#backtrackers

Xavier frowned, glancing back at Adrien. “You can fix it? How?”

“I was your engineer, or have you forgotten?”

“Yes, but I’ve been trying this whole time. The technology simply doesn’t exist yet in the capacity we need.”

“I’ve figured a way to make it work with some modifications,” Adrian said, confidence in his voice. “Come out to the ship tomorrow night and I’ll show you.”

Xavier hesitated slightly, but Isiah goaded him.

“You want to go back still, right Xavier?”

“Leave him, Isiah.” Adrian turned to Xavier. “I’ll walk you out.”

Leaving Isiah in the bar, Xavier followed Adrian outside into the relative quiet.

“I don’t mean any harm by this, Xavier.”

“I didn’t assume you did. I am well aware I made a promise back then that I may not have been able to keep.” He sighed. “But if you truly can fix the ship, then…I hope you can bring everyone home.”

Adrian looked at him. “You won’t be coming?”

Xavier was silent for a long time. “I don’t know. I’d have to think about it.”

“Isiah said you found her. Here.”

Xavier didn’t reply. Adrian’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Whether or not you decide to return, I want to be the one to offer you an olive branch. There’s no point in parting on bad terms.”

Xavier sighed and relaxed a little bit. “I agree. It…would be great to see the Traceback II repaired.”

Adrian nodded in agreement and offered a small smile. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Xavier replied and parted ways with Adrian. Unsure of how to feel about the whole situation, he made his way to Philo.

***

“Are you crazy? This is a terrible idea, Xavier!”

Xavier stared blandly at Jeremiah as the other man nervously wrung his gardening gloves in his hands.

“If Adrian can actually fix the ship, then I’m not going to stop him,” Xavier said.

“Yeah, but…you really trust Isiah? Need I remind you that he said he wanted to kill you the last time he saw you? Both of us!”

Xavier sighed, reaching out to arrange a vase of flowers Jeremiah had been working on. “I didn’t come here to ask you to come with me.”

“Then why bother telling me if you’re not going to listen to my opinion?”

“I thought you would want to hear about Adrian. I know you were good friends.”

“Yeah, we were, but…all of us were good friends at one point, Xavier, and most of the Backtrackers have gone on to betray you!”

“I’m willing to hear him out,” Xavier said decidedly. “If nothing else, I can help him finish fixing the Traceback II if it’s a possibility to do so.”

Jeremiah sighed. “Fine, fine, I know you’re gonna do it anyway. Just be careful, Xavier. I still don’t really trust Isiah even if he seems to have calmed down a little.”

Xavier didn’t disagree, but he still felt a sense of guilt related to his crew and carried the responsibility of getting them back home, despite his own decision.

So the next night, he headed out to the woods, finding the long-abandoned spaceship lying there, still heavily in disrepair. The woods were silent and Xavier placed a hand on the hull of the ship, a bittersweet nostalgia seeping through him.

“It’s sad seeing her like this, isn’t it?”

Xavier turned to see Adrian standing behind him, having arrived without his notice.

“It’s been a long time,” Xavier stated simply, looking up at the weathered ship. “But if you think you can fix it—”

Adrian suddenly let out a scoffing laugh. “Hah—this piece of junk is beyond even my expertise.”

Xavier frowned, hair of the back of his neck standing up. “What do you mean? I thought you said—”

“You’ve always been such a fool,” Adrian sneered. “Pretending to care for us? Please. We all know you only care for one person. You’re content staying here now because you found her, but the rest of us left families and lovers back on Philos, Xavier!”

“You think I don’t know that?” Xavier demanded. “I promised—”

“You lied,” Adrian snarled. “I don’t think you ever planned to go back to begin with. But do you really think you’re not susceptible to this place? It’s killing all of us, Xavier. You know that. We can’t stay here forever. How many more of us have to die—how many more of us are you going to kill—before you realize that?”

“Why did you call me here, Adrian?” Xavier demanded.

“For this.”

Xavier’s head shot up, briefly catching a glimpse of Isiah appearing from the trees before blades of light shot toward him.

He deflected a couple with his blade, but the others buried themselves in his body, forcing him to stagger back against the ship.

Adrian held out a hand and manipulated the broken pieces of the Traceback II into makeshift restraints, pinning Xavier in place so that he would be unable to move.

“You!” Xavier snarled, struggling to free himself to no avail.

Isiah smirked as he strode up to stand beside Adrian. “We don’t have to rely on you anymore, Xavier. We have someone else who offered to help.”

Xavier gritted his teeth against the pain and shook his head. “You can’t trust Ever,” he said. “They have no interest in helping you once you’ve served your purpose to them, trust me.”

“You only say that because they want you dead,” Isiah said, stepping forward and rummaging through Xavier’s pockets. “And so do we.”

He grabbed his phone and crushed it, tossing it into the ground cover, then also took the vial of drugs and the syringe Xavier kept on him for emergencies, stuffing them into his own pocket.

