Code Collector

Neil retaliated by raising his hand. He conjured his weapon, which wws a mace, as he slowly retracted his arm. He was about to hit Gwen when the others had to step in. 

His leg was held by Ferdy, his body was held by Eric, while his hand was held back by Jeremy. The latter was glaring at Neil, hatred and anger was present in his eyes. Nothing else was there.

"What do you think you're doing?" Neil growled. "She hit me first."

"And you decided to use a weapon against her?" Eric chuckled. "I am still this rescue team's captain, and I order what you have to do. I only let you fight because I thought you'd still have your honor. Neil, where is your honor as a Hunter and as a man?!"

Neil was silent. They stayed in that position for a few of minutes, no words were spoken for that time until Gwen decided to clear her throat and nudge the men off of Neil. "Let's focus on our actual goal now." She said. "This bastard is not worth your energy."

Like what the woman said, the others left Neil alone. They were still glaring at him like he killed an entire clan. The man was left there standing with his mace on his hand. 

Jeremy stood under the moonlight, right by a tall cliff. Gwen approached her and placed her hand on his shoulder, "We'll find him."

The man was still entranced by the beauty of the moons. He was looking down as the light from the sky shoned the thorny and deep ravine that was in between the two cliffs.

"Jeremy?" Gwen called out, making Jeremy flinch and look at her. "You spaced out. Are you okay?"

"Yes," Jeremy smiled at her. "I'm okay. Let's go find Allen. I'm sure he's here. He's still alive, I know it."

"Of course," Gwen smiled. "He's still alive."

As the man left her by the cliff, Gwen took a peek below and nearly gulped in fear as she saw the death that awaits anyone below. She looked at Jeremy and then at the cliff. When an odd thought came inside her head, she shook her head and followed her group.

"It can't be," Gwen chuckled at herself.

Allen Vermillion, 19 years old, 164cm, white hair, pale skin, and mute. He can hear, but there's scratches on his neck that the doctors suspect to be the cause of his disability.

His build was frail and thin, can easily be mistaken as an early teens based on his build alone. His movements are soft and feminine, fragile to be exact.

Last seen was on Blue Ivy Marsh in the forest near Camp Anton. He was last seen by his teammates when they were hunting for Blue Ivy Mockingjay when Allen was suddenly separated from the group.

Time missing, 6 days.

The dispatched patrol teams have returned to their camps and back, and there were still no sign of the boy. He was lost in the woods, and the hope that was represented by a tiny strand of string was left to be severed.

"There's nothing we could do about it," a large muscled man with a full mustache said. He was sitting on what seemed to be a golden throne while a cigarette was lit up in his right hand and a cat sat on his left arm. "We did everything we could, and what happened? Nothing."

"But father, I am sure that he is still alive," Jeremy reasoned. He was talking to his father through a video chat. The man's device was placed quite far away from him in a distance that was enough so his entire throne was shown.

"Clean this mess up," John said. "Return the dispatched and I'll talk to your chief. From this day onwards, Allen Vermillion is pronounced dead."

Jeremy dropped his phone in disbelief. He sat in his desk, staring in the empty space as the distorted feed of his video chat with his father was ended. The man was left there, feeling paralyzed with grief and pain. He couldn't say anything, he couldn't do anything.

Gwen approached him, but her shoulder was held by Eric. When she turned back to face the captain, the man shook his head and gave her a flat smile, "Let him be. We should give him the space he needed."

Gwen reluctantly agreed to Eric's suggestion. She returned to her desk right before she saw Jeremy walk out the door. The woman was worried about her colleague. Although everyone was worried about him, the situation affected her more than the rest.

A couple of hours went by and Jeremy was still out. Gwen watched the clock and saw that it was time for her to go home. Jeremy and her shared the same work hours, but the man was still out from the office.

"Could it be–"

Gwen didn't let herself finish her sentence and immediately clocked out. She ran outside the gates as she saw the skies getting nearer and nearer into the twilight.

The sky was orange and the clouds were looming over the world, darkening as the seconds passed by. Rain was going to pour and it wasn't a good ambiance for someone who had just lost a friend.

"Please, run faster, legs!" Gwen growled at herself. She was going as fast as she could in the place that marked her. "Please, don't let me arrive too late."

Not a couple of minutes later, she was right. Jeremy was there standing by the dangerous cliff. She was nervous at first, thinking that the man would take his own life. But when Jeremy sat by the cliff, her entire body exhaled in relief.

"You scared me there," Gwen chuckled. She walked up to the man and sat beside him. "I thought you'd do something crazy."

"What makes you think that I'm not going to do it?" Jeremy suddenly spoke. He turned to look at Gwen with a playful smile on his face. "I'm only kidding. I'm not going to do it."

"Just make sure that you won't," Gwen growled. "You made me feel worried."

"I'm sorry about that," Jeremy said. "It wasn't my intention. I just feel sad and guilty."

"Guilty?" Gwen asked, tilting her head to the side. "Why?"

"Because I never get to treat Allen right," Jeremy replied with a sigh. "He's a mute and I didn't get to learn the sign language completely. I had to rely on his notebook for me to know things."

"Oh," Gwen hummed. "But you don't have to feel guilty."

"I don't?" Jeremy asked to which Gwen answered by shaking her head. 

"Of course, not," Gwen chuckled. "We can't control anything in this world. Not life, not death. There isn't something external that we could control. What we could do is control our internal. We control our feelings, we're the masters of our emotions– most of the time.

They both chucked.

"But," Gwen continued. "With that in mind, we can say that nothing in this world that's external could we blame ourselves for. Unless the decision came internally that you decided to make Allen lose his path, that's the only time you should feel guilty. But since you didn't, why feel the need to be guilty? You're only wasting your time and emotions."

Jeremy chuckled, his gaze didn't leave the sun as it sank deeper into the horizon. "Okay. I already decided anyway."

"Decided what?" Gwen asked, this time turning to face Jeremy. 

"To live my life not only for myself," Jeremy said with a smile on his face. He reached out to the dawning sun and smiled. "But for Allen too."

–

Silence had visited them for a couple of seconds. There wasn't anything that Allen could say. He was speechless. He didn't know any of what Jeremy had told him. The silence was maintained for a few seconds more until Jeremy decided to break it. 

"Did you really got the Primordial Snake Code?" he asked. "And did Lin really ordered you to get into higher worlds?"

"You think I'm lying?" Allen playfully quirked his eyebrow up. When he saw Jeremy's surprised face, he laughed lightly. "I'm just teasing you. But yes, I did got the Snake and Lin ordered me to get stronger. Actually, a lot of people had already invested in me."

"And you're okay for you to disclose that information?" Jeremy asked, wary of the dangers ahead. "I don't want you to have problems with your clients."

"It's okay," Allen smiled. "You're all part of my team now. You're the secretary, so it's natural for you to know."

Jeremy took a deep breath. "I can't do this without you, Jeremy. I need you too."

Their hands touched and Jeremy smiled. He squeezed the other boy's hand and smiled. "And I'll be here. I'll be your guide and I won't leave you. Not again."

Allen smiled as his heart was filled with joy. It was the first time in his life that he felt this way.

"Thank you."