Gladian Looked at the sky, Today was nerve wracking for him,. It’s been Three Months since Acantha released the Centennials and He was going to finally talk to Indica to say something he has wanted to say. Things have been rough for the past few weeks, but he knows today is the day. That’s what he told himself before, but now he was ready,

  Then Suddenly, Atoll runs up behind him and scares him

  Atoll: Gladian! Gladian!

  Gladian: YAhh, oh what is it

  Atoll: Husk put a finger in his soup, he is currently choking on it

  Gladian: Oh no, I’ll go save him

  Gladian runs across the Guild to where Husk is eating and does the heimlich maneuver on him, saving his life.

  Husk: Thank you for saving my life, maybe next time I will chew.

  Gladian (Disturbed): Oh… You should

  Husk resumes eating and Gladian and Atoll withdraw

  Gladian: Thank you for coming to get me, it was the responsible thing to do, however, I’m not the only person who can help.

  Atoll: But…

  Gladian: Next Time you should ask someone else for help, just trust they will do the right thing

  Atoll: Ok….

  Atoll runs off to check on Husk and Gladian sits there, he sighs to himself before someone appears

  Sien: You know, stop beating around the bush and tell her, like a man

  Gladian: I don’t know, but I will try to tell her today

  Indica: Tell who

  Indica walked in on Gladian having a conversation with no one

  Indica: And who are you talking too

  Sien: Say it

  Gladian: I was talking to myself

  Sien: You are an idiot

  Indica: Ok…., but who do you want to tell, that is a her

  Sien: Tell her you, I didn’t help raise no wimp

  Indica: So…

  Gladian: I was going to talk to Oceane, to help, uh, sword?

  Indica: Ok….(She awkwardly leaves)

  Sien: You’re a real womanizer

  Gladian: I know

  Gladian looked at himself, and then moved over to train, but nearby, two people saw the whole thing

  Thomas: I think Gladian should see a Therapist, because he doesn’t look well

  Femmeo: Well what can we do to help him

  Thomas: I have no clue, seems like he needs to do this by himself

  Xen spots them from across the hall, and calls out to them

  Xen: Hey Thomas and Femmeo, come here, we got your new armor

  Thomas: Aw sweet, finally we’ll fit in

  Xen: More importantly, protected during Training and actual combat

  Femmeo: Well, let’s get fitted

  As Femmeo and Thomas went to go train, Gladian decided to go back down the old road to District 31, to have a conversation with an old friend.

  When he got there, the man was in his shop, polishing an old lion statue

  Gladian: Hey Iseri

  Iseri: I’m glad you keep coming to visit, I don’t get a ton of customers, so it’s a nice change of pace

  Gladian: It’s good to see you too

  Iseri notices something on his mind so he asks

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Iseri: Are you seeing him?

  He motions to Sien, who Gladian notices is standing next to him all of a sudden

  Gladian: How did you know?

  Iseri: Survivor’s Guilt, I saw Flandon several times after his passing, you need to let go

  Gladian: It was him or me, and he chose me, it was so unlike the man I knew

  Iseri: That happens sometimes, we gotta deal with it

  Gladian: But…I feel so worthless in comparison….like it should have been me

  Iseri: We all think that

  Sien: Hey kid, sometimes it’s not your fault

  Gladian: So I gotta learn to let go?

  Iseri: In time, you must learn to not let these feelings of grief hold you hostage, or else you may never move forward

  Gladian: I think you may be right….

  Gladian notices the shadow of Sien begin to dissipate

  Iseri: Is he leaving?

  Gladian: For now, thank you

  Iseri: Any time

  Sien dissipates and begins to hang over Gladian

  Gladian heads back over to The Guild, as we pan back to it, Atoll is training his dart gun on a small targets

  Atoll: Ok…you got this

  He fires a small dart from the gun, it rings true as it hits a board

  Atoll: Alright…hopefully I don’t make any more mistakes…

  As he goes to reload two more people get next to him

  Atlantic: Hello sir

  Atoll: Oh…hey….

  Vendil: You seem to be quite proficient with your dart gun already, so why continue to train it

  Atoll: I do want to be better than I was previously, if I can make myself more accurate I can avoid making mistakes in the future

  Vendil: I don’t think the things you think of as mistakes are really mistakes, in fact you helped your friends out of tough situations many times

  Atoll: But..sometimes I still lie awake and regret my actions, what if these shaky hands of mine make a mistake that doesn’t stumble backwards into helping them?

  Vendil: I see, so you strive to remove your own weaknesses by shooting these targets

  Atlantic I don’t think that’s gonna work as well as you think it’s gonna work

  Atoll: Why do you believe that?

  Atlantic: Well….weakness isn’t exactly something you can always overcome by shooting things, hell, I’ve seen people like Shiye struggle with stuff more often than not but he looks inward rather than outward.

