Chapter Four: Strangers
{Third POV}
“Hmm.” Gale sat on the couch, thinking.
“What’s on your mind?” Sonic was sitting next to him, playing Sonic Unleashed. Currently, he was fighting the Egg Dragoon.
“That robot, I wanna make it.”
“What?”
“I wanna make that robot.”
“The Egg Dragoon?”
“Yes, I wanna make it.”
“Well, what’s stopping you?”
“One, materials. Two, how to make it.”
"I'm sure there’s some displaced out there that can give you some blueprints or something.”
“Fuck that!” Gale nabbed the controls from Sonic. “Snatch!”
“Wha? Hey!” Gale exited the boss level and went to the extras. “Oh come on man I was almost done!”
“No you weren’t. You still had Dark Gaia.” Flipping through the different original drawings, he eventually stopped on one of the Egg Dragoon. “There we go, I can make a blueprint out of this! Oh and here!”
“Uh…” Gale gave Sonic the controls again and walked off. He looked back at his game, shrugged, and went back to it. As he was about to enter a stage Lisa snatched the controller away.
"My turn!"
"Hey! I was playing that!"
"If you can call that playing, you lost seven lives just getting through Eggmanland, granted it is a long hard stage but it shouldn't have taken more than three." Sonic sighed and sat down.
“Ugh, this was a whole lot easier when I actually did this.”
"Yeah but you were at the mercy of a player when you did it."
"Thanks for pointing out that my entire life was nothing but a videogame Lisa."
“Your welcome!” Lisa turned back to the game and began to play, easily getting through the level without losing any lives. “See? That wasn’t so hard for me.”
“Because you’ve had videogames all your life! I didn’t!”
“Excuses excuses.” Flicking through other games to play with a tendril Lisa put a finger to her chin in thought. "I'm in the mood to race someone, might as well call up Metal to actually have a challenge."
As she tried to summon Metal Sonic with his token she was surprised to find it didn't work. The token turned red and threw itself out of Lisa's hand.
“Aw what? Boo!” She picked up the token again and examined it, feeling something very, very wrong with it. Looking to the portal that joined their worlds she saw that it too had turned red and flickered on and off. "What the hell is going on?"
"Hey Lisa, are you having trouble opening a portal too?" Gale called in.
"Yeah, I'm trying to get Metal to come here but his token and portal turned red."
"I'm trying to call for Marx to get materials but he's not responding and no portals are showing up."
“What the hell is going on?” Gale was about to suggest something, but then out of nowhere came a raging headache.
“GAH!”
“Gale!” Lisa rushed over to her partner who was on his knees in pain. When she tried to touch him she was shocked by some force that prevented it. She heard beeping and looked up to a small golden candle that had appeared a few months before with a purple flame. It was flashing and beeping, like it was detecting something.
Suddenly the beeping stopped, and Gale stopped groaning. He stood up, with a serious energy about him.
“Gale?”
“He’s here.”
“Who?”
“Xram.”
{Symbol’s POV}
"Come on come on, find him already you two!" I shouted as I focused my energy on the candle I had given them after my death. "I can't make this more obvious for you Gale!"
With my energy spent I slumped down. I looked to the chains at my wrists that we're keeping me attached to the giant stone cross.
"Of all the places Xram could have brought me, it had to be here." Sighing I looked to the blood that was slowly slipping down my arms from my damaged wrists. A bit of blood dripped from my forehead and fell to the floor of the huge underground room.
Just then I noticed a familiar black skeleton with a white cloak walking into the room. "My my, someone is restless."
"Go get bucked by a timberwolf Xram."
“Ooo~ no thanks. Had someone in the Black Plane have a fear of that. Lets just say things got, bloody.” Even he shuddered at that comment.
"Ok, I may be going insane but you are just sick, even for your own standards."
“Trust me, I let that guy go. That was a bit too much torture. Found out he died five seconds later from the, lack of, body parts. Man, watching that timberwolf maul him and rape him was horrifying yet strangely beautiful at the same time.”
I just looked at him disgusted. "Ok now that is just bucked up on so, so many levels. No wonder everyone, especially my dad, want you dead."
“What can I say, being crazily sane is a beautiful thing. You should try it sometime.”
"Please, I am beyond insane at this point, I was raised in that hellhole Masereth, and been corrupted by the Nightmares, been to hell and back, died once and all of my mental barriers I set up to block out the pain of my past are gone. I just hide it extremely well."
