Before I get lynched, let’s just say some things.

Here is a chapter. It’s been so horrifically delayed owing to a machine that eats this thing I have called ‘free time’, a machine that is built of parts called ‘projects’, ‘French homework’, ‘exams’. Yeah, it’s the machine of school, some evil creaky thing chasing me around and EATING MAH FREE TIME. D< Fortunately now exams are OVER (mostly), which means the ultimate happiness and joy that is freedom.

This chapter is brought to you by the insistence of Indigo. Few shoutouts:
Tssunade: I do sincerely believe almost every chapter I write is utter crap, though, which is rather ironic. But thanks for the tip, if I write something I like I’ll say that. >3

Indigo<3: The heartness I have for you exceeds boundaries and most probably breaks a few laws. >>; This chapter is for you.

Also, since it’s been SO FERCUCKING LONG, there’s some peektors either from other people or born from the boredom of Music Class. Bribery. Yes.

1) An Allamar artses from IndigoLove. Check out her art blog and draw her! You know you want to. 8D
2) Art swap with the amazing, the great, the mighty, SilverFx. She drew Li, I drew her Gastropoda. AND SHE EVEN COLOURED IT BECAUSE SHE’S FRICKIN’ AWESOME.
3) The Slime Hunter strikes. By me. You can tell, because I stuffed Li up so badly. But I think I did good with Az’s hair. Even though he looks like he has a 5 o’clock shadow. <<
4) …I was bored. I actually really like the way Saedas turned out, but that’s just me.

That said and done, let’s get on with this!
This chapter is going to be hella confusing >_<

EDIT: Holy frozen tuna on a stick. O_O 300+ likes, 13k reads and 6k views?! I less than three you all like I <3 my FlyFF (aka very much.)
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i. Li
“ Az!” I yelled, looking around. As I sloshed through knee-high snow, I couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge. What if he wasn’t okay? Even if this was Az, there had to be at least some slight difficulties with being thrown off a cliff; none of which I wanted to think of. Essy’s blood was still fresh in my mind, and I shivered instinctively as I trudged on. For some irrational reason, I suddenly wondered where Allamar was, and whether she’d found Saedas yet. I remembered the look on her face; disturbingly calm, accepting. She had looked as though…
Hey! Where are you going?
To follow my master. Where else?
But what if he’s dead?
Shouldn’t you be asking yourself that?
She had looked as though she was ready to accept it as a possibility. Lava Dungeon, she’d looked as though she was willing to follow him straight into the grave. Good for her; I wasn’t.

“Az!” My call bounced off the high cliffs around us and got thrown back at me, almost as if the rocks were making fun of me. I scowled and hefted his shinkita higher on my back; someone had thrown it aside at the peak, and I didn’t think Az would want that. It would definitely put a dent in his slime-hunting escapades, that was sure. Which I wouldn’t particularly mind, on second thought. At least it’d keep him safe; or, at least, safer than his current lifestyle. I resolved that once I found him, I would have to lock him up somewhere; preferably in a place where he couldn’t be heard from outside.
“AZ!” I bellowed. “If you can hear me, say something or I’ll kill you!” Nothing. No whisper of ‘cliché…cli-ch酒 back. Just absolute silence. That terrified me, and I stopped to rub some sensation back into my arms before trudging on.

Something reared up in the snow in front of me, and I stepped back, Steelys slipping into my claw as I readied them to be let loose. But the monster just kept rising; slowly, creakily, jerkily extending itself to its full height. Oh, Zakum. I was just about to turn on Dark Sight and see if I could sneak past it – Yeti eyesight wasn’t that acute, if I had read right – when I spotted a dark form sprawled in the snow. My heart skipped a beat. Az?

