It didn't take Wu that long to realize that they simply cannot keep running forever. Unless the bounties are fulfilled, there are always going to be more people coming after them. That's why, he first thought of a plan that will not only allow for Ver to get what she want, but also get Wu off everybody's radar. However, the caviat is that Wu also doesn't want to die in the process. Therefore, Wu and Ver have formulated a plan together. "I want you to draw a crowd of bounty hunters here. The more, the better." Wu said as Ver leaned back slightly, caught off guard by his request. "Then, I want you to kill me." Ver opened her mouth slightly, and she glanced towards the direction of the gates to their camp, wondering if Lera is around, "What are you saying..." "Well, that was a little dramatic." Wu said, shrugging, "I meant, I want you to kill me in a public yet none lethal way. Then, I can fake my death, while you take the credit for the kill and get your damn token." "The guild usually requires the body as the proof of death, or something of similar value..." Ver said, shaking her head, "It won't work." "Unless we provide them with something of similar value, like the words of a dozen bounty hunters, and a high degree of difficulty for retrieving my body..." Wu said, turning and looking towards the cliffside far out of the way of their camps, "This won't be easy, but with some preparation, it should be doable. Can you do this?" "...You remember what I said the last time you asked me this?" Ver sighed and took a closer look towards Wu's schematics. "Yeah." Wu smiled, knowing that Ver will go to through all the lengths required to get things done. "And I suppose you didn't tell her?" Ver asked, as Lera's figures reemerged from the forest. "...How could I...?" Wu's surprisingly cold-hearted when it comes to this. Or rather, he had convinced himself that a natural reaction from Lera was necessary. He hoped that everything will be fine after, that she will understand, but it's not something that he actually knows. It's a gamble. In fact, everything's a gamble. But it's also the only choice they have. Over the next weeks, Ver was slipping information to Kaire Jin directly after she learned from her informant that the Sky Guardian Corp member was looking for a crew of bounty hunters in order to get back at them. This actually made the entire mission a lot simpler, as long as they can convince Kaire and use her words as proof of death, then Ver's part of the deal will be complete. As for Wu, his latest schematics are a netting mechanism that will be installed into the side of the cliff. It functioned exactly like the netting under the tree-top adventure activities, catching the careless tourists as they leaped from tree to tree back on his word. The only difference is that when the mechanism catches onto him, his weight will also cause it to close in and swing back into the cliff's face, thus moving it out of the way visually to those that look beyond the cliff. For maximal cinematic effects, the catching mechanism will also be coupled with a bucket that dumps down the body parts of the bounty hunters that were taken out in the battles earlier. Now that the catching part of his plan is concluded, all that's left is the battle at hand. That's when Wu exhausted his efforts in not only helping Lera and Ver train but also in creating the Wave-powered machine gun. They needed to make this look like a real fight, and make Ver's betrayal as realistic as it can be. Thankfully, Ver's acting proved to be excellent, or perhaps there are some parts within her that relished the moment of the kill. As the cold hard blade pierced through Wu's body, Ver stabbed Wu with such finesse and control so that the part of the Sky Splitting Sword inside of him was the thinnest part of the blade, as she could control its size by varying the level of Wave input into it. However, the backstabbing was literal, and Wu wished they had thought of another way. Ver made her deal, and then she dropped Wu off the cliff. As his body free-fell through the air, he heard the desperate cries of Lera. In fact, that's the only thing he heard. His heart raced as blood poured from the wound, yet...he wondered if he did the right thing. His body was caught by the netting, and it swung close, bringing him into a small dug-out cave made by Ver before the buckets of the bounty hunter bodies were dumped down and splattered against the rocks. The waves then gobbled it all. Wincing in pain, Wu crawled towards the set of barrels set up within the cave and reached for the Medical Casts given to him by Ver. Activating the cast