He jerked his head back down as the blue beam shot from the stone monolith, and as the light dissipated, he peered out again. Both of his companions were covered in frost and lying on the ground, ominously still.

"Well, crap," Lance muttered to himself, "I might be out of options here." His mind raced with what options he still had. Fight or flight?

Fight how? These things had shrugged off everything they had thrown at them. Matt hadn't gotten a chance to touch them with his blades, and Natalie's strongest spells were useless. His bullets made the slightest little chips, but only his physical ammunition. If he charged it with any mana, it was ineffective.

Fight why? Was there really a reason he was here with these two? He went along with them in their quest for greater strength, and it had resulted in the loss of all of his power. Natalie was attractive, but not risk your life for her hot. Matt was ignorant and a complete joke more often than not. He didn't really owe them anything more than revenge after they stopped his empire's ascension.

So run? But was that really an option? These things seemed immensely powerful, and capable of attacking at a range. He might be strategic, but his mobility wasn't the greatest.

So fight. He would have to, whether he had a reason beyond survival or not. But he did have a reason: these turds were between him and the stupid demon that was thriving on the powers stolen from him, from his party! Maybe Matt was a meathead, but he was also the hero that took him down and had the chance to end him. Instead of taking that opportunity, he held out his hand.

"Seems like you aren't up to ruling the world. Maybe you would be up to saving it with us? What do you think, Dillwad?"

With how much he had messed with Natalie, it was astounding that she actually tolerated him. Her healing magic had already kept him from dying more than once. Maybe it was time to use his own brand of magic to keep both of them from dying.

Punching in the command took only a moment, then he leapt from his cover. Neither stone had moved, and Lance's weapons were fully loaded. Such a battle was almost like a dance. Fire, dodge, reload. Dodge, unload, reload, dodge. Even a step out of time, a shot too many in a chain, or a barrel jamming could ruin his chances.

As the dance went on, the rumbling began. Shoot, sidestep, roll, reload. The rumbling grows louder. Dodge, unload, evade, reload. Finally, a sound like thunder split the air. A chunk of one of the stone monoliths shattered.

The Valkyrie had finally arrived. It's cannon blasted away, the forward spraying rounds into the rocks. Lance grabbed his friends and dragged them away as the tank slammed into the stones. The engines revved and roared, gaining heat and set to detonate.

Just after Lance cleared the blast radius with his two companions, a shockwave pushed through the freezing air. His ears ringing, Lance peered out and observed the scene. The broken stumps of stone, the scattered rounds and shells, and the fragments of the tank now littered the snow and ice.

His two companions unconscious, Lance took a deep breath. These two were definitely worth a tank. At least Natalie was. A few medical kits later and they were back on their way, trudging across the snow and ice once again.

"I knew the good in you would win out when we needed it to. I'm glad we brought you along." Natalie gave him a smile and he frowned back.

"Not quite," he countered, "I'm still the same egomaniacal warlord you two knocked down a few pegs. Honestly, I plan on getting away from you two as soon as it is reasonable to do so."

"So I'm just another bullet for you to fire at your enemies in your mind?" Matt clarified.

"Not quite. You're more efficient as a meat shield than a bullet," Lance demurred, "You don't get bullets back either. So I suppose you have that going for you too."

"And here I thought we were actually starting to get along…"

Natalie chose to interject. "It doesn't matter whether you say you are only being practical or not. I think you'll decide in the end that friends are better than soldiers."

"Sorry, but I think you are underestimating just how cold and calculating this stone-hearted jerk is, Natz. I think he really means it when he says we don't mean anything more than his robots," Matt admitted. They trudged on for a few moments in silence. Reaching the village gave them a chance to rest and reflect.

Lance's words stung considering how long he had actually been working with them since they stopped his plans for world domination. What Matt and Natalie didn't realize couldn't leave him vulnerable. Matt had been right. If he stopped being cold, calculating, and direct there would be now way he could really keep up with those two.

A word came to his mind to describe what he had to make them see: oblivion. An empty plane after the destruction of everything that used to be. Utter nothingness. An oblivion so deep that anything they put into it vanished and became nothingness as well. And he would stay that way. An unchanging, frozen oblivion.

In an igloo all to himself, Lance sat and recalled. The pain he had once borne, the sliver of hope Matt and Natalie had become, and now the oblivion that he couldn't thaw. He turned his hands to work. Fidgeting and connecting whatever he could. He found himself creating and constructing on auto-pilot. He let himself go in his work and chose to let the oblivion fade for a while. He didn't notice the warm sensation on his cheek until the tear hit rifle before him.