The Winding Road to Sanctuary

—

"I have never had the pleasure to dance with someone like you."

Color rippled underneath his clothes. His adversary stood proud down the dark hall. Moonlight seemed to flow off her hands, pooling into sharp blades. The tatters of her black cloak flowed behind her, and burns criss-crossed her highly exposed figure.

"I could say the same of you; I've never fought someone so… slippery. Then again, my experience is actually quite limited."

She's even slippier than Gluttony, with all his jumping around and twirling.

The woman slouched, before her form shot up the wall and over him. The sharp squeal of metal ricocheted off the walls as her blade cleaved through the chains of a chandelier. The metal frame dropped, only for him to swipe his hand through the framework. The light fixture clanked to the ground around him, burning globs of metal splattering the ground like white-orange blood. She smiled, an expression that reached into her eyes, as her feet touched the ground.

"If we're describing each other, then I should mention that you are still standing even with that hole in your stomach. Really, quite interesting."

Her words prompted him to look down once more. Yep, that gash in his abdomen was still there. Really, thank you stagno, damage nullification may have not been activated in time but pain reduction was a lifesaver. He noticed a little bit of guts poking out, so he tenderly slipped them back into his body. Slimy.

He focused his sharp gaze back at the woman. Never stray your gaze, keep your opponent in eye's reach. She raised her ornate kukri above her head, the moonlight glinting off them once more. She flipped in the air, despite not having any momentum to work with, and started to flip towards him like a gymnast on steroids. He raised his arms, the faint color like a beacon in the darkness. The Guthunter was another person he needed to get revenge on, despite meeting her less than an hour ago. Melancholy dashed forward as a cacophony of demon beasts pressed on his eardrums.

—

Moonlight filtered through his window. Meiss breathed in the familiar scent of paper. It was very different from the old and musty smell of the forbidden library, much more pleasant. The blonde leaned back in his chair, his shoulder-length hair parted in the middle of his forehead, framing his face. It was too quiet. Beyond the waterfall, Meiss was the most comfortable with some sort of background noise. Heaters, fans, chatter, anything with repetitive, unbroken sound. There was nothing like that in this world, or at least nothing as loud as a fan. He had discovered that the crystals used to measure time produced a faint humming, but nothing particularly loud and 'background noise'-ish.

Ferris, despite his weird grudge against him, had allowed Meiss to keep the set of dress clothes. They were too stuffy and constricting for Meiss though, mostly in the top half. Despite being over half a foot taller than him, Ferris was much slimmer than him and had slimmer clothing. So he had ditched the shirt in favor of wearing a pajama shirt all day. Dress pants with a pajama shirt; Meiss rocked it.

As for what Meiss was doing, he was drawing plans. He had been wracking his brain, trying to remember the percentages of ingredients in an alloy. When he was reasonably sure he was accurate to the actual measurements, he started to draw up plans for what he would be doing with the metal. Four different sketches were spread before him, and none of them looked particularly appealing.

"Now that I remember, Subaru said that Petelgeuse screamed the name of his Authority in japanese whenever he used it. My… gospel… had Melancholy written in latin…?"

Meiss felt his face scrunch as he spat out the word gospel. His disgust overriding the question he had asked nobody. If he could burn his gospel again, he would gladly. Maybe rip it up into tiny pieces first. Meiss tore his brain from the cult, refocusing on the papers in front of him. This would be the second committed weapon he would make with Beatrice's help, and it would be much more detailed.

"Maybe instead of such a modern design, I'll go with something older…"

—

The blonde rushed down the stairs, nearly tripping and falling. He had fallen asleep at his desk, nearly missing the departure. Meiss still couldn't shake the feeling of unease he had. Maybe it was just his anxiety about not being able enough, or his worry for the nameless Rem, but him dismissing the tingle in his neck on the Laifus highway had shocked him into not ignoring this feeling. As a result of being on edge for the past two and a half days, he was understandably tired, yet not sleepy. How paradoxical.

The boy saw Rem heading for the main door. Since the Laifus ambush, she had started to wear casual clothing. Meiss could tell she was still getting used to it. Along with her name, much, if not all, of her physical existence had been disposed of; including clothes. No momentos, or personal belongings beyond whatever she had worn, it truly made Meiss' blood boil.

