#botgd

Previous: Boots on the Ground 1

Jugen sat up in his bed, papers clasped to his chest, and a sense of new found peace washing over him. It would come here and there. Doubtless at some point near the evening, when hope felt lost all over again, he was sure he'd feel less enlightened. But for now, his mind was taking the words of his friend Fiendal to heart. He accepted the value of himself as just a man. Accepted his value as someone seeking to do what was good in the here and now, unfettered from the past.

He turned to gaze across the hallway, and caught sight of the cell across from him...

...

The good feeling was gone.

There was just one problem with making sure Jugen's arrest wasn't announced to official records yet. And that was he was marked as a generic 'low flight risk' detainee. Which meant that another generically marked 'low flight risk' detainee would be posted in the neighboring cell by the guards who didn't know the wiser.

The Indigo Phantom was a mere handful of meters away, and the sight hit Jugen with sour memories and present feelings like an ice wave.

He was sure his short, but growing hair, extra facial scruff, rawhide clothes, and tanned, wilderness worn, skin would only conceal his identity for a precious few moments before he was recognized. And Jugen had to admit...he was not ready for it.

December 20th. It was a day Lila had been dreading for weeks. Ever since their final battle she had worked tirelessly. Searching for survivors, organizing rebuilding efforts, recovering remains, communicating with their neighbors. All of that was easy compared to what she had to do today.

She had ordered there to be no celebrations of their victory until they had found every survivor and recovered the remains of those who didn't make it. It's been two months now, and while they had found most everyone according to her head count they were still a ways off from a full count. Those still missing had to be presumed dead.

Lila let out a sigh as she arranged herself to look a touch more put together.

"You didn't fail them."

Lila glanced at her sister in the mirror as she spoke. "Well, I certainly didn't find them." She replies.

"Lila, there was no way for you, or anyone else to find everyone. The city was coming down before the explosion vaporized everything else."

Lila lets out another sigh. "It's easy to say when you're not the one that needs to explain that to their families."

Jari places a hand on her shoulder with a sympathetic smile.

Lila takes a deep breath. "I'll be out in five minutes."

Jari nods and gives her sister one last hug from behind before heading out and closing the door behind her. Snow crunches under her feet as she heads down to the beach where a crowd gathers around several braziers that have been set up on the beach, several large ships sitting at the water's edge as a light snow falls.

"How's she doing?" Kettil asks as Jari approaches, a mug of hot cider in his hand, draped in heavy cloaks and furs.

"About as well as you would expect." Jari replies. Kettil gives her a worried look. "She'll be fine. She's tough."

“The girl with the Night Fury!!”

Part 4

"Lots of potential, I'd imagine." He eyed Dixie cautiously. "It all depends on how one would use it."

He slowly approached, keeping his eye on any movement Dixie made.

"We need to make sure that it stays with the right person. A dagger of that much power could easily corrupt. As you just said, Its been infused with years worth of demon essence."

He slowly crouched next to the man, on guard, but allowing himself to trust.

[x]

"Ready as I'll ever be, Chief."

He swallowed, pushing down the reluctance to climb on Shadow with everything he could muster. His history with dragons was not a kind one, but given the circumstances, the alternatives were few. The scout saddled himself and clung to Grey without regard to anything but his own safety.

[previously on dragonball z]

"C͞a̢ll̢i͢n̨g͘.͘ ̷Echoin̴g͠. Ca̛l̶l̸in̛g̸.͠..̴" A disheveled human form stepped into the room through the only visible connecting doorway, a polished steel door slammed and latched shut behind him. "Ec͟h̕oi͡ng̶...̀" his voice raspy with the wear of hundreds of waking hours of use. Adorned with a ragged, stained gown, a series of tubes ran up his arms and connected to a mechanical crown and ran back down his spine through the gown. Shadows coalesced, dripping like heavy smoke from beneath the crown and masked his eyes, which glowed with a soft grey light. His left hand was made entirely of ice, with inhumanely long, dagger-like fingers.