by shooting a small shot of Wave from his pistol, he leaned back as the Cast turned on slowly and entered into his body to halt his bleeding. Obviously, Wu had experimented with this Cast before and understood that it functions to physically seal up the wounds, rather than interact with the Wave in the patient's body in any sort of way. Holding onto the disinfectant wipes and pills from the mini-first aid kit he brought into this world, Wu hoped that infection wouldn't be the one thing to take him out. As his visions blurred with the Cast's working, Wu wrapped up this wound with utmost difficulty before lying down and sleeping. At that moment, Lera's screams still lingered in his mind. He woke up to the rain raging outside the cave. But thankfully, the bleeding had mostly stopped. The wound looked far worse than it actually was, thanks to Ver's precise control of the Wave. Because of the size-shifting properties of the Sky Splitting Sword, she made sure to minimize the parts of the blade that's actually within Wu. Eating some of the foods left in the barrels, Wu then waited patiently, watching the endless waves crash into the rocks. His chest and back still hurt every time he breathes, but he is only thankful for being alive at this moment. The dugout cave was made to be rather minimal, and it's literally just looked as if someone took a bite out of the cliffside. As days passed, Wu wondered if Ver had forgotten about his side of the deal and opted to head back home when the familiar slushing sound of the Whirlpool Purple eventually came from behind him. He slowly turned around, and saw Ver's worried face. She let out a sigh of relief and went to hug her arms around Wu's body. "I...was worried, so I came as soon as the eyes on me were shaken off." Ver said. "Did everything work out?" Wu asked. "Somewhat." Ver said, her long fingers reaching forward and pulling aside Wu's clothes to see his wounds, "...Does it hurt?" "Not that much." Wu admitted as Ver bit her lips and pulled her fingers back, "It was really bad on day two, but..." "You idiot..." Ver sighed and grabbed onto his hand before pulling him through Whirlpool Purple. Taking him back onto their main camp, now decimated after the battle, Ver sat Wu down before taking out yet another paper Cast. "I got this from my informant." Ver said, peeling away a piece of paper and pinching its corners with her fingers, "It's a rather common Cast used in the Underworld. It shifts your appearance slightly, and should be enough to help you evade any sort of attention." "Oh wow, like Mission Impossible masks." Wu chuckled as Ver slowly pressed the corners of the Cast into Wu's face and sent a small jolt of Wave through it, activating it. Wu's facial features started to shift and morph, and his eyebrows were the first one to go. Ver watched him closely until the Cast had set into its final shape, then she tore up the piece of paper and tossed it off the cliff. "I gotta admit, this is a good look for you." Ver smiled before she held Wu's face and kissed him gently on the forehead, "I like this look of yours~" "I don't know how I should feel about that." Wu said, looking up at Ver as she winked at him and pressed her finger onto his lips. "Hold onto that confusion, Wu." Ver said, pulling him through another set of Whirlpool Purple until he found the two of them standing in the middle of a familiar looking forest. "So...what are you going to do now?" Wu asked, stretching his arms gently and trying not to tear open his wounds again. "I am going back to the Ethereal Realm." Ver replied, her eyes determined, "The Token...it will give me everything I have wanted for all this time...Then...I want to get stronger. Far stronger than I am now, and far stronger than Kaire was. I want to go to the Infinite Academy." "Is that the same thing as the Pinnacle Research Institute that Lera was in?" Wu asked, and Ver laughed right away before shaking her head. "No. It's far better, and only the strongest of the strongest Wave users are able to get in." Ver said, "And/or the most privileged people." "Right..." Wu rubbed his chins as a smile rose up his face, "So it's essentially the Oxford of this world..." Now, Ver has also learnt to ignore Wu when he throws out these strange sounding words. "This Chariot is all yours now." Ver said, taking out another Chariot Cast from her pocket, "Meet me at the Infinite Academy next year. If you are to be the Savior of this world, then you need to prove your strength there." Wu nodded slowly as Ver reached her hand forward. They shook hands before going their separate ways. "So...that was it." Wu