-Soledad-

I didn't have to look at May to know that tears filled her eyes. She said Ash's name as if she hadn't seen him in a century, which honestly wasn't much of an exaggeration. Ash walked forward and embraced her, not even stopping to acknowledge the red glow of her irises. His pikachu hopped up onto her shoulders, nuzzling its cheek against hers. Drew took a step back, to give them space, his face loosening at the sight of a reunion that obviously reminded him – and me – of the one between Harley and the rest of us. Another piece of the past that hadn't been killed off by the fusions.

"So the rumors are true," Ash said, once he stepped away from her. "The Resistance soldier who can control fusions." He petted his pikachu when it jumped off of May's shoulders and onto his. His voice grew softer: "And after these past five years when I thought you were dead."

"It's good to see you," May said, as if she couldn't think of anything else to say.

Ash laughed. "We have a lot to catch up on. But, unfortunately..." He looked back, at Deryn and the rest of the Kanto Resistance. "We've got work to do before we can."

"Aye." Deryn stepped forward. "I'm not the type to break up a heartwarming scene, but we do need to discuss some things." She turned toward the table covered with various blueprints, as we gathered around her to listen. "The original idea was to destroy Emerald Harbor and Odysseus, then secure At Hell's End. However, I think we can all agree that simply destroying At Hell's End would be a better idea. Gaining control of it will offer us no benefits, now that the heads of Arbiter Corp have completed the Hybrid Phase. We destroy the final dish, to make sure Arbiter Corp can't regain control of it. Then, we take out the big beast."

"Kruismara?" May asked.

"Aye. Kruismara is still a large part of their bloody army, even if he's not the only head now. After that, we search for the rest of Arbiter Corp."

"Sounds good," Drew said. "How are we destroying At Hell's End? The same strategy we used for Emerald Harbor?"

Deryn smirked. "Right on the mark, lad. Only, this time, the Kanto Resistance will be on the front lines with you, with both the Johto and Sinnoh Resistances providing support. They'll be arriving later. With this being the final dish and all, it would surprise me if Arbiter Corp didn't have another battle planned for this one, and who knows what's inside of this sodding tower? The blueprints we've gained of this place have already proven that it's at least twice the size of the other two."

Paul snorted. "Jericho is obviously making up for something that's much smaller."

"You would know that, Paul?" Ash said, grinning.

"Shut up, Ketchum."

"When are we attacking?" asked a red-headed woman beside Ash, with multiple blades attached to her Resistance armor, similar to Dawn's. Her fist clenched against the table, and Ash placed his gloved hand over hers, murmuring a soft "Misty..." that seemed to calm her down.

"Not for a few more days," Deryn said, her brows furrowing with the same hatred for the Arbiter Corporation that Misty had. "We still have to prepare. The Monoliths that will head the attack are on their way." She looked at all of us with those sharp blue eyes. "I suggest you take the time now to rest up yourselves. This encounter will be tougher than the others. Something's telling me Arbiter Corp knows that us winning this battle will be a milestone for us in the war, and they'll do everything they can to keep that tower up." She gazed back at the table. "Dismissed."


"People are asking questions."

I looked back from my near empty glass of beer, at the face of Ardan "Ratchet" O'Hall. The screen of my hand-held video communicator seemed like a beacon in the bar's dimmed atmosphere. The video's blue light tinted his strawberry blond hair, even reflecting off the lenses of his glasses and the pipes that consisted the walls of the vault he lived in. Only twenty-five, he was an old friend; an engineer with wisdom far beyond his years. He had constructed the Artemis suit, and, when everything went to hell, he had helped convince me to throw it in the fire and go back to the Resistance.

I kept my voice low: "About what?"

"Artemis," he said. "Everyone's wondering what happened to her. The traveling nomads I buy parts from have been certainly curious – and they're only passing news they've heard from the different survivor sanctuaries they've crossed."

"She's dead." I frowned. "Not much else you can figure from someone's sudden absence, right?"

"Well..." Ratchet adjusted his glasses. "Many believe that, and many don't. The ones who don't think you're hiding, and they're looking for you."

"Who?"

"The Crimson Call was one of the names mentioned."

I sighed at that. The Crimson Call, a mercenary group I had encountered when I was Artemis. A rivalry had always existed between us regarding business. When they were hired to protect a client that tried to betray me, I blew him and half of their crew to hell. I had no doubts the remaining members were still pissed about that.