There it was again, that feeling had been popping up more and more lately. This unquenchable feeling of ire, of wrath. Meiss had his revenge for what Guttony did to him before he met Subaru. While he still harbored animosity for the witch cult, what had happened, what he had let happen, provoked this overlap with his existing feelings about the cult.

"Oh, Meiss. Rem was nearly about to come get you. Our departure for Sanctuary is not something Rem thought you would enjoy missing."

"No, not at all."

Meiss smiled at Rem, stepping off the last step. The Oni's own smile faltered when she saw his. She knows how much you wish you could have done more. Meiss felt his eyes drift, and his smile falter slightly into something akin to pensivity.

The blue haired woman exited the main lobby, turning to hold the door open for Meiss. The blonde smacked his palms into his face, waking himself up. He used his hands to roughly comb his hair over his head, before walking out into the early morning sun. The blonde huffed at the single lock of hair that danced in front of his face, which remained ever stubbornly.

Meiss blinked the brightness out of his eyes, and rested them upon Otto's carriage. It was going to be a long ride for them, with only two seats. Surely 'The Roswaal' had more passenger friendly carriages somewhere? Maybe it was just Otto not wishing to encroach on the Mather's property more than he already had. What's more important? Nice padded seats (and more than two), or being polite?

Meiss himself was not making the journey, the feeling of despair had him anxious as all hell. Enough fighting force was going to Sanctuary, what if something happened at this mansion? Plus, it would give him the opportunity to explore the area in it's entirety, which would probably take a whole day unless he had Frederica give him a tour, and he didn't want to take time out of her day for something like that.

"Hey, Meiss!"

Breaking through Meiss' thoughts, Subaru enthusiastically waved his arm at the boy. Meiss walked up, and Subaru clapped him on the shoulder. Gathered around was the entire mansion populace. Frederica was making sure the ground dragons were harnessed properly, Rem was starting a conversation with Emilia while sneaking glances at her sister, who was instructing Otto on which direction they were to go. Subaru beamed at Meiss as he retracted his hand and turned towards the carriage.

"Hey man, I'm counting on you to hold down the fouUuAHuG AUUGH!"

Meiss, along with everyone else jumped as Subaru started to scream in apparent pain. The blonde caught the cursed boy as he started to crumple to the ground. Subaru was clawing at his arm and back, as if trying to rip something off of him. Meiss had a hard time holding him while he convulsed like that, nearly dropping him a few times. Not to mention the height difference had Subaru convulsing practically on top of Meiss.

"Subaru!?"

"SUBARU-KUN!"

"N-Natsuki-san?"

"Su… Suba- SUBARU STOP MOVING!"

The japanese boy started to convulse less, and began to breathe heavily. Meiss felt his own heartbeat run faster than Usain Bolt. A trickle of ice shot down the blonde's spine. Sudden change of attitude, with seemingly involuntary movements. Meiss' brain played over the previous week. Teaching the great spirit and half-elf about elements. Arriving at the Roswaal mansion. Crusch imoraly pursuing him. Killing Gluttony and fighting Greed. The Hakugei.

Meiss remembered this happening before.

Subaru was fine now, a little out of breath, but acting normal. His heartbeat was wild and erratic, as if coming out of a life-and-death situation. The cursed boy leaned a little farther in, whispering into Meiss' ear.

"Meiss, I-"

And then it stopped. His heart stopped. There was no way he couldn't notice that. Heavy, erratic beating, suddenly replaced with stillness. Meiss felt the ice in his spine grow into a glacier, Subaru seemed as fragile as glass. Then his heart started beating once more… What?

Everyone stared worriedly at Subaru, even Ram was curious. Rem and Emilia rushed over to Meiss, who was still supporting Subaru. The older teen seemed to be in a daze, he was breathing heavily and his eyes were glossy. Emilia grabbed his unsupported side, relieving Meiss of the entire weight. Rem came and peered at Subaru's face. She was worried, who wouldn't be? Meiss used his one now-free hand to gesture the Oni closer.

"Us three need to talk, right now."

—

"Subaru."

"Nani?"

"Don't 'nani?' me."

Subaru flinched at Meiss' icy stare. He hadn't seen it in a few days. The blonde had dragged him and Rem to the kitchen of the mansion to talk in private. It had taken a bit of haggling to persuade Ram that she shouldn't abandon them. This better be worth that.

