He would become a monster? Yeah right. How stupid was he?

He thought he had the element of surprise. When he finally came face to face with the killer, all he could do was stand there. If he hadn’t hesitated to give the signal, Xavier would have got him. This was his fault.

Now, all he could do was run around trying to find the spot where Quinn said she would be. He needed to hurry. The plan might not have been going like it was supposed to, but this could still work. Of course, that was only if she was in the right position.

He pushed through the crowd, doing his best to remember where he came from. Having Quinn wouldn’t mean anything if he couldn’t find his way back.

“Come on, come on,” he mumbled. He was reaching the pillars at the edges of the room. He finally emerged from the crowd with a gasp. Looking both ways, he spotted who he was looking for.

Quinn’s hair was hanging in the air, and the bottom of her sundress was flipped up slightly, revealing her bare thighs. Ocean felt his face flush, but then he smacked his cheeks. This really wasn’t the time to stare. She had managed to be jumping when the freeze happened, hovering just a few inches from the ground. This was perfect.

“Alright,” he put his tantou back in its sheath, tucking it into the back of his pants.

Then, he circled around Quinn and placed his hands on her hips. Just from the touch, he could feel how heavy she was. It was like putting his hands on a giant boulder. Well, a soft and supple boulder, but a boulder nonetheless.

He leaned forward, and put all his strength into his arms. Quinn stayed airborne, but moved along with him. He quickly doubled back to where he had exited the crowd, and reentered it.

Pushing Quinn straight was actually much easier than he anticipated. The main issue was changing direction. Once he got enough momentum, she was hard to maneuver. He needed to slow down to a fast walk just to avoid losing control of her.

As he got closer to the middle of the crowd, he heard voices again. The sudden change set him on edge, and he hesitated. He stopped in place, straining to listen.

“Oh my god,” someone whimpered. “A… little help.”

Who was that? It was nothing like Pietro’s deep voice, and it didn’t sound like Luca’s either. He couldn’t imagine that the cold voice of John Doe could end up like that either, and that could only mean one thing.

There was another person with a watch here.

The realization sent a hundred question’s flying through Ocean’s head. Where did they come from? Why were they here? Whose side were they on? He had to assume the worst. After all, he hadn’t accounted for Jaden having a watch. If there was another person involved, he needed to be ready to fight them.

“Fuck, what’s going on?” it was Luca’s voice this time.

“He’s on top of him!” Liliana answered back.

“Back off,” another voice shouted. He knew right away that it belonged to John Doe. “I’ll cut his throat.”

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” the new voice again.

“You think I give a fuc-,” Luca started to shout, but he was cut off. He let out a heaving sound like he was going to throw up.

“No! Get off of him!” Liliana screamed.

Great. Whoever this new person was, it didn’t sound like things were going their way. He didn’t have time to think. He glanced around until he found the route with the fewest people in the way.

He moved his feet again, picking up speed. He reached the area where the voices came from, and the scene came into view. John Doe was standing above Luca and a man he didn’t recognize. He wasn’t looking in his direction. This was his chance.

Ocean came bounding into the clearing like a charging bull, heading straight for the murderer. This was for Cory. This was for the girl, for Luca’s partner. For all the chaos in city. This was it.

Shit.

A pain erupted in Ocean’s ankle. It didn’t full register until he was already falling forward. He twisted his ankle.

His first instinct was to hold tight to Quinn in the hopes that it would stop his fall, but he resisted the urge. If he used her to stay on his feet, he would have to push down on her. If he pushed down, she would touch the ground. If she touched the ground, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to push her again.

He let go and landed face first, his arms stretched out in front of him. The pain in his face sent a shock through his body, but he tried to get up as quickly as he could.

With him no longer pushing her, Quinn was frozen in place just a few feet away. She was still floating, but it didn’t matter. His surprise attack was already a failure.

“Ocean!” Liliana called out.

John Doe’s fist met with Ocean’s face, sending another jolt of agony through his head. He landed back on his rear end. The hard sensation of something on his lower back brought him back to his senses. His weapon.

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Ocean scrambled to get some distance between him and his assailant. He jumped back to his feet and pulled his tantou out in one fluid motion. His hand was shaking, but he managed to point the blade out in front of him.

“Now this is interesting,” John Doe grinned, pointing his knife back. “No matter how many times I ran the scenario through my head, I never imagined it would end up like this.”

Ocean stared back at the man, nausea filling his stomach. “I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about,” he huffed. “How did you know we’d be here?”

John Doe took a quick glance behind him, and Ocean’s eyes followed. Luca and the other man were still on the ground. The unknown man looked like he was in a lot of pain. Luca was motionless. Ocean couldn’t even be sure he was still alive.

“Enough talk,” John Doe said. His eyes were fixated on Ocean’s weapon, and there was no doubt that he could tell Ocean had no experience using it. He wasn’t going to be able to force a standoff with it.

John Doe took a big step forward, and everything seemed to go slow motion.

This was really happening. He was moments away from being stabbed. He expected his life to flash before his eyes, but all he could think about was the people that mattered to him.

Celeste…

This was hopeless. There was no way he could win.

Ruby…

Every cell inside of him screamed for him to run. If he didn’t, he was going to die.

Cory…

John Doe was closing in on him. There was less than a second left for him to react now.

Fuck this. Ocean bit down on his lip, tightening the grip on the blade. If he was going to be killed, he was going to go down fighting. Even if he couldn’t win, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t give this fucker an extra hole in his face.

Liliana…

And then, it happened.

John Doe let out a horrible scream as something slammed into his back. He flew forward, smacking his face onto the ground. As soon as he made contact, a cloud of blood sprayed from his mouth, painting the floor bright red.

