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Chapter Text

Prologue

Through Mephisto’s limited field of vision, Sylus could see her standing close to the other Hunter in hushed conversation. Jealousy simmered beneath his skin- and he knew he had to suppress it. She’d have no way of knowing he was here, on this planet, in this timeline watching over her from the mechanical bird that she had a love-hate relationship with. In truth, he’d be surprised if she knew he was even alive… if she even really remembered him, though he was desperately hoping that she would. 

The other hunter, taller than her by a significant amount, platinum blonde hair, and wielding Light Evol, stepped away from her and left her in the forest clearing. Sylus felt a different sort of concern ripple through his body before he chuckled to himself and pinched the bridge of his nose. Known for being rash and making split second decisions, even he had to recognize that being jealous of people she spent time with and then being upset when they left her alone was obtuse. It’s not as if she couldn’t take care of herself. After a brief moment, she followed after him before his shadow made it completely out of the scene.
Sylus recalled the bird back to his side and paced around the salon as he waited for the crow to return home, Luke and Kieran watching him pace in silent curiosity.

I finally found her, he thought to himself. After all this time, I finally found her. Something akin to… anxiety? Or perhaps it truly was excitement, bubbled within his chest. 

That she had to be a damn Hunter complicated things… being the top target on their wanted list would certainly make it difficult to outright approach her. He looked at the twins, who's eyes he'd been very aware had been following his every movement.

“Find out all you can on a Skylar Rayne. Investigate in person if you must but  Do. Not. Approach.” He said very suddenly. The twins who had been sitting stone still and statue silent, save the rustle of fabric as their heads moved back and forth to watch Sylus anxiously pacing, jumped to attention. 

“On it,” Kieran said

“You got it boss,” Luke said at the same time. The pair disappeared into the shadows of the base, silently and dutifully. 

Sylus didn’t harbor trust in many people, but in Luke and Kieran, he trusted to get the job done. 

Whatever information they were able to dig up would surely help to formulate a more solid plan, but that didn’t stop Sylus from mulling over possibilities and ideas in his head on how, exactly, he was going to bring his beloved home.

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

Dawn broke over the eastern horizon, painting Linkon City in rose golden hues of the morning, and the long shadows of the tall buildings folding into themselves to greet the new day. 

Skylar woke with the dawn with the intention of just doing a short jog around the block. She texted Xavier, the coworker, mission partner, neighbor and friend who lived just one floor above her, to see if he wanted to join her run. She didn’t expect him to answer the phone. She wasn’t sure how, but it seems that the only things he did besides show up to work (and not even show up reliably when she needed her mission partner) was eat hot pot and sleep. She wondered how he managed to keep himself in shape. 

To her surprise though, he texted back with an emoji that said “Yes!” and a follow up text that read “ill meet u at ur door” 

Alrighty then, a run with Xavier, first thing in the morning. Nothing to get excited about . And yet, in spite of herself, she dressed in shorts that were a little bit too short, and a bright orange and green sports bra that lifted and supported in all the right ways. She was just finishing lacing up her runners when her phone pinged from her pocket. 

“I’m at ur door” the text was short enough that the preview banner on the lock screen was enough to see what he’d said. Ignoring the sudden fluttering in her stomach, she bounced toward the door and swung it open.

Standing in front of her staring off in another direction, Xavier wore an old pair of tennis shoes, a very form fitting white tank top, and some loose gym shorts. At the squeak of her front door, Xavier’s eyes passed over her full body, not once but twice, before meeting her eyes. 

“Good morning,” he said, his voice still thick with sleep, but a small smile played at the corners of his mouth nevertheless.

“Morning,” she said with a smile, trying very hard not to feel self conscious under his gaze. She wondered if he liked how she looked before stamping down the thought and stepping out of her apartment door and clicking it shut, “I’m going to visit my grandma this weekend, so I was just gonna do a short run around a couple of blocks. I hope that’s still okay?” She said as she led him through to the staircase at the end of the hallway and down the stairs, pushing the door open that led directly to the outside.

 The sun seemed to rise faster in these warmer months, already having crested over some of the shorter buildings in the city scape, leaving only taller buildings and some trees to shade the sidewalk as she stretched her arms and looked down the street. 

“I don’t exercise too often, so that’s fine,” Xavier’s voice, now that he was a little more awake, took on a lighter tone, though still quiet, soft spoken as ever. “You’re going to visit your grandma you say?” He said as he, too, began to stretch. 

“I haven’t really been home to visit grandma and Caleb in a while,” she said, a pang of guilt ricocheting through her chest. In truth, she hadn’t seen Caleb since she saw him off to the Deepspace Aviation Administration academy. They talk and text all the time. They even video chat when the situation allows it. But video chats had been… very few and far between. Being in person… Nothing beats that feeling of being around family. Of being at home. She looked at Xavier from the corner of her eye. After Grandma, Caleb was the closest thing she had to actual family, though none of the three of them were technically related. 

After Caleb, Xavier was her closest friend. She looked down at her shoe as she stretched her hamstrings, and wondered if maybe Xavier would feel like family to her one day, too. The idea made her face feel even warmer in the early morning sun. 

Xavier, perceptive as always, saw this and commented, “Are you feeling alright? Your face is suddenly red,” He reached forward to gently press the back of his hand against her forehead. She leaned back to prevent the contact and he dropped his hand, brow furrowing as his impossible blue eyes swept over her face. 

“What do you mean?” She said and made a show of touching her own forehead, “My face is red? But I feel fine.” 

“Hmm” Xavier replied noncommittally.  

“Let’s get going, then.” She hopped a couple times in place, “Loser buys breakfast.” She said, without giving him the route she planned on taking or any conditions on which he’d be able to win, and darted off down the street. She heard him huff a laugh before she heard his footfalls catching up behind her. 

They ran together at a reasonable pace, Xavier seeming content to allow her “race” to end in a tie, and she was content to just have him by her side as she ran. The run helped get the excited and anxious energy out of her system and by the time she’d led them back around to the block where the front of their apartment building, she’d kinda forgotten about the rules of the race that she’d set at the beginning. 

About 10 paces from the front of the building, Xavier slowed down. When she made it up to the top of the short staircase from the sidewalk to the apartment building, she looked back at Xavier, who was standing on the ground level, looking up at her with a gentle smile that devastated her as it spread on his face. 

“What- what are you doing?” she said through deep breaths and post-run-pants. 

Xavier took a couple of deep breaths of his own and climbed the stairs, stopping two stairs down to meet her at her eye level.

“You said the loser has to buy breakfast,” he commented with a shrug, “I guess I lost,” He looked down in mock disappointment and rubbed the back of his neck. Were his ears turning red just now? Or were they already red from the physical exertion? Skylar couldn't quite tell. 

“Xavier!” She play-swatted his shoulder, “First of all, I already forgot about that. Secondly, you lost on purpose!” Xavier simply shrugged.

“I didn’t forget, and whether I lost on purpose or not doesn’t matter,” he leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping in volume. “I still owe you breakfast.”  

Skylar blinked several times, hoping that her face didn’t betray how she nearly swooned right into his chest. Instead, she took another deep breath and cleared her throat. 

“Okay, I suppose if you insist, who am I to turn down a breakfast date?” She said it so casually with a shrug, she didn’t realize what she had actually said until it was too late, and quickly tried to recover the situation, “But not like a DATE date, ha ha. Like a - friend date. Like a hang out. You know, like a-” 

Xavier cut her off with a gentle hand on her cheek, warm and a little sweaty “a Breakfast date is fine,” he said, flashing another impossible smile. “Let's go get cleaned up. I’ll meet you at your apartment in a half hour.” He stepped past her and opened the door to the first floor landing of the apartment and held it open for her. She followed him inside and rode the elevator, stopping at her floor first. 

Just as he said, a half hour later, Skylar’s phone pinged again from the pocket of the knee length pink skirt she’s decided to dress into. 

“Can u let me in?” Was all the text said. She grinned down at her phone before pulling the black long sleeve shirt on and making her way to the door. 

Xavier’s eyes swept over her again, only once this time, before he met her gaze. 

“Come on in,” she said and stood to the side to gesture for him to go in and sit down, “I just have to finish up a couple of things and then we can go.” He stepped inside and she let the door shut behind him. Suddenly in her personal space, she felt very anxious about the state of it. She kept her apartment generally pretty clean. Would he be put off by the plate, fork and cup in the sink from last night that she hadn’t gotten to yet? Or the laundry basket of clothes she just brought out of the laundry room that hadn’t been folded or put away yet? When was the last time she vacuumed the carpet? 

“Your apartment smells nice,” Xavier said, as though he could read her thoughts and was trying to soothe her anxieties, “It smells… floral. Like a candle with a gentle scent. Mixed with your shampoo,” he sat down on the edge of the couch and placed his chin in his hand.

“Ah,” she said, flustered by his unexpected compliment, “Thank you. I… well I just showered, as you can tell,” she pointed to her wet hair, “Be right back,” she blurted before darting back to the bathroom to smooth some moose into the waves of her auburn hair. 

She took a moment to splash some cold water on her face. She was usually pretty good at keeping herself composed around Xavier, but something about him today just had her terminally caught off guard. Even in his white pull-over and jeans, he was still so irritatingly handsome. She wondered sometimes what he would say or do if she’d confessed her crush to him, but always thought that it would be better to leave the friendship as it is. She loved him as her friend. Even when he wasn’t reliable to show up to a mission, he was always there when she needed him. She trusted him with her life implicitly. 

And above all other feelings or emotions, she genuinely hoped he felt the same when it came to his level of trust in her. 

When she stepped out of the bathroom, Xavier was flipping through one of the books she left on the coffee table. He looked up as she entered the room and smiled at her, “Did you have somewhere in mind?” He asked. 

“What about that new cafe down the street?” She suggested, “I hear they have a Kitty Cards corner! The owner has an illusionary Evol.” Xavier’s eyes shone in affectionate amusement as she spoke. 

“Sounds like that’s where we’ll go then,” he said decisively and stood up, gesturing to Skylar’s front door. “After you.” 

They walked down the street toward the new cafe (aptly named The Catfe) walking so closely that the backs of their hands brushed against each other. Once inside, the pair found a two top-table in a cozy corner of the shop, and talked quietly about seemingly nothing at all. Skylar was comfortable in Xavier's presence, like she’d known him for far longer than the 5 months since she found him injured and asleep in that warehouse on her first day. He was so… mysterious and suspicious back then. Seemingly so serious and closed off. If someone had told her back then that she’d grow to learn that he was goofy, soft spoken, introverted, and sleepy… well she certainly wouldn’t have believed it. The Xavier who was her mission partner and the Xavier who sat across from her in this little cat cafe were seemingly two entirely different people. It made Skylar wonder what other sides of Xavier she hadn’t seen yet. 

After about an hour, they left the cafe and slowly made their way back to their apartment complex. “You’ll be at your grandma’s all weekend?” Xavier asked as they waited for the elevator to arrive

“That’s the plan,” she replied over the hum of the elevator making its way up the building, "Why do you ask?”

“I didn’t want to be expecting to see you come home if it turns out you weren’t.” He answered simply. She felt her heart flutter at the way he said “come home” like she was coming home to him, and she cleared her throat. 

“Ah well I’m sorry to disappoint,” she laughed, “But I’ll text you on Sunday night when I’m on my way back. We can go out for hot pot if you want?” She hedged, trying to sound casual. A gentle smile touched the corner of his lips. 

“That sounds great.” He answered with a sincerity that tugged at her heartstrings. When the doors opened on her floor, she stepped out and was surprised to see that he followed her. She chuckled a little bit and ruffled his hair as the elevator doors closed behind him.

“Xavier,” she smiled to him, “Wrong floor.”
He looked back at the closed elevator doors, then turned and met her eyes with his, “I thought maybe I could walk you to your door,” He said. 

Gods, she thought to herself, completely caught off guard. She laughed, “Well I suppose I can’t stop you now.” Her apartment was down the other end of the hallway, and while not a long trek, it was still nice to have him by her side. She imagined what it would be like to bring him to meet Grandma. She was sure Gran would love him. They arrived at her front door when her mind started to wander toward how Caleb would react if she’d brought Xavier home. 

“Well, we’re here,” she said as they stopped just outside. She looked down and toed at the welcome mat, which read ‘Live, Laugh, Leave. ’ It was a joke birthday present from Caleb, but it made her laugh so hard when she opened the package he’d sent her in the mail, she couldn’t fathom not using it. “Thanks for walking me home. How very romantic of you,” she said with a teasing tone of voice. 

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do after a date?” He replied innocently. Skylar could only stare at him as she watched a smile slowly creep onto his face. “Cat got your tongue?” He said in a teasing tone. 

The butterflies in her stomach fluttered so hard that it almost hurt. “Xavier, you can’t just say things like that,” she said with her forehead in her hand, letting out a shaky laugh.

She heard him huff a gentle laugh through his nose and she looked up at him. “Don’t laugh at me,” she said.

“Sorry.” He said, though he didn’t sound sorry at all. His face was still alight with mischief and a smile. She sighed. 

“Okay, Xavier. If I don’t leave soon I won't be home in time for lunch. And I told Gran I would be.” 

“You still consider it ‘home’?” 

“Uh, well yeah I suppose I do consider it at least a home away from home. I grew up there. I still have a bedroom and things there. So yeah. It’s home just like my apartment is home.” 

Xavier’s expression changed slightly, and she couldn’t discern exactly what he was thinking, before it returned to a gentle smile. “Then I will see you on Sunday night for hot pot.” He said. “Travel safe.” 

He stood there for a moment longer, as if trying to decide what he was going to do next before, he took a step back and made his way to the stairwell just at the end of the hall. 

Skylar opened the door, stepped inside and closed the door quickly, taking a deep breath, back against the door and head tilted back. Sometimes, Xavier felt like he was so cold and distant that he was friends with her out of necessity and not out of any genuine desire to be. He looked to the sky like he longed to live, to return to living among stars as stardust. Other times, like today, he looked at her with such genuine kindness, gentleness, warmth and… even affection, that she thought maybe, maybe her quickly growing crush was reciprocated. 

With another deep breath, she pushed herself off the door, made her way to her bedroom to grab the already packed suitcase of her clothes and other necessities for her long weekend in the Bloomshore district. 

Chapter Text

←Running slightly behind, but should still 
be there for lunch. See you soon!

→From: Gran

Travel safe, my dear

With that text message sent, Skylar switched the chat from Gran’s to Caleb’s. The last thing he’d said to her was “I promise you’ll see me every day when you wake up ;)”  She’d sent him a couple texts since then over the last couple of days that he hadn’t replied to. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. 

←Ignore me all you want, but unless
you’ve decided to bail on me without
telling me, we’re spending the whole
weekend together.

← I’m guessing I wont see you until
tomorrow, but I’m on my way
now. Planning to cook a nice late 
lunch/early dinner for Gran. 

←I’ll make enough for leftovers.

With the exception of very brief overlaps in their holidays, Skylar hadn’t really seen Caleb since he left for the DAA. His amethyst eyes that shone with delusions of grandeur and hope standing at the bus stop were her last substantial memories of him. 

