Once I crossed the portal, I saw everyone panicking on the sofa of the waiting room, except for Martel, who wasn’t there. I seemed to have been healed right after crossing, along with Dee, who’se helmet came back, but… huh, now that I think about it, I don’t really know what Dee is, they had never shown their true form, so, I’ll just refer to Dee as “they”, just to not be confused… anyway, even though Dee had been fully healed, they did not wake up from crossing. I also didn’t feel refreshed, so, maybe our bodies were restored, but not our energy.

As soon as I came out of the portal fully, everyone stood up with a scared look on their faces, the first one to speak up was Mark, surprisingly:

“Hey, are you okay?! You were gone for a really long time and…” At that point, he moved his vision to my right shoulder, were I was holding Dee, his helmet being back on “Did you… capture the Crimson King?” His scared tone went away in this last sentence, turning into one of surprise as he stood back a bit

“That’s… really surprising…” Ness said this in an astonished tone, but quickly went back to a serious one “But where were you? And why did you bring another one with you?!”

“Well, the Mission Alarm was blaring, so I went through the mission portal as soon as I could” I said this in a calm tone, but the expression on their faces was that of confusion

“Mission alarm? But, it hasn’t sounded even once today” Martha said this with a confused tone on her voice as she said this

“What do you mean it didn’t? It was blaring out all throughout the hallways and in the rooms, there’s no way you couldn’t have heard it” I said this with a surprised tone in my voice as Dee almost slipped off.

“Hey, are you sure they’re unconscious? You should be careful, they almost killed all of us” Ness said this with a worried tone, pointing to Dee’s unconscious body.

“Yeah, don’t worry. But, if you are worried about it, just let me pass to my room. Even though I may look fine, I’m fucking exhausted, and there’s something I need to do before I pass out” I said this while sighing a bit. I wasn’t lying, I felt like I could give in at any moment, so I needed to hurry.

“We can’t just let you pass with a villain in your arms without any type of supervision” Mark said this with a serious tone, not letting me through or giving me an opening.

“Well, send someone with me or something. Believe me, I am not feeling well at the moment” I just tried to push him out of the way, but to no avail. He was really heavy, even for his build and size.

“Let me go with him” Martha said this behind me, in an almost cold tone. She was staring right at Mark as she said this.

“Are you sure you want to go? I mean, it is the Crimson King, they did almost kill you”

“I don’t care, I’ll go with him. Plus, he isn’t lying, he does look a bit sluggish” She said this in a concerned tone, which was a big difference with the one she used before, walking over to my side.

Mark just stood there for a bit, thinking for a while, before finally moving to the side “If anything starts happening, scream”

“Wait, you’re seriously just letting her go like that?!” Ness said this with an angry tone in his voice, walking up for a bit before being stopped by Mark’s first power.

“Let them go. If she really wants to be the one to protect him, then she will.” Mark said this with a cold tone, sitting down on one of the couches, leaving the pathway open.

After a few seconds, I finally started to walk back to my room, Martha following behind me. My room was a bit far from the meeting room, so it did take a while, even while running, so, with me only being able to walk, it was gonna take a lot more. I guessed that now would be a good time to at least get to know Martha better, since I had already gotten to know a bit more about Ness, so, I decided to start talking.

“Hey, uh, thanks for helping me back there” I said this with a calm but happy tone, while still walking towards my room.

“It’s really no problem. You look like absolute shit, I had to do something to help” She said this in a calm manner, walking right by my side. She looked… relieved.

“Hey, is something the matter?” I asked this in a calm manner, not wanting to seem creepy.

“Nah, nothing. It’s just that, this felt like the first time I was actually useful in a while… the last time I really did something kind of important was when I fought Iris… from then, well...” She switched her tone from a hopeful one to a somber one as she continued saying this. Clearly, this had affected her a lot

“Well, what was different between those times?” I said this in an attempt to get her to talk and try and help in a way

“Well, I honestly don’t remember what exactly happened, I just remember blacking out mid battle and waking up with Iris knocked out in the battlefield, with one eye missing. Ness said I acted as if I was a fully different person, and after that battle, I gained access to the Flames of Hatred, which I had lost access a few years back”

“What do you mean by lose access? What happened?”

“It… I was helping a friend of mine in a battle… and, an accident happened while we battled. She got really badly hurt… I asked her to seal off that power… I didn’t want that to happen again… even now that I know I have to use it, I have it powered down, only using one of the sheets of fire”

“Well, up until now, there actually hasn’t been a reason to pull back your power. I mean, sometimes I even have to go full power and even that’s not enough”

“But, I also blacked out that time… I feel like, if I end up going all out, I’ll just end up hurting someone while in that blacked out state, like I did with Iris… like I did with Lumina…”

“I’m guessing Lumina is the friend you mentioned?” I said this in a comforting tone, trying to calm her down, my room finally being in view, but still kind of far

“Yeah, she is… I haven’t seen her in a while, and I left her before we found out what a problem was… I didn’t even get to say goodbye like you got to do with your parents…” She sounded a bit jealous with this last bit, but also melancholic… she was clearly sad about her friend.

“Hey, don’t worry, she should be fine. But, outside of that, you can be sure, that if anything gets out of control, you can trust us to help you regain control of yourself” I said this with a hopeful tone, my vision starting to get a bit blurry.

