You know.. nothing is wrong. I wanted you to know. I needed today and it help me realize." He said.

"Realize what.." I said scared of his rejection.

"I need you in my life. I want to protect you. I want to laugh with you.. I want you. Please can I have you?" His voice cracked at the end. I sat up then sat on him my legs on each side of his hips. He lifts his neck to see what I'm doing before I engulf him in a big hug almost knocking the wind out of him. I cuddled him close my face in his neck. He responded by wrapping his arms around me.

"You always had me." I said in his neck. He breathed out a sigh of relief. Lifting myself off him my back was arched still in his arms.

"Hey you guys wanna watch the new 90 Day Fiancé with us! Hyunnie and I think it would be fun since..

She stopped talking as they stood in the doorway seeing us in the position we were in.

"Well at least he lets her be on top!" Hyunjin's girlfriend said. I gotta remember to ask her for her name.

"What do you mean?! You were on top last night!?" Hyunjin whinned pulling her into a hug as if it would stop their little argument.

"Barely! It was for 2 minutes but you said you wanted to be on top so you could muffle the sounds of ..

They walked off arguing. I was a bit worried but Chan opened his mouth.

"They aren't actually arguing by the way. That's just how they talk to eachother when they are around others. They are so soft for eachother when no one is around." Chan said as we sat up.

"I kind of wanna watch... 90 day fiancé..." I said to him.

"Yeah they make it sound so good huh?" He said standing up reaching my hand helping me up.

"Yah! Hyunjin save some space on the couch!" Chan said as we walked into the living room.

"Where did they... go?" I asked looking around and through the kitchen.

"Oh heh I uh forgot..." Chan said shyly looking down. I was scared to ask but I did.

"What?" I said.

"Their "arguments" are usually resolved rather quickly.."He said looking over at Hyunjin's room.

"Gross!" I said covering my face embarrassed.

"It's just you and me then I guess.." Chan said plopping himself down on the couch.

"Well we can wait.. you said quickly.." I said sitting next to him hugging his side.

"Oh did I say that.." he said reaching for the remote to turn on the tv.

"I meant loudly.." he said again turning up the volume of the tv of the movie playing.

"Gross!" I said again slapping him lightly.

[purplesurveys]

1194

survey by n0b0dysp3rf3ct

What’s your favourite song to sing to? These days it’s Sweet Night by V, but it always changes tbh. I don’t really have an all-time favorite song to sing along to.

What’s your relationship like with your exes? Nonexistent. I’m good at blocking off people and memories like that, no matter how special the relationship had been or how much time we spent together. I don’t feel guilty about it; I actually feel more at peace this way.

What mistake do you find yourself making over and over again? Procrastinating and putting off things I could literally finish in 10 minutes or less. I’ve been better about it, to be fair to myself; but the habit comes out every once in a while and I always end up kicking myself in the ass for not already knowing any better.

What are you afraid to lose? Hmm...probably people, especially my friends. I’ve been starting to think more about this these days. My two best friends are in very good, committed relationships, and I know that one day they’ll have lives and families of their own, maybe even move out of the country. I’m finally acknowledging the fact that maybe I am afraid of getting left behind and ending up alone. Those thoughts make me sad, though, and I hate being stuck in feeling sad, so I try to shake them off and focus on my happiness in the present.

What’s one of the hardest decisions you’ve had to make? Agreeing to break up with Gabie. I never liked admitting defeat, so that was a particularly brutal afternoon.

Have you ever gave up on a love interest as they acted differently around other people? I’ve never been in this situation.

Do you think you’re ready for love? What does love even mean to you? I’m taking a break from it, actually. I was in a relationship that I put a lot of effort in for a long time, and I don’t mind focusing on myself for now especially considering I put myself in the backseat for the entirety of said relationship. I feel no need to jump into another relationship any time soon.

What was the last thing you turned down doing? Angela was showing me some shops that were starting to put up offers for the new BTS Hybe Insight photocards. Those photocards are only being given away to visitors who go to the new Hybe museum, and we didn’t want to technically pirate them, so we both chose not to buy. We can wait till we can travel to South Korea together and get the photocards for ourselves :)

Have you ever fell for someone who was clearly bad for you? Technically...yeah? She eventually ended up being bad for me, but I didn’t know it at the time.

Are you a party animal? No. I like attending parties, but I never want to be the center of attention.

Who are you the biggest fan of? My best friends.

When was the last time someone really let you down? I haven’t felt that disappointed in anyone in a while. 

What song can you not help but dance to? Mic Drop.

You’re DJ for the night - first track to get everyone going? ...Now that I mentioned it, Mic Drop. The Steve Aoki remix in particular. Sorry folks, y’all are getting K-Pop tonight.

Have you ever been too scared to tell someone how you felt about them? Yes.

Where do you feel the most inspired and creative? Erm, never? I never feel creative. But when it comes to being inspired, I usually feel it when I have one-on-one talks with Bea. She schedules a brief talk with me once every few months just to catch up and ask me how I’m doing, work-wise and growth-wise. I find that it really helps and I always exit the call wanting to perform better at work.

Have you ever been hit on by a pushy person? No.

When’s the last time you met someone for a coffee? I’ve never done that.

Describe the ideal man or woman for you: Kim Taehyung. That man is doing a stupid great job ruining everyone else for me.

What place in nature would you love to visit one day? Somewhere with auroras.

What accent do you find attractive? Like I’ve said on previous answers, I like Florence Pugh’s accent, whatever it is. I could listen to it all day.

What do you think you’re really good at? I’ve always loved writing and I’m pretty confident in my skills.

Do you have something you’d like to tell someone right now? I know Jo is going through a breakup and I want to reach out and share a few reassuring words, but I’m not very good at that kind of stuff. And since she isn’t initiating, it might mean she wants her own space for now too.

Have you ever had feelings for a friends partner? Never.

What career would you love to pursue: I’m more than okay with my current field. But had things turned out differently, I’d most likely be taking up law.

What was the biggest lies you’ve told? I never like lying so I try to make the ones I make as trivial as possible.

How can you tell if someone loves you? Idk for the most part I believe people have different love languages, so expression is always different for everyone. I don’t wait for people to act a certain way for me to deduce that they love me.

What’s one of your fondest memories? Front row at a Paramore concert, 2017. I went alone and danced without a care in the world and sang along to every song, and it was one of the nicest couple hours of my life.

What’s your favourite thing to do that doesn’t cost much? Taking surveys is literally free.

What do you feel unnecessarily judged for? I feel like I would be judged for having an entire blog just for surveys, which is exactly why I don’t share about this hobby with anyone. Not even my ex knew about it until much later on in our relationship.

What are you proud of yourself for? Still being here is a big thing.

What relaxes you after a busy day? As is pretty obvious already at this point, BTS. I like looking for funny compilations or interviews of theirs to watch to de-stress.

Have you ever known someone who suffered from drug addiction? Nope. Not that I know of, at least.

Why did your last relationship end? She wasn’t in it anymore.

Who do you have a crush on? Taehyung :/

When was the last time you stayed up all night? I was up until 4 AM earlier, if that counts. I don’t really do entire all-nighters anymore; latest I can do is either 4 or 5 AM.

Have you ever been someone’s rebound? No.

What would you fight LTR for the right to do? I don’t know what that is or who they are.

When did you last apologise? What was it for and was it accepted? Some work stuff came up today and it was something I needed to ask my manager about, so I had to message her. I apologized profusely before and after my main message since it’s a weekend and I HATE making my co-workers think about work on weekends, but the matter was a little urgent and it couldn’t wait. But eventually the thing got sorted out, so I followed up with a message asking her to disregard my question, and I sent her a heart GIF as well.

Have you ever been to Cuba? I haven’t, but I’d like to visit.

What do you feel positive about? That I am most likely ordering Frankie’s tonight because I’m having a serious craving for spicy Korean wings that I can’t ignore anymore.

Do you know any Spanish? I’ve retained the words, sentences, and verb tenses I was able to learn when I was still training on Duolingo; and Filipino has a lot of Spanish influences, so I wouldn’t say I’m completely unfamiliar with Spanish. I wouldn’t be able to last a conversation, though.

If you could go on a road trip now, where’s you go? Continued from this morning. I’d probably just go back to Tagaytay. La Union could be a great road trip spot as well.

When in danger are you more fight or flight? Flight. What makes you irrationally angry? When people speak excessive Taglish, especially in a work setting. Most Filipinos are fluent in both, so I’d wish they’d pick one and stick to it. I find code-switching pretty unprofessional for the most part.

Do you feel self conscious about a certain body part? Sure.

Is there someone you’ll always be there for? If so, who? My best friends.

Have you been accused of being manipulative? Gab probably did a few times, but I barely remember those memories anymore.

What’s the most romantic thing someone has done for you? I literally can’t remember anymore.

What or who do you miss from your childhood? The ability to be carefree and the greater space to make mistakes.

Do you miss late night calls with a certain somrone? No, I hate calls.

What would you like to do again some time? Be able to go back to coffee shops.

What’s your least favourite season? Summer.

Do you know someone who’s ridiculously arrogant and entitled? A lot of boomers and older Gen X-ers.

Have you ever considered violence to solve your problem? No.

Who’s the best dancer you know? That I know in real life? Aubrey. Overall, Park Jimin.

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve received? I can’t seem to remember the exact same quote they gave me, but it was Andi telling me a few months ago not to rush my healing so I can avoid potentially harming myself in the process.

How good a swimmer are you? Not very good. I just like swimming leisurely.

What’s your favourite baby animal? Puppies and baby elephants.

What’s the best compliment you have received? It’s always nice to be told I’m strong.

What’s your favourite gemstone? Don’t have one.

Do you bounce back well when things go wrong or does it take a while? It takes a while, but I always get there eventually.

What’s an underrated colour/shade you really like? Not sure; the colors I tend to lean towards I think are pretty popular choices.

What insult or label would hurt you the most to recieve? Being told I’m useless or a burden.

How often do you notice the attractiveness of strangers? I rarely find strangers attractive.

Are you good at hiding your emotions? No, I practically wear them on my face.

Are you romantic? More than I’d like to admit.

[pip25]

Refuge - A Lina/Xelloss fanfic

Hi there! This is a small companion fic written for the the April prompt of @slayersweek, a prequel of sorts to my main fanfiction story, “Slayers - Order in Chaos”. Knowledge of that fic is (hopefully) not necessary to understand most of what’s going on. Hope you’ll enjoy! :)

It was definitely not the average summer downpour.

The wind howled like an army of restless ghosts, while innumerable flashes of lightning turned dusk into noon for several seconds at a time. Not much could be seen, however; obscuring all sight beyond a couple of steps, the rain poured with a ferocious intensity that would give even seasoned adventurers pause.

Watching the storm vent its rage over the jagged mountainside, Lina Inverse found herself to be no exception, despite having over a hundred years of experience under her belt.

They had to consider themselves extremely lucky, having managed to find shelter moments before the rainfall went entirely out of control. The rock alcove the two of them had stumbled upon had its entrance opposite the wind’s direction and it seemed like no water could get inside from above either.

On the other hand, their hiding place was, to put it mildly, incredibly small. A far cry from anything that could be considered a cave, the alcove was barely high enough for the average person to stand, and had just enough surface area to fit a single bed. It was enclosed by cold, uneven rock on three sides, and a low stone wall on the fourth; beyond that, there was nothing but rain and wind.

“Well, I think we will be safe here for a while,” the sorceress said, turning away from the storm to look at her companion. “I doubt we’ll be going anywhere before tomorrow morning though, so… we might as well set up camp.”

She loosened a clasp below her neck, reached over her shoulder with one hand and took off her cloak.

“Here, hold onto this for a sec.” Despite her dangling the piece of clothing in front of him, the dark-haired man remained motionless, his face turned in the direction of the rain as he leant against the stone wall. “Um, hello…! Urgent message from the Material Plane to Xelloss! Please respond…!”

“Oh, my apologies,” the priest dismissed his staff from existence and grabbed the cloak with both hands around its shoulder line. “I was looking for any alternative accommodations nearby, but regrettably came up empty-handed.” He cocked his head to the side. “There does not seem to be much we can set up here, I’m afraid.”

“That’s what you think,” Lina smiled mysteriously. “Watch me turn this tiny jail cell into a high-class inn in no time.”

Now that she could use two hands, the sorceress removed her gloves and shoulder guards as well, then started rummaging through the countless magical pockets of her cloak with dizzying speed. She first retrieved a bedroll and laid it down; it fit the available room on the stone floor almost perfectly, leaving only a tiny bit of space at Xelloss’ feet. Next came a thick blanket, then a notebook, a wooden case about the size of a deck of cards, two large sacks of nuts and jerky, and finally a waterskin, still half-full.  

Putting the case, the snacks and the waterskin next to the pillow section of the bedroll, Lina hopped down on the opposite end, threw her boots into the corner next to the priest, then crawled under the blanket.

“There! A cozy little alcove, in more ways than one.” Her head reappeared on the other side, soon to be joined by her right hand which flung a piece of jerky into her mouth. “Sure, the floor isn’t exactly soft, but from what I’ve heard that’s good for your back. Really, if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s out here in the middle of nowhere, I’d be shocked that people aren’t charging money for this.”

“It may indeed look comfortable, but I would not call it especially warm, even now in late summer,” Xelloss mused. “The weather being as it is, you might run into trouble by the early morning hours, even with that blanket on.”

Hardly appreciative of his warning, the sorceress folded her arms and stuck her tongue out at him. “Fine, be that way, you doomsayer. Remind me to gloat about how wrong you were in the morning.”

With that, she immersed herself in her late dinner. The food looked plenty, more than sufficient for four or five ordinary travelers; but Lina Inverse was quite far from ordinary, and for her it was just enough to get by until tomorrow. Unwilling to let that dampen her mood or to give her companion any more openings, she resolved herself to do something she rarely did: eat slowly, try to savor each bite, so her rations would last longer.

However, being accustomed to a meal requiring her full attention (to keep the plates, silverware and food from flying all over the place), she now found herself easily sidetracked; her gaze kept jumping back to the priest, who still stood there with his back against a wall, unmoving, as if he had become part of the makeshift room’s furniture somehow.

An unsettling thought ran through her head: she once saw him standing in the exact same spot for an entire night at the edge of a cliff, gazing into the distance.

This time there was no cliff edge, and he was not staring into the unknown – but at her.

“Um, Xelloss, don’t you want to sit down or something?” she asked. The prospect of him staying like that until morning – she had to admit, it creeped her out quite a bit. At least if he lowered himself to the floor, the whole thing would become less obvious.

The mazoku looked down at his feet. “I’d be glad to, but with so little room I fear I’d be sitting on you instead of the ground… unless…” He snapped his fingers. “Ah, here’s an idea!”

His body started floating upwards as if submerged in water, and a few seconds later he was waving cheerfully at the sorceress from above – sitting cross-legged upside-down on the rugged ceiling.

“What do you think? An imaginative solution, don’t you agree?”

Lina’s head plopped down weakly on the cushion. “Oh gods, this is even worse!”

“But why? I am sitting, am I not?” Xelloss looked at her like she had refused to accept that one plus one did in fact equal two.

“That’s not the issue here! It’s… uh…” the sorceress stammered. Explaining the problem to her companion felt like willingly inviting a terrible headache. “Geez, just come down from there already!”

The priest shrugged, lowered himself from the ceiling – and began floating halfway between that and the floor, seemingly lying on his stomach in the air just above her.

