The Land of Thren!

JASMINE was almost at her limit. Ryan had led them to the stupid taxi that had gotten them in this mess. Since hiring that cab, they'd been attacked by a ravager, arrested by Canadian rangers, almost held prisoner of to be used against the camp, and lightning-ed to who-knows-where in the freezing cold. Now she had a feeling they were hopelessly lost in the freezing cold.

They trudged through the ankle length snow following the dim glow of Jasmine's badge. They had been walking for about an hour and still had no idea where they were going.

"Where is this stupid map taking us?" Jasmine wondered to herself.

"Hey, there's something up ahead." Ryan said pointing past her.

About a dozen feet ahead of them, they find themselves in a clearing with only one thing visible that isn't a tree,

"A gateway?" Christie said as she saw the twelve-foot arch made of gnarled trees intertwining.

They ran to it, "Do you think this is the short cut Stephanie was talking about?" Simon asked

"Well, it's obviously an unregistered gateway," Jasmine mused, the tree arch was old and crusted with snow and frost. I did not look properly maintained or managed. 

"Look at this," Christie said, pointing at a carving on the body of the arch.

Ryan brought out his wand and shone the light on it,

ZK-⦰/A-079-THR/N586-65.

"Is that the Naexis code for Thren?"

"I think so," Jasmine said, she touched the carving, then the code started to glow, immediately, a swirling vortex appeared within the arch.

"Next stop, Thren." Ryan said as he leapt into the vortex, Simon followed and Christie went in next. Before Jasmine could enter, she was filled with a sense of dread, she looked around her surroundings one last time and jumped through.

… )]≥( …

As the rest of the forty-sixth sanctum went about their duties, Andrea sat in ranger operations, silently fuming. It was a daily ritual of hers whenever she was free; think about all the people who made her angry and all the ways she would torment them. It was what she did to relax.

Today was special though; never had she had so many people she would love to see suffer by her hand at once. Keeper Michaels was always on her list, the bastard never truly saw how worthy she was, she would usurp his seat soon enough, she just had to gather more allies within the fort to organize a coup. Then there was Samuel, he was always a screw-up and she cursed the day that she had the chance to be rid of him but instead showed mercy.

The Simon boy from the forty-fifth that struck her in the head was also a choice candidate for torture, he should respect his betters. That Christie girl also, she hated that glasses wearing blonde girl because she looked weak, and Andrea despised weaklings. She wished she had killed that Ryan Reins before, he was so annoying, he never shut up, then he displays a chaos matter sword, and that immense magikal aura she sensed on him since they met, he might actually be more powerful than she was, and she can't allow that.

Then, there was her. Jasmine Sumner, also known as the White Fang, was the only other ranger with as much fame as her, the Cold Prowler, but meeting her in person, she had definitely snagged the top spot of people to be destroyed. Andrea loathed her so much that just thinking about her made her quiver with rage. How dare she, some common no-name skib bitch, look like her, not only that, but from what she had heard, Jasmine was on a fast track and might soon even outrank her. The very notion of Jasmine Sumner infuriated Andrea, she was supposed to be the best, yet Jasmine seemed to be…

She pushed the thought out of her mind, it didn't even matter. In a few minutes, the order would come in and she would find Jasmine, beat her savagely, and then parade her violated carcass in front of her precious sanctum. Yes, first she just had to destroy the legend of Jasmine Sumner and the name Andrea Westerly would be feared throughout all of Argus.

Samuel approaches her as she was sitting at a table alone, facing an unopened bottle of soda. "Is everything alright, ma'am?" he asks respectfully

"Yes," she smiles warmly, "Just meditating,"

"Well, Keeper Michaels just called for you, ma'am. He wants to see you in his office immediately.

Andrea smiles excitedly as she gets up. Yes, her future starts now.

… )]≥( …

On the other side of the waypoint, Jasmine missed the chilly cold of the Canadian forests. As she was deposited from the waypoint, she found herself in the middle of a blizzard.

"I am so sick of cold." Simon groaned

"Hey, over there." Ryan pointed. Just a few yards away was what looked like an old outpost, a prefab lodge coated in frost with an old tattered Argus flag billowing at the mercy of the blizzard.

"Think it's safe?" Christie asked

"Anywhere away from this blizzard is better than nothing." Jasmine said back and they began to make their way.

Jasmine looked back at the arch they came through, it was more like a half buried stone archway and it was steaming from its recent use. They got to the front porch, but the door lock was frozen solid.

