"Um.. That's a lot of people."

"Yeah.. that is..." Rhys pulled out of the parking lot and went back up the street.

"Where are we going?" Vaughn asked.

"Well, Vaughn. I appear to have forgotten my wallet. And I can't purchase anything without money. Speaking of, want those dollars back you gave me?"

"Oh. Nah, man. I'm paying you back for that time at the milkshake joint."

"I have like 47 bucks left. I didnt spend that much on you."

"Mmm-yeah. Just keep it, won't breathe down your neck for it back."

"Well. Thanks. I'll get you back- wow that sounds evil. Sorry. I will PAY you back. Better? Better."

"Yeah.. Just drive." So.. They drove. When Rhys and Vaughn walked up the stairs, they heard mumbling from in the apartment. They looked at each other and then opened the door. They heard the faint voices of Fiona and Sasha from the kitchen.

"...stop telling me what to do, Fi!"

"I'm not. I'm just telling you this is a bad idea. And it's not going to end very nicely."

"You don't know that." Sasha noticed Rhys as he leaned against the wall, listening.

"Yes. I do. He's not strong enough for you..."

"So..? Who said he had to be strong?"

".. Sasha. He needs to be strong in case something happens, which he is not."

"There's almost nothing that will happen that him and I that we can't handle, together."

"And what happens if someone attacks you? What's he going to do?"

"HE'S going to get his ass kicked for her." Rhys spoke up. He was now standing straight. Fiona turned to face him. She was silent for a few seconds, and then finally talked again.

"And then what? She's attached to you and you get beat up so bad you die. She'll be destroyed."

"She can handle herself. I know that. And I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon."

"You could easily turn out to want to hurt her. We never know."

"Stop being so skeptical, Fiona. I told you I would never hurt her. I.. hate... when she's in pain. Why would I cause more?"

"Trusting peoples' word means nothing nowadays. Actions are more convincing."

"They do more than talk, though! You're being too skeptical, Fiona. If they want to be together, just, please let them." Vaughn had spoke out.

"'More than talk'? What's that mean?" She asked.

"You know what I mean."

"That was one time."

"No, it happened twice." Rhys and Sasha shot a look at Vaughn.

"What? She wanted to know."

"Well-Yeah. But shouldn't that be something WE say?"

"Sorry then.."

"So you sleep with my sister now. That's your regular thing?"

"Well... when you put it like that..."

"And if he does 'sleep' with me?" Sasha said.

"You two have been dating for like 2 days, not counting all the other times you guys 'went somewhere' together. You're taking it a bit too fast."

"Who ever set a limit to how fast you could like someone? And why are you trying to hard to break us up? We aren't doing anything to you."

"You are making me think about your future life."

"No she's not! You are. She didn't tell you to worry about her. So what if she wants to date Rhys? If it goes bad, why would you worry about her mistake? Sasha doesn't need you to guide her, but you can be there IF she needs you. You can't just force her to live how you want her to." Vaughn said to Fiona. After this, the 4 now stood facing each other, in complete silence. Eventually, Sasha made a move for the door.

"Where are yo-" Fiona asked as she opened the door.

"Rhys, let's go." Sasha told him. He looked at Vaughn.

"Alright, let me grab my wallet then.." He took it off the table and turned with a face of regret to Vaughn and Fiona.

"I-I'll see you guys... later..." He went through the door to see where Sasha went, and found her directly next to the door. Not a long search. She started to walk down the stairs.

"Sasha.. Where are we going?" Rhys asked as he followed.

"I need to go somewhere. And since I can't drive, for obvious reasons, you will."

"I. Uh. Repeat-where are we going?"

"I don't know..."

"Well I still owe you chocolate..."

"I was joking about that. But I appreciate the concern."

"I can go buy it. I grabbed money, which is the reason I came back in the first place. Why was she doing that? If I can ask."

"She has her mind set that it's going to end bad between us..."

"Yeah-Well I know that. But what started that 'conversation'? If you don't mind." She stopped walking, and sighed.

