"I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human SOULs. I believe this is what gives their SOULs the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living. The resolve to change fate. Let's call this power... Determination."

- Entry #5 from the True Lab

TWBH

Chapter 4: Hurt and Comfort, Fin

Syren's Theme:

Problem Child (Simple Plan)

TWBH

79/100

"Filthy traitor."

- is Jack's version of a "good morning". He looks at me, sitting at the far side of the cage. His brown irises are flickering fires in the darkness. His eyes wander towards the child in my arms. Nowi's eyes are closed as she takes small, shallow breaths.

I estimate that I've slept for only five hours - my brain has reached that point between being fully conscious and dallying in la-la land. Yawning loudly, I try my best to blink the floating dots away.

I don't succeed much.

Nowi snores softly. She's drooling over my robes. Yuck. Clearly, she's not a very good roommate. I had a roommate once, but he's probably dead already. He moved out when he found a girlfriend and decided to move in with her. A shame - he was one of the few people who shared my love of banana sundaes mixed with strawberries and yogurt.

"I don't remember ever pledging my loyalty to you," I reply.

"'Ya being smart with me, dragon lover?" Jack says.

Me? Smart? Not likely.

I brush a lock of coarse, greenish-blonde hair from Nowi's eyelids. "No. I'm not being smart with you. I'm contradicting you."

Her hair is spilling around the two of us. My chest burns under the make-shift blanket.

I start to unwind the bushels on her dusty hair. They're locked in very tight bundles of curls and split ends. I tug at the tangled, broken hair and cut the tips off with my nails. Nowi doesn't open her eyes. I have experience - my little sister often pesters me into doing this with her bedhead. I haven't seen her in five years.

I miss her.

I just don't know how to tell her.

Now I probably never will.

"All cozied up with a murderer," Jack says. "Have you no shame, Syren?"

I stare at him. He seems to flinch.

You don't get to say that name with that tone.

"I honestly don't understand you, Jack."

Lying beside Jack, Lorna shifts in her slumber. But she doesn't wake up. Neither does Derek the Little Kid.

"Who cares about what Nowi did in the past?" I say. "I certainly don't. What matters to me is what's happening now."

Jack scowls and looks away.

I pause.

What's happening now is I'm wasting my time. I'm trying to convince someone to see a situation from my perspective. It hasn't worked for me in the past. I doubt that it will work now, especially since it's Jack. You know - the guy who's borderline antagonistic just because a dragon girl happens to love hugs and cuddles.

Not my fault that I like a fire-breathing dragon more than I like four emancipated humans. I don't pick fights that I can't win - Zero Syren isn't the best PK'er for picking weak allies or picking on enemies that he can't kill. My guild - Town Hall Eleven - is made up of only the very best players. The joining criteria are so difficult to meet that there are only ten people with official membership. Rarely do we gather for raids, with most of us preferring to do our own stuff.

They're not my friends. Except William and Ignis. A team composed of a Reaper Knight, a Grand Celestial and a Vampire Elder is nearly unkillable. Unfortunately, Fatal Strike and Grievous Wounds exist as counters to pesky immortal classes.

I wonder if Ignis and William thought of me as a friend.

I doubt it. I'm not a very good friend, after all. Pretty soon, Nowi will realize that and stop being so friendly with me. But I need her for my escape plan - I hope that she'll only realize how bad of a friend I am after we've escaped. I don't care if she leaves me afterwards. I'm desensitized. People come and go.

People happen to live - and die. Even if they're still alive.

"For curiosity's sake," I say. "Allow me to ask you a question, Jack."

Nowi stirs, her eyes fluttering in confusion. She blinks a few times. Then closes her eyes again. Great. If she's anything like my sister - she'll sleep in for a few more minutes. Or hours. I can already feel the cramps settling in my legs.

"Stow the fancy talk for 'yer fancy nobles," says Jack, "it doesn't suit us plain folk."

Says the one with a weird medieval accent. But he has a point. Now isn't the time for me to be slipping into my medieval role-playing persona. This isn't DnD. I'm not a knight on a quest to save the princess. If I am, then my princess would be Nowi. It's absurd though. She's a dragon. The typical RP setting has the dragon kidnapping the princess, not the other way around.

