AN: Finally, the chapter you've been waiting for, I'm sure :3 Thanks so much to Guest, MagicMissile and TaintedBloodLily for reviewing the last chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 13:

Three days in the Labyrinth was a long time, by anyone's standards. Truly an exhausting ordeal. But it offered them great experience that should carry over to their further explorations.

And from what Hamza had witnessed, the Second Stratum was going to need careful analysis to avoid not only the damaged floors, but FOEs one couldn't sense until they were way too close. There might be a way to lessening one problem to deal with. The FOEs on the other hand needed very careful observation.

At least the items they had gathered should pay toward their new armour and accessories.

Stepping inside the Sitoth Trading, Hamza was greeted by the site of the owner's young daughter studying a large book and scribbling something down on a piece of paper. She was humming to herself, a small smile on her face.

"Looking for more items to make more weapons, Miss Abigail?" Hamza greeted as he approached her.

"Oh, hello Mr Hamza," Abigail returned the greeting, her smile brightening. "Yep, another request. Daddy wants to make a staff for that nice medic who helped him today."

Hamza quirked an eyebrow as he placed the bag of items they had gathered onto the floor. "Medic?"

Finishing off the list with a quick signature, Abigail folded the paper carefully. "Yep! You see daddy hurt himself making a weapon and that nice medic came to his rescue," she explained, a look of small discomfort on her face as if recalling the event vividly in her mind. "I don't know where he came from, but I'm glad he was there to help. It looked painful."

"Ah," Hamza made a noise of understanding. "So you want to make a staff for him in thanks?"

"Yes, that's right."

"So, what do you need?" Hamza asked. There was a possibility that he had already gathered the ingredients she might need. After all, no one had ventured as far into the labyrinth than he and his guild.

"Oh, you're going to take the request?" Abigail asked, perking up with a hopeful look. She then released a light squeal of delight when Hamza nodded his head. "Yay, I hoped you would! Here's the request. I guess there's no point taking it to the bar, huh?"

"We'll take care of it," Hamza said as he took the piece of paper from her, flipping the folded piece open so he could scan the list. "By the way, what was that medic's name?"

"Um," Abigail hummed in thought for a long moment. "Lynus, I think."

Hamza reeled his head back slightly in surprise. "…Really now?"

"Oh, do you know him?" Abigail asked him, her head cutely tilted to the side in question.

"I may have heard of him."

Oh, he had certainly heard of a Lynus, who was supposedly aspiring to be a medic since he was a young child. He was the person that Axel had been searching for, for eight years. Was it possible that Axel's childhood friend was here in Lagaard after all these years?

Hamza needed to inform Axel, but he felt slightly hesitant. What if it was just a coincidence?

"Oh, do you have new items to sell me?" Abigail suddenly asked, pulling him out of musings.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Hamza smiled as he returned to the task at hand. He pushed the knowledge of Lynus to the back of his mind as he presented to an excited Abigail the newest products discovered from the labyrinth.

Stepping outside onto the street, Hamza placed the money he had received in exchanging goods into his bag. He lifted his head when he heard the sound of feet running in a hurried manner and saw that it was Axel who was tearing through the streets. Hamza had to take a step back in surprise to avoid Axel running into him.

Hamza blinked a couple of times, watching as the red-haired Landsknecht practically plough his way through the crowd. His confusion only grew when he noted that a few more of his fellow guild members seemed to be following him. They seemed to be heading toward the hospital.

Throwing out a hand, he managed to grab Macerio by the back of his jacket, pulling him to an abrupt stop. "What's going on?" he asked.

"There's a guy called Lynus at the hospital," Macerio explained, slightly breathless. "He's a medic."

"The one that Axel has been searching for?" Hamza dared to ask. "Are you sure it's him?"

"It has to be," a new and unfamiliar voice suddenly answered.

Startled, Hamza turned to look to his right to see a Troubadour with orange hair and blue eyes. He had never seen him before. "And you are?"

