Gasoline

Guilt

When Anneliese made it back to the village, she was shocked to see a party in full swing. She could see Levin, Malachi, Kyle, and two of the newcomers crowded around the well, watching the brunette flop around the ground like a fish out of water. Aphmau, the old lord, was going around catching up with people. As she scanned the crowd, she noticed Laurance in the pathway leading to the tree.

"Hey," she murmured once she reached the fellow knight, letting out a sigh as she watched the elated crowd before them.

"How did it go?"

"Not... Not so well. You didn't have to do that, Laurance. Just give him time... Even if he never accepts the fact of what I did, at least I know I found him."

She heard Laurance mutter something beneath his breath.

"What was that?"

"N-Nothing, just..." He paused, noticing the raised brow she was giving him, letting out a faint chuckle in response. "Alright, fine. I just don't think it's fair."

"What?" Anne questioned, clearly confused.

"The way he's treating you. You were held prisoner in the Nether for most of your life, killed, and then trained. I don't even know how you managed to resist Gene for that long. I had a hard time with the short period I was down there."

"It was the same thing you did," she murmured, lowering her head as she looked down at her hands, those things she hated to hell and back. "I thought of him. Aaron. When they imprisoned me after I defeated Gene and Zenix, this guy named Vylad-..."

"Wait... /What/? You beat Zenix and Gene?" Laurance looked at Anne in complete shock.

"Y-Yeah... Why? Is that a bad thing?"

"/Bad/? I... I honestly don't know. It's good in the sense you could take them out if the chance arose, but bad if you ever did lose control of yourself."

Anneliese let out a faint, half-hearted laugh. "Yeah.. Well, I have yet to lose control." The woman looked up to notice Aphmau making her way back to where they were at. "Hey, you have fun, alright? Don't lose her. I know she means a lot to you, and.. I don't want to see someone make the same mistake I did." She gave Laurance a sad smile before moving away, off into the shadows, outside the gate before the other woman could see her.

Anneliese sat against a tree for a while, watching Nekoette and the two wolf boys play in the pathway. She had just started to doze off when a high-pitched scream breached her ears. Anne's head jerked upright, and she slowly rose to her feet, watching as Dante suddenly took off past her with swords drawn. That was when she realized the scream had been that of Nekoette's. Her eyes narrowed and she unsheathed her swords as well, sprinting after the blue-haired man, peeking behind her to see Aphmau talking to one of the kids. She would probably be in pursuit as well pretty soon.

She eventually lost Dante as he took twists and turns through the forest. She managed to still keep to his trail, however. She could hear the muffled cries and screams of Nekoette now, and Anneliese broke through the underbrush, only to see an arrow strike Dante in the back. A horrified gasp slid from between Anne's lips as the man crumpled to the ground with a pained grunt. Her swords clattered against the earth, hands raising to cover her mouth in shock, eyes wide.

One of the bandits raised his sword, and just as he was about to finish Dante off, Aaron leapt from the shadows and blocked the blow, taking the man down. That was when she noticed the archer aiming another arrow, only this one at her brother. "Aaron!"

He turned, only to have the archer fall dead from his perch, Aphmau standing in his place with a drawn blade.

Anne ran towards Dante and carefully lifted him up in her arms, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. She could feel Aaron boring holes into her with his eyes as she turned and started walking back to the stronghold. Aphmau came down to help her, and they rushed the man to Phoenix Drop, taking him up to the tree. A crowd began to form, people fetching Donna and Zoey to help heal the wounded man.

Anneliese had stepped back, off to the side. She flinched when Donna mentioned him not being able to be saved. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she pulled her legs to her chest, silently crying as she watched from afar. Suddenly, Aphmau stepped forward. A bright light erupted from her hand and Dante sat up, completely fine. Anneliese swallowed hard.

Even though he was saved, she still couldn't take it. Anne turned and hurried down the ladder just as Aphmau fainted, fleeing from the stronghold, tears still running from her cheeks. She could have done something, she told herself. She had let Dante get injured. Even after that, if Aaron hadn't been there to block the second bandit, he surely would have killed Dante.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Anne hissed to herself as she slowed to an anguished walk, head lowered slightly into her hands. "He could have died, and all you did was stand there like an idiot."

As she rounded a corner, a faint rustle in the underbrush caught her attention. Anne raised her head slightly to peer at it's source, frowning as she noticed it was a bandit.

For the next week or so, Anne made it her mission to clear out the bandit camps, smiling to herself as she noticed the old Lord was working on rebuilding the old wall.

One day, someone finally found her. It was actually Laurance.

Anneliese blinked as the fellow knight came running towards her, panting. "Laurance, what-.."

"You need to stop hiding so much!" He gasped, leaning over to rest his palms on his knees. "You're practically feral! Anyways... There's a party being formed to go over to Meteli. Aphmau wanted to know if you would come with us."

Anne seemed at a loss for words, and as she was going to speak, Laurance cut her off.

"Great!" He then grabbed her arm and drug her off to the finished gate.