A/N: I sincerely apologise for taking this long. It's been two and a half years since the story started and I've only progressed it a total of a week in-universe, with slow updates. With me in university, I'm not sure if I'll slow down or speed up. So, please, bear with me.


My POV

It was lunchtime when we realised that we were running out of money.

We had gotten up in the morning and left Kieri with Buwaro to keep him company, while Rhea and I went out to buy the necessary supplies. They were a lot, enough said. We were sitting at the same café from yesterday when we counted our funds and noticed the problem.

"I'm almost out of money." Rhea sighed, putting her pouch away. "All we got left is Kieri's extra cash, and even that mightn't be enough in the long run."

"Can we risk it?" I asked. I still didn't have a great grasp of the Median currency system, especially because they didn't use many different types of coin, and had no paper money. As far as I could tell, it was four orders of coins in powers of 10.

"We can't call it quits, but we can't let ourselves run out of materials." Rhea replied. "We can make a gamble and keep buying stuff to make a mad dash to the outside, OR we could find a way to get more cash and hunker down in the inn until we have enough."

I weighed my options. Either make a mad dash for St Curtis to try and catch up to Kazai immediately, or go ahead and join the Trouble Centre to stock up on money. There was also the option of finding the Sinclairs, but I wasn't sure how to pull that off without arousing suspicion. Especially since Heathcliff had some serious suspicions.

"We don't even know exactly where they're headed..." I muttered, a little more to myself than to her, reminding myself of the parameters of knowledge I was supposed to have.

"Honestly, staying is the next best thing." Rhea grunted. "We lose our head start, but at least it gives us a better chance in the long run."

"Okay, so...Trouble Centre?"

"Trouble Centre?"

"Yeah." I said. "The bigger cities and towns have them. Oh, you remember the guys who helped Kieri search, right?"

"Mhm."

"We should join them right away." I explained. "I don't know how much they pay, but they don't typically do jobs for too long, so we could cram a bit and make the most of it."

Rhea took a moment to nibble on what was left of her biscuit. "Hmmm...I guess it's worth a shot. Where do we go?"

"...we ask around?"


Kieri's POV

Buwaro.

I... I had no idea what to really say. Even after getting to know him, all I was taught about Demons rang in my mind. And I knew truths, but now also lies.

But Buwaro was here. And while it was clear he was under the weather, he still kept up his smile and his cheerful attitude like he didn't have an off switch. He still wanted to talk. In fact, he was a little disappointed that Rhea and Jamal had to leave, but was still very happy I was here with him.

It took a while to start a conversation. I had no idea what to talk about, nor did he. We were silent for the most part, either holding back a sneeze in my case or some coughing in his case. It took some time before I came up with the idea to ask him about his life, and see what similarities and differences in information I would find.

"Buwaro? What was...what was Hell like for you?"

Buwaro answered almost without thinking. "Oh! It was..." And it showed when he lost momentum as soon as he got it. "It was boring, actually. I made do with what I had, though!"

I blinked. "Hell was boring?"

"The Ring of the Slightly Damned. I only saw Hell once."

"O-oh..." Right, I forgot.

"The Ring was what Rhea called a "barren wasteland", whatever that means." Buwaro continued. "There was nothing but rocks and more rocks, Thadius included." He smiled down at Thadius as he said this, the rock in his arms. "And big, dusty plains, and tall, pointy mountains." He looked back up. "Sakido and I were the only ones living there. Death and my big brother Iratu would visit, but..."

Rhea had told me about Buwaro's family visiting, but she had glossed over some details that occurred while she was there, so I had assumed there was more to it than Buwaro was telling me now.

The room faded back into awkward silence briefly.

"What was Heaven like?" Buwaro asked.

I stood up from my bed and stepped up to his. "Well, everything in Heaven is large and grand. The buildings, the spaces...but it's nothing like Medius. It has brighter colours, but less of them. The sky does not darken fully when it's night. And it's all governed by strict laws."

"Laws?"

I didn't expect him to not know what those were, even though it should've been obvious to me. "They are...rules everyone has to follow. How to dress, how to maintain order, that sort of thing."

