Ravi ran. He didn’t think, didn’t question, only joined in the mad dash as Hyuk and Youngjae bolted out of their seats. As far as he knew, the building only had the one exit which was currently blocked by the assailant, but Hyuk instinctively ran through the crowded place as if it were empty.

Youngjae and himself, on the other hand, were having a much harder time of it, especially in the dark. A million hushed apologies and grunts trailed them as he kept bumping into confused and increasingly growing frustrated patrons. Somewhere nearby people had started yelling for the bartender to flip the circuits while the same voice that had yelled earlier hollered for order, and then made a couple of colorful threats aimed their direction.

There had been but a second to see the pursuant before Hyuk had thrown the place into madness but what he’d seen had been clear. Silver hair, dark pointed armor, and blazing yellow eyes that seemed to shift and shimmer like moonlight. They were never going to be able to outrun a voidcaster on foot. And from what it had sounded like, this one had a score to settle with Ravi’s new found friends.

They crashed through a door that led into the kitchens of the cafe, Hyuk still as fleet footed in the lead while Youngjae and Ravi stumbled after. Fire leapt up from heavy iron stoves, the only light to guide them while someone scolded their backs for entering. There was no way to confirm if the man was following them but judging by the rising commotion in the main room, someone was kicking up a fuss, whether it was the patrons or the man Ravi wasn’t sure.

Light flooded a rectangular patch in front of him as Hyuk threw open the rear door, the silhouettes of other buildings in the moonlight. With a relatively clear shot, they rocketed from the building clearing it with ease but Hyuk didn’t stop running so neither did he. It was lucky that he’d been able to eat as much as he had, already he could feel his stamina draining again, heart pounding loudly against his ribs. He’d always known that when he went back in time he’d have to face some sort of action, but he still felt unprepared. Living inside the walls of the college, even with classes for physical conflict, could never have prepared him for the straight adrenaline that came from true fight or flight.

“I thought you said you took care of that!” Youngjae yelled as he kept pace beside Ravi, voice going slightly breathy. It was enough to shake Ravi out of his own thoughts.

“I thought I had!” Hyuk returned over his shoulder even while he took a sharp left to dart inside of a darkened alley. It was narrow and slowed him down, but not by much, really it gave them a chance to catch up to him. “How was I supposed to know he’d figure out the fake so quickly?”

“The fake!?” Youngjae’s tone slipped up higher as he reached forward to bat at Hyuk’s shoulder with a fist. “You said you gave him what he wanted!”

“I gave him what he thought he wanted.” The younger replied with a snorting giggle.

“Who is he?” Ravi asked, somewhat more seriously than either of the other two were acting.

“Some Starlight Knight, Sir Hagyon or something. I don’t know he’s been after me for… a little while, a week? Who has time to remember?” If being chased by a member of the Starlit Order, one of the most well oiled and deadly fighting machines in the world at the time, frightened Hyuk, it certainly didn’t show. That was, if the guy had really been a knight. Privately, Ravi wondered just how often Hyuk got into trouble with others.

“Okay, but why is he after you?” Honestly he didn’t expect an answer, but he’d learned there was rarely a poor time to ask questions.

Hyuk turned to look back at him, just slightly, an amused gleam in his eye. “I hacked him, got some super secret military something or others, I don’t know. I needed an eyecatcher center piece for my next auct--”

“Quiet, Hyukkie!” Youngjae reached up to punch Hyuk again just as they cleared the cramped alley. “You get too free with your words when you’re excited.” But it was clear enough, or at least Ravi thought it was. Hyuk, codename: Rovix, stole Starlit Kingdom military secrets from this knight and sold them to the highest bidder at an auction. It was no wonder he was being hunted.

“Meh,” the younger kid gave another giggle, “who’s going to believe him? He thinks he’s from the future.” Another cackle as he increased his pace since they were in the open but he quickly changed speeds again, coming to skidding and faltering stop, nearly face planting into the hard dirt.

Ahead of them a ring of blue-grey smoke appeared to the side of the road. Rapidly the center filled with a shiny and almost liquid in appearance dark purple substance before the man from the cafe slid out from it, braced into a battle position with his knives at the ready. And that was why they never stood a chance in a footrace against a voidcaster. Space and distance were all but a non-issue for them.

There came no warning, no request for surrender, with an ethereal grace that was both beautiful and lethal the man threw out his arm, firing one of his knives with laser like precision and speed. Ravi lept to the side as he saw Hyuk dive out of the way as well. Without thinking, Ravi drew his collapsed rifle from its side holster, the weapon unfurling itself as he raised it up to get a bead on the attacker, adrenaline kept panic from setting in at his first taste of real world combat. To his left, he saw from his peripheral Hyuk raise a sleek and streamlined laser pistol and duck behind a tree.

