...Pressing Issues...

"Aurdel, what are you doing?"

"Waiting."

"For what?"
"Someone, I'm supposed to talk with them."

"Is that why we're not taking quests?" Darkness asked.

"It is, but even if I wasn't waiting for someone I don't think we'd be taking quests for a little bit. As much as I need action to keep me going, recently I just think I need a short break."

"I suppose you are right… The battle the other day and the fight at the Crimson Demon village were somewhat stressful endeavors. But we can't laze around for too long, there are strong monsters to be fought!"

"Don't put it like that, it's not lazing around. It's self care. And stop that constant thinking about how you can be hurt by monsters, I"m almost sure that with that attitude you'd scare even Brutes from my world."

"Brutes?"

"Yeah, like their name implies they're big, tall, hairy, dumb, smelly-" He stopped, "What a minute, why the hell am I telling you this? You're drooling right now as I list things off!"

She caught herself and wiped her mouth, "N-no I'm not!"

"Aurdel," Megumin asked, "Why don't you tell us more about the world you're from?"

"Because there's no real point to doing so."

"Why do you say that?"
"Well I'm not going back home anytime soon, am I? Nor are you all somehow following me there. Besides, even if I wanted to you wouldn't get half the things that I was talking about. There are some things that have to be seen and experienced rather than heard."

"I suppose you're right…"

Yunyun spoke, "If you're not going to tell us about those things, then why don't you tell us who Clementine and Aric-" There was a knock at the door, Aurdel stood up. "Why does this keep happening whenever we ask about them?!"

He opened the door, Chris was there. "Took you long enough."

She folded her arms, "I was busy with some things. Talk here or somewhere else?"

"Somewhere else, we'll go into town." He stepped out and shut the door behind him. The two of them left the home and began to walk towards Axel. "So, what is this about?"

"Like I said, part of its about that sword of yours." She pointed to Gram resting on his hip. "Mitsurugi is dead, you know."

"He is?"

"He is, he and his party got wiped out trying to get started again."

"That's a shame, but I don't see what this sword has to do with it."
"When we send people over from your world to this world we give them a cheat power, ability, set of equipment-"

"Or a whiny Goddess."

"Or yes, in your case, Aqua-sama. But the issue is that once a person dies or finishes saving this world, those things are supposed to return to heaven."

"I see, physical equipment doesn't exactly go back if someone else has it or it's been lost."

"Correct, that's why I was trying to take back the sword from you."

"You could have gone about it in a better manner, one that wouldn't have me stab you with your own weapon."

"I didn't know how you'd respond, or whether or not you'd give it back at all. "

"It wouldn't have hurt to ask," eventually they made it into town and sat down at a cafe. They ordered something to drink and eat. "So what, do you want it back still?"

"Preferably yes, I'd take it and drop it off at heaven once I go back."

"Then I'll need something to replace it."

"That shouldn't be an issue, you have plenty of money saved up. You can buy another."

"Another like this one? Somehow I doubt it."

"Maybe not the same exact one, but I'm still going to need it back," she sighed.

"But why do you need it back? I"m sure there are plenty of other things you can give people you send here."

"Actually… that's the issue." Hmm? "People have been unwilling to come here since you took Aqua-sama with you." Their orders came in.

"Do you really need to send more people here though? I don't normally try to be egotistical but before I came here none of the Generals of the Demon King were dead, no one was any closer to taking out the Demon King."

"It's more in the sense that with the amount of people that are dying, we would expect at least some to take the chance to come."

"I know the war is still going on, but why would anything change recently?"

"It… It came to Earth." He froze, he gripped the drink in his hand.

"Can you please repeat that?"

"Your war found its way to Earth." He… He couldn't believe it, "I see that look in your eyes, I know what you're thinking. There's no way to send you back to your world, at least not permanently." He stood up from the chair and leaned over the table.

"If there's any way I can go back, at least temporarily, I need you to tell me."

"There is, but I'm only going to give it to you on one condition."

