Chapter 7

Holy shit on a golden plate, my head hurts! Good news is: I thought I saw Krow earlier. That makes me happy. Either it means that I'm going to start having really cool dreams or it wasn't a dream at all. I really hope it wasn't a dream. The bad news is: I feel like I was hit with an electrified lead pipe.

I also felt sandy, very sandy. Wasn't sure if that's a good thing or not but it is uncomfortable.

I move slightly, but don't open my eyes. I don't feel ready yet. The moving, though, has told me that I am laying in a bed somewhere. Movement beside me tells me that I am not alone.

That's a good enough reason to open my eyes. I crack them open at first, realizing that it's easier said then done. But the sight that greets me is a pleasant one.

Krow's face is above mine, looking down at me with obvious worry and confusion. "Hey," I croak. "Good to see you." My voice is weak and the rest of me is tired too, not to mention my headache.

Krow raises an eyebrow at me. "Yeah, but how are you here? I thought you were dead."

"Is that the story?" I asked. Did they really think I died in that battle?

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Krow got like this whenever I got cryptic on him. He hated it, and always had a knack of making me give him straight answers.

"I honestly don't know what you think happened to me, so why don't you tell me what happened so I can figure out the best way to explain it." Talking is hard when all you want to do is go back to sleep. But I was also afraid to go back to sleep. What if I wake up back on earth?

Krow sits back in the seat I hadn't even realized he had been sitting in. "You went to help your dark friend save the city. You didn't come back. Not even he knew what happened to you. Everyone thought you were dead."

"Who's your source?"

"Kidavi."

Ah, yes. Dear Kid. She was my age, a little older maybe, and a tomboy/cross-dresser. Charming personality, didn't know she was boy until about month after I met her. She prefers to be referred to by the feminine pronoun. Turns out, KG like women rather than men racing around on hover-boards. She's incredibly smart, and really good at getting information that is otherwise impossible to get.

"So, what's the truth?"

I looked up at him, leaving my musings about Kid alone for the moment. "I went to my home world," I answered bluntly.

Krow blinked and took a moment. I had told him before that I was from a different dimension. Looking back at it, I'm sure he thought I was crazy.

"You actually went back?"

"Yup."

"So then why are you here?"

What's a good answer? The straight truth or a modified version of the truth? It's not like I don't trust him, because I do. I just like keeping things to myself if it's possible. And besides that, this isn't something I like to admit so freely.

"I was thrown back after a while."

"After a while?" He repeated. Why do people do that?

"Yes."

"So you were there for a while and then you were suddenly sent back?"

"How else would I end up…" I didn't know where I was… "Here." That was a lame ending…

He seemed to sense how lame that was. "The wasteland," he enlightened me. "You are in the wasteland."

The wasteland? (Crap! I did it in my mind! I'm so lame…) How the hell did I end up here from the original place that I was at? I was originally in the pumping station, if anyone recalls. I sure you do, it was a rather frightening situation, watching me try to make a rational plan while laughing manically. Oh yeah, good times.

"Spargus?"

Krow looked genuinely surprised all of a sudden. "How do you know of the city?"

Dammit! Why did I always have to let on that I know everything? It seriously wasn't healthy for me. "Eh, I heard it from a traveler."

That's right. I told him the last time we were together that I was from a different dimension, but I did not elaborate how I got here. That also means that I didn't tell him that I in our world, Precursora was a part of a video game, and that I probably knew more about the great warrior Mar than most scholars.

"No one knows about Spargus, that isn't a Spargian."

"He was a marauder." That made sense, right?

Obviously it did because he grudgingly accepted my answer. "Answer one more." When I nodded he continued. "Will you try to get back this time?"

An answer I didn't need to think about. I answered him firmly, setting my resolve. "No."

/-/-/

I slept for what felt like days but knew it was only hours. When I woke again, Krow was not there but another familiar face was. "Seem." I whispered it to myself, but the monk heard me. She turned to look at me, something akin to surprise and annoyance in her eyes.

"So you have heard of me," she said softly, in that whispery little voice of hers.

"A few things." At least she didn't ask me how I knew her.

She nodded and saw fit not to continue our little conversation. I was still tired but my mind seemed to be in two billion places at once. "I'm Tox."

"I know who you are, traveler."

Traveler? What the hell did that mean? I wanted to ask her but she seemed to be doing something else with her back to me. Now I know how my victims feel when I accidently slip how much I know.

That was pretty much it on the conversation level with the girl so I decided to take in my surroundings. I was in another Spargan house, but a different one from the one that I had woken up last time. The window was in a different place and I could hear the ocean from here. It was fairly dark in here except for the golden light streaming in through said window.

"Where am I?"

"The healing centers."

"Why? I thought I was doing pretty well where I was before."

"Krow had other things to do than watch over an unconscious girl. He brought you to me."

"You know who I am?" I got her talking, I wasn't going to waste the opportunity. She seemed like an all knowing person, the kind that knew more about you than your best friend. She was creepy that way, so I had to know how much she knew.

"I know you have traveled a long way and have special abilities because of it."

Hmm, pretty spot on. Looking back at it, she was the first person that knew more about me at first glance than I knew about her, if you don't admit her near future. Speaking of that, I don't know what time period I was sent too. Obviously it's post-Kor enough that word of my departure has reached the wasteland, but still could be pre-Jak since Krow still called him 'my dark friend' instead of whatever he would call him when he became a part of Spargus.

"Has the Dark One showed up yet?"

"I am not sure what who you are referring to."

"I'm going to say no then. What about the Daystar?"

She turned very suddenly to me. "How do you know of the Daystar?"

"The fact that you are surprised had told me it has yet to make an appearance."

"It will come soon?"

"Yes."

An interesting expression crossed her face, one I couldn't read, as she turned back around to the table she was working in front of. She was deathly still for a long moment then went back to whatever she had been doing. I was about to ask what it was when she turned back to me holding a clay bowl.

She moved to the side of the bed, not saying a word and her face was carefully kept neutral. She set the bowl on the floor and sank to her knees. Dipping one hand in the brick-red substance, she picked up my hand with other, and smeared the stuff over my finger. That was the first time I noticed that my finger tips were an interesting color of black, as if they had been charred.

"What happened to my hand?"

"It looks like eco burns and some deterioration of the skin," the monk answered, her voice as neutral as her face. It was annoying.

I wanted to make some snide comment at her but felt it would not make me feel better and decided to stay quiet and let her work. She rubbed the stuff into my skin, which made them feel tingly as apposed to feeling nothing, like they had before she started. Once she was done she picked up the bowl and returned it to the table she had first mixed it on. She then reached down and opened a drawer, pulling out a package.

"These have clothing in it that will fit you. Put them on when you feel well enough to leave."

She did not say anything else, waved to a mirror on the other side of the room to draw my attention to it. By the time I looked back at her, she was gone from the room, probably out the door.

Left alone in the dark, I fell asleep again.

XXX

A/N: A/N: I threw so many references in this, I'm not going to try to explain them all. One of the biggest is the glider scene. I will explain a bit for this one. My big project, The Hidden Library, has these gliders in them as a big part of the story concept. So they're there as a bit of a tease. I'm also thinking about giving Tox a new weapon. I didn't get as far into the plot with chapter than I thought I was, so I couldn't give it to her yet. She makes a comment about it. Another thing: My character expansion for this is including all the characters that were supposed to be in TL but never made it. Kid was one of them. I love his character concept but I didn't have a place to put him before. I hope you enjoyed, and as it turns out, I write better at two in the morning than at two in the afternoon. (At least I feel more sarcastic)

Broken Wolf/D.R.M.