Team Up

Talon dashes towards the bandaged figure, dagger in hand. He jumps at them ready to attack. The figure flicks their finger and Talon is halted as his dagger stops. The figure raises large metal blades and launches them at Talon. He dodges the attack, riding one of them back to where he started running.

"Not one for conversation?" The figure taunts him while the blades move back to her.

"Not until I see your face." Wind cloaks around his dagger.

The figure begins to laugh hysterically. "Then you'll just have to tear my wrappings off!" The figure contenues laughing as more metal blades and weapons move around them.

Talon scenes an incoming spike from behind. He narrowly dodges, but it still slashes his arm. The figures' glasses shimmer as Talon's bleeding arm is reflected in them.

Chase stands in a shrouded in a veil of darkness with the image of a snake behind him, the foliage that once filled the tower, wither around him.

"Stop resisting us Chase!" Hazel strums a note and roots pierce the walls of the tower.

"Do you understand how painful it is to lose almost all that you love before you even became an adult?" He snaps and Hazel is stunned. "Watching the person you look up to the most die in front of you? To see your best friend come back as a brain dead monster? The pain in my hands could never compare to the pain I felt seeing Rouge's heart break from never being able to see the only family she had left ever again! What reason would I have to fight alongside the man that caused me and so many others such incredible pain!?" He calms down and waits for Hazel to act.

"You haven't lost it all yet, you still have something to live for." She looks almost ashamed as she speaks.

"There's no guarantee that I would have that for very long." He folds his arms and scowls.

"You could live comfortably, without any complications."

"How can I be comfortable while listening to the cries of people's agony? I fight for justice, not comfort!" Hazel drops to the floor as tears roll down her cheeks.

A young soldier stands at the side of Julius, with short brown hair and brown eyes.

"Hazle, I promise all I do from now on is to benefit or protect you." The soldier bows deeply and holds his hand outstretched.

"I don't need your protection Porter, I'm very competent on my own." She looks annoyed with him as she sits under a tree.

"You idiot! Quit throwing yourself between me and the enemy!" Hazel scolds him while in an infirmary.

"But it was leaping right for you." He lays on a bed while covered in bandages.

Hazel looks sad as she watches Porter, still covered in bandages, training.

"Is something the matter Hazel?" Julius places a hand on her shoulder.

"It's Porter, he just keeps trying to protect me, but ends up getting himself hurt. I'm afraid he may die because of me. I tried asking him to stop, that the other magic knights don't need help, but he won't listen." She rants to Julius.

"That sounds familiar." He seems to be trying to recall a memory.

"What do you mean?" She now looks even more confused.

"Love can make people do some crazy reckless things." He remembered and nodded to himself.

"Love!?" She is utterly stunned.

"Porter you ass hole don't die on me, not until I can tell you how I feel!" She holds onto a beaten and bloodied Porter.

"Hazel? Are you here to scold me again?" He wakes up in the infirmary again and Hazel is at his side.

"I love you too." She immediately runs away after speaking. Porter is surprised.

"I'm sorry Hazel, but I can't just sit here and do nothing when I know about the crimes he's committed. I fight for Justice, not comfort!" He leaves a dark room, hiding his tears in the rain he steps out in.

"Porter, no." She watches him walk away, and is left in complete solitude.

"All who betray me will end up like these once respectable men." A shrouded figure with a booming voice speaks out.

Hazel covers her mouth and begins to cry as she looks upon a pile of charred corpses who all have been beheaded.

"That's it, I give up." Hazel looks up to Chase.

"What?" He doesn't drop his guard immediately.

"I can't keep fighting like this." When she finishes speaking, the snake behind him fades away.

"Hazel, what's wrong?" He runs over to her, setting his hand on her back.

"I just thought everything was going alright in my life. Leon killed Julius and everything went to shit. I lost everything, but I was too scared to admit it." She sits up and wipes the tears from her eyes.

"All you have to do is split off from him and forge your own path." He stands and holds out his hand to her.

"Your right, I just I-" She stands up and looks forward, suddenly freezing. "No it's too late, she drew blood." She looks terrified.

Chase turns with worry in his eyes as the sounds of Talon screaming in pain fills the air.