Guild Wars 2

Is… is that… a True devil slicer? :0

Whether people agree there’s a SLIGHT increase or not… I think the fact of the matter is that this trait pretty much sucks for a grandmaster(especially one that’s 3g/20skills or quest rewarded) and you’re better off using something else. If this sucker had a 25% increase, NOW we’re talking.

She peeked around the corner again. It was going be risky. There were no consoles nearby the teleporter, and if this didn’t work, she’d have no time to find cover and hide. It’d be certain death. Even if it did work, it would be VERY close since the teleporter needed about 10 seconds to scan before working. And that thing could dash at her before it was up…

Her body shook and her teeth rattled with hesitation. Should she do it? Should she risk it? Or—-

A small piece from a nearby broken console suddenly fell down on the metal grating.

Clang!

“———!!!!”

Immediately, the brute roared and charged toward the sound . The consoles looked like mounds of loose dirt as they were devastated along path of its charge.

“…..”

Screw the hesitation! What did it matter? The moment that thing destroyed all the consoles in the room, she’d be dead anyway!

As soon as the brute took a moment to recompose itself after it’s charge, Lilyia quickly but quietly ran to the teleporter on her toes, careful not the make a sound on the metal grating. Luckily monster’ back was turned to her. Sweat rolled down her face and she forced herself to stay calm from her uncontrollable shivering.

As soon as she entered, the lasers began to scan.. Then they seemed to focus on Silver in her arms. All the while, the teleporter was making high pitched noises which then a caught the attention of the brute. Though it’s back was still turned to her, it was looking up and around, trying to find out where the noise was coming from..

Don’t turn around.. Don’t turn around…!!

VALID DNA IDENTIFIED-
ACCESS GRANTED –
INITIALIZING TRANSPORT-
HAVE A GOOD DAY, CEARA-

“Oh thank Mom’s big green leafy—! Wait. Ceara? Who the heck is—?”

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~!!”

Lilyia looked ahead and noticed the silver monster charging right for her. No where to run or hide, she knelt down, held Silver tightly, and closed her eyes awaiting what was to come.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA——!!!”

BAAAAAM!!!

The teleporter exploded into mountain of sparks and metal. And Lilyia and Silver were dead on impact, turned into mess of blood and flesh…

…Or they should have been.

The monster looked down at the rubble. There was nothing. Nothing but wires and metal.

As if infuriated by letting its prey escape, it reared its head back and screamed.

Hiding behind the console, Lilyia whimpered and wept unshed tears as she held the unconscious Silver close. It was akin to small little girl shivering in fear as she was holding tight to a teddy bear…

This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening! This is a dream right? I’m dreaming! HAHAHA!

She peeked around the corner. Saw the humanoid brute still roaming.

Nope! He’s real. He’s mean. And he’s gonna squash me like a bean. Yup, I might as well be blue guacamole. Waaaaaah~!

She whimpered in fear and despair. She couldn’t help also think that she may have jinxed herself. When she discovered it was just some little boy that came out of the chamber, she was very honestly disappointed it wasn’t some big monster. Now that she got one, she knew she’d remind herself in the future never push her luck again. …That is if she gets a future.

Lilyia looked over the corner again and analyzed the brute. Luckily for her, despite it’s size and ferocity, it was rather clumsy.
…And stupid.
On top of that, and rather ironically, she did take that messenger golem’s advice and equipped her hunting signet before all this started. The boost in speed indeed had saved her life a few times when she had to make split second dashes between cover, especially since she was carrying Silver in her arms the entire time.

However, it wouldn’t last long. There were only so many consoles in the lab room; as soon they all were smashed down, she’d be out of hiding spots and then this game of hide-and-seek would be over…

She could try fighting it.. .But considering the resilience it took in smashing all those consoles and ignoring the electrical burns and pieces of shrapnel that stuck to its body, she figured shooting it with the few arrows she had would just kitten it off.

She also considered using Silver as to prevent it from attacking her, after all it was deployed specifically because the AI or whatever in the room thought she was injuring him… However, not only did the idea of using the child in her arms as a shield or decoy appalled her, but the way that thing was charging at her, even with Silver in her arms seems like it was willing to kill them both regardless. Whoever thought to use this thing a guard dog was freaking insane; it acted like a rabid dog who didn’t know who was who…

As she continued to peek around the corner, keeping an eye on the monster, she also noticed the teleporter in the backroom. She cursed under her tongue. If only… IF ONLY, she could get that teleporter to work for her, she’d be out of this nightmare. But that was impossible. It wasn’t programmed to work for her, and she didn’t have any time or the knowledge to know how to—

Wait a minute.

She looked dowkittenlver, who was still unconscious in her arms.

Maybe it would work for him? What if she brought him in with her?

Lilyia eyes widened. Hold up… Was the system, AI, or whatever automatic thing in this lab detecting and monitoring her this ENTIRE TIME? And only NOW it saw her as being hostile? She looked dowkittenlver and realized what had happened… Did that thing think she attacked him??

“Wait, wait, wait! Hold on a minute!” She yelled into the room, though she didn’t know if this computer had eyes, ears or whatever anywhere. “I wasn’t attacking him! I was just trying to get him ou—!“

Like a mercifulness god descending, the mechanical voice issued its order…

DEPLOYING SUBJECT BETA-
ELIMINATING HOSTILE -

Lilyia heard a massive creak erupt from the lab. From behind the empty pedestal Silver was in, the metal grating seemed to slide out like a trap door. Emerging from the ground, to her disbelief, another glass chamber, similar to the one Silver was in, rose up.

About a few seconds later it emerged, the chamber shattered into piece, spilling its glowing contents through the grating. What stood in the middle made Lilyia petrified.

It was… Human. Or it looked human. But it was the size of an ettin, its was head bald and its face disfigured. It’s torso and limbs were disproportionately muscular, so much that one arm was ridiculously larger than the other. It’s skin was a metallic silver color ,and it gleamed like it was actually made of the metal… It was completely nude, but it had no reproductive organs. Webbed around its body she saw various veins that glowed blue.

For a second, the large, silver humanoid looked at her with it’s emotionless, glowing blue eyes… Then its eyes widened and it made an expression that showed recognition and anger. It snarled showing hideous, sharp, dislocated teeth.

Despite its horrifying appearance, Lilyia stood her ground and gave it a nervous smile. Hey, Silver wasn’t exactly what she expected…. Maybe it was friendly if she was polite?

“H-h-hi? My name Is,uh, L-Lilyia..?" She gave it a wave. "What’s your name?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH—-!”

“Okay then… WWAAAAHH—!!!”

She grabbed Silver, and bolted the other direction.

+++++

“Time’s up, Private.”

“Five more minutes.”

“You’re out of time. Group up the with the rest.”

“Please, sir. Just five more minutes, I can just—“

“YOU HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING FOR THE LAST TWENTY!” The charr yelled. “What the scrap do you think another five will do?! Just face it Private, she died the moment she fell into that pipe! So shut the slag up, stop deluding yourself, and get back in line, Soldier! The longer you wait here, the more you’re putting the others at risk~!”

Thompson looked stunned. He looked like he was trying to think of something to say—

“GAAAH!!”

Instead he gave out a roar of frustration and he kicked the loose metal panel of the teleporter he removed away. In the large empty faciltiiy, it made a loud clanging noise in the distance that seemed to signal his defeat and despair. Though his back was turned, the Charr could imagine the face he was making.

Approaching him from behind, he laid his overally large paw on his shoulder. “Listen, Thompson. It wasn’t your fault. Scrap happens in the field, whether its during a battle or a simple set-up job like this. ….But I can personally tell you, the moment we get back LA, I’ll make sure to give the requisition officer a firey hell for mixing in a landmine which killed one of our troops. Do you understand me, Private?”

Tom just nodded, and quietly replied, “…Yes,sir…”

“I don’t know if Sylvari believe in any religion, Thompson. ”But wherever she is now, I’m sure she’s in a better place.”

++++++

Bad place! Bad place!! Move, move, move!

Lilyia again dashed from behind the console, and dived behind another one as the silver monster rammed into the one she was previously behind. This thing was wrecking everything between itself and her once it got sight of her.

“….!!”

And he immediately freaked and shook her off. He looked at her with confused and scared eyes, as if trying to say, “No, don’t!”.

“No, no, no… It’s okay, it’s okay. I promise, I’ll be as gentle as I can.” She smiled and tried to give him the most reassuring look she could.

For a moment he looked at her with unsure eyes… He took a look over his shoulder, noticing the large hose connected to his back, then looked at her again. Then, with flickering eyelids, he lowered his head as if reluctantly allowing her access.

Lilyia smiled sympathetically, and held his head close to her chest. “It’s going to be okay, alright? I promise, I won’t let anything bad happen to you…”

Silver whimpered in fear, and seemed to bury his head into her chest even more, as if knowing what was to come. That action alone made Lilyia’s heart ache something bad inside. She had to desperately fight against refusing to pull the tap, but she knew this was something that had to be done if he was going to get out of there.

She closed her eyes, held his head close, and gripped the fork. “Okay… On three…” she began.

Please Lilyia, she begged herself. Don’t screw this up!

“One.. Two… THREE-!”

She pulled.

And he screamed.

“AHHHHH!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH——!!”

“I KNOW! I KNOW! J-JUST HOLD ON!”

Unfortunately the tap wasn’t coming out as smoothly as the IVs. About half-way out, there was suddenly a lot of resistance and she ended up having to exert more strength than she needed. She could only imagine the pain he was going through right now. Her thoughts were in a fierce argument; one side begging her to stop as his screams supported the thought. But she knew that stopping only meant they’d have to do this again, eventually. This thing had to come out now!
But the sound of a child screaming in pain..
It was the most horrifying and excruciating thing she had ever heard…
.
“AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE-!”

“It’s almost out! It’s almost out! Hang on! And—!”

The tap came out with a “Thwack!”

“—————-!!!”

“It’s over! It’s done! I’m sorry! I’m, so so sorry—!”

Silver gave out a painful…
Then he went limp. Silent.

“S-silver? Silver?” Holding him close, she shook him. “H-Hey. You okay?”

He gave no response, only lay lifelessly in her arms. Her eyes widened and her body chilled in dread.

“Oh, no…” She whispered. “ Oh, no, no, no, no…”

Quickly, she lifted him out of the pedestal, slipping out without resistance. Laying him flat on his back, she quickly lifted his chin and put her ear to his mouth and stared at his chest.

She felt and heard the breath. His chest was still rising. She placed two fingers under the side of his jaw.
She felt a pulse.

He was still alive.

Lilyia breathed a HUGE sigh of relief.
“He.. He just passed out, “ She assured herself. “He’s fine. He’s alright—

BWAAAM-BWAAAM-BWAAAM!

All of a sudden red lights began to flash in the lab, and alarm-like sound began to echo. Before Lilyia could wonder what was happening, the mechanical female voice announced:

ALERT-ALERT-
SUBJECT VITAL SIGNS IRREGULAR
HOSTILE ACTION DETECTED-
UNKNOWN ENTITIY NOW CATEGORIZED AS HOSTILE—

-====

Mom’s bark… I’m not a surgeon!

Lilyia continued to try to keep her thoughts together as she pulled another IV (the 30th one from her count) from Silver’s body. He made another yelp which always caused her to reflexively bite her lower lip.

“….!”

“Sorry, sorry! We’re almost done though.”

She figured she’d been at this for about ten minutes. At first she was reluctant to even touch the IVs, but she knew that if she was going to get him out of there, much less move him around, there was no choice but to yank them out. When she finally built up the courage to pull one out, she surprisingly found out they slid out fairly smoothly and most of them came out without any pain. On top of that, the suit that Silver wore also acted as some type of rubbery sealant over his skin. So every time she pulled an IV out, the punctured veins were immediately sealed like a bandage. It was really fortunate, considering she didn’t have any bandages or disinfectant on her.

