Since their mission has been completed in the Sacrosanct Empire, Drakthar, Xander, Gwendolyn, Kayde, Fore, Lunette and Kali cross the sea, arriving in the city of Melusarej. Their first stop inside the city, the dusty old tavern known as O’Malleys’.

They push open the doors to see Sarge and the rest of the people under him in the city guard sitting at their usual table in the corner.

“Aye, it’s you, lads! O’Malley, get all of them a round on me,” Sarge stands to greet his old friends.

They sit down at the table with Sarge, Lydia, Eric, and Gorl.

“So what brings you and your new friends here lads?”

“Actually we are here because we are getting married in a month, we are going to have it in Melusarej if any of you are interested,” Xander informs them, sliding some invitations to the other side of the table.

“Congratulations to the two of ya, I’ll have to make sure we don’t have a shift that day,” Sarge notes, signaling he and the rest of the squad will be in attendance.

“Wow Sarge, he’s so young and he’s already getting married. It makes me think, what went wrong with you,” Gorl uses the news to take a jab at his superior.

“Oh come off it Gorl, I’m just focused on my job, I don’t get out as much as you young folks,” Sarge tries to defend himself amidst laughter. While everyone else is distracted by the main conversation at the table, Lunette takes note of the girl who keeps glancing at Kayde.

She watches as Lydia gets closer to Kayde and asks, “Is this your wolf? Can I pet him?”

“Oh yeah, go for it, his name is Fore,” Kayde responds casually, not thinking much of it.

“I found him in a forest,” he adds as Lydia continues to pet Fore.

“Hey… can we talk?” Lydia asks, hoping to maybe send some time with Kayde how they used to a couple of years ago.

“Sure what’s up?” Kayde responds, assuming she meant talk right there.

“Uh, I’d like to speak to him alone actually,” Lydia stands, not a conversation she wants to have in front of Sarge.

“Sure,” Kayde gets up and follows her out of the tavern, noting a strange look from Lunette as he does so.

“You know it’s good to see you again,” Lydia tells him as they get outside.

“Yeah,” Kayde agrees, not sure quite sure where this is going.

Lydia gets to the point, “Look, do you want to have some fun while you’re here?”

“Aren’t you still underaged?” Kayde tries to bring up an out so that he can politely decline her advances.

“No, not since last week,” she leans in closer to him.

Realizing he can’t do this without hurting feelings, Kayde carefully distances himself from Lydia, “Look, I might have found someone… yeah, sorry”.

“Oh… I didn’t know, that sucks I guess that means we can’t have fun anymore,” Lydia sounds depressed.

“Good luck with that, I guess,” she tells him before walking off back into the bar.

Lunette notices Lydia enter and notes her sadness, she gets up to find Kayde outside.

“Look at you, I didn’t know you had a type,” Lunette comments once she finds him.

“What?” Kayde isn’t sure what she means by that.

“Oh come on, black hair... wields a rifle... I’m looking at a boring teenage version of me… although she is a little taller… I want to be taller,” Lunette starts to ramble as she explains it to him.

“Hold on, that is more of a coincidence than anything. And your height is just fine,” Kayde plays it off.

“Hey, why did she look so sad when she walked back inside?” Lunette asks, having noticed Lydia’s expression as she came back in the tavern.

“Well, she wanted some of this, but I think that might not be okay anymore,” Kayde tries to subtly explain.

“And why is that?” Lunette questions, not sure what he means.

“Come on you know why,” Kayde doesn’t want to say it.

“It’s a shame you think that way. She is really pretty, I wouldn’t have minded letting her in on what we have going on,” Lunette notes, pouting just a little.

“I’m sorry what now?” Kayde doesn’t believe his ears.

“You heard me,” Lunette glances back at him.

“Okay… I appreciate the offer, I really do, but right now you’re the only thing that catches my eye,” Kayde turns down her interesting proposition.

“I think we should find an inn for the night, don’t you think?” Lunette suggests, forgetting about the friends they are leaving behind at the tavern.

“Yeah, I’d say so,” Kayde agrees, leading her off towards the nearest inn.

The others finish their conversation with the members of the city guard. They head outside assuming to meet back up with Kayde and Lunette, but they don’t see them anywhere.

“Looks like you got left behind,” Kali comments down towards Fore, who looks as chipper as usual despite Kayde’s absence.

“I thought we were going to talk about where we are supposed to meet up with the airship?” Gwendolyn notes, wondering why the two of them would have just left.

“It doesn’t matter, it just gives us time to fight again,” Drakthar gestures towards Xander, thinking this is an opportunity to prove himself.

“No, I have a wedding coming up man, I can’t fight you before that,” Xander declines before Gwendolyn does so for him.

“Fine, right after the wedding,” Drakthar notes, already confirming that it will happen.

“We will be on our honeymoon, I know this nice place by the coast I am going to take him,” Gwendolyn refuses for Xander.

“I go where Xander goes, I can fight him while you two are on your honeymoon,” Drakthar insists, not honoring the occasion at all.

“I’ll think about it,” Xander doesn’t fully commit to it as to keep as many people happy as possible.

