004. (v2) [audio]

[stillseecracks]

I--

I-I'm--

I'm not a-a healer, n-not at all, b-but if-- i-if anyone still needs h-help getting to-- s-someone who is, I... I-I'm-- I-I'm not... uh... o-out of-- of action.

[He's got his head in the game, you see.]

Um.

Wh-- which I guess is-- i-is a good time to ask, is-- i-is everyone... b-better?

[Cause man if you still don't have your head

Comments

[ghostly_stutter]

X-Xanth? W-w-were you--?

[She swallows thickly. She can't ask that.]

You're not hurt, are you?

[stillseecracks]

N-No, I, I wasn't. I-I'm-- I'm fine.

What-- w-what about you, a-are you...? Is-- i-is everyone...?

[ghostly_stutter]

[An intense sigh of relief.]

That's good to hear, at least. I--I'm fine. Nothing h-happened to me or Derek, but A-Alex...

[Chloe pales, eyes burning painfully at the memory. Her stomach hurt, thinking about it.]

Th-things keep happening, Xanth. I'm not so sure this place is anything we even remotely think it is.

[stillseecracks]

[Xanth doesn't know who Alex is, but that doesn't really matter now, does it?]

N-- No, it, i-it never is...

[The Elegante wasn't. Why should Holloway's Keep be any different?]

Is-- i-is he o-- okay?

[ghostly_stutter]

[Another sigh--this one sounding tired and drained. Chloe needed a few long hours of sleep, but she wasn't sure she would be able to rest until everything settled down around the Keep. She needed to know her friends were safe.]

I think so. I--I'm not sure. He's with his... significant other, at least.

[Chloe didn't know if their dating was news or not, but she didn't want to be one to spread gossip, even if Xanth didn't seem the type to mention what he heard carelessly.]

Things are a mess, Xanth. I desperately want answers, but I keep coming up dry. I don't think I'll ever feel safe here. I know Derek doesn't.

[stillseecracks]

[Xanth sighs. Once again, bitterness rears its ugly head.]

P-Places like these, they-- th-they promise a-- a s-safe haven, but... it-- it's never like that. A-All it is-- s-secrets, and-- and these-- th-these things that-- that keep happening...

[ghostly_stutter]

Wait. Xanth. You've been in a place like this before?

What happened then? How--how did you get out?

[stillseecracks]

I-- I-I didn't. N-Not by myself, I, I-I mean.

[There's a pause here, as he chews his lip and turns over his thoughts.]

I-I didn't... I didn't get out u-until I-- a-appeared here. S-So I-- i-it was just like I got-- p-picked up a-again. O-Only, I, I-I didn't think there was... a-anything left...

[ghostly_stutter]

[A very lengthy pause/]

S-so you mean i-it could happen again? W-we could get taken away and put in another place like this, with no way out, and--

[And then what? No friends? No allies? Would the place be worse or better? It couldn't be better. It was like Lyle House all over again. She gave a sound very like a little human growl.]

They're treating us like lab rats. What are we to them, experiments?!

[stillseecracks]

I-- I-I don't-- I don't know.

[He puts his head in his hands, sighing over the journal. He hadn't been taken away from the Elegante until the Elegante was over, and technically he'd been taken from the Shore. In his mind, there's no real difference.]

L-Last time, we were... s-soldiers. Th-this time, I-I just... I don't-- I don't know what w--we are.

[ghostly_stutter]

Soldiers?

[That actually was surprising and shocking.]

They--Th-they made you fight?

[Deep breath. She didn't have all the facts.]

What kind of soldiers? What is it that you did? Were you--were those brought there all fighting on the same side?

[stillseecracks]

W-Well it-- it's not-- i-it's not like that, e-exactly... i-it's-- complicated.

Th-there was-- nothing left. O-Our worlds, th-they'd all been-- a-all been destroyed b-by a-a thing called... Th-The End. A-And the-- the c-captain of the ship, th-that was the-- the sanctuary th-thing, he... picked us up. L-Like-- like stragglers.

I-I don't know if-- i-if were were... y-you know, s-- supposed to be s-soldiers, o-or not, but... th-that's what-- w-we ended up h-having to be.

[Soldiers, at least, for the final battle.]

W-We-- we fought back-- Th-The End.

[ghostly_stutter]

[Chloe could do little else but stare at her journal as she tried to process all of that.]

Someone brought those left to train, so you could fight back.

[She was still trying to process even as she said it.]

Wh-what happened next? What happened when you fought The--The End?