Chapter 14

All Things Change, For Better Or Worse

xXx

Hey, folks. Yes, this is an Authors Note at the top instead of the bottom. Now, I know this might seem a bit abrupt, but it's because there might be something you'd probably have missed. I actually made a single fic chapter for World of Remnant: Online for Christmas, and I would suggest you go to my profile and read that first. I originally meant for it to be a non-canon omake, but the more I wrote on it the more I realized it would actually fit into canon rather easily. There are also a few things from that chapter that'll be shown here, so I suggest reading it so those parts actually don't seem tacked on.

oOoOoOoOo Joshua Bridger oOoOoOoOo

Joshua did his best to hold back a yelp as Ryou's Bullhead shuddered slightly at a sudden blast of turbulence. The winds were really picking up this time of year, cold ones that made him very grateful for the heating inside of the Doppelgänger. "Will you ease up on the flying? I swear I'll bust your head open if we end up crashing out here."

"Will you just relax, ya pansy?" their ever disrespectful pilot snapped right back. "I've been flying these winds for years and the Doppelgänger can easily take it. She'll get us there just fine."

Joshua heard a brief rustling from the seat opposite of him, signaling that Andrew had probably flipped the page of his newspaper. "Where are you even taking us? You just said for us to follow you and we'd see something awesome." Another rustling sound. "We're missing the meteor shower for this, you know."

That was actually a bit of a sore point for Andrew right now. He'd been getting so stoked over the meteor shower that was happening tonight, making plans and everything. Then Ryou showed up and all but dragged them off for some adventure. "For a moment I thought it was a prank and you were just going to moon us in an alley or something."

Joshua couldn't hold back a snicker at that. It then became all out laughter when Ryou responded with "How would that be a prank? I'll have you know my ass is just as awesome as the rest of me."

Silence returned between them for a while after that, no sounds but the winds buffeting the Doppelgänger, the light roar of the engine, and the thrumming of the thrusters outside. A peaceful quiet, companionable even.

So, obviously, Ryou quickly got bored with it and decided to turn on the radio. "It's getting too quiet in here. Let's see what's on the news."

"Really?" Andrew retorted, lowering his newspaper slightly to stare at the pilot's back. "I have a newspaper right here, you could just ask."

Somehow Joshua just knew Ryou rolled his eyes at that. "Right, newspapers. Sorry, ol' timer, but some of us prefer the new ways instead of stuff that was around when dinosaurs walked the earth."

Andrew answered that with a mild glare. "First off, that saying doesn't even have a place here. Were on Remnant and I doubt dinosaurs ever even existed here. And second, some of us actually prefer holding the information in our hands, thank you very much."

Joshua just rolled his eyes at the back and forth between the two of them. It was actually pretty fun to watch if you managed to keep on the sidelines. Though it made it kind of hard to hear what they were saying on the…hold on, was that….?

"Hey," he spoke out, suddenly getting their attention. "Ryou, turn the radio back a bit."

Surprisingly choosing not to say something snippy, the tall pilot just did as asked and brought the radio dial back until Joshua asked him to stop. It was a news report in Silberlicht, one with the announcer detailing a series of strange incidents on Christmas.

"…..victims of the strange series of attacks were identified as criminals with offenses that ranged from assault to drug possession, the illegal sale of narcotics, theft, mugging, and armed assault. All were found wounded and heavily concussed, apparently inflicted by the same means and attacker. When pressed for the identity of the assailant, the conscious victims of the attacks all responded with 'it was ******* Santa Claus!' These claims did not waver even under further interrogation, with one in particular saying that he had, quote, 'coal shoved up my stocking,' followed by pulling his pants down, squatting, and proceeding to push out a lump of coal from his-"

Ryou just flicked the radio off at that point, flying in silence as the two passengers gaped at him with a combination of shock and horror.

"What are you two looking at?"

oOoOoOoOo

'Wherever we're going, it had better be worth it.'

A short while after the revelation of Ryou's…unconventional manner of making a point, he set the Doppelgänger down in an open area and said they'd be walking the rest of the way.

Hat he'd failed to inform them of was just how fucking cold it would actually be. It was the tail end of Winter right now and the wind was blowing hard, chilling right down to the bone. Not to mention all the Grimm that were this far out.

Holding out his right hand, Joshua's gauntlet transformed into its bow form, a pair of extensions similar to long and slender serrated blades came out, a line of light tracing from one end of the bow to the other. Bringing his left hand to pluck at the string, he pulled back even as an arrow of Wind Dust immediately formed.

Taking aim at the head of a particularly large Ursa over ten yards out, he let the arrow fly and saw the Grimm's upper body vanish as the arrow impacted. But it still didn't stop, travelling further and clean through several more Grimm before its shell of Aura collapsed and it exploded in a burst of slicing and slashing winds.

'I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that,' he thought, seeing the body of the Grimm disintegrate into a black smoke and drift away in the wind. Sure, he'd seen attacks like that before, but it was always for a game, it was never real like this. That difference gave it all so much more impact, so much more weight.

For crying out loud, he just saw an arrow of condensed air and wind shred the upper body of a soulless monster that was trying to eat him in a frozen landscape amount forested mountains. How many people could really say that?

Then a Beowulf flew right past his face with its jaw and a portion of its face missing and he could've sworn the world slowed down for a moment to give him a better view. Then real time resumed and he remembered that there were a few people here that could really say the same.

"Hey!" Ryou shouted, sending yet another Grimm flying with a punch that literally seemed to come out as fast as a pistol shot. "Quit standing around and come on, it's not much farther."

"What's not much farther," asked Andrew, standing behind an Ursa with his fingers sinking into its back and grasping the spine of the struggling creature. "You still haven't explained anything at all. Where are we going?"