Ocean stood still quivering. “What…?”

Quinn hovered in the air where John Doe had been standing. She was still frozen in the same pose he found her in.

“Sea Otter,” the voice came from behind Quinn. “I… got him.”

“…Yeah.”

Liliana poked her head out. “You okay?”

“…Yeah,” Ocean dropped his tantou. It fell a few inches before suspending in midair. His vision blurred.

“Are you… crying?” Liliana asked, her usual mocking tone missing from her voice. “Wait, what’re you doing!?”

Ocean didn’t even know. Without thinking, he had taken her in between his arms, holding her close to his chest.

“I’m… sorry,” Ocean let her go.

“W-What? …H-Huh?” it looked like very drop of blood in Liliana’s body had moved to her face. “W-What makes you think you can j-just do that?”

“I said I’m sorry,” Ocean wiped his eyes. He did his best to go back to his regular ‘too cool for school’ attitude, but he wasn’t quite there yet. “I’m just glad… that you’re safe.”

“Y-Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Ocean cleared his throat. “Now you better never tell anyone about that for the rest of your life, got it?”

“O-Of course,” Liliana looked away from him. “I don’t want any weird rumors starting about us.”

There was an awkward moment of quiet between them.

“Oh,” the two of them seemed to snap back to their senses at the same time. They needed to make sure Luca was alright. They both hurried over to where he was lying and bent down next to him. His face was bruised terribly, covered in dark purple blotches.

“Is he still… alive?” Liliana asked.

“I’m… not sure,” Ocean said. How did people check for this kind of thing again? By taking a pulse? He wasn’t sure he knew where to put his fingers for that. Couldn’t he just check to see if he was still breathing?

Ocean put his ear close to Luca’s mouth and held still. It was soft, but there was no doubt that it was there. “He’s alive,” Ocean looked back up.

Liliana let out a sigh.

Ocean moved his gaze to the scrawny man laying a short distance away. “So… what’s with this guy?”

“Oh, that’s right, that guy!” Liliana perked up. “Whoever he is, he saved Uncle Luca.”

That was a relief. The last thing he wanted right now was to have to deal with someone else trying to kill him. “Hey,” he called out to him. “Thanks.”

The man replied with a groan. “Don’t… mention it.”

“So…” Liliana trailed off. “Who are you exactly?”

The skinny man sat up, holding his side. “I’m… uh, Tristan.”

“…Okay.”

They sat there just staring at each other. Well, he and Liliana did the staring. The man seemed like he just wanted to avoid eye contact altogether.

Finally, Tristan pointed behind them. “Is he dead?”

He and Liliana looked at each other. He didn’t even think to check.

“Sea Turtle,” Liliana said. ““Check to see if he’s breathing.”

A chill ran down his spine. “Why do I have to do it?”

“Because I was the one that finished him,” Liliana stuck out her tongue.

She had him there.

“Alright,” Ocean sighed.

“Oh stop,” Liliana glared at him. “I’ll hold my sword thingy to his neck just in case. I got your back.”

With that, they walked back over to John Doe. He was lying on his chest, his head cocked to one side. His eyes were closed. Liliana knelt down, placing her tantou in front of his neck. She looked up to Ocean and nodded.

“Here goes nothing,” Ocean got down on all fours, inching his ear closer to John Doe’s mouth. He held still.

“Well?” Liliana asked.

“He’s… still alive,” Ocean pulled his face away.

“Lucky bastard,” someone said.

Ocean and Liliana jumped to their feet. Luca was awake, a huge smile on his face.

“Uncle Luca!” Liliana squealed. She dashed over and threw her arms around him.

“Ouch, watch it,” Luca winced. “I just got the shit beat out of me, remember?”

“You’re fine!”

So grabbing and hugging someone was only okay if she did it. Ocean filed that knowledge away for later harassment.

“Ocean,” Luca said. “Good job, kid.”

“Don’t look at me,” Ocean turned his head away for a moment. “Liliana’s the one that rammed Quinn into him.”

“Liliana… you’re crazier than I thought.”

“That’s right,” Liliana let go of him. “You better not mess with me.”

Luca let out a pained laugh.

“So what do we do now?” Ocean asked. “He could be out for a while.”

“Yeah, well we have plenty of watches,” Luca held up his arm. “We’ll wait as long as it takes. I’m not leaving until I get some answers.”

“Alright,” Ocean nodded.

“In the meantime, Liliana, go find Pietro.”

“Roger!” Liliana gave him a salute. She stood up, her legs close together like she was lining up for a drill sergeant.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Tristan’s meek voice came from next to them. “But I… kind of feel like this has less to do with me than I thought it would.”

“What do you mean?” Ocean asked.

“D-Don’t worry about it,” Tristan got to his feet with the grace of a newborn baby deer. “There isn’t really time for me to explain. I should… get back outside.”

“Outside?”

Tristan let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. “I… guess you wouldn’t know what’s happening out there, huh? The watch keeps sound out after all…”

Ocean exchanged a look with Liliana and Luca. “What’s... going on outside?”

“Basically, it’s a… uh, magic battle?” Tristan started to walk. “There are… some people I care about involved.”

Ocean didn’t really understand what was happening, but he understood what it was like to fight for someone. That was enough for him. “Alright,” he put his thumb up. “Good luck out there.”

“Thanks,” Tristan gave a thumbs up back. “If we ever meet again, let me know why he did it.” With that, Tristan ran off into the crowd toward the exit.

“Huh,” Luca grunted. “Weird guy.”

Liliana tilted her head. “Magic… battle?”