"What was that Gale?" Nashi exclaimed. The anger was clear in her voice, they were just about to get valuable information and he tore them away from that.

Gale stayed silent as he kept his grip on Nashi's wrist. His face burning with anger.

Storm furrowed his eyebrows at him when he demanded, "let us go."

He again, didn't say or do anything about his clutch.

That was when Storm lost it. He tugged his arm back, jerking Gale and Nashi towards him. He used his free hand to hit Gale's elbow upwards. The three heard a sickening crack. Gale freed his grip on Storm immediately, and then let Nashi go to take a hold of his elbow.

"What the hell Storm?" Gale said, clutching his arm tightly. His eyes glaring at Storm with raging fury "you broke it."

Nashi turned quickly to Storm, "you didn't need to hurt him!"

"He wasn't answering us. If this is the way it's gonna go, then so be it," Storm lashed out. At this point, there were people stopping and staring. They were on the outskirts of Adarian, where travellers and such came in. After Storm's scowl at them, they continued on their way.

"I don't have to tell you anything," Gale growled in response.

"Really? Then how about I break your other arm then."

Gale let go of his arm, curled his fingers into a fist, and punched Storm square in the jaw.

Storm fell down immediately, not expecting the hit. He landed on the floor and rubbed his jaw. A scrape where Gale punched him had appeared.

Nashi stared at the two of them wide eyed, "guys-"

"You little-" Storm quickly got up on his feet and head butted Gale in the stomach, the two of them landing on the cobble road.

Storm was about to punch him in the face before Gale kneed him in the stomach, and Storm reacted by rolling off of him and holding on to his abdomen.

"Gale, please stop," Nashi begged.

Gale staggered on to his feet, completely ignoring Nashi, and went over to Storm. Who got up as well, and went to punch Gale. Gale grabbed his fist with his free hand, then spun and kicked Storm in the ribs. Storm doubled over and coughed up the reddest of blood.

Gale's red eyes were filled with fury as he gripped onto his broken elbow. After a couple seconds of Storm recovering from the blow, Gale scoffed and pulled his fist back to give Storm another hit. He struck.

But it wasn't Storm he hit.

Nashi had stepped in and taken the blow in her arm.

Gale's eyes widened when he realized what he'd done, "Nashi!"

She stumbled to the side and gripped her shoulder, "I told you to stop." Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes.

"You're such an idiot," Storm exclaimed, wiping the blood off his chin with his sleeve.

"I didn't mean-" Gale started.

"Not you," Storm corrected. His eyes slid to Nashi, "you shouldn't get in the middle."

Nashi was taken back by the comment, "what?"

"That was our fight, you shouldn't get in the middle like that ever again," Storm warned. He tilted his head back as he looked at her, his gaze has never been more threatening to her.

"Excuse you?" Gale cut in. He raced up to Storm and held him by the collar with his good arm, "what is up with you?"

"Gale!" Nashi yelled out.

Storm's deadly glare turned to Gale, "maybe I'm just fed up."

"With what?"

"With this!" Storm waved his arms around, gesturing to the earth around them. He pulled Gale's arm away from him, "what are we doing, Gale? Killing the king? Saving the kingdom? Have you even thought this through?"

Gale blinked at him.

Storm began spitting out word after word, "You have your sister- a privileged child who can dye her hair every week just because she feels like it."

Nashi looked appalled as he was speaking. But she let him keep talking.

"Nova, who is what? A pirate captain? She has some amazing power, sure, but he has something even deadlier. You- a thief. And me, a bar owner? The only hope we have is with Reiki, and he's nowhere to be found. And if by some miracle, we are successful, who's going to lead the country? You? The princess you don't want us even looking for?"

There was a couple seconds of complete silence. The tension between the boys was as thick as butter. Storm's bright blue irises burned into Gale's red ones, and vice versa. It was as if they were having a whole conversation just with staring at each other. Eventually, Gale's eyes ended up shifting behind Storm's shoulder.

You will succeed in saving the kingdom...

"What are you two-? You know what, it doesn't matter," Gale saw that over Storm's shoulder, Nova and another human being were together.

But a sacrifice will be made.

"Nova!" Nashi yelled, glad that the blonde came back. She took a deep breath, maybe finally the fighting will stop.

"Fighting again are you?" The figure next to Nova said. He was male, and quite handsome if Nashi could say anything about it. There was an essence to him, one that was very similar to their dearly departed friend.

She's met him before. About a month ago, here in Adarian. She couldn't ever forget the vibrant red hair, and the knights armor. That was the armor ahe clenched her teeth at every time it came into sight.

After Reiki spoke, Storm's breath hitched. He hadn't heard that voice in years. He turned around to look Reiki dead in the eye.

Gale's eyes widened, as he had the same thought. After a moment, he said, "now do you think we'll have a chance?"

Storm stayed silent.

