The Prison

[Kill Town]

Post here when you're out of the game. (Sage and Xenia, please keep in mind my note I made in your judgement).

[Sage]

Waking up to a gigantic, angry sun was hardly Sage’s idea of starting off on the right foot. Her head throbbed from a combination of dehydration, withdrawal, and getting punched in the head by one of the most powerful people in the galaxy. What the hell was that about, anyway? What kind of sick bastard would set her up in a fight against her mom? And what was the point in it?

She groaned, propping herself up on her elbows. There was no way she could have beaten her mother, anyway. Even if she somehow matched her in her normal form, Bra was an ascended super saiyan. A strong one.

“God dammit!!” she uncharacteristically growled as the realization that she was sitting in a desert slowly dawned on her. Her unstable disposition probably didn’t help matters much. “What the fuck was the point in putting me in a fight if I’m only going to get thrown to some other place?! And why a desert??”

“Well, your cursing’s gotten a little better,” a familiar voice responded. Sage’s eyes lit up as she threw her head over her shoulder to see her sister brushing herself off. “I’ve been waiting for you to get up,” Xenia continued. It was a lie; she had awakened only moments before Sage did. “Come on,” she extended a hand and helped her sibling to her feet.

“I didn’t mean to,” Sage murmured. “I just... my head hurts...”

It wasn’t just a desert she was stuck in. Inside the desert was a shanty town, literally built from junk. Ramshackle homes made from corrugated metal and sheet steel were strewn about haphazardly on the sand, and pitiful little metal walls made from - as far as Sage could tell - that thin, wobbly metal that sounds like a thunderstorm when you shake it were erected around the camp, in some vain attempt to keep out intruders. Or, perhaps, it was just a way to mark borders. Sage couldn’t imagine they’d be very good for anything else.

“Well, isn’t this pleasant,” Xenia scoffed. She swept her eyes over the barren wasteland, whose rusted roofs glinted under the sun, revealing a fairly impressive, squalid sprawl. Her eyes narrowed. Dead center of the town - if it could be called that - was a section walled off with ornate stone and glossy black gates. Within them was acre upon acre of pristine grass and forest. “Let’s go find out who’s lord among the serfs, huh?”

Sage didn’t really have an opportunity to respond by the time Xenia made it to the gate. With little more than a frown, ‘big sis’ obliterated the metal structure designed to keep her out with an enormous burst of ki. It wasn’t a concussive blast, as Sage figured it would be, but just a big, bright, incredibly hot flare of ki that melted the metal away. “Heh,” Xenia smirked at Sage’s bug-eyes. “You could’ve done pretty much the same thing. Freeze the bars and smash ‘em. Come on, let’s go.”

The cryomancer didn’t even have the presence of mind to question the sanity of such a mission, struck dumb by the compliment paid to her by her psychokinetic sibling. Instead, she simply tailed Xenia into the compound, following her as she made her way to the massive, elegant mansion that loomed in the clearing in the center, surrounded on all sides by lush, thick vegetation.

Deer flitted through the woods as the Vegeta sisters passed by, and birds called overhead - a stark contrast to the dreary serfdom beyond. Sage suddenly felt bad, realizing that she had completely ignored those poverty-stricken people in favor of the mansion creeping up toward her. If she could figure out what was going on from whoever lived in the luxury building, maybe she could somehow help the town.

Xenia tried the front door, to find it locked. With a frown, she flexed a fist, and made to bust the door from its hinges, but a fair skinned hand grasped her at the wrist.

“W-Wait!!” Sage suddenly cried out, to the bewildered surprise of her sister. “Maybe... maybe if we’re polite... they can be reasoned with.”

“Okay,” Xenia replied with a smirk. “We’ll try it your way.”

The blonde rapped against the door, which clearly smelled of rich mahogany, and then waited, exchanging glances with Sage. A few moments passed, and finally, the door opened with not even a creak.

A ridiculous-looking machine gazed up at the girls with a chilling grin on its face. “May I help you, madame?”

That looks just like the machine that kidnapped me, Sage projected, deliberately, for a change. Xenia glanced at her, and then back to the robot.

“Yeah, I’m... looking for whoever’s in charge here,”

“In charge?” the butler inquired. “In charge of what?”

“The house,” Xenia retorted, quickly losing her pleasant facade. “Or, how about the town around it?”

“Well, the person in charge of both of those things cannot be reached-” the robot butler literally shouted ‘gasp’ as it was thrown to the floor, with the sole of a shoe pressing down on its head. Xenia glared at him, and in her free hand, she formed a ball of ki, lording it above the poor house servant.

“I would seriously consider making that person reachable,”

“I can... not!” the panicked butler protested. “He... is... not here!”

Xenia snarled, taking her foot off her victim. “Then, we’ll wait for him.”

“I’m afraid that’s an unlikely scenario,” the robot explained. Sage noticed that it didn’t talk like the one that had kidnapped her. Thank God, she decided.

“And why is that?” the blonde hybrid demanded.

“Lord Gamer has not been here for a reasonably long time,” the butler explained, rubbing his throat gingerly. “I would be hesitant to expect him to arrive unless he absolutely needed to.”

“Lord Gamer?” Xenia incredulously demanded.

“It’s... just Gamer,” came a feminine voice. Further inside the mansion, into the grandiose lobby, two sets of stairs wound up to the second floor, where a young, blonde woman stood, her hands clasped in front of her.

Xenia stepped over the robot, while Sage picked her way around it. The girl made her way down the stairs to meet the newcomers at the bottom. She kept her distance, biting her lip as she watched without speaking for a moment.

“Feel free to tell us what’s going on,” Xenia quipped. “Anytime now would be nice.”

“I’m sorry; it’s not often you get visitors when you’re trapped inside a prison in a virtual reality,” the girl explained.

“What?” the more outspoken hybrid demanded, before grabbing her host by her shirt. “What do you mean?!” the poor girl winced for a moment, before Xenia shook her. “You better start talking!”

“Stop! Please!!” she pleaded.

“Xena,” Sage breathed. Her sister tilted her head to look at the blue haired girl. She ground her teeth for a moment, before returning her attention to the quivering girl in her grip.

“Sage would like me to be nicer about figuring out what’s happening. So, please, go on,” Xenia sarcastically requested.

“Gamer... stupid name. His real name’s Keith. He’s my brother. He made this world you’re standing in. He built a computer program called-”

“Like Dante’s Abyss,” Sage interrupted.

“Yes, it’s... like that, I suppose,” the girl agreed. “You’ve been collected to participate in a game; a series of challenges. The fact that you’ve been brought here means you lost one.”

“So what happens now??” Xenia demanded.

“Honestly, I don’t know, just that you’re stuck here like me,” the girl explained. “Until Gamer decides otherwise, anyway.”

“Until Gamer decides?! What if I just kill you right now?”

“Xena!”

“Shut up, Sage!”

“K-Killing me will get you killed!” Xenia's hostage stammered. “Gamer controls the world, remember?!”

With a grumble, Xenia let go of the girl, who gently brushed herself off. “I... understand your... frustration. I'll try to answer some questions, if I can,” she offered. “My name's Julia. But I have to be called Yuffith, here.”

“Why?” Sage managed, catching only the edge of a glare from her sister.

“It's... complicated,” Yuffith managed.

[Celena]

The two robots that had been sent to the second floor of the garage lifted the deadweight’s off the ground where they had been left to rot. They travelled through a portal which led them into a large medical room that was occupied with nurses, a doctor and a couple of scientists. “I wonder what happened to them?” asked the doctor, observing their battered and bloody bodies. “They look like they’ve been to hell and back.”

The scientist to his right shrugged. “I have no idea, but by the looks of them I’d say they’re lucky to be alive.”

The robots stopped by the doctor. “Place them into the super rejuvenation tanks.”

Once the hired muscle had done what they were told, the nurses took over, two of them attending to each girl after they had been placed into separate tanks.

“So what is the difference between a rejuvenation tank and a super rejuvenation tank?” asked the only doctor in the room, Doctor Seinfeld, to no scientist in particular, watching as the nurses placed rebreather’s over their mouths.

“Glad you asked,” said the scientist to his left, folding his arms. He was a veteran scientist handpicked by Gamer to be part of his staff team due to being extremely talented. He was known as Doctor Dopaloski. “The super rejuvenation tank provides super advanced healing, so rapid that it can heal a person in ten minutes.”

Doctor Seinfeld gasped as he watched his underlings attach them to the white healing pads that were connected to wires that extended from various areas of the tanks interior. The super rejuvenation tank was too good to be true. “What’s the catch?”

“The liquid substance used in the tanks to speed up the healing process contains chemicals used for sedative drugs; therefore the user is left in a semi-conscious state once they are fully healed.”

Xenia’s fingers twitched and her right eyelid which was covered in blood, moved. Remarkably, she was picking up bits of their conversation in her subconscious state.

“Ah,” the black haired doctor with receding hair at the front nodded. “And how long will they take to regain full consciousness?”

“Approximately twenty minutes.”

“Reasonable.”

The two scientists and the doc watched as green liquid rose from the bottom of the tanks and quickly enveloped the siblings.

The finger on Xenia’s hand twitched.

Xenia should have been worried about Sage’s cries as their mother physically abused the blue haired girl but she had bigger problems, the six foot fighter opposite her with a permanent smirk on his chiselled good looks. He was so confident in his abilities that he had the time to look over his shoulder and see how Xenia’s sister was coping, poorly by the look of it. “Tut-tut-tut,” he said shaking his head. “It’s ironic; when you were kids Sage was the ballsy one, the tough one; so tell me, has the tables turned?”

Xenia was not prepared to lie to him even if he was a stranger and not her father. “Yeah,” she answered.

“I thought so...but how on earth did that happen?”

Xenia was not about to tell the imposter about the tragic event that transpired on planet Vegeta that eventually turned Sage into the timid person she was today, and at the same time, she could not think of a convincing lie to feed him within a short amount of time. “It’s a long story.”

Kirano signalled for her to come to him with a hand gesture but Xenia geared into a fighting stance. Meanwhile the young man continued to use his mindreading ability to dig up the secret she was hiding concerning her sister’s past, but her mind was cloudy. Inside it, there were so many pieces missing to the puzzle that it was a lost cause. He suspected that she was intentionally keeping her mind closed in order to shut him out. If she knew her father too well like he assumed, then it was not surprising that she had predicted his attempt to read her mind. He would just try again later.

“Trust me; you don’t want me to come at you,” he said.

“He who hesitates is lost,” she replied, leaping forward and then sticking her right foot out, driving it into his right ankle, throwing him off balance. She leaned to her left hand side and used her left hand to touch the concrete floor while she swung her right foot towards his face. He cocked his head backwards, feeling the wind from the thrust of her attempted kick and then casually hopped backward. “My dad taught me that saying,” she said, returning to a standing position.

“That’s good,” he replied. “You’re very smart. It’s a shame you never had a passion for fighting while you were younger though because there’s no telling how strong you could have become.”

Xenia disappeared and then reappeared behind him and then thrust the side of her right hand towards the back of his neck, but it sliced through air as he leapt forward and then spun around to face her with a smile as he gazed at particles of black from her teleportation ability dissolve. “You’ve mastered the Dark Orbing technique; I’m impressed; just when I was beginning to think you were hopeless.”

Xenia frowned. “I committed myself to becoming a scientist to the point that nothing else mattered. If I had chosen to become a warrior like you and mom, I’d be at your level but I’m working my way towards it.”

“That’s good but just my measuring your ki I’ve got to tell you, you’ve got a loooong way to go. It’s a pity I’ve got to beat you senseless, but then again it’ll be worth it in the long run since a saiyan’s power increases dramatically after getting the shit kicked out of them.”

“Why is the blonde so tense?” asked Doctor Blow, the other scientist, as he observed her uneasiness, eyelids squeezed together so tight.

“She’s trapped in deep thoughts, very likely to do with the event that led to her injuries. It’s perfectly natural,” replied Doctor Dopaloski.

“This is it?” asked Kirano, gazing down at Xenia who was face first on the ground, lying motionless. “This is all you have?”

Xenia grasped the concrete ground with her right hand. What looked like a sign that she was going to get up was merely just false hope as it stopped moving.

“You want to know why I had your mum and I wear these outfits instead of our combat outfits?”

There was silence.

“Well I’ll tell you; it’s the same reason I’m taking it easy on you. We wanted to give you kids as many advantages as possible to make our fights interesting, but this is complete bullocks because you’re not making use of them.” Kirano shook his head in disappointment. “You should be grateful I’m toying with you.”

“It’s a safe bet that her pride was injured the most,” said Doctor Dopalski, watching nervously as Xenia clawed her hands.

“There are only a few S-class fighters in this universe, me and you mum happen to be two of them; several A-class fighters and hundreds of B-class fighters. According to my ki sense, you and your sis are C-class fighters, and the power gap between C and B class fighters is the most distant so what would happen if you were to come across an B-class fighter who just felt like picking on you? Because let’s face it, bullies only pick on people they know are weaker than them.”

Xenia released a moan of agony as she tried to move her right arm.

“You’d have to rely on your intellect alone to outwit them and hope for a miracle.”

Xenia coughed out blood mixed with saliva. [i]No, she thought. It can’t end like this.

She could not before, but she could somehow feel it now, her dad’s presence, and her mom’s too. She had been wrong. They were not replica’s, they were really her parents. Had her mother forgiven her about Grimshaw then, or was it Kirano’s duty to punish her?

“Yeah, it’s really us, no gimmicks.”

Xenia’s mouth which was covered in blood quivered as it slowly opened but no words could come out.

“Your mum and I volunteered to help Gamer out.”

It made sense now. There was only one reason why he became a part of Gamer’s game show ... tough love.

“Physically, you’re weak. Don’t for one moment ever think differently.”

What was the point in Xenia getting up even if she wanted to? He was right as much as she did not want to digest it; she was a weak fighter. Her father had put it plainly and painfully for her to understand; what good was being a C-class fighter when there were fighters strong enough to effortlessly remove her from the mortal plane?

“Don’t get up, stay put for all I care but you can’t run or hide from the truth.” Kirano watched her helplessly. He wanted to end her life right now just to prove his point but it was not in his nature to give up. That was what made him such a great warrior; that was why he was admired throughout the universe. “You’re a saiyan princess for Goddamn sake!! You’re an heiress!! You were born better, destined for greatness!” His tone decreased as he calmed down. “It was preordained.”

“Dad,” Xenia whispered, slowly climbing to all fours even though her body felt like it could breakdown at any moment.

“All of that was given to you, the rest...you have to take.”

As Xenia pressed her head against the ground she could hear the drips of blood leaking from her body, fall to the ground.

“Only a lowlife with no honour would want it to be handed to them. Warriors earn power by striving. Xenia, you’ve got to train ten times harder than you are now if you want to continue being a warrior. It’s like an old saying of mine.”

“Never...” Xenia’s body swerved to left to right as she climbed to her feet. “Give up,” she finished for him. Her body trembled. She was not supposed to be standing but she had done so under his influence.

Kirano made his way towards her.

“It’s over,” were the last words she heard him say. [/i]

Xenia’s clawed hands formed a fist.

“She conscious,” said Doctor Blow.

“Amazing,” muttered the senior scientist to himself. “She’s acting on instinct.” Xenia’s hands unclenched and then dangled loosely one again. “Make sure to take extra care when taking the blonde one to the desert,” he said to the robots that were standing idly by.

“Affirmative!” they answered together.

“Wait, what?” Doctor Seinfeld turned to the senior scientist. “That’s what the deserts for?”

“They’ll be dumped in a prison in the midst of the desert.”

“What...kind of barbaric? ...”

“Idea is that? It’s Gamer’s idea.”

“Gamer never told me this! If he...”

“If he had you’d never have agreed to work for him, hence the reason why you were the only one he hid the truth from.”

Doctor Seinfeld was not the stereotypical doctor; he worked out. He could have taken out Doctor Dapaloski and his underling, but the two robots would prove to be the difference maker. He gazed at them to discover they were watching him like a hawk.

Gamer actually built intelligent models , he realised. He had everything worked out.

He gazed at his underlings that were all dressed in blue nurse outfits with disgust. “Nick,” he pointed out. “Berta,” he turned to next. “You all work for me. I know all of you Goddamn it! You’ve known Gamer for five minutes...five fucking minutes!” Some of them went as blue as their uniforms, too ashamed to look him in the face. “Betrayed...for zeni,” he uttered in a dejected tone.

Gamer, you bastard.

“Betrayed for zeni!! He frowned, face as red as a tomato. “You all make me sick,” he said inspecting every member of Gamer’s staff in the room. The people he thought were his friends had shown their true colours. There was nothing left for him in the room therefore he turned towards the entrance door. “I want no part of this.” As he walked towards it he turned back. “Aren’t any of you going to stop me? Lock me up?”

“No, you’re free to go, but before you go ask yourself this; what will I do next?”

“You think I’m afraid of that rich, spoilt little brat?” The slider doors opened, but he gasped as two huge robots blocked the entrance.

“All of that he may be, but you left out the part about him being a genius.” Doctor Dapaloski looked up towards a corner of the room and then pointed at CCTV camera.

Doctor Seinfeld tried to run back towards the room but one of the robots grabbed him. “Dump the doc in the middle of the desert, anywhere, I don’t care, just don’t put him in a prison like the others.” The next part he said quietly to himself. “Doctor Seinfeld, you won’t get the luxury of a prison you treacherous bastard.”

====

“Control your emotions,” she envisioned her grandfather say to her, and with that, Xenia released her hold on Julia. She had to keep a cool head despite the hell Gamer has inflicted on her so far.

“I apologize for the way I handled you,” replied Xenia. “It was very uncharacteristic of me.” It was unusual for her to raise her hands to anyone without being physically provoked.

Sage went agape. What was uncharacteristic was Xenia apologizing for her actions. She knew there was something different about her other than her haircut. She remembered the way Xenia had embraced her, it was something her sister had never done before. Had she transformed into a nicer person or had she just missed Sage that much? She was not sure she liked this version of Xena. It made her wonder what had happened to her sister to have transformed her into a...

Young lady... Sage tried to take in. Xenia actually reminded her of a princess now. Something dire, big, must have happened to the spiky haired blonde while the two were apart in order to have changed her, something she did not seem like sharing. Little did Sage know that the answer was as simple as she could ever have imagined, Xenia had matured with age; she had grown up.