"What the fuck was that back there?"

"I- uh."

"Subaru-kun, please tell Rem."

"I can't."

"Like HELL you can't! Cut the shit, your heart just fucking stopped, Subaru! This isn't a conversation you're going to weasel out of! I know you just got some prophetic vision, so spill."

Subaru flinched. He had never heard Meiss yell in conversation before, the closest was a stern tone of voice. Rem seemed taken aback as well at Meiss' outburst. The blonde paced back and forth in front of the kitchen's island, stopping occasionally to rest his arm on it, before resuming his pacing. He was mumbling to himself before he stopped and straightened his back. Meiss whipped around and waved his arm to both Subaru and Rem, Transparent, just barely there, a bubble formed around the two of them.

"There, Quiescence. Now spill it, Subaru."

Subaru shook his head no, which aggravated Meiss more. He threw his arms up in the air, slamming them down on his face similar to after he killed Ley. He rubbed vigorously for a second. Before another membrane formed around the boy. Meiss braced himself as arcs of electricity flared into existence around him. He went stiff at the currents flowing through his body, and leaned against the table. Slow burns crawled up his arms and legs, but he merely clenched his teeth and shut his eyes.

"There… N-now nothing can affect me or you guys. These Quiescence bubbles, to put it simply, negate all outside interference as well as prevent those inside from attacking. What I mean is we'll be safe within these. Now whatever you were worrying about hurting us, or whatever hurt you, can no longer do anything."

Subaru widened his eyes. Meiss was hurting himself to hear this…

"I-"

Subaru clenched his chest, warily glancing around. The hands, they're here.

Crowded in a corner, the eastern wall, three black, shimmering purple hands gathered. They reached out towards the trio, and Subaru felt a spike of fear. These things had killed Emilia before, who was to say they wouldn't kill Rem and Meiss after the bubbles were gone?

"Talk."

Then Subaru realized Meiss wouldn't let him go unless he talked. Rem looked at him expectantly, her shining blue eyes seeming to stare into his soul.

"Rem will believe anything Subaru-kun, remember?"

Subaru closed his eyes, shutting out everything for a second. He clenched his chest, the glassy feeling shivered through him for a second. He shut his eyes tighter…

"I-"

…

"-can… Redo."

Meiss narrowed his eyes. Redo? Was that it? The secret to Subaru's prophetic visions, was redoing? What was he redoing? Is he reversing time when things go bad? Are there any limits? Why has he been so hesitant to mention this before? How is the power activated?

"So you're telling me you can redo things? The logical leap is… time reversal?"

Subaru nodded with a glance at the wall. The unseen hands were gone.

Rem looked shocked, dumbfounded, and like the pieces to a puzzle were falling into place. That same look as when they figured out that Subaru had an ability of some sort. Like everything was made clear.

…

"I'm coming with you guys."

—

"This is certainly a surprise, for Meiss to change his mind so suddenly."

Emilia commented this. Her face didn't denote any problems with the situation until she realized she might have to share a seat with him. The half-elf glanced at Subaru and Rem, who were sharing a seat opposite her and talking about something. It was weird, everytime she sees the two of them together she gets this uncomfortable creepy-crawly feeling in her shoulders. It is nigh impossible to explain.

Meiss gently climbed into the carriage, his face overcast with shadows. These disappeared as he moved to sit on the carriage bed next to Emilia. She noticed the slightly worried look on his face, and how he kept glancing back at the mansion as if he expected it to be swallowed by Ql Dona.

The half elf was too busy looking at his face, and she was surprised when she noticed his attire was different. He had swapped the dress pants he got from Ferris out for some non-restrictive pajama pants. Probably the matching half to the shirt he was wearing. What really struck her was his upper half. The blonde had some sort of vest with stitched-off sections. It looked like it was padded as well, and made of the same smooth material as Subaru's weird clothes. Underneath it was a heavy looking light-grey shirt with a stripe of grey-blue material that seemed to cling to his wrists and torso.

The carriage lurched suddenly, startling Emilia a little bit at the sudden movement. She spotted Frederica standing by herself at the gates to the mansion. The maid waved goodbye at the leaving party, and Emilia waved back along with Subaru.

The Emilia Camp departs… for Sanctuary.

