"Burn it! Burn it all to hell!"
Chloe was back at the clearing. She was alone. That's the way she wanted it. The hunter was a mess of emotions, she paced in no particular direction with aggressive steps bordering on the edge of a sprint. Her mind was hazy with the strong mix of anger, grief and anguish. Warren was dead. Her friend was dead. A member of her team was dead on her watch, under her protection. She'd been in no position to protect Frank when the mercenary had met his end. She had been countless miles away, she couldn't had done anything to prevent it. But Warren…
Chloe let out an angry yell. "My fault! I should've… I could've…" Tears were still streaming down her face. She could feel the drops as they ran down her cheeks towards the ground at her feet. She was having trouble thinking clearly. Her sense of time evaded her and Chloe found a wandering thought enter the forefront of her mind. How long had she been here? Just like in Frauy, avoiding the others had been her only lifeline. The thought of letting her friends see this side of herself was terrifying. The broken side. The side filled with deep rooted insecurities, scared and weak in the face losing those she cared about. Chloe shut her eyes and tightened her fists. "I should've… Somehow… I'm so sorry Warren."
The familiar sensation of loss crept back up with a vengeance, embracing her like an old friend. It pricked at her heart and made her eyes sting. How many times had she felt this way in the last few years? How many more times would she face it in the months to come? The thought of losing Madsen, Victoria, Kate, Max… Chloe clutched at her chest as it was wracked by another sob. Warren's pale face with its glazed eyes and crimson stained hands haunted her. It hadn't been a pretty death. She knew exactly how long it took for someone to bleed out from a wound like that. The tinkerer had died slowly, terrified, alone… All of his dreams to be something great, to help others… Gone in the blink of an eye. The one man in their group with a chance at a good future, the one of them not tainted by having inflicted death and agony upon another, and he was dead. It wasn't fair. The hunter's hands were pressed flush against where her heart was as she fell to her knees. It was still. The hunter felt nothing. No pulse. No warmth. Her heart no longer abided by the natural rules. The Umbra ring had made quick work of that. A violent, involuntary shudder ran through her body as the memory of the pain felt during the conversion burrowed its way to the surface.
It was quickly smothered by a greater pain as she remembered Warren's smiling face as she had handed him her crossbow. 'You do know that I'll miss any shot I take with this, don't you?' Each word was like a well-aimed sucker punch to her stomach. She should have never left him behind by himself. He couldn't hurt a fly. He was harmless. Chloe had seen one of her blue-streaked bolts embedded into the side of the wagon. He had missed. As he had said he would. She had left the two most vulnerable members of her group behind by themselves with no thought of what could go wrong. "What kind of bloody leader does that make me? I'm a failure! He died because of me. Max…" An image of the witch with her throat slit, pale, weak, at the edge of death. Chloe had done this. Not directly but it had happened under her command.
No longer able to sit still, she got to her feet and began pacing once more. She tried to lose herself in the movements of her feet, to forget what had happened just for a moment. She longed for a small respite from the agonizing thoughts wracking her mind. It didn't work. Chloe turned to a tree nearby and sent a balled fist as hard as she could into the rough bark without a second thought. Her knuckles landed with a hard crack and pain shot up her hand and arm. The flesh split open in a grisly way and her nerves screamed. Her wrist was twisted in an unnatural angle, broken in multiple places. Chloe welcomed the pain with open arms. A momentary distraction. It was all she wanted. The pain faded within seconds. "No!" She shouted in anger as black, smoky tendrils wrapped around her hand and seeped from the open wound. The distraction was gone, she was left alone with her thoughts once more.
The black-scarred hunter rammed her hand back into the bark with reckless abandon. She smashed them against the immovable object. The grisly cracks of her bones snapping filled her ears. Her body shuddered from the sharp stabs of pain but she kept going. Anything to keep the memories away. But the aches went numb more quickly. The dark power acted with more haste, it took the pain away the instant her fist connected. The memories crept back to the forefront. The hunter fell to the ground in front of the tree. Her head leaned against the rough bark and Chloe cried. Her broken hands were mended once more and she wished so desperately that it could numb what she felt inside. She let the darkness envelop her for some sense of comfort but it offered none. Her breath began to leak out in wisps of black and her scarred face seeped with dark tendrils once more. Even with all this power at her fingertips, she felt powerless.