"I know Lynus," the Troubadour said instead of introducing himself. He was also slightly breathless, yet there was this sense of hopefulness and excitement in his posture. "He told me that he had a childhood friend called Axel. He made a promise to meet him here in Lagaard."

A silence fell over them, allowing the information that he gave to sink in. When it did, Hamza released his grip on Macerio and Macerio grinned widely.

"Come on!" he said as he spun on his heel, resuming his jog toward the hospital. "I want to see this reunion!"

"Wait for me!" the Troubadour called, stumbling after him.

Hamza watched the two until they disappeared around a corner, heading straight toward the hospital. He didn't know what to feel, to be honest. "…I hope it's not a case of mistaken identity," he muttered under his breath.

"Hey, grandpa!"

Another unfamiliar voice, this one loud and terse pulled Hamza from his thoughts. And his eye twitched noticeably. "…Grandpa?" he muttered as he slowly turned toward the sound of the voice, his gaze fallen upon a scrawny looking Dark Hunter with silver coloured hair.

Why, that cheeky little shit. Was he actually talking to him?

"You're the leader of the strongest guild in Lagaard, right?" the Dark Hunter asked him, his eyes narrowed and determined.

Hamza narrowed his own eyes at him. "And if I am?"

"I want you to train me." That wasn't really a request, but a demand.

Hamza rolled his eyes as he sighed. Kids these days. "I don't have time to deal with novice explorers."

"I don't want to be an explorer," the Dark Hunter snapped. "I couldn't give a shit about the labyrinth."

Well, that was a surprise. All new explorers who ventured to Lagaard were here in hopes of gaining notoriety by conquering the Labyrinth. He was a little bit curious as to why this youth seemed so uninterested.

"Then why do you want me to train you?" he asked.

"I need to become stronger," the Dark Hunter replied, his face darkening as he seemed to have an internal struggle of some kind. "I won't let those bastards near him ever again."

Now Hamza's interested was really captured. "…Who?" he asked, slowly turning to face him.

… … … …

"Dr Stiles!" Axel called aloud as he skidded into the hospital, only slightly breathless from the run. He had made the journey in record time. So what if he accidentally knocked a few people over during his run? He had waited eight years for this!

However, he was greeted with the sight of numerous medics, all running around with an outwardly calm, but hasty and frantic manner. They appeared to be running in and out of one room in particular, carrying bloody bandages and empty bottles of medicines, speaking in a terminology that Axel didn't understand fully. Knowing that there was more than a high possibility that Dr Stiles was there, Axel moved toward that busy ward, making sure that he didn't unintentionally get in the way of my nurse or medical staff.

Peering into the room, Axel felt his eyes widen. Laid flat out on a hospital gurney was a solder, covered in blood and looking lifeless. But he wasn't the one Axel was staring at. He was looking at the young man, a Medic in appearance, kneeing on the bed, leaning over the solder's body as he desperately did compressions on his chest. Strands of orange hair fell over his violet eyes and clung to the light sheen of sweat on his forehead. His lips were pulled into a thin line, his eyes narrowed and focused.

Orange hair and violet eyes? Was he the one his guild-mates were talking about?

"We're losing him!"

"Not yet!" the orange-haired Medic said sharply, still continuing with the compressions. "His heart is still pumping blood. Find the source of bleeding and clot it."

"It's probably an internal wound."

"Should I use Cure 3?" the blonde-haired nurse, Angie, asked.

"No," the medic that had to be Lynus said. "Too much healing too quickly and he'll go into shock and fall into a coma, where he probably won't wake up."

"Correct," Dr Stiles said as he snapped on a pair of surgical gloves. "Ignore the minor wounds for now. They can heal in their own time. I need to thoroughly inspect his most serous wound on his abdomen."