…

It's a rather boring trip.

—

Ram was seated in the driver's seat together with Otto, directing him with turns and such. Not a very hard task, very befitting of the beautiful(?), charming(?), and competent(?) Ram-sama.

"Hehe, Beatrice would throw a fit if she knew you were teaching me without her. So, the hologems are the ones to stay away from?"

"Yeah she would, and it's halogens. Actually, there are a fair number of things on this table you should stay away from. Chief here are the grey guys down at the bottom."

Meiss shifted the piece of paper in his hands, trying to catch the light while also holding it up so that Emilia wouldn't have to lean too far down. He was pointing to the lower end of the table; the synthetic metals. He had used ink to color code certain areas to make them easier to understand.

"These synthetics are especially bad. Imagine just looking at some inconspicuous grey metal and having your skin burn off for no reason. That's kinda what would happen with a lot of the atoms here."

"O..Oh."

The carriage hit a bump, sending Meiss' rump into the air. The following impact with the hard wood prompted Meiss to think about stealing Emilia's seat. The impact with the carriage bed also sent a sliver of metal tumbling from Meiss' puffer vest. The flat, shiny piece of metal bounced across the bed of the carriage, eventually landing at Rem's feet. The curious Oni picked it up, examining the small rectangle of metal. Her eyes went even more puzzled when she realized it came to a point, like a throwing knife, she realized.

"What's this?"

"Oh, oh."

Emilia nearly fell out of her seat she was leaning so far forward. She had her finger to her chin in a thinking position, and a smile slightly creased her face. It looked as if she really wanted to say something.

"That's 25, Mn, 54, [Ar-"

"Stop stop stop."

Meiss was waving his hands, desperately trying to veer Emilia away from overloading anyone's poor brain. The blonde realized he probably should have started teaching the periodic table with the first twenty or so elements. They had found out that Emilia's spirit magic was able to synthesize metals as well, leading to the deduction that spirit magic as a whole was what gave the ability to transform matter, with Beatrice's conformation. It was a new thing for Meiss to learn at least, and he had wanted both Beatrice and Emilia to know how to make the metals just in case. Having a weapon that bypasses something like Greed would relieve a lot of anxiety.

Subaru tilted his head to give Emilia a weird look. He was rewarded with her own cute head tilt.

"You know what all that is?"

Rem looked at Subaru skeptically. It sounded to her as if Emilia had started to mutter incoherent numbers and letters with no meaning. Like some archaic spell that only a select few know.

"Does Subaru-kun know what Emilia-sama was talking about?"

"Yes, yes, Meiss has been teaching me and Beatrice some stuff about the periodic table."

Emilia waved her arms majestically in the air, accentuating her words.

"It has everything ever in it! Apparently the world beyond the great waterfall is ~super advanced or something. I don't know what they're advanced in, but they're advanced. Oh! Meiss is from beyond the great waterfall, is something I should also mention."

Emilia put her hands to her side and puffed out her chest triumphantly. This made it even funnier when nobody gasped in surprise to Meiss' alien status, or even reacted at all. That triumphant look turned into that of a lost puppy. Poor Emilia.

Subaru was handed the manganese throwing knife stake thing, and examined it closely. He nearly cut off his nose when the carriage hit a bump in the road, forcing him to jerk the metal far from his face in shock. Holding it gave Subaru this sense of mortality that he wasn't comfortable with. It was weird, because Subaru had died so many times, yet after the first few he never had that sense of finality. It was unnerving, and sent a chill down his spine.

"Uh, what is this for exactly?"

Meiss waked over and took the manganese stake from Subaru, holding it up so that it caught the light. The sun reflected off the surface blindingly, yet there were dark spots where the metal had little depressions.

"Well, you may have heard me yelling yesterday. This was why. Column seven on the periodic table contains four known elements: Manganese, Technetium, Rhenium, and Bohrium. While technetium and bohrium have not been tested, on account of radioactivity that I really don't want to mess with, rhenium and manganese show the unusual property of bypassing authorities."

For demonstration, Meiss activated dolorem. The twin streaks of color marbled across his skin in swirling patterns that sent a warm glow to everyone's eyes. The eyesore was around Meiss' wrist, where that purple-black smoke drifted off of a blurred line of cyan and orange energy. Meiss swished his other hand around the smoke, and then tried to blow it away like one would do to the steam rising from a meal.

