A pounding in your head, the feeling of a cold stone floor against your cheek, and barely enough light to see two feet in front of you? Yup. You're in jail again. Lovely.

With a loud groan, you slide yourself upright and crouch to one knee. You are indeed in a rather spacious holding cell, and still sporting a pair of metal handcuffs…that's new. With some effort, hobble over to where you can see a shape rise and fall along the floor. You get close enough and see Chloe still out cold.

"Hey! Chloe! Wake up!" You reach down and shake the girl, and are surprised to find her normal jacket not covering her person. You supposed since it housed an entire arsenal of knives, it was easier to just take the thing off of her rather than confiscate each blade like they must have done with your sword and spell book.

Crap. This is probably the worst thing that could have happened today. Not only did I get in a fight, it was with HoloX, and now I'm in jail with her! I'm never gonna be allowed on my own again if the others hear about this. I need to sort this out somehow.

"'We won't even notice you're here' eh?" A voice belonging to one of the guards who permitted your entry this morning comes through the darkness. You turn towards the barred door to see the man in question thanks to the light from a lit lantern he holds. "That was quite some brawl you got in with your friend over there. Unfortunate that you both did more damage to the fine establishment you were in than to each other. We don't tolerate that type of nonsense around here. So just cool off in there for a few days, and then we can talk about your actual punishment and repayment to society."

"What?! A few days? I can't stay here a few days. I'm not even the bad guy here. S-She's the villain! She attacked me. I was just defending myself." You try to plead your case.

"You're both just a couple of drunks who got too rowdy. Now behave yourselves, and we just might be lenient." The guard says finitely as he turns to leave you in darkness once more.

Okay, this just got worse. Watame is gonna freak out if I'm not there to meet them where the roads meet back up. I think what kills me more is that I would have broken a promise to her. Dammit. I gotta find a way out of here. Undine! Sylph! Can either of you hear me? I'm in a bit of a bind here.

You look around your cell and find no sign of either of your elemental spirits answering your call. They did say they would essentially cut themselves off from you for the entire day. Only summoning one of them could call them back. It might cause a ruckus, but maybe your status as a summoner can hold enough sway to help you be a free man just a little sooner. Concentrating your thoughts on the mana of wind, you perform what should be the summoning spell to call your friend back to you, but nothing happens. Not even a flicker of mana shines around your body.

"I can't be out of mana yet." You say to yourself. "There's just no way!"

"Uggghhh." Chloe's groans interrupt your brief moment of panic. You kneel back down to the girl and try to get a closer look at her.

"Chloe? Are you alright?" You ask. The girl nods slowly at you and looks around at your cell. It is barely light enough to see, but her eyes widen and an immense panic seems to overtake her.

"Oh no! Oh no no!" She babbles as she rises to her feet and looks at the cuffs still around her wrists. She rushes to the cell door and bangs her closed fists against it. "No. This isn't real. It can't be."

Chloe proceeds to have a frantic meltdown, she kicks the iron bars repeatedly, nearly screaming to be let out.

"C-Chloe!" You hiss. "Calm down! You're gonna get us in even more trouble."

"Shut up!" She chokes as her voice becomes hoarse. "This is all YOUR fault! I'm not going to stay here! I won't!"

"Hey! You were the one who threw that glass at me!" You retort as you stomp over to the hysteric girl to hopefully get her to stop making such a ruckus.

"Fuck! You!" She spits as she switches from kicking the cell bars to kicking you in the stomach instead, sending you stumbling backward and falling onto your butt. Chloe continues to bang on the iron cage, and you just watch her continue. She is clearly unwilling to listen to reason, and you should not be surprised, she is a member of a lunatic organization after all. You simply cross your legs and try to weigh your options…which are basically nonexistent.

Soon, Chloe's angered strikes against the metal of your prison are exchanged for sobs. She turns her back to the door and walks over to the back wall where a small wooden plank is fashioned into it, which you have to assume is what constitutes for a bed here. She sits down, and puts her face in her hands. She's….she's actually crying?

"Not again…" She blubbers as she inhales a rather unpleasant sounding amount of snot through her nose. "This isn't fair."

"What? You can dish out putting people in captivity, but you can't take it?" You say with a hint of resentment, the memory of when this girl netted you and delivered you right into the hands of a maniacal scientist fresh in your mind.

"Shut up…" Chloe whines in response. "That was an order…I hate following Koyori's orders. I hate capturing people or things, I'd rather just beat them up."

Did you actually hear that right? Could Chloe have actually resented the idea of coming after you that day? You expected that sort of attitude from Iroha due to how she was honorable fighter and seemed to value her comrades safety over the success of her mission, but Chloe always seemed much more brutish and happy to carry out any orders she could as long as she got to have fun.

"I guess that's one thing we have in common at least." You sigh as you push yourself to your feet and walk over to the back wall. You let your back rest against the cold stone and slump yourself down until your backside is on the ground with your legs resting outward. Your first instinct was to take a seat next to the sobbing girl on the bench, but maybe giving her a little space is better. She is freaked out pretty bad from being locked up. Maybe because it's so dark? You can't seem to form any wind or water mana for a summoning, but just maybe…

Concentrating on your inner magic once more, you pull out the feelings of comfort and guidance that the light of the stars fill you with. With immense effort, like pushing a solid object through a wall, you force a small ball of starlight to sprout up from your cupped hands. Its light illuminates the entire back section of your cell, showing the miserable state your jailmate is in. Her eyes already red and stained with tears, she looks at the spark that floats in front of you with astonishment. She then huffs, seemingly reminding herself that you are enemies, and pulls her knees up to tuck them close to her as she looks down at the floor.

"Here." You say as you crane your body slightly upward and extend your arms that bear your gift to the girl. "Take it. A little light makes a cold dark jail cell a tiny bit better."