She thought of the tinkerer. His face, his demeanor, his personality, everything he was. It wasn't fair. Nothing ever was. A tugging feeling she couldn't identify made the hunter turn around and she chocked back a sob. Her eyes blurred and a hand went to her mouth. Not a few paces away, Warren looked down at her with a smile. The tinkerer stood dressed in his usual garb, unkempt choppy brown hair and a jovial smile gracing his lips. A tilt of the head made the hunter scramble to her feet.
"Warren!" Chloe face broke out in a broad smile and she let out a shaky laugh as she rushed towards him. Her arms opened, ready to embrace her friend but she stumbled to halt on the other side of the man. Chloe blinked hard in confusion. Warren turned to look at her, he was still smiling warmly. She approached more carefully and reached out a hand to touch his face. Her fingers brushed through his cheek and she backed away a step. "What..?" She sniffled. The tinkerer brushed a hand through his hair. Chloe noticed for the second time the slight tugging she could feel deep inside her mind. A small pressure and thrum directed towards the man in front of her. She didn't understand what was happening, what she was doing. But somehow… Warren stood in front of her.
Chloe looked down to her left hand at the golden ring with the socketed onyx gem. The mist inside the black gem swirled and Chloe sniffed and wiped at her eyes. She breathed in shakily, trying to compose herself as best she could. "So much power." She hadn't noticed it before when she was healing Max. She was strong. Pure, dark magical strength ran into her veins. She was stronger than Max had ever been by a large margin. She looked back to Warren and felt the power thrum once more. Determination set in. "Maybe…" She closed her eyes and concentrated on the man in front of her. She poured all her memories into the shell, she solidified his constitution. Something strained and the tugging on her mind became a bit more insistent.
"Chloe?" She snapped her eyes opened at the sound of the tinkerer's voice.
"Wa…" Her voice faltered and cracked. Her eyes brimmed with tears of joy and she blinked hard. "Warren. I'm so sorry." The tears escaped their confines and she sniffed and ran into his open arms. It felt real. He was real. His grip tightened, offering comfort to the broken hunter. "It's all my fault. I…" She broke down in his arms as the tinkerer offered soothing sounds to her ears.
"It's alright Chloe."
She stepped away with a smile on her face. "I can do it. I can bring them back. I don't have to be alone." She laughed as the tears kept streaming down her face. She had brought back Warren. Chloe's thoughts swarmed and she smiled more broadly as two figures appeared from dark mist in front of her. She fell to her knees. A wave of emotions struck her one after the other. Happiness, sadness, pain, hurt, loss, hope, elation. She cried harder as the first figured stepped closer and looked down at her. Her head hurt a lot, it throbbed but she pushed it away without thought.
"Price. I missed you so much." Her vision was blurry and her nose was leaking. She brushed a sleeve under it unconsciously as the strong man stood above her with an extended hand. Chloe gripped Frank's arm and he pulled her to her feet. He wore his mercenary uniform, she'd only seen him wear it twice before but it suit him perfectly. His sandy blond hair and the permanent smirk on his face made her feel a deep sense of familiarity. She hugged him hard, squeezing as tightly as she could.
"Frank. You crazy bastard." Her voice shook. "Always complaining that you didn't care about anyone and you get yourself offed trying to help my friends…"
"I'd have done anything for you and your friends. You know that." His gruff voice was filled with unspoken emotion.
"Chlo. Not forgetting about me are you?"
That voice. Her head burned and hammered and again she ignored it. Chloe separated herself from the man and looked behind him to the second figure that had appeared. Her breath caught. The woman in front of her was just as beautiful and capturing as she had been the first time Chloe had met her back in Greywitch city, years past. A wood elf with long blonde hair and dressed in tight green clothing reminiscent of leaves and nature stood ahead. A long curved wooden bow rested on her back next to a quiver and two long curved daggers stood at each side of her slim waist. A blue feather earring hung from her pointed ear and it seemed that the clearing grew brighter when she smiled. Memories of a body staked to the ground on a pentagram drawn in blood made Chloe's face falter. Rachel walked closer and put a hand gently on the hunter's face.