He already knew what it was. He took Gram off his side and placed it onto the table in front of him, "Tell me."

"Good," she took the sword off of the table. "Wiz went behind Vanir's back and bought a magic item recently, "That item will help you go back." He dropped the money to pay for the meal on the table and ran off, he had things to do now.

"Wiz?!" Aurdel burst into the shop, "Where are-?!" He stopped, Vanir was standing in the middle of the shop wearing a pink apron over his usual… attire? Body? Whatever, he was holding a box in his hands. "Vanir, where is Wiz?"

"Hmm? The gullible owner of this magic item shop is currently recovering after my punishment of her. She kept up her habit of bad judgement regarding magic items with a great deal of uselessness."

Aurdel pointed to the box in the Devil's hands, "What is that one supposed to do?"

"She said this was a device capable of taking a group of people to another world. Unfortunately the item has a twenty four hour time limit, nor will you be able to hold onto the memories you make while in that world.

"How much is it?"

"In order to recuperate the loss from this shopkeeper's exploits, moi would have to charge two million eris-" Aurdel pulled out the money. "Moi did not expect you to agree so readily, allow me to peer into your mind to see what you really hope to gain from this exchange." Vanir set down the box and put his hands up to where his eye would be, it glowed a bright red. Aurdel took the box and set the large purse of coins down on the counter where Vanir would be able to take it. "Fuhahaha! Moi understands it's now! It is a shame I did not see this sooner, moi would have charged thou a much higher price for this device." He left the Devil to his own amusement and went back to the mansion.

To make sure nothing happened before it was supposed to he locked the box up in his room, then went downstairs. The others were still lazing around in the main room. "Alright, plans have changed for today."

"They have? I was just starting my bubbly too," Aqua said, disappointed.

"You can drink as- No, I won't say that. You can have it when we get back from our trip.

"Eh?! Another trip?!"

"Where are we going?" Anatalia asked curiously, she swept her tail upwards.

"We're going to the world I came from."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Megumin asked, "I thought that the way you came here was because you died, so how are we supposed to go there?"

"Don't worry about that now, I have a way to go there. But what I do need is for all of you to prepare for it before we go."

"Prepare? I don't see why we would need to prepare for this trip."

"No, you do. The Covenant found their way to Earth. You'll need to pack extra food, water, weapons, armored up versions of your normal clothes. Everything like that. The twenty four hours we'll be spending there could easily be the most dangerous of your lives, and I don't plan to lose any of you to the Covenant."

"...Lose any of us?"

"Make no mistake I would've preferred to go alone, but I know that you wouldn't have let me."

"That's right!" Yunyun said, "We're a party and a party has to stick together."

"Right, and I know that better than anyone. But if something were to happen I wouldn't forgive myself."

"Don't worry about us," Darkness said, "With you around I'm sure that no harm will come to us."

"I wish I had your confidence in saying that, because I made a promise that sounded like that to someone else a long time ago. But forget it. You still need to get ready for the trip, and I have some things that I need to prep before we go too. Just come back here when you are ready." After that they all dispersed and went to their rooms to get the things they needed. Aurdel rifled through his things, there was a lot that he would have to bring with him. For one, he grabbed his dog tags as he would have to prove his identity to any servicemen he met while he was there. He also grabbed a stack of papers he'd been keeping in the desk in his room. Some of them were charts, some were maps, some were blueprints with instructions and some were lists of codes. All of these needed to be passed on to the right person.

After having those down he made sure that all his equipment was ready. Since he'd just given away Gram he was going to have to rely on the original shortsword he had when he started out in this world, if something happened to that he'd just temporarily borrow something from Darkness. Then again he most likely wouldn't need to for long since there were bound to be plenty of weapons lying around. That was the reason for why he wasn't going to bring the hand cannon he'd made with him. In fact, if he could, he was going to bring back as much as he can with him. He had bags with him ready for that, if he could bring back as much as an armory's worth there was a lot he could do. Next he had to pick his clothes.