Simon pulled out his homemade wand and held it up to the lock, and they could see the icicles melt and then heard the CLICK as the door unlocked.

"Well done, Simon," Jasmine complemented

"It was nothing," he said humbly, as they opened the door and they filed in.

Once everyone was inside, Ryan closed the door and used his wand as a flashlight to look around the dark interior. Find a row of switches by one wall, he tries a few, to no success.

"Power's out." He informs the others

The others also brought their own flashlights to look around to discover they were in a moderately sized atrium. Jasmine found herself looking at the Argus emblem engraved onto the wall. 

"This place's probably been abandoned for longer than we've been alive," Jasmine surmised from inspecting the old calender on the wall, "If we're camping out here, we're gonna need power. Simon, what's your take?"

"Well, standard procedure when decommissioning an outpost is to dismantle the primary generators so they don't get stolen, but for a place this big and remote, I figure they just disconnected it." Simon postulated, "It shouldn't be very difficult to get the power back up,"

"My thoughts exactly," Jasmine nodded, "Ryan, go help Simon reconnect the main generator,"

"Of course," Ryan said as he followed Simon down one of the dark corridors, then about twenty minutes later, the lights came back on.

"What is this place?" Ryan asked as he returned to the atrium

"It's an old Argus observation base." Christie said, "I read that Argus had dozens of these scattered all over the place."

"Observing what?" as Ryan asked, he passed a large panoramic window that didn't seem to be frosted over, an observation window looking at the picturesque mountain range in the distance. In the background of the wide frozen nothingness, among the mountains was a silhouette of a large… something, shrouded by the magik veil of the Naexis. At first Ryan mistook it for another mountain, but as he continued to stare, he got the distinct impression from the shape of some of the mountains, of a massive figure lying on its side.

He stared at it, transfixed. He wasn't sure what he was seeing, but he was positive there was something sprawled out among the mountain range that was dozens of miles in scale, so imposing that he had to take notice.

"Am I crazy, or is there something out there among that mountain range?" Ryan asked

"That's a Colossus!" Christie said in awe, she had suddenly appeared by his side, gazing at the beast with him,

"Colossus is right," Ryan commented

"No one knows exactly what they are," she explained, "just that they're massive creatures that have been around since time immemorial. They're basically higher dimensional beings, but they're so deep in the Naexis their immense magikal presence bleeds through. You can spot them sometimes, in the most remote locations on the planet. I've never seen one so… clearly."

"What is something like that even doing here?" Ryan gaped,

"Well, there are legends about them all everywhere," Christie said, "they're even believed to be the basis for the earliest gods. They've always just been there, dormant and immobile for eons. This stations was probably set up to monitor it, their existence has been speculated for centuries, but this may probably be the first confirmed sighting, and we still know next to nothing about the nature of these things."

Somehow as she talked, Ryan started to grasp the majesty before him. The way that thing was so deeply shrouded by the Naexis, it left the impression that Ryan was looking at now, like a shadow against a curtain. No wonder some people thought it was a god.

"Hey guys," Simon said calling them over, "come check this out."

On a wall, was a large map of the region, their location was circled in green marker at the bottom, at the top of the map was a larger circle in blue marker wit the label, 'Big Ben'. At the left corner was a border that cut from the top to the bottom of the map and shaded in with red marker, written on it, in big letters, was 'THREN!!' with two exclamation marks.

"We made it" Christie said, with a sigh of relief.

"Okay, we should rest up here for the night and continue when this blizzard passed." Jasmine decided

"Right", Ryan agreed, "I'm going to see if I can find a bathroom." And he walks through one of the corridors into the unknown.

"Uh... should we let him go alone?" Simon asked

"He'll probably be fine." Jasmine said with an unconcerned shrug.

They camped out in the main atrium since it wasn't in their best interest to be split up. After a quick dinner of rations, Simon and Christie were fast asleep. Jasmine was about to nod off herself, when she saw Ryan sneaking up the stairs.

"What are you doing?" she said, "We're supposed to stay together."

"I'm just gonna have a look around." Ryan said

"Ryan, there's nothing up there."

"Well that's what you say now, until I find something." Ryan disappeared into the dark corridor. Five minutes later, he comes back, "There was nothing up here."

Jasmine scoffed, "Of course there isn't; when this place was cleared out they probably took everything of value."

