The dim lights flickered as the rumbling floors came to a halt. Lyn suppressed a sigh of relief. This was the dingiest teleportation port she had ever been in, so she was relieved that they were still all in one piece.

Even though she had only been on one other open quest, Lyn was already certain about one thing—open quests were sketchy as hell. There was no information whatsoever about the quest, the transport equipment was always shabby, and the questmaster was always weird-looking. This time, it was a short, scrawny man with barely any hair or teeth left on his ghastly pale body.

As the port door began to open, the questmaster turned around and pulled his mouth into a wide, toothless grin.

"Enjoy the island, questers," he drawled, his raspy voice matching the creaks of the metal doors. "Be sure to be back in exactly twelve hours."

Squinting her eyes, Lyn stepped out of the port and into a sunny island beach. The cool wind ruffled against her auburn hair, leaving a refreshing yet salty taste on Lyn's mouth. Under her shoes, the coarse crunched with her every step as if the soles were gnawing on them. A few questers walked along the beach, poking sticks into the sand. One person was swimming out into the ocean.

Lyn tilted her head towards Neil. "How should we start?"

The fighter was stretching his arms, but he managed a shrug. "I don't know. We can go inwards and try to see if there's anything interesting. There's quite a lot of people on this quest so one of us is bound to find something." He glanced at the quester swimming in the ocean and snorted. "Although I gotta say, it's stupid to be roaming about in the sea. The quest is on the island for a reason. That guy can swim all he wants, but he'll just be wasting his time."

"Let's go inwards then," Lyn agreed.

Opposite the turquoise ocean was a dense crowd of trees. Their leaves sprawled over one another as if in an attempt to shield the island from the questers. The air around her filled with easily-chargeable saline, while the clouds above her were perfectly positioned for a strike. Lyn cracked her knuckles. Whatever this island was hiding, she—and her lightning—was ready for it.

"They gave us twelve hours," Lyn commented as they trudged through the forest. "I wonder if that will be enough to scour through the entire island."

"Well, if we can't find anything, then so be it. Such is the nature of a treasure hunt quest, after all."

"That's such a bummer."

Neil chuckled. "Indeed. And that's why the QA won't support treasure hunts. They would support only if there's a known treasure at a known location, and you can hire the right team with the right people. But in that case, it won't really be a treasure hunt anymore, will it? It'll be more of a heist."

"So treasure hunts are usually for unknown treasures?" Lyn asked as she swatted some spiderwebs away.

"Yep, a treasure hunt is usually set up just like this, with no specific treasure to be found. Sure, the very fact that this island had randomly appeared in the middle of nowhere points towards the possibility of magical treasures to be found, but there's still a chance that this is just a normal island, you know?"

"Hm." Lyn frowned. "So some treasure hunts are just useless quests."

"A lot of them do end up in failure, yes. Especially if you're those goofs at the beach who have no idea what they're doing or what they're even looking for. I'm pretty sure those people always end up not finding anything of value."

Neil nodded his head towards a quester a few feet away from them, who was checking a compass-like item as he strolled about. "But see that guy there? From the looks of it, he's finding a particular item. There's a high chance that it won't be found on this island, but he knows exactly what he wants. He's likely participating in every treasure hunt just to find whatever it is he's finding. So even if this quest ends up a failure, he's still more likely to succeed in general than the ones at the beach."

"So, like Han, then? That guy is also here searching for a specific item, I'm assuming?"

"Most probably. This is a big island with endless possibilities. I'm sure everyone who's ever interested in any treasures will be here."

Lyn nodded. She still did not fully understand treasure hunts, but she knew that, just like Han, and just like that person with the compass, there was a specific 'treasure' she was going to find.

"Hey, stop that!"

A familiar voice snapped Lyn out of her thoughts. What the hell?

"You stop that! Don't walk into me!"

"I'm not walking into you! It's not my fault that there's so many vines around..."

Lyn spun around. "What the heck, Irene, Em?" she exclaimed. "What are you guys doing here?"

The two women, who were stomping through the forest while glaring at each other, stopped dead in their tracks. Their faces contorted into a mix of anger and embarrassment as they turned towards Lyn.

"Why do you think we're here, idiot?" Emily muttered under her breath.

Lyn stared at them and sighed. "Did you guys come here because of me?"

Irene and Emily looked at each other before averting their eyes away, flustered and abashed.

"Why would you do that?" Lyn shook her head as she pinched her nose in frustration. "You do know this is an open quest, right? You know it can be very dangerous, right?"

"Well, you are here too, aren't you?" Emily spat. "If you know it's so dangerous, why are you here?"

Lyn had nothing to say to that. "Just... go back home, the two of you. Please."

"Hell no," Irene grumbled. "I'm already here, so I'll leave only after I find some gold at least, or diamonds, or whatever there is to find."

With that, she marched forward, pushing Lyn aside with her shoulders.

Emily followed suit. "Whoever finds it first gets it!"

"Oh, hell no, they're mine!" Irene picked up her pace.

Competitiveness took over, and the two of them dashed forward, leaving Lyn and Neil behind.