"Oh!" Buwaro said, seemingly getting it. "It's pretty simple!"

"It...is not nearly as simple, but...you get the point." I replied awkwardly.

"Okay!"

The room fell back into silence. I sat back down on my own bed, while Buwaro slowly refocused on Thadius and started playing with her. I glanced around the room, fidgeted, and took out my pendant to stare at it and admire the finer details of its craftsmanship, before turning to look at Darius' diary, still sitting on the bedside table where I had left it.

Hmm...as much as I didn't particularly like looking through another Angel's personal belongings, Rhea was right in claiming that I was curious. And though I tried to hold myself back again from reading it, curiosity won over all on its own, and I picked up the diary.

I rifled through the first few pages I had read. The dates were all from years before I was born. Around my parents' generation, in fact. The text was all fearful, written quickly and messily; he was afraid of being drafted, even after taking on the difficult task of crafting pendants to stay away from the fighting itself. The following entries seemed to slow down slightly as he seemed to regain his composure when writing those.

Then I glanced up at Buwaro, and did a double take when I realised he was looking at me.

I stayed silent.

"Are you reading the diary again?"

I just nodded wordlessly.

He smiled. "Neat!" He answered, awkwardly. "Did you find anything else on Darius?"

I shook my head. "Most of what he's saying is stuff about how the war was seen in Heaven."

"And how was it seen?"

I hadn't expected him to ask that, for whatever reason. "Well...to put it simply, everyone was afraid of joining. From what Darius' opinion says, the war was getting particularly desperate as it was ending. " I explained.

"Rhea said the war happened a long time ago." Buwaro recalled. "Why did it end, so recently, just like that?"

Hmm... "Angelic forces had pushed back enough to fight in Hell." I recited, from what I was taught in class. "The fighting eventually died down in there, but...many Angels aren't satisfied with that." I put the diary down. "Most Angels didn't want to have to fight again...but many were still trained to do so. Like me and my brother."

"Oh." He understood that too. He sat up straighter, rubbing his nose with his wrist and sniffling.

I sighed. I thought back to my family, back in Heaven. I thought back to Kazai, somewhere on the trail to the East. Sanjulo, with him. Then I looked back up at Buwaro, who had gone back to playing with Thadius.

I could feel their eyes on me as my eyes were on him.

I had befriended a Demon. A sworn enemy of Heaven. A particular enemy that didn't know about the conflict, about Warrior Angels, and wouldn't go so far as to hurt a fly. The stories were true when they applied to Lazuli, but not to him. Not all Demons were the same. Buwaro was nice. Very nice. He was nicer than some Angels, in fact. This was an oxymoron in my head, but I couldn't picture Buwaro behaving like those other Demons anymore.

I picked the diary back up and tried distracting myself by reading more about Darius. It didn't work at all.

I returned to fiddling with my pendant under my shirt. It didn't work.

I grabbed a pillow and patted it randomly. It just shot dust up into my nose and-

"Ah-CHOO!"

Poing!

There went my curse again. Buwaro looked up and giggled. I hid behind my new, floppy ears.


My POV

By now it was more than clear that the wonder of being in a fantasy world had worn off. Fatigue had started to set in.

Meeting non-humans. Learning magic. Killing a Demon. Only now was I able to process what the hell I had been doing all this time. Manipulating events. Planning for the future. Not even those two things seemed to let the facts sink in.

Maybe they even delayed the reality of the situation setting in, because through those lenses, I kept treating the world and its events like a story. Cover stories to avoid suspicion and blend in. Adrenaline taking over in danger. Treating saving everyone almost like a wish-fulfilment fanfiction or something.

But none of this currently mattered. My mind was racing all over the place, while I walked quietly and helped Rhea carry this old lady's groceries.

I glanced down at the Jakkai in question. This thing looked so normal yet so unnatural. She sounded, moved, and acted exactly like any normal human being, but her body was something I'd never see on Earth. Small, fluffy, beastly, more wild animal than human. But it was so normal here, on Medius. It was finally throwing my mind for a loop.

I felt colder than I've ever been before arriving here. I felt lonelier than I've ever been in the awkward years of school. And I started feeling hopeless-

"Jamal!"

