[02] Forest Sector

[DA 2009]

FOREST SECTOR

Time Of Day: Night

Bunker: Active

Starting Players: Vad, Mal Nova, Piper, Tamsin, Sage, Sophia, Xenia

[Kaden]

It seemed fitting that night seemed to fall as Kaden made his way into the Forest Sector. It was as though the courier had crossed some magically threshold. Time seemed to have no impact on the time of day in Dante’s Abyss. Once again, Damon showed that he was the one in control, and there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it. Even nature was forced to play along with his fucked up little game.

As the courier drudged through the trees, he came across clearings that showed signs of battle. Splintered branches, scorched trees, at one point, he even thought he saw icicles dangling from a nearby branch. It seemed he and Ashe hadn’t been the only ones thrown into battle. Not that the thought made Kaden feel much better.

Several times, the courier stopped to consult his map. He knew he was moving south, but beyond that, the map wasn’t particularly helpful. Normally he would have been able to figure out where he had been by using the City Sector as a landmark. Randomly being teleported around, however, made cartography significantly more difficult.

Kaden tried to recreate what he knew about the City Sector and the area surrounding its bunker. Kaden, Sophia, Sage, and Ashe had ended up walking over a decent stretch of the city before coming upon the bunker, and the courier had no recognized a single thing as he made his way to the Forest Sector. It seemed reasonable to guess that he had been to the west of the City’s bunker.

If other people had been using the Forest bunker, which seemed likely given the signs of fighting he had come up, it should be easy to tell when he was nearing his intended destination. Broken branches, crushed plants, footprints… those were the things people always looked for in the movies. Why wouldn’t it work for a courier who had absolutely no experience tracking anything?

Fortunately, someone up above decided to give the courier a well-deserved break. Kind of.

Instead of paying attention to where he had been going, Kaden thought it had been a good idea to pay more attention to digging through the bag hanging at his side. Catching his foot on an overly ambitious tree root, the courier literally stumbled into the Forest bunker.

Kaden enters the Forest Sector bunker

[Mal Nova]

He snarled, relieving his own stress and attempting to ignore the his own mistake. He could have killed her, but he messed up. He let out another snarl, but checked himself as he did it. His anger had blinded him of much but he knew he was wounded, and he smelled another's blood.

The fast look at the area tlet him know or assume where he was. The 'moss clad tree's' told him he was north of of the bunker he had went off to protect, and had met up with Tamsin.. He did, though, pick up the scent of his odd clothed friend and swiftly went south. She was still alive, he knew. But she had been injured, and he felt the pain of guilt for it. He knew it was going to happen, but he had to see that she still lived.

---

He hadn't even went half an hour before she stumbled into view. He wasn't surprised to see her, but his visage did show shock and awe. His original glance of er in the night, let him know she still lived and he wanted to smile, and be thankful. But it was impossible for the Imperfect Namek to do so. She had a shiner, a purple mark that outlined her eye clearly and her outfit was matted with with her own life force.

He knew she had been in a fight, knew it was inevitable. But he didn't expect her to look so bad off. She limped towards him, a smile on her face, pleased like a damned fool that she had done her job. Nova had to wonder if she had won, then who she had killed.

Her eyes revealed she hadn't killed, and it was confronting, but it made him wonder. Did she win? Or did she lose? She still gave breath, but was she fine? He looked at her, glad she kept her promise. He'd make her promise it again, but this time, she'd Have to not take such inflictions

His nose told them he had to go, "Hop on!" He demanded. She let loose a confused gasp, but didn't say a word as he collected her body beneath his arm. He kicked off, not giving a damned,and flew off, wanting to be free of the area as soon as possible. It was too stagnant of war and he saw the marks of battle. Both had suffered injuries, and he just had to leave.

[Sage]

“I…wasn’t…supposed to die…” the changeling managed, choking on the blood that spilled from his lips. The purple fluid splattered onto Sage’s face, and she cringed, her hyperactive imagination quickly racing through all of the horrible things that could be contained in that blood. With a shuddering push, she managed to force the dying alien away from her. She winced at the breaking-glass sound the ice made as it broke. The changeling thudded against the ground, his eyes glazed and distant.

Finally, Sage managed to sit up, and she quickly slid back up against a tree, before drawing her knees in and hugging them tight against her chest with one arm, while the other covered her mouth, as agonized eyes watched the last breaths of the changeling who had attacked her fade away.

Flecks of purple blood marred her face, her clothes, and her hair. Blood shed by her hand.

- - - - -

Blood had splattered onto Sage’s hair and shoulders, onto the floor. Onto Aurelius’ chest. It oozed all over his face. The girl began to shake, mortified at the gruesome scene as the red fluid found itself all over the room. There was so much of it.

So much blood.

Aurelius had become a super saiyan, and had attacked her. Desperately, the thirteen-year-old Sage had plunged a stake of frost into his eye, forcing him to release her from the choke hold he had put her in.

Enraged, he lashed out at her, and the punch the immensely powerful man delivered knocked her out. He didn’t kill her, despite his rage, despite his want for revenge. He had made a deal, and killing his target wasn’t going to help with very much.

Aurelius, the man who had been charged with protecting the lives of Sage and her sister, scooped up the blue haired girl and at the push of a button, he and Sage vanished, before he casually strolled out of the bloodstained bedroom.

- - - - -

“N-No,” she murmured, shaking her head. “No more...”

Her eyes flicked up, and her heart sank when she saw that the changeling was still there, and was, in fact, dead. Just a contest, it isn’t real, she reminded herself. Just a contest, it isn’t real.

Sage was beginning to understand why her mother’s reactions during previous tournaments seemed so powerful. Even though she knew everything was fake, it was hard to separate fiction from reality. Everything looked so real. It felt, and smelled, and breathed like the real world. The distinct possibility that they were being lied to, and that Sage had, in fact, just murdered a man she had never met, seemed more plausible every time she went over it in her mind.

She shook her head again. She had been staring for several minutes. It wasn’t real, and yet, she was languishing like she had when she had actually taken a man’s life. That was real. She had shot him in the back. She could have just crippled him, but he had attacked her sister - who was more than capable of defending herself, Sage angrily recalled - and she pulled the trigger, thrusting a round of energy into his spine.

Images of his death, and the deaths of those Vad had killed during her journey with him, spilled into her consciousness. Those men may as well have died at her hand, too. Oh, Vad had killed them, not her, but she had stood by and done nothing while he slashed and hacked them to pieces, painting the trees and the walls with their blood. She protested, once. It wasn’t in earnest.

The monsters she murdered on Mercy, she didn’t feel guilty about. They were deranged, bloodthirsty things. But she had waited, allowing them to ravage the people living in that city. Tens of thousands, at least, killed because she and the others failed to intervene. The worst thing was that she had been used to help release those aberrations. The very thought left the girl feeling... hollow. Filthy, like she had when...

Sage closed her eyes, and gingerly placed her chin on her knees. The changeling wasn’t dead. She breathed a calming breath, and her shaking lessened. This contest was not real. The deaths were not real.

But the pain was. Sage looked at the frigid spears in the alien’s stomach, and felt cold waves of sorrow wash over her. She would have to keep going, to stop Sol. It was just as much about revenge as it was for the safety of others like her. Sol was a monster, and he had to be stopped. She would try next time to be merciful, and to end the fight as quickly as she was able.

But... she felt as though her humanity began to crumble away as the thought spilled out. ...A few minutes of pain was an acceptable risk, if it brought her to Sol. Sage just hoped she wouldn’t lose herself in this.

It was justified. Sage couldn’t help but feel the nagging at the back of her head, as it wondered wether she was affirming this truth, or if she was just lying to herself. Breathe. She just hoped her friends were okay.

The hybrid pushed herself to her feet, and decided she would have to get to the bunker. Now that she had come this far, it would be horrible to throw it all away. The thought that a hidden, darker self would pull her away returned, but Sage aggressively blocked it out. Breathe.

Picking up her pack, she slung it over her shoulder, and made to leave, but found herself turning back to the corpse of the changeling. His blood glistened against his ivory skin, but at least... at least he looked very... peaceful.

“I, um,” Sage began, her eyes roving over the damage she had done to this poor man. “I... am sorry. I hope you entered this contest on your own - th-that you weren’t tricked - and that you knew what could happen. I,” her voice cracked, but she shed no tears, fighting them back from the verge. “...Sorry.”

The blue haired girl trudged into the brush, leaving the clearing behind, as light fittingly pierced the canopy, coming down in magnificent rays, to rest upon the frame of the one who had fallen there.

As the girl left, the leaves of the trees around her curled and withered as vicious arctic blasts carried with them a blanket of snow, and a dazzling winter wonderland trailed behind the girl as she went, the flakes obscuring the world behind her.

- - - - -

It took a long time for Sage to get her bearings - she was no good with maps. But once she did, she found herself very close to the bunker. At least it would be one less thing to worry about. She just hoped there would be noone there when she arrived. The quarter saiyan would have to steel herself for conflict, but she just wasn’t prepared for another one so soon.

