Uranium Pain

The Past Before 10 Years-

It wasn't much, to say the least. 5 lives changed without much to stop them. Where to start? We'll go with the easiest.

~~~

Lucille, probably the smartest person in the world, had just found her place. Working in a nuclear reactor. It wasn't all bad. But she felt something was missing in her life. She always took her off time looking for that.

She did find it, if you were curious. Though, it wasn't until weeks later when a ranger base went up. It wasn't far from the reactor, so she decided to pay a visit with some colleagues after work and welcome the newcomers. Many of the rangers were grateful for the welcome since their journey to Tandor had been stressful.

But one of them caught her eye.

The head of the place, Kellyn. From afar, he just looked like some guy that was busy at that moment. But a closer inspection gave her some red flags. He gave a really badly forced smile and he looked exhausted. He had to actually sit down at least once while she was there to rest. He never went near the group of welcomers, so she went over to him after asking one of the regular rangers about him.

"Hm? Oh, that's Kellyn. He saved Almia when it was threatened by darkness. He's been like that since who knows how long. All of us thought he always had these problems. But the trip here from Almia has told us otherwise."

Lucille eyed the lead ranger as he got up from his small rest, that couldn't have lasted more than a minute, and was already flashing the smile as he got back to work. Did he not see them? She went over as the few rangers that he was talking to had gone elsewhere and cleared her throat. His eyes drifted over to the source of the sound before he instinctively answered.

"Is there something I can help you with?" She gave a hum as she watched the confusion cross his face. It wasn't enough to truly point out, but it was still there. She then spoke, doing her best to not alert him.

"Not really... I was just stopping by to welcome you and your allies to Tandor. My colleagues and I noticed your arrival so..." He took maybe two seconds to process her words before the smile returned. It pained her to look at it, but she gave her own smile back.

"Oh! Sorry... stressed from the journey here." She mentally thought about his answers as he reached a hand out. "Kellyn. I'm the head of the new TRU." She shook his hand before she hummed. She knew she had to wait until she saw the problem, but that would be at a later date.

"Lucille." She then paused. "Well... we best get going. If you need anything, I don't live far from here. Next town over." He gave a soft chuckle. Oh so he did have it in him.

"I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be the other way around..." Oh and he has a sarcastic side.

"You're the newbies here, dear ranger." She could see that he was holding back another comeback. She decided against asking as she waved. "See you whenever."

"Uh.... yeah..." She didn't give much of a glance back as she and the others went out and said their farewells.

~

Later she discovered what was wrong.

She found him on her way home trying to relax from something. She had been one of the last ones out of the building and it was already dark. So seeing him sorta surprised him. Until she saw his condition.

He looked exhausted and his arms looked like it had just been attacked. Anything else was either hidden or just out of her line of sight. She slowly went over, trying her hardest not to frighten him as he really wasn't paying attention, and gently spoke.

"Kellyn?"

There was absolutely no way for her to not frighten him. Once the words were out, he jerked up, startled, until their eyes met. Then he calmed down enough for her to get a little closer. He paused for a good minute before he finally spoke, probably trying to remember her name. They really only met once and she hardly forgot a face.