With a hint of reluctance, Chloe moves her arms to bring her opened hands under yours, and you will your ball of starlight to fall. Once your spell is safely floating over her gloved palms, Chloe retracts her arms and stares into the silver-white ball of light. Her expression softens and her breathing seems to regulate again. Her legs relax and extend forward to return her to a normal sitting position on the wooden bed plank.

"Figures you would know celestial magic." Chloe remarks. "Great…now Koyori is going to get even more obsessed with you."

"Any chance I could ask you to NOT tell her? That goes for the wind magic I used during our fight too…" You ask half-jokingly.

"Not a chance. Once she hears about this, she's never going to leave you alone, ya know?"

"She already doesn't…" You sigh.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chloe asks, her tone suddenly a little lighter with her curiosity.

"I'll tell you, if you answer one of my questions first. If you don't like putting people in cages, why did you go along with capturing me?" You ask, genuinely curious to know what drives this girl to work for such a deranged group.

"It was either that, or suffer more punishment from Koyori." Chloe says grimly, her eyes not leaving the light she holds in front of her. "I hate doing what she says, but I kinda hated you more, so I was okay with it."

"You couldn't have hated me that much more." You chuckle a little. "You did stop Koyori from frying me to a crisp…thanks for that, by the way. If you didn't stop her, I might not still be here…even though you were the reason I was there in the first place, but uhhh, you know what? Just forget that part, thanks for keeping that coyote from going too far."

"I told you I didn't do it for you." Chloe mumbles. "If Koyori broke you, she would just get mad at me. She would have shocked me next."

"Why do you put up with her?" You scoff. "Why are you even with HoloX? You make it sound like they treat you pretty poorly."

"You already got your question, now it's my turn. What did you mean by how Koyori hasn't left you alone?" The silver haired girl asks back, her head finally turned towards you. "She's been holed up in her lab since we got back. She's actually crazier than usual if you can believe it."

"I certainly can believe it…" You sigh, it feels strange to consider opening up about your current sleep terrors with the girl who works with the very one who is causing them, but you did make a deal. "So…since that night after Koyori had her kicks with me, I've been having a lot of nightmares. These aren't like normal dreams either, they feel incredibly real. Koyori feels incredibly real too."

"Oof. Dreaming about Koyori? I sure as hell wouldn't want to be you." Chloe remarks. "Are you just reliving the moments? Like being forced to watch the entire thing happen without being able to move?"

"A few times, yeah." You say, strangely appreciative that Chloe seems to know a little about what you've talking about. "Then it kinda changed. Koyori would talk to me about specific things that I was trying to do next. She also likes to talk about how I'm going to belong to her again someday…that's probably the worst part."

"That's the plan if she has anything to say about it." Chloe remarks a little remorsefully. "That's the main reason I even tried to take you down earlier. I would have been happy just enjoying myself and doing whatever I wanted, but of course you had to show up and ruin things again."

"You were the one who threw the first glass." You fire back accusingly.

"Only because you didn't seem like you were going to back down. If you had just run away, I probably wouldn't have chased you…couldn't run the risk of walking right into a trap set by your little friends…who I guess will be here soon to spring you out?"

"Nope. It's just me today." You shake your head. "I mean that in the most literal sense too. Even my spirits won't be around until tomorrow. I even tried to summon one of them back, but I can't seem to get my other magic to work."

"It's the handcuffs." Chloe begins to explain. "They're made of a special metal that can cut off mana flow. Neither of us will be able to make anything worthwhile while we got these on. I guess it doesn't work completely on celestial magic though…wait. Did you say spirits? As in, more than one?"

"Yup. I made a pact with the spirit of wind just recently. And that now counts as your second question. I get another one now." You say a little smugly. It feels like you gave Chloe that info a little TOO easily, but if things go as you hope in the future, the world's gonna know about Pomu and Sylph anyway. Koyori getting a little early access to this info shouldn't bite you in the ass any more than her knowing you can do celestial magic will.

"Answer my question from earlier; Why are you with HoloX? Why do you even put up with Koyori?"

"I owe HoloX my life. You wouldn't get it."

"Yeah, the guy who was shunned almost his entire life wouldn't get what it feels like to owe his happiness to the sheep and water spirit that helped him finally feel what it's like to be accepted and have real friends." You scoff. "He wouldn't get a sense of duty to both of them at all."

"Being shunned is better than being enslaved." Chloe spits back. The statement sends a cold chill through your entire body.

"Wait. You actually mean you were?" You ask as the thought prompts you to stand back up and look at Chloe's downcast expression; her eyes told you that this was no exaggeration or lie just to shut you up.

"I was born a slave." Chloe says coldly. "I don't even remember my parents' faces or who they were. They either sold me off for their own freedom, or got sold themselves, but I don't care. I was doomed anyway from the start because of what I am."

A few things were starting to line up; her ability to breathe water, her natural strength and agility, and even the part Polka told you about how she was able to withstand scorching temperatures. Chloe wasn't fully human at all was she?

"I can tell by that stupid look on your face that you're thinking…I'll spell it out for you. I'm an orca demi-human. I don't have a tail or any fins, but I'm telling the truth. Although, I wish I was never born like this, then maybe I would have had a chance at a normal childhood."

"Chloe…" You utter, not really sure what to say in response to this, so you just take the spot on the wooden bed next to the girl. She doesn't push you away, or even huff, she just continues to stare in the ball of light you gave her.

"What? Gonna say you're sorry? Save it. Words can't erase what I went through. I never knew what it was like to even make my own choices before I joined HoloX. What I ate, when I slept, when I worked, I didn't get to choose any of it. It was the same for a lot of my race. We worked in the hottest climates, and even in the water. It never mattered how tired we got either. It was either keep working, be killed, or be sold off into something worse."