At least one mercy punctuated the otherwise cruel day. A dull, grey pillbox loomed on the horizon. She made for it, freezing and killing the plant life around her as she went. It was as though someone had literally painted a line of winter across a landscape of spring.

Sage stopped at the edge of the clearing, and closed her eyes. She took in a deep breath, held it, and then, as slow as she could, she exhaled, letting her muscles relax as she did. The ferocity of the snowstorm visibly eased, and the howling wind abated. The crystal haired addict practiced her breathing exercises a few more times, until only gentle flakes flitted about her. If there was someone in the bunker already, she didn’t want to assault them with a blizzard when she walked in.

Stepping out of her very own slice of winter and onto dry ground, Sage hurried across the clearing, fearful she would be forced into another conflict. Thankfully, the girl burst through the door, and then pushed it shut behind her. She had made it.

Turning back into the room, the girl found herself surprised to find Kaden there, seated atop one of the spartan beds that had been bolted to the wall adjacent to her. He was sitting up, an elbow on his knee, slumped against the wall. He glanced over at her, and then back at the wall opposite him.

Sage understood. The anguish in his face spoke more to her than anything he said could have. Instead of breaking the silence, she simply dropped her bag to the floor and slumped against the wall opposite Kaden, making sure to be off to the side, so that she wouldn’t be directly in his field of vision. She stared at the wall next to the courier, tracing up and down the fading white paint with her eyes.

He must have been suffering, too. He seemed like a kind man. A strange man, who found very strange things funny - her time spent with him and the others at the restaurant in Friend or Foe sprang to mind - but he never seemed malevolent.

Sage found herself grinding her teeth while her hard stare bored into the wall across from her. She hoped it would catch fire under her glare, that it would bend to her will and obliterate itself because she told it to. Because she willed it to.

Finally, a shaky hand went up to one of the ribbons in her hair and withdrew a small capsule. A click of its button, and out burst her bottle of pills. Sage sighed, quiet as she could, so as not to disturb Kaden, and tapped one of her little blues into her palm, before putting the container back in its capsule and returning it to her ribbon.

The girl put the Valium pill under her tongue, deciding to ingest it sublingually. The taste was repulsive, but the effects would hit her harder this way. Anything to make her stop caring, at least for a little bit.

Again, she found herself wondering if maybe she should offer Kaden one. He certainly looked like he could benefit from one of her chill pills, but she didn’t want to be an enabler. She might have been a drug addict, but she couldn’t suggest someone else go down her road. Still... if he asked for one, she resolved, she would give him one.

The girl got up, and crossed the room to take a seat on one of the unoccupied beds. She took the one farthest from the courier, understanding he needed his space. Her heart broke for him; she knew what he was feeling. It was written all over him.

Sage stretched out on her back, and folded her hands on her chest, staring at the ceiling. Exposed pipes and wiring snaked back and forth, coming and going to wherever it was they were supposed to end up.

A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over her. Good, she thought. Her pill, when it finished dissolving, would help her sleep. If she was already tired, all the better. Though she knew better, she still held out hope that things would seem better when she woke. The sentiment was laughable, but it was one Sage continually clung to.

Sage closed her eyes and turned over onto her side. She would have preferred a blanket - even if she never got cold, she liked having it. It made her feel secure - but she would make do. The girl began to drift away, her eyelids fluttering as her thoughts raced from one event to the next, while her conscience tried to sort out a way to justify what she had done.

She would have nightmares tonight.

Sage enters the Forest Sector Bunker

[Kaden]

Despite both his physical and mental exhaustion, Kaden had been unable to sleep. He would have loved nothing more than to simply pass out for a while. He was one of those people who almost always woke up refreshed. It was as though his mind used the time to pack away everything that had been troubling. It was a fantastic system, Kaden had to admit… as long as he could actually sleep.

On one hand, Kaden could count the number of times he just wanted to be alone -- admittedly, a couple of those times spanned for months upon months. He was surprisingly grateful to Sage for having just… left him to himself. Intellectually, Kaden understood that dwelling on his own negative emotions wouldn’t be any to anyone, let alone himself.

Having got up and moved to one of the beds in the bunker, Sage had returned to Kaden an unobstructed view of the wall. Unfortunately, the proverbial damage had been done. Kaden’s mind was no longer relegated to a self-destructive spiral of loathing and doubt. Everyone once and a while, a thought about the cyan-haired cryomancer would pop through.

Though she had admitted to having a reason to be in a psychotic tournament like Dante’s Abyss, Kaden could not imagine what that reason would be. She was probably the single most docile creature he had ever laid eyes on. The idea of her raising a hand in violence was… almost enough to get the courier to smile. The thought, though, brought to light the biggest concern in Kaden’s mind.

He wouldn’t be able to shirk his participation in fights any more. If he lost control – or whatever had happened – again then there was no telling what might happen to the person he had been matched up against. He knew he was capable of great violence and destruction… those were pretty much the only things he was capable of. At least if he were doing it himself, he’d be able to hold back. It was a sad thought that not killing someone was the absolute best that Kaden could hope for.

Heaven forbid that Kaden be forced to fight Ashe again. At the thought of the pink-haired girl, Kaden cast a glance at his hand. Flecks of dried, black blood still dotted his skin. He knew he should probably wash it off, but he just… didn’t. Even beyond Ashe, what if Kaden were forced to fight, say, Sage? Or Sophia.

Kaden banged his head against the wall he was leaning on. He knew there was something he wanted to ask Sage. That Sage had wandered into the bunker alone wasn’t a very comforting thought, but Kaden assumed they had an experience similar to the one he and Ashe had. If that were the case, there was no telling where the priestess might have ended up. Sage probably didn’t have any real answers for the courier, but he wanted to know for sure.

Sliding off of the bed, Kaden moved towards Sage, clearing his throat as he did so. Unfortunately, the girl seemed to have been sleeping. Lucky. While Kaden understood that actually getting a minute to sleep probably wasn’t going to be easy during the course of the tournament, he couldn’t just sit and stew. He just needed to ask one question and then he would leave her alone. Hell, he’d sing her a lullaby if she needed it.

“Hey… Sage. You awake?”


Kaden hated when people asked that. What they really wanted to say was “hey, wake up” but phrasing it that way made people feel better about being intrusive jerks. It worked for Kaden, at least. When his voice produced no results, he slowly inched closer and placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. She had rolled onto her side and had her back turned to him. She was almost in a fetal position.

With a light shake of her shoulder Kaden expected her to roll over, but nothing happened. Another shake produced similar results. As most guys knew, two shakes was the limit. Running a hand through his hair, Kaden tilted his head at the girl. She was out cold. In a sudden rush of frustration, the courier kicked the underside of Sage’s bed. It had been done before he even realized he had been doing it. He prepared himself for the wave of guilt that was about to wash over him.

Unfortunately, it never came. Shock and terror, however, were more than willing to take its place.

Sage bolted up from the bed, into a sitting position. That would have been enough to startle the courier, but he was otherwise distracted. The girl screamed in fright as she had been violently ripped from her slumber. Again, that would have been cause for surprise had Kaden not had more pressing concerns. The girl’s third reaction was to unleash a powerful wave of energy. In a fraction of a second, the entirety of the bunker had been flash frozen. Kaden had gone right along with it.

The cold would have been painful had it not been completely numbing. Kaden could still move his eyes, but that seemed to be the only thing he still had control over. There was a light coating of frost over his features, but his body refused to move. The courier feared he knew what had happened. People were mostly water to begin with.

“Oh… oh my god… !” Sage reached out to Kaden, but snapped her hand back when she realized she was doing it. “Are… you ok? Kaden?”

There were many things the courier would have liked to say the cyan haired girl at that point in time. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to vocalize any of them. Between the anger, frustration, horror, and embarrassment he felt, Kaden found brief windows of time in which he was in awe of Sage’s raw power. He watched as Sage slid off of her now-frozen bed and stepped towards him.

Though she had hesitated at first, the girl reached out once more, placing her hand on Kaden’s. Still consumed by numbness, Kaden was unable to feel it, though. Sage seemed to be considering the courier with a mixture of concern and confusion. Were he in a more rational frame of mind, Kaden would have felt responsible for the situation he was now in, having awakened her up and all. Any remote possibility of feeling guilt, however, quickly vanished.

With a quick twist of her arm, Sage literally ripped Kaden’s hand off. Broke off is probably a more accurate descriptor, as the boy’s appendage had been frozen solid. Kaden tried to widen his eyes in horror. He tried to scream out in pain. He was able to do neither of those things. Truthfully, he hadn’t felt pain. He hadn’t felt anything. It made the experience all the more frightening.

Sage looked down to the human hand she was holding, then locked eyes with the courier. He could practically see the thought process running through her mind. In the tournament, Kaden was an obstacle to her. He would be standing in the way of her goal, no matter what. And there he stood, frozen solid. As Kaden watched, the girl brought her hands up to his head. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. Then, with a violent twist of her arms, everything went black.

