Once Eve and Phil had disappeared into motes of light Devon turned to his display and selected his destination. The system prompted him with a confirmation.

"Well, guess I'll see you on the other side," Devon said with a grin.

"Ah, wait a moment. It's asking me if I want to travel as a group."

"What? I didn't get an option like that. I swear, the system is messing with me again…"

Trey laughed as Devon received a popup asking if he wished to join Trey's travel group, which he immediately accepted.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

He felt the world distort momentarily before his consciousness was yanked away, just like what had happened way back at the start of everything. When he regained his senses he found himself back in the void, but this time Trey was beside him.

A progress bar appeared in front of his eyes. As he watched it inched up from 0% to 1% after about half a minute.

"Seems like this isn't exactly instantaneous travel," Trey muttered.

"Well considering we might as well be flying through space faster than the speed of light, I'd say it's fast enough."

"I suppose you have a point."

They stood in amiable silence as Devon thought over how he wanted to broach a topic he'd been thinking about ever since the battle.

"Trey… I think I should apologize."

"I thought it seemed like you had something on your chest. All right, out with it."

"It's about my original plan, I-"

"You mean the one that ultimately allowed us to prepare for the overseer's attack and resulted in at least half of the humans to survive the tutorial despite such a grave threat? I don't exactly see a problem with it."

"I just think I was too hasty, too narrow-minded. I wonder if there could have been another way that didn't end in such bloodshed."

"That's just hindsight talking."

"Partially, yes. But it's also an admittance of my own shortcomings. When I fought the chief of the vishan, the level 74 I mentioned earlier, and Val Kazar… Val Kazar was the one who ultimately struck the final blow against the chief, the leader of their tribe."

"A betrayal?"

"Or a coup, I'm not sure. Either way, it made me realize that we might have misunderstood the overseers from the start. The chief was the one who gave them the mission to slaughter us. We caught on to that objective and in turn labeled them all as enemies. From there we never even attempted to open a line of communication."

"I doubt any attempt at talking would have gone well. If we'd tried to initiate a meeting it would have just turned into an ambush."

"But we wouldn't have needed a meeting. We haven't needed something like that for a while now."

Trey's eyes widened as he realized what Devon meant, "Of course! We never even imagined trying to use the messaging function to communicate with any of the overseers. But do you really think any of them would have responded positively to that?"

"Of course, it's entirely possible they would have dismissed such attempts at communication completely or done nothing but scorn us. Regardless, we were so quick to define them as enemies we never bothered to think about what their real goal was, or why they were doing it in the first place. If we had expanded our thoughts to include even the possibility of cooperation then it might have been possible to prevent the slaughter altogether."

Stolen story; please report.

Devon closed his eyes, "And that was my failure. I was so intent on defining the overseers as enemies that I closed my eyes to any possibilities that didn't include violence. And because of that, I forced you into an undesirable role. I'm sorry."

"Would you stop acting like you're the center of everything?" Trey said, clearly annoyed, "If we're going to play the 'I could have done X better' game then I'm guilty of the exact same thing. Hell, I think everyone was. If we're looking at it from that perspective then Val Kazar could have also been the one to extend the olive branch, and Nix could have done the exact same thing you're saying without resorting to the means that she did."

"Well… I guess you're right."

"It was a bad situation, and we might have all made bad moves. Hell, if Nix had let us in on the existence of her mech when she talked to me then we'd have had to shift the plan completely. But she didn't, and because she kept it to herself we went on none the wiser and almost ended up with an even higher body count."

Trey sighed, "We did the best we could. Are you telling me you regret the decisions we made?"

"No," Devon said, iron in his voice, "I'm regretting my lack of vision, and my obsession with seeing things play out a certain way. If I'd properly explored all the options available and found that they were all dead ends I still would have come to the conclusion that our method was the best chance of survival."

"Good. We're only human, we make mistakes. Instead of apologizing just do it better next time," Trey said as he slapped Devon on the back.

Devon smiled, "Yeah, you're right."

I can always count on Trey to set me back on track.

It hadn't just been the sight of the battlefield and mass death that had unnerved him. It had been the feeling that he could have taken different actions, that if he'd simply been more open-minded he could have prevented needless death.

But Trey was right. There was no sense wallowing in what could have been. All he needed to do was take what he'd learned and apply that knowledge to his future schemes.

If people have to die to protect what I want to protect then so be it, that's probably the natural order in this new reality we've found ourselves a part of. But I don't ever want to close myself off to better outcomes again. Think more. Plan more. Make more moves. I won't allow myself to miss any opportunity for the best outcome I can envision.

"Here we go," Trey said as the progress bar neared completion, "Any idea what we'll find on the other side?"

"No clue. All I can say is don't trust anything."

"I thought we were going here in the first place because you got invited?"

"We are, but that doesn't mean I trust the one who reached out. I don't even know who they are. All I know is that it'll be better to start with a direction in mind than to wander aimlessly."

"Well, that's true enough. Kind of annoying though. We're going from one place where trust is in thin supply to another just like it."

"Not like it would have been any different on earth."

"At least there we'd have an idea of what to expect."

"Hm. Just expect something magical on the other side of this place. Then the worst that'll happen is some mild disappointment."

"Hah hah."

They didn't have time for further conversation as the bar filled completely and they slipped from the void.

----------------------------------------

Vanir

Everyone else had already gone, until it seemed like he alone remained. There were only a few minutes left until the system would abandon him on this tutorial world.

He knew he needed to make a choice, but he couldn't muster the will to think of the future.

Why did so many people have to die? Why did the overseers attack the camps? Who was ultimately responsible for Susan's…

Vanir couldn't bear to finish the thought. Too many people had died. For what? Trey hadn't told anyone anything. He'd simply gathered the remnants of the camps and preached about overcoming their differences in the wake of tragedy. But it was obvious something beyond Vanir's sight had taken place.

"So there's still someone left, huh?"

Vanir jumped in surprise and looked over to the person who'd spoken. The figure illuminated by the firelight made him widen his eyes in even greater surprise.

"You… Where are your arms?" Rationality came back to him in an instant, the instincts of countless hunts ingrained in him. "Do you need healing pills? I have some to spare."

The man laughed hollowly, "Don't bother. Those things won't bring back what that bastard took. Not my arms or the lives of the people that lay here."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean there was somebody responsible for all the deaths that took place. Someone whose actions caused Nix to use that thing, caused the overseers to attack, everything."

Vanir instinctively knew the man before him shouldn't be trusted. There was something wrong with him, he could just tell. It was as though the light of insanity flickered behind his eyes.

Even so, if the man's words had any truth to them, he had to know.

"Alright, I'm listening."

A wicked smile spread across the man's face as the last of the fire died out.