While he had been wearing those robes from the Crimson Demon village recently they would be too much of a liability while he was on Earth, something as loose as them could easily get caught hinder his movement. That was something he didn't want to happen when he fought the Covenant. Theoretically he could quite literally go in nude and fight like that, while his armor and undersuit weren't exactly visible they still existed under his skin and provided him some form of protection. Granted any skin or hair would be burnt away when hit by plasma and he'd still feel the pain, so it wasn't exactly a foolproof idea. But it was one he wasn't considering anyways. Instead he picked some clothing that was light but form fitting, one he could easily move in and adhere things to. While he was there he was going to try and pick up some armor, from the dead if he had to. Something was better than nothing.

Once he had everything he needed he went back downstairs. Darkness was the first one ready, followed by Yunyun, Anatalia, Megumin and lastly Aqua. Darkness' armor had much heavier looking plating, while it might inhibit her movement by a little it was better to at least be able to take a single hit rather than none. She was also carrying an extra sword along with a shield, both should come in useful. Yunyun had what looked like chainmail underneath her regular clothing, probably not the best but it was better than nothing. Anatalia meanwhile had padded her clothing with something, he didn't know what it was but again it was better than nothing. Megumin's entire body was covered as opposed to the usual dress that left parts of her body like her legs exposed, somewhat better. Then there was Aqua… "Aqua, you didn't even change anything about your outfit."

"Was I supposed to?"

"Yes! You were! This is probably the most dangerous trip we're going on and you're not taking it seriously?!"

"Why should I? I'm a Goddess for crying out loud! And besides I know what Earth is like, so don't tell me how I should act when we go there."

"Take this serious you idiot!" He went up and shook her, "You might think you can handle it, but you can't! The amount of people that have died in the war is too high and I don't want you becoming just another number out of all the statistics!" The room was quiet.

"Waaaah! You yelled at me for no reason!" He let go of her.

"It's not for no reason you idiot. At least put these on," he threw her a jacket and thick pants.

"Why should I?! It'll cover up my godly beauty!"

"Godly beauty won't protect you when you're up against an alien threat hellbent on the extermination of humanity!" He shook his fist at her. Eventually he gave up on causing trouble and slid them on. Aurdel brought out the box and placed it on the table in front of them. "Put all of your hands on this, but don't touch that button." They did so. He put one hand on the box and held the other over the button. "I"m going to say this now before we get there, you all have to listen to everything I say. One false step while we're there and you might go from being with the living to becoming nothing more than a pile of ash on the ground. And if you don't believe me about how dangerous the Covenant is now, you will once you see what they do. Let's go." He pushed the button.

...Going Home...

"Welcome to Earth, specifically the city of New Gdynia on the east coast of the URNA. As of twenty five forty three it had a population of roughly two million. How many of those two million are still alive…? Only God knows." They were on Earth now, they'd come in the middle of a Covenant attack. They stood in the middle of one of the city's freeways, burnt out cars and debris surrounded them. His party members look in awe, horror and shock all at the same time as they observed the city around them, as massive as it was, burning.

"What… What destructive force could do this?" Darkness asked.

"The Covenant, all of it." He lead them down the freeway towards what had been a UNSC checkpoint and defensive position. Sitting there was a Warthog.

It was one of the transport variants so it would have enough seats to carry them all. Granted, they wouldn't be going with its previous passengers. He heard Megumin gag and stop herself from throwing up as they came closer. The Warthog's driver was shredded and blown apart by a needler, what was left of him was splattered all over the inside of the dashboard and the seat. The man in the passenger seat wasn't in much better shape with his upper half essentially burned away by plasma rounds and his left side shredded from the shrapnel that had come from the needler blast. In the back had been already injured men, ones that had clearly bled out a long time ago. They'd all sustained wounds plasma rounds, a few even had spiker rounds embedded in their bodies. It was an awful sight.