Meanwhile, Reiki's green eyes shifted. He assessed each person that was within the 10 foot vicinity of himself.

He knew three of them quite well. Storm, Nova, and Gale he'd known for nearly all his life. But the black haired maiden next to them, he'd not recognized.

"Who is this?" He asked, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword on his hip.

"That's Nashi Redfox," Nova answered cheerily. "She's Gale's older sister."

Reiki looked into her brown eyes and then almost a glare towards Gale before he responded, "ah. I'm Reiki." He bowed his head out of respect. And Nashi bowed hers back.

Then Nashi said, "but we've met before?"

He didn't respond. Nashi thought about saying it again, but decided against it.

There was an awkward moment of quiet. It felt like an eternity until Reiki spoke again. The tension between Storm and Gale hadn't cooled as Nashi thought it would.

"I'm off duty right now," he said lowly, "we need to get you two disguises," he gestured towards Nova and Gale. He then spun on his heel and started walking towards the city of Crocus.

"...are we supposed to follow him?" Nashi asked curiously as her eyes followed him.

He looked over his shoulder and rose an eyebrow, "well?"

"We're coming," Nova called out, "lets go guys." She started to follow the red headed knight.

Storm had to give one last glare at Gale before he followed as well. Nashi followed behind him.

Gale jogged up to Nova and pulled her arm back, letting Nashi and Storm go ahead.

"Somethings wrong," he immediately told Nova. "This isn't the Reiki I remember."

Nova just stared at him for a solid two seconds, "then what is the Reiki you remember? You haven't even said a word to him," She jerked her arm away from him. She kept walking, and Gale, dumbfounded, walked to her side.

"He would've punched me and Storm if that was the real Reiki," Gale stated, pointing at the direction they were walking. "And he wouldn't have joined the royal guard."

"Gale," Nova said with sly eyes towards him. "You don't understand."

"What do I need to understand then?"

"He's trying to get into the 9 Gates," Nova informed, her eyes now ahead of her. "But if the guard knew he was a Fernandez, and alive, they'd never let him in."

"You're telling me that he faked his death to get into the guard?" Gale asked.

"Hm," Nova nodded. "A smart plan, really. He would've kept in touch with us, but he didn't want to take the chance."

In the front of the line, two of the teenagers were having a seperate conversation. While the third, stayed silent. As he was still very sour towards Gale.

"So, what's your special ability?" Nashi asked, popping up next to Reiki.

"I don't have one," Reiki answered with a boring tone.

"What? Then how come whenever Gale talks about you, he gets this shard of fear in his eye?" Nashi chirped.

Reiki sighed, "I don't know."

"Fine... Do you have any talents?"

"I don't like to boast," Reiki informed.

Nashi groaned, "uuugh, you're boring."

Reiki blinked before answering, "I've been told."

"What was the deal a couple months ago?" Storm finally asked curiously. He was referring back to when Reiki strolled into his bar willy nilly.

"I think I had pasta last night, I don't quite remember though," Reiki commented, staring into the sky with a finger on his chin.

"What did that have to do with anything?!" Both Nashi and Storm yelled simultaneously.

He shrugged, "I don't remember what happened a couple months ago." He said it as if his mind was somewhere else.

"Do you remember me?" Nashi asked, pointing at herself. "You were in Adarian about a month ago."

"Oh yeah..." Reiki answered.

"Seriously?" Storm asked.

"... I don't remember."

"Ah jeez!" Nashi pouted.

Storm jerked slightly away, "this isn't the Reiki that came into my bar 3 months ago."

"Does your brother still like my sister?" Reiki asked quietly.

Nashi's eyes turned to slits, "well he remembers Rin pretty well."

"Um," Storm looked down to the ground, "about Rosemary..."

"I know. She's dead," Reiki said non-chalantly.

Nashi and Storm stared at him with their mouths wide open, "what the?!"

"She was your sister..." Nashi said quietly. "How could you-?!"

Reiki quickly cut her off, "our family doesn't believe in being distressed after another's death."

"What..." Storm furrowed his eyebrows. He never mentioned that before.

What was up with him?

The Reiki he remembered was strict and scary. He screamed Bloody Mary if they were out of line. God help whoever dared cross paths with him in a bad mood. The Reiki Storm remembered was one who'd go to a quiet place and cry about his sister's death, because he didn't want anyone to see him weak.

This wasn't Reiki.

. . .

Alright, updates will be a tad slower for a couple of reasons.

1) School. I think that's all I need to say.

2) I'm on my third phone for the past two weeks because my first one broke, I couldn't have a data plan on my old one, and this is my dad's old phone to which I have a sim card I stole from my sisters. I will get another phone in a couple days.

3) I've been trying to get more focused on starting an etsy shop, I'll tell you guys more about it when I'm closer to getting it up!

So yeah... luckily this chapter was already written, I just had to edit it a bit.

I'm sorry in advance!!