"Don't think about that. Remember the good times." Chloe nodded and Rachel smiled once more. She leaned her face closer and Chloe backed a step involuntarily. A mischievous grin grew on Rachel's face and her eyes narrowed slightly. "Well… That's unexpected." Chloe felt her face burn and she looked away. Rachel had always been able to get a rise out of her and send her emotions careening whichever way she wanted.
"I…" She cleared her throat and winced as a sharp pain ran through her head like a small bolt of lightning. "I met someone…" Rachel laughed.
"Mmhmm." She looked up to notice the amused glint in the wood elf's eyes. "And a witch at that." The word rang like a bell in her mind and Chloe dropped her focus from the woman in front of her. She felt herself smile excitedly and once again the stinging came back to her eyes. Another figure formed from black mist and this time, Chloe's legs gave out. The hunter fell to her knees and groaned in pain with her eyes shut tight. Her mind was blurred and her core was starting to burn. She felt her nose leaking and tried to wipe it away with her hand but only felt cold tendrils of smoke escaping her nostrils where she knew blood should have been. Chloe forced her eyes open.
"Dad?" Her voice was small and vulnerable as she gazed at the figure. The dam erupted once more as the man with a fatherly smile and strawberry blond hair walked closer. His blue eyes shone with love and caring. The sight of him made the hunter sob. "Dad?!" She wanted to hear his voice so desperately.
"Hey kiddo." His voice brought back so many memories at once. Her first time training with a crossbow. His lame jokes at the dinner table. The way he laughed and seemed to brighten up whenever he saw her or Joyce. Her father and mother dancing joyfully together at Christmas. It broke a part of her as it mended another, each memory bittersweet in its own right. "I'm so proud of you Chloe." He kneeled next to her and Chloe smiled in pain as her head began throbbing more insistently. Her vision was growing dark at the edges. "I'm so proud of what you're doing. Of the woman you've become."
"Chloe." Another voice. Softer. A gentle hand fell on her shoulder. "You need to stop." Max's voice. Chloe ignored it.
"I love you so much. I'm sorry for leaving you."
"It… It wasn't… It… Your… Fault…" Her mind was breaking apart. She could feel it. The tugging was making it difficult to talk or form any kind of thoughts but Chloe hung on with dear life. "I… Love… You… Too… Dad." She felt William's hand on her face and Chloe groaned and fell to her hands. Something snapped inside her mind and three of the figures dissipated into dark mist. The insistent pain didn't vanish with them. Chloe's eyes fell onto Warren who was still smiling back at her with warmth. His eyes shone with sadness as he looked at her.
"No!" It came out as a wail. "Don't leave me! Not you too! I can hold on to you at least! Please…" Her lip quivered and she sniffled. "I can hold onto to one of you! Please!"
"Chloe, let him go." Max's voice was so soft. "He's not real. It's only an illusion. You can't bring back the dead no matter how strong you are. We aren't gods." Max's voice was filled with pain and shakiness. The witch was crying next to her.
"I can do it Max! I brought them back. I brought them all back. Frank, Rachel, Warren… My dad. I can do it!" Max hugged her close and Chloe could feel warm tears falling over her shoulder.
"They aren't real Chloe. Just memories given form. They aren't alive."
"Yes they are! He talked to me! They all did!" Max held her tighter.
"Please Chloe. You need to understand." Her voice was like a wail and Chloe vision wavered, going black momentarily. "Please. It's hurting you. You're straining your powers too much. Let him go Chloe." The hunter looked back at Warren. The tinkerer looked so real, felt so real… Chloe cried. She didn't want to let go. She had just gotten him back. "Let him go."
The soothing tone of Max's voice did her in. Chloe let the power slip from her grasp and she watched as the smiling tinkerer vanished from her sight. The pain in her mind dissipated slowly. Dark mist swirled around her head, numbing and repairing all that she had strained. She felt drained. As if she had run miles through the desert until she had collapsed. Her arms were frail and she couldn't feel her legs.