“AAAAAAHHHH!” Kaden screamed.

He probably would have continued to scream had he not fallen out of his bed. He had still been sitting on the bed, but evidently been embraced by sleep. Not surprisingly, though, he didn’t feel particularly refreshed. As far as he could tell, everything was where it should be, and he was one-hundred percent not frozen.

Sage still lay several beds down. She looked to be actually asleep. Kaden was suddenly thankful that he hadn’t woken her. He found himself still with questions about what had happened with her and Sophia, but suddenly felt that they could wait until the girl woke on her own.

[Jesper]

The curtain was about to close. Sophia could feel it; it was in the air, and the tension seemed to be reaching its climax. It also helped that she had been guided by Piper’s telepathic messages. Actually, the entire thing seemed to be her idea, and she was just following thought-by-thought, action-by-action. When she agreed to end it with a simultaneous punch, a real punch, she couldn’t help but know that the show was about to end. And, despite the friendship that lurked behind the curtain of their play, Sophia intended to be the winner when it was all said and done.

She just hoped that she could actually throw a punch hard enough.

She cocked back her arm, preparing to deliver just a simple right hook. The healer knew she couldn’t afford to do anything fancy—it wasn’t the venue. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward to deliver the blow, swinging her fist like a baseball player would swing his bat. Her knuckles seemed as though they would connect soundly with the medic’s cheekbone, but to her dismay, she vanished from sight. Sophia grunted as she stumbled forward, scolding herself inwardly for forgetting that the girl possessed such a skill. Sophia felt her presence behind her shoulder, but couldn’t turn fast enough to react. Instead, the toe of her shoe curled under a tree root, and she fell flat on her face on the earth below. The air of Piper’s chop rushed above as she whiffed as badly as Sophia had just moments prior.

Rolling around, she gasped. Piper still had the advantage, and sharply thought to deliver another punch towards her fallen opponent. Almost unconsciously, the healer lifted a hand to catch the medic’s strike, charging an orb of venomous ki in her other appendage. The energy collided into her chest. Piper’s eyes widened to their limits before they snapped shut; the medic crumpled to the ground, knocked out cold. Sophia could scarcely believe it as she scrambled to her friend’s unconscious body.

“Piper? Piper?” she tried to keep her voice to a whisper, although she was practically boiling over with concern. She shook Piper by the shoulder as she continued talking. “Are you okay? Does that mean I win, Piper?”

Piper didn’t have the chance to respond, however, as Sophia’s collar pierced her eardrums before another second could pass. Suddenly she was whisked away again, still confined within the forest. She sighed as she sat back on her heels, looking around the area. It was hard to tell the difference between that place and the areas she had been in previously—after all, every tree started to look the same after her extended stay. Shaking her head, she stood to her feet. At that point, she knew, there were several options available to her, though only two of them made sense: she could either try to consult her map, or she could wander around aimlessly until she found an area of interest.

Sophia looked around again. Since there was no discernable characteristic about the area of the forest in which she was, she merely closed her eyes and began spinning around. Once she felt that she had spun enough—which was, ironically, the same point when she felt like she might have thrown up—she stopped and pointed straight in front of her. Opening her eyes, she took note of the direction she was walking towards and began walking.

The more she walked, the more she began to lose hope. She swore that she had seen the exact same tree at least a dozen times, though, again, they all looked the same. In fact, everything seemed to be the same—a rock here, a root there, a patch of grass here and there. Just when she began to think that she was stuck in a loop of some sort, a shelter revealed itself in the distance. It must have been the bunker, or at the very least, the coolest homeless shelter she had ever seen. Sighing, she made a mad dash towards the building and burst through the doors.

The inside was rather unassuming, just like the last bunker she had been inside. It didn’t matter, she guessed, since it supplied her with anything she could have wanted. The beds seemed particularly tempting, as she hadn’t even rested since she left the afterlife. Smiling, she walked towards the nearest one, but she stopped when something caught her attention. Sage and Kaden were lying in beds just a few feet away from her. Expressions of intense sorrow were pasted on the faces of them both, though she would have been hard-pressed to think of a moment when Sage didn’t look like that. She breathed a gentle sigh, smiling softly as she looked upon them. She supposed there wasn’t anything to be particularly happy about. Heck, her own heart was feeling heavy, too. However, the healer valued the potency of a joyful exterior, even if it didn’t match the interior.

She rounded the edge of the bed in front of her and stood a few steps away from the row of beds that her friends were in. She never liked waking people up, but there was a few things that they needed to talk about in the wake of her forced encounter with Piper. Sophia put a finger to her chin, pondering the choices she had in waking them up. She could either gently wake them up, or…

“Hey, guys!” she shouted, her voice echoing loudly in the room.

Sophia enters the Forest Sector bunker

[Belle Hibiki]

The warm forest air that wafted through the trees was a welcome change from the frigid fingers of ice that had followed Belle since exiting the arctic sector. Although the sectors were separated by a tall, metal wall and some sort of force field, it seemed that air was still allowed to pass through. Here and there along the enormous barriers, storms had broken out. Warm and cold fronts collided, grinding against one another.

Lightning flashed in the distance, briefly illuminating a tangle of branches just ahead. Reaching out with his hand, Belle pushed his way through. It was more like a jungle than a forest, he thought, pausing once he was clear of the foliage to look around.

There was, as it turned out, not much to see. The trees were densely packed and their leaves grew thick; only the occasional moonbeam pierced the overhanging branches to illuminate the forest floor. Belle lifted his nose to sniff the air, glanced to his left, and struck off through the dense undergrowth once more, picking carefully through a thicket of thorny bushes.

Ten minutes later he finally emerged from the forest into a gentle clearing, and found the source of the scent that he'd been following since earlier that day.

Blood.

It would have been hard to see what the stains were in the dead of night, but Belle could tell what they were easily enough. The stench of blood and death had an odor unlike any other in the animal kingdom.

Pausing to listen, double checking that he was, indeed, alone, Belle ventured out further into the clearing. Strangely, one side of it had been dusted with a thin blanket of snow. But that was secondary to what he found next.

"Damn," Belle whispered, looking down at the pale white body splayed out on the moonlit grass. Whoever it was that had killed the changeling, they'd certainly done a thorough job of it.

Belle knelt down and gingerly touched his fingers to the body's throat. Cold. Of course, it was an alien; it could've been cold the entire time and he would have never known, so that alone didn't mean that it was dead. Belle was pretty sure, though, that whatever kind of alien the man/woman/it had been, having something shoved through its chest and its arm lopped off had probably been enough to do it in.

He knelt, one hand still on the corpse's shoulder, as his brain started to throw possibilities at him. Perhaps there had been another accident, or maybe the changeling, too, hadn't entered a bunker in time. The information that he'd been given at the competition's headquarters had absolutely assured him that there was no risk of any permanent damage. And yet here he was, not even a day into the game, staring at his second dead body in as many hours.

Well, first body, he supposed; there hadn't been much left of John Doe to actually see after he'd been incinerated.

There was a small patch of snow nearby, the beginning of a long strip of it that led off into the forest. It took Belle half an hour to clear it away and to dig a shallow hole with his bare hands, then another fifteen to lay the changeling's body inside and bury it. He hadn't gotten a good vibe off the creature in the extremely brief time he'd seen him in the gas chamber, but even monsters deserved better than to have their bodies picked over by wild animals.

Belle patted down the last clod of dirt and straightened, brushing his hands off on his pants. He wondered quietly who could have been responsible for such a brutal attack. None of the people he knew could have done such a thing. Kaden certainly didn't have it in him to be that hardcore. A dude who got airsick and squeamish about breaking a couple rules probably wasn't the type of person that went around dismembering his competition when simply knocking them out would do.

None of the girls had seemed especially dangerous. But then, he reminded himself, they were women. Their ways were mysterious, unknown and unknowable.

And there was the matter of the suspected third party that Belle had encountered during the avalanche. If there was anything insidious behind the deaths that he'd seen so far, he had no doubt that it would be involved, somehow.

Belle looked up at the moon. He had once heard something strange from his father: a woman's mood and blood, he said, fluctuated with the waning and waxing of the moon. Belle had gradually pieced together that this meant that women, somewhere in their teenage years, made an illicit pact with an evil spirit that governed the night. His father had also mentioned the demon's name, though he had done so quietly, and with the soberest of expressions. Menstu Ration, the demon was called.

The snow stretched out ahead of him. Menstu Ration might be out there, waiting for him in the darkness, ready to take him into its clawed, vicelike grip the moment he showed weakness. Menstu Ration, it was said, was crazy; a spirit that drove to madness whomever he possessed. His mouth ran with blood of men, and his hunger was never satisfied.

But Belle would not be afraid. He took a deep breath; squared his shoulders. If Menstu Ration was waiting, he would fight him; Belle wouldn't hesitate, even if it meant putting his fist right through the monster's lips.

