I was frantically grabbing Athea’s arm as we tumbled through the air. One of us was screaming like a little girl, and seeing that Athea is a woman, I am pretty sure it was her. It totally wasn’t me. We each were clamped down on our wrists like a vice. Her race’s incredible resilience and nano particles flowed underneath my grip and growing denser as to prevent me from crushing her skinny bones. She, in turn, was gripping mine just as hard, but thanks to my tough Immortal Blood body, all she did was bend the hexagonal plates under her fingers. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like shit, but that was the last thing on my mind at that moment. Actually, nothing was on my mind at that moment besides the thought of being squashed like a bug as ships flew by in a blur.

            We spun like like a windmill seeing buildings, the sky, then the grey pavement below. Then an ear deafening crash came over me, the sound of glass shattering, then everything went black. I came too as a mountain of pain crashed down on me like a boulder. My head was splitting in two, and I could feel the pain of at least two broken ribs and a burning sensation in my ankle. I was trying to focus, but my eyes just wanted to stay burry. Someone was yelling at me… I shook head, trying to clear it. Blinking hard a few times, sounds flowed into my ears a little clearer, but too confusing to understand.

            “GIT! Che user come fallen true.” A screeching voice spoke. I couldn’t tell if it was a girl or boy.

            “Up!” it shouted again.          

            Another hard blink and things finally were coming back to normal. It was a short man, standing over me. He was three feet tall and wearing a long red robe. One thing glared out at me, that was his green skin and pointed ears.

            “S… Skrap?” I asked.

            “Aye? Speaks do?” His voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. “No, I Leval.”

            “Level?” I groaned, leaning up.

            “Leval!”

            I jerked to a stop as something stabbed into my lungs, forcing the breath out. I looked down and spotted a large dent on the right side of my chest. Something judged out, but I couldn’t angle my head down to see. The pain was too much.

            “Ahhhh… Fuck that hurts.”

            I turned and coughed out blood. Then something hot stabbed into my neck. I smacked it away, staring back at the tiny man, him still holding a syringe in a four fingered grip. To my surprise, this other goblin thing, is still didn’t know what they were actually called, looked genuinely worried. Oversized eyes matching the green of his skin, and drooping ears, I think he was crying. Then my body flared up in incredible pain as fire seemed to flow through my veins. I heard high pitched clanging as bits of glass made their way out of the exposed skin of my face. Slowing touching my face, I found that half my armor had disintegrated from the impact, and I was covered in tiny stab wounds from a shattered plexiclear panel.

            While I was in pain, the little demon seized the moment and jumped on my legs. He grabbed something from the dent in my chest. With all his little might, he yanked on something. A wet coldness pass through me but the pain was inconsequential from what I was currently going through. Seeing him drop a large, sharpened chunk of metal to the ground, he stood back and watched me with glossy eyes.

            “If you live, you live.” He said.

            “ARGG!” was all I could get out as the fire turned to plasma.

            Not knowing what he did to me, and incapable of doing anything about it, I just endured. Then I saw something. Behind him I saw… Athea. Something utterly broke her. Her head was at a bad angle as blood dripped down her lips. One arm snapped back behind her body with a black bone protruding from her armor, while the other was missing entirely. Both legs looked as if they had been coiled up like an accordion. Then I saw her chest move and something came over me. Still nearly paralyzed in pain, I finally knew what was happening. The wounds slowly sealed and my ribs cracked back in place. But it was so agonizingly slow. If I lived through the pain, I’d live…

            “H… H…Help her.” I gasped out.

            He looked back, surprised to see her still alive. Or surprised to see me speak, I did not know.

            “Help… h… h… her…”

            He turned his sad eyes back on me.

            “She won’t live, so won’t live…” his somber voice echoed quietly.

            “No! H… Healer… N..NOW!”

            With that last bit of energy, I reached into my extra-dimensional space, dropping credits on the floor around me. I'm not certain about the quantity, but didn’t care. I fell back as the metal chips clattered around, staring into the broken face of my friend. I kept my eyes open as long as I could until darkness came over me once more.

            I dreamt of the bridge again. A brilliant radiant in a sea of darkness; a product of an overstressed mind. In the dream, I knew what that bridge was. It was what connected us to the beyond, the place we all must go one day. Two silhouettes stood in the center of the imaginary wonder. One of an adult and one of a child holding hands. I had no form, yet I reached for them and they reached back, though impossibly far to touch. Have they been waiting for me this entire time? Do they perceive the vastness of time that has passed? Was I holding them there? It had been nearly ten years for me. Was it time? Time for me to let them go? The pain will always be there, but I think… I think it is time to learn how to live with it. With that, the two shadows turned from my consciousness and walked away, with the little form waving goodbye.

            My eyes opened. I saw, but I didn’t see as my mind was both running a race, yet eerily still, silent. Hands passed over my eyes, a light, random gadgets that I knew nothing of. I saw it all, but I was only the emptiness in my heart. Tears fell free. A woman asking if I was alright. A gentle hand wiping them away. It was time for me to move on, to let them move on. That was the rest of eternity. Now… now I just let the tears fall as the sobs take me.

