Artyom and Neitra were awoken by a series of loud bangs and shouts coming from outside. They jolted out of their beds and rushed to the window to see what kind of chaos was erupting in the town. They’d gotten back in the middle of the night and were able to get a decent amount of sleep despite their cathartic outing, but being woken up to such a cacophony undid much of their hard-won inner peace.

  “I see people running, but it doesn’t look like it’s away from anything,” said Neitra, her eyes following the small crowd filling out the streets below.

  “And nobody looks injured, there definitely isn’t any blood,” added Artyom.

  As the men, women, and children below continued to run around, they eventually began to separate, moving towards the sides of the road.

  “Wait a minute, this is a-”

  Before Neitra could complete her sentence, another explosion went off, the shockwave resonating through their window. She looked up towards its source, and saw a flash of multicolored light in the sky.

  “A parade!” exclaimed Artyom, completing her sentence.

  One of the army’s companies was making their way through the streets below, surrounded by fanfare and excitement, a complete contrast from their treatment the day before. The duo quickly got ready and headed out to the streets to see what was going on for themselves, filled with a raging curiosity for the sudden 180 of the townsfolks’ attitudes.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” asked Neitra to a member of the assembled audience.

  “We’re celebrating, of course!” exclaimed the person from the crowd. She was a middle aged woman with black hair wearing a blouse and long skirt, both dyed a light sky blue. “The Sworn Enemy has been defeated thanks to the army and some mysterious helpers, and we’ve been freed from not only him, but the taint on the land!”

  “But yesterday everyone was so sad, why is everyone suddenly happy again?” asked Artyom.

  “Well, I’d say it was a good night’s sleep that let us get our heads back on properly,” replied the woman. “There were a lot of changes we were processing yesterday, but I suppose today we just collectively realized that those changes were good! So why not celebrate?!”

  “Yeah, why not?” rhetorically repeated Neitra. “After all we’ve been through, I think we deserve to have some fun. Hey Artyom, you think we have some time?”

  “We have until 3 in the afternoon, so sure,” he replied with a collected smile. “We have time.”

  Neitra nodded in response and the two stayed put to watch the soldiers pass by. They mostly consisted of Neonate Company with several mages and technical support staff to handle the fireworks. Neitra even recognized Dill in the crowd and waved at him. He waved back and was about to call her to join them, but a quick finger to her lips got across the message that she didn’t want to be the center of the celebration herself.

  Once Neonate company had passed, Artyom and Neitra made their way down the street to the sight of several bonfires being set up along the sidewalks where large cauldrons of porridge and oatmeal were being cooked and freely handed out to any passers by. The duo each had themselves a bowl before continuing on.

  A quartet of musicians played for a dancing crowd, the strum of a lute, trumpet of a horn, and thumping of a drum set matched well with the troubadour singing songs of heroism and victory. The two joined in the merriment, spinning and dancing with the others until they were exhausted and elected to continue on.

  Their celebration and enjoyment continued on, the jubilation of Ironheart Fortress utterly infectious to the pair of heroes. All of the pain they experienced throughout their journey, and especially from the night before, merely felt like far away memories after tasting the veritable fruits of their labor. By the time they took notice of their hungering stomachs, it was already much later in the day. According to a nearby clocktower, it was already 2 pm. With only a single hour before their rendezvous, they chose to have a quiet and intimate lunch together at one of the few restaurants in town not openly taking part in the celebration. They were surrounded by many others resting themselves as well, even the most euphoric reveler requiring a chance at respite.

  Eventually, the clock struck 3 and the duo made their way to the not-quite-dour warehouse district, which the city-wide celebration was somehow able to reach. The rest of the war council was present to meet them there, including Tommy and Scout, alongside much of Squad Charlie. The long-gone goddess’ great hero switched out his speckled silver armor for a set of local linens, though he seemed to be wearing modern cotton socks on his feet below a pair of brand new sneakers.