Ryou just rolled his eyes, not even flinching as the blond doctor ripped out the spine of the poor Grimm. "I told you, it's a surprise." He repeated, quickly bringing up a finger to silence Andrew before he could speak again. "And no, I'm not dragging you all the way out here just to prank you by flashing my ass at you."

Joshua raised an eyebrow. "What, you're saying you gonna streak in the snow instead? I didn't think you were that crazy, but I guess I could be wrong."

Ryou just let out a forced and obviously insincere laugh at that before he turned around and started walking again, not even seeming to notice as he punched out yet another minor Grimm that tried to jump at him from the side. "Remind me why I bothered to bring you guys along again?"

"Because it would seem so sad and crazy if you were just mooning the empty air?" Andrew suggested, the slightest traces of a smile.

"FOR THE LAST TIME I'M NOT GONNA FLASH ANYBODY!"

Joshua and Andrew briefly shared a glance at that returning shout, both grinning as Ryou kept marching up ahead and they followed after him.

"So," Andrew spoke out, "where do you think we're going?"

Joshua shook his head. "No idea, but I sure hope it's worth getting dragged out into the middle of nowhere." He pulled his leather coat together, tightening his spot in it. "I'm pretty sure I would've frozen by now if it weren't for this Dust enhanced leather coat you got me. The Fire and Wind Dust sewn into it really does wonders for extreme temperatures."

"You're welcome. Although I doubt it quite compares to Winter's gift for you."

A better man would've probably tried to argue that, saying both gifts were equally great. But…..Joshua wasn't that much of a better man.

Honestly, he was starting to wonder if he'd ever be able to get a weapon. Andrew was having some surprising difficulty with getting one through official channels due to his civilian identity, and looking for one on the black market could've ended up with either something poorly crafted at best or an arrest at worst.

Then Winter came along and neatly destroyed that little problem due to her status as a Huntress-in-training. A weapon perfectly crafted for his Skills and what kind of character he wanted to build into.

Looking on the gauntlets covering his arms from the elbows down, the shine of the metal was bright from the light of day, like silver. Several compartments worked into the area behind the wrist holding various Dust canisters for his use, whether in melee or at range.

His admiration of the rather impressive armament was interrupted by a menacing growl from behind him, the deepness indicating it was an Ursa.

Channeling some more Aura into the weapon on his right, he activated the necessary parts to let some Fire Dust flow into the frontal portions, he turned around and dodged a swiping claw that had been swung towards his head. Then, bracing his legs and pulling his fist back, he let loose an Uppercut to the Ursa's upper body.

The Fire Dust exploded the moment his gauntlet impacted the Grimm, detonating in a tightly channeled explosion of heat, light, and sound as the upper body of the beast was disintegrated by the blast.

'Damn. Killing these things has gotten so easy now.'

Turning back away from the now disappearing monster, Joshua continued following after Ryou like it had never even happened.

"You aren't going to get the Loot Bag?"

Joshua shook his head as he walked by him. "Nah, not really any point. I probably have more money than I'll ever need, not much point in picking up what's essentially loose change at this point."

Andrew's brief "hmm" was his only response as he started walking along himself. Ryou, fortunately, hadn't gotten too far ahead, still within immediate visibility as he kept trekking up the mountain he'd led them to. "When do you think the hike will be over? I'm actually a little curious where he's leading us."

The time manipulator shrugged. "Who knows? I'm thinking he's gonna lure us to a cliff where he can push us off, but I could be wrong."

oOoOoOoOo

"A cave."

Ryou grinned at him. "Yep."

"You brought us all the way out here, in the freezing cold, in Grimm infested no man's land, to show us… a cave?"

"Yep."

Feeling his eyebrow twitch in agitation, Joshua did his level best to, yet again, hold back from punching Ryou in the face.

Barely tamping down on the nigh irresistible urge, his balled and clenching fists finally managed to relax. "Why?"

A tilted head and innocent look was all he got. "Why what?"

Feeling Andrew's hand on his shoulder was the only thing that kept him from punching. The blond doctor was much more familiar and experienced with Ryou and his love of mind games, far more than Joshua would probably ever be, so he wasn't quite as obviously annoyed.

"He's asking why you led us all the way out here to what looks like just some cave into a mountain for no apparent reason at all."

Ryou just kept up that same look, as if the answer was right in front of their faces without them even realizing it. "To show you what's inside. Obviously."

"The walls had better not be lined with pictures of your ass."

Joshua held back a smug grin when Ryou's face turned bright red as he started glaring death at him. "How long are you gonna keep saying that crap?"

"Probably until you stop stalling and I actually see what's inside."

The sound of rushing wind was all that broke the silence between them as Ryou and Joshua stared one another down, each waiting for the other to back down from their little staring contest as Andrew sighed in resignation.

Joshua must've been getting better at this, because Ryou was the one to blink first. "Fine," he muttered petulantly, "let's get going."

Turing around with his shoulder low in defeat, the tallest of the group entered the cave and motioned for them to join him, muttering incoherently under his breath even as he entered the blackness of the cave entrance. Moving to follow him, Joshua caught sight of Andrew looking at him as if in approval. "What?"

The doctor just looked ahead. "You're learning. Some time ago you would've probably gotten into an argument with him or caused a scene. This time you actually got him to back down. You've made progress."

Joshua reached his right hand around to rub the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed. "Well, guess I can only stay around him for so long before I learn to adapt. It's really nothing that special."

"Do you have any idea how long it took for me to get that used to him? You should be proud for being able to do it within even a single year at all."

Looking around in the dark tunnel, Joshua wasn't really sure where being proud fit into knowing Ryou's quirks. "Yeah, well, it might take me even longer if he's really just luring us into some elaborate prank here."

He heard a smacking sound up ahead, probably from Ryou punching the head clean off some poor Grimm. Really, you would think they'd know they didn't stand a chance against him by now. "Either way, it looks like we're about to find out. Gotta admit, I'm kinda curious."