You shudder to think about it, but there are certainly worse things to be forced into doing this world than hard labor. This girl endured years of that? Was she sold to HoloX at some point? Is that why she feels she owes her life to them? You need to press further.

"How long were you a slave for?" You ask for an answer to your questions indirectly.

"Years. You don't really care about how old you are when all that matters is living through the next day." Chloe quietly replies. "I guess I was already becoming a woman before I finally escaped. Other slaves helped me hide my body a little, since girls who grew up often got sold off to other masters, and they were never seen again. I almost didn't care though. I was numb to everything. I knew I would never be free…"

"But then, a miracle happened. We were on a ship to be delivered to a new master. I have no idea where we were, but there was an accident. The ship's hull was breached and it sank in no time. I remember the crew screaming as they abandoned the ship, some of the other slaves were even taken with them. I guess they wanted to keep SOME of their profits at least. Me and countless others were just left to die. I remember the pressure of the ocean weighing down on me more and more with each passing second. I was so scared, I was actually scared to die for some reason! My life was terrible, but I couldn't just accept dying."

You are completely captivated by Chloe's story. Never in your wildest imagination could you have guessed that this girl was the victim of such strife. It makes your own hardships look petty in comparison.

"I broke my shackles apart thanks to the force of the ocean floor and my own strength. I was able to swim to the surface, but as far as I could tell, I was the only one who made it. I swam and swam and swam until I finally saw land. I kinda blacked out after that. The next thing I remember is the face of HoloX's executive officer looking down at me. She was smiling and said she was glad I was okay. After that she took me to where she was staying, fed me, cleaned me up, and then just wanted to let me go when I was ready." Chloe continues, her spirit slowly brightening as she remembers this fateful event.

"I didn't know what I was going to do, but that didn't matter. I finally had freedom to decide for myself. Then, the woman who saved me told me about HoloX, and what they wanted to do. It made a lot of sense to me. This world is disgusting for allowing entire groups of people to be enslaved by others. It deserves to be thrashed back to nothing and remade. I decided I would help my darkness make the world hers. If I help deliver the earth to her, I'll never have to worry about being caged again. I will be at the top of this world's new era, and I'll always be free, forever."

Suddenly Chloe's reaction to waking up and finding herself behind bars made a lot more sense. Poor girl was probably put into a shock similar to how you feel when you dream about Koyori having you in her clutches again. Still, to find deliverance in a group like HoloX, makes your heart sink. For some reason, Chloe doesn't seem deranged, or evil to you now, she's just a girl who wants to protect her own freedom. She is also willing to do anything, and undergo any amount of poor treatment to do it too.

"But…look at me now." Chloe says as you can hear her holding back tears. "We might never get out of here…my teammates don't even know where I am. Only Iroha would care about finding me anyway…the rest just tease me most of the time."

"What about the one who saved you? I find it unlikely that Iroha is also your executive officer." You ask, a little eager to find out what you can about more of HoloX's members.

"She treats me a little better than Koyori and my darkness, but she still likes to make fun of me sometimes…She has me clean the floors of the entire home base and lets Koyori run whatever experiments she wants on me." Chloe sniffles and wipes her nose with her bare arm.

"Whoever would allow Koyori free reign to do whatever she wants, has definitely got a screw or two loose." You chuckle. "You seem to handle Koyori better than I do though…I wish I could beat these nightmares."

"Are you really that scared of her? You could probably beat her up if you had to."

"You were there when we fought, she had a countermeasure for every one of my moves." You sigh again.

"So just make new ones you dummy. You did that twice with me already. I still haven't forgiven you for making me eat dirt." Chloe giggles lightly as she jabs your side not so lightly with her elbow, causing you to place a comforting hand over the spot that now throbs slightly with pain.

"Just make new ones, huh? I guess that's how I've fought a lot of different enemies so far. I just kinda figured out something I didn't even know I knew." You say as the realization starts to wash over you like an overhead wave on a particularly hot day. "I think you're right, Chloe! As long as I'm still breathing, I can always find new ways to get out of the situations I'm in. Ha ha! You're a genius, Chloe!"

"I'm genius?" Chloe repeats to you skeptically, but not entirely put off by the compliment.

"Yup! This might be exactly the answer I've been looking for. I almost can't wait to go to sleep tonight now." You say with an even brighter smile.

"You might as well get a head start, we're stuck here for who knows how long." Chloe's mopey tone returns.

"How about we work together to get out of here instead? We both have a little experience breaking out of jail, and I really can't stick around here. If my friends find out I was thrown in jail like this, they'll never let me be on my own again."

"Y-You'd really help me?" Chloe asks with a glimmer of hope in her eyes, but it quickly snuffs itself out as her expression hardens. "...Don't get my hopes up like that. We're enemies. Why would you want to help me? It would make more sense for you to leave me here and wait for your friends to come get you."

"Like you, I greatly value my freedom, as well as the freedom of everyone else who lives in this world." You say with confidence as you rise from your seat and stand in front of the orca demi-human. "Besides, I can kinda understand why you might join a group like HoloX, especially after all you've been through and seen. I think you and I kinda want the same thing at the end of the day too."

"What? To get out of this dank cage?" Chloe says unamused and unswayed at you.

"Well that, and we both want a world where no one has to live as a slave. I swear that if I catch wind of that happening to anyone, I'll do everything I can to help set them free."

"Big talk, but you can't achieve anything like that by being such a goody two shoes. Same goes for busting us out of here. Are you really okay with breaking the law to escape? Are you really okay helping a 'villain' like myself escape too? I might end up kicking your ass later." The orca questions your resolve.

"You're welcome to try. I was going to win our fight earlier before we got interrupted anyway." You snarkily say.

