As I promised, I will publish another chapter because today's the release of the final episode.

Oh my, I don't know what to feel about the new ep. I started crying after Rak started screaming. BUT JUE VIOLE GRACE GDRDHXFJKZCKFDS SEASON 2 PLEASE.

Also, listen to the song. It's about Khun's feelings for Variiya

Floor 12
Khun's PoV

I lost sight of her from my Lighthouse. I sighed and leaned back on my chair, crossing my arms. Where does she go nearly every day, only to come back exhausted?

Maybe she's going out with someone--

No, she's not the type of person to do that. I chided myself for thinking such things. I'm still scouting more members to join the team. Thankfully, Ran and Novick we're bearable most of the time. They'd have their constant fights and tantrums to see who's the best. I'm surprised that Ran could stand the Spear Bearer and put up with all of their competitions. V.V. joins them from time to time, always coming out as the victor.

Every time she does though, it seems she's doing something new. I see her play out new techniques, her shinsu quality is now different. Back then, it was just a gray orb, now, it was smaller and harder to see.

So she's been training most likely. But the fact that V.V.'s going down to the 11th Floor every time means she's training with someone. The question now is who?

What's their relationship, though? Nagged the tiny voice in the back of my head. I pinched the bridge of my nose and cringed. Why am I thinking about that? If she has a relationship it's none of my concerns, I need to respect her decisions and--

A knock from the entrance interrupted my thoughts. Novick went ahead to check who it was, but I didn't bother to look up from my work.

"Variiya!" Shouted the Spear Bearer from the entrance, and I immediately snapped my head up to look at what's going on. The said girl was now in Novick's arms, her head was limp and was bandaged. Her usually wide and bright purple eyes were closed. Taking a second to look at her face, I immediately instructed Novick to bring her back to her room and I turned to see the person who brought her here.

He was a middle-aged looking man with swept-down and shiny brown hair. His eyes were weary brown as well, but his angular physique tells me that he's a veteran when fighting. He was wearing light armor of gray and silver, a violet scarf on his neck was slightly charred. For some reason, the description of the man seemed familiar to me.

I summoned a small dagger and lunged at the man, pressing the knife firmly at his neck. "What did you do to her?" I snarled.

The man laughed nervously and tried to push the knife away. "I can't explain if you'll slit my throat." I tried to calm myself down and I slowly lowered my weapon, but I was still glaring daggers at him. "May I go inside?" He asked.

I huffed and motioned for him to come, glaring at every step he took. As I was about to tell him to sit, he asked, "Also, may I go see Variiya?"

"No," I immediately said. He was the one who most probably hurt her.

He gave me a wry smile. "Look, kid, I'm sorry if you're all worried for your girlfriend, etcetera, etcetera, and that you think I did this to her, well you're in luck because I'm here to help her."

My face flushed at the 'girlfriend' part.

The man's heels clicked as he briskly followed the same path Novick took to V.V.'s room. "Hey!" I protested but was simply brushed off and he judo-flipped me.

"Novick!" I called over to the burly Spear Bearer as he opened the room's door. As soon as Novick was about to strike, the brunette waved his hand and lightly touched Novick's chest. Suddenly, the Spear Bearer was frozen.

I ran over to stop him as his hands glowed light blue by the sleeping girl. "What are you doing?"

As soon as I got there, the man unwrapped the bandages on her head. My brows raised as I noticed that her head had stopped bleeding. He pressed his hand on her forehead, V.V.'s breathing became steadier.

The man looked at me, exasperated. "Can't you trust me?" I grimaced, it was still hard to trust people who most definitely seem like people you shouldn't trust.

"Who are you to her?" I asked for the umpteenth time.

He sighed. "Paxley, I'm her mentor, and I guess you could call me her uncle."

•••・・・・•••

We were sitting down beside V.V.'s bed, his hands were still glowing light blue on her, his foot was constantly tapping on the hardwood floor. I eyed him warily, in case he might do something because of some ulterior motive.

"She's been training with me for about 8 months now, I've been teaching her some shinsu techniques. I was going to teach her how to use proper combinations of using her weapon and shinsu, etcetera, etcetera." Paxley began to explain and kept his eyes fixed on her, which to be honest, made me feel quite uneasy. "I had a feeling she never told any of her teammates about this."

A sudden thought clicked into place, no wonder I thought he was familiar. "I think I've heard of you, aren't you the Holy Blade? Is the Ghost Gunner around here somewhere?"

I heard rumors of a man in a purple scarf who used shinsu to adeptly control his daggers and his female partner of a sniper with an eye patch who never misses. I thought that was just some silly urban lore, it turns out it was true.

"Nope," He said, popping the 'p' like a child. The Holy Blade stood up and stretched his arms as if it were cramped. "I need to get going now."

I scrambled to my feet. "Hey, I thought you were going to help V.V.?"

Paxley smirked at me. "You know, it's kind of cute how you're the only one calling her V.V.,"

"What?" I sputtered out, red-faced. "That's irrelevant. You haven't explained anything."