"Well, alright then," I say. "Why do you hate dragons so much?"

Jack scowls, his crooked nose curling in distaste. "What be its value to 'ye?

"'Yer not willing to listen to me. I be wasting my breath on a fool's endeavor."

I stifle a sigh. I'm trying to be as understanding and open-minded as possible here. Why can't I just get people? It's like trying to solve a Rubik's cube.

"Look, I'm trying to get you here."

He quirks his thin eyebrows.

"Why are you being so uncommunicative about it?"

Jack curls his fingers over the steel floor. "I had a daughter once."

I nod slowly. "So?"

"Her name be Helena," Jack says, his raspy voice soft. "She be as beautiful as the radiant dawn and kind as the purest pegasus. My treasure.

"And then one day, that philanderer came. He be one of them filthy manaketes. He stole her from our home. Took her somewhere that couldn't be found."

Huh. Interesting. So apparently, the dragon is Bowser, and Helena is Peach. But it still doesn't make sense.

"I see. So what?"

Jack springs to his feet. He lunges at me and pries Nowi from my arms. He hurls Nowi's sleeping body at the floor. She rolls away with a dull thud. He throws a furious punch at my face. I tilt my head to the side. Jack's fist clips the side of my face. It stings. A lot.

He raises the fist pressed against the iron bar and lifts me up by the collar of my robes. He uses his two hands to bring me closer to his haggard face. He growls, baring his yellowish teeth.

"Bastard!"

He hisses and slams me against he bars. The cage shakes from the impact. Great. Now I have back pains along with a severe case of "temperamental old man" - titis. Whatever did I do wrong? Aside from hydroplaning my own car, I mean.

"'Ya may not be able to understand having a family, amnesiac - but I be damned if you sully Helena's memory."

No. You're wrong. I know what's it like to have a family. I know what it's like to lose one. But I never blamed their loss on anyone else but myself. That's the difference between us.

Jack brings me closer to his face.

The spittle jumps from his mouth to my robes. I want to cringe. Badly. But life is made up of little concessions, so I have to settle for burning my robes and getting a new outfit. Monk isn't my style.

"I see what's going on here," I say.

He's listening. Not like I can go anywhere if he's not. He grinds my scalp against the roof of the cage, his eyes twisting into narrow lines of brown.

"Your hatred stems from your anger towards the dragon who kidnapped Peach - I mean, Helena.

"You're judging Nowi's entire race based on the actions of a single manakete. It's stupid, biased, and unfair for everyone."

A light, girlish voice enters the conversation. "Yeah, that's right! Let him go, you big meanie!"

Jack yelps in pain. Nowi lifts her heeled boots from Jack's naked foot. She raises her boots again, and steps on Jack's other foot. He releases his iron-grip on my collar. I land on my feet, adjusting my robes with a quiet sigh. As of the moment, these are my only clothes. I don't want to dress up as Mr. Rags no Riches like Jack.

Jack spins around and growls at the little girl behind him.

"You little bitch!"

He aims a threatening fist at Nowi. She flinches and raises two arms to protect her face. Her purple eyes dilate into thin slits. She bares her teeth, revealing two tiny fangs.

Not on my watch. Don't you dare lay a hand on my one-way escape ticket.

I clench my fist and eye Jack's legs. Maybe a good kick will snap them off? They do resemble one of those thin bamboo sticks.

The door swings open. For a moment, my eyes shut as the sudden light displaces the darkness. Grock swaggers into the cage, carrying a white pouch that fits snugly in one of his hands. His bored expression shifts into a grin.

"Well, well. What do we have here? Break it up, boys and girls. We don't want anyone dying here, do we?"

He places a hand on the sword fastened to his hip.

Jack harrumphs and staggers away. "This isn't over, Syren... Mark my words. That manakete will be the death of you."

Lorna stares at Jack, eyes wide as he moves to sit beside her. Derek is looking at Jack with the same expression. Jack says a few words and pats his head.

Sweet. I might just die of diabetes.

"Haha," I say. "No. She's my ticket to dear life..."

Grock chuckles and exits the cage. The door swings shut. My ears ring in protest.