"Sure thing, tough guy. Now why don't you explain how we're going to get out of here." Chloe laughs lightly at you. She is pretty cute when she smiles. The starlight below her face also paints her in a very attractive light…focus Anon. A jail cell is no place for that sort of thing.

"Well last time, I gave Polka some of my mana, and she made a magic rope that she used to grab the keys and unlock our cells." You recollect how you and the fennec conducted your first jail break. Chloe says nothing but lifts up her arms slightly to better show you the mana dampening cuffs she wears, and reminds you that you also sport the same thing around your wrists. "Okay, so that's out…well the first time I broke out of a cage I used a dagger I had hidden in my boot and cut through the padlock."

"Do you have one of those now?"

"No."

"Great….Got any more ideas that we don't have the tools for right now?"

"I don't see you coming up with anything." You snap.

"I can't do much with these damn handcuffs. Do you know any spells with that celestial magic of yours that can break these things?"

"I can only kinda make balls of light, and little shaped stars that disappear after a few seconds." You say a little shamefully.

"Figures…" Chloe sighs as she tries to think through something. "Show me one of those stars."

Even though you're not sure what good it will do, you do as Chloe asks and through some strained effort, make a simple four pronged star appear above one of your hands. "There. Now what?"

"Can you like, make one of the ends a little more pointy and thinner?" Chloe requests. "If I have something small enough to fit into the keyhole of these cuffs, we can trick it into trying to block its flow of mana instead of my own."

"Coming right up." You happily say as you start to believe in the plan the orca proposed. Changing your star's shape to something more simple like a single line of light was the easy part, now comes the moment of truth.

"Here, just stick it in the hole here." Chloe instructs you as she stands up and holds her wrists towards you. "Make sure it doesn't burn out or blow too soon either. I may not be able to use my mana for a few seconds if this actually starts to work."

With slightly shaky hands, not only from the strain of keeping your spell intact with almost all your mana being cut off to you, but from the view. Chloe's cuffed wrists are held just above her cleavage, which her blouse seems to showcase past dangerous levels. Those girls of hers look like they're practically loose in there. That little red and white string seems to be the only thing attempting to hold them upright…Okay Anon, focus, you can do this.

The light from your spell that Chloe holds shines on the handcuff's small keyhole, allowing you to drive your celestial prong into its depths. Instantly you can feel a pulling pressure from your mana, threatening to break the spell apart, but you focus harder on keeping it stable. Five seconds…Ten seconds…you can feel the sweat pour down your forehead as you struggle to maintain control over your magic as the hampering shackles threaten to take all that you have.

"Chloe…" You pant. "Any time now!"

"Oh! Yeah I think I can feel my mana coming back." Chloe suddenly seems to remember what she's supposed to do and furrows her brow in focus. The skin around her wrists begins to glow with a deep blue hue. Chloe then suddenly pulls her wrists in opposite directions from the other as water erupts from within the metal rings. The chain that connects the two shackles breaks as well; its links falling and clanking against the stone floor.

The sudden movement causes you to take a step back as your magic finally loses its shape, along with the light that Chloe once held. With their chain link broken, and the sudden surge of your magic, the teethed strand of the cuffs comes undone, and Chloe lets both shackles fall to the ground as she rubs her wrists one after the other.

"Not bad, hero-boy." She gleefully says. "Now let's get out of here."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" You ask as you shake the chains of your own bindings in front of the girl, hoping she gets the hint.

"I don't think I am." Chloe calmly says.

"But what about me?"

"What? You think I'm going to let you have full control of your mana again?" Chloe prods you softly on the chest with one of her fingers as she gives you a smug smile that even in the dark cell you can see. "Nah. This way I can take you with me back to base without any trouble at all. Maybe we'll find a pretty bow along the way to put on you too."

"W-Wait you can't!" You start to plead, panic rising instantly due to the thought that you basically just orchestrated your own capture. You look deep into Chloe's eyes as she grabs your arms firmly to keep you from running away. She puts on an innocent smile as the sound of metal cracking fills the jail. You look down and see the strands of your own cuffs broken and undone. You look back up in surprise at the orca who wears a mischievous smile at you.

"Got ya." She whispers. "You should have seen the look on your face. W-Wait! D-Don't! Pshh!"

"That was NOT funny." You sourly say as you rub the feeling back into your wrists.

"Neither was making me eat dirt, but you and the fox were having a blast over it. So now we're even." Chloe remarks as she walks past you toward the cell door.

"Well if it means you'll finally drop that, fine." You say as you turn and join her. "So how do we want to do this?"

"I don't want to fight those guards, that could get messy, and I want to find my jacket. Let's do this quietly and get out of here."

"Quietly. Yup. I can do that. Totally." You say as you wrestle with the fact that you have never once successfully gotten out of a situation without being heard or seen.

"You're a terrible liar." Chloe sighs. "Just follow my lead, and you'll be fine. My main job is to carry out my orders unseen."

"Which you did so spectacularly the first time we met." You retort.

"Shut up." Chloe commands as she kneels closer to the ground and inspects the bars. "Damn, even if I pull two of these apart, we can't fit through. These tight-asses might have thought of everything."

"And I don't think I see the keys hanging anywhere nearby…I was kinda banking on those being unattended." You add.

"Alright, new plan. We blow the door down."

"Sounds loud to me." You cross your arms, but the orca's willingness to change her plans so drastically amuses you slightly.

"That's the point. I said it was a new plan. Now when we blast the door open, just stay right in here, okay?" Chloe then instructs as she looks up and down the cellblock.

"I thought we were both escaping?"

"Do you want to trust me or not?"

"Fine, fine." You concede and take a safe position a couple feet away from the barred cell door. "Water?"