“Like I said, I can understand your frustration,” said Julia.

“What I don’t understand is the relationship you have with your brother, and I use the word brother loosely,” replied Xenia.

“That’s...part of the complication.”

“Look at you, your own flesh and blood has turned you into a prisoner.”

Yuffith dipped her head dejectedly.

“He has even denied you the freedom of being called by your own name.”

Sage’s face looked like a depressed dog. She felt pity for Yuffith. As much as Xenia antagonized her, there was a line between them, she would never treat Julia the way her brother was.

“Why don’t you share with us why your brother is degrading you? Or has he even robbed you of your freedom of speech?”

[Celena]

Xenia was a level-headed warrior, arguably the most level-headed of all the participants. It intrigued Gamer to no end to see what could be done in order to cause the girl to snap. Gamer decided that for as long as Xenia was still in the game, he would fuck with her great mind. Since she was so damn defiant and refused to physically drop dead, he would kill her from the insides.

Time to have some fun.

He would have her relive her fight with Magnus, but from an alternate perspective.

Xenia’s mouth went agape and her eyeballs expanded,, seeming as if they were about to pop out of their sockets after having witnessed all that her sister had done on the prison based battlefield. It was unreal.

Is...this...Sage? she thought.

It had been almost a decade since she had seen Sage fight like this. Back then all Xenia could do was watch her sister in action while she remained on the sidelines, but time had changed. Xenia now had the power to defend herself; she could fight, very well too. She was very pleased to see Sage’s transformation and intrigued at the same time, wondering what had transpired in order for her sister to return into the fighter she once was. It was evident that Sage no longer needed to depend on her, which had been one of Xenia’s objectives. Sage had returned into a warrior and the blonde could not have been anymore proud. As proud she was with her sister though, Xenia still had her pride and she had no intention of letting her younger twin by two and a half minutes, upstage her, not on this battleground or any other for that matter.

Xenia poured the contents of Kellogg’s Special K into her white cereal bowl and then picked up a spoon from a worktop in the kitchen. She gazed at the spoon for a while, putting all of her concentration into it until the spoon slowly bent backwards.

“A basic feat for psychokinetic users, but can you infuse ki into the spoon?”

Xenia spun around to see her grandfather standing by the kitchen door. He was dressed in a kimono as usual. Today he was wearing a silky, baby blue and white one.

“Psychokinesis?”

“You were a biologist, yet you have never heard of this ability?”

“I know every ability there is to know...but you’re telling me I’m psychokinetic.” She always believed she was telekinetic, but now she was having doubts. Zeus, the Feudal Lord was such a wise and influential person therefore if you ever disagreed with anything he said, you had better have a damn good answer of your own.

“You’re careless.”

That hurt.

Xenia could move objects with her mind or with her hands by focusing her spiritual energy on that object, those were the limitations of telekinesis. If Xenia were psychokinetic then she would be able to actually move people using her spiritual energy, or even exploit the pinnacle of the ability by infusing her ki into objects and having them explode at will (which would have been cool). If Xenia were psychokinetic then...

Forgive me, grandfather.

Xenia directed her focus towards her grandfather’s chest and allowed her spiritual energy to leak out of her eyes, but nothing happened.

Maybe grandfather is just too strong to be moved.

Xenia extended her hands towards his chest and a huge grin reached her face when he titled backwards.

I did it. I AM psychokinetic.

“It’s easier to move people with your hand than with your mind. The key to moving people with your mind is to focus as much spiritual energy into the target as you would do using your hand.”

Now it was time for Sage to be wowed by how much her sibling had grown.

Although the prisons flooring was constructed from the concrete, the prison itself was surrounded by a dusty terrain embellished with scrap metal. She had a plan and therefore needed to take the fight outside.

Thanks to the Chinese dressed man, Magnus’ left arm dangled loosely, inactive. This was an opportune moment which she took advantage of by placing ¾ of the ki within she had left into a physical form which fizzed in her conjoined palms. A scream filled the prison as she excreted the golden ki into the form of an energy wave that she launched at the assassin, who failed to defend against it with his right arm. “Grrrruargh!” he moaned as the wave took him off his feet and through the broken down entrance of the prison, and then across the building which held the prison, and then crashing through its right handed side window, fragments of glass flying into every direction.

“Nice shot,” said Mr Zhu.

“Have we got him?” asked Alura.

“I’m, not, done yet,” replied Xenia through breaths. Even though her body felt like led, she started to jog, and it turned into a sprint out of the prison, out of the building and through the desert, even though her body felt like it was gradually eroding.

Magnus stood in the middle of the desert, a sadistic glare in his bulged eyes, veins poking through the sides of his face. Noticeably, there was a tennis ball sized cut between his pectorals where the energy wave had struck him. Alura was on Xenia’s right hand side, Mr Zhu on the blondes left, Sage and the timid saiyan boy in the background. “Did you think your energy wave had destroyed me, girl?”

“No.”

“QUIET! It’s not over until I say it’s over!”

“And it’s over now.”

“I’m going to punish you especially. I’m going to quickly destroy your friends and then I’m going to kill your sister in front of you while you watch helplessly, and then...” He gazed downwards to see thick concentrations of golden dust crawl towards his knee caps. “What?” He was in disbelief.

“I’ll admit you’re stronger than me. In fact you’re stronger than all of us combined, but there’s one thing you’re not.”

Magnus tried to teleport but he failed as the dust was hardened to the extent that it glued the assassin to the ground.

“You’re not going anywhere so you don’t have a choice but to hear the truth.”

“I’ll kill you!”

“What are you planning?” asked Mr Zhu.

“The truth is; I am smarter than you. I not an S-class fighter; I am not even a B-class.” She put her index finger against the right side of her cranium. “But my level of intelligence is S-class.”

By now the hardened dust had reached his neck while Xenia was up to her neck in terms of how much ki she had left in her tank.

“You’re a fool if you think this sand can hold me. You’re nothing! Nothing!”

“You made a common mistake, let your anger blind you, and that’s where I took the opportunity to get the advantage. ...I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing to him?” asked Alura, angrily.

“It’s common courtesy and has been a tradition for thousands of years for warriors to exchange names while one is on the brink of defeat.”

Magnus said nothing, only continued to seethe.

“Xenia. I’m sure you’ll remember that name as you grieve over your death in the afterlife.”

“Nobody has defeated me but this is the furthest anyone has come, so for that much you deserve to know my name; Magnus.”

There was nothing else left she wanted to hear from ghastly mouth. The dust crawled past his neck and then reached his chin, and then covered his mouth, and then crept past his nose, and then past his glary eyes until he was completely covered in dust.

“Everyone, take cover,” said Xenia.

Alura’s instincts led her to teleport to a place far from harm.

Xenia transferred her remaining ki into the sand that encased Magnus, and the sand emitted a golden glow.

Sage had seen something similar to this. She gazed at Xenia in awe for a moment. Her spiky haired sister always knew what to do in order to get any job done.

“Let’s go,” said Mr Zhu, and then began running towards an eastern direction. Sage grabbed Wolfgang by his wrist and took him with her in the same direction, all while Xenia, the only one who could fly, took cover by hovering into the air.

KABOOM

An explosion occurred, tearing down the front part of the prison building, dust quickly swirling in a clockwise motion as if a hurricane had hit the desert.

Xenia watched as flames danced below, flames she was on the verge of being a part of. Unable to control her weakened body, it descended towards the flames. She would be joining him in the afterlife.

Just when it seemed that that washer fate, a flash of blue drove itself into her, taking her to the ground. Xenia landed on her back with a groan to find the reptile on top of her. A reptilian, saving a saiyan; the irony was sweet.

Suddenly, a figure tore its way out of the flames and into the air. Magnus was alive and incredibly, was unfazed by the flames all over his body. He gritted his teeth as he gazed down at Xenia, and then a burst of ki ejected from his body, spreading over the desert, quickly separating the two females and distinguished the flames from his body and the fire below.

The only sound that could be heard through the desert was the gushing noise wind made while Magnus lowered himself towards the ground.

I don’t believe it, thought Xenia who struggled to raise her head up, but she did so enough to see for herself that he was very much alive. His skin contained a lot of blemishes but that was all.

“I’ll admit I didn’t catch on to the dust crawling up to my legs in time until it reached my knees, however, after that I could have broken out of the sand at any time, but I was curious to see what you had in store for me. That was impressive Xenia, and thanks to your psychokinetic ability, I’ll be sure to use that one in the future, probably to get rid of your sister. That would be ironic wouldn’t it? Your sister dying at the hands of your own ability.”

Get up and finish him off, she told herself, but all she could do was claw her fingers.

“Playtime is over.” Magnus’ index finger began to glow like the phone home scene from ET and then with an evil chuckle, he directed his finger at the reptile. Xenia’s mouth slowly opened with shock as a beam of ki tore its way through her blue chest before she had a chance to react. She collapsed back first to the floor and then immediately convulsed as blood leaked from her chest.

He was not done.

“One by one you will all perish,” he said as the same finger began to glow and then teleported, reappearing in front of Sage, Zhu and Wolfgang, causing all of them to flinch. The saiyan boy whimpered while he covered his face. Merciless Magnus released another beam of ki that pierced through the boy’s hands, and then through his skull. “Don’t misunderstand me,” he said, blood mixed with bits of the boy’s brain, splattering over his body as well as Sage’s and Zhu’s, as the next victim dropped to the floor. “I didn’t give him an instant death because I felt sorry for him, it’s because my patience has run out.”

“You monster!” yelled Sage but Magnus backhanded her off her feet and then headed butted Mr Zhu, who fell on top of the deserts dirt. The Chinese dressed man was out cold for a moment but he slowly opened his eyes to find a beam of ki fizzing over him, waiting to be realised from Magnus’ palm.

“You’re next,” said the long haired assassin.

====

Gamer was having the time of his life watching Magnus’ path of destruction, a slice of pepperoni pizza in his right hand while his glass of coca cola rested on his desk behind, along with his box of pizza. Unfortunately, time was against him and the last thing he wanted was for his show to run behind schedule; that would be bad for business. He pressed a blue button under the CCTV screen that displayed the fight. With a sigh he watched as Magnus was teleported away from the desert. He knew one thing for sure, Magnus was not going to be pleased, but Magnus had to understand that Gamer’s show was more important than him.

====

None of the remaining prisoners could comprehend why Magnus had suddenly decided to abandon his path of destruction but they were certainly all grateful to still be alive. The sound of someone gasping for air caused Xenia to turn her head towards the wounded reptilian. Wolfgang was dead. His loss was very unfortunate.

Xenia thought back to what the pure hearted girl Yuffith had said...

It’s not Keith’s fault!” the soft-spoken girl suddenly snapped back. “He…he’s just confused, is all. I’m sure of it. He had always been such a good brother before…Once he realizes what he has been doing, I’m sure this all will be resolved. Please, you…you just have to be patient with him.

Confused?

Wolfgang had certainly not been confused about his feeling towards Kill Town. He had wanted no part of it but that had not mattered to Gamer.

Have patience with Gamer?

Wolfgang had been robbed of his innocence, his life taken at a very young age. Gamer could have prevented his death but no, this had been an entertaining experience for the sick bastard. There were so many things the saiyan boy had yet to learn like courage and strength, and importantly, who he really was, something she had planned to tell him but would not get the chance to. What Gamer had caused, what the participants were struggling to endure, it was unforgivable. There was no amount of words, nothing Yuffith could do to persuade Xenia not to kill her brother. She would destroy him, even if that meant going through Yuffith in order to achieve that goal.

Despite Wolfgang’s loss, there was still hope for the lizard. Xenia had come to learn about Sage’s healing ability and there was no time like the present. “Sage, get over here, she’s still alive!” The reptilian had saved Xenia therefore it was only right for the favour to be returned. It was karma.

[Juno]

Blistering heat radiated from the sun as it glowed brightly overhead, and the first thing that Juno could feel as he came to his senses was a bead of sweat forming on his temples. He lay on his side, comfortably curled up in something resembling the fetal position. He groaned from lethargy as his muscles began to tense up once again. One of his hands lay with his palm to the ground, and as he slowly began to regain consciousness, he slowly clenched his fingers into a fist to relax them, surprised to feel sand filling the cavity.

His eyes popped open. Lifting his fist, he watched in a startled shock as the sediment slipped through the cracks in between his fingers, and slowly opened his hand, letting all of it fall back onto the desert surface. He shook his head—maybe this was all a dream. When that didn’t work, he placed his hand to his forehead, but felt no semblance of a fever.

The ex-fortuneteller rolled over onto his back, looking up at the blazing star that hung in the sky. He brought an arm up to shield his eyes from the blinding light, and as he did so, he suddenly realized what was so different about where he was: it was daytime. In the carnival, he had always known it to be stuck in perpetual twilight, but now, in this new place, he found that day was just breaking.

According to the position of the sun, it was just minutes before noon—the sphere of fire floated almost directly above him. He blinked twice, stretching the miniscule muscles in his eyelids, and then slowly brought the hand in front of his face to his forehead. He scowled as the hand’s backside pressed against his temples; he felt no fever—which meant that he wasn’t hallucinating—and from the crick he had in his neck, he was almost completely certain that he wasn’t dreaming. That meant, as hesitant as he was to believe it, that this was, in some way, real.

In one fluid motion, he wiped the fledgling beads of sweat from his brow and shut his eyes, swallowing nervously. If he wasn’t in the carnival, then that could only mean that he was in prison. He’d been eliminated.

His fist flew to the ground, crashing into the sand. Dammit, he thought to himself as he realized what had occurred. He faintly remembered his last event—the Reaper, for one thing, and the Harbinger. Now, however, he was viciously reminded of the distinct loss in strength he’d suffered over the last several months. He shouldn’t have let that huge metal skeleton beat him—losing wasn’t something that he was fond of doing. Kill Town had beaten him—Gamer had beaten him. He could barely stand the thought that now he wasn’t fighting to survive, but was trapped in a hopeless void, one that he remembered Xenia refer to, quite affectionately, as “prison.”

He opened his eyes again as he made a vital connection. Xenia and Sage were here, he knew. Maybe there were others here, too, but he knew that at least the two sisters had been trapped here early on. He could only hope that they lasted this long. He needed to see a familiar face in the middle of this desert.

As he began to sit up, he felt a throbbing in the back of his head. He touched the spot, and a small spot in his mane of black hair felt wet. He brought his fingers to his sight and saw a bit of crimson blood staining them, and cursed under his breath as he tried to stand up. It wasn’t as difficult as he imagined it might be, actually, and within seconds he was on his feet, leaning over and clutching his upper legs for support.

While he struggled to regain his focus, he thought for a moment on Belle. He couldn’t wrap his mind around the last moments of the event they’d shared, so the last time he remembered seeing her for certain was when she had thrown herself after the Reaper into the abyss. He could only hope, he supposed, that she had made it out—that she would live to fight one more day against Gamer. He would find out soon enough, he assumed; if she had joined him here in prison, they he knew it probably wouldn’t be long until he found her and the others that populated this segment of the evil teenager’s world.

His eyes darted around as familiar memories began to flood into his consciousness, but fortunately, there were no giant, man-eating scorpions waiting to burst out of the ground. Finally, he found himself staring straight ahead into the yellow sky. Something was odd, though; there was something out-of-place. Breaking through the blurry heat-waves was a flash of grey.

Juno focused on the sight in front of him, and slowly, the splotch of grey bled outward into the golden void, transforming from a single, nearly translucent blob into a tower. The tower seemed to almost expand outwards into buildings, rickety old things made out of junk, and slowly, the buildings turned into a small town. Juno glared ahead, knowing full well that this must’ve been a mirage. Who could’ve possibly lived out here? Nevertheless, the town eventually developed into something large enough that it seemed to stretch almost to him. Since it was so close, the half-saiyan figured that it wouldn’t hurt to go and check it out—if it was real, maybe he’d find some familiar faces there.

His feet seemed almost bolted to the ground; he struggled through the waves of scorching heat until finally, he forced his foot to move forward. He took a few steps and found himself able to quicken his pace. The town grew closer with each step.

~+~

Yuffith stood on the balcony of the tower, leaning over the railing and gazing over the roofs of the junk town into the vast desert beyond. Her eyes struggled against the bright light of the sun, but she refused to blink. What Keith was doing was wrong, she knew, but there was something being done—she had to be thankful for that.

The door to her room creaked, and she looked back inside to see Kepler waddling over towards her, his elf-like body looking slightly comical as he moved past the girl’s bed and onto the balcony. He leapt up and sat on the rail, attempting to shorten the gap between his head and hers.

“This round’s events are over,” Kepler told his friend, glancing over at her, “We’ve got a much larger group of prisoners joining us this round. There’s… there’s only six left up there.” Julia Summers sighed, turning back towards the doors to her room and leaning on the door frame. She glanced over her shoulder and spoke with her eyes. Kepler nodded. “Baller’s still up there.” Julia smiled weakly.

“Who all do we have now, Kepler?” she asked, and the gnome-ish man joined her in her room. “Wolfgang is… dead, and Alura’s recovering. Sage, Xenia, Tamsin, and Kazuya and Zhu are all here still.”

“We’ve got some interesting players this time,” Kepler replied with a slight smirk, “A couple of event winners, in fact. Juno’s coming, as well as Piper and Sophia.” Yuffith’s eyes brightened at the thought of more powerful people to add to their already strong team, and Kepler continued, “Then there’s Ander, and Szar, and Alexander Trafford.” Yuffith smiled, and walked over to the balcony door and glanced out briefly. “They’re all on their way, most—if not all—of them walking alone.”

“Then I guess we should go greet them. What d’you say, Kepler?”

~+~

The walk to the junk town wasn’t very long. The buildings that looked as if they were constructed of trash and large sheets of different metals—aluminum, iron, maybe a bit of copper and brass—rose above him, but none rose as large as the tower ahead of him.

The structure erupted from the ground magnificently, a piece of magnificence in the midst of this pile of trash and junk. It was made of stone, and looked almost like something that had been ripped from a medieval videogame. To be completely honest, Juno wouldn’t have been surprised if it was, given Gamer’s previous motifs. For a moment, he simply looked up at it, not exactly sure what to do. The area surrounding him was, by and large, devoid of people. He had hoped that perhaps someone would’ve shown up by now to help him out, to guide him, but he seemed to be alone for the most part.

