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Cody Lazarus

Carrying a sturdy backpack he headed downstairs. Anne, Hera and Robin were all ready, as well as Jack, Riza and their servants, and finally Kirin still half asleep.

"So. Have any of you seen Henri?"

The majority of the room shrugged or otherwise showed that they hadn't seen him. Cody put down his backpack and started searching around the laboratory.

After looking through the commons, his bedroom, the computer room and the underground he eventually found him in the old lab, which hadn't been used since Caster had renovated the entire building.

"Uh, hey, Henri. You ready?"

Seemingly distracted, Henri nodded. He was staring at the worn down computer they had started with not more than a few days ago.


---


The winter nights were beginning to grow colder, and more and more shelters proved to be ineffective. By now the pink-haired boy had resorted to wandering alone- if he was lost or had some sliver of an idea where he was going, it was unclear. The previous night he'd been resting in an old, rusted facility that had once been used as a laboratory before its associated company had moved to a better location. Right now he was in the forest surrounding the facility, searching for perhaps a warmer shelter, but the night's first raindrops were beginning to fall. It was quiet- eerily so. Most of the animals had either flown south or gone into hibernation. He, too, would have to take cover for the winter. He had no home to return to- his family was long gone.

In a flash of inferno, they'd vanished.

Without finding anything of use, Henri decided to head back to the old laboratory for another cold but safe night. As he approached, he had to step over the parts of the walkway overgrown with mud and vegetation, and then was met with the same old rusty gate that never seemed to work. This night it was being especially uncooperative, and the rainfall was becoming more fierce, so he decided to risk detection and blast it open with a spark spell. The strike had become a little more powerful than he'd expected, however, and the gate was sent flying into the brick walls beyond. Upon impact it made a loud, clanging sound.

There was a spot near the top where he liked to sit, where an old computer was still partially operational due to being connected to a neglected generator. He didn't know how to properly operate it, but its use gave off a faint heat source. When he arrived that one night, however, he found someone there. There was another boy hunched over, staring at the screen, apparently trying to get it to work.

Henri had gone so long without speaking to another person that he stammered in order to find the right words. He was interrupted when the other boy responded, turning to meet him. "Oh? Uh, hi. I didn't know there was anyone else here."

He continued to fumble for a moment, but eventually responded: "You didn't hear the gate?"

"Well, I did, but that sort of thing is fairly common in a place like this. You work here?"

"...Yeah." It was only a partial lie. "You?"

"Well obviously not, or else we'd have met before. I'm a programmer, I thought I'd be able to learn something from this old computer. Name's Cody, by the way. Cody Lazarus." The boy held out an earnest hand.

Henri took a long look at it, then finally shook it. "Henri."

"Now, Henri..." Cody turned around and looked again at the old computer. "...I know we've just met, but can I trust you with a secret?"

"Uh... alright."

"First of all, have you ever heard of the Sanctum War?"


---


"Heh." Henri was more confident now, with the entire war under his belt. "This is where it all started."

"Guess you're right..." Cody smiled. Just for grins, he took out his old flash drive, still reading "Madeline" on the duct tape, and plugged it in again. The screen flashed a few times but went dim once more. "Still doesn't work." He giggled, taking it back out and pocketing it.

Cody Lazarus

He nodded. "I couldn't agree more." They both walked out of the room. Cody looked back for a moment, then shut the door.

"We're heading out, guys! Next stop, Leicestershire, England."

Caster

Once everyone had exited, he left last and turned around. "It's a damn shame, it was such a nice building, too."

"You're not keeping it here?" Cody asked.

"Well, it wouldn't do to just leave it here for the world to wonder where it came from. Besides, I can always make another once we arrive in England." Upon pronouncing that last syllable, Caster seemed content with something.

"...Good point."

"Goodbye, old girl. You served us well." Caster clapped his hands, and the laboratory again dispersed into blueprints, and finally turned back into the old, rusted abandoned facility from a week ago. "No turning back now!"

Kirin Oshiro

It was snowing again in London, still raising the question of whether or not the war had anything to do with this unusual weather. Since he seemed to be a wanted man, Kirin was now dressed in a comparatively modest outfit of blue jeans and a hoodie, hood of course over his head. During the time since the last incident at Big Ben, the press had concluded that at the very least, the brown-haired girl (Riza) had absolutely nothing to do with the incident, the main suspect being Archer of all people. With this in mind he was de-materialized.

"Aaaalright." Cody was holding a massive, disproportionate map in front of his face, meaning that Henri had to drag him away from certain collision with other people numerous times. "Leicestershire is northwest of here. Looks like we've got a lot of bus rides ahead of us."

Anne

"Maybe we should try to deal with her first." She responded.

Anne

"I agree with you on how I don't want to deal with her, but we're going to have to deal with her some time, and it's better to do it now and get over with it." Anne explained her reasoning to Henri.

Henri

Henri shrugged to Anne.  "If we get it now and leave, we might not have to deal with her at all."  He then grinned and stepped over to the hole Cody was making.

"You know, I could launch a barrage of force spells in that hole, make it deeper... but I think I prefer watching you dig."

Cody Lazarus

"Y'know, I never pictured we'd be using shovels to find the final piece of the sanctum key."

"Well, that's life for you. Not everything makes for a good story, Lazarus." Caster was supervising their work and distinctly NOT digging.

Cody knew that somewhere, Maria was watching, and she was most likely laughing her little derrière off at the sight of then digging into Ambion Hill. His mood rose, however, when he hit something hard. After some awkward hand-digging he retrieved it. The stone artifact, still partially coated in dirt, caused the command seals on his arm to go crazy.

"Guys, I think it's over."

Cody Lazarus

They were a bit of a distance away now, in the thick of a nearby forest to hopefully not be disturbed. In the snow, Cody began to draw the summoning circle.

This is it.

"You ready, everyone? This is the point of no return."

Riza walked up to the circle to join him. She placed down the catalyst obtained by Archer at the hospital. In the back of Cody's mind, he could hear something whisper...

Pergamum.

...Huh? What was that?

Kirin was sitting on the ground, pausing as he stared longingly into his own artifact, the red ruby with his family marking. He shut his eyes, kissed the catalyst and placed it in the circle on its outer edge like Riza did with the other.

Philadelphia.

Something tells me whaveter's whispering that isn't talking about city in Pennsylvania. Wait, I've heard these names before somewhere... What...

Henri

Henri shivered as he withdrew the catalyst from his pocket.  In his hands, it took the form of a ruby ring.  As he stared into its gem, it seemed to vibrate faster, and Henri could almost make out the image of flames within the ring.  A house, consumed in a fiery explosion.

He closed his eyes and opened his hand over the circle, the catalyst falling inside.