I snapped out of it with a very unmanly squeak, and looked down at Rhea, who was staring up at me with her arms crossed. "Come on, let's go find other people to help..." She grunted unenthusiastically.

I took a deep breath, straightened my glasses, and followed her as she walked away from the old lady's house.

"Something on your mind?" She asked me.

"No." I lied. "I just zone out a lot." I answered a truth on reflex.

"Whatever." Rhea muttered, looking at the clipboard the Trouble Centre guy had given her. "We still got work to do."

I looked at the shadows, briefly forgetting what way was east and what way was west. "It's still...early afternoon. We have time. When do you wanna turn back in for pay?"

"Sunset." She replied blandly. "Then we can go around and see what we need for tonight."

"Fair enough." I said, equally blandly. Rhea and I didn't really talk much all morning, aside from the usual banter she dealt in. I couldn't conjure up any words to use anymore, so I decided to fall back into my thoughts, while still also trying not to look like I had zoned out again.

Buwaro had fallen into the river in Rhea's stead, and was now suffering from a cold. Buwaro and Kieri didn't do the Trouble Centre job, they stayed in the inn because of Buwaro's cold. No pimp outfit to force them to go all natural, that was unnecessary. Rhea and I need the funds to go out on the journey, by which point Buwaro will have recovered.

This last bit wasn't congruent with what happened in the comic; we had no other options at this point, and it would be a ticket straight to St Curtis and an early reunion for the Angels. But the incongruence was still nagging at me, because that would mean avoiding the Sinclairs altogether, along with everything else they were involved in.

Were they necessary?

Buwaro and Kieri needed the extra time taken in the detour to Weyville to grow closer, but...

Rhea was responsible for rescuing Eve from the shopkeeper, but...

The Rainbow Reverie, but...

Goddamnit, they're all but necessary!

The only pitfalls here are Denevol, Heathcliff's sourpuss attitude, and...and how to meet the family in the first place.

Buwaro and Kieri had gone pretending to be in costume. Both Cliff and Sammy had figured them out by sight alone, but it let them show up at the wagon without any ugly surprises. Sammy was the one who led them there in the first place, for helping to save Eve.

Sammy tried and failed due to an honest mistake Kieri made. Rhea was called and she "fixed" the situation. Good enough for Sammy.

If the timeline in my head is correct, Sammy tries rescuing Eve either tomorrow or the day after. But I have no idea where in the world the shop where Eve is being held even is. All I have is a super narrow window where in the comic's universe a very lucky coincidence happened.

I still have a day to plan, but...

I blinked back into reality for a second to see Rhea talking to a guy about finding a tool he had lost somewhere. It was jarring; I had tried to fall back into my earlier fantasy mindset, but, well, it failed.

"And you're sure it was by the river?"

Well, son of a bitch.


Buwaro's POV

Snowy was a bunny again. Then she wasn't. Then she was.

Her sneezing fits kept coming and going without warning. She said she was lucky to have kept it under control long enough to get lunch for the two of us; she didn't want people coming into the room and seeing me.

The sky was starting to turn more yellow through the window when she ended up as a bunny once again. After a few minutes of staying as a bunny, she started getting upset.

"Are you okay, Snowy?" I asked her.

"No..." She shakes her head. "I just...I can't control this..." She closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again.

I didn't really know how to reply to that. But I'm still gonna try it. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it eventually!"

She shook her head. "I'm not strong enough..."

This wasn't working. Maybe I should try something different.

"Snowy...is it really that bad to be a bunny?" I asked her. "I mean, I bet you could do lots of things with it you couldn't before."

...

"...and I think you look really cute as a bunny."

...

"...I hate it..." She whined, curling up into herself.

Now, I know that Rhea said that I have to stay in bed, and I also know that there's been something in my throat all day and my breath sounds weird, but I can't just leave Snowy like that.

I got out of bed and pick Snowy up, this time trying to be careful. She said nothing, letting it happen. I shuffled back into bed and place her on my lap, right next to Thadius. I looked down at Snowy; how do I help her?

"Why do you hate the curse so much?"