The Yeti lurched around to face me, and I drew the claw back, charged it with mana, and threw. The Steelys thudded into its hide and it let out a sort of grunting roar, raising its fists. Haste was still holding from the mountain trek I’d been forced to endure, and as the seismic tremors rumbled towards me, I leapt, launching another pair of knives. The pulse dissolved as I landed, and the lumbering monster slammed its fists down again, sending me leaping up and loosing a third pair. Fourth. Fifth. After the seventh it all sort of blurred; fury and frustration all melded together until Haste dissolved. As I felt it slip away from me, I recharged it and, letting the hot jolt of energy tide me up, landed on the Yeti’s broad shoulders. It smelt of fish and, worse, of soggy animal. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
“If that’s you over there, I’m making you pay me your weight in mesos for this,” I muttered, tangling my spare hand as deep in the grimy fur as possible. I felt the mana uncoil inside me, winding itself around the Steelys…

Suddenly, the creature roared and bucked, raising its arms and flailing to try and shake me, and I grimaced. No Lava Dungeon-cursed time! With that thought, I slammed my Steely-loaded Avarice down, as hard as I could, into the base of the creature’s neck, feeling the Steelys loosen from the launching mechanism of the claw as I did.

I hit the snow with a thump and sank into half a foot’s worth of slush and icy snow as the creature screamed and trampled around. Attempting to manoeuvre myself out of the snowy pit I’d found myself trapped in, I ducked back in to avoid having my skull crushed by the Yeti foot which thudded one or two inches away, spraying dirty snow in my face. Sputtering, I sat up to watch the monster finally keel over, dissolving into the ground. Affording myself a triumphant grin, I shoved myself out of the pit and began to wade my way to the black figure sprawled in the snow.

As I drew closer, the would-be corpse was becoming even more recognizable. Hesitantly, my stomach feeling like it’d just been punched and had butterflies inserted into it, I sank to my knees in the snow – literally – beside him. It took a few seconds for me to gather the courage to grab him and flip him over, just in case I would end up seeing something I didn’t particularly want to see.
“Az?” I asked cautiously. There was a narrow hole in his Pilfer; almost instinctively, I poked it. The horrible, pit-deep sensation in my stomach was torn to shreds when he reached up and grabbed me lightly around the wrist.
“Stop it,” he mumbled, shifting in the snow a little. “Evil Kitty-Li. Evil Kitty-Li-kins of insomnia-causing deathliness…” He opened his eyes slowly, and blinked a few times while I stared at him; partly in relief, partly in disgust.

“You’re falling asleep in snow,” I growled. Right now, I was so relieved to see him alive I could have been screaming in the most high-pitched voice possible and it still would have been justified. “How can you fall asleep in snow?! It’s cold, wet, and…you’re hopeless. You’re horrible and hopeless. Don’t do that again, understand? I’ll kill you if you do! I’ll kill you dead so that you won’t be able to do it again! From now on I’m going to-” I didn’t even realise I’d been babbling until he reached one arm across and prodded me in the nose. Promptly, I shut up, not wanting to give him any more ammo.
“Silly Kitty-Li-kins,” he said cheerfully, but I could tell it was forced from the strain in his voice. “You’re babbling. Like a turkey.”
“Turkeys gobble, idiot,” I choked, hugging myself. Really, I wanted to hug him, but I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Then I noticed the way he was reaching across; the arm on the opposite side of me had been the poking hand, not the one closer.

“Broken,” he informed me, seeing the direction of my gaze. My eyes widened involuntarily as he continued, in an almost conversational tone, “My right leg’s broken too. And a few ribs.” As I went for my pill pouch, he grabbed my wrist. “Get a Cleric. Pills might not fix the break.”
“I can’t leave you here,” I protested, glaring at him. “You’ll get eaten by a Yeti.” He grinned. It was a shadow of his devil-may-care, ‘urge-to-go-for-Steelys’ Az grin, but he was grinning, and it was reassuring.
“You know what would be cool? If Yetis started running around the outside of the town yelling and pointing at you. Then you’d know what those Yetis had eaten, because they’d all be calling you Miss Fluffles-” I slapped one hand to my forehead, muttering, “Shut up. For the love of the Dark Lord, shut up, please.”