“Any better?” he asked, relaxing with both hands behind his head.

The sorceress hid her face in her hand. “Two words: Hell no.”

What seemed like genuine disappointment spread through Xelloss’ features.

“I… see.” he muttered with a pout. “Well, if you feel so strongly about this, I suppose I can simply withdraw to the Astral Plane for the time being…”

With a sigh, his projection blurred, then disappeared.

The sorceress frowned. She was quick to remind herself that he probably said all that just to make her feel guilty about driving him out of their shelter, at least in the physical sense. Being the annoying person he is, Xelloss cared nothing of the fact that she had several good reasons for doing so. Very good reasons.

To her even greater annoyance, however, this knowledge brought no change to the outcome: she did feel somewhat bad about it.

She looked around frantically in the alcove, but the priest was right: there simply was not enough room for him on the floor… with one possible exception. An exception he did not point out, and it was painfully obvious to her why.

In utter disbelief that she would even consider this, Lina rolled her eyes… and patted the bedroll beside her.

“Hey, Xelloss… I… guess you could fit under the blanket…”

She barely had the time to withdraw her hand, and the mazoku was already there, his head sticking out from beneath the thick fabric, his grin bigger than ever.

“My, Lina-san, aren’t you being bold this evening?”

Lina figured the two of them would not have much room next to each other, but it was far worse than she thought: the priest’s right arm was already bumping into her own.

“There’s absolutely nothing ‘bold’ going on here, capiche?” Her words sounded like she wanted to convince herself just as much as her companion. “You’re the one who said it’s going to get cold later on. Well, luckily for me, your projection has plenty of body heat you don’t need, so consider that your price of admission. Now, put your hands where I can see them.”

The priest raised a provocative eyebrow. “What exactly are you suggesting I would do with my—”

“Your hands where I can see them. Right. Now. Or I might really start entertaining some bold thoughts, like dragon-slaving you from under the covers.”

Xelloss obediently slid further up towards the wall behind his head, revealing his hands, arms and shoulder line; while he was still wearing gloves, his cloak and sack seemed to have disappeared.

More than eager to close the book on the previous conversation topic, the sorceress moved towards the edge of the bedroll to get at least a few inches of distance between them, then grabbed the wooden case next to the near-empty sacks of food. After a couple of botched attempts, it yielded its contents.

“…Glasses, Lina-san?” The priest seemed so surprised, his eyes fluttered open for a second.

“Yep, I need these to read my notes.” After levitating a ball of light to just below the low ceiling, she retrieved the booklet and opened it around the middle. Adjusting the tiny rimless frame on her nose, she scanned the seemingly empty page – but turned to the mazoku immediately afterwards. “Go on, say it.”

“Say what exactly?” Xelloss replied, wearing his best ‘I’m going to play dumb and there’s nothing you can do about it’ expression.

The Lighting spell at the ceiling suddenly became very interesting to Lina for some reason. “Well, me cooped up under the blanket, reading a book with these glasses on… makes me look like some old lady, doesn’t it?”

The priest scrutinized her features for several long moments. “Hmm… I don’t think I see much of a difference.”

Her shoulders drooped. “Oh. Too bad.“ She glanced back in Xelloss’ direction. “…What? I am an old lady, you know. It’s great being the irresistible ageless beauty and all, but is it so bad that I sometimes wish I could look the part a bit more?”

He raised both hands in a gesture of denial. “Not at all… though countless women and men less than half your age would want to have your head, Lina-san, if they could hear of this.”

The sorceress let loose a dangerous-sounding snicker. “Let them have it… if they can take it.” She turned a page back in her notebook, which seemed just as empty as the one before. “I don’t think I’ve ever been a pushover, but if this pans out… their odds might just get a tiny bit worse. As in a snowball’s chance in hell.”

His eyebrows soaring upwards with curiosity, Xelloss slid closer to her to take a peek; she was about to pull her notebook away from him when her body froze up, almost as if struck by a surge of electricity. But to her embarrassment, it was no attack magic – merely the priest’s shoulder-length hair brushing the tip of her ears.

“Ah, invisible ink! No wonder you need special glasses to look at the pages,” he marveled.

“And of course, you don’t. Why am I not surprised?” Lina grumbled, but the mazoku’s curiosity was starting to rub off on her. “So…? You’d better be amazed; you’ve been given the honor of being the first person ever to see my ground-breaking, top secret research project.”

Xelloss’ eyes opened ever so slightly, and the previously invisible paragraphs and diagrams started to glow on the pages with a faint bluish light. “This appears to be fundamental magic theory for holy spells…” his eyes opened further, “…cast in the human language.”

The sorceress broke out in a smug grin. “Pretty fancy stuff, isn’t it? Holy magic’s been around for almost a century now, so you’d think someone would’ve done this ages ago, but nope. Some lunatics wanted to learn the golden dragons’ language instead! Theyiiii—”

She desperately bit back a yelp as the priest leaned forward, and the hair on the back of his head tickled its way down along her neck. “…Uh… Long story short… I don’t want to brag, but I think I’ve really outdone myself this time.”

Her companion did not respond immediately; his eyes seemed to be glued to the notebook in thought.

“Is this the most recent version of your theory, Lina-san?” he finally spoke. “Because, if I may be blunt, these numbers appear to be grossly inaccurate.”

“…H-Huh?” She leaned forward as well; their faces were basically touching from the side, but she was too upset to pull away at that point. “What do you mean ‘inaccurate’?! Look here, it makes total sense! I’ve been doing some experiments to boot, and it all works!”

Xelloss’ smile was as warm and understanding as it was insincere. “But of course. And if you intend to restrict yourself to the holy equivalent of that Lighting spell above our heads, this will do just fine. If you wish to go anywhere beyond that, however… I’m afraid it’s not even close.”

After those words, it came as little surprise when Lina’s left arm circled around his neck and pulled him into a headlock, one that could have been much more fierce if it weren’t for the fact that the limited room required her to basically hug the priest to her chest.

“And what do you know about holy magic, huh? Huh?!” she yelled, her flushed cheeks just making her even more angry. “You’re not going to play the ‘age-old mystical being’ card on me this time, Mr. Know-it-All! The power of the gods did not come anywhere near the peninsula when you were prancing around during the last thousand years!”

The priest reached up, his left hand resting casually on her elbow as if her throttling truly was little more than an affectionate embrace.

“You wouldn’t believe how many holy spells I’ve found in Claire Bible manuscripts, Lina-san. I know much more about such magic than what I suppose would be appropriate for a mazoku of my stature,” he added jokingly. “It likely also helps that I speak the language of the golden dragons without difficulty; once you understand how they think, the fundamentals of their spells aren’t that hard to grasp.”

Her arm slowly relaxed around his neck.

“Okay, if you’re that sure of yourself… then prove it,” she said simply. “Tell me what the right numbers are, and maybe I’ll believe you.”

His hand ascended further, and he waggled an index finger in front of her face.

“A respectable attempt to bait me, I admit, but surely you realize that those numbers are a se—” Chomp. “Um… Would you mind not eating my finger?”

Ignoring his plea, the sorceress started chewing instead. “No, dheir nyot a decret!” With a look of displeasure, she finally released both his finger and his neck. “Bleh!… Seriously Xelloss, why don’t we try something new for a change? This is important, valuable info, I get it; but I don’t think Zellas specifically ordered you not to reveal it to anyone. So how about we try to make a deal? There’s no harm in seeing if there’s anything worthwhile I can offer you in exchange.”

Still well within the boundaries of her personal space, the mazoku’s eyes opened once more. “I can’t help but repeat myself: you really are quite bold this evening, Lina-san.”

She tried to move her head further back, but immediately felt her hair touch the unforgiving stone wall behind her. “Uh, let me rephrase that: I’m talking about an exchange of information, okay?”

As if on cue, Xelloss’ expression morphed into the friendliest one imaginable. “Naturally! What else could you have possibly been referring to just now…?” Apparently satisfied by the murderous look she sent his way, he let the topic drop. “In all seriousness though, while I find your proposition intriguing, I don’t see what you could offer me that would be of similar value to the human race discovering an entirely new form of magic… especially if we restrict the exchange to nothing but information.”

With unhurried movements, Lina put her glasses back into their case, and when she looked at the priest again, her lips curled into a smirk that matched his perfectly.

“Come on, don’t disappoint me like that,” she spoke in a low, soft voice. “I’d come up with the right numbers by myself eventually; no need to blow this out of proportion. Meanwhile, here I am, ready to answer any and all questions you could possibly have, and after all we’ve been through, you really can’t think of even one thing you’d like to ask?”

The mazoku propped himself up on an elbow, his other hand touching his chin in contemplation. “Any and all, you say…? That would be tempting… if it weren’t for the severe restrictions I feel I’d nonetheless have to uphold if I wanted to keep our little shelter here in one piece.”

Now it was the sorceress’ turn to lean closer to her companion.

“You don’t have to. If I get wet, it’s my loss,” she whispered, her tone dead serious. “Try me.”

His smile widened, a flash of lightning illuminating his face at the exact same moment, making the sight even less comforting.

“If you so wish. Assuming that I’d agree to this arrangement, my first question would be this: eighty-seven years ago, the five of us were travelling through the Kathoman islands at the southern part of the ocean.” Lina’s eyebrows twitched with discomfort. “One night I was called away on unrelated business, and when I returned in the morning, I found both you and Gourry-san looking like you did not get a minute of sleep, while Amelia-san informed me that the two of you did not get back until dawn. I never found out why; in fact, even years later, the mere mention of the incident sent you into a bout of embarrassed rage.” He put a gloved hand on her trembling fist which dug into the blanket like she was hanging on to it for dear life. “Would you be willing to explain exactly what happened that night?”

Speaking through gritted teeth, it took all of the sorceress’ willpower not to snap. “If that’s what you want to hear, fine,” she hissed. “Do we have a deal?”

Her reply visibly took the mazoku by surprise. “…Perhaps, but hold on, I’ve yet to state my terms in full. I’d like to ask you five questions; this is the first one. If you refuse to answer any of them, or I have reason to believe that you are not telling the truth or are omitting significant details, I reserve the right to withdraw from the agreement. Is that acceptable?”

In response, Lina slapped his hand away and receded under the blanket to the point that only her angry crimson eyes were visible.

“Alright you damn pervert, listen,” she muttered. “Gourry and I… we thought we’d explore the island a bit before sunset. We were about to head back to camp when we ran into a couple of natives; they spoke with a really thick accent, but were a genuinely friendly sort and seemed to have taken a liking to us. They’ve invited us to a… festival of some kind they were holding in their village, with free food and all that. There was a catch though: those wishing to attend had to be there by sundown. We didn’t have the time to tell Amelia and Zel… but, well, I thought we’d just eat some delicious grub and leave after an hour or so.” She winced. “I think I should have known better. If not right there, then after we arrived in the village and I saw all that… weird… stuff.”

“Details, Lina-san,” Xelloss reminded her in a sing-song voice. “Don’t forget about the details.”

“Aaargh… There were… statues of…” She forced the words out of her mouth. “…statues of… male… genitals… everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Big, small, tiny, house-sized… you name it. They told me they were just… decorations… and that, combined with the mountains of food I saw being served won over my urge to get out of there at top speed. Gourry looked pretty relaxed too, so it didn’t seem like we were in any danger… I guess we really weren’t. But…”

She trailed off for a couple of seconds, her chest heaving like she was short of breath.

“The whole festival thing soon became even more suspicious,” she continued with considerable effort. “The invitation sounded like they simply wanted us to join the fun, but once we were there… we were treated like guests of honor, like the success of the entire celebration hinged on us. My nerves were already somewhat on edge, so I made a mental note to watch my back. Nothing happened though… not at first. The food just kept on coming, each course more delicious than the one before… until around midnight.”

The priest watched as her gaze became unfocused, her eyes widening with horror.

“I glanced up from my meal and saw that… the whole village started taking off their clothes… not like they wore many to begin with. Then… the guy who invited us stepped beside me and… encouraged me to do the same. Like it was… no big deal at all.” She clenched her eyes shut. “I was… this close to leveling the entire island… but then… I noticed Gourry. He was talking to the village elder in a perplexed voice saying something like… this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.”

Xelloss stared blankly at her. “I… I’m not sure I follow,” he stammered.

“You’ll understand soon enough. Now shut up,” Lina growled. “Obviously, I started grilling Gourry for answers… you can take that literally, I know there were at least a few Fireballs involved. It turned out… he paid the villagers for the food, and asked them to invite us here. He wanted it to be a surprise, to… to celebrate… our anniversary.” She turned under the blanket to face the priest, a strange, agonized smile appearing on her lips. “It was actually a week later, but leave it to him to mix up the dates. To make things worse, the natives didn’t understand what an anniversary was, and thought he was trying to arrange some sort of… fertility… ritual.”

She gave a deep, forlorn sigh.  

“Gourry wasn’t done though. After explaining to the villagers that we were going to keep our clothes on, he told them to ‘skip to the next part’. Before I could recover from the shock and bring myself to ask what the hell was that supposed to mean, I saw drums, flutes and… other instruments I didn’t recognize being brought out by the dozens. My husband stood there in the middle of them, and, accompanied by a choir of still butt naked men and women… he started to sing.”

She suddenly reached out and grabbed Xelloss by his collar, pulling him closer. The strained smile on her face blossomed into an expression even more baffling: it was impossible to tell whether Lina was about to laugh or cry.

“That idiot jellyfish…! I have no idea where he got the melody from, but get this: the lyrics were about how he couldn’t come up with any lyrics! How, no matter what he tried, he could not think of anything fancy to fit the occasion, but… he hoped I would like the song anyway, because… he thought it would… it would make me smile.” Her voice almost broke for a moment. “That… was so… him.”

She released the priest, but did not pull away.

“I think I fell out of my chair somewhere in the middle of the song… I don’t remember when or if I ever got back up. The rest of the night felt like I was in a daze… we were eating, singing… Ceiphied knows how, but I think they even got me to sing something, but I can’t recall what it was… I distinctly remember, though, trying to find a way to get Gourry and me alone, so I could beat the living crap out of him. I… or was it him?... managed to find an empty tent many hours later. In the end… well, the beating was postponed… and our second child was born early that next year.” She gazed at her companion with a weary look. “Is that enough detail for you, or do you want me to list the goddamn positions?”

The mazoku hastily donned a cheerful façade to hide his stunned expression. “I reckon I can fill in the blanks.”

“It’s so weird though,” she muttered absently, as if she did not even hear him. “I always figured if I told anyone about this, I’d either die of embarrassment, or at least blow up half the continent. But now… I don’t know how I feel. I…”

A single tear rolled down her cheek onto the bedroll.

Xelloss’ brows furrowed slightly. “There was no time limit in the terms I’ve set. Would you prefer if we continued this conversation tomorrow?” he asked in a careful voice.

“No… it’s fine,” she spoke in a half-whisper, managing to add a shaky wink. “And that was your second question.”

The priest wrinkled his brow further in confusion, then let out a small chuckle. “Oh dear… I did let my guard down, didn’t I?”

While he did not look particularly offended, his last few words - possibly a warning, a provocation, or just a remark of no consequence - were left hanging in the air. For the next few minutes, the two lay in the tiny stone alcove, under the cozy blanket, facing each other in complete silence.

