Alas, now the forecast is for shitstorms. Unfortunately, the hurricane is still going on, so setting is still gonna be Musette's house. This was a particularly hard chapter to write, eugh... I'm still second-guessing myself about it, but c'est la vie... Enjoy.

Themes are: The Scientist - Coldplay, Fix You - Coldplay, Seijaku wa Headphones no Naka - SEE-SAW

Chapter 9: Fix You

At this point in time, Walter was sitting up, his back propped against a pillow and looking through a text on the scientific notion of death. So far, he hadn't found anything relatively interesting about the subject, save for how many fatal points there were and where the major arteries were located. Who knows, maybe he could use the info in a slightly-sadistic way against Senel at some point. Other than that though, nothing.

The blond shifted slightly and he winced at the throbbing that spread throughout his chest and was running laps along his spine. Anyone would have been injured by crashing into a wall at that speed, the blond thought to himself, but it didn't change the fact that it had happened to him and it had hurt. He gingerly felt along his right side and felt a sharp sting in his chest. So, he had broken a few ribs… Well, he's had worse.

Closing the heavy book, Walter looked out a window and watched the howling gale continue to shake the trees and whip up a fury. Looked like the storm wasn't going to let up for a while… Now what was he supposed to do for the next few hours, or days?

Something rapped on the door a few times, and he responded, "Yeah?"

"It's me, Wally; open up!" Norma's voice answered back, her voice muffled through the door.

Perfect opportunity. "It's open…" He flipped open the book to a random page in false interest as Norma entered, still barefoot. She had her hands tucked behind her back, and her hair was in a wild tangled mess from the weather this morning. The Ferines had no real right to complain about his appearance, as he probably looked just as bad.

"So what 'cha reading?"

"Nothing much, just trying to find some information on something, which none of these books had." He replied, before flipping a page. His eyes caught that the next page contained something about strange rituals of the Orerines race, specifically about cannibalism. He turned the page to a different section almost immediately. "So, you came in here for something, what is it?"

"What's what?" Norma replied, hesitating on answering his question. She knew she was just prolonging the inevitable, but Wally was scaaary when he was mad…

The blond rolled his eyes, "Whatever thing you have to tell me. It isn't hard to see that you're fidgeting about something, so spit it out already."

Norma bit her lip, and blurted, "Aren't you still injured from when we were blown around outside and crashed into the house?" She held her breathe and smacked herself mentally. She was procrastinating again…

He didn't respond except for a surprised expression at her outburst. "…That wasn't what I expected to hear, but yes."

"Well… I can tell you while I heal you, right? I mean, what I was gonna tell you anyway but I remembered that you're still hurt so I thought…" She uncharacteristically stumbled over her words.

Walter waved a hand, "Quit mumbling, you can tell me." He took one look at her face and paused. "…It's serious, isn't it?" Norma nodded once, and a small sigh escaped his lips. "It isn't going to get any better hesitating, Beatty."

Norma nodded, and paused for a moment, "…Erm, your side, right?" A nod was what she needed. He turned, pain noticeable in his stiff posture as she touched his ribs lightly, her hands began to glow. "So… You know when JJ arrived and we went to go meet with Teach and the others, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, he… …Kinda figured it out." A muffled curse escaped his mouth and a few of the books tumbled to the floor without him really noticing. She clenched her eyes shut, "I'm sorry! He just figured out because of how weird the circumstances were and everything. Plus he… saw your cloak on the bed."

"Figures. That brat is too observant for his own good…" Walter replied, his tone already annoyed. One, even two extra people knowing about their little secret was bad enough. Adding one more made it worse, not even counting it was the dagger-happy, overly-nosy ninja.

"Well, and he would know if I was lying, so I had no choice to tell him everything- He was gonna tell everybody, Wally, I can't let him do that!" She interrupted before he had a chance to speak. "So anyway, after I told him the stuff, he'd keep it a secret under three conditions…" She paused as her eyes focused on her fingertips, working up a little bit of bravery in her next lines.