“Go on,” he encouraged, shoving me feebly a couple of times. “You don’t want me to die on you. I’ll lose all my awesome. I won’t be me without Awesome. I’ll just be…dead.” He made a face, and I rolled my eyes. However, the threat of death was sobering enough by far, and I got to my feet.
“If I do get eaten by Yetis of any size, sort or description, avenge me,” he said, placing his unbroken arm over his heart.
“I promise to avenge you,” I said placing my claw hand over my own heart, my voice sounding far more sombre than I had intended it to be. His face broke into a smile, and I switched on Haste, speeding my way back to the town of El Nath.
Dark Lord, Az…don’t give up on me.

ii. Interlude – Az
As the assassin ran towards the winterland town to find help, Az gave a sort of sad smile before turning to the two golden-white figures beside him, who were reappearing in flashes of light.
“So?” he asked them. One of them extended a glowing hand, and he looked at it, then at the two of them.
Do you not want to come back? asked one, and he replied quietly, “It’ll change, won’t it? Everything will change. I’m not sure I want that.”
But there, you are…you are our brother. Do you not want to come back? The second of the figures, smaller and slimmer, sounded confused as it knelt down beside him. For a long moment, the bandit closed his eyes.

Then Azrael opened them, and gave himself up to the all-encompassing, golden light.

iii. Li
“He was here,” I said numbly, staring at the flattened snow. “He was.” The Cleric I’d hauled from Nath was looking at me as though I’d gone insane, and his girlfriend fluffed her hair in a sort of I-told-you-so way to him. I whirled around to face them both, declaring, “He was. I’m telling you he was here!” The Cleric held up his hands in front of him carefully, as though he was trying to placate the crazy assassin. That ticked me off.

“Look, he might have been here, but he’s not now, okay?” he said gingerly. My throwing hand went for my Steelys and he noticed the movement with a wince before his Spearman girlfriend stepped up.
“Chill,” she said bluntly, staring hard at me. I stared back stubbornly, my fingers closing around a Steely as I did so. “Whoever you left here may have been here, but he’s not any more. Don’t blame him.” She jerked her head at the Cleric as she spoke, so the intent was clear, and I sighed and unwrapped my fingers from the knife, allowing my hand to drop back to my side.
“Guess not,” I said, clenching and unclenching my fist spasmodically. I could feel her looking at me, and glanced up in time to catch the curiosity on her face.

“Who did you leave here anyway?” she asked, and I swallowed. Her boyfriend was looking rather put out, and sloshed up to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and saying to her in what he considered a whisper but which I could hear from all the way over here, “Don’t you think we should go? Zelnas might-”
“Don’t you think Zelnas is fine as a party leader?” she asked him pointedly, and he answered with a blunt, “No.”
“Tough. You’re just sore you didn’t get picked,” she snapped at him, and before they could start yelling at each other I made a little noise with the back of my throat, to remind them that I hadn’t mysteriously vanished yet or something. Although I was glad that her attention had been diverted from the question. He jerked back a little, and she flushed slightly before adding, “Anyway. You can get back to town all right, I trust? It’s just that we’ve left a party waiting for us. We’ve got a quest to do.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever,” I muttered, and she glanced at him. Then she sighed, and said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Me too,” I replied, and her boyfriend turned around to leave. She glanced back, looking as though she had something to say, but reconsidered and left after him.

I stood in the Icy Cold Field, looking around, feeling stupidly helpless. Slowly, I bent down to pick up the familiar Pilfer, resting in the flattened imprint of snow beside me; turning it between my fingers and feeling the dent in the rim, the lines, the rough cloth. I remembered when he had first gotten it. He had been so proud; parading around with it like it was some rare headgear right up until the point where I had threatened to knock it off his head if he didn’t stop prancing.
Prancing is for horseys. Look at me. I’m not a horsey, I’m too cool. And too not-horsey-like.

