"Damn that stupid Cou!" Cisqua growled angrily. "I'm going to beat him black and blue for putting us on this wild goose chase!"
"Now now boss," Rowen said soothingly. "All that matters is that they're okay, right?"
"Yeah," Kuea agreed as she stuffed more food into her mouth. "Mm, this donut is delicious!"
"Then I'll beat him for making us worry," she huffed. "He's probably dragging Ren around with him too!"
"So what do we do now?" Kuea asked.
"We find them of course!"
"Our methods haven't been really working," Rowen pointed out. "Asking around doesn't seem to work."
"Yeah, but it's the best we have," Cisqua sighed. It's been months since they left headquarters to find Cou and Red and they still haven't made any progress. A blob of red with spikey blonde hair caught her eye. A girl was with him and seemed to look a lot like Ren.
"Cisqua?" Rowen called in surprise as she dashed towards them.
"Stop!" she shouted, grabbing their shoulders. They turned around with confused looks.
"What?" the girl with the red jacket and blonde hair asked, and with a chest three sizes bigger than Cisqua's.
"You need something?" the other girl asked, who looked nothing like Ren.
"S-sorry! I mistook you for someone else," she laughed nervously.
"Okay?" they said, looking confused as they walked away.
"Cisqua!" Rowen called as they caught up with her. She just sighed and slumped to the ground with her head hanged.
"Is there some kind of ugly red jacket trend?!" she suddenly shouted angrily. "I swear I'll beat that idiot for making me go through all this trouble!"
Rowen cowered back as Cisqua laughed evilly with a malicious gleam in her eyes.
"Hey," Kuea said suddenly. "I could be wrong, but don't they look like them?"
"You're imagining things."
"Boss, take a look," Rowen urged her, tugging her along.
"Fine," she mumbled and looked in the direction he was pointing. They did look a lot like Ren and Cou… She froze when the boy turned to the girl and laughed, giving her a perfect view of his face.
"It's them!" she cried, pointing. "Catch them!"
They were about to run towards them when a bunch of motor cycles drove past them, cutting them off.
"They're getting away!" she cried as the motor cycles finally left. She took a step forward when a bunch of cops marched in front and cut them off.
"Cisqua, they're leaving!" Rowen shouted, peeking above the heads.
"Move back!" the cops shouted. "We ask you all move back as we try capturing the motor cycle gang!"
"Cisqua-"Rowen started before cutting himself off as he looked at her. A dark and murderous aura seemed to emanate from her and he cowered back.
"Why?" she asked. "Why can't anything go right?!"
"Aaahh!" people screamed as missiles flew everywhere.
"Terrorists! Run!" the cops shouted.
"Boss!" Rowen cried, dragging the still fuming Cisqua with him as they ran.
"We've lost them now," Rowen sighed.
"After finally finding them!" Cisqua cried, rolling around in frustration.
"They couldn't have gone too far," Kuea said, scanning the area. "Should we split up?"
"Sure," Cisqua sighed, brushing her clothes off. "Let's-"
"Boss?" Rowen asked when she didn't continue.
"It's them!" she shouted, pointing to the forest that bordered the town. They disappeared behind a tree out of her view.
"After them!"
"All this exercise is making me hungry," Kuea whined as her stomach growled.
"We'll have Cou treat you when we catch him," Cisqua said. "It's the least he could do. How could he be so inconsiderate?! He should've known we'd worry!"
"What if he didn't want us to know?" Rowen asked suddenly. "Maybe he has his own reasons."
"He can explain it to us when we catch him," Kuea said. They heard voices as they neared and slowed down, creeping forward.
"Hide!" Cisqua ordered in a whisper.
"Why are we hiding?"
"You got me curious. Shh!" she shushed them as their voices wafted over.
"Did you find it?" Ren asked.
Cou shook his head. "No. It's not here either."
"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, looking at him in concern.
"I'm fine," he said cheerily. "My wounds healed a long time ago." Ren didn't buy it and continued probing him with her eyes.
"I'm fine. I just haven't been able to sleep lately."
"Do you want to sleep in my bed again?"
"Yeah, I think it'd help-" Cou shivered as he felt a murderous aura behind him.
"Cou!" Cisqua growled as she stood.
"C-Cisqua!" he yelped as she tackled him to the ground.
"What have you done to Ren," she said darkly, aiming the business end of her gun at his face. She's really going to kill me this time, Cou thought fearfully.
"C-Cisqua!" Rowen cried. "We just found them! You can't kill him!"
"Didn't you hear what he said?" she shouted, thrashing as Rowen yanked her off.
"Let's get some answers first, okay?" Kuea tried soothing her.
"Cisqua," Ren said, finally getting her to stop swinging her gun around. "Please don't kill Cou."
"He didn't do anything to you, right?" Kuea asked quickly before Cisqua freaked out again.
Ren shook her head and walked over to Cou to help him up.
"I thought I was gonna die," Cou sighed in relief as Cisqua finally put her gun away. "What are you guys doing here anyway?"
"What are we doing here?!" she shouted angrily as she stomped. "I could ask you the same thing!"
"We were worried about you of course," Kuea stated. "The last time we saw you, both of you were falling."