"I guess she's 'concerned' about me. I don't know why. She's been trying to tell me to stop associating with you since we moved out of Pandora. It's way less dangerous here, though. I don't understand why she's worried."

"She has no reason to be. As you know from earlier demonstrations of my bravery and awesomeness, I can handle you! And I'm sure it's obvious you can handle me. So why not?" He shrugged.

"I'm not that comfortable right now. Many reasons, obviously. But I'd rather not be this pissed at my sister, ever again."

"Do you wanna do something to get your mind off it?" Sasha had seemed lost in her thoughts.

"Rhys, I have an idea... follow me." She suddenly darted off into the forest near the apartments. Rhys tried to follow, but got lost after the similar trees surrounded him like a maze formation.

"Sasha!" He called out, navigating through several plants and trees.

"Hey..! I got lost!" There was still no answer.

"God dammit..." He cursed to himself. He searched almost every corner near where he last saw her. After a period of time, he heard leafs crunching near him. Of course, he turned and there she was.

"You get lost... like. Way too easily.." Sasha grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction she came from.

"Hey, Sasha. Um... Where are we going? I feel like that's an important detail and all. We sort of are in the middle of a huge forest and all.."

"I can say 'you'll see'. But that's a bit too evil. How do you feel about... climbing up a tree?" Rhys took this as a time to.. be himself.

"A tree? Um.. you know what happened to me last time I climbed a tree, right?"

"No.. please do share?"

"Well, I made it to the top and fell down, hard. I hit my eyeball on a branch and my arm got caught inside of the tree. Which is why I have robotic body parts. So.. I really hate trees." He tried to hold in chuckles.

"Wow! Rhys.. That's... um.."

"Ha! I'm only kidding! I never climbed a tree though, so this will definitely be new... I guess."

"Well I found these super awesome trees that you may-or may not-love."

"Please do show?"

"Alright. If you dare, follow me." The two advanced in the forest, one of them looking for the tree and one of them staring for a bit too long. You could probably guess the roles of each. They suddenly halted, facing the log of a tree that had several thick, bare branches.

"I would suppose... this is it?"

"Mhm. Yeah.. Try to not stare at me while I'm climbing?"

"W-What? I-I wasn't staring..."

"Rhys.. You were just staring at me. All you probably heard was 'not stare'..." Sasha gave a skeptical eyebrow raise to him.

"Uh.. Am I not allowed to? I thought I was.."

"But you just weren't staring."

"Wait wait wait. You just said you caught me staring. Now I'm nohaat?!" She gripped his arm with a deathly grip.

"Ow. Ow. Owwww." Rhys was practically getting dragged out from under the lower trees. He was greeted with the colorful leafs-mainly pink, some red, a little purple. He was left awestruck at the sight.

"Hey. Um. It gets better, believe it or not." Sasha tried to get him to look down.

"It does..?"

"Yeah. Follow me." She ran and got a grip on the lower branch, lifting her right leg up onto it. She continued this climb upwards while Rhys tried to keep up, his arm was slightly malfunctioning, shaking him as he climbed.

"What's wrong down there?"

"Um.. Not much. The rain's getting to my arm, is all."

"God dammit, we gotta get that thing water proofed one day or something. Can you make it?"

"I should be okay, as long as we have some overhead cover?"

"Just get up here!"

"Right.. getting... up... there.. exhausting... one arm... climb."

"Ack, you're barely 1/4th of the way up! Just.. here. Take my hand." She climbed down a few branches and reached down to him. When she began to pull him up, a sharp pain suddenly filled her side. She clenched her teeth and inhaled, letting go. Rhys fell and immediately grabbed a branch.

"I'm.. sorry.." She barely said while wincing.

"It's fine. Are you okay, though?" He asked, propping himself on the branch.

"Um.. yeah. I think.. Shit! That hurts though."

"I got this, I'll be right there, hang on." Determined to make it up top, he tried to level with his glitchy arm. Eventually, after nearly falling many times, Rhys made it to the patch of leafs. Luckily, there was another layer of leafs to cover from the pouring rain. Sasha was sitting on the leafs, that were somehow holding her.