“We’ve been promised a big payout if we take you out,” Adrian said. “No hard feelings, Xavier.”

Xavier glowered at them, watching as Isiah made a ball of light out of his Evol and sent it floating up into the sky. In the distance, several growls could be heard, giving Xavier a sinking feeling.

“Some more old friends will be popping in soon,” Isiah said with a cruel grin. “I doubt you’ll make it until morning.”

Xavier tried to break free again, but with a creak the metal bands tightened, keeping him snugly bound.

“Next time I see you, I won’t bother being merciful,” Xavier called to the ex-Backtrackers who were turning their backs on him.

“Keep that optimism and you might last a little longer,” Isiah laughed.

As they disappeared into the night, Xavier tried to wrench himself free, using his Evol to attempt to cut through the metal binding him. His wounds were bleeding sluggishly, none of them were anywhere vital, but they hurt and were weakening him.

Using his Evol was a mistake though. The Luminivours that had been called by Isiah’s light were already slinking into the clearing.

Xavier yanked at the restraints until the metal dug into his flesh, furious at his helplessness. Finally, when the Wanderers approached too close for comfort, he was forced to shoot blades of light toward them in defense.

They did little damage to the Luminivours though, it only made them more interested in him.

Specks of light began to form on his skin and drift toward the monsters. Xavier gasped, feeling his energy slowly eke out of him as they fed on his Evol. He tried to shut it off, but to no avail. The collar around his throat felt constrictive, red light flashing a warning out of the corner of his eye, telling him his Evol was being dangerously overtaxed.

He began to feel faint, struggling weakly against the restraints, regret eating him raw.

He had been a fool. As much as he hated to admit it, he should have listened to Jeremiah. But in that moment, he couldn’t care too much about that. All he cared about was that he wouldn’t get to see her before his light was snuffed out.

***

Ariadne yawned as she got back to her apartment late. They’d been doing evaluations at the Association and she had been working overtime the last couple nights. She wished she could be like Xavier and not have to worry about that kind of thing, but she couldn’t afford to fail even part of the test.

Her phone rang, making her sigh. She answered the call as she headed to her fridge, wondering what she had to eat.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Ari,” Jeremiah’s voice surprised her a little. “I was wondering if you knew whether Xavier was home yet or not?”

“He should be, he wasn’t working today,” she replied, grabbing a carton of yogurt and looking for a spoon.

“I can’t get a hold of him; his phone keeps saying it’s out of service.” Jeremiah said.

Ariadne frowned. “That’s odd. I wonder if he forgot to pay his bill or something?”

She quickly sent Xavier a text, but it failed to send. Worry began to gnaw at her.

“I’ll go to his apartment to see if he’s in, give me a sec.”

She stayed on the phone with Jeremiah as she made her way upstairs to Xavier’s door.

“He’s probably just ignoring me again, but…he went to meet someone tonight and I just wanted to make sure it went okay.”

“Meet someone? Who?”

“Some old friends.”

“Backtrackers?”

“Mm, yeah.”

She felt unease well inside her as she knocked on Xavier’s door, waiting for a reply that didn’t come. She pulled out her key and unlocked it, stepping inside.

All the lights were off and there were no signs of Xavier being there. He wasn’t even passed out in his room.

“He’s not here,” she said.

“Dammit,” Jeremiah breathed. “I think he might be in trouble.”

“Do you know where he is?” Ari demanded, already heading back down to her apartment, ready to grab her gear again.

“Yeah, actually. You know where the spaceship is, right?”

“I’ll pick you up on the way.”

***

She drove quickly toward the No Hunt Zone, Jeremiah fretting in the passenger seat.

“I told him it was a bad idea. Isiah has had it out for him since we crashed here.”

“You know Xavier is bad at listening,” Ariadne muttered as she parked outside the barrier, grabbing her guns from the backseat. “Are you good?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Jeremiah replied, grabbing an old sword himself and getting out of the car.

They hurried toward the site of the crash, but before they even got there, Ari’s Hunter’s watch started to beep in warning, right before she heard the roar of a Wanderer.

“Luminivours,” Jeremiah gasped.

“Xavier,” Ari breathed.

They broke into a run, skidding to a stop as they saw three Luminivours crowding around the remains of the Traceback II.

Ariadne scanned the area and her heart leapt into her throat as she spotted Xavier.

“There he is!”

He was shackled to the broken ship with twisted metal as the Luminivours loomed above him, devouring specks of light as they floated from Xavier’s limp form.

Ariadne leveled her guns at the Wanderers and started shooting, leading them away, as Jeremiah rushed to try and free Xavier.

It didn’t take too long to take the Luminivours down and as the last one crumpled into dust, she rushed over to help Jeremiah.

“Xavier!”

He was unconscious and bleeding in several places. Jeremiah had freed one of his arms and his legs.

“Help me—if you can hold him up.”

She nodded and positioned herself to catch Xavier as Jeremiah hacked at the last couple restraints.