Kali interjects, trying to talk some sense in Drakthar, “I don’t think you are really getting the point. And anyway, why don’t we fight right now. It is finally time for our rematch”.

This is just enough to get Drakthar’s mind off of Xander; he agrees, “Alright follow me”. He leads them to a warehouse that Xander finds familiar.

“Wait… is this where I think it is?” Xander asks, thinking of the time Drakthar, Sarge and he tried to join the Bears.

Drakthar nods before pulling open the sliding door at the front of the warehouse.

“Hey! Who is… oh if it isn’t Drakthar,” the leader of the Bears greets him once he realizes who it is.

“I need a battlefield,” Drakthar informs him, walking right past him to the back of the warehouse where he knows one exists.

“Of course, go right ahead,” the leader doesn’t hesitate to let him use it.

As Drakthar and Kali walk in the front taking their places in the arena, Xander makes a request of the Bears’ leader, “Hey, could you punch me in the stomach?”

“No, we don’t initiate people like that anymore,” the Bears leader explains, not intending to hit the young man beside him.

“No, I know that. It’s… it’s a pride thing okay,” Xander conveys, not wanting this to be a challenge he is never able to overcome.

“Hold on, I remember you. You were there the night Drakthar was. I sent you flying off the stage,” the man lets out a burst of deep laughter while picturing that moment.

“Yeah, that was me, but I’ve gotten stronger okay. So lay it on me,” Xander insists, steadying himself to take the punch. The man’s laughter stops; he can sense how serious the young man is. He begins winding up his fist, only out of respect for the determined man standing in front of him.

His knuckles collide with Xander’s abs, he stands firm, unmoved by the fist that sent him flying before.

The Bear nods in admiration, “Looks like you have gotten stronger”.

“Thanks,” Xander responds, doing the best he can to keep a straight face despite the intense pain he currently is trying to suppress. They sit down in the stands preparing to watch Drakthar and Kali’s rematch.

Kali stands there expectantly, waiting for Drakthar to take a stym. Instead, Drakthar raises his axe and slowly approaches her, not giving her the respect to take a stym right off that bat as he did with Xander.

Just as Drakthar is about to make his opening move, Kali shifts in front of it, leaving no space for Drakthar to swing his axe with any force at all. Drakthar takes a step back in an attempt to give himself enough space to attack, but she reads his movements and continues forth along with him, bringing forward her blade towards his side when she does.

Drakthar has to abandon his attack to block Kali’s, holding his axe sideways to stop her incoming swing. The fight continues like this for hours, Drakthar growing more and more irritated as Kali continues to keep him off balance, making him feel uncomfortable in that he cannot fight the way he normally does.

Drakthar does the only thing he can think of, lifting his off-hand to push her away so that he can generate some space between them. As soon as his hand starts to get close to Kali, he notices her blade coming across the front of her body, fully intending to remove his hand from his arm. He pulls it back, irritated that she has thought of this too.

Drakthar, his plan having failed, gives it another try, this time pushing with his right arm, axe still in hand, while he prepares to block her defensive strike with his left arm, gambling that the thicker part of the armor made of the Sand Dragon’s bones will be enough to stop her last-minute attack.

Instead, he is blindsided, she doesn’t go for his hand at all, while Drakthar pushes the bottom of his axe in Kali’s stomach, attempting to knock her back, he feels the flat part of her blade slam against his ear.

Drakthar can only hear ringing; he brings his left hand up to his ear, only to feel the wetness of blood in this disoriented state. He tries to take a step forwards towards Kali who he pushed back, but when he moves his leg he falls off balance to the ground.

Kali puts her blade right next to Drakthar’s neck, with an aggravated scowl. Drakthar tries to move to get up, but she puts the blade closer to him, causing a small cut to appear where the edge of Kali’s blade is on Drakthar’s neck.

“It’s over,” Kali tells him, removing her sword from his neck and putting it back in its sheath. Drakthar tries to get up to contest that statement, but he is unable to make it to his feet, forced to watch from the ground as she walks back towards the exit of the warehouse.

Gwendolyn gets up, giddily going over to congratulate her friend in her victory, “Nice job, you certainly surprised everyone here”.

Kali turns back to see Xander helping the still downed Drakthar and explains to Gwendolyn with a lot of anger within her voice, “I was always going to win, he’s been wasting his time preparing to fight everyone else, while I’ve been spending all my time training in order to defeat him”.

“Okay... you sound kind of furious for someone who just won,” Gwendolyn points out, thinking she should be reveling in this a little more. At this point, the two of them have gotten outside of the warehouse out of earshot of those inside.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m mad because he doesn’t respect me. Against Sharn, against Alexandros, and against Xander he took a stym… but not against me. It shows how little he thinks of me as an opponent and I’m sick of it!” She begins to rant about exactly why she is so angry.

From inside the others can hear Kali’s yelling able to make out exactly what she is saying. Xander looks down unable to know if what she is claiming is true or not.

“I have to ask… why didn’t you use a stym?” Xander asks him, hoping that there is a reason.