"With the small amount of material we had, this is the best Beatrice and I could do at the moment. Although my one gripe is that it is very cumbersome to carry ten of these around all the time."

Meiss shook his pockets, and the sound of metal rang through the carriage. Meiss pointed a finger at the weirdly colored smoke falling from his wrist. It was cold, really cold, like dipping your hand into frigid water and having the moisture sucked from your body at the same time.

"I've taken to calling this smoke here 'Witch Vapor.' Seems kind of fitting to me. Instantly gives off a negative connotation, even if you didn't know who the Witch was... no is, I think."

Rem peered at the stake in Meiss' hands once more, before she scooted over, forcing Subaru to get off his side of the seat. She beckoned to Meiss, telling him to sit next to her. With superhuman restraint, she barely ignored Subaru's hurt expression as he sat next to Emilia, whose very presence made his expression not look like a dejected puppy.

Meiss, puzzled, sat down next to Rem, who was thin enough to leave room for both of them. Poor Subaru was barely sitting on his seat, you would be more accurate to say he was wall-sitting. Emilia was hogging the rest.

"Meiss, where is your gate?"

"Oh, uh, here."

Meiss rolled up his left sleeve to expose the raised ridges of darker skin along his forearm. Every time he saw them a flash of memory would press itself to the front of his mind. The blonde tried to force them down, but no matter what mental gymnastics he pulled, some sights always slipped through.

Eura lay in a - stop - twin flashes of twirling knives - not right now - warm flesh parted by cold me - gO AwAy - his face was so smug as he licked - GO AWAY.

Meiss felt himself launch out of his memories forcefully. He realized Rem was just starting to explain something to him. So he was out for a few seconds at best. Meiss just felt lucky he hadn't started sweating during that. Rem didn't seem to notice that anything had happened as she took Meiss' forearm in her hands. The blonde snapped fully back to attention and pointed to a spot near the direct center of the scarring.

"Here."

Rem traced a finger in a circle around where Meiss had pointed. Blue light shone from her finger for a second. Her brows creased for a second, and the blue light shone for a few seconds more.

"Meiss' gate is… defective."

"That hurts, you know. I've known for a while, so if whatever you wanted to do requires magic, you're out of luck."

"No magic is required for doing things like this."

Rem lifted up her arm, and pointed to the inside of her arm, between the biceps and triceps. The area glowed blue slightly before the Oni pulled a handle from the glowing circle. The handle popped out, revealing it to be attached to a chain.

"I- Is that your morningstar?"

"Yes, this is Rem's signature weapon."

Meiss hadn't really thought about it, but she pulled that thing out of nowhere when they were fighting Ley and Regulus. Now Meiss was thinking about how much could be held by the gate, her morningstar was pretty large. Rem pulled the rest of the weapon from her arm, letting it hang in her hands. Did the head of it shrink down to fit inside?

"Cool, super useful, please show me. These manganese stakes dig into my leg occasionally and it's really uncomfortable."

Rem giggled, though Meiss couldn't tell what was funny about sharp objects constantly stabbing him.

"So anyone with a gate can do that?"

"Yes, which means spirit arts users like Emilia-sama cannot, as they use the spirits to manipulate mana for them."

Rem poked his gate again, a puzzled expression arising on her face. Meiss got the feeling something even more was wrong with his gate, and felt a little dejected at the prospect of that on top of not being able to use magic.

"Meiss… your gate is overactive? There is a small fracture in it that is constantly leaking the mana your body produces, and your body produces copious amounts of mana, far above average. The normal gate would last a month before mana poisoning occurs, but with this, you would last a week at best. This fracture, and not having a gate before coming to this world, is probably what kept you alive."

Meiss huffed out of the side of his mouth - Ley stumbling back as a blade of wind cut through his shoulder - So his gate produced around four times the average amount? That would be useful if he could use it without hurting himself.

"I may have used magic once, just once. I had a very good reason."

Rem lightly smacked his gate, the tough scars uncomfortably dug into his muscles.

"Do not use magic again! There is an extremely high chance you would collapse your gate, which could be life-threatening! You should consider yourself very lucky that it didn't collapse that time! Rem's Subaru-kun would be very sad if you died."