They both braced for battle until a soft gurgle snapped the line of concentration. “Youngjae!” It wasn’t his power at work but it felt like everything was running in slow motion, himself included. Turning, Ravi saw Hyuk throw his gun aside in a sprint that moved like molasses to get to Youngjae’s side. The blonde haired man was flat on his back in the middle of the road, a silver knife stood straight up from his chest, lodged deep inside him, an exclamation point to the blood pooling and seeping into his clothes.

Hyuk’s face crumpled in an instant, eyes going red as fat tears slid tracks down his cheeks. “Hey, you’re going to be fine. This… this is nothing. Just a scratch.” His voice cracked every few words, and Ravi forgot for a moment that there was an angry Knight facing them down. The past was so different. In his time people had stopped warring, stopped fighting, the battle was no longer with each other but with a fate that wouldn’t be stopped. Everyone knew that they were going to die; it never came as a shock. But he could see the disbelief clouding Hyuk’s eyes, the desperation for a do-over.

Ravi attempted to reach inside himself, to scrape the well of power so he could try and give him that chance but there was nothing to be found. There were just no reserves to be utilized, he’d be lucky if he could rewind time a few seconds let alone the amount required to try and warn them. And of course there was no guarantee that it would ever work, meddling with the course of time and all that.

“Rovix,” reality came flooding back as Ravi snapped his head up to gaze into those shimmering yellow eyes, unreadable but with something that seemed to leave them darkened slightly. The knight, and he was starting to believe that’s what he was, stood over them more gleaming knives in his hands. “You’re to come with me to face judg-” he swallowed thickly and Ravi noticed a minute tremor in his fingers and tone, “judgement for your crimes against the Kingdom of Arxist.” His voice steadied out and became harsh but Ravi saw his eyes keep leaping to Youngjae’s still breathing body.

“Shut up!” Hyuk shouted hoarsely, the tears having clogged his throat, and he didn’t look away from his friend’s face. Youngjae’s hand was clasped tightly between Hyuk’s as they shook. “How could you do this? He’s not even the one you want! He hasn’t hurt anyone!” Gingerly, Youngjae reached up to lightly punch Hyuk in the arm, the movement making him cough and rattle another breath. “And you,” Hyuk looked down at him, “you stay still. Don’t waste energy; you’re going to be okay.” He kept repeating that.

It felt like too private a moment for Ravi to be watching but he could only stay kneeled, staring helplessly. Above them the knight floundered slightly as well, mouth shaping into a soft ‘o’ of shock at the outburst before what could only be a wave of guilt slid over and off his face. “It’s not a killing wound.” He mumbled having lost most of the authority to his voice. “Step back.”

“ you!” Hyuk shot a glare up at the man briefly. “I’m not letting you near him. You’re going to have to get through me to finish him off.”

But the knight only lowered his hand, biting his lip nervously. “I can remove the blade and seal the wound, but you have to move.” The sympathy in his voice had Ravi lifting one brow up high, wasn’t this the same man who had just tried to kill them? “Please.”

Youngjae reached up again and patted Hyuk’s hands gently. “It’s okay,” his voice wheezed in reedy breaths, “let him. And run.”

“You shut up too,” Hyuk knuckled away a tear before hesitantly releasing his deathgrip and scooting back, sitting on his haunches, arms wrapped around his knees. “I’m not going anywhere, so you can stop looking at me like that.” The Starlit Knight was indeed watching him, seeing if he’d heed Youngjae’s advice.

Ravi watched with bated breath as the armored man kneeled down beside the prone form, setting his hand over the blade. That same blue-grey smoke whisped into being around his out stretched hand and for a second it appeared like the blade sunk completely into Youngjae’s chest, pulling a shriek of horror from Hyuk but it had merely fell into a small portal the knight had created, another connecting to it appeared at his side, the bloodied knife falling harmlessly to the ground.

A deep sound could be heard, slightly muffled, from the portal on Youngjae’s chest as blood dripped in resounding splats against the dirt from the second portal. “I’m clearing out some of the blood in his lungs.” A look of concentration and concern contorted his face as he seemed to be manipulating things unseen. Finally, he shut his eyes and took back his hand, both portals disappearing from view except for an extremely small patch of that liquid like deep purple substance over Youngjae’s wound. “He’ll live… for now.”

“What do you mean ‘for now’, you bastard?” In an instant Hyuk was upon the man, tackling him to the ground with his fist raised. For a moment Ravi thought to step in and try to separate them but the scuffle was over almost before it began. Like lightning the other man had rolled with the momentum, using that unnatural grace to flip their bodies, pinning Hyuk to the ground with a knife that seemed to appear from thin air at his throat.

