At the border of Ursus, an unknown small village could be found there. Most of the village was consumed by the snow. What was left was the remnant of what it was. Houses that looked like they would crumble at even the slightest breeze. What used to be roads were just tar on the ground.

Even if the village had seen better days, there were still people in it.

However, they were not what people expected.

One of those people was now standing in front of a tent located in the middle of the village. His white robe was barely enough to keep him from the cold, but he made do with it. Some of his orange ribbons were fluttering along with the wind.

Why was this man outside in this weather?

One, he was used to it.

And two, he was waiting for someone.

From the way the coldness that he felt was slowly lessening, he knew that the person he was waiting for had arrived.

The man's face which had some black crystal on it smiled at the sight of a person slowly making their way toward him. The sound of her foot stepping on the snow grew louder thus making his smile bigger.

Emerging from the light layer of snow falling onto the ground was a woman that made him run towards her in a hurry. Her white hair danced in the breeze. When he got closer to the woman, he noticed something different about her.

Her face had more colour to it now. The way she carried herself was even more different; she was not afraid of anything she faced. And her eyes… They used to be silver in colour like the colour of her knife, however now it was crystal blue.

Something must have happened to her when he was not with Yeti. The man was a part of the Yetis and he was tasked to be the middleman for Big Sister and Dad. He would update her on his condition to her. He told him that Big Sister would come by when he told her that Dad was getting worse by the day.

Although he had a lot of questions to ask her. He did not want to waste their time.

Yelena stopped walking when she saw one of her siblings running to her. When he was close enough, he halted himself.

"Big Sister! You're here," He beamed. Then he remembered why he was doing this and pointed at the house behind him, "Dad is in there."

Yelena glanced at the house and back to him, "How is he?"

The man's mood went down hearing her question, "It's getting worse now."

The wind around them started to pick up speed. Before a blizzard was about to form around them, Yelena let out a sigh and the wind started to slow down.

"How did this happen?" She asked him.

"We went on a mission, and he needed to use more of his strength than usual," The man looked down, "Some mercenaries sent by Ursus ambushed us. We managed to come back all alive because Dad pushed himself too much."

Then she stormed towards the house. The man did not stop her as she ran past him. Yelena pushed the door open.

Then she could hear something inside the house.

Coughing.

"*Cough*!"

Yelena, hearing this, rushed into the room with haste. She found herself in the living room. There, she saw a huge figure sitting on a beatdown sofa. The man's body was bigger than most men could get. The heavy armour that he wore had rust all over. Near the sitting figure was a small coffee table. On it was a mask that resembled some type of skull. With the house not having any electricity to keep the place running, the only source of light that the room had was a simple flame from a lamp.

An oil lamp.

The small ember flicked from the wind that was produced when Yelena stood in front of the man.

"Dad," Yelena called the man.

The slouched figure raised his head and stared at her. The crooked horns that were on his head. Black crystals could be seen on different parts of his face. His now grey hair was unkempt and she could see they were getting worse.

A white smoke exiled from his mouth when his eyes landed on her.

"Yelena?" He rumbled out his voice to her, "You're here?"

This was Patriot. One of the leaders of Reunion. His power and will come second to none in the group. With his help, Reunion was able to gain so many victories. It was not far to say that Patriot was what Reunion wanted to be.

He was an important figure in the group.

Even if this man held so much power, for Yelena, he was nothing more than her Dad. Normally he would wear his mask

Although most people would be put off by how deep his voice was, Yelena narrowed in on the man. She looked beside him and saw an unused fireplace. This made her even madder and glared at the man more. This earned her a small smile from him.

"Why are you using the lamp? There's a fireplace," She asked him.

"We have low resources," The man answered, "The others need them more than me."

Hearing this answer, Yelena gritted her teeth, "You think about that now? You're cold. No matter how strong you are, you need more than a lamp to warm you up."

"We need to use our supply wisely," He said slowly, "We have a limited amount of them to use. You must understand this, Yelena. Do I teach you this?"

"… I do not want to hear that," She whispered out in frustration, "Don't make this a lesson I need to learn. You're cold."

