Cho cho shifted through a dusty room full of chests and boxes, cobwebs hanged from the edges of the ceiling, her breathing slightly frantic as her eyes were glazed over.
"Where, where, where....AHA!"
Her eyes shined with hope when she saw what she was looking for, a small metal box with odd markings around it, she brought it to a desk with a lamp shining.
"If I can remember...this...th-no....this then that, and now this."
She twisted and pressed a few buttons which seem to activate the weird object, a screen popped up bringing light to the room.
A figure appeared on the screen, not visible but the outline of the figure could be seen.
"Well I be damned, Cho cho in the flesh calling little ol' *burp* me."
A hefty feminine static voice echoed throughout the room, her jolly tone bring a small smile to Cho cho but what she had to disclose quickly wiped it away.
"Clam it, we have a huge issue, He's escaped."
"He? Bitch there was multiple m-"
"Na'shando. He's escaped."
The silence was suffocating, the hum of the box was the only noise that filled the room.
"What?"
The jolly voice of the feminine was now replaced with a deadly seriousness.
"I met....I met the Tyrant an-"
Cho cho was interrupted by the loud voice of the other woman.
"YOU MET WHO?"
"SHADOW LET ME SPEAK!"
The woman on the screen slightly leaned back in surprise.
"Thank you, like I said, I met the Tyrant his name is Valeo and he told me what really happened in Bale lake."
Cho cho rubbed her face, the situation weighing on her.
"Na'shando did it, and this...Valeo, got blamed? *snort* what else is new in the Vile Lands."
Shadow chuckle with Cho cho joining in.
"Right?....any news of...her?"
"....no."
Cho cho clicked her tounge in slight anger.
"Dips on us and doesn't say anything, just like her to do that."
Shadow sighed.
"Yeah just like her to do that...what about Laylana, Anything from her?
Cho cho shook her head in the negative.
"Ever since she left, Laylana hasn't been the same, last time she messaged me was near grimlock."
A crash and a roar verberated the room making some of the boxes fall.
"What in chime's grace was that?'
Cho cho got up and grabbed a rifle that was laying on a desk next to her.
"No clue but I'm going, I'll call later."
And with that she shut off the device and made her to the front door, when she entered the living area Kim stumbled out his workshop.
"Baby go lay down, I got this."
She send him a stern look when he was about to protest which made Kim go back to his workshop.
* * *
Cho cho passed the worried people who was staring in the same direction the nosie came from, she noticed the noise came from where she left Valeo.
Upon reaching the clearing Cho cho couldn't help but stare in awe, there he was going toe to toe with a creature she never thought would roam around these parts.
"A fucking Terror-bash, are you kidding me?"
She knew they normally inhabit the parts of the Vile that was more dense with trees and rivers, so why was one here?
The little noise from her left made her turn her head, her eyes widen even more than they already were.
"Is that...."
The small creature Valeo was trying to protect was stiff and staring in fright with it's beady little eyes.
Even when Cho cho got close to the small animal it didn't move an inch, Cho cho picked up the little creature.
"It's a real Wander deer, I thought they went extinct when the Apex family hunted them."
The sound of falling trees finally got Cho cho out of her funk, Valeo holding his gunbai.
"Wait a minute wasn't that in the guest room?"
Valeo used his gunbai to block a overhead slam and kicked the creature in the stomach, using the millisecond opportunity Valeo slash the Terror-bash across the chest making it roar in pain and anger.
It grabbed the extended gunbai and yanked it from Valeo's grip, shocked momentarily Valeo was tackled by the creature, He used his lower arms to hold the Terror-bash's own and upper arms to hold its snapping maw.
"Shit shit shit, was all those years in the Apex for nothing?"
Valeo's silent self-loathing session was stopped when the Terror-bash's brains splattered all over his face.
"You know, for the most wanted person alive, you sure suck at fighting."
Cho cho calmly walked over to the stun Valeo, Wander deer in one arm and a rifle with a smoking barrel in the other. Valeo got up and looked to the corpse of the Terror-bash, then to the body of the parent Wander deer.
Sadness evident in his eyes.