~+~+~+~+~

No demon was waiting for him in the darkness. There was, however, something else.

"Damn," Belle echoed his earlier sentiments.

He had been walking for at least ten minutes, and he still couldn't see the end of it. At the beginning he'd thought that the fluffy blanket of snow might have been naturally occurring; an accident, maybe, deposited by the clouds that drifted from sector to sector. The way the snow curved around trees and navigated through the forest, however, put that theory quickly to rest. Belle found it easier to follow the snow than wander off on his own; whoever, or whatever, had left the snow behind had already picked out the easiest way through the brush.

Navigating the forest this way, it wasn't long before he came within sight of his goal. It had been more of a hunch than anything else, but following the trail had paid off. Squat and gleaming slightly in the burnishing light of the moon, sitting in the center of another clearing, a squat, steel bunker stood before him. The snow ended just before the edge of the tree line, its path angling towards the distant structure.

There was a flicker of movement, and the doors to the bunker burst open. A dark figure stood silhouetted against the faintly lit interior before it entered, and the doors slammed shut.

Belle took a few minutes to stretch his arms and legs before starting across the grass, his posture low and loping. He wasn't sure if there were any windows, but he might as well not take chances with a demon.

He reached the door without incident, and stopped to press his ear against it. He frowned. He could hear the faint sound of movement from within, just barely, and the steady breathing of two people - no, three, he corrected himself, catching the faster breathing of the third. The first two sounded like they were asleep, and would be helpless against the third person if they turned out to be the one breaking the rules.

Edging the door open, Belle took note of the line of beds set against the far wall. Bulky shapes slumbered in two of them, and a third stood nearby, faintly illuminated. The latter opened its mouth, and let out a scream. "HEY, GUYS!"

Belle flung the door open so hard ans so fast that it crashed into the wall and left a handle-shaped dent in the steel. Taking a deep breath, Belle leveled his finger and pointed at the hazily-defined shape.

"MENSTU RATION!" he bellowed, "WE MEET AT LAST!"

Belle has entered the Forest Sector bunker.

[Ashe]

Stumbling painfully through the city, Ashe pulled her phone out of her bag, her fingertips brushing the screen to break the screensaver that was turned on. A few quick motions later, she turned off the alarm that was frantically beating, alerting her to a warning timer that she had set as a scheduled event to alert her to collar detonation. "I need... to get into a bunker fast," she spoke, her lungs burning while her lips cracked and bled.

She had no words to describe what had happened other than that she had been completely fucked up. Even her reluctance to use such language couldn't overcome that feeling. She didn't blame Kaden at all, since they were both clearly being controlled at the time. First, whoever was pulling the puppet strings decided to have her conjure up a blast of energy and fire it, weakly and faultily, but they wanted to make a point. They could make her do things that she didn't even know how to do herself.

Then they had forced her to her feet. Punch after punch later, they left her staring in anguish at the blond courier, his eyes horrified as his palms spread out. Everything had been overcome with a bright light at that point, fading quickly into darkness.

She'd awoken hours later in complete and total blackness, unsure if she was even awake or not. Moving around on a soft but horribly smelling pile revealed that, to add further insult, they had teleported her into a trash dumpster. When she'd gotten out, the abandoned fast food place nearby told her that she had no idea where she was. It wasn't on her map, when she pulled it out.

For a while, she didn't even know if she'd been just stumbling in circles or towards the edge of the map. Her only real hope was that she wasn't walking further into one of the corners that didn't connect to another zone. Fortunately for her, a bight blue translucent energy field suddenly came into view as she rounded another corner to circumvent a building.

Through the field she was able to see a strong treeline. Forest Sector. The thought came to her easier than words would, having no swollen and bleeding lips to emerge through. The Mountains were diagonal from here, but I definitely don't have time to make it to that bunker. Gonna have to just head to this one for now.

It was a crappy decision, she felt, but she'd have to find Kaden at a later point in time. Hopefully he didn't blame himself for what happened. If it wasn't for one of her boyfriends having beaten her in the past, she would not have known the difference between intentions. Sadly, she could find fortune in such an event having taken place, and that gave her the strength to know that by the look in Kaden's eyes, he was feeling every blow that she had.

There was no blame to be laid outside of Damon Dukes.

She was actually angry, she realized. Not at Kaden. Not even at Dukes. She was angry at herself for not having any idea how to handle her own power. One would think that after the events of Friend or Foe 3, she would have learned to understand her own potential. Part of her screamed that she was still just a teenager and still trying to make it through the world, but it was apparent that every cruel bastard in the universe was honestly out to get her.

Her hand rose before her, weakly lifting up into the same apple holding grasp that she'd seen Kaden doing before. She was angry, and she would have loved for nothing more than to detonate a massive blast right in Damon's chest. The power was within her, she felt. The Star's Tear was fill with absolute potential that she would probably never be able to channel herself, but this...

Trembling in agony, she remembered the feelings that her body underwent as they controlled her, channeling her deepest energies through her energy streams until it gathered into raw energy directly within her grasp before being flung wildly forward towards Kaden's own small blast. Her shot was weak, striking some random object with nothing more than a pathetic flash, but it was a shot. It was... real.

It was what she wanted to figure out. They knew how to unlock her potential, and they mocked her with it. Just what was it they did, she wondered, to conjure it? Kaden hadn't been able to explain it, and she seemed like without having any true connection to her energy source, she wouldn't be able to See the streams of energy that flowed throughout everything. Touching his energy had helped with that, but she hadn't been able to hold onto it.

She remembered a tingling, rising through her body before it gathered in her palms. It had embraced her from every direction, just for an instant. Everything she wanted screamed out for it as she clutched her fist, imagining herself throwing a ball forward. Her palm shimmered a bit, causing her eyes to widen, but then it faded all too quickly.

Realization crept over her as she looked up to see a structure in the distance. The bunker? she thought internally. She'd been so focused on what she was trying to do, trying to force her power to come to light, that she'd crossed right through the forest itself and had thankfully come across the bunker without even realizing how she'd walked. She felt as if she'd been drawn to it, somehow, as if it contained a large magnetic pull that called out to her, but she wasn't quite sure why.

She stopped a moment, feeling slightly dizzy, as she used her hand to hold herself up against a tree. She was almost there, she decided, adjusting her backpack. Her hand left the tree as she trudged forward, leaving her completely unaware that the handmark on the tree had left a small blue glow for a few seconds before fading from sight.

Ashe leaves the City Sector and enters the Forest Sector, entering the bunker within.

[Kaden]

Anger. Fatigue. Shock. Surprise. Confusion. Relief. Sorrow. Frustration.

The rapid-fire series of emotions that washed over Kaden was dizzying. He had managed to drift back to sleep after grabbing a quick bite of food, but that hadn’t lasted long. Normally, Kaden did not respond particularly well to human alarm clocks. However, he found he was forced to make an exception for Sophia.

“Sophia.. what-- Belle? Ashe!”

The only plus side to having been jolted awake by the priestess was getting to see the look on her face when Belle flung the door open with his superhuman strength and started yelling something. Menstruation? That’s what Kaden thought he heard, but… that couldn’t have been right.

When the pink-haired teenager walked through the door, Kaden found himself giving her his undivided attention. Hopping up from his bed, the courier bee-lined through the bunker, brushing past both Sophia and Belle. When Ashe caught sight of him, she froze. The surprised look on her face spoke volumes. Kaden stopped a couple steps short of the girl and opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately he was cut off.

“Kaden! What are you doing? Are you ins—“

“Belle! Just…” Kaden suddenly whirled on the adventurer, almost screaming at him. He wanted to finish with ‘shut up’ but caught himself. Taking in a deep breath, the courier started. “… gimme a minute. I’ll be fine.”

Initially, the demi-saiyan had looked surprised at Kaden unprompted outburst, but the surprise quickly faded. Belle seemed to study Kaden for a second before shrugging and moving further into the bunker. More likely than not, Kaden looked as pathetic as he felt, and that would have been enough of an indicator for anyone to drop it.

“Ashe…” Kaden turned towards her. “I’m so sorry. That… I shouldn’t have let that happen.”

“Kaden, it’s ok. You—“

“Of course it’s not ok! Look at you! How is any of that ok?” Kaden couldn’t bring himself to look the girl in the eyes. Her shoes, however, he found quite interesting.

“I’m not blaming you. Really.”

Before the courier could make any more ridiculously selfish proclamations of guilt, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw Sophia’s shoes next to his own. If he looked up, the priestess probably would have simply smiled and said something nice. Sadly, that didn’t fit the spiral Kaden seemed determined to throw himself down. Instead he just sighed.

“What happened with you guys?” Sophia asked both of them. “You both seem so… somber.”