"You've grown up so fast, Yelena," Patriot smiled at her, "The Yetis are truly lucky to have you as their Big Sister."

Yelena said nothing and just stared at the man in front of her. They kept on staring at each for a couple more seconds before Yelena faced her back towards him and left the living room. Patriot said nothing as she left the house. He knew what she was about to do and he knew that anything he said would be ignored by her.

He did not want to waste his breath.

He was getting low with them now.

After a few minutes passed, Yelena came back into the living room. Along her was a bucket of firewood and charcoal. Without wasting any time, she threw all of them into the fireplace. She pulled out a lighter and lit the fuels.

The fire appeared, and it increased the warmth of the room. Not much, but from the way Patriot's face softened, it was good enough. Yelena made her way to a sofa facing him and sat on it.

"I will not hear a word from you," Yelena glared at him, "I will be one that will talk for today."

Patriot smiled and stayed quiet.

Seeing this, she continued with a softer expression on her face, "You are getting sicker. You need to stop this," Yelena said, "You have to control yourself and try not to go on more missions now."

Patriot hummed as he leaned back into the sofa, "With how long ago we last met, this is the first thing you say to me?" Then he smiled at her, "How are you?"

Yelena was silent for a while after hearing this. After some time passed, she said, "I am in good health."

"I can see. With how I first saw you just now, it was like you were a completely different person," The man smiled, "You seem more… alive."

He hummed, "I am glad."

Yelena thought about what Dad said to her.

True, she was getting better. It almost felt like she was not Infected anymore. She did not have any symptoms of Oripathy. Although that was the case, she could still use her Arts. But it changed a bit.

Her ice that used to be black was now white. The control of her Arts was also lessened. It was like she was using a completely new form of Arts now. She even noticed that her eyes changed. They were now blue…

Like the colour of the sky that the one person wanted to show her.

Her mind went to the person in question. She knew his name.

Lin Ye.

From the moment that she met him when he saved her in the snow a few years back, Yelena knew this man was more than he seemed.

He was the one that taught her how to make those spicy candies that kept her warm. He was… gentle and kind.

A trait that was rare in this world.

She remembered when she asked about what his view on Infected was.

"Infected?" He looked confused as he fed the cats, in the kitchen "You mean people."

He petted one of those cats, making it purred, "They're people. Nothing more, nothing less."

When she was about to leave, Yelena offered him to join her in the Reunion. He could join her in the Yetis. This man could easily be an important part of Reunion if he joined them.

"No can do," He smiled at her, "I have things to do here for now. All the best."

He declined her offer. Although she wanted to know why, this man did not pry into her life, so the least she could do was to do the same to him. She left Chernobog and reunited with the rest of her group.

Although years passed, Yelena always pondered on what would happen if he agreed with her to join. However, it was just a waste of her time to think about that. She thought she wouldn't see the man in the future any time soon.

Oh, how wrong she was.

Like the first time, he came so sudden. Death was just a step away from her and that man slapped his hand away from her before it even touched her. He still had his small smile and she last saw him. She could taste one of her spicy candies in her mouth.

After finally recovering from the shock of not dying, Lin Ye told her what he had done to save her.

He used a cure. A prototype that his company was making that was unknown to the rest of the world. A cure that might save the world. One of the most important things in this world.

And he used it on her.

Unsurprisingly, Yelena asked if she could have more of them. Lin ye might be able to help the Yetis and even Dad. However, he refused and even asked her to keep this cure a secret from anyone other than them.

She wanted to know more, but it was getting late, and the Yetis were getting worried and his team as well. Lin Ye offered to call her again to tell her more about the cure.

The next time they met, she knew that something changed about them. When Yelena stood in front of him, the man that she was facing was not the person that saved her multiple times now.

He was the man that killed almost half of her family at Kjerag. And he knew it.

Both sides were tense, but Yelena knew that man was not afraid. His body looked calm, and he was treated like any normal person.

As promised, he talked about the cure. It was still in development. The risk of people dying from using it was still too high for his liking.

Yelena knew that most of the Infected did not mind the idea of dying for the chance of getting a cure. However, the man did not want people to pick whether to die or to have a better life.

It angered her how well he used words.

