For the past few months, a thought had been eating away at Matt's mind. It had been clear to him perhaps his entire life, but it was only recently that he became fully aware of it. The realisation all living creatures must someday go through.

"I'm gonna die soon, aren't I?"

He thought back to the airship.

"The guys up there were bad news. Seriously, isn't it unfair that they get to be so powerful? How's this balanced at all? I'm definitely gonna die soon if shit like this keeps happenin'..."

So on that note, he had a newfound determination to change something in his life.

"The rest of my life is probably gonna be really short, so I can't waste time stuck on the same things I have been for years. So, I'm done going after Alicia. That's kind of hopeless and I haven't made any progress in the past ten years, so y'know. Anyways, time to move on as quickly as possible, before I get horrifically murdered."

Despite this determination, he had no idea how he would do this.

"Maybe I should ask someone for help? Who though?"

He thought about this for a while longer.

"I should ask a guy, right? The edgy one whose name I forgot is weird. So is the tall one. Terrence is alright but something tells me that he has no idea about any of this. Same applies to Anthony and Riko. Josh's definitely shifty, I ain't goin' near that guy if I can help him.. Uh... who does that leave me with? They all seem decent. Hmm…"

A great realisation swept across him.

"If bullshit powers got me into this mess, they're getting me out of it!"

"So that's why I need ya to help me out." Matt finished explaining to Joseph.

"I mean, sure, why not."

"Then, what should I do?"

Joseph froze up.

"How should I know?" He thought, before quickly making up an answer "To start, why don't we just look around the group, see if there's any potential."

"Yeah sure, that'll probably work."

The bluff was successful. They went through the members of the group in whatever order they could find them.

First was Alexandra. They considered this for a few seconds.

"No." They both said in unison. She was too impossible to approach and pretty clearly still only focused on strength.

Moving on, they encountered Lyra next. Once again, a "No." in unison. She had the same lack of approachability, though this was more due to the void that took the place of her emotions. Not only that, it was like they sensed an evil presence in the shadows, ready to strike if they even stepped slightly loser, with all the force of a pretty annoyed melynx.

Next up was Natalie and Natasha.

"Nah, this won't work." Joseph announced pretty much instantly.

"Wait, why?"

"If ya can only date one, then what's the point?"

"...What?"

"With set ups like these, where the two are opposites but a pair, doesn't that just make ya want to go for both? If ya just go for one, won't that feel empty? They're meant to be a duo, separate that and what do ya get? Nothing! Nothing but a hollow feeling! Nothing but the feeling that something's missing! It's one of those things that is designed to be a part of something larger. That's why ya can't have one without the other. It'd be a waste of time."

"Ya just spoke a lot of bullshit. But still, sure. They're kinda hard to approach anyways."

Next was Vert.

"Ya don't wanna die, right?"

"I guess."

"Then we should move on. She'll probably kill ya, then maybe me."

"Why?"

"Who knows."

They then saw Alicia. A few seconds later they realised they had already gone through every girl in the group.

"Aren't I just back where I started?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Should we try the guys next?"

"Seriously?"

"Might as well keep yer options open at this point."

"Sure."

First was Zach.

"I mean sure he's alright… but there's always that slight chance he could transcend reality and destroy the planet. Better safe than sorry."

They moved on to see Ben.

"Once again, he'll probably kill ya and then maybe me."

"Why?"

"Who knows."

They then saw Anthony and Riko.

"They're already taken, right?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, probably."

Next up was Terrence, who was about to depart on a quest.

"He's 17." Joseph noted, before they moved on.

Next was Ed.

As they approached, they heard him yelling something to Revel about the dark prophecy and the ascension past humanity. They just decided to leave.

The next was Josh.

"Way too creepy." Matt said.

"Agreed." Joseph replied.

"Seriously, what's up with suddenly changing sides like that? Like hell I could trust him."

"Yeah, exactly. This shit doesn't work like Jump, ya know? Ya can't just be killing each other one minute and be buddies the next. It just ain't right. Besides who'd ever wanna speak to a murderer, am I right?"

"Wait a sec, didn't ya have him join yerself?"

"...I guess but it was a heat of the moment thing, now I've realised how creepy he is."

"Sure."