And so they continued on, following Ryou into the tunnel to parts unknown, the only sound being the occasional death of some poor Grimm to serve as a distraction from the relative monotony. A few Grimm managed to get by their unusually silent lead, but they were handled quickly.

It was another few minutes before Ryou called out "Almost there", indicating they were actually nearing their destination. A moment later and…..light?

Yes, it was light. Bright and almost blinding as it increased within Andrew and Joshua's vision, their surroundings seeming to change completely as they took one last turn and Ryou called out "We're here".

And suddenly they weren't in a tunnel anymore. No more wandering in the dark, no ambushing Grimm, no feeling around at the cold stone. They were in a cavern deep within and underneath the mountain Ryou had led them to. A cavern of…

"Trees." Joshua whispered, disbelieving as he looked around. Trees of numerous kinds, along with various shrubbery and a ground thick with green grass. And…..and…."And how is there light down here? We're under a mountain, there shouldn't be anything here. What's going on?"

Andrew was just as amazed, his face holding a look of open wonder that was rarely seen on the usually stoic man. Silently he walked up to one of the trees, a tall and imposing specimen that had to be at least fifty years old. "A Giant Hornbeam. This isn't even native to the continent of Solitas. How is all this even possible?"

Ryou chose that moment to interject. "No idea. I just stumbled on this place a few years back when scouting out new turf." He pointed up, bringing their attention to the great dome of stone above them, with countless streams of bright light within it, like great currents of illumination as they shined down. "I know that the light is because of all the Dust in the rock up top, and that the water seems to flow in from some underground streams for these plants, but that's all I know."

'This is just SOOOOOO beyond anything I expected.' "And you're really the only one who knows this place is here?"

"Must be so," Andrew interjected, having returned to them after his quick inspection of the surrounding foliage. He pointed up to the Dust encrusted dome of stone above them, "See all that Dust? It would've been mined out some time ago if anybody else knew about it. Not to mention this place would've already been inhabited if other people knew, there's plenty of room and vegetation for it to be easily livable."

Ryou nodded, still grinning. "Yep, I'm the only guy who knows." He raised a fist up, dramatically clenching it to make a point. "That's why I claimed the place. And now you guys know about it, too. It's gonna be our little shared secret." His grin disappeared, replaced with a mildly threatening glare. "So don't tell anybody."

oOoOoOoOo

"Let me get this straight," Joshua stressed, looking at exactly what Ryou had apparently brought along in his Inventory and were now currently spread out on the ground. "You actually brought us all the way out here, to some personal hideaway, so we could essentially have a….dude's day out? Am I saying that right?"

Ryou picked out a beer from the ice chest he'd brought along, slicing the top of the bottle off with a quick, sideways karate chop that seemed to cut it right off. "Yep, pretty much. Why?"

"….Well, this is just so unexpected. I mean, we're talking about you. Kinda unexpected for you to take us both out to this place just to have a three man chill."

Not that Joshua was ungrateful for the gesture, but it seemed so odd coming from Ryou of all people. He didn't exactly mesh well in Joshua's mind with the sharing and open type that would do something like this. Granted, he wasn't arrogant enough to think he had his personality completely pegged, but still….

"Quit fretting," touted Andrew, already sitting comfortably in one of the folded chairs that Ryou had brought along. "We're here, there's drinks, and it's nice and peaceful. I say we enjoy it and relax." He turned to Ryou. "Speaking of which, I don't suppose you've-"

"Yeah, yeah," Ryou interrupted, waving Andrew off as he pulled something else from the ice chest and handing it off to him. Looked like some kind of plastic container of iced tea. "Here ya go."

"Much obliged," Andrew gratefully said back, taking the offered drink and opening the top for a quick sip. "Ah, I love the way that goes down."

Ryou scoffed at him. "Softy. I'll never get why you prefer that stuff over a good beer." He turned to Joshua, motioning at the last unfolded chair and the ice chest. "Sit down and help yourself, come on. Don't make me push you into it."

Joshua just stood there, stunned at what the hell was going on. The whole situation just seemed so….surreal. "I….maybe you're right," he admitted, rubbing his forehead to try and stave off the coming headache. "I'm just gonna sit down."

Moving to the unfolded chair Ryou had brought out that was still unoccupied, he took a seat and let out a massive sigh. Taking some deep breaths with his eyes closed, he slowly brought himself back to a calmer state of mind, opening his eyes to see…. A beer in front of his face, held out by a familiar hand. "Really?"

The hand in front of his face shook slightly, the beer swishing slightly in the bottle, then a reedy voice said "drink me and I'll make the headaches go away. You know you want to."

Looking at the sight ahead of his face with a mild glare, he gave in and took the beer, snapping the cap off to take a quick drink. Goodbye migraines.

"There," Ryou chimed beside him. "Now doesn't that that help your head a little?"

Tasting the alcohol flow over his tongue and down his throat, Joshua had to admit that his headache actually did seem to subside a little bit. Smacking his lips slightly, he had to admit that Ryou knew good beer. "Yeah, actually. Thanks."

They sat in silence for a little while after that, the quiet peppered by the occasional sound of someone having another sip of their drink or reaching into the ice box for a new one. A simple pattern, but a peaceful one. Welcome. Nice and quiet.

But quiet never really lasts, and so it was only a matter of time till it broke. "Ryou?" Joshua asked.

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you bring us here anyway?"

Ryou let out a slight growl. "If this is another lead-in to some joke…" The extended pause was the only finish he needed for the threat.

"No, it's no joke or suggestion. It's just…why did you bring us here? We could've done something like this anywhere, instead of just coming all the way out here for you to show us this place. Why go through all the effort?"

