(*tiredly finger guns at ceiling*) Hello.

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Toni42: FJGHNFDJKFVNB Toni you're too kind- (also thank you for all your help ;-;)

Even in the hanging grey clag left behind by the downpour, it wasn't hard to spot Axel inching his foot towards the ground with a furtiveness that was just a bit overdone. The fact that his eyes hadn't even darted away from hers (a telltale sign whenever he actually planned on escaping her detection) didn't exactly help his case either.

Olivia hiccuped a smile, as she could a sob or a laugh. "Stay off it or I swear, Axel."

He returned the expression - though it didn't seem to reach his eyes. With only a little difficulty, he wriggled his toes in her direction. "See? It's not that bad. I probably just landed on it funny or-"

He broke off as Olivia took a breath, letting go of the craggy ridge they were perched on to rub at red-rimmed eyes. "It's swollen. You're limping. If we run into any more Withered, you won't be able to..." She left the sentence hanging in the chilly air. Axel's tiny grin fell apart beneath it.

"Not much of a runner anyway," he muttered, trying to dredge it back up.

"Stop-" Her voice cracked. "Just...just stop it."

Silence closed in around the two, heavy on their shoulders and in their chests. After several seconds of picking distractedly at the clumsy dressings that swaddled his ankle, Axel turned back to her. His face was a lot darker this time.

"Why're we still sitting around? We have to go get Jesse."

She dragged her gaze away from him, down towards her abruptly locked-up stomach. Now who's being evasive? His look hardened almost into a glare, one that pressed her for an answer.

"I know." That was all.

Axel stared at her, mouth twisting. She still didn't meet his eyes. Finally, he huffed a small, incredulous laugh. "Then why the heck aren't we? What if they're hurt, huh?" The words began to spill over one another; she grew paler with each one. "Or trapped somewhere, or scared and alone and waiting for us to come and we're just- just sitting here!"

He was about to keep going when she scrambled to her feet. "Axel- Axel, it's been days. Jesse could've- they might already..." The words seized in her chest, her throat, until they finally froze on her tongue. She couldn't. She couldn't say it. As if giving those words breath might somehow make them come true.

"Shut up, Olivia!" he burst out anyway, hands clenching into fists. "Shut up!" It came out like it would shatter with the slightest push. And it tore through Olivia like shards of glass.

"You know I'm right!" she choked out around something lodged in her throat, folding her fingers away in a useless attempt to stop the trembling. "We have no way to reach them, no idea where they could go, no sign that they...that they even got out! And you-" She stuck out her chin, almost jabbing it in his direction. "-you know that! We need to just face-"

"I said SHUT UP!" He shot to his own feet - and then he was tipping sideways. Olivia hastily stepped forward in spite of herself (and her size), but he caught himself on the cliffside and leaned heavily against it, gingerly lifting his bound ankle from the ground. His breathing quivered. "Shut up," he whispered, no longer looking at her. "You're wrong. We...we know Jesse. And we know that they're...they're not..."

She shook her head, barely fighting back tears. "So what? We're supposed to just wander around aimlessly and hope we don't trip over their dead body? Or Reuben's? Or maybe we'll find them infected and then we'll get it too and we can all figure out who gets to put who out of their mis-"

A rough shove to her shoulders sent her stumbling. She cut herself off with a gasp; her hands flailed until they managed to grab hold of a rock face. She took a little longer than necessary to right herself - and just as slowly brushed damp curls out of her eyes to find Axel glowering down at her.

"You always have to drag everyone down, don't you?" he asked in a wobbly voice, planting his back to her and wiping his face on his sleeve. Olivia clenched her jaw.

"In case you haven't noticed, we're living in a nightmare. Optimism doesn't exactly keep anyone alive."

He spared her a glance out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah...maybe not. Sure as hell can keep you sane, though."

This time, the fraught silence that fell upon them was broken by Olivia. She breathed a long sigh, pointedly pushing Axel until he reluctantly returned to a sitting position. "Okay," she said softly, swallowing hard. "Okay. Fine. We'll...we'll figure something out."

Axel scrubbed at his face again, clearing his throat. The traces of tears still clung to his words. "All right. Just- they're out there, okay? I know they're out there."

She gazed back up the narrow mountain pass to put off the moment she'd have to look him in the eye. "Maybe."

He said nothing for a long while. Olivia's gaze drifted into the distance, at the wilderness sprawling into the horizon; a sickly yellow-brown ribbon of path was the only thing distinctly visible. What she wouldn't give to glimpse a worn-out white shirt and a magenta streak or a four-legged blot of pink clambering towards them...

"Do you remember the Blaze Rod lady?"

Something in his tone - some faint note of sudden excitement - made her twist so quickly to look at him that she nearly gave herself whiplash. She sifted through her memories (though she carefully skipped over both the freshest and the most harrowing...which were the same ones more often than not) until one finally surfaced of the woman Jesse had introduced them to months ago, rambling something about her having known Jesse's parents. Olivia had found her more high-handed than anything. "What about her?" she asked flatly, already turning her head back.