“Okay, okay… That was the last one. Now then…”

She looked at the last thing connected to Silver and sighed a depressive breath.

“Great.. Now comes the fun part…”

“…..?”

She now arrived at the ‘speed bump.’ She didn’t notice it at first, since she didn’t have a direct line of sight of his back until all this started. What was left from Silver’s confinement was not a simple IV line, nor a metallic restraint.

It was worse. Much worse.

Connected to a large wire-netted tube that could not be severed with a knife, and lodged into Silver’s back, was a 3-pronged spinal-tap. It was lodged between the rear of his neck and mid-back. It’s almost as if someone literally took a gigantic fork, stabbed him in the back, and left it in there.

And from Lilyia’s point of view, it wasn’t going to come out easily…

“Ok, Silver. Ummm. This, uh, this is gonna hurt… So I’ll need you to—“ She laid a hand on it.

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 7: Scream
By: AVM516

“Thompson…”

“We got 10 more minutes sir.”

“You DO realize we ALL heard that sound, and all the pipes went empty, right? That can only mean one thing.”

“I know, sir.” Tom replied as he continued to tinker on the teleporter. “Whatever is down there, it woke up—“

“SO WHY THE FUR ARE YOU STILL TINKERING ON THAT THING?!” The lieutenant snarled. “You should be high-tailing out of here so we can blow this kitten soon as possible!”

“Not all our troops have evacuated yet, Sir,” Tom replied calmly, unfazed by his snarl. “Once everyone else is gone, I’ll go out too.”

The officer looked like he was going to say something, but he simply rolled his eyes and breathed a frustrated sigh. As much as he wanted to order this private out, he didn’t have the time since he had to make sure all the others have exited too.

“Your risk, private. I expect you to exit as soon as I’m done moving out the other troops. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

The Lieutenant gave a grunt and left him alone. As soon as he was gone, Tom let out breath of frustration as he stared at the exposed panel of the teleporter.

Over 10 minutes and Tom still hadn’t worked a kitten thing. How could he? He had nothing to reference to and could only guess. He didn’t know what circuit did what, what wire did what, much less how the authorization program worked. Not only that, he was very reluctant to even touch any of the wires. As little transportation technology he learned, he knew accidently cutting of the power was the least of his worries; screwing up the calibration of a device that either dematerializes your body or connects it to two points in space is not something you want to do….

As he looked at the exposed panel and the tangle of wires that looked like a mess of angel hair spaghetti, he could only wrinkle his brows.

Well, could be worse. I mean it’s not like I’m doing surgery…

A lot of people will tell you to go pure berserker, but believe me, there will be times where a boss will hit you no matter what and you’ll be dead in a few hits. Your no good to anyone if your keep dying… On top of that, thieves are one of the two professions with the lowest HP, therefore they’re pretty weak to conditions unless you have a lot of vit invested. I’d only wear pure berserker if I was roaming the low level areas, but anywhere else, I’m mostly wearing my pvt gear.

1-Personallly I would invest in PVT armor with dolyak runes to counter any condition stacks you have (along with eating mango pies). Not fully of course, I would invest in some berserker or knight to get your crit chance atleast to 30 percent….

2-To me, the best in fighting in a stack is sword/pistol. The sword chain can cleave in a wide area infront of you, as well as pistol whip will not only do massive damage in front of you but you’ll evade attacks as it’s going (not to mention is a great stunner to a single target). Combine pistol whip with the signet of malice, dolyak runes, caltrops and mango pies, you’ll regain over half your hp in a mob in one attack if you hit more than 2 enemies at time…

3-Utilities I believe would be shadow refuge, caltrops, and the third can be changed depending on the situation. Caltrops can trigger your signet of malice, stack bleeds, and cripple. So it’ll help you with hp regen and control mobs. I would never go without shadow refuge; during parties in dungeons or soloing it’s your “OH SHI—” button to keep you or your allies from dying.

But really, overall, this is what I roll after playing the thief for over a year. It really all depends on you.

Sarie.1630:

You know, ever since release I’ve thought similar.

If my Mesmer picks up a rock I can typically throw it. If my Elementalist picks up a rock I get another option to call down a meteor. I loved this idea and it seems like it’s the only object in the world that it happens to.

Adding special ways for professions to interact with environmental objects would be utterly fantastic.

If you imagine those ranger pets that dig up environmental weapons, it could be a way to throw a new dimension on that. Say a Ranger uses his pig to dig up a stick, a Mesmer picks up that stick and uses the unique Mesmer ability to summon a Phantasmal Oakheart. Maybe a Warrior spots a rock nearby and uses the unique Warrior ability to roll the rock at high speed through a line of foes and knock them down (a little like Mace #5).

Increasing the damage is only a small part of what could be done to make environmental weapons more engaging, useful and fun to play with.

You hit the nail right on the head, that would be a FANTASTIC idea! Though I doubt ANET is really paying attention to this topic…
Seriously however, if they made environmental items like that I would DEFINITELY start using them the moment my eye catches one. Heck, i’d even start using the pet pig for my ranger!

I really see no reason to pick up a stick, mineral spike, or some other environmental weapon do to damage when my basic attacks will still do more. Maybe if they were 3 times stronger, but with half durability, they would be more worth while to use while maintaining balance?

Ettin

They just want to be friends…. With your children.

…>.>;;

Elothar.4382:

For the OP…yeah, I see your problem. We get the patch at some point on Tuesday and you have until midnight PDT to log in. I am reading your post to say that you work from 4:30 am until noon…which should give you plenty of time to log in before midnight. As Harbinger noted, most times we see the patch late morning so you should be all good, unless I am misreading your work times.

Yeah I write my times in military times.. But I failed to notice that the end date is April 16th, not 15th. So we have until noon of day after tomorrow. So… It’s all good~!

Shadowbane.7109:

Free charges? What do you speak of?! Talk sense man!

It’s on the login bulletin. 5 free transmutation charges if you log in between the implementation of the patch and 1159 pacific time tomorrow.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/log-in-tomorrow-for-free-transmutation-charges/?utm_source=client

Will it be at midnight? I don’t wanna miss out on the 5 free transmutation charges, but I work from 0430-1200 pacific….

“Shh, shh… It’s okay, it’s okay. Your safe,” she said gently to him. “No one’s going to hurt you.”

The boy immediately stopped, as if stunned at the sudden warmth and embrace.

“It’s okay to be scared. You’re going to be okay, alright?” She said to him.

Why was she saying this? Why was she doing this? Was this really her saying these words?
…And why was it that she felt she wasn’t simply saying it to JUST this small child in front of her? It was almost as if she was also saying it to herself…

Brushing away the though, she backed of slightly and gently held his head with both hands, looking straight into his eyes.

“I’m… I’m Lilyia. Do you have a name?”

“Uh…”

His faced looked confused, and he tilted his head at her in a curious fashion. She couldn’t help but think it looked really cute.

“You can talk right?”

“Uhhh…”

“Do you know where you are?”

“Uhhhh…”

Lilyia smiled again, though it hinted uneasiness. “Ummm… Do you even know what the petals I’m even saying?”

“Uhhh… Uh…”

“Heh.. Well, uh, I’ll take that as a no.”.

She then looked at him curiously with puffed lips. “Well, we have to name you something. I can’t just call you Scarlet monster… Hmmmm.” She eyed away and pondered for moment. Then she looked at him again, and found herself fiddling with his hair.

“Heh, can’t say I’ve seen a human kid with silver hair before…” Her eyes widened. “OH! Yeah, that’d be perfect! Silver! Yeah, we’ll call you Silver!”

Again he titled his head. “S-Silva…?”

“Oh, so you can speak?” She smiled brightly. “Yes. Silver. Your name is Silver. Can you say it?”

“Silva..? Sil…ver?”

“Right! Silver!”

“S… Silver?”

“Yup, you got it!” She smiled, then placed a palm to her chest. “And my name is, Lilyia”

“L-Lil…a?”

“LIL-LY-IA.” She mouthed in parts.

“Li.. Lil..”

Lilyia giggled. “Ya know what? That might be a little difficult at the moment. So you can just call me, Lil.”

“Lil..”

“Right! Nice to meet you Silver! So, uh, welcome to, uh.. Tyria?”

As before, Silver didn’t respond. Again, he only tilted his head curiously.

“Riiiiight… Okay, um… Heh,heh…” She withdrew her hands and rubbed them together in an embarrassed manner. “Now that we got all that set aside. Why don’t I help you get out of there, huh?”

“…What?”

That’s all she could say.

Who could blame her? She was assuming some kind of monster. She assuming whatever was in that huge tank was big enough to eat her. She assumed it’d be strong enough to flatten her like tiny flower growing on a public road.

It was none of that.

It was actually smaller…

…WAY smaller.

In the middle of the chamber, as if sleeping, was a small human.

A child.

He was a in slight slouched position, his whole body below the neck covered with a thin, skin-tight white suit. His lower body, from the torso, was enclosed by a metal pedestal. Everything else, his upper torso, arms, neck, hands, back was penetrated by dozens and dozens of transparent IV lines that connected to the top of the chamber.

She couldn’t tell if it was most beautiful or horrific thing she’d ever seen; He looked like a beautiful pale flower connected to countless silver wires.

This was the monster she and many lionguard troops came here to prevent from waking up?
A pale, human, silver-haired boy?

He didn’t look more than 10 years old..

“…huhh..?

He was looking at her in a dazed expression… and the color of his eyes nearly stunned her. Despite his pale complexion and silver hair, his eyes were a bright red crimson. Almost glowing…

Wait. Were they ACTUALLY glowing?

She squinted. No. No they weren’t glowing. Did she just imagine that?

“HUH?” His eyes widened. His dazed face immediately replaced by look of awareness. As if he had realized he wasn’t dreaming.

“You’re… You’re a human… right?” She asked him.

He didn’t reply, only looked around himself. Then he realized he was tied down and connected to IVs. Seeing that there were things inserted in him and restricted his movements, he struggled briefly for a moment, and yelped pain.

“AH!”

Still holding her bow and arrow she urged him. “Hey! No! D-don’t move. You’ll just hurt yourself.”

He didn’t stop. He struggled even more now. Panic began to settle in as he dangerously shook his arms and shoulders, that threatened to ripe his skin and flesh apart from the attached IVs. He began to whimper and shed tears of panic, pain, and confusion.

“N-No! NO! STOP! STOP!!”

Then something in Lilyia seemed to break open. As soon she saw his face, his tearful eyes full of fear and confusion, something heavy struck her from within. With it, she was reminded of something…

Unfamiliar faces. An unknown place. Confusion. A reflection she didn’t recognize—

Then before she knew it, before she could figure out why she even did it… She dropped her bow and arrow, rushed down and cradled the child’s head next to hers, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 6: Silver
By: AVM516

The first thing he consciously experienced… The VERY first thing, before his sense of touch, smell, sight, before he could even be aware of thought, was that he heard something. He didn’t understand it, nor did he care of it. All he knew was that he heard something.

…ING—
…ARNING—
LEYLINE PRESSURE BELOW THRESHOLD- –
SUPPRESION COMPROMISED—
ENGAGING EMERGENCY INJECTION PROCEDURE—
ACCELERATING REMAINING LEYLINE ENERGY FROM POCKET SOURCE—

Then he FELT something. He didn’t know what it was. It was heavy, pressing, hot.

Pain.

He felt pain.

And when he felt it, he was AWARE. Aware that he was in pain, that something was hurting him. It was unbearable. He wanted it to stop. Stop the pain. Stop the burning! STOP! STOP! STOP! If it didn’t stop soon, he was going to lose himself. Something would come out. SOMETHING WAS GOING TO—!!