“I… guess you’re right… Plus, last time, I don’t even know how I regained consciousness, so, maybe having you guys around can help a bit” Her tone turned into a bit of a happy one, but still melancholic as we finally reached my door.

“Don’t worry. We’re here to help” I smiled as I said this with a cheerful tone.

My door opened automatically, allowing both of us to enter it with ease. I set Dee to make them sit along the wall of my room, with me finally sitting on my bed. Martha picked up one chair from my room and sat across from me.

“Hey, you still kind of look like shit. Do you have any beverages or something that could help you recover your energy?” Martha said this with a joking tone as she kept her eyes on me

“Well, I think there might be something on the mini fridge over there, it usually refills every night” I said this with a tired tone as I laid down on my bed, my vision going blurry.

Martha quickly stood up and went to the fridge, where she picked up a bottle of orange energy drink, quickly tossing it over to me. I opened it and downed it almost instantly. My vision went back to normal, with some of my energy returning, I was finally able to sit up correctly and speak normally.

“That’s the stuff I needed. Thanks, I owe you one”

“No problem, but I will cash in that one right now. I want to know who was the person you brought before the Crimson King” That came out almost instantly and with a serious tone, her expression changing to a cold one.

“... Why do you want to know that? What good will it bring you?”

“Hey, you got to ask about me, so I get to ask about you. Now, speak”

I hesitated for a while, but after a few minutes, I finally spoke up.. I told her everything. The reason why I’m here to help, along with who he was and why I brought him back instead of killing him. It was long to say the least, and a bit uncomfortable. Along the story, I heard her mouth “I’m sorry” but never saying it out loud, with an embarrassed look on her face.

“Now you get why I brought him?”

“Y-yeah… I do… I’m sorry for asking, didn’t know it was something that serious”

“Eh, don’t worry about it, like you said, you didn’t know”

“But, why did you bring the Crimson King then?”

“They said that there might be a way to recover my brother’s memories, and I decided to trust them. I know it might sound stupid, but I have to take the risk if I want to get my brother back.” I said this while turning my head down, keeping an upbeat tone

“Well, I think I can understand your point of view… but still, right now, even if you’re here for yourself, you’re part of a team and have to think of the rest”

“It’s not like I’m the leader, I don’t have to think of shit like that… speaking of that, who even is the leader, outside of Martel” I said this with a confused tone, turning my head up again.

“Well, Mark seems to be the strongest, with all those crazy hidden powers, Ness can analyze the situation and seems to keep getting better and better elements, I have the ability of finishing a fight in one attack if I truly wanted to, and you seem to be the most balanced out of all of us, but you get hurt very, VERY easily. So, we should make a vote later about that”

“I guess you’re right… just, don’t choose me, that would just make me feel even guiltier about being here for myself” I laughed a bit at my own remark. I’m pathetic, I know.

It was at this time that we heard a light grunt coming from Dee’s body, they were starting to wake up. Martha almost immediately took out a knife out of her pocket to defend herself. I just kept sitting there, looking over at his body.

They finally started to move it’s head, swinging it from side to side as if they was analyzing the room.

“S-so… I’m guessing… this is your room… Colin?” They spoke in broken sentences, their voice being a distorted mess. I couldn’t tell what it was with that voice.

“Yeah, it is. Welcome back to the land of the living Dee” I responded while looking directly at it, pointing to my fridge “You need something to drink to recover your energy?”

“N-nah, I’m fine, I’m slowly regaining it” They seemed to want to stand up, but kept falling down, not being able to keep their balance

“Are you sure? You don’t look so hot” I said this in a joking manner as I began to stand up

“Says the one that almost got fucked in our battle. Shut up, I’m fine”

Martha just sat there, watching us interact as if we were friends, until she finally spoke up

“How can we know that we can trust you?” Martha said this in a cold tone, still gripping her knife

“Wow, didn’t know we had someone else in here” Dee laughed a bit, but then spoke up, as their armor was clouded by darkness. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll show you” After saying this in a chilling tone, all of their armor disappeared. It seemed to be wearing a tank top with some shorts, and a pair of sandals, but, their face, along with his body, was clouded in a blue shine, almost unrecognizable. Their face, besides the eyes, nose and mouth didn’t have anything with which it could be recognized and seemed to be changing positions and looks constantly.

“What the fuck?! What are you?!” Martha shouted this as she jumped back from her chair. Dee began to laugh at that, slowly standing up, being supported by the wall.

“Don’t worry… it’s just a side effect of Black Queen not being active. As long as the arena stands, I cannot go back to my original form… the same would’ve applied to your friend over there if it had been an official arena battle and he had killed me right then and there” Dee said this in a calm tone as it fully stood up, still inclined towards the wall. “But, as long as I don’t have the armor, I don’t have access to any of my powers, so I won’t be able to hurt you.” Dee said this in a calm manner, with a smile on their face.

“How can we know that exactly?” Martha answered this, still gripping her knife.

“If I could, I would’ve already done it. So calm down” Dee said this, struggling to stand up, but talking calmly.

Martha stood there for a few seconds before loosening her grip on the knife, without fully letting it go “Fine… I’ll trust you”

“Thank you” Dee said this with a calm manner before finally standing upright “So, let’s get to the point… where’s James?”

END OF CHAPTER 16