One of the dead marines was cradling an MA5B when he'd died. Aurdel took it from his hands with the magazines. "I won't let your lives go to waste," he closed the man's eyes. He took all of the Marines out of the Warthog and took their tags, they would be remembered. Graciously he took one's helmet, then took the chestplate and shoulders pads of another. Eventually after stripping them of the armor he had a full set of plating on him. He gave them a salute. "Alright, let's go."

He climbed into the driver's seat of the Warthog. Megumin sat in the front passenger seat while everyone else in the back, doing anything else would screw up the already poor balance of weight on the transport. Aurdel turned the key. Luckily the Warthog was still in working order and the engine came to life. He started driving along the freeway, slowly. As they passed they could see the bodies line the path. Dead Marines, civilians Unggoy and Sangheili were everywhere. They even passed by the smoldering wreck of a Scorpion tank, this one had been destroyed by the fuel rod of a Banshee. "How… How are they capable of so much destruction?" Megumin asked.

"Technology is advanced, the Covenant's is more so. They use that to their advantage. They gun down our men, civilians, shoot down transports and burn worlds. Almost nothing in their path survives, aside from either a strong or lucky few." He shook his head for a moment but didn't take his eyes off the road, "At least, that was the idea." He turned and took a left, he knew the route to where he wanted to go. The sounds of firefights could be heard all throughout the city, but as they drove one in specific could be heard coming closer and closer. He drove and rounded a corner, then stopped once he thought going any further would put them all in danger of being spotted and killed. He left the engine running, then climbed out and held the MA5B.

"We're going to have to sneak up on them. Yunyun, cloak us. Lurk!"

"Light of Reflection!" Invisible, they followed Aurdel's lead. Since his helmet had also been integrated with his body, Aurdel was still capable of using its functions. Therefore he still had his heads up display and motion tracker available to him. So when they moved in closer he was able to see what exactly what they were dealing with. Twelve hostiles, three alive friendly IFF tags. He led the five members of his party up stairs to higher ground. From there they were able to see the actual fight going on. He looked out the balcony. Two Sangheili, three Kig-Yar and seven Unggoy were pinning down a group of Marines. The marines were all huddled by the burnt out wreck of a warthog, presumably the one they'd originally come in on. There were around a half dozen dead marines in the area surrounding them.

"I need you five to stay here, I'm going to rescue those Marines."

"Shouldn't we come-"Darkness was about to propose them coming with him, but he wasn't going to hear any of it. He let go of their hands and leapt down from the balcony, tuck and rolling down onto the concrete below. He felt a little pain from it but it wasn't anything substantial. Knowing which target's he'd have to focus on first, he open fire. The three Kig-Yar were caught off guard by his attack and were unable to turn their shields fast enough to cover themselves from the oncoming hail of bullets, all three went down. With that one of the Sangheili and three of the Unggoy turned towards him and switched their direction of fire to him. Aurdel rolled into cover.

As they fired towards the top of the barrier he'd rolled behind he peeked out the side, firing controlled bursts at the legs of the Unggoy. He hit two of them, causing them to fall and be hit in the head by another burst of rounds. He heard a swish, the activation of a plasma grenade. As the explosive came soaring overhead and behind him he leapt out of cover, firing a burst into the remaining one of the three Unggoy shooting at him. He switched his aim quickly towards the Sangheili as the Unggoy went down, it's shields took the rounds. The moment he hit the ground he charged towards the Sangheili and weaved between the shots of its plasma rifle. Once he was in close proximity he dealt a right hook to the Sangheili's face and grabbed one of its mandibles, his other hand forcing the plasma rifle away from his body.

He tore the armored mandible off the Sangheili's face, causing it to roar and loosen its grip on the plasma rifle. With the opportunity now available to him he tore the weapon out of its hands and spin kicked the alien temporarily stunning it and knocking it back. As soon as he had it leveled he opened fire and gunned the Sangheili down, turning the weapon on the other Sangheili and Unggoy. With the tide of the skirmish turning the three Marines peeked out of their cover and too opened fired. Within moments the remaining hostiles were gunned down. He policed the weapons of the dead Covenant forces and motioned for the three Marines to come out. "I don't know who you are, but you sure as hell are a godsend," the lead Marine said.