“You know, I could make you sane again. All you have to do is agree to a deal.” I sighed.
"Even if I say I don't want to hear it you're just gonna tell me anyways right?"
“Nope.” I sighed in relief. “I’m just gonna do it anyways to make this part all the more fun.”
"You know what, I've had enough of this. Alucard, if you wouldn't mind?" Xram raised a brow before he was thrown against a wall. "Took you long enough, where are the others?"
One of my own displaced stood there with a smirk. "What, I wanted to see how this played out. The others are back in their worlds waiting for you, although it seems Roden put up a little seal to block you from getting out of here any time soon."
Rolling my eyes I looked back down to Alucard. "Mind getting me out of these chains?"
"Sorry, no can do, Rodens orders." I raised a brow.
"You aren't his displaced Alucard, you're mine, you take orders from me."
"Yes well, he was very persuasive." He replied, grinning like an idiot.
"He gave you your own version of Seras Victoria didn't he?" He just laughed and I sighed. "Well then, thanks for punching Xram, I needed that."
"No problem boss, I'll just be going before someone notices I'm here." With that he was gone.
"I wonder how Ashley is getting on back home. Probably not important right now."
“Well, it seems you're being abandoned.” I looked over to see Xram floating up to me, a crack in his skull from the force of impact that slowly faded.
"You gonna do your token villain thing yet or not?"
“Nah, I’m not really one for the clichés. Besides, there’s an annoyance making his way here at mach five speeds.” I smirked.
"Oh I wonder how that could have happened." He glared at me,
"Don’t think for a second that you warned him."
"Oh?"
“No, the little piece of me that’s in him did.”
"Little piece in him?”
“Yeah. When he kicked me out of his mind, he also ripped out a bit of my power and took it for himself. Clever little bastard.”
"Well, good thing I took down that little barrier you made around this place." He stopped grinning and looked at me with hate.
"Idiot, that wouldn’t have stopped him anyway. With that bit of my power in him being active many of my powers will believe that he and I are one in the same. With that shield down he’ll just be able to bring useless backup. Speak of the devil, here he comes now.”
"I would hardly call Lisa worthless backup." His face went from hate to horror. "Oh, I'm guessing you didn't know she lives here? That is highly unlikely, you know everything. Oh right, I damaged your senses when I killed you last time!"
“Idiot! You only destroyed that small part of my power that escaped. Just like this body is just a small part of my power. If this was the real me, then you’d be cowering in fear.”
"Let me tell you something..." I blinked and my eyes turned black with red dots as pupils. "... I lost my sense of fear a long time ago. You wouldn't try to kill me, you know what will happen if this body is destroyed. That's why you aren't killing me now when you clearly have a perfect opportunity.”
"Ooo~ I’m soooo scared. Hmph, like I could care about your little, coming back from the dead attack. I know that it would kill this body, but my true one would barely even flinch. It’s a shame that my prison keeps making these bodies. It does allow me set certain things in motion though.”
“What do you mean by, your prison keeps making these bodies?”
“Oh, well one reason my prison is unbreakable is because everytime I get to a certain point in my power, my prison disperses a very small amount all over the multiverse. However, I recently figured out how to concentrate that power into one spot, and sometimes a small bit of that energy gathers and makes these bodies.”
"So... like the Nightmares?"
"No, it's nothing like the Nightmares!"
"Last time I checked the King of the Nightmares did the exact same thing."
"How the hell do you know about the King?" I raised a brow at him. "Oh yeah, created to destroy them and whatnot."
"You're an idiot."
"And you're a pest."
"Hey, if I get to pester you then I'll happily be the infestation in whatever place your boney ass lives in." He facepalmed and turned away.
"I'm not doing this anymore. I have some guests to entertain.”
"Hey while you're out, we're out of milk."
"Okay I'll head down to the sto- wait a minute." I just burst out laughing.
"Oh this is just too bucking easy!"
“That’s because when this body was formed, the formation screwed up and now I’m quite a few teacups short of the full set.”
"That's an... interesting metaphor."
“Well apparently the universe decided make this body slightly British. Which reminds me, if I survive this I need to pester the real me about my tea time.”
“What?”
“Oh yeah, each of these bodies get random consciences and personalities.”
"So there can be versions of you that are actually good?"