Ryou didn't respond for a while, just letting a silence develop which was occasionally broken as he took another drink of his beer. Finally, after a longer than usual silence, he sighed in apparent resignation. "Well….we're all stuck in this place, ain't we? Might as well have showed ya'. I mean," he scratched the back of his neck, averting his gave to look at the ground. "We're all in this shit together, right? So why not?"

And just like that, Joshua understood. Ryou might not have said it outright, but the message still came across. Somewhat suitably, Joshua was pretty sure he might not have gotten it just a few months ago, before he was really starting to get Ryou's little quirks and way of interacting with people. But now? Yeah, he got what Ryou was saying.

Ryou was saying they were his friends. He was saying that he was their friend. That they were all in this together. All without saying or doing anything to take away from it.

With a small smile forming on his face, Joshua nodded. "Yeah. In this together."

He held out his hand with his bottle of beer, the meaning of the gesture unsaid but unmistakable.

Ryou looked at the extended bottle for a moment, seeming in confusion before a glint of realization appeared in his eye and he flashed a grin. "Right." Raising his own beer up, Ryou almost gave Andrew a glance before the doctor's own container of tea appeared beside it.

After a quick shout of "Cheers!" their drinks clanged together with a loud ring of glass and the slight bang of plastic.

oOoOoOoOo

"You're sure we need to stay here until night? It gets really cold outside when the sun goes down."

Ryou scoffed. "Don't worry about it, we've got all the stuff to handle a bit of chill. It's not like you're gonna turn into an ice statue out there, Andrew's jacket will keep ya cozy."

"Yeah, well, not to ne distrusting here, but why do you want us to stay here until after night? We've already seen how awesome this place is, haven't we?"

Ryou started shaking his head before Joshua even finished talking. "Nopenopenopenope! There's something ELSE that happens here at night. And I chose tonight because it's gonna show something really special."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "You know you're just leading back to the implications of flashing your ass at us, right?"

Joshua watched with a smile as Ryou had finally gotten enough of that and got up to catch Andrew in his arm and give him a noogie, running his knuckles on the struggling man's scalp while daring him to say that again.

He couldn't help the laughter that came out at the scene, the whole thing just seemed to have brought his mood up to the highest it had ever been. "Jeez. I never thought getting stuck in this world would be such an improvement."

He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he'd expected, but Ryou suddenly quieting down and going still sure wasn't it. He just stood there like a statue, Andrew still held in place and his clenched hand resting still against his scalp.

'Okay, that's kinda weird.'

Andrew seemed to be of the same opinion, considering he was now wearing a rare expression of open surprise and concern. Seemed he'd never seen Ryou like this either, and he spoke up to voice his concern. "Ryou, are you alright?"

That seemed to snap the big guy out of his funk, a series of rapid blinks and a brief shiver like movement going across his body as he came back down to reality. "Y-yeah. I'm fine."

Letting Andrew go free, he looked down briefly at the bottle of beer he'd dropped, its fluid content now having splashed on and drained into the ground. He sighed bitterly. "Well, that's a waste.

Getting another beer from the ice chest, he got back into his seat and cut the top off with yet another horizontal chopping motion to the top of the bottle.

"Ryou," Joshua spoke out, trying to get the attention of the suddenly solemn man. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered a little too quickly, before trying to divert further questions by downing as much of his beer as he could.

This time it was Andrew who spoke up. "Really? You're sure there's not something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he insisted, putting quite a bit of stress into the words. "What he said just….brought up some memories from outside."

'Memories from….Oooohhh.'

Yeah, it didn't take a genius to know what he meant by that. The look he saw on Andrew's face showed he'd came to the same conclusion. "What kind of memories?"

Ryou grimaced slightly. "Not nice ones. Drop it."

Ouch. Yeah, no wonder he reacted like that. Still, it wasn't entirely surprising. The world they came from wasn't exactly a friendly one, and often seemed actively oppressive. Hell, that was less of a feeling and more of a fact.

The divide between rich and poor was almost insurmountable, with everyone lower on the totem pole generally living hand to mouth from one day to the next. They could probably make enough money to survive, but certainly not enough to really have much to show for it.

That was one of the reasons World of Remnant: Online was so revolutionary to them. It was a virtual world where virtual products, actions, and even property were worth real world profit. To say nothing of how it could be used for things besides money, like attending classes on it that you couldn't afford in real life. It wasn't just a game, but a lifesaver.

And then it got shut down. Dammit.

But now he couldn't help but wonder just what Ryou must've gone through.

"Y'know," he nervously began. "Even after all this, we really don't know much about each other, do we? I mean…..none of us have said anything about how things were for us before."

Ryou almost spoke up at that, but stopped before actually saying it. Seemed he wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, or at least he wasn't able to respond right away. He just got a slightly contemplative look on his face as he thought it over for a moment.

Then the look passed and he shook his head to shrug the whole thing off. "So? Who cares about all that?"

"I'm pretty sure we do," Andrew interjected, getting Ryou's attention with a slight glare.

"Well I don't. Alright?"

He tried to put some feeling of finality in the words, but he couldn't quite seem to get the strength for it that he was hoping for. After trying very hard not to look at either of them, instead constantly shifting his attention to everything else he could land his eyes on, he finally seemed to give up and let loose a sigh of frustration. "Y'know what? Fine! But you've gotta give your stories first. Got it?"

"Deal," Joshua said in agreement, before he could say anything to take it back.

Andrew seemed mildly ticked that his choice was made for him, but he didn't do anything beyond give a quick sigh and a roll of his eyes. "Fine. Which of us is first?"

Giving out a sigh of his own, Joshua raised his hand. "I'm up, let's get it done with."

Shifting in his folded chair for a moment, he tried to get in the best state he could. His story wasn't exactly going to be pleasant, so he wanted to at least be comfortable while he was telling it. He also grabbed another beer, because what was comfort without the pleasant buzz of alcohol?

