“It’s been going well, I guess. Can’t say I like the feeling that I’m in school again, though,” John started. Orianna chuckled at that. The genuine notes of happiness he heard in her voice made him relieved to see that the disease, whatever it was, didn’t damage her spirit, “anyways, you were saying you need to go back to the Federation soon? What’s that about? They can’t even wait until you’ve completely recovered?” he heard a tinge of something between jealousy and concern in his own voice, absolutely unsure where it even came from.

“Now I know, you do worry about me!” she half winked at him, “anyways, got no time. I need to finish my training just as much as you do. I won’t let you be the only one having fun out there John!” she stretched her hand out and lightly patted him on the shoulder, “I’m well enough to do that at least.”

John was now more annoyed. He wasn’t even sure why, but something about the whole situation felt unfair to him, *‘they couldn’t possibly expect her to be fine already, can they?’* John thought bitterly. His face showed the same expression, and when Orianna saw it she spoke again.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. You should focus on your own training,” she said warmly. When his glumness persisted, she continued, “we’ll see each other out there again! You know that as well as I do. But can’t say it won’t be as rivals when that happens,” her smile showed no sign of regret. Not even any hidden emotions, she seemed genuinely happy at the thought. Even though that sounded negative on the surface, John was sure what she meant by rivals would be far more fun than painful.

“Yeah, you’re right,” John still felt unhappy about it, “oh, right. I never did tell you what happened after you got knocked out.”

“You found anything interesting?”

John quickly explained what had happened on XR2 after he left and that the Council was waiting for them when they got back. Describing the wonderful scenery on the strange planet and the creatures he saw, as well as the disease he witnessed in her when they both came back.

“That must be the weirdest thing I’ve heard. And I did that? Shit... I don’t remember any of it. I just blacked out on XR2 and the next thing I knew I was here being treated,” her expression was one of confusion and for a second she almost sounded worried before her levity returned, “I’m sure it’s nothing! That reminds me, I haven’t eaten anything real in days,” her stomach made a sound with appropriate comedic timing, “I heard there’s a mess hall here, so I’m off to grab a bite to eat,” almost as soon as she said that she jumped out of the bed with a sudden burst of energy and walked towards the door.

“You sure you’re ok to go there? I have no idea where it is.”

“Yeah, they told me I can go anywhere I want as long as I don’t leave the base,” she paused for a minute, “though if you’re so worried you could take me there?” John was sure he saw a wink near the end.

“Sure,” he was still worried about her, and he assured himself that was the only reason.

“I’m fine. I’m fine!” she tried dismissing the others with flicks of her hands,

“It’ll heal, no need to rush at me like this,” Bass grumbled. The medic who had treated her and Charlotte had been constantly harassing her for the last twenty minutes. She had carelessly opened up her wound again in magic class, and the rest were worried about her. In a small circle around her was the rest of the team besides John, waiting for her wound to close again.

“You can’t always be this stubborn, Bass. Next time you might not get so lucky with where you’re hit,” Yan was used to it, but her teammate was still a pain in the butt.

“Not like I died from it. Would’ve been fine either way. Hell, I didn’t even need mister hero’s help,” her tone sounded mocking but her smile was genuine. When she noticed, she almost tried covering it with her hand

“You’re not fooling anyone with that,” the ice mage said accusingly.

Bass shrugged in response.

“Anyways, we going to grab lunch like usual or what?” she said, as soon as her wound had finally been closed again by the sole medic.

“Sure…” Yan quickly accepted, if somewhat hesitantly.

“Y-yeah.” Charlotte seemed as nervous as ever.

“I suppose that is as good a use of my time as any.”

Bass hoped John would join them this time, but the four of them eating together had been a long held tradition, so that was good too. They all found themselves as the outcasts the previous year while undergoing their basic training, and somehow they all ended up as friends. Or at least, she considered them all as such.

“Let’s go then,” she said, and they quickly travelled through the myriad of hallways to the mess hall.

