Working together Fuse and Dust buried the dead villagers and Senith. Throughout all this it was quiet except for the occasional question of if the other needed any help and how the other was doing. When all the dead was buried, they sat down outside what was once a village to rest. There was no sound the entire time. All the animals were scared off in the attack and had yet to return. In this silence, Dust decided to question Fuse.

"Fuse," Dust began, "what exactly has been going on with Elder Gray Eyes? How is he not acting like himself?"

Fuse sighed. "Truthfully, that is a question I would like to know the answer to as well."

"Do you know when it began?"

"The Moonbloods began attacking two years ago. Elder Gray Eyes, however, has been planning all this for three years, Mithrarin."

"Please, Dust is fine," Dust told Fuse. "Do you know what he's planning?"

"All I can say for certain is that he is planning on eradicating all of the Warmbloods, though for what reason I do not know. As soon as word of what has happened here reaches the others, I will be marked as a traitor and hunted. I have friends among the Moonbloods who won't attack me though. They may even help me and pass on information for me to give to the Warmbloods if they can't themselves. I'm sorry I do not know more."

Dust nodded his head and told him, "Thank you for your help though. Any information is better than nothing to figuring out what is going on. Can you do me a favor though? If you meet any soldiers from Salina, please don't tell them my real name. I'm pretending to be an assassin of theirs, Cassius, because of a situation beyond my control. Don't worry though, I'm on their side."

Fuse looked at him with suspicion before asking, "And what is this situation?"

"It's hard to explain."

"I believe that it is very possible that we ended up in this world somehow, but we are not certain as to how yet," Ahrah told Fuse.

"This world? Are you saying that you are from another world?" Fuse asked with confusion written on his face.

"Yes. Like Ahrah said though, we don't know how. I do know that it is similar to this world though."

Fuse was silent as he processed the information. Dust worried that Fuse might not believe them. He wouldn't blame him, after all. If he was told the same thing he probably wouldn't believe them either, and chances are he might even think the person was a little crazy.

"While it sounds a little far fetched, I'm inclined to believe you're speaking the truth. I find it hard to believe that a soldier from Salinus would not know of what's going on between Moonbloods and Warmbloods. Not only that, but no Moonblood has created a Sen-Mithrarin. You have my word I will not tell anyone your true name."

"Thank you for believing Ahrah and I. Is there any way we can repay you?"

"All I can ask is that you help save Elder Grey Eyes from his madness. He has always wanted peace, never war."

"I'll do what I can to save him."

Dust and Fuse talked for a few more minutes before bidding each other good-bye. Dust wandered through the forest in the direction of Aurora Village. He was grateful that it was only a few hours journey as the sun climbed into the sky, giving away to mid morning. If he made good time, he would reach his destination by noon.

"Last time we were in Aurora Village I didn't see Ginger anywhere. If Cassius is still alive, then perhaps Jin is as well," Dust commented.

"Zeplich Village hasn't been destroyed by Gaius as well. The possibilities of that is very high," Ahrah agreed. "But we cannot count the Moonbloods out. It is possible that they could have destroyed the village in this world."

"You're right. Denham wasn't destroyed by Fuse here, but it was still destroyed. There were no survivors this time, not even Sarahi," Dust said with a sigh, remembering seeing her body among the others. "They may not even have survived, but as long as there is a chance that Zeplich was spared this time, I'll just have to hope they did."

"Indeed."

...

In had been three and a half weeks since he had left to take care of the situations in Denham and Aurora. It would take a couple weeks for him to reach his destination, but another day to get there by foot. He wasn't sure if Cassius should even be back out in the field so soon, but he persisted and he eventually gave in. He trusted his friend knew what he was doing and would stay safe. Even Prince Karst had agreed after talking to him.

Rapture had naturally been eager about this, hoping she would finally be able to go out on a mission with her mentor. However, he had told her to stay and continue her training, citing that it might to into a battlefield if he wasn't able to evacuate the village in time or convince the Moonbloods to back down. Although she would eventually be on a battlefield, his friend knew that she still needed to work out some things regarding her weaknesses. Captain Dusk had taken over her training again, this time focusing on teaching her how to prevent herself from being ambushed as requested by Cassius.

At least she understood the reason why and had behaved herself as he was leaving... General Gaius thought has he glanced at said she-wolf, who was rifling through some papers she had brought with her. Rapture had the day off from training and decided to help him with sorting and putting up the papers he finished. Since there wasn't any at the moment that needed to be filed away, she decided to look through some notes she had taken on something.

Curiosity finally got the best of him as he watched her flip back through an old tome she had also brought with her. Putting his pen down, he asked, "May I ask what you're reading?"

"Hmm?" Rapture looked up from the page she was reading, her finger still on the sentence she was focused on. "Oh! Remember when you asked me about what a Sen-Mithrarin was?"

"Yes, and I thought I had said to not worry about it."

She shrugged her shoulders, saying, "Curiosity got the better of me. Besides, if the Moonbloods said it then it must be important."

"Very true," he agreed. "Have you found anything?"

"Not much, but what I have found is interesting. Especially this one part about the Moonbloods and them..."

That part peaked his interest. "What does it say?"

Before she could respond to his question, there was a knock at the door. After General Gaius told the person to come in, an out of breath soldier shut the door behind him and quickly crossed the room to the desk General Gaius was seated at.

"This report just came in. It's very important you read it," the soldier told him, passing the papers to his superior.

As the general read the report, his face grew grimmer and grimmer. Rapture noticed this, her head tilting in a questioning manner. The apprentice stuck the notes in the tome and got up, walking over to where the two soldiers were. He couldn't believe the report he was reading. There was simply no way it could be true. But yet at the same time it somehow did.

"Does His Highness know?" General Gaius asked.

"Another soldier went to inform him as soon as it came in," the soldier responded.

"Are they on their way here now?"

"Yes. They'll be here soon."

"Good," he told the soldier. Turning to face the silently waiting apprentice, he said, "Rapture, you're coming with me. You need to hear this."

...

AN: Sorry about the long, long wait everyone! I'll admit, I've gotten distracted by other things (schoolwork, games, anime) and completely neglected my fanfics. Well, it also probably doesn't help that I've gotta work out the little scenes and ensure I keep the characters in character while at the same time trying to maintain the feelings they would have in different situations. Writer's block sucks. Since in the game once Dust leaves to go to the map and we go to a cut scene with General Gaius, I figured I'd kinda mimic that a little. Plus I also used it to avoid writing about his trip to Aurora Village XD Again the time spent traveling is based off the map so again it might be off.