"…Well? What were they?" His tone was sharp and impatient, not a good sign.

Norma swallowed and continued. "Well… The first one was to keep him in touch with everything else that goes on. The second was to repay him that elixir I borrowed from him."

"Do you have a debt with everyone, Beatty?" He asked, snaky humor not as present in his voice.

Norma purposely ignored that question (in fact, she owed JJ an elixir, Teach some money, and Senel a few days of dinner from the restaurant) and continued on with the last one. "And the last condition… He wanted me to tell you this, and have you meet up with him and tell him your side of the story-"

"I'm not telling that pint-sized kid anything." He replied, with an angry tone to match.

Norma's first aid spell fizzled and disappeared as her concentration was distracted by their discussion. "Wally, I couldn't say no; he would have told everyone! I just couldn't-"

"You could have stayed quiet about it! You didn't have to tell him anything and it would have been fine!" He snapped back, standing with difficulty and turning to look at her with blazing eyes.

"JJ didn't give me any choice! He would have retold everything; they would all see that I've been lying about you and everything else-" Norma argued back, desperate to get a handle on the conversation before things got worse.

"So what? It isn't like lying is a rare occurrence in this age."

"Oh like you're one to talk!" Norma finally snapped back, her temper flaring as well. "You rarely tell me anything, and when those tiny things happen, you're so secretive and mysterious about it that only a genius would be able to figure out those riddles!"

"I have reasons for keeping things like those a secret, which could jeopardize everything! For that matter-" He growled, and went on to make another point when Norma continued with her little tirade.

"Jeopardize what? What's so important that you have to go out late at night searching for something, being moody and secretive, having dizzy spells for no reason, keeping secrets from everyone, keeping secrets from me! What is so important that you can't let me help?" She yelled, letting out all of her angers, concerns and questions all in one go.

"In case you haven't noticed Beatty, I DIED!" Walter's roaring outburst of anger made his eres flare around his fingers, violet light dimming to a state that barely simmered in his hands. "The only reason why I'm here is to fix something that I should have done before I died, and I'm trying to figure out what and how before my time ticks out and I go back to becoming a lifeless corpse! Who knows, maybe I can fail at that little trivial task on record time, then I can be out of your life for good!" The light kept threatening to burst out again, and his fingers clenched trying to keep his eres at bay.

Norma stood stunned, her eyes flickering from his enraged face to his convulsing powers trying to escape his grasp like his temper did. ". . . . . ." She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came to mind. What could she say? He had blurted out why he was keeping a secret from her, but their argument had been so severe that she wouldn't have been surprised if it severed any trust he had put into her. "W… Wally, I…"

Angry as he was, the blond made a move towards her and opened his mouth to yell something else, but stopped. As he had reached out to grab her wrist, the brunette had quickly backed away from his reach towards the entrance of the room, wide eyes locked on his still-glowing fingers. He noticed her gaze, and the light of his eres began to dissipate. He began to say something when Norma started first.

"I… I'm sor… ry." She answered quietly, her head bent slightly as her eyes began to fill without her consent. "I… If I had known that you…" Clasping her hands for a moment, she stood in the doorway, small and quiet and timid.

A moment or so passed, and the blond felt his anger slipping away. He didn't mean to... He opened his mouth to ask her something, "Beatty-" But the moment he had said her name, she turned and bolted out of the room, footsteps echoing through the hall.

Walter made to follow her and took a step, but not two steps from where he started, his foot stepped on the back cover of a slick-covered paperback. The book slid across the floor and out from beneath his foot. Without his usual balance with his injury, he fell to the floor and onto his side with a large thud and a small crack.