The pain disappeared.

As quickly as it came, it was suddenly gone.

Then he heard another sound…

SUPRRESION REENGAGED…
ANALYZING…
ALERT—
CHAMBER INTEGRITY DAMAGED—-
SUBJECT SUSTAINABILITY COMPROMISED—
CURRENT PHASE AT 50 PERCENT
REMAINING PHASES ABORTED—
ENGAGING EMERGENCY EJECTION

Suddenly he felt light. As if the warmth surrounding him disappeared, and he was left cold and hanging. As if by reflex, he sucked the air into his mouth rapidly and let it out.
He was breathing.
He was awake.
He was ALIVE.

His head felt light and he felt something inside him beating, pounding in his chest. He didn’t what it was, only that he faster he breathed the more rapidly it beat and the lighter his head got.

He breathed one, final heavy breath, then his chest and head felt easier.

Slowly lifting his head, he opened his eyes. He only saw bright, white light. Then shapes and colors began to form. At first it was all blurry, he couldn’t make it out, but soon the image began to sharpen.

Then he SAW something. He didn’t know what it was, only that he knew he was seeing something. It was blue, slender and holding something. The thing it was holding was curved and wide, and at its center was something long and pointed at the end.

The pointed-end aimed right in front of his eyes.

Though he wasn’t focused what it was holding, rather, he looked at two bright blue circles on the thing’s ‘face.’

Why was he so fixated on them? He didn’t know. Only that he couldn’t stop staring at them. Then, before he could question himself, the blue thing made a sound..

Lilyia’s eyes widened. “E-Ejection?” On her knees she, looked up at the chamber. “Wait, wait, wait! No, no,no!!”

Her pleas of course changed nothing as she saw the large pipes that connected atop the cylindrical chamber pop off and spew like water hoses. Then, the glass cylinder seemed to slide up into the ceiling, it’s liquid contents immediately cascading out, draining into the grated floor. There must have been something hot under the floor for as soon as the liquid drained below, an enormous cloud of steam erupted from below, immediately blocking her view of the opened tank and nearby surroundings.

In slight panic, Lilyia immediately hid behind one of the massive consoles. Desperately looking around, she searched for a weapon of some kind she could use… And to her luck, she saw her bow a few arrows practically right next to her. She figured they must fallen out of the pipe she fell above her… Wasting no time, she gathered what arrows there were, stored them on her back and immediately knocked one into the bow.

Weapon in hand, she peeked around the corner of her console, at the exposed tank. The cloud of steam didn’t allow her an immediate view of what was inside. Though she could see an silhouette of.. ..something.

For about 30 more seconds, she continued to peer. But to her surprised, the thing in the tank hadn’t moved at all. This didn’t ease her at all, however, as the anticipation made her shiver and her breathing shake .

Geez… If you’re gonna kill me, then just hurry up and move already! She thought hysterically. Don’t make me come to you…!

Still, the figure didn’t move one bit. Hesitant, Lilyia figured she would have to make the first move after all. Even though she thought it would be a crappy gamble, there was a chance that thing in there was not fully conscious and she would have the chance of a first strike.

“Okay, then,’ she whispered. “Ready or not, here I come….”

Slowly, Lilyia approached the tank, her bow still knocked with an arrow and its head shaking nervously as she slowly approached.

She had never been more scared in her life.

She had saw the pictures and heard the stories in texts. Toxic hybrids, clockwork creatures, massive jungle wurms… countless monstrosities Scarlet Briar either manipulated or created.

And now she was going to see the last thing that psychopath made. ..

…All alone, with nothing but a bow and arrow.

HSSSS!!

“EEEEK!”

A sudden hiss of air from the metal grating blow gave a short gust of air, shrieking Lilyia. Quickly, and unexpectedly, it unveiled the cloud of steam covering the monster.

And she saw it…

Her blue eyes widened as they connected with a set of glowing crimson red.

====
“BY-PYRE’S-TEETH…!!”

“WHAT IN THE GODS IS THAT SOUND?!?” Tom gritted.

Tom, the Lieutenant and every lion guard soldier suddenly found themselves on their knees, covering their ears in pain as a piercing, metallic cry suddenly erupted in the room.

As the officer gritted his teeth and squinted, he saw that pulsating light from the pipes grew brighter, and rushing faster, like rapid a river.

“Why… is… everything… flowing faster!?”

The shrilling sound didn’t seem to end, and all the troops could do was kneel at its mercy. After what seemed like an agonizing 10 seconds, the Charr officer noticed that some of the pipes were being stripped of their glow.

They were going empty.

Like a clear straw sucking the last of the liquid, the white glow from the pipes slithered down toward the center.

Then before he knew it, the screaming topped, and all the pipes had now gone dark.

===

Lilyia clutched her head as the metallic like scream echoed within the facility It was so intense it made her teeth rattle and her eyes roll back in her head.

What what’s going on!? What’s happening? Her thought scrambled with the noise.

Then as the ‘scream’ suddenly began, it had suddenly stopped in an instant. All the pipes that used to glow bright white now went dark. The only light remained was the tank, pulsating brighter.

Small cracks began to form around the glass exterior…

SUPRRESION REENGAGED…
Analyzing….
ALERT-
CHAMBER INTEGRITY DAMAGED—-
SUBJECT SUSTAINABILITY COMPROMISED—
CURRENT PHASE AT 50 PERCENT
REMAINING PHASES ABORTED—
ENGAGING EMERGENCY EJECTION

—
Lilyia’s eyebrow twitched as she just stared.

She stared at an enormous, glowing, cylindrical tank. It was what all these pipes at the surface were connected to. What all these pipes were feeding into. What the psychopathic genius Scarlet left before her death. What the Lionguard was sent to prevent from ‘waking up.’
Like a glass tree growing upside-down, the tank was connected like roots to the transparent pipes that webbed from the ceiling.

And she was standing right next to it…

“Why is this always getting worse?” Lilyia murmured to herself.

She looked around the ‘lab’ she was in. It was dome shaped, like the area above, but not nearly as large. Packed and crude was the best way to describe it. There were various consoles the size and shape of bookshelves, various screens on the rock-lined walls that showed digits and lines she didn’t understand, magic powered lamps that dotted the walls and glowed through the metal grating on the ground, and…

Lilyia’s heart jumped and eyes widened as she noticed one familiar device along the side of the lab.

The teleporter!

Without a second thought she dashed across the lab and approached the device. Looking at it, it looked definitely like the one above. White lights blinked within its inner frame, and a cylindrical ‘mist’ of energy seemed to be pulsating it’s center area. It definitely looked functional.

Cautiously, she walked into its center and stood straight, hoping it worked automatically. Immediately, a plethora of red lasers seemed to scan her body from head to toe…
…then there was a red light and loud BZZZ!! A robotic, female voice followed:

ACCESS DENIED

Her jaw dropped.

“What!? No, No please! Just, just—“

She immediately climbed out and reentered the enormous metal shower. And the lasers scanned her again and there was another BZZZ!!

ACCESS DENIED

Lilyia drooped her head and arms in defeat.“…Are you kidding me?” She said sadly.

She then slowly walked out of the teleporter. Turning around she seemed to stare at it blankly for a few seconds… before giving it a ferocious kick.

BANG!

“OWW!” She hopped on one foot and she held the other in pain. Afterwards she gripped her head and shouted to herself sternely.

“Oh, stop it! Stop it, Lilyia! You’re acting like a bent-out sapling, just calm down and think…”

After taking a few breathers to calm herself, she gave one big breath and started pacing in front of the teleporter.

”Okay, okay…. Let’s straighten everything out.” She told herself. “Let’s think of what happens from here on … On a good scenario, I get this teleporter working and I get back up there before this thing wakes and they blow up the facility…. On a bad case scenario, I don’t get the teleporter working in time, and I get blown up along with this monster . On another bad scenario, this thing wakes up and eats me like a celery stick. On an even worse case scenario: I don’t get the teleporter working in time, the facility blows up, I’m then trapped down in here and slowly die of starvatio—”

She stopped pacing, “Wait a minute!! WHY ARE THERE MORE BAD SCENARIOS THAN GOOD ONES!?!” She brought her hands to the air and yelled at the ceiling, “Who am I kidding? I am TOTALLY screwed!!!”

Before another wave of despair could set in, the robotic female voice echoed within the chamber along with flashing red lights.

WARNING—WARNING—
LEYLINE PRESSURE BELOW THRESHOLD- –
SUPPRESION COMPROMISED—
ENGAGING EMERGENCY INJECTION PROCEDURE—
ACCELERATING REMAINING LEYLINE ENERGY FROM POCKET SOURCE

Lilyia frowned. “The pressure?”

She looked at the pipe in which she emerged from in the ceiling. The glowing liquid flowing from that glass pipe she emerged from never stopped since. Was that one breach, among all the pipes converging in the ceiling, causing such a problem? And what did it mean by the suppression being compromi—?”

“SCRYEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!”

===
“The operation proceeds, Thompson. Hook up with the rest of the unit and move out. We blow this place up in 20 minutes.”

“Sir, there’s got to be something we can do! We can’t just—”

“I told you private, this stuff is poison!” The officer injected. “And she literally took a dive in it. She was dead the moment she touched it. And even if she miraculously survives it, how the heck do we get her out? Toss a line in that hole, hope she bites, and fish her out?”

Tom glanced at the hole where Lilyia had sunk into. Liquid still poured out of it like a water spring in the ground. He closed his eyes tightly, trying desperately to come up with something. Some way they could—

“The teleporter!” He suddenly said. “If she’s still alive and she got out, it’s possible she could be down at the center where all these pipes go, so we could just—“

“Private!” The officer sighed. “Even if she somehow survived that river of poison, not drown, and got out of that pipe… NONE of the priory members could get that teleporter working. Besides, according to them, for some odd reason, it’s designed to be ONE-WAY from the bottom up. So even if we could get that thing working, you wouldn’t be able to get down there. ”

“We still have to try, sir!” Thompson exclaimed in desperation. “Maybe if we rerouted it somehow? Or at least waited a bit, maybe she can activate it from her end and—“

“Okay, Private, now you’re just hopelessly dreaming.” The officer rolled his eyes.

“20 minutes then, sir!” Thompson pressed. “Since we’ll be done with the operation in 20 minutes, just let me tinker with the teleporter… If nothing happens.. then… then…” He yelled in anguish. “Sir, what would you do if your friend was down there!?”

The charr officer just looked at him stunned for a moment. Then gave a rather defeated sigh said. “Alright, Thompson, you know what? It doesn’t matter. You have 20 minutes. If you can’t do anything, and nothing happens, then you clear out with the rest. Understood?”

Thompson stood up straight, giving him a serious face, and placed a fist to his chest. “Yes, sir, understood.” He immediately bolted past the officer, toward the teleporter.

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 5: Out
By: AVM516

Cold, bright, wet, spinning, falling… These were the things that rang through her head. The last thing she could remember was that she was standing on the pipe. A crack and formed under her. She looked at Tom… Then everything seemed to rise above her… then.. then…

She was in the pipe!

Her mind finally snapped to awareness. She was in the pipe, being carried through the currents down below. No control, nothing to hang on to, she could only keeping riding the currents.

Then, she remembered something. Something someone said.

“Whatever this stuff is, it effects the brain if enough of it gets into your body. So treat this stuff like poison.”

She was in it. She was surrounded by it!! She was going to be drowned by it!!!

Panic drew her in. She had to get out. GET OUT! GET OUT!! GET OUT!!!
She desperately reached for the survival knife at her thigh. She swung it wildly around, trying to hit something. Anything.