Lyn groaned. She was sure she had kept mum about this quest, so how did they even find out about it?

"I can't believe they're here," she said with a sigh.

Chuckling, Neil patted Lyn on the back. "Don't worry about them. They're both really strong."

"I know that..." Lyn pursed her lips in worry.

Open quests, no matter how benign they might sound, still bugged her. She had only been fine with participating in them as long as it was between her and Neil. But now that Irene and Emily were both implicated in this, she had a sudden urge to end this quest as soon as possible.

"Come on, we don't have time to waste," she mumbled as she picked up her speed.

Following behind Emily and Irene—whose quarreling voices could be heard even from a mile away—Lyn and Neil trekked through the forest and into a clearing. A cave entrance stood in the middle. The moss-covered stone blended into the background, its opening enshrouded by vines and ferns. But what little camouflage it tried to have, however, was ruined by the commotion from within the cave.

Lyn cursed inwards—of course there would be a cave. She cursed once more when the two women walked straight into it.

"Do you want to go?" Neil probed.

"Yeah, yeah, let's check it out. It'll be fine."

Reluctantly, Lyn entered the stone structure. The cave was dark and spacious, with spots of sunlight littering the well-paved floors. Facing the entrance was a wall with patterned scriptures carved into a circular arrangement. A huge crowd of questers had already gathered there, some frowning in silence, some mumbling to one another. Two pathways extended from both sides, but they were both blocked by rigid stone doors.

"What is that?" Lyn blurted as she finally caught up to Emily and Irene.

"It looks like some kind of ancient rune," Emily mused. "You probably need to crack it to open the doors into the cave."

Folding his arms, Neil whistled. "I guess this must be where all the treasures are."

"But how do you interpret it?" Irene asked. "Should I just blast open the door? Would that be faster?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "What? And then die under this cave?"

"Dude, have you seen how big the cave is from the outside? It's not going to collapse."

"Spoken by someone with little experience in questing."

"Little experience? We are the same age! How much more experience do you have?"

"Way more than you, that's for sure."

"Guys, please, lay it off..." Lyn trailed off as the two of them continued their barrage of insults.

It had been so many years since she had to deal with this, she did not want to suffer through a splitting headache again. She turned to Neil for help, but the tall man had already left to join the crowd in front of the runes.

Great. Lyn was now stuck between her two bickering friends and a group of weirdos attempting to solve a stupid puzzle.

Letting out a sigh, she allowed her eyes to drift to the other parts of the cave. The walls, while speckled with moss and algae, were uncannily smooth. The way the ceilings curved downwards into the two stone doors was way too sleek as well. It was as if this entire structure was carefully constructed by someone...

Then, Lyn's breath caught in her throat when she noticed her.

Hovering next to one of the stone doors was a small hooded figure. Seeing the back view of the woman was enough to jolt Lyn's soul out of her body and erase all other thoughts from her mind.

A part of her wanted to scream and run over, but she stopped herself. Instead, she approached the figure, keeping her footsteps as soft as possible.

"Cin... I mean, hey, erm, hello."

The hooded figure spun around. Under her dark cloak, her hair was blonde, straight, and styled into a bob cut just like Emily's. Above her face veil, a pair of large, brown eyes stared back in horror. But now, Lyn was able to look beyond the unfamiliar colors. The chubby cheeks and the round eyes were enough for her to tell: Cydney.

She found Cydney.

Despite the petite woman's furrowed brows, Lyn could not help but grin stupidly at her. "H- Hey, I missed you."

"Lyn." Cydney's sweet voice was a mix of exasperation and resignation. "You're here."

"Yeah, of course I am."

"You idiot. I told you not to come." Cydney glanced in the direction of Emily and Irene, who were squabbling near the entrance of the cave. "And you even brought the team here too?"

Lyn shook her head. "No, it's just Emily and Irene. I didn't want them to come, but I guess they found out about me coming here, so..."

Cydney's accusing glare intensified. "You never listen, do you?" she chided. She sounded so sulky that Lyn could almost imagine the little pout under the mask. "I told you to stay away, and that this might be dangerous, but you had to jump into this without thinking, do you?"

A pang of guilt hit Lyn, but at the same time, her heart fluttered and her mouth twitched. How long had it been since she last heard Cydney scold her like this? She never knew she could miss being nagged so much.

"I'm sorry, Ci... Sorry, I- I just wanted to see you. I didn't mean to make you worry like this."

Cydney averted her gaze. Her eyelashes flickered. "Idiot... Why would you want to see me? I told you it's better if you forget about me..."

"I would never ever forget about you," Lyn stated adamantly, as she dug into her pocket, "and I hope you don't forget about me too."

The pair of brown eyes widened when Cydney saw Lyn taking out the eye-fone. "Oh, you kept it."

"Of course I did." Lyn handed the metal block to Cydney's shaky hands.

The petite woman flipped it around a few times. "And you kept it pretty well."

"Well, of course, you treasure it a lot, so I did too." The sight of the eye-fone caused a lump to form in Lyn's throat. She took a deep breath and gulped it down. "Listen, Cinna, I've... I've thought about it. As you said last time, you want to go home, right? But I was making it hard for you, right? Well... I just want you to know that all I want is for you to be happy. So... So if that means you'd need to... leave, I'm... okay with that, really."

