Gladian Looked at the sky, Today was nerve wracking for him,. It’s been Three Months since Acantha released the Centennials and He was going to finally talk to Indica to say something he has wanted to say. Things have been rough for the past few weeks, but he knows today is the day. That’s what he told himself before, but now he was ready,

Then Suddenly, Atoll runs up behind him and scares him

Atoll: Gladian! Gladian!

Gladian: YAhh, oh what is it

Atoll: Husk put a finger in his soup, he is currently choking on it

Gladian: Oh no, I’ll go save him

Gladian runs across the Guild to where Husk is eating and does the heimlich maneuver on him, saving his life.

Husk: Thank you for saving my life, maybe next time I will chew.

Gladian (Disturbed): Oh… You should

Husk resumes eating and Gladian and Atoll withdraw

Gladian: Thank you for coming to get me, it was the responsible thing to do, however, I’m not the only person who can help.

Atoll: But…

Gladian: Next Time you should ask someone else for help, just trust they will do the right thing

Atoll: Ok….

Atoll runs off to check on Husk and Gladian sits there, he sighs to himself before someone appears

Sien: You know, stop beating around the bush and tell her, like a man

Gladian: I don’t know, but I will try to tell her today

Indica: Tell who

Indica walked in on Gladian having a conversation with no one

Indica: And who are you talking too

Sien: Say it

Gladian: I was talking to myself

Sien: You are an idiot

Indica: Ok…., but who do you want to tell, that is a her

Sien: Tell her you, I didn’t help raise no wimp

Indica: So…

Gladian: I was going to talk to Oceane, to help, uh, sword?

Indica: Ok….(She awkwardly leaves)

Sien: You’re a real womanizer

Gladian: I know

Gladian looked at himself, and then moved over to train, but nearby, two people saw the whole thing

Thomas: I think Gladian should see a Therapist, because he doesn’t look well

Femmeo: Well what can we do to help him

Thomas: I have no clue, seems like he needs to do this by himself

Xen spots them from across the hall, and calls out to them

Xen: Hey Thomas and Femmeo, come here, we got your new armor

Thomas: Aw sweet, finally we’ll fit in

Xen: More importantly, protected during Training and actual combat

Femmeo: Well, let’s get fitted

As Femmeo and Thomas went to go train, Gladian decided to go back down the old road to District 31, to have a conversation with an old friend.

When he got there, the man was in his shop, polishing an old lion statue

Gladian: Hey Iseri

Iseri: I’m glad you keep coming to visit, I don’t get a ton of customers, so it’s a nice change of pace

Gladian: It’s good to see you too

Iseri notices something on his mind so he asks

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Iseri: Are you seeing him?

He motions to Sien, who Gladian notices is standing next to him all of a sudden

Gladian: How did you know?

Iseri: Survivor’s Guilt, I saw Flandon several times after his passing, you need to let go

Gladian: It was him or me, and he chose me, it was so unlike the man I knew

Iseri: That happens sometimes, we gotta deal with it

Gladian: But…I feel so worthless in comparison….like it should have been me

Iseri: We all think that

Sien: Hey kid, sometimes it’s not your fault

Gladian: So I gotta learn to let go?

Iseri: In time, you must learn to not let these feelings of grief hold you hostage, or else you may never move forward

Gladian: I think you may be right….

Gladian notices the shadow of Sien begin to dissipate

Iseri: Is he leaving?

Gladian: For now, thank you

Iseri: Any time

Sien dissipates and begins to hang over Gladian

Gladian heads back over to The Guild, as we pan back to it, Atoll is training his dart gun on a small targets

Atoll: Ok…you got this

He fires a small dart from the gun, it rings true as it hits a board

Atoll: Alright…hopefully I don’t make any more mistakes…

As he goes to reload two more people get next to him

Atlantic: Hello sir

Atoll: Oh…hey….

Vendil: You seem to be quite proficient with your dart gun already, so why continue to train it

Atoll: I do want to be better than I was previously, if I can make myself more accurate I can avoid making mistakes in the future

Vendil: I don’t think the things you think of as mistakes are really mistakes, in fact you helped your friends out of tough situations many times

Atoll: But..sometimes I still lie awake and regret my actions, what if these shaky hands of mine make a mistake that doesn’t stumble backwards into helping them?

Vendil: I see, so you strive to remove your own weaknesses by shooting these targets

Atlantic I don’t think that’s gonna work as well as you think it’s gonna work

Atoll: Why do you believe that?

Atlantic: Well….weakness isn’t exactly something you can always overcome by shooting things, hell, I’ve seen people like Shiye struggle with stuff more often than not but he looks inward rather than outward.