For some reason, as he stood here devoid of the desire to continue, he felt like this ordeal was almost over—he knew there couldn’t be many super-powered entities left up in the carnival, and now it was all up to them, whoever was left, to make this round count. If they could just get to Gamer… if they could just take him out… then everything would be okay. No one else would have to get hurt.

That was when he saw it—the body of a familiar face. Wolfgang lay in the sand, dead, most of his face ripped off from whatever had given him his demise. Juno broke into a sprint, and rushed over to the young Saiyan boy. He hadn’t know him for very long, but something about the young boy’s death struck a chord inside of him. For whatever reason, he felt himself growing increasingly angry as he slowly lifted up the young thing and cradled his corpse. What the hell was wrong with Gamer? Wolfgang was a boy—no older than ten or eleven. And he had just tossed him aside? He had killed a perfectly innocent kid? What kind of a son of a bitch did that?

His mind was made up. Gamer deserved no mercy.

“I didn’t want any of you to see that,” a girl’s voice muttered from behind him. The ex-fortuneteller glanced over his shoulder at Yuffith, who leaned against the rawd-iron gate that protected the tower. One of the gate’s doors had been opened to allow the new prisoners passage into the tower.

“Who are you?” Juno asked, slightly intrigued by the newcomer. He slowly knelt down and laid Wolfgang back in the sand. Yuffith walked over and sat down beside the half-Saiyan.

“My name’s Yuffith,” she told him, “I’m trapped here, just like you are. Only I’ve been here a lot longer than you could probably imagine.” Juno looked over at her. She was attractive, definitely, and wore a schoolgirl’s uniform. Under normal circumstances, that might’ve enticed Juno—after all, screwing a schoolgirl was every teenage guy’s fantasy—but the situation was different now, and for once, the hybrid stopped himself from getting distracted by her beauty, instead focusing on Wolfgang.

Slowly, he placed his hand in the dirt and scooped up a clump of sand, tossing it on the body of the young boy who had been so brutally robbed of his innocence. He took another handful, and then another, and silently trickled them onto Wolfgang’s body until his chest was almost completely covered. In time, Yuffith joined him.

The young pair sat in an understanding silence for a long while, slowly burying Wolfgang beneath the sand of Gamer’s prison. After what seemed like forever, the young Saiyan boy’s body was completely covered, no longer visible beneath the sands of time. Yuffith placed a hand on Juno’s shoulder, and he didn’t resist the comforting gesture. After a few more minutes of silent contemplation, the half-saiyan stood up, and walked toward the gate. He turned to face the schoolgirl. “I’m Juno,” he finally said, “Are we going in?”

She smiled meekly. “Yeah,” she replied, “Head on inside.”

He turned back inside, but was met with the sight of a miniature man, slightly chubby—Kepler, the Keebler Elf wannabe. “So this is the first one, huh? Juno?” The half-saiyan nodded, and almost spoke, but the elf continued, “I’m Kepler. And I’m not really a Keebler Elf, I promise.”

Juno chuckled inwardly, reminded of Belle and her consistent denial of the brutally obvious. Perhaps, though, with this coincidental second occurrence, it was possible that the reports were true, and Gamer had, in fact, used his “omniscient powers” to transform these people—most notably Belle and Kepler—into something that they were not. It was possible, he guessed. He supposed that anything was possible in this game.

“I’m Juno,” the half-saiyan introduced himself to the little man, and Kepler stuck out a miniature hand, ready and willing to shake the ex-fortuneteller’s. Eventually, Juno accepted, and was quite surprised as Kepler’s small hand shook his vigorously. This was a strong-willed man, the hybrid supposed.

For the first time, Juno looked around at the courtyard of the tower—it was filled with plants, plants that were colored such a luscious green. It was a distinctly stark difference from the exterior of the compound, and as Yuffith came in, Juno turned around for one last glance outside. The blonde-haired schoolgirl gestured for Kepler to head outside and watch for the other prisoners—Juno felt slightly more comforted knowing that he wasn’t the only one who was going to be joining the pair.

“Congratulations on making it so far,” Yuffith mustered, attempting to break the silence. Juno looked from the desert to her. Once again, there was a stark difference in the two sights—one was ugly and hot, and the other was very pretty and… hot.

“I don’t think it matters now, Yuffith,” Juno scoffed, turning around and walking toward the staircase that led up to the door. He stopped, and turned to face the blonde, who had followed him up the steps, standing a few steps down from where he was. “We’re trapped here,” he continued to reason, “What are we supposed to do about defeating this guy now?”

“It’s not his fault,” she whispered. Juno looked at her in confusion, and then she supposed she should explain why she didn’t feel the same resentment as her prison’s new tenant. “He’s… Gamer’s my brother. His real name’s Keith. He wasn’t like this before.”

She slowly began to cry, and Juno stepped down as she collapsed into his chest. “It’s okay, Yuffith,” he comforted her, and she slowly regained her composure. “Listen, we’ll find some way to stop him, alright? And… I’ll try not to hurt him too much.” He smiled, signaling that the last part of the sentence was a joke, and she chuckled a bit as she wiped tears from her eyes. With that, Juno turned and went to place his hand on the door. However, before his fingers reached the metal, it turned to ice before his eyes. “…what the hell?” he said under his breath. The door opened.

“Dammit!”

Xenia’s voice was easily recognizable as the half-Saiyan saw her turn around in frustration. The blonde turned and started walking back towards the living room (of sorts) that they had been sitting in before they heard the commotion outside. Juno smiled slightly at Xenia’s outburst—yeah, he hadn’t fulfilled his promise and that was kind of depressing, but there was just a bit of overreaction with the blonde bombshell—and then turned to the source of the frozen door handle.

“H-hey, Juno,” Sage muttered. Her coral eyes looked up at him, and her blue hair cascaded down her back as she attempted to put a smile on her face.

“Hey, Sage!” Juno said excitedly. He smiled broadly—the sight of familiar faces had definitely improved his mood. He pulled Sage into a forceful bear hug, and she fought against it for a second before realizing that he wasn’t about to let her go. Eventually, he released the girl, and she retreated back into the living room, slightly embarrassed.

Juno followed them into the living room and slid onto the couch next to Xenia, disappointed that Sage had retreated to a chair for one. He supposed, though, that was to be expected—he hadn’t really given her reason yet to think that he had anything else in mind but screwing her. Of course, Juno knew for certain that he didn’t, but there was no telling what Sage thought—not unless the blue-haired girl decided to voice her opinion, which, in his experience with her, hadn’t happened much.

She looked up, however, and shot him a smile, and he took that kindly; perhaps she was past her slight fear of his intentions. He sure hoped so; besides, if he tried anything, she could always just encase him in a block of ice.

“How the hell did you lose?” Xenia started the conversation, and Juno laughed.

“It’s a long story,” he began, “And I’m not sure I even remember all of it.”

“We want to hear,” Sage said without stuttering, and Juno glanced over at her. “Tell us everything you r-remember, Juno—please?” The black-haired half-Saiyan smiled at the two women. Sage’s coral eyes turned into something resembling a puppy dog begging, and he just couldn’t resist sharing his exploits with the girls.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt,” he said pridefully, and Xenia scoffed; Sage giggled a bit, sliding back into her chair. Yuffith sidled over and leaned over the back of Sage’s chair, content to listen, and with that, Juno launched into a tale of his escapades since the girls’ elimination.

[Ander]

Ander Valis lay unmoving, sprawled in the middle of some desolate wasteland. His body spread flat on his stomach, arms and legs askew in random positions, face half buried and smashed into the sand, almost as if the thief had been carelessly thrown onto the ground from some great height. To any observer, casual or even close, he was just another dead man who had succumbed to the elements or some other unfortunate demise. For all intents and purposes, he might as well have been. And then, almost as if to retain the interest of anyone who might have cared, one of his eyebrows twitched slightly. This action could have easily been dismissed by the phenomenon of random muscle spasms postmortem on a cadaver as rigor mortis sets in… that is, of course, had it not been for the second set of twitches, that of his entire face as it puckered tightly in dazed discomfort. Ander opened his eyes, blinding sunlight flooding them instantly. His senses gradually returned, and beneath his hands he felt a grainy, dirty texture. His fingers clutched loosely, the material unmistakable at his touch and he drew it into his palm: sand.

A desert… he was in… a desert…

Am I… home? he found himself thinking.

But no… it couldn’t have been. It didn’t feel right, didn’t smell right. This was not Anati land. Yet, the black-haired bandit didn’t find himself either in the odd maze of colored ghosts, or the vibrant and familiar surroundings of the theme park. Even though the dull fog had not yet lifted from his consciousness, process of elimination only left one possible solution: Ander had landed in the “bonus round” of which Mixie had informed him. His train of thought continued to barrel down that unpleasant set of tracks until it crashed into a wall at the end of the tunnel: he’d lost.

The thief stood up, shakily at first until he got his bearings. He looked around, seeing miles upon miles of empty desert in one direction, and a shoddy little town of shanties in another. Ander placed his hands on his hips, taking in his new environment.

And then he laughed.

It started out as a low chuckle, and then it rose in volume and intensity until his whole frame shook with it. He didn’t know why he laughed; there was no reason to, and the situation really wasn’t funny at all. Maybe it was because he caught a bullet, placing number one in his first three events, and then suddenly losing and ruining his perfect streak. Then again, losing was an old acquaintance of his. Maybe it was because he’d survived a fight for his life against a ruthlessly strong madman, a completely embarrassing play, and a deadly shootout in space, and then gotten knocked out by some cereal box character wannabe. It wasn’t exactly a manly or valiant end… especially having been clad in yellow spandex. Maybe it was because he had pursued Ashe so relentlessly, and when she had finally become of any use to him and he deemed her no threat, he’d run off and made some stupid mistake and blown the whole plan. She’d also wounded his pride to boot with nothing more than simple words. Or maybe, it was because none of this had ever made any sense to him whatsoever, not since the fateful robot that captured him first showed up in the middle of that goddamned freeway.

His howling slowly died down until the last few chortles escaped his lips. Then he held up his palms and shrugged.

“Oh well. What are you gonna do about it?” he said to no one in particular. As humiliating and annoying as his situation was, he couldn’t exactly sit here and cry about it; he had no one to blame but himself. Besides, as Ander looked around, a familiar wave of nostalgia washed over him. The dune dweller closed his eyes with a smile, and deeply breathed in the dry, dead air of the desert, loving every last sensation of it. He spread his arms wide and lifted his face towards the warm yellow sun, taking the environment all in. No words adequately described the feeling of belonging, the personal rejuvenation of once again falling into his element. It was as if the burning hot rays replenished the depleted energy from his dismal failure, like he was some kind of super man.

He sighed blissfully, and pulled out a pair of familiar pieces of cloth. He tied his hair back into a ball, and then covered his head and face with his mask, more for protection than concealment of identity. In a sunnier disposition than he probably had any right to be, he turned around and started to strut towards the town, looking for his next opportunity, or at least the nearest sucker. As for Ashe, well, maybe he’d see her again and maybe he wouldn’t, but she had been fun to hang around with while it lasted… as long as it never again involved a rap battle.

Ander heard a strange sound off to his left, and he craned his head to watch as a large, lemon-colored bird dragged a rickety wooden carriage towards him. The carriage stopped directly in front of him, its driver clothed completely in black with a wide-brimmed hat obscuring his features in shadow.

“Wanna ride?” he asked. It was simple, direct, and to the point.

Ander’s brilliant blue eyes roved over the archaic vehicle. The bird, something of a strange cross between an ostrich and a chicken, nipped mindlessly at its feathers, every so often muttering a noise that sounded something like “kweh.” The thief ultimately decided against the offer.

“No thanks,” the nomad replied with a shake of his head.

Wordlessly, the driver tugged at the reigns, and the giant bird dragged the carriage along in a perfectly straight line until they were out of sight.

Weird.

The thief strolled up to the outskirts of the ghost-like town, seeing a dusty old sign as he trawled along the path that read: ‘Prison.’ How quaint. He passed by quite a few unconscious bodies, presumably the lowest ranked in their respective games as well. He lingered only long enough to either affirm or deny familiarity with their identities, and moved on his way. None of them had protective coverings, exposing them to the harsh and unforgiving rays of the sun. He almost wanted to shake his head at their tourist status in this desert paradise. The first face that actually had any meaning belonged to someone he’d only met in passing, but his sharp memory recalled her name easily: Piper. Or, as Ashe had referred to her, “General Stuffypants.” Piper didn’t seem to be in a good mood as she skulked about with an angry scowl plastered on her face. Ander briefly flirted with the idea of approaching her, and then dismissed the idea just as quickly. Timing was everything, and the timing for Piper seemed a little too far out of the window of opportunity. She noticed him walking by, her eyes betraying a deep-seated frustration. Before he could quell the impulse, the masked thief gave a two-fingered salute.

“At ease, Captain!” he called over in a humorous tone, not bothering to stop. Piper was not amused. Ander kept walking.

That’s too bad. I’ll have to check back later.

Ander passed by the one he recognized as Alexander Trafford from his Space Battles event, the one who hadn’t been feeling so good back at the carnival before the Pac-Man episode. He was still unconscious, and Ander wasn’t exactly the Good Samaritan to revive the firearms expert. He kept walking.

Finally, the thief happened upon a large house, the design of which starkly contrasted with the dilapidated construction of the others. The former athlete felt an itch in his fingers, the kind of tingle that just screamed at him to go inside and take something. Of course, something about the mansion had “TRAP” painted all over it in big red letters, but so far it seemed like Ander’s only good lead in this place. After all, just because he lost didn’t mean he was quite out of this situation yet. The blue-eyed bandit checked around, making sure nobody was watching him. He picked his way across the perimeter, selecting a location that would grant him positions of concealment. The thief placed both hands to the wall, ignoring the burning temperature of the surface. As far as Ander was concerned, the temperature was perfect; he hadn’t felt this comfortable in a long time. The nomad applied his energy and started crawling up the wall like a sinister little arachnid. He didn’t have to go very far, as the first window he peeked into confirmed the location of its current occupants. He jerked back immediately, and then slowly but surely craned his head to get a second look.

He spied a Keebler elf, some unknown woman, a blond girl he didn’t recognize, a guy with black hair with his back turned to the window, and a girl with blue hair…

So this is where you’ve been hiding, Ander grinned. There was no mistaking it; he’d finally found the elusive Sage.

Upon further inspection, he audibly recognized the man as Juno, who sounded like he was regaling the audience with details from his Kill Town adventures. Ander rolled his eyes; this kid was doing it wrong… he needed to embellish more if he was going to talk himself up. The elf and the woman listened intently, the blond girl (whose features were oddly similar to Sage’s) didn’t look at all interested and was more than likely in a foul mood, and Sage seemed forlorn and depressed over something as usual. Sage tried to remain focused on Juno’s stories, yet her coral eyes occasionally wandered. Eventually, they found their way to the window, and were about to move on before the ice maiden did a double take. Ander waved silently, his eyes crinkled at the corners from his smug little grin that was invisible behind his cloth veil. Her face betrayed surprise and confusion, something that did not go unnoticed by Juno, and he stopped his enthusiastic monologue to turn around and see what had caught her attention. He stared at the window, seeing nothing but sunny skies. He turned back.

“You okay, Sage?” the saiyan asked.

“F-fine…” she murmured, still looking where the thief had disappeared.

Ander suppressed a laugh. But, as much fun as it was to mess with these people, and as much as he had unfinished business with Sage, that was going to have to wait. He didn’t feel like being part of the crowd at the moment, and would have to bide his time until the right moment presented itself. He pushed away from the wall and gracefully back-flipped onto the ground, just in time to spy somebody else approaching the mansion from farther off. He crouched low, scuttling along the side of the wall. She had long blond hair and a fairly flattering outfit. If not for his stalker status, Ander might have let out a wolf whistle.

Nice legs, he couldn’t help but notice.

She seemed somehow familiar, and he couldn’t really place her. His mind reeled over it, hoping to fish out a correlating memory. And then, something clicked into place. The hair and the clothes were different, but the face was unmistakable. This girl was Sophia, the last one from the picture of the happy quartet he’d inspected. It must have been an old picture, because she had changed quite a bit from it in comparison to the others. Then his mind wandered to another possible prospect, and he thought it somewhat funny that all four of them – Sage, Kaden, Ashe, and Sophia – had wound up in Kill Town. As a matter of fact, almost everyone he’d seen here were connected some way or another, and most of them had been introduced to him through Kaden.

Geez, how many people here know Kaden anyway? he grumbled.

Then he stopped.

…Kaden…

His eyes flickered back and forth wildly, a conclusion rapidly formulating in his brain from fragmented pieces of circumstantial evidence. The thief’s eyes darkened as his eyebrows furrowed deeply.

It’s…it’s HIM! He’s the reason I’m here! Nobody should even know about me unless they’re part of the Anati… I’ve spent most of my life hidden away in a desert. And the second I meet this guy, everything starts going wrong for me. The dragon balls… and now this… I got stuck in here because they think I’m associated with him! It just doesn’t make sense otherwise, why anyone would pick me to play this game. I didn’t start meeting anyone else here until after I was already abducted.

Ander clenched his hands into fists, absolutely sure he was correct. Then, a slow and somewhat malevolent smirk crept along his features.

Well, no worries, I’ll just return the favor. I’ll make friends with all of your friends, and then I’ll drive you insane. I’ll figure out exactly how to show you for what you really are, and then I’ll take what matters most. You’re going to wish you never messed with me. After all, I already know some of the people who are closest to you.

The thief’s glittering blue eyes laid squarely on Sophia.

And you’re next. You’re going to help me do it.

He hastily ripped off his mask and pulled his hair loose, combing through the strands with his fingers to make himself look as presentable as possible. He checked his breath and his armpits, and while he wasn’t in the most desirable state of attraction, it was going to have to do. He recalled Sage describing Sophia as “Kaden’s friend,” so she was as good as any place to start. The dune dweller stepped out from his hiding place, pretending to look lost.

“Oh, uh, hi there!” he called over. She turned her head.