With a resigned shrug, Kaden turned and recounted the “fight” between himself and Ashe, including his own conclusions about Damon’s control over the contestants. Not knowing better, the courier attributed such control to the collars around each participant’s neck. Several times during Kaden’s summary, Ashe interrupted to correct erroneous blame. While Kaden couldn’t agree, the girl seemed sincere… he just wasn’t sure whether that made him feel better or worse.

“What the hell?!” Belle suddenly interjected. “I’m not going to let some… dickwad take control of me!”

Kaden turned to address the hybrid directly. He mentioned that no amount of struggling, no amount of resistance, had done anything. He intended to repeat that part, though he was pretty sure Belle wouldn’t listen anyway. Before he got the chance to say anything, though, he was cut off. An announcement resounded through the bunker, delivered by a familiar, robotic female voice.

“The following announcement is provided by the generous Capsule Corporation. To the honored participants of Dante’s Abyss, collar detonation timers have been extended. Good luck.”

Awkward though the timing may have been, Kaden found himself thankful for the announcement. He just wanted to sit back down on a bed and sleep through the rest of the tournament. He knew that wasn’t actually going to happen, but sitting down still seemed like a good idea. As the courier stepped through the bunker, the rest of the occupants simply exchanged glances.

He needed to get out of his head, the courier knew that. Dwelling and doubting weren’t going to do him any good, and his situation was definitely not going to magically fix itself. The least he could do was not act like a whiny little bitch to the people around him. He was made of sturdier stuff than that. Or at least he liked to tell himself that. If he put on a happy – or as close to happy as he could muster – front then eventually he might actually forget how miserable he was.

[Sage]

“Hey, guys!”

Had the ceiling been any lower, Sage was sure she would have crashed into it, and would probably have shattered every vertebra in her spine. Kaden, too, seemed terribly shocked about... whatever had just happened. The azure haired girl wasn’t really sure, exactly.

There was a bit of commotion, then. Kaden made a series of babbling observations - or were they questions? - and then the red haired boy, the one with a girl’s name - Sage couldn’t remember it - burst into the bunker, shouting something. The courier returned, but all of it was confusing. She thought she understood the conversation, but there was no way they were talking about... that. Was there?

She rubbed her eyes with her thumb and index finger. She was fucked up on pharms and half-awake. Valium wasn’t a hallucinogen, but she supposed maybe she wasn’t in the best position to decide what she had heard.

It was then that Sage noticed Ashe. She rubbed her eyes again, and then intensified her gaze, before her expression shifted from confusion to horror. Her friend’s lip was split, her nose bloody, and one of her eyes swollen nearly shut. A shiny purple splotch stained her cheek. Somebody had beaten the hell out of her. The doctor could only breathe relieved she hadn’t been killed.

And then, Kaden explained what had happened. Sage could only sit there, mortified at the revelation. Soon, she found herself moving from revulsion at the courier for what he did to her friend, to feeling as bad for Kaden as she did for Ashe. He seemed so... defeated. Sage honestly couldn’t recall having ever seen anyone as completely lost as he suddenly appeared. A sharp twinge of guilt shot through her. Odd; she had nothing to do with this.

The courier had fled to another section of the bunker, and Ashe had taken a seat on the bed next to Sage’s. The hybrid swung her legs off her bed, so she could face the pink haired girl, who had been so horribly marred.

“Ashe...” she breathed, her visage twisted with grief. She was still coming to terms with the changeling she murdered - fake-murdered, she reminded herself - and now one of her friends had been brutally beaten by a man possessed by Damon. She couldn’t help but worry that he would take Sage’s will next. Sage knew, should that happen, she could be turned into a very dangerous weapon. But that was all beside the point. She had to help Ashe. “J-Just... hold still, okay?”

The princess laid her hands on her friend’s shoulders, and her rosé eyes met with Ashe’s pale blues. There was a conviction in them - in Sage’s eyes. She wanted to tell her - to tell anyone who would listen - that there was good in her yet. That she wasn’t just a killer. That... what she was doing was justified. Not that she totally believed it herself.

The quarter saiyan’s hands began to glow, throwing illuminations throughout the room. Sage was glad that the teenager didn’t appear frightened, and also surprised when she saw the red haired man jump backward in shock.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” he exclaimed. Sage tried to ignore him. She wasn’t a very good healer, and his distractions were hardly helping things. At that point, she raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t a very good healer, because she didn’t even know where the power came from. Sage had just tried to mimic Sophia and it... it just happened. It made no sense whatsoever, but she hadn’t questioned it, because she had needed her powers. She had relied on them, so there was no room to question why they existed.

The world spun.

Sage shook her head, returning her concentration to the matter at hand, and her gaze burned through Ashe’s flesh, and once again she was given the chance to witness the body’s own maintenance system in action. Somehow - Sage still didn’t understand it - she was able to force the regenerative functions of other people to dramatically accelerate. Ashe’s blood cells divided faster than cancer, and were pushed by a sea of adrenaline up toward her wounds, which began to seal themselves fast enough that Sage could watch the teen heal. Her jaw bone suffered a hairline fracture, and even that knitted in just moments.

Soon, the only thing that remained of the girl’s injuries were the dried blood on her face and lips. Even her swelling had disappeared completely. And then the blue haired medic collapsed. She didn’t pass out this time, thankfully.

“Thanks, Sage,” she heard from miles and miles away, as Ashe took a seat beside the hybrid’s prone form. She picked up Sage’s arm and hugged herself with it, and Sage couldn’t do anything about it. It was frustrating, the situation. Her limbs turning to concrete every time she healed someone. It was just so tiring. And Ashe wasn’t even badly injured.

The priestess went into the next room, the one Kaden had gone into. Sage had lost sight of Belle, so she assumed he went with her. Although he probably kept his distance. Good, she thought. He’s weird.

The pink haired girl looked down, a quizzical expression against her face. “Who’s weird?”

“Oh... I did it again?” the exhausted azure-head sighed. “The... um... Belle?” her voice was unsure, but she thought that was his name. “He... um...” she paused, trying to remember if Ashe was there when he had inadvertently groped her. Assuming she was, Sage decided to let it go. “I’m just glad I got to do something... nice. I feel like I’m... falling away from... me.”

“That’s tough,” Ashe replied, looking up to the wall. “I think I know what you mean, though. You just... have to get through it.”

“I didn’t know you were blonde,” Sage remarked, completely off-topic. It was the first time she had noticed that Ashe’s exposed roots weren’t at all the same color as the rest of her hair. It was incredibly noticeable, and the fact she missed it made her feel somewhat stupid. “It’s... your hair’s very pretty. I sometimes wish I had a normal hair color... like my sister.”

The pink haired girl just nodded for a moment, and then caught what Sage was implying. “Wait, what? Your hair’s naturally blue?!”

The doctor seemed shocked at the question. “...Well, y- is that bad?”

“What?” Ashe shook her head. “No, ...no, it’s just... strange,” she sighed at her choice of words. “I mean, it’s... I just never met someone with blue hair before, unless they dyed it. It’s actually really cool.”

“...I’m glad you think so. They used to make fun of my hair on Vegeta-Sei. They called me a half-breed. Some of them... were very cruel. The things they said about my parents...”

“Right... you’re a saiyan,” Ashe’s remark seemed distant. At this, Sage sat up, and swung her legs over the side again, as she had done before, and just about kicked Belle in the head as she did so.

“Wh-What are you doing?!” she exclaimed, surprised at herself. Belle’s head smacked against the underside of her bed, and he crashed onto his butt, rubbing his head while he scurried backwards, away from the double female threat, shouting a few obscenities as he did so. When he was safely up against the far wall, he spoke.

“I was just- he’s here, okay?! There's a brutal murderer demon on the loose. I followed his snow trail here,” Belle’s voice was suddenly somber and very, very serious. “He's a monster; you should've seen what he did to this guy I found in the forest.”

Suddenly, Sage found Ashe’s eyes on her, and Kaden and Sophia were in the doorway, having overheard Belle’s outburst, and the following explanation. The hybrid knew what would come next, and already, she was trying to think up excuses. She felt so very small. She had already mulled over this again and again and again.

“Sage,” Sophia finally broke the silence, looking at the dried blood that had been spilled all over the diminutive pill popper. “...What happened out there?”

“I didn’t- he was- I mean, I-” Sage just gave up. Great. Ten different excuses all at once. That’ll work, she sighed, and sat up on her bed, leaning against the wall. She wrapped her arms around her legs, and nodded to herself a few times before she could drum up the courage to speak. “It... wasn’t a demon, Belle.”

“How would she know?” the boisterous mountain man retorted, addressing Kaden, not Sage. “I tracked it here.”

“Y-You... you tracked me. I made the trail you followed, Belle,” the timid girl replied. She bit her lip, and prepared to continue.

“You’re the demon?!” Belle suddenly exclaimed, breaking any shred of concentration Sage had been working to build up. “I knew it!! I knew one of you would be trying to come after us, but we know better, me an’ Kaden. You can’t-”

“She’s not a demon,” Sophia protested, almost laughing at the boy. The prospect that Sage could actually hide some sinister creature beneath the surface was just too weird.

