#botgd

The only thing that could be heard was the drones and shrills of the marshland insects, and the quiet sniffs of the man who sat alone among them. The fire had burned down to a warm bed of coals as the rising dawn finally broke apart the chilling night. Mud streaked and cold, Blunt's shaking hand gripped Tezz's as the man shuddered out another quiet, sigh-like sob. Tear streaks lining his face, the larger man turned to look down at Tezz's remains, the body still leaned against him from where it had fallen asleep, and never woke up.

It hadn't worked.

He tried. He swore on his life he had tried.

But the man's injuries had been too extensive. The terrain too uneven under their feet, and the night too eminent for extractions. Despite telling himself and Tezz every lie he could think of to compensate the truth poured from Blunt's mouth until finally, finally, reality couldn't be put off...and a camp was made instead.

Blunt told Tezz every story he could about Clover and his children before the man finally passed, and Blunt was left alone to survive the night. He kept talking to him long after he was left alone. Stiff and heartbroken, Blunt finally shifted back up to a kneeling position, and took Tezz's other hand in his as well. "I'm sorry Tezzeret...I..." His chin trembled as he blinked out further tears as he look up at the sky, and then scanned the wildlands around him. "I can't take you with me...and I don't know what's going to be left of you to take home by the time I can get back..." He slowly slipped his arm around the body to hold it close. "I'm so sorry. Non of it should have happened to you...you were the best of us who suffered the worst of it all..." He laid the body down gently and stood over him. "I'll give a toast and see you on the other side one day buddy..." His teeth gritted together, his body too exhausted to continue to cry out, but forcing tears out nevertheless. "And I'm going to miss you...I've always missed you..."

He looked down at the object he now held in his palm. A shard of the metal and ice from Tezz's altered form. He covered his eyes with his other hand. "And thank you...you can't hear me...you're not even here anymore...but you're still going to save lives."

In his final moments of lucidity, Tezz had been able to convey to Blunt of where and how Akkey, the Nix's and rebel soldiers he had faced while still under Kezia's control, had been teleported. With a little help, such as the material behind the teleportation magic, and in the right hands, more could be saved. The man turned away as he picked his rescue supplies back up, his gaze now distant. "Goodbye..."

-

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 only reason I was so impatient, dear wife,” Sven said raising an eyebrow at Ingrid, “is because I received a letter from my little brother saying that he needed to talk to me about something, and I’m left wondering just what it could be. Now that he’s here, I can finally ask him.” He then looked at Einar. “So, what is it? What do you need to talk to me about?”

Einar’s smile slowly fell which only made Sven, Ingrid, and Grey furrow their eyebrows together in concern. He then took a deep breath and looked at his brother. “First, I need to ask you,” he began, “has there been any sign of High Central on this island or any word of them being nearby?”

Both Sven and Ingrid widened their eyes in shock at hearing Einar ask such a question. They looked at each other and then back at Einar.

Grey eyed her uncle and then her parents waiting with bated breath for the conversation to continue. Shadow stood next to her equally waiting for a response.

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.