"It's my fault Max. I left him behind unprotected. It's my fault." She buried her face in the brunette's shoulder. Max swayed her left and right gently, offering comfort in her presence.
"No. It's not. Don't ever think that way. Warren knew the risks when he joined us. We all did. He wouldn't want you to blame yourself for this. You can't be responsible for all of us. I won't let you carry this burden, I just won't. Any of us could have objected or offered an alternative. Even Warren."
"It hurts..." Max nodded.
"I know it does. Just… Don't run away from me Chloe. Not like in Frauy. I'm here for you. You don't need to escape. It's alright to be vulnerable, it's alright to fall apart. I'll be at your side to mend you back together. You've my word on it. I'm never leaving you." Chloe didn't respond. She just sat there in Max's embrace as time ticked away ever so slowly. She didn't know how much time passed before Max spoke up once more. "They're waiting for us. You think you can do this?" Chloe nodded softly and drew in a heavy breath. Her body felt sore and her eyes, throat and nose felt raw. She got to her feet gingerly with Max's aid. The brunette supported most of the hunter's weight but if she found it difficult or uncomfortable, she didn't voice it aloud.
Slowly they made their way through the forest and came out to the left of the encampment. Chloe's eyes met Hev's orange irises and he looked away slowly. The man was sitting very far away at the edge of the camp. Many bundles were placed near him, indicating that he must've gone back to his camp to fetch his things while Chloe was away. His back was turned from the camp, distancing himself and offering privacy to the mourning group. Chloe and Max passed by the yellow nomadic wagon slowly. The hunter glanced at the banged up door with its chipped paint and sniffed. Neither spoke as they reached the rest of the group. Kate and Victoria were sitting next to each other near a tree and Madsen was standing at attention, a faraway look in his eyes. None of them looked well. Kate and Victoria especially, both women had red eyes and Kate was still crying softly.
Chloe looked at the sky. She'd been gone for less than two hours yet it had felt like an eternity. They got up silently when Max guided them closer to the body lying on its back in the grass. A black blanket covered the grisly sight which Chloe was ever thankful for. She didn't think she could've kept herself together at the sight. It was already hard enough to confine the emotions that were bubbling up at the surface. Whatever Max said, she didn't want to break down in front of the rest of the group. She would keep a strong face if she could manage it. Madsen seemed to shake out of his dark thoughts and the Impact exchanged a glance with her. It was a steady gaze, full of strength and warmth. It told her that he understood how she felt and that she shouldn't blame herself. Looking into his eyes, she could almost believe it. They all stood in a triangle a few paces around the corpse. Max and Chloe held on to each other by the corpse's head, Victoria and Kate stood together on their left and Madsen on the right. Nobody spoke for a long moment that dragged on uncomfortably. They'd never had to do this before. Frank's body had never been recovered and no funeral had been held, just a few words exchanged at a bar around some drinks. This felt more real. Kate cleared her throat and spoke up with a shaky voice.
"I guess…" The blonde paused for a stretch, evidently collecting her thoughts and composing herself. "I guess I'll take the lead." She breathed in slowly and her voice grew sturdier as she went on. "Warren Graham was a dear friend to us all. We only travelled together for a short time but the impact he's left on us all is evident. He was the youngest man ever inducted in the tinkerer guild, a genius by all regards and he was certainly the smartest person I've ever met. He had a heart of gold to compliment his intelligence. When men in his position would surely seek fame and riches, Warren simply wanted to help others. He wanted to chase his dreams and bring inventions the sort of which we could only dream of, to men and women like you and I. He had grand dreams that he will never get the chance to fulfill and while the world may not know what it has lost, his death will no doubt be a strong blow to what could've been." Kate sniffed and continued on.
