Winter did not respond, prompting him to look down.
Her face was uncharacteristically somber.
Sunny felt something cold brush against his heart.
"What?"
The Ascended Archer sighed, then looked down.
"About that... I'm sorry, Sunny. Things were a bit chaotic back there."
He remained motionless for a while, then turned away and silently headed toward where he had seen Dorn. As Sunny approached, he mentally counted:
'Dorn, Belle... Luster, Kim... Samara...'
When he reached the cohort, they turned to him, their faces pale and grim. Kim's eyes were glistening, and she avoided looking directly at him.
Luster was the first one to speak, his tone subdued.
"Captain! We... we..."
Sunny cut him off.
"Show me."
They stepped aside, revealing the figure of Quentin, who was laying on the cold alloy with his eyes closed. Sunny discovered himself taking a few steps forward and kneeling beside the gallant healer.
His face was calm, and his body seemed untouched except for a shallow wound on the side of his head.
His chest was rising and falling, which meant that Quentin was still alive.
He had not been killed... he had just lost consciousness. However, it did not matter.
Sunny closed his eyes.
...Quentin had lost consciousness near an active Gate, which meant that his soul was stolen away by the Call.
He had been thrown into an unexplored, dire region of the Dream Realm, surrounded by numerous Nightmare Creatures and abominations so vile that words could not describe them. His only chance of survival was to fight his way to a Seed, challenge it, and conquer the Second Nightmare alone.
For all intents and purposes, Quentin was already dead.
A few hours later, Sunny discovered himself alone in the Rhino. The area surrounding the military barracks was quiet, and the interior of the APC was dark. He sat on his bed, unmoving, his eyes like two pools of darkness.
He was cold.
'It is what it is.'
War was like that. People died all the time... Sunny had sent many to their deaths himself. He was not new to losing soldiers.
And yet...
He was weak, his body and soul were both in pain because of the brush with the Nightmare Gate, but somehow, his heart hurt much worse.
There was a lot for him to do. Feeding Saint, continuing his attempts to weave a Memory from the devil's needle.
However, Sunny felt unwilling to move. Or maybe incapable.
He just sat silently and stared into the darkness.
After some time, his communicator lit up. He gazed at it, then slowly brought the screen to his face.
There was a new message from Rain.
"Rain: Hey, Sunny! It is really hard to imagine that it is winter in Antarctica, and that the night there lasts for many months. And that aurora thing you described... I gazed it up on the network, and wow! It's so pretty! There's nothing like that in NQSC. Well, you know, we can hardly even see stars here, because of the light pollution and the air being full of dust. However, the weather is warm and the nights are short, so I won't complain. You stay warm, too! Nothing really interesting happened to me. Did anything interesting happen to you? How are you doing? I hope everything is alright."
Sunny remained motionless for a while, staring at the screen. Then, he closed his eye for a moment, took a deep breath, and started writing a response.
"Sunny: Hey, Rain. Lots of interesting things happened to me, of course. I am one of the most interesting people in two whole worlds, after all. Didn't you know? I am doing great, too! I mean, all things considered. Since I am such a dashing and heroic figure, people go around giving me sandwiches, medals, and the like. So..."
Sunny paused for a few seconds, then briefly wiped his eyes and continued.
"...life is pretty sweet!"
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