TANG!

She hit something. Desperate, she hit it again, harder.

TANG!!

And this time it stuck.
Holding onto the knife with one hand, she banged the surface next to it. Desperately trying to shatter the surface.

Bang! Bang! Ba—SKRASH!!

She felt herself falling again. I lasted only about a second before she hit something hard and metallic. She had fallen on her chest with a thud.. Though she gave no time to even register the pain, she immediately began to cough up liquid that entered through her lungs that nearly drowned her.

Then her eyes widened. The liquid was in her lungs. She swallowed some of it. She had practically swam in it!

Scrambling to her feet, breathing heavily in a panic, she looked her palms. She then held her head, then felt her chest.

She felt. She felt…

Nothing.

She was fine. She was normal. Totally soaked and freezing from the liquid, but she was fine.

“How… How am I still alive?” She said to herself, looking at her palms soaked in the liquid.

Was the Lieutenant wrong? Did he lie? No. Why would he lie about this…?

She remembered him saying that a priory member got a simple spray of it, and they died shortly afterwards.

She frowned. Maybe this stuff had no effect on Sylvaris? Or maybe it affected people differently? Or maybe its because that she was.. She was a…

She shook her head, and casting away THAT idea.

“No, no! There’s no time to think about that now, Lilyia” She said to herself. “Just figure out where you are and get to that la—!”

She immediately cut herself off as she noticed what she was standing next to…

“…Oh you got to be kidding me.”

Still in progress.
Will be part of Illustration for Chapter 2…

That’d be an awesome guild symbol

cranked.3812:

FenrirSlakt.3692:

I got a better idea.
Let’s make it so that the first fractal you get is always dredge.

Hey now, let’s not get carried away! :P

@OP: I get what you are saying, but if you al, take the 2 minutes it takes and roll for it. It’s not like you have to sit there for hours doing it.

I guess your right. But the thing is, if you think about it, despite fractals being random, the first fractal essentially has choice NO MATTER WHAT since you can back out and roll again. There is no way ANET can’t realize that. So why not cut such a redundant step?

…because let’s just face it! EVERYONE keeps rolling the first dungeon till they get the swamp. And even if your response is, “Well then, we’ll just remove it from the first selection.”

Well, guess what?

That won’t work either because whatever you replace it with, people will still keep rolling the first fractal that’s easiest.

So you might as well give us a selection on choosing the first fractal, like in explore mode in the other dungeons.

They looked to the side and found the Lieutenant approaching them with a handful of troops behind him. Immediately their heated argument drained in an instance, their faces transformed to horror and dread.

“Oh crap…“ Tom began.

“It’s not my fault, sir!!” Lilyia cried, immediately bowing her head. “I was just laying down charges like ordered but there was a—-!“

CREEEEAAAAAAAAAK!

Everyone froze. Lilyia, Tom, and the Lieutenant exchanged glances. Before any of them could ask what that loud, screeching sound was-

CRAAACRACKAAACRAAA-

Like thin ice, a large web of cracks began to form on the large pipe the two were standing on. It spread from the explosion point and quickly extended to where Lilyia stood. As she looked down, the cracks began to spread around her feet. Then there felt a slight shift down, and small spraying of liquid began to spurt out.

She immediately looked at Tom. Her face was blank, but her eyes were wide.

“Tom…?”

“Lilyia..? Y-you need to move. You need to-“

“Tom. What do I-AIIIIIEEEE—-!!!“

The ‘ground’ underneath her cut her scream short as she seemed to sink and disappear into the pipe. Immediately a large fountain of white liquid erupted on where she was just standing .

“LILYIA!!” He ran toward the geyser and reach out, as if to grab her within the hole—-

“NO DON’T, DON’T’!!” The Char officer pounced on him, keeping him pinned down. “Don’t touch the liquid! Troops hold him, down!”

Several of the other troops join in on holding the young private as he still reached out, calling.

“Lemme go! LEMME GO!! We gotta get her outta there!! She’s—“

“She’s gone private!!”

Tom was paralyzed.

“I already told you… Just a spray of it will kill you.” The Lieutenant gritted under his teeth.

Tom made no reply. He just stared at the bubbling white poison flowing from where she was standing just moments ago…

A loud ring
A deafening, loud, shrilling ring echoed within her head.
It made her whole body numb and paralyze, even hampering her ability to wonder if any of her limbs were still attached after the blast.

“—ia!! –ia!!”

She could tell what was up or down. She tried moving. She felt her palms hit a smooth, cold floor. Curling her fingers, she squinted and shook her head. The voice got clearer..

“—Okay? —ia! Lilyia!”

Eyes still squinting, she looked forward and the bright white vision soon became more focused. Colors and shapes began to form and realized that Tom kneeling in front of her.

“…Am I dead?”

“No.”

“…Am I dreaming?”

He sneered. “No, your not dead or dreaming. Here, let me help you up.”

She pushed him away. “Oh, lay off, Tom. I’m fine.”

She immediately got up, and placed a palm to her forehead. She glanced behind her and saw the explosion point. It was a miracle the pipe was still intact, save for a large webbed crack on its clear, crystalline surface.

Tom looked offended. “Geez, no need to get all attitude. Especially since this was all your fault.”

She eyed him, still holding her head. “My fault?! What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean?’” Tom replied, surprised. “YOU were the one who armed that mine in the first place.”

“EXCUSE ME!” Lilyia yelled, now directly looking at him with her senses back. “It’s not my fault someone goofed up and placed a proximity mine in that mountain of explosives I dragged here.”

“Well, you were supposed to notice.”

“How am I supposed to notice? That thing was looked nearly like all the other charges in there, and you didn’t notice till later.”

“Well YOU didn’t notice it at all.” Tom replied angrily. “If I didn’t tell you it was a mine, we would have been dead before. Maybe if you actually did your job seriously, like actually READ the refresher manuals, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. …Gods. The Lieutenant is gonna kill us now. All because your freakin stupid and lazy.”

“—Oh, heck no. WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?”

“Yeah you heard me!” Tom snapped back angrily, adjusting his glasses as he did. “You’re freaking stupid and lazy. You don’t ever take your duty seriously and you don’t care to learn about anything! I don’t even know why I hang around you. I feel like I have to babysit some dumb, teenage brat sometimes!!”

“Oh yeah! Well at least I’m not some know-it-all, four-eyed geek!”

“…Really? Seriously? That’s the best come back you got? Sorry to inform you Lilyia, but everyone kinda grew outta name-calling after child-hood, ya know? Then again, maybe are you are still a child. How old are you? Five years old? What am I? Twenty? Sorry if you missed out on a few years or that your mom didn’t give you that info, but I guess you can’t help it, huh?”

“OH. THAT. IS. IT!!” She withdrew the bow from her back and knocked an arrow. “I am so gonna head-shot your butt!”

Tom withdrew a pistol and aimed at her. “Pff! Fine then, bring it on blue girl! But lemme ask you first dummy: How do you ‘head-shot’ my ‘butt’? That doesn’t make ANY sense. Those are two different—“

“WHAT IN PYRE’S HAIRY TAIL IS GOING—?! Oh, it’s Curry! And the side-dish Thompson! Why am I NOT surprised?!”

The sergeant and his squad above exchanged glances. Not, sure what to say after witnessing what they found.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the Char officer emerged from the hatch. His eyes full of solemnity.

“How many other troops know about this?” He asked immediately.

The squad exchanged glances. “Only us, sir,” The sergeant replied. “What do we tell the—?“

“We don’t tell them anything.” The Lieutenant interjected. “We report this to Captain Magnus as soon as the operation is over.”

The squad looked stunned. “W-What?! But sir! Don’t you think the people have a right to—?”

“I understand what you want to do, Sergeant.” The officer cut in with a tone that was both strict and full of sympathy. “But believe me, the last thing the people of Lion’s Arch want is to know THIS… It took half a decade to get them settled. They don’t need to know this to have those wounds open again…”

At first the Sergeant opened his mouth as if he was going to refute… But no words came out. Instead he looked depressive downward as if reluctantly agreeing it was the correct answer. He then took one deep breath and answered, “Understood, sir.”

The lieutenant nodded. He then approached him and gave the human Sergeant one sympathetic pat on his shoulder.

“Proceed with the operation, Cub…,” he said. “I want this place buried within 30 minutes.”

The Sergeant nodded slightly, and motioned the rest of his squad to follow. Carrying their satchels, they proceeded down the pipes.

As the Lieutenant now stood alone, he looked back at the hatch behind him. …And gritted his teeth snarled loudly in anger.

To think… She went that far…!!!

He then climbed back up atop the pipes and continued his supervision of the troops. Though it didn’t show on his face, the thing he witnessed severely hampered his concentration. Even after reporting to Captain Magnus, he knew definitely he was not going to have a good night’s sleep any time—-

He squinted at the distance.

What were those two troops doing? He noticed they hadn’t moved an inch for quite some time. Were they slacking off?

Then it looked like one of them kicked something away, and they immediately ran the other dire—-

BAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!

“WHAT IN PYRE!?!?”

= = =

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 4: Down
By: AVM516

-10 Minutes ago-

On schedule, so far….

As he looked around the collection of pipes and troops scattered, he figured it would be less than hour before everything was set.

Though he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes. This seemed too easy and disappointing. This facility, or if you could call it one, just didn’t seem like anything compared to the ones 10 years ago, at least to records. There were at least automated defenses, traps, and even hallucinogenic gas used in deterring intruders in all facilities related to Scarlet.

There was NONE of that here.

Just one big hole stuffed and surrounded by these enormous pipes of white, glowing liquid. Sure, there was that teleporter that could take them deeper (if they could access it). But even so, if you got this far, you’d think there would be at least SOME type of automated defense to—

“Lieutenant!”

“What is it sergeant?” The Lieutenant asked, facing the soldier who suddenly approached.

“You have to see this…” he said, thumbing behind him.

The Lieutenant followed the trooper to the outer edge of the cave wall. After a moment, he saw what the trooper was informing him of:

A small hatch in the ground…

It was both inconspicuously hidden between two massive pipes and camouflaged by the rock surface of the cave with its rusted doors.

The Lieutenant looked surprised. “That wasn’t in the Pact’s report…”

“I don’t think they knew, sir.” The Sergeant replied. “It was actually luck and good eyesight that one of my squad members noticed it.”

“Did any of you take a look inside? Does it lead deeper into the facility?”

“Uh, we did take a look sir… It’s not an entrance to go deeper.. But…” The sergeant seemed to gaze away.

At that same time, the Lieutenant noticed the other members of the squad give similar gazes of unsettlement.

“What’s wrong? What’s inside Sergeant?”

The human sergeant gave a long depressive sigh and motioned one of his squad members. One of them removed a torch from her side, lit it, and offered it to the Lieutenant. He took it, though still giving a look of concern to the Sergeant.

“Sir… You REALLY need to see it for yourself. It’s difficult to describe with words.”

Immediately, one of the troops undid the lock on the hatch and swung it open. The lieutenant just gave one more curious stare at the Sergeant and approached the hatch.

As he looked down with the torch, he saw that a ladder was attached at the base leading down to pitch black darkness below. Turning around he descended down the ladder, while cautiously holding the torch with one hand.

After a few seconds of descending, his paws finally reached the bottom. ..

…And it was then that he noticed that there was something wrong with the ground.

It was uneven. TOO uneven. As if the entire ground was made up of short sticks that shifting loosely upon his impact. After finally getting both this paws flat on the ground, he swung the torch to see what exactly what he was stepping into…

And his eyes widened in horror.

“Yeah?” Tom looked at her stressed.

“I could uh… Kick it in the opposite direction, and in that moment we could jump away. You think that would work?”