"Senior Chief Petty Officer Aurdel-009."

"A Naval rank and a Spartan tag? You sure as hell don't look like one with that getup."

"Situation necessitated it," he pulled out his dog tags and showed them to the Marine. That along with his own IFF tag would be enough to clear him.

"Well I'll be damned, a Spartan. Sergeant Harland, these two are Lance Corporal Fincher and Walker." The three of them gave him a salute.

"At ease, what are you three doing so far out here?" Aurdel to looked where the others were standing and motion his head for them to come over. They came over uncloaked.

"Well we came down here we all the men you see around us as part of force recon, looking for places where the Covenant were in the city. Unfortunately they found us first and ambushed us."

"I saw a Scorpion on the freeway, is there an armored division in the city?"

"Negative, it's the Second Armored Company under Captain Denton. They're working with us from the Forty Sixth Regiment and the Army boys at the Thirty Ninth Brigade."

"What about air support? Anything still up?"

"The bee net is still buzzing, but the Thirty Fifth Air Wing got smashed so all we have left is AMX-Thirteen and Twenty Three."

"Thirteen has tilt-rotors and Twenty Three has Pelicans, right?"

"Spot on sir, though about half the birds in Thirteen are down."

"I'm going to have to borrow one from Twenty Three's flock, give them authorization code Sigma Delta Omega Zero One Three Seven Two Five Nine."

"On it sir, it'll make sure the seats are warm for you as soon as we meet up at the rally point." The Sergeant opened his comms with command, Aurdel walked over to his own group.

Yunyun spoke quietly, "Aurdel, I've… We've never seen you fight like that."

"Yeah, you fight hard but we don't normally see anything like that," Megumin said.

"Circumstances change everything. Where you're from most of your fighting is close range, here it can go from close all the way to super long range." He looked around, "None of the Covies had needlers on them and only a few of the dead are too badly shredded. Aqua, do you think you can try and resurrect some of Marines?"

"I can try, but I don't know how well it'll work here." Clearly this all had shaken her, as her cocky attitude from earlier was essentially gone. She walked over to the dead and began to work her magic.

"Aurdel," Anatalia asked, "How many people have died in this conflict?"

"The only proper answer would be too many. If you wanted an actual number, I couldn't tell you. With all the planets that have been lost, along with the loss of Reach, it would be in the billions. The closest guess I could give you is around twenty billion, but with all I've missed it could easily be more."

"So much death…"

"Yeah, all in the name of the Covenant's holy war. I protect the lives that I can and honor the ones I can't."

He heard hacking, coughing and wheezing behind him, along with general confusion. Aqua had done as he'd asked and revived the Marines she'd could. They didn't know what to think when they found themselves clear of any wounds, but still having plasma scarring and holes in their armor. "What the hell?" Sergeant Harland said while walking over, "I said you were a godsend, but I didn't expect a literal one."

"Today's different, it won't be a common occurrence Sergeant, what's the status on that bird?"

"It'll be ready for you at the rally point like I said sir, but there's a lot of fliers in the air. NAVCOM is telling us that there's a city closing on the city too, but they can't get a lock on it with the Orbital Platforms without causing a mass amount of collateral damage."

"Then I suppose we'll have to deal with it ourselves. Sergeant, grab the tags of the ones we couldn't revive and get everyone to move out."

"Got it sir," he ran off and gave the order. Aqua came back over, all the Marines grabbed their gear.

"So Aurdel, where are we going?" Megumin asked.

"We're going to make one stop on our way to the rally point, a house. After that it's a sprint to the rally point and making sure we can take that Cruiser out of the sky before it can bombard the city."

"Cruiser? Bombard the city?" Darkness echoed, not understanding the terms.