"I don't get you, and that's strange for me since I generally tend to get people. You're so serious most of the time, rarely allowing yourself to show the faintest trace of weakness, but every once in a while, I catch a glimpse of… something."

"I had a bad experience growing up." Jasmine said simply

Ryan sat on his sleeping bag, "My parents died when I was a baby, and there is apparently a bounty on my head, what's your excuse?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

Jasmine sighed deeply, "The Nyx Court killed my mom and sister when I was fourteen."

"Nyx Court?" Ryan asked

"They're this insane cult, psycho fanatical anarchists that basically oppose everything Argus stands for." Jasmine explained, bitterly, "From what intelligence we've been able to gather about them they essentially worship chaos and darkness. Dabbling in forbidden chaos magik that threatens the very stability of the veil."

"Why would that do that?" Ryan inquired, "those sound like bad things,"

"Who knows why they do things? They're tainted by chaos, what we call the blight," Jasmine replied, "chaos magik is powerful, but it's highly caustic. Using it can physically infect you, corrupting you from the inside out until you're no different from a ravager; just another monster to be dealt with."

"Wait? People can turn into ravagers?" Ryan asked concerned

"It's extremely rare for the blight to get that bad without our notice," Jasmine said, "but there are also people who have an odd resistance to blight, like you."

"Me?"

"That sword, you've been using it for over a month now but it hasn't impacted you in any way that we should be concerned about. A blight-proof idiota, god help us all."

"Uh, thanks?"

Jasmine gave a slight chuckle, "I'm saying it's a good thing in your case, that's the only reason I can think of why Stephanie would let you keep it."

Ryan grinned, "You have a nice laugh, you should do it more."

Jasmine looked away, "Laughing gets a lot harder after seeing how horrible things can get."

They sat in silence for a while before Jasmine broke,

"Hey, mind if I ask you something?" she said turning to face him

"Not at all,"

"I've heard reports about your classes, it seems you're not very good at casting." Jasmine noted

"Yep, I have been the butt of many a joke because of that."

"But Ryan, with the amount of magik you possess, you should be able cast effortlessly."

"What do you mean 'the amount of magik I have'?"

"You have an enormous reserve of magik within you, more than any initiate I've ever known."

"And you can just sense that?"

"I'm more perceptive to magikal energies than normal, it helps with sensing enemies, but it gives me migraines from time to time."

"No wonder you're always in a mood," Ryan grinned. He looked her in her golden eyes, at how they shimmered in the light of the fire, like molten gold.

"W-what, what's wrong?" Jasmine asked insecure, it had been a while since she had let her guard down like this. It wasn't normal for her.

Ryan shook his head, "Nothing, if I say, you'll just call me idiota again."

"Only if you say something stupid," Jasmine reassured him, "c'mon, tell me."

"Alright," he sighed, "I was just mesmerized for a moment; your eyes are really beautiful."

"You were right about how I'd react, idiota." Jasmine said, shaking her head

"Is it wrong that I can't cast despite how much magik I have?"

"Not really," she shrugged, "I mean, I can't cast either, despite having the best control over magik at camp. It's disappointing that I cant shoot fireballs or liquefy trees, but in return I have near limitless vitality."

"Your stamina must be insane then," Ryan wondered

"You have no idea," she smirked, "I can outlast anyone in a marathon, without issue… it's pretty awesome."

"Sounds awesome." He said laying back on his sleeping bag, "Well, g'night."

"Good night" Jasmine said and with that she was out.

In her dream, Jasmine saw an island hidden in a deep fog. The vision zoomed in and she got a clear view of it, it was more like a small mountain sticking out of the sea, the shores were littered with jagged rocks and capsized ships. On the summit of a small mountain was a temple, or at least the crumbling remains of one. She then zoomed into a large ship whose bow had been rammed into the side of the mountain, inside was nothing but darkness, no, there was something in there, a presence all around, but she couldn't see it, then a raspy voice whispered in numerous voices, "We hunger, Feed us!"

Then she saw something in the deepest level of the ship, an old scroll, on it was a diagram of some sort that Jasmine didn't understand, but something told her it was for a cast, a very dangerous cast.

Jasmine woke up with a start and found Ryan staring at her, "What?" she asked

"You've been having dreams, too?" he asked 

How did he know? She thought to herself, "Yeah, being as we are, magi can sometimes get these visions… flashes really; sometimes they're cryptic warnings, but most times they're just random signals. The more tapped into the Naexis you are, the more clairvoyant your dreams become,"

Ryan gazed at her intently, "What did you see?"