Outside, the storm somehow managed to intensify even further. Instead of providing the occasional blinding flash or two, lightning became a constant feature of the night sky. The claps of thunder were distant at least, but as they melded into the scream of the wind, they created a horrid alloy of sound that seeped inside the tiniest cracks, wailing like a harbinger of doom.

Still, somehow all of that did not matter one bit. Lina pulled the blanket back above her shoulders, and let herself relax in the soothing warmth that enveloped her. Her gear was the best money could buy of course, but the sensation went far beyond what wool lining alone could provide; she felt some of this warmth coming from within her in greater and greater waves, like a hot spring that burst forth from her chest.

“I’m starting to feel sorry for the weather,” she said lightly, breaking the silence between them. “It’s trying so hard, and here I am, my only worry being what you’re going to ask me next.”

Xelloss put a hand behind his head in an almost bashful gesture.

“My, you flatter me, Lina-san.” His smile turned mischievous. “Unfortunately, flattery will get you nowhere. My first question was mostly aimed at testing your resolve; now that we’ve moved past that, let us get down to business, shall we?”

The sorceress nodded, rubbing her eyes. “Ask away.”

Somewhere nearby the roaring wind managed to fell a tree, sending it tumbling down the mountainside.

“I’ve been curious about this for a good while now: what exactly is your greatest fear?” the priest asked in a conversational tone. “The real one, I mean. I’m rather convinced the answer has little to do with slugs, and these days the mention of Luna-san also doesn’t quite cause the same panic attack it used to.”

As if to prove his point, Lina indeed merely frowned upon hearing her sister’s name.

“We really are getting serious, huh?” she spoke without much enthusiasm, blinking a few times. “Well, at least I don’t need to think too hard on that one. A word of warning though: I doubt it’ll be as interesting as you hope it to be, and it’s also kinda… hard to explain, at least in any detail.”

“Oh, no need to worry,” Xelloss on the other hand did not even try to hide his curiosity. “We can start with the simplest version, and go from there.”

Followed by her gaze, the sorceress’ index finger drew a shaky line on the bedroll between them.

“How do I say this… Remember Auntie Aqua?” With the raging storm as its backdrop, her voice was barely audible. “When we first met her while looking for a spell I could use against Garv, she showed me a vision… an alternate reality or just an illusion, I still don’t know… where I miscast the Giga Slave and destroyed the world.” Her finger came to a halt. “I think that’s where it all started… but that’s not it. My greatest fear isn’t what this would lead you to believe.” She looked at the priest again. “Maybe we should try to find some common ground first.  It feels weird to ask this, you being a mazoku and all, but… how close did you ever get to experiencing true nothingness? Not just darkness or desolation, but a void without light, without matter… without anything.”

The priest’s cheerful smile waned inexplicably. “I believe I have seen what you describe… or at least something not far from it.”

Her hand slowly moved to touch the edge of his cloak. “Could you tell me about it? It might help me explain.”

Breaking eye contact, Xelloss appeared to be studying the orb of light above for several long moments, his face an expressionless mask.

“Very well. I suppose I did say we’re in no particular hurry,” he finally answered, sounding like he had made his mind up about something.

As if in anticipation, the incredible winds outside let up slightly.

“It happened a century or two after the War of the Monster’s Fall,” he began, his open eyes still fixed on the ceiling. “Nothing in particular prompted me to do what I did, aside from idle curiosity perhaps. Sometimes humans simply feel like testing how far they can jump; that day, I decided to test how high up I could fly.”

He gave a light shrug. “Well, I said ‘fly’, but once I realized the true extent of the distance between me and the clouds, I quickly added short-range teleportation as an option. I reached my destination in just a few minutes; while the view was no doubt fascinating, to my disappointment there seemed to be nothing further up but an endless, empty azure sphere. Honestly, I was close to ending my little escapade right there, but ultimately I chose to go a bit higher regardless, just to be certain.”

Xelloss raised an arm to point at the unseen sky behind the layers of rock. “That blue sphere, I soon realized, is simply an illusion of some sort, if not necessarily magical in nature. The higher one goes, the more the color fades away into a starless night, caring nothing of the fact that the sun is still far from the horizon. Also, even with constant teleports, it eventually began to feel like I was barely making progress; thus I decided to bend space further, and multiply my distance from the ground many times in a single instant.”

After a beat of silence, the mazoku spoke in a voice that felt strangely weak and distant. “What I saw then… was genuinely unexpected. For one, the Material Plane is apparently a misnomer. It is not the sky, but the realm itself which takes the form of a sphere, not unlike the moon and the sun, which seem to exist as worlds separate from our own.” His expression hardened. “A lot more… unsettling, however, was what I did not see. The three orbs aside, everywhere I looked, both on this side and on the astral… I saw naught but emptiness, a black void stretching into a distance so unimaginably vast, it seemed impossible even for me to comprehend. It indeed lacked virtually everything: not just light and matter, but even force and motion. I was floating in place without using magic; I did not fall and, aside from spinning uselessly in place, I could not move either. Without the ability to teleport… I would have been trapped in that void for an eternity.” His eyes slowly closed. “Needless to say… my stay there was brief. I returned to the surface in short order, and have felt no desire to revisit that place ever since.”

The winds died down completely, wrapping the alcove in the much gentler sound of pouring rain.

With a faint smile on her lips, Lina drew closer, and rested her hand on the priest’s shoulder. “Well, what do you know,” she mused in what was little more than a whisper. “I didn’t expect us to share the same fear.”

Her companion frowned a little. “I said nothing about fear.”

“Right, you didn’t,” her soft voice quelled his protests quickly, almost ruthlessly. “But you should be able to understand then. What my true fear really is.”

Taking a deep breath, the sorceress closed her eyes as well. “Auntie Aqua showed me a vision of it, then Hellmaster Fibrizo let me experience it in reality. I can’t really put its horror into words the way you did, but… it’s like the exact opposite of all I hold dear in life. Something that terrifying, no matter how I’d try, I could never forget.” Her hand tightened its grip on Xelloss’ shoulder. “No, it’s more than that. At times… on some really bad days, I could still feel it lingering: its coldness hiding in every conversation turned sour, its weight pushing me down with each loved one I’ve lost.” Another tear rolled down her cheek. “When… when Gourry died, and I did not know where to go, what to do… when I looked at the road ahead of me, I did not see new things to discover, people to meet, good food to eat… I only saw black nothingness spreading before me throughout the centuries to come, until the last shred of the person I used to be gives up hope… and ceases to exist.”

Despite the sadness filling her words, Lina’s expression was not upset, not even worried. Her eyes still closed, she put her head against the priest’s shoulder next to her hand, her deep, even breaths becoming the loudest sound in the alcove as even the downpour began to lose its momentum outside.

“And yet, here you are.” Xelloss replied after a little while, his own voice likewise strangely calm. “Roaming the lands, fighting battles, solving mysteries, eating a truly astounding amount of food, discovering new magic… Lina-san, as far as I can tell, and I do believe I can tell – you’ve never been more you.”

Slowly but surely, that faint smile from before returned to her face.

“Yeah…” she breathed. “….and whose fault is that?”

His widening grin aside, the mazoku gave no answer to her question.

Instead, he turned his gaze outside, above the low wall of the alcove, noting that only a slight drizzle remained of the cataclysmic onslaught from before. Even the clouds did not fully cover the sky anymore; through a small gap, one could glimpse a quite clear view of the waxing moon.

Xelloss’ eyes reopened, then immediately narrowed into a line of foreboding amethyst. For a minute, he stared at the moon, or perhaps what lay beyond it with a dark expression, as if sizing up an enemy of considerable power – then he smiled, like he was amused by his own reaction, and turned away.

“It seems we’re through the worst of it,” he commented absent-mindedly. “Most strange; judging from its sheer intensity just a little while ago, it would’ve been no surprise to see it last the whole night, don’t you think?” After several seconds had passed without any reaction, his gaze slid to the side. “…Lina-san?”

The sorceress was asleep. Her head still leaned against his shoulder, her hands hugging his arm like a small pillow.

Visibly surprised, Xelloss let out an awkward chuckle. “Goodness, Lina-san, do you expect me to stay like this all night?”

“…Mmmnhgnm…” came the eloquent reply.

The priest nodded, his expression thoughtful. “Of course, that was my fourth question.” With his free hand, he smoothed out the woolen fabric covering her shoulder. “And I suppose… the answer could not have been more obvious.”

Reacting to his brief glance upwards, the sphere of light blinked out – and the alcove was covered by a comfortable second blanket of darkness.

-------------------------------------

Lina stirred as her consciousness emerged from the realm of dreams, but decided almost immediately that she did not feel like waking up just yet. Her entire body was surrounded by soothing warmth, like a cocoon; even the strangely-shaped cushion she cradled in her arms radiated comfortable heat. She felt she could still spend many hours like this – it’s not like she had anything important to do, right?

Amazingly, the cushion shook a bit, not letting her drift back to sleep. With great reluctance, she opened her eyes to see what was happening. The first thing she noticed was a small notebook, lying on the edge of the bedroll and her blanket. It was opened around the middle, the pages filled with notes written by a steady hand, using what seemed to be black ink; even a few small diagrams were squeezed into the margins here and there.

Her right hand reached drowsily for the booklet. She did not understand how she could read its contents without her glasses, but what she understood even less was the simple fact that these notes were clearly not hers.

“Good morning, Lina-san,” her pillow greeted her in a gentle voice.

The sorceress was very much convinced that cushions did not usually move, much less talk, so with some apprehension she quickly glanced to her left.

As it turned out, her pillow did talk – this oddity being explained by the fact that her pillow was none other than a most cheerful-looking Xelloss.

She pulled away from the priest with breakneck speed.

“Uh… um… g-good morning,” she stammered, trying to remember how on earth she ended up falling asleep in that position. The events of last night were slowly coming back to her, but some details still remained frustratingly hazy. “Err, I see you wrote some stuff about holy magic into my notebook… thanks.” She still could not banish the look of confusion from her face. “This seems like… way more than what we agreed upon though.”

The mazoku gave a frivolous shrug.

“Well, I certainly had a lot of free time on my hands in the past few hours,” he explained. “Also, it was only fair; after all, our little question and answer session also went, how should I phrase this, quite above and beyond my initial expectations.” He winked at her. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Lina-san. You were absolutely right when you took the initiative, and I was in the wrong for being skeptical; feel free to gloat to your heart’s desire.”

The sorceress basically flattened herself against the wall in the corner. She did not like the sound of that, not one bit. “I know I’m going to regret asking this, but… what are you talking about exactly?”

“Hmm, it would be rude of me to go into the most graphic of details,” the priest pondered, his words making Lina flinch. He drew closer, trapping her into the corner completely. “But since you insist, a few highlights that come to mind… You hiding bashfully under the blanket, not wanting me to see your face, much less anything else under it… The feel of your labored breaths… That expression you had in the moment when we reached one of the many climaxes of our evening, torn between joy and pain… And when the raging storm that drove us into this frenzy of emotion had finally calmed down, your head resting against me, peaceful and content… Though I understand that you were perhaps not entirely satisfied, given your offer to tell me about various ‘positions’ – but I think we still have plenty of time for that. We can slowly get to know this new side we discovered of each other yesterday, and see where it leads us.” He put both hands to his (illusory) heart. “Truly, Lina-san, this night we have spent together… it was a night to remember.”

The cold stone behind her back suddenly feeling searing hot, the sorceress flailed about mentally, trying in vain to calm down and make sense of what was happening. Xelloss would not lie, that was for certain, but the things he said…

One by one, they clicked into place. All of them were true of course, but none of them were real, at least not the way they were intended.

She turned her attention back to the priest, who waited expectantly, like a child causing mischief to be noticed by his parents. With every ounce of her willpower, she forced her expression into a calm smile.

“It really was,” she said as she reached forward to trace her finger along Xelloss’ cheek, much to the mazoku’s astonishment. “This is a nice place. It might be small, a bit cramped, but I liked it here.” The moment her hand touched his ear, she grabbed onto it and started yanking it in every possible direction. “WHICH IS THE ONLY REASON WHY I’M NOT GOING TO BURY YOU UNDER THE SMOULDERING RUINS OF THIS MOUNTAIN, UNDERSTOOD?!”

The priest did not put up much resistance beyond a playful wriggle or two. “Yes, Lina-san, I hear you loud and clear… as long as there’s anything left of my ears, that is.”

With a grumble, she let go of him and got to her feet. “You can keep them… for now.”

It took her a minute to pack things up, most of that time being spent on waiting for the best moment to strike, then savoring the view after she unceremoniously pulled the bedroll out from under Xelloss and made him tumble over the stone floor.

“Oh my, such viciousness,” the priest commented as he picked himself up, summoning his staff into his hand. “They say one’s choice of travelling companions reflects on oneself – what does this mean for me, I wonder?”

“You have something to say?” Lina asked in a dangerously sweet voice as she secured her cloak to her shoulder guards.

The mazoku glanced at the sky. There was barely a stray cloud to be seen; nothing challenged the pleasantly warm rays of the morning sun as they poured down on the mountainside.

“Actually, there is one thing I forgot to mention.” He leapt over the low wall to join the sorceress outside the alcove. “I never managed to ask my fifth question yesterday.”

Lina eyed him warily as he reached over her shoulder and gestured towards the winding mountain trail that disappeared and reappeared among the giant boulders and tall trees below them; a beautiful sight to behold.

The priest’s question came in a mellow voice. “Could you tell me what you see now, when you look at the road ahead of you?”

Her apprehension melting away, a smile with the same radiance as the sun above spread over Lina’s features. She took Xelloss’ hand and made him point towards the horizon.

“There, right there! See that?”

“I’m… not sure what ‘that’ is.”

His uncertain words were met with bright laughter as she started running along the trail, down the mountain.

“Don’t worry, I don’t know either!” she yelled back. “But something tells me it’ll be fun!”

Looking satisfied with her answer, Xelloss quickly followed suit.

[letswritefanfiction]

Pokémon Alphabet Challenge: Q is for Quota

A/N: This takes place just after XY070, Beyond the Rainbow!

Circles were a constant bother in drawing until you realize that, with perspective, nothing is ever a perfect circle. So Tracey had long since given up the elusive goal of mastering geometric shapes in favor of mastering perspective.

But the Ledyba he was currently trying to sketch was certainly making the job difficult. It was flitting about erratically as it flew from flower to flower, helpfully pollinating the more lush areas of Professor Oak’s Pokémon habitat, but constantly changing which angle it was at in relation to Tracey’s hidden spot in the bushes.

Still, a decent sketch was coming together. Working at Professor Oak’s was a dream come true. Not only because Professor Oak was his idol, but because of all the Pokémon he was able to sketch every day, all from different regions. He had even recently been able to start making some serious coin on some sketch commissions. And Professor Oak paid him for his assistance, of course, though most of that was through food and lodging.

“Ehem.”

…Speaking of which…

Tracey jolted up from his spot in the bushes, slightly startling the Ledyba as twigs and leaves went flying and Tracey began rambling. “Sorry, Professor! I was feeding the Pokémon, but I got a little distracted by this perfect Ledy—”

“Tracey.”

“Whaa? Oh. It’s you.”

Tracey rapidly calmed down as he realized that it wasn’t his boss coming to scold him for breaking on the job. There were more Pokémon sent to the lab every day and the job of feeding had just gotten to be too much for the old Professor to handle. So most of the weight had fallen squarely on Tracey’s shoulders, and Gary’s if he was available.