"Doesn't matter," I said. The conversations in the crowded bar were growing louder. I heard the barkeeper refill my glass with fresh beer. He lingered near my position on the counter. But, thankfully, he walked away after a minute, not asking any questions. I had to admit, I probably did look a bit shady, dressed in a black coat with the hood up and the matching armor of the Resistance, yet whispering to a communicator like some undercover spy. I was here as a soldier to the Resistance trying to take a break from the drums of war, but if I had been here as Artemis...things would have been different. "Artemis is dead," I repeated, "and they don't know who I really am."

Ratchet swallowed. "That's what I'm worried about. Alistair knew, and he probably had connections with people. Lots of people. You may have left Artemis in your past, but you made a lot of enemies when she was around."

I cringed at the thought, that Artemis still lingered in the shadows, a permanent depression on my life history. And if what Ratchet said was true, that Alistair stayed in contact with such groups before his death, then the Crimson Call would be looking for Soledad now. My records in the military database had already been updated with the news that I wasn't actually dead. Anyone who knew how to hack could get those records.

"I'll deal with it if it becomes a problem," I said. The voices in the bar became even louder – and I found myself becoming self conscious toward their topics. Every tone, every word, sounded like a threat, like a piece of the past just waiting to leap out and reveal who I was to dozens of people that would testify for me to pay for my crimes.

"Be careful," Ratchet said, a worried look in his emerald eyes. "The Resistance have caused so much damage to the Arbiter Corporation that Jericho is going to do everything he can to shut them down before they even have a chance to touch the other tower."

"I know. I'll talk to you later."

I shut off the communicator, slipped it in my pocket, and brought the glass of beer to my lips, sipping on it. I eyed my surroundings, but calmed myself over the fact that Ratchet's words were just a mere warning, not an actual confirmation that someone was coming after me right at this moment. I lowered my hood.

I wasn't surprised that, even with the sudden disappearance of Artemis, they hadn't forgotten the trouble she had caused. Apart from the Crimson Call, many hated her, many feared her, and some even missed her. I had been hired to take out tyrants before, traveling groups that had turned into oligarchies that had turned into slave pens, but now those people had to rebel for themselves. My heart sank at the thought, that even with the news that the Resistance was slowly turning the tides of the Fusion War, there would always be some asshole who would want to ruin everyone's good time, who would want to control.

Team Rocket...Team Galactic...and, now, the Arbiter Corporation...hell, the world had always been threatened by dictators. The Chimera Virus had just finally given them the upper hand they needed.

"Soledad-"

My eyes widened. Like animal instinct, I grabbed the pistol from its sheath on my side and whirled around, pointing it directly at the forehead of the person who had said my name.

Moira gulped.

I blinked, as if awoken from a trance. I looked around, at the people of the bar, who now stared at me. My eyes caught Moira's. Guilt hit me like a ton of bricks. I brought the pistol down and placed it back inside its holder. "Sorry," I said. "You...startled me."

"My bad," was all Moira uttered, still in shock. Couldn't blame her. I had practically been Artemis a second ago.

The people in the bar slowly returned to what they had been doing, brushing off the incident as a case of jumpiness – something everybody shared in a world dominated by flesh-eating monsters and humans that weren't much different.

I sat back down. Moira took the seat next to me. She wore a brown coat around her thin frame, holding it close against her, combating the cold air of Eden. The temperature didn't bother me as much. I simply wore my coat over my armor to hide my weapon.

"Where's Harley and Malcolm?" she asked.

"Out and about," I said, with a warm smile I hoped upped my apology toward what had just happened. It seemed to work, as Moira chuckled. "Exploring the city, bonding. I figured Malcolm would pay more attention to me if I was there, so I slipped away for a much needed drink. I take it you saw me come in here?"

"I wasn't intending to intrude on Harley and Malcolm's time, but I was also hoping to catch you both simultaneously."

"Why?"

She leaned toward me, her elbows on the counter, and whispered: "Ellis and I have been looking into how Harley could have regained consciousness as Fenrir, but we were also studying samples of blood we've obtained from Harley when he was still changing back from a fusion. As I said, the Chimera Virus is completely gone from his bloodstream."

"What else is there to study?"

"What could have done it. May told me that Alistair injected Harley with a strange liquid during the Battle for Emerald Harbor. Whatever that liquid was, it did something the regular cure for the Chimera Virus could not – it completely reworked the full, functioning body of a fusion into its original human form."

