Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Author's Note: Hopefully gonna be able to go on a cruise next weekend and the week after that is my brother's wedding. All good things. Driving down to Miami tomorrow for the passport office.

I aced the stop-motion project for our book. I don't think I really deserved it-I would've given a B, at best-but I won't complain. I started watching that new show, Scorpion. I love it. The interactions, the quick pace. It's a fantastic show.

I also started watching Forever. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I do. It's very well written with a different take on immortality.

Still haven't beaten Xillia 2. I'm stuck. So I'm giving it a brief break before I go back.

Been posting a lot of my artwork for my brother and I's book up on our tumblr, as well as chapters. If anyone's interested, by all means, go check it out.

e - p - pfister . tumblr . com

Hearts will never be made practical until they are made unbreakable.
-The Wizard of Oz

Yuan couldn't rest. There was no way. Martel had tried to get him to at least get a few hours of sleep, but he'd been able to outlast her; she was still recovering from the vague sickness that magitechnology gave her to really be stubborn about anything.

If she—or anyone, but Martel had been the only one to say something—thought that he was going to be able to rest when his best friend was still back there fighting his father, they had another thing coming. And there was the matter of the guard. Yuan glanced back occasionally, just to make sure that he was still where Yuan left him. The guard might have gotten them out, but Yuan was going to have a hard time trusting anyone for a while. (He is still processing about Zaren. He knows that he has betrayed them, has been betraying them, but he is still trying to understand how he could have done it)

Noishe, who had followed them to the city and stayed on the outskirts, was now circling the city, searching for Kratos. He came by every now and again to check on Yuan and the others in their hiding spot. It might have been a swamp during the rainy season, but now, it had dried up and they were curled beneath the roots of one of the trees.

Yuan's head jerked up at Noishe's whistle, low and long. As the great bird neared, Yuan could make out something on his back. Kratos! Yuan scrambled up the loose dirt to meet them. He helped Kratos down off of Noishe's back. He was a bit pale and he looked almost…shell-shocked.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Yuan looked his best friend over for injuries. He didn't seem to be bleeding—or if he had been, the bleeding had stopped—but blows to the head weren't always that visible. "Do I need to wake Martel?"

Kratos shook his head and let Yuan carry most of his weight. The half-elf managed to get him under the cover of the tree. Martel and Mithos were curled together against a root, still asleep.

"Hey," Yuan said softly. He pushed Kratos' hair out of his eyes. It was getting long again; he'd probably want a haircut soon. "You're worrying me here. I need a couple of words, at least."

When Kratos finally opened his mouth, his voice was little more than a croak. "…I killed him."

Yuan stared at him. "What?"

"My father." Kratos' shoulders were shaking a little beneath Yuan's hands, but whether it was from shock, fear or cold, he couldn't say. "I killed him."

"I—" Yuan was at a loss for words. But Kratos seemed to have found his.

"In cold blood. I'd already defeated him, y'know? He was down. I-I could've just crippled him or something." Now that he'd found his words, Kratos couldn't seem to stop. "But I chose to kill him."

For Yuan, his next question was a stupid one. But he knew for Kratos, it wouldn't be. "Do you regret killing him?"

To his surprise, Kratos answered immediately. "No. He-he was a monster. He'd hurt so many. I couldn't let him keep hurting people. You know—knew—him. He wouldn't have stopped. Not ever and-and I figured this would be my only shot."

"Did you expect me to argue with you or something?" Yuan tilted his head down so that Kratos had to meet his eyes. "If you think it was the right thing to do, than it probably was."

(Sadly, this helps. Yuan is grateful that this happened. Zaren has been pushed to the back of his thoughts—constantly there—but this, this helps with the pain of the betrayal. Keeping Kratos safe and sane is what Yuan is good at and—no matter what Kratos may say, no matter how sure he is that killing his father had been a good idea, Yuan knows that it will still hurt him somewhere)

Yuan sat down properly instead of kneeling, his knees starting to get a little sore. Kratos had gone silent again and it didn't take long until he was asleep on Yuan's shoulder. Yuan just shifted his shoulders a little and let him keep sleeping, hoping that there were no nightmares tonight. Not for anyone.

Feeling eyes on him, Yuan glanced up. The man that Kratos had convinced to free them was watching with guarded eyes. "There a problem?" Yuan asked in a loud whisper.

The man shook his head. "He—he really killed the General?"

"Looks like. Does that bother you?"

"…I don't know." (It should, Abernac thinks. It should bother him that this war hero has been killed by a blood traitor son. But it doesn't, really. But then, this—following Kratos and these half-breeds—doesn't feel right either. He doesn't know what to think anymore)

Yuan snorted. "Well. At least you're honest."

The human capital was deep into their territory. Unsurprising, but they couldn't take the route they'd come through. There was a very good chance that Zaren had told the human generals about it. They sent Noishe with a message to Myra and Alstan, warning them of Zaren.

(Martel is the one to write the message. Yuan won't and Kratos…he's been quiet since the capital. And not his usual, peaceful quiet. This was a heavier, darker kind and Yuan can't help him either)

Abernac didn't talk much, but Martel couldn't blame him. She tried, a few times, to start a conversation, but he would end up either unintentionally rude—and she would correct him, which made him go silent for the rest of the day—or he would end up talking about his wife and daughter, which also made him go quiet.

Yuan tried to talk, some days. The attempts at conversation were akin to chewing glass. (It hurts to see him like that. To see both of them like that. But even Yuan talks more than Kratos does and Martel doesn't even know what to do or say. She has no idea how to begin to fix them because they are so very broken right now)

She would talk with Mithos, an option that she never minded. He had suggested early on when they'd figured out they couldn't go back the way they came, that since they had to go the long way around anyway, that they might as well make pacts with a few Summon Spirits while they did.

There hadn't been any objections. Martel hadn't expected any.