He looked up as if he were recalling something. "Oh yeah, I didn't, sorry about that." He gestured to V.V. "She just needs to rest, I don't want to overwork the healing."

The man stood up and walked around. Does he ever stop moving around? He brought out the fabled light blue daggers and began tossing it in the air. "Variiya basically just knocked herself out while trying out the thing I told her not to because she was in between the layer of compressed shinsu that she created, the layer protecting her was weak because she lost her focus and etcetera, etcetera."

I made a face. "Etcetera, etcetera?"

He groaned. "Do I need to explain? She hit herself with her own explosion, it's self-explanatory." Paxley adjusted the singed scarf on his neck and headed out to the door. "I'll go now, and come back here every day. She'd probably be in a coma for about two days or so."

I glanced at V.V., worried about the worst-case scenario of which she might not ever wake up.

Paxley groaned again. "Gah, don't give me that face."

"Huh?" I glared at him.

He waved his hands around, motioning to me. "That wistful expression on your eyes. Stop it, it's making me sick." Then just like that, the Holy Blade left without another word, leaving me confused as f*ck. (A/N I have no idea what's the alternative to say 'af', so let's just keep it that way).

•••・・・・•••

Two days later

Paxley indeed kept his word, coming to the apartment every day. He never answered me what he meant by being her uncle. He never spoke a word about the Ghost Gunner.

I kept pestering him for more details, trying to fish out the answers to the questions V.V. always dodged. On the third day of his visit, he placed his hand akimbo and looked at me with a dead expression.

"Listen, if you really wanna know, why not ask her?" He groaned.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance, pacing around the room. "Isn't it obvious that she won't tell me. That's why I'm asking you."

The Holy Blade smirked. "Khun, why do you even want to know?"

I stopped my tracks and slowly faced him. Why do I want to know? I was fine when Bam couldn't tell me where he was from, as a matter of fact, I don't really know where everyone else is from.

"What, you want to get to know her more?" He snapped his fingers continuously. "You're curious about her background so you want to understand her?"

My mouth opened but no words came out.

Paxley rolled his eyes. "What, boy? I'm literally spoon-feeding default answers."

I rubbed my forehead, trying to calm myself down. "Just shut up."

"Gladly,"

I grumbled, about to rip my hair off my head. "Has anyone told you how irritating you are?"

"Vance told me multiple times." He nonchalantly said, flicking his dagger up.

The gears in my brain began turning. "Vance?" After asking me once in the lower levels what my mother's name was, she told me that hers was named Valeriya. "You're not related to her by blood. It's the Ghost Gunner who is." The pattern of the names most likely meant they had to be of the same family.

Paxley flinched. "Wow, you're smart, I have to admit that." He sheathed the knife. "But just tell me why you wanna know so badly?"

I was getting so exasperated with this childish man in front of me, that I spoke without even thinking. "Yes, I want to know her more because she's such a mystery, I want to understand her like why does she act like that? Where did she get those scars? I know it's not my business to know. But the more I stay by her side, I can't help but wonder about all those secrets she's been keeping. I could help her carry the burden, I want to help her, I don't want to see her cry anymore because of whatever dream or memory that's haunting her; I hear her nearly every midnight." I glared at the man, breathing hard after that rant. "So can you please tell me a little bit?"

A second passed, then two, then three, then the shinsu swordsman burst into a laughing fit.

"What's so funny?" I asked, tilting my head.

He pointed at me. "You. You're not used to talking about feelings and caring about someone, son of Khun, aren't you?"

I lunged forward, gripping his collar. "You--"

Suddenly, V.V. shifted in the bed. I turned my head and approached her, a worried look on my face as I noticed tears streaming down her face. Carefully, I wiped it away.

Paxley sighed. "You kiddo, remind me of myself a few hundred years ago." He sat back down and patted the other seat. "I'll tell you what I know."

I shook my head. "Just say it."

He sighed again. "Well, I won't tell her family name, she won't want you to know, so respect that." I was about to retort but I bit my tongue to shut up. "But what I can tell you is that they're on par with many of the other 10 Great Families."

"Hm,"

"And like many Great Families, one's life isn't so great, especially for Variiya." He continued, face grim.

"Has she told you anything about her past?" I asked.

Paxley shook his head. "I can only infer based on my knowledge of the family." He suddenly tossed me something small. I nearly missed as it jumped out of my fingers. I studied and realized. "Wait, this is," I looked at V.V., "This is the bead of her necklace. She told me that she just lost the piece."

While playing with the bead in my hands, the swordsman continued. "That," He pointed at it, "Is a treasure of her family." I froze and handled it with caution.

"You stole it?"

"Shush, boy, stop jumping into conclusions." He muttered and stared at the floor. "I asked her to give it to me for emergencies because that," He pointed at it again, "Isn't just some random accessory. It's a machine; a beacon that can only be activated once her full name is spoken."

"Why would she have this?"

He mustered a wry smile. "She's a princess of her family, didn't she ever tell you that?"

No, she told me to shut up every time I called her that.

