"Are you sure this is the place V?" Travis asked pulling the binoculars from his face. "That's just an old hunting cabin, it looks older than the Bible."

"That's the place, that cabins a front. The real entrance is that shed right there, it opens up to receive supplies once a week and we're in luck tomorrow is their supply run." Venom said as he shivered intensely. A thin line of mucus dripped from his nose as he desperately tried to warm himself.

He pointed his finger towards the right of the cabin, towards an old metal shed beside the cabin.

"We're still assuming that tomorrow they'll open up that thing to go on their little run while they're terrorizing the town. What's to say they just leave that place and take the whole town instead? They practically own half of it at this point." Sarah said as she cleaned her pistol. She held it up closing one eye testing it's sight.

"To do what Plague has planned they need what's down there and they can't possibly move it. I've never actually seen it but from what I've heard from the others, it's massive." Venom said shakily.

"So your saying that to fulfill this crazy plan of his to 'destroy the world' he needs both Mia and whatever thing he's got down there?" Rose asked producing a small ball of fire from the palm of her hand. She held it out for Venom surprising him.

"Yes, without both pieces his plan falls apart." Venom said as he held out his hands. He thanked her quietly as he rubbed his hands together.

"One of those pieces is my my niece, that's our first priority. If we can destroy the machine, I'm assuming it's a machine, then that comes second." Lucas said. He rested against a tree and Jessie noticed it was getting harder for him to keep his head up.

"Lucas you should get some rest, we won't be able to make our move tonight anyways." Jessie said trying to give him a caring look.

"I'm fine I don't need to sleep, what I need is to be here and aware just in case we end up fighting another chosen." He said pinching the bridge of his nose.

"The kids right Luke. It's a good idea if all of us take turns keeping watch and resting, we all haven't slept in two days." Sarah said softly.

Lucas took a look at the group around him and sighed. He faced Jessie and pointed his finger towards him.

"If I'm taking a nap than so are you, if there's anyone here who needs it most it's you." Lucas said as he slowly stood up.

"What do you mean?" Jessie asked puzzled.

"Jessie you're an Icon, and if we're going by Plague's rules, that means your the strongest of us all. We need you at one hundred percent, so do as Lucas says." Akita said holding out his hand for Jessie to take.

Jessie took Akita's hand standing up to meet his wooden eyes.

"That's not true, you're all plenty strong." Jessie said wiping the snow from his new clothes.

"Jessie I struggled to kill one of those monsters at the bar, you killed four. Not to mention you saved us all from turning into one of those things in the first place." Lucas said patting Jessie's shoulder.

"You all have such amazing talents though, Toby's cloning helped us get info at the bar." Jessie argued.

"Yeah but I can't use it if I don't have something to make my voice echo, one room with no acoustics and I'm finished man." Toby said swiping his thumb across his neck.

"What about Akita?"

"My 'gifts' left me disfigured, able to breathe underwater, and with the longest tongue in the world. I'm not a very combat oriented chosen." Akita said holding his thumb up to his mask.

"You make it work though babe, Gene Simmons be damned." Toby said making a heart with his hands.

Jessie could see Akita blush even through his mask.

"T-that's besides the point, Lucas is right Jessie you need to get some rest." Akita said shakily.

"Well what about Sarah, I haven't even seen what she can do. Have you?" Jessie said pointing to Travis.

"Actually no we haven't, I've only seen her shoot and beat V here with a bat. Very conventional methods." Travis said scratching his chin.

"Very painful methods." Venom said eyeing Sarah carefully. He rubbed where his arm used to be gently.

"You better remember it too buddy." Sarah said with a sneer. "Let's just pray that the fight ahead of us doesn't require me to use my gifts."

"Agreed." The rest of her band mates said in sync.

"Ok that's ominous. Now I'm very curious." Lily said stretching her head towards Sarah. Sarah smiled as she batted her away.

"That's enough talk, Toby and Sarah are going to keep first watch everyone else catch some shut eye. We have ourselves a very busy day tomorrow." Lucas said pulling Jessie into his arm.

"With our twin powers we will keep you all safe. I swear on my life as a gentleman." Toby said taking a bow.

"Toby please stop talking." Sarah said grabbing his ear and dragging him to the hills edge. Jessie could hear Toby cry out in protest and chuckled.

"You my friend get the presidential suite, take the van we'll rough it out here." Lucas said as he opened the van door. The edges of the hole scratched the paint off the back of the van and Jessie could see Lucas wince.

"I don't know why I did that, like there isn't a giant hole in my baby." Lucas said as he trudged off, his head low.

"I'm gonna kill Venom."

—————————————•

Jessie opened his eyes to see himself in a strange room. Rubbing them Jessie took a look around seeing shelves lining the walls filled with books, small objects, and old vinyl records. He looked down to see he was sitting in a red velvet chair in front of a large wooden desk.