Xavier slumped and Ariadne caught him in her arms, staggering slightly at his full bodyweight falling on her. Jeremiah grabbed his arm and helped her lower him to the ground.

“Xavier,” she murmured, brushing his hair away from his eyes, trying to get him to wake up.

The blinking red light on the collar around his throat made her a little nauseous. “They consumed a lot of his Evol.”

Jeremiah started to search his pockets, coming up empty. “He doesn’t have his medicine on him—those bastards must have taken it.”

“I have some back at my apartment for emergencies,” she told him. The last time Xavier had overexerted himself, Ari had demanded he give her some backups just in case.

Jeremiah nodded and together they stood, about to pull Xavier up with them, when he moaned, eyes fluttering.

“Xavier?” Ariadne asked gently, taking his face in her hands.

He blinked at her blearily. “A—ri…”

“It’s okay, you’re safe now,” she assured him.

Xavier’s eyes fluttered shut again and his head lolled onto her shoulder. She could already feel the fever setting in and glanced up at Jeremiah. “We have to get him back now.”

He nodded grimly and handed her his sword. “I got him. You keep your hands free in case more Wanderers show up.”

With a little maneuvering Jeremiah pulled Xavier over his shoulders and carried him as they made their way out of the No Hunt Zone.

Jeremiah offered to drive as Ariadne sat in the backseat, Xavier’s head pillowed on her lap as she tended to his injuries.

His fever was burning through him by the time they got back to the apartment complex. Jeremiah helped her bring Xavier up to her apartment and she carefully stripped his bloody clothes off and tucked him into her bed.

“I’ll get the medicine,” she said as Jeremiah exited the bathroom with a wet towel, using it to try and cool Xavier down.

Ariadne rummaged in her medicine cabinet until she found what she needed, plucking out the small bottle and a syringe, grabbing the fever medicine on the way.

By the time she got back, Xavier was starting to get restless, shifting uncomfortably as Jeremiah tried to cool him down. Ariadne quickly measured out the medicine and took Xavier’s chin gently in her hand, tilting his head to one side.

“It’s alright, you’ll feel better soon,” she soothed as she gave him the injection.

Xavier’s lips parted on a soft whimper and she stroked his face gently but seemed to settle a little.

Ariadne turned to Jeremiah with a tired smile. “You don’t have to stay. I should be good taking care of him the rest of the night.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get out of your way,” Jeremiah said good-naturedly, before he softened and a sad look crossed his face as he glanced at his friend. “Just…make sure he isn’t too hard on himself, okay?”

“Yeah, I will.”

She walked Jeremiah out, then returned to the room, turning all the lights except the lamp off and swiftly getting ready for bed.

She crawled in next to Xavier and pulled him against her, feeling the heat still radiating from his body. He let out a sigh and nuzzled close, breath washing over her collarbone.

She kissed his head and stroked his hair before falling asleep with him held gently in her arms.

***

When Ari woke the next morning, it was to a pair of blue eyes staring at her.

“Xav—you’re awake,” she mumbled, relief washing over her as she reached out to feel his forehead, noticing the fever was pretty much gone.

He hummed, brows furrowed slightly. “I don’t…remember what happened,” he admitted.

She gently stroked the hair out of his eyes. “Jeremiah and I found you out in the No Hunt Zone, getting attacked by Luminivours.”

“Ah…right,” Xavier replied, looking away.

“Xavier…if you want to talk about it—”

“I don’t,” he said quickly, shaking his head.

Ariadne pursed her lips, not wanting to push him, but…

“It’s not a bad thing that you want to help the others.”

He huffed. “I know. But I also should know by now that some people don’t change. Or, some are too far gone to come back,” he said. “I was an idiot and I paid the price for it.”

“You’re not an idiot,” Ari insisted, pinching his cheek a little. “You care about others. I’m sure you just wanted to give Isiah and the others a second chance.”

Xavier was silent for a long time. “I promised that I would get them all back home,” he said. “But…a lot of the Backtrackers are dead, some killed by my hand, and everyone else made the decision to split up. Regardless of their choices, I was still their leader, and I’m still responsible for them.”

“Even though they want to kill you?”

He looked a little sheepish and Ariadne took his face in her hands, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs. “Sometimes you can’t do anything to change people—everyone has free will at the end of the day. Whatever the Backtrackers want to say about you, you do good in this world, Xavier. Maybe you were meant to do just that.”

He gave her a reluctant smile. “You think so?”

“Well, even if that wasn’t the case,” she said, leaning forward to rest her forehead against his. “You’re my Xavier. And that’s enough for me. I wouldn’t give you up for the world.”

His breath hitched slightly and he reached out to tug her closer, arms around her waist.

“And I would give up every world for you,” he said softly, lips meeting hers in a chaste yet pointed kiss.

Ariadne smiled against his lips and held him tighter. “No matter what, we’ll always have each other. That, I can promise you.”

~~~~~~~