"Water." Chloe nods as she stands in a wide stance next to you. Shoulder to shoulder, you both dig deep and pull your mana up to your respective surfaces. "I'm so going to make a bigger splash than you."

"Out drench the summoner of the great water spirit; Undine? You wish." You playfully retort as you behind to form a raging surge of water between your two hands.

"Not a wall, or a building or even a mountain will block our way!" You chant as you ready to unleash your spell.

"We'll surge past everything that tries to stop us! Break it all down and wash it away!" Chloe joins in as she inhales deeply and puffs out her chest.

"Unison Water Magic! Dam Breaker!" You both roar as you unleash your spells.

Powerful streams of water, made by hands and lungs, burst forth in front of you both, and converge as they slam into the iron cell door. The combined force of your torrents takes the entryway completely off its hinges as it can only helplessly be swept away and thrown into the wall of the jailhouse.

Immediately you hear hurried footsteps running against the stone floor and down the steps that lead out of the basement cellblock. Both yours and Chloe's waters die down and dissipate into the cracks of the floor, and the orca swiftly makes her way out of the cell to hurry out of the sight further down the hallway, but not before looking at you and instructing you to keep quiet with a raised finger to her lips. You've managed to get this far by trusting her, you might as well take it all the way home.

Within seconds the guard that was mocking you earlier was back with an utterly flabbergasted look on his face. He looks on at the damage done to your cell and then back to you. "You!" He shouts. "What the hell happened here?! Where are you handcuffs?! Where is the girl that was with you!?"

"Uhhh" you try your best to sound confused, possibly to trick the guard into thinking you're not sure what to answer first, but it also helps that you are actually a little confused as to what happens next. Chloe didn't exactly say what the next step of her plan was, or how you should proceed. Maybe you should just keep winging it? "Well, you wouldn't believe it, but a flash flood just kinda happened. Like in a flash too! Funny how it's named that, right?"

The gruff older man is not the least bit amused by your attitude as he takes a strong step forward while unsheathing the shortsword that hangs from his hip. You walk backwards as the guard advances, still unsure what to do. You COULD fight him with magic, but you're not confident you could knock him out with just one quick spell.

The second the man steps over the cell threshold, you notice a shape dash in the darkness and come up behind him. He gasps as Chloe's arms lock around his neck and his body quickly starts to grow limp. You dive forward and catch the small hand lantern he carries before it can hit the ground and shatter to possibly attract even more company. The guard's sword still hits the ground, but the clang it makes is thankfully only audible to the cell hallway itself.

"Put that out!" Chloe hisses as she drags the now unconscious guard by his underarms over to the poor excuse for a bed. You quickly do as Chloe commands and put out the small fire within the lantern. You watch the orca position the sleeping guard with his face to the wall upon the wooden slab. Once she's satisfied with her work, she struts out of the cell and brings you along with a curling finger. The motion ignites a small twinge of excitement within you…you really like when girls do that don't you? Or maybe you're just still incredibly pent up. Or both.

"Help me put the door back in place." Chloe calmly says as she points to the fallen iron gateway on the ground.

"Sure, but if we're escaping, what's the point?" You ask after you set the small lantern down and proceed to pick up the iron frame from one end, while Chloe lifts it from the other.

"A clean scene can buy you precious minutes." Chloe remarks as you both tilt the door back to its original spot. It of course doesn't lock in place any more, but at a distance, and in the dark, nothing would look off at all about it. "Even if someone has to spend time confirming that you're not where they left you, that's more time you have to make your getaway. Now come on, we need to find our stuff."

Impressed with Chloe's logic and proficiency, you follow the cleaner of HoloX up the jailhouse stairs and let her do most of the scouting. Every corner, every couple steps, she pauses to listen. She more than once has to put a firm hand against your chest to stop you in your tracks, and more than once does she give you a stern and scolding look when she thinks you're making too much noise.

The next set of ascending stairs are found at the end of the current hallway, but what's been weird to you is that after coming up from the basement where the jail cells were, you still haven't seen any windows yet. Chloe also leaves no stone unturned as you search for your belongings, but not before pressing an ear to any door she thinks about opening to listen for warm bodies.

"These mostly look like interrogation rooms." You whisper after Chloe reveals another empty room that is only furnished with a simple wooden table along with two chairs.

"Yeah…this whole floor is probably for grilling people before they throw them in the slammer." Chloe agrees. "We'll probably need to find where they keep their evidence. Our things should be there. The next floor is hopefully on ground level too. They're smart to put these rooms underground. Less chance of people passing by the building hearing any screams."

"I hear deep caves off the coast are also a good place to go if you don't want to hear some poor guy's screaming." You sneer.

Chloe only rolls her eyes at your mocking reply and stealthily hurries down the hallway to the open staircase. A flight of twenty-odd steps later, and you arrive at the ground level of the Judsmead jailhouse. Chloe presses a hand against your mouth to keep your breathing from giving you both away; the taste of leather on your lips is not a pleasant one, but you stay perfectly still until the orca nods and releases you.

"Damn, there are guards crawling all over the place." Chloe curses under her breath. "How are we going to find where they put my jacket?"

"Hmmm." You hum as you ponder how exactly you will find your spell book. Then it hits you. Why can't you try to hone in on it like you would with Undine or Sylph? It has a similar bond to your soul, and you can feel it very clearly when you or anyone else uses it.

"I think I got it. Follow me." You give Chloe a quick touch on her shoulder and then brazenly sneak into the hallway while crouched.

"H-Hey! Hero-boy!" Chloe hisses before you hear her groan in frustration and trail along behind you.