"She's known as a Moon Child. She, along with other daughters of their head father, was born on the same day the so-called heavens align. If you ask me, that's complete bullshit but hey, that's what they believe in. So as a Moon Child, they were heiresses known as exemplary, beautiful, wise, etcetera, etcetera. They weren't allowed to leave the main house."

She was trapped in a cage, that's what she told Bam. "So if she's royalty, why would she have scars?"

He shrugged. "I don't exactly know but the wound on her wrist," I carefully peered over to her hand. "That's an 'Atonement' injury. It's like you're nailed to the ground or they nail you and attach you to a chain to prevent criminals, traitors, etcetera, etcetera, from leaving. I don't know why she would have that in the first place."

My eyebrows creased from the explanation. That's cruel.

"The thing about the Moon Children prophecy, it's all a faux." He chuckled and looked out the window. "Or so that's what Vance told me. But they created that machine to follow the line of the oracle that says 'the bond unbreakable' so that they're all connected somehow. So, only Moon Children can call each other through that."

"That doesn't really make sense but okay." Another thought popped up in my head. "So why would she have this if she's going to be a walking target? It's somewhat obvious that she doesn't like her sisters."

Paxley scoffed. "Come on, Variiya thought it all out. Do you really think her name is Variiya?"

My blood ran cold. "It isn't?"

He tilted his head. "No..." He said as if he weren't sure. "Moon Children usually fight over for the throne. Instead of using the beacon for good, it became the other way around. So, they carefully guard their real name, only those who they really trust knows it."

I looked at Variiya, she was becoming a bigger enigma every time I tried to solve her. "V.V.'s keeping the necklace because she's looking for her sister if I remember correctly."

Paxley's lips tightened in a thin line. "Yes, fortunately, her sister still has her beads. She requested Variiya not to contact her yet, only when you all reached the 77th Floor."

I huffed and glanced at the bead on my hand. "So why are you giving me this?"

"For emergencies, if she goes missing, etcetera, etcetera. Why? Well, obviously because she's," He motioned to me as if asking for the word. "It's an adjective, starts with an 'r' then an 'e'."

I frowned. "Rebellious? Reckless?"

"Nah, I was looking for recalcitrant, but good try kid." He grinned cheekily and handed me a piece of paper. "Her name is written here, don't open it unless you need it. Hide it well, you never know if another Moon Child is here waiting to strike."

He stood up abruptly, his Pocket suddenly appearing with a message. "That's my cue to go." He pointed to V.V. with his dagger. "She'll wake up any time soon, don't worry, kid. You can go confess your love to her, etcetera, etcetera."

"What?" I said, confused.

Paxley waved, sitting by the ledge of the window. "See you later, actually maybe never. Bye." He jumped off and left.

I looked at the piece of folded parchment in my hands, thinking about what to do with it. Maybe I should just read it and burn it. I told myself, opening the small creases.

Paxley's words echoed back to me. You can go confess your love to her. I cringed at the thought. What am I talking about?

She won't want you to know that. I reproached myself and stopped. It doesn't matter, she won't know anyway.

All at once, an old memory resurfaced in my mind, the day I was kicked out. Those were the same words I told Maria after I helped her win, I never thought Kiseia or my mother would find out that I helped her.

Maria smiled sadly at me as we sat down by the lake. "Aguero, I'll truly miss you once I go up the Tower. I'll miss you and all the things I love."

I rolled my eyes and scowled. "Love," I thought it was stupid and pathetic.

She laughed at my reaction. "You'll understand one day, loving someone is one of the best feelings in the world." She said teasingly and stood up, her light blue hair fluttering in the wind as she stared out in the distance. "Well, to truly love someone is to always put their feelings before your own... No matter what. That's what I've learned and those are the words I'll hold onto. I hope you'll find someone to love as well."

I snapped back to reality and crumpled the paper in my hands. I couldn't sneak behind V.V. 's back just to find secrets that she was so desperate to hide. I couldn't just pretend as if it were nothing if I knew her real name. I couldn't because...

My eyes widened. Because I love her. I laughed at my revelation, finding relief at the single word that justified all my actions for V.V. I looked at the note and hid it in my Pocket. I'll burn it now, she'll tell me once she gains my trust.

I faced her by the side of her bed. At least she wasn't crying anymore. I took her hand and carefully traced the scar, wondering who would ever do such a terrible thing. Her hands were cold, I held her firmly, sharing my warmth. "Please, wake up," I whispered and gently kissed her knuckles.

Embarrassed with my actions, I turned away and stood up to leave.

Yayyy my boy finally realized his true feelings. Damn, my word count is now skyrocketing to 3K.

Paxley was such a fun character to write, I followed a writing tip online to make a character have a usual catchphrase and it turned out to be something like that. eTcEtErA, eTcEtErA iNtEnSiFiEs.

Paxley quoted BLACKPINK's lyrics up there. Try to find it XD

Disclaimer: The quote about love that Maria said isn't my own creation. That's from Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya, I think it was Hanajima who said that.

Thank you for reading!!!