"Cruiser is a type of Naval vessel, one with plenty of armor and plenty of weapons. As for bombarding the city they might do it with Pulse Lasers or go the full mile and use an Energy Projector. Either one is bad news, so I won't explain the rest right now. What we have to do now is move"

Aurdel walked over to the overturned hog the Sergeant had come in on. The vehicle wasn't going anywhere, but it's mounted gun and ammo were still in relatively good shape. He pulled it off it's mount and adhered the box full of ammo to his side. "Marines, our primary objective is to make it back to the rally point but we'll be making a detour along the way, we'll pick up any other units we find on the way back. Am I clear?"

"Sir yes sir!" With quick cadence they responded. Good.

"Good. We're Oscar Mike, move out!" He signalled forwards and the Marines fell out weapons in hand. "We'll be leading the way with the Warthog, so we need to be careful."

He led his party back to the transport and started down the road again, this time with support behind him. The fires in the city kept burning around them. They would go out eventually, but not today. As they went down the road they encountered the occasional squad of Covenant infantry. Sometimes it was a mixed group of Sangheili and Unggoy, other times they have Kig-Yar with them. Regardless he and the Marines cut a path through them all. Dealing with infantry was the least of their problems though. "Banshees, fast and low! Bail from the Hog! Marines, spread out!" Two Banshees came in down the road. He and the others leapt from the hog, though Megumin didn't get very far. One of the Marines had to shove her out of the way. The poor bastard didn't make it though, all that was left off him when the smoke cleared was a black imprint on the ground where he'd been standing.

"Everyone get into cover!" He unslung the LAAV, tracked the Banshees and opened fire. The hail of rounds trailed the banshees, striking one of the grav propulsion pods on the right most Banshee. It spun out of control and plummeted into a sign, detonating upon collision in a blue explosion. He turned as the other Banshee came in for another pass.

"Light of Saber!" Yunyun called out. Yellow light appeared and cut through the second Banshee, it detonated midair.

"What the hell was that?!" The Marines were astonished, "Some kind of thumb of God?"

"Classified, let's keep moving." The Warthog was hit on the first pass, so they were going to have to go on foot from now on. He made sure stuff a bag full of whatever parts that weren't wrecked though.

The rally point was miles away from where they were, but the place that he wanted to stop by wasn't far off. After passing nearly a dozen city blocks they were almost there. "Sergeant, I need you to hold this position while I investigate my secondary objective. Put some men there and there," he pointed to two positions on either side of the street where they'd be able to defend from. He knew that place in specific like the back of his hand.

"Got it Spartan," the Sergeant said, turning to his Marines. "You heard the man! You four, over there! You four, with me!" They spread out.

"Aurdel, where are we going?" Aqua asked.

"Home," he kept going down the sidewalk and surveyed the street.

There were wrecks all over, if they had made it with the Warthog up to this point they'd have to abandon it. Coming up was a corner, he peeked around. Brutes. In a window of one of the homes there was the barrel of a Sniper Rifle. Damnit, there wasn't anyone at it though. That wasn't a good sign. "I need you all to move up on the right side, I'm going to attack the Brutes from the left. See that house?" He pointed to the house with the rifle barrel sticking out, "You need to make it there while I deal with them."

"Are you sure you don't want help?"

"I have it, I'd rather I die than any of you. Now move it." He motioned for them to move as soon as he popped out around the corner.

He sprinted as quickly as he could and went for the Brute closest to him. Leaping up, he jumped onto it's back. Before it could react to his attack he pulled out his Combat Knife and plunged it through it's eye. It roared in pain and alerted the others in the short time it had before it was brain dead. The others turned, he grabbed the dropped Carbine from its hands. The Brutes opened fire and Aurdel dashed away. Spikes and red plasma trailed him as he ran, diving behind a destroyed car. He primed two of the plasma grenades and tossed them over, the firing stopped as the Brutes moved to avoid the blast. He peeked out of cover and opened fire with the Carbine. These Brutes were different from the ones he'd fought, they had power armor, but he picked his shots carefully. Once their shields were down he'd aim for the slits of their eyes. He dropped two the Carbine, another two failed to get out of the range of the grenades.