“Oh, sure. Obviously you would-”

“Belle,” Kaden interrupted, his voice lacking the conviction that the fiery haired youth’s had. “She’s not a demon.”

“But-” he protested. “But I followed-”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Let her talk,” the former priestess intervened. “I want to know what happened.”

Fuck, Sage found herself thinking. Of course she wouldn’t be let off the hook so easily. “When we...” she looked up at Sophia. “When we were separated, I was placed into a fight with a... changeling. We fought. I mean, I-I tried to run away, I really did,” her voice cracked, as it had when she said her goodbyes to her defeated opponent. “But I couldn’t, I couldn’t! The st-st-stasis field-”

“Easy,” Ashe put a hand on her shoulder. Sage was shaking like a leaf. Even for her, she seemed really high-strung right then.

“I-I-I... I just w-wanted to pr-protect myself. I didn’t mean-” she closed her eyes, and violently shook her head. “He jumped at me and I- and he- ...I made a bunch of spikes, and he... fell... on them.”

For a moment, nobody said anything. Sage’s face contorted into various expressions of anguish - even contempt - but she did an admirable job fending off tears. She hadn’t cried in seven years, Friend or Foe notwithstanding, and she didn’t want to change that. It was one of few things that gave her solace, even if it didn’t make any sense.

“I...” she continued. “...I knew coming in th-that I would have to...” it almost seemed to hurt her to continue. “Kill,” she finally managed. “My opponents... but... this wasn’t... I made him suffer so much, and I didn’t mean-”

“Okay, that’s enough, Sage,” Ashe interrupted. But it wasn’t enough! Her meager protests went unheard, and she gave up, suddenly feeling bitter and distraught. The fact that even Ashe wouldn't take her seriously really hurt. It wasn't enough, and it wasn't okay. And yet, she was still going to continue. Wasn't that bad? Wasn't that wrong? Why was everyone being so goddamn complacent?!

[Belle Hibiki]

Belle listened to Sage's story, thin-lipped and narrow eyed, but silent. There wasn't really anything he could say, and the girl, as treacherous as girls were, didn't seem to be playing a trick. Belle's own emotions were oftentimes too intense for him to control, but with that lack of inhibition had come a keen sense of empathy. Watching Sage go on about her battle, it was all too clear to him how badly her actions were hurting her.

A demon, indeed. Belle shook his head. Menstu Ration might be real, but if he was, he wasn't in the bunker. "What does she mean, she knew she would have to kill?" he asked. He looked to Kaden, who gave a very tired, exhausted shrug. "I thought there wasn't supposed to be any permanent shit. That's what they said on my invitation."

"There isn't," the ice princess murmured, her voice so low that Belle almost didn't hear her. "When someone... 'dies' in Dante's Abyss, they're taken away and instantly healed..."

"So then why-" Belle started. He wanted to ask, 'why are you getting so worked up, then?', but the look on Kaden's face shut him up. It was hard for him to remember that not everyone had come here of their own accord; and of them, not many were true fighters who were used to blood and carnage. Belle didn't like it all that much himself; the fight against the Construct had been full of it, and he still sometimes awoke from a fitful sleep with the afterimages of that day burning in his eyes.

But even though Belle didn't like it, he had at least gotten used to the idea. Clearly, that didn't extend to everyone. "Weird," he muttered.

Ashe looked up. "What's weird?"

Belle eyed her, then surreptitiously slid a half step back. "I thought that there might be someone behind the people actually dying, you know?"

Ashe, Sophia, and Kaden exchanged looks. Sage just stared at the ground. "Uh," Kaden spoke first, having had the most experience talking with him, though looking as if he thought it was a dubious mark of distinction, "someone else?"

"First thing that happened when I got here was someone trying to dump an avalanche on me," Belle explained. "When I couldn't outrun it, I stopped it, and then - "

"You stopped an avalanche."

"Well, sort of shoved it to the side a bit, you know. It's kind of hard to - hey, don't interrupt me!" Belle barked, then took a breath and lifted an index finger in front of his face. "Just as it was splitting, I saw something in the snow."

"Was it another fighter?" Sophia asked.

Belle glanced at Sophia. Strange girl, he thought. Who went around with a halo? "No, that was the weird thing. It didn't look like a person at all." Belle explained the strangely spherical, metal object that had been hiding in the avalanche. "And then, just as I saw it, it blew up."

Silence.

"Are you sure you weren't seeing things?" Ashe asked.

"I know what I saw, dammit! If I said I saw a metal ball explode, I saw a metal ball explode."

"Okay, okay," Ashe lifted her hands. "Just making sure."

"Stupid girls," Belle grumbled, half to himself. "Talkin' about my sight..."

Kaden rubbed his temples, looking tireder than Belle had ever seen him. "At any rate," the courier said, "it's really late. Even if Belle did see something, there's no point in arguing about it. It might be a fluke."

"That's a stupid idea," Belle grumped. "Metal balls don't just show up out of nowhere in the cold."

Kaden grimaced. "That's not what I - " he stopped. "Nevermind." He turned around and strode out of the room. Ashe seemed to wince.

"Geez," Belle said. "What crawled up his ass and died?"

~+~+~+~+~

It was a little bit later when Belle returned from raiding the supply closet to find the snow girl sitting by herself at the table. From the next room, Belle could hear the faint snoring of one or more individuals. Kaden must have gone back to sleep, he realized.

Sage didn't even look up as Belle edged around the side of the room. The table was large, but the girl occupied the nearer end. Working his way to the far opposite edge, Belle deposited his handful of food onto the table, pulled out his chair very slowly, and sat down.

He started to eat. He'd always found it strange how often people said they were 'full' after just a few helpings. Maybe it was different for Belle, but he almost couldn't get enough; and after the shortage of any real cooking on the Maiden's Dream, the bunker's wide selection of baked and spiced breads and meats were a kind of heaven.

Belle often looked up to see if Sage had done anything, but she hadn't. After waking up and telling her story, she apparently didn't want to go back to sleep. She stared at the tabletop as if her obituary had been carved into the smoothly polished wood.

"What I don't get," Belle finally said when the silence became annoying, "is why you even came if you knew that there was gonna be fighting."

Sage shifted her eyes to the side. For a moment, Belle didn't think she was going to answer. Then: "If I win," she whispered quietly, "I can find someone."

"You couldn't do that on your own?" Belle asked around a mouthful of mutton. "Couldn't you just, like, use a tell phone, or something?"

"I don't know his number."

"Can't you look it up? Aren't there 'phone books'?"

Sage lowered her face. "He's not there."

"Hmph," Belle snorted. "Useless. One more reason why I'm glad I never bothered to learn how to read." He paused, watching Sage. When the girl went quiet again, he took a few more bites before saying: "The guy ... hurt you, or something?"

The question made the girl shift. She didn't say anything, but the look on her face was all the answer he needed. "So why do it?" Belle asked. "I mean, if he hurt you, why look for him? Some kind of ... revenge? Is that it?"

"I have to stop him," Sage whispered.

Belle chewed thoughtfully. "Doesn't make much sense to me," he said at last. "If he hurt you, wouldn't hurting yourself more like this just be the kind of thing he'd want?"

Sage looked up at that. "I mean," Belle continued, "that's just what I think."

She shook her head and lowered her eyes. "It's not like that."

Belle kind of doubted that, but he decided to let it drop. "Okay," he said. "Whatever."

More silence. Belle picked his way through a slab of freshly baked ham, then a quart of mashed potatoes, and was just getting started on a pound of steak when Sage looked up again. "Did you ... mean ... what you said before?" she asked hesitantly. "That it looked like ... a monster had killed him?"

Belle had to think back. "Yeah, I did." He watched her carefully. "Anyone would think that, looking at what happened. But I guess," he looked down at his plate, "that was wrong."

"Do you think so...?"

"I don't think you're a monster, if that's what you mean," Belle muttered. "Do you?"

"I... I don't know," Sage admitted. "I... I couldn't control what happened. I just... I just d-did it, and he..." she suddenly cut off, her eyes brimming with tears. But instead of shedding them, she seemed to take a breath, and blinked them away. "I don't know," she whispered.

Belle listened, working a bit of steak loose with his fork. Stabbing it, he took a bite. "When I was a kid, this was probably like ten years ago or something, I found a bird that had fallen out of its nest. His mom must have forgotten about him, or maybe he wasn't strong enough to fly. His leg was broken, so I bandaged it up best I could and took care of 'im." He swallowed, then stared absently at the light reflecting off his fork. "We were real good friends.

"One day, when I was training, a wolf showed up. I'd put Chickie down so that I could do my warm ups, and the wolf went after him. I grabbed Chickie up quick and kicked the wolf so hard the bastard went flying over the top of the trees." Belle paused. The memory wasn't painful; it was the memory of a memory of pain, like a phantom limb in his heart. "I was really scared that he might, you know, get hurt. That's probably why I squeezed so hard." He closed his eyes. "And I was ... stronger than most kids."

