Collide Gamer Chapter 159 – Season 1 Epilogue – Debts

“Man, this is really awkward,” Rave said, lying in her bed.

It was now evening. John had cleaned up after the fight in a state of delirium, his low HP making the world a haze. He had reassembled Aclysia, then he had left the changed Illusion Barrier. He had found Herman curing a comatose Rave. He had panicked but as the apothecary explained, she had only collapsed due to malnutrition. Herman had been extrely sad to hear the news.

“In the end all of this was in vain, huh?” he had mumbled and sighed heavily, “the Abyss tends to be like this.” He had gotten Rave all pepped up but insisted they went to the actual hospital back in Springfield to see if none of Rave’s blood was compromised or anything in that way.

And so, they ended up in this room. It was only her and John right now. Well, John and his two Artificial Spirits, Mono and Aclysia, who stood next to the bed while he himself was sitting. The elental girls were not back yet, repairing a Tier 2 body cost even more than Tier 1, and he had to repair 4 of them.

Rave sighed and tapped a beat on the blanket. John had just gotten through telling her about what had happened in the short ti they were separated. “So, ya are now level 75?”

“That is correct,” John answered.

“That is a load of bull,” Rave giggled.

John stared at his hands, folded in his lap. “Jane, I am…”

“If ya follow that up with, ‘so sorry that you had to go through that,’ I will do sothing horrible to your testicles,” Rave interrupted him. “I decided to go along with this, we couldn’t have guessed how it would end up.” She extended a hand and smiled. Even though her bright pink hair had gone mostly white from the stress of the last few days and the scars of Thana’s claws extended from her throat down to her collarbone, she was the one smiling.

John took her hand into his own and they shared a mont of blissful silence. He did not know what to say or what to feel.

“It was weird though,” Rave eventually said, “sotis she was ecstatic to kill, at others she looked sorry, one ti she even cried. Whenever she fought against she always made sure that she wouldn’t kill , she would do everything else though.” John nodded, he had no doubt that Thana had been a good person sowhere. Circumstances just hadn’t allowed her to be anything besides what she was or, at least, hadn’t let her think anything else.

Which reminded him of another thing. “You tried to say sothing to at the end,” he looked at Mono, “What was it?”

“I… no, it doesn’t matter. It was tactless anyway,” the Artificial Supporter answered. Aclysia carefully nudged her little sister and Mono slightly bowed a mont later. “It was just… slightly ironic that I was the only one left at the end.”

“She is new,” Rave said.

“There are a lot of changes, you will not believe how horny the elentals have gotten,” John sighed, happy to change the topic to sothing he regarded as normal. “It can beco a chore.”

“I’ll be happy to take so of that off your back,” Rave purred, ever the ray of careless sunshine. He understood her stance towards death and danger a little better now. Events like this were expected in her world. “’Cause I am sick of fighting for now, I want to sleep for like two days, then I want to eat sothing nice and then I want to have sex until I fall asleep for another two days. Think ya can do that for ?”

John grinned, “I bet I can.”

“I wonder where my dad is,” Rave changed the topic, “I expected him to run right up here.”

“Herman promised to call him, maybe he forgot?” John suggested. As these things went, the door was suddenly slamd open the mont he finished that sentence.

Regan, for once wearing a matching outfit of a nice suit, half-covered by a dark trench coat, finished up by shined shoes, hastily stepped into the hospital room. The baseball cap in his hands betrayed that the outfit only almost matched.

“Jane!” he shouted and stepped over the bed.

“Hi, daddy!” Rave exclaid similarly enthused, “how have you been?”

“Don’t you give that, young lady!” Regan was not at all in the mood for niceness, “you will never do anything like that EVER again, do you hear !”

“What do you an by that?” Rave asked, taken aback, she had never seen her father this angry.

“It ans you are under house arrest until the day I die! Also, YOU!” he pointed at John, “I will let you get away with it this ti because you got her out of the ss but I told you to never get my daughter into dangerous situations again and what do you do? Leave her with so crazed maniac and get…”

“DAD!” Rave interrupted, “It was MY choice to go along, stop pinning it on John!”

“He is a bad influence!”

“Ya left with TRAVOLTA when ya were gone on business trips, ya have no right to speak about bad influences!”

John cleared his throat, “Can I just say that I am so-“

“”SHUT UP!”” both of them turned to him.

“This is daughter-father business,” Rave told him.

“Yeah, we got this,” Regan agreed and the two were about to resu shouting at each other when Herman appeared in the still open door.

“Ehm, hello, I bring back the results of the blood test,” the sowhat ek apothecary said as he stepped inside. He closed the door behind him, “I also must implore you to stay quiet, my superiors are already not happy with having you stay here for free…”

“Just out with the results!” Regan demanded, then he turned to Rave. “Results about what, Jane?”

“If I’m pregnant,” she said in a dry tone. Regan was about to keel over when she corrected herself.

“No, see, the girl who held captive had so infectious blood magic thingy and he wanted to test if it’s affecting .”

Regan looked relieved for a mont, then it dawned on him that that wasn’t better at all. Especially since he had to know what infectious blood they were talking about.

“Okay, so I can give you the clear, you are not affected by Thana’s blood,” Herman said and everyone sighed in relief. Except for Mono who kept standing there without a care in the world.

“Great,” John said and felt both his own and Rave’s hand relax.

“Back to your house arrest, sweetheart,” Regan said, about to open that discussion again when Herman cleared his throat.

“There is also a visitor for you,” he said.

“They will have to wait,” Regan said with certainty.

“No, sir, for John and SHE is very insistent,” Herman gulped, “as a matter of fact if I don’t let her in soon my superiors will probably fire .”

“Who could be that important that…” Regan started then he rembered. Then John rembered, then Rave looked at both of them in confusion.

“Let her co in,” John said and then turned to Rave as Herman scrambled, “rember how I told you that I was in a barrier for a month?”

“Yeah?”

“And how a professional Fateweaver did that?”

“Yeah…” Rave had an idea where this was going, “how deep into the shit mire did ya sink?”

“500 Billion.”

Rave’s eyes approached the size of dinner plates. “Who would even give ya that much money?!”

“Her na is…”

“I can introduce myself,” ca a hard voice from the entrance.

The woman who marched into the room was about John’s age. Her auburn hair was weaved into a single braid, lying decoratively over her shoulder. The reddish brown contrasted with the dark green of the military vest she wore, an article of clothing that seed to belong in the 18th century. Sa could have been said about the yellow shirt she wore underneath, with its big buttons.

An emblem was pinned to her chest, an ornate piece of gold depicting an eagle, the word ‘secundus’ underneath. From her hips dangled a rapier, the ornate heft reflecting the light. What struck John the most were her ruby red lips and her eyes. A pale blue, almost bordering on steel grey. Inside this modern magic hospital the noble figure looked like she belonged in a different ti. That was, all things considered, just John’s perception though. When her tall marching boots hit the ground, they did so with absolute certainty. She closed the door behind her and put her hands behind her back.

“The fuck?” John asked. Nobody heard him. Aclysia was just happy to be safe again, Mono looked at her sister and waited for Gno to co back, Rave and Regan were in a heated debate.

The future looked like it would hold so very weird things in store for him.