said, though Lera had already fallen asleep on his body by the time he finished his story. Listening to the soft rhythmic breathing from her, Wu also fell swiftly asleep, wondering how much of that story Lera actually heard. When Wu woke up again the next day, the mid-morning sun was already tanning his exposed body. Lera had gotten out of bed already, leaving him alone with the blanket for once. He sat up slowly and got dressed when Lita walked by the door and greeted him. "Good morning, Wu!" Lita smiled cryptically at him and waved her hand at him, "I hope you have rested well?" "I actually..." Wu felt for his forehead, and the fever had somehow magically gone away. He has a hypothesis, but it's not something he felt too comfortable sharing with Lita, "I am okay now. Thanks. And...sorry for yesterday." "No...Lera had never been that drunk before." Lita laughed and waved her hand around, "I am glad to see another side of my daughter too." "Right." Wu nodded slowly and looked towards his backpack, "Where is she?" "Out by the river." Lita said, pointing out of the door, "Follow the main road down the hill, and you will see the river." Wu nodded and left her home. And there she was, practicing her Casts alone by the river, her Book of Casts by her side. As the array of Casts lit up in synchrony and Lera conducted everything with perfect timing, Wu stood and watched from far away until she wound up all of her Casts and unleashed the full power of the entire array at the same time. Recalling the Rapid Layering, Lera stilled her body as Wu approached her. Her face immediately turned red as she looked away. Wu felt his heart drop, but forced himself forward. His feet feeling as if they were weighted down slightly. "Lera..." Wu said, when Lera looked at him from the corner of her eye, "About what I..." "Me first." She said, waving her hand and casting Strengthening and Lightening onto Wu's body. The familiar sensation of effortless movement returned to him, and he chased after her as she ran off. Travelling up the river, Lera lead Wu all the way until they were by a small waterfall twenty minutes out from the Sunshine Valley's outer regions. "Le...ra!" Wu said, catching a breathe as his physical fitness had been subpar ever since his injury. Lera turned around to see Wu bent over, and she quickly hopped to his side and placed her hand around his waist. "Sorry. But I want to show you this." Lera said, picking him up and jumping onto the top of the tallest tree towering over the waterfall. Sitting on the flattened top side of a horizontally extended branch, Lera and Wu watched on at the Sunshine Valley from a distance as the waterfall continued splashing right underneath their feet. It was a view from the dreams, and one of utter peacefulness. The sun bathed the earth with it's omnipotent warmth, and the fields of crops from the Sunshine Valley glowed of life. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Lera asked, and Wu nodded slowly, "When I was small, Tommy, my next door neighbor, took me here." "Oh?" Wu turned to look at Lera, and she looked down at the flowing water before continuing her story. "He said he wishes to marry me, and said he will plant flowers all throughout the valley for me." Lera laughed, her feet dangling and swinging back and forth. "That's...pretty romantic." "Except, I don't like flowers." Lera giggled and bumped Wu's shoulders slightly, "...You have changed my life in more ways than you know. You have also changed me in more ways than you know...I...don't usually do this kind of things with boys...you know?" Wu looked at her, and his heart slowly melted away as she played with her hair while looking down onto the ground. " And...I don't know what my feelings truly are for you either... But I do know one thing, and it's that I want to fight alongside you until the end. Be-because that's what Guardians do! Right?" Wu swallowed hard as Lera's smile faded before she continued, "I can't really blame you for what you did. I...just wished I could have been there for you." Wu shook his head and tried to reach out toward Lera, but she didn't move. "I need to get stronger." Lera said, raising her chin and looking straight at Wu with a fire burning in her grey eyes, "I will make you rely on my strength when you need to, I will make you feel comfortable with me fighting by your side, and I will be the one to guard you, no matter how unfavorable the odds are. Then..." A rush of blood made Lera felt a little dizzy yet she held her gaze adorably, "Then...we can talk about what happened last night. For now...let's just act as if nothing has happened...okay?"