“Um, hello,” she responded, somewhat uncertainly.

Hook.

Ander chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. “Hey, I uh, I don’t really know where I am or what I’m doing here. You’re actually the first person I’ve seen around here. This, uh, this isn’t easy for me to ask, but um, do you think you can help me out a little bit?” He played his ‘lost puppy’ act to perfection.

Line.

Sophia looked at him, as if unsure of what to make of him. “I was just about to check inside, actually, and figure out the same thing for myself. I guess we can both go in at the same time.”

Ander breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh man, that’d be great. I’d really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much.” He got a little closer, and stuck out his hand. “I’m Ander, by the way. And your name is?”

The blond took his hand and shook it with a friendly demeanor. “Sophia.”

Ander grinned, showing two perfect rows of pearly whites. He withdrew his hand and performed a gentlemanly bow. “Charmed.”

Sinker.

[Celena]

Sage was surprised to discover that the half saiyan Juno had become a prisoner, unlike Xenia who failed to identify anything special about him. Every time she laid eyes on the boy she envisioned his episode with the blonde haired priest while they were in a cave on Kai Demolic’s island. He was nothing more than a drama queen.

“You lost?” asked Sage.

“Yeah,” replied Juno.

“Rhetorical questions don’t need answers,” said Xenia, with a irritated expression.

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

“How did you lose?” Sage enquired.

Xenia distanced herself from the two by walking over to the wall by the entrance of the living room and then rested her back against it, folded her arms while she closed her eyes.

“Don’t you want to know what happened to me?” Juno asked Xenia.

“I’m not interested.”

“Fine, suit yourself.” he replied in a stroppy tone, regardless, he was going to tell Sage. Meanwhile, the latest event Yuffith’s big brother had set the prisoners up with, entered her mind.

The prisoners had apparently been bad and as a result, had to serve detention inside a locked classroom. As if it were not bad enough that Xenia had received her first detention, as stupid as it seemed, the worst part was that she had been entrapped with a dialogically inept principle fit for supervising third year children. Prior to the prisoners having managed to work together to escape the room, she had envisioned a moment in her childhood as a student of the Saiyan Royal Academy. Unknown to her, Gamer had actually programmed her to revisit this past moment as part of his scheme to mentally break down the princess.

No matter the subject, Xenia always sat at the front of the class. It was her way of showing her teachers how serious she was towards her studies. Call it stereotypical but the bad bunch took places at the back of the class while the sheep of the class, also known as ‘the average kids’, sat in the middle.

In school, Xenia was a nerd. She was usually the first to finish her class work, usually got the most marks in maths, English and always got the highest marks in science, the important subjects, or in her opinion, the only subjects that mattered. She usually answered the majority of questions asked by teachers, and correctly, ninety six percent of the time, consistently to the point where teachers would at times intentionally turn a blind eye to her raised hand in order to give other pupils a chance. She always did her homework. Kids even asked her to do their homework and when she denied them (which she always did) they would offer her money, but as a princess who could have anything she wanted, their zeni was redundant.

The downside to being a nerd was that kids bullied you, but because she was the sister of one of the toughest girl in the school, kids only bullied her when Sage was not around. What was even better for these oppressors was the fact that because of Xenia’s huge pride, she never went to her sister for protection. The girl would come home after being beaten up and hide her bruises from Sage. The last thing she wanted her blue haired sibling to know was that she was incapable of defending herself, despite her parents failed attempts to toughen up the blonde.

“What is a cell?” asked Mrs Baroot, the key stage three science teacher. Hands flew up, mostly hands from the front of the class.

“Ooh ooh ooh,” one of them even eagerly uttered, almost falling out of his seat.

“Yes, Henru.”

He reformed back into his seat. “A structure made of different tissues that perform different roles in a plant or an animal.”

“Wrong.”

He sulked.

“Anyone else?”

Hands rose again. The teacher looked around the room, as usual there were no hands raised by kids at the back of the room. A boy was even asleep on his desk. After a few moments scanning the room she gave in. “Princess Xena,” she said in an unenthusiastic tone. Xenia did not like being referred to as a princess due to her support of equal rights, which contradicted to her rank in hierarchy. She did not deem it fair that she was the only one being referred to by a title, but there was an ancient policy that had been etched in stone since the reign of King Vegeta I, also known as Bejita Ou, which stated that a royal saiyan had to be referred to by their title at all times or else they would be imprisoned.

“A cell is a unit of life surrounded and encased by an outer membrane,” the princess answered.

“Excellent.” It was a cliché of a reply used in regards to Xenia’s answers.

The girl did not get enough time to soak in her excellence as she exclaimed an “ow’, from a pencil being flung at the back of her skull. Kids laughed while she turned her head towards the back of the room.

“Three o’clock,” came a masculine voice from the back of the room.

Without turning around, Xenia snickered. “You mean the voice came from outside the window to my left hand side?”

Kids laughed, even Misses Baroot, which angered the boy at the back of the room responsible for throwing the pencil. His name was Tegra but kids called him Jaws, not just because of his shark like teeth, but due to the fact that he actually looked like a shark. He was a big kid, thick bodied, just one of those kids you feared rather than respected. The thing about Jaws was that he was not just all bark; he was tough, so tough that even Sage would think twice before trying to mess with him. He was a very bad behaved kid. The only thing keeping Tegra from being expelled from the school was his grandfather, a former Saiyan general and an admirable figure unto the saiyan army.

Jaws lifted himself to his feet so forcefully that his desk jumped a few inches forward and then slid across the brown tiled classroom floor and into the back of a student’s chair.

“Run!” yelled a girl by Xenia’s left hand side as the hammer headed boy marched down the aisle, however the long haired blond wearing a red Alice band got up out of her seat and stood her ground while he towered over her, so big that he cast a shadow over her.

“What are you thinking Princess Xena?! You’re smarter than him!” exclaimed Misses Baroot.

Xenia may not have been tough from a physical standpoint, but she never ran from a confrontation. She could piss on herself if she wanted, but she would never run.

“Please go back to your seat,” said the royal hybrid.

“Make me,” laughed Jaws.

“Physically, that’s impossible, but I’m sure I can persuade you with gentle words.”

Jaws grabbed her by her white shirt causing her to tiptoe.

“I’m not much of a challenge for you, am I Jaws? In fact, I’m no challenge for you. Wouldn’t you prefer a fight worthwhile?”

Jaws thought about that for a moment.

“Don’t fall for it; she’s trying to con her way out of it!” yelled a scrawny, long nosed kid from the back of the class, Jaw’s right hand minion. Kids called him Weasel because he looked and acted like one. He was so weak even Xenia could beat him up, but he was very crafty and acted as Jaw’s advisor. Without him, the hammer head would just be a wild, destructive animal without a tamer. Weasel was smart, capable of answering questions correctly but chose not to in order to fit in with Jaws.

With a growl, he picked her off her feet, causing girls in the room to scream. “Here’s your three o’clock!” With just his right hand, he tossed her out of the window. Xenia landed on the grass with a thud, groaning due to the pain she felt from her back. “And stay out!” Jaws closed the window.

”Xena.”

Tap Tap Tap.

“You bully!” yelled Xenia, throwing her fist into Jaws nose. The girl collapsed to the floor, letting out a sheepish cry as her hands covered her nose.

A girl?

“Sage?”

“Now it’s time for the grand finale,” said Gamer, glancing at the spiky haired blonde from his CCTV screen. “Let’s see how well you handle this, Xena.”

“What the fuck?!” yelled Juno, kneeling by Sage’s left hand side, but she pushed him away, something that caused the half breeds mouth to open with shock.

“I’m…a bully?”

“Not you…” Xenia glanced to her left to see Jaws bearing his sharp teeth towards her sister.

Xenia always used words to try and worm her way of being beaten up by bullies but that was only because physically, she could not fight them off, but it was different now, she had the power.

“Jaws!” she exclaimed, throwing the same right handed fist forward. The big saiyan weaved to the left, causing the clenched fist to brush against the right hand side of his face.

“I’m not Jaws, I’m Juno!” the hammer headed saiyan exclaimed as Xenia leap backwards. She entered a fighting stance and then a clear aura burst around her.

“Stop!” yelled Yuffith.

“Bettra... Bettra, I’m doing this for you; for all of the kids in the class who’s ever been picked on by this big jerk.”

“Sister!!!” Sage screamed, getting herself between Xenia and Juno.

“Sister?”

Xenia watched as the bloody nosed girl in front of her burst into tears.

Sage.

Her aura faded.

“You’re bleeding?” the blonde said softly.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” asked Juno.

What have I done?

Xenia put a hand on her head while she gazed blankly at the living room floor.

This… Something’s not right…

Her hand slid threw her hair.

“Xena!” Sage cried again.

Xenia made a break towards the entrance of the living room and rushed through the lobby. Once she was out of the building, she collapsed to her knees and pressed her hands on her head, sweat slowly sliding down her face.

Something’s not right.

[Sage]

It was a lot to mull over, that was for sure. The death of a child. The murder of that poor little boy, right in front of her. It wasn’t real; it was probably just another elaborate attempt by Gamer to torture her. He probably knew she believed in the sanctity of life; her mind was, after all, hooked up to his computer. Who knew what he knew? Maybe he could extract her thoughts or ideals. After Friend or Foe and Dante’s Abyss, Sage wasn’t willing to believe very much was impossible anymore.

It didn’t make it any easier to watch. The child was probably just data, or, at worst, a player who was eliminated in an elaborately cruel-to-watch fashion, but either way, nobody was actually hurt, and yet, it still hurt. Sage knew it was best to just discard the image, but it lingered behind her sight when she closed her eyes.

Magnus.

Now, she sat in a chair, with an attractive schoolgirl leaning over her shoulder, and her sister across from her, all of them listening while Juno blathered on and on and on about whatever stupid thing- dragons and spaceships. None of it really made any sense to the blue haired girl, who was far more preoccupied with a great many other things to worry about something that happened-but-didn’t-really-happen.

Wolfgang died-but-not-really right in front of her, she was trapped in a goddamn desert - inside a mansion which was mercifully air conditioned - and she still hadn’t found any Valium. It was all she could do not to start shaking and babbling incoherently as she sat and pretended to be interested in whatever it was he was talking about now.

Sage took in her surroundings, musing idly over the exquisite fabrics and adornments spread throughout the clearly expensive room, contemplating idly why she and the others were so special as to be here, while so many others were stranded in the shanty town around them. What made this little group so special? Were the people in the desert even real? If they were... how long had they been trapped here?

Her eyes flitted across the window. Angry sun and cheery sky. She turned back to Juno. Almost. What the- anxious eyes returned to the window. A masked man was staring her in the face, and, even more surprisingly, he waved at her. If it was a ‘he.’ The long hair made it difficult to tell. And then, he - or she - was gone.

“You okay, Sage?” it was Juno.

“F-fine...” the quarter saiyan replied, not taking her eyes off the glass. Despite her obvious lie, nobody saw fit to call her on it, not even Xenia, who...

Sage turned her attention to her sister, who was... dreaming? Was she sleeping on her feet? Poor Xenia, the azure haired girl thought, as she climbed to her feet. She must have been pushing herself so hard. You always work too hard.

The smaller sister closed the distance between them, and she gently tapped Xenia’s shoulder, in an effort to wake her before she did or said something silly in her sleep.

Her twin screaming at her and then punching her face, for example.

Sage let out a sharp cry of shock and pain, and collapsed onto the floor, her hands over her face. There was a blur of motion. Juno tried to shield her from Xenia, but he chose a bad time to step between the two. The diminutive healer pushed him out of her way so she could see the blonde girl. “I’m... a bully?” she asked, agony balancing obviously on her words.

“Not you...”

So much seemed to happen all at once. Juno and Xenia were fighting, or screaming, or... something. Another voice shouted at them to stop, and the sounds of a struggle broke out all around her.

“Sister!!” the little hybrid finally managed as she got to her feet, stumbling between Juno and her twin.

“Sister?” came the reply, but it sounded so... hollow. So unsure. At that, Sage began to weep.

“You’re bleeding,” Xenia’s voice softened. Juno suddenly screamed something at her, and she... she ran.

“Xenia!” Sage shrieked, and made to go after her, but Juno caught her wrist. A fiercely burning cold greeted his flesh, though, and forced him to release the girl, who sprinted out the way the blonde had gone.

Blood dribbled down her face and chin, onto her dress. She didn’t care. Xenia was in trouble. Sage raced toward the exit, and had to negotiate around two newcomers, nearly colliding with them as she ran. Both shouted things at her, but Sage didn’t take notice. Instead, she burst out of the building, and found herself suddenly and totally overwhelmed. The girl made several starts in several different directions, like she felt she needed to head in every direction at once, but, finally, bolted toward the back of the mansion.

She didn’t know why she knew Xenia would be there, but she was there. On her knees. With her head in her hands. Immediately, Sage was on her knees next to her. The azure haired girl embraced her sister, and gently rested her head against Xenia’s.

“I didn’t mean to hit you...”

“I know. It’s okay,” Sage answered. She closed her eyes and hugged her sister tighter. The two sat in silence on the pristine grass. Neither made any attempt to move or speak for a while, until Sage finally spoke. “What happened, Xenia? What’s bothering you?”

At that, the blonde lifted Sage’s arm off her and scooted away. Her face and eyes were full of pain and confusion. Sage watched her intently, wanting so badly to help her through whatever it was she was going through.

“I- just- leave me alone!” Xenia exclaimed, before suddenly deconstructing into hundreds of little black orbs and racing away. Sage gasped at the sight, and watched until the dazzling lights vanished. That was one of her dad’s techniques. The girl sank into the grass. Xenia wasn’t going to be found again if she didn’t want to be.

Sage sighed and hugged herself. Blood spattered on her arms. She rolled her eyes and reached into one of her hair ribbons and withdrew a capsule. With a click of the button, she idly tossed the device onto the grass, where it exploded, revealing her medical kit.

She opened it, and withdrew a small, steel canister with a spray nozzle on it. Saiyan technology. Well, it was probably stolen from elsewhere, but it was from Vegeta-Sei. And, Sage tried not to remind herself. From the future.

Rejuvenation spray. It was essentially a field medic’s ultimate weapon - essentially a limited version of a fixed rejuvenation tank. Very hard to come by. Especially since it hadn’t yet been invented. But, Sage decided, she didn’t exactly need tools to heal people anymore, and her reality wasn’t real, anyway, so she would be wasting nothing.

She sprayed herself in the nose, and instantly recoiled, dropping the canister and cringing uncontrollably. Once the sharp, stinging sensation passed, the girl hesitantly touched her nose, and, when she was satisfied that no new blood was coming away from it, she moved forward, onto her hands and knees, and began rummaging through her med kit for some gauze to clean off the blood, when she was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Sage nearly jumped from her spot on the grass. She looked up, catching a pair of steely blue eyes half-smiling, half-glaring at her. “A-Ander?”

“You’re covered in blood,” was the less-than-cheery reply. “What happened?”

“I, um, I was j-just- it’s- n-nothing! Nothing happened. I fell,” the girl stammered, while silently cursing herself. Even she knew that was a horrible excuse.

“Oh, yeah?” the dark haired boy raised an eyebrow and nodded, one hand on his elbow and the other on his chin.

“Um... yeah.”

“You know what?”

“What?” Sage inquired as she withdrew a handful of gauze. It’d work fine to wipe off the blood.

“You’re a horrible liar.”

Sage looked up at him in an attempt to look offended, but instead looked as she was - caught in a lie. She frowned, and cast her eyes to the ground. She was an idiot to think he believed that for even a second.

“I...” she sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Who was that girl?”

“Huh?” a pair of coral eyes suddenly flicked back up to his face.

“The girl you were chasing, when you ran past us.”

“That was you??”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

Sage sighed again. “That was... Xenia.”

“Who’s that?”

“...My sister,” the girl let her shoulders sag, and then, suddenly, she tensed up. “I have to go find her!”

“Hold on,” Ander’s hand clapped onto her shoulder as she tried to get to her feet, and pulled her back down. “You’re covered in blood,” he insisted. “Here,” the desert dweller reached out and took the gauze from where Sage had dropped it, and gingerly dabbed the crimson fluid away from her nose and face. He hesitated at her dress; the blood was on her chest, and it probably wasn’t going to come out anyway.

Sage blushed. “Th-Thank you,” she managed, before quietly packing her med kit back up, and restoring it to its capsule. She slid the tiny container back under her ribbon, and cautiously rubbed her nose, just to be sure she wasn’t suddenly bleeding again. “I-If you meet Xenia, and she’s mean to you... please don’t be upset. It’s just her way; she’s really a very good person.”

“Uh huh,” Ander conceded, watching the girl out of the corner of his eye as he pretended to stare off into space. She was trembling. She didn’t normally do that. “So, what happened? Who hit you?”

“I... um... it was... Magnus,” Sage managed. “He... he attacked us,” the girl’s voice suddenly became very somber. “He killed the little boy. Wolfgang,” it was a horrible thing, to use the child’s death as a way of evading Ander’s question, but he wasn’t making it easy for her.

[Ander]

Like a good display of false chivalry, Ander motioned to courteously open the door for Sophia and allow her passage into the mansion first, but as his hand grasped the handle, the door flew open and slammed right into his face, sending him stumbling backwards. Somebody rushed past, somebody neither of them noticed, an angry and bewildered girl with blond hair.

“I’m okay,” he quickly assured, placing up a palm while pinching the bridge of his nose. He managed to stay out of the way as a second person followed the first, and the thief looked sharply towards the fleeing figure, catching glimpses of black silk and wispy trails of blue hair, knowing instantly to whom they belonged.

“Sage!” Ander called after.

“That was Sage?” Sophia questioned, somewhat confused. Ignoring the obvious line of questioning that would inevitably follow, the former priestess joined in his shout as she hollered, “Sage, what’s wrong?”

The girl either didn’t hear them or didn’t want to hear them, balking momentarily at her choice of direction until she bolted behind the house. Ander suppressed a growl that threatened to rumble out from deep within his throat.

Bad timing bad timing bad timing, he cursed internally.

He shook his head in irritation before smoothing over his features as he shrugged helplessly towards Sophia.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” he stated, sounding almost surprised at his own election of action.