“Nope, they’re all evil, just different in ways of thinking. The real me could easily give you your sense of fear back, as well as your sanity, then break it all over again, in like three seconds.”
"Shouldn't you be out there fighting those two?"
“Oh yeah huh? Thanks for the reminder and not letting them sneak up on me!”
“Wouldn’t you sense them?”
“Nope! This mind is plagued with the weakness of being easily distracted!”
"Just get out of my sight." Shrugging he teleported away. "Finally, peace and quiet."
‘Oh by the way, if I survive this I’m going to plague you with random conversations in your mind. Doesn’t that sound great?’
“WHY?!?!?!”
Lisa's POV
“Gale! Slow down!” Gale was carrying me bridal style while flying at a very fast speed.
“No can do, we have to get to him.”
“I understand that but why must you go so fast?”
“Because I’m going to annihilate that bastard for destroying your universe.”
“I love the concern babe, but at this rate my head’s gonna get ripped off from the G-force!”
“Don’t worry we’re almost there.” He seemed to increase his speed before he started to slow down. We stopped in front of a cave in a mountain. He floated to the entrance and set me own. I stumbled a bit before Gale caught my shoulder.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” With a nod Gale did one last check before he looked into the cave. His looked hardened before his plating turned a little darker. “He’s here.”
We walked to the cave, before we heard some insane laughter.
“Oh look who’s here! The metal monster that I possessed and the girl with the missing universe. What a surprise!”
“Xram.” Gale’s voice was as dark as it was when he was in his dark form. I turned to look at him, and his plating was completely black, and his eye was red. “Why are you here?”
“Oh you know, just doing my thing.” Okay what? Xram seemed way different than when we first saw him. Wonder why. With a grunt, Gale disappeared, then reappeared behind Xram with his hands together and attempted to slam them down. Xram dodged easily, and was about to return the attack when he stopped and held two fingers to the side of his head.
“Huh? What? Whyyyyyy? Ugh, fine. Your lucky Gale, I don’t have time for this right now. Goodbye!” With that Xram was gone.
“Um… what?” Gale, who was turning back to normal, looked at me and shrugged.
"I don't know." He looked down the cave and we both saw a light. "Hey, there's something down there, let's go check it out."
I nodded and we began walking carefully through the cave. As we got closer the sound of dripping could be heard. Walking into the huge room we were blinded by the light, once our eyes adjusted we both looked in horror at the sight before us.
In the middle of the room there was a huge stone cross with someone chained to it. It was a boy that looked not much older than nineteen with long grey hair and a small buzz of a beard below his lower lip. He had a purple trench coat, grey shirt, purple jeans and grey boots. There was blood dripping from his chained wrists and a small line of blood running down his forehead.
He opened his purple eyes and breathed heavily. "Took ya... long enough."
"Gale, we have to get him down." He nodded and flew up to the boy. He used his strength to break the chains on the boy who then fell to the floor with a thud. I ran over to him and saw he was falling asleep. "Let's get him to the apartment."
Gale nodded and teleported us back home, the boys unconscious body in my arms. "Any idea who he is Lisa?" I looked to him as I set him down on the couch.
"There's something familiar about him, but I don't recognise his aura, his face however, I know from somewhere."
"Well if Xram was holding him captive like that he must be important. I'll try and contact Marx or Author, see if they know anything about him." As Gale walked into the other room I looked at the body in front of me.
"I swear I've seen you before." I suddenly started getting sleepy, sitting on the couch next to him I started to drift off.
As I woke up in a dream I looked around at the black abyss I was now in, a small circle of light around me as I walked. Soon a figure appeared in the distance. Running to it I slowed down as I saw who the figure was.
The blue shirt with a black undershirt, the straight brown hair and sapphire blue eyes. Then the necklace, the necklace I nor anyone else in the displaced family could forget. The black wire with a sun medallion. "S-Symbol?"
He remained silent, looking at me from the corner of his eye. He turned away and began walking. Following him I looked around as the abyss slowly turned into a starry night sky and the floor turned to a sea of stars. Looking to my feet I saw I was on a small patch of land with a lamppost. Looking up I saw two moons and clouds that were a mixture of blue, red and pink floated through the sky.