With nothing but what feels like pure instinct directing you, you race down the long hallway as quietly as you can. Two doors lie at the end, and something pulls you towards the one on your left. Much to Chloe's dismay, you grab the knob and throw the door open. A guard, a man likely around your age, sits casually with his feet pressing against the edge of the table in front of him as he reads a book. He looks at you curiously and raises his eyebrow, but your eyes are already glued to the small wooden shelf that rests on the wall opposite of the man which contains your belongings, as well as Chloe's black hooded coat.

"Wha-" The man starts as he straightened himself and begins to stand.

"Oh don't mind us." You try to sound casual as you practically sprint over to the evidence shelf. "Warden just gave us a full pardon. Turns out it was all just a misunderstanding and said we could get our things. We'll just grab our stuff and be on our way."

You can hear Chloe's hand slap her own face behind you, but at least you got results.

"We don't got a warden!" The guard exclaims as he unsheathes his sword. "There's been a jailbreak!"

"I got this one, Chloe!" You tell your comrade as you open your spell book and point your open palm at the guard who stands at the ready to subdue you. The shine from your tome makes him reconsider his actions, which is good. You don't want to hurt anyone, especially the locals who just want to keep their town safe, but if he thinks you'll do otherwise, that can buy you precious seconds.

"N-Not another move!" The man demands, as Chloe ignores him and grabs her coat. She looks as happy as a clam while she pulls her arms through its sleeves.

After pulling her hood over her head, and placing her mask on that you now see gives her a more orca-like appearance, she lets out a sigh of relief. "Alright, I'm ready to leave."

"Me too." You chuckle as you quickly point your hand down at the table in the middle of the room. "Stellar!"

The blast of starlight from your palm strikes the simple wood furnishing in an instant, creating a small puff of smoke in the wake of the flying wood chips. You quickly use the disguising veil to quickly restrap your sword sheath to your hip, and grab the bag of supplies you procured today, as well as your coin purse.

For good measure, you unleash a small gust of wind from your hand to further push the young guard into the wall behind him, clearing the way for you and Chloe to leave the room.

"Shit!" Chloe ticks as she looks down the hallway in the direction you came from. When you leave the room to find the source of her concern, you see no less than five guards charging your way with weapons raised.

"Crap. We're not going to be able to just go around that many." You say as you try to come up with an alternate plan.

"Then let's just go through them!" Chloe suggests, clearly eager for a fight. "They can't take us on."

"We could seriously hurt them though! Come on, let's go this way!" You retort as you open the second mystery door that stood at the end of this corridor. A staircase going upward appears, and you quickly grab one of Chloe's hands and pull her along.

You and the orca quickly climb up the set of wooden stairs up to the next floor, and Chloe suddenly stops to turn and exhales a deluge of water down towards your pursuers. You watch and hear the town guard slip and stumble on the slippery and suddenly wet stairs before Chloe takes tugs you along this time to traverse the second floor.

After finding nothing but more angry guards, and fending them off with spells only meant to displace them, you can only go further up the building until you reach the fifth floor.

"Now what, smart guy!?" Chloe mocks as you two can hear the sounds of more guards on this very floor heeding the call to arms that resounds from a low toned bell ringing from the roof of the building. "Now the entire building knows there's a problem! And we have nowhere to go!"

My options are getting more limited by the second. There are some windows…I could try summoning Sylph and flying us out of here…but then I would have to explain to her and Undine what I'm doing with Chloe….I think I'd rather just jump out a window myself before I do that…or maybe…it's risky, but I might be able to hold out just long enough for this to work.

"I got an idea." You say as you halt both yours and Chloe's movements in front of a large glass window. "You need to trust me on this, okay?"

"Wait…you're not saying we're gonna jump right!? We're pretty high up now. I don't think even we could just get up after a fall like that." Chloe protests.

"You found a little hope in the starlight I made earlier, didn't you?" You ask with a smile as you turn the pages of your book to the seventh spell. "Put your faith in that light of mine one more time. I promise we'll both be safe."

"You've done the impossible a few times already…" Chloe scoffs. "Not only did you beat me that night we met, you managed to actually escape from Koyori….fine. What's your crazy plan, hero-boy?"

"All you gotta do is hold on tight." You begin as you open the glass window and look down over the town below that shines with the light of the setting sun. The south side of town stretches straight out in front of you. Perfect. "And then, don't look down, you won't want to miss a second of this."

Your book shines in response to your call, you know this is a major risk, but you want to prove to this orca that you can be a shining light for her and any others like her that find themselves in dark captivity. Alright, you just need to keep it together for a few seconds, and you can form a path to freedom.

"The seventh spell! Stellberna Ma Stellaruke!" You shout as the spell instantly takes shape around you and in the open air outside. The initial pull of energy from the spell book is near mind breaking. You grit your teeth and strain to keep one eye open. You quickly grab as many stars as you can with your thoughts, any will do, and think about putting them in a straight line angled towards the ground.

"Roll! And Connect!" You blurt out as you hunch forward and grip your knee in an attempt to redirect the pain in your head to somewhere else. You can barely hear Chloe's awed gasp as your spell takes flight. You can feel that your latest command has been completed, so that just leaves one last thing to do.

You hook your arm around Chloe's slim waist and pull her close to you, earning a surprised "Poe!" from her. You step onto the windowsill and bend your knees as you prepare to jump. A small army of guards are shouting from behind you, urging you not to go through with it.

"H-Hold on! What the fuck are you doing!?" The orca screams, but you are already in the air and let out a small laugh.

The second the light around your foot touches the glow from your spell that lights up the skyline, you feel the pull and grounded connection between you and your magic. The tension in your head still feels like you're going to split in two, so you bend your legs slightly to begin your grind along the silver-white rail line. Dozens of onlookers from the streets gasp and point as you slide through the sky with your masked comrade clinging tight to you. You want to try and see what Chloe's reaction is to all this, but you can't bring yourself to do anything but focus on the path in front of you while keeping your spell active.