And it was Gary who was in front of him now, looking slightly amused at the outburst, a smirk tugging at his lips. But unlike the Gary that Tracey had met when he’d first come to work at the lab, this Gary had kind eyes twinkling along with it.

“Expecting me to confiscate your art, Tracey?” Gary joked. “I’ll give it back to you after class if you promise not to daydream.”

Tracey blushed. “Sorry. I was just about to move onto the Water Pokémon.”

“Nah, actually I’m here to take over your job,” Gary said, heaving the bag full of Water Pokémon chow onto his shoulder. Somehow he managed to do it a lot more gracefully than Tracey had ever managed to. He usually suffered a bit until the bag got down to half. “You’ve got a phone call.”

“A phone call?”

Tracey grabbed the mostly empty bag of Grass Pokémon chow he’d finished up with before getting distracted, and headed for the lab.

He was slightly sweaty by the time he got inside—early fall in southern Kanto was only modicums better than the heat of the summer—and was thankful that his headband kept the worst of it in check. After all, Gary hadn’t told him who was on the phone, so he wasn’t sure if he had someone to impress or not.

When he finally reached the monitor, it turned out that he shouldn’t have worried.

“Ash! Hey! How’s Kalos?”

“Hey, Tracey,” Ash said, his face shaking slightly in the frame. That and the background of the wilderness gave away the fact that he was using a mobile device for this call. Unusual. Tracey hoped that it didn’t signal anything urgent. “Kalos is great! I just got my fifth Gym Badge, so it won’t be long until I’m qualified for the Kalos League!”

“That’s great news, Ash,” Tracey said. “On this side, your Pokémon are doing really well. All are happy and healthy.”

“That’s really great to hear, Tracey,” Ash breathed, sounding oddly relieved. Like his Pokémon could be in any other condition in the Professor’s—not to mention Tracey’s!—care.

There was a brief moment of silence as Tracey expected Ash to continue, but as that was looking continually less likely, he took it upon himself to get to the point. “It looks like it’s starting to get dark there. Any reason why you’re calling so late?”

Ash glanced back at the sky, the screen wobbling more as he did so. It didn’t look like it was sunset yet, but the sky was looking like it was hitting that point of pale blue-gray just before it did. And since the days were still pretty long, Tracey had to bet that Ash and his friends had already had dinner, and that Ash should be preparing for sleep wherever he was.

“Uh, yeah, kinda,” Ash said, his voice higher than usual. “I guess I just have a lot on my mind.”

Tracey knew that’s when Misty would make a comment about how that was rare or dangerous, but insults aside, Tracey did know that that kind of issue was uncommon for Ash. Honestly, he was kind of flattered that Ash was turning to him instead of just laughing it off with Pikachu or whatever it was that he normally did that kept him so carefree. In fact, Pikachu wasn’t anywhere in frame, which was strange. A chill hit Tracey’s stomach as he hoped that nothing had happened to him.

“Well, what’s up?” he asked, trying not to make any assumptions.

“I…” Ash scratched the back of his head, glancing away from the camera for a second. “I just released one of my Pokémon.”

“Oh, Ash…”

A ragged laugh escaped Ash’s lips. “Yeah. Believe it or not, Lapras was the last one that I did that for. Well, except for Charizard, of course.”

“Gosh, Ash, that’s gotta be tough. I wish I had more to say.”

Truthfully, Lapras’s goodbye had been sad, but Ash hadn’t seemed devastated by it. He’d handled it like a pro. This seemed to be hitting him harder, and it left Tracey unprepared.

“Just remember that it’ll be better off for this, okay?”

Ash looked at Tracey skeptically. “How do you know? You never met Goodra?”

Ah, so it was a Goodra. That would have been interesting to study…Focus, Tracey!

“But I know you,” Tracey said firmly. “I saw what pushed you to release Lapras and it was obvious that that was for the best. Why did you leave Goodra?”

“To go back to its friends now that it was strong enough to protect them,” Ash mumbled.

“Exactly,” Tracey said. With anyone else, that kind of logic would have been a shot in the dark, but with Ash, there was no doubt in Tracey’s mind that he would only leave his Pokémon behind with the best of intentions.

“I just wish it wasn’t so hard. Or that I could see how things turn out.”

As Ash was looking at the ground, the bill of his hat completely shielding his face as the grief seemed to strike him anew, Tracey was hit with an idea.

“What if you could?”

Ash’s head shot up. “What? How?”

“Well, not exactly,” Tracey quickly amended. “But why don’t you give a call to your friend Iris? She was the one you were with when Charizard rejoined your team, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah…” Ash affirmed, looking confused as ever.

“She’ll be able to give you a firsthand account of how great Charizard was doing after spending time away,” Tracey explained. “Just to give you some reassurance.”

Ash nodded slowly. “Right…” Then, all at once, he perked up. “Thanks, Tracey! That’s a great idea!”

“No problem, Ash! Now, if you don’t mind, I have a Ledyba sketch to finish before Gary realizes I’m off the phone,” Tracey said slightly conspiratorially. He rarely planned to goof off at work. It just seemed to happen before he realized it…

“What? You didn’t finish the first time around? You’re usually so fast!” Ash exclaimed.

“Yeah, well this Ledyba wouldn’t stop flittering about and pollinating all the trees.”

“You know what Brock told me?” Ash started. “Just feed it a Nanab Berry. That will keep it from flying so irrita—wait, no—errat…so crazily, you know?”

Tracey thought about it for a second, and it checked out. To think, a piece of advice from Ash, when Ash had been the one looking for advice. Who’d have ever thought such a thing could occur?

“Thanks, Ash! Now, don’t forget not to be a strang—”

Tracey cut himself off when he realized that Ash had already said goodbye and hung up. Tracey shook his head with a good-natured smile as he turned off his own monitor. The kid always had been one-track minded…

Being a new Gym Leader was hard. It felt like every day it was being proven why she wasn’t competent in the job. Yeah, she managed to cream the weak, little kids that showed up thinking that just because she was the newest Gym Leader in the region, she would be a pushover. But then stronger Trainers came to her Gym, thinking the exact same thing. But they destroyed her, especially if they had a solid team of Ice Types. God help her if Fairy Types showed up. Her only blessing was that they were rare in Unova.

Every day was hard. Living in the city still sucked, losing sucked, and to top it all off, she felt like the PIA was looming over her, waiting for her to lose too many Battles.

The only thing that was really getting her by was that she knew what it was to be in this city and hate it. That had been when she’d been in school at the academy. At least here the challenge was Pokémon Battling and proving herself.

That she was prepared to do.

And she’d gotten a membership at a rock climbing gym so that Officer Jenny didn’t have to ride her ass about climbing on city buildings this time around.

She was training her Emolga and Excadrill—her only hopes against Fairy Types—when the phone rang. It was irritating to be interrupted, but when she saw Emolga come to a landing, panting heavily into the dirt floor, she realized that maybe it was time for a break anyway.

“Get some water, guys!” she shouted as she tried to remember where the phone was. Luckily she could just follow the ringing.

Finally, she managed to locate it—left on the kitchen counter—and panted into it, “Hello?”

“Iris?”

“Ash?!” Iris went on the hunt again, this time for the monitor to which the cordless phone was attached. Fortunately, that never moved, so it was much easier to locate, she flicked it on, saying “What a surprise!”

“Yeah!” Ash said. “Listen, I’m calling because, well, see, I caught a Goodra—well, it wasn’t a Goodra then, it was a Goomy—but—”

“You caught a Goodra!” Iris gasped, eyes instantly lighting up. “I dream of having a Goodra on my team!”

Iris let herself fangirl for a second before she noticed Ash’s perturbed expression.

“Sorry. Go ahead.”

“So, the thing is, I just had to release it back into the wild,” Ash admitted. “And, well, I was wondering what you thought of Charizard when you first met him? Since he’s a Pokémon that I let go of, you know?”

Well, now it made sense. Why Ash was calling, why he looked particularly disturbed. And, honestly, now that she knew where it was going, she figured that altering the course was the best route for both of their sakes.

“Oh, Ash, I don’t know what to tell you. Yes, Charizard was strong and very impressive when he returned to your team.” Then, in a grumble: “I mean, he would have beaten me and Dragonite, even though you two had spent years apart from each other.”

Ash was looking at her expectantly, as though he was hungry for more affirmation.

“I don’t think you should regret that choice, and if that helps you feel better about Goodra, then great. But I get the feeling you’re looking for emotional support and, uh, I’m not so good at doing that with humans. I think you should talk to Cilan about all this instead. He might be able to give you what you want.”

Ash’s brow furrowed, like he wasn’t completely following her. “But I don’t know what I want.”

Iris shrugged, offering the best she had: “He might give it to you anyway.”

“Fair enough!” Ash exclaimed. “Good luck with everything at the Gym! Not that you need it, I’m sure!”

“Oh, I need it,” Iris said. Her voice was light with good humor, but something deeper in her expression said that she really believed it.

Ash, who had looked like he was about to hang up, stopped and looked at Iris. “Is everything okay at the Gym?”

Iris sighed heavily, feeling her emotions bubble up a bit as she did so. She took another steadying breath to squash them down. “People just keep on coming in with type advantages and sweeping the floor with me. So many Ice Types…”

He seemed to consider her for a moment before he said, “Well, Excadrill is your only Pokémon that isn’t weak to Ice, so maybe focus on strengthening his Steel moves?”

Iris rolled her eyes. What a kid! “I’ve been doing that already, Ash,” Iris said dryly.

Ash didn’t seem to catch on to her derogatory tone and went back to thinking. Don’t hurt yourself, Iris thought to herself. “Maybe you need to train yourself?” Ash finally suggested. “Maybe part of the problem is that you’re still afraid of Ice Types.”

Iris was about to cut him off and say that that was not true when he barreled on forward.

“Ooh! You should talk to Misty! She totally knows what it’s like to have to bring a Gym up and she has Ice Types! She could totally help you! I’ll give you her number!”

Ash proceeded to do just that while a bewildered Iris sat by, copying the number down out of habit, not even knowing if Misty would know who she was upon calling—she, herself, only had any concept of who Misty was through the stories Ash had told including her back when they were traveling together.

“Great!” Ash exclaimed, clearly excited by his assuredly amazing idea. “Now you call Misty and I’ll call Cilan! Bye-a, Iris!”

Iris sat, looking at the numbers she had scrawled on her arm. She sighed and looked back at the video phone.

It was worth a shot.Things had been tense at the Straiton Gym since Cilan’s return. Unfortunately, that had been many months ago, and Cilan was feeling much like a tough pie dough: overworked.

Somehow, after the debacle with Morana, his brothers had decided that he was head Gym Leader. Even though he was the one who wasn’t even technically in the Trainer class. He was a Connoisseur in addition to being a Gym Leader and restaurant co-owner. So shouldn’t they be the ones picking up the slack?

The problem was, it had happened so subtly that Cilan hadn’t even noticed anything was wrong at first, like unknowingly drinking a mixed cocktail: by the time you realize something’s off, it’s already been going on far too long. Chili and Cress would just hand Battles off to him in favor of working at the restaurant. Cilan hadn’t thought anything of that, especially since Chili usually passed it off with the excuse that Cilan needed to make up for his time away. The excuse had seemed suitable at the time, but now it was past its expiration date. Surely, his brothers couldn’t be holding a grudge against him for that long! They had encouraged him to continue on his journey with Ash, after all.

Cilan was currently trying to work his way out of that very situation with Chili, who was insisting he take on a Battle against a girl and her Pignite. Sure, Chili’s Pansear wasn’t strong against a Pignite, but poor Pansage was weak against it! If anything, Chili should have been bothering Cress, who was only doing some simple baking in the kitchen.

Fortunately, the phone began to ring at that very moment, and Cilan called out a brusque, “I’ll get it!” leaving Chili with his Gym Leader responsibilities.

Saved by the bell, Cilan thought.

The strange thing was that the ringing was the sound of the brothers’ personal phone rather than the restaurant phone. That’s why he was rushing to answer it at all, rather than letting the current hostess on duty answer what would assuredly be nothing more than a reservation or question about the menu. Phone calls in the restaurant were completely ordinary. But Iris and Ash weren’t great about using the phone, so it was more frequent that he made outgoing calls than he or his brothers received any.

“Hello, Striaton Restaurant and Pokémon Gym, Cilan speaking.”

“Hi, Cilan!”

“Ash!” Cilan said in surprise. “A call from you is like an extra helping of dessert! What can I do for you?”

Ash quickly caught Cilan up on what had led up to this particular phone call, and Cilan was left perplexed. He was flattered that Iris thought that he was well suited to the task, but he honestly thought that she was selling herself short. Iris had proved herself to have great empathy, not just for Pokémon, but towards Ash and himself many times over. But he supposed that was a train of thought for another day. Right now, his friend, Ash, needed him.

“Well, if you’d like an ex post facto evaluation between you and Charizard, I can give you one,” Cilan offered.

Ash paused. “Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m looking for.”

“The bond between you and Charizard was like that of a fine ganache. Two ingredients long separated, and wonderful on their own, but whisked together into one perfect creation, glossy, seamless, and delicious. And somehow better together.”

Ash’s head had tilted to the side through the explanation, almost falling out of frame. “Huh? What’s a ganash?”

Cilan sighed; he should have known better than to fall into a food-related rambling around Ash. Inevitably, it would either confuse the boy or make him hungry. “Ash, it was clear that you and your Charizard continued to carry a strong bond even in the years you were apart. That is why you were so strong, even upon your first battle reunited. N said the same thing.”

“He did?” Ash said, looking slightly more interested. “What did he say?”

“Oh, I don’t remember exactly.” It had been a while back; it wasn’t as though Cilan could remember word for word. But somehow, the things N said, tended to resonate more with people than just any old passing phrase. “He said he could sense the bond from when you’d been together, and how strong that was, and he could sense the time that you were apart. But that you were, uh…er…Oh! You were the truest of friends.”

Ash seemed to smile at that, perhaps slightly buoyed by Cilan’s words. Cilan sure hoped so.

“Does that make you feel better?”

“Yeah, a little!” Ash said, cheerily. His inflection sounded more enthusiastic than the paltry words that came out of his mouth. Cilan wasn’t sure which to believe; either way, it made him feel as though he hadn’t completed his duty as a friend.

“You know what?” Cilan asked, struck with inspiration. “Didn’t you trade one of your Pokémon to Dawn back when you were traveling with her?”

“Yeah,” Ash responded, confusion clouding his face once again. “Her Ambipom used to belong to me as an Aipom.”

Cilan almost laughed at Ash’s lack of understanding. Why, it was totally obvious! “You should call Dawn and ask about her Ambipom. Because she knew it when you had it and she can tell you how well it’s been doing since she’s had it.”

All at once, Ash’s face lit up to the expression that Cilan had been hoping to see: Ash’s usual tangible excitement. “That is a great idea, Cilan! Thanks!”

“Wait one second! Cilan is getting no thanks around here!”

Cilan turned around in his chair, surprised to see Chili standing behind him, sweat beaded on his forehead and dampening the shorter sections of his hair. “Chili? What happened? Aren’t you supposed to be battling that challenger right now?”

“I lost, okay? Again! I was going to win, but then his Pignite had to go and evolve into an Emboar!”

“Ooh, cool!” Ash said. Cilan cast him a look, but Chili pointedly ignored him.

“So?” Chili started, impatiently tapping his foot. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Uhh…”

“Sounds like it was a great Battle!”

