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THE SKY was blue and dark, our radiation detector gently clicking. It was before dawn and we were en route to the nearest 'empty shell'-a walled city our best sources told us had fallen. There were thirty of us in the group, including six fully-suited paramilitaries, four earth dragons, three scouts and an elite fire squad. Sebastian was my adjutant—a job he was good at, but which I'd only given him as an excuse to follow me on away missions. Everyone knew it but no one complained.
"Don't worry, we'll take it," said Bryce, lumbering past on his way to the vanguard. "The stories that came out of that place were horrible." This fact seemed to make him happy. "Whatever guard they've got left'll split the moment they smell fire. Count on it."
"Sounds like wishful thinking," I suggested.
"I've been around," he replied. "Got an instinct for when a situation's dangerous. Not feeling it this time." He cracked us a squinty grin and hustled ahead.
Sebastian and I were alone in the middle of the pack, the way we liked it. A flier's shadow passed overhead. "What do you think?" I asked.
He looked at the ground; at me; away, then at me again. I was getting used to this twitch of his—it meant he was thinking something over that wasn't easy. "Dunno. There's a lot more out there we don't know than that we know. And I'm a long way from home."
I envisioned him working a farm back in his hometown, and, as always, put him mentally in a farmer's outfit and big straw hat. It was hard not to grin. "This doesn't even feel like home to me," I agreed.
His gaze lingered on the horizon ahead, then went off to the side. That's when he aired something he'd obviously been meaning to say for a while: "I'm still not sure you did the right thing."
I knew what he meant before I knew that I knew. "What right thing?"
His face rose a smidge. "Saving me. You could have doomed the world."
Oh hell. Was this going to haunt him? "Like hell I could have. I needed you. I realized that in time, thank god."
"You didn't know it was going to work out."
"But it worked out, Bastian. We made it. I was never so happy as I was that day, when I realized we were all going to make it through."
"You told me you'd failed so many times. Reza always got a shot in. Someone always went down."
"Can't you just—"
"It could have all gone sour," he insisted. The way he shaped his eyes gave extra strength to his stare. "I might have done something you didn't expect. Calling me in the middle of the night? I have could have brought down both worlds, being stupid."
"You're anything but stupid."
"Not what I meant. Accidents happen. Didn't you say the timeline was fragile?"
I sighed silently. He was right. It had been a huge risk. But was he really going to ream me for saving his life?
I extended my hand. He glanced at it warily, then slipped his own in. God, he felt smooth. His skin was thicker than mine, but so damn smooth. We didn't lock fingers—we just held palms, and it fit perfect as anything.
"The rebirth of civiilization," I said apropos of nothing. I felt like half a poet.
"Finding a future," he replied. Three words to my four. He just had to one-up me, didn't he?
"The future had to have you in it," I explained. "That's what was gnawing me that night."
"Bull. It didn't need me. I'm one guy out of a hundred million."
One in a hundred million, you mean. No, too easy. "My future needed you in it," I clarified.
His hand tightened; he avoided my eyes.
"Your future needed you in it."
"Selfish," he accused.
I froze. In his mouth, one word could hold such power. "Is that so bad?"
"I don't know," he admitted. Now his eyes locked onto mine. "I don't like selfishness. But when it comes down to it, everyone's got to be selfish at some point. Whether it's enjoying what you've got or expecting paradise in the hereafter..."
"Or being with someone you love," I interjected.
"...Or being with someone you love."
I held his hand tighter and looked him in the eye. "I drew my line."
He breathed in through his snout. "Yeah. You did."
There were clouds ahead. Real clouds, not fallout. Could be rain later. "You don't like my line?"
We walked in silence a while. I could tell everything from his stride, his grip. He had no problem with my line. He just wanted to know where his own was.
Be selfish, Sebastian. For once... be selfish.
A/N: I enjoyed this game, with reservations. I don't think the time travel makes a ton of sense and I'm not really fond of the endings... but one thing I liked about Angels with Scaly Wings was the characters. I think Adine is my favorite, but it seemed like there was something to be said about understated, simple Sebastian that perhaps hadn't been said. So I wrote this little piece to say it.
Next time I run an unscripted game show in my head, the cast from this game is totally getting in. ;)
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