A small bit of doubt runs through my head as I hop off of the train and rush through the doors of the old castle. Once inside, I look around frantically for any familiar faces. I quickly find Will and Jake discussing something together, and begin running towards them.
Will notices me once my footsteps are within earshot and rests his head on his left hand as Jake turns around and looks at me. He gives me a questioning glance before shouting over to me.
"Hey, long time no see dude. What brings you here?" I stop as I reach the table where they were discussing something and quickly look into Jake's eyes. He's obviously scared about something, since his pupils are shrunken slightly, but he's trying to play it off. Within seconds of observing the area around us, I notice the lack of people that should be here.
"Where're Ed and Xavier?!" I practically shout, surprising myself as I take a second to recompose myself and then ask the question again. I hear Will sigh as Jake looks away and turns to face the table as he leans on it and hangs his head.
"Xavier's over in the infirmary we had to set up due to this plague. Ed's there with him, trying to see if he can figure out what's wrong with him." I give Jake a questioning glance as Will raises his head and glares at me with a scowl on his face.
"Why are you here anyways?" I look over to Will in confusion before responding.
"I came here because I heard about the plague and got worried."
"Oh, so you do care, huh?" Will's voice is filled with sarcasm as he stares daggers straight through me.
"What do you mean 'I do care'? Of course I care! I've been friends with all of you since who knows how long." I hear Jake mutter something about four years, but choose to ignore it for the moment.
"Well considering the fact that you attacked one of our guild members, and admin and one of your friends no less, it could be easy to tell that you wouldn't really care about us. If it weren't for you seceding from Neverland right after that, we would have had one hell of a mess on our hands, which isn't something we need with a plague running rampant throughout this game."
"Look, I get it. I fucked up, and I'm sorry alright? I just came to help you, and now you're attacking me."
"I'm attacking you because you almost caused us to attack the Neverland guild because you can't control your temper." Both of our voices are above a shout at this point, and most of the passersby quicken their pace and keep their hands in their pockets.
"I don't think you realize this, but Ed was the one who provoked me. He was the one who struck first, and I don't think you gave him this treatment."
"I didn't give him this treatment because he-"
"Because he's on your side!? Is that it? You treat me like shit because I was kicked out and fought Ed?"
"You left the guild. You weren't kicked out!"
"Tell that to Ed!" I turn around and begin stomping towards what seems like the infirmary, where Jake said Ed and Xavier were.
Nausea runs through me as the massive amount of cots and diseased bodies come into view. The entirety of the throne room is filled with people, leaving seemingly no room for people who were injured while they were in realism mode. The stench coming from these bodies is appalling, almost making me gag, and i can't believe that people could actually stand to be in here to help the sick.
A loud scream fills the air, and I look over to see two clerics trying their best to heal one of the sick people who seems to be in more pain than the others. I look on as they sweat and begin panting from overexertion. It seems like they've been doing this with every patient that screams all day. And it's clear that it's wearing on them, as they have gigantic bags under their eyes.
I turn my eyes away from them, and notice Ed sitting down next to a brown mass. As I walk over to Ed, a blue blur pushes past me, almost knocking me over, and it stops and crumples next to Xavier. Once I get closer, I notice that it's the girl Xavier was dancing with. Since I forgot her name, I decide to open up my menu and inspect her.
Tonya
Archmage: LVL 12
HP: 684/684
Mana: 1,600/1,600
Celestial Crusaders
Archmage? That wasn't on the class list. It wasn't even a class available at a higher level to the magic DPS users. I'll ask her about it later, since now isn't the right time.
I sit down next to Ed and stare the the brown mass he's been accompanying, and notice that it's Xavier.
"So," I say a bit depressingly, "Xavier really was sick, huh?" Ed turns his head to look at me, before slowly turning back and staring at Xavier. I watch him tense up and close his eyes as he puts his head in his hands.
"God I'm so useless." He says, slowly balling his hands up as tears begin to stream down his face. "I punch you for wanting to stay somewhere where you're treated right, and now I was so caught up in myself that I just let this happen." Seeing the pain he's in, I grab him and put him into a deep embrace.
"No, you're not useless. You remember when Matt just gave his life?" I wait until I hear him make some form of a "yes", before continuing. "The instant you were out of your paralysis, you ran up and fought Nightmare Moon almost on your own. Meanwhile I wasn't even paralyzed, yet I just stood there and watched it all happen. Even if he wanted to die, I could have saved him."
I loosen my grip on Ed a bit and look down at him. Soon enough, he notices and looks up at me with his tear-stricken face.