She blinked and sighed. "It's a sign of weakness. Toski is allied to Hell, a-and I let her curse me..."

"Snowy..." I knew there was something I could say, but I couldn't come up with anything.

"It's just one of many failures..." She sniffled. "I've never been good enough-"

"Don't say that!"

"Why not? That's what I am. A failure to everyone..."

"You're not a failure to me."

She blinked back tears and looked up at me with big eyes.

"Snowy, you're really strong and really smart, and really really nice. I'm really happy that I got to meet you. And I think you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, I mean, you've already done so much for us!"

Snowy was very quiet afterwards.


Rhea's POV

It was barely dusk when it started to snow. I silently cursed; we had to hurry back to the Trouble Centre then to the inn. There wasn't gonna be any time to buy stuff.

Jamal, on the other hand, didn't seem to register at first, walking an entire block away from me without noticing because he was busy admiring the snow.

"Where do you think you're going?" I called after him.

He jumped, startled, and quickly turned around, looking like he really didn't want to answer.

"Well?"

"I-I just z-zoned out again-"

"Come on! Let's hurry back!"

I tossed him the clipboard and started walking back towards payment. He fumbled the clipboard and then followed me quietly.

I was starting to get a little tired of how quiet he had been all day. He wasn't particularly talkative before, but now it was hard to even get him to talk!

Well, we didn't have much time to talk anyway, with the snow coming and the temperature dropping fast. I was just glad the Trouble Centre wasn't too far away from where we were. One quick signing of papers later and the shady guy behind the barred window tossed us a hefty bag of gold coins.

"Jackpot!" I exclaimed, catching the bag. Jamal simply nodded down at me. "Let's hurry home, okay?"

Well, I sure as Hell didn't need to be told twice. I led the way back to the hotel, hurrying as the wind started picking up and more snow began to fall. It took a few minutes and Jamal almost slipped and cracked his head on something, but we made it back into the Chipper Mudskipper inn. I shook off as much snow as I could once the door was closed.

Jamal breathed a sigh of relief, brushing himself off. "There we go..." He muttered, rubbing his hands together for warmth. I did the same, but didn't wait too long before quickly stepping back up the stairs and going into the room.

"Good evening!" I called as I barged in.

And boy did I get a nice surprise. Buwaro and Kieri both squealed in shock when I threw the door open and Kieri- Kieri had been sitting on Buwaro's lap, as an Angel! And now she was on the floor, after falling off the bed. Buwaro immediately got out of said bed to pick her up.

"Well, well, well, look what I've found-!"

Jamal closed the door. Glancing up at him, it was easy to tell he was feeling under the weather for whatever unknown reason; it's not like he told me anything.

"Everything okay?" He asked the two horny teens, sounding concerned.

"Ugh..." Kieri rubbed the back of her head as she stood up.

"Y-yeah, everything okay." Buwaro reaffirmed, also sounding concerned.

Actually, I felt a bit bad for making Kieri hurt herself. "Well, what did you two even do all day?"

"W-we talked." KIeri replied, stepping back towards her own bed, while Buwaro shuffled back into his, sniffling loudly. Jamal sighed audibly and trudged back towards his bed all the way at the other side of the room.

"Let's just get dinner and go to sleep." He groaned. "We didn't get to buy any of our supplies tonight, hopefully tomorrow we can hurry and get everything early, just like in Farun."

"Just like in Farun, it took us a day of shopping, Jamal." I reminded him. He just took his glasses off to facepalm.

Buwaro giggled. Jamal chuckled mirthlessly in return. "Yeah, that was, uh, again, kind of a stupid assumption."

I snickered as well. "Yeah, okay, I'll get you guys dinner. Some good food this time."

I turned and walked back out of the room.


My POV

God, today was a fucking nightmare to get through, even despite the fact that today was so much calmer than most of the previous days. Everything was on my mind.

I took the time to think back on Isabelle and Arin. Counting myself, that's three people from Earth, here on Medius. Three people at the very least.

It was easy to tell now that my arrival right as Sakido Ascended from Hell was no coincidence. Isabelle witnessed another Ascension as she arrived as well, and if Arin showed up first here at Riverside, then they probably showed up in yet another Ascension themselves.

