'Should I do it…?'

In the past, Rey would have easily dismissed Adrien and viewed him with several layers of skepticism and suspicion. But… things were different now.

Now that he had listened to Adrien, trying his hardest not to allow bias get in the way of logic, he found himself truly resonating with the boy. As he processed everything, Rey asked himself one very hard question.

'If I was Adrien… if I was in his shoes… how else would I proceed with things if I knew what I knew?'

He already had an inkling of what the answer would be.

It was staring right at him.

"I can't join your side, Adrien. I can't work together with you… or take part in any of your plans." Rey finally responded after a few seconds of silence.

In response to this, Adrien hardly showed any emotion. His smile still remained, and while there was a bit of a flicker in his eyes—just a tiny flash—nothing else seemed to have really changed.

"May I ask why?"

As the question came, Rey already expected it.

It seemed like a sincere one that required an honest answer, but he still found it difficult to make a decision on the matter.

'Should I tell him the truth? Should I just leave?'

So many thoughts were jumbled into his mind, and it took what seemed like forever to get all of them sorted out so he could make a proper decision right there and then.

'I still don't know which side to trust. I don't think I'll ever be able to know for sure, but…'

Unlike The Oracle, and unlike the Natives of H'Trae, Adrien was a classmate of his that came from Earth. They were more similar than anyone else that Rey had encountered in all his life, and his goals coincided with a promise he made to Alicia.

'I promised I'd find a way for her to return home. I suppose it's high time I make good on that…'

After taking a deep breath, Rey finally spoke.

"It's because I have met The Oracle… and we have already made a deal."

***************

[Moments Later]

"I see… I see."

Adrien, who had been dead silent for a while, finally let out his first words after a while. He mumbled a few unintelligible words to himself after, but maintained a calm and absolutely stoic demeanor despite everything.

"That's quite the difficult situation."

"Right?"

"Hm… mhm…"

Silence existed amidst them for a few seconds longer before Adrien made a deep sigh and finally looked Rey in the eye.

"I mean… it's possible for me to make a Skill to cure Alicia, but I don't see any way I can save your friend, Esme. Since we can't go around that, I suppose we're somewhat stuck."

Rey sighed and nodded. "It's why I said I can't help you."

There was no way he could assist Adrien when they both had conflicting missions. While the latter's goal was to destroy the Elves and get the Dragons to trust him enough to get him to their Empire, Rey's task was to destroy the Dragons and purge them completely from the Eastern Continent.

In essence, they held contrasting positions.

"It's funny, isn't it? Back during the Dark Undertaking, we both had the same goals, yet we were on conflicting sides. Now that we are finally seeing eye to eye, we still find ourselves on opposite ends." Adrien smiled, chuckling lightly.

"I don't see eye to eye with you on everything. I still don't think you killing Elves is right. I just… don't."

"That's fair. I don't need to convince you on this matter. I simply understand that you'd do the same in my position… and I think you know that as well."

"Just stop it with your insinuations!"

"Haha! Alright, Rey… jeez." Adrien remained partly lighthearted despite the intense mood, and it did well to lessen the intensity of the situation.

Still, the matter was yet to be resolved.

If nothing was done about the status quo, Rey and Adrien were bound to revert to become enemies.

"I think there's a way we can work together, Rey."

"Hm?"

"Yeah… yeah, that's right! We can achieve both our goals, therefore ensuring there is an incentive for the both of us to proceed with this alliance."

Rey nearly raised his brow in confusion, but controlled himself from doing so at the last minute.

'What the hell is he saying? He has to protect the Dragons and destroy Elves, while I have to destroy the Dragons and protect the Elves. They are completely opposite.'

There really wasn't a way for both sides to have what they wanted.

"It's all coming together in my head." Adrien grinned with a rather optimistic expression on his face.

"Why don't you tell?"

"Ah, yes… before that, I'll have to ask you something. I've been curious about it for some time now, and it could also help out with the plan."

Once again, Rey found his eyebrow going up, this time out of curiosity.

"How were you able to fool the Dragon Generals? I mean… I took all the neccessary precautions with the recordings. You couldn't have tampered with them, or their senses, so… how did you manage to do it?"

Rey chuckled as he heard this.

Perhaps he would have been more skeptical to reveal his plans if he hadn't just told Adrien about his conversation with The Oracle, and about the plight they both shared. However, since he decided to trust Adrien with that much… he found it inconsequential to reveal this other card that he had.

"Emil… you can come out now."

~GLOP!~

The moment Rey said this, a black patch rose from the attire that he had on, and the Symbiote Slime popped out with what could only be described as excitement.

Emil instantly formed a slime-like mouth from her black properties, speaking up with a rather loud and feminine voice.

"Hello! My name is Emil… Symbiote Slime and Familiar to my Master, Rey Skylar!"

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Thanks for reading!

Do you think Rey made a poor choice trusting Adrien? I personally don't think he really has a valid reason to still keep the guy at arm's length—especially given the circumstances.

But what do you all think?