The Mage and The Scientist

Kapitel 1

Den Alkemisten