"We've been searching for you for a while now," Rowen added. "Why didn't you contact us?"
"None of your business," Cou said.
"None of our business?! Do you know how much trouble you caused us?!"
"I didn't ask you to!" Cou shouted back, his eyes looking a bit unfocused.
"Are you okay?" Rowen asked as Cou started swaying a bit.
"I'm… fine…" ROwen caught him before he fell to the ground.
"What should we do boss?"
Cisqua sighed. "He's such a trouble maker."
"How can he take care of Ren?" Cisqua grumbled as they ate in the hotel Ren and Cou had been staying in.
"Why do you think he fainted like that?" Kuea wondered around a mouth full of food.
"I don't know," Rowen said, rising. "I'm going to go take their food to them."
"We'll come too. Maybe he's awake by now," Cisqua said, dragging Kuea along.
"Wait! I wanted to eat more!"
Rowen lifted his hand to knock and heard a pained groan on the other side.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, opening the door.
"Don't come in!" Ren quickly said as the door swung open. Cou was lying in her lap with a pained expression, clutching his chest and breathing heavily.
"Is he okay?"
"Please don't. Cou will attack you."
"Please, what can he do?" Cisqua scoffed, shouldering past Rowen and stepped inside. She suddenly found herself flat on her back on the floor. She froze as Cou placed his hook against her throat. Cisqua shivered at the cold look in his eyes, and the murderous intent in them.
"Cou!" Ren cried, running towards him. "Stop! It's Cisqua!"
"Cis…qua…" he said slowly and slowly got off her. He swayed on his feet and dropped his hook.
"Protect…" he whispered before collapsing again.
"Cou…" Ren knelt by him and placed his head in her lap, his expression peaceful now.
"Ren," Kuea said. "I think you need to do some explaining."
"How long has he been like this?" Rowen asked once they were all seated at a table.
"Since Edel Garden," she said quietly. "He's only like this once in a while."
"Do you know why?" Kuea asked. Ren shook her head.
"Just great," Cisqua sighed. "The idiot's made another mess again."
"So what are you both doing?"
Ren was silent for a moment. "I can't tell you."
"Why?" Ren just stubbornly remained silent.
"I'm guessing it's because of Cou," Kuea guessed, earning a small nod.
"He made you promise to keep it a secret?"
Ren shook her head. "I don't know if he wants you to know."
They all just sighed. "We'll have to ask him when he wakes up."
"Ask who?" a voice said, and they turned to find Cou walking down the stairs.
"Sit down," Cisqua ordered. Cou slowly slid into the seat beside Ren.
"What happened, Cou?" Rowen asked.
"It's a long story," he sighed.
"We have time," Kuea said, taking a bite of her pie.
"Well," he began. "Ren saved us when we fell. You saw the video, right? We were hurt, so we went to recover. The lady who was working there was in to stones and collected a bunch. One day I was looking through them and saw one that caught my eye."
"He bumped into the shelves and almost dropped it," Ren clarified.
"You don't need to tell them that!" Cou said in embarrassment before clearing his throat. "So I found this stone. It seemed like just a regular stone, but for some reason I couldn't help staring at it. The lady let me keep it after."
He took out the stone and passed it to them. It was round, black, smooth and shiny, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary about it.
"It looks just like a regular stone to me," Cisqua said, passing it to Rowen. He studied it and flipped it over in his hand.
"There's a marking on it." The three leaned in to study it. It seemed to be some sort of symbol.
"What does it mean?"
"I don't know," Cou said, taking the stone back. He seemed to completely zone out as he stared at it.
"I was there when he found it," Ren said quietly. "I thought he wasn't feeling well."
"I don't know why I cried, Ren," he said, as if he forgot the other three were there. "The lady said the energy of the stone was calling to me or something. I'm not sure if she's right, but I feel like I've seen it before."
"Why did you faint?" Cisqua interrupted, snapping him out of his daze. Cou shoved the stone back in his pocket and looked at them.
"Ever since I found the stone, I've been getting these weird dreams."
"You don't have to tell them," Ren said to Cou with a worried look. He held her hand and squeezed it gently.
"Its fine, Ren. Plus, I think they'll be tagging along again."
"You got that right," Kuea laughed.
"All this searching would have been wasted if we didn't," Cisqua added.
Cou exhaled and his brows furrowed as he recalled his dreams. "There are bits and pieces and I forget most of it when I wake up. I remember blood," he whispered.
"I keep hearing screams and the sounds of fighting. Someone's talking to me but I can't hear their words. Everything becomes silent and I can't move but one word keeps repeating in my head. Protect. Protect, but I don't know who or what it is I'm supposed to protect. It doesn't make any sense."
"So you've been trying to figure out what it is?"
"Basically," Cou said.
"You're not just dragging Ren around are you?"
"No, I wanted to go," Ren said.
"Then all's good," Kuea said with a grin.
"Do you have any leads?" Rowen asked.
"No, but I think it's tied to these stones. It's all I've got."
"Charging in aimlessly again," Cisqua sighed with a 'What can you do?' attitude.
"Am not!" Cou shouted. "It's not like you weren't running around without leads!"
"You two are so similar," Rowen said. Cou and Cisqua whipped angry looks at him.
"We are not!"