Meiss put his arms up in resignation, not wanting to be lectured. He had enough lecturing last night when he taught Beatrice and Emilia the basics on elements. It was his own lecturing, but still.

Across the carriage, Emilia and Subaru watched the scenery blur past them through the front opening. Subaru silently wished the blessing of the wind let some wind through, so he could see Emilia's hair wave beautifully in the gentle breeze. Alas, it was never meant to be. Emilia turned to him, and her expression was more serious than Subaru expected.

"Do you ever get the feeling that ~lots of people are keeping secrets from us?"

"Yeah, I get that mostly from Puck, though I haven't really had the chance to ask that many questions."

Emilia looked down. Too late, Subaru realized that he had accidentally made her think about Puck. She silently rubbed his crystal and closed her eyes. Her expression was unreadable to Subaru. An eternity seemed to pass before she looked back up at him.

"It's not just Puck, Subaru, it's Roswaal, Ram, Frederica, and even Meiss gives me that feeling sometimes. Though I think he is keeping it to himself because it's personal."

"How are you so good at understanding people, Emilia-tan? It's weird."

Emilia waved her arms around, shocked. She darted her eyes over to Meiss a few times before she started to speak again.

"Ok, I'll try not to do that as much, thanks for telling me that it's weird Subaru."

Subaru decided to not tell her that he was joking. Though he noticed Emilia's eyes stray over to Meiss again, before trailing to Rem. The half-elf rolled her shoulders and leaned in a little too close to Subaru. Veeery close, just teetering on the edge of no-no close. She began to whisper quietly.

"Subaru, Suabru, do you care for Rem as much as you do me?"

Subaru felt relaxed and anxious at the same time. She should already know the answer. He glanced at Rem, who was fiddling with a glowing white dot on Meiss' arm, his gate. The alien looked back at the half-elf. Was this jealousy coming from Emilia? Ho ho, it would be like a dream come true…

"I love you both equally. My heart has been cut in two figuratively, and you both have a half of it. I'm just giving Rem a little more attention because she's going through a bad time. If you want me to give you some more attention, you could just ask."

… to have the both of them pull him in two.

Hey, that rhymed.

Also ouch.

Really, ouch.

"Ouch, ouch ow ow, Emilia-tan please stop hitting me, it's not cute at all. OW!"

It was quite a spectacle, observing Emilia attack Subaru for seemingly no reason. Well, fierce pinches and chops to the head wouldn't leave any lasting physical scars. The mental scars Subaru was acquiring though were nothing to be trifled with.

Next to him, Meiss heard Rem suppress her giggles. He looked at her worriedly, was watching the love of your life be assaulted that funny? It wasn't funny in Meiss' experiences, it was actually rather traumatizing.

"Rem is rather jealous of Emilia-sama right now."

"You want to violently attack Subaru?"

Rem looked at him as if he didn't understand what she had said. He did, he was just trying to be funny. Meiss resumed focus on his arm, and dipped the manganese spike experimentally into his gate. Was it that simple? The tip of the stake breached his skin, yet when Meiss pulled it from his arm, there was no puncture wound or blood. It just… disappeared. The feeling of the stake passing into his gate was slightly pleasurable, like the tingle in the spine when listening to certain sounds. The blonde dropped the manganese into his scars, shivering as that feeling swept through his forearm.

"Rem thinks that you had no trouble with this. A little slower to learn it than Rem and Nee-san, but that matters not. Likely your status as a foreign entity to this world."

Meiss smiled a little at this convenience he had been taught. He still wanted to test the limits of it, but should ask questions beforehand lest he stumble into negative effects. Rem suddenly poked her finger into his arm, quite forcefully.

"That better not be a fake smile, Meiss."

Meiss recoiled at her finger jab, that hurt more than it should have. Were all women deceptively strong? Meiss had no problems with it, but if women continued to painfully attack him, there would be a very large problem: The self-isolation of Meiss from the opposite gender.

"It wasn't fake, but it is now because that hurt."

Rem squeezed his arm with a little too much force. OW. Meiss squeaked like a mouse, and Emilia took a break from assaulting Subaru to look at Meiss tenderly holding his arm. Then she gave one last, nothing-held-back pinch to Subarus side. He jumped into the air, relinquishing the seat fully to Emilia, who scooted over to take up the whole thing.