Tom’s eyes widened. “Uh.. Y-yeah. That could work. But you’d need to kick it pretty hard, Lilyia. That thing has a blast radius of about 5 meters.”

Lilyia nodded gently. “Okay.. Okay,I got it.” She took a few deep breath and looked at Tom. “Ready?”

“Y-yeah, I guess.”

“Alright, on three.”

They both nodded.

“One. Two. Th—“

“WAIT!”

“-WAh!!?”

“Uh sorry. I need to ask something first. Is it gonna be ‘one-two-three-kick? Or are you gonna kick at exactly on ‘three’?” He suddenly asked.

Lilyia dropped her jaw and looked wide-eyed at him. “What does it matter, Tom!? Regardless, we jump right when I kick this crap away!!”

“Oh, yeah right, uh sorry.” He smiled nervously.

Lilyia exhaled hard in irritation. “Okay. Again. Get ready.”

“Okay, ready.”

Both of them took a slight stance.

“One… Two… Thr—“

“WAIT!”

“BY THE PALE— TOM!!! What now?!”

“Uh.. Can I say something first?”

Lilyia just stared at him with an open mouth. After a 5 second delay she finally asked, “What?”

“This, uh, might be the last time we talk so I’d like to say something to you before we might, you know.. Die?”

Her eyes went narrow as she gave him a face of disbelief. “Seriously…?”

“Well, can I?”

She rolled her eyes, and slouched a little as if her saying her body just couldn’t take any of this stress anymore.

“No…”

“Okay. I just wanna say—WAIT WHAT?!?”

Her face suddenly went fierce and her voice exploded. “This has been the worst day of my life, TOM! I lost my vacation, my breakfast, I had to walk half-way across Tyria with a hobo-sack of bombs on my back… and now I’m gonna be blown up in some psycho’s underground hideout! So the last thing I need… IS TO HEAR SOMETHING SAPPY FROM A GEEK BEFORE I DIE!!”

“Uhh—.”

“So screw this crap! ONETWOTHREE!”

Kick

And immediately both of them ran the opposite direction, flailing their arms in the air and screaming like little children as they ran for their lives.

Just then she realized that the charge she pulled out of the pack without looking was differently shaped and colored. Yet the arming trigger was in the same relative area.

“W-W-W-W-WHAT WAS A PROXIMITY MINE DOING IN THERE!?!”

“Uh… I’m guessing it got mixed it there by mistake. But never mind that! Why the heck did you pull it out in the first place?! Didn’t you notice?!?”

“I-I-I was busy talking with you! …But whatever, WHAT THE HECK DO WE DO?” Her voice sounded like she was at the point of panicking.

“Hold up… Lemme think for a moment. Just… Don’t move.”

“No crap, Tom!” She cried.

Sweat rolled profusely down Tom’s face as he studied the device.

“Okay…” Tom began, breathing nervously. “I’ve got an idea. Try not move.”

“What are you gonna-“

“Please be quiet for a sec, ” Tom urged her. “I just learned this a few days ago, so I need to focus.”

He then closed his eyes and murmered a word to himself.

Water

Then was then a ‘spark’ of blue energy that seems to cover his body. He then took a deep breath and out his mouth came a blue fog of cold air. As Lilyia witnessed, the fog flew over the mine at her feet, encasing it immediately with frost.

Lilyia’s eyes widened. “…Since when did you learn elementalist spells?”

Tom didn’t respond, but kept ‘blowing’ at the mine at her feet. A few moments later, the entire mine was encased with a thin layer of ice. After the moment, he stopped blowing and immediately gasped to breath.

“Y-you okay?”

“Yeah.. I’m good.” He answered between breath. “I’m just a beginner on that spell, so it took a lot out of me.”

“Ah-Okay… So uh.” She looked back down at the mine. “Is it safe to move now.?

“NO!” He yelled suddenly in a breath.

Lilyia looked at him wide-eyes. “What do you mean ‘NO’? Didn’t you disarm it?”

“Freezing it doesn’t disarm it. It just delays the chemical reaction of the explosion by a few seconds. That’ll at least gives us time to…” He took one final deep breath, “Jump away.”

Lilyia was wild-eyed. “J-JUMP AWAY!? What do you mean jump-away?” She was doing everything she could to stay frozen as she yelled. “No way we could jump out of the blast in a few seconds!”

“Well that’s all I could think of!” Tom yelled back in anguish. “I don’t see you thinking of anything helpful right now!!”

Lilyia swallowed hard. He was right. She had been barking at him this entire time, and this was her goof up. She closed her eyes and thought hard.

So they had a few seconds to get away, but even if they jumped as far away as they could, there would be no way to avoid the blast radius. Could they call for help? …No. Too risky. Anyone else could activate the motion detector before they could explain their situation. Could she use those few seconds to disarm it? …Probably not. Not only was it encased in ice, the button she pressed to arm it seemed locked-in, and she didn’t see anything else around it that looked like the disarming function.

Best thing they could do was to increase their distance from it within that few seconds….

But how would they do that?

If they couldn’t move themselves within the few seconds, maybe they could move the bomb—

“W-wait… I think I could…” She began.

===

“This place is huge, Tom. Do you think we have enough explosives?”

Tom shrugged, as he kneeled down a charge and armed it. “Ought too. These explosives were co-designed by the Priory and Whspers. Despite their size, each one is strong enough to blow up a small house. On top of that, we’re in a pocketed-area, so the blasts from these charges will be extremely efficient. Even if we don’t destroy this place completely, the shockwaves from these blasts will most likely cause a cave-in and bury this place…”

“Makes sense.” Lilyia replied, activating one charge. “Speaking of which, you got any info on what ARE these pipes? And what’s that glow?” Lilyia asked as she gazed again at the enormous entanglement of pipes.

“I don’t know myself.” Tom replied, setting another charge down.. “But the Priory Scholars theorize these pipes are pumping some kind of refined energy from a nearby Leyline.”

“Leyline?” Lillyia took a moment to ponder at the term. “You mean the network of magical energy flowing under the ground”

“Ah, you heard about them?”

“I read them in a book somewhere.” She shrugged. “And what I heard from the Lieutenant, they’re feeding into something?”

“Yup. Something down there.” He pointed at the area where all the pipes converged, packed and blocked the massive round opening in the ground.

“I see.. So, uh… Has any one, ummm” She sounded a bit nervous. “Has anyone exactly seen what this stuff is feeding into?”

“That’s where all my info ends.” Tom said as he laid another charge down, and arming it. “If I had to guess, I don’t think anyone knows, or rather they can’t.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” She asked quizzically as reached into the pack without looking to grab another charge.

“Well, look over there.” He pointed at a large, metallic device in the corner of the area that looked like an oversized shower with a metal curtain.. “That there is some type of teleporter. And it’s the only one I’ve seen through out this whole facility. Obviously, wherever that teleporter would take you would most likely be the center of where this is going.”

“Uh, huh I get it…” Lilyia thought for a moment. “Hey wait, if it takes you to the center, then why—“

“Yeah, exactly.” Tom answered, as if reading her mind. “If that teleporter takes you to the center, then why are we all setting up the charges here? Better yet, why not go the center control and deactivate this place rather than blow it up? My guess is that either the teleporter isn’t working or restricts access to those using it.”

“So basically,” Lilyia said, filling in the gaps as she laid down her current charge. “If we can’t blow it or deactivate it directly we might at least ‘starve’ it, or better yet destroy it, with detonating the pipes filled with magic energy up here?”

“Yup. Hmm, you’re smarter than you look Lilyia.”

“And what’s THAT supposed to mean?” She looked at him annoyed, as she reached down to press arming button on the charge.

“Nothing. I just mean that—NO. WAIT. STOP…”

“Hey I ain’t stopping.” Lilyia replied with the same tone. “You tell me what you mean by—“

“NO! I MEAN DON’T PRESS THE—!“

“Huh?” Her finger felt the button before her body could react to her answer. And then there was a loud:

BEEP, BEEP!

Lilyia noticed Tom had the palest expression as he just seemed to stare at the explosive charge below her.

*W-WHAT? What Tom? What did I do!?” She rapidly bobbed her head up and down between the device at her feet and his face.

“Lilyia…”

“WHAT?”

“…That’s not a remote charge. That’s a proximity mine.”

Huh..?”

“…And you just armed it.”

===
After what seemed like a few more minutes of walking she then noticed an opening ahead, flowing with a brilliant white light. The change of brightness made her eyes squint as she approached the entrance.
When she finally entered it, and let her eyes adjust, Lilyia’s eyes widened as she looked at the area before her.

The ‘Facility’ was an enormous dome-shaped cavern. It was so large it could house Vigil’s Keep! Along the ground, enormous glowing transparent pipes, their size mimicking the underground sewer channels under Lion’s Arch, snaked from the outer walls to a large round opening in the center. Glowing white light seemed to pulsate from them, leading from the walls toward the opening in the ground.

Despite the enormous weight on her back, she couldn’t help but feel the explosives she hauled down here wouldn’t be enough to blow everything up.

“This place is…! Is..! Do we even have enough explosives for this?!” Lilyia exclaimed.

The officer didn’t answer, instead shouted out, “Form up! Curry, bring that pack down and open it up!”

Lilyia did what she was told, and laid the pack down. Finally relieved of the weight, she slouched and held her knees to catch her breath for a moment.

After a moment to regain herself, she undid the strings on the pack and opened it up. Inside the enormous pack were smaller individual satchels also closed by strings. From the irregular shape each satchel took, it appeared each explosive inside was about the shape and size of a thick saucer.

Lilyia then dragged the enormous, opened sack next to the lieutenant then took her place among the ranks, next to Tom who handed her back her bow and arrows. They all took a disciplined stance of attention, with their hands and arms to their side and their chins held up.

“Alright,” The Lieutenant began. “This probably doesn’t have to be said, but I’m gonna say it anyway since there are dumb dolyaks among you. Whatever you do, do NOT touch the liquid within these pipes. The effects are extremely debilitating.”

All the troops immediately exchanged faces.

“What do you mean debilitating, sir?” A random troop asked in the back.

“Hard to explain, really.” The lieutenant said with his arms crossed. “So I’ll provide you an example: When a priory scholar got exposed from a spray of this stuff, he immediately went wild like an undead berserker before dying of a seizure.”

Everyone was silent for a moment, then there were a few:

“A-are you serous?”

“Ya kidding?”

“No, way.”

“Believe it, maggots.” The Lieutenant said sternly. “Whatever this stuff is, it effects the brain if enough of it gets into your body. So treat this stuff like poison.”

Lilyia was the first to speak after this.. “Aaaaand we’re going to be walking over this stuff? As we lay explosives, sir?”

“Correct. Everyone, grab a satchel of explosives and spread out. I want this whole network of pipes covered within an hour…”

“So then… Why didn’t the Vigil or the Order of Whispers do it?”

“Two reaso— Well, okay, maybe three reasons. One: Only the Lionguard has enough military grade explosives on hand at the moment to do it. Most of theirs were used for operations in Orr and Frostforge. Two: Blowing up a facility this size didn’t really need a lot of manpower, so they figured they could trust the job to us and continue concentrate their fight with the dragons… And the third reason: Maybe to give us payback.”

Lilyia raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, payback?”

The eyes of the Lieutenant t eyes became dark and cold. “You weren’t here 10 years ago, right Curry?”

“Uh…” Lilyia looked down. “Yeah… I came out of the pod 5 years ago, I’ve only read and heard accounts…”

“Well, let me give you some more personal accounts.” The Charr began. “That Sylvari didn’t just destroy Lions Arch Arch ten years ago. She didn’t just burn buildings and businesses and toppled things over. She killed women and children, families, friends, homes that were there since the city’s founding along with generations that would have followed. …And she did it all WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE!!”