Looking around I saw Symbol standing at the edge of the small island, looking out at the sea. "Symbol, please say something." I got no response. "Please, I need to hear your voice." Still nothing. "I never got to say thank you, for everything you did. I know you're just a figment of my imagination in a dream but... thank you, for saving me, Gale, everyone." He just stood still, his clenched fist opening slowly. "Please, even if this is just a dream, let me hear your voice again." He closed his eyes. "It's been almost eleven months since you died, I still feel guilty for not being able to do anything against Xram." He disappeared suddenly and appeared behind me.
Turning around to face him I was surprised when I was brought into a meaningful hug. "You shouldn't feel guilty Lisa." I started to tear up and returned the hug, burying my face in his shoulder while crying. "Everything worked out, your world is being rebuilt, you and Gale are together, everyone back on my world has moved on. You did the best you could, that's all anyone can ever expect. Don't feel guilty Lisa, never carry that guilt, that's my burden to carry, no one else's."
"This isn't just a dream, is it?"
"When I was killed, pieces of my soul survived, in the form of the candles. That candle in your home is part of my soul." I just tightened the hug. "Never blame yourself Lisa, it was my own fault for letting the Nightmare take full control the first time I fought Xram."
"Forge was going to kill us, you couldn't stop the Nightmare even if you tried." I pulled away and put a hand onto his cheek, his face was still the same, young and filled with pain. "I missed you so much, and now I'm gonna miss the real you even more."
"Don't worry Lisa..." The dream began to collapse and my vision faded. "... I'm closer than you think."
“Huh? Wha?” I woke up suddenly, that stranger still next to me. Groggily, I stood up and walked to the bar. I walked over to the fridge and pulled out a soda. Cracking it open I drank eagerly. “Ah, nice and fizzy.”
“Ugh why?” I turned to see Gale entering the room.
“What’s up?”
“My brother’s token doesn’t work either, and Marx still won’t respond. What is going on?”
“Perhaps Xram and this stranger are the reason?”
“Maybe. How’s he doing anyway?”
“Okay, but he’s unconscious right now and judging from his injuries he may not wake up for a while.”
“Hmm, I wonder what Xram wanted with him.”
“Me too. Hey um, I just had this weird dream.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Basically I was in a black void, and Symbol was there too. He told me to not feel guilty about what happened, and when I said I wished I could see him again, he said he was closer than we thought.”
“Hmm.” Gale put a finger to his chin. “Do you think that’s Symbol?”
“What? Why do you?”
“Yep.”
“But, he looks nothing like him. Well, a little like him but.”
“Reincarnation can change people’s appearances.”
“His aura is different too.”
“He can disguise it, and change it. I know I’ve seen it.” I looked at the stranger asleep on the couch.
“You really think that could be him.”
“That’s always the cliche path of fate ain't it?”
“True.”
“Welp, I’m gonna continue looking into what’s going on.”
“Alright good luck babe!”
“Thanks you too!” I nodded and turned back to the guy we saved from that cave. Could that really be Symbol? I mean, now that I think about it, his aura may not be the same but I still get that same vibe from him. Hmm, I guess I’ll question him when he wakes up. I left to go down to Ponyville to go get something at Sugarcube Corner.
{Symbol’s POV}
Opening my eyes, making sure that Gale and Lisa had gone, I got up and looked around. "So this is where Gale lives? Impressive." I looked over at the candle and smiled. "You keep looking after them." It flashed and flickered. "I guess now is a good time to leave their gift I was going to give them."
I held out my arm and black liquid fell to the floor and formed two figures, one of a combination of a robotic looking wolf and a lion creature and one of a robotic bird. Picking up a piece of paper I wrote down a message.
Dear Lisa and Gale
Thank you for freeing me from Xram’s chains, I guess this makes us even now.
I haven't quite recovered and cannot return to my world as of yet. Don't worry, I won't bother you. I'll find a place to rest in the mountains. If you want to search for me you can try, but it won't be easy.
I've left you these 'pets' to say thank you, for showing me a great time before Xram. The wolf is for Gale, he is called Greygar. The raven is called Falzar and he is for Lisa. Both of these can fuse with you to give you an ability. Greygar will cover Gale in a wolf/lion armour that boosts your original abilities without tapping into Xram’s power which by the way might eventually corrupt you, just be careful ok? I'm not sure what kind of effect Xram had on you but I can almost guarantee it is not a positive one.
As for Lisa, when Falzar fuses with you he’ll give you some bird like armor with wings that’ll boost your fighting capabilities and speed so you can keep up with Gale.
