The next few weeks were tough, but it was the most fun I had ever had.

I spent the majority of each day, except weekends, training at the arena with Vashyron, and each night I went home to a warm, comfortable bed. I had water, food, clothes, a roof over my head, and everything else I could have ever wanted. What's more, I had a friend.

The more time I spent with Vashyron, the closer we became, and the fear I had of talking to other people slowly faded into non-existence. There wasn't a day that went by I wasn't happy to see him in the morning, and he was the best teacher I had ever had.

The training was easy at the beginning, and most of the stuff he was telling me I already knew, but he didn't once lose his temper with me. During the harder training exercises he stayed calm even when I got it wrong a million times; he didn't seem discouraged when I forgot things he had told me more than once, and during the easy stuff he didn't lose his cool when I wasn't paying attention.

Today was another one of those days, and we had been going over the correct way to aim at a moving target for the past half hour. We had done this twice before. Needless to say, my mind had wandered off a few minutes after he began talking. I was brought out of my daydream at the distant sound of his voice.

"Am I boring you?"

I quickly pulled myself back to reality to see him standing close to me with his arms crossed, one of his eyebrows raised questioningly. This was the first time he had ever said anything about my occasional lack of enthusiasm, and, despite the fact that he didn't seem angry, I decided that now might be a good time to kick the habit.

"...N...no...sorry...my mind wandered off."

"Well do you think you could get it to wander back here? I know we've done this before but it's really important."

"Yeah. Sorry. I'm listening."

"Alright, well, since you seem to think this is so easy it's not worth listening to, how about you show me how it's done?" he chuckled, throwing a handgun to me and watching as I struggled to catch it.

Once I had sorted myself out and was holding the gun properly, he pointed to one of the moving targets that had recently been set up for us. The arena seemed to be filled with stuff like that. No matter what kind of training you wanted to do, they would accommodate it. Vashyron told me that they even kept monsters here for live target practice.

"If you can hit that target in the centre ring, I'll let this go and we can move onto something more difficult," he chuckled, stepping back out of the way.

If there was one thing I had learned during this training so far, it was that I had a good aim. Vashyron had made numerous comments -and jokes- about how good I was at hitting a target.

I raised my arms in the direction of said object, once again enjoying the feeling of the cold steel in my hands, and aimed at the small, red ring in the centre. The target was moving relatively quickly, -Vashyron told me that they were set up to simulate the average speed of a human being, and it was quite a distance away from where we were standing, making it difficult to even see the smallest circle in the middle. However, the recent weeks of training, as well as my prior 'experience' with firearms made it simple enough. I just had to focus.

Taking a few seconds to ready myself, I pulled the trigger just as the target entered my line of sight. The mark it left wasn't visible from this distance, but I heard the familiar, muffled noise of the bullet piercing the board.

Not a second later, I felt Vashyron's hand patting my shoulder.

"Nice work! I really didn't think you were gonna hit that!" he laughed, unable to mask the surprise in his voice. I must admit it felt good to prove him wrong for once, but the main thing on my mind was the joy of having someone be proud of me.

I found myself smiling again.

"Well, then I guess we can move on to the fun stuff," he chuckled, patting my shoulder again lightly, before taking the gun from me and holstering it, moving away, "But we can save that for tomorrow. It's getting dark."

He looked up at the sky as if to prove his point, and I followed his line of vision, seeing that it was, indeed, early evening.

"C'mon," he nodded in the direction of the door, before exiting the arena with me following, heading back into town.

The walk back was enjoyable as usual; we talked about unimportant things; Vashyron made jokes and I laughed, and I enjoyed the view outside the city, something I had never cared about before.

Before we reached our street, Vashyron stopped, rummaging in his pocket, before handing me a wad of slightly crumpled notes.

"Would you go and pick us up something to eat for dinner? I have a thing I need to do."

I accepted without asking what it was he needed to do. As interested in him as I was, I thought it best not to pry too much into his life. He was letting me stay with him, treating me like an equal, and teaching me everything he knew. I couldn't ask for more than that, and I didn't want to do anything that might jeopardize it in any way.

He waved to me as we went our separate ways; him, heading back home, and me making my way towards the main street where the shops were.

The walk was short, but the cool, evening air was refreshing, and the lights around the town were starting to flicker to life. To anyone else this town looked like a slum, but to me it may as well have been paradise. I passed a few residents on the way, none of whom spoke to me, but just being able to walk by them as a normal person with a normal life made me happy enough.

After picking up some hot soup and freshly baked bread from a stall with a very pretty young woman I found it difficult to look in the eye, I made my way back home, tucking my hands into the pockets on my jacket to keep them warm, the shopping bag hooked around one of my wrists. It had started to rain lightly, but I had a hood, and it didn't take long to get home from there.