She rubbed her eyes, "An island in mist. Why? Have you been having similar visions?"

Ryan nodded, "I saw a cave scatter with bones, then a castle."

Jasmine shook her head, "Don't worry, it was just a vision,"

"I don't know" Ryan said, with distress in his eyes, "And there's something else..."

"What?" Jasmine asked

Whatever Ryan was about to say, he was interrupted by the front door exploding.

Christie and Simon were startled and confused and Ryan pulled them away as a blast was shot where they were.

"What the hell is that?" Christie asked as they hid in one of the corridors

Ryan pulled out Draxonn and peered into the lobby, when the dust cleared, he saw their attacker, the forty-sixth elite, Andrea Westerly.

"What the hell are you doing here, Andrea?" Ryan asked, "We aren't in your zone anymore, we've got no beef."

"You attacked my protege, insult my Keeper and damage my sanctum, you call that 'no beef'. I've been assigned to hunt you down. It's a good thing you have so much magik, Ryan Reins, I could trace your aura easily."

"You don't have to do this." Jasmine said,

"Shut your mouth, skib," Andrea snarled, "You, I'm going to kill personally."

Ryan ran into the lobby and Andrea took aim, but before she could shoot, he slide-tackled her, she dropped her rifle and he put her in a choke hold, she broke it easily by elbowing Ryan in the abdomen. Ryan pulled her by the hair and slammed her head into the wall.

"I'm going to enjoy beating you half to death," Andrea spat, glaring at Ryan.

"Bring it,"

During his classes, Ryan had been described as a savant at combat, not just with the blade, but even hand to hand. He had a natural gift for the dance of battle, able to read and adapt to his opponent. However, being a savant didn't make him a master, so against an A- class ranger, it was no surprise that he was getting his butt kicked. He put up a decent enough fight, but against someone who genuinely wanted to hurt him, it was painful to watch.

Getting tired of this, Ryan tried to cast once more, hoping to use it to even the odds a bit. He felt a tugging in his gut as energy surged through his body and up his arm, escaping as a bolt of electricity that shot right at Andrea's, sending her flying into the wall.

When she didn't get up, Jasmine went to check on her, discovering she was out cold.

"I have got to get the hang of this magik stuff." Ryan said shaking off the last of the tingling in his fingers.

Jasmine, Simon and Christie approached Ryan, Simon with a wide grin.

"What?" Ryan asked groaning, he was going to be bruised all over

"Nothing," Simon lied, barely able to stop himself from laughing, "It's just, you got your ass handed to you by a girl."

Jasmine and Christie both smacked him on the head, "How's that," Christie said, "you just got beat by girls yourself."

"Ow. Okay, point taken." Simon complained as he rubbed the back of his head.

"How did she find us?" Ryan asked, "I mean, I know she could track my aura or whatever, but how did she still find us after that lightning teleporting and the waypoint?"

They all shrugged, "She's a ranger, she has her ways." Jasmine said with a hint of respect in her voice.

"We should probably leave," Ryan said, "like right now."

Jasmine shook her head, "No arguments here, that blast won't knock her out for long."

They tied Andrea to a support beam for the stairs, packed up their stuff and headed out.

"Will she be alright in there?" Christie asked,

"Sure," Jasmine shrugged

… )]≥( … 

If it wasn't for Christie, they would've been lost.

As they packed up their gear, she took the time to study the map one last time. She had committed it to memory and felt confident she could lead them to the monitoring tower. As they exited the cabin, they found a snowmobile parked in front of the cabin, no doubt what Andrea had get there.

"Great, now we don't need to walk." Ryan said,

After Jasmine used the master key from the sage box to hack in, they all got on board, Jasmine drove, Simon was right behind her, followed by Christie with Ryan at the very end, with barely enough space, so on more than one occasion he had to wrap his hands around her to keep his balance.

"Look." Christie said pointing above them,

"What?" Ryan said, following her arm, "Oh, wow, that's incredible!"

Above them, the northern lights illuminated the night sky. They looked in awe of the sights; a myriad of colors blending together in an elegant dance across the sky.

"I have the directions to the tower," Christie said, "I memorized the map."