Taking a brief sip, he let a short silence form as he thought over the words to choose. Dammit, it seemed so much easier in his head, but now it seemed so much harder when he actually had to say it.

Ah well, might as well just pick something to start with and roll with it.

"My family was pretty much dirt poor and half of the time I was pretty sure they didn't even want me."

The looks on their faces told him he probably started off a bit too strong. Maybe stretch it out?

"Right, details. I…first off, I was actually 24 back in the old world."

Ryou held out a hand to interrupt him. "Wait, you were 24? Then shy the hell do you look…" his eyes widened slightly as he connected the dots, then his trademark grin slowly formed on his face. "Oh, I get it. Bet you're regretting that now, huh?"

He shrugged. "Not really. Seven years isn't that much of a difference. Anyways," he took another sip of his beer, getting ready for the rest. "Like I said, my parents weren't exactly well off. My dad worked as a mechanic at an auto shop and my mom….I'm not really sure what she did, but she was often gone from home. Every night she came back she just looked like she felt…guilty somehow. That's all I really remember, though, considering she died around when I was….I think 7?"

Andrew kept his face blank, but Ryou's flinch was much more obvious. Looks like it was sinking in.

"Anyway, I had to kick in early on in life to help keep things running. If I wasn't at school then I was doing chores around the house or trying to do odd-jobs." Joshua scrunched his eyebrows for a moment, thinking back to some moment in particular. "I remember one time when I was shining shoes for quarters, but that's just one example. Seems small, but every buck counted." He shrugged. "When I was old enough I started helping my old man out at auto shop he worked, so that really helped. I mostly did electronics work, though. I always used to take apart machines I found in the trash to find out how they worked. I eventually got a job in electronics repairs and things seemed to get stable."

A bittersweet smile settled on his face. "There were some good times, though. I remember one time when my dad and I were able to get together enough money to go out to a county fair."

Andrew gained a slightly bittersweet smile of his own at that. "Well, sounds like it wasn't always so bad."

"Yeah, but those times were pretty rare. More often than not we had to spend as much time as we could working. I like to think I helped out a bit, but I doubt it was by all that much." He was quiet for a moment, staring off into the distance as if seeing into the past. "But he just seemed to get worse as the years went on. Slower, more tired. Like the world was just beating him down."

He took another drink, hoping to God that it would help with the sudden dryness in his throat. Didn't work. "Then he died. He just…..dropped dead from a stroke at work. I was just lucky we'd stored away enough money for a basic funeral or I don't know what we would've done with the body. I was 18 when it happened."

He remembered the funeral, but only vaguely. Sad, right? It was his own father and he really didn't remember much beyond just going to it. It felt wrong but what could he do? His dad wasn't the only one the world was beating down, and with him dead…..well, he was probably more alone than ever.

He stopped talking for a bit, letting the silence settle over them before he started talking again. "You know the weirdest thing? Probably the worst part? It's that things actually seemed to get better after he died. Just how fucked up is that?"

He took a deep breath, the air settling in his lungs before it came out in a great sigh. "World of Remnant: Online. I remember the first time I saw a commercial for it on TV and thinking 'this is too good to be true'. But, lo and behold, it turned out to be everything it said it was and more."

He took another sip of his beer, slightly grateful for the growing but otherwise harmless buzz in the back of his head. It was also doing wonders for keeping his throat from going dry.

"Things seem to turn around for a bit when that happened. I managed to scrounge up enough money to buy a really basic Full-Dive and got the game. Took a little while but I managed to start making money off of the account I had. Wasn't that much, but it was enough that I actually had some financial security for the first time I could really remember. Then…..I guess you know the rest."

He stopped talking, having said his part as far as he was concerned.

Another moment of quiet descended between the three of them, Ryou and Andrew taking a moment to really absorb what he'd just told them. It was a cliff notes version, somewhat bare bones, but it was still his past life in a nutshell.

"There's something else, though," Ryou said, apparently still curious about something.

"Yeah?" Joshua questioned, eyebrow raised.

"Remember that whole deal with the White Fang?" he asked. "And I also overheard what you said to Winter at the party. Something about how she at least got her sister back. What was that about?"

He couldn't keep himself from flinching slightly at that particular memory. "Oh. That."

It was an obvious reaction, and one with more than its fair share of negative implications. It really said something when it was Ryou who spoke first. "Look, ya' don't have to tell us if-"

"-No," he interrupted. "I mean….we agreed, right? I guess it's about time you guys heard it."

Bringing his bottle up beer back up, he was mildly disappointed when he noticed no alcohol actually came out. He put the bottle on the ground and reached out for a new one, only to be surprised when he noticed that Ryou had already gotten one and was holding it out for him. "Thanks."

Taking the cap off for a quick drink, he gathered his thoughts for a moment to try and find the best way to start explaining. "It happened when I was 10. There was this other kid I knew, Kyle. Nice kid, probably a year younger than me, and we got along pretty well." He smiled slightly. "I remember some of the stuff we did in our free time, just playing around when we could arrange some time off from the usual grind. One of the only times I was really able to relax."

The memories were probably some of the better ones he had, just playing for a while and being able to forget about everything else in the world.

Turns out the world is one jealous bitch.

He sighed. "Then he was kidnapped."

The memories of that day came back. The worry, the fear, thinking something terrible would happen. "Turns out he shared a last name with somebody else who was pretty well off. I'm pretty sure it was just a coincidence, but who knows. Either way, the kidnappers thought he was legitimately related and decided he could be their meal ticket."

He opened his mouth to keep talking, belatedly realizing his throat seemed to have gotten a bit dry. Again. He took another drink.

Congratulations! Your consistent exposure to poisonous substances, you have unlocked the Skill 'Poison Resistance'.