Immediately, an intense stabbing pain jolted through his chest, and he choked out a yelp of pain. Gasping, he felt another sharp jab, and it cut his breath short. He couldn't breathe without the stabbing agony ripple through his chest. A tickling feeling in the back of his throat made him cough, despite the pain it took to gasp for air. Covering his mouth with a hand, he hacked until he wheezed with effort. Even before he could see the red splotches on his palm he could taste the familiar taste of blood in his mouth.

Walter gripped his chest where the stabbing pain had occurred, and felt the irregular bump along his side where there shouldn't have been bone, and a soft area where there should have been. Nerifes damn it all…

He coughed some more, body trembling as his punctured lungs fought to get air into his system. He wiped a small bead of blood from his lips, and struggled to try and lift himself from the ground. The dull pain in his chest made it difficult to move, but if he had fought Senel in as bad as shape as this, he could certainly take some abuse now. To think... given a nigh-mortal injury from a book. Hell never hear the end of it if any others got wind of that.

After agonizing minutes ticked by, he was eventually leaning against a wardrobe, fighting back the sensation to cough up more blood that tickled his throat. He knew he would bleed out internally if he didn't get healed quickly, likely within the hour, and his only source of first aid in this storm was the brunette girl that was likely crying in her room because of him.

...Damn it.

Clutching the side of the large piece of furniture, he gradually walked to the doorway, and tried to remember which room in the huge house that Norma was likely to be in.

x x x

Norma lay in the corner of Shirley's room, on the extra bed and clutching her Relares notebook to her chest. Large watery tears fell from her eyes as she bent over and stifled her crying. Now she knew why he had appeared onto the Legacy... and it made so much sense that she could have laughed. Really, it was such a typical love story or something like that: a person dies and becomes a ghost, only allowed rest when their unfinished business was completed. Only, Wally was a live person, and whom apparently had an expiration date.

She wasn't stupid; she knew why the Ferines had refused to speak with her on the matter. It was just like the butterfly effect: step on a butterfly in the past, and you wipe out an entire ecosystem in the future. Or better yet, have someone save one butterfly, only for another large group of butterflies to suddenly keel over because of the saved one. If he had told her what his plans were, it could have been possible to avoid said-event and botch up his plans for resurrection completely. No wonder he wanted to keep it for himself and searched for rumors, and staying in contact with as few people as possible.

It made her want to cry even more with the realization that in having him answer her one question she had kept badgering about, she had started a huge argument. She told JJ everything about him, and he probably lost what little trust he had in her, which made it even worse. She clutched her notebook harder to her chest as large tears trailed down her face.

If only you were here, Teacher… You'd know the right thing to do.

She continued crying for a while, until after a while, she heard a strange thudding noise on her door. Thinking it was Wally coming in to yell at her, she called out thickly, "Go away!"

A heavy wheeze made her pause, head turned towards the door to try and hear it better. "Beatty… Are... you in there…?" It was Wally alright, but he didn't sound at all angry. In fact, he sounded… worried? Desperate?

Her curiosity made her speak again, clearing her throat beforehand. "What do you want?" She wiped away the tears on her face as a short silence took precedence.

When he had answered again, it was accompanied with a hacking cough, and a weak reply. "I… need a bit of help... Can you come out…?"

Help…? If he just wanted to be healed then he could wait until the storm passed, then he could limp over to the store and get his own! But… He sounded… weak? Wally didn't try to sound pathetic when he wanted something, so something strange must have occurred. Wiping her face again, her curiosity was enough to get her to put down her notebook and walk to the door. Hesitating and taking a calming breath, she slowly opened it.

Walter stood in front of her… No, stood wasn't the correct word. He leaned against the doorframe in front of her, hand clutching his chest and taking in short breaths as if he had run a small marathon. She piqued her head at him, and asked, "What's up…" She started, but soon saw some of the other symptoms present. His face was paler than usual, his forehead had a slight sheen of sweat on it and his expression was pained.

"...Hey." He managed to quietly say, turning his head to look over at her. When he did, she saw his normally stormy blue eyes were dull, struggling to focus on one thing.