"Where to?" Jasmine asked

Following Christie's direction, they headed off into the white wilderness. What they hadn't considered was that Thren was within another realm that was within their own. It took them a little over an hour to find their way in, but soon after that, Jasmine stopped the snowmobile at the crest of a dune. Below them was a crater; at the epicentre was a compound roughly one square acre. Around the perimeter fence were glowing posts and in the middle of the compound was a massive monolith made of shiny black stone. The monolith towered so high, its top reached the northern lights. Around the compound were large black structures which all had cables connecting to the central monolith.

"The Master Tower!" Jasmine said as she used her badge to open the perimeter fence.

"Damn, that thing is tall." Ryan commented

"Of course," Christie explained, "It's in charge of facilitating all magikal transmissions for the entire northern hemisphere."

"Ladies and gentleman," Simon announced, "Welcome to the top of the world."

"Let's go people." Jasmine said

They made their way to the compound using the sage box to unlock it. At the base of the monolith they found a structure built around it, inside was like a huge computer lab, there were screens showing all kinds of measurements, records, surveillance and activities. There was a glass dome built into the ceiling and on it was a map of the entire northern hemisphere, there were red lines crisscrossing around it and blue dots scattered around it where lines intersected.

"What's with the 'connect-the-dots'?" Ryan asked looking at it.

"Lay lines and Tesla towers," Christie explained, "Lay lines are the natural channels which magikal energy flows through, Tesla towers are placed over intersecting lines to draw power from them."

[I know what you're thinking. No, as it turned out Nikola Tesla wasn't a magus, he was just very brilliant. In fact, he was the only mundane to ever get an honorary Foundry certification.]

Jasmine went to the primary console, she inserted the sage box into the slot and the circuits pulsed. On one of the screen it showed the status of the connection and download speed.

"So what now?" Simon asked

"It'll take a while to transfer the data we need, I'll stay here and monitor the progress, and you three go outside and guard the perimeter."

At the perimeter, a fog had set in. Christie had told Ryan of the strange weather patterns were common in Thren. Christie had gone to one of stone structures -which turned out to be like computer servers- and would hold a sniping position from there while Simon and Ryan stood guard at the only entrance into the compound.

"So what are those?" Ryan asked Simon, pointing at the machines at the fence posts.

"Those are cast jammers," he explained, "they generate a magik disruption field that prevents most magik from activating."

"Isn't that a bad thing for all the magikal tech in there?"

"No, all that tech is a part of the same automated system, so it is safe. The jammers only negate other magik signatures, like us."

"But I feel fine." Ryan said

Simon laughed, "That's because your magik is dormant right now, try use a cast and see how you feel then. The jammers also do a great job at repelling ravagers, since they are kinda made from magik energy."

Then, from the fog, they could hear a howling screech, and it wasn't just the wind.

"What was that?" Simon asked

"I don't know." Ryan said, then, they heard the bang as Christie fired a shot from her vantage point, and up ahead, they could see the unmistakable flash of a destroyed ravager.

Ryan focused into the fog, and around the spot where he had seen the ravager go down, he could see more, stalking towards them.

Christie came running up to them, "Guys, we've been spotted by a pack of ravagers, they're gathering around us."

"What are they?" Ryan asked.

"Seselliosaurs.", Christie answered, "Snow hunters, only indigenous to cold climates."

"The cast jammers will keep them out though, right?" Ryan asked

"Of course, but if they surround us, keeping outside the range of the jammers, we're done." Simon said, "We'll have no way out, and this place isn't really built to hold guests"

Beyond the fenced they saw one of the ravagers rush towards them, it was a large beast the size of a small car, it looked like a mix between a snow leopard and a polar bear, but also had mandibles along its jaws and a long barbed tail. It let out a screeching howl as it ran for the fence, its body coming apart the closer it got before it completely disintegrated. At least the jammers were working.

The other ravagers had gotten closer now, and a few had met a similar fate, but the rest were hanging back, stalking around the compound.

"That's not good," Christie said

"Okay, here's what we do; Christie, got see Jasmine, find out how much time we have left. Simon and I will stay here and try to figure out a way out of this." 

"Okay," Christie said as she ran off.

"Can we figure out a way out of this?" Simon asked

"I hope so," Ryan said.

A short while later, Jasmine and Christie came out and joined them, "Alright, I've got the data we need." Jasmine said

"Good," Simon said,

"So have you come up with anything?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could use the snowmobile as a diversion," Ryan said, "that could buy us a bit of time."

"Not enough," Jasmine surmised

"I might have an idea," Christie revealed, "but it is incredibly risky."