The healer jerked her thumb in the direction the ice maiden had vanished. “Well she’s a friend of mine, I’ll go with you.”

He quickly waved her off with a gesture of his hand. “No, no, this is something I have to do.” He glanced hurriedly towards the corner, knowing that every second he wasted would be a second harder to find her again, and then looked back to Sophia, hating the choice he was letting himself make between the two. The thief held out a hand imploringly towards the blond. “Listen, um, just take a look around the mansion, and uh, I’ll be right back okay? Don’t like, run off on me or anything, because it’s really nice meeting you and you seem like a wonderful, lovely person and it’d be nice to talk and…” Ander’s pressured brain ran out of cheap yet flattering words to say to smooth over the situation, so he simply decided to quit while he was behind. “Ugh, I’m really sorry!”

The nomad bolted off in Sage’s direction, leaving behind an utterly lost Sophia.

God damnit!

He moved with fleet of foot, yet his steps fell silently as he followed the ostensible trail of tracks left behind by the two women. When he finally happened upon his target, he realized his momentary delay with Sophia had cost him discovering the true nature of the sudden outburst, so instead he watched silently as Sage summoned a medical kit and started patching herself up from something that screamed suspicious. Finally, he cleared his throat, and their unconventional reunion started to awkwardly unfold.

“I… um… it was… Magnus,” Sage managed. “He… he attacked us.” Her voice suddenly became very somber. “He killed the little boy. Wolfgang.”

Ander had no idea who Wolfgang was, or why he was killed, and truthfully, while death was always a sad and tragic occurrence, he didn’t particularly care. He didn’t know Wolfgang and the kid had no personal meaning to him, so he couldn’t really be expected to be affected by the loss of a stranger’s life. Instead, what leaped to the forefront of his mind was their previous conversation, and where it had ended, brought back to life all too vividly by her telltale trembling.

“Is that why you’re shaking?” he asked casually, pretending to study the empty blue skies.

Sage unconsciously looked away, managing only a nod. But she didn’t have to say anything; her evasive body language gave everything away. He could read her like a book. The thief decided to just cut his usual song and dance and get straight to the point. After all, he hadn’t entered this foray in the best of circumstances... or of moods.

“Had any Valium today?” Ander questioned, almost as if he were inquiring about the weather.

“I… I d-don’t know w-what you mean,” Sage murmured, her stutter yet another flashing sign.

Ander snorted, not amused by her incredibly poor defense. “You know, that line usually works best when you haven’t already admitted to doing it.”

“D-doing wh-what?” the girl clumsily tried again.

“I’m not stupid. Answer my question. Have you or have you not had any Valium today?”

Sage shuffled uncomfortably, rising to her feet, and Ander immediately mirrored the movement. “O-oh... yeah... I, um... I’d kind of hoped you’d forgotten about that...” she mumbled.

“Oh I’ve got a long memory,” the thief smiled humorlessly.

“N-no...” Sage finally admitted.

The dune dweller didn’t let it rest at that. “Is that the only kind you take?”

“I don’t think it’s your place to...” Sage started, her uncomfortable disposition gradually treading into one of annoyance. As the words spilled out, she attempted to slowly slip away, but the thief grabbed her by the wrist before she could complete her retreat.

“Don’t try to walk away from me,” Ander warned, his face stern.

The cryomancer didn’t take as kindly to this touch as she had the first, her annoyance readily dropping into full-fledged defensive mode as her mood instantly flipped from Quiet Sage to Angry Sage. “D-don’t grab me like you think you can hold me. I’m tired of people thinking I’m helpless!”

Ander’s tone rose steadily to match her own as he barely contained the edge in his voice. “Don’t put words in my mouth, I never said that, because I don’t think you are helpless. But for somebody’s who’s not, you sure have a funny way of showing it. If you’re not helpless, why would you take drugs?”

“I told you, it k-keeps me normal,” Sage replied.

Ander roughly yanked her closer, his features etching more and more into indignation, his eyes challenging her own as his words grew in pacing and intensity with every measured moment. “But it’s not real! It’s fake! How much more would it mean if it was just you? You and nothing else that was normal! People who aren’t helpless don’t need that crap! Where do you keep it, huh? You got a dealer or something? Give you a good price? Have a variety inventory? Huh? Tell me Sage, am I getting warm?!”

“How dare you! It’s none of your business anyway!” the woman growled, tugging to release her wrist and failing. “Who the hell do you think are? Why should you even care?”

The thief’s voice finally elevated to a full shout. “Because I’m trying to figure out why somebody who cares about life as much as you do would destroy their own body! Why would you do that to yourself? You’re strong, I know you are, why do you think you need it?!”

Sage squeezed her eyes shut and shouted right back. “You could never understand the things I’ve been through!”

“You need to stop picking and choosing when you’re helpless and when you’re not! Either you are, or you aren’t, and people who aren’t helpless don’t use an empty crutch like that! Stop pretending like you can’t pick yourself up when you fall down, because you can! It’s pathetic and just another piss-poor lie of yours!”

Sage shook her head, violently, completely and fully under the thrall of her bipolar withdrawals. “You haven’t seen me when I did! You haven’t seen what I can do. You and everyone else!” Angrily, she raised up her other arm and wildly beat at his chest until he grabbed that wrist, too. She struggled against his hold, but he was locked on and wouldn’t let go, and she didn’t have the physical strength to overpower him. So instead, she simply thrashed futilely.

The thief had no idea why he was so angry. It could have been many reasons, had he actually the time or the frame of mind to think about it. She confused him on so many levels; she had to have an ulterior motive. Everybody did. And he hadn’t quite figured it out yet. He didn’t understand why she spared his life with absolutely no reason to do so; he didn’t understand why he continually made decisions contrary to his own best interest when she entered the equation. In some way, he supposed he probably hated it, and wanted to simply find her inevitable flaw that cracked that seemingly innocent surface so he could throw her away just like everybody else. But he couldn’t, because Sage reminded him so much of his hidden frailties, of those painful feelings. He spoke his words not for her, but for himself, about relying on oneself and being strong on your own. He spoke them because he had to believe it. He had to convince himself it was true. He had to believe in a person’s own strength. If he didn’t, he would have given up and gone crazy or gotten killed a long time ago. If he didn’t believe it, he would have nothing… be… nothing.

So, after some twisted fashion, he’d found a way to use her beyond her initial usefulness after all, and she was just too naïve to see it. She was almost symbolic to the very idea behind what kept him motivated to become powerful.

“So what are you going to do, Sage? You can’t run away from me and you can’t stop me. What are you going to do about it since you don’t have one of your little pills to pop?” he demanded, foolishly, daringly. In one instant, she could skewer him just as easily as she had done before.

And then she glared at him with what he could only presume as intention of violence, but it turned out to be something else entirely. Tears welled up in her rosy eyes, and she started to cry. Ander’s eyes widened, almost as if in denial, an unhappy smile forming on his face as he instantly released her and started to shake his head.

“Oh no, no no no no no no,” he chuckled humorlessly. “Oh god, not this.” He looked around nervously, all too aware of how loud it must have been. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. Shhh! Be quiet! Somebody’s going to hear you. Stop, please.” No avail. He stole another quick glance around the corners of the gorgeous house, and then lowered his voice to a gruff command, punctuated with a militant pointer finger. “I order you to stop! Right this instant! Cease! Desist!” He paused. “…Arrêtez de sangloter tout de suite!” She kept on crying, oblivious to his insistences. Ander looked skyward, and growled low between clenched teeth, “I hate crying.”

He placed his hands on his hips, completely helpless in the situation. Since forcing her to stop didn’t seem to be working, he mustered up what little talent at condolences he had. The thief gingerly reached out his hand and stiffly tapped her twice on the shoulder, as if she were going to spontaneously combust at any moment. “There, there…” he attempted, his words falling lamely and woodenly.

The poor endeavor at consolation elicited yet another unexpected reaction, as the girl interpreted the gesture as an extended invitation for physical comfort, and she surprised the thief by glomping him and flinging her frail arms tightly around his neck, as if he were the only rock against the powerful undertow in a vast and unforgiving ocean. Too tightly, in fact, as Ander felt the flow of oxygen cut off from his lungs.

“Sage,” he choked. “I ca-I can’t breathe!”

He reached around his back and grappled for a firm hold, and pried her locked limbs off, then gripping her tightly by the shoulders as he held her rigidly away from him at arm’s length as if dealing with a large, undesirable child.

You really are more trouble than you’re worth, aren’t you? Ander winced.

Through it all, Sage did not stop blubbering. He carefully started to move her, and she did not resist as he positioned her against the mansion’s luxuriously painted wall, against which the doctor sank miserably. Ander sat down next to her, watching as stoically as possible as she buried her face into her knees and hugged her legs, muffling her sobs and hiding her puffy, reddened cheeks as her blue hair riffled over the sides of her head. The nomad tilted his head back, staring silently up at the breezy atmosphere.

Don’t give in. Don’t you even frickin’ do it.

It only took a minute or two for her unremitting bawling to finally break him. He sighed, relenting guiltily against the piteous nature of her emotional state.

“Okay. All right, all right. Come here,” he said reluctantly.

She glanced up from beneath her protective enclave, coral eyes glassed over in a sheen of tears as she continued her woeful weeping. He met her uncertain gaze and jerked his head ever so slightly to the side, and Sage took the hint without any further hesitation, scooting over and leaning against his shoulder. Ander simply sat there, unmoving, harboring a defeated look as his jacket slowly stained with salt water and possibly the leftover blood on her dress.

Definitely more trouble than you’re worth.

[Piper Juunanagou]

With an almost snorting grunt, Sergeant Piper Juunanagou’s eyes cracked open, revealing a pair of vengeful, bloodshot pupils. Sitting up, the woman blinked several times as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the overdose of sunlight gushing into her current whereabouts through a nearby barred window. After nearly a minute, Piper rose up to a standing position, her vision now sufficiently adapted to the sunny, sweltering environment.

“Where the hell am I?” The woman whispered to no on in particular as she scanned the small room for an indication of life. When she received no helpful response or saw no sign of any company, Piper let out an exasperated groan and proceeded to make her way toward the reinforced door at what seemed to be the anterior of the rundown building. As she reached out for the handle, she noted that she was still wearing the metal glove from the space simulator.

Breaking off the door handle when it refused to budge, Piper forced it the rest of the way open with a series of violent kicks that bowed its midsection enough to compromise the integrity of its mounting brackets. In the end, it was this lack of integrity that eventually caused the heavy door to peel away from the surrounding wall and topple forward into the sand-stained ground outside the shanty.

Just great…

A heavy frown spread across the woman’s face as she stepped out into the decaying remains of what may have been a thriving town a few decades ago. In the time that had passed, the buildings and streets had slowly been fighting a losing battle against the desert that surrounded the town. All that remained of civilization was a scattered assortment of rundown structures patched up with rusted sheets of metal. The bleached soil that may have once been roads and even tiny lawns was now fissured and doted with fractal remnants of fences, signposts, and even a car or two.

“I hate this place already,” Piper rasped beneath her breath as she began to note the abundance of pipes that ran across the dried earth. Based on the people she could see either scurrying about or simply pacing with no real motivation, the soldier could only assume that the pipes served to provide the ‘towns’ inhabitants with a source of water. Unfortunately that deduction only served to raise more questions within the mind of the inquisitive woman’s head. After all, who would voluntarily choose to eek out a living in such a dreary, inhospitable place?

No one would, you moron. Piper mused as she turned to notice a masked man creeping along the opposing side of the street. Despite a faint recollection of the individual’s attire, the woman couldn’t put a name to the partially obscured face.

“At ease, Captain!” The individual shouted as he snapped off a quick salute to the scowling soldier and continued without more than a fleeting glance at her visible disapproval. Even though she didn’t have a name for the face, Piper could only surmise that she wanted nothing to do with the sarcastic masked figure.

Turning away from the direction of the stranger, Piper began to march down the opposing end of the path. A short distance from the shanty, she walked passed a larger structure that was labeled ‘Prison’ and seemed to house a few unconscious forms. If this had been some other situation, the woman probably would have stopped to assess the condition of the people and offer them any necessary medical support. After all, that was what she did to earn the big bucks. Unfortunately, the foreign elements that Gamer had unwillingly forced upon the woman had served to numb the altruistic elements of her personality, and as Piper marched down the eroded sidewalk, her mind contained but one single, solitary motivation—vengeance.

In any normal situation, Piper would probably have evacuated the scene and rallied some backup before attempting to confront Gamer, but her young and foolish kidnapper had made the terrible mistake of leaving her with no other options. By hooking her up into a computer and keeping her against her will, Gamer had quintessentially trapped the proverbial lioness into her proverbial cage. And when this lion escaped, there would be no retreating for backup. There would be nothing but pain and bloodshed.

With a heavy frown, Piper lifted her right hand and channeled a sphere of ki through the glove. As it had been before, the hue of the energy was green as opposed to the shade of light red it had manifested as in the prior Kill Town events. Holding the twitching, scintillating orb between her bruised, blistered hands, the woman took a single, commanding step forward and proceeded to hurl the sphere of energy toward an outdated, dilapidated car rotting down the street. In a flash of green light, the vehicle was reduced to nothing more than a black scar on the remnants of the pavement. The scorched pieces of the car that weren’t eradicated in the blast were blown apart and scattered into the winds. Reeling back, Piper lifted a forearm to shield her face as a few twisted shards of metal sailed passed her.

“Well that was strangely satisfying,” Piper muttered beneath her breath as she lowered her arm back to her side and looked disconcertingly at where the vehicle had been. “It’ll be interesting to see what would happen if that had been Gamer’s skull,” the woman added with a rather sinister grin as she clenched and unclenched her metal-encased fist. With a delightful mental picture swirling about in her mind, Piper began to casually meander down what remained over the eroding sidewalk.

For the next several minutes, the soldier passed the time by achieving absolutely nothing worthwhile. Sure, in that time she had managed to map out the perimeter of the ghost town, but other than that, she’d done nothing more than manage to kill some time she knew should have otherwise been dedicated to formulating an escape plan. But how the hell was she supposed to escape from a marginally abandoned town and traverse the seemingly vacuous desert that surrounding said locale?

With a frustrated crown, Piper marched over the crest of a small hill and suddenly found herself staring at something that made absolutely no sense. There, smack dab in the middle of an abandoned town in the midst of a desert, was an extravagant mansion surrounded by lush, flourishing grass, trees, shrubbery, and flowers. The entire thing was an ecological impossibility, and despite her desire to investigate the bizarre mansion, Piper figured it was probably some stupid trap for starving, dehydrated maniacs. Anyone who crossed through the lavish gate to the courtyard would probably be mowed down by hidden machine guns, and the massive door at front of the building was most likely connected to some sort of pitfall or rigged shotgun.

“Yea, screw that,” Piper remarked as she instead took a right and began to head toward the center of the decaying settlement. Unlike the carnival, the prison town (as Piper could only assume it functioned as) was mostly silent. Every now and again, the blonde would pass a leaky pipeline or notice a sign or loose sheet of metal being rattled by the wind, but other than that, silence seemed to be the norm. On the other hand, the prison town also seemed to house a mostly robotic populace, although Piper did pass a few people she had noticed from that initial group chat with Gamer.

To the delight of the soldier, the artificial life forms that dwelled in the old town lacked the suffocating desire to serve the nearest flesh and blood figure. Like frightened children, most of them recoiled or fled when they noticed Piper or realized that she was looking their way. Once again, had the soldier really had the impetus, she would have pursued one of the shy robots, but instead of that, she continued to focus on self-reliance. If Gamer had thrown her and several of his other victims her when he could have otherwise slain them, they had to be there to serve some purpose.

“Hey, Piper,” the distinct alien accent triggered the woman’s march to come to an abrupt halt. With a grin, the soldier turned around and verified her assumption that she was not without her allies in the prison town.

“Hey, Szar,” Piper said with a degree of nonchalance as she retraced her steps until she was standing just a few paces from the deceased changeling. “Glad to see I’m not the only one who seems to have met… misfortune,” the woman remarked as she emphasized her closing remark with a sweeping gesture toward their inglorious surroundings.

“Indeed,” Szar snorted as he crossed his arms across his armored chest and began to dig on of his heels into the fragile, weather-beaten concrete. Unlike their previous engagement, where the duo had climbed a horrible mountain and then enjoyed some lovely tea, the alien now seemed genuinely incensed.

“I’d say that things could be worse, but you’re already sort of dead,” Piper quipped, shrugging her shoulders as she tried to devise some sort of topic to converse with the alien about. “So how about that Gamer? You ready to kill him yet?” She asked with a faint smile as she recalled the mental image of exploding Gamer’s skull.

“It’s now infeasible for us to claim victory in his stupid contest. Without winning, how else are we supposed to even get close enough to Gamer to bring him to justice?” The changeling growled as he reached down and scooped up a handful of eroded concrete, dirt, and sand. With a heavy frown, the alien ran the amalgamation of rough particles between his fingers. Unable to deduce the meaning of the odd display, Piper opted to focus her thoughts on Szar in an attempt to try and get a reading of his emotions. While the technique had worked on Kaden and several others in the preceding months, the empathic soldier was unable to get even the slightest reading off her alien comrade.

“Why are you staring at me like that,” Szar inquired upon noticing that the woman’s brow was furrowed and her jaw was clenched. With a sigh, Piper allowed her facial features to relax and her shoulders to slump.

Remember how I can communicate telepathically? The soldier projected the question into Szar’s mind, prompting him to twitch a little, perhaps an indicator that he had almost forgotten that fact.

“Yea, yea,” the changeling responded as he emptied the contents of his hand and smacked his palms together to clear away any residual particulate matter.

“Well if I focus, I can usually read people’s emotions,” Piper said with a faint smile. “It’s really helpful when you’re talking to a friend who won’t man up and admit he’s having a bad day,” she chuckled.

“And you can’t get a read off me?” Szar asked as his formerly strict, almost totalitarian posture began to falter.

“Not at all,” Piper replied with a frown. “It's the strangest thing.”

“It’s probably because I’m dead...” the alien grumbled as he let his arms fall away from one another and settle on his sides. “Great…just another lovely reminder that I get to go back to hell whenever this ends. And at this rate, I’ll get to return their without the satisfaction of knowing that Gamer will be there as well.”