Chili turned to take in Ash for the first time since he had arrived in the room. “Weren’t you listening? It wasn’t a great Battle! We lost!”

“Everyone loses sometimes,” Ash replied easily. “Losing makes you better too!”

Cilan and Chili turned fully to Ash, considering him more seriously now.

“Besides, it must have been a pretty close Battle if Emboar had to evolve to keep it going, right?”

Chili seemed to soften, some tension releasing from his shoulders, and the veins going back into his neck, like a boiling broth cooling down to a simmer. “Yeah, I guess it was pretty close in the end.”

“I bet it was,” Ash said confidently. “You guys are all such great Trainers!”

“Really?” Chili asked. “But the last time you heard about us battling, Cress and I had just almost lost the Gym.”

“But you learned a lot, right?”

By this point, Cilan was sitting back, watching the exchange between Chili and Ash with a light smile beginning to show on his face.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“And you’ve learned a lot since then, right?”

“Yeah…”

“And I bet you learned even from this battle you just had, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Chili said, some of that fiery light beginning to return back into his eyes.

Ash pumped a fist and returned Chili’s expression. “So now you’re even more prepared for the next Battle that comes your way!”

“Yeah!” Chili exclaimed, returning to the doorway. “Bye, guys! I need to train!”

“Bye!” Ash said, waving despite the fact that Chili was long-gone.

“Thanks for that pep talk, Ash,” Cilan said after a few moments’ quiet.

“What pep talk?” Ash asked. “We were just talking.”

Cilan smiled. Typical Ash. “Yeah, well, thanks for that.”

“Anytime!” Ash said cheerfully. “I have to go call Dawn now. Bye!”

“Goodbye, Ash.”

Not a moment after the call ended, Cilan heard shouting from the kitchen.

“Cilan!” Cilan reflexively turned at the sound of Cress’s voice. “Chili? Anybody?”

Cilan remembered at just that moment that Cress had been holding down the restaurant all by himself that whole time. He hurriedly got up to help his brother serve. Perhaps they would all be a little more balanced in the days to come.

Over the years, Dawn had learned that losing streaks weren’t as bad for her as they were for others. Typically, they brought her down for a bit, but she always bounced back stronger. She’d begun to realize that back in Sinnoh when she’d manage to win the Wallace Cup—over May of all people!—and it had come back a few times since when she seemed to be losing Contest after Contest.

But Johto had not been treating her well.

May had said it was fantastic there, and Dawn had been quick to believe her, since it was where May had built up a lot of her reputation as the Princess of Hoenn. But Dawn was feeling more than a little chewed up and spit out.

Not that she’d been totally failing. She’d lost the Wallace Cup this time around, but there’d been no need to worry, because the season in Johto hadn’t even technically started yet. So she’d come back from the defeat and charged headlong into the Contest season. So far she had four ribbons. Which wasn’t bad. But the Grand Festival was only weeks away, which was very bad.

To top it all off, the only friend that Dawn had in the whole region was Kenny, who’d also traveled down for the Wallace Cup as well, then deciding to stay for the season. May and all her friends had already done Johto and had circled over to Kanto, only staying in Johto for the duration of the Wallace cup. None of Dawn’s other rivals were there either, not even Ursula, for Mew’s sake!

Nevertheless, Dawn was enjoying the fact that she and Kenny had just so happened to end up at a lot of the same Contests. It was nice to have at least once old friend to decompress with every once in a while.

She was currently on the road to Azalea Town for her penultimate shot at that last ribbon when her new Pokégear began to vibrate. Dawn stopped in her tracks, causing Piplup, who had been trailing behind her and wasn’t able to hear the near-silent vibrations of the device, to run into her legs.

“Oh, sorry, Piplup!” Dawn hastily apologized before answering the call. “Hello?”

“Hi, Dawn! It’s me, Ash!”

A thrill looped around Dawn’s stomach as she searched for a place along the well-trod road to sit. There was a decent-sized rock only a few feet away, and Dawn plopped down on its smooth surface, resting her elbows on her knees. “Hi, Ash!”

Dawn was immediately overcome with the impulse to high-five Ash, but of course she knew there was no way to do that through a phone. Piplup scrambled up onto her shoulder and waved. “Piplup!”

“Oh, Piplup says hi, too!”

“Hey, there, Piplup!”

Dawn expected Pikachu to pop into frame just then, but it seemed like it was just Ash on the other side of the line. But judging from the shadows all around Ash, it was rather late in—Kalos, was it?—so perhaps Pikachu was already asleep. Dawn took that moment to take off her hat to keep her own face from being shadowed in the video camera. “What’s up?”

It had been a while since Dawn had heard from Ash. First of all, the boy just didn’t call a lot in general. He wasn’t even good at keeping in touch with his own mother. But, usually, he seemed better at keeping in contact with the friends who weren’t traveling—like Brock or Misty—as Dawn always was. Even though everyone had mobile devices now, Dawn supposed there was something strange about being called on the road. It was like taking a pit-stop while you were still surrounded by trees and nothingness.

Ash gave a little chuckle. “Heh, it’s a bit of a long story at this point,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

Dawn twisted into a slightly more comfortable position, taking one hand and resting it behind her on the rock. “For you, Ash, I’ve got all day.”

Fortunately, she was ahead of schedule for arriving in Azalea Town, so—despite the time crunch she was on for the Grand Festival—her next Contest wasn’t going anywhere for the moment. Besides, it might take her mind off things.

Nevertheless, Ash recounted the last few calls in the only speed he had—full throttle—going through Goodra and Tracey and Charizard and Iris and Cilan, leading all the way to Ambipom and Dawn.

“Well, Ash, you don’t even need me for this!” Dawn exclaimed with a giggle as soon as Ash had finished blurting everything out. “You had Buizel. You know he was happier battling with you than performing with me!”

“I guess that’s true…”

“Oh, man, even better example!” Dawn exclaimed. “Infernape! You can’t even pretend to me that he would have been better off with Paul than with you. And—no, Ash, I can see on your face what you’re about to say—no, he wouldn’t have been better off in the wild either.”

Ash seemed to pout, maybe even blushing a little—though the lighting on his side was so terrible that everything just looked kind of gray-blue. “I wasn’t going to say that.”

“Yes, you were. But you brought out the strength in him that only a trainer can do. In fact,” Dawn began, her eyes alight with a new idea, “you should just call Paul. I’m sure that even he would admit it.”

Ash was in deep at that point. Even he knew that. He’d made so many calls his phone was hot in his hand. But at this point, what was one more call?

“Fine,” Ash surrendered. “You and Ambipom win your next  Contest, okay?”

Dawn sighed. “I’m not so sure that’ll happen. I haven’t won anything in weeks.”

“Aw, that’s too bad,” Ash said. “But what’s that got to do with your next one?”

She sweatdropped. Surely he was joking? “I’m not doing well, Ash,” she explained as though she were speaking with a small child. “That means that I’m likely not to do well next time.”

“But you’ve won a lot in the past too,” Ash said simply. “You’ve won a lot and you’ve lost a lot. Me too. I have no idea how I’m going to do at the Laverre Gym. But I’m still gonna try my best!”

Dawn looked at Ash, dumbfounded. How could someone go from saying something so stupid to sounding so wise?

“Thanks, Ash,” Dawn said dumbly. Then she shook out of it and gave him a fiery look. “Now go call Paul.”

“Will do!” Ash grinned.

Paul was training in Unova. He’d done Kalos the year before—he was not amused by Diantha’s career choices. He was in the midst of comparing two Roggenrola when his phone rang. He let it ring once. Twice. Then he was irritated. He yanked it out of his pocket and spat, “What?”

“Hey, Paul! I—”

Click.

Ash sat dumbfounded for a second. He was certain Paul had picked up. Why would he hang up on him? He looked at the phone as though it was the one that had done him wrong. Paul was probably busy with something. Maybe he’d call back later. It had been too long since they’d last caught up! Maybe Ash could call Reggie to see what Paul was up to…

No, no, he was getting off track! Well, if Paul didn’t want to talk, there was one other person who was there with him in Sinnoh…

Let no one be fooled: Pokémon med school for was just as hard as human med school.

Scratch that—it was harder. Because all humans share near identical bodily functions. Brock had been busy learning about 800 different Pokémon and what would be unique about treating every one.

Frankly, it had been making his head spin.

Fortunately, he had come into school with a lot of practical experience—one of the reasons he’d been accepted into the best med school in Kanto—from his travels with Ash, his internship with the Pewter City Nurse Joy, and he time on Valencia Island with…you know who.

Nevertheless, he was loving it. He felt confident that the Gym was in good hands now that Forrest was the official Gym Leader. And now that both his parents were back home, he knew that he didn’t have to worry about the kids either. But still, it was nice to know that he was only in the next town over and could visit home any weekend he wanted to. He hadn’t made much use of the fact, but it was comforting nevertheless.

But at just this moment, Brock wasn’t thinking about school or family or being a doctor; he was thinking about the plausibility of taking a brief nap. He’d just come from his lecture class on Fairy Types—the Type class that he was doing the worst in. He’d tested out of the Ground and Rock Type classes because he knew a lot about them, but Brock knew hardly anything about Fairies. Understandably, the class exhausted him.

His next class was a practicum class that—so far—was mostly reiterating the work that he had done with Joy. And, more importantly, it wasn’t for a few hours. So he could probably squeeze in a nap…

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

Well, not with that going on.

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

He really needed to change that ring tone.

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

Most people just kept their phones on vibrate.

Ring ring ring! Ring ring—

Better answer it. It could be the fam.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Brock!”

“Ash!”

Suddenly feeling a bit more awake, Brock opened up his laptop to switch the call over to a larger screen. “Hey, man! How’s it going?”

“Well, Paul hung up on me, so I thought I’d call you.”

Brock blinked. “Um, okay.”

Ash seemed to maybe, possibly realize that his answer hadn’t been much of an explanation. His face took on a strangely serious shape and he tried again. “I’ve been trying to figure out if releasing my Goodra was the right decision.”

“And you thought Paul was the best person to ask about that?” Brock deadpanned.

Ash rubbed the back of his neck. “I was telling Dawn: it’s kinda a long story at this point.”

Dawn too? Was Ash trying to meet his quota for calling his friends this year all in one day?

Brock glanced down at the time on his laptop screen. His next class wasn’t for a couple of hours. He’d still be able to fit in a healthy nap, even if he did settle down for a chat with Ash.

“Okay, I’m confused,” Brock said, when Ash had finished recounting what, at this point, was definitely a mess of a story. “Why do you think that Lapras is the last time that something like this has happened?”

Ash eyed Brock with a narrow gaze, almost condescendingly, if Ash were capable of such an emotion. Brock would have been offended, if he had any shame left. “Because Lapras is the last Pokémon that I released?”

“Yes,” Brock agreed, nodding his head. “But you leave all of your Pokémon at Oak’s lab every time you start a new journey. You don’t just have a handful of outlier Pokémon that you’ve released; you’ve left almost every Pokémon you’ve caught at Oak’s lab. Most have probably spent more time there than with you.”

When Brock saw the way Ash’s face fell, he realized that maybe his clinical assessment didn’t make his friend feel better. Oof, maybe he’d been spending too much time in the classroom and not enough with his friends and family. Like, talking to people. He really needed to go home. Or visit Misty. Or something.

“I’m sorry, Ash,” Brock said. “I didn’t mean it like that. Starting fresh has given you the opportunity to bond with new Pokémon.”

“I hope that I would have done that anyway,” Ash mumbled.

“And it’s given Professor Oak the opportunity to easily study Pokémon from all over the world,” Brock continued. “That’s been invaluable.”

“I didn’t really set out to do that, though.”

“That’s kind of my point!” Okay, it hadn’t been, but Brock was improvising here. “You never plan out what you’re doing, but you always end up doing the right thing and helping people. Releasing your Goodra is just like that. Letting Professor Oak care for your Pokémon while you’re not using them does that.”

“I just…” Ash began. “Doesn’t it sound like I’m abandoning them?”

“No,” Brock said firmly. “Abandoning them is like that what Damien kid did to your Charizard. You give your Pokémon a choice. When you tried to leave Pikachu, he came back because that was what he really wanted, and you welcomed him with open arms.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Brock looked at Ash. It was hard to read his expression, as it seemed to be growing quite dark in Kalos, but he was looking down, which usually wasn’t a good sign for Ash.

“Am I making you feel any better?”

Ash’s head shot up. “Oh, yeah! Totally.”

Definitely not. That was Ash’s fake happy voice. He sold it well, but Brock had never known anyone to fall for it before. The kid was just too dang easy to read. Brock sighed. He was really out of practice with the older brother act.

“Okay, look, why don’t you continue your apparent night of calling everyone you know and call May?” Brock suggested. “She was there when you first left your Pokémon behind. I’m sure she can objectively tell you that you’ve always done the right thing when it comes to your Pokémon.”

“Um, okay?”

“She’ll probably be better at boosting your spirits than I am.”

Brock hung up the phone, feeling strange about what had certainly been his weirdest conversation with Ash to date. He wished that he could have helped more, but he had an idea of who could really knock some sense into Ash Ketchum.

And May was the perfect person to stall him out until Brock talked to her.

“Yeah, I would do that too,” May said into her phone.

Drew was leaning against a tree, brushing through his hair with his fingers. He didn’t think that May even realized that she had stopped walking some time ago. So, Drew was left bored, watching as May gesticulated, talking on the phone with Dawn.

He thought about doing something passive aggressive, like getting a Pokémon out and beginning to train (loudly) right there in the middle of the road. Or maybe just continuing to walk. But, knowing May, she probably wouldn’t notice.

They weren’t officially traveling together anyway, so if he did walk far enough ahead to lose her,  she’d probably just think they were going their separate ways again.

So, there he was, waiting on her. As per usual.

“Wait, Dawn, I’m getting another call…Oh, wait, it’s from him! I’ll have to call you back.”

It took everything Drew had in him not to groan.

He knew he should have traveled with Solidad.

“Hey, Ash!” May chirped.

This one was a video call, leaving Drew privy to both sides of the conversation as May held out the phone in front of her.

Lucky him.

“Hey, May,” Ash said, his tone coming out duller than Drew was used to hearing it.

“Dawn told me that you feel kind of crummy about letting go of one of your Pokémon.”

“Oh, she did?” Ash asked, surprise coloring his voice.

“Yeah. Not that we were talking behind your back or anything!” May frantically added.

Drew scoffed. “Technically, you were.”

If May heard him, she ignored him. But Drew would have bet his aqua pants that she didn’t even remember that he was there.

“Yeah, well, I just got off the phone with Brock, and he said that I should call you and, uh, ask you what you thought about my leaving all of my Pokémon from Kanto, Johto, and the Orange Islands behind with Professor Oak.”

“What I think?” May echoed. “I think it was fine. I mean, did you love them any less?”

“Of course not!”

“And they know that,” May stated. “I mean, look at me. I haven’t used my Munchlax in a Contest in ages because it just doesn’t make much sense there. It doesn’t mean that I favor my other Pokémon to it. And it doesn’t make me a bad Coordinator. Right?”

Drew blinked. That was surprisingly astute for May.

“Right,” Ash echoed.

“So then the real problem is just that you’re sad about one of your friends leaving and you need comfort, so you know what you’re gonna do?”

Ash looked taken aback. “What?”

“You’re gonna call your mom.”

“I am?”

“Yes, you are.”

“O-Okay,” Ash said. “I’ll do that right now…Bye, May.”