"No matter what you think of yourself, you're no coward." I wipe one of his tears that has managed to drip down the side of his cheek, "You are one of, if not the, bravest person I've ever known. I know that because, even when you thought of me as nothing more than a monster when Matt died, you immediately remembered how much our friendship mean to us right afterwards, and you even had the balls to come to Neverland's base to apologize. I don't know how you would explain that, but I can't find that anything short of courageous." I bring Ed in for one last hug before letting him go.
Once Ed wipes away the rest of his tears, I look towards Xavier. His eyes are closed and his breath is very heavy. He's almost panting, and his body is nearly drenched in sweat. I take out one of the cloth armor pieces from my inventory, cut it up a bit with my machete, and place one of the rags on his forehead to soak up some of the sweat. As I do, Xavier gives a small moan of pain before his eyes shoot open, a small trickle of blood coming out of both of them, and he begins screaming.
Soon enough the healers take notice and rush over to do what they can with him. They do everything in their power, but all that it seems to do is put Xavier in only slightly less agony. His screaming dies down in roughly five minutes, leaving him in another state is dormancy. This plague really is something horrible.
I couldn't imagine being sick like that for an hour, let alone the two days that he'll have to suffer. I can't just stand by and let this happen to him, or any members of this guild for that matter. But I'm just one guy, how could I do anything that any other person in my position couldn't?
"Times were so much easier when we were just kids, huh?" Ed looks over to me with a morbid face, before staring back at Xavier. "It would be easier if we could've just, never grown up."
"Wait," I look back at him. "did you just say 'never grow up'?"
"Yeah, so?" Ed looks at me quizzically as I jump out of my seat and begin running out of the room.
"You just gave me a great idea of how I could help." I get up quickly, wave goodbye to him and begin running, until he calls out my name and I turn to face him.
"You will come to see me again, right?" His eyes, still moist from the tears, look desperately into mine for some kind of answer.
"Of course," I give him a grin and a thumbs up, "I wouldn't miss you, our talks, or our friends for the world."
Ed's face lights up with joy as I turn and run out of the door, determined to reach the train.
I jump out of the train at the Appleloosa station and begin sprinting towards the town hall, where Pyralis typically hangs out. As I reach the gates, I trip over something and tumble to the ground. I look back to see what tripped me, and fear runs through me as I see a dead changeling lying on the ground. They couldn't have possibly been overrun, could they? I get back up and begin sprinting towards the town hall.
I rush through the double doors, practically charging them down, and try not to look at the large amount of changelings and bodies mixed together. From what I can tell in the short few seconds I can look at them until they're behind me, everybody seems to be okay, but the plague effects are taking place. Some are going through coughing fits, while others seem to be in the comatose state already, and the rest are just sitting there completely fine and are grieving over the others.
As I burst into Pyralis's room, I see him standing over an armored changeling and punching it endlessly with his cestus. I wait until he finishes the changeling off and notices me before asking if I can talk to him. He agrees and sits at his table, casually wiping the pixelated changeling blood off of it and motioning for me to sit down. I do, and the conversation starts immediately.
"So I visited my friends from the Celestial Crusaders today, and they gave me a great idea." I look him directly in the eyes and use the most official voice I can use.
"Go on," Pyralis puts his sunglasses on the table, and rests his elbows on the table as he puts his hand together to cover his mouth. His red eyes bore into me, possibly in an attempt to intimidate me, and he waits for me to continue my suggestion.
"Well," I try to keep my eyes on his, but his glare makes it rather challenging. "Both you and the Celestial Crusaders are struggling with this plague problem-"
"We're not dealing with a plague problem. Those changelings weren't much more than a training exercise."
"Trust me, more than a few of your guys have this plague. Anyways, since both of you are suffering in numbers from the plague, I thought it would be a good idea if you were to reach out to Will, the leader of the Celestial Crusaders, and join forces with him." Pyralis sighs, and puts his shades back on before getting up and walking towards the door.
"Come back to the guild, join your old squad, and prove to me that you're a worthwhile ally, and I'll consider it." I turn to look at him and give him a quizzical look.
"And how will I prove that?"
"Simple, there's a dungeon close to us known as Griffonstone. Take your squad through there and come back alive, with boss loot, and you'll have proved your worth." I nod, and begin walking out. He grabs my arm as I reach for the door, and forces me to look at him. "But if you lose, we'll be going for that cure without the Celestial Crusader's help, and leave them to suffer whatever Despair has planned. Good luck." With that, he gives me a devious grin and sends me on the way to go see Anita, Incognito, and Gearbox once again.