"I don't think I can take another minute of this! Let alone a few hours!"

—

Subaru sat anxiously, a few hours had passed with everyone talking to each other about recent events and telling stories, though Rem didn't have any stories to share. Actually, it was mostly Subaru who was telling the stories. Emilia told a few, which Subaru realised were the children's books he had read to learn the language, and Meiss told even fewer. Now, this was about where Emilia would be knocked out by the barrier.

This barrier was an invisible force-field surrounding Sanctuary, which made anyone who was a half-blood pass out. The interesting quirk though, was that once inside, half-bloods couldn't leave. The only way to destroy the barrier and leave was to complete some ominous Trials. Subaru noticed Rem stray her gaze to Emilia a few times, she looked rather sad.

Wordlessly, he reached out his hands to grab Emilia as she slumped forward. Her head lolled to the side, resting on Subaru's shoulder as he scooted back onto the seat to hold her. He still felt anxious at her crossing of the barrier, and it would be weird if he wasn't worried. Emilia was trapped here now.

Ram hopped over the driver's seat into the carriage. She glanced around until her gaze landed on Emilia. The pink maid shuddered slightly before quietly walking over to inspect the half-elf.

…

Good, nothing else had happened besides the barriers intended effects. Ram didn't like this in particular that much, but she would do anything for Roswaal. Even trapping Emilia inside Sanctuary. Ram felt momentary envy for the book, which seemed to hold so much of her master's attention. She squashed that down though, not dropping her apathetic front.

"There is a barrier of sorts around Sanctuary, it only affects half-bloods like Emilia-sama. Do not worry, she will be fine."

Subaru lifted Emilia off of himself, handing her to Ram, who looked surprised for a second, breaking said apathetic front. He needed to make it to the front of the carriage before-

Then the world flipped in on itself.

Subaru barely registered the flipping before he landed in a crumpled heap on his side. The carriage itself was also now on it's side. Damn, he wasn't fast enough to tell Garfiel they were from Roswaal or with Ram. Subaru sat up in time to see Meiss lurch with Rem in his arms. The blonde scooted away as soon as he saw that the Oni was ok. Looking over, the cursed teen saw Ram lying unconscious with Emilia laying on top of her. Man, this was gonna hit fuzzy boy hard. Subaru groaned, his head spun violently.

"Comin' so boldly face t' face? Pretty brave'a ya, outsiders."

Those words betray the personality behind the speaker perfectly. Being regarded like he was lower than the dirt that they tread upon wasn't on Meiss' to-do list as of now. Meiss sprung out of the back of the carriage, looking around the side to try and spot who said those words. The blonde took a step to get a better view, and felt the ground rise suddenly beneath his feet. He looked down, realising that the first inch or so of ground had been bunched up like a carpet. Moving his foot revealed he had stepped on some ground that was overlapping the normal ground. So this guy could do this? Dangerous.

Meiss perked his ears up when he heard Otto's faint voice. Everyone was still in the carriage recuperating, Meiss' damage nullification had spared him from that, and he was raring to go.

"Oi, quit freakin' out. Sure yeah, yer luck's not good, gettin' caught by th' amazin' Garfiel while tryin' t' sneak in. Ta be honest, ya look as brittle as a-"

A black blur shot into this Garfiel character, Meiss recognised the black scales of Patrasche. The ground dragon flung herself into the petite, blonde boy with her teeth bared. Meiss watched with wide eyes as he reached up and swiped the diana away with one powerful movement.

"Ah, th' sound'a broken bone's just another sigh of love. Yer a good girl."

The boy, who radiated the pride of a lion, quietly flung Patrasche away without much force. He jumped up, at the same time Meiss rounded the corner of the carriage to face him. There, he saw Otto striking a battle pose, yelling something about hoodlums. Just as Garfiel reached the merchant, Meiss flung himself into the air with a long, horizontal jump. Garfiel noticed him out of the corner of his eyes, and jumped away just as Meiss' fist swung through the area he was moments before. Otto jumped back in surprise at Meiss suddenly appearing before him.

"Tch, more th'n I thought there would be."

Meiss squared himself in front of the carriage. He wouldn't make the same mistake he did on the Laifus highway. He would guard against this new threat, not fight it. With his arms covered by his sweater, he allowed dolorem to spread over his skin, and the glowing color spread over his hands with intentional slowness. Garfiel noticed this, and barked a low laugh, clasping his hands together and stretching his arms above him.