Your descent quickens as you approach the ground where the last star sits. Unfortunately, the strain of the spell becomes too much, and you are forced to close your book to keep your head from splitting in two. The light around your body and the rail below your feet flicker and vanish into nothing. Chloe gasps, but you quickly take her in both your arms, and pivot yourself to break her fall. You bounce a few times along the cobblestone streets before sliding to a stop. Thankfully you only fell from ten or so feet, but it still hurt like hell with how fast you were going.

"Ughhh." Chloe groans as she picks her head up and her masked white pupils narrow at you.

"Y-You alright?" You manage to ask through trying to catch your breath.

"Good enough, I guess." The orca murmurs. "What the hell was that? Were you just sliding on starlight?"

"Kinda…I'd love to tell you more, but you should probably get off of me so we can finish escaping."

"R-Right! Come on!" Chloe stammers a little embarrassed by your compromising position, and rolls off to then help you up to your feet. You place a hand to your head to try and treat the utter pounding you feel, but still give the girl an appreciative nod.

"Are you good to run? I scoped out an escape route in case I had to book it for some reason when I first got to this town." Chloe asks rhetorically before taking your hand and dashing off down the street. Through a series of alleyways, hopping fences, sprinting through backyards, and even cutting through an entire shop filled with all varieties of blankets and quilts, you arrive at the border of the town marked by its impressive stone walls.

Not willing to wait to see if anyone might still be chasing you, Chloe crouches down, and pushes one of the stone slabs forward, revealing the surrounding fields of green. Here it is, your escape. You can leave, go further down the road, make camp, and no one else will be ever the wiser of the trouble you got into. So why do you feel like you can't leave just yet?

"Alright, you first." Chloe waves you forward, but then notices your hesitation. "Come on, we don't have all day. The guards could find us again."

"I think I need to do one last thing before I leave." You say as what exactly you need to do becomes more clear. "You can go on ahead, I just need to do something real quick, and then I'll come back and use this little exit."

"What!? Are you stupid!? Do you have any idea how long this place will lock you up for if they catch you!?" The orca argues, strangely angry that you would put yourself in harm's way.

"Yeah, but we trashed that bar pretty good…" You rub the back of your head. "The lady there was pretty nice to both of us too, even though we were strangers. It feels wrong to just leave her with a massive mess to clean up."

"Bah! You stupid goody two shoes." Chloe palms her masked face. "Do you really think she, or anyone else here would do the same for you!?"

"I have to believe they would." You say without a second thought. "I'm not asking you to come with me or stick around, so why do you care?"

"Because! You…" Chloe starts before the words seem to get caught in her throat. "You gave me a light when I really needed it…you didn't have to do that either. I did nothing to earn that from you…I've only put you through hell…you're still going through that hell too…"

"You've been through a kind of hell I can't even imagine." You say back somberly. "I also don't think you're all that bad. Don't get me wrong, what HoloX wants to do is awful and I'll never let you have your way, but as far as villains go, you're not terrible to be around."

"I guess you're not so bad for a big dumb jerk either…" The orca says with a slight tinge in her cheeks. "How do you even plan to help that lady at the bar anyway?"

"It probably won't cover ALL of the damages, but this can at least be a start." You grin as you hold your coin purse in your palm. "I really need to find a way to make money now…this is all that's left of my life savings…"

"You can always try gambling." Chloe says with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. "But I guess you would need something to gamble with first. Hmmmm."

"I'll worry about that later. Now I'm gonna go drop this off at the bar, and then come straight back here." You say to cement your own actions.

"I better come with you then." Chloe sighs. "That way at least you'll have a chance of doing this unseen. The bar isn't too far from here, let's go."

The hooded orca steps past you slightly annoyed and leads you back through the city and to an alleyway that gives you a frontal view of the Rusty Faucet. Even from here you can see the number you did on the place; broken windows, overturned furniture, and who knows how many broken bottles are inside. The two of you spot the barmaid from earlier this afternoon sweeping more shards out of her storefront. This seems about as good a time as any. Bidding goodbye to your simple brown coin purse, you send it along to its new owner with a gentle gust of wind magic. You only wait long enough to see the woman curiously pick up the jingling bag and look around for its owner. There isn't anything more you can do now, so you nod to Chloe and take your leave.

Anons wallet:

Once you two are a safe distance from Judsmead's borders, you let yourself sit down on the soft grass and look up at the starlit skyline. "So where are you heading?" You make small talk as you lay down fully and lace your hands behind your head.

"Further north. I just got done with a job that I need to report back on." Chloe answers with surprising honesty. "You?"

"South." You simply answer as you entertain the idea of telling Chloe how you plan to liberate Shallah from the pirates her organization apparently helped to take power.

"Not much south of here besides sand, and pirates." The orca scoffs as she takes a seat next to you. "Playing hero again?"

"Why? You want to try and stop me?" You sit up to look at eye level with that mask Chloe wears.

"Nah. I always hated that we helped those bastards. They played by the rules for a little while, but this new guy that took charge, he's the worst kind of pirate there is. I want to send that piece of shit to the bottom of the ocean, but I have my orders."

"Well…good. Glad we agree on that then." You say as you feel yourself relax and let yourself lay down again. "Can't promise I'll drown the guy though. I only promised to liberate the people of Shallah. I'm hoping I can just show these pirates that they can't bully people and make them back down."

"They're not the type. You better be prepared to kill then, hero-boy." Chloe states as she looks up to the sky and removes her mask. "You let me and Iroha go that night, but did you regret it?"