With that they moved on, but found that the only other one left was Sean. This wouldn't work.

Matt looked at Joseph, who quickly went "Nah."

This left them with no options remaining.

Matt paused to process this for a few seconds.

He then collapsed onto the ground, emanating a pained sound.

"Ah, I give up. I'm just gonna try my luck."

"Wait, this'll probably fail anyway."

"Then give me advice. Wait a minute… do ya even have any experience with this kinda stuff?"

Joseph responded with a few seconds of silence, before fingergunning at Matt.

Matt was also silent.

Joseph continued fingergunning.

A few minutes of silence passed.

"That murderer dude knows what to do in this kinda situation, right?" Matt thought aloud.

"Probably." Joseph responded, the fingerguns stopping instantly.

They approached Josh, who turned to face them almost instantly, unnerving them.

"Uh, we gotta ask ya ta help out with somethin'?" Joseph asked.

"What is it?" Josh asked.

They quickly explained the situation.

"Well," Josh answered "If you'd be fine with a murderer's help, then sure, why not?"

Both of them paused instantly, before spinning around.

"He totally heard us, didn't he?" Matt whispered.

"No doubt. This is just even more creepy. How good's his hearing? How much does he hear? Seriously, no way to trust him." Joseph whispered back.

"Wait."

"What?"

"Isn't he able to hear this too?"

Joseph didn't answer that, he just spun around again before announcing "We should get on, right? No point wasting time."

"Yeah, I guess so." Josh responded. "Anyways, here's the plan…"

A few hours later, the formation was set up.

Josh waited from his position atop a building. Joseph was atop another.

Josh made the signal for Matt to move out. A Matt dressed completely differently from how he normally did, complete with sunglasses, emerged from the shadows.

"Let's roll." He announced to himself.

He strolled down the street, before seeing Alicia, just sort of standing around absent-mindedly.

"Hey." He began, making his voice deeper than normal.

"Oh, it's Matt." Alicia thought aloud.

"What are ya doin' here?" Matt asked, quickly realising he needed something to talk about.

"I feel like Sean's gonna come this way soon. So I'm waiting."

Matt paused for a second to look up at Josh, who gave him some hand signals in response.

"Well anyways, do ya wanna go hunt a Basarios?"

"Well I would but… I still feel like he's gonna be here soon. Why don't we go with Sean?"

"Sure, if he arrives in the next few minutes." Matt looked back up and used some hand signals of his own.

"Looks like it's scenario four hundred and thirty three, then. Josh muttered "Seriously, he sure went all in on planning this out. Just having us wingman would've been good enough. Still, gotta stick to it. Doesn't look like Joseph's spotted Sean in the immediate area yet, otherwise he'd let me know."

As he thought this, he looked over to check on Joseph. He was gone. "Why?" He thought, already falling into despair.

A few minutes earlier, Joseph had been surveying for Sean as promised. He then saw, in the distance, Terrence walking through town, looking beaten up.

In an instant, he was already there.

"What happened?" He asked, in a panic.

"I tried hunting a Crystalbeard Uragaan but I kinda failed..." Terrence replied, audibly and visibly upset.

"We're gonna go get revenge right now."

"Wait, don't you have anything to do though?"

"I already forgot what that was, so it's probably not important. Let's go, c'mon. I won't let it continue living any longer."

Joseph set off with a frightening look in his eyes.

This left Josh up there, confused.

"Well, hopefully Sean still isn't nearby..." He noticed Sean only a street away from Matt and Alicia. "Oh. Shouldn't have said anything." He had no choice, so he jumped down, landing in front of Sean.

"I'm gonna need you to stop."

Sean continued onwards, ignoring him.

Josh sighed and drew his scythe.

"I really need you to stop."

Sean raised his weapon in response, figuring he wasn't going to pass without a fight.

"So ya finally decided to betray us." He responded.

"This is gonna be a pain to explain later…" Josh thought.

"Huh, weird." Alicia thought aloud "It doesn't feel like Sean's gonna come this way anymore. Must've just been a coincidence."

"Then, we should go now, right?"

"I guess."

Matt looked up to check on the others, before noticing they were missing.

"Wait… I'm on my own?"

