In his room, Riven had started going through all the things he would take with him. Neatly folding them, he started placing some clothes in his backpack. It was the same one he had used when he first arrived at the school, and it was still in good shape, especially with all the years it had stayed unused in one of the room's corners.
"Funny." he thought. "A few years in this place and you're almost ready to call it home." Opening the drawer of the desk next to his bed, he picked up the item which was sitting inside. It looked like the purple insignia from his uniform, but when activated, it would turn into his light-sword. He looked at it for a moment, unsure as to whether or not he should take it with him. After all, it was Red Fountain property. He should have turned it in to the armoury when he had got back, but there wasn't any protocol requiring all weapons to be surrendered when returning from a mission.
All he wanted at that point was to get away from the violence, at least for a while. He'd seen so much of it during his time at Red Fountain; he felt he had had enough. Wouldn't bringing his light-sword kind of defeat the whole purpose of leaving?
After a long moment of thought, he placed the handle in one of his pockets. No, he couldn't do it. He couldn't just leave it behind like that, especially after all the time he had spent practicing to master the weapon. It had saved his life on numerous occasions, and he felt somehow...connected to it. Besides, it could be useful if he ever had to protect himself.
Closing the drawer, he zipped-up his backpack and picked it up from the bed on which it was standing. He was ready to leave. Turning around, he took a quick in the mirror which was hanging on the wall behind him. It was mostly out of habit. He normally used it to check the way looked before leaving for class. His hair style wasn't exactly easy to maintain. Looking at himself now, he once again checked his side bangs to make sure they were sitting right. Their length seemed to remind him of a certain black haired fairy again. One he had risked his life for.
Suddenly, the image in the mirror somehow changed, and a new face appeared in it. He knew it. It too had dark hair, just like the fairy of music, but its length was shorter; a lot shorter. This however was only because the person in question had recently had a haircut during their time in the Earth realm. It was none other than the headmaster Saladin's grandson, Helia.
"Try to look at her with different eyes..." the image in the mirror spoke.
"Wish I really could do that." Riven answered him, sighing and lowering his head, without really giving it any thought. Maybe he was really losing it. At least there wasn't anyone nearby to hear him. Who knows what they would think.
Helia had really wanted to help him get back together with Musa, but almost every piece of advice he had given him, just didn't seem to work. He wasn't the romantic type. He tried to be. He really did, but he just couldn't pretend to be something he wasn't. He was who he was, and that was that. Nabu on the other hand was the only one who really seemed to understand him and what he was going through. The help he had given him with his relationship was truly invaluable.
Looking up at the mirror once again, the image of the Specialist started to fade away. Instead, the image of a much older, red haired man with a goatee of the same colour, took its place. It was the leader of the Wizards of the Black Circle...Ogron!
"Oops! How careless of me..." it spoke.
Suddenly, a surge of energy rushed through his body, and his frame of mind was drastically changed. He became enraged! His emotion quickly reached a saturation point, and without any effort to constrain himself, he raised his right hand, and smashed the mirror with as much force as he could muster.
The glass cracked from the force of the blow and a few small pieces fell onto the wooden floor of the room. After a couple of seconds, he returned his hand close to his body with a slight wave, as it had started to hurt. Looking at the now shattered mirror again, he could once more see his facial reflection in it.
The door beside him slowly opened, and a tall, muscular man with hazelnut hair walked through it. "The bus to Magix is here." he announced, moving closer toward him.
"Why do you have leave, Riven?" Brandon asked, still unclear as to the specialists' rationale.
"Don't you get it; I didn't care what happened to that guy. I didn't care what happened to you!" Riven responded, in an angered tone and making eye contact in a provocative way.
"We're here for you man, we can help you through this." Brandon sympathized, attempting to calm him down. He began to extend his hand, in order to place it on his shoulder.
"Thanks..." Riven answered, pushing it aside, "...but right now I'm not fit to be a Specialist."
With that, he slipped past Brandon and out of the room. With no attempt to stop him, the burly specialist simply watched as Riven exited his field of view. Brandon knew he had made up his mind, and that it would be pointless to try and change it, but he took a crack at anyway. Ultimately, the result was what he had come to expect.
Moving toward the broken mirror, he began to nod his head in disagreement. "Riven, sometimes I just don't get you man." he thought to himself and with a deep sigh, he crouched down and picked up the broken pieces of glass from the floor.
The silhouette of the large city grew bigger and bigger as the bus approached its final destination. Riven felt increasingly nervous as the bus drew closer to the city. He was not looking forward to returning to Magix. At first he found the city astonishing, but after exploring it for almost 4 years, it became dull, and hardly offered anything all that exciting anymore. It was also home to a few unpleasant memories too. In a way, he was glad to be leaving it behind.
Finally his anxiety became too much. He got up from his seat and put his backpack on, just as the bus stopped at the station. He would have liked to be the first one out, but since he was sitting at the back, it took him a while to exit the vehicle. When he did, it took off again just a few seconds later.
Not wasting any time, he quickly proceeded across the street, heading past a small building with multiple pillars on its front side, and inside an all too familiar alleyway. It was old one, similar to the one with a dead end that Musa had once ran into when she was being chased by the witches a few years back. She had stumbled into him just before running in, pleading for his help. "...and why should I?" was his answer.
Riven shocked his head, snapping back to reality. "Enough!" he yelled, taking a few heavy breaths to calm himself down. He checked his surroundings again to make sure he had reached the correct location. Sure enough, this was the place. It was a teleporting station that could send him anywhere he'd want to go, and there was once place he felt he had a duty to go.
"See ya Magix!" he said as he turned around and gazed at the city one last time. Within seconds a bright flash of light appeared and began to swallow him. Offering no opposition, Riven disappeared into the light, leaving the city and the entire realm behind.