"Hello?" Jessie cried out.

There was no reply.

Seeing and hearing no one Jessie placed his hands on the arms of his chair. As he began to stand up he was suddenly pulled back into the chair, landing softly. Confused he tried again, and stood up only to be pulled back once again landing harder against the back of the chair.

"What is happening?" Jessie said confused.

"The chair won't let you go until we've had a chat. So it's no use trying to get up to leave." A voice said in front of Jessie.

Jessie looked up to see the bird looking down at him from a lamp that sat on the desk. It stared at Jessie leaving him feeling very exposed.

"What is this?" Jessie said sitting back in his chair.

"This is a space in your mind that I've decided to live in. Do you like what I've done with the place?" The bird asked.

"This is in my head? What? How are having a conversation in what is admittedly a really nice room in my head." Jessie said looking around the room once more.

"You and I have a connection that can become stronger once you reach a very calm and focused state. Once you reach that equilibrium we can talk in this room." The bird explained.

"That explains like half of what I asked but ok sure. Why do we have a connection, better yet what are you?" Jessie asked.

"You Jessie, are a very special boy, you have in your blood a deep bond with the smoke. That's how your able to do the incredible things you do. The reason for your bond is me."

"You're telling me the reason that I can make tentacles from nothing and come back to life is because of you?" Jesse asked confused.

"That's half the truth. I can only do so much, I'm what you would call a bridge. I connect you to that place while you make that journey yourself. If you weren't who you are, you wouldn't even be able to see me let alone do the things your doing." The bird explained. It cocked its head waiting for Jessie to respond, almost studying him.

"I still don't even know what that place is, why should I have a connection to it in the first place?" Jessie asked.

"That place is my home, the name it used to have doesn't quite fit it anymore so for a very long time no one knew what to call it. I call it the void."

The void?

That's what I said yes.

"So even my thoughts here aren't private. Is that how it's gonna be from now on?" Jessie asked annoyed.

"Yes for now at least, someday you might even find some comfort knowing I'm here for you."

Suddenly from behind him Jessie heard a knocking at the door. He turned to see two large wooden doors with small birds engraved into every inch of them. In the center of both doors was a man who bore a very striking resemblance to himself.

"It looks like we only have a short time left to talk, someone's currently trying to wake you up." The bird said as it sighed.

Wake me up?

Again yes that is what I said.

"Stop doing that!" Jessie said frustrated.

"Well we can leave our discussion here for now, it looks like you have other matters to attend to right now." The bird said dropping down from his perch onto the desk.

"You may go."

Jessie felt a small shock in his side and felt as if someone had loosened their grip on him. Placing his hands on the armrests, he stood up feeling no resistance. He looked down at the bird feeling the same dread he had earlier.

He turned to face the door and without another word made his way. As he placed his hand on the doorknob a sudden familiar chill covered him in his entirety.

"Do try to remember my name Jessie, it's in both of our best interests that you say it." The bird said behind him leaving Jessie feeling hollow.

He turned the knob.

——————————————•

Jessie opened his eyes to see Rose yawning above him. She held her hand to her mouth as she stared down at Jessie. Sitting up Jessie rubbed his chest feeling a small burning.

So sleeping helps me reach that equilibrium he mentioned, why do I get a terrible feeling that's going to get annoying.

"It's shift change time. Akita is waiting for you over on the hills edge." Rose said as she pulled his arm. "Hurry up Jess I'm dying here, let me sleep."

"Ok ok I'm on my way." Jessie said as he pulled himself from the van. Landing on the ground Jessie could see it had snowed while he was asleep.

It's much higher now.

"Try to have fun with it Jessie, and don't fall asleep. Akita gets very angry with you if you do." Rose said as if speaking from experience.

Jessie smiled and waved goodbye to Rose as she curled onto the velvet rug on the floor of the van.

Holding his hands together he exhaled into them trying to warm himself as he made his way to the hills edge. Ducking under trees and passing through the others camp slowed him down, especially when he stopped and drew on Travis' face.

Now you look ready for a fight, an eyepatch to cover that black eye of yours.

Chuckling to himself Jessie continued to make his way toward as Akita eventually seeing him laying down binoculars to his face. A mischievous thought came to mind and Jessie slowly tiptoed toward as him, piling snow into his hand as quietly as he could.

"You hit me with that and I'll choke you out." Akita said never breaking line of sight. Jessie sighed dropping the giant ball of snow onto the ground. He laid down beside Akita and was surprised to see him without his mask.

His eyes were as big as Jessie remembered and his wide mouth reminded him of a frog.

"Oh sorry I'll put my mask back on, I know my face is distracting." Akita said as he pulled his mask from his side.

"No it's fine it doesn't bother me at all, if you feel more comfortable with it off then please leave it off." Jessie said putting his hand on Akita's mask.