Poison Resistance (Passive) Lvl. 1 XP: 0.00%

A Skill that allows the body to develop a resistance to harmful foreign substances. Become the bane of the favored tactic of assassins the world over.

Passive: All Poison type Status Effects have a 10% less chance to affect the Skill possessor. In addition, the damage of all Poison type Status Effects deal 15% less damage.

…..He was really starting to get annoyed with these sudden pop-ups.

"Anyway," he continued, quickly closing the window with a tap of his finger. "We tried getting help. Tried talking to the police, but they weren't able to help. We weren't exactly in the best neighborhood to begin with, and they were already stretched pretty thin. They said they'd keep an eye out, but that didn't mean much. The kidnappers called and made their demands, but…..well, it didn't exactly go as we'd hoped."

His eyes clouded slightly, blurring a bit until he managed to blink it away.

"The kidnappers wouldn't budge on their demands. His parents begged, pleaded with them to let their son go, saying that they'd made a mistake, swearing they'd do anything they could as long as their son could come back. Then the kidnappers stopped calling. Maybe…..maybe they finally figured out they'd made a mistake. That they'd grabbed the wrong kid."

He looked down, eyes glued to the grass beneath his feet as the last image came back to him. "We found his body a few days later. Face down in an old artificial river way. He was strangled to death."

The silence that followed his story was almost deafening in a way. People think the quiet was an absence of sound, but that could really just make it all the more oppressive. Making you wish that there was something to just break the quiet somehow.

Andrew was quiet, but it was undeniably different from his usual composure. His current reticence had a definite awkward feeling to it that Joshua had never really seen in him before.

Ryou, meanwhile, was just looking down and trying to not look in his eyes. Looks like the story hit him pretty hard.

"It really hurt. A lot. I kept going over it in my head, thinking about what went wrong, how he could've come back alive, how it could've been done differently. I thought about that every day for months and thought, 'what if we'd done it like this?' It always stayed with me I guess."

He chuckled bitterly. "Never thought all that thinking on a tragedy would've been useful."

He stopped talking after that. This time, Ryou didn't ask him anything else.

He wasn't sure how long they all sat there in the growing dark, just awkwardly having their drinks as the mood resettled, but eventually Andrew cleared his throat to get their attention.

"My turn?" he said, not entirely sounding like a question. Joshua shrugged slightly, but Ryou nodded more or less in affirmation.

Resting his hands in his lap, Andrew took a moment to collect his thoughts, his expression not shifting even slightly as the memories shifted in his mind. "I guess…..it wasn't really anything too remarkable." He let out a slight tsk sound, moving an arm so the elbow rested on his leg and held his head up.

"My parents died not long after I was born, so I was left with my uncle. Not a bad man, but….decidedly firm. I'm pretty sure he had no idea how to raise a child, so we mostly stayed out of each other's way. My parents had managed to leave some money for me, but it wasn't all that much." He shifted again, switching which arm he used to support his head. "I probably had it easier than most, considering my uncle and I together were able to earn enough money to have a light financial buffer. Not much, but I think we all know that's pretty rare."

Then, to the surprise of them both, Andrew actually smiled. It was a small thing, barely noticeable unless you were looking for it, but they had both known him long enough to tell. "It wasn't too bad, really, but it seemed a little…..confining at times. We both knew we'd probably be stuck in that rut for the rest of our lives. But then…..well, that's when I got World of Remnant: Online. And then it felt like a whole new world had opened up right before my eyes, full of possibilities waiting to be taken!"

He became unusually animated as he continued speaking, almost like he was trying to hold himself back from leaping out of his seat. "Then I found out how classes could be taken in it that could be used for real world applications. Medicine, law, economics, criminal sciences, all of it. So, I took the opportunity."

That was when Ryou chose to interject. "Is that why you're a doctor right now? You took the classes here?"

Andrew suddenly slowed down slightly, his face taking on a slight grimace. "Well….kind of," he slowly said. "I mean, yes, I took the classes, but….while we learned in here, we still needed to take the classes physically in order to get our licenses to work officially in the real world. It was good for studying, but you couldn't get official certification here. At least not for the real world."

His grimace grew more pronounced, indicating he was thinking of something distinctly unpleasant. "And can you guess how much money it costed to take those classes? Answer: much more than I could afford. I might have been able to make the money through the game economy, but it would take years. So I….just got stuck as one in the game. Then it was going to shut down and I figured I might as well be there when it happened. When everything I'd done would just disappear."

His expression stayed frozen in that grimace for a moment, all the memories of that day stuck firmly in his mind. But then, gradually, it changed back into that barest hint of a smile as he turned to the two of them. "Never thought it'd end up like this. But I certainly can't complain."

"Damn right!" Ryou exclaimed, his beer-holding hand shooting up into the air so fast that the rest of his drink flew out of the top like a liquid bullet. "Aw, dammit!"

The other two shared a chuckle over his blunder, especially when he got just the slightest hint of a blush as he reached for another bottle. "Oh, you guys are asses."

Joshua smirked down at him. 'We learned it from you. You're such a good teacher."

"Shut up!"

Joshua just chuckled more at that, making Ryou clam up as his face turned even redder.

Unfortunately, the playful mood didn't last for quite as long as it could. It didn't take much time for Ryou to realize his story was next, and he seemed to slowly shrink in on himself as the realization hit home.

It was probably the most vulnerable Joshua had ever seen him before.

"Hey," he said, getting Ryou's attention. "Y'know you don't have to tell us, right? It's okay."

Ryou started shaking his head before he even finished talking. "Don't," the nervous man stressed. "You guys already told yours, I'm not backing out of it just because it ain't something happy."

They were both quiet, letting Ryou calm down and collect his thoughts, letting him do it at his own pace. It took around five minutes before he'd regained enough composure to start speaking.

