Standing just outside the complex where Ele-Quince Games is housing us, I return just shy of the twenty four emergency hours I was alotted to get my affairs in order. There were no changes to Mom's condition and I signed a bunch of papers regarding what was to be done under certain circumstances. I'm not being limited to the amount of times I can be pulled out of the game, but if it happens enough times then I'll definitely be out of the race. Of course, by then, it'll be the least of my worries.

I spoke to my Uncle Moss who said he'd take care of anything else that might pop up in my absence. Apparently, he watches the show, too, and recommended a friend at his lawfirm who is establishing herself as an entertainment lawyer. It's not an actual kind of lawer, but one who focuses on things like: facilitating negotiations, connecting clients with service providers, and protecting intellectual property. I told him to get us connected and that it might be a while until I get back to her since I'll be missing the next break. I also forwarded Dawn, Richter, and Rachel's information to him in case they need the same kind of representation and hopefully they can fill me in when they return.

Back in my room Erin and Arnold are on duty, waiting for my return. He's busy going back and forth between a mobile laptop stand and the pod's computer while she has her arms crossed under her chest. Her button up shirt is wide open, revealing a grey tank top that sits just above her belly button. When she notices my arrival her hands shoot to her hips.

"Took you long enough." The stern look in her eyes softens into focused curiosity when she sees my face, "You… okay? Is your mom--"

"She's fine, I suppose. For now." I add the last part, scratching the back of my head. "Been waiting long?"

Without looking up from his work Arnold answers as Erin hands me a brand new pod suit still in its wrapper, "We got here maybe five minutes ago, but we clocked in for our shift maybe an hour so ago. Front desk told us you arrived and we headed here to meet you."

Erin backhanded his shoulder with a loud crack, but even that didn't impede his progress, "I was trying to upgrade free drinks to food too, dummy! Make him feel bad for making us wait so long!"

"Why not a movie, too, and we can have a real night of it?" I ask.

Blushing hard she reaches to take the suit back, but I'm already stripping off my hoodie. She stammers something in frustration but Arnold adds, "As tempting as that sounds, I don't think I can handle being a third wheel on your date."

Her unintelligible sputtering kicks into another gear and her eyes dart around. Even indignant, she's quite cute and I play along with Arnold, "Well, we wouldn't mind, would we, dear?"

My shirt comes off and I'm just about to work on my belt when she shoves me from behind towards another room. "Don't just get naked in the middle of the room like that! Don't you have any common decency!"

"You're right. Arnold, I guess Erin and I will take this to a more private area." Her hands leave me as if a current of electricity shot through me and I continue to a bedroom on my own to change. I could hear Arnold giggling as Erin berates him. When I come back out Erin is going over both pod screen and the laptop as he stands aside, hands in his pockets.

She mutters to herself, but she's still loud enough for anyone else to hear, "No, no. This algorithm is too long. It'll create a loop that would take the system several cycles to reset. He might even get kicked out... And what is this? Seventeen? Really? Geez, Arnold, what were you…"

I clear my throat after putting on my crown, "I'm ready to dive if you're ready to drive."

"Yeah, yeah." She waves me off and Arnold pops the pod open. "Now listen. Like I said before, there's a reason everyone dives and breaks at around the same time. We've tried to create a patch for you to slip back in seemlessly, but without someone to test it on, we can't know for sure if it'll work. The only good news is if it does work, then we'll have something to work with and the next time someone has to do the same thing…"

I glare at her and she realizes the implication.

"Hopefully it's not you!" She searches half heartedly for a piece of wood to knock on and settles on rapping a couple times on her head. "Anyway, let's get you strapped in."

"We don't need a medical person this time?" I ask, slipping into the pod.

"Only if the pod explodes!" Arnold clears his throat, his joke flailing weakly on the floor. "Gary was here last time because we didn't know how you'd fare coming out of the pod prematurely. Going in is a much simpler affair."

Erin swaps places with Arnold and she stands in front of me. She places her hands on her hips, unintentionally moving her button up shirt to the side to give me a better look at her athletic body. "Yup. Nothing to worry about now!"

"Well, I've never had to worry about premature ejection before. I'm usually in and out without any problems." I give her a wink and my comment catches her off guard, turning her a deep red. Arnold barks a loud laugh and my last view is of Erin giving me the finger and cursing out us two men. I can still hear her muffled yelling as the nodes attach themselves and the system boots up.