The people from the camp soon join the duo, murmurs of the Terror-bash was Valeo could hear.
"If he took down a Terror-bash than he really is dangerous."
" I don't know I feel safe around here if he and a Terror-bash are near."
"He's just like the re-"
"ENOUGH!"
Cho cho's voice echoed in the destroyed clearing.
"Y'ALL LOT ARE PATHETIC, HE SAVED YOUR ASSES AND THIS IS THE THANKS HE GETS?!"
"But he's the tyr-"
The boar that spoke up was quickly silenced went Cho cho glared at him.
"I CAN GIVE A WOODBITE'S ASS WHAT HIS LABLE IS, WHAT IF HE WASN'T HERE, HUH? THAT TERROR-BASH WOULD'VE TURN Y'ALL INTO PASTE!"
Cho cho shouted at the people in the crowd making them look ashamed, the little skeleton girl ran up to Valeo, some protest the act but wouldn't go near Valeo themselves.
"Mister."
Valeo looked down at the skeleton girl, the white dots in the blackened eye sockets looking up in something Valeo was not familiar with.
"I don't know what Tyrant is but I know it's mean, I know you're not a tyrant."
The little skeleton said, her tone something he wasn't use to.
"You're my hero."
The white dots morphed into arches showing the skeleton was smiling in its own way.
"You're my hero."
Those simple words played over and over again, he heard them before from other people but for some reason, they felt like they had to say it, but this little girl.
It was different.
It felt.
Real.
He didn't know but the little skeleton girl was hugging his leg, he finally noticed, a flash of him and Laylana hugging appeared and disappeared just as quickly.
Valeo slowly hugged her back, the people murmured but it was different this time.
"She's right."
"How could I let my assumptions guide me."
"He did risk his life twice for us, and he doesn't know us like that, yet he still did it."
Cho cho had a smirk on her face watching Valeo and the little skeleton girl.
A flash of a tall muscular woman hugging a little lion cub in the same way popped in her mind.
Her smirk lessened a bit until it disappeared when she remembered something.
"How does he know about the code?"
* * *
Both Kim and Valeo were eating like animals on rabies, they sometimes steal each other's food. Cho cho and Anastasia were eating at a normal pace and was slightly disgusted by the visual.
Both looked at two one another.
"Boys."
"Boys."
They laughed while Kim and Valeo looked at the duo with raised eyebrows, after a couple minutes both Cho cho and Kim went to clean the dishes, leaving Anastasia and Valeo alone.
"So.... how've you been?"
Anastasia said her tone and body language awkward.
"We uh....'een good?"
Valeo shrugged slightly gaining a grin from Anastasia.
"I'd say, from what mama Cho cho said, it was more than good, you fought and lived both a Dead livita and a Terror-bash, I say your thriving."
Anastasia said while chuckling, a cup nearing her lips.
"We wouldn't say that....so'e hero we are."
Anastasia quirked an eyebrow.
"What are you talking about? You saved thise people two times from I head from Kim and mama Cho cho."
Valeo still looked down in shame which confused Anastasia even more.
"And yet we were weak, 'oth ti'es we were saved, we're failing her."
Anastasia looked at him like she smelled something foul.
"Dude, do you know how stupid you sound right now, you went toe to toe with two very dangerous creatures and still came out on top, i'd said your fucking strong."
This made him scouff, and shake his head.
"We got thrashed, we failed to save the 'other of the little creature."
Valeo looked to the wander deer that was sleeping on a makeshift bed in the corner.
"And on top of all that, you saved me man, I tried to kill you at first."
This sentence made both Kim and Cho cho look at her then at each other.
"I still don't know why you spared me."
Valeo didn't have it in him to tell her that he thought the fake sister was her real one.
"You said you failed her, if you don't mind me asking, who's 'her'?"
Everyone saw the pure anguish and pain in his eyes.
"Shit um, just forget I aske-"
"Laylana, her na'e was Laylana."
Both Anastasia and Valeo jolted and turn their heads quickly when a plate shattered on the ground, Cho cho's eyes boring holes into Valeo.
"How do you now that name?"