With the carbine out of ammo he tossed it aside and went back to his MA5B. He jumped over the car and opened fire, quickly bringing down the shields of another Brute. He ran up close and pulled out the shortsword he was carrying with him, jamming it through its neck and kicking it over. Three explosive rounds barely missed him and landed somewhere off in the distance. Close one. He took another plasma grenade and threw it in the direction of the Brute that'd just fired at him. Rather than let it reach them and detonate there however, he shot it in the air with his Magnum. Using the cloud of dust and plasma to get in closer he assaulted the Brute. With an uppercut he temporarily disoriented the Brute, long enough for him to reverse its grip on the Brute Shot and jam the blade into its stomach. Then he emptied the remaining mag into its head. There was only one left.

Smash! The concrete and pavement where he'd just been standing was crushed and went flying, the same would have become of him had he not moved in time. The last of the enemies here was a Brute Chieftain, one wielding a Gravity Hammer. It swung again, he leapt to avoid it. He'd have to get the weapon out of its hands before he could even try killing it. Since the road was destroyed, he had access to dirt and sand. Using the skill Vanir had taught him he created several small dolls that leapt onto the legs of the Chieftain. It tried in vain to shake them off as they blew up, disorienting it. He ran up to it, it swung wildly.

Aurdel jumped over one of its swings, landing on top of the hammer after another and stomping it down. It shook the ground around both of them as it hit down and forced the Chieftain to let go. He sidestepped another wild swing with its arms, hitting it away when it tried to grab the Gravity Hammer again. Then he grabbed the weapon, swinging it with all his might and sending it crashing into the Brute. With the first swing its armor broke, he swung again. That time it went flying off and broke through a wall, it was dead. Gravity Hammer in hand and MA5B on his back he ran over to where his party was standing. "Damnit, the doors broken down!" He ran inside the house, they followed in confusedly. "Clementine! Aric!" He shouted out.

He tore his way up the stairs and through various rooms, hoping for the best. Eventually, he went to the room he knew the Sniper Rifle was in and kicked down the door. "No. Damnit, no!" He blinked away tears, his party ran up the stairs and eventually made their way into the room.

"Aurdel, what's going-" Yunyun started to say.

He turned, pointing his MA5B at Aqua. She instinctively rose he hands, "RESURRECT THEM!" He shouted, pointing one hand at the two bodies lying against the wall

"C-careful Aurdel, we wouldn't want to do anything hasty," she stammered out.

"Resurrect. Them," he uttered again. She trembled as she walked over to the two bodies, the rest of his party stared in fear.

Aqua did her magic, and the two began to move again. He kicked her aside and ran up to grab the two, embracing them in a hug and crying. "Who…?" The woman started, "A-Aurdel? Is that you?!"

"Dad?!" The young boy said.

"DAD?!" His party echoed.

He nodded his head. "That's right. Aric's my son, Clementine's my wife.

...Letting it All Out...

"So then, what's your name?"

"It's Clementine, Clementine Goldrow."

"Ah no wonder you yourself looked familiar then, I heard about it. Saw your face on Waypoint."

"Did you now? Well tell me, how do the pictures in the news compare to the real thing?"

"Doesn't do it justice, especially that hair of yours."

"Really now? Why don't you get a closer look." She leaned in close, so did he. He couldn't resist, there was just something there… Something about her that drove him wild.

"Hey you two! Get a room," the bartender said.

"And so we did, and that's how Aric was born." He put a hand on his son's shoulder.

"I think I'm going to throw up hearing something so lovey dovey," Aqua said, holding a hand over her mouth.

"Don't you dare, you have no right to judge."

"Aurdel, who are all these women?" Clementine asked.

"It's a long story. But first, we need to get you and Aric out of the city. There's a Cruiser closing in on the city, most likely going to bombard it." He let go of them, letting them stand up.

"A Cruiser? I thought the orbital grid would have shot them down?"
"That's what I would've thought too, but I got here not long ago and apparently that's not the case. That's why we need to get out of here."

"Is there anyone else with you besides them?"