The red, inner light is still on and I can hear the two technicians having a discussion. I think about it and never recall ever taking this long for the dive. Their conversation stops suddenly, only to make way for Erin swearing loudly and a bang echoing from the lower part of the pod.

"Did she just kick--"

The lights go out and I finally get the familiar drop feeling of full emersion.

***************

[1233XP + 40% War Party Leader IV Bonus

[1726XP will be shared among the party.

[1726XP/4 party members.

[You received 431XP!]

[Boss Slayer! As the last to attack the boss when it died you received a bonus!]

[You received 1000XP, Ravencast Agent's Choker]

[Ravencast Agent's Choker. Advanced Expert. Accessory. Neck. 1/3

[Armor: 1

[+5%MP Max. Spell: Throw Voice

[Set Bonus:???]

[Throw Voice (5MP) 150feet/ Requirement: Target must be at least partially visible. Able to send and receive a single message no longer than 3seconds, audible only by the caster and the target.]

[You received: 217*Crystacean Shard, 106*Leyline Scavenger Filament, 16*Leyline Scavenger Shell, 5*Vial of Mana Radiated Blood, 1*Journeyman Spell Card of Mending III, Shift Journal of Echidarratia Edalypse]

Rachel's final strike was bittersweet, especially with the poignant moment shared between Echidarratia and Victoria that followed it, although the introduction of a new set item did raise her excitement level a bit. She equipped the black choker in the style of criss-crossing black feathers and wondered what the next items and the set bonus will be.

"It was a shield." Richter proclaims, using two ghostly purple hands to hold up a round, metal shield against the hole in the door. He wanted to find out what caused the loud noise when Echidarratia, the mutated mother soldier, died. Apparently, she tried to use the shield to plug the hole in the door. It just barely worked, but being so close to the cesspool and the hole being improperly sealed, the polluted mana must have leaked in and, over time, caused her condition.

"If that's the case," Dawn declares, putting herself between the door and Victoria, "I sure as hell don't want you any where near the leak. Now that I think about it, how are we supposed to plug it up? These Arcanists couldn't do it?"

Victoria rolls her eyes, "For the fifth time… It takes time for mutations like that to occur. Several days. Even with extremely dense amounts of mana in the air. Besides, ether is only dangerous if you come into direct contact with it. Now, Kona, Mika, and Serenity all agreed that the best chance we have is with you and your Faith based magic. It's also the reason why they didn't come down here with us. If we go down there and use anything Arcane based, they'll be effected by Malco's Second Law of Arcane Magic."

"Which is?" Dawn asks with a cocked eyebrow.

"Deviating from an Arcane Spell's specific mana requirements will always result in a surge of chaotic side effects. It's why Sorcerers have unstable, or 'Wild' magic. They have a vast and innate knowledge of Spells, but they often have little control over how much MP they put into casting. Basically, they have no limiters in their personal leylines resulting in unintended levitation, altering of elements, and sometimes even spontaneous combustion.

"Like, yikes." Rachel's eyebrows shoot up at the thought.

"Yes, well," Victoria holds up the card they earned from Echidarratia, "It looks like this was probably meant for a Cleric of some kind to use for repairs, but it seems as though the leyline rupture and whatever happened up top occurred simultaneously. They had to choose which one to address first and I believe they chose poorly."

Vic moves to hand the card over to Dawn, but she's nose deep in a small, worn, leather-bound book. A quick throat clear sends Dawn's eyes darting up at her, down at the card, and then rolling in their sockets.

"Yes, yes. I get to be a Cleric of the Faulty Plumbing now. I just wanted to verify--" She waves the small journal slowly, "--that, yes, that's pretty much what happened. Looks like the Lich Lord's final middle finger stretched farther than he expected. Ech-- Echi-- Echida… last wrote about a shockwave of energy that washed through here, opening the portals upstairs and tearing a hole in the tributary's natural containment membrane."

"Whoa, she had time to write all that?" Richter asks, glancing over his shoulder.

"She was stuck down here. You can tell she wasn't left handed, that's for sure. I… I don't want to get into the rest. Really wish I didn't read it. Poor thing. Just enough mana leaked inside to keep her alive and mutate her for many, many years." Dawn stows the book and looks around, gripping the card tight.

"Like, no wonder she didn't put up much of a fight. She wanted to die."

"She wanted to die in battle." Vic corrects her and they all move towards the door. "Ready to go, Commander?"