"Things started pretty much as you'd expect," he began, voice heavy. "Except my family life included a little sister, Amy, so things were even tighter. She always seemed to either try and shrink in on herself or try and make herself as useful as possible, like she blamed herself for things being so tight."

Downing another swig of liquid courage, Ryou pressed on. "She always opened up around me, though. I dunno if it was because she saw something in me, did it out of wanting some sense of security, or if it was just my magnetic personality, but she stick to me like glue. It was kinda annoying at first, but…..well, she just grew on me. We looked out for each other, made each other laugh and forget that things were so bleak."

He briefly stopped talking, searching his mind for more words to say. "I managed to bring in some money, but it was rarely enough. More often than not we had debts to pay and needed to put more on top of them. And it was getting really hard to find work, so I had to go to…..unconventional places to get money."

Joshua frowned. "Unconventional?"

"Yeah. Less than legal stuff." Ryou bit out a bitter chuckle. "Funny, huh? Turns out crime actually does pay. Quite a bit, even." He took in a breath before slowly letting it back out. "It was mostly grunt work. Collecting money, working as hired muscle. It actually got pretty lucrative. Enough for me and my family to be in a much better place than we were. I think they knew about it, but they never really called me out. We were all pretty desperate."

Not really surprising. Ryou was by no means alone in that matter, considering how many other people often had to do some less than legal work to keep their finances in the clear. Joshua and Andrew weren't really in any place nor mood to judge him.

"It got worse when our parents died. Car crash. Died on impact. And I suddenly became the chief provider in our little family. I pushed even harder for work with bigger pay, started getting a bit of a rap sheet as I earned my bones for 'em. But at least I started getting enough money for us."

He took a swig of his beer, draining half of the bottle at once as it disappeared down his throat.

"Then I actually got into the underground fights and the money really came rollin' in. Turns out people will pay a lot of money to see somebody punch out someone else's teeth. I dunno if it's because the blood does a lot to get them excited or if they just like to imagine it's actually them punching out somebody they have a grudge with, but they still payed and the money came in. I was always pretty big and tough, so I became pretty popular. Hell, I punched my way straight up to being the champ!"

Ryou looked up into the great dome of stone overhead, his expression far off as the memories seemed to flow inside his mind. Then, as he started talking again, his voice seemed to gain a whole new pitch, something excited and almost manic as he recounted what happened.

"The money started rolling in and things started better. Amy and I moved into a nicer place, we could suddenly get luxuries like quality furniture, we could eat the best food, buy almost anything we wanted. Y'know, the good life."

As he went on about how things turned around for him, Joshua couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Ryou actually had more upward mobility that he or Andrew both, something his little recounting was making very clear.

Then the jealousy faded as he realized it couldn't have lasted forever. Not if Ryou's previous reluctance was any indication. And Ryou's slowly falling expression proved he was right.

"Then one day, Amy just…fainted. Just like that, no warning, not prior symptoms, nothing. It was so weird. We went to get her checked out and…." he made a hiccupping sound in his throat, visibly keeping himself under control.

"She had a brain tumor. A bad one. Hell, how could it not have been bad? Anything to do with the brain is automatically bad news, and this was just getting started."

Ryou shuddered as a particularly bad memory came to the fore, his voice becoming almost haunted. "It was frightening. Like she was gonna disappear. I was desperate. The operation was expensive, really expensive, so I threw myself into the fights as fast as I could to get the money. One guy after another, one win after another, I kept getting closer."

The words stopped coming out, like something suddenly formed in his throat and the only thing to come out was a dry, choking sound. He tried talking a few more times before stopping, instead choosing to drain the rest of his beer to try and get rid of the sudden lump in his throat.

He drank his way through four beers before he could start talking again.

"Then the tumor ended up affecting her memory, making her forget. Sometimes she'd forget who I even was and asking why some stranger had walked into her room. I could talk to her all day to get her to remember and she'd forget the next day. I had to keep fighting, keep pushing for the money, to get her brain fixed before it could be anything permanent."

He stopped talking, just seeming to shrink in on himself as he ran an arm over his eyes to rub away the tears.

"Then I ended up pushing too hard." He hiccupped slightly, a result of the alcohol. "I got busted up in one of the fights. Busted up bad. I couldn't keep on fighting and…and I couldn't help her. I ended up using all the money just to keep her alive and on treatments for as long as I could. It was hell seeing it happen. Seeing her slowly dying in that hospital bed, hooked up to some machine."

Joshua and Andrew said nothing as he became a hairsbreadth away from breaking down before their very eyes, looking more singularly broken and vulnerable that they'd ever seen him before. It was almost painful to see the so confident man so broken.

"I visited her every day. Always checking up on her, seeing the sparkle in her eyes when she recognized me and then seeing the dull look when she forgot. Sometimes in the same day. Then she….." he choked up again, trying to keep himself from breaking down even worse in front of them. "One day, one when she recognized me, she grabbed my hand when I was about to leave a-and….and said she wanted me to pull the plug. Begged for it. And then she just forgot me again. I-I…"

Ryou couldn't bring himself to continue after that, just downing another beer whole. Then another. And another.

In the end, he almost emptied the ice chest all on his own.

Neither of them could blame him at all.

None of them spoke as Ryou slowly calmed down and regained something resembling his attitude from before he told them his story, not even sure if they wanted to. Really, what could you say after something like that? It could just feel wrong somehow, like it was downplaying the reason for the oppressive silence and deserving a special judgement of some kind.

So they all just sat there in silence, under the darkening not-sky as the mood just barely seemed to be kept stable.

But, like all things, even silences came to an end.

Ryou grunted slightly, releasing a quick hiccup of air as he finally regained himself. "Guess we've all had shitty pasts, huh?"

"Yeah," Joshua agreed.

"Definitely," Andrew said likewise.