Take good care of them. Oh, and you're gonna get a kick out of this, they can fuse with each other to create a powerful creature called the Cyber Beast. You may be wondering why they’re like this. Well, I made them so they can interact with both of you easier.
Until we meet again my friends,
S.
Putting the more down I saw the two animals form into a robotic lion/wolf creature with raven wings. "Ok Cyber, you know what you need to do from here on in."
"I do, creator." I patted his head and walked out of the apartment. As I opened the trapdoor that led to the outside I found I was on some kind of floating platform. "Wait, is this Sky Sanctuary Zone from Sonic 3 and Knuckles?" I laughed a little and peered over the edge. "Well, I don't see any other way down."
I turned around and put my heels to the edge. Spending my arms I turned around, tilted back, and fell off the side. As the ground approached I turned around and held my hands out, summoning two pillars of fire to slow my decent until I landed with a loud thud.
"Now, where did those two get off to?" Pinpointing their location in Ponyville I smirked. "I'll not disturb them, but I do want to actually see them together while not hanging from a cross." Closing my eyes I teleported to Ponyville.
“CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!” I teleported outside of Sugarcube Corner, to see a party going on. Currently Gale was downing a jug of, something. Not too sure what that is. I changed into my pony form, a blue stallion with straight white hair. My mark was, of course, my necklace. Time to play spot the Symbol you two. I walked in and hid amongst the crowd. I watched as Gale finished the drink, and slammed it down.
“WOOOOO!” Everypony cheered as another pony sighed and handed Gale a couple of bits. They all returned to the party and I looked around for Lisa. I eventually found both her and Pinkie in the kitchen, baking cake and other sweets. Pinkie was zipping around the room and Lisa was using her tendrils to bake multiple things at once.
“Thanks for the help Lisa!”
“Welcome! I’m just glad I get to practice my cooking.” She closed three ovens at once and set the timers.
“Wow, even I can’t bake three cakes at once!”
“Yep. It’s useful having tendrils.” I shook my head and left the party.
’Alright, where to find a home?’
Gale's POV
After finishing off another huge bottle of... something, I slammed it into a table and threw my hands up in victory, the ponies around me cheering. I had no idea who had organised this party or what it was for but I thought it would be a nice break from looking into whatever was wrong with this world and its portals.
Lisa was in the kitchen helping Pinkie while everything was going on. As I looked around at the crowd everything seemed to go in slow motion as I saw a stallion walking at the back of the group. His fur was dark blue with his hair being short and white. He had a playful smirk on his face as his sapphire blue eyes stared at me. Then something caught my attention, his mark, I had seen that necklace somewhere before.
Quickly looking through my memories a picture of Symbol appeared in my mind, showing him wearing that necklace. Once the stallion had realised I had recognised the mark he smirked and ran down the road. I got up and ran after him, however when he turned a corner he disappeared. "What the hell?"
Lisa's POV
The ding of the timer told me all three of my cakes were done. Using my tendrils I opened the ovens, took them out, and set them on the table. I looked at the three icingless cakes. Ah, perfect.
“Awesome job Lisa!”
“Thanks.”
“Now to add the frosting!” I was about to help, but then Gale ran into the kitchen
“Lisa! I saw Symbol!”
“What? Really? Are you sure?”
“Yeah! Come on!” Looking to Pinkie who just nodded I followed Gale out of the bakery. We rushed out the door and ran down the road. We looked all around town, but we couldn’t find a single trace of him.
"Are you absolutely sure you saw him?" I asked, starting to think he was just seeing things.
"Lisa I would never lie to you, especially about something like this." We looked around for a bit more before we saw a figure standing on top of one of the roofs. It was covered by the shadow of a cloud but it was in the shape of Symbol when he had fought Xram. We blinked and he was gone. "You saw that right?"
"Yeah, I sure did. I think he's... playing with us."
"Symbol doesn't seem like the kinda guy to play around Lisa, you know how he was when we met him, the guy didn't even smile back then."
"A lot can happen in eleven months." We heard a familiar yet unfamiliar voice say from behind us. We turned around and saw the man from the cave smiling at us and began running again.
"After him!" Gale nodded and we began sprinting after him. He just looked back at us with a raised brow. He shrugged and slammed on the breaks before jumping behind us and vanishing in a mist that had appeared. "What is it with him and mist?"