  “Hi Neitra, hey Artyom,” said the ex-chosen one, addressing the pair. “So your friends told me about everything last night, it was a lot to process. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around it.”

  “I can imagine,” replied Artyom with a sympathetic look.

  “Yeah, The fact that everything I learned about the goddess growing up is false, and that I’m not really the chosen hero, but just some really unlucky sucker.”

  “Hey, don’t talk about yourself that way!” chided Artyom. “The way you stood up to your old party like that despite how strong they were was incredibly heroic! If anything, you’re still a hero in my eyes.”

  “And mine,” chimed in Neitra.

  “Thanks you two,” said Tommy, gleaming his pearly white teeth back at them in an embarrassed smile. “What really surprised me though is how there are so many other people from Earth, and that you all came this way for me!”

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  “Well you see,” replied Artyom while awkwardly scratching his head. “They mostly came for me, after I got cut off from them. But I came for you.”

  “Haha!” laughed the sort-of hero. “If anything, that just means they all indirectly came for me!”

  “I guess so!” shrugged Artyom with a contented look.

  “So enough about me, it looks like you two’ve been enjoying yourselves,” said Tommy with a wide grin. “Guess it was a good thing I gave you two some alone time back when we were adventuring together.” He gave the two a lecherous wink.

  “We’re not an item, Tommy,” grumpily replied Neitra with a hand on her head.

  “For real?” asked Scout. “I could’ve sworn Artyom here finally got himself a girlfriend, and someone not from Earth!”

  “Seriously, why does everyone think that?!” exclaimed Neitra in frustration. “Even your friends, Artyom!”

  “Don’t worry, that’s just Scout,” chuckled the half-asian man. “He assumes every man and woman together are, well… together. Even the ones he knows aren’t into the opposite gender.”

  “Hey, it’s not my fault you two look so cute together!” replied Scout defensively. “Come on, you’re both adorable!”

  “Damn right we’re cute,” retorted Artyom.

  Everyone let out a chuckle before calming down to proceed with business.

  “So Tommy, have you thought of Gus’ offer? I know you’re not in a position to decide if you want to join our fight, but you can still come with us to find you a new home, or at least some like-minded friends who can get you up to speed on what the world really is like. You know, help you grow up, and all that.”

  “Thanks Artyom, but I decided to stay here,” responded Tommy, scratching the back of his head. “I know a lot of the people here might not like me because I was ‘chosen’ by the goddess, but I spent the last two years adventuring so I could help these people! I can’t just abandon them now at their most vulnerable! There might not be much I can do to help them recover and move past the Dark Lord and this whole business with the taint, but I can at least try, right?”

  “I suppose you can,” replied Artyom thoughtfully.

  “But you’re going to need someone who knows what they’re doing by your side if you want to get anything done,” interrupted Neitra. “And maybe a chosen one of one of the actual gods and goddesses to cover for you in case you get chased by another angry mob?”

  “Are you saying…” started Tommy.

  Neitra bobbed her head with a wide grin.“Hey, even with the Dark Lord and the goddess gone, there’s still a lot that needs to be done to fix the Kingdom up. And I still have plenty of fight in me to get that done! But I have one condition…”

  “Uh, what is it?”

  “That we go by this as equal partners. We’re both chosen ones now, so we both have an equal say in how things go.”

  “But I’m not really a chosen one anymore.”

  “You were brought here to save the Kingdom, and you did kill the Dark Lord, so I think that makes you close enough to one to count.” Neitra let out a smug grin. “But I get the tiebreaker vote if we get more people to join us! And as the others said, you still have a lot of learning to do.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” said Tommy, looking somewhat guilty. “And I promise to always make sure you’re happy, and to be the first one to speak up if anyone starts bullying you! You know, it’s nice to get to travel with you again. You were a really good friend.”

  “I still am your friend,” she replied, her face returning to an expression of sincerity. “And thanks, I know you won’t let me down.”