Her voice was cracking while Cydney's blinking eyes started to glisten a lot more, but Lyn pushed on. She had to.

"I'm- I'm serious, Cinna. You don't have to apologize, or be sad about it, or- or say things like how you shouldn't have come into my life, okay? Never say anything like that, ever. I just... I just want you to be happy, like how you used to be, like how you were in this eye-fone. B- But I also don't want you to forget about me. I want you to always remember me. At least... At least, remember me in there." Lyn pointed at the metal block.

"What do you mean?"

"I tried to... uh, add some stuff in there." Lyn let out a few nervous chuckles.

With a few swift taps of her finger, Cydney solved the riddles on the fone ten times faster than Lyn could ever do.

"Lyn!" she exclaimed, a small gasp escaping her throat. "It's you!"

"Yeah." Lyn scratched her head. "I wish I had more time to prepare a better goodbye gift for you, but... I managed to figure out how to work that thing and added some images..."

To Lyn's surprise, Cydney burst into laughter. "I can't believe you take your selfies like this," she said as she wiped her tears away, "this is the worst possible angle!"

"W- What?" Lyn didn't understand what Cydney meant, but she did understand the word, 'worst'. "Did I do something bad? I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have messed with this..."

"No, no, it's funny, I love it." Cydney looked at Lyn, her eyes bright and sincere. "But it doesn't capture just how pretty you are."

Blood crept up Lyn's face. "Oh. You... think I'm pretty? I'm- I'm not half as pretty as you."

"Smile, Lyn."

"Huh?" Lyn found herself staring directly into the dark circle on the metal block. Under the darkness was a faint sparkle that resembled an iris—a really creepy-looking one, too.

"Smile," Cydney repeated, her face blocked by both her face mask and the eye-fone. "Smile like the way you'd want me to remember."

That sentence reverberated in Lyn's head, shocking Lyn right down to her core. How did she want Cydney to remember her? How did this girl even view her, all these years?

Memories rushed into her like a torrent, inundating her with all the different Cydneys she had grown to know and love...

The shy Cydney, standing behind the cafe counter, having so kindly memorized Lyn's order... The flustered Cydney, blushing and stuttering, as Lyn flirted with her constantly... The cheerful Cydney, dragging Lyn to every boba tea shop on their dates... The sultry Cydney, laying on the bed, gasping, calling... And the Cydney she first met, wary and cautious, sitting at that dumpster, right after she had been dumped by Emily...

Everything about this girl she had come to know was perfect, and she wanted nothing but the best for her.

She wanted nothing but for her to be happy again.

Her heart clenched and her tears threatened to spill. But, as she looked into the creepy glass iris, she forced out a smile—the widest grin she could manage. She imagined the days back in that cafe, back when she had tried so hard to flirt, to make this girl crack a smile while working. She imagined the days in the team, back when Cydney had been in the team, back when they had met every single day...

She maintained that smile as a shot of bright light fired from the eye-fone, blinding her momentarily.

Cydney lowered the eye-fone and stared at the surface.

"That was so perfect," she mumbled, her voice cracked and hoarse, "I love this. I love this so much..." She turned to Lyn. "You know, we... we should take one together."

Lyn was still spinning from relief. "Take what together?"

Before Cydney could reply, the stone door next to them began to shift. Cheers erupted from the center of the cave.

"Oh, they must have figured it out," Lyn said, moving her body to shield Cydney as dozens of questers made their way towards the newly-opened passageway.

"Finally, this thing's opened." Irene appeared. "We can finally go check out what's in there." She noticed Cydney standing behind Lyn, hunching and pulling against her hood. "Oh, who's this?"

"Oh, a- a new friend," Lyn said.

"Ah, I see." Irene raised her eyebrows. "You make friends so quickly, Lyn."

"Who's that?" As if to make matters worse, Emily also emerged from the crowd.

"Lyn's new victim."

"Ah, of course. Typical," Emily said with a snort.

"Yeah..." Lyn said.

Irene must have thought Lyn was just chatting up and flirting with a random girl. It seemed that a flirty reputation was useful sometimes.

And it appeared that Irene and Emily were no longer arguing, as they waltzed forward with the rest of the crowd, deep in discussion. Neil was also engrossed in conversation with another quester all the way at the other end of the passage. Lyn let out a small sigh. It was good that nobody was paying attention to Cydney; she was safe.

"Let's go in too," Cydney offered when most of the questers were gone. "I want to check out what's in there."

She trotted towards the path, but stopped and glanced backward. "Stay close to me, Lyn. This place is not safe."

Lyn blinked. That was a line she had wanted to say to Cydney. A smile crept up her face as her heart soared.

"Of course, Cinna."

ϟ☁ϟ☁ϟ

A/N: Yet another quest, and yet another reunion of our main couple! What did you think of it? I hope this reunion was a lot sweeter than the previous one. After all, this time, Lyn was able to mentally prepare for it. xD