"Wally, what's wrong?" Norma asked, reaching out to touch his arm. He opened his mouth to say something, but launched into a coughing fit, his entire body trembling as he suddenly sank to the wooden floor. She quickly kneeled beside him and held him by the shoulders, eyes wide and confused from his sudden change in health. "Wally!" His hacking subsided, voice rasping. Beads of blood covered his lips as he wheezed, the largest one sliding down and dripping off of his chin, leaving a bright red line in its place.

Norma's heart fell into the pit of her stomach at the sight of blood. What had happened to him? She had only been gone around ten minutes or so. "Wally, what's going on!" Her voice was frantic and confused.

Walter's eyes finally focused at the sound of her voice and the sensations of her fingers caressing his shoulders, "Nn… Norma?" He rasped out quietly. His body seemed so in pain that his mind was fuzzy from the coughing fit. It was hard to think…

"Yeah yeah, it's me. Now what happened to you?" She asked, her voice high-pitched and panicky.

His mind became clear again, and he tried to speak without straining his lungs, "You ran out and I was going after you. …I slipped on a book, fell on my side. The crash from the storm, it… broke some ribs... They punctured one of my lungs." His voice was clear, but wavered between a normal volume and a quiet one. The blond frowned suddenly, seemingly displeased about something. "...Feel free to laugh." He added in that familiar snarky tone.

Norma felt her insides go cold at his words, and swallowed hard. "It's ok now, Wally. I'll heal you; you'll be fine in no time!" She fought to put a hopeful smile on her face, while trying not to think about consequences. She wasn't as experienced in healing as Shirley… If only she were here.

She wrapped an arm around his back and struggled to try and lift him to his feet. His eyes clenched shut as he gritted his teeth in pain. "Come on, get up… Agh!" He was practically dead weight in his condition! Norma panted and set him down for a moment. "Wait here, I'll be back; I have to go get Granny's help." Ripping herself from his crumpled form, she flew down the stairs and searched for the older woman's help.

Looking all around the area, she couldn't find her anywhere. Calling out constantly, Norma found a neatly-written note on the dining room table: "There's an important matter I need to go take care of immediately. I'll be back in 2 hours. Madam Musette." Son of a flippin' purple weasel, this was the absolute worst time for her to leave for something!

She bolted back up the stairs and back to the fallen Ferines, who was as still as he had been before. She came back and shook him, "Musette isn't here, You gotta help me a little, Wally!" His eyes opened again, dazed-looking. His condition was scaring her. She patted the side of his face, "C'mon, wake up." He blinked a few times, and simply nodded. With much difficulty, the two had gotten to their feet, and Norma was guiding him along the hallways to the spare bedroom. The brunette's heart sank every time she saw a few brownish-red drops that had splashed onto the floor earlier.

The two entered the bedroom, and Walter collapsed on the bed as soon as they had gotten there. Norma flipped him onto his back, trying to keep him awake as long as possible. "Where's the injury, Wally?" She saw his eyes closing, and rushed to cup his face, "Come on, stay awake for me, please."

Walter's eyes opened again, and they widened slightly through the haze his mind was in at how close her worried face was to his. "...Right side." He took one of her hands and guided it across his chest to the spot where the missing bone had stabbed him.

Norma felt a slight smile tug at her lips, and began to use the strongest first aid spell she knew on him. She had all of her concentration going into her spell, she almost didn't catch what he had said a minute or so later. "What was that, sorry?"

His eyes were closed, breathing quick breaths and his face so devoid of color his hair looked a pure yellow in comparison. His lips opened again and quietly said, "No…"

"No? For what?"

His bue eyes opened slightly, staring up at the ceiling with a strange expression on his face. "Your question… That one night…" He took a deep shuddering breath and winced as he clutched his chest again, his cool hand on top of her fingers and lightly pressing against them as if it would stem the bleeding inside his ribcage. "You asked whether or not… I wanted the… cataclysm to happen… again… Answer's… no."