"Uhhh...Sasha..?"

"Yeah..?"

"Are you aware you are.. Um... SITTING on leafs?!"

"Yeah, fully aware actually. This is the other cool thing I was going to show you."

"Well, THAT looks dangerous."

"Oh come on! Don't be a wuss. I won't let you fall."

"Uhm-Well... Fine." He put the front end of his shoes on the mixture of colors-and to his shock-they didn't budge underneath him. Then, slowly placed his other foot on the layer.

"Woooah..." Rhys made his way, slowly, to where Sasha was sitting. Well, now standing.

"This isn't that bad, right?" She raised an eyebrow towards him.

"Actually? Not really that bad. Considering I'm about 2 centimeters from plummeting to my death, this is pretty fun." The former Hyperion stooge couldn't stop looking down, to make sure he wasn't going to die.

"Just sit down, we can talk if that'll help."

"That would be.. nice." He carefully lowered himself next to her, while she stayed in a stance. After a few minutes, Sasha had a 'conversation starter'.

"Rhys.. Can I ask an honest question?"

"Absolutely. What is it?"

"What would you think would happen if we never met?"

"Hm? Never met? Um.. Helios wouldn't be a pile of trash, we'd never have found this place, I'd never have to give up my hacking ability, yeah. Oh! Vault would not get opened. Ha! We did a lot of important stuff, really."

"Yeah. I suppose that's true. But I meant like what would have happened to you, without me?" The question took Rhys by surprise.

"Without you?"

"Mhm."

"Uh.. I'd still be Hyperion, of course. Probably would have never went on that hell that's known as Pandora. My former boss would have a fake vault key, heh. Oh! Said former boss would be alive. I could be dead since, my nemesis would be ruling my workspace. And the janitor thing... Yeah I'm sort of glad I met... y-...Sasha?" She had vanished from his side. He performed a whole 360 to attempt to locate her, but nothing.

"Sasha." He called.

"So.. you're saying that I made your life worse, Rhys?" He felt a cold touch on his arm. Rhys let out a shriek and turned to see Sasha standing behind him.

"What..? No! I was just about to say how you-"

"Made your life worse? You could have been at the top of Helios, but our con ruined that!" When he looked down in confusion, Sasha had disappeared again.

"Oh, come on! What the hell's going on!?" Rhys called in frustration. He was at a mixture of the verge of tears, anger, and sorrow.

"But, do you really need me? Am I of any use?" Sasha appeared again, this time at the edge of the tree.

"No, no!" He started to run towards her but the leafs he stepped his right foot on gave way. Half of his leg was stuck in the patch. She took a footstep backwards as all he could do was watch, struggling to get out.

"Hey. Rhys. You're gonna be fine without me. You don't need to worry about a thing..."

"Come on, don't! Please!" Tears began to stream down his cheeks. Sasha took another step back.

"I'm not going to hurt anybody, anymore." Another step.

"You... you never hurt me. What the hell, man. What. The. Hell."

"I am right now. Stop crying." Her heels were practically dangling.

"No.. No. I can't, you can't. Please don't do this..." He burrowed his head into his arms, his eyes burning with salt water.

"Goodbye, Rhys." A small grin broke into her face as she fells backwards, spreading her arms. Rhys soon after started to punch the leafs as hard as he could. They eventually collapsed and he began to plummet. Right before he hit the ground, his eyes ripped open, and he broke into a heavy pant. Immediately pushing himself up, he saw three wet spots where his face was.

But on a pillow. In fact, he was on a whole entire bed. Recognizable as his own, due to the blue sheets. Before Rhys was able to observe more, his doornob rattled. And in came the familiar face, Sasha.

"Are you.. okay? I heard your screaming.." She sat down next to Rhys. Without being able to create a response, he grabbed her with both arms. All he could think to say were four words.

"Please.. Never leave me."

"I... I wont."