➳ 𝐄𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 - 𝐓𝐏𝐍 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 - 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫

⇢ ˗ˏˋ Four ࿐ྂ

"Hi there." An old looking man greets with a coy smirk graced upon his features. Emma and I look at each other, seeming to wonder the same question. Is he really a human being?  The sound of his tea cup being placed down on the table snaps us out of our thoughts.

"You've come a long way. Congrats, and welcome to Shelter BO6-32." William Minerva?

"Are you Minerva?" Emma voices our question for us.

"Nope," He gives us a sinister grin. "Too bad for you, kids. I'm not William Minerva. He ain't here chum." Sensing a hostile aura, I pull out my polearm, ready to defend while surprising everyone.

"Calm down kid. I'm not going to attack anyone." He rolls his eyes. He goes on to explain how he escaped and how he was grateful he found this lair. I wasn't focused on his words, more on his movements. He was crouching on the end of the table closest to us, the younger kids seemed enthralled by his stories. He explains how there's running electricity and water.

"Hurrah for my man Minerva!" He cheers in a low tone. I don't know why, but that made me giggle a bit. The other kids cheered and clapped along with him. He says a bunch of boring stuff about how his group died and stuff.

"However, I'm not letting anyone share my supplies," He states. "Stocks are limited. I'm older, this was my home first." Blah blah blah, we're gonna die cause we're weak. All that jazz. Dropping the dead weight makes it easier to survive, blah blah blah.

"You're wrong!" Emma shouts, slamming her hands on the table making me jolt.

"Afraid not. It does." He says gloomily, reaching into his back pocket.

"Emma!" I gasp and go to move towards her.

He has his gun against her head.

"Emma!" The others yell as she stands in shock.

"Give me the pen, and she lives." He negotiates. Ray and Gilda shove the kids behind them and Don pulls out his bow and arrow. I glare at him as I wait for Ray to make the decision. He pulls the pen out of his pocket and goes to hand it over to the man. Emma squints her eyes close and jabs her elbow back, hitting his ball sack.

"Emma!" Gilda and Ray exclaim as he drops down to the floor holding his crotch, groaning in pain. She runs over to us and I grab her arm, pulling her behind me. I hold my polearm out in front of us, prepared to stab him.

"Drop the gun or we'll destroy your precious shelter!" I yell, knowing he wouldn't risk it.

"Y/n, what do you think you're doing?!" Don yells, clearly not catching on to my plan yet.

"Piss off Don!" I yell, pressing my polearm to the man's neck but not enough to draw blood. "Drop. The. Gun. Now."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll cut your head off." Of course I wouldn't, because he doesn't want to kill anyone. He only wants to drive us away.

Eventually, he drops the gun but I knock him out before anyone could do anything else. I grab him by the shoulders and place him back on the seat where he was originally sitting. Suddenly everyone started yelling.

"Woahh! Y/n you were so cool! How did you summon your spear from thin air like that?!"

"How were you so calm?!"

"What are those shiny gems on your coat?!"

"You only just realized the gems- whatever. A true magician never reveals their secrets." I wink at them. Obviously I don't want them to know the real reason... yet. I notice Ray and Emma give me strange looks but I ignore them as I tie the man up and help everyone move into the shelter.

The kids go around and look through the rooms to see if there is anything that could be of use to us. So far we have found a kitchen, a bathroom, some bedrooms and some emergency exits. Jemima had been holding onto my hand the whole time, I don't really mind though, as long as she feels safe.

"Say Jemima, why do you stay around me? You barely know me." I question softly while we set up supplies in the kitchen.

"Because Ray and Emma trust you." She answers simply. I nod, putting the rest of the supplies away.

"How can you tell?"

"They're letting you join us."

"Oh." I stay silent as Jemima leaves to go change her clothes. I go to the kitchen to see Anna and Nat already cooking dinner. Suddenly Gilda comes up to me with some clothes in hand.

"Here, I thought you might need a change of clothes," She offers. "There are pants and a skirt there, you can choose which one you want."

"Oh no I don't need this I can't just take-" I try to refuse but she pushes the clothes into my arms.

"Just in case." She insists. I sigh and head to the nearest bathroom making sure no one was there before entering. I don't really want to wear it, but I don't want to make her upset. Besides, it's not like I'm changing into them permanently. I'll just keep the coat and necklace on because I don't want to lose my visions.

I finish changing and head out of the bathroom. I should probably check on the old hag to make sure he's not dead or something. I arrive at the chair to see no hag in sight, making me panic and head over to the kitchen to find them all face-to-face with him, threatening him into letting us stay and teaching us how to kill demons. He looks very overwhelmed by this.

"Back off guys. I'm sure he'll help if you stop crowding around him." I state, shuffling some of them away from him to give him room. He looks at me confused, probably because I just tried to kill him earlier. Some of the kids groan in protest but they leave him alone nonetheless.

"Listen here old hag," I lower my voice when speaking to him. "You're going to let us stay here, if you don't, we'll blow up the shelter."

"Ugh! Fine! Just don't break anything!" He groans, frustrated.

"We won't break anything." I promise, cutting the rope around that has him held back.

Time skip

Nighttime approached rapidly and I decided to get out of the shelter and out into the wasteland. I need a break from how stuffy it is here and the kids' volume. If I stay there any longer I'm pretty sure my eardrums will start bleeding.

The cool, night breeze hits my face as I climb out the bunker. I make sure to close the hatch behind me as I step out onto the wasteland. Being alone made me think about everyone back at Tevyat. Aether, Master Tighnari, Collei, Cyno, pretty much everyone I know. I miss them so much, I don't realize that tears start running down my face before I hear Ray's voice snap me out of my head.

"Are you ok?" He asks, nudging me with his foot.

"I'm fine... I just..." I couldn't control my tears as they came running down my face unwantedly. I try to wipe them all away but they just keep coming. Ray sighs and I hear his feet shuffle.

"I get that this situation is scary and all... just know you have all of us by your side. You're a part of our family now." I look at him, tears starting to dry up a bit.

"Thank you, Ray. It comforts me knowing I have people who care about me and my safety."

"Yeah, now we should head back inside, wouldn't want to get a cold now do we?" He snickers. I chuckle along with him, following him back inside.