May had told me about the liquid, but I hadn't thought much of it. The fact that Harley was back, alive and in my arms again, had taken all of my attention. But now it intrigued me. I looked at her. "You're saying that we might have a new cure for the Virus? A more successful one?"

"Possibly." Moira closed her eyes. "But I'm not jumping to any conclusions yet. That's why I just wanted to tell you and Harley for now. I can't find any existence of this liquid's unique properties within Harley's bloodstream that doesn't already exist within the regular cure, even in the earlier samples when he was still changing. It's like it disappeared, like it killed the Virus, but not without taking out itself. However, what Alistair was doing with such a substance – and how he came into contact with it – interests me even more."

"Maybe the Arbiter Corporation developed it," I said. "After all, one of the purposes behind the Virus's original antidote was to cure those who were accidentally bitten."

"True, but nowhere in any Arbiter Corp files we've uncovered does it mention this anti-virus. It's like Alistair...made it himself, using his own interaction with the Virus to develop an even more powerful cure that could fully combat it."

I frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling he didn't tell the rest of the council about it."

"Still..." I said. "Whatever he made, we could use it to our advantage."

"We could." Moira sighed. "But, as I mentioned, it's completely gone from Harley's blood. If we're going to use it, we would have to find where Alistair hid the original source, if he had even made more."

"And how would we figure that out?"

"Find someone who was close to Alistair – someone whom Alistair would trust with this knowledge. If he wanted to keep it secret from the rest of the council, he wouldn't hide it in one of their facilities, and any evidence of its existence within Emerald Harbor was destroyed with the tower."

I shook my head. Even if Alistair had connections with Artemis's enemies, I don't think they would be candidates for his secrets. A lover, maybe? Did Alistair even have a lover to begin with? I didn't want to imagine that man doing anything but rotting in hell where he belonged. Alone.

"Keep this on the down low," I told Moira. "We might be on to something. We might be on to nothing."

"I know." Moira met my eyes. "But I hope it's the former."


I returned to the hotel room the military provided for us. It was nighttime, though with the doors to the canyon closed, all we had were clocks to go by. The lights of Eden looked beautiful, reflecting off the cavern walls. The hotel itself was half built into the rock. I could smell the moisture of the stone when I rested my head against the pillow of the room's king-sized mattress, even though you could only see the combination of wood and rock from the outside.

May's room was down the hall from mine, but she wasn't there. She was probably still out, talking with Ash, while Drew was undoubtedly conversing with Deryn regarding our exact strategy on At Hell's End. Everyone else was spread across the city, with May's fusions ordered to stay near the landing bay so they wouldn't freak out the citizens of Eden.

The door opened. Harley and Malcolm walked through, with Malcolm carrying a stuffed infernape. His eyes brightened when he saw me. "Mommy! Look what Daddy got me!"

I smiled, despite the growing ache in my temples. "That's great, Mal."

He giggled and ran off into the other room, where his bed was located.

"Yeah," Harley said, "there's an arcade downtown. I won that in one of those claw grabber machines." I scooted over so he could sit on the bed beside my stretched out figure. "Anything to keep the kids calm during this storm." He eyed me. A concerned frown crossed his face. "You're drunk."

"Just...tipsy."

He hummed. "Any particular reason why, love?"

"I haven't had a good beer in a long ass time. There's a bar here that has a pretty decent brewery."

He chuckled at that. "I believe you."

"Listen...I talked to Moira. She and Ellis have been studying the possibilities toward what Alistair injected you with that turned you back into a human."

"And?"

I firmed my jaw. It was a bit late to be discussing the topic that had given me this headache. "Theories. Lots and lots of theories."

"Well," Harley said, shrugging, "have any good ones?"

"I'm just as lost as everyone else is."

"'Not all those who wander are lost'."

I rolled my eyes, but I felt better. "You and your quotes." I smiled. I felt much better. "Arceus, how I've missed them."

He leaned forward and kissed me. "I'm going to tuck Malcolm in." He smirked. "Then, I'm going to get rid of that headache for you."

"What? How did you-"

"Obvious." He waved his hand in a dramatic manner. "Alas, my love, you are like an open book, a book in which the pages are filled with beautiful words that pull at my heart with much strength."

"And you're corny." I smiled again. "I've missed that, too."

His forehead touched mine, his voice a soothing whisper:

"Time doesn't change everything, Sol."