"Garf!"

Ram, holding her head, climbed out of the toppled carriage. Garfiel instantly relaxed upon hearing the pink maid, and his expression seemed to soften. Oh boy. Meiss turned to face the twin and moved out of the way so that she could see Garfiel.

"We are here on official business regarding the Arlam villagers residing within Sanctuary."

Wow, Meiss huffed at the dangling lock of hair, the impression he had of Ram shifted slightly. He didn't know she could speak with such authority. This was something he would expect from Frederica, not the pink maid of all people. Ram slowly took a few steps towards Garfiel, who closed the distance in less than a second. A few hushed words passed before Garfiel lifted the carriage and righted it. Meiss heard Subaru scream from inside.

Ram looked as if she was debating on whether to tell Garfiel to shake the carriage. She decided not to and lifted her palm from her head. Bright red started to pour down the side of her face. The maid huffed before looking at Meiss.

"Esteemed guest, do you happen to know any healing magic?"

"I would die if I used magic apparently, and no, but Rem has this knowledge."

Ram sighed, and said something under her breath, about how Rem was the only one she could stand. The pink maid climbed back into the carriage, and Meiss heard Rem's uncomfortable voice echo back. Now to deal with the one who is exuding such pressure…

Garfiel stood watching the carriage a while longer, before motioning to walk past Meiss. He stopped beside the alien, scrutinizing him up and down.

"Ya got spunk, my amazin' self'll give ya that."

Meiss opened and closed his hand, and ceased the use of dolorem. The appendage felt cold now. Meiss shot his eyes to Garfiel, whose own eyes reflected Subaru's scariness, but without the extra white around the eyes. Sanpaku, I think.

"You got some adrenaline running, mind if we exchange some blows later?"

Meiss needed experience, he had only ever fought the Witch Cult, Hakugei, and Wilhelm in a friendly spar. Quite a low amount of fights under his belt. While he had no desire to nab more fights, Meiss would like to expand his knowledge on reactions and practical things during the exchange of blows.

Garfiel barked another laugh, before flashing him a thumbs-up, canines catching the sunlight. Those seem longer than natural. The petite blonde walked confidently to the back of the carriage.

Meiss turned to face the upcoming road, the sun was high in the sky now, despite them departing early in the day. It was around fourteen, or two depending on what you're comfortable with, if Meiss had to guess. This ride had been about eight hours, with less than another quarter hour left if Meiss had to guess since they had already crossed this 'barrier' thing.

Meiss looked at his fist again. That small interaction with Garfiel had cemented something in him. No, maybe it had always been there, just hidden under something; what that something is, Meiss didn't know. If he wanted to make sure everyone could live happily, he needed to become stronger, faster, and not just in body, but in mind. Meiss had already changed so much since being ripped from his world. He used to be small, soft-spoken, forgettable. He used to be the guy who huddled in the corner during gatherings, or followed the one person he knew.

While he still is that guy to a degree, he had grown by living in tragedy. He learned how to be larger, more sure of himself. He learned how to speak louder, and make himself heard. He had learned how to fight out of necessity and vengeance. But he had been unable to protect anyone he cared about. Eura; name eaten, memories eaten, then killed while in a state of frozen being. Rem; name eaten, then forced to suffer and put up a front around the people who should have known her the best. Crusch; memories eaten, forced to blunder through a world of high expectations while trying to emulate her past self. And Meiss; name eaten, ripped from his home, his life, his friends, unable to return and forced to survive in a world that had sworn to kill it's inhabitants with every breath they took.

He wanted to be the one who protected them from the dangers of this world, even if he didn't know of them himself. He wanted to be the one that made people relax when they saw him, to alleviate their fears with his presence, to make the bad things disappear.

Meiss once more looked down the road to their destination.

He wanted to be their sanctuary.

—

The plot thickens… a tiny bit. Honestly, I didn't think this would be so long. The longest chapter by about six hundred words. Sometimes I surprise myself with how much I'm writing now. Quick math, when I post this Re: Pensivity will be at 47 935 words-ish. That blows my mind. On to the next one! In a week!

Also, I promise to have Regulus snort some formaldehyde. That'll be fun.