The train ride from Linkon City proper to the residential outskirts was only about 45 minutes, but Skylar couldn’t relax. If she had to put a word to the emotion she was feeling, it was closer to anxiety than excitement, though she wasn’t exactly sure why. 

By the time the train arrived at the Bloomshore station, it took all of her self control not to rush off the train and through the station. The weather was nice and cool, the blossom petals of various trees and shrubs from around the town drifted gently from their home plants to the ground. As a result, the Bloomshore district was painted in soft hues of pinks, yellows and oranges of the surrounding flora. 

Skylar’s anxieties began to ease as she walked the streets she was so familiar with, she could probably do so blindfolded. Familiar faces waved as she passed, names on the sides of mailboxes she’d known all her life brought back memories of her school aged years. 

She considered herself now compared to when she left for the Hunters Academy. Much like when Caleb had left for the DAA, she, too, admitted that she was filled with the fancy fantasies of the heroism and glory that came with being a Deepspace hunter. Being a Deepspace hunter is much less glamorous and far stinkier than I thought it would be, she thought to herself with an amused sigh. Still, even if she wasn’t a legendary hero like Lumier, or as glamorous as the Hunters in Super Hunters! she couldn’t imagine doing anything else. 

After about a 15 minute walk, 502 Sunset Street, Bloomshore District stood stalwart and sturdy against the drags of time in front of her. Gran had let the garden go a little bit, but with her aging, Skylar wasn’t exactly surprised. Maybe I can convince Caleb to help clean the garden beds out with me this weekend, she thought to herself with a creeping smile that quickly turned sour. If he actually decides to actually show up… she thought bitterly and looked down at her phone. No new unread messages. 

She pocketed her phone and opened the door.

“Grandma! I’m home!” She said, a little louder than she would have normally, but Gran’s hearing seemed to be on the outs lately any time they spoke on the phone. Skylar left her suitcase, handle still pulled up, by the door.

“Ah! Sweetie!” She looked up from the paper she’d been reading and pulled her glasses off, “You haven’t been visiting often since you became a hunter. Did you miss me?” Skylar smiled to herself and bent down to hug her Gran. She pulled back and looked at Gran’s face. There were far more wrinkles than the last time she saw her, but her eyes were still as bright and sharp as ever. 

“Of course!” She took a deep breath, only to realize that something smelled like food. Gran must have started to cook something before she got here. Making lunch would have to wait until dinner, or tomorrow, then, she supposed. “Something smells good. Is it…” she sniffed the air again, “roast pork? Oh! That reminds me, I learned how to cook a new dish. Would you like to try it?” 

Footsteps came from the direction of the kitchen as she stood up, and Skylar wondered if Grandma actually had a home care nurse coming to visit her. No sooner than she started to formulate that thought, a familiar voice came teasingly from around the corner, and a familiar head of black hair emerged from behind the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. 

“What happened to the pip-squeak who wouldn’t even pour me a glass of water? Work has changed you! I should have talked you into becoming a Hunter sooner.” Caleb stopped and looked at Skylar for a moment before setting down a couple of bowls of food. 

Skylar blinked several times, then looked to Grandma, who simply just smiled, then back to him, “Caleb?!” She rushed over and jumped into his waiting open arms, squeezing a hug out of him so tightly, he pretended like she was choking him. After a moment, he set her down and she pulled back to look at him. He was so tall and could definitely stand to get a haircut. “I thought I wouldn’t see you until tomorrow at least.” 

Caleb shrugged, “What’s wrong with comin home early to spend some time with you and Gran?” He reached out and ruffled her hair. She tried to duck out from under his hand, but, as always, he was too quick. Her hair fell messily in front of her eyes. “Go wash up, Lets eat.” 

Despite being excited to see Grandma, and the extra surprise that Caleb was intentionally ignoring her to surprise her, Skylar didn’t feel very hungry as the family sat down to eat their late lunch/early dinner. Skylar sat in her thoughts over dinner while Caleb and Grandma talked back and forth to each other, and Caleb set a dumpling on her plate in an effort to try to get her to eat, but when she looked down at the food, her Hunter’s Watch suddenly alerted her to a Metaflux presence nearby. Confused and concerned for Caleb and her grandmother’s safety, she stood from the dinner table and headed out the front door. “Grandma, Caleb… Something’s going on outside. I’m gonna check it out. Be back soon. I promise!” 

Caleb’s voice trailed behind her, laced with genuine concern, “Hey wait up! I’m coming with you!” 

“No no… not necessary. I’m sure it’s nothing.” She opened the front door and tried to close it before Caleb could follow her out, but his fingers deftly curled around the door and with his strength against hers, he was able to hold the door open without getting his fingers slammed in the frame, and then pulled it open to step out with her. “Caleb! I told you I don’t need help.” 

“Since when has anything you said stopped me from doing what I want?” He said with a cocky smirk. Skylar rolled her eyes and acquiesced,  not that she could stop him anyway. She narrowed her eyes at him and then turned to follow the direction that her watch sent her without speaking another word to him. After taking a few steps, though her watch didn’t buzz again, she felt the odd sensation like she was being watched. 

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Caleb’s long legs easily catching up to walk beside her as she looked down at her Hunter’s Watch to follow the direction of the Metaflux. Still not talking to him, she glanced around, taking stock of her surroundings. Nothing seemed out of place; no Metaflux tingled her skin, no alarm blared from her wrist, no alarms rang out for civilians to hide from an emerging protofield. The watch hadn’t pinged again since coming outside, and though she was certain she walked in the direction that it pointed her to, it continued to stay silent by her side. Nothing, save the ever growing and persistent feeling of being watched. 

Glancing down one more time and seeing that everything was all clear, she finally looked at Caleb and addressed him for the first time since they were walking without aim together outside. “Caleb,” she started with slight exasperation, “What kind of hunter lets a friend tag along to work with them?” Not that she let him but… still. He walked beside her like he’d been invited out with her. 

He raised an eyebrow at her, “I’m not tagging along with you, pip-squeak… Just heading to the store for some… vinegar and whatnot.” He said. 

You’re such a bad liar, you asshole, she thought to herself, but didn’t say so aloud in the interest of not re-igniting the years-long war waged in the name of whether or not the other was a bad liar. Instead, she took an exasperated deep breath.

“All right, then.” She said, though she hoped her tone conveyed that she thought he was a liar liar pants on fire, even if she wouldn’t say it aloud. “Well, we’re just about to turn the corner. Go to the store and pick up your ‘vinegar’” she air quoted. She looked at him to see that he was taking a turn and walking into the store, and the thought that he would walk in and then walk right back out when he thought she wouldn’t notice anymore crossed her mind. “Oh, and another thing,” he stopped in his tracks and turned around, “You better not walk out and start following me the second my back is turned.” He blinked at her a couple of times, like she caught his exact thoughts before he regained his composure. I knew it, she thought to herself triumphantly. 

“Yeah Yeah,” he waved a dismissive hand, “Secret mission, blah blah blah. Can’t let unauthorized personnel in on the details.” She rolled her eyes.

“Hurry Up and go already,” she pointed to the store behind him. And just for good measure, she wanted to give him a couple other things to pick up while he was in there, “Also. I want some snacks… uhh and fruit! Take all the time you need!”

He huffed, “Unbelievable” he said under his breath so quietly she wasn’t sure if she actually heard it, or if she knew him well enough that she just heard his thoughts through the huff he gave. He turned around and sauntered into the store. Whether or not he’d actually been planning to pick up vinegar didn’t matter anymore. She’d be really cross with him if he didn’t pick up her snacks and fruit. 

Skylar turned and scanned her surroundings again once she was confident that he was inside to actually buy some stuff. While she continued to feel like a set of eyes were watching her every move, she still didn’t sense any fluctuations nearby. She decided to walk around a bit to see if she or her watch would pick back up on… whatever it caught within grandma’s house. She walked around a couple of blocks down from the store she left Caleb at, feeling an incremental increase in fluctuations around her the further she went, bouncing around her like fireflies in a dusky meadow. Is it possible the source of the fluctuations is… moving? She wondered to herself as she looked back down at her watch. It stayed silent as ever, but she could feel the fluctuations tickling her skin. 

Her surroundings, calm and unmoving save for a single bird circling above her in the sky, set her eerily on edge before she spotted a ball cap wearing silhouette standing just outside the shadows of a dusk darkened alley. Across the street, a patrol drone that belongs to the city approached him, and he turned his body slightly away from the drone, fiddling with the brim of his hat. In response to the man’s suspicious actions, Skylar’s already heightened senses began to trigger a fight or flight response, and the hairs on her arms stood straight on their ends. As the man moved, her watch vibrated on her wrist, finally alerting her to the Metaflux she’d been sensing. Her hand reached for the handgun on her hip, but she didn’t draw it. A thought occurred to her in that moment, staying her hand. 

That man… he’s the source?

Like a moth to flame, Skylar crosses the street to try to follow the man as he begins to walk away. Whether she was not being as quiet as she thought she was being, or he was especially perceptive, she couldn’t say for sure, but once it became clear that he realized she was following her, he began to pick up his pace, easily dodging the few people he was passing on the sidewalk. 

She brought her watch closer to her face, so she could interface with it while still keeping an eye on her target, ready to send her location to HQ for them to send back up to her ASAP. Before she could hope that there was a Hunter closer than Linkon City to assist her, she felt a sharp and intense pain flash up her right arm, knuckles to shoulder. With a hiss, she grabbed her arm, expecting there to be some kind of sharp object lodged in her arm. But when she felt nothing, not even a tear in her clothes, it occurred to her that it must be someone’s Evol. 

A snort came from in front of her, and the baseball cap wearing man had turned around, and started to approach her, “I see you’re actually smart. Too bad. I don’t have time to play around.” His dark eyes, their color and any other defining features she could pick out for the report she’d inevitably have to write, were hidden by the shadows that seemed to cling unnaturally to him. A moment’s hesitation was all it took for him to dart down the alleyway he stopped beside. She ran to catch him, but by the time she’d made it to the alley… he was gone without a trace. 

“Shit,” she muttered to herself, noticing for the first time the feeling of something trickling down her arm. She looked at her hands, the only part of her arms that were uncovered by her long sleeve to see blood. So his Evol did draw blood… just not through my shirt. She was thankful that the shirt she wore was black, as bloodstains in black clothing were easier to clean out. 

With the man’s disappearance she closed her eyes for a moment. The ever persistent feeling of being watched remained, but the feeling of Metaflux, was gone completely, as though it had bever been here to begin with. As she wondered if the man was carrying a Protocore, or if it was possible that he, himself, was the source of the metaflux, she took a slow spin where she was, trying to pinpoint where the feeling of eyes on her was coming from. But as far as she could tell, there wasn’t anyone around paying her any mind. 

Skylar continued to search the area, still feeling like someone was watching her, and it was starting to drive her mad with anxiety, before Caleb’s voice, coupled with his footsteps, caught her off guard and pulled her from her thoughts. 

“Why are you staring off into space? Mission’s over?” He asked. 

“Dammit,” she mumbled to herself, deciding almost immediately that she wouldn’t bother to tell him what she’d just seen. It wouldn’t make sense to him even if she did. He’d go back and tell Gran, and then they would both worry for no reason…. That wasn’t how she wanted her long weekend to be spent - worrying her family over what was probably nothing. She turned around to meet his eyes, and her resolve began to crumble, replacing it with guilt at keeping a secret from him. She didn’t keep secrets from Caleb… not really. Maybe I’ll tell him about it after we finish dinner, then, she reasoned with herself. 

With a grocery bag in one hand, Caleb cocked an eyebrow and surveyed her top to bottom. She furrowed her brow. “Did you find any big bad wanderers?” He asked, but the way he did so sounded like he was mocking her. 

“Uh… No I didn’t,” she mumbled just loudly enough for him to hear. “The fluctuations disappeared… Probably just a false alarm,” She started to push past him back towards Grandma’s house.

“A false alarm?” Caleb scoffed. He grabbed her arm as she tried to brush past him, causing her to wince at the strength in which he held her. She’d already forgotten that it had been cut literally moments ago. 

“Caleb?! What the - what’re you-” She struggled to free her hand from his grasp, but even though he had loosened his grip on it when she winced a moment ago, he held onto her steadfast. Behind his amethyst eyes, something foreign and… unnerving settled in his expression. He’d never looked at her like this before. 

“If it really was, then what’s this?” He turned her hand to show her what she’d felt when it happened. Though her clothes were still intact, the cut on the back of her hand where that man’s evol sliced up her arm was still red, but already seeming to dry. Why was he so perceptive? And what was with that expression he wore? 

“I was petting a cat and-” She started,

Caleb cocked an eyebrow again, and she knew that he could see her lying through her teeth. “Got scratched by another stray cat? I think maybe I’ll go find that cat so I can avenge you.” He said and dropped her hand with an angry furrow in his brow. Avenge me?! She thought to herself, over a cat? 

What has gotten into him today?

“Caleb, don’t.” She reached out and grabbed his shoulder. He shrugged her off and kept walking, “Come on, Grandma is waiting for us back home.” She tried grabbing him again. 

Caleb rounded on her, his eyes still alight with the same curious expression she’d never seen him give her before. Were it not for the fact that they grew up together she’d almost think….

She stamped down the thought and refocused, “Caleb. What is with you?” His eyes rapidly searched her face before turning and walking away again. Whatever he searched for, she supposed, he didn’t find it. It was growing increasingly frustrating. “Stop ignoring me!” She shouted. He continued to walk away from her as she spoke, and she had to take slightly larger steps to match the length of his gait.  “I was telling the truth, it was just an accident. You and grandma have enough to deal with…” 

Without stopping or even looking at her, Caleb deigned her with a reply, “I understand you wanna hide it from Gran. We’ve certainly caused her enough trouble since she brought us up together. Now that she’s older… yeah, it wouldn’t be a good idea to make her anxious.” He stopped and rounded on her again. She stopped before slamming into his chest. His expression seemed so… offended, hurt, betrayed? when he looked at her. “But why do you have to hide it from me ?” He asked though it sounded more like a plea. “Can’t you trust me now that we’re all grown up?” His voice dipped ever so slightly in volume, like the idea that her not trusting him would break his heart. 

She trusted Caleb more than anyone in the world. She trusted him with all her secrets, her frustrations, her fears and insecurities. She’d put her life in his hands and trust him to take care of her. If, in a parallel world where he was also a Deepspace Hunter, or she an Aerospace Fighter Pilot, she’d trust no one else to be her mission partner. 

Of course she couldn’t just say these things to him, because that would be weird. So instead, she just sighed, “It’s not that. … I don’t want you worrying about me. It’s not often you get to come home these days, so ruining the mood is the last thing I want to do.” The expression on his face was so… sad. And she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why. So she attempted to lighten the mood with encouragement that he didn’t need to try to protect her anymore, “Also, I’m a grown up now! I need to be the one making sure I stay safe. You can’t protect me forever,” she said, thinking that allowing him to finally shed the protective big brother mantle he’d worn all his life for her would be a relief for him to hear. 