Belle took a deep breath. "I dug Chickie a little grave and buried him. I wanted my dad to tell me that it wasn't my fault, but he never did. I thought I might have done it because I secretly wanted to, like I was, you know, a terrible person, and my dad must've been able to see that. I was like that for a month, I think, and it really started screwing with my training. I didn't get better until I accidentally crushed an apple I wanted to eat in my hand. That was when I realized why my dad had never tried to comfort me. I had a lot of strength, but I had never learned how to control it. In a way, it was my fault that Chickie died. After that, I tried real hard to figure out how to control my own strength."

He looked across the table at Sage. "You're a girl, but you're strong; not quite the same like I was, but you've still got power, and I just think you never learned how to control it. If you don't want to keep hurting people, you're going to have to face your powers, not run away from them. Sitting here moping around isn't going to help you or anyone else."

Belle squared his shoulders. "Anyway," he said, more firmly. "Whatever. That's your business. If it makes you feel better," he added, "you did heal that other girl instead of killing her."

Belle got up, stacked his plates, then realized that Sayana wasn't going to be around to clean them. "Fuck it," he muttered to himself, and headed out the door. He wasn't a Goddamn head shrink, anyway.

[Jesper]

Too many things were happening. Too many things.

Sophia felt like her head would spin off of her neck when she tried to compute it all. Kaden. Sage. The healer walked inside the bunker and saw them laying there. Neither of them seemed to be enjoying life, and she resolved to make their days a little bit better, even if it made her own day that much worse. Ashe. Belle. They entered the same room, one after another, each with their own interesting perspective on the subject. The pink-haired girl looked like she took quite the beating, and Belle…Sophia forced out a laugh. She never knew what he was doing in the short time that she had known him.

So many stories had compiled in the short time that they were apart. She had a hard time separating them from each other. Sage had accidentally killed someone, or was it an accident? She obviously did it in self-defense—they all had—but it was equally as obvious that her conscience tore her up about it. Ashe looked like the poster child for abuse, and the awkward glances between her and Kaden, not to mention the flecks of blood still on Kaden’s hands and clothes, made her come to the conclusion that their stories hadn’t been separate for as long as they would have liked.

Belle was still being Belle, from what she knew of him. There wasn’t much to read into there.

Sophia sighed as she floated in the background, like a ghost that they couldn’t see. She was a ghost, technically, but her experience in that bunker made gave her an ethereal feeling. She wanted so desperately to put her arms around Sage and tell her that she had done nothing wrong. Her heart strained as she thought about comforting Ashe, tending to her wounds. She wanted to cry for them, to die for them, but she knew that they just needed space. Neither of them had been particularly approachable. In fact, neither did Kaden, but at that moment, for some reason, her thoughts concentrated solely on him.

Was it that he was forced to fight Ashe? Was that it? Did he fight someone else? Did he kill him? So many scenarios raced through her head, and she wanted to pick the one that made the most sense. She wanted to understand him, although she knew that she did not. She just wanted everyone to be happy again, despite their circumstances. She reached up to touch her halo as she pondered that-- she didn’t have the time to waste.

As more time passed, Sophia found herself sitting in the corner. Everyone else had wandered around, doing their own things. The healer had long since given up on trying to act like the cheery one—after all, Belle had filled in that role quite nicely, though he was likely oblivious as to how he was behaving. The boy was in the middle of the room, talking to Sage. Sophia felt a little sorry for the cyan-haired girl, but she seemed to be handling the conversation well, though she did more listening than talking.

She continued her inspection of the room. She didn’t know where Ashe was; she was likely in another part of the bunker as she attended to some of the nastier cuts she had received. Her eyes found the door to the supply closet, the place she had likely gone to. Her lips gently curved into a smile, but it faded as her eyes drifted to the side and landed on another door, leading to another bedroom. Kaden was probably there, if the snoring was any indication. Let him sleep, she thought. He needed his rest. All would be well when he woke up.

She let a sad chuckle escape her mouth. It wasn’t likely that he would suddenly wake up with a cheery disposition. Tugging at her clothing to straighten it, she stood up. The steps she took towards that room were cautious, hesitant. She didn’t like serving as a human alarm clock, especially twice in one day, but she knew she couldn’t avoid it. Sage and Belle hardly seemed to even notice that she was there as she reached for the knob and turned it, swinging it open to the dark room within.

“…you really enjoy waking me up, don’t you?” Kaden’s voice echoed through the silence as the healer closed the door behind her.

Sophia winced, whispering even though he was awake. “I’m sorry…did I wake you?”

What a stupid question. Of course she woke him up. Fortunately, Kaden didn’t make her pay for the foolish inquiry. “Yeah, but…it’s fine. Was there something you needed?”

He sounded a bit better, though there were still undertones of despair still present in his voice. The healer fought off the urge to just turn around and run away as she answered. “N-no…not really, I just…I wanted to talk, I guess.”

“Oh…” she couldn’t quite see him, but she could hear him turn to his side. “I…there’s really nothing to say, Soph. Maybe we should just get some sleep.”

“Oh…okay…” she hung her head and turned around. She stopped, her hand halfway to the door, and shook her head. “No.”

Kaden yawned. “What?”

“No,” Sophia flipped on the light switch, causing Kaden to lift his hands to his eyes as his pupils struggled to adjust. “You should talk to me about what happened.”

The courier sighed and sat up on his bed, looking at her with his red eyes. They pierced her for what seemed like an eternity before he responded. “What…do you want me to say? What am I supposed to say?”

The healer said nothing initially. She merely pressed her lips together and walked towards the courier and sat on the bed opposite from him. Sophia hesitated before she spoke. “…anything. Say anything. I’d like to talk about what happened, of course, but even if you don’t want to talk about it, we can talk about something else.”

“What do you want from me, Soph?” he said through another sigh.

“I just want you to stop brooding,” the healer poked him. “Sleeping it off might help, but talking does wonders. Try me—I’m a really good listener.”

Kaden’s eyes lowered. “How do you do it?”

“What?” he obviously dodged the question, but his sudden response intrigued her. “How…do I do what?”

“Act so goddamn cheerful all the time,” the courier looked back up at her. “Sorry if that sounded mean.”

“No, it’s…” her voice trailed off. Sighing, she sat back on the bed, propping herself up with her arms. “Being raised in the temple, I guess. When you’re a healer, you start to learn that most injuries are in the head,” she raised a finger to tap her temple. “A simple smile can brighten someone’s day…even if the sun isn’t out for me.”

“So you fake it?”

“I guess I just got used to smiling,” Sophia gave him her best grin. “You still remember how, right?”

“Sophia, I don’t really want to…” Kaden shook his head.

“Oh, come on!” the healer reached out towards the courier. Hooking the edges of his lips with her index finger and thumb, she lifted them upward. “See? It’s that easy.”

Kaden laughed, pushing her hand away. “Stop it, stop it.”

The pair shared a laugh before the room went silent once more. Sophia was still smiling, though this time, it was genuine.

[Kaden]

“You know,” Kaden started as he reclined against the wall. “You can be such a pain.”

He courier wanted to watch Sophia’s double-take, but knew it would ruin the effect. Instead, he let his eyes wander the ceiling of the bunker. It wasn’t particularly interesting, pretty much just concrete, but the spider-web cracks gave him something to trace with his gaze.

“What?” the priestess finally said. Confusion was evident in her voice.

“I try to be alone and you follow me. I try to get some sleep, and you wake me up. Twice. I try to just sit in silence, and you make me talk.”

Leveling his head at Sophia, Kaden held out as long as he could before giving in to a light chuckle. He still had plenty of things to be miserable about, but teasing the girl was too hard to resist. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as realization dawned. She shook her head and fixed the courier with her glare.

“You jerk. That was mean.”

“Oh, sorry. I’ll remember that.”

Letting the mock glare melt off her face, Sophia shook her head at the courier once more. Sadly, Kaden’s smile also quickly faded. His mood had lightened, without doubt, but that was like say there was less sand on the beach because you brought some home in your shoe. Technically true, but woefully insignificant.

It was disheartening how well the courier knew himself. Most of the things that were troubling him would never be properly dealt with. His problems would either be buried or ignored, and that would be the end of it. Eventually he would forget he had anything to feel upset about and he would go on with things. It wasn’t a particularly healthy practice, but bad habits were hard to break.

Unfortunately, Sophia had caught him in the most… vulnerable part of his process: the process of just forgetting. It was usually annoying and whiny and pathetically emo. He definitely didn’t like people to see it, but… he wasn’t about to kick the girl out. Not that she’d listen, anyway.

As Kaden’s eyes wandered over Sophia’s figure, he knew that there were serious problems with his broken system of emotional avoidance. The… side-effects, so to speak, would have to be dealt with some day, but the horrors of that day were not something the courier was really looking forward to. When the priestess cleared her throat very pointedly, the courier snapped out of mental stupor embarrassed that he had basically just been staring.