  “There’s still the issue of helping you grow up,” said Prithvi, interrupting the moment. “How about if we have one of our agents follow you along? They can tutor you while you two are on the road. I’m sure there are a couple of people back at base, or even one of our auxiliary members living in other Worlds who’d be interested in being a travelling Kingdom Builder for a bit.”

  “Sure!” exclaimed Tommy. “They can be part of our party in that case, it’ll be an entirely new adventure!”

  Prithvi nodded with a smile and turned to Artyom. “We’ve gotten basecamp mostly cleaned up, but we’re leaving a few agents behind to keep an eye and ear out for any residual traces of this goddess. We don’t want to take any risks of her having left instructions on a summoning ritual anywhere to call in any more Earthers. This one’s caused us enough of a headache by himself, we don’t need to deal with any others here.”

  “I wholeheartedly agree with that,” replied Artyom with a chuckle, much to the displeasure of a pouting Tommy.

  “You’d better get going, I’m sure the executive council’s going to want to hear everything about this goddess and what’s to come.”

  “Hold on, there’s one more thing I need to do first,” said Artyom as he pulled out his now working phone. He turned to face Tommy and showed him the camera lens. “I have this little tradition of taking a picture with any Earthers I rescue after a successful mission, and well, you’ve been rescued! So how about it?”

  “Sure!” exclaimed the boy, as he gave a wide grin into the camera.

  “Prithvi, can you take our picture? Selfies aren’t really my thing.”

  “Alright,” replied the logistician, taking the device and holding it in front of her. “Say cheese!”

  “Chee-” began Artyom, before stopping midway. “Wait, hold on! Neitra, why don’t you join in too? You deserve to be in this as much as either of us!”

  “Oh, uh… alright,” she replied with hesitation before standing on the other side of Artyom. He placed his arms over each of their shoulders and gave the camera a wide grin. Neitra followed suit and gave her own best smile.

  After a quick click, Prithvi handed the phone back to Artyom so he could study her expert photography skills.

  “Oh, it’s like a portrait!” exclaimed Netira as she looked at their picture. “Even the highest leveled painters couldn’t do something like this so quickly! I take it back, this is the best thing you and your friends have come up with!”

  “I think I have to agree with that,” replied Artyom. “But you should see what happens when you take a lot of pictures in sequence while recording sound.”

  “Uh…”

  “Artyom, cut it out,” interjected Prithvi. “You’re confusing the poor girl!”

  “Sorry, Neitra,” said Artyom. “I’m sure Tommy can tell you what I was talking about on your travels. Or maybe I can when I come back to visit?”

  “Yeah, I look forward to it,” replied the rogue with a hesitant smile. “But I really hate to see you go after only knowing you for so long.”

  “You still get to know me, and this isn’t goodbye,” said her friend with a comforting hand placed on her shoulder. “Think of it as another adventure for each of us before we get to meet up again? I’m sure there’ll be a lot to talk about when we see each other again.”

  Neitra nodded confidently. “You’d better have a really good story for me, in that case! Best one buys the Sparkle!”

  “You’re on!” exclaimed Artyom.

  “Oh yeah, I almost forgot!” exclaimed Neitra. “When Yama was talking through me earlier, he told me to give his weapon to you. He said something about you needing it more than me now.”

  “Oh, then thank you,” replied Artyom, taking the mahogany-colored staff from Neitra. “If we have to deal with the goddess again, this’ll be really helpful against her Fatewatchers.”

  “Don’t thank me, thank the god of the dead!” laughed Neitra. “And I don’t think it was meant for just that, but there’s no way they’ll be able to stand up to it.”

  “Yeah, that’s true,” replied Artyom with a nod. “So until next time?”

  “Yeah.” The two smiled at each other.

  The two embraced once more before Artyom left with Squad Charlie to the portal back to headquarters. Artyom had come to this World to find and rescue a kid from Earth. In addition, he had found a friend and a new outlook on life. But most importantly, he had found hope.