What the hell this means for returning to Earth is still beyond me, but there's an indefinite amount of time left here.

I turned under the covers and looked at my watch in the darkness. 12:04am. March 10th, 2017. It's only been a week but it felt like well over two years.

What would Earth be left like without me? Isabelle arrived here in August of last year, and Arin came in either January or February. Time elapsed with them gone. I was proof of that. Sooner or later, the Ascension ritual will take place again and some other unfortunate soul will be yanked into Medius.

I can't really say that this is an ideal situation, far from it. But again, there's very little choice. And that's all that was on my mind as I eventually dozed off into dreamless sleep-

Never mind. I'm in Hell now.

I walked around the desolate wasteland; nothing but tall hills, dust, rocks, and not a single other thing in the area. A desert, only so much more desolate because there was no sky to speak of, just a ceiling, like a vast cave. I was alone. I saw myself age, alone, by the reflection of the River. The River became red with someone's blood; with many people's blood. I could see it mixing in the water.

I woke up the next morning just as the Sun was starting to rise. All I could think at this point was that I was glad I couldn't remember my nightmare. I could only remember just how hard I had been dissociating the entire time I was on Medius. I felt lucid now.

I sat up in bed, taking slow breaths, glaring down at my watch. 7:38am. More sleep than before.

I curled up in my bed, desperate for warmth.


Kieri's POV

I woke up next morning, feeling warm.

It didn't seem to matter that a snowstorm had set in and the cold was seeping through the door, the window, or the floorboards. I still felt warm.

I guess I felt better than yesterday.

Rhea yawned loudly; stretching so far she slipped out of her covers easily. Buwaro was still asleep in his bed, quietly this time. It was a good sign that I couldn't hear the rasp in his breath as easily. Jamal was completely silent, but sat up slowly, waking up with the rest of us.

"Morning, everyone! I hope y'all slept well!" Rhea said loudly and firmly, even despite her still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Thanks for the sentiment..." Jamal muttered. Buwaro yawned and stretched, as Rhea's big greeting woke him up.

"Anyway, today we should hopefully be able to finish buying everything for the trip and be ready by tomorrow at the latest, so let's pick up the pace!"

"Uh, Rhea..." I pointed at the window.

"What-? Oh." She bounded up to the window, propped herself up on her tail, and wiped the glass with her hand, revealing that it was still snowing, and it was snowing quite heavily at that.

"...well, shit." She exclaimed, getting off of her tail. "I'll just...I'll just go get breakfast now." She trudged out of the room, the wind blown out of her sails.

...well that was odd.

Jamal chuckled dryly. "Well, we went nowhere fast..." He stretched in his bed. "Thankfully, that means a little extra rest while we wait for it to stop snowing."

Rhea eventually came back with our food trays. "Okay, here's breakfast..." She set everything down on the room's small table. Everyone immediately trudged over and started to eat, sleepily, although waking up bit by bit as time went on.

"Are we just gonna stay in here?" Buwaro asked.

"Yeah, doesn't seem like the snow will let up just yet." Rhea grumbled.

"Any ideas on what to do to pass the time?" Jamal asked.

"We could, um...We could continue reading the diary?" I suggested. I still felt iffy regarding the fact that I was reading someone else's diary, despite the fact that the dates suggested it was well over 20 years old.

"That's a great idea!" Buwaro said brightly, before quickly turning around and coughing to dislodge something in his throat.

Rhea grinned. "I agree with 'im. Let's read! We have all the time in the world now."

I stood up and quickly fetched the diary from the nightstand, where I had left it.

"Where did we leave off?" Jamal asked as I walked back to the table. "I think it was while our Darius guy got conscripted into the war..." Rhea muttered.

"Snowy read me some more while we waited." Buwaro commented.

"Yes, but I'll read it again." I said as I sat down and opened the worn diary. I began to read.

A/N: This chapter is a bit shorter than the others. But hopefully next chapter will include a lot more. I'd like some more feedback on how I'm doing this and what I should do to improve on it.

Guest: Thank you for the support. The answers will come about as fast as I can write. Sorry for leaving you all hanging for so long so many times.