Silence stretched between the two of them for long enough that it almost became awkward. She looked over to the street and set her hand on the handrail pensively. Maybe he just needed a moment to let the words sink in. They’d never really talked about how their relationship could change now that they were adults. Skylar didn’t remember when Caleb joined their family - he’d always just… been there - for her. Whenever she needed him, for comfort, guidance, bully control, help with homework, dating advice, for anything; he was always there. But, she reasoned with herself not for the first time in her life, he didn’t ask for a little sister- and while she recognized that most older siblings usually don’t have a say in whether or not they had younger siblings, Caleb knew a life before she came and turned it upside down. 

Caleb’s hand came to rest on the guardrail next to hers, pulling her from her thoughts to look back at him. In the dimming natural light of the evening, as the sun was sinking past the neighborhood’s skyline, a car driving past highlighted the side of his face, bathing him in a radiant, albeit an artificial glow. His expression continued to read like he’d been hurt or betrayed, squeezing her heart. 

“Why is that a problem?” he asked, still quietly, “If not me, who could you possibly turn to for…” He cut himself off and looked down -hurt and heartbreak radiated from his aura. She’d known Caleb all her life. Grew up in the same house, under the same roof, went to the same school, shared the same bedroom until they were teenagers, shared similar hobbies… The version Caleb in her mind’s eye was young, naive, and knobby kneed. She blinked to realize that the version of Caleb standing in front of her really was a grown up. She looked at him now, for the first time, not as a friend, or even as her brother, but as a man. It was a jarring realization to come to.

“What’s wrong?” She asked him quietly. He huffed a small laugh, though there wasn’t any mirth behind the sound.

“You wouldn’t understand, even if I told you, pip-squeak. Forget it.” She watched his expression change from heartbroken to something more like resolve before he ruffled her hair and turned around to walk the rest of the way back home. “We’ve been outside long enough. Gran’s gonna be worried.” 

She followed behind him the remaining short distance between where they stopped to talk and 502 Sunset Street. As they approached, she slowed her steps. 

“You’re doing it again,” she said as he went to lead her into the house. Stalwart in his protection and guidance of her. Was she wrong, then? Did he actually enjoy the role he played in her life? “Go inside by yourself. I’m not your sidekick.” She said anyway. The aura of resolve and acceptance radiated off of him as he turned to address her without really looking at her, instead his eyes cast down toward the sidewalk and the garden bed that needed attention. 

“Fine. But hide the blood on your sleeve before heading inside,” He bit out as he opened the door. “Since you’re a grown up now, I won’t cover for you this time.” He said with a sense of finality as the door slammed behind him. 

She looked down at her sleeve, the blood on her hands had rubbed off on the cuff of her sleeve and she did her best to wipe it off with a sigh. 

Hardly a heartbeat’s length of time passed between the quiet evening moment of the regret and guilt of an unresolved disagreement that hung thickly in the air, and the next - when the world around her suddenly and without admonition erupted into a searing hot inferno. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

The intolerable heat of white hot flames licked across her body as a high pitched ringing drowned out the noise of the fire, the crumbling of the building, the horrified screams of the neighbors. Skylar looked up, tears evaporating off her face before they could even fall from the sheer heat of the blaze before her. In the moment, she felt simultaneously like she was experiencing the scene before her in first person, and also in third person, like a piece of her could only watch from outside of her body. Vibrant reds, oranges and yellows, muted by a gray and black layer of ash and smoke filled her vision. 

The part of herself that watched as a third party onlooker recognized that it was being joined by neighbors. Shouts of  “Call emergency services!”, “What the hell happened ?”, “Shit someone is still alive over there!” and other various panicked voices bounced about the neighborhood. 

The part of herself that was watching the horror unfold in first person zeroed in on something that seemed out of place in the scene in front of her. An item that, instead of being the color of the hellscape before her, reflected the colors as they danced upon her childhood home. 

Every inch of her body hurt and she was sure she was broken in more places, in more ways, than one as she inched forward to grab the item that seemed so out of place in the scene. 

Hot. Almost too hot to touch. Metal, shiny and reflective, silver under normal circumstances. Skylar grabbed it with what little strength she had. She knows what this is. Even as her vision blurs and her strength starts to wane, she knows what this is. 

When U Come Back

A promise. A promise she imposed, but that he dependably kept. 

~~~

Red was once Skylar’s favorite color. It was the color of love and passion. Of roses and apples. 

Red was Caleb’s favorite color, too. 

~~~

Sylus watched the news unfold in front of him with an anxious rage that burned within. The newscaster parroted the words displayed by the off screen teleprompter with a cold indifference that only served to feed the anger bubbling in his heart. He clicked a pen incessantly as he watched the scene on the television screen unfold. 

A video of a fire being extinguished by emergency services played on loop as the newscaster spoke. 

“... one survivor in critical condition. Authorities are unsure if there were any other individuals in the home at the time of the explosion…” The TV suddenly clicked off. Kieran’s lithe fingers gingerly held the remote at the other end of the couch, pointed at the now dark and silent display. 

“Boss,” Kieran started in a gentle tone of voice that was uncharacteristic of him, “It’s not going to do you any good if you keep rewatching the news.”

Luke chimed in, “She’s stable now according to the records we found in the Hospital’s database,” he sauntered in with his mask on top of his head, looking down at a tablet, furiously tapping away. “Still unconscious, but stable.” He added. Luke’s tone was serious and somber in a way that was uncharacteristic of him as well.

From the other side of the room, Mephisto squawked a pitiful sound and flew over to land on the arm of the couch next to Sylus. 

“Go keep an eye on her,” Sylus said to the mechanical bird. “I want an update the minute she regains consciousness.” The crow cawed in Sylus’ face before zipping out a partially opened window and flying out of sight. 

“You two,” Sylus addressed the twins without looking at them. 

“Yes sir,” They replied in unison. Sylus took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose before he continued. 

“Keep up the good work. You’re dismissed.” It was the closest Sylus could come to saying ‘ Thank you for keeping an eye on her without me having to ask you to,’ without outright saying it. 

The defectors were getting bold now. It seemed that Sylus’ silent return to the N109 Zone would be short lived, and he’d soon need to make an entrance so grand that anyone who thought to cross him again would think twice before acting. 

~~~

In the darkness of the spaceless void, Skylar felt only pain. Everywhere hurt, everything from her throat to her finger tips, her hips, legs, her neck and head. She looked around but saw only darkness, only blackness, only emptiness. No sign of the light she expected to see beckoning her to the afterlife. 

The afterlife-

With a sudden and electric jolt across every nerve in her body, the weightlessness she didn’t realize she felt suddenly disappeared and the weight of gravity pulled onto her chest, and that, too, ached with the sting of injury. She was suddenly conscious of the noises whirring around her. The sound of machinery buzzing, beeping, and humming. The sound of soft conversation at a distance was loud enough that she could hear it, but quiet enough she couldn’t make out what was being said. 

With great effort, Skylar tried to open her eyes with a deep breath, exhaling with a quiet groan. From close beside her she heard the rustling of fabric and the squeak of a chair. It felt like her eyelids were glued together, and she slowly moved her head in the direction of the sound of rustling fabric.

“Skylar?” a very quiet whisper came from somewhere beside her. Even at a whisper, she recognized that voice. 

“Xav-” She attempted to speak but her voice didn’t come when commanded. 

“Shh shh You don’t need to speak,” 

Skylar made another grand effort to open her eyes, and only succeeded on the technicality that she could see Xavier’s face- albeit not very well at all. She attempted to smile at him. 

“I’m going to let the doctor know you’re awake. I’ll be right back .” he said in the same hushed voice. Skylar wanted to stop him, the doctor would probably come and check on her eventually, but found she hadn’t the strength to stop him. So she let him go, watching his face disappear from her field of view, hearing the gentle tap of his shoes against the cold tiled floor. 

In this state, Skylar couldn’t gauge the passage of time, but by the time Xavier finally returned to her field of vision, she had been able to open her eyes well enough to see just outside the window. A cluster of tree branches within the frame of the window played host to a couple of birds and a chipmunk who seemed to be watching the happenings of the hospital. When Xavier returned, accompanied by another familiar face, one of the birds flew away. 

“Dr. Zayne,” she whispered, or more like croaked, through the soreness in her throat.

“I’m pleased to see you awake, Miss Rayne.” Zayne’s words regarded her with a cold, indifferent sort of professionalism, but behind his golden eyes, she saw tenderness, a sweeping relief that she was sure no one else would pick up on. “You’ve been unconscious for 6 days.” He said slowly, his eyes sweeping her face as if to gauge her reaction.

If he was hoping for a reaction out of her, though, he’d be disappointed. She couldn’t be bothered to do anything other than just… stare into the honey color of his eyes. Silence stretched across the room before she attempted to clear her throat, and then winced at the soreness of the action.

“What happened?” She croaked. She looked at Zayne for answers, but it was Xavier who’s movement caught her attention. He grabbed a water bottle from the end table, and a paper cup next to it before opening the bottle and pouring a very small amount into the cup. Xavier looked at Zayne, who assessed the cup before giving a slight nod. 

“Would you like a sip of water?” Xavier spoke at a normal volume now, but his normal volume was still quiet and reserved, especially around other people. Even in the state she was in, her stomach still had space for the butterflies he always made her feel. She nodded slightly and he helped her sit up, the warmth of his hand wrapped around her shoulder a comforting sensation in an otherwise incredibly uncomfortable situation. 

The water was cool in her mouth, and she looked at Xavier with what she hoped was appreciation. She nearly blurted that she loved him right then and there before she thought better of it. He wouldn’t believe her in this state. She was in no state for rejection. Plus Zayne was watching. 

She winced and quietly groaned again. 

“Ms. Rayne,” Zayne cleared his throat, the sound pulled her attention from Xavier’s face to look at her doctor and childhood friend. “There is… a lot that we must discuss. I recognize that in your current state may not be the best time to have the discussion, but I would like to address something to you before you hear it from elsewhere.” 

Zayne and Xavier passed an expression between each other, and it was odd to her to see the pair interacting. Zayne was her primary doctor, cardiologist, and her childhood friend. Xavier was her colleague, mission partner, and upstairs neighbor. The two existed in two completely separate worlds as far as she was concerned. Seeing them interact felt like when a TV show broke the fourth wall. After a moment, Zayne took a deep breath, set down his clipboard, and removed his lab coat, then gestured to the foot of the bed. 

“May I?” 

Skylar nodded, anxiety rippling through her insides. Beneath his coat, Zayne dressed simply in black slacks and a black button up. The scars on his hands, which were usually not too visible beneath the lab coat, were more prominent in this ‘casual’ look. 

“I wanted to tell you this, not as your doctor, but as your friend.” He started and then gently set his scared hand on her shin. “Do you remember the explosion in the Bloomshore district?” He asked delicately. 

The memory of the heat of the flames raking over her body, the ringing in her ears, the vision of oranges and reds dancing on disheveled rubble rushed back to her. She nodded, looking down at her bandaged fingers. A moment of silence passed before Zayne spoke her name in a gentle whisper.

“Skylar,” he said her name in a way that said I need you to look at me . So she looked up, the emotions in his eyes reflected… grief and regret. “Your grandma and Caleb,” he started, his eyes never leaving hers in a way that made it impossible for her to look away as well. “They didn’t survive the explosion.” He said gently.

A gasp ripped from her core. It hurt her throat, her head, her chest… But the pain of her broken and bruised body was nothing compared to the agony that threatened to rip her heart asunder. Among the dancing flames, she remembered Caleb’s necklace. 

She frantically started searching around, using the full extent of her voice for the first time in six days. Her vocal cords protested with pain, but that pain took a back seat to the panic of having lost the, now, only thing she had left of her family. “Where is it?” She asked. Her voice, thick and heavy from days of disuse and gravely from the damage that the smoke had surely done to her vocal cords and windpipe, echoed strangely and unfamiliar in the room. “Where’s his necklace?!” 

Xavier’s hand reached over to the tray next to the bed and gingerly grabbed a chain of metal, which clicked against the tray as he lifted it. 

“It’s right here,” he answered quietly, reaching out his hand to give the piece of jewelry to her. She held her palms out to him and he allowed the chain to drop into her hand. Even through the bandages, it was cold to the touch. 

Relief at having not actually lost his necklace surfaced for less than a fraction of a second before grief , agonizing, unrelenting and all encompassing passed over her. A heavy sob accompanied by thick, hot tears, burst from her body, and she allowed herself to feel the pain as it washed over her like a thunderstorm. 

For a long while, the only sound in the room was the sound of her strangled sobs. Zayne simply sat and allowed her to cry while Xavier came closer and gently rubbed her back. Once she settled down some, Zayne spoke again, 

“Skylar,” he said her name again, “There is something else that you should know,” He took a deep breath as if to brace himself to say the next sentence of words. “Their bodies couldn’t be recovered from the explosion site. There were no bodies found.” 

Skylar was sure that, if she had any more tears to shed, she’d be reduced to a small puddle of salt water. Instead, she allowed her eyes to unfocus on her surroundings and she just… sat there, in a near catatonic state.

“Thank you, Dr. Zayne. Thank you Xavier,” she said formally, coldly, indifferently. “I would like to be alone now.” Her fingers tightened around the chain in her hands, allowing it to cut off the circulation to her fingertips, turning them red, and the area beneath the chain ghostly white. She focused on the feeling of her fingertips, feeling like they were throbbing with the lack of blood flow and imagined that the chain biting into the skin of her hands might have hurt, if she were not already in more pain in her heart than any physical injury or malady could ever possibly hope to achieve.

Chapter Text

Mephisto returned to the Onychinus home base, flying through the manor at a speed Sylus and the twins didn’t even know he was capable of. “Mephisto,” Sylus’ low voice drawled the crow's name and held out his hand for the bird to perch upon. “What information do you have for me?” 

The bird cawed in Sylus’s face a handful of times before its eyes flashed bright white and a projected image was displayed in front of him. Sylus watched carefully as the girl lay motionless in the bed for so long, he was starting to think the bird was just coming with a status update before he saw her figure twitch and move. From out of the frame, the same man from before, the Hunter from the No Hunt Zone, this time dressed in casual black jeans and a white denim jacket pressed his hand to her face. 

“I’m going to get the doctor,” the man’s quiet voice came through the image transmission. “I’ll be right back,” Then he stepped out of view. The other half of his heart, diminished in this moment to a small projection, laid in the hospital bed, groggy and alone, as her head gently lolled and made direct eye contact with the camera - with Mephisto. 

Sylus felt the very essence of his being, his heart, his soul, contract with longing. He could fool himself for just the fraction of a single moment that she was looking directly at him. He wanted to reach out and hold her. He wished he’d been there when she’d woken up. Too quickly after that moment, the video ended and Mephisto’s eyes returned to the ruby red that he’d been programmed with. The crow cawed in Sylus’ face one more time before flying off to his charging perch next to the head of the bed. 

“Luke, Kieran,” Sylus said into the empty room. 

The twins materialized from seemingly nowhere and bowed, “Yes boss?” they said in unison.

“Get some information out for her to find. Dispatch anyone who takes the contract for the painter’s bounty.” 

“Yes sir,” the twins answered in unison, and as quickly as they materialized, they disappeared again. 

