Alphonse knelt down by Hiro’s unconscious body. He flipped him over onto his back and lifted his head, placing him on his lap. Hiro’s cheeks were flushed and there was a sheen of sweat across his brow. Alphonse laid the back of his hand on Hiro’s forehead, a bit of anger in his pout, “he’s feverish,” he muttered, “probably used more mana than he has...” Without looking away from Hiro’s pale face, Alphonse raised his voice to ask Luce, “you have any mana recovery items? Or health potions in general?”

Luce wasn’t listening to Alphonse at all. They had their ear pressed to the door, their brow furrowed. “Not good... I can hear fighting... If they have to fight Darkness creatures too...” Luce trailed off. Then they started pressing on and hitting anything visually unique on the door in the hopes of forcing it open. It did them no good.

Alphonse sighed and started digging around in Hiro’s bag for his Adventurer’s Medallion, “he’ll probably be pissed at me for this but whatever.” Alphonse closed Hiro’s fist around it, forcing his thumb across the relief of a sword run through a dragon’s body. In the blink of an eye, Hiro disappeared, teleported back to the last safe zone, where, hopefully, Suzie and Kelsi were waiting for him.

Alphonse rose to his feet, a cold and somewhat apathetic look on his face. He took a few steps towards the door, “move aside.”

*

It wasn’t long after Suzie and Kelsi arrived at the teleportation platform that Hiro appeared, unconscious and clearly ill. He was rushed away by medics and healers before the girls could fully register that it was him. When Alphonse didn’t immediately appear, Suzie put a hand on Kelsi’s shoulder and ordered, “wait her for Alphonse,” before jogging after Hiro’s stretcher.

Left alone, Kelsi swallowed hard. Her shaking hands gripped her own shirt and she stared at the teleportation platform with eyes wide open like a spooked deer.