May lost her authoritative expression and gave Ash a glorious smile and a wave to boot. “Bye, Ash!”

May clicked the phone off and slipped it into her fanny pack, completely unaware of Drew’s dumbfounded expression.

“May…” Drew began. “That was…wow. I can’t believe you thought of that all yourself.”

“I didn’t.”

Drew narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“All of that is just what Dawn and were talking about on the phone. We both said that if we were upset like that, we’d call our moms.” And then she turned to him, catching him completely off guard with a stricken expression. “Drew, am I a bad Coordinator for not using Munchlax?”

Drew sighed. There was the May he knew.

“Not if you let us get to the next town before nightfall.”

Delia was getting started with lunch. Since her household was only made up of herself and Mimey—who  didn’t usually eat human food—this shouldn’t have been a big to do, but for the past couple of years, Delia had been making lunch for herself and the Oaks. It had started with her bringing over little things like pies and casseroles—she knew how busy the Professor was and Tracey had better things to do as an assistant than make a meatloaf.

This custom had slowly evolved into her staying at the lab so they all could eat whatever she had made, which had evolved into her inviting them over to her house for dinner—why bother transporting the food when you could just transport the people?—which had somehow become lunch for four at the Ketchum residence every afternoon. This being because she knew those boys, what with all the time they had to spend feeding the Pokémon in the lab, had no time to feed themselves. She hardly liked the idea of them living off of protein bars and coffee for lunch.

So it was quite a hitch in her routine when the phone rang as she was dropping some potatoes into hot water to cook.

“Ketchum residence.” Delia said as she grabbed the corded phone off the hook and continued with the potatoes.

“Hey, mom!”

“Ash!” Delia, making a quick decision, left her potatoes—they’d be fine on their own for a few minutes—and ran to the video phone in the living room. “Darling, how are you?”

“I…I’m sad,” he admitted.

“Oh,” Delia said, taken aback. Ash didn’t usually come to her with anything but good news, so this was a switch. More than that, she knew her little boy to be a very happy kid. So once her feet were back under her, her mom alarms were blaring in her ear. “What’s wrong?”

Ash had never been one to hold back information, so before he knew it, he was spilling the whole stupid story to her. He was sad about something that he’d done half a dozen times before with nary a qualm. He’d been telling all his friends the same dumb story for the past, what? Half hour? Hour? He didn’t know, but long enough for it to get pretty dark out.

“Aw, Ash, I wish I could give you a hug,” Delia said, her forehead scrunching with worry. Ash suddenly saw how much deeper those lines had gotten since the beginning of his journey, and he wanted to give her a hug too.

Saying: “Thanks, mom,” was the best he could do, however.

“I have to say, though, Ash…has it made you feel better to talk to all of your friends?”

“Huh?” Ash blinked. “Well, yeah. May gave good advice, and so did Cilan and—”

“No, Ash,” Delia interrupted gently. “Hasn’t it felt good just to talk to your friends? Regardless of what they say. Isn’t it nice to check in with them? See what’s happening in their lives?”

“Sure,” Ash said. “Of course!”

“Because,” Delia explained, “it seems that that’s your whole problem.”

“What do you mean, mom?”

“Your Pokémon are you friends. And you’re sad to leave them. And you continue to have to do it. Perhaps you’d feel better if you kept in better contact with your friends, both Pokémon and human. And your mother.” Delia added that last sentence with just a hint of a scolding tone.

“Maybe you’re right,” Ash said, a new smile growing on his face.

“Of course I’m right. I’m your mother.”

They both laughed and Ash felt a better than he’d felt all night. Not a lot, but just enough.

“So, you’re going to continue what you’re doing,” Delia commanded. “Why don’t you give Gary a call? He’s your oldest friend, and I didn’t notice him on your list of people that you’ve talked to this evening.”

“Nope, not yet!” Ash affirmed.

“Then call him. And make sure to tell him that if the mashed potatoes are gluey this afternoon, it’s because you were chatting my ear off.”

“Gramps! We really have to scrape up the cash to hire a secretary!”

Gary had just come inside from finishing Tracey’s job of feeding the Pokémon. And he had to say, he was much more time effective than the Pokémon Watcher was.

And now he was off to do another thing that wasn’t his job. Answering the phone.

Again.

“What?” Gary asked sharply, his tone clearly telling whomever was on the other end that he was sweaty from being outside feeding dozens of Pokémon.

“Er, hey, Gary…”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Gary turned on the video feed and gave Ash a look that he hoped put forth the fact that he was one hundred percent done. “You again?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s me.”

Ash answered like it was a real question, and Gary couldn’t help but feel his sharp edges dull a little.

“What do you need, Ashy-boy?”

“I just wanna talk. Oh, and tell you that if the potatoes are gluey it’s because I was talking to my mom.”

Gary shook his head, deciding not to touch that one and instead focus on Ash’s first statement. “Really? It seemed like you actually had something that you wanted to talk about when you were looking for Tracey.”

“I did,” Ash said simply. “But now I just want to talk to you. If you’re not busy!”

Of course he was busy. He lived at his place of work. Even when he was sleeping it felt like he was on the job. Every moment spent relaxing was a moment that he was supposed to be working.

But…he could make time for Ash.

“I have all the time in the world, Ashy-boy,” Gary said kindly. And then his expression took on its normal edge and he somehow managed to look down at Ash through the screen. “Time for you to explain why you were on the phone with Tracey, then your mom, then me when you haven’t talked to any of us in months.”

Ash—or what little Gary could see of him in the dark—looked taken aback. Gary figured as much.

Ash had never much been able to keep up with Gary.

Gary became more incredulous as the story fell out of Ash’s mouth. He’d hardly known Ash as a person to lack confidence or ever second guess his decisions. No wonder the kid’s behavior of the last hour had been so erratic.

Still, when the story came to a close, Gary had only one thing to say:

“Ash, you’re an idiot.”

Ash, for his part, looked a little offended, leaving Gary glad that he still had the ability to rile up his old rival. Ash had become so mellow in recent years he hardly resembled the hotheaded kid that Gary had set out with at the beginnings of their journeys. Sure, Gary had changed too, but he could appreciate the joy in going through a good-old regression every once in a while.

Gary could practically see Ash’s brain stagger as he asked, “Wah…Why?”

Such a simple boy.

“Just call Misty. She’s the only one of us who’s ever been able to knock any sense into you. I mean, you called Paul before Misty?”

Gary couldn’t help but laugh at that one. Sure, he’d never had the pleasure of meeting Paul himself, and Ash couldn’t bring himself to say too much negative about the Trainer, but still. He seemed like someone you’d cross the street to avoid.

“Well, my mom said that I should call my friends, so I guess—”

“I don’t care. Call her.”

Misty had been surprised to see Brock show up unannounced at her door. Ever since he’d begun university in Cerulean she’d told him that he could drop by any time he wanted, but…well, he hadn’t done it yet, so she figured he hadn’t taken the invitation literally.

Well, apparently he had.

Not that had she minded. Sure, she’d been wet from a swim and her skin had been peeling—the chlorine dried it out—but he’d seen her far worse. She could hardly bring herself to care at all.

At the present moment, they were seated on the couch with some tea, Brock spinning threads about his apparent social incompetence—and maybe that’s why he couldn’t get a date? But he said to put a pin in that until later—and Ash being sad about releasing a Pokémon.

Well, Misty had been there for every instance of Ash giving up a Pokémon. Butterfree (both times, if the St. Anne counted), Pidgeot, Lapras. And then, of course, Primeape, Squirtle, and Charizard. Charizard had been by far the saddest, if she remembered right, and it had taken Ash a while to bounce back from that one. And then there was the instant buyer’s remorse that he’d gone through with Butterfree and that Raticate (which had almost led to their demise…she should probably remind him of that fact. He’d grown far too comfortable since she’d gotten her bike back and she needed something to nag him about).

But if she compared both of Butterfree’s goodbyes, then it was clear that the difference was in whether Ash thought what he was doing was right for Butterfree. It had nothing to do with selfishness and it was…just pure Ash.

Somehow, it wasn’t altogether a surprise to Misty or Brock when Ash called. Brock even had the good sense to leave the room. Misty only hoped that it wasn’t with the intent to snoop through her sisters’ stuff. He’d been creepily disappointed enough when she’d told him they were out of town.

“Hi, Ash,” Misty said, unable to keep a full smile off her face, even though she knew she was supposed to have sympathy for the tough time Ash was going through.

“Hey, Mist.”

“Brock told me about your day.”

Ash chuckled, which Misty took as a good sign. “Yeah, apparently it’s been traveling through the group.”

“So, what chain of events brought you to call me?”

“Well, mom said I should keep in better touch with my friends and Gary wants you to knock some sense into me,” Ash recited perfectly, as though the second part of that wasn’t completely insulting.

Misty smiled. He was just too adorable. “Well, you’ve come to the right place.”

Ash laughed, more fully this time. “I figured.”

“You wanna know what this sounds like to me?” Ash nodded. “It sounds like you’re growing up.”

“Growing up?”

“Yeah. You’re feeling connections deeper, you’re becoming more emotionally complex, and you know better the consequences of your actions.”

“Heh, that doesn’t sound like me.”

A laugh escaped out of Misty. Ash was nothing if not honest.

“I just mean that you’re not the hopeful kid sending worms out against birds anymore. Now you know that if you leave a Pokémon behind, you may never see them again. That’s scary. And your body is, you know, processing that.”

Ash shrugged. “Well, yeah,” he said soberly. “I know all that because…well, it’s happened now.”

Misty smiled, shaking her head. “That’s called life experience, Ash. That’s growing up.”

“I’m not sure I like it then.” Ash pouted, jutting his lip out at Misty like it was her fault.

“Well, then I think now’s the time when I knock some sense into you,” Misty said, cracking her knuckles. “You’re a good person for releasing Goodra, Ash. Of course, I don’t know the circumstances, but you’re you, so of course it was the right thing to do. And the advice that our dear friend Brock should have given you is that if you feel bad about leaving so many of your Pokémon with Professor Oak, then you can always trade them in for a bit. It’s not like it’s a mistake that you can’t rectify. Just like you’re checking in with me right now, you can check in with them any time.”

“You’re right,” Ash admitted sheepishly. “Of course you’re right.”

“Like I said. You came to the right place.”

There was a small pause as the two looked at each other, Ash’s expression morphing into a grin somewhere along the way.

“You really think that I’m growing up?”

Misty felt just a hint of a blush kiss the tips of her ears, but she chose to ignore it. “Well, if any of us thought that you were ever capable of growing up, then yeah. We’ve just decided at this point that it’ll never happen.”

“No,” Ash said, his voice full of jest, “I heard you say it. You said that I’m emotionally complex and I understand the consequences of my actions.”

“Yeah, like now,” Misty said. “If you don’t stop pulling at that thread, then I’ll figure out a way to punch you in Kalos without ever having to leave my Gym.”

“Why are you so mad?” Ash asked through a laugh. “We’re just talking about my emotions!”

“And we’ll have one more to talk about when you receive that punch. Pain.”

“…You know, I bet my friend Clemont could come up with a machine for that.”

“Great, I’ll call him.”

Again, silence settled over the phone line, the two of them waiting to see who would break out of their violent scenario first.

It was Ash, of course.

“Thanks, Mist. For the talk.”

Misty breathed out, the violent energy seeping out of her and rendering her posture hunched, but comfortable. “Of course. Any time, Ash.”

“Maybe…Maybe more often than I’ve been doing?”

Misty felt a bit of joy bubble up in her stomach, but she suppressed it, let it bring a blush to her cheeks. “That would be great.”

“Cool,” Ash breathed, looking relieved, as if he’d thought she’d say no. “In that case, I’m gonna go, so that we have more to talk about later.”

Misty shook her head. Leave it to Ash to come up with the ironclad logic.

“Sure. Talk to you later.”

“Bye, Mist!”

“Bye, Ash.”

The phone clicked off and Misty pressed her fingertips to the still-warm screen. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a rasped, “Bye, Mist,” behind her.

“Brock!”

“ ‘We’re just talking about my emotions.’ ”

“Brock,” Misty said again, this time devoid of fear. Instead, her voice was low and dangerous. “If you heard all that, then you also heard the part about me punching him. I’d like to remind you that that was a very real threat, and he’s in Kalos.

“You’re in my living room.”

The threat was just enough to draw a very feminine squeak out of Brock as Misty proceeded to chase him around the house.

Brock ended up taking a swim that day.

[deepseawritings]

A Friendly Visit (part 1/2)

Author’s note: This is a sequel to The Long Road. It picks up shortly after where that one left.

The weather was always unpleasant in the Great Swamp. There was a permanent dampness in the air, and fog always covered patches of both land and water. Even when the sun shone the light appeared to be weak and lacklustre. None of this bothered Doc much, he was used to it. The only thing that irritated him were the mosquitoes, but thankfully those only appeared in summer. All things considered, living in the swamps was a pretty peaceful life.

However, there had been an unusual amount of activity around here lately. The bandits were on the move again and there had been several firefights that echoed along the marsh. Perhaps they were fighting among themselves again, it would not be the first time. Of course, none of them knew Doc also lived in the swamp, he preferred the peace anonymity granted. Only a few stalkers knew the exact place where he lived, and most of them were dead. Perhaps all of them had died by now, he wasn't sure. It was possible Strelok managed to survive, but Doc wouldn't get his hopes up, he knew it was a remote possibility.

"I guess it's just you and me now." Doc patted the head of his remaining friend. He always liked dogs, and while most people would not consider a pseudo-dog to be pet material, to Doc he would always be that little puppy he rescued from a bloodsucker.

A dark formation of clouds was gathering in the sky, but the day remained calm for now. Still, it would be better to turn around and head back home before the storm began. He hadn't found any wild fleshes or boars today, and while his stores of canned food would last for another month at least, fresh meat was always nice.

"Let's go back home, Druzhok." The pseudo-dog regarded him with its yellow eyes and barked happily. "Yes, I'll get you some dinner."

Following Druzhok was the quickest way to find the right path in the swamp. The pseudo-dog knew how to get back home and had a sixth sense that allowed him to avoid anomalies. It was always interesting to watch the mutant find new paths between the reeds.

Their current path led them close to the old village. Doc was careful to make as little noise as possible around the village ruins, since it was a base of bandits. Or were they renegades? It was difficult to tell the difference, as far as he knew they were the same. Such a nasty lot, all of them. And of course, his PDA had to start beeping like crazy just in that moment. Christ on a crutch, that electronic device had the worse timing!

Doc scurried away, hidden between the bushes and praying that nobody had heard the insistent beeping of his PDA. Thankfully, no one seemed to be following him. The blasted thing continued beeping all the time, it was certainly alarming. What could have happened that warranted such an amount of messages circulating around? The last time his device went crazy like this was after the Big Emission.

Once he was home, Doc took out the PDA from his pocket and went to check the messages with certain apprehension. He started reading them and stared at the screen incredulously. All this commotion for some gossip?! Unbelievable. Was it really that important that a loner and a merc had been making out? Stalkers these days, they had some strange idea of... Wait. The loner was Marked One? That was how Strelok was named during his time with amnesia. Strelok was alive! Doc smiled happily, that was wonderful news. And then he put all the pieces together. Wait a minute; Strelok had a fling with a mercenary? How in the world did that happen?