“I mean you better listen to me, Rovix, or your friend is going to die!” The hard tone was back in his voice, reinforcing the point as if the knife weren’t enough. “You see this blade?” He held it right in front of Hyuk’s eyes, the moonlight reflecting off the gleaming silver that seemed to make it waver in appearance. “It’s tipped with a poison that will slowly kill him. So, I suggest you start opening your ears and shutting your mouth for a few minutes.”

Ravi half expected Hyuk to make some snarky comment on principle but was surprised when he only narrowed his eyes to a glare. “It was meant to disable you,” the knight continued without letting up the pressure from holding the technomancer down. “But you dodged and let your friend take the hit.” Hyuk winced like he’d been struck.

“Who goes around with killer poison throwing knives?” Grumbled Hyuk, but his face was crestfallen, his heart not in the scoff.

“People hunting criminals.”

“So you were going to kill me?” Ravi wasn’t so sure he still wasn’t going to from the way that knife was held but kept that to himself.

“I said to disable you.” The void caster shook his head, “And also, I haven’t had the chance to replace them.” A dark look passed over his face. Regret? “But there’s an antidote, in the Grand Court of Adamrah.”

“Go get it then! Or are you going to let him die?” A minor struggle broke out between them but only resulted in the knife pressed closer to Hyuk’s throat. “Go on, kill me too, you coward.” It felt to Ravi like he was watching one of the immersive holo videos from the college, watching a historical event take place in reverently recreated detail. But this was no video, yet he couldn’t force his body to intervene. Was this what the laws of Time meant?

The knight barked out a short and sharp laugh, “I’m the coward?” For a second Ravi thought he was going to finish the deal, but there was only another huff of laughter. “Return what you stole and come with me to face judgement and I can get the antidote for your friend.”

“I don’t have it anymore.” He might as well have cold clocked the void knight from the stupefied look he gave.

“What do you mean you don’t have it? Who has it?” Panic bubbled up into his voice, erasing any sense of ease or calm.

“I don’t know, someone! I sold it okay? Yesterday, I sold it to some guy. Why the hell else would I be out in the middle of no where?”

“You sold it!? You sold the codes and accesses of the defense subroutines to the Grand Court to ‘some guy’” Hysteria reared its ugly head as the knight got off of him to pace madly along the trodden dirt path, hands lifted to cover his face, nervous energy flying off of him in waves.

With a final glare toward his back, Hyuk went back to Youngjae’s side reaching out to rest his hand over his friend’s. “Yeah, I sold it. So, can we go get the antidote now?”

“No!” he spun back around to gape at Hyuk, like he was explaining something simple to a child, “I can’t go back unless I have it. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What will happen with those codes in the hands of almost anyone?”

“I don’t care!” Hyuk snapped. “You killed my friend!”

“I’m not dead yet, Hyukkie.” Youngjae offered a weak smile, his fingers wrapping around Hyuk’s.

“Who was it? Who did you sell it to? Don’t you dare say ‘some guy’ again. I have to find them!”

“It was an angel, okay? I sold it to some military guy, Jung something or other.”

The color drained from the knight’s face, his eyes going wide as he ran a hand through his hair. “We have to catch him. Now. Immediately. That information can’t fall into the hands of Holy Empire.” He resumed his pacing. “You said it was yesterday? Then they don’t have a head start, and Torbinas is a long ways from here.”

“Couldn’t they just transmit it?” Ravi hated to be the bearer of bad information but it seemed like everyone was missing a key point.

“Impossible.” Hyuk shook his head, “I tried to break that encryption but I couldn’t. That data has to be handed over or lifted directly off the machine it’s on. Trust me, I really gave it a good shot.”

“Exactly, so we still have time.” With a look of determination, the silver haired man turned back to them. “Your friend has time yet, a couple of weeks at least, maybe more if he’s careful about his breathing. I told you it was only meant to disable you. We have time to go and take back what was stolen. Help me do that, and I’ll get you the antidote.” Before Hyuk had the chance to protest or make any sort of comment he added, “Please, if I lose that… I’ll never get to return home. It was my last chance.”

And suddenly it clicked in Ravi’s head. A disgraced void knight and an outlaw technomancer. Could it have possibly been that quick? “What’s your name?” Ravi asked, standing, finally, and stowing his gun in its holster. Was it fate? Or was he being too hopeful, too eager to believe he had a chance that he was mistaking the situation for providence?

“Sir Cha Hakyeon, knight of the Starlit Order, loyal servant of the Kingdom of Arxist.”