They shared a bitter chuckle barely a few seconds later. Bitter but…..somehow free. Like a collective weight had been lifted off their shoulders.

Because now they all knew.

"Y'know," Ryou began awkwardly, that little tell of scratching the back of his neck appearing again. "I can't say everything is perfect. Hell I don't know what to feel about half of the shit in here, but…" he stopped, taking a deep breath as if to visibly regain his nerve. "But if there were any two losers here that I could've ended up with in here, I guess you two aren't so bad."

"…That's all we're ever gonna get out of you, isn't it?" Joshua asked.

"Yeah. Deal with it."

And then the tension just seemed to melt away, the silence vanishing as they all shared a collective chuckle that gradually turned into a shared laughter before turning into a combination of friendly verbal barbs.

The Ryou checked his watch, looking back up at the ceiling of mountain stone overhead. "Almost time."

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Time for what?"

Ryou just grinned and pointed upwards. "Look up."

Up? Why. It wasn't like they could see the- "….Sky."

Yes, they were seeing the sky. All the stars, the vague outlines of clouds, the brighter stars of the other planets, all of it.

But how. They weren't out in the open, they were in a fucking mountain. There was no way they could be seeing the sky from here, it was just impossible. How?

Ryou seemed to expect the question. "It's the Dust in the rock of the mountain. I've got no idea how, but it doesn't just light this place up, it actually projects everything from outside the mountain up in the sky above it. And you'll be seeing the rest right…about-"

A streak of light passed by, shooting through the illusions of stars and skies.

"Now."

And then the others came. Great beams and streaks of glowing light passing by and through, like a rain of white lines that rapidly passed by to shot from one side of the world to another. More and more until it looked like all the stars were falling from the night sky itself.

They were literally watching a meteor shower from beneath a mountain.

Ryou raised up a hand, yet another beer held within it. "How's this for something awesome!? Ain't this just full of great stuff?"

oOoOoOoOo 3 Days Later oOoOoOoOo

It was a little odd, really. You'd think going on that kind of adventure, sharing pasts like that and seeing someone in such a vulnerable state could change things. You'd think the mechanics would change somehow, that things would start working differently, but…..

"No," Joshua stressed over his Scroll. "I'm not interested in going along with some kinda scheme downtown with you. That's your kinda trouble."

"You sure about that?" Ryou pushed on, trying hard to get him to join in. "It could be fun. Y'know, busting skulls, taking names. You getting to watch me bust skulls and take names while cheering for how awesome I am."

Really, you'd think things hadn't changed at all.

"Read my lips. No." So he hung up.

Joshua hadn't really had much to do today, so he'd largely wandered around town today and really done nothing beyond take in the sights of the day. Granted, the day mostly consisted of low temperatures and the sun barely peeking out from behind the clouds, but otherwise it wasn't really anything too bad. It was certainly beautiful, in a cold and wintery way.

He'd eventually just settled on a park bench and watching the people go by, entertaining himself by coming up with backstories for them that could be summed up in three phrases.

Man with glasses wan a suitcase? Bad eyesight at an early age, good with numbers at school, raised by a sister figure.

Woman with a really thick coat and shades? Well off from an inheritance, kinda stuck up, used to getting shat she liked.

Man wearing a trench…coat…..

'…..Oh my God.'

His heartbeat sped up in his chest, hoping for all it was worth that the man didn't see him as he got up from the bench and walked away. Desperately prayed that he didn't notice him get down an alley and run for dear life like the hounds of hell were on his heels.

A man in a tight, black trench coat, mildly tanned skin with black hair braided in a dreadlocks style and a goatee.

But it wasn't his appearance that terrified him. No.

It was what he saw over his head.

Jasper Jones

For I Shall Scorch The World

Lvl. 253

WARNING! THIS PLAYER IS A MEMBER OF THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE CABAL! PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION!

xXx

WHEW! This was a CLOSE one, but I managed to get it out. I got a chapter out on the anniversary of Monty's death.

Here's a little something for you everybody, something is officially wrong if I'm unable to get SOMETHING out on the anniversary of Monty's death or a few days after. You can use that as a warning sign.

Anyway, onto comments for the chapter!

First off, Joshua finally got a weapon. I hope you all liked it, though I sadly wasn't able to give it much focus. Here's hoping it'll get more in the fights to come.

As for their backstories, yeah, they're all pretty sad. They lived in a futuristic dystopia, did you expect them to be happy? That's kinda counterintuitive. Either way, it's out there now.

Lastly, the ending of the chapter. I'm not gonna lie to you guys, things are about to get DARK. End of Volume 3 levels of DARK. The Slaughterhouse Cabal are REALLY bad news like you wouldn't believe. And I didn't think these guys up on a whim, they were mentioned back in the second chapter. Kudo's for the people who managed to guess that they'd be a thing later on, but I'd like to request that you keep theories like that to yourselves or on PM's from now on.

Before anyone asks about how these guys might completely usurp Salem's group as a threat, let me explain.

Yes, they're MUCH more powerful than Salem's group. Their leader in particular was one of the most powerful people in the game, and the rest of them are almost as terrifying. I was honestly a little worried about balancing for a while on how to keep Salem and her cohorts relevant.

But then "A Much Needed Talk" came out and my worries vanished. The Cabal is much more DIRECTLY powerful, but Salem's plans and the potential power she could gain at the end means she is FAR from not being a danger to the world in her own right. There's also the fact that she primarily works through manipulation from behind the scenes, and that the Cabal doesn't even know she exists at all, something she'll most certainly use. So rest assured, these guys won't be stealing the whole spotlight in the future, and Salem will most certainly still be an important threat to stop.

Now, in closing for this chapter, I'd just like to thank Monty Oum once again for making this series and inspiring me to start writing fanfiction. I never would've gotten started without him. This one's for you, Monty Oum. Wherever you are.

Review and have a nice day!