I remembered how he had tried to scroll it. Two days of trawling the Free Market had left me broke and him significantly less chirpy; then we had had to watch in horror as the Defence scrolls he’d had to scrape, beg, borrow and most probably fight with others for failed miserably before his eyes. I’d felt so bad for him that I went and bought him a couple more which, later, succeeded; he’d returned the favour with, to my amazement, a few sets of Steelys. I had never asked what he’d done to get them.
Man, the least you could do is say hi. Now I’m going to be all sad on you. Saaaaaaad. In fact, I think I’ll go walk off that cliff over-
Spare me, drama king. Hi. Happy?
Aw, that’s all? All right, all right. Here’s a present for you.
Present? Uh…okay…bleeding unholy ZAKUM! How did you get your hands on…
Don’t kiss, don’t tell, Li…

I remembered how the dent had got into the rim. How this had all started; with something so ridiculous as him eating bubbling slime, like the stupid young thief he was. Had it really started then, though? Or had it started way before? If what I had gleaned from Allamar and Maestro was the truth, then it had been something that I couldn’t have changed, that Az couldn’t have changed. I hated that idea. I hated it. The fact that I had just lost my best friend, and nothing we could have done could have changed the outcome in the slightest.

Slowly, I took off my pack and opened it to put the Pilfer inside, digging my fingers into the stained and worn cloth of the old knapsack. Even as my eyes began to heat up and sting despite the cold, a small part of me wondered: was he really gone? Could this be just another of Az’s little tricks; a disappearing act when he knew I was most worried about him? Then that part of me was angrily squashed as the rest of me screamed silently, He wouldn’t do something like that if he knew you’d be worried! He’s gone, you stupid idiot, gone! The tears began about then; closing my eyes, I wrapped my hands tightly around the Pilfer, pressing its dirty, skull-embroidered front to my chest
I’m sorry…if you’re dead, alive, wherever you are, it won’t make you come back but I’m sorry.

Orbis Station, like most of Orbis, was a place of light and air, filled with perpetual sunlight. People rushed around, on their usual business of adventuring, questing, meeting people. The platform where the ships embarked to Sixtopia Station, Victoria Island, was currently surrounded by a cool breeze as some members of a guild shoved and wrestled with each other around over the ledges and steps of the elaborate ramps. The S. S. Ossyrian had just docked, its engines running at a low, soft purr and spin.

It would have been a lot more pleasant, though, if there wasn’t a mad Fighter holding me to the central pole of the spiralling platform dock, screaming at me, “Tell me where your bandit friend is!” and making dents in the pole with me every time I tried to answer. Other people were looking up, but none helped, simply glancing at the two of us before moving to get onto the boat. There were a few just standing around and watching, and, before I started blacking out, I lashed out with a kick to the face and switched on Haste. With an earsplitting yell, the Fighter, dressed in an all-too-familiar Jangoon set and carrying the exact same Blue Counter as that psycho from Lith, lurched back, slamming her axe into a side platform inadvertently. Guess I must have got her after all.

For a few seconds, I just breathed in and out, enjoying the taste of oxygen before getting back to my feet and arming Steelys, glaring hard at the Fighter.
“What do you want?” I snarled, as Psycho Fighter Chick placed a hand to her eyes and shook her head vigorously. There it was. I decided to exploit the opening and sprang, narrowly clearing her head; as I landed behind her, the bright blue axe clanged down just a bare inch away, narrowly missing ripping a gash in my Shadow pants. Dodging an axe swing, I made for the ship, only to have a glaring crewmember block her off with some sort of announcement like, “The ship is about to leave now, please don’t-”
“It’s going to be really bad for your business if someone gets killed waiting for a ship!” I shouted, flipping out a throwing knife. The crewmember glanced from the knife, to my face, to somewhere behind me – probably the Fighter – then she opted for self-preservation and stepped aside as I ran past and the clanking metal footsteps followed me.