~~~~~~~

Skylar would have preferred to mourn the loss of Grandma and Caleb in the comfort of her own home. The longer she was in the hospital, the longer Dr. Zayne ran tests and imaging on her, it became clear that the explosion had a profoundly negative effect on her heart as a result of her protocore syndrome. 

“Cardiac Arrhythmia,” Dr. Zayne told her one afternoon, “Sometimes this is harmless, almost like a heart murmur. Other times it can be more serious and even fatal. The good news is, an ablation usually solves the problem without any additional issues. Given the… unique nature of your protocore syndrome, I highly recommend this procedure. It will aid in and decrease the amount of time for your overall recovery.” Skylar listened to Zayne speak, entranced by his voice, and the innate calming nature it had. She was sure, however, that no amount of recovery, surgery, or treatment otherwise would aid the sharp ache of loss and grief that settled in her chest. 

“Dr. Zayne,” Skylar said after a moment as she considered his assessment of her heart, cold and medical as it was. “I would like to speak to ‘Just Zayne’, my friend. Please.” His eyes, the color of fresh honey, searched her features before he removed his lab coat. Today, he was dressed in a light shirt, beige pants and suspenders. He sat down on the bed by her hip. 

“I’m here and I’m all ears,” he said, reaching back to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. 

“I admire and am impressed by Dr. Zayne’s medical knowledge of the heart, and how well he is able to come up with solutions to my heart’s medical issues.” She started, wringing her fingers in her lap, “But… I don’t think I’ll be able to truly start to recover without closure.” Zayne sat by her side, motionless and quiet, before she decided to just come out and say it. Aloud. Where it would be real and any hope of this being a terrible, awful, horrific nightmare that she couldn't wake up from would be laid to rest alongside her family. “I’d like to have a memorial service for Caleb and Grandma.” she choked out, feeling her throat tense and tears prick at the corner of her eyes. 

Zayne’s expression, while not hard, or unforgiving to begin with, softened with knowing and his own grief. “I think that’s a great idea. I believe we can make that happen. I will send for the hospital chaplain to come speak with you later, if you would like?” Skylar never considered herself a religious individual. At best, she figured, if there was someone or something out there to listen to the prayers of more devout individuals, then perhaps she’d lived her life in a kind and generous enough way that she’d be welcomed to Paradise when her time came. At worst, nothing happened, and then she wouldn’t know it anyway. Still, she nodded with a sad smile.

“I would appreciate that very much, Zayne. Thank you.” 

“I’ll see that it’s done.” He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. A simple gesture, but one she appreciated non the less. “I need to return to ‘Dr. Zayne.’ While you are my most important patient, you are not my only patient.” 

Without the energy or heart to joke with him, Skylar simply nodded in understanding. Xavier or Rafayel will probably be by before too long anyway, she thought to herself.

Once Zayne finished adjusting the collar of his lab coat, he fiddled with one of the instruments behind the head of the bed, placed a hand on her shoulder with a gentle squeeze and left the room without another word. 

Skylar was left to her own devices for all of about 45 minutes before the receiver next to the bed pinged, announcing that the front desk was attempting to reach her. 

“Ms. Rayne, it's Yvonne at the front desk. I have a Mr. Rafayel here to see you.” 

“Please send him up, Yvonne. Thank you,” Skylar said back to the receiver. After a few heartbeats, the receiver pinged again. 

“Skylar… is that the Rafayel? The famous painter? He’s so much more handsome in person! Are you seeing each other?” Yvonne’s voice came as a whisper from the little device on her bedside table. In spite of herself, and the pain it caused, Skylar chuckled to herself before answering. Yvonne was reliable for gossip around the hospital. 

“Yes it is, yes he is, and no we’re not.” She whispered back. “I am in his employ as his bodyguard.” 

“Pft, and some bodyguard you’ve been, laid up in the hospital while I’ve had to bat away suitresses and interviewers alike without any help,” Rafayel’s voice came from around the corner. Though his words were harsh and slightly insensitive, the tone of his voice carried an air of jest and concern. When he rounded the door, his arms were full of flowers, balloons, chocolates and a plushie teddy bear. “I suppose, though, you do me no good if you’re not at your best.” He said with a wink and set down all the gifts he brought on the chair opposite the hospital bed she was laying in. 

“It’s good to see you too, Rafayel,” she said with a smile. 

“How are you feeling?” He asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed, close enough that she could almost see the exact point in his eyes where the color changed from blue to pink. She felt her face get warm at his sudden proximity, and turned to look away from him. 

“You’re too close,” She mumbled, “But I’m… about as okay as is expected,” she said as he felt him shift and back away. 

“You made me worry,” He said, all levity in his voice gone. All that was left in his tone was genuine concern. Skylar whipped her head back and met Rafayel’s eyes. “If something were to happen to you… I don’t know what I’d do.” 

“Please, there are a million people in the world who I’m sure are capable and would be willing to be your bodyguard,” She waved a dismissive hand at him, but he grabbed her right hand and held it between both of his. 

“You’re the only bodyguard I have ever or will ever hire, so please. Take care of yourself.” Rafayel’s words were so… sincere. Skylar felt heat rising in her face again.

“Has anyone told you you’re dramatic?” She huffed and looked away from him again. “Besides. It’s not like what happened to me is something I did on purpose,” she yanked her hand out of his and clutched at the necklace draped around her neck. Rafayel’s eyes passed over her face to study the chain she was fiddling with for a while before his eyebrows raised ever so slightly, and then he nodded. 

“You’re right, I shouldn’t be so hard on you. I am sorry for everything you’ve been through.” He suddenly stood up and rummaged through the pile of gifts he brought, setting the flowers on the window sill and grabbed a small box of chocolates and a card.

“This is from Thomas, he sends his best wishes and condolences,” He reached back and grabbed the teddy bear plush to set it on her feet. “And this is from me. I figured, we haven’t been to the arcade in a while. You must be missing your plushies. I went and won this one for you all on my own.” 

“Rafayel, thats-” at a loss for words, she simply gaped at him for a few moments, “that’s surprisingly thoughtful of you. Thank you.”

“What do you mean ‘surprisingly’ thoughtful? I am the most thoughtful person I know,” His tone regained some of its joking levity, and it eased her own pain, if only by the most marginal amount, to hear his voice return to the playfully antagonistic tone he usually spoke in. 

Rafayel stayed for almost three hours, though he spent the last hour saying that he should go, he had an art exhibition to get ready for. It wasn’t until Thomas called in a slight panic asking him where he was, and why his studio was unlocked if he wasn’t home before Rafayel actually left. 

Skylar appreciated the company. Having someone around to talk to kept her thoughts from spiraling down the hole of unending grief. Were it not for the sterile walls of the hospital, and the uncomfortable bed that was most certainly not her own, She could think of the bantering with Rafayel, the heart all a-flutter over Xavier, the comforting long time and familiar presence of Zayne, and almost pretend like everything was as it should be. She could call Caleb tomorrow to see how he was doing. She could make plans to go visit Gran for a weekend, and make a point to do it more frequently. 