They went to the hunting grounds, Matt suddenly becoming really quiet and unconfident the entire time.

They reached the monster and began fighting, Matt still being distracted throughout the fight.

"Okay so, here's the important part." The Josh of a few hours ago told him. "Just focus on the hunt while you're fighting, since it's still gonna be dangerous, deal with the stuff you wanna deal with afterwards."

Matt wasn't in the state of mind to remember this correctly.

As he dodged around an attack and landed next to Alicia, he quickly stammered out a "Hey, so like, I've got something important to talk abou-"

He was cut off by Klaus blocking a charge from the enemy.

"Can't it wait until after this?"

"I mean… like… no? Wait no yeah. Definitely yeah."

So they continued on with the hunt. A short while later, the monster collapsed to the ground.

Matt had regained some sense and was now regretting pretty much everything.

"So, what did ya wanna say?" Alicia asked him, taking him by surprise.

"Uh, actually, can it wait until we get back?"

"Sure…"

On the way back, Matt thought back to what even led him here.

The boy was all alone in the world. His parents had gone off to fight with the rest and vanished in the same way, on a distant battlefield he couldn't even imagine. There was nothing he could've done to stop this. This caused a despair beyond what he could've possibly imagined. The feeling of having no one to rely on, to be helped by. The feeling that this fate was unavoidable.

That's why a figure of hope meant so much to him.

"Hey, are ya alright?" The girl asked him.

Matt was slumped against a wall, looking down.

"Isn't he dead?" The boy next to her asked.

"Ah, wait, that'd be kinda bad. Hey, can ya please be alive?"

"What kinda messed up request is that?" Matt mumbled back, now looking up slightly.

"Ah, see, he is alive!" The girl bragged "But yeah anyways, good. Did ya lose yer parents in the fighting too?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Then we're here to help! Well, we'd try to help anyways, but still-"

"It's just ya here to help, I don't want a part in this." The boy next to her protested.

"Quiet. Back to the point, we're tryna find somewhere that'll take us in, since stayin' on the streets all the time sucks. Wanna come with?"

"...Can't I just die here? It's not like I have any reason to continue."

The girl went silent for a few seconds in response to this.

"No. Won't let ya."

"...What's it matter?"

"Yer alive. Might as well get the most out of it."

The girl smiled after she said that, while the boy next to her turned to look away with a sigh.

The boy on the ground was silent. The girl extended her arm.

"What's yer name anyway?" The boy asked.

"Alicia."

The boy grabbed onto her arm and was pulled up.

"Mine's Matt."

"Then, nice to meet ya." Alicia paused for a second "Oh yeah right, the gloomy one's Sean. I might as well introduce him since he probably won't introduce himself."

"Shouldn't we get goin' already?" Sean asked. "We've wasted enough time already."

"Yeah, sure. Ya good to walk?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine."

Matt left that alleyway, following the person similar to light.

They managed to find a place a short while later, Alicia picking up whoever she found along the way. Life here was peaceful, with nothing much changing. Matt was comfortable. It's not as though this was the best possible life, but it was the best the Matt of that situation could imagine, so long as light was there..

It was a few years later that the life started to crumble and break apart.

A wounded young Azure Rathalos landed in the fields near town. The first to discover him were those three, now later into their teens.

"What should we do with this?" Matt thought aloud.

"Dunno. Maybe we can just let him go?" Alicia suggested.

"And what about when he comes back all grown up?"

Alicia waited a few seconds before responding with "Maybe he'll spare just us."

Matt was trying to think of a way to come back to that, when Sean interrupted with "We should keep him."

Both of the others present took a good few seconds to process this statement.

"Sean…" Matt began.

"What?"

"Did ya just…" Alicia continued.

"Why are ya doin' this?"

"Show interest in something!?" They both yelled in unison.

"Yeah, I guess."

Ignoring their shock, he continued on.

"I feel like this guy could be useful."

"Oh, so it's something weird." Matt thought.

"Well, if that's the case, shouldn't we give him a name or something?" Alicia suggested.

"I don't really care, but sure, what have ya got in mind?"

"Um… How about Azure? Since y'know, he's an Azure Rathalos."

"She really can't name anything, huh?" Matt thought to himself, "Well whatever, I'm sure I can think of something good after Sean refuses this."