“No idea, no time, let’s go!” Suddenly picked me up bridal style causing me to yelp. With a burst of speed he flew after the purple mist, with me hanging on to him as tight as possible. “Gonna get ‘im gonna get ‘im gonna 'im.”
“Gale slow down!”
“NOPE!” He sped up, causing me to scream. He sped after the mist, not letting up for a second. “Almost got him!”
"I don't think you do." I looked behind us to see that Symbol was running behind us the whole time before disappearing again.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Gale slammed the breaks and was about to shoot off again when something lifted me out of his arms and knocked him away.
"Why don't you let the lady try?" Symbol was holding me bridal style with a smirk. That smile, combined with the fact that we all thought he was dead, but now coming back out of nowhere and doing this? He, is SO DEAD!
“Symbol.” Symbol looked down at me with that same smirk, until he saw my face. A scar appeared and opened up to reveal a blood filled mouth. My fingers sharpened into claws, and my hair got a little out of control. “You. Are. So. DEAD!”
“Well, I’m out of here.” He dropped me and tried to fly away, but my tendril caught his foot, and slammed him into the ground. I then slammed him around into the ground and nearby houses. After a bit of that, I slammed him into the ground in front of me. He coughed and spat out a bit of blood. "Why do all the women in my life either punch me, slap me, or turn into a monster?"
“First, we all think you’re dead. Then, you come out of nowhere looking different and chained to a stone cross. And now, you do this. I am going to make the next few hours of your life, a LIVING HELL!”
I was about to attack him, but he just closed his eyes and smiled. "I missed you too Lisa." I stopped in my tracks, looking at him with just a little less rage. "I wanted to come back and say I was fine, that I was brought back. Something came up, and I had to leave you all for reasons I'm not allowed to say. I never wanted to make you all feel bad about what had happened. I won't ask you to forgive what I did now, but I will ask you to forgive me for not coming back when you all needed me the most."
He got to his feet and looked at me with a soft smile. Gale ran out of the trees ready to stop me but froze when he saw us. I slowly began to turn back to normal, tears forming where my eyes should be. Symbol opened his arms and I threw myself into them and he brought me into an apologetic hug.
"I'm sorry Lisa. Can you forgive me?"
“You're an asshole, but yeah.” He chuckled.
"So I've been told." I let him go and slapped him across the face. "And there it is." He rubbed his cheek and started laughing. "You'd think of the amount of times someone has slapped me I would have built up some kind of immunity."
“Don’t expect to be immune to hers. Lisa’s slaps hurt, no matter how much resistance you have.” Gale walked over and added to the hug. “So, what’re you gonna do now?”
Symbol just pulled away. "Wait, you guys aren't gonna ask how I'm alive in the first place?"
“Nah, you have your ways I’m sure. Either that or Xram brought you here. By the way, was he different this time to you?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, apparently the Xrams we’ve seen are nothing but spurts of energy from the real one. They each have their own personalities and consciousnesses. The one you just saw was way more insane than normal.”
“Oh, that explains it I guess.” Just then I felt some sort of energy in the air fade and a portal appeared.
"You tell no one I was here, it isn't time for me to return. I need to gather my strength again before I can travel to my new world. Goodbye for now." With that he disappeared into the forest while Marx walked out of the portal.
"Finally got to you two!" He sat down and tried to catch his breath. "It took me forever to get that damn seal down."
"Wait a seal? Was that why Metals portal and token were glowing red?"
"What, no, seals don't do that. They don't affect tokens out of preventing them from working."
“Then why was… oh never mind. Anyways Marx I need to ask you something.”
“Okay but first, your brother has some exciting news!” Alduin hopped out of the portal behind Marx, in his dragon pony form.
“Oh hey Dan! What’s up?”
“Hi Alduin!”
“Lisa, Gale, I have some very exciting news.”
“Well what is it? Come on spit it out!”
“I’m getting married!” There was a sudden silence as we all took the info bomb in. Gale had froze up at the news.
“Y-You’re getting… married?”
“Yep.” Gale fell back and blacked out. I stood over him and waved a hand in front of his face.
“Um, Gale?”
Meanwhile I saw Symbol looking in, listening. "Well, looks like I'll be coming back here sooner than I thought. I wonder if I should bring Ashley with me, yeah that would be nice, help her forget what happened with Epidemic the other day." With that he was gone, fleeing to whatever part of this world he was going to hide in.