But in the stillness and the silence of her solitude, with not even the beeping, whirring and humming of the medical equipment she was hooked up to providing any distraction, the tissue thin illusion of normalcy would crumble beneath the weight of reality and her ever present grief. 

~~~~~~~~~

Days, then weeks, then months passed in a grief stricken sort of haze. Once the reports came out about the explosion that left two dead in the Bloomshore District, Skylar started attempting to connect dots that, realistically, weren’t there.

“I refuse to believe what happened to me was an accident,” she told Tara earlier that day after finishing another Protocore analysis from a hunt she’d gone on. It felt frustratingly like she was getting nowhere fast. 

That same evening, during a follow up appointment with Zayne, he’d given her a small biolock safe, no bigger than a book, supposedly given to him by her grandmother. What had happened between Gran and Zayne, Skylar would never really know for sure, but now, as she sat here and thumbed through the documents that her Grandmother left to her, she felt a strange sense of foreboding and almost betrayal as her eyes scanned over the documents over and over, the same set of words popping out to her each time: 

“Aether Core”

“Subject’s heart” 

“Energy Fluctuation” 

The phrase “Preliminary assessments indicate that fusion with the Aether Core was successful” replays over and over in her mind. 

With the information on the test subject, everything but a name, and the startling handwriting that looked just like Gran’s…

Zayne picked up on the first ring. “Did something happen?” He sounded slightly concerned. 

“Zayne! I… I need to ask you a question.” she stammered out almost before he could finish speaking. The background noise wherever Zayne is starts to rapidly fade until there’s silence on the other end. 

“I’m listening,” he said after a beat of silence. 

Skylar thumbed through the documents again, the words “Aether Core” popping out to her on every page like they were written in bold, metallic ink and highlighted with a bright marker. 

“It’s about my heart,” She started slowly as her eyes landed on the phrase ‘ Preliminary assessments indicate that fusion with the Aether Core was successful ’ once again. “Is the protocore in my heart the same as the ones in other Protocore Syndrome patients?” Skylar held her breath for Zaynes answer, though she was certain she already knew what he was going to say. 

Zayne took a deep breath, blowing into the mic on the other end of the phone. The sense of dread that Skylar had been feeling up to this point heightens as she slowly releases the breath she is holding.

“It certainly is a strange protocore fragment. After reviewing your condition, I’ve tried to find similar cases… but as far as I’m aware,” He paused for a fraction of a moment that seemed to stretch for eternity. 

“You’re the only one.” 

The confirmation, like a blow to the chest, forced her to release her breath as the hunches and educated guesses she had made up to this point started pointing more and more toward fact. 

“Is that because it’s an Aether Core?” She asked quietly. Zayne let out another long breath but didn’t answer. Skylar started to grow impatient at his unwillingness to answer her questions. “You’re my primary care physician! Grandma also entrusted you to give me these papers. She must have had a good reason!” Skylar could feel herself becoming increasingly more and more hysterical as she spoke. From the other end of the line, Zayne’s voice came out gently and calmly. 

“It’s only been six months since she passed, Skylar. Regardless. Aside from its name, I don’t know much about it,” Skylar pulled the phone away from her ear and narrowed her eyes at Contact Photo Zayne before replacing it to her ear. “-your heart has been there for a long time. Perhaps there’s someone else who can provide us with information.” She picked up what she thought was most of the sentence and decided not to ask Zayne to repeat himself.  “Do you remember Dr. Noah?”

Dr. Noah was her PCP, and chief of staff at Asko Hospital before he retired and Zayne took over. He was also Zayne’s teacher. If anyone would know about her protocore syndrome, it stood to reason that it would be Dr. Noah. She hummed in confirmation. 

“He’s currently doing a personal research project in Snowcrest. If you want to meet him, I can help you get in touch. However, the weather in that area has been unpredictable lately. The train to Snowcrest is often unavailable. I suggest you wait two weeks before trying to visit him.”

Two weeks?! She thought to herself. I don’t have that kind of time.  With her mind made up, she gave a non-committal, “I’ll think about it,” before hanging up on Zayne and looking up to stare at her ceiling. 

She pulled up the Hunters Association scheduling app on her phone and requested a last minute vacation before shooting a quick message to Jenna: 

← I just submitted a time off request for the next week.

←I’m sorry it’s so last minute.

→From: Jenna
Received and approved. 

←Thank you!

Jenna responded again after a couple of minutes, four times in quick succession: 

→From: Jenna
Of course. 

→From: Jenna
And listen, I know you’re taking the 
loss of your family very hard. I 
understand. 

→From: Jenna
Just be sure to take care of yourself.
For yourself, and your team. 

→From: Jenna
And for Xavier

Blinking rapidly at the last text, Skylar felt her face get warm at the sight of Xavier’s name. Was her crush so obvious that even her boss caught on? No, surely it's because Xavier was her mission partner. Throwing her hands up, she groaned.

“Now is not the time to be thinking about Xavier!” She scolded herself aloud to her empty apartment. Skylar busied herself by packing a duffel bag of clothing and essentials for her trip to Snowcrest, not bothering to pack any of her creature comforts as she considered this something of a type of mission. 

One way or another, by this time tomorrow, Skylar would be in Snowcrest and hopefully be getting more answers than she had right now. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Getting to Snowcrest, as it turned out, was more difficult than she expected it to be. Not that she thought Zayne was lying to her about the state of the weather to keep her from going on her to visit Dr. Noah, but more that she underestimated the severity of the weather, and overestimated the power of her sheer will. 

Snow storms apparently don’t care how badly you need to get somewhere. 

Tara and Xavier both seemed relieved that she’d decided to take some time off. She didn’t necessarily tell them where she was going or why. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, after all. She wandered around the train station for a while, determined to make it to snowcrest, but unsure how she would accomplish the goal. An as a station staff member walked past, she was suddenly stuck with the idea if that if the train couldn’t get her to Snowcrest, maybe some other method could. If anyone would know, it would be a local after all, so she flagged down the staff member. 

“We still don’t know if the train is delayed because of the weather or for another reason,” He said to her, “For your safety, please wait,” 

She groaned to herself as he walked away from her with a polite nod. Frustration stemming from a sense of helplessness was beginning to eat away at her when she heard a familiar voice ordering food and coffee from the cafe just around the corner. 

Before she could think better of it, she blurted Zayne’s name. Passersby turned their head to look at her before continuing along their business. Zayne, looked up at her, then back down to the keypad to finish paying. 

“Skylar,” he said in a tone of voice that indicated to her he was not at all surprised to see her here. How is it he could have possibly known she was going to come here? Skylar rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. 

“Wh-what are you doing here?” She tried to seem nonchalant, like she wasn’t explicitly going against the advice he’d given her less than 24 hours ago. Zayne hummed and collected his pastries and coffee cups from the counter before closing the distance. 

“There’s been a development in Dr. Noah’s research. He asked me to visit him about a week ago.” Zayne answered with the nonchalance of a small talk conversation, though a week ago was well before he told her to wait two weeks, Why did he want her to wait when he himself would not be? As if reading her thoughts, Zayne continued on, “He’s not as young as he used to be,” He led her to a small table just off to the side of the main walk way, “He can’t always do things alone anymore. I help him whenever I’m not too busy with work.” 

After some more small talk and idle conversation coffee and meal, Skylar and Zayne found themselves sitting next to eachother in a pair of chairs in the waiting area of the terminal that would, hopefully soon, take them to Snowcrest. Skylar figited with anxious energy as she sat and waited, watching other hopeful passengers slowly give up on their wait and clear out of the station. Her thoughts returned to the files that her Gran had left her, and she absently patted her shoulder bag to feel the biosafe tucked safely away between her change of clothes and other travel necessities. 

Zayne placed a gentle hand on her bouncing knee, pulling her from the thoughts bouncing around her head. The contact of his hand on her leg drew a warmth up her neck and face. When she looked at him, he regarded her with curiosity. “What are you thinking about?” He asked quietly. She heaved a sigh and and met his eyes with a forced smile. 

“I’m… I’m thinking about what an Aether Core is… and why one was fused with my heart.” She reached up and placed her hand on her chest, as though she could feel the strange object within her. “What if I’m a dangerous experiment that somehow escaped from a secret lab? Any second, armed men in suits could descend on me to take me away,” She was mostly being facetious, but she couldn’t help but sweep her gaze about her surroundings for anyone that might seem suspicious to her. Everyone within her eye sight, while looking slightly annoyed at the delay in their travel plans, seemed to be just a normal person. Zayne’s expression, usually stoic and cold with scientific calculation, shifts, and a glimmer of amusement crinkles the corners of his eyes. “Well… a few seconds have passed and nothing has happened,” she aquiesced. Zayne’s hand on my knee squeezes ever so slightly. 

“Maybe you’ll get the answers you seek once we arrive in Snowcrest,” he said with a tone of genuine hope. Skylar eyed him and wondered if he was just as curious about the Aether Core and the answers to the questions she had as she was. She wondered if knowing better about the Aether Core would be able to help him treat her better as her cardiologist. He continued on before she could ask, “The protocore energy in your heart has always been stable. It has the ability to form a protective shield around your heart when you're attacked, and you haven’t become as weak as other patients with Protocore syndrome. In other words- it’s power, the power of the Aether Core… it’s a power made just for you,” he finished and looked away toward the message board across the way. 

WIth her hand still on her heart, she worries that while what Zayne says may be true… will the person who put the Aether Core there in the first place want it back someday? 

This trip to Snowcrest was cursed from the start, Skylar thought to herself as she and Zayne, aboard a sleigh pulled by dogs literally built for the snowy environment. As they dismount and the sleigh turned to return to the hunters who lent it to them, she pressed against the softness of her cheeks, her face was cold and windburnt, her lips were chapped and sore. She wondered how Dr. Noah could possibly live in a place like this. 

Led by Dr. Noah’s companion, a little fox-like creature named Pie, Skylar and Zayne finally made it to Dr. Noah’s home. She was struck by how he’s aged, but he still offers her the same wide, genuine and calming smile she had grown accustomed to as a child. 

A chaotic atmosphere of animals surrounded Dr. Noah’s home in the arctic and it wasn't until almost dinner time before the three of them finally had a chance to sit down to talk. Dr. Noah proudly explained that he caught the fish they were eating for that night’s dinner himself. While Skylar didn't find it a very good tasting dish, she simply told Dr. Noah that the fish had a unique flavor and left it at that, and ate as much as she could before she announced that she was so full and couldn't possibly eat another bite. 

It was finally once they finished dinner and they were sitting in front of the roaring fireplace with the sweet Pie sitting between Skylar and Zayne that all the questions she had for Dr. Noah finally began to bubble over.

“Dr. Noah,” she started just as Zayne says the same thing. They exchanged a glance before Zayne gestured for her to go ahead. “Dr. Noah, I appreciate you being willing to talk with me on such short notice. I have some questions and I think you might have the answers to, or at least might be able to point me in the right direction."

“Indeed. Zayne mentioned when we talked on the phone last night that you would be accompanying him up today.” Skylar blinked several times at Dr. Noah before she shot a glance at Zayne. Zayne simply sat next to her with an expressionless face, legs crossed, his left hand trailing down Pie’s back absently. In the interest of getting answers, Skylar decided that detouring to follow that line of questioning was not worth the time it would eat for more pressing matters. So instead, she reached into her pack and pulled out the biolock safe that had been given to her by her Gran through Zayne. 

“Before I start rapid-firing questions,” She opened and handed it to Dr. Noah, who pulled a pair of bifocals from the pocket of his shirt and placed them on his nose. 

How long the three of them sat in silence as Dr. Noah reviewed the documents, Skylar couldn’t say. It took all of her will-power not to stand up and start pacing, to look over his shoulder and ask questions about every detail of the information in those notes. Finally, after seemingly an eternity, Dr. Noah took the glasses off of his face and looked up at her, his expression was indescernable. 

“So,” he said with a heavy sigh, “Your Grandmother told you everything,” he said as though he had been waiting for this information to make it to me for years. ‘Everything’ seemed a bit of a stretch to Skylar, though. She gestured at the box still in Dr. Noah’s hands. 

“All she left me was that box of files. The rest I can only speculate on…” she trailed off. Before she could stop herself, she blurted the first two questions that have been burning in her brain. Questions she was certain she knew the answers to, but wanted to hear Dr. Noah say it himself. “Is the protocore in my heart really an Aether Core? And… was it placed there on purpose?” 

Dr. Noah glanced down at the files in the biosafe. “I don’t know how or why the process was done,” he started. Skylar put all of her effort into not deflating at the words ‘I don’t know…’ “But in regards to the protocore,” he continued, “Even a minimally invasive procedure can leave behind traces.” He studied me in silence for a moment before he continued, “If I had to guess… it would be your innate strength.” 

“How can that-?” She started.

“There are countless, seemingly impossible hypotheses behind every scientific conclusion.” Dr. Noah gestured to Zayne, “Before the Evol gene emerged, no one believed they could wield the power of nature.”

Skylar chewed on that information in her head for a little bit before another puzzle piece presented itself. “Okay. But all experiments serve a purpose, right?” Dr. Noah nodded, and Zayne did as well next to her. “What could an Aether Core in someone’s heart possibly prove?”

Dr. Noah chuckled to himself and leaned back in his chair. “Let me answer your question with one of my own. Why do you think people want to go inside the Deepspace Tunnel?” 

She took a deep breath and sunk lower into her chair. Of course, the answer to such a question would be something like ‘ Because they want to see what happens’ or ‘ Because they can’ 

“ Some things are attractive simply by existing. Unraveling the unknown is a purpose in and of itself.” 

Disappointment of an acute nature reared its head within the pit of her stomach. She supposed, without ever having admitted it aloud, that she had hoped that there was some grand design , something that made her special and unique to be experimented on. Some purpose beyond ‘ just because ’ that would justify the experiments, and even more, would explain and justify why Grandma and Caleb had to die. 

And that she thought to herself,  is what hurts the worst. There was no grand scheme, no greater purpose. Gran and Caleb died as a result of a freak accident, and nothing to do with anything at all. 

“Skylar,” Dr. Noah’s voice broke the silence once more. “Some are willing to do anything to achieve their goals. Don’t let anyone know about your Aether Core.” She eyed him with confusion. If the experiment was ‘ just because’ then why would it matter whether or not anyone knew about the Aether Core in her heart. She reasoned that, even if the Aether Core gave her innate strength, there was nothing else particularly special about her. She didn’t have any kind of super human strength, nor did she have any super powers. Sure, maybe her Evol was pretty unique, but there’s no telling whether the Evol was hers before the Aether Core or not. And it’s not like she can just not use her Evol. Her Resonance was well known enough. Anyone with curiosity and the ability to search through the Association’s public records could find her name, Evol Class and Evol Type. 

Realization hit Skylar like a bag of bricks, “While I haven’t told anyone, Grandma is-” She choked a little on the weight of her grief in the back of her throat. She took a deep breath. “The person who is responsible for this… They will come looking for me sooner or later.” She finished, though it wasn’t a question. Skylar knew this to be a statement of fact. “That’s why I need to know what makes the Aether Core so special. If, as you say, there are people who are willing to do anything to achieve their goals,” Maybe Grandma and Caleb’s deaths are related after all, “Who exactly are these ‘people’?” 

Dr. Noah looked at Skylar for a seemingly long time before he took a deep breath. “Aether was originally something Philosophers came up with. A fifth element, if you will. No one can prove, nor disprove, that aether exists. Maybe that’s the reason your grandmother called it ‘Aether’. A mysterious energy that surpasses that of other Protocores? Anyone who knows about it will desire such a power.” 

The bigger picture started to become a little clearer. While it wasn’t necessarily that she was special - an Aether Core - a protocore far more powerful than a normal protocore, in her possession surely would be. Given that the term “Aether Core” doesn’t come up even among professional medical journals when Zayne was researching, and anyone who seems to have any information about it seems hesitant to share… It stood to reason that in addition to being very unique and more powerful, they were probably pretty rare as well. 

“...And anyone who has it will pay the price,” she said aloud, finishing her internal thoughts with her understanding of the gravity of the situation. In Skylar’s eyes, it seemed she’d already paid a hefty price. How much further were ‘these people’ willing to go to get their hands on it. And who, other than Dr. Noah, and now Zayne, knew about the Aether Core in her heart? The only other person would have been Gran… 

Did Caleb even know? She thought to herself. That seemed… incredibly unlikely. There was no way Caleb would have known something like that about her and not have immediately told her. The idea that he was not an intended target, and perhaps it should have been she who walked into the house first sent a fresh wave of grief and survivor’s guilt awash over her whole being.  

Dr. Noah stood, handed me the biolock safe, and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it too much. They shouldn’t be able to find you any time soon. The amount of energy in your heart right now is far less than what the experimental data shows. I can’t say for certain, but it’s possible that something occurred in the final experiment that reduced, possibly permanently, the Aether Core’s power.” 