“I don’t know, I didn’t feel like I needed to,” Drakthar angrily growls back, lying about the real reason he didn’t take one. It wasn’t a sign of disrespect, Drakthar knows exactly how strong Kali is, counting her amongst the strongest warriors he has encountered.

The real reason Drakthar didn’t take the stym being he was worried about his friends. What happened to Xander the last time he lost control hasn’t left his mind, the scar he sees on his friend’s shoulder reminds him how rash he was, causing him to hesitate to put his friends in danger again when there isn’t the entire force of the Sacrosanct military to hold him back.

“I need to leave,” Drakthar tells Xander, an immediate reaction to his loss.

“Where are you going? Aren’t you going to be there for the wedding in a month? We have places to go, we need to go the capital and tell Hector about Oswald’s proposed treaty,” Xander reminds him, not wanting all of these things to happen without his best friend.

“You can do that without me,” Drakthar finally gets to his feet. Silently he tries to walk out the back, but Xander grabs his shoulder.

“Hey, I can’t have a wedding without my best man,” he tells him, not sure how long Drakthar plans to abandon them.

“He’ll be there,” Drakthar puts his hand on Xander’s wrist and pulls him in for a hug.

“Take care of yourself,” Xander bids his friend farewell. Drakthar grunts in response, backing away before leaving through the back door of the warehouse.

He doesn’t waste any time, leaving Melusarej to head into the desert, trying to determine what his priorities are now that he has all of these people he never thought he could be capable of caring about.

Xander walks outside to find Gwendolyn trying to calm down a fuming Kali.

“Guys, Drakthar left,” Xander interrupts them.

“Fine, if he wants to go pout in an inn for the night that’s fine, I don’t care!” Kali misunderstands what he means.

“No, not like that. He left the city, he is going off on his own,” Xander clarifies causing a shocked look of regret to come across Kali’s face.

“He couldn’t have gone far, let’s go after him,” Kali gets up and starts to run back towards the warehouse.

Xander stands in front of her, “No, it’s something he needs to do. He told me he would be back for the wedding”.

“That’s in a month,” Kali tries to get past him.

“It is, just give him time, I think he has a few things he needs to find out on his own,” Xander stands firm, making sure to let his friend leave in peace like he wants to.

“Fine, but I’m going to be mad at him when he gets back,” Kali crosses her arms in defiance.

“No you won’t, you’ll welcome him back with open arms,” Gwendolyn keeps her honest. Kali just turns away and starts walking towards the center of the city.

“Hey did you guys notice Fore leave?” Xander looks around, noting that the wolf is no longer with them.

“Oh no… did we lose him too?” Gwendolyn realizes, also not remembering when he ran away.

“We’re just losing everyone now aren’t we?” Kali points out dejectedly.

“Maybe he ran back to wherever Kayde and Lunette are, let’s keep looking,” Xander suggests as they walk.

“My dad is waiting with the airship North of the city, it’s getting late, we have kept him waiting for a while,” Gwendolyn mentions, getting back to their original plans.

“Let’s just find Kayde, Lunette, and Fore or at least confirm they left us like Drakthar,” Xander doesn’t want to cause more confusion if Kayde and Lunette are just walking around somewhere checking out the city.

They ask some people in the city if they have seen a wolf and they are pointed to Fore, who is being yelled at by the proprietor of the inn nearest to O’Malleys’ tavern.

“Get out mutt! Why are you hanging around here!” He tries to shoo Fore away.

“Sorry, but did you see a cyborg and a short woman with messy black hair and glasses come through here?” Gwendolyn approaches the man with a smile.

“What? I’m trying to get this…” the man freezes as he sees how beautiful the woman who just approached him is.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite hear what you said,” the man tries to be as polite as possible to Gwendolyn.

“Yes, did a cyborg and a woman with messy black hair and glasses buy a room at your inn?” She asks again just as nicely as before.

“Yes… they uh, are in room five upstairs,” He tells them, despite promising an agreement of digression with his customers.

“Thank you so much,” she gives him one last smile before walking upstairs.

“I’ll wait out here with Fore, you two go see what’s going on,” Kali tells Xander to follow Gwendolyn.

They make it to the door and Gwendolyn knocks on it a couple of times, “Lunette, Kayde, are you guys in there?”

“Gwendolyn? Come on in,” they hear Kayde from the other side of the door.

Gwendolyn opens the door and Xander follows in after her. They stop in their tracks as they see Kayde and Lunette intertwined upon the bed.

“Hey guys, did you want to join?” Lunette offers before they can say anything.

“No... what is wrong with you guys? You could have just said this was happening, we would have waited,” Xander shields his eyes and turns around.

“Dude, we got a room at an inn when we are supposed to be on the airship by the end of the day, what did you think was going on in here?” Kayde points out Xander’s obliviousness.

“Okay, sure, you guys meet us at the Northern outskirts whenever you are done with all of this. Come on Gwendolyn let’s go,” Xander grabs a hold of her arm and starts to lead Gwendolyn, who unlike Xander has been staring the entire time, out of the room.