The bustling and large open room was just as busy as usual, filled with about a hundred of the various other trainees and soldiers comprising those members of the Council not allowed in the more exclusive mess halls. On one of the well made and grand wooden tables placed an even distance from each other and near the corner of the room they found two strange figures already sitting. For a second Bass was angry, that was their usual table, but before anyone could display annoyance she recognized one of them.

"Boss, what are you doing here?" Bass shouted across the room, growing fond of the new nickname she had come up with in the heat of the moment.

A few minutes after John and Orianna sat down to eat, a group of four entered the room. He didn’t take notice of them at the start, until he heard Bass’s voice calling across the room. They all quickly came towards them.

“You both are sitting at our table,” the sound mage laughed.

“Oh, sorry,” Orianna immediately went to get up. John stopped her before she could.

“It’s fine, these are my team,” he quickly introduced them all, to a mix of suspicion and awkwardness.

“Heyo! Nice to meet you, Orianna. Never thought I’d meet a Federation Explorer,” Bass said cheerfully. She as always, was the exception.

“I-i’ve never met someone from the Federation…” Charlotte looked even more withdrawn than usual.

“Why are you even here?” Yan was definitely suspicious.

Matthew was quiet, but his gaze said everything. It was filled with a mix of contempt, suspicion and anger.

“I’m here because he saved me,” Orianna turned to John with a soft smile. Yan’s only reaction was a sigh.

“Of course he did,” the shapeshifter whispered. Loud enough for the rest to hear, but not loud enough that she was looking for a response. John tried his best to ignore the half insult.

The biomancer wasn’t discouraged by the others, starting a lively conversation with Bass.

“So, where were you during our magic lessons?” Yan quickly asked John. Sitting down with hesitation.

“Oh. Apparently I’m being tutored by Ingrid herself, so I was there the entire time,” he said as gently as he could.

“Makes sense. She’s probably the best Psychic mage around here. Lucky for you that you’re getting tutored by the Council’s leader,” Yan sounded unsurprised.

Not letting Orianna’s presence disturb them any further, they all went to grab food at different times. The selection wasn’t varied, with only some fried chicken and hamburgers as meat options. Covering up the rest was a collection of healthy looking salads and breads.

John was famished, though he wasn’t sure why that was the case. Maybe it was because he had last eaten the night before, but he had gone several days without eating and was only hungry when he reached Orianna’s cabin, so he figured it was something else. Paying it no mind and despite the dry taste of the food he ate ravenously. Looking for a distraction from the food alone, he listened to Bass’ conversation with Orianna.

"How'd you meet John?" Bass asked bluntly.

"The Federation uses the same testing grounds for Explorers. I met him there," Orianna responded, shrugging her shoulders.

"Is that where he 'saved' you?" Bass asked sarcastically, chuckling as she did.

Orianna answered completely straightforwardly, "yeah."

The sound mage burst out laughing. It was surprisingly quite lovely. Soft and touching in a way Bass' attitude didn't seem capable of producing. John was surprised, but the other three sitting around him seemed unphased.

It was almost surreal to John how calmly they all kept acting. Even Charlotte with her nervous stutter was almost always stone faced. Maybe he himself had adopted that expression as well, but he hadn’t felt truly calm since he met Ember almost a month prior.

Orianna and Bass continued in idle chatter, as the rest ate peacefully, entirely unconcerned about anything in the world, albeit they were also exceedingly quiet. Without interaction from Bass or himself, Matthew, Yan and Charlotte all chose not to make conversation. When John thought about it, it made some level of sense, they were all relatively quiet people. It was, however, somewhat strange given how much time they had to have spent with each other during all of their training.

John tried breaking the ice, "so, I've been wondering. Why did each of you come here? Bass told me this place is better than the rest of the Abyss, but I wanted us to get to know each other better, and this seems like a good way," in response, there was complete silence. Even Bass' and Orianna's conversation was stopped. John, surprised, started himself, "ok, I'll go first then!” he tried saving the situation from awkward silence, “I didn't really have much choice honestly. Kinda got recruited whether I wanted to join up or not, and knew basically nothing about the Abyss before I got dragged here.