When I reached the house the lights were on and the front gate was open, hanging slightly off one of the hinges as usual. It never closed properly, and Vashyron had told me many times that he was going to fix it. He clearly wasn't.

It wasn't until I passed through the gate and reached the front door that I heard voices coming from inside. It was unusual for Vashyron to have invited someone else into the house, especially without telling me.

I hesitated for a while with my fingers over the handle, before pressing my ear against the door instead. It sounded like two people were talking. One of the voices was unmistakeably Vashyron's, but who was the other? It sounded like a man, but I had never heard them before.

I heard some footsteps as the voices went silent, before the other person spoke, the words literally causing my heart to stop.

"You don't have to worry anymore; I'm here to take him off your hands."

I felt my hands start to shake as one thought ran through my mind.

He doesn't want me anymore.

The only thing I could think to do next was run as I heard the footsteps coming closer to the door, dropping the bag of food on the ground. I heard the door open just as I cleared the gate, but I didn't stop to look back, even as I heard them shouting my name.

The rain started to come down harder as I reached Ebel City Bridge, stopping to catch my breath briefly to find that I was now soaking wet. I didn't care.

Vashyron didn't want me anymore. Someone was there to take me away to who knows where and he was going to let them. I had known that this was all too good to be true, but I didn't think it would end like this.

No.

I'm not going to let it end like this.

They can't take me.

I reached a shaking hand up to push some of my hair out of my eyes, before making my way over to the bridge railings, looking over the edge at the various gears and machine parts.

It was a long way down; that was certain.

It's better this way.

I found myself half way between laughing and crying as I climbed over the handrail to the narrow ledge at the other side.

My life was a joke.

Every time I found happiness something came along to rip it away from me.

I can't do this anymore.

The rain continued to come down hard as I made my way down to a gear protruding from one of the walls. It was rusted, and no longer moving, but it was sturdy enough to take my weight. I looked down into what was seemingly the centre of Basel, the grinding noises of the gears below almost drowned out by the rain.

This is it. It's for the best.

A noise from the bridge above drew my attention a second later, and I looked up, the rainwater running into my eyes as I did.

"ZEPHYR!"

Vashyron.

What was he doing here?

I stayed silent, not sure what to do. Part of me was hoping he would give up and go home. He shouldn't have to put up with someone like me anyway. Then again, part of me was hoping he wouldn't leave.

Please.

That was the part that wanted him to find me; to take me back home and tell me that everything was going to be okay, and that he would never leave me. It was all just a misunderstanding.

Help me.

Despite the fact that I wasn't making any noise, however, he appeared a few seconds later, looking down at me from the railing. He wasn't wearing a jacket, and he was soaked to the skin.

"Zephyr!" he shouted, and although the rain was coming down hard enough to muffle most sounds, I detected worry in his voice. Not just that. Panic.

He climbed over the railing without hesitating, but, upon looking at where I was standing, he stopped, crouching down and holding his hand out to me.

"Zephyr, c'mon, that's not gonna hold your weight!"

I shook my head, finding that I couldn't speak anymore. The rain was thankfully hiding the tears running down my cheeks. I pulled my eyes away from his, taking another step towards the edge, hearing his voice again immediately.

"DON'T!"

The sense of urgency in his voice shocked me a little, and I looked back at him, seeing the fear in his eyes instantly.

It was unmistakeable. That wasn't the kind of look you gave to someone you didn't care about.

Was he scared of losing me?

"Zephyr...please! I said no! He wanted to take you and I said no!"

A great sense of relief overcame me briefly, but it didn't last long as I heard a crack, and the gear beneath my feet shifted. It was wet from the rain, and I slipped, just managing to catch the edge with my fingers before I plummeted to my death.

A few minutes earlier, I would have just let go.

But now...

"NO!"

I heard Vashyron's voice through the rain once again, and looked up to see him climbing down to me. It looked extremely dangerous; all of the surfaces were now wet and the rain didn't seem to be getting any lighter; it was likely that if he came down here he would fall.

I wasn't going to let Vashyron die because of me.

"Don't come down here! It's too dangerous!" I shouted, my voice broken with tears, but I could tell that he heard me. He didn't stop, however, not even for a second.

"Just hold on! I'm coming to get you! Don't let go!"

I was using all of my physical and mental strength to hold myself up, even when one of my hands slipped off the cold metal and my other arm was shaking under the weight of holding up my whole body.

None of that mattered.

The gear broke, and I fell, feeling taken over by fear.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

I vaguely remember hearing someone shout my name.