But his voice halted her again. "Maybe she's seen Jesse and Reuben. Or she could...I dunno, at least be able to tell us where they might've headed." He pressed on before she could argue. "Look, Jesse must've looked for us when we lost them, right?"

Olivia nodded automatically. That was their Jesse, all right.

"And when they couldn't find us, maybe they went to her and asked for help." Axel leaned back against his hands, another smile touching the corners of his mouth. "Maybe they're waiting there for us right now."

She bit down on her lip until the tang of blood greeted her tongue. But we don't even know where 'there' is - and Jesse could be anywhere. She thrust the thought aside, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Are you sure about this? I mean..." She trailed off once more.

Axel mustered a shrug, the offhand gesture at complete odds with the dead seriousness etched into his features. "Who else is there?"

If you could bite the dust from being wet, Aiden would have. Twice.

His shoes squelched in protest down alleyways and through overgrown former backyards that still held that dense earthy smell from the burst of rain which had decided it would be funny to make his situation even less bearable. If the feeling boiling in his gut was as infectious as the Wither, there'd have been a malevolent scowl on each and every chunk of cobble and patch of wilted daisies.

He stalked along the rickety aqueduct that every muscle in his body remembered being forced off by the stupid redhead; loose shingle creaked under his footsteps. It had probably once been something a bit more impressive. Something great. Like his gang, the Ocelots, had been before he'd convinced them it was a good idea to get involved with Isa and her Blaze Rods.

Isa.

Teeth set, Aiden slammed a fist against the nearest wall; his fingers were numb to the marks it scraped into his skin. I'm out here turning into a goddamn snow golem and Her Royal Lowness is falling over herself for that- that pathetic little pig herder...that figures, doesn't it?

He knew fine well what a stir she'd been making about the new kid. Hell if he knew what was supposed to be so amazingly special about them - as far as he was concerned, they were an annoying weirdo at best. And a giant distraction from the people who actually did something worth a damn - like him. But there Isa and all her lackeys were, plotting and fretting away as if the universe would collapse if the kid did everybody a favour and took off back to whatever ditch they crawled out of.

And there was something else he knew: the kind of things they all must have been muttering about him. "Aiden just takes orders. He can't think for himself or be treated with any respect around here. He's just a dumb henchman for us to push around."

He let out a mirthless snort, raking a hand through his mop of hair (and muttering a choice word or two at the freezing cold droplets still hanging onto the tips). It wasn't like that. And he'd prove it. One way or another, he'd prove it to them all.

It was with those thoughts smouldering in his head that he strode into the room where Isa sat erect, poring over something spread over the table in front of her. She jerked slightly at the groan of the door; Aiden's eyes followed her hands as they splayed over the papers as if to hide them from his sight.

"Aiden," she began, recovering her composure. Then her features tautened into a dubious frown as she took in his state. "What happened to you?"

"Where's that kid?" he demanded almost as soon as she finished, a vein flickering in his forehead at the question.

"You mean Jesse," she chided like she was talking to some toddler, annoyingly smoothly. "I'll have you know they're an intregral part of something important-"

Aiden just about managed to bite down a scoff.

"-and Ivor and Petra are taking care of the matter as we speak."

At this, he couldn't have held back his sneer if he'd wanted to. "You're working with them?"

She didn't look up, instead absently shuffling her papers into a pile. "It's not your affair - that is, not right now. And it certainly isn't your place to meddle. At any rate, they're not here anymore; they left hours ago...close the door on your way out, Aiden," she added pointedly.

She didn't see the venom in his eyes as he slunk away.

Sitting before her, pinned down by an elbow, was a scrupulously tidy stack of sheets, black and white and almost innocuous. Results of the sundry scans she'd had carried out on Jesse when they'd first been brought to her door. At first glance, the images likely would've appeared fairly normal - that is, if one did exactly what she could not and shut out the sight of the mottled shadows.

Right over the heart.

Isa's eyes slid closed for a moment against the dozen different rabbit holes pulling at her mind. It wasn't quite enough to seal them away. Once this was over...it could never, would never, be undone.

But perhaps there won't be any need. Perhaps a viable sample can be extracted through some other method.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

Isa let out the quietest of mirthless snorts. She knew naivety when she heard it. Even from herself.

Long fingers skimmed in a fitful pattern over the tiny pits gouged into the tabletop as she deliberately turned from the door. No. No, it was high time to tow that mind of hers back into its confines. Really, she had no reason (some, a whisper at the back of her head retaliated, would say no right) to feel like this. None. It was simply the way of this world, the only way. When it came to the greater good, sacrifices had to be made - sometimes all too literally.

Jesse would understand that. They must.

If nothing else...they didn't have much of a choice.

Apologies that this was yet another short chapter T^T I hope you guys liked the glimpses of how Axel and Olivia have been doing, what Aiden's up to and Isa's plans, though.

'Til next time, au revoir, adios and auf Wiedersehen.

~ Rainy