Last time he'd seen Strelok, he still called himself Marked One and was about to embark in a trip to Pripyat to find the truth behind the Wish Granter. When had he found time to... No, this made no sense. To make matters worse, the description of said mercenary was eerily reminiscent of that one merc who gave Strelok's group so many problems. It was not possible, right? It must be another person, or another mercenary.

With a sigh, Doc decided to not give further thought to this silly gossip. Pondering about the possibilities made his head hurt. Besides, he had urgent matters to attend, like feeding Druzhok. The pseudo-dog had been whining at his feet for quite some time now, demanding the food he had been promised.

#

"I don't understand why you want to go to Cordon," Strelok said exasperated.

"Because I don't think we have any other option." Scar's patience was starting to run thin, and it showed. "I would prefer to not die in a suicidal charge when there are other choices."

Alright, he got him there. Their current road was blocked. Worse, it was being patrolled by the military. Strelok had no idea when the military claimed such a strong position in Agroprom, but he didn't like it. He decimated their improvised base last time he visited, and now there were even more of them walking around. They even had a helicopter surveying the area!

Loathe as he was to admit it, the mercenary was right. In their current situation, it was much better to go to Cordon than try their luck against the military and their chopper. At least not without an RPG-7. Even if they were further away than this one, there were two well known entry points to the Great Swamp in Cordon.

"Fine, we'll do it your way." Strelok sighed, although he still thought that waiting until it was dark and sneaking past the patrol wasn't such a bad idea.

A detour through Cordon wouldn't delay them much. They would have to go across Garbage first, but it was a pretty straightforward route. Garbage was oddly populated for being a place well known for its bandit attacks. It was very common to find rookies and other stalkers scavenging the trash piles, or making camp for a few hours by the side of the road. It was also fairly easy to find bands of roving bandits, trying to impose a toll to cross into Garbage or simply robbing people in a more direct fashion. Their trek between scrap heaps was thankfully uneventful and soon they were out of there.

An empty army outpost marked the entry into Cordon. It felt weirdly nostalgic, almost like going to your old hometown. Or so he imagined. Strelok did not remember which city was his hometown. Not all his memories came back, he still had some blank spaces in his mind. Not many, but mostly concerning his life before the Zone. And the few things he remembered from then were not worth the effort to think about them.

Walking down this road was so familiar he could do it with his eyes closed. He wouldn't really do so, of course, you could fall right into an anomaly if you weren't careful. The day was nice and peaceful, so different from other areas, like Yantar or Red Forest. No wonder the rookie camp was here, this was indeed the nice and easy part of the Zone. And it could still be as deadly as any other place.

The peace was broken when the sky started to darken ominously and sirens started blaring in warning. Someone had set a really nice alarm system, potent enough to reach all corners of the Cordon. Strelok and Scar looked at each other and broke running towards the nearest building, which turned out to be the old farm. Luckily, it was a loner camp and not inhabited by bandits. That would have complicated things. A dozen of stalkers were huddled inside, listening as the psi energy built up outside.

"Fuck, these things didn't use to happen so often." Scar complained.

"You sound like a grumpy old man," Strelok told him. But Scar was right.

The Zone was indeed more unstable now than it was months before. If they were still around, would Clear Sky have blamed Strelok for this? He suspected the answer was yes. The worst part was it might actually be his fault, because... His train of thought was interrupted when he caught part of some whispered comments from the loners.

"Do you think it's them? They sort of fit the description."

"Probably. How many stalkers do you know that travel alone with a merc?"

Oh fuck, really? Strelok hoped something would happen soon, so people would stop talking about them. He would even settle for another bout of endless Duty vs. Freedom rhetoric, as tedious as it was. Scar didn't appear to have heard the gossiping rookies, or so he thought until the mercenary got closer and put his arm around Strelok's shoulders. The whispers spread like wildfire, and Strelok shoved him away.

Waiting for the emission to end was always a tense affair. It didn't matter if it was your first or you fiftieth. There was something deeply unsettling in seeing how the daylight quickly died out and then a flare of red light illuminated everything like an explosion. Hopefully, after this, there wouldn't be another blowout for a few days at the very least.

Once the emission ended Strelok and Scar continued on, followed out of the farm by the furious whispering of the rookies when the merc tried grabbing Strelok's hand. The key word was tried, of course. The asshole was just doing it to mess with the rookies' minds. Most probably.

They followed the train tracks up to a small path that disappeared between the thick bushes. This was it, one of the most well known paths to the marshes. Little by little the trees became sparser along the way as they got further into the road, the grass got taller and the fog made its appearance not long after that. A small smattering of decrepit buildings, cordoned by a pitiful wooden fence full of gaps, marked their arrival to the northern farm.

This place used to be a bandit camp, a nasty surprise for the unwary traveller who just arrived to the fog covered swamps. However, these bandits wouldn't bother anyone ever again. They were all dead, gruesomely so, a mess of congealed blood and deep gouges. Some of them barely looked like a human anymore. Fuck, that didn't bode well.

"Wild dogs or pseudo-dogs?" Strelok asked in a whisper to Scar, who was looking around like he feared something would come out of one of the houses at any moment.

"Or worse," Scar answered in an equally low voice.

Whatever had killed them couldn't be very far. And that was definitely not good. The mist was like a blurry veil over their surroundings, making it difficult to see far away. They both readied their weapons and listened intently, trying to pick up any suspicious noise. But the only thing that could be heard was the slightly distorted croaking of the swamp frogs. It was only logical to think the mutant that killed those bandits had either gone away, or was indeed hidden in one of the houses.

This place was not safe. It could even be a bloodsucker nest. Fuck this. The sensible thing was to discreetly go away before they attracted the wrath of whatever mutant was around. So they hastily left the ruins behind, making sure nothing was following them. The muddy paths along the Great Swamp were difficult to notice sometimes, and it was easy to get lost when the fog got thick. So they chose the clearest path possible and hoped for the best.

Eventually they found another abandoned building. The place was empty, except for the rusted vehicles lined up on the car park. There was a blackened circle full of ashes in one of the buildings, but it was impossible to tell how recent the campfire was. Everything was damp because of the ever present sticky fog, it filtered even inside the building. Although that was kind of expected when there were great chunks of roof missing, or when you could get inside the building through a man-sized hole in the wall instead of using the entrance door.

This barn, or whatever it was, had clearly seen better days, but there were signs that it had been occupied until not so long ago. Apart from the campfire, there were a handful of thin mattresses scattered around. Not to mention the walkway made of wooden planks that went all the way across the room, a clear effort to keep things out of the mud in the ground. They sat on some big crates piled up in a corner, which groaned alarmingly under their weight but ultimately resisted without collapsing.

"Catch," Scar tossed him a can of tourist's delight and Strelok caught it before it hit him in the head.

"I can feed myself, you know." He commented as he opened the can of food.

"Yeah, but you always pick bread." Strelok had been rummaging in his backpack for bread, indeed. He tore the loaf in two and threw half of it to Scar in mock irritation. The mercenary grabbed it mid air.

"So where are you actually going? The swamp is pretty big..." Scar wasn't very subtle in his attempt to fish for information. That was alright, he kinda liked his total failure at subtetly.

"It's complicated," Strelok sighed, evading the question. Scar's non-committal grunt told him the mercenary was disappointed by that answer. Damn, that shouldn't make him feel bad.

"I'm visiting someone who values his privacy, so I can't really tell you." Strelok explained between mouthfuls of bread and canned meat. Scar nodded, and that tiny gesture of understanding made Strelok feel slightly better. "Where are you going?"

"I don't exactly know," Scar confessed, "but I have an approximated idea."

"You don't know?" Strelok found that hard to believe. How could he not know the location of a base where he'd been before?

"Look, Clear Sky was very secretive about their base, the blindfolding people kind of secretive," Scar sounded irritated by that. Strelok found the whole situation amusing. "I just know it's somewhere on the southern fringes of the swamp."

"You could have tracked someone's PDA signal and then you would know where the base was." It was a very basic trick, even rookies knew that one.

Scar said something about not knowing how to do it as he dug into his can of food. Strelok snorted because, really, he was so easily surpassed by technology, just like an old man. Although Scar wasn't that old, was he? It was difficult for Strelok to guess his age. He supposed the mercenary was, at top, about ten years older than him.

The sunlight died out quickly, smothered by the fog and the late hour, and by the time they finished eating it was nearly impossible to see anything without turning on the flashlights. They debated about lighting a fire or not, and in the end decided to not. The firelight could give away their position easily. So to keep the chill at bay they wrapped themselves in their sleeping bags and set to sleep. It wasn't necessary to keep watch, years of living in the Zone made Strelok a very light sleeper. If anyone, human or mutant, tried to get in the building, he would hear it long before it was inside.

#

The Great Swamp had nothing great about it. Scar detested its heavy smell, the perpetual mist and the tall reeds and grass covering everything. To make things worse, it had been raining since they woke up at dawn. It was just a light drizzle, but after a while it got you as drenched as any other kind of rain.

Truly, the highlight of the day had already happened, when upon waking up he noticed Strelok had rolled closer to him during the night, and the stalker was now pressed against him. It felt nice, even through the layers of the sleeping bags. It would be great to forget about the dreadful swamp out there and stay like this all morning. But alas, it wasn't meant to happen. After waking up, and expertly ignoring the fact he'd been cuddled up to him, Strelok wanted to get going. Swallowing his disappointment, Scar agreed with him.

Surprisingly, the main road was inaccessible. The bridge was barred by an overturned truck and a couple of abandoned jeeps, so they had to search for another path. And soon Scar rediscovered the nightmare it was to navigate the small paths criss-crossing the Swamp.

The water in the Great Swamp was a murky, irradiated soup with pieces of debris sticking out, and the bones of mutants and careless stalkers resting below the surface. Getting into it was a terrible idea, and that without counting the possibility of getting sucked into an anomaly. Because yes, anomalies did appear underwater too. There were a handful of wooden bridges interconnecting different areas of the swamp, and a lot of shabby walkways hastily put together by stalkers who wanted more crossing points. Finding them was easy; navigating the maze of walkways and dirt paths hidden between the tall reeds was harder. It was a common occurrence to go in circles for a while until you noticed your mistake. And that was exactly what happened to them. It didn't help that the fog never truly went away, it was still there, dulling their surroundings. Some trees' silhouette were visible in the distance, but no matter in what direction they went, everything always seemed to be in the same place.

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction?" He asked to the stalker. Scar was sure he'd seen this same piece of rubble sticking out of the water several times before.

"I'd say yes, but so we thought the last time." Strelok sighed in defeat. He pointed at a certain walkway to their left. "The only way we haven't tried yet is that one, and well..."

"Yeah, I get it." As if the faint distortion in the air wasn't proof enough of an anomaly's presence, the water around the walkway formed a curiously rounded hill, the planks also bent over the mound of water.

"Do you think –" Strelok abruptly stopped talking. Scar had heard something too.

A horrifying humanoid creature appeared out of thin air, running in front of them, and then disappeared again. It had an unhealthy greenish colour and was covered with patches of moss. With its unhealthy colouring and mottled skin, it looked like a corpse that had been rotting on the irradiated waters. That illusion of being weirdly human was completely broken by its lambent eyes and the tentacles around its horrifying mouth. It looked different than any other bloodsucker he'd seen, but that was definitely some kind of bloodsucker.

Shit, if there was something capable of making any situation a thousand times worse, it was this. It was nearly impossible to shoot something that you could not see and moved unnaturally fast. Strelok started running in the opposite direction and Scar followed suit. Behind them, the reeds parted to let something invisible pass through, something that was chasing them.

The otherwise undetectable creature became visible again and jumped at Scar, its claws reaching for him. He evaded the mutant's attack, but he stumbled and fell to the ground. The mutant towered over him and opened its mouth tentacles, revealing uneven rows of pointed teeth. Strelok whirled around and shot at the mossy creature with his shotgun, but the mutant shrugged it off and became invisible before stalking away.

"Thanks," Scar was very appreciative of Strelok's fast reflexes, he didn't fancy being a bloodsucker's snack.

It would be very naive to think the creature had really gone away. No, it would be lurking nearby, ready to jump at them when they least expected it. They marched on, hyper-vigilant and startled by any sound. Something jumped in the water and they both swivelled towards the sound, weapons in hand. It was a bloated, white thing; probably a frog, or some kind of mutated fish, who knows. The reeds on their left swayed ominously, despite the lack of wind. Scar fired in that direction, but nothing happened. The sensation of being spied never went away.

Be it by dumb luck or divine providence, they eventually arrived to a clearing, with charred remnants of houses in the middle of it. That meant they finally stopped walking in circles across the walkways. And still not another sighting of the ugly son of a bitch, despite the constant feeling of being observed. Distracted as they were, neither of them though about throwing some bolts to check the suspiciously blackened terrain around the houses.

Strelok was the first to step where he shouldn't, and a column of fire rose right before him. He jumped back, smashing himself against Scar's chest, and luckily got away with just a singed boot and a minor burn on the sleeve of his suit. The bloodsucker growled in pain when it stepped on another burner, and then went away. It was strange to see the flames lick up something invisible, it was like the flames were suspended mid air.

The burners certainly acted like a barrier between the mutant and them. The mossy son of a bitch seemed to have banished after nearly getting roasted. Now they could breathe easier. Or so they thought. After leaving the charred clearing and crossing another walkway, they suddenly found themselves face to face with a group of well armed people. All the newcomers wore their hoods up and covered their faces with balaclavas or scarves. They looked like a ragtag bunch of bandits, or worse, renegades. And it was pretty damn impossible to do anything when you had at least half a dozen weapons aimed at you.

"Drop all your weapons and kick them forward." One of the guys ordered them. He was almost identical to any of the other bastards around them, down to the ever present balaclava, which only served to emphasize his bulging, frog like eyes.

With the utmost care, Scar left his Vintar in the muddy ground and threw the Martha as well. By the corner of the eye, he saw Strelok doing the same with his shotgun and the SIG. They didn't ask for any other weapon, so neither Scar nor Strelok volunteered their knives. Even if they would be useless in a gunfight, it was better than nothing.

"Good. Now we're going to take a walk, Butcher will want to ask you some questions."

Two other guys stepped forward and poked at them with their respective rifles to make them follow the frog eyed guy. What choice did they have but to obediently follow? Nevertheless, this did not bode well. Butcher must be these scumbags' boss, and with such a call sign Scar imagined having a chat with him would not be a pleasant experience.

#

As Strelok soon discovered, this was way worse than when Scar tied him back in Limansk. At least Scar never pressed his weapon's muzzle between his shoulder blades every two seconds. Now he felt like he was being guided and prodded like cattle, completely at the mercy of their captors. They looked like bandits or renegades, and for them asking some questions meant beating the shit out of you while they asked the same two questions all the time.

A faint buzz of machinery could be heard in the distance, growing stronger the more they walked. However, they never arrived to the intended destination. An invisible entity leapt out of the reeds around them, pinned one of the renegades to the ground and jumped away with the screaming man. The screaming stopped abruptly soon after that. Of course, this left everyone nervous and screaming at each other, but no one really wanted to go searching for the guy that disappeared. While the renegades argued, the creature leapt back again, pinning another guy to the ground. The fucking moss covered bloodsucker had followed them, but at least now it was attacking their captors. All hell broke loose. The renegades started shooting at the thing, but the guy on the ground was as good as dead. The creature went away with its victim, presumably to feast on the unlucky guy.