Atoll: I see...so maybe I have some reflecting to do?

Atlantic: Maybe…but really I have no idea what you’d need to move forward

Atoll: Speaking of Shiye? Where is he?

Vendil: Oh, he went to undergo the metamorphosis process with Auralie and Cosma

Atlantic: What the heck is the metamorphosis process?

Vendil: It’s something that magic users sometimes go through to enhance their own powers

Atlantic: So they’re trying to cover for their external weaknesses by changing who they are on the inside?

Vendil: Not exactly?

Atlantic: What do you mean by that?

Atoll: And please do not speak in riddles?

Vendil: Well, their outside changes, but their souls stay the same, essentially they wake up in new bodies that are more in-tune with the magical world?

Atoll: But Auralie just has her gun thingy, why would she need to go through with it?

Atlantic: Maybe Auralie wants to be there for those people because she considers them friends?

Vendil: I believe you are exactly right

Suddenly, another person appears next to them

Larkin: What’s up my guys

Atoll: Hey Larkin, here to try to swindle us into joining your youth vanguard again?

Larkin: No…no…nothing of the sort….why would you even think that?

Atoll: You’re not slick dude

Vendil: Listen man….why would we even need a Youth Vanguard?

Larkin: Because we are so cool and awesome?

Atlantic: Why does that matter?

Larkin: Ok, but listen to me actually…the city out there…it’s been a mess ever since the Centennials emerged…what if people like us need to stick together?

Atoll: I think…you need to stick together with everyone else than?

Larkin: What do you mean by that?

Atoll: Why would just us 4 sticking together be enough, we already are part of the guild…maybe give yourself more presence around here…and maybe we can all be stronger together?

Atlantic: Well said!

Larkin: Huh…I guess you’re right…well I hope I see ya later

Larkin leaves to go talk to someone else

Vendil: I think…that boy is gonna get us into some massive trouble one day

Atlantic: Don’t be so pessimistic

Vendil: I have a being as old as civilization living inside my body so of course I’m pessimistic and have a negative worldview

Atoll: The name is Gorbuch if I remember correctly?

Vendil: You do, Gorbuch says he’s a god with few equals…

Atoll: Ah

Atlantic: Sorry about my remark then?

Vendil: You’re forgiven, but it’s no big deal…sometimes you gotta roll with the punches

Two More Figures appear next to them

Necra: Hey guys what’s up?

Vendil: Oh hey Necra

Oceane: So…we have news?

Atlantic: Oh do tell

Oceane: Well remember that Henry Gavel guy who me and some other people went to go lock up?

Atoll: What about him?

Necra: He has allegedly escaped custody

Atlantic: Didn’t he kidnap and kill the mayor?

Oceane: Yup, he’s back in the open and apparently on the move

Vendil: Huh

Necra: We’ve tried looking for this guy but we can’t get a reading on him

Atoll: Darn that sucks

Oceane: Hopefully we can get a solid read on him soon, or he might get away with some real sicko shit

Atlantic: Alright…well let's keep our eyes peeled then.

We pan away from them and go back to Thomas and Femmeo

Thomas: So…what do we even do now?

Femmeo: What do you mean?

Thomas: Even though a great chunk of Centennials here are no longer at war with humanity, some still seek vengeance

Femmeo: I think we must continue to do our job now

Thomas: I still can’t help that I’ve turned our back on our people somehow

Distant Voice: If you’d like to turn back, you can certainly do so

Thomas: Huh

Centus, The First Centennial reveals himself

Femmeo: What are you doing here?

Centus: I’m always trying hard to fight for us Centennials, we’ve been used as pawns by Humanity for millennium only to be cast aside time and time again, I’m still alive due to the fact I consumed the forbidden fruit long ago

Femmeo: So why would we join you?

Centus: Revenge my dear boys

Thomas: But revenge doesn’t work, you just saw that yourself, we need to work together if we want to be on equal footing with Humanity

Centus: So you’re cowards?

Femmeo: Not cowards, just willing to make ammends, something you should do

Centus: Humanity wants nothing but to use you in their selfish wars as disposable soldiers, that’s been truth for countless years

Thomas: But the world is changing, Centennials can finally go into society, make lives for themselves…

Femmeo: We can’t keep endlessly fighting Humanity for all their sins, the only way we get to move forward is together

Centus: I see…well I’ll leave you two well enough alone for now….

Centus disappears from view

Femmeo: Either path we chose in life…I feel like a great crossroad is upon us…

Thomas: We may have to spill some more of our own blood if we want to create the future we want…

Femmeo: Hopefully…it’s not too much

As the two of them continued talking, Centus listened and looked at the sky, a truly turbulent sky, emblematic of days to come.