He did not want the world to know about its existence yet, because if people get the word about it, his company will have a target on their back.

They parted but she promised to keep the cure a secret. This was because of how many times he saved her. Although they were in a tense situation with each other, Yelena still had his number, and she knew he still had hers.

"Yelena?" Patriot's voice awakened Yelena from her thoughts, "What are you thinking about?"

Snapping back to reality, Yelena stared back at her father figure and shook her head, "Nothing, Dad."

He hummed, and a thought came up into his mind, "Is it about Sokk? The town that you gained?"

Patriot's face softened, "You don't need to worry. The Yetis are protecting the place now. Have faith in them," He leaned back, "You found a good town to be your base, Yelena. From what I heard, the people there support you and the people who don't, just leave the place altogether - ."

"I'm not worried about them." Yelena interrupted Patriot, "I'm worried about you."

Patriot was stunned, but a smile quickly appeared on his face, "I've already said this, my body is fine."

"If you are telling me the truth then why am I here?"

A light rumbling chuckle escaped from his mouth after hearing this, "Ah, you think I am getting weaker now?" He hummed, "You think I need to be cradled by now?"

"… You know that was not what I meant," She whispered back.

"I know, Yelena. I know. You are just worried for me," Patriot said softly, "I am happy that you think so, but it is unnecessary."

He sighed, "Although I really want to say something that can comfort you, I really do not want to deceive you." He looked at the falling snow outside and back to her, "As you said, my condition is getting worse. Sooner or later, I will die because of Oripathy."

"It is getting harder and harder to speak normally now," Patriot told her, "My time is coming to an end."

Then a slight ember ignited behind his eyes, "But it won't stop me."

Although he looked tired and weak, his voice was still as strong as it always was, "Everyone will die someday. The same goes for me. However, my will. My hope for the Infected to look forward to the future will still be carried on.

Then he pointed at her with a smile, "And you will be one of many that will carry that."

"The future of Infected?" She muttered this under her breath.

Her eyes then went back to her dad, "Dad, what do you think? Will Reunion really be the hope that the Infected need in the future?"

"… What I know is that Tallulah will be the one that decides that. However, any future is better than what we have now." Patriot raised his head and looked at Yelena's slightly bewildered eyes. "But you suddenly asking me this makes me think that you encountered something important. So important that you are uneasy from the moment I saw you. What is the matter?"

Yelena wanted to deny this, but she felt that she could trust Dad. If she could not even do that, what a lonely life she was living now. So, after thinking about it for a while, she lowered her head and thought hard about what to say to him.

She raised her head, looked at Patriot, and then asked a single question, "What is more important? The future of the Infected or one's personal feelings?"

Patriot was a little surprised by this question of hers, "Why do you ask such a question?"

"… I just wanted to get an answer from you," Yelena weakly gave her excuse to him.

"Is that so? It's a very interesting question." Patriot thought about it and asked, "What kind of future is that?"

"… A future that can save all the infected," Yelena said, "But it is full of danger and uncertainty."

"And what kind of feeling?"

"… Hatred? … I don't know." She fumbled out, "Conflicted? I can't really give you a word for it."

"That's so?" Patriot looked up at the ceiling, "Although I don't quite understand what the hatred you're talking about is. In my opinion, no matter what kind of hatred it is, you must put it second to the life of the Infected. To give the Infected hope. No matter how small it is."

Yelena was stunned by his answer. After a while, she asked him, "You really think so?"

"I do. For the better of the world, we can't be selfless," Patriot said softly, "Because hatred belongs to oneself alone. However, hope for the world must come first."

She fell silent.

After a long time, she nodded slowly: "I understand, Dad."

Half an hour later, Yelena could be seen closing the door behind her as she left the rundown house.

It took all of her energy and time to be able to convince Patriot to get some rest. Like always he was stubborn but sadly for him, she was even worse than him in that regard. When Yelena finally got that old man to rest, she thought she needed to get some fresh air.

After closing the door, she saw a figure standing not far from her.

In front of her was a woman waiting in the snow alone.

There stood the leader of the Reunion Movement.

Talulah.

{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}

Draft: Jaq

Proofread: Discord

Edit: Jaq