“I absolutely didn’t understand the assignment,” Aidan immediately complained, his eyes widening as he phased in at the Royal Palace Courtyard.

Raven, having just ducked under a giant ice spear that slammed into the wall where she had been standing, slowly scooted out from under the heavy magical ice as it disintegrated. “What the crap is going on?!”

“We’re not as early as we thought,” Aidan said grimly. He guessed that if the fighting was bad here, then Keristrazly Square must be absolutely mashed with Rebel forces.

“This isn’t even where the party is supposed to be at!” Raven was still shocked from nearly getting decapitated by a magical stalactite the moment she logged in. “We’re early! It’s early! It’s hours before!”

Aidan nodded, ignoring the desperate looks Raven was giving him as she pleaded with him to agree that this was nuts. “I have to hand it to Elisha, when she kicks the hornet nest--”

He was cut off as a large contingent of friendly players emerged from one side, looking disoriented and confused. Without even understanding really what was happening they enthusiastically threw themselves at the red names that were coming through the gate.

“Where did they come from?” Raven grinned. “I don’t even know what’s happening anymore.”

“They just resurrected,” Aidan replied. “They must have died at the Square and were heading back.”

“Hmm. Well that sucks for them.” Raven did a double-take as another crowd of friendly names rounded the corner. She grabbed one, a disoriented looking swordsman who was, despite looking a little out of it, was grinning ear-to-ear. “Where’d you come from!”

“The Square!” He screamed, making Raven flinch. He gave her an apology when he saw her face. “Sorry! Almost deaf!”

“Have at’em…” Raven muttered, patting them on the shoulder as they turned back to start rushing the Rebels that were now being stalled by all the Imperials resurrecting nearby.

“No, I don’t know what time it is!” He cheerfully called back. He was immediately lost in the throng.

“Farewell, ye brave soldier who did not know the time,” Raven saluted his back, and turned to Aidan. “So you wanna…”

“Let’s head to the square,” Aidan immediately killed her idea.

“Aw.” Raven gestured toward the crowd of people fighting nearby and made an unwilling noise. “Yeah. That’s… responsible. But. Hear me out. Look at that!” Someone got blown out of the crowd by some sort of skill strike and skipped across the ground near them one, two, three, fourfivesixseven times before coming to a stop. Raven raised an eyebrow and pointed at their fallen, smoking figure as if that made her point.

“No,” Aidan laughed. “We’ve got to--”

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnn!” A sweet voice sang out through the crowd. “I heaaaaar youuuuu….”

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Raven’s face immediately scrunched up in panic. “It’s for the good of the world. Let’s head to the Square. I swear to you that the day hasn’t come that I would ever let Amelia or Elisha down. Let’s go right now, Aidan.”

“No, no, hold up.” Aidan started scanning the crowd and yelled out. “Marco for Raven!”

“...poooooloooooo.” Came back a reply that was much nearer now.

Aidan looked over, fascinated to see that Raven’s face had turned disgusted from the chin up. “You look like you just stepped into a big pile of steaming poop.”

“I’m going.” Raven said slowly, proud of herself for the restraint she was showing by not throttling him. “Are you coming?”

Several Imperials a dozen meters away burst backward, bowled over by the force of a figure that was now striding toward them with crazy abandon. “Ah! Ah! I found you!”

Fanciful was beaming, clearly pleased with her fortune. She stopped for a moment to engage an Imperial tank that stepped in front of her, trying to shove her further back into the throng.

Raven’s face darkened. “I’m just going to log out.”

“You go on ahead,” Aidan had finally caught sight of the name and there was a certain blankness to his expression. “I’ll be along in a minute.”

“...are you going to waste Fanciful?” Raven sounded the slightest bit intrigued, but not interested enough to watch. His offer for her to go on ahead was already moving her feet in the opposite direction.

“I won’t be long.” Aidan said, his expression causing Raven to pick up her feet faster.

Raven started snickering when she was out of ear shot. She hadn’t seen that look on his face before. It was a new look. “Wasted…” She punched a red name in the back of the head as she ran, scrambling and, in some cases, leaping over people as she headed for the Square.

Aidan was constantly amazed at how easy Raven had some things. She had literally punched some guy in the back of the head on her way out, and the furious look she had received had mellowed when the person saw it was her.

“If I punched some guy in the back of the head, I’d have like fifty people chasing me,” Aidan said conversationally, watching Fanciful as she walked up. She was looking after Raven too, a furious look on her face.

“Hmm? Sorry? Who are you?” Fanciful turned back to Aidan and started to lift her weighted combat staff in a manner that suggested she was just going to backhand him, but then the end lowered a bit as her eyes narrowed. Suddenly a grin crossed her face! “Oh! Nightlight guy! What’s his name! The guy that plays second fiddle to Amelia! The less handsome Forsythe!”

Aidan watched her eyes, looking for any hint of deception. When he saw that she was genuinely drawing a blank his shoulders slumped. “Less handsome Forsythe?”

…Nightlight guy?

“There are a lot of good looking people in your party. You have your hood up most of the time and you do creepy things once in a while,” she twirled her staff a few times, looking a little sheepish and sounding suddenly defensive. “You know. You’re the guy that they carry. I guess you’re not bad looking, per se.”

Aidan felt his shoulders slump even more. His head rolled back on his shoulders and for a second his mouth opened. He imagined his soul was escaping. “...carried. Ha…ha…ha..”

“Oh! You killed Mordred!” Fanciful seemed to remember. “That’s what he said. I didn’t watch passed the part with him beating the crap out of you for ten minutes. So, good on you for that! He’s pretty good, even if he is a little cheesy.”

Aidan wondered if anyone would blame him if he just let her beat him the rest of the way to death. This wasn’t going like he’d imagined at all.