"How so?" Simon asked

"We'd need to be outside the compound for it to work," Christie elaborated,

"What's this plan?" Jasmine inquired

"Seselliosaurs are blind, they only hunt through smell alone," Christie explained, "and blavac gel has a very potent scent, strong enough to throw them off us for a while."

"So what?" Simon asked, "you want us to make stink bombs?"

"Yes!" Ryan hissed excitedly,

"We don't need to," Christie said, pulling a canister of blavac gel from her kit, "we just need to cover the snowmobile in the stuff and set it loose."

"but blavac gel would freeze quickly at this temperatures, becoming inert," Jasmine countered, "we wont have a lot of time."

"We'd have plenty enough for step two." Christie said,

"I'll bite, what's step two?" Ryan asked

"building a gateway."

"Can't we just shut off the cast jammers and build it in here?" Ryan asked

"Those things would quickly swarm this compound and the tower would go down." Jasmine told him, "we would be blamed for it and be summarily executed for the greatest act of terrorism in Argus history."

"Ouch, forget I asked," Ryan gulped

"Christie, you plan could work," Jasmine said, "let's get to work."

They went to work covering the snowmobile with blavac gel, then Ryan and Simon sent it off at full speed. As it crossed into the ravager line, they went wild, with most running around uncontrollably, and bumping into each other.

With the ravagers distracted and uncoordinated, they rushed outside the compound, trying to build a gateway from leftover construction material that had been abandoned around the master tower. The blavac gel did its job of disorienting nearby ravagers with its acrid stench, making them easy pickings to clear a small area to work with, kept the ravager at bay for them to work. It wouldn't win any engineering awards, but they were able to cobble together a makeshift arch out of piping, insulation material, and junk parts, held together by tape, wire and blavac gel which also made for a useful adhesive.

"Will it work?" Simon asked, "It is structurally unsound."

"It'll have to do." Christie said, as Jasmine then took out a small pocketknife and carved the Naexis code for the 45th sanctum into the side, 

ZK-045/US-213-0/SE117-02(A/45S-WG.775-P3)

"Whats that extra bit?" Ryan asked

"Access codes," Jasmine said, "so that the gateway at the sanctum lets us through."

She then used her wand to activate the codes. The arch shuddered as the swirling vortex appeared.

Ryan smiled at Christie, "I could kiss you."

She blushed, she had done it; her idea had paid off.

Their celebration was short lived as they started hearing unnatural howls. They looked to see the Seselliosaurs drawing nearer.

"The gel's wearing off." Simon yelled, "It's now or never!"

Simon jumped into the swirling vortex and disappeared, then Ryan, "This still feels so weird!" were his last words before he vanished.

Jasmine jumped through, as the ravagers charged towards them. Christie looked on at the fast coming death and ran into the vortex.

If the arch had not collapsed from the force of the vortex, Christie would be dead. The last thing she remembered was a ravager pouncing on her, then she falls onto stone pavement. When she looked up, she saw starry skies and tall trees. She sits up, and looked around, the others were already up, dusting the snow off their bodies, as the ashes from a destroyed ravager are still raining down on her.

"Where are we?" Simon asked

Jasmine removed her glove as if wanting to feel the atmosphere, she smiles, "We're back at camp."

Then, someone walked into the clearing, it was G,

"Well, it looks like you survived." He said

"Yeah." Ryan said,

"And?" he asked with an outstretched hand. Jasmine presented the sage box to G, "Excellent, I'll see to it that the Keeper gets it, you all could use some rest, you look like  crap."

Christie was grateful for that, she just wanted to get back to the safety and comfort of her bed, and sleep for hours.

They all got back to the plaza and went their separate ways, Jasmine went with G to the Main Hall, Simon went to a different dorm building, that just left Christie and Ryan, they walked towards their dorm, "I feel like I could sleep for a week." She said

"I know the feeling." Ryan sympathized 

He opened the door and they went in.

Their room was just as they left it, which means Christie's side was a mess, her clothes were on the bed and everything was a mess.

"Crap, I forgot about this. It'll take forever to clean it up." She whined.

Ryan sighed, "You can sleep on my bed, I'll clean this mess up."

"Really?" Christie asked tiredly. He nodded, he could see just how much the mission had taken out of her, she was dead tired, and since it was him who got her into that situation, he should help her out.

She was so happy she kissed him on the cheek, then she backed away awkwardly, her face red, "Thanks again." She said as she went to the bathroom.