Lilyia’s face looked stunned. She didn’t know what to say…

“IF she thinks she’s leaving some legacy here, while she went and murdered so many others that day, she has another thing coming to her. We’re gonna erase EVERYTHING she left here.” The Charr then seemed to laugh at herself. “Heh.. If I could look at her ghost, I wish I could see the expression on her face as we burn this kitten to the ground.”

Lilyia was silent. It was the first time she saw the actual anger of a citizen from Lions Arch. Of what was lost so much that day…

“I-I guess that makes sense, Lieutenant. Sorry, I asked.”

“Just keep walking, private.”

After a moment of silence. Lilyia couldn’t help but ask one more question.

“Uh, Lieutenant, permission to ask one more question? …A personal one?”

The Charr rolled his eyes annoyingly. “Again, granted. What is it?”

“Did YOU lose anyone that day?”

For a moment, he looked kind of stunned. Then he answered darkly, gazing away. “A human friend. We used to play around the docks. She survived the initial attack, but she inhaled too much of the miasma before we got out of the city. I had to watch her die slowly.”

“I’m… I’m sorry, Sir.”

He sighed. “We made a promise as kids that were going to be traders and sail the seas together. And Scarlet took that from me… From US. ”

“Uh.. Y-you could still be that trader, sir.”

The lieutenant seemed to sneer at her, as if that was a dumb response. “You’re still young Curry, so let me tell you something: When someone close to you dies, some part of you does as well. For your sake, I hope that never happens.”

At that point, Lilyia didn’t know how to respond. Instead of saying anything back, she simply kept her back to the officer and kept walking forward…

At first, the passage way was lined with rock, typically of one would expect of a mine. But as she continued further, eventually the rock lining became smoother and smoother…. Until the whole passage way was now a metal-lined hallway. There were even small magic-powered lights dotting the ceiling every few yards.

It was also then she noticed the the whole hallway had a slight steep downward. After what seemed like 10 minutes of walking, Lilyia realized that Tom’s description of the facility being about 1 kilometer underground wasn’t exaggerated….

“This place is DEEP!” Lilyia exclaimed, finally breaking the silence of the long march. “How in the Pale Tree did Scarlet even make this place, especially under the Priory?”

“Probably the same way she had an endless supply of Clockwork troops and Alliance soldiers on hand, Curry.” The Lieutenant responded behind her. “You should’ve seen her invasions, there seemed to be no end to her troops as they came out of those portals she used. It made you wonder where she got the resources for them…”

“So I read, sir..” Lilyia responded.

It was then that Lilyia realized something was off about the assignment and figured this was a good time to ask since the Lieutenant was in a ‘docile’ mood…

“Uh, permission to ask a question, sir?”

“Granted. What is it?”

“Why exactly are ‘WE’ destroying the facility? Wouldn’t the Priory be more suited? I mean they’re close by and I’m sure they have at least one thing that blows up in that headquarters of theirs…”

The Charr behind her gave a snarled laugh, sounding impressed. “Smart question, Curry. Alright, I’ll answer it… Would you believe they actually DON’T want this facility destroyed?”

“W-What?! They don’t?”

“Of course they don’t, they’re motto is: ‘Knowledge is power.’ They wanted to see if they could use whatever this facility was holding to fight against the dragons.”

Lilyia thought for a moment. “Well… That is a good argument. The benefits…”

“BUT-,” The officer interrupted her. “A few more factors came after initially finding this place. Keep in mind, this facility has been operating for the last 10 years automatically… and it’s been ‘feeding’ something.”

“F-F-Feeding?!” Lilyia immediately felt uncomfortable in what exactly she was marching toward to. “What do you mean feeding, sir!??”

“You’ll see what I mean when we get there.” The officer sneered. “The other thing is, they were actually over-ruled by the other two orders, as well as Marshall Trahearne. The others realized that despite it being 10 years, they were actually lucky that whatever Scarlet was ‘growing’ in this facility hadn’t come out already. Said it reminded them of some toxic hybrid.. thing,… that grew out of a big plant in Kessex Hills in the past or some crap like that. So they figured it was safer to destroy it now and salvage the pieces.”

“…But, still.” Lilyia began. “If that’s the case, then why doesn’t the Priory—?”

“Just because they said no to the Priory doesn’t mean the Priory was willing to help blow it up, Curry.” The Lieutenant answered sternly. “ The headmaster pretty much said, ‘Well if you wanna blow it up. Then go right ahead, but you’re not gonna get any help from us.’”

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 3: Needle in a Bomb Sack
By: AVM516

Past a multitude of bats, giant spiders, and large worms that spewed rocks that made Lilyia run, shriek, and hide behind boulders several times, the troops finally made it to the outer gate of Scarlet’s old hideout within the cave.

Still at ‘point’ she found herself in front of the small console within the hideout, with the other troops packed behind her.

“So what’s the password?” Lilyia asked, looking back.

The lieutenant motioned his head, and a random soldier from the group came up. He reached into his side pocket, produced a small parchment and handed it to Lilyia.

She unfolded and, to her surprise, it was a simple 4 letter world:

A I O N

Lilyia frowned. REALLY? That was it? Not even a number? Only an idiot would use a password this short and simple. It might as well be 1 2 3 4 5…

“Couldn’t you have just told me it?” Lilyia asked, with an eyebrow raised.

“We’re keeping it strictly ‘Eyes-Only, Curry.” The officer answered her. “We couldn’t risk anyone else getting in here before we did. Now, hurry up.”

It was then that the large crowd of troops cramped in the small hideout began to give her annoyed, impatient looks. Realizing it was probably not a good idea to kitten off over half the unit within the small room, she immediately spun around and operated the console.

Immediately, the rock wall behind the console, slide down surprisingly smooth, revealing a dark passageway.

“Alright, move out. Curry, you still got point.”

Lilyia looked at the dark passageway before her, gulped nervously once, and walked cautiously forward, holding tight on the straps of her pack.

Long story short, I’m writing a fanfiction but I’m really sketchy on the GW2 vocabulary when it comes to their swearing and cursing. >_>

Can a few of you provide some examples, in “xxx” = “xxx” format? Of course, please blot out letters in the english terms for modesty sake…

Sorry Anet if this topic rose a big red flag

=

Present time

“…How did this happen?” She murmured to herself again.

So here she was. She was stripped of her vacation, her breakfast (in which only consisted of two bites of stale cereal), mounted with over two-hundred pounds of explosives on her fragile back, while being forced to cross-country across half of Tyria down a cold, slippery mountain pass toward a underground facility in full operation that was built by the one of the most powerful psychos Tyria has ever known.

What did I EVER do to deserve this? She thought sadly.

“Uh, Lilyia?” Tom looked at her concerned.

“What?” She replied annoyed.

“Uh.. A-are you crying?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“…You wanna talk about it?”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” She snarled.

That immediately shut him up. As soon as it happened, the charr lieutenant ahead held a closed, clawed fist in the air.

“Okay, maggots! The cave entrance is just ahead. The dolyaks won’t fit at this point. Unhook the gear. We carry the rest at this point.”

As Lilyia saw ahead of her, the rest of the troops began lowering boxes ammunition and rifles of the dolyaks she had been tailing ever since the beginning of the trip.

Suddenly, to her disbelief, she noticed something that didn’t seem to fit right and couldn’t believe she didn’t notice earlier. “Hey, Tom?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“Why was it that they wanted to keep me in the back the whole time, farther away from the troops?”

“Uh.. Well yeah, about that…”

“AND…“ She continued, now looking directly at him with a very interrogating look on her face. “Why even use me as a pack-mule? Wouldn’t it be better, and safer, to pack the explosives on a Dolyak as well?”

Tom smiled nervously, his voice stuttered and he gazed the other way. “W-well, uh… Y-Y-You see Dolyaks are pretty expensive these days. And, uh… Maybe…. There WAS some discussion on how dangerous carrying over two-hundred pounds of explosives along troops was… So they, um…”

At this point, Lydia exploded with her hands and arms in the air, and shouted into the heavens.

“ARE YOU TELLING ME—- I’VE BEEN A SACRIFICIAL PIECE OF PLANT THIS ENTIRE TIME!? THAT MY LIFE AND EXISTANCE IS LESS VALUED THAN SOME BIG, DUMB, SMELLY DOLYAK?!?

Tom was frozen, unable to know what to say to her fellow comrade.

At that point, with the over-sized pack still on her, her body that was a moment stretched upward went limp. Her head and arms hanged down as she made no attempt hide the loud whimpering sound she was making.

With genuine sympathy, Tom came up beside her and patted her trembling shoulder. However it didn’t seem to have any effect. “I-I’m sorry, Lilyia! But it’s okay… Even though you were, someone had to do it. And since you got here later compared to everyone else during this important mission.. Well.. It’s only proper that—“

“SHUT UP!” She cried with a mix of sadness and anger. “LEAVE ME ALONE!!”

At that moment, the lieutenant noticed them and barked orders. “Hey, Curry! Stop goofing around. You got point now. So hurry up and get to that tunnel!”

For a moment, Lilyia was silent. Then she murmured loudly, as if so Tom could hear it.

“I got ‘point’ huh? Or is it… that if these things on my back were to go off behind them while in a tunnel, I’d block out the exit?”

Again, Tom didn’t know what to say. But the lieutenant still howled.

“WHAT’S WRONG CURRY? Hurry up and get your blue butt over here!”

“…”

Tom whispered beside her, true sympathy in his voice as he touched her shoulder. “C’mon Lilyia. You know this is important and we got a job to do. I’ll be right with you.”

He noticed an eyebrow twitch on her drooped head.

“You really mean ‘BEHIND’, right?”

“U-Uh-w-well…”

“WE’RE WAITING, CURRY!”

At that point, she coldly brushed aside Tom’s hand and trudged ahead. Her head and arms still handing down as she replied in a really, REALLY low voice.

“Yes, sirrr….”

Lilith’s jaw dropped hard. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME I HAD GIGANTIC BOMB ON MY BACK IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?”

“Plural.” Tom corrected with a lifted finger. “Not bomb. Bombs. And the correct term are remote charges. Why are you acting so hysterical?”

“’Why am I-?’ TOM! I-AM-CARRYING-BOMBS-ON-MY-BACK! What part of that do you NOT understand?! What if one of these things go off?!?“

“I don’t know what your problem is.” Tom said, unmoved and crossing his arms as he traveled forward not facing her. “All the combat-engineers, especially the grenade and sabotage units, do it all the time.”

“Well, then they’re freaking insane! WHO THE HECK GOES INTO LIVE COMBAT WITH OVER TWO-HUNDRED POUNDS OF EXPLOSIVES HANGING ON THEIR BACK!?! They might as well paint a big bulls-eye on it too!”

“Well you don’t have to worry about combat.” Tom reassured her. “You’re really just a ‘pack-mule’ until we get to the facility. So don’t worry your blue butt, I’d be more worried about what’s in the facility, mind you. …Or, in your case, the travel there.”

She squinted. “The travel there—?” Then another realization came to her. “Wait. You said it’s in Lorner’s pass, under the Priory, so…”

Tom finished for her. “The quickest way to get there is across Gendarren fields, into Vigils Keeps asura gate to the Priory. Then, when we get to the Priory, we have to cross-country down the snowy paths to where the hideout is, into the caves, then about a kilometer more underground through the hideout entrance.”

Lilyia was almost afraid to ask the next question. “…Just how long will this trip take?”

“Umm…” He rubbed his chin in deep though in a moment, “If I had to guess. Five… No, six hours tops?”