“Even that decision was made for me, though it wasn't like I had many other options of my own,” he started to sound like he was whining, so he turned around his line of speech, “but regardless of what happened, the opportunity to explore new worlds like this is amazing. I still can't believe I'm not in some vivid dream or nightmare or something," he said, it was all somewhat embarrassing to share, but by the end he was laughing. Some strange mix of awkwardness and strangeness of all of it. Then there was once again silence.

Bass shattered it a minute later, "adventure, you know? I'm always looking for somewhere new to go, and this seemed perfect. Plus, nobody knows me out here… Means I can meet a bunch of new people!" there was something about the way she said it that seemed off to John, but Orianna interrupted his thoughts.

"It's just what I've always wanted to do," Orianna said wistfully.

Yan was next, "to get away. From the Abyss, earth, all of it," Yan was blunt, but John expected it, and had a feeling that desire was shared between most of them.

"My reasons are my own, perhaps one day you'll earn the right to know of them," Matthew looked directly at John. The Gamer met his gaze half with curiosity and half with frustration. There was no need to dance around everything like that.

"I don't know… I-I just kind of ended up h-here," out of all of them, John could tell Charlotte wasn’t telling the truth, but there was more to all their answers. John was sure of that.

After they all spoke, the awkward silence returned, and the mood had changed enough that it didn’t break again. They ate in silence, and once they were all done, Orianna got up. She said her goodbyes to the others quickly, and took John aside.

"I'm going now, I have to, or I won’t leave at all. And I'm sure I'll see you again. You can handle yourself, I know that now. Just in case I’m wrong, I think they have your back,” she looked to the others and Bass in particular with a smile, “what we will meet as though, that's still up to you…" she trailed off.

"You will always be my friend. I hope I'll see you again too," John said with a sad smile, from the moment he had met Orianna she had been nothing but kind to him.

"Yeah… And don't think I'll pull any punches out there because of that. We're rivals, after all," all her energy seemed to flow back to her in an instant, "I'll see you out there," she left a moment later. She turned her back on John, to hide the solemn expression that grew on her face as she left the room.

As the rest of them headed out of the dining hall, John felt terrible. Whether it was being tired or Orianna’s goodbye, it had been far too long a day. While contemplating going back to Springfield he said goodbye to his team. Even now, he already considered them his friends. Perhaps he wasn't as trusting as he used to be, but years of loneliness had left him wanting good company. If nothing else, this ragtag group of skilled idiots, including him, did make for fun company. Or at least, they did when Bass was involved. With both his tiredness and that realization in mind, John retreated to his room.

Orianna hadn't been in the Federation's headquarters for some time, she forgot how awfully kept the place was. It was on the other side of the American continent. Instead of being placed in the forests of the northeast, it was among the mountains in the northwest of what the mundanes called the United States. The complex was more like a city than the single building of the Council. With small tents and log houses placed every which way, and dozens of holes and bunkers dug into the mountains. Biggest of the various other buildings spread around was the main office, a giant concrete structure that looked almost like a modern Earth skyscraper. Files, maps and books were spread all over every floor, placed on every single surface that wasn't already occupied. Twenty or so people sat in simple modern office chairs in front of similarly simple modern office desks on the top of those floors. They were all those at the top, responsible for managing every one of the Federation's resources.

"I found the gateway," Orianna announced as she approached a white haired woman.

"Good, we're gonna need every last resource if we're going to win what's coming. Welcome to the Explorers, Orianna!" her tone was flat, but clearly congratulating.

She was the leader of the Federation, not known to many, as she hid herself from everyone but the top elected officials. The white haired woman was elected by virtue of her merit despite her position outside the Federation, and had worked for many years to enhance their capabilities and organization. Her face was pale and beautiful, her outfit regal yet flattering, and her clothing and jewellery all contained a smattering of blue.

She was Ingrid Bluespark.