But getting rid of the creature was not that easy, as Scar and Strelok already knew. It came back again. And this time it was intent on killing anyone in front of it, probably angry they were shooting at it. Strelok dodged out of the way just in time to avoid being mauled by the creature, instead leaving the path clear for a renegade to get its throat bitten off by the mutant. In the reigning chaos, no one was actually keeping an eye on them. He looked at Scar and the mercenary understood his wordless message, for he nodded once before he started running. They disappeared between the reeds, leaving behind the renegades and the strange bloodsucker. Strelok prayed they wouldn't find another one of these creatures, fighting it armed only with a knife would suck majorly. Actually, encountering any mutant would suck majorly, he didn't want to try his luck against a boar either.

The screams from the renegades and the echo of gunshots followed them. Perhaps it was only the sounds of their fight with the creature, or perhaps they had noticed Scar and Strelok's escape and were following them. He wasn't going to wait and see if they were indeed being chased, so Strelok ran after Scar as best as he could.

However, it was not easy to run when the mud seemed to suck his boots in, trying to trap him. And the vegetation slapped him on the face as it whipped back and forth as they ran. Although going through the shallow pools of water in their way was the worst. He stumbled with a rotten tree branch and fell face first into the water. Ugh, he was so going to need at least a half a bottle of vodka to get rid of all the radiation. After he got up again he continued running for a while, and then he noticed he had no idea where Scar was. To be fair, the tall reeds usually blocked his field of vision completely, but Scar was usually easy enough to notice. And he was nowhere to be seen.

Damn, he'd been right in front of Strelok just before he got his foot stuck in that tree branch! Strelok continued walking forward, hoping he would eventually catch up with Scar. But he saw no one; not Scar, neither the renegades nor another mutant. Eventually, he arrived back to the burnt clearing where they had been captured.

A rustle in the nearby bushes got his attention, and Strelok watched with a sinking feeling in his stomach as the vegetation parted and a pseudo-dog came out. Just great, his luck never ceased to amaze him. The pseudo-dog regarded him with its yellow eyes and then ran towards him, barking like crazy. Before he had time to react, the dog jumped at him and sent him toppling to the ground. However, instead of the expected bite, he felt the dog's tongue happily slobbering over his face.

#

Doc had been enjoying his daily walk when Druzhok suddenly ran away. Surely it would be a flesh, or a boar, nothing to worry about. The pseudo-dog liked to hunt his own food whenever it was possible. Nonetheless, he chased after him.

When he emerged from the reeds into a clearing, the sight that greeted him was unexpected. Druzhok had pushed someone to the ground and now was sitting by the man's side, looking incredibly satisfied with himself. However, it was the stalker that caught Doc's attention

"Strelok? Is that really you?" Doc was could scarcely believe his eyes.

"Doc," Strelok panted as he got up. "I always told you that dog of yours was a menace."

Doc chuckled at that, flooded by memories of all the other times he heard that. It was a nice moment, only slightly tarnished by the ghosts of their missing friends. They should have been here as well, Ghost complaining about how Druzhok always tried to bite his ankles, and Fang bribing the dog with diet sausages. But now wasn't the time for melancholy. He should focus on the important part: against all odds, Strelok wasn't lost to the Wish Granter.

Doc helped him get up. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you I would come to visit if I survived, right?" Strelok cleaned his face with the sleeve of his suit, smudging mud over his cheek. "I always try to keep my promises. But then the renegades ambushed us and took all our stuff."

"Yes, they're like a plague. I think they are at war with someone, fighting over the control of the Swamp." Doc explained, and then he registered what Strelok said. "Our stuff?"

"I was travelling with someone," he replied, looking vaguely uncomfortable. "But it appears I lost him."

Oh. That was new. Doc remembered the gossip floating around, but he put it out of his mind. He should know better than to put much stock in some ridiculous hearsay.

"Let's go back, I'll prepare some tea and you can tell me about your last trip to the centre of the Zone."

They walked together, following Druzhok through the winding paths of the swamp. The pseudo-dog was always some steps ahead, looking back every now and then to make sure they followed him. Doc's home was hidden somewhere in the middle of the swamp. The moss and lichens growing on the roof helped make it go unnoticed among the surrounding vegetation. Up close, however, it was impossible not to notice how well tended the house was. At least in comparison to the rest of the ruins littering the Great Swamp. And thanks to his dedication, the inside could almost be called cozy.

Strelok plopped down on the worn couch, while he put a pot of water on the fire and grabbed two cups and a package of dried leaves. It was a mix of five different tea packages he'd accumulated over time, and it honestly had a peculiar taste. Nevertheless, stalkers were not overly picky about what they ate or drank, and if the taste was truly horrible, well, you could always add some vodka to improve it.

"You said you were travelling with someone?" Doc asked while they waited for the water to boil, or at least to be hot enough.

"Scar, a merc. We met in Limansk" Strelok said.

Doc wasn't sure what he found more unbelievable, the fact Strelok teamed up with a mercenary, or the fact they had been in Limansk. The old secret city was supposedly inaccessible.

"Sounds like quite the tale." He sat on the other end of the couch and poured a handful of dried leaves in the cups. Druzhok settled at his feet, as he always did, crushing Doc's achy bones with his considerable weight.

Then Strelok launched into a retelling of his travels since the last time they met in Strelok's old hideout, on the Agroprom Underground. He didn't stop talking, not even when Doc retrieved the pot of boiling water and filled their cups. When he finished speaking, Strelok finally took a gulp from his now cold tea and grimaced. Doc didn't want to break the contemplative silence, but he had the distinct impression Strelok had omitted certain details from his otherwise long tale. That was fine, really. It was just that Doc was now almost sure this mercenary was indeed the same one who caused Strelok's group so much grief. And there was no nice way to broach the issue.

"Strelok, do you think this new friend of yours could, perhaps, be the same merc who–"

"Yes, he is." Wasn't this the same man who caused Fang's death? Doc had a million question in his mind, yet most of them could be boiled down to "What the actual fuck, Strelok."

"You need to find better friends, son." Doc sighed. The stubborn set of Strelok's mouth told him he would not appreciate further commentary into this issue.

"Anyway, those renegade have our weapons and backpacks, and I want my stuff back." Strelok swiftly changed the direction of the conversation. "Doc, do you still have the old AKM I left you?"

"Yes, as well as an old P99 and some ammo." Judging by Strelok's fierce grin, Doc's answer was exactly what he wanted to hear.

#

He lost Strelok. Fuck, he could have sworn the stalker was right behind him not that long ago. But no matter where he looked, there was no one around. Maybe... maybe a stray bullet hit Strelok in the back, and now he was lying in a pool of his own blood. The idea hit him like a punch to the gut. No, he refused to entertain this idea. Scar decided to track Strelok's PDA, if he could remember how to do it, and find him. But then he discovered the pocket where he always put his own PDA was empty. Shit. It could be literally anywhere.

Combing down the area, searching for his PDA and Strelok –mostly looking for Strelok, if he was being honest– took a lot of time. And no luck so far. But that was good news, right? It meant the stalker was still alive somewhere on this damp hell. And finding his PDA among the mud and the thick vegetation was impossible, so in the end he gave up.

A tall, rusted tower could be seen in the distance, despite the milky haze of the fog. It was a landmark as good as any. He walked down a narrow track between the reeds, created by the passing of mutants and the occasional stalker. When he arrived closer to the tower, he glimpsed a smattering of dilapidated roofs further away. That would be the old fishing hamlet, most probably. There would be a better view of the whole area from the top of the tower.

It wasn't until he emerged out of the narrow trail, and went into the clearing around the tower, that he noticed the group of three stalkers going down the tower's stairs. They all wore the same white and blue camo suit, and seemed as surprised to see him as Scar was to find them. Wasn't the faction supposedly dissolved?

"Are you lost?" One of the stalkers asked him, keeping his weapon in a loose hold. Then recognition slowly dawned on his eyes. "Fuck, not you again merc!"

"Trodnik?" It was impossible to not remember the guide Lebedev assigned to take him in and out of the base. He'd always been kind of a sour asshole.

"You survived, like a cockroach," the stalker spat out. "While good men like Lebedev, Suslov and the rest never came back from that crazy chase of yours."

"It was not my crazy chase. For me it was just another job." If Trodnik had been simmering with anger, Scar was like a cold wall of indifference. The other two stalkers, who Scar didn't recognize, stared at them, unsure of what was going on.

"The boss will decide what to do with you." Trodnik eventually declared. His eyes said he would have preferred to kick him in the head. "Follow me."

The angry stalker led the way, followed by Scar, and the rest of the squad behind them. There were no threats and no weapons drawn, but it was clear they were keeping an eye on his every movement. Trodnik led them along a path that went into the edge of the swamp territory, until they arrived to a fence guarded by a lone stalker. The guide greeted him with a nod and the guard opened the gate. Stepping into the base was like stepping into the past. Except in the past, this place was bustling with activity, and now he only saw a pitifully small group of stalkers. The faction may have not dissolved, but it certainly was nearly extinct.

"Hurry up, I don't have all day."

The two new faces accompanying them went towards a shed in the far end of the camp, while Trodnik led him to Lebedev's old office. The room was illuminated by a lone light bulb that flickered irregularly, just as he remembered. Some things never changed, it seemed. There was a man sitting behind the desk, looking at some documents and muttering to himself. When he lifted his head up, Scar was met with yet another familiar face. Cold was the new leader? They surely were short staffed, the man used to be the bartender. A decent guy, but not exactly who he imagined being the boss. The grumpy guide was dismissed with a gesture from Cold, so he went to guard the entrance. What a mistrustful bastard.

"Never thought I'd see you again merc." Cold appeared amused, not angry. A much welcomed change.

"I never thought I'd see you out of your bar." Scar sat on the wobbly chair in front of the desk.

"Didn't leave my old post voluntarily. But believe it or not, now I'm the most veteran Clear Sky member." Cold laughed, but it rang hollow, and his expression was worried. The ex-bartender then reclined on his own chair and adopted the same expression he wore in the past when he haggled with people over the loot they tried to sell him. "I remember you were quite proficient at killing renegades, merc. Would you be up for it once more?"

"Usually I'm paid for my work." Scar reminded him.

"I cannot pay you for your old mission." He said nothing. If Cold believed he was seeking payment for the CNPP fiasco, he wouldn't disabuse him of that notion.

Scar's continued silence was starting to unnerve Cold, who fidgeted in his chair. "Look, I cannot pay you for a mission that wiped out most of our ranks, even if you kept your end of the bargain. But I could pay you for helping us out in cleaning a renegade base."

"I don't think you can afford it." The Clear Sky leader let out a deflated sigh.

Things were not going well for them, anyone with half a brain could tell. Besides, Scar had already been promised a juicy payment, and all he had to do was retrieve some information.

"How about an exchange?" Scar offered him.

"What kind of exchange?" Cold put his elbows on the table and leant forward.

"You see, I was robbed by the renegades, so vengeance sounds really good to me. I just need a weapon with enough ammo." Cold was nodding along, it was a sensible request. Time to go for the kill. "And as compensation for my services I only ask for a copy of all your scientific data."

The stunned silence that followed his proposal stretched way too long. Eventually, Cold regained his bearings.

"Why would a merc want scientific data about the Zone?" One needn't be very observant to notice how wary the man was.

"Professor Sakharov thought it lost and wanted to save the data from oblivion if possible." Yes, that did the trick of appeasing Cold. Studying and understanding the Zone, as well as collaborating with the scientists, were the original goals of Clear Sky. And Professor's Sakharov good reputation was legendary.

"As long as you remember to mention to him how Clear Sky is always willing to cooperate with the ecologists, then I agree." Smart of him. And most important, Scar would get his payment and the opportunity to kill the bastard that took his Vintar.

Everyone was happy with the outcome, except Trodnik, who let out a huff of displeasure from his spot on the door, but Scar didn't give a damn about his opinion. It was decided then, Scar would help a couple of Clear Sky stalkers clear out the renegade base at the Pumping Station. They gave him a Kora-919, which was honestly in a better condition than he had expected. And even better, Trodnik would not be in the group accompanying him. Cold detected their mutual dislike and wisely decided to keep them as far away from each other as possible.

The guys that were to accompany him were new recruits, an enthusiastic rookie called Senya Spaghetti, and a veteran ex-loner by the name of Moss. Moss claimed to know the swamps like the back of his hand, which was good, because without his PDA map Scar had no idea of where to go. Well, it was time to go renegade hunting. Just like in the old days. Moss lived up to his promise and led them straight to the Pumping Station, the familiar rumble of old machinery getting louder and louder the closer they got. The problems began when they bumped into a pair of boars. The mutants were angry at their presence, and they only got angrier when the rookie shot at them with his sawn-off shotgun. The boar charged against the rookie and threw him flat on his back. Killing the mutants was a waste of bullets, so Scar was more than happy to let the rookie and Moss deal with the issue. After all, he was hired to kill renegades, not mutants.

Unfortunately, the sound of their shots was loud enough to give away their position. Another two shots were heard, coming from their left, and then Moss stumbled back before falling to the ground. The man was bleeding like a stuck pig and had a sizeable hole on his stomach.

A renegade came out of the reeds, still reloading his hunting rifle. The rookie was closest to the renegade and fired his own shotgun. Those were good reflexes, maybe he could become a half decent stalker if he survived. Scar finished off the screaming renegade while the terrified rookie reloaded his weapon. The man fell to the mud, half of his face blown off by the shot.

Meanwhile, Moss had stopped convulsing and moving, although he was still alive, barely so. Judging by the way he kept bleeding, he wouldn't last much. Senya was freaking out, trying to apply pressure to the massive wound and achieving nothing. The merciful thing would be to put Moss out of his misery. Scar pointed at him with his gun, but then Moss stopped breathing. There was literally nothing they could do for him now.

The Pumping Station was so close Scar could hear the renegades shouting at each other from here, despite the buzz of the machinery. They had undoubtedly heard the shots and were getting ready for an offensive. Staying here like sitting ducks was the worst possible idea, better to attack while they still weren't completely ready. Besides, a moving target was more difficult to hit.

"Alright, we're going in now. Keep after me until we arrive to the Pumping Station and you might have a chance to stay alive." He said to the remaining stalker.

Without giving him time to answer, Scar got going. He didn't bother to check if the rookie was following him or not. It wouldn't be the first time he wiped out a camp by himself, and being honest, he wasn't counting on anyone's help.

The renegades were expecting them. In fact, there was one patrolling one the closest access walkway. Even at this distance, Scar saw him perfectly well. Missing his Vintar more than ever, he risked shooting at the unsuspecting bastard. A couple of shots, just to be sure. The bullets hit him, one on the thigh and the other on the stomach, and now the man was bleeding and screeching like a banshee. Another bullet, this time on the chest, silenced him permanently.

Scar ran to the dead guy. He'd been carrying an AK, and Scar wanted it. Having more than one weapon was always a good idea, especially during an assault. But he was careless and didn't check if there was anyone else coming. Another renegade came to investigate the death of his comrade and caught Scar out of cover, running across the wooden plank. Fuck.

Scar knew he wouldn't be fast enough to dive out of the way before he was shot. A loud shot rang out, and the renegade fell down like a ragdoll. He was dead before he touched the ground. Scar wasn't going to question his luck, really, but he didn't understand what just happened. Or at least he didn't get it until he saw him, wielding a Dragunov almost as tall as him, looking like the angel of death. Maybe he hadn't been counting on anyone's help, but Strelok's presence was reassuring.

The second part is coming soon. I hope :)

EDIT: The second part is here.