“What do you mean, reduced the power?” She asked, putting a hand on her chest over her heart. 

“It's only a guess. This is beyond my field of expertise.” 

“Dr. Noah, Do you know who else knew about the experiments?” Dr. Noah sat back down and rubbed at his chin, looking toward the ceiling. 

“You were still a child when you first came under my care,” he started, “At that time, Josephine was only able to provide me with the bare minimum amount of information. 

“To better understand your heart’s condition, I tried to privately contact the researchers who’s names Josephine was able to provide me. Unfortunately, most had either disappeared… or died. It’d be hard to find any of them today.” Dr. Noah looked remorseful before his expression brightened slightly, like a lightbulb went off in his head. “Ah, but I do remember your grandmother mentioning that one of them ran away to….” He trailed off as though he wasn’t sure he didn’t want to continue. 

“Dr. Noah. Please,” she urged him. He took another deep breath and with a nod to himself, he finished. 

“They ran away to the N109 Zone. They joined Onychinus.” 

Before she could stop herself or swallow it, she gasped audibly, the sound startled the sleeping Pie sitting on the couch next to her. I didn’t expect to hear that name from Dr. Noah, she thought to herself, but after a few moments, the connections started to become a little clearer, and the connection between this mysterious researcher and Onychinus made sense. Dr. Noah’s voice pulled her back from her thoughts. 

“Their fellow researchers started dying or disappearing soon after that.” Skylar nodded absently, thinking about how Gran always said she was a researcher, but never really talked about what it was she researched. As a kid, Skylar always assumed the research was something like… Well, she didn’t know. But she never assumed that Grandma was a researcher who experimented on her. Grief and guilt aside, a piece of her stung with a mild sense of betrayal. 

“Dr. Noah. I have just one last question about Grandma,” Skylar said after just a moment. “Was she…” a familiar thickness rose in her throat, where usually it was out of sadness, now the sense of betrayal that started small in her chest was growing larger the longer she sat on the information. “Was she the person who put the Aether Core in my heart?” She finally asked. 

The answer had the potential to break her heart all over again. 

But she had to know. 

Dr. Noah simply looked at her for a short while. “I don’t know.” He finally said. Skylar let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “But listen to me, Skylar,” his tone took on a very serious edge, “not everyone is lucky enough to do what is right in the beginning. We can only hope that we have the choice to turn it into something we don’t regret.” He said as if he could hear exactly what she had been thinking, or feel exactly what she had been feeling. He gestured to the biolock safe sitting in her lap. “Maybe this is the choice she got to make.”

Chapter Text

“To complete application submission, please enter your Hunter ID,” the OTTO next to her commanded in a high pitched, yet oddly adorable voice. 

“Requesting a transfer already?” A familiar voice from behind her made her jump. The office space around her was quiet, most other hunters either off work or out in the field. When she arrived at the Association this morning, she was the only one here, except for Nero. 

Skylar thought sure that Nero lived in his office.

The application for clearance to access more of the Association’s information was lengthy. Sitting at her desk, typing away, it took her just under two hours to fill out the clearance application. 

“Xavier,” she breathed, her heart fluttering first from the start he’d given her, then from how closely behind her he was standing. “You nearly scared the shit out of me,” She said through a breathy laugh.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” his quiet voice held a hint of genuine remorse along with humor and amusement. She turned to see him hiding a smile behind his left hand. 

“Don’t laugh,” she said and scooted her chair over. “You can drag one of those chairs over and come sit with me,” she gestured to a cube across the aisle from hers, “Grab Lawrence’s chair. He’s out for the rest of the week on vacation,” 

“Why do you know that?” Xavier questioned when he came back, rolling the chair back and stopping it next to her, an indiscernible expression in his eyes. She blinked her eyes at him in confusion as he sat down.

“I… saw it on the team schedule?” She answered. 

“Oh,” Xavier suddenly looked away sheepishly for a moment. “That.. makes sense.” 

She stared at him for a moment before she smiled and looked away, feeling her cheeks grow warm. “You’re so weird,” she said, “to answer your question, I’m not applying for a transfer. I’m actually applying for higher document and facility clearance,” She said. 

“Why?” Genuine curiosity laced his voice. Skylar took a deep breath and mulled over how much she was willing to divulge. She looked at his eyes, remembering that, despite his insistence otherwise, Xavier was almost certainly not just ‘a normal Deepspace hunter. ’ Afterall, it was him who had first given her the name, the word, Onychinus. It was him who showed her the flux nexus stele in the forest, and him who encouraged her to resonate with it, wiping out the slumbering aeonwyrm in the process. 

She took another deep breath and decided that if not Xavier, who else would she, could she trust with this information? 

Caleb? A small voice in her head interrupted. A wave of grief washed over her before  took a deep breath to center herself again. “I need to find out more about Onychinus,” she said after what she was sure was a longer time than she meant to sit in silence. She grabbed at the metal chain beneath her shirt, the two charms hanging off of it warm from her body heat. “They’re the ones responsible for what happened to my family,” she looked up and met Xavier’s eyes again. Behind his expression was something akin to resolve, as though he were feeling her conviction for her. 

He opened his mouth to speak when the ping of an email came through, she swung around before he could say anything to open it. 

Skylar Rayne, Hunter ID 01309264

Your clearance application has been received and is being reviewed. Please contact your immediate supervisor with any additional questions. 

Warm Regards,

Deepspace Hunters Association Hunter Resources Team

Skylar blew out a breath, feeling silly for expecting her application to be reviewed for approval or denial so quickly. 

“You know,” Xavier said from beside her, He leaned forward to set his elbow on her desk, chin in his hand and surveyed her face, “If you needed access to higher clearance documents, I can help you,” He flashed her a smile. 

“Wait… What level of security clearance do you have?” 

Xavier shrugged, “I think it’s the highest level?” 

“The highest level? What on earth do you need that kind of clearance for?” Just a normal deepspace hunter my ass! She thought to herself.

Xavier simply shrugged again and stood up, reaching both of his arms around her, placing his long, lithe fingers on the keyboard of her computer. 

Skylar couldn’t breathe, and mentally high-fived herself for being too lazy to shower last night, and apologized to the version of her this morning that was grumpy about getting up extra early to shower this morning. She always brushed her hair and teeth in the morning, but something compelled her to moisturize her arms and hands with the Cool as a Cucumber lotion that Tara had given her… This close to him though, Skylar was nervous that Xavier would only notice any flaws she tried to hide with her daily routine…

She kicked herself for having had a cup of coffee on her way to work this morning… ya know.. AFTER my teeth had been brushed already. Ugh!  Did her breath stink? Did she remember to put on deodorant? Was the uniform she was wearing the freshly washed one? Or the one she accidentally forgot about in the washing machine for several days?  

While Skylar felt her sanity rapidly depleting from Xavier’s proximity to her body and the way he hovered over her, she looked down to watch his fingers dance across the keyboard. “Your hair smells nice,” he said casually, like an offhand comment you make to a friend, like small talk you make with an acquaintance.

Skylar nearly choked on air, “Ha, thanks,” she said with as little breath as possible, just in case her coffee breath carried too far, “It’s “Fresh Spring,” scent,” she chuckled nervously. 

“Are you okay?” He said as he stood straight back up, the harsh fluorescent lights hitting her again after his shadow moved. It took a considerable amount of self-control to keep herself from chasing after his chest to lean into it, and she wanted to kick herself again for being too anxious to actually enjoy how close he had been to her. 

“Uh, ha ha. Yeah? Why?” She said as she spun in her chair to look up at him. He smiled down on her, his crystalline blue eyes reflecting warmth and… something like affection maybe? (was that just wishful thinking?) back down at her before he leaned forward again, his gentle hand brushed against her cheek. 

“Your face is flushed,” he whispered. 

“Ohhh, It’s. Well you know, it’s always warm in this building,” she scrambled for an excuse as she turned around and touched her hands to her- yes it was decidedly- very warm face. Maybe I’ll take a walk here in a couple minutes. Anyway, what were you doing-?” She started to ask as she spun back around.

The Hunters Association Database was pulled up on her screen, Xavier’s headshot and hunter ID displayed at the top right corner of the screen. “If I can help… even just a little bit…” He said as he reached down from the mouse and clicked the search bar at the top of the page, “then I want to.” He finished. 

She blinked down at his hand as it left the mouse then looked up at the screen “Start your search here,” highlighted in the field Xavier had just clicked. 

She hesitantly started to type, one letter at a time. 

O N Y C H I -

Her hopes started to fall.. The program would normally start auto-filling possible search terms if there was anything available to pull from the database

N U S 

She finished the word, but the only thing that popped up was the “Search for more results,” link that usually appeared at the bottom of the auto-fill list. Without any expectations, she hit enter on the keyboard. 

A few short moments passed before the OTTO that gave voice to the database came through “Sorry. No relevant data entries can be found. Please use another database and try again.” Skylar took a deep breath and deflated into her computer chair. 

Even with Xavier’s clearance, Skylar was a little surprised that nothing pulled up. It was not as if Jenna and Xavier weren’t just the other day talking about it in broad daylight… 

Skylar leaned forward and tried a different search, 

N 1 0 9 Z O N-

N109 Zone History

N109 Zone Chronorift Disaster

N109 Zone Lumiere

N109 Zone Speed Limits

N109 Zone and crows

N109 Zone Protofield

Skylar finished out the search term and hit enter again- the OTTO chimed back “Fifty-one relevant data entries found.” Skylar leaned forward and started to skim the results, but the information available was vague and… nothing she didn’t already know. 

I guess I’m not getting any answers from the association… She thought to herself as she sat back and exchanged a disappointed look with Xavier. 

“Hey!” Tara’s chipper voice met her ears at the same time her face appeared in her field of vision. Tara passed a glance between Skylar and Xavier, raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment any further, instead asking about her ‘vacation’, “Soooo, How was Snowcrest? Did you have fun?” She half sat her hip on Skylar’s desk. 

“Tara!” Skylar smiles up at her friend before she reaches down into her bag and pulls out a small snowglobe of Mt Eternal with a light inside that simulates an aurora when the snowglobe is shaken wrapped in several layers of tissue paper. “The mountains were amazing. The aurora was so beautiful. And there was this-”

With a surprised gasp, Tara accepted the bundle of tissue paper and started unwrapping the little gift, “You actually remembered! Thank you!” Her eyes drift to Skylar’s computer screen and a troubled expression crosses her face, The snow globe set gently on the table. 

“You’re looking into the N109 Zone,” She said more than asked. “Got a new mission already? That’s a place even veteran hunters don’t touch! Shouldn’t Captain Jenna be extra prepared if she’s going to be heading in, or sending you in?” Skylar fiddles with the tissue paper Tara discarded from around her snow globe. 

“I… was just curious about it,” she said, “Even if Captain Jenna gave me a mission there, I wouldn’t accept it. Haha.”

Relief washes over Tara’s face. “Ah, I see. I hear that the people in the N109 Zone are cleaning up a mess of their own making. So they shouldn’t be causing trouble any time soon.” She says matter of factly. Skylar looks back at Xavier, whose expression is neutral. She looks back at Tara, her curiosity piqued. 

“What do you mean?” 

Tara smiles and leans in and lowers her voice like she's about to share the juiciest gossip she’s ever heard. “About a month ago, not long after our last big mission ended actually, there was quite the spectacle in the N109 Zone. Numerous deals were being made on the black market, a whole bunch of illegally traded protocores that were all set to be auctioned, bought and sold were all cleared out without a trace! And you know how the black market runs. Weapon augmentation, human experiments, unethical medical research… it all relies on protocores!” 

Skylar takes a moment to mull over the information. Protocores don’t just disappear without a trace. “Who did it?” She asks. 

Tara leaned down a little further, lowering her voice a little more, “No one knows! Buuut according to the rumors-”

“It’s Lumiere.” Nero interrupts her with a deadpan matter-of-fact tone. He wheels his chair between Skylar and Tara and passes rapid glances between the two. 

“Nero!” Tara starts and jumps back, “When did you get here?” Skylar was half tempted to inform them of her theory that Nero actually lives at the Association building but she is more interested in the name he just provided her with - a possible lead. 

“Lumiere?” She asks. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Xavier shift in the borrowed computer chair. 

“Yeah. Aside from him… nobody can just go in and out of the N109 Zone.” Nero pushes his glasses up his face, a glint of something between admiration and excitement reflecting in his eyes. “Don’t you know who he is? He’s a mysterious hunter who appeared during the disaster 14 years ago.” 

Flashes of memories from that time flicker rapidly through Skylar’s mind at the mention of the disaster. Someone saved her from that horrifying nightmare all those years ago… All the memory she had to go on was a flash of light and someone carrying her to safety. She couldn’t remember any details about them. Skylar took a steadying breath. 

“But Lumiere hasn’t shown up in ages. Isn’t he just an urban legend now? To enter the N109 Zone… just for protocores… I mean… Are you sure it’s him?”

Nero was nearly vibrating in his chair. “99.9% sure. I even heard that after he left the black market, he was standing on one of the N109 zone’s skyscrapers,” Nero’s voice took on a hilariously dreamy quality. Far be it for Skylar to judge anyone’s attraction preferences. Whether or not he was attracted to men, she was fairly certain Nero had a crush on Lumiere. “Only he would be bold enough to enter the N109 Zone.” 

Two thoughts occurred to her at the exact same time. The first made her glance sidelong at Xavier, who had suddenly gone very quiet when the topic of Lumiere was brought up. Someone destroying protocores … She thought to herself. If Xavier noticed her looking at him, he was making a very good point of not meeting her gaze.

As Tara and Nero continued their conversation, Skylar’s second fleeting thought started to swirl into some kind of an idea. If this Lumiere can get in and out of the N109 Zone unscathed, then surely he’d be able to help her get in and out… The tricky part would be tracking him down. No one knows where he is, where he lives, or who he is. 

Skylar turned her gaze to Xavier again, and he met her eyes this time, though whatever was going on behind his sky-blue irises was difficult to decipher.

After work that day, Xavier and Skylar took the train home together, and got caught in a wanderer’s trap on the way. Without the train to take them the rest of the way home, the two of them wandered until they found a small 24 hour noodle restaurant, where Skylar mulled over the exchange she had with Nero and Tara earlier in the day. After their conversation, Skylar used Xavier’s clearance to search the term “Lumiere” and was surprised at the amount of results turned up under the search for his name. Before today, she’d heard that name maybe once or twice, and usually in context of fiction and legend… 

She pulled out her phone as Xavier ate his cup-noodles and started reading one of the articles she’d sent to herself. The article was more about the wanderer than about Lumiere. 

“Tezcatlipoca,” she started quietly, pretending to read aloud to herself, but loud enough that she was sure Xavier could hear her if he was listening. “The wanderers that assaulted mankind on a massive scale back in 2034 all carried two pairs of sword looking weapons. They were able to travel through mirrors and were capable of attacking people out of the blue….” She skimmed the article, looking for mention of Lumiere’s name. Ah-ha! She thought to herself as she scrolled down, “The public was crippled by unprecedented panic when they wiped out an elite squad of Deepspace hunters,” She spoke a little louder, making sure that if Xavier was trying to not listen, there was no way he wasn’t listening now. “It says they were all killed by Lumiere 14 years ago, and no others have appeared since…” She looked up at Xavier, who was mid-bite with a mouth full of noodles hanging out of his mouth. She stifled a laugh at how ridiculous he looked. 

Deepspace Hunter Xavier and Perpetually-Hungry-and-Sleepy Xavier were almost two entirely different people. “Lumiere?” She said to him, “His name keeps showing up…” A moment passed before Xavier registered that she was talking directly to him now. He swallowed his mouthful of noodles. 

“Lumiere?” He asked innocently, and she suppressed an exasperated sigh that he hadn’t been listening to a word she said .

“Yeah,” She nodded, “The database says Tezcatlipoca was a troublesome wanderer,” That’s putting it mildly, “that appeared 14 years ago. It also says here that Lumiere was the one who killed it.” 

Xavier looked away but didn’t say anything, so Skylar pressed a little harder when he started to take another bite of his cup noodles. “And this time when it appeared, you…” She left the sentence incomplete, but felt that her deduction was perfectly clear. When Xavier still didn’t respond, she swiped the cup noodles out of his hand so he’d be forced to look at something other than the, like, 8th cup of noodles he was currently devouring. No beating around the bush then, she thought to herself. 

“Xavier,” she started, “You’re not Lumiere, right?” The pair of deepspace hunters stared back and forth at each other in a silent stalemate for several seconds before Xavier reached and took his cup noodles back, answering her around another mouthful of food. 

“... He appeared 14 years ago.. Shouldn’t he be in his 40s by now? Besides, rumor has it that he’s a tenebra now.” He said matter of factly. Skylar closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn’t argue the logic of Lumiere’s age. But being a Tenebra?

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear. Especially when someone like him is involved. And,” she decided to let the subject drop, “besides, I was kidding. You don’t look like someone in his 40s,” 

“... Why do you need to meet him?” Xavier asked suddenly. There was no edge to his voice, but something about the question pricked at her skin. 