Norma stood quiet, her healing continuing as she thought over his words in shock. …He didn't want it to happen…? Wally had really changed that much, so much that he had thrown out his old views on the Orerines as worthless scum that deserved to be exterminated? Norma couldn't believe it. She feel a warmth spread through her body at the thought of how much he had changed, that the "fanatic Ferines" views he used to have had been changed for the better. If it hadn't been for their situation, she would have been giddy.

Looking back down at the blond below her, she noticed he had fallen unconscious, and her healing wasn't done yet. "Oh no..."She whispered to herself, a cold feeling of dread washing over her. "No no no no no." She kept one hand on his chest and used the other to smooth his hair, pat his face, shake him, "Don't fall asleep, Wally, please don't fall asleep... No no no no NO! Wake up!" No response.

The crystal eren placed her other hand onto his chest and push all of the first aid spells she could into him, feeling her mana being depleting at a rapid speed. "Please wake up, please wake up, please wake up!" Her head bent over, water began to seep from her eyes at the unpleasant thoughts running through her head. He couldn't leave… He couldn't just go away and die on her, not like her Teacher had. He had changed… He changed; that was worth something, wasn't it...!

Images of the memories she had of him came to mind, both his lives running through her head on fast-forward. The first time she had seen him in the Underground Tunnel, himself in Ferines garb before the Bridge, the Mirage Palace, the Wings of Light, their meeting at Lumen Spring, the dizzy spells, healing his wound from the dragon, the laughs and jokes, quieting his nightmares late that one night, comforting him in his memories, saving her in the middle of a hurricane, taking a blow into a wall for her, his answer of "No"…

"I won't let you die, Wally! Not in a million years!" Norma announced, tears streaming down her face as her fingers clutched the fabric of his shirt tightly. "You're… important to me. You're a friend, whether you like it or not!" Her voice broke as she sobbed the next few lines. "E-even… the Everlight… My dream… My t-teacher's dream; our dream… It's only an object, a thing. Y-you're a person, living and breathing… Like h-him… A-and… And I don't want you to leave me either!"

She places all of the mana she could into her techniques, so much her body glowed a bright yellow like it did in the Wings of Light. So much she ran out of it, and kept on going without noticing the drain it was taking from herself. So much, that a bright flash of eres-powered light filled the room for a few seconds before slowly fading. Norma's eyes closed against their will, and she fell to the floor unconscious.

x x x

At any rate, don't be too concerned; she's fine. Overuse of TP takes away from HP, and KO's them with enough for life functions. As for Walter… You'll have to check in next chapter to see if he made it. (Really, would I kill him off though? He's suffered enough, don't you think?)

Reviewer Corner

Shiroi Iyasu: Filler-ish? I was hoping it didn't seem that way, what with the slight fanservice in the beginning... But don't worry about Shirley, she'll be popping up next chapter.

Pandiita: Wow, long review... And please, much as I love anyone reading my fic I'd prefer you not become an addict over it: it'll be harder for you when I finish it! ^^;

As for Walter's backstory I always imagined (whether it was confirmed or not, I don't know) that he was appointed as the bodyguard of the Merines from his village elder since he was a kid, like Shirley was destined to be the Merines. Then Senel comes along and takes that away with his friendship with Shirley. I imagine he would get a bit touchy about that. And like you said, I always felt that there was something else besides his job fueling his anger towards the Orerines... Thus, the whole thing with his mom and village: I saw him as just another unfortunate Ferines who got the bad end of the stick like Fenimore and so many others. And I love that you prefer my point of view, so do I~! XD But really, I'm just using logic to fill in plotholes.

As for Norma and her feet... Well, that was an error on my part. I was writing that she was walking around just fine, but completely forgot about the broken glass.

Again, thanks for the reviews, you two! And to all my silent readers out there, thanks for being around to enjoy this as much as I do!