“Cheer up,” The soldier spoke as she closed the gap between the changeling and herself. With a sigh, she gently smacked a hand down on Szar’s naturally armored shoulder. “We’re going to escape from this prison, we’re going to escape from this glorified computer game, and we’re going to kill Mr. God-Complex.”

“That’s a pretty tall order there,” Szar snickered as he playfully batted the woman’s hand off his shoulder.

“Well hey, remember that one time we managed to escape—heavily sedated, mind you—from a madwoman’s car?” Piper inquired as she crossed her arms over his chest and flashed the changeling a wide grin.

“And then afterwards I got shot with a rocket launcher and forcibly moved to the other side of the planet,” Szar responded with a frown that was designed more so with the intent of playfully scorning Piper than to convey a sense of melancholy.

“Yea, well…maybe this time you’ll keep an eye out for steroid-infused henchmen,” Piper retorted as she light-heartedly shoved the alien off balance. As Szar teetered backwards on one foot—his eyes wide as he flailed his arms in a drastic attempt to secure his equilibrium—his female comrade turned her attention down the street. Almost immediately, something caught her interest, and although a backwards glance would reveal a rather unpleased Szar resting on his haunches, Piper jogged toward her new interest.

“That woman needs to understand her own strength,” the changeling groaned as he jumped back up to his feet and pursued the soldier down the street.

[Juno]

“Xenia!!”

“Sage!” he called after her as the pain forced him to release the cerulean-haired girl. He watched helplessly as she darted through the doorway, running faster than Juno had ever seen her run after her sister. His hopes were dashed; she really cared for her sister, then. He’d never really felt that type of attachment to his own family.

He watched as she disappeared through the doorway. And just like that, she was gone.

How could he have been so stupid? He had sat there rambling on about stuff they probably weren’t even interested in, and for what? For his pride? Some friend he was. He had barely checked on them—he had noticed the blood on Sage’s dress, sure, but had he even cared about it? No, he’d focused on the fact that she was alive and ever-so-slightly willing to hear him glorify himself. Now, he’d blown his chance.

He walked over to the couch, and slumped into it, his hand still burning from the pain Sage’s chill had inflicted. He glanced at the blue hand—maybe some of the desert heat would warm it up? He held it up, letting some of the arid heat waves waft through the nearby window onto it, and slowly but surely, it turned back into the pale white color that it was supposed to be. He sighed, sinking back into the ratty cushions of the couch, and leaning his head back.

…should he go out and help her? He thought about the option for a moment—maybe he could head outside and stand at a safe distance, ready to interfere if Xenia tried anything. After all, that was what guys did for girls, right? They protected them, right?

He sighed as he mulled over the teenagers’ feuds. He was still a teenage boy, on the inside, but he had never really had that type of social interaction. He’d lived on Mercy-sei, with the other ragtag outcasts, for what would’ve been his high school years, and there, all concepts of love and commitment were just tossed out the window. On Mercy, no one was with anyone—people were simply tools, to be used and discarded. He’d been discarded more than once.

The same, he supposed, was true for Sage. It was quite clear to him, no matter how much she tried to hide it, that there was a certain pain lingering like a dark raincloud over the coral-eyed girl’s head. He scowled; she always seemed to be hurting. She just hid it in a dramatically different way than he did, the half-Saiyan supposed.

~+~

Vegeta-sei disappeared behind him as the automatic doors to the spaceport shut.

A young, sixteen-year-old Juno stood in the midst of a crowd of people, lost amongst the many different shades of armor or cloth that weaved through the crowd, this way and that, like waves in an ocean. He pushed through the people, fighting back tears, holding his satchel close to him.

Slowly, a counter materialized before him with an elderly clerk. The woman looked at the young man with a caring eye—the first one he’d seen in a while—and he smiled up at her, attempting to hide the hurt that plagued him.

“I… I’ve got a ticket,” he stuttered as he walked up to the counter and slowly pulled a ticket out of his pocket. The woman cautiously took it, eyeing him with a slight suspicion. She read the ticket, which gave him adult permission to travel to Mercy-sei. With a wary smile, the maternal clerk slid the ticket into a confirmation machine, and within seconds, the report had returned to her—the ticket was, indeed, valid. “…th-thank you,” he muttered through a cracking throat as she handed the ticket back to him.

“Everything alright, son?” the woman asked kindly, and Juno stopped in mid-turn.

He waited for a second before replying. “…yeah. Everything’s fine.”

She knew he was lying, but what could she do? She watched him walk away, disappearing in between all of the different people that littered the spaceport. He continued to fight back tears. He looked at the ticket, and then let his eyes travel to the signature. The name stung him, and he quickly shoved it back into his pocket and made his way towards his terminal as quickly as he could.

~+~

Why, then, was he all of a sudden so eager for companionship? Sage obviously didn’t want it, and neither had Sophia, but he had pursued them to no end as if there was no other option—and yet, through all those years, he had never dared to think about something like that—like commitment.

Yet, there it was; it had all come back to him when he had met Juliet. A strong-willed girl, one who knew how to live her life and wouldn’t let anyone change it. When Juliet had “died,” Sophia had easily slid into that role. Sage represented the sweeter side of her, the side that was consistently pained with doing what she had to do, but knew the necessity. There was always that moment, he remembered, that he could hold her and she would just… sob endlessly. The salty water of Sage’s tears—back in Olde Town, so many months ago—had led him to that comparison, only expounded upon by her beauty.

Now he had to decide; to interfere or not to interfere? If he didn’t, he might really lose this chance forever. He wanted Sage to think of him as a friend, and friends helped each other, right? They acted like shoulders to cry on… well, then, what type of a friend was he to her?

No, he answered himself; she probably doesn’t want my help anyway. As much as he hated to admit it, Sage probably would’ve been more comfortable if he wasn’t there. He closed his eyes, letting himself rest amongst the ripped, slightly disgusting cloth of the sofa. He felt the weight shift ever so slightly, and he opened his eyes to see Yuffith sitting next to him.

“It’ll be alright,” she assured him, slowly reaching over and placing a hand on his shoulder, “This place makes everyone tense anyway.” He sighed—that much was true. Since he’d been here, everyone had been on edge, including the half-saiyan himself, who normally attempted to be rather casual in situations like this. Should I go talk to her? he wondered idly, and slowly turned and looked toward the door. He was met, however, not with a sight that convinced him he should go after Sage, but one that distracted him almost completely from the blue-haired girl. Almost.

The blonde-haired priestess hadn’t noticed him yet. She looked largely the same as he remembered her from a few rounds ago—the blue dress, the blonde hair cascading down her back, all of it was familiar. And all of it was hot.

“Well, hello, Sophia,” the black-haired boy laughed, standing up.

“Hm?” Sophia replied, turning and seeing the black-haired half-Saiyan. “Oh! Hey, Juno!” She walked towards him, and they shared a slightly awkward hug. Afterwards, they separated, and Juno put his hands behind his back and glanced outside. “So… did you just get here? I didn’t see you at the carnival last time around.”

“I was there,” Juno assured her, almost too prideful. “Well, I’m sure you saw Sage.” Sophia nodded, glancing through the doorway.

“Yeah, we did,” Sophia muttered, and Juno’s interest was caught by the ‘we.’ Seeing his confused expression, the priestess continued, “By ‘we’ I mean Ander and I. He went chasing after her.” She chuckled. “He reminds me a bit of you.”

“He… went after her?” Juno stated, agog. Immediately, he turned on his heel and began to march toward the doorway, but he quickly felt Sophia’s hand clutch his own and pull him back. “What’re you doing?” he fought, but Sophia laughed a bit and caught him around the waist, pulling him in and tossing him onto the couch. Juno, however, was not amused. This… this guy was going to get the chance to comfort Sage like he wanted to comfort her, and he was missing the chance because Sophia told him to stop?

“Now, now,” the priestess smiled, sitting next to Juno on the sofa, “I thought you weren’t going to chase our skirts anymore.”

“Correction,” Juno smirked, “I’m not going to chase your skirt anymore.”

“Well,” the blue-dressed girl counseled, “I’m quite sure his charms won’t overrule yours, Juno. After all, you’re just so irresistible.” Juno scowled; her sarcasm wasn’t exactly welcome in this conversation. Or was she certain about it, and just masking it with sarcasm? He couldn’t tell—maybe she was just trying to appease him. He sighed inwardly; the priestess’s motivations were so hard to tell. He supposed that if the sarcasm was genuinely sarcasm, at least it had done something to lighten the mood.

The pair was silent for a moment as Sophia helped Juno into a sitting position. He glanced furtively toward the door, wondering idly what type of smooth-talking Ander was putting on Sage right now. He remembered what he’d done to Victoria. He wasn’t sure it worked, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t try to impress her.

He had to admit, if Ander hadn’t been targeting the same girl he was, he probably would’ve liked the guy. And to be honest, he hadn’t really been given any reason to dislike him yet, other than the fact that he was—quite obviously—attempting to win some sort of favor, whether it be romantic or not, from Sage. Of course, all of this speculating about Ander’s motives was purely preemptive—the only thing he’d heard of their encounters was the short argument they’d had at the beginning of the competition and Sophia’s recent testimony that the desert thief had gone ‘chasing after her.’ He had to find some way to get out there, but the only way he could do that was if Sophia was on his side.

“You’re sure we shouldn’t go check on her?” he asked, turning to Sophia.

[Sage]

It wasn’t just the Valium, although being confronted about it did shatter any conceptions she had about having been secretive about it. She briefly wondered if Xenia knew, and hadn’t said anything. But it wasn’t like her to be silent about a problem.

But it was everything. The Valium, and Xenia’s outburst, and being trapped in Kill Town, and before that, Dante’s Abyss, and before that, Friend or Foe, and knowing where Sol was, and not knowing what she would do when she found him, and-

“Shh,” a voice interrupted her thoughts while a rough hand squeezed her shoulder. What the hell was she doing, letting Ander get so close to her? He was a thief, and a hostage taker! He exemplified everything selfish and detestable in a person, and yet...

And yet, what? Did he even have any redeeming qualities?

He didn’t murder Kaden when he had the opportunity. Or Sayana. He seemed polite enough, but Sage sometimes wondered if it was genuine or not. He was a thief, right? Maybe it was all just an act.

Maybe his concern for her was all just an act...

No, that didn’t really make sense. He drove her all the way to West City. Almost all the way, anyway, before that robot butler thing kidnapped them. She couldn’t really remember the specifics of how they crashed, though. She must have been sleeping off the booze.

He kept trying to appeal to her self-confidence. ‘You’re not weak.’ ‘You don’t need that.’ ‘Why do you pretend you’re helpless?’ What the fuck do you think you know about me, you goddamn, nosey bastard?!

None of it mattered, though. No matter how much she tried to hate him - or to justify hating him - she was still crying into his shoulder, and gripping his other shoulder as tightly as she could. He wasn’t innocent, but, neither was she. At least he was honest about it.

“It’s...” she managed between sobs, as she desperately tried to calm herself back down. Finally, she was still, save for her trembling. After a moment, she picked her head up off the fabric covering Ander’s shoulder, which was now quite embarrassingly soaked through, and looked up at the man who had confronted her. Glassy, red-rimmed eyes met clear blue ones. She sniffled. “It’s true.”

Ander simply sat in silence, waiting for Sage to continue, but, she didn’t. After the situation finally got awkward enough, he finally sighed. “What’s true?”

“The- the, um... pills. They’re ruining me,” she admitted, her voice hardly above a murmur. Her forehead fell back against Ander’s shoulder. “But... God... I can’t do this anymore...” Sage pulled away from Ander and wrapped her arms around her knees as she drew them into her chest. “I just- don’t- can’t- ...quit.”

“Of course you can qui-”

“No,” she cut him off, emphatically shaking her head before burying her face back in her knees. “If I cut it out, I c-could go crazy. Just... just look at me now. And I’m... only off of it for a couple of days. I can’t- I can’t think, I can’t focus, I don’t know how to feel-”

“But now you actually can feel,” Ander interrupted. It had been a bit of a gamble, but Sage locked eyes with him, her expression one of terrified disorientation. Her eyes drifted away for a moment as she nodded rhythmically, staring off into the distance.

“Yeah... maybe...” Sage conceded. “But it’s all pain. It’s all... bad, and it feels like it’s flooding over me. All... all at once. I took pills to be... numb. It let me relax, to... to- I don’t know- to... be able to feel like I was okay, so I could focus on other stuff-”

“To distract yourself.”

“...Yeah.”

“So, you took Valium so you couldn’t feel bad,” Ander summarized. Sage didn’t respond, but she didn’t refute the claim either. “But could you ever feel good when you were high?”

The question seemed to physically jolt the girl from wherever in her mind she had slunk off to. Again, her eyes fell upon him, full of hesitation and fear. She ground her teeth for a moment. “I... don’t... know.”

It wasn’t the answer that Ander had hoped for, but it was, at least, a step in the right direction. “So why do it?”

“I told you; I use it to take the edge off. To- to- to accept the world for what it is, to be able to deal with it being a horrible place full of horrible people who do horrible things. To be able to ignore all of the pain and suffering and awful-”

“Why?” Ander interjected, before realizing how inappropriate his question must have sounded. “I mean, why does it get to you so much more than other people? Why do you think you need to feel responsible for all of those things?”

“Because it happened to me,” Sage didn’t so much say as she did growl the words. “It... kept reminding me of what happened to me. Those terrible things on the news or on the street... made me think like it would happen again. I had nightmares every night growing up. I still have nightmares. I thought... I thought it would help. It does help,” she paused for a moment. “It did help. Now,” she sighed. “I’m not so sure. But what I do know... what I do know is that... is that I feel better high than I do chasing.”

“So, that makes it okay?” Ander sternly demanded. Sage shook her head and gave him a defeated look.

“Ander, it’s not okay. You’re right, okay? I just don’t know that there’s any alternative.”

“You can quit.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Why not?”

“It just... isn’t,” Sage managed. “I’ve never even told anyone about this before. It’s... hard... to talk about. Can we please... not?”

“Sure, new subject,” Ander agreed, much to Sage’s surprise. Maybe he figured that since it was out in the open, he could pick it up again later. The girl hoped he wouldn’t. “So, what’s with the secrecy? Why did you lie about coming from Vegeta-Sei?”

“That’s...” Sage looked away, hugging her knees tighter. “That’s not something I can... I can tell... you.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a very... dangerous question. My future - mine and my sister’s - depend on nobody finding out.”

“Why?”

“Ander,” she pleaded. Sage knew that eventually, he would press her unrelentingly, until she gave up the information, but she hoped it wouldn’t happen yet. But then, if she told him she was a princess from the future, he would probably just write her off as a crazy person and move on.

But Sage didn’t want Ander to think she was crazy.

“If I told you ‘why,’ it would be too late,” she added.

“You seriously expect me to accept that?” Ander scoffed, offering a playful smile in an attempt to lighten the somber discussion.

“No, but... I’m asking you to,” Sage replied, offering a weak smile of her own. It didn’t really shine through the heavy expression etched on her face, but Ander could see the girl was at least trying. The girl hoped he’d let it go; it was such a far-fetched story even she found it difficult to believe. But, knowing Ander...

[Ander]

“You seriously expect me to accept that?”

“No, but… I’m asking you to…”

Ander studied her face for a moment as he considered those words, seeing her weak attempt at a smile. She wasn’t telling him to drop it, she was asking him, seeking permission, not giving an order.

You’re starting to trust me, aren’t you? Ander realized rhetorically. He didn’t even have to get her drunk this time for the truths to come tumbling out from behind the slowly forming cracks in the thick walls with which she surrounded herself. Once he had trust, he might as well have had a skeleton key to every lock she created against the outside world, and there was nothing he couldn’t do with it. Congratulations; he’d broken an emotionally unstable girl. No matter how pathetic and immoral the achievement, it only furthered his desire for control over the situation, to fill his own head with a sense of superiority and self-security. The more he knew, the more material he had to use against her, and if it came down to it, she’d be unarmed, unable to fight back, because she knew nothing about him. The thief crept closer and closer to the truth, and each forward step only spurred him with more persistence to finally figure this girl out, and perhaps in the process, achieve some kind of personal absolution. She was falling under his thumb and she didn’t even know it. If anything else, it was good practice for the other targets he had set his sights on after he finished with Sage. He had taken to the sadistic art of manipulation all too well.

All Ander had to do was remain detached, keep a separation between personal and professional. She wasn’t his friend; she would be a means to an end, and nothing more. After all, he didn’t need anybody; he was better off alone… right?

Direct questions eventually de-railed an acceptable line of inquiry into her discomfort of further disclosure, but the thief was so tantalizingly close to another secret, he could taste it, and curiosity was not so easily quelled. He changed tactics, abandoning a frontal assault, deciding to appeal to another more tactical angle.

“I bet that’s probably exhausting,” he finally said.

“What is?” she asked.

“Carrying something like that around,” Ander shrugged. “If it’s so dangerous and affects your future, I can’t imagine what it’s like to deal with that alone.”

“But I don’t,” Sage pointed out. “I have my sister.”

Ander had anticipated that counterargument, and easily sidestepped it. “Yeah, but is she here with you, helping you through it? Is she here to talk to you about it?” Classic divide and conquer: sever the tie and put yourself in its place. “Sounds to me like she’s too busy with her problems.”

“That’s not true,” Sage insisted. “She… she helped me a lot, more than anybody else. She- she’s the closest person I have in the entire world.”

The thief quickly abandoned that position, probing for another soft spot along the same vein to inject himself. “I’m just saying, wouldn’t it be so much easier to deal with it if you didn’t have to keep it bottled up all the time? If you didn’t have to… walk around on eggshells, afraid you’re going to slip up at any second. That kind of stuff, it weighs you down.”

The girl looked down, silently contemplating his completely valid point. He leaned his head beneath hers, trying to catch and hold the cryomancer’s gaze. Eye contact was important in maintaining a connection. Before she could avert her line of sight again, he put on his most sincere face.

“I’m only trying to help you, Sage,” he lied softly.

Silence.

“I won’t tell anyone. I promise.” That much was true; why give away your leverage?

She was on the verge of breaking; he could just feel it. Just a little more…

“I…” she started. And then she shut him down, squeezing her eyes closed to avoid his calm yet insistent expression. “I can’t. P-please try to understand.”

He couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought perhaps some kind of pain was palpable on her face. She huddled within herself so tightly. For some odd reason, it reminded him of when he sat in the Anati prison, in the exact same position before he’d finally broken.

“Let me go. Just let me go. I won’t help you… I can’t help you… I have nothing to offer you.”

He hadn’t known it at the time, but his whole life changed on that day. If Judas had just left, just walked away, left him with his humanity, maybe he would be a different person than what he was, and maybe none of this would have happened. And maybe it was the same situation now, only this time Ander was on the other side. Some shred of his conscience spoke faintly, breaking through the self-imposed layers of unsavory permeation, telling him to give her the chance that he never had. Whatever dangers she faced, his interference would only make it worse. In one brief moment of guilt, he allowed his buried better half to shine through. The nomad placed a hand on her shoulder, and gave it a gentle squeeze. The blue-haired hybrid looked up at him, a friendly smile on his face.

“It was nice seeing you again, Sage,” he said. With that, he stood up, brushed himself off, and turned around to go, raising a hand in a brief and casual gesture of good-bye as he started to walk away. In an attempt to make the parting a little more amicable, he added in passing, “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you. Thanks for everything. Have a nice life.”

She stared after him, completely surprised by the sudden and uncharacteristic move and somewhat in disbelief that he was actually leaving. By the phrasing of his parting words, it didn’t sound like he’d be coming back.

Ander kept walking, his steps measured as he approached the corner, knowing that he needed to do this now, in this very second, or his resolve would crumble and he’d revert. And then he heard her voice, and he froze in his tracks.

“Wait!”

His final sentiments must have made her feel guilty, which, ironically, had not been his intention this time.

If you know what’s good for you, you won’t finish that thought… he internally pleaded.

“I didn’t… I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I’m not upset, I’m trying to give you an out, and you’re not taking it. This isn’t going to last forever, Ander thought. He said nothing, keeping his back turned. Just say goodbye.

“I-I…” A pause, and then it finally spilled into the open. “I-I’m a… I’m saiyan royalty, okay?”

Ander arched a brow, and twisted his torso to face her. He considered the ludicrous nature of the statement, and her absolute seriousness almost fooled him for a second into believing such an obvious falsehood. He smiled wryly. “You know, uh, I get it. You don’t want to tell me. You didn’t have to make that up. Like I said, you’re a horrible liar.”

Her face fell, in disappointment at his entirely predictable reaction. “I-I’m n-not lying.”

The thief fully turned around, folding his arms over his chest. “Okay, I’ll play along for a second. If you’re saiyan royalty, what exactly is your title?”

“I’m a princess.”

“Uh-huh. A princess,” Ander repeated cynically. He chuckled, and performed a mock bow. “Well, Your Highness, it’s a pleasure to be in your royal presence.”

Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment, and perhaps a little indignation at not being taken seriously. “D-don’t make fun of me.”

Ander laughed, walking back over. “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m just a little bit skeptical. I mean, do you have any proof?”

“M-my mother is the king there, King Bra. W-what more proof do I need?” she asked, beginning to regret her decision to tell him.

“Okay, I’m going to pretend for a second that you didn’t use ‘king’ and ‘mother’ in the same context,” the thief began. He recollected back to his days of study, trying to summon up the facts from his galactic history courses. “First of all, the current government of the saiyans is the Vegeta Dynasty, and its most recent monarch is Prince Vegeta. I don’t recall any women rulers in the line, sooo, your mother can’t be sitting on the throne.”

“My mother challenged him to the throne and won,” Sage explained simply. “S-she hasn’t been in power very long at this point… I think.”

Ander shrugged, slowly working through his available facts of history. It had been quite a few years – seven, to be exact – since he had studied about outside cultures, leaving a little room for potential error, but most certainly not enough to accommodate her outrageous declaration. “All right, let’s say I buy that. If I remember correctly, Prince Vegeta is the only son of King Vegeta Ou, and Prince Vegeta only fathered two children, Prince Trunks, and Princess Bra. You look like you’re pretty much around my age, so for your claim to be correct, Princess Bra would have to be two or three times as old as what she is now. She’s like, what, twelve? Maybe a little older; I’d say no more than sixteen or so.”

Sage clammed up at that, not daring to refute his logic or risk revealing more than she intended. He was wrong on a couple of counts, namely Bra’s history, but she wasn’t about to call him out on it at this point. Instead, she sunk further and further into her knees, withdrawing.

“I believe you that you’re a saiyan. Not pureblooded, of course, but, y’know, part-saiyan,” the thief continued. He chuckled again, another fact popping into his brain. “Actually, that part’s kinda funny. Prince Vegeta pulled a serious faux pas in saiyan culture and went and married some human, diluting the bloodline.” Ander glanced skyward, trying to remember the exact details. “Oh god, who was it again? I think it was that one woman… uh… the head of Capsule Corporation! Yeah, that’s it. Something… Briefs. Bloomer Briefs? Aw, I don’t remember. She’s from…” He stopped, his face going blank as two puzzle pieces haphazardly joined together to eerily form a cohesive element in Sage’s story. “…West City.”

Sage felt his eyes upon her, and she hesitantly moved her own to meet his.

“Saiyan Royal Academy… and you said your family was in West City,” he stated quietly. “You were drunk… you couldn’t have been lying. You’re… telling me the truth, aren’t you?”

Sage nodded, swallowing.

“But there’s still something missing, something that you’re leaving out that makes the whole picture make sense,” Ander continued. He stared hard. “What are you not telling me?”

[Juno]

“You sure we shouldn’t go check on her?” Juno asked, looking over at the blonde woman on the opposite sofa. She shrugged.

“I guess we could go check on her,” the priestess vacillated, “But I doubt Ander being there is helping her deal with the situation any more than sitting there alone is, anyway. You know how Sage is sometimes.” The ex-fortuneteller nodded; it was a valid point, he supposed, so he relaxed again, sinking back into the couch. Sophia glanced from the doorway to Juno, and suddenly gained a curious glint in her eye.

“You know, Juno,” she prefaced, “There’s something I’ve been wondering. I haven’t been around… well, regular people for too long, and I don’t pretend to think that people in my church are the models of people out here, but there’s something about you that is distinctly different from all the people I’ve met since the temple was attacked.”

Juno’s interest was perked up. He sat up and leaned toward her, raising his eyebrow. “And what might that be?” he chuckled. She smiled, leaning back and—in some futile attempt to be casual—kicking one leg up onto the coffee table in between them. A couple of Yuffith’s magazines slid off from the impact, and she quickly retracted her extension.

“Kaden… Kaden’s not that concerned with the opposite sex,” she blundered, finding no other way to put it than the blunt way, “I mean, I’ve heard him express interest in someone maybe once or twice, if that, in the time that I’ve known him. And that’s a real maybe. You, on the other hand, seem almost… obsessed with girls—err, women. I guess I’m just asking why it’s so important to you. Impressing girls like me, and stuff. Why does it matter to you so much when it doesn’t matter to others as much? I mean, I can understand—”

“I get what you’re saying, Sophia,” he cut her off with a smile, “And… well… that’s a bit of a long story.” The blonde tossed some excess locks of hair off her shoulder and laid back on the sofa.

“It looks like we’ve got all the time in the world,” the girl smirked. Juno bit his lip, keeping a smile on his face, and stood up, walking over to the window and looking out of it. He slowly turned around and leaned on the windowsill, searching for the right words to open this conversation with.

“It’s… really complicated,” he muttered in a last-ditch attempt to stray her from this course, but there was no faulting the blonde, who simply stared at him with a wry smile. “…alright, I guess it wouldn’t hurt. You know I’m part Saiyan, right? Not fully and all, but I’ve got Saiyan blood in me? I think I had a tail last time you were—last time we met.” She nodded, and he continued, “Well, my mom was human, and we used to be servants. In the palace on Vegeta-sei.”

Sophia’s expression quirked a bit, but remained composed; she wasn’t as familiar with foreign locales as he was, he knew, but she seemed to have a good enough knowledge to keep up with him.

“I’m not sure who my dad is,” he continued, “But I know that he’s someone of at least minor importance. Or was. I’m not even sure if he’s still alive.” Sophia’s smile sort of drooped into a sort of frown.

“Alright,” she interjected, slightly awkwardly, “But how does this have anything to do with your obsession with girls like Sage and I?”

“I’m getting to it,” he growled, making sure there was some sarcasm in his voice so that she could tell he was joking. “Well, anyway, my mom… got… she got kil—my mom died. And I was basically tossed out on the street, because the Saiyan elites didn’t want to deal with me, a little half-blooded kid, if they didn’t have to. Not that I blame them, of course. I was a trouble child, always was.”

“I’m sure you were,” Sophia chuckled.

“No, seriously,” Juno smiled, “I… like… got into stuff, climbed on chandeliers, all that crazy crap. I was a real juvenile delinquent!” He grinned, laughing a bit harder than he’d planned to at the memories of the reptilian nurse he and the other child servants had chasing him up and down the walls. “But… anyway, so when I got tossed out onto the street, I got picked up by a street gang. Smalltime stuff, but they were looking to get bigger. Well, turned out that as someone who knew all about the palace and stuff, I was their ticket inside. I knew they were just using me, but… I wanted to feel involved. And then, of course, there was her.”

“Her?” Sophia’s interest was suddenly piqued again. This was the part she’d been waiting for him to get to. Juno smirked, and moved toward the door. He peeked out, but saw no sign of Sage, Ander, or Xenia reentering, so he turned back to the blonde sitting on the couch, and then thought better of it.

“…I’m sure you don’t want to hear about my girl troubles,” he sighed, avoiding pursuing the subject further. The priestess was insistent.

“Juno,” she said, standing up and stopping him before he could sit down on the couch with a hand to his shoulder, “I am your girl troubles.” She raised an accusative eyebrow, and he sighed, nudging her hand off of him and moving back to the window.

“She was the first girl I’d met that I… you know, liked,” he blushed, embarrassed, and turned away from her. He could just imagine Sophia going ‘aww’ in the background, but thankfully she saved him that embarrassment. “She was cute, and she had a dynamite personality. She was strong, and optimistic through troubled times, especially on the outside. On the inside, her skeleton was a lot more fragile than it seemed. I really, really liked her. Like, a lot.” His cheeks flushed blood red, and he leaned as far out of the window as possible without going out of Sophia’s earshot.

“When I was fifteen, we… uh… got together, and had a few secret little dates under her dad’s nose,” he said almost in a whisper, still feeling like it was some secret affair that he couldn’t really talk about, “It was kind of romantic, you know? Romeo and Juliet, that type of thing, you know. ‘Secret Lovers’—like the song.”

Sophia remained silent, and he suddenly remembered that she probably didn’t know the song. She might’ve but he doubted it was something they played at temple dance parties. He continued awkwardly. “Well… uh, let’s just say things got messed up, and now I’m not with her.” He cursed under his breath. Well, that much is obvious, idiot, he scolded himself, and then continued verbally, “So… I guess I’ve been looking for something like that, you know? Something solid. I’ve got real commitment issues, and I think that part of it is this whole ‘perfect girl’ thing I’ve got going on… I’ve really got to lower my standards.”

“So why have you so actively pursued Sage and I rather than others?” Sophia asked earnestly, having gotten kind of genuinely interested. Juno could tell she wasn’t happened that he cut it off, but he was thankful she respected him enough not to ask… yet.

“You guys… you remember how I said she was strong, but fragile on the inside?” he asked, and Sophia nodded, thinking back to that earlier bit of the conversation, “Well, when I met Sage, I saw that need for comfort that always radiated from… uh, her while I was with her, y’know, so I just pounced on it. It was something I could identify with, especially in such a hostile setting as Friend or Foe. And then… when we played Rosemary’s Game…”

“I said foe,” Sophia completed his thought, “I’m the strong part.”

“…yeah,” Juno nodded, “You’re… you’re the strong part.”

There was a short silence that set over the two as they both realized this at sort of the same time. The ex-fortuneteller had never really thought about it before, not like this, at least. He sighed, and sat down next to Sophia. She looked from the wall to him.

“Well,” she started, attempting to rejuvenate the conversation, “…thank you. I guess. I’m not sure if I’m as strong as you think I am, but—”

“I’m not wrong, Sophia,” Juno stated matter-of-factly, looking at her, his eyes melding her image with hers. He shook his head, thrusting the image to the back of his mind, and then forced a smile back onto his face. “But that’s not important. I’m not interested in being your… boyfriend, or whatever it’s called nowadays. I just want to be your friend, I guess. I think that’ll satisfy my need for nostalgia.” He laughed a bit to try to alleviate the somber mood that had taken over.

Sophia pulled a smile onto her face, as well. “Alright,” she nodded, “Friend.” She stuck a hand out, and Juno smiled meekly—for what felt like the first time in a long time—as he grasped it and shook it.

“So… you’ve only had that one girlfriend?” Sophia dared to ask one more question as she released his hand, “Like, nothing in regular school or life or anything? No prom date or anything? I’ve been led to believe that’s what you did in regular high schools.” Juno laughed a bit; they really didn’t know each other that well.

“I didn’t actually go to ‘regular high school,’” he told her, “But that’s another story for another time. To answer your question, no, I never had a prom date, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to bust a move.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Sophia smirked, “Us social outcasts generally don’t know how to dance that well. I was kind of forced to evaluate my own dancing chops last time I was at the carnival.” She laughed, remembered the brief encounter with Victoria, and Juno scoffed, standing up and heading over to a stereo on the end table at the end of the sofa. He punched the play button, not knowing exactly what would play.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl…

“Copacabana!” he shouted in a Spanish accent, rather melodramatically, he might add, and he quickly stuck a hand out to Sophia, opening up his palm. “May I have this dance, mi amiga?”

[Sage]

What are you not telling me?

Sage buried her face in her knees. She could have laughed, if she didn’t feel so horrible. Laughed at the absurdity of it all. Oh, not much, Ander, just that my mom’s age suddenly hyper accelerated, and her existence would have destroyed the universe if my sister and I didn’t come back in time with a magician to fix it, before getting stuck here. Oh, yeah, did I forget that Xenia killed him, so we’re stuck here, now?

“You wouldn’t believe it anyway,” Sage managed. At that, Ander plopped down on the grass beside her, an elbow propped on his knee.

“You can’t think I would back down now,” Ander retorted, his voice hard. “You just admitted you’re a member of royalty and now you won’t clear this up?” he sounded incredulous. “What? Are you illegitimate or something? How old’s your dad? Did he have kids before he met your mom? Is he-”

“Ander!”

“Yeah, okay...” he raised a palm up and shook his head. “That was a little insensitive,” the dark haired man admitted. “But if it’s not any of those things, could it possibly be any worse?”

Sage sighed, and pinched her nose, shaking her head. “It’s... it’s insane.”

“I’ve heard a lot of crazy stuff. Give it a shot,” Ander hesitated for a moment. “Listen, Sage, you haven't told your sister - the closest person in your world - about the Valium, and yet you told me. Does that sound like something you’d tell someone you couldn’t trust?”

“No...”

“So, what? Have you changed your mind about me?”

Ander winced ever so slightly as he caught sight of snowflakes flitting about all around him. It was getting very cold, very fast. Sage was getting nervous. Even more nervous than when he’d pushed her about her last revelation. Maybe there really was something to her current stubbornness.

“N-No...”

The storm was getting worse. The wind picked up and lashed out at Ander. His hair began to flutter dramatically, and he cringed as a freezing blast ripped through his clothing as though it wasn’t even there. Sage, of course, didn’t notice, having hidden her face in her knees.

“W-Well- then- you- know- you c-can-” the desert dweller curled up and hugged himself against the cold, grunting his disapproval. Ice was rapidly creeping along the walls, and snow had already buried the grass all around them. Spears of ice burst from the earth, and the windows of Yuffith’s mansion began to crack or shatter under the stress of the enormous drop in temperature as Sage’s arctic wrath gripped the desert oasis.

By now, the snow storm had gotten so intense, that Ander could hardly see the girl sitting next to him through the haze. If the soft-spoken girl had said anything, it wouldn’t have made it over the howl of the wind.

It was Ander’s turn to begin shaking uncontrollably, only, unlike Sage, his reaction was violent. He had been at home in the intense heat that had plagued the girl, but found himself chattering his teeth and losing feeling in his hands and feet as it kept getting colder, and colder.

“S-Sage, could you-” the raven haired boy squeaked, but failed to catch the girl’s notice. Her head was still firmly buried in her knees. Ander held himself tighter, hoping to wait out Sage’s storm. As soon as she calmed down, he knew, the cold would dissipate, and then he would be fine.

Except that he keeled over, and fell onto the crystal haired addict, who yelped in surprise as a freezing nomad fell onto her knees. “A-Ander?! Oh my G-!!” Almost instantly, Sage realized what was going on. In the next instant, the furious snowstorm died away, as if it had never begun.

The only evidence was a freezing, wide-eyed, borderline delirious man with blue lips and red cheeks who fervently shuddered against her. “Oh my God, I-I-I’m so sorry!!” the girl exclaimed. Not knowing what else to do, Sage wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight, pinning his arms to his sides, in the hope that he’d receive enough body heat to keep conscious. She was a doctor, after all.

The snow and ice that had ravaged the oasis lingered, glittering in the suddenly unobstructed sunshine. It would remain for an hour or two - an unusual trait of Sage’s own brand of obnoxiously tenacious ice. The cold, however, rapidly faded, and the temperature shot back toward where it should be - which was, for Sage, intolerably hot.

Still, she didn’t have time to worry about the temperature, as Ander continued to shake like a leaf. She frowned; she hadn’t expect him to react that badly. How cold had it gotten? How hot was it when she started changing the weather?

Sage’s hands began to glow as she held the freezing nomad, and she closed her eyes as she felt her life force drift from herself into Ander. She watched as his blood suddenly burst back into the arteries it had been cut off from by the cold. Quickly, his shaking subsided into more gentle shivering, and soon, he was able to open his eyes.

It was just in time, too, as the roles suddenly reversed themselves, and Sage toppled toward him, falling onto the same shoulder she had been crying on earlier. Ander cleared his throat, and took a minute to compose himself as his eyes roved over the winter wonderland the little blue haired girl had created in just a couple of minutes.