"Sure." Sean replied, his tone ever unchanging.

"Was he just gonna accept whatever?" Matt thought.

Another short while passed, Azure recovered and grew older, to the point where he now resembled an adult.

It was a day in mid summer when Sean disappeared.

Matt never saw what happened. All that he saw was the aftereffects.

The absence of Sean and Azure, as well as Alicia's terrible emotional state. Yet again, something had changed without him being able to stop it.

A great deal of time went by before Alicia would return a state anyone could call functional, but even then it was apparent she was no longer the same as before. Around two years passed without this ever changing, the remaining pair became hunters, still based in that same village they'd been left behind in.

It was almost unsurprising when Alicia disappeared, in much the same way. Only this time, Matt had never even encountered the way she left. But still, he somehow knew. She'd soared off into the sky on the back of another wyvern. Once again, something had changed without him being able to stop it.

Following that, he set off on a journey without hesitation. He felt it. There wasn't any point to staying here. A wyvern wouldn't come along to take him to where the rest went. He had to make his own way to them.

Matt found himself a few months later in the desert, on the verge of despair. He just needed to hunt a Tigrex, but his lack of drive to do anything and loneliness were dragging him down.

"I've just gotta… make enough money to move to the next town over already. Maybe they'll be there. I've gotta… continue."

These thoughts were already beginning to be ineffective in motivating him to continue through this blazing desert.

It was as he continued forward that he saw the event that would change things once more.

It was perhaps an unromantic scene. Normally with important things you expect something dramatic, but this was just the same unchanging desert landscape, the sun so bright you could barely see a thing. A normal day.

As is the way of the world, something was dying. A Diablos lay before Matt, heavily wounded. Blood covered the sand. Its horns were damaged, its armour pierced. As if a joke, its wings had been torn to ribbons. Those wings which could never reach the sky were now broken, like rubbing salt into the wound.

Matt would normally have walked past such a sight, it wasn't uncommon after all. Yet, he spoke. Whether it was out of boredom, empathy or curiousity he still wasn't sure.

"I suppose yer like me, huh? Stuck on the ground forever. No way of coming close to that sky always hanging over us, taunting us."

The Diablos didn't move.

"Do ya wanna live? Or die?"

The Diablos still didn't respond.

"Nah, I'm not gonna give ya a choice. Today… I feel like remembering someone. So I'm gonna repeat her words."

He paused to cough and prepare himself, as if he was unworthy of the words.

"Yer alive. Might as well get the most out of it."

He got out his potions and made the Diablos drink them, recovering enough so that it could stand once more.

The Horned Wyvern got back up, but contrary to Matt's expectations, it didn't suddenly become violent. It just remained quiet and waited.

Matt turned to leave, to which the Diablos followed.

He continued going different ways, the monster following each time.

"Eh?" He thought.

No matter how much he tried to escape, the Diablos continued to follow. A little while later he caved in, giving him the name Klaus.

If he couldn't escape the ground, then he'd just have to make do there.

He continued to travel with Klaus, trying to find any trace of who he was pursuing. That's what led him to the point where he saw two hunters flying on the backs of two wyverns. The end of his journey's beginning.

It was evening by the time they returned. Despite this convenient flashback, Matt was still hesitating.

"Can we move somewhere else?"

The final location Matt decided on was atop a building, with all the lights of the street blazing brightly below the two of them.

"Yeah. This is it." He thought "I've gotta do it now. Just be confident."

He cleared his throat, then spoke with great confidence. "Hhhagagahaiaiaoaoaahshsha."

"What?" Alicia replied.

"This completely failed." Matt thought.

He tried speaking again.

"Ok so like… I dunno how to phrase this well. But I'mma try. We've known each other a while, right? Eleven years, I think. So maybe it's weird now but it's fine since this has been happening a while I was just too afraid to say it and I'm getting off topic aren't I. Look, I dunno emotions well but I guess I love ya. Like, romantically."

"Ok, that's it. Now to see how she reacts. I'm prepared for anything."

Alicia paused a second "Oh, so that's what this was about. Well, I uh… kinda already knew."

"Wait, not that one."

TO BE CONTINUED