Lilyia immediatly made a weird look with her face and seemed paralyzed with it. But somehow her legs and body still kept marching. At that very moment, they had just gotten through the merchant quarter and was about to enter the exit toward Gendarran fields.

Tom patted her on the shoulder, but she seemed oblivious to it.

“I hope you had a big breakfast this morning,” He smiled.

Lilyia nearly tripped when she heard that, but the heavy pack on her back reminded her otherwise that was a bad and quickly regained her footing.

“And they find this out now? NOW? After a decade!?”

“I know, surprising right?” Tom nodded once at her. “But it’s actually quite ingenious where she hid it: In the spot no one would ever look… Twice.”

The latter part made Lilyia’s eyebrow rise.

“Twice?”

“If you read a bit in the history, you’d know about one of her small hideouts that was directly under the Durman Priory in Lorner’s Pass. There was a bunch of stuff in there: Research notes, creepy drawings, journal entries and a particular console. After Scarlet died, all the stuff in there was cleared out and sealed, save for the console and furniture. Then after ten years—”

“Wait, wait, wait… Tom.” Lilyia suddenly interrupted. “This seems more than what Captain Magnus would brief to troops. How do you know all this?”

Tom shrugged and smiled prideful. “I’m a geek, remember? You wanna let me continue, or you wanna keep thinking about that thing on your back?”

“Uh… Yeah. Good point. Sorry, go ahead.”

“Thanks, now uh, where was I? Oh right.. So, after ten years, some of the newer scholars from the priory wanted to research more of the history of Scarlet. So they went and unsealed the hideout to see if there was anything they missed about her. ….And that’s when they took a closer look at the console and found something strange about it. It was still functioning.”

“So?”

“A console of that model,” Tom answered seriously. “would use a power source that would only last up to five years, even in sleep mode. It’s was ten years since it was last used, so the scholars thought ‘how the heck was this thing still functioning?’ As they looked closer at it, they noticed it was grafted to the bottom of the hideout, probably why they didn’t bother removing it ten years ago, but upon further inspection they noticed that the power source was physically wired. And this wire went deeper underground…”

At this point on, the weight on Lilyia’s back as she traveled seemed non-existent as stared intensively at Tom. “Wait.. You mean—”

“Yup” Tom answered quickly. “This console wasn’t just some personal console of Scarlet. When the scholars looked deeper into the console’s database, they noticed a hidden function that was password protected. After hacking the password and inputting it into the function, low and behold, behind the console, opened a big, rock door that lead to an underground facility: Fully operating and the size of a large factory.”

“And you’re telling me.” Lilyia said unblinking. “This was under the Durman priory the entire time and nobody noticed?!”

“’In the spot where nobody would ever look… Twice” Tom repeated the phrase, shrugging. “Like I said it was ‘ingenious’. With the surprise of first finding that small hideout, no one would ever think there was something much bigger under it. On top of that, since the Durman Priory does all sorts of crazy experiments above, nobody would notice or even care if someone felt an earthquake or explosion nearby, let alone below. She used her own hideout as a red herring.”

Lilyia shook her head, and looked forward as she marched on. “That’s crazy…So. What we’re doing now is…”

“We’re going to destroy it. The pact alone doesn’t have time or the manpower. They have a more important duty, fighting elder dragons, even after ten years they’re still fighting a close war. And the Lionguard personally signed up to do this task for them. That’s the reason for the thing on your back.”

Lilyia nodded. “Ah, now I get it. So that’s—“

Her eyes suddenly went wild as a horrific realization came to her. “HEY WAIT A MINUTE!” she looked hysterically at Tom. “ARE YOU TELLING ME THE THING ON MY BACK IS—?”

“Yup,” he replied bluntly. “They’re explosives. Military grade. At least two-hundred and fifty pounds worth.”

The face on Lilyia immediately went from irate to stunned.
She wasn’t expecting that answer…

“Serously?”

“Yup.”

“Honestly?”

“Mmhm.”

“Uh… What are we ‘countering?’” Lilyia asked, with a hint of fear.

Again Tom sighed. But now he wore a face that looked dark and serious face.

“You ever heard of Scarlet Briar?”

In her hunched position, Lilyia’s eyes widened.

Who HADN’T known of that name? The crimson-headed sylvari who had launched a full invasion of Lion’s Arch ten years ago and conquered it in less than a day. She was known for her brilliance and master all 3 colleges of Asura education as well as an adept in both use of magic and technology. On top of that, she miraculously created 3 alliances made of 6 antagonistic groups known throughout Tyria: The Aetherblades, formed by airship pirates and the asura Inquest krewe, The Molten Alliance, from the out-casted charr Flame legion and Dredge, and the Toxic Alliance, from the sylvari Nightmare Court and Krait.

According to the history books, she attacked the city simultaneously in land, air and sea. Supplementing her hold, she held the city with both a toxic miasma that killed anyone within minutes and a gigantic, aerial ship that drilled into Sanctum Harbor. It was only when opportunistic coastal gusts that the miasma was push out of the city long enough for local military, mercenaries and volunteers to attempt to secure the city, rescue civilians and attack Scarlet.

After about two weeks of attempts, and thousands of deaths, one attack finally pushed all the way to her ship and they were able to take her out. What happened after that, things in records got sketchy… Why she did this and what her purpose was, it was never known (or at least released publicly as she figured).

After the attack, it took YEARS for the city to recover and rebuild. Though the building and businesses were brought back, the scars of the city still ran deep in every citizen, especially to the current generation. Many of the current civilians were the grown up children who were left orphaned and traumatized by the attack.

As Lilyia also recalled, Tom lost his father in the attack. As she figured, that was probably the reason why he felt obligated to join the Lionguard, despite being a ‘geek’ who would’ve been better suited as a scholar.

“Yeah, uh, I know the name.” Lilyia replied, rather nervously. “So, uh, what does this have to do with her? She died 10 years ago right?”

“Well yeah, but, if you recall from the history books, many military organizations scoured Tyria to eliminate any of Scarlet’s facilities after Lion’s Arch recovered. They didn’t want any remnants of her organizations or ‘creations’ to remain in order to make sure a travesty like that never ever happened again.”

“Yeah, and they took out every single one in five years, right?”

Tom nodded. “Thanks to the intel of the Order of Whispers of the Pact, yup, that’s what they thought they did. But…” Tom’s voice trailed.

Lilyia stared at him, intensively. “…They found one?”

“Yup.” He replied rather dark tone. “Not only that. It’s been fully operating this entire time.”

The troops then began to march out the north entrance of Fort Mariner, over the bridge of Sanctumn harbor. About halfway across the bridge the young, blonde, spectacled, human Private Thompson came alongside her and gave her a smile of encouragement.

“You doing alright, Lilyia?” he asked her.

“’Am I doing alright?’? Lilyia parroted irately. “Do I LOOK like I’m doing alright? Tom what the heck is going on?!”

Still Tom smiled at her, though there was a hint of nervousness this time.

She particularity didn’t know the private personally. He wasn’t someone she’d call a ‘friend’ (they never hung out), but rather her most well-known acquaintance in the lionguard since her joining. Out of all the lionguard troops, Tom was the one she’d prefer to partner with on assignments (and it was by miracle chance the sergeant assigned him to brief her). Tom was the only lionguard who seemed to be sympathetic by the annoyance she received by the ‘ups’ and conscious of her well-being. That reflected when he saw that he was carrying the bow and arrows she unconsciously dropped behind when they attached the gigantic hobo sack on her back.

“It’s a Class-B emergency assignment. What did you expect?”

Lilyia frowned. “What’s a Class-B emergency assignment?”

Tom looked dumbfounded. “You don’t know!? You should know stuff that like. We’re the city’s soldiers, ya know.”
Lilyia rolled her eyes. “First of all. if you’re talking about those ridiculously lengthy refresher manuals we get every few months that we’re supposed to read and sign… Well guess what? I JUST SIGNED THEM LIKE MOST OF US DID!”

“. . . Well, I read them.”

“That’s cause you’re a geek.”

“…”

“Second, the day when the Lionguard stops being subjects of the greedy, back-stabbing merchants of this city will be the day I actually call the Lionguard a military instead of a ‘security company.’ Now tell me, WHAT THE HECK IS A CLASS-B EMERGENCY ASSIGNMENT!?”

At first, Tom opened his mouth as if to argue her previous statements… but then he sighed as it seemed it wouldn’t seem worth it. Then he replied glumly.

“Counter-Terrorism.”

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 2: Packmule
By: AVM516

“HURRY UP, CURRY! Don’t slack behind!”

“Yes, sirrr…” Lilyia replied for the umpteenth time, in exhaustion.

Trudging down the deep, snowy pass of Lorner’s Pass, Lilyia could only hang her head low as she followed her assigned squad down the hillside. On her back (which was ridiculously gigantic compared to her small, slender body) was an enormous travel back. Since the beginning of this “cross-country”, her hands never stopped gripping the straps around her shoulders as the pack threatened to anchor her to the ground if it sagged lower, even by an inch.

She wanted to cry.
It was cold. Her stomach growled. Her vacation was gone. Her back and feet hurt. And worst of all… She was being called by THAT nickname every minute!

Again, she sighed in depression and withheld her tears.

How did this day turn up like this?!

======

4 hours ago

“YOU’RE LATE CURRY!”

“It’s not my fault sir!” Lilyia cried out and bowed her head to the lieutenant. “I was notified just one hour ago! And I live in Queensdale, and I was on vacation, and—“

“No excuses!” The Charr lieutenant barked unsympathetic. “ALL recruits are to be here immediately on time during a Class B emergency assignment! You already missed Captain Magnus’ briefing, and everyone else is already underway for the operation. I don’t have time brief you of your incompetence.”

Her eyebrow twitched.
This was totally unfair, she thought. Even he, who was an over-grown house-cat who ran on all fours, wouldn’t have made it from her home in Queensdale to Lion’s Arch in 45 minutes. It was a miracle herself that she made it to LA in just one hour.

“And it’s because I don’t have time, you’re lucky I’m just assigning you to packrat duty, Curry!” The Charr lieutenant t then faced the troops around and him and pointed at her. “Load her up. YOU, THOMPSON! Brief her along the way.”

Lilyia raised her head quizzically. “Pack-mule?’ What do you mean, load me—“

Before she could answer, out of nowhere, a travel pack 3 times her size was suddenly attached to her back and her arms were forced into the straps by troops.

“EGHHH!!?”

As the weight finally found her, she found herself just barely withstanding it. She held the straps tight with her hands and widened her stance. If she didn’t work out every day, she would have been on the ground the second this thing was hanging off of her.

“Move out!” The lieutenant ordered. “Curry, don’t fall behind!”

“BUT I HAVE THE DAY-OFF!” She cried.

Unmoved and unemotional, the golemn continued, “UNDER-SECURITY-STATUTE-TWENTY-SIX: ALL-LIONGUARD-OFF-AND-ON-DUTY-ARE-REQUIRED-TO-REPORT-DURING-A-LEVEL-B-EMERGENCY-ASSIGNMENT.”

“And what if I don’t go?” Lilyia answered glumly.
Though she had a feeling of what the answer already was…

“FAILURE-TO-DO-SO-WILL-SUBJECT-ALL-APPLICABLE-PERSONNEL-TO-ACTS-OF-DESERTION. LEADING-TO-DISHONERABLE-DISCHARGE-FROM-LIONGAURD-AND-RECORD-OF-TREASON.”

“Are you screwing with me?”

“NEGATIVE. REGARDLESS, A-SCREW-DRIVER-WAS-NOT-EQUIPPED-WITHIN-THE-HARDWARE-OF-THIS-UNIT.”

“….”

“MEETING-IS-TO-BE-HELD-AT-0700-HOURS. SEVERE-REPERCUSSIONS-WILL-BE-HELD-FOR-TARDY-TROOPS.”