  Atoll: I see...so maybe I have some reflecting to do?

  Atlantic: Maybe…but really I have no idea what you’d need to move forward

  Atoll: Speaking of Shiye? Where is he?

  Vendil: Oh, he went to undergo the metamorphosis process with Auralie and Cosma

  Atlantic: What the heck is the metamorphosis process?

  Vendil: It’s something that magic users sometimes go through to enhance their own powers

  Atlantic: So they’re trying to cover for their external weaknesses by changing who they are on the inside?

  Vendil: Not exactly?

  Atlantic: What do you mean by that?

  Atoll: And please do not speak in riddles?

  Vendil: Well, their outside changes, but their souls stay the same, essentially they wake up in new bodies that are more in-tune with the magical world?

  Atoll: But Auralie just has her gun thingy, why would she need to go through with it?

  Atlantic: Maybe Auralie wants to be there for those people because she considers them friends?

  Vendil: I believe you are exactly right

  Suddenly, another person appears next to them

  Larkin: What’s up my guys

  Atoll: Hey Larkin, here to try to swindle us into joining your youth vanguard again?

  Larkin: No…no…nothing of the sort….why would you even think that?

  Atoll: You’re not slick dude

  Vendil: Listen man….why would we even need a Youth Vanguard?

  Larkin: Because we are so cool and awesome?

  Atlantic: Why does that matter?

  Larkin: Ok, but listen to me actually…the city out there…it’s been a mess ever since the Centennials emerged…what if people like us need to stick together?

  Atoll: I think…you need to stick together with everyone else than?

  Larkin: What do you mean by that?

  Atoll: Why would just us 4 sticking together be enough, we already are part of the guild…maybe give yourself more presence around here…and maybe we can all be stronger together?

  Atlantic: Well said!

  Larkin: Huh…I guess you’re right…well I hope I see ya later

  Larkin leaves to go talk to someone else

  Vendil: I think…that boy is gonna get us into some massive trouble one day

  Atlantic: Don’t be so pessimistic

  Vendil: I have a being as old as civilization living inside my body so of course I’m pessimistic and have a negative worldview

  Atoll: The name is Gorbuch if I remember correctly?

  Vendil: You do, Gorbuch says he’s a god with few equals…

  Atoll: Ah

  Atlantic: Sorry about my remark then?

  Vendil: You’re forgiven, but it’s no big deal…sometimes you gotta roll with the punches

  Two More Figures appear next to them

  Necra: Hey guys what’s up?

  Vendil: Oh hey Necra

  Oceane: So…we have news?

  Atlantic: Oh do tell

  Oceane: Well remember that Henry Gavel guy who me and some other people went to go lock up?

  Atoll: What about him?

  Necra: He has allegedly escaped custody

  Atlantic: Didn’t he kidnap and kill the mayor?

  Oceane: Yup, he’s back in the open and apparently on the move

  Vendil: Huh

  Necra: We’ve tried looking for this guy but we can’t get a reading on him

  Atoll: Darn that sucks

  Oceane: Hopefully we can get a solid read on him soon, or he might get away with some real sicko shit

  Atlantic: Alright…well let's keep our eyes peeled then.

  We pan away from them and go back to Thomas and Femmeo

  Thomas: So…what do we even do now?

  Femmeo: What do you mean?

  Thomas: Even though a great chunk of Centennials here are no longer at war with humanity, some still seek vengeance

  Femmeo: I think we must continue to do our job now

  Thomas: I still can’t help that I’ve turned our back on our people somehow

  Distant Voice: If you’d like to turn back, you can certainly do so

  Thomas: Huh

  Centus, The First Centennial reveals himself

  Femmeo: What are you doing here?

  Centus: I’m always trying hard to fight for us Centennials, we’ve been used as pawns by Humanity for millennium only to be cast aside time and time again, I’m still alive due to the fact I consumed the forbidden fruit long ago

  Femmeo: So why would we join you?

  Centus: Revenge my dear boys

  Thomas: But revenge doesn’t work, you just saw that yourself, we need to work together if we want to be on equal footing with Humanity

  Centus: So you’re cowards?

  Femmeo: Not cowards, just willing to make ammends, something you should do

  Centus: Humanity wants nothing but to use you in their selfish wars as disposable soldiers, that’s been truth for countless years

  Thomas: But the world is changing, Centennials can finally go into society, make lives for themselves…

  Femmeo: We can’t keep endlessly fighting Humanity for all their sins, the only way we get to move forward is together

  Centus: I see…well I’ll leave you two well enough alone for now….

  Centus disappears from view

  Femmeo: Either path we chose in life…I feel like a great crossroad is upon us…

  Thomas: We may have to spill some more of our own blood if we want to create the future we want…

  Femmeo: Hopefully…it’s not too much

  As the two of them continued talking, Centus listened and looked at the sky, a truly turbulent sky, emblematic of days to come.