"Orpos," whispered a voice, "Orpos, don't leave us."
Fam was sitting beside his bed, holding his hand as the oni struggled for breath.
"Don't give in, Orpos," said Fam, tears running down her face, "You can't go now!"
"Fam," said Gedrick, taking her hand, "We should go and check whether Exalndria has found anything. Any ways to fix this."
"But I don't want to leave him," muttered Fam, "I... I don't want him to leave us.
"And you won't help that by staying here. The best chance we have of helping Orpos is by seeing whether Exalndria has found anything that might save him."
Fam stared at Orpos for a moment and then nodded, standing up and letting Gedrick lead her out.
They arrived at the Team 5 Headquarters to find Exalndria siting at the table, very calmly, a mug of tea in her hand.
"Exalndria?" asked Gedrick, surprised to see her so calm, "Did you find anything?"
The lexarch nodded "Yes," she took a sip from her tea and INFOS projected an image onto the table, "The Lifegiver amulet," she continued, pointing at a heavily emblazoned gold and jade amulet, with an emerald in the center, "It was used by some of the Ancient Tribes and is currently held in the Temple of the Everlaster in the Life Section," a temple and some co-ordinates were projected by INFOS.
"What does... what does it do?" asked Fam, unsure whether to believe that there might be a chance to save her friend.
Exalndria paused, pity etched onto her face "It saves the person who wears it from death."
Gedrick, noticing the look on Exalndria's face, pressed on, "How?"
"Oh, Fam, I'm so sorry," Exalndria's calm facade finally crumbling.
"How does it work, Exalndria," Gedrick continued.
"No, I can't. I'm so sorry, Fam!" Exalndria sobbed.
"How does it work, Exalndria!" Gedrick bellowed, his voice echoing like it was in a cave.
"Fine, fine!" cried the lexarch before taking another sip of her tea, "It stabilizes the wearer and keeps them in a state of permanent life and... permanent death," she looked at Fam, "Orpos will be forever dying and, yet, forever alive."
"But he'll survive?" asked Fam, hope welling in her eyes.
"Didn't you hear what I just said?" asked Exalndria, exasperated.
"Will he or won't he?" Gedrick, pressed.
"Well, yes, but it'll be like he's frozen."
"But that will leave us more time to find an appropriate cure, right?"
"Yes, but what if we don't? Will you be strong enough to remove the amulet? To kill your friend?"
"Enough!" cried Fam, "If this amulet offers us a chance to save Orpos, then I say we take it!" she faltered, "We must at least try..."
Exalndria stared at both Gedrick and Fam for a while before responding "Fine."
Gedrick nodded, "Then we will set off at once."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" inquired INFOS. Nobody answered and he continued, "Thanks for responding... To get to the Temple of the Everlaster, you will require O.U.T.L.A.W.S.' resources and to do that, you will need permission."
"Where are you going with this, INFOS?" asked Exalndria.
"You do not have this permission."
"Really? On whose authority?"
"Authorization number 1010 - Rick Rathe, Leader of the O.U.T.L.A.W.S."
"Why would he do that?" asked Fam, "I thought he wanted Orpos to get better."
"The message I received reads as follows," INFOS' voice changed to that of the O.U.T.L.A.W.S. leader "For now and furthermore, unless stated otherwise by myself - Rick Rathe - no further missions will be undertaken to save the oni, Orpos Beastslayer - Leader of Team 5. Reason: waste of O.U.T.L.A.W.S. resources and time... I hate speaking in that voice!..."
"A waste of resources!" exclaimed Fam, "How dare he speak about Orpos like that!"
"Nevertheless, we cannot go on an official mission to help him," replied Gedrick.
Exalndria reeled back, shocked "What do you mean, Gedrick? Are you going to abandon Orpos?"
The dwarf shook his head, "Not at all. I just said that we cannot go on an official mission to save Orpos. So we'll have to go unofficially."
"But how are you going to get to the Temple?" asked Exalndria.
Gedrick looked at her, "The Chevron."
"But there's not enough room for all of us on it," said Fam.
Gedrick shook his head again, "Not true. Exalndria has been doing some work on it and, although I'm not completely sure how, she has added another four areas for us to sit."
"But I have work to do here!" responded Exalndria, not wanting to disobey orders.
Gedrick frowned and walked up to her, "You have to come, Exalndria, as we need your knowledge on the subject at hand. And," he lowered his voice so that only she could hear, "We need to finish our little chat."
Exalndria gulped and then nodded, "This way, then," said Exalndria, leading them to a back room which also functioned as a landing bay.
The team set off to find the Lifegiver Amulet and save their leader.
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