Axel stood silently in the doorway, watching the young man he was certain, as in his gut-feeling was telling him, was Lynus. It was the little things he did, the way he spoke, the way he moved. Even how he would slightly gnawed on his bottom lip as he concentrated.

The Lynus he knew did the exact same thing. He was timid normally, but he did a complete one-eighty when healing was involved.

"Blood pressure is dropping."

"I need some light over here."

"We need more Medica."

"Gauze, now."

After a few more frantic minutes, the room became still and tense, waiting to see if their efforts were in vain.

Then, there was a sigh of relief.

"That seemed to have done it," Dr Stiles said, relieved to see that his blood pressure was no longer dropping. "Take him into Intensive Care. He'll need more treatment. Just not now."

"Yes, sir!"

Looking thoroughly exhausted, the orange-haired Medic slipped off the gurney and stepped onto the floor. Snapping his gloves off, Dr Stiles gave him a small pat on the back, whispering something to him. He nodded and followed the gurney out, hasty wiping the blood off his hands as he did so.

Now that the drama was over, Axel tried to gain some attention. "Dr Stiles?"

"Oh, hello Axel," Dr Stiles greeted in return, a look of surprise flittering across his features as he moved toward him. "What can I do-?"

"Lynus," Axel said as he stood in front of him, holding himself back from grabbing the man in desperation. "Is there really a medic called Lynus working here?"

"Why, yes," Dr Stiles answered, his surprise turning into a look of confusion before he shrugged, smiling. "Quite a talented young man."

"Where is he?" Axel hastily (and possibly tersely) asked, his heart-rate beginning to quicken. "I need to see him."

"Sure, he's been busy today, so a break would do him some good. He's just cleaning himself up. A Code Blue, I'm afraid," Dr Stiles said in response. Instead of physically going off to find him, however, he took a deep breath and yelled. "Lynus!"

"Here!" a voice immediately replied. A mere moment later the young man with orange hair, pulled back with several strands loosely swaying over his violet eyes reappeared. He somehow found the energy to jog out of the intensive care ward, pulling a medical bag up by the strap to place on his shoulder. He smiled (although it was more like a tired grin) as he turned to look at Dr Stiles, not looking as haggard as he did previously.

"Is there something…?" he began to ask, but his voice trailed off when his gaze collided with that of Axel's. His eyes widened, his breath visibly hitching in his throat as the medical bag slipped from his hand, hitting the floor with a thud.

Axel sucked in a sharp breath of his own. It was him. Those eyes….he remembered those eyes. And that smile.

"Lynus?" Axel said as he pushed himself forward. He became completely oblivious to the crowd of onlookers that had gathered, watching silently in the background as he stood in front of the man he was certain, beyond doubt, was his childhood friend. "Lynus, is that really you?"

Slowly, the orange-haired medic edged forward as he stared at him in disbelieving manner. With his shoulders hunched, he lifted up a trembling hand, etching closer toward Axel's forehead. Axel found himself holding his breath again, keeping his gaze directly on his face as he softly brushed aside his bangs, revealing a light scar at his hairline, over his right eye.

There was only one person who knew about that childhood scar.

"...Axel?" he whispered.

"Yes!" Axel said as his smile widened and he grasped the man he now knew for certain was Lynus by his skinny shoulders. "That's right. You remember, right?"

"...O-of course!" Lynus stuttered, his face creasing into a whirlwind of emotions, tears appearing in the corners of his eyes. "It's…It's really you."

Axel abruptly pulled him into a hug, holding him as close and tightly as he dared. He felt so small and thin in his arms. But he was there. He was real.

"I can't believe it!" Axel said as he rested his head on top of his head. "I've been searching everywhere for you."

"Axel…" Lynus whispered, his body trembling under Axel's hold. He was stiff, uncertain at first. But his arms soon returned the hug and he all but fell limp in Axel's arms, clutching onto him desperately. "I've missed you so much."

"Lynus?"

AN: Finally! They're together again!