The onboard crew looked surprised, but they didn’t make any move to block me off, which I was glad for. As I leapt onto the deck, I heard one try to yell at Psycho Fighter Chick, shortly followed by the sound of falling bodies on wood. Then again, no one had ever said that those crewmembers were smart. Glancing back, I caught sight of her, closer than I’d expected, and swore, “Oh, Zakum!” as I stopped. Turning around in a quick spin to face the fast-closing Fighter, I let some mana slip into my claw and wind itself around the two Steelys now waiting there, just in case.
“What do you want?!” I snarled, dodging as the axe swung into the outer wall of the cabin and bounced. The ships were made of tough stuff, or so I hoped. If this continued all ride, I didn’t want the ship to fall apart on us halfway.
“Where’s that bandit?” bellowed Psycho Fighter Chick. I stiffened, accidentally shooting the knives into the floor at the mention. The wound was still raw.

“He’s dead.” My voice sounded very far off, as though it wasn’t me saying it. It probably wasn’t, but I didn’t really care who it was. The Fighter just stared at me, lowering her axe; I felt an irrational spike of rage, and, stepping forward, shouted, “He’s dead, all right?! They’re all dead! Saedas killed Maestro and himself in the process, Essy committed suicide and Allamar is probably dead because of her being stupid and following Saedas! There’s just us left, you blasted idiot Fighter!” As soon as I had finished shouting, I realised that I was trembling. I was also suddenly aware of all the people staring at me, and I clenched my other hand into a fist.

Suddenly, the engines whirred to life, and the door to the cabin opened. I stormed in first, seeing as I was closest, and leapt down the ladder only to land wrong. Cursing, I hopped over to the stack of crates, clutching my foot, and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible. Eventually, all the rest of the passengers made their way in, some of them eying me as though I was going to go berserk and slaughter them all. I resisted the urge to rearrange their brains with a Steely, reminding myself that I probably looked the part.

I was quite sure I looked like I’d just been eaten and spit out by Zakum. I hadn’t slept since I left El Nath – two days ago – because every time I closed my eyes, the image of that flattened snow was branded on the inside of my eyelids. No blood, no marks; just a flat patch of Az-shaped snow. In fact, I hadn’t taken a bath since then, let alone brushed my hair or anything. Dark Lord, I couldn’t even remember if I’d eaten since then. Had it only been two days? Or had it been longer?

The sound of clanking metal alerted me to the Fighter’s approach, and I opened my eyes to death-stare at her some more. But she didn’t look like she was going to return the favour; she just looked slightly sheepish, and a little awkward.
“I was just, uh, looking for your boyfriend so we could have a rematch,” she offered reluctantly. Inwardly, I seethed and tried to listen to the rest of her speech, only to realise that that was the end of it. It was as close enough to an apology as I’d get from Psycho Fighter Chick, I supposed, and grudgingly, I said, “Yeah. It’s okay. He’s – he wasn’t my boyfriend, though. Don’t call him that. ”
“Oh. Okay.” There was a short, but uncomfortable pause. “What happened-” I really didn’t want to elaborate on how everyone around me had died, so I cut her short with, “I’m not going to talk about it.”

“But you-” Irritated, I swung around so I could glare at her better, and snarled, “I’m not going to talk about it! Okay?!”
“But what happened to you?” she burst out, staring at me. “You didn’t look like this when I met you in Lith!” At this point, I felt I should look embarrassed or something. I couldn’t really care less, though.
“Of course,” I said bitterly. “I mean, back then I hadn’t just watched someone commit suicide in front of me. And my best friend was still alive, even though you really tried to change that.”
“Hey,” she protested. “That was because of Maestro. Now it’s-”
“Now he’s dead,” I answered pointedly. “Big deal. Whoever’s fault it was, he deserved it, but Az didn’t. I don’t think Saedas did either, but I’m not too sure about Al.”

Maybe I should be glad that she left me alone the rest of the trip. She didn’t even try to add me to her communicator list, for which I was grateful, in a way. Yet at the same time, it would have been better to have someone to talk to, someone who knew the people I was talking about and understood who and what they had been. If I had, though, would it have changed the way it became?
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…and that ends a very weird and too-short first chapter of a new arc. <.< Thank you to any one of you who reads this: for sticking with me and supporting me regardless of everything. You all rock.

EDIT: Also, I really hate this chapter. <_<