Dawn shakes her head, but positions herself in the front of the formation. The door is secured by a simple cross bar and she tests it to see if it will move. It shimmies back and forth with no catches. After checking with the others and glancing at their rainbow bars, she slides it out of the way and the door opens wide. Richter's Mage Hands are still holding the shield up in the air, out of the door's way, but Dawn motions for him to bring it closer to her.

[Mana Radiated Round Shield. Enhanced Apprentice. Shield

[Armor: 6

[Durability: 170/170

[+55Max MP, +5MP Regen, -25Max HP

[Emits a 15ft radius aura of Moderately High ambient Mana.]

It goes straight into Dawn's storage. It's a good piece of equipment with nice boosts, and a minor drop that won't be big a deal to someone like her with a massive 486HP. For now, however, she decides that she doesn't need a nuclear hunk of metal and wood strapped to her arm as she wades into the fantasy equivalent of Chernobyl.

The door leads down a single set of rough carved stairs with a single landing. The lack of a handrail and narrow strips for steps somehow prelude the danger the stairs descend toward. Everything glows a harsh violet and the air itself is thick with a miasma of purple mist. They move slowly, not out of fear or hesitation, but as one would through water, the very air resisting their actions. They may not have been given the Slowed Debuff, but they sure look and feel like it. Each downward step needs quite a bit of exertion.

"This is crazy," Dawn notes, "Is there any way for us to go any faster?"

"Er… I don't know if, like, I want try out Blink Step anymore…" Rachel shakes her head, her feathers ruffling in slow, lethargic movements. She giggles, "My own feathers are tickling me!"

Dawn clears her throat, "Well, I guess we can just--"

The view unfolding at the bottom of the stairway ends their chatter immidiately. A sprawling, two-story cavern stretches away from where they enter, leading them like a cavernous hallway with the stream of purple energy flowing near the ceiling. A deep indigo spot on this floating river of ether has a steady drip of similar colored motes, falling gently through the thick atmosphere into an almost black pool on the floor. The polluted ether collects inside a long, oblong, crater probably forty feet at its longest.

"Is that it?" Richter asks, reaching up to almost touch his glasses to activate Arcane Sight, but thinking better of it.

They move in closer. A warm, ethereal current blows their hair and loose clothing like a summer breeze. The energy in the air is simultaneously comforting and unsettling, warm and prickly hot. All four take their places near the edge of the dark pool. All at once, the atmosphere crackles with electricity, short sparks running through the air around them, and their breaths come out in thick vapors, goosebumps spreading like wildfire as a current of cold air passes through them.

"Damn! I can't wait to get out of here!" Dawn exclaims, withdrawing the card.

Victoria nods in agreement, "I can only imagine how mana effects Ardacen with his new Feat. If this is how we feel at this level--"

"--It might be fatal for him." Richter finishes. "Yeah, I tried to use Arcane Sight on the albino plants and it gave me a headache as well as the Blind Debuff for several seconds."

Vic arches an eyebrow in question at him, "Didn't he warn you not to do that?"

Richter shrugs his shoulders sheepishly, "Well… I took it more as a dare than a warning. Besides, I'm fine now!"

"Boys…" Rachels sighs with a grin.

A radiant white gleam from a half dozen magic circles envelope the dark spot in the stream forming a cube as they intersect each other at the edges and corners. Dawn has a glowing hand outstretched towards the phenomenon, a single circle with hieroglyphics, letters, and other ancient symbols swap rapidly inside and along the edge. A smaller copy of Dawn's hand circle does the same thing hovering just above the hand-sized Spell Card as the words on it flash and disappear as they drain into the rotating circle. From her chest to her fingertips, she can feel every single point of the 250MP casting cost draining into the card, guiding the Spell with her open palm. As the grouping of magic circles shrinks down toward the center, the dark spot minimizes along with them. A moment shoots a sliver of worry throughout the group as the spot seemingly fights back for a heartbeat, but once it reaches a enough small size it simply vanishes. The circles hang around for a few seconds but the Spell ends and they disappate in a shower of white motes of light.

Everyone continues to observe the area where the ether was just leaking, Rachel still has her fingers, arms, legs, and toes crossed. Several minutes pass, the energy and feeling in the air doesn't change. The abyssal pool at their feet remains undisturbed, though a current beneath its surface continues to swirl it in the same direction as the leyline tributary.

[Major Quest Complete!