“I’m homeless,” was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

“… what?”

“You, uh wanted to talk, right?”

“You… want to talk about being homeless?” Sophia considered that for a moment. “I thought you lived outside of West City.”

“Good memory,” Kaden nodded. “I did, yeah. But… I kind of moved.”

“Kind of? How do you kind of move?”

“It’s pretty much the same as normal moving, but you just… don’t have anywhere to go?” Kaden furrowed his brow as he unconvincingly finished his sentence.

“So basically you just left. With nowhere to go. How long have you been homeless?”

“Uhh… a little bit, I guess. It wasn’t really a problem until recently, though. I was… well, there was that whole civil war thing in Central City. Then I got thrown in jail for stopping Belle an—“

“You were in jail?” the priestess looked at him with a mixture of surprise and disbelief. “For what?”

“Oh… haha… it’s kind of a long story. Basically there was some… property damage and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Kaden had to resist the urge to wince at the horribly abridged version of his recent adventure with Belle. “But it was all cleared up,” he quickly added. “Turns out saving half the city from destruction is barely enough to clear your name.”

“Well… that’s good, I guess.”

“So, when this is all over, I won’t really have anywhere to go.”

That wasn’t entirely true, Kaden knew. Mentioning that he would end up looking for a place marked on a scrap of map by a woman who spoke in riddles for her own entertainment, with nothing else to go on except a coin with the word “Almagest” on it didn’t seem worth the time it would take to explain. Kaden wasn’t even sure he’d be able to.

At the mention of not having anywhere to go, though, the courier couldn’t help but shoot a fleeting glance at the priestess’ halo. He absolutely hated the thought that she would simply be gone once the event was over. There was no possible way for that to seem right to him. She could only be alive during vicious tournaments to the death? What the hell kind of world did they live in? Kaden wanted to say as much to Sophia, but she broke the silence first.

“See? You look better already. You’re even smiling.” The girl tilted her head at the half-smile that had snuck its way onto Kaden’s face. “Almost.”

At that, of course, the courier couldn’t help but smile fully. Talking actually had done him some good. While he wasn’t at one-hundred percent, his surface thought were at least his own once again. It would be nice to be able to look at, say, a rock and not have his mind launch into an epic telling about how the rock really symbolized the corruption and degradation of the human soul as every day was but another step on the long journey towards death that all embarked upon from birth. Or something.

“Given the circumstances,” Sophia continued. “Almost is a pretty good start.”

“Yeah,” Kaden said as he locked eyes with the girl. “A pretty good start.”

[Ashe]

The explosion rocked the entire bunker.

Without delay, heads began to cautiously poke their way out of the bunker door to see what happened. Ashe walked out of the large smoking cloud, her skin covered in dust, with a sheepish grin on her face. In some ways she was embaressed. Fortunately for her, the excitement overtook her as she poured out what happened.

"Kaden! Kaden! I did it! I just... well, I did something!" she spilled at one time.

His jaw hung open a bit as he slowly looked around at the settling debris. Branches were snapped and the grass had been lain flat, but other than the damage itself, he couldn't figure out what exactly she had done. "Like?" he prodded, unable to figure it out.

She opened her mouth a moment before pausing, her smile fading a bit as she tried to figure out what to say next. "Well..." she drifted off, confused. "I'm not entirely sure," she decided, her grin returning to her face as explosively as the blast had. "But it was freakin' awesome!"

"I don't understand," Sophia said with a look of confusion to match Kaden's.

The courier took a breath and slowly began to grin. "I'm going out on a limb here, but did you manage to-"

"You just tried to kill us all! I saw it all! Well, I'm not going to let you use your demonic power to-" Belle screamed, sticking his head out between the priestess and Kaden.

"Oh come on, Belle, are you-" the courier began before biting down, reevaluating his word choice. "How'd you see what happened from all the way in there? Weren't you trying to sleep or something?" he accused, wildly thrusting his finger into a darker corner of the room.

The boy pushed his way through them with enough force to stumble his way to the ground before turning around, opening his mouth to argue defiantly before even considering what he was saying. "Yeah, I was! And she was clearly trying to kill all of us in our sleep! But I know better and you are lucky that you have me to look out for you-"

The courier pounced, leaping forward and clamping his hand down over the boy's mouth to shut him up. Unfortunately for him, Belle bit down until the blond haired man snatched his hand back. He immediately shrunk back a bit. "Are they taking over your mind or something?" he asked, jumping to the wildest conclusion that popping into his own mind.

Kaden's palm found a way to entirely cover his face before he apologized to Ashe through spread fingertips. "I'm terribly sorry," he offered, before removing his hand to continue talking. "So what did you manage?"

The girl hadn't stopped beaming, although the scene before her had made her feel a bit more awkward. "I uh, well... Like I said, I'm not really sure, but I managed to gather energy. It was a lot more sudden than I expected, though, and it was a lot more powerful. I mean, as soon as it all came together I just kind of freaked at how much was there. Just earlier I couldn't get anything to happen at all and this time I had a massive... I don't know, large ball of energy that just kind of surrounded me a moment before suddenly blowing out in all directions. I didn't really mean for it to happen that way since all I was trying to do was just create a small ball of energy in my hands, but even still it rocked!" Everything spilled out at one time, leaving everyone else to sort out the details in their heads.

Sage tilted her head to the side. "You can use energy?" she inquired.

Ashe simply shrugged. "Well, I don't really know. I mean, yeah, I think I can. I don't really know how, but... Well, check this out!" she breathed suddenly, thrusting her palm out.

Belle immediately jumped back and vanished into the bunker. The others just watched patiently as the girl stood there, her eyes staring intently at the center of her palm as she flexed her muscles a bit to conjure out the previous torrential energies. Seconds passed and absolutely nothing happened. Not even the tiniest spark of ki had appeared, leaving her anxious grin to break down into disappointment.

"I don't get it..." she finally acknowledged, biting down on her lower lip as she let one arm drop to her side, staring hopelessly at her right hand. "I just don't get it."

The courier had walked forward without her realization and grabbed her hand, lowering it down before tilting her face up by the chin to look him in the eyes. "Hey, by the smile you gave everyone a moment ago, I'm sure you managed to get something to happen," he comforted, bringing her to smile again. "We'll just have to work on it more so that you have some control over it."

Sophia tossed Ashe a towel that she had retrieved and encouraged her to wipe the dust from her face. "Congratulations," she complimented, taking the towel back from her as she finished wiping off her face. "You should probably head back inside and get more cleaned up." The doctor nodded beside her and the group ushered her back through the entranceway.

"What about-" Ashe began, promptly getting cut off by Kaden.

"I'll go handle Belle real quick," he said, darting down the hall to search the kid out.

---

"Hey, Ashe, you awake?"

The girl rolled over in her bed and rubbed her eyes, pushing herself up to a sitting position. "What's up?" she asked, looking at him through blurs.

A dark shadow moved in the room wearing Kaden's jacket. "I really hate waking you like this, but we should probably head out."

Her voice rose sharply in panic for a moment as she kicked the covers to her feet. "Huh? Why?"

"Shh!" he shushed quickly, looking around at their sleeping companions. Coming closer to her, he lowered his voice once more. "I'm just worried about getting locked into another fight with this particular group, you know?"

"I guess."

Taking her reluctance as her catching his point, he motioned to his bags. "I've got my stuff together right here. I didn't touch any of your stuff though," he amended quickly.

He couldn't see her shrug. "Its cool. Everything was already bagged up again anyway," she sighed, dropping down as quietly from the top bunk as she could. Rising back to her feet, she pulled her bag out from under the beds and latched it onto her shoulders. "Do you even know where we..." she paused a moment, covering her mouth to stifle a yawn. "where... we are going?"

"Of course," he replied, having absolutely no real plan in mind.

Saying nothing further, the two of them made their way out of the bunker, opening the door as quietly as possible before Ashe slipped through. Kaden turned the knob before pulling it shut to reduce the sound from it, but as he did, another hand slipped around the doorframe, pulling back against it.

"Kaden?" a faint whisper called through.

"Sophia?" he recognized, pushing the door quietly back open. "Sophia-"

"I want to come with you," she interrupted. A small smile crept over her lips as she motioned to the path ahead. "Besides, you guys might need a healer to help out."

"Well, I kind of expected you to take care of Sage," he trailed off.

She shook her head before looking back into the room. "I think that whatever it is that she's looking for, she wants to make the journey herself. My presence seems to be doing her more harm than help, I'm afraid." She pushed her way forward and pulled the door quietly shut behind her. "And Ashe is already halfway up the path," she pointed out, gesturing at the stumbling girl ahead.

"Is she sleepwalking?"

Down the path, the pink haired girl stared at her open palm, focusing as hard as she could on igniting her inner fire once more. "This is harder than they make it look," she whispered to herself.

Ashe, Kaden, and Sophia have left the Forest Sector and entered the City Sector.