"We saved a group of Marines, there's nine of them. We're on our way to a rallypoint where there's a Pelican ready for us."

"Alright." she nodded her head. "There's a few things I need to grab first."

"I know, we'll be downstairs. Aric, stay with mom until she's ready." Aric nodded, Aurdel and everyone else went downstairs.

"Aurdel, why didn't you want to tell us until now?" Yunyun asked.

"I didn't want to open old wounds until I at least got to say goodbye to them. I don't want to leave them for another nine years without at least that.

Ten minutes passed, both of them came downstairs. Clementine was carrying a bag, her rifle and a box of rounds, suited back up in the outfit she took out to the range with beret and all. "Just like old times, isn't it?"

"Sure is, but this time we're hunting lizards and monkeys instead of pieces of paper. Alright, let's move." Aurdel led them all out of the house and back out onto the street. They met back up with the Sergeant and his men.

"No sign of any hostiles sir," Harland said.

"Good, I got what I came for. Let's hump it to the rally point, double time. I'll take point." Aurdel took lead of their ragtag bunch, the Marines forming defensively around both his party and family.

They didn't encounter much on the way there, though, as the Covenant were pulling out. Why that was became evident once they got close to the rally point. The sky was turning a dark red. "Damn, I was right. Double time isn't enough, we need to hoof it! Megumin, you're with me!" He scooped the Crimson Demon up and ran with her.

"What's going on?!"

"The Covenant's about to try and glass this city and right now there's no damn support to call in to take it out. We only have one shot or else thousands of us are going to end up dead." He leapt over wrecks and debris, he was going to need a high vantage point for them to get this.

"Sir?! Where are you going-?!" One of the Marines at the rally point tried to stop him as he clambered over one of the barriers.

There were observations towers set up all over, those would have to be good enough. He went up the stairs then clambered onto the side, getting up onto the roof. "I need you to get your spell ready, but only fire it when I tell you to!" The ship coming close to their position was a CCS class battlecruiser, one of the common ships in the Covenant's fleet but tough. The midpoint on its belly was charging up with a fiery red glow. When Covenant ships fired their weapons they had to lower their shields, this was no exception for the CCS class. "Hold it." The charge on its belly continued growing, they'd have to wait to get the perfect in. "Hold it!" Megumin looked anxious to cast. The glow was at its brightest point. "Aim for the light on the ship's belly and let loose!"

"Explosion!"

Megumin let loose her Explosion, light soared over the water and towards the ship. Moments passed by and as soon as the ship was about to begin glassing, her magic hit. A massive Explosion hit spot on and dissipated the charge. The energy projector was destroyed, but that wasn't all. It's engines flared on and off as it struggled to keep afloat, then it began to plummet. Before they knew it the Covenant ship slammed into the sea, there was a roar of approval from everyone at the rally point. He climbed down with Megumin from the tower and met the others. He handed her over to Yunyun.

"What now?" Anatalia asked.

"Now? Well, I'll start by making up for lost time." He led Clementine to the Pelican and closed the bay door behind him…

It was odd. Vanir had said they wouldn't remember any of it, but it was like they'd never left. He was still standing in the main room with his hand over where the button had been, he blinked. He really couldn't remember any of it and by the looks of the faces on his party around him none of them did either. "Did… did we already go?" Darkness asked.

"I think so but… Aurdel, why do you have a kiss on your cheek?!" Megumin asked. He ran his hand over his cheek, red lipstick. He knew who used that color. Ah, so he really did make it. That was all the confirmation he needed. Aside from that the bags that he'd previously been holding that were empty were heavy now, most likely fill to the brim with weapons and parts. He walked away. There was a piece of paper stuffed into one of his pockets. He unfolded it.

"Don't worry about us, Aric is a strong boy like his father and I'm still a crack enough shot to take out any spook that looks at us the wrong way. And Paxton will get all the papers, I promise. I wish it didn't have to be like this but I would be lying if I didn't say the time we spent together was the happiest of my life. So go and make someone else happy. -C"

Aurdel smiled.