[Patching a Leak in the Basement

[Lowest level reached: 5/5

[Reward: 1000XP to each person involved in the Quest, 4*Knight Chest, 4*Pawn Chest, 12*Rune Key(Entrance)]

[Minor Quest Received: Zombies and the Means of Production

[Rise up, comrades! Take to the streets and destroy the undead bourgeoisie's means of production 0/3.

[Reward: Dungeon Core (32,000Max EP)]

[Minor Quest Received: Bring a Mop and Bucket

[Drain the polluted ether and ensure its proper storage or disposal 0/2300cubic feet.

[Reward: 1*Journeyman Scroll of Mending III

[Failure: Catastrophic results to living beings and the environment in an area proportionate to the amount mishandled.]

"Well, that's certainly good news, bad news all around," Dawn proclaims while still staring at the pool. She resists the urge to kick a pebble into it and looks around the cavern instead. "Let's see if there's anything else we're missing here."

Rachel relaxes herself all at once, practically crumbling to the floor, before joining Dawn in exploring. Richter looks over the Rune Key, a simple, old fashioned kind of key made from some kind of light green metal with a matte finish, glowing blue runes snake around it.

[Rune Key(Entrance). Apprentice Wonderous Object.

[The user of this key must do so in a dungeon to return to its entrance. Once used, the magic within the key destroys it.]

Victoria closes the zombie Quest screen and shakes her head, "Travelers get the strangest Quests. I could barely understand what it said, but I guess we'll have to come back to destroy the portals?" Richter nods his head, tosses her a key, and they both follow after the other two.

***************

The second dive drop feeling didn't inspire a lot of confidence. The fourth and fifth? Completely unsettling. Stuck somewhere beyond the real world and not quite in the game yet, I had no way to contact anyone to let them know my situation. I could feel my body parts in the dark, vast, abyssal space, even catching their movements like a shadow against the night sky. I'm weightless, though, unable to find proper orientation. If only I could find a surface to move across, maybe I could make some kind of progress?

"This sucks."

My voice echoes in the lonely darkness, but the sounds come back distorted, strange. Half of them come back in clipped tones while the others are… reversed?

"--thissucks--"

"--skcus siht--"

Weird. So weird.

The repetitive drop has a cadence that didn't take me long to figure out. So, when drop six didn't occur when expected, I couldn't help but get my hopes up that I'll be free of this purgatory. Instead, my solitary confinement continues and my frustration mounts.

"You there, Azrael?"

"--thereazreal--"

"--learza ereht--"

Nothin. It's getting old, nothingness. Nothing but nothingness. Nothing had nothing to say.

I guess Azrael isn't here. But where is here? I crane my neck, hoping against hope that I was foolish enough to have my back toward the answer the whole time. Strangely enough, a miniscule object differentiates itself from the darkness. With a little effort, I turn my body towards it.

"What is that…?"

My voice doesn't echo this time, but trails off like the sound was sucked out of my mouth as I spoke and sped off to the object's direction. For several seconds the tiny object just hovers in the same spot and I realize that I couldn't actually tell the distance between us. I shift my weight in thought and am blindsided by the realization that my feet are on a solid surface. I move about, overjoyed that I finally had some sort of reference point. Finally, I could… hold up… Is that thing getting closer?

The oddly shaped object is either growing larger or, more likely the case, getting closer to me at an agonizingly slow pace. It isn't like I had anything else to do but wait, except the anticipation of its arrival is steadily becoming unbearable.

"It looks like a--"

Without further preamble, a massive, two-story snail appears by my side, like a bus pulling up to a bus stop. I could feel concussive vibrations for a few moments after its arrival, but hear nothing like a silent thunderclap. Its shell is flat on the sides like a enormous drum, with three lines spiraling out from the center. The bottom of it makes contact with the same "ground" that I'm standing on and continues to writhe at a frantic pace, though only gaining fractions of an inch at a time. Two pairs of eye stalks, the back two maybe a foot taller and larger than the ones in front, twist leisurely in my direction. A rich, baritone voice resounds in my head and I am forced to assume that it's coming from the giant snail, since no one else seems to be around.

[You must be the Traveler, Ardacen Winters?]

"Uh, yes?"

I speak out loud in return, worried why it would know something like that. I tried to bring up my character sheet or the game menu, but nothing happened. Even my HUD remains empty, still, after however long I've been trapped in this space.

[Most fortuitous. I had assumed it would take a bit more effort to find you.]

I'll give it to whoever designed this talking snail for not giving it the typical slow speech pattern. Instead, its tone is patient and sagacious, like an ancient professor. I laugh to myself, imagining the front, smaller eyes are actually a pair of bifocals resting on a large nose.