"I always admired Warren's seemingly infinite well of happiness and hope. When I lost myself deeper in the angry recesses of my mind, he always made an effort to give me a hand and lift me up. The loss of his genius and intellect will most certainly be felt but that's not the biggest loss. Warren brought a jovial mood to our camp and group, always distracting us when the burden of our difficult mission proved too much to bear. That, I believe, along with his friendship, will be missed long after today. He will live on in our memories and his touch on our lives have left us the better for it. From his death, we take his drive and his spirit towards our goal. He believed in our cause and understood the importance of freeing our country from the clutches of men like the High Lord. While he won't see the war's resolution, he will rest in peace knowing that we won't give in and kneel before our enemies. We won't stop until we succeed and when we do, we will make sure the world knows of his name. Of the tinkerer who showed incredible backbone and stood fearlessly against an enemy that threatened innocents. In Warren's name, in Frank's name, in the name of those of us who will no doubt fall before this quest is finally over… We will win this fight." Kate looked down to the covered corpse on the ground.
"I know Warren was a man of science and far from religious… Truth be told, I'm not so sure where I stand on that front myself anymore. But he never minded when I spoke to him of faith and religion at length. It didn't matter to him what anyone believed in, all that he cared for was who you were and how you acted. He was a better man than most. I'll miss him dearly." With that said, Kate sniffed once more and a few tears rolled down her cheeks. She had a small strained smile on her face that gave her a look of profound sadness. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28." Kate breathed in sharply. "My favorite passage…" The blonde placed a hand over her mouth and stepped back next to Victoria. The short haired hunter wasted no time in wrapping her arms around the blonde as Kate cried silently.
Max detached herself from Chloe long enough to kneel down next to the corpse and murmur some sentences under her breath for a few long moments. Chloe gave her some space and awaited for her turn. Madsen and Victoria followed suit after the brunette, one kneeling down after the other finished saying his piece but neither speaking their thoughts out loud. Chloe dropped down once Madsen stood up. She wanted to say so much but found herself with a distinct lack of words.
Chloe just looked at the tinkerer, covered as he was. "I'm sorry. Maybe you don't want to hear it but I needed to tell you. I brought you into this fight, onto this team, and this is the end result. Truth be told Warren, I always thought you'd be the last one of us alive. I figured our team would meet its end in a glorious fight and you'd just end up waiting for us to come back from a mission that we would never return from. I imagined you'd mourn us for a while and move on with your life. Accomplish great things, change the world… I didn't really realize you were in as much danger as the rest of us and for that, I'm sorry. I promise I'll find your grandmother when I go to Arcadia and let her know that her grandson died a hero. If I make it to Arcadia…" Chloe glanced down at the ring on her finger. "The man we met said this was a death sentence. I don't know I if I believe him. If I want to believe him… But I hate not having you by my side. I'm sure you'd take just one glance at the ring and come up with a grand solution that would solve everything. You'd have blueprints for some machine that I couldn't even comprehend and start talking in gibberish and it would pop off my finger without any trouble." She glanced back to the body with a small smile. "I won't forget all that you've done for me, for all of us. If that man was right… Do me a favor and keep me a seat at your table and a cold mug of ale. Me, you and Frank… We'll have a good time of it. Rest easy Warren…" Chloe stood up and walked back to Max's side. To say she felt at peace would be a lie but a sense of partial closure fell upon her.
Max walked forward a step and raised a hand. At once, flames erupted from the ground and enveloped the tinkerer's body in a maelstrom of fire. The grass below turned black and Chloe looked away, as did Kate and Max. Thankfully, the witch ventilated the air and ash upwards and away. She waited for a few long minutes before Madsen grunted. She looked back to the Impact who was clearing his throat and looking downwards. Where the corpse had lain moments ago, now stood a charred circle in the grass. Nothing remained of the tinkerer. Kate held to a golden cross around her neck as she whispered a silent prayer. Chloe didn't linger, she turned and walked past the wagon and the bloody grass where her friend's blood had dried without a second glance. She grabbed her bedroll and walked away from the camp, past Hev who was silently observing her. Once she was a good distance away, Chloe laid down, wrapped herself in tight and closed her eyes. She was physically and emotionally drained. The hunter willed herself to sleep and hoped for a night free of dreams.