"Not for a second." You reflect on your choices in Bjornholm. "I was right when I assumed that HoloX was bigger than I thought. If I had killed you or Iroha then, what would have happened next? I would have placed a big target on Bjornholm and its people if I did that. Your superiors could have ordered an entire pirate fleet on them. Besides…what you and Iroha tried to do to Uisce was terrible, but you don't deserve to die over it. It was enough to beat you."

"Even if it meant meeting Koyori? Even if it meant having to deal with the torture and the nightmares?" The orca follows up, keen to learn if you truly hold any resentment or regrets.

"Even so. I'll take all the good and the bad." You say as you further remember the things you learned from your first experience with HoloX, and recognizing the love you hold for your friends. "You all taught me a lot about myself that I was struggling to let out. I realized how much I love the people around me. Make sure to tell Koyori that I told each one of the girls she fought that night that I love them."

"No way! She'll just take it out on me, you jerk!" Chloe giggles slightly, also clearly knowing how much that fact would make Koyori seethe.

It's so strange to find yourself making light conversation and laughing with a member of an organization you swore to oppose with everything you had. You can only assume Chloe feels the same right now. To further play with you, she tosses a rolled up quilt at your face, which you slowly peel off yourself and inspect questioningly.

"Since neither of us have a place to stay for the night now, I snagged these from that shop we ran through." Chloe says with a smug smile as she holds up a rolled up black and red plaid quilt of her own. You look down at yours to see it is sporting the same colors…guess you know one of Chloe's color preferences now.

"I should be mad that you stole these, but I am way too tired to care right now." You say playfully as you roll the plush blanket out over you. You both lay for a couple of moments before both your growling stomachs announce themselves loudly enough to make a flock of birds depart from the nearby trees.

"I'm guessing you skipped lunch too?" You sit up and look over at the orca who is holding her own belly.

"I was about to order something, but then you started whining about something…and then I started, and…well…you were there."

"I got some overpriced salted meat in my bag. Want to help me get a small fire going?" You ask as you lift up the sack that contains the provisions you bought today.

Chloe gives you an appreciative smile and you two work together to get a small campfire made. After wildling two sticks into skewers, you each held your own slab of beef over the hot fire.

"Normally I like to season my meats a little more. Maybe serve them with a nice side too." You remark as you check your own meal for its readiness. "But there's only so much you can do without a real kitchen or utensils."

"You cook too?" Chloe asks, genuinely surprised.

"Enough to get by, but I've quickly become the chef of my group. You make one great meal using an insane sorceresses' kitchen and food, and suddenly you're asked to make dinner almost every night." You smile at the memory.

"And you were going to give me guff for stealing those blankets?" The orca scoffs.

"I guess I walked right into that one." You chuckle. "Alright, you beat me there, Chloe. At least you can say you got A win over me today."

"Don't forget how I nearly made you pee your pants when you thought I wasn't going to break your cuffs." Chloe snickers as she takes a big bite of her cooked meat.

"Now that was completely unfair." You remark as you dig into your own food. The scorched meat isn't exactly tantalizing, but the way it falls into your stomach does make you feel better bit by bit.

After eating and putting out the fire, you share a few moments of comfortable silence under the stars, but you can somehow feel that something is bothering the orca. She finally looks over at you again and begins to speak.

"You know I'll have to report all of this, right? Finding you, your new spells, everything." She says a little sadly.

"Yup. I know you don't have it in you to lie to your comrades." You reply.

"I could try to take you in the night too."

"Then try, but I don't think you will."

"Don't make me stab you in the shoulder again."

"Go ahead, I can heal that myself now."

"Why aren't you afraid of me!? Why are you being so nice to me!?" Chloe suddenly stands and stomps in outrage. "You already got what you needed. We escaped! I don't need you any more either! What's to stop me from knocking your dumb ass out cold and taking you back to Koyori?!"

"Not sure." You shrug with a sly smile. "Maybe we have a truce. A truce that lasts a whole day. That should be good enough to take to your superiors, right?"

"A truce?" Chloe repeats to herself as she sits back down on her knees to think it over. "That'll work. So we agreed to not try to fight, or capture each other until the next morning?"

"And help each other escape imprisonment." You add.

"Okay! We have a truce." Chloe chirps as she lets herself fall onto her back next to you. She seems content with this, but then something snaps in her mind that brings rise to another question. "But what if I'm lying about the truce?"

"We also agreed not to lie to each other." You quickly slap down the question.

"Oh. Okay…" The orca says as she looks up at the night sky and fidgets a little with her fingers. An idea then paints a small smile across her face. "Since you can't lie to me, is Undine nice? Do you think she would like me?"

"She's one of the nicest people I've ever met." You say proudly. "I think she's also still a little mad over how you treated her daughter, but if you said you were sorry, and I don't know, practiced proper respect for the waters and the magic you wield with them, she would probably forgive you."

"You'll tell her I'm sorry then?"

"Sure, Chloe."

"Thanks, hero-boy."

"Can you just call me, 'Anon'?"

"No….Yes…Thanks, Anon."

With exhaustion and a strange sense of satisfaction from your eventful day overtaking you, you shut your eyes and begin to drift off to sleep. You can't help but find it amusing that your trip where you were dead set to spend it alone, you ended up having a bonding experience with a girl you were ready to fight or run from on sight. The idea that Chloe spent most of her life in chains still tugs at your heartstrings, but you at least better understand why she does what she does. It furthers your resolve to become a hero that everyone in this world can count on to help them.

You've also found possible answers to your most troubling question from a source you might least expect it from. You can't help but pity Chloe as well. Koyori might have her eyes set on you, but at the end of the day, Chloe HAS to go back to the same place as that deranged coyote. Maybe you can convince her to someday leave HoloX. That, or you can dismantle that entire organization board by board. That sounds fun too. For now, you'll start with the version of its head scientist that haunts your dreams. Watch out, Koyori. This ends tonight.