“This is really a hard subject for you, huh?” Ander cracked an ironic grin, ever the persistent one. He shifted the exhausted Sage’s weight so he could lean against the building more comfortably. “Healing people really takes it out of you... why do you do it?”

“Mm... do what?” the girl inquired, looking up at Ander with half-closed eyelids. “What did I do?”

“...Healing people,” the nomad persisted, slightly annoyed that he had sidetracked his own line of questioning. “What makes you do it if you know it’s so hard on you?”

“It’s... not hard,” Sage mumbled, shifting into a more comfortable sleeping position against Ander, and almost entirely screwing up the work he’d just done to make himself more comfortable. “It makes me tired but... that’s no big deal.”

“It exhausts you, how can you say it’s no big deal?”

“It isn’t. I feel really bad for a little bit, and then... I sleep. I can’t... can’t usually sleep anyway, so it’s not so bad... and I get to help people. I mean... I helped people when I was a doctor, too, but... this is so much... more...” Sage began to drift off, but Ander gently shook her, trying to keep her awake.

“What about the ice?”

“Mm? Ice is... easier. I don’t know... it’s... different. It’s like-”

“No, I mean, when you get stressed, you make an ice storm. Can’t you control that through training?” Ander inquired.

“Well... yeah, I guess. I haven’t really been training for, like, seven years, though,” Sage confessed. Ander, however, nearly recoiled.

“What do you mean, you haven’t been training? You’re telling me that your powers just come naturally to you, or something?” he retorted with a chuckle.

“Yeah, pretty much,” the girl murmured, matter-of-factly. Half-dozing, she hadn’t realized how blunt she had been, or how white Ander’s face had become. The girl never considered how hard some other people might have had to work for their strengths.

“...I-” the bandit rubbed his eyes for a moment, but decided not to voice what he was thinking. “Changed your mind about telling me the whole story yet?” he inquired, at the risk of being buried under the wrath of another blizzard.

Sage pushed off of him, wavered, and then fell back against him. She grunted her frustration. “You’re really not going to let this go?”

“No, probably not,” Ander replied.

“Even though I really want you to?”

“Even though you really want me to.”

Sage sighed at length. “It’s... going to sound... totally... totally insane.”

“Alright.”

“No, I mean, like... totally insane.”

“Okay, I understand.”

“I don’t think you do,” Sage muttered, but she continued. “My mom experienced some kind of... event... when she was twelve or thirteen. It... involved a tear in space and time that jumped her ahead. Basically, she aged five years instantly. I don’t think I ever understood what exactly happened,” the girl paused for a moment, expecting Ander to voice his disbelief. He was silent. “Her... her... existence... I guess... in her altered state... turned out to mess with the timeline... or something- I really don’t understand this myself, so if I-”

“You’re doing fine,” Ander insisted. “Stop second-guessing yourself.”

“Okay... basically... because she skipped ahead so many years, she didn’t do a bunch of stuff she was... supposed to do? Or did stuff she wasn’t supposed to- I’m not sure. Anyway, it made the tear bigger - or worse, or... whatever - and Grimshaw came-”

“Who?”

“He’s... a really, really powerful mage. He was my mom’s mentor for a while. He taught her how to fight with shadow magic, and taught her to change her shape, and some other stuff,” Sage explained, her enthusiasm rising as she began to come out of her stupor. “He was responsible for the tear, he said. It was an accident, but I can’t remember why it was his fault. But, he came to get us... from...”

“From...?” Ander prodded.

“No, I really shouldn’t say anything more,” Sage declared, and began to push herself off Ander. He grabbed her forearm, though, and prevented her lethargic escape. “I t-told you, it’s... dangerous.”

“You’ve come this far, Sage,” Ander retorted. “You can’t leave me hanging here.”

The girl frowned. “Why do you want to know so badly?” she protested. “Why does this matter so much to you?”

“Because, maybe I could help you,” he replied. He wasn’t doing it to help her, but it wasn’t really a lie, either. It was totally possible he could help her somehow if he had the information, regardless of wether or not he intended to.

“It’s going to-”

“Sound crazy, I got that.”

Reluctantly, Sage let herself fall back against Ander, her head still swimming from her recent healing effort. “Grimshaw traveled through time, and convinced my sister and I to come back with him to help restore the timeline.”

“...What?”

“I t-told you, it-”

“No,” Ander cut her off. “It’s just- you’re from the future?”

“I... yes,” Sage sighed. “I’m from twenty years from now. Grimshaw took us back to help find the tear, and to close it, and to convince my mom to, uh... have... us... so it... wouldn’t come back. Apparently her... not being a mom was the last... divergent part of her timeline.”

“You...”

“Then Grimshaw... died. He was... old,” Sage explained, conveniently leaving out the fact that Xenia murdered him. “He- he was our... only way back. So... I’m... we’re... stuck... here, um... now.”

Ander blinked in stunned silence.

“I told you...” the girl shook her head. She tried to push herself off of the sand person again, frustrated at her inability to get up. “You must think I’m crazy...”

“No, I...” he began, but drifted off.

“I wasn’t supposed to say anything; nobody’s supposed to know. Grimshaw said it might... change... things,” Sage explained. “I don’t, you don’t-”

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” he insisted, though his voice sounded entirely non-committal. Sage couldn’t blame him; if he told her the same thing, she wouldn’t believe it.

“And that’s... that’s something nobody but Xenia knows...”

[Ander]

This girl was out of her fucking mind.

Of course he thought she was crazy; what sane person wouldn’t? Ander would have had trouble believing that story from somebody completely lucid, much less an emotional roller-coaster of a woman who spent more time “being high than chasing.” In his right and logical mind, he could only presume the story as an inevitable fabrication of her drug addled brain, a cover-up for the more likely explanation of being an illegitimate offspring. As it was, he had difficulty swallowing the account of her as royalty, as much as his reasoning skills insisted it as truth. Ultimately, it potentially simply boiled down to the fact that he had trouble trusting anyone, no matter what came out of their mouths or how completely convinced they seemed of their own rationalizations. At the very least, she maintained enough sanity to understand and predict his completely and utterly justifiable reaction.

“…say something,” Sage prompted.

Ander realized he had gone totally quiet at the most awkward possible moment in the conversation. “What would you like me to say?”

The doctor shifted slightly against him. “I don’t know… anything…”

He closed his eyes, mind searching for something that wouldn’t push her away. “I won’t tell anybody… not about Sol, not about your bloodline, not about… this. Not even to your sister, although that’s probably not a problem since I haven’t even met her yet.”

Because something tells me that’s not going to turn out well…

“…thank you.”

The thief resumed his silence; he needed time to think, to process everything and give the situation a second look, but unfortunately she likely required assurance and security, something he couldn’t exactly provide at the moment after being completely blindsided by her unexpected revelation. His verbal insistences that he didn’t think her crazy even sounded lame to him. Fortunately, an idea popped into his head, something that would give them both what they needed at the moment.

“Hey, how about you take a nap?” Ander suggested.

She murmured a little, a noise of uncertainty. Sage couldn’t really deny that her efforts at healing left her exhausted and in need of rest, but she had a feeling sleep wouldn’t come easily – if at all – with the subject weighing so heavily on her mind.

“Come on, I know you’re tired,” he insisted. He chuckled, and added, “You can’t even get up.”

As if to prove him wrong, she made another valiant attempt to push off of him, and he didn’t try to stop her, his point confirmed not a second later as she weakly collapsed as she had every time before. The woman groaned in irritation, which only prompted another laugh from the nomad.

“See? You’re stuck with me anyway,” he joked.

Sage sighed, relenting. She was far too tired to protest; he’d already broken her down twice now. “O-okay.”

Ander couldn’t suppress a discomfited fidget or two as she adjusted herself against his shoulder for a more comfortable sleeping position, and he pointedly looked in the opposite direction almost as if it made the situation easier. After all, today had been a pretty large breach in slowly acclimating to personal boundaries, and he had to imagine that she felt much the same.

“I-if I do something again… like before, with the ice… just… wake me up, okay?” Sage instructed drowsily.

Ander smiled wryly. “You can count on that one.”

He waited a few minutes, hearing an audible change in her breathing patterns and heartbeat, indicating that she had drifted off into slumber, however fitful it would prove to be.

That was another thing to contend with, and he had barely – yet successfully – suppressed his resentment at the time. For seven long years, he had trained doggedly until his body bruised and broke, until it painfully smashed into the brick wall of his limitations over and over again. And for all he had to show for it, she could summon an entire blizzard in seconds without even thinking about it, without even realizing she was doing it. Such a raw and incredible power, and it still completely dwarfed his own. It made him angry just thinking about what it would be like if she actually tried. In mere moments, she had almost taken his life… again, and he had been completely and pathetically defenseless. In fact, she even had the nerve to heal him again, like he was some kind of helpless infant, and of course, that only served to confuse him further. Did she enjoy sending him to the edge of life and pulling him back again like a yo-yo, like nothing more than a child’s plaything? Why? Why? Why did she do it, when again, there had been no reason. He pushed her, bullied her, backed her into a corner, and still she gave up her own energy to save him.

Without a conscious awareness of it, he had clumped a fistful of dirt into a clenched hand, squeezing it mercilessly through his tensed fingertips. Ander didn’t need her pity, and the only solution was that he would just have to become stronger than her; this incident only drove him maddeningly further into the need for power, for the strength to stand proudly. For the moment, even being in Sage’s presence was akin to holding a wild flame in one’s bare hands: the slightest error in manipulation, and he’d be consumed by his own careless mistakes.

The dune dweller sighed. He had already known she outclassed him in the art of energy crafting, and supposed that it came secondary to the problem at hand, which was her potential psychosis. Ander turned their conversation over and over in his mind like a rotisserie, giving each sentence of speech equal consideration. In the end, what did it matter if she was crazy? What did it hurt? If he hadn’t learned by now that the smartest thing for him was just to run in the opposite direction as far as he could, it wouldn’t make any difference now. If he played along, cozied up to her insecurity and presented himself as a supporter in her corner, there would be nothing left of her resistance to his machinations. After all, she either completely trusted him by now, or was having a really good joke at his expense. Sage had said that this revelation meant danger, and he could only surmise that she could accidentally prevent herself from being born, or somehow erase her own existence. That would be a pretty big reason not to tell anyone.

Then an entirely different notion floated into his stream of thought. If she was from the future, that meant she knew about things that hadn’t yet happened…

A crooked smile formed on his lips. Such information would be invaluable in the right hands… give somebody an edge that nobody else had. Maybe there was something he could get out of the situation after all, if it only proved to be true, of course. The smile melted. What he needed was some kind of assurance, some shred of prove that corroborated this little tale. And the only way to do that was…

“Hey, Sage,” Ander said suddenly, shaking her awake.

“Hmm?” she mumbled sleepily, eyelids dredging heavily open.

“Would you take me to Vegeta-sei?” Ander asked.

“Huh?” the girl wondered, rubbing an eye with the back of her hand.

“It doesn’t have to be right away – I mean, we are kind of stuck here – but, you know, someday?” the thief pressed. And then, for perhaps the first time since his accidental slip on the way to Akiha’s Shrine, Ander revealed an honest truth about himself, however simple and innocuous. “I’ve always wanted to visit other planets. Namek, Vegeta, Arlia… learn about their cultures and stuff. I figured, since I already want to go there, that you could take me, and, I could meet your family. Y’know, your mom and stuff. Kind of like, seeing your side of things, and then maybe I could figure out a way to help you with your time… problem… thing. What do you say?”

[Celena]

The event that had transpired fifteen minutes earlier had been running through her mind ever since she had teleported to the most isolated and quiet place she could think of, the classroom which had been used for her most recent event. As she predicted, the room was empty. She had opened all of the windows to prevent the room from being stuffy in order to think clearly and try to come up with a logical explanation behind her hallucinations, but she had been unable to come up with anything. She was determined to find and answer and would continue sitting on the teachers table until she did, or was transported to a new location for an upcoming event.

“It’s rude to sit on a teacher’s desk.”

“Huh,” was the young woman’s instinctive reply after being interrupted from her thoughts. She hopped off the desk and spun around to see a boy sitting in the chair behind the desk. He had his arms on the black chairs arms and his head rested backwards, his posture, imitating that of a confident teacher, or a mafia boss. He was a Caucasian with red hair and green eyes, wearing an opened up white jacket which also revealed his white vest.

“Who are you?”

“Only the creator of Kill Town.”

“Gamer!”

“Who else?”

“That wasn’t a guess,” she frowned. “But why are you here? Why now? Alone?”

“Yeah, I’m here alone; you don’t have to worry about any robots appearing through portals.” He leaned forward. “I’m curious though. Anyone else would have attacked me by now, why haven’t you?”

“Because I’m not like anyone else, and because I know you’re too smart to leave yourself vulnerable, either that or you’re as tough as Magnus.”

“You could just take a chance and attack me now.”

She had nothing to lose.

Less than a second later, a fist came at him, piercing through his face and through the whiteboard, which displayed ‘SILENCE!’ in black ink. A dent appeared in the board as she retracted her left handed fist.

“I didn’t hit you.” She turned around to find the same red headed boy in his seat. Without turning he laughed. Either he had evaded her attack faster than the eye could see or... “Phasing.”

“You know your stuff, but then again, you’re a talented scientist, but that had nothing to do with phasing.”

“Then...” She planted her right hand on his head and it went through it. “A hologram.” She chuckled. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You reek of pussy. I bet that’s not even the real you. You’re hiding your real identity aren’t you?”

He spun around in anger. “So what that I am?! And who are you calling a pussy?!”

“A hologram; hiding behind a fake identity; that qualifies as being a pussy.”

“Pussy?! I own this game, bitch! I can make anything happen!” His blood pressure dropped and a smile appeared on this face. “Who do you think gave Magnus power? He was a nobody until I literally gave him a boost.”

“I can make anything happen.”

It suddenly made sense.

“It was you.”

“Me that did what?”

“You caused my hallucinations. You dug into my past and used it against me.” She clapped, applauding his handiwork. “If you were trying to throw me off my game, it worked.”

“That’s right, it worked. You prisoners bore me, especially you Xenia. I was bored with you being so composed all the time, so I decided to fuck with your mind, make you do something irrational. I must admit though, it was easier than I thought it would be.”

“Bravo, nice, but I get the feeling you didn’t come here just to tell me you’ve been fucking with my mind.”

“That’s right, I didn’t. There’s more, but first I want to know the kind of relationship you have with your sister.”

“Why are you asking me that? It’s not like you can’t just extract that information from my mind.”

“I wanted to hear an answer straight from the horse’s mouth.”

“We’re very close, as close as twins can be. We’ve been through a lot together and I’ve always been there for her and I know she’d protect me if she could.”

“And I suppose as twins you tell each other everything; there’s nothing you keep from one another.”

“Yes.”

“It’s a pity and ironic too.” Xenia folded her arms as the boy disguised as Gamer spun around. “You’re so sure, yet so ignorant to the truth.”

“Are you trying to tell me there’s something my sisters hiding from me? Yeah right.”

“I know everything about you and Sage. Believe me when I say she’s hiding something.”

“Oh, and what is she hiding from me?” Xenia smiled. He had to be bluffing, but there was no harm in listening to him fib.

“Before I tell you, I’m going to need you to do something for me.”

“Anything, oh anything Gamer,” she replied, moving her body mockingly.

“Give me a drum roll.”

“Drum roll? You’re kidding?”

“Yes, there’s no drum around; just be creative.”

“Stop being silly and just tell me.”

“Man, you saiyans are so impatient.”

“Yes, we are.”

“Fair enough. For seven years now your sister has been hiding something from you.”

“Seven years.” Xenia laughed.

Seven years.

Her smile faded.

Seven years ago was about the time of that tragic incident.

Her heart suddenly pumped at a faster rate, getting faster with anticipation.

“That’s right, after your sister was raped, you did your best to comfort her, but there was something she found more comforting.”

The only sound that could be heard now was the ticking of the rooms round clock.

“Valium.”

“What?”

“She’s been taking valium behind your back for the past seven years.”

“That’s rubbish; valium is an antidepre...”

“Ding.”

Antidepressants...to relief herself from the emotional pain.

“No, she would have told me; she wouldn’t have kept this from me. I’m the only one who knows what she’s going through. I’m the only one who understands! She has me... she doesn’t need valium! It’s just not possible!”

“That’s not all.”

She tightened her face, trying to suppress her anger.

“There is one person who knows, someone she told.”

She shook her head in denial.

Gamer clicked his fingers and the white projector on the table turned on.

“You’re sick Gamer, sick. You’d go this far to try and fuck with me.”

“Look behind you.”

Xenia spun around to view an image of a man on the whiteboard. He appeared as a middle eastern with his blue and orange turban and Arabic clothes. He also had striking blue eyes and a fine face that looked in its early twenties.

“Who is he?”

“His name is Ander. He is the person who knows about your sister’s addiction to valium, but that’s not all.”

Xenia was seething now.

“Sage also let slip the biggest secret of all.”

A shiver ran down her spine as she shook her head subconsciously.

She didn’t. She wouldn’t.

“Yes she did. Ander knows. She told him about the secret you swore the two of you would keep between yourselves, that you’re-”

“No! No! NO!”

“Ander knows you two are from the future. I have CCTV cameras all over the mansion. I hear... everything.”

Her hands slid through her hair while she began breathing uncontrollable, eyes widening, making her appear psychotic which brought a smile on Gamers’ face. His work was done. Glancing at his watch, he realised how quickly time had flown by, but every minute he had spent on the princess was golden; he regretted none of it. “Well, look at the time. I’ve got to get the next batch of events ready. Have fun.” She glanced up at him almost as quick as a snake striking its victim, to view the hologram of the red haired boy fade.

“Gamer!” she growled, pounding her fists on the desk, head dipping towards the desk while she gritted her teeth.

This can’t be true; any of it.

====

“You take the cake when it comes to evil, you know that right?” said Magnus, who had watched the whole thing, to the real Keith Summers.

“I know.”

“But I’ve got to hand it to you; the game just got a whole lot more interesting. I’m eager to see how the next event will pan out, especially with Xenia’s current state of mind.”

“I know.”