Lilyia’s eyes widened and looked at the clock on her wall. It read 6:15 in the morning.

“THAT’S LESS THAN AN HOUR! Getting dressed up, equipped, and traveling to Divinity Reach’s asura gate will take WAY over 45 minutes. I’LL BE LATE NO MATTER WHAT!!”

“THIS-UNIT-SUGGESTS-YOU-PREPARE-IMMEDIATELY. FURTHER-TARDINESS-WILL-ENHANCE-PUNISHMENT. IT-IS-HIGHLY-RECCOMENED-YOU-ALSO-WEAR-A-HUNTING-SIGNET-TO-DECREASE-ARRIVAL-TIME-BY-TWENTY-FIVE-PERCENT.”

“GRRRR—!!” Lilyia barred her teeth and fiercely gripped the spoon in her right hand over her head, as if preparing to stab it into the tiny golem’s eye—

…It took her all willpower to calm down. With a long depressive sigh, her arms and head sagged down, and the spoon in her hand fell to the ground.

Still unemotional, and unfazed, the golemn declared. “BEFORE-DEPARTING, THIS-UNIT-IS-REQUIRED-TO-TALLY-ALL-NOTIFIED-LIONGUARD-OF-NOTICE. PLEASE-STATE-YOUR-NAME, RANK, OCCUPATION, AND-SERIAL-NUMBER.”

There was a small “BEEP!”, and the eye of the little golem glowed red, signaling it was in recording mode.

An eyebrow on Lilyia’s face twitched.
I knew it. I KNEW I SHOULD’VE IGNORED THE DOOR AND SNUCK OUT THE BACK WINDOW!!

The point of the recording was to make sure all the notified Lionguard had gotten the notice. If she didn’t get the notice, she may have had leniency from punishment due to being completely oblivious to the emergency.

But no. This was not gonna happen. She had answered the door like a naïve sprout and was now going to make proof that she got the notice, thereby if she ignored the call she would be arrested for desertion and-slash-or treason.

This was perhaps one of the most painful things she had to do. Or any employed person to do:
She had to voluntarily give up her vacation time.

Without raising her head, she answered in a really low voice:

“Lilyia… Private… Ranger… Five-one-six-one-nine-eight-five…”

There was another “BEEP!” and the golems eye turned back to blue.

“THANK-YOU-PRIVATE-LILYIA. HAVE-A-NICE-DAY.”

Lillith quickly snapped her head up at the golem, revealing a horrific, crumpled blue face of anger, annoyance, and sadness.

“YEAH WELL, SCREW YOURSELF!!” And she slammed the door in its face.

She suddenly shook her head and slapped her cheeks. “I can’t believe this. Snap outta of it Lilyia!” She yelled to herself.

No. She was NOT going to feel this way. It was her day-off and she was not going to let this day go to waste by being gloomy. She had been working hard for the past few months and finally got the vacation time she signed up months in advance. She was going to go downstairs, have a big breakfast, travel to Divinity’s Reach and have fun.

Dedicated she marched into her bathroom. After a 15-minute shower, and dressed in her blue clothed robe, she marched down stairs and into her small kitchen. She checked her cooling unit only to find out it was mainly empty, save for a large covered pot in the middle and a quarter-full bottle of milk.

Lilyia dropped her head in disbelief. Well THIS is good start. Good job Lilyia, she thought sarcastically.

She had been so tired from work yesterday that she had skipped to buy groceries along the way home, and was so upset waking up she forgot she had practically no food in the unit.
Well…
Save for the large pot. But, THAT stuff was too early to eat in the morning…

“Well, might as well make good with what I got.” She reached in and grabbed the bottle of milk, afterward she grabbed the box of cereal atop the cooling unit. As she felt the box’s weight, she noticed there was probably enough cereal left for exactly one serving. On top of that, she noticed the expiration date was approaching within three days. For cereal, that was pretty bad and she predicted the flakes of corn would probably be extremely stale.

Regardless, she took a bowl from her cupboard, laid it upon her dining table and poured the contents into the bowl. With disciplined action, she sat straight on the chair and dug into the bowl with a determined stroke of her spoon and emptied the contents into her mouth. With one puffed up cheek she chewed.

Her eyebrow twitched.

Yup. It was stale. VERY stale. TOO Stale. Even with the milk.
But it didn’t matter. This was her day. She was determined to have a good time no matter what. Even though it wasn’t the steak and eggs she planned, nothing would change. This was her vacation and she was going to have fun by the end of the day.

…Though in the back of her mind, she felt there was something odd in that in the plan, at least the latter part.

How was she going to have fun by herself?

Before she could contemplate—

“DONK DONK DONK!”

“GaCk!” She chocked and spit a little of her cereal back into the bowl. Immediately, she grabbed the bottle and chugged down the rest of the milk to clear away the remaining hard flakes of corn stuck in her throat. Breathing a sigh of relief, she took a moment to recompose her herself and see where the noise came from.

It was her front door.

She frowned. Who in the world could that be at this hour? She thought.
NO way would her work call her back quickly. She knew she was signed up for her vacation. She saw the confirmation form with her own two, blue eyes.

As she looked at the door, a small part of her was telling her not to answer. That it was her work and that she was better of sneaking out the back window to get away.
But she then figured that was ridiculous. There was no possible way. No way, in the history of her employment, have they asked her to return within an 8-hour period (especially during vacation).

Also, why were they knocking? She had a bell, and it worked the last time she used it.

She opened the door, expecting to see a human, a sylvari, or maybe even a charr—

She looked forward. There was no one there.

Or… Maybe an asura?
She looked down—

To her surprise, in front of her (or rather below her) was not an asura. But a short, yellow messenger golem.

No wonder they didn’t use the bell..

“LION-GUARD-LILYIA?”

“Y-yes, that’s me.” Lilyia replied, rather reluctantly.

“MESSAGE-FROM-CAPTAIN-MAGNUS. ALL-PERSONEL-ARE-TO-REPORT-IMMEDIATELY-TO-LION’S-ARCH-FOR-ASSIGNMENT.”

Both her bowl of cereal and jaw dropped with a “THUD.”

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 1: Lilyia
By: AVM516

“Who are you?”
“Who am I?” The green figure answered. “My name’s Mender Johan. Welcome to the grove sapling, You’ve finally awaken. So what did the Dream tell you?”

She frowned, gazing downwards in confusion, holding her head. “Dream…? What dream?”

“What else? The dream of dreams.” The keeper, said happily, unfazed from her unusual behavior. “Certainly you know of your wyld hunt.”

“’Wyld hunt’? What’s that?” the Sylvari questioned.

“Well surely you jest. C’mon sapling. This isn’t funny.”

She lifted her head to look at him, her eyes squinting with a mix of exhaustion, frustration and annoyance. “I’m TELLING you, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not joking around.”

The keeper laughed, much to her chagrin. “Haha, oh please sapling. Don’t be silly. You’ve just woken, and it’s an important today, you shouldn’t—-“

“I SAID I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!” She screamed. Her confusion, headache and annoyance by this façade of politeness seemed to break down a wall and explode with emotions she never knew she had.

Everyone in the chamber stared. Her scream bringing silence

“I-I-I’m sorry sapling.” The green sylvari replied with a voice of honest sincerity. “Forgive me. I’ve been doing this so long, I just though—“

“What’s going on!” She fell to her knees, tears suddenly pouring. “Where am I?! What am I doing here?”

As on the ground, before her knees, a small puddle of water was in front of her. She looked into it and saw a face she didn’t recognize.

“What am I? Who am I?”

She gasped and woke up with a jolt. Sitting up on her bed, she held her chest with both hands as she breathed heavily. After a moment, she recollected what had happened and where she was.

Soon after, she sighed wearily and placed a palm over her sweaty forehead.

“Ugh, not again..”

That dream was coming too frequently now for some reason. On top of that, no matter how many times she had it, she always woke the same. She figured she would have gotten used to it by now, but she never did.

No. It’s impossible to get used to it.

As she realized during her time in life, when you dream, when you’re IN a dream, you seem to accept everything unconditionally. As if you’re a whole new person redoing everything and believing everything. Therefore, every time she was in it, the reaction is always the same. It was torturous. And almost every night she was forced to RELIVE that horrendous moment.

She looked at the clock at her night stand. It was half-past 5:45 a.m.

Might as well get up, I’m too riled to fall back to sleep…

Slipping out of her bed, she slipped her feet into her slippers and walked to her bedroom window. With both hands, she opened the curtains bringing in the light of dawn within he room.

Through her window laid the rolling green plains and farmland of Queensdale, painted light orange by the dawn’s early glow. In the distance, she could see a few human farmers getting an early start with their cows on plowing their fields and a few on the road toward Divinity’s Reach (probably to set up their shops early). Very few patches of clouds were in the orange, blue sky that draped over this setting before her.

Despite having such a gorgeous view an artist would dream to have within his home every morning, she couldn’t help but look at the view indifferently as she always did every day. When she first acquired her home, she truly believed the view was beautiful and she felt very prideful of herself when she earned this beautiful place on her own.
But.. As time passed, everything seems to become so stale to her. The effect of her own home seemed to pass by without her noticing, and before she knew it, she found her herself no longer having that prideful smile she once had.

Is this what depression feels like?

She could see the reflection of her face on the window. Her blue face, eyes and wide-leaved hair displaying an emotion she’d been trying to suppress each day. For a while she just stared at it, as if it were two people looking at each other each giving into each other’s grief.

GW2: River of Memories
Volume 1: Prelude
By: AVM516

He woke up. Everything black.
He couldn’t remember.
Where was he? How did he get here?
He couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t feel anything. Nothing to move. He had no body.
But somehow he could hear. All those voices calling to him:

“You’re a hero~!”
“Once again, brat, starting from the top..”
“One day we’ll get married~! You and me!”
“You’re not alone ya know?”
“I envy you. You did what I could never do.”
“You’re not normal, but that’s not a bad thing.”
“You’ve proven logic can’t solve everything. I’m impressed.”
“How could you two eat this stuff!? This stuff could kill small animals~!”
“You’ve disobeyed direct orders and put everyone at risk~!”
“You’re the most selfish person I’ve ever met. …And I kitten envy you for it.”
“You murderer…”
“FREAK!”
“You’re not a freak. You’re YOU!”
“You’re weird but your heart is in the right place. So don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”

Where were these voices coming from? There was nothing here. HE wasn’t here. Yet, why could he hear them?

Memories.

They were his memories. What was his name? What did he look like? He couldn’t remember—

“I WISH I NEVER LET YOU OUT! I WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER WITHOUT YOU!!”

Silence after that.

Something hurt.

There was no pain, but it still hurt? Why did it hurt when he was nothing? Out of all the voices, why did that one hurt him?

Don’t want to feel it anymore. Keep everything silent. Block it out. Let everything go.

He felt sleepy again. He was going to sleep for a long time this time. Soon he would never hear anything again—

“Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Another voice.
No. Still hurt.
Don’t want to hear anymore. Better to sleep. Better for everything..

“If you don’t want to say anything! I-I understand!”

The voice sounded hurt. Why was it hurt?

“But you left so quickly, you didn’t give me a chance to say anything to you!”

A voice. A real voice. A girl. Calling to him.
Who was she? He didn’t know her. It shouldn’t matter. She didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.
Yet, why was he still listening?

“If you want to leave… I won’t stop you. But please… Please…”

Sadness.
Crying.
She was crying.
Why was she crying?

“Silver… “

Silver?
Silver.

“Silver, I beg you…"

Yes.

That was his name.
The name he was given.
The name they called him.

The name SHE gave him…

“Please listen to what I have to say first…”

Valkyrie Profile~!!