Akita stared at him confused eventually putting his mask back down and peering through the binoculars again.

"It really doesn't bother you?" Akita asked.

"Nope. Don't get me wrong I love your mask, super stylish, but it must get uncomfortable having to wear it all the time." Jessie replied rubbing his hands together.

"Really?" Akita asked confused.

"Yes really. Why's that so hard to believe."

There was a long silence as Jessie waited for a response. Eventually Akita sighed as he made up his mind.

"I'm only telling you this because there's a good chance I'll die here so you can't use this against me." Akita said as he put down the binoculars.

Jessie waited for Akita to start speaking, curious to hear what he had to say.

"I can see the way people look at me when I'm not wearing the mask, they think just because they don't react in a big way I can't tell they're bothered," Akita said grabbing his mask.

"But I can. Even Lucas and Sarah, who I've known nearly my whole life look at me differently now, and it's fine I get it. I don't exactly look 'normal' anymore." He said looking into his own wooden eyes.

"Akita I think you look cool. You should really take pride in that because I'm a seventeen year old kid and we're the experts in what's cool." Jessie said nudged his arm.

Akita chuckled as he brought the binoculars back up to his eyes.

"I don't know, you all seemed like you guys are pretty nerdy."

"Haven't you heard, thats the new cool." Jessie said as he stared out into the night.

"I doubt that very much." Akita said chuckling.

After a calm silence washed over them Jessie enjoyed how serene and beautiful the forest around them was. He remembered trips as a child with his brother, snowboarding and snowball fights. He smiled but felt colder than before.

"Hey I wanted to find a good chance to say this and I guess now's a good time as any." Akita said pulling Jessie back.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" Jessie asked confused.

"I wasn't particularly nice to you all when we first met, you in particular." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm not the best at socializing with people, Toby usually does that for me. So I'm sorry, I hope you'll forgive me."

Jessie thought for a moment before smiling.

"Ok I will but only if you teach me how use that." Jessie said pointing towards Akita's katana.

Akita smiled.

"Deal, here let me help you up." He said as he stood himself up.He held out his hand for Jessie to grab with a smile so wide it was contagious.

"Oh you wanna start right now, ok"

Jessie took his hand and wiped the snow from his clothes.

"So for sword fighting it's very important to be precise but strong in your attacks. A good tip that helped me when I was learning was to think of the sword as an extension of myself." Akita said as he threw a stick at Jessie.

Catching it Jessie was suddenly caught off guard as Akita charged in with his own wooden blade knocking Jessie on the head.

"It's also very important to be completely focused in battle, to not let emotions sway your decisions. Sword fighting is a discipline, it requires commitment and strong will to be truly good." Akita said as pulled back his stick taking a stance.

"I'm confused by what you mean when you say 'extension of myself ', it's a little hard for me to picture that." Jessie said rubbing his head.

"Try to imagine your blade as part of yourself, and treat it as such."

"Like if I have one really long sharp arm." Jessie asked confused.

"If that helps you understand yes. Now a mark of a great swordsmen is understanding the basics so well that when in a fight you perform them instinctively." Akita said.

"For your first lesson try your best to strike me down. That is if you can." Akita said with a smile.

"You're asking for it old man." Jessie said as he advanced.

"Oho I'm an old man huh. Well we'll see how well a young buck does against one." Akita said as he easily dodged Jessie's first strike.

Laughing Jessie pulled back his stick and swung upwards trying to catch Akita in the jaw. Taking one small step back Akita dodged effortlessly. Laughing Akita sidestepped Jessie jabbing him in the side with his stick. Trying to recover Jessie swung blindly striking a tree sending bark into his face.

Unable to see Jessie rubbed his eyes as Akita jabbed him repeatedly. Feeling his anger start to boil Jessie opened his eyes to see Akita in a tree above him.

"Remember don't let your emotions get the best of you. You control them, they don't control you." Akita said as he hopped down from his perch.

Jessie took a deep breathe as he tried to calm himself. Feeling his focus return Jessie swung narrowly missing Akita.

"See what did I tell you." Akita said as he pushed in close placing his left leg behind Jessie's and pushing his chest with his free hand. As Jessie fell down he felt the air knock out him and gasped as he felt Akita sit on his chest.

"H-how do you move so well?!" Jessie asked as he lay breathless on the ground. Akita sat on his chest and smiled down at him from above.

Akita knocked his knuckles against his forehead and chuckled. As he stood up from Jessie's chest, Jessie inhaled and watched him as he sat back down beside a tree.

"Years of practice, Jessie." Akita said proudly.

Picking himself back up Jessie brushed the snow and twigs from his body. Pulling up his stick and pointing it towards Akita he smiled.

"I'm not done yet."

"This is gonna be fun." Akita replied as Jessie charged.