[Seems like you got yourself in a bit of trouble, didn't you?]

"Huh? I-- I didn't do this on purpose!" My response is a little indignant, but I don't like being blamed for stuff I either wasn't involved in or have any control over.

[Now, now. It's okay. I'm here to help. It seems that your time speed isn't quite matching up to Arc, impeding you're return from your world to ours.]

"What does that mean?" As we speak, the distance being covered by his wiggling body is enough for me to have to occasionally slide a foot distance or so to be within sight of his eye stalks.

[Simply put, your inner clock is too slow and needs to be synchronized before you can fully enter the world.]

"What would happen if I didn't?"

[Well, I wouldn't be very good at my duties if I just let you in like that. That's why we're here now.]

"Where is here? And, not to sound rude, but who are you?"

[Ah, yes. Introductions. About time we got to that. My name is Catus. I am the Keeper of Eternity, the Sentinel of Time, here in the world of Arc.]

As he speaks the words through my mind, another speck in the distance rapidly grows large. We speed by an alien system of stars, planets, moons, and other heavenly bodies until we reach the little, blue sphere of Arc and her moon. I am still standing on something, though I cannot see it, but I notice the undulations of the wiggly body have slowed down significantly. It's not as if Catus just relaxed, but more like the waves of his body trying to move are straining to continue against some invisible force.

[This, of course, isn't the real Arc. Just a vision. We cannot have you interracting with it in your condition.]

"Are you kind of like Azrael then? A sort of guide?"

[Brother Azrael? Well, I suppose you could say that. I would not be violating any rules if I were to interact more with the populace, though I am not normally inclined to do so. Both of us being minor deities allows more freedoms to roam the many planes, though our powers are focused on specific tasks.]

"I think being in control of time is pretty powerful ." My thoughts drift back to all the moments I wish I could have done over again, but a sympathetic chuckle from Catus catches my attention.

[Young Traveler, I do not control time. No one controls time. Time moves of its own volition, according to its own whims, and follows its own laws. I may redirect others on its path or be a conduit for it, allowing Casters to catch the faintest glimpse of its power. But, noone, not even those of the Pantheon, can do anything to manipulate Time itself.]

"So, how does time magic work then?"

[Much like how we're attempting to slowly adjust your personal bubble of time, time Spells and other such effects work in much the same way. You can stop, slow, even speed up someone's bubble of time, but only for short periods. There are even Abilities that allow some to glimpse the future or view the past. But, if you may not have noticed, those affected by time magic still continue on the straight path of time. Time moves forward, never backwards. One river, ever changing, ever moving, but only going in one direction.]

"So, there's no Spells to allow one to go back in time and fix any mistakes?"

[If there were, would you ever learn? Would you grow as a person? Would any event for you be important enough to NOT alter for your own selfish desires?]

"I guess not…" I slump my shoulders and stare at the planet. "But, if that's true, then things are always going to happen a certain way, right? Like destiny? Or fate? Why even try to change that?"

[Well, if you take my earlier analogy of a river then think of a rock, jutting out of the water. You can see the rock coming ever closer and you know what will happen if it collides with your craft. That means you have a choice and a choice is always made in the present. The present is the moment in time that you decide what kind of past and future you will have. Do you hit the rock, ending your river ride? Or do you miss it entirely, possibly just to watch out for more rocks further down? Or, do you steer to shore?]

"But then why go down the river if all there is is more rocks?"

His wiggles become faster and I walk with him to keep pace. The planet moves in closer to us and we walk through the upper atmosphere, through clouds, and I get a little disoriented as we walk practically vertical down towards the surface. The ground we walk on tilts and we straighten out at an angle as we make our way towards a continent covered in verdent forests, lush plains, a golden desert, and rivers and streams paused in time. A plot of mountainous area surrounds the north to east side of a sprawling metropolis and a river runs north and south on that same east side.

[That is Coronus, capital city of Regalus.]

I'm not sure if he was reading my mind, but the question did feature prominently in my head before his statement. But before I can ask, he continues on.

[We are approaching the answer to your question, Ardacen. You see, a river doesn't only have hazards to avoid. There are other things, good things, but those one may simply avoid also. Some people steer their vessel into the rocks and blame fate or destiny, like you say. Some people avoid stopping to pick fruit on the shore or fish where it is bountiful because of the same reasons.