She highlighted the section of the article that would answer his question as they got up to leave the restaurant, then handed him her phone. He read aloud as they walked, “Only one to walk out of the N109 Zone Unscathed… Wiped three important factions in the N109 Zone overnight…?” Xavier scoffed and handed the phone back to her. “You believe all that?” He asked her incredulously, the corners of his lips pulling into a small but for some reason smug looking smile. 

Skylar snatched her phone back and pocketed it, feeling indignant and a little embarrassed. “I’m just curious. If he can waltz into a dangerous place like the N109 Zone and leave without a scratch, he must know a lot.” 

Xavier looked away from her and started walking toward their apartment complex, “Even if he is in the know, he may not remember much if he has a bad memory,” He said matter of factly. She wanted to argue that 40s was hardly old enough to start experiencing memory loss before he interrupted her train of thought, “But the more important thing here is.. Are you interested in him? Or the N109 Zone?”

Skylar was quiet for a moment before answering. The truthful answer would have been ‘both’, but instead of answering directly to avoid any additional questions, she simply went with, “Did you forget what Capitan Jenna said? If we want to investigate the modified protocore, we need to investigate Onychinus and the N109 Zone.”

“The mission doesn’t require you to go there,” He said, almost as though he were talking to a child. Skylar bristled at his condescension. 

“I wasn’t planning to… I thought I’d take a quick peek….” 

Sylus watched as she and the light-haired hunter entered the same apartment complex, boiling inside with an incensed anger and jealousy. He hated the way she looked at the other hunter, the adoration they passed between each other's gazes - another knife in the chest of the ugly truth that she clearly doesn’t remember anything about him or the life they once shared. 

If she did, her eyes, her heart, would seek solely for him until they were reunited. Sylus knew, had been told countless times, that her memories were lost to time. Maybe, in a life that had been less cruel to her she would have remembered him on her own, the memories would start to surface within her when she was younger. But she was a dead woman walking, dozens of times over, if the notes and records that the old man had given him were anything to go by. Surely that does something to a person’s brain. 

It was going to be up to him to help her remember.

He just needed to get her away from the Hunters Association for long enough to do it. 

“Boss,” Kieran’s voice pulled him from his dark and spiraling thoughts, “Her IP address just pinged on a channel searching for information for that murder from a couple years ago,” 

“You know,” Luke added, “The billionaire big shot in Linkon City? It was the first job you let us tag along for.” 

“Intercept the conversation,” Sylus ordered, chest pounding. Mask resting atop his head in the same way Luke’s was, Keiran nodded and began tapping away on the tablet as the twins exchanged a look that Sylus was nonplussed to try to decode for the time being. More important questions begged to be answered.

 What was she searching for? 

Luke and Keiran in unison hopped over the back of the couch and landed to his left, Keiran sandwiched between boss man and brother. He leaned over Keiran’s shoulder and noticed she had paid to access this dark website. A small smile curled on his lips. She was willing to do whatever it took to seek the answers she wanted, even if it wasn’t strictly acceptable. 

He loved that her tenacity followed her into this life.

Requesting information on an unsolved murder, dated 07.24.2032 

Kieran looked up at Sylus, trying to gauge what he wanted the boy to do. Sylus gestured to the tablet. “Don’t keep her waiting,” he said. Kieran typed a simple,

Hi.

“Give her… the crime scene photo and the audio clip,” Sylus thought. The photo would show nothing amiss but a dead body.. The audio clip would give her his voice. 

Would it trigger something within her? Sylus, not one for grandeur delusions of prayer or optimism, dared to hope in this situation.

With a nod, Kieran’s lithe fingers danced across the screen.

All I got is a single crime scene

photo and a bad audio clip. Still

want them? 

In truth, he had more than that. He’d be willing to give her all the answers she sought if all she did was ask. But, he reasoned with himself, providing her with just enough to lead her closer to him, would be more believable than outright giving her everything she needed. 

Yeah.

She answered simply and quickly. Kieran’s fingers danced across the screen again, a wide and mischievous smile danced across his face and met his eyes. 

Why are you looking into 

Onychinus? Got a score to 

Settle? 

Sylus snorted, an amused huff exhaled from his nostrils, but didn’t otherwise comment on breaking the end user terms of agreement for the site. 

Skylar, on the other hand, was not so lenient. 

Wasn’t there a policy about

not asking about the past?

 

Good girl. Smart girl, Sylus thought to himself. Luke, on Keiran’s otherside barked a short laugh, and Kieran hummed with mild dissatisfaction. “She’s too smart,” he grumbled as he dragged the requested files from one of the encrypted folders in the tablet to the chat box. He typed

I’m just curious.

in the box and sent his response out along with the files. He watched as she accepted the agreement of the self destruction of the encrypted files. Some time passed where she said nothing in return and Sylus assumed that she was looking over the crime scene photo, committing as many details to memory as she could.

He imagined her face as she did so, the furrow between her brow. Did she still chew on her lip when she was deep in thought? Did she fiddle with a pen or a pencil at her desk? Did she have a notebook with notes pertaining to whatever it was she was investigating? Sylus wanted to know all of the small details of her -isms. What pieces of her carried over from her past life? What new quirks would she bring from her current lived experiences? 

Sylus looked back over to see that Keiran had sent her some extra information

The photo was apparently taken just

before the feed was cut. But no 

weapons or traces were left behind

at the crime scene

He raised an eyebrow at Keiran and the twins in unison shrugged. It had been Luke who snapped the photo just before the feed was cut… telling her that the picture had “apparently” been taken at that time sent through Sylus and odd sort of amusement. For a pair of mischievous twins only sticking around to witness his demise, they sure did pick up on whatever he’d been subtly trying to teach them all this time. 

(He’d shoot anyone on sight who would even think to suggest the truth of the matter when it came to them… but he had grown fond of the little crows who tailed him like misty shadows.)

When Sylus refocused on the situation at hand, the tablet had come into Luke’s possession, who had just finished typing. “The police investigation reveals that, aside from the victim, there were three other individuals,” he said aloud, looking at Sylus for permission to hit send. 

“Feeling a bit ballsy, are we?” He gestured, giving Luke the all clear to hit send, then tipped his head against the tips of his fingers as his elbow rested on the arm of the couch. 

“She’s fun to talk to,” Kieran said nonchalantly. 

“It’s fun to see the effect she has on you,” Luke, always the more bold and brazen of the two, admitted. Sylus shot him a glance that might have killed the kid if only looks could kill before Kieran elbowed his brother hard in the ribs with a whispered “You dumbass.” 

Sylus made a show of wiping his face in exasperation to hide the small smile that threatened the corners of his lips. 

How do they know? 

She responded almost instantly. 

The recording had the sounds

of footsteps from two people 

along with a conversation

Who was the victim?

They say he’s an important 

researcher for Ever’s 

biopharmaceutical company 

 

Have you heard the name 

Ever before? They’re a well

Known name.

 

“That’s enough,” Sylus said suddenly, stopping Luke in the middle of another message, “You’ve given her more than enough information.”

“She hasn’t said anything else, Boss,” Kieran said, peering over his brother’s shoulder to look down at the conversation. “Those files are going to expire in about 80 seconds and she can X out of the conversation at any time.”

“Ohhh I know. Let’s give her a reason to come to the N109 Zone!” Luke’s lips curled into a mischievous smile after a moment of silence. With not more than a few taps, the bounty on the Lemurian Painter that she hung around with took up the whole screen. Sylus looked at the twins with a quirked eyebrow. 

“Good call,” He said, and Luke wasted no time typing out another message, seemingly racing against an invisible clock where she could end the chat at any time. 

Are you interested in the N109

Zone because you’re looking 

for work?

 

A new Bounty was recently

put up. Wanna take a look?

Lemme earn that referral

payment.

Sylus barked a laugh at the absurdity, “Referral payment?” 

Luke’s smile remained plastered onto his lips as he attached the image to send it, “I’m trying to appeal to her sense of altruism.” 

To Sylus’s surprise, she responded before Luke could send the image request. 

Who’s the Target? I want to

think about it first.

Next to Sylus, Kieran snorted, “No one genuinely interested in claiming a bounty would ‘think about it first.’ Especially not with that price tag” On his otherside, Luke hit send on the bounty image. 

Sylus wasn’t certain what he expected her reaction to be, but after a brief, breathless moment, where the three of them stared down at the screen in silent anticipation, Sylus’ stomach dropped when the conversation suddenly disconnected. 

“Damn it,” he cursed aloud, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Sorry boss,” the twins said in unison. 

A tense silence passed between the three of them before Kieran broke it with the strange way he was always able to find the silver lining of a situation. “Ha! I bet she comes out here, if for no other reason than to try to protect him from whoever. She is his ‘bodyguard’, after all.” 

Sylus stared straight ahead, mulling over the strangely sage insight that the boy tended to have in situations. 

“Keep a closer eye on her movements from now on,” He said after another long pause, “If and when she makes a move to enter this No Hunt Zone, I want to be there to welcome her in person.”

Chapter Text

After seeing that Rafayel was wanted in the N109 Zone, Skylar hung around him like gorilla glue. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she’d grown fond of the eccentric painter during her time in his employ. While she always took his safety seriously, being his bodyguard seemed more like he just wanted a friend who wasn’t Thomas to hang out with. Rafayel didn’t seem to have many friends, and his public image was that of an aloof celebrity painter with no real interest in anything other than love of the art itself. The image of Rafayel that he portrayed to the public and the Rafayel who employed her as her bodyguard and friend… were two entirely different people. 

And then there was a mysterious third persona - the Rafayel who had done something worthy of such a pricey bounty from Onychinus. Skylar didn’t know anything about that Rafayel, and couldn’t seem to find any time when he would be that person. Still, she clung closer to his side as he dragged her this way and that, when he revealed to her his greatest secret that she still had trouble believing, and only did because he had the scales to prove it, where they fought side by side against Deluge Wyrmlord. 

She loathed the idea of leaving Rafayel alone for fear of his safety, but she needed answers, answers that only the N109 Zone had… and if she was going to protect him from whatever bounty… well perhaps she’d go and nip the problem in the bud instead of waiting for the problem to arrive at Rafayel’s doorstep. 

Skylar fiddled with the navy blue envelope again, an invitation to some place called The Nest for an event called Hunting Day. If Rafayel was to be believed, this was the location where she could gather some intel and possibly find a way into the N109 zone. 

With help from Xavier and his friend who happened to own the flowership down the street, she found herself equipped with, what she hoped was, all she would need to successfully infiltrate the N109 Zone. Fake ID, fake name, fake family crest, a handful of other useful documents and a neurotoxin inhibitor on her person, she gripped the dog tag on the chain hanging around her neck and kissed her fist. Tucking it safely back under her shirt, she stepped into The Nest in hopes of finding her way to the heart of Onychinus and the answers that they might hold. 

Sylus was surprised by how long it took her to decide to try to enter the N109 Zone. He had been so certain she would try to show up that when she didn’t right away, he found himself casting doubts on every meticulous plan he’d laid out. When the twins called late one evening, however, Sylus knew that the time to reunite with his beloved had finally arrived. 

“She’s gutsy,” Kieran said.

“Casting the Aether Core like a fishing line to see what bites?” Luke snorted, “Gutsy is one word. Stupid? Naive? Those might fit a bit better.” 

“Focus,” Sylus said through the receiver. “Get in, get her, get out, and meet me at the rendezvous point,” Sylus ended the call before either of the twins could respond. All that was left to do was wait. 

But for all the meticulous planning he had done to make sure he was the one who intercepted her, Sylus had never quite figured out how to account for the wild card of the actions of other people. The best he could do was adapt and adjust, think quickly and neutralize any threats to his end goal. 

“Boss,” Luke’s voice, slightly higher pitched than normal, came through the earbud, “Bad news, she was intercepted by one of Sherman’s guys.” 

“We’re following his vehicle from Linkon right now,” Kieran’s voice came through. “He pumped her full of something that knocked her out tho.” 

“Tied her up too.”

Sylus clenched his jaw as he rapidly played out dozens of scenarios in his head, trying to come up with the most viable option for success. 

“Chase him to the church ruins on the south side.” Sylus said definitively. “The metaflux in that area will interrupt the vehicle’s ability to function.” 

“The one with the big bell?” Kieran asked. 

“Share your location,” Sylus said in response. He stood and made to relocate to their new rendezvous point. “Her life is top priority.” He cut the line trusting that the twins will successfully bring her to the ruins on the other side of the N109 Zone. 

By the time he finally arrived, pushing his car to the limits of its abilities, Luke and Kieran were already slinking around the man who’d kidnapped Skylar, taunting and teasing him like lethal Cheshire cats. 

“You’re pretty bold, releasing information about the Aether Core into the nest like that,” Luke’s voice carried playfully on the breeze. When Sylus finally sauntered up to stand behind the stone ruins of what he assumed was once the wall of the church, his heart began to race. Excitement and anticipation coursed through him, setting his core on fire. He looked up to see Kieran lean down with a curious tilt of his head. 

“Explains why the boss is so interested,” he responded to his brother. He very nearly started to step out to greet the twins, to get a good look at his beloved’s face, when he was reminded that the twins hadn’t brought her here.. Someone else did. He hopped up on top of the chapel’s ruins for a better vantage, to get a better view. 

“I see,” a mirthless chuckle erupted from the man in black. The twins turned to look at him, as if they, too, forgot that he had brought her here. “Sylus sent you…” Sylus watched the man in black reach behind his back. If he had even entertained the thought of letting this stupid man leave this place alive, the stupid act of reaching for his gun sealed this stupid man’s grim fate. 

Energy in the form of a crimson and onyx mist slithered out from his fingertips and beneath his feet toward the dead man drawing a gun. “But the Aether Core,” he pointed it directly at Skylar’s head. 

“Is,” he cocked the gun, 

“ Mine!” He shouted as to be heard over the sound of gunfire, but the bullet made it no further than a meter or so before his Evol wrapped itself around the bullet, the gun, and the man himself, shattering the bullet into particles of dust. 

Skylar, hands bound in front of her with duct tape and dark hair pulled into a messy bun, gasped, drawing Sylus’ eyes toward her.

His breath hitched as their eyes met, and the endless ocean in her crystalline eyes took him back hundreds of years to the first time he’d ever seen them. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could feel himself falling for her all over again. Her eyes, turbulent and unrelenting as the tides, shone brightly in the lifeless aura of the N109 Zone. 

He'd imagined what it would be like to stand in her bright presence again - the only light his eyes, body, mind, and heart would ever tolerate, and had the passing thought that the N109 Zone doesn't deserve her vibrancy. 

The man, suspended in the air, struggling to breathe, gripping at the tendrils of Evol like a rope made of water, didn’t deserve to play witness to this reunion. 

And so he, too, like the bullet he’d shot at the Hunter he’d delivered, shattered into a smattering of dust and debris. For added effect, Sylus used his evol to ring the church bell behind him, its large low town echoing ominously over the N109 Zone as though it was welcoming him and his beloved home.

Sylus stepped off the ledge of the steeple, using his evol to break his fall, landing gracefully on the dry and dead ground beneath his polished black shoes. Luke and Kieran in unison each sank to a knee and bowed their heads. 

“Take out the vermin that are running amok,” he told them without looking at them, his eyes trained solely on the intensity of Skylar’s cerulean stare. Like a feather on the wind, the twins disappeared silently into the darkness. Sylus stalked closer to the hunter on her knees before him. She stared up at him, expression cold, closed off, defiant, and through the Aether core implanted in his right eye, he could see what her deepest desire was in this moment.

An explosion. Greif. The only constant in her life, the amethyst eyes of a handsome boy, teenager, man - broad shoulders, a fighter pilot? She loved him, she hated him, she adored him, she missed him- she grieved him.
Behind the image of the boy-teen-man-pilot: a woman, greyed hair, blue eyes, that dulled to grey with time and age. A kindness -sadness- something else, to Sylus appeared to be atonement, but indiscernible in Skylar’s recollections, behind her eyes. She loved her, she hated her, she grieved her too. 

Behind the woman, an impossibly tall, impossibly dark, frustratingly faceless nameless figure with an angry, wide, bloody smile holding the silhouettes of the pair hanging from nueces, gripped tightly in its hand, blood dripped from its hands down the ropes as they swayed in a sourceless breeze, staining everything she loved in fiery hues of crimson red. 

Opposing it, she stood, a fraction of its height, dressed in her Hunting leathers, a gun the shape of a knife, or perhaps a knife the shape of a gun poised steadily aimed at the tall figure’s head. It laughed maniacally until she screamed, the Knife-Gun exploded into a shower of bullets and blades, ripping the dark figure to shreds. 

Revenge . She sought to exact revenge.

Sylus was not a good man, not a moral man, not a decent man, not even a well liked man. For all the crimes he has committed in his lifetimes, Sylus could not answer for the one she accused him of. 

He was simply not the demon responsible for her living nightmare. 

He would never be. He could never be. He’d sooner turn himself over to the Association than do anything that would hurt her. 

She narrowed her eyes at him, the distrust in her body language as she leaned away from his approach hurt nearly as much as the sword that had once pierced his heart. “You… You’re here for the Core, right?”

