The Boss's Office
4:05 p.m.

Whatever rage that had burned within his heart, it was now thoroughly extinguished by the coldness of guilt and remorse. Errol had just finished beating the senses out of Santsu, even going as far as taking the sword that Santsu had cleverly concealed behind a painting on his wall and making good on his threats of pain against his enemy. Now, he was on the ground, looking down at it, almost to the point of breaking down into tears because of what he had done. It was far worse than what I had witnessed after he shot that guard before we arrived in this office. Looking at him at that moment, I tried to find something to tell him, some way to reassure him that he was justified, that Santsu got what was coming to him, but all I could do was watch. Watching just wouldn't cut it.

I made my way over to him slowly before kneeling next to him. My first instinct was to ask if he was all right, but it was painfully obvious how futile that question was. Instead, I gave him a pat in his shoulder before I began my efforts. "You... I... Couldn't have done it better myself."

He abruptly jerked his head up, staring at me, his entire face expressionless. "I went too far, and you know it. There was no need to..." His voice went into silence as his eyes moved to Santsu, who wasn't in any better shape than he was a moment ago.

"We have what we came for. We know where Lucca is."

"Lucca," he repeated. "How could she forgive me after that?"

So, that's it. "Lucca doesn't need to know how we found her," I stated. "There's no need for her to—"

"How can I not tell her?" His head lowered again.

"Why do you have to?"

"I was never good at keeping to myself when it came to my friends, what few of them there are."

I ventured another look at Santsu before telling Errol, "Speaking of Lucca, you think we should get going?"

Errol exhaled deeply before finally moving to stand up, and I soon joined him. "This is like a cheesy fairy tale," I joked. "Rescuing the damsel in distress from the evil lord of the mountain, eh?"

"In most tales, there's only one hero," he returned. "Who gets the girl?"

"I think—"

"I don't deserve her."

We turned to leave, and we were halfway to the door when Errol broke his stride and spun around to Santsu.

He didn't seem to have that anger in his eyes, but I was still concerned. "Errol?"

"I wanna know something," he spoke, striding back to Santsu. "Why did you kidnap her? What's so important?"

Santsu turned his head and eyed him curiously, "What's it matter?"

"It matters to me," the answer flowed off Errol's tongue quickly.

The battered man was silent for several seconds before he began the explanation, "Inside this mountain, there is an ancient building, the ruins where Lucca is. According to our analysis, it's well over thirteen-thousand years old, dating back to," he paused momentarily, "the time of Zeal."

"Zeal?" I half-shouted, finally interested in the conversation. "You're deranged! Zeal is nothing more than a myth. Hell, my mom used to tell me bedtime stories about the magical kingdom of Zeal! It's—"

"—real," the injured man interrupted, "Go to the ruins, look upon them for yourself, and then tell me that those ruins are not of Zeal!"

"What's that have to do with Lucca," Errol continued unquestioningly.

"We found a device, a blue circle on the ground. My men unearthed the device, but it wasn't like anything we could identify, let alone fix. That's why we went after Lucca, but the plan didn't go exactly as planned."

I gave his a quick look over his beaten self and retorted, "Tell me 'bout it."

"For one, we originally wanted to go after Taban. Unfortunately, I had to settle for his daughter, who was almost as adept at science as he. Secondly, you two happened to be nearby when we made our move. I didn't think anything of it. In fact, I was going to return you and Lucca back to your respective families in Truce, for a price, of course, once her value to me was exhausted. If she couldn't repair the device, then at least I'd make some capital off of having her."

"What if she could repair the device and did?" my friend interrogated.

"Then in addition to the ransom money, I'd have myself a working Zeal device which would make even more than the three of you put together."

My eyes narrowed on Santsu furiously. "Money. That's all this was about to you. I'd have to say you got what you deserved, you greedy scum-sucking son of a bitch!"

"I'm satisfied." On that mark, Errol turned and once more made a beeline to the door, myself following reluctantly.

"Wait!" I shouted without warning, running back into the office. I grabbed my sword, which Errol had knocked from my grasp before giving Santsu his just desserts, and Lucca's gun. On the way back, though, I noticed a certain item that would definitely come in handy. I obtained the item and ran back to Errol, who was waiting patiently at the door. "I thought you could use this," I suggested as I handed him Santsu's sword.

"I shouldn't—"

"C'mon. You need something more than that little gun! I thought you said you could use whatever you got your hands on," I recalled from the memories of our conversation at my campsite.

"Fine, all right! Let's scram!"