            The woman held me tight, my head resting on her lap as she gently patted my head. Her hands were soft and smelled of saline, cleaning solutions, and a hint of lavender. I noticed that her sea blue nails contrasted with the scars and light protrusions under the skin of her hands. I saw none of it, yet all of it. All I could see was the little hand waving goodbye. Waving goodbye…

            Hours passed as the sobs lessened into a dreamless sleep. When I awoke again, I was still in the lap, strange yet somewhat familiar. A hand still rubbed through my hair. It felt nice; it felt warm.

            Shaking my head, I pushed myself up. The lap I lied in was no stranger. It was Athea.

            “Oh, thank god you are okay.”

            I nearly broke down in another sob, and I pulled her into my arms. I kissed the top of her head and fitted over her like a meddling parent. She just let it happen as I went inch my inch over her body where I saw the terrible injuries. I ended it by lifting her left arm up and down, then up again. I flicked it back and forth, then pinched it.

            “Oh!” She giggled. “It’s real.”

            I pulled her in again.

            “What happened? Where is Leval?” I asked.

            “Leval? Is that his name…” she said, distastefully.

            “Yes, he saved us. You were… I… I don’t remember. Where is he? And where the FUCK IS THAT ROBOT!”

            Athea stifled a laugh at that.

            “I may just let you kill him after… that…” she glared at nothing. “Well, Leval has found himself detained in the hospital’s brig.”

            “Brig? Since when do hospitals have a brig?” I asked, astonished.  

            “Oh.” She giggled again. “Whatever you did convinced him to take us to the nearest hospital.” She explained.

            “Sensible.” Not knowing where she was going at.

            “That hospital just happens to be on Morgan’s Triome training base.”

            I stared back at her blankly. I had no clue what she was talking about.

            “Right…” she signed. “This planet…”

            “Bonney Jack Morgan.”

            “Yes. Its name changes with each change of the Triome leadership.”

            “Triome? Again, pretend that I’m a man from a million years in the past.” I told her flatly.

            She laughed again, which made me feel warm.

            “This world is essentially ran by three factions. Rather than countries, they’re scattered around the entire world. They have a strange government where they work together nearly as much as fight, but that is above me. Much of the Triomes are like a military, with armies and bases. We are in a hospital of Morgan.”

            “You mean…”

            “Yep, your new friend not only flew through the barricades, but crashed the ship directly into the hospital. Luckily for him, most healers are the same everywhere and will do whatever they can for the hurt. I don’t know why they went to the extent as they had.” Athea said while flexing her regrown arm. “But we are as good as new.”

            Was I? Something changed in me.

            “Why do you think they did that?” I asked.

            I finally turned, studying the room I was in. It was more like a cell than a hospital room, though filled with the pristine white that seemed to transcend time and space in hospitals. Though the bed was oddly soft and firm in just the right way, the paper-like blanket was making my exposed skin itch like nothing else. I threw off the blanket, only to find myself absolutely naked. I mean, why wouldn’t I be naked?

            “OH!”

            I reached for the paper blanket, stuffing it down there to cover my unmentionables currently flapping in Athea’s face. She just rolled her eyes, though her cheeks were a little red.

            “There are many things wrong with this… First, I’m your healer. You were in a coma for a month, remember? Well… you wouldn’t, but remember us telling you about that? Who do you think kept you fed and washed? Second, you aren’t my type. Remember, I have a wife? I don’t know how it was back in your medieval era, but women are lacking a particular member, making the human body just oh so much more attractive.” She said with a longing expression.

            She had a point.

            “How about we drop this conversation?” I asked.

            “Sounds good.” She said, hopping up off the bed.

            She walked back up to me and leaned in, whispering in my ear.

            “Just call up your Hud.” she said.

            I mentally smacked myself and called up Imona, covering my nakedness.

            “You were a ton of help.” I admonished her.

            “I enjoy seeing your skinny ass.” My Hud replied.

            “I hate my life.”

            Just before Athea spoke, the large metal door at the far end of the room clunked. There was a winding sound, like one of those old doors on naval ships. Wasn’t I in the future? After a good few seconds, there was a light hiss and the thick door swung open. Two people entered, each were users. Imona identified the first one, a man by the look of it, holding what looked like an old carbine mixed with crazy steampunk gears and bottles.

 

Class five

Class Weaponsmith

Subclass Gunsmith

 

Then she did the second, a portly woman, wearing no armor at all, covered in a thick yellow robe. She had no visible weapon on her person.

 

Class Five

Class Weaponsmith

Subclass Gunslinger

 

Pondering the difference between a Gunsmith and a Gunslinger, a third person walked in. Athea and I both gasped at the tall, lithe woman walking in. Long, luscious red hair fell back behind a devilish helmet nearly identical to Athea’s. In fact, the Hud was so similar across the board, from the thick leather like material to the color scheme. Though this one was much more of a fan of skin exposure, like the neckline, straps along the arms and legs, and the waste, leaving little to the imagination.

 

Class Four

Class Brawler

Subclass Queen of Envy

 

We took in all that in a matter of seconds, but that was not what caused us to gasp. What we saw on her exposed skin was something… something terrifying or wonderful, we were not sure. What we saw on her was the telltale nano particles looking like undulating roots beneath her pale skin. This woman… was a Ruus.