Sylus tsked and knelt down to meet her at her level, her eyes burned bright with an intense defiance and indignation. 

“Even if you wanted to sell your soul,” he told her as he lifted his hand, slowly and deliberately, to touch her face, to feel the soft skin of her cheeks against his fingers for the first time in a millennia, “you still have to find someone who can pay the price.”

She looked down at the wrist she held, a wound he’d be sure to bandage once he brought her to safety. The hand that had been reaching to touch her cheek instead followed her chin downard. 

Warmth bloomed from his fingertips through his body the moment they graced her chin. He gently lifted her chin to make eye contact with her again, wanting nothing more than to see her eyes. “Look at me,” he said gently. 

It happened suddenly then, outside of his entire control, though he should have known better than to assume that contact with the other half of his heart would do anything other than ignite whatever dormant memories lay within. 

Devour him

He’s yours to consume

His powers is yours to take

Like a cub, a kitten, scared with no choice but to stand it's ground, she swipped forward at him, nearly catching him off guard. She was quick, and had he not been so captivated by the fire and fight behind her eyes, the jagged stone wouldn’t have even scuffed across his cheek the way it had. He felt his heart beat faster, impressed by her agility and resoursefulness. The ache that, after all these years of yearning and searching, had dulled to the background set his nerves aflame as he smiled down at her fondly, a light chuckle escaping his lips. He knew she wouldn't remember him right away, but the voice in her head, which he heard because of his Aether Core, told her all she needed to know. He was hers to devour, to consume, to take, to leave, to mark. He could tell that the words frightenened her, but was it from how suddenly they invaded her mind? Or was it from the overwhelming and unadultruated truth of them?

“Is this how you greet a ‘New Friend’?” He said, wiping the scratch on his cheek to heal the mark away. He watched as her eyes widened in shock and confusion. He reached back up to gently caress her cheek, but she dodged his hand, turning her head away from his fingers. He scoffed. “I guess you don’t remember anything.” Desperate for more skin contact, he reached forward even further, allowing his fingers to glide gently across her cheekbone, down the side of her face and over the column of her neck before he curled his fingers around it, “Allow me to jog your memory…” 

Chapter Text

With a grunt of frustration, Sylus tossed the girl by her arm back across the room again. Her hair, pulled back into a ponytail, slick with sweat, swung behind her as she caught her balance. She turned back to him and squared her shoulders, her face red with exertion and her own frustration. She wiped the back of her fist across her mouth as she fought to catch her breath. 

“Again,” he demanded, low and quiet, but the command still echoed across the empty sparring gym. Even the twins had made themselves scarce for this exercise.

Her eyes were cold and calculating, she crossed her arms. 

“You can’t force me to resonate with you!” She bit out. Had he not spent the better part of the last 20 years studying her as he searched for her, he may not have noticed the corners of her eyes glistening with tears. 

“Fuck,” he breathed loud enough that only he could hear, and ran a hand through his own sweat slicked hair. He couldn’t tell if she genuinely couldn’t resonate with him, or if she was choosing not to… If she couldn’t, he didn’t understand why. She’d easily resonated with the displaced Philosian prince nearly every time they went on a job together. If she was choosing not to… Sylus took a deep breath to center himself. 

Even with the physical and mental grit to refuse to resonate with him just by wearing her down, his Evol should have been able to pull even a weak resonance out of her. It existed specifically to compliment hers. Everything about him was to compliment her. Everything about her was to balance him… She was the other half of his heart, his soul. His entire being hinged on her. Resonating would undoubtedly increase their Evol’s power significantly, sure, but more importantly… it was how she would remember who she is… who he is to her, and see past the jagged edges he’d carved out of himself in order to get where he is. 

 “Get out of my sight,” He said with a deep, resigned breath. She wasted no time, hurried footsteps echoing in the empty room as she disappeared from his sight. He stalked back to his study and sat down at his desk, rubbing his temples. 

“Two days,” he said aloud then looked at the mechanical bird on its perch on the other side of the room, not that Mephisto would have any answers for him. “Shit,” he said to himself before reaching for his phone. The phone rang twice before the line connects. Sylus doesn’t give the other man a chance to speak. 

“Philip,” he says, cutting off whatever half-assed greeting the shopkeep was going to give him, “How is the Evol Linkage Alteration project progressing?”

Philip stammered on the other end before answering, “It’s… slow but steady. The tests on protocores and protocore weapons are showing promise. The models I’ve run with the data you provided me are about 96% successful.”

“4% is still risky,” Sylus mused. 

“Agreed, sir. But without a compatible Evolver, I’m at a bit of a stand still with that side of the project.” 

“Understood,” Sylus cut the line and drummed his fingers on the table. If she wouldn’t or couldn’t resonate with him, then he could try to force the issue. It would be a last resort. No experiment or project would ever be 100% fool proof or perfect, but 4% was 3.98% more than he was willing to risk her life on… 

The next morning, Sylus had the twins take her breakfast to her room along with the message that they’d meet again, but this time in the study. Sylus reasoned that maybe a more comfortable room might help her and her Evol clear whatever proverbial hurdle that prevented her from resonating with him. After a fitful night of restless sleep, and the relentless memories of their once-upon-a-time playing in his head every time he closed his eyes, he was desperate for something, anything to work. His heart couldn’t take the way she looked at him. 

It was afternoon before he heard the door creek quietly open, and she slunk into the room wearing the sturdy denim jeans and the kevlar corseted shirt that he had purchased for her, and delivered via Luke and Kieran the previous evening. It was not too dissimilar from the outfit she’d arrived in the N109 Zone wearing. 

He gestured lazily to the arm chair across from the desk, “Sit,” his voice came across detached and cold, but inside he brimmed with something dangerously close to hope. Certainly, if he had to put a name to it, he’d more likely call it ‘expectation’. 

“Did you sleep well last night?” He asked, pretending not to look up from the blank notepad he had absently scribbled in while he waited for her to arrive. Silence passed between the two of them before she heaved a deep breath. 

“I slept fine,” she answered, and he thought he heard the Thank you at the end of her sentence hang silently in the air. 

“Good.” He answered, then commanded his Evol to slither along the floor and wrap itself around her legs in the chair she sat in. 

“Wha-What are you doing? Stop it!” She grabbed futilely at the energy as it wrapped around her attempting to tug it off. He thought if he could just get her to maybe feel his Evol, maybe that would be enough. 

“Settle down,” He said calmly, looking at her through his periphery without actually looking up. “Just let it be, and try to resonate with it.”

She let out a low groan, “This again?” Her voice betrayed exasperation as she continued to struggle with the formless, weightless constraints of his Evol around her limbs. “How many times do I have to tell you? You can’t force me to resonate with you!” She shouted. Sylus finally looked up at her, setting the blank notepad face down on the desk in front of him. The depth of animosity within the seascape of her eyes stung in a way he didn’t want to acknowledge. 

“Don’t force it, then,” he looked back down at the notepad he’d been pretending to write in and flipped it back over. She tsked as she stood and made a B-line for the door. He raised an eyebrow at her back as he watched her make increasingly quicker steps toward the door before his Evol snaked around her body and carried her back. He stood from his desk to sit in the armchair on the opposite side of the room. Her petulance, equal parts amusing and irritating him. “I don’t think I dismissed you.” 

“Put. Me. Down.” she continued to struggle against his Evol. He let her drop, no more than a few inches from the ground, and she let out a tiny, startled yelp as her feet made contact with the floor. Her eyes darted around the new section of the room he’d dropped her in, and her split moment of indecision gave him the opening he needed to grab at her wrist. 

“You’re not leaving this room,” he nearly growled, then internally reveled in the visible shiver that his voice sent down her spine. “Now, Sweetie,” he curled his fingers around hers, gentle but firm. “Resonate.” The power within his Aether Core reached and commanded the power within hers, and another satisfying shiver ripped across her body. 

She whimpered and closed her eyes. Squeezing them shut as he felt her focus gather around her, and for a brief moment, Sylus dared to hope that the faint light emanating from her palm was not merely a creation of his own wishful mind before something between them snapped, rebounding, sending her lithe form flying across the room, landing with a horrible thud on her chest. 

Sylus stared down at Skylar in abject horror, rooted to his spot he could not move as fear, the likes of which he had not known in hundreds of years, crept through his body as he watched her body for signs of life. 

A moment, a minute, a breath, a heartbeat? Sylus couldn’t measure the mini-eternity that passed between the rebound and when he finally saw her body shift, her back rising where she breathed from her chest, her right leg pulling up ever so slightly, the tiny groan that escaped her semi-conscious form. Relief flooded his entire being, thawing the frozen fear that kept him seated as he watched her stir. She lifted her head to look at him, the impact of the rug turned her cheek and the side of her forehead red with an oncoming carpet burn. 

Sylus regained his composure as her eyes started to regain focus. “Three days, Skylar,” He said her first name for the first time since arriving, the feeling and sound of her name on his tongue equal parts familiar and foreign. “Yet we’re unable to achieve a simple resonance.” His Evol cradled her from the floor and began to carry her back to him. “How disappointing,” She had no idea how genuinely and truly disappointing it was. 

She continued to struggle and tug at the tendrils of his evol until he sat her gently on his lap, desperately wishing he could pull her close the way he wanted to.

“What do you want?” She asked, but it sounded more like she was accusing him of something. 

“You went through all that trouble to get into the N109 Zone,” he let one of his fingers trace gently up the side of her leg, “I must fulfill my duty as your host.” From her leg, he raised his hand toward her arm, encouraging his evol to bring her hand closer to his. 

Fist clenched so tightly he could see her knuckles turning white, he forced her fingers open and lanced them between his own. He noticed the semi-circles dug into the heel of her palm as he did so, before he brought her hand next to his heart. If you feel nothing else for me, at least feel my heart beat , he thought to himself. It beats only for you. 

Eyes closed, heart yearning, black and red energy swirling restlessly around them, he tried to encourage a resonance out of her with his own evol before he could hear the piece of her destined to destroy him.

Devour him… He’s yours.. He’s right there before your very eyes. 

Even as the voice within her started to echo within him as well, he kept his eyes closed, hands clasped together. From within him he could feel her resonance stir, brilliant golden white light that threatened to block out the shadows in his soul before it reached a promising peak…

And then petered out rather anticlimactically. He opened his eyes to watch the remnants of her evol shatter into particles of light. Disappointment, erring dangerously close to heartbreak, surged through the very core of his being before he sighed and wiped his hands of the remaining pieces of her energy, allowing the dust like particles to trickle off of his hands. 

It dissipated before ever landing on any surface. 

“It’s a shame your evol has deteriorated into its current state,” he mused, using condescension to mask his ever growing despair. Skylar, for her part, scoffed, crossing her arms tightly around her torso. 

“My family’s deaths.” she spat out, “You’re behind them right?” 

Her accusation caught him off guard. He’d nearly forgotten what it was she even came to the N109 Zone for to begin with.

Answers. Possibly revenge. She blamed him for the explosion in Bloomshore. It was Sylus’ turn to scoff. 

“Family?” He said and looked behind her at the twin crows hiding in the shadows, watching their exchange with rapt attention before he refocused on her. Sylus had done a little bit of research once he figured out who exactly it was she was mourning. 

Josephine and Caleb Rayne. Not a single one of them related by blood, but Josphine held and hid those child experiments in plain sight after the Chronorift Disaster. The atonement he thought he saw in Skylar’s memory was atonement for the very Aether Core implanted in her heart. 

Philip, too, had been part of that research team. Josephine took the most promising experiments Ever had at the time, gave them names, clothes, identities, a family and hid them on the outskirts of Linkon City for over 20 years. 

And paid the price for it. 

Sylus thought of Skylar’s fighter pilot turned bioengineered weapon. Locked up in some Ever Facility right now even as she sits in the heart of the N109 Zone. Whoever he’d been to her before, it seemed he belonged to Ever now. 

“The people closest to you might be the ones who want to kill you the most,” he said, matter of factly. 

“Shut up! -Right now,” Tears started to threaten the corner of her eyes. “Right now I just want to kill you myself,” She lifted a hand, he presumed, maybe to slap him, or to do something to otherwise break free from his grasp. The dark energy caught her and kept her still, as he intercepted her fist with his hand, holding it gently away from his face. 

“With the skills of a clumsy three cat? Your courage is admirable. You’re lucky I don’t like picking on the weak, Kitten” 

Kitten ? Where did that come from? Giving her a pet name before she even trusted him seemed less like a term of endearment, and more like an insult. 

Where the idea came from, Sylus could not say for sure. But even as they stared at each other in a silent stalemate, it occurred to him that it didn’t matter if he had actually been the one to blow up her home, she thinks he did. If “killing” him is what she wants to do… maybe he should let her do it.

With his evol, he summoned his pistol from off of his desk on the other side of the room, cocked and loaded it before handing it to her. 

She looked down at the gun, then back up at him, down at the gun, then back up at him one more time. “Didn’t you want to take my life?” A question, but it was more liek a statement. “Or do your words just ring hollow?” He nudged the firearm a little closer to her. A moment’s hesitation before she snatched it out of his hand and pointed it to his forehead with the steadiness and finesse befitting of a Hunter. 

“You think I won’t do it?” Pressing it closer to his head. A spike of adrenaline suddenly surged through his body. The cold, angry determination in her eyes had him falling in love all over again. He sighed through a smile and moved the gun from his head right over his heart. 

“That’s exactly right.” He decided to call her bluff, before he hummed pensively, “You owe me a curtain call even grander than death itself.” Against his chest, the gun, which had been steady in her hand, slowly started to tremble. He raised an eyebrow at her as her eyes, wide already, stared down at the weapon pressed to his chest. “What’s wrong? Why are you trembling?” He leaned back in his chair, hand gripped tightly over her trembling fingers. She couldn’t let go of it now, even if she wanted to. 

If she wanted him dead, he’d make sure her eyes were wide open to watch it happen… 

“Has your resolve already begun to falter? You weren’t just bluffing before, were you?” 

Her hold on the gun shifted, he felt her lithe fingers beneath his adjust the hold within her palm, her hands warm and dewy with anxious sweat. She scoffed, though the uncertainty made it sound more like an uncertain cough before she answered, “Of course not,” she pressed the gun closer to her chest, her trigger finger twitching, but never quite pulling back enough to fire. “It’s just…” 

This wouldn’t kill him. He knew it for certain in the way she hesitated, in the way that she was not committed to ending his life the way she thought she was, in the way he moved his hand over hers, his thumb resting atop her trigger finger, “How about I help you?” He whispered.
Her breath hitched.

The gun clicked. 

Her finger twitched. 

His thumb pressed. 

Slowly

Slowly

Slowly

Slowly… Until- 

“NO!” The shriek of her voice drowned out the bang of the gun. The bullet to his heart wouldn’t kill him, of that he was certain. 

The sound of the distressed scream that erupted from within her chest, however… Surprise struck him harder than any bullet ever had. Pain from the shot bloomed from his chest, and took deep, quick breaths to center himself. 

Death would not find him today, but he and pain were long time friends. 

“You- Are you crazy?” He looked up at her radiant face, and thought that even if Death was to find him, that he’d be content for her face to be the last vision he saw before blackness took him. 

Instead, he looked down at the firearm in her hand, everything now covered in his blood as her breathing became faster and more shallow. He grabbed his gun from her hand and tossed it aside, “Tch. You wanted my life? I’ve already given it to you.” The truth of those words lay heavy between them as he watched her shock turn to panic on her face. “Now what? Have you thought about how you’ll repay me?” 

“No,” she whispered to herself, pressing her hands over the wound to staunch the already slowing flow of blood. “You can’t die yet,” Her eyes darted around the room as she pressed further to his chest, panic stricken as she searched, he presumed, for some form of first aid. 

Surprise, once again, hit him full force as he took a moment to watch her crystalline eyes dart around. “What’s this?” He mused aloud, “Are you worried about me?”

He sat up as his evol swirled to cauterize and close the bullet wound on his chest. “Save your concern for the day you actually succeed in killing me,” 

Her breath stuttered from her mouth as she watched the remainder of his blood evaporate from her hand. 

“You-” She whispered, and when her eyes met his, he saw behind the fear, the confusion, and the horror, something akin to… curiosity bubbling behind her eyes. She stood from his lap, took several shaky steps backward, before turning and darting from the room without another word. 

Once he was sure she was out of ear shot, he addressed the twins, “Follow her,” he told them, “Make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. And make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.” 

“Yes sir!” They said in unison. 

Sylus mulled over their interaction as he heard the quiet footsteps of the twins dissipate into the darkness of the mansion. As few and far between though they were, Sylus caught threads of… something within her that he was willing to grasp at. The surprise, the concern, the curiosity, the way she hesitated… 

Even if she was not consciously aware of it, something within her, he dared to hope, recognized the heart that beat solely for her within him.