A/N: well it's been a horribly long day (I've been on a computer, but really, doing biology sucks. I put it off until today and that didn't go over well, clearly) so I decided I needed a ten/twenty/thirty/however-long-I-decide-to-make-it minute break. So in my spare time, this. Gwen's POV

Disclaimer: own nothing.

The cave was a massive hole in the ground that led into a tunnel down to a space that widened and lengthened, big enough to fit Kevin's hulking form without it being awkward for him to move or stand. His wings had to remain folded tightly against his back to prevent them from scraping against the top.

It was unnaturally warm, like a living, breathing sauna. I stared around in wonder at the piles of wings exactly like the one around me that looked like a mountain of blankets. The stones placed in a circle in the main open space. There was what looked like a fire pit, rocks surrounding it in a messy formation.

I didn't comment at all. I knew that in a place as desolate as the Null Void, this must've been a palace fit for a king.

"It's not much," said Kevin, making me turn to face him out of fear that he would try to kill me, "but this is home." He gestured around, making me take another look at it before I gazed back at him, hearing the scuffing of his feet against the cold dirt ground.

Kevin was leaving.

"Where are you going?" I asked, panic evident in my voice. My eyes were huge as I clutched the wing tighter to me, finding it a comfort now in this prison. "Don't just leave me here!" I sounded pitiful. Pathetic, to say the least. Fear was closing in on me as I took a step towards him, eager to follow so that I couldn't get left behind. I didn't want to be left behind down here. I didn't know if the blue creatures were coming back for me. I didn't want them to come back for me. I had to stick with Kevin. He was my only protection.

"I'm just going to put a rock over the entrance. Don't want any unexpected guests dropping in." He looked back at me, his face looking like it was trying to smile, but seemed incapable of showing the simplest emotions. "Null Guardians like to check up on everyone. I don't like 'em droppin' in on my place."

I just stood there in silence as he vanished. I kept my eyes wide open, not blinking. I didn't want one of those creatures coming out of the walls. I didn't want to see any of them coming to get me. Fear was radiating through me. I kept looking over my shoulders for any signs of them. I didn't want anything sneaking in.

The sound of something covering the entrance came. The scuffing of Kevin's feet came back down through the long tunnel. His deep red form appeared in the newly found darkness of the cave, his fiery Heatblast arm the only form of any light. The glow was cast across the warm brown walls. A coughing laugh came from him as he saw me. "You look like you're about to wet your pants," he said.

I probably looked like a chicken in the paws of a fox. "I didn't know if you were coming back," I whimpered. "I didn't know if those blue things were coming after me again." The wing was wrapped against my shoulders tightly and I felt tears pricking at my eyes.

His wicked smile faded. "Don't worry," he said, voice soft with that harsh tone still there. I figured he was kind of stuck with it. "I won't leave you again."

I gave a silent nod, just staring at his form in the darkness. His hulking body began to move to the darker part of the room and he reached down to pick something up that looked like large pieces of driftwood. He piled up a few in his Wildmutt arms and moved to drop them in the center of the fire pit circle of rocks. Then he shot a small blast from his fiery arm that shot a tiny flame. That lit the cracked and dry wood on fire, bringing more light to the entire space. It entranced me with its welcoming warmth.

"By the way," he said, bringing me from my realm of joy in the heat, "those are called Necrofriggins. Just so you know. Not 'blue things' or whatever you would've called 'em." He sat on a log on one side of the fire, his blue and black striped tail curving close to the back of it. His wings were still pressed tightly to his back and his fangs were barely visible. "You okay?"

I nodded, but just barely. On the inside, I was nowhere near okay.

"You can sit down." One of his clawed Wildmutt fingers pointed to a small, flattish rock that was a few feet away from me. I didn't really realize how big this cave was. "I don't bite."

I did sit a moment later, my gaze still locked on him. I was just going through the motions, focused on what was happening around me more than what I was actually doing. "Thanks, Kevin," I breathed, knowing that he was my life-source now. He was all I had to rely on for survival.

"It's not a problem," he said, a small, crooked half-smile playing across his mangled features. "It gets lonely here. Takin' someone in is helping you and helping me. It's kind of a win-win." He poked at the fire with his Heatblast arm. I winced as he touched it, still reeling from the fact that fire couldn't hurt one who was already a flame. "Besides, I gotta get some karma points back and all, right?"

It was the most amazing thing when I could stare into the brightly blazing fire, hearing Kevin's words in his harsh, throaty voice, and just smile at them. Like I could smile every other day of my life. Smiling in a hell-hole. Who would've thought?

A/N: this chapter was a bit shorter, but I had to get this part in because I wanted to get some detail about the Null Void. Next chapter, we'll get back to the good stuff, but for now, you go click the cute blue button and review because I said so. Thank you.

~Sky