[Time is not responsible for the vessel and its captain. Time is not responsible for the events found on its course. It is only responsible for bringing the two, vessel and event, together for a single moment where a choice is to be made.]

As he finishes, we approach a forest skirting the edge of a mountain range. A tower sits idle in the center of a clearing, littered with tents and wooden structures. I know who resides there now, but I bite my tongue as we pass by. Eventually we find our valley with the waterfall that looks like a roaring dragon. We approach our home. My home in game. Our journey winds up in the center of The Keep, deep in the mountain range, and I can see the progress we've made so far. But…

"Where is everybody?"

[Like I said before, this is not the world of Arc, yet. We are simply viewing the world as it is now. We cannot view living beings this way, not that you would be able to interact with them or the vision of the world you see before you. Now… you ask why continue down the river? Why else would you ride down a river?]

"To get somewhere? To reach the end? Isn't there just… death, at the end? But in this world, Travelers are essentially immortal. My river has no end."

We're in the center of The Keep and I take the time to really observe its layout. Facing the opening is the wall of greyladium-inforced concrete in the shape of a cresting wave, the road from the entrance splitting into two on either side of it. The wave wall is meant to break and bottle neck a horde of enemies as well as stop ranged attackers from firing wildly into The Keep. The two roads travel all the way towards the opposite end and converge at the far wall, forming a single road.

Moving down that road, we move past several layers of temporary earthen walls with openings for our ranged attackers to fire out of. Further down, where the two roads reconnect, the vardo sits inside a fortified garage by the right corner and the crafting buildings are lined up on the left. Sitting in the center space, closer to the left, is the bath house and an area marked for the Town Hall. Against the back wall, where are the Electrum was mined out, the facade of what looks to be an apartment complex sits flush with the walls of the dome. It reminds me of the apartments in Kes Solomas and I'm pretty sure Baron Andersil gave Dawn a blueprint of some kind. I make a note to myself to check it out next chance I get, see if they have the spatial magic working.

[May I ask, then, aside from the rocks you've been dodging, have you found anything else on your journey so far?]

I stare longingly at the mess hall, wondering if I'll ever get the chance to jump on the line with Chefs Gorm and Malica, cooking up food for the rest of Linqs. There's the new smithy and general workshop. Would I be able to even keep up with any of the apprentices? Dawn and I used to have to work together in order to craft certain kinds of equipment. The alchemy lab looks so inviting with its promises of discovery, strange ingredients, and curious tools and equipment. I can almost hear Mika's constant grumbling and abrupt cackling. The Coronus castle playset, moved out of the vardo and set up by the road to the side of the bath house, seems quite somber without the echo of joy the children bring. I realize at that point a goofy grin has spread across my face.

"I have."

***************

"I'm sorry, Vic."

Dawn's voice is low, her hand on her lieutenant's shoulder. Inside the vardo, past the organized piles of materials, where the meeting table is kept, three people console a sullen Valkyrie. There are no tears rolling down her cheeks just as she promised her lover should he decide that he wouldn't return. By now, the time limit to when he was supposed to return has run out by at least an hour and the thing that chewed on their hearts as they waited had swallowed them whole.

Richter shakes his head in disbelief, he truly thought he knew enough about the young man to believe he wouldn't just leave this life behind. Had they not experienced enough here to know one another? Did he not supply enough advice or try hard enough to be more than an acquaintance?

Rachel has her arms folded tight against her chest, her gold and silver feathers ruffled beyond control. Her constant huffing seems to almost preface a tirade, but she's too flustered for words to come out in an intelligible way. She rolls her eyes every time the thought of that man's audacity to just leave behind his girlfriend and their unborn child who, by the way, is due any day now. She thought so highly of him, but something like this… She could scarcely believe that Ardacen, of all people, could be afraid of this kind of commitment.

"It doesn't matter…" Vic's voice comes out hoarse and tired, her hands glide over her midsection in an almost instinctive form of protection. "He has his reasons. And please, don't hate him for this. I won't."

"Vic…" Dawn says, biting back other, angrier words, "I'm sorry we have to go at a time like this, but I promise we'll be back."

"I know… Commander… Dawn." Her use of her Dawn's name is a reaffirmation that the Infernus is more than some military figurehead, she is a friend. "Timing, for now it seems, is not exactly on our side."

As the notifications appear, Vic stands to give them a salute over her heart to which they reciprocate. When they vanish, she takes a deep breath, holds her chin up, and strides out toward her new place in the activated apartment complex.