Nowi appears beside me. Her tiny hands, caked with dust, roams over my arms and my abdomen. Errr. Okay. This is seriously getting awkward. I'm not a pedophile. So why do I always end up in these situations?

The static cackles, amused. Hey. I'm not a bland protagonist from some tasteless harem anime. I'm not a Kirito.

"What are you doing?" I say.

She looks me in the eye, her purple irises shimmering in the dark. "I'm worried about you, silly Syren. You're not hurt are you? No bruises anywhere? That meanie roughed you up pretty bad."

I shake my head. "No. I'm not hurt. Stop touching me."

Frowning, Nowi retracts her hand and places them behind her tattered cape.

"Oh," Nowi says. "Sorry."

She looks at the floor. After a few moments of silence, she plops down. I fold my legs and sit down in front of her, indian style. She smiles - a tiny little thing in the dark. But it's a smile that makes my tense muscles relax. My thoughts start to reorder themselves. Right. I have to brief Nowi all about Plan B.

"So about that plan..." I say.

I trail off. My thoughts go blank.

Nowi scratches her ear. She's expecting me to continue. "What's Plan B, silly Syren?"

Errr... I don't know. Plan B doesn't consider Nowi's presence. I'm so used to doing Plan B on my own that I don't know how to incorporate another person into it.

"Well..." I say. Time to be honest to the one girl that I couldn't possibly lie to. I haven't forgotten about manaketes being walking lie detectors. "I don't know. Any ideas?"

She giggles lightly. "Silly Syren. Don't you know that it's rude to get a lady's hopes up?"

"Are you teasing me?" I say. "Because I don't see a lady in front of me. No, no, no. I see a tiny little girl with cute little ears -"

I reach out and brush her ear with the back of my hand. Exactly the same way that I would touch my sister's ear.

Nowi snorts and stifles a hearty laugh, cheeks spreading into a huge grin.

"Stop! That's cheating -"

"Alright. Let's get down to business, shall we?"

I press my hands against my lap.

Nowi scowls. "Fine, meanie Syren. You want ideas, huh? Well..."

Her light voice quiets down. "That pouch Grock was carrying. I sensed my dragonstone in it."

Now that's an idea.

"That simplifies everything then," I whisper. "I'll just find a way to steal it from him. Maybe the next time he brings us food? Then we can fly out of here."

Jack scoffs loudly.

"Heh. Whatever 'ye be planning, it be headed for failure."

Jack. As helpful as always, are you?

"And trusting dragons be the death of us humans."

Yeah. He's as helpful as always.

TWBH

Hi mates. For some reason, I had difficulty writing this chapter and had to rewrite it multiple times. I'm not completely satisfied with how this turned out, but I'm sure that's my inner critic being a whiny aleck.

Anyways, a lot of foreshadowing hidden in plain sight. Some glimpses into the characters, the books's themes and upcoming conflicts. There's also that quote above, which hints at the next arc. Next chapter is a long interlude featuring the organization mentioned in the summary along with Syren executing his master plan. Here's a hint: I'm a sadistic bastard and the dice is a flighty mistress, so he's probably going to fuck up and fail in the most miserable way possible, possibly dying in the process.

But hey. We admire characters more for trying and failing rather than succeeding every time, right? Undertale's a big hit because of this. Bad time, anyone?

But Eren, you said this was a gamer-fic. Where's Syren's HUD? Where's all of the cool stuff? He can't even open the goddamn menu.

Quick answer: there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Read and review. Eren out.

TWBH

Replies to reviews:

Aspire5515: Gee, thanks for reading the fruits of my hobby. Might change the cover art to something I'm working on. But for now, mah boi is stayin'.

Day's Break: Thanks, mate. I do my best in writing all of my fics, so you'll definitely get quality-checked, edited content and not a messy first draft. Btw, the dice thing was inspired by Dark Awakening by TheGiantRock.

Gatling2745: Thanks for staying a while and waiting for the story to develop. Yeah, Syren isn't your generic OP MC. OP is the furthest thing that I'd describe him with, seeing as his virtues lie elsewhere. As for his reaction to taking a life? I have a plan for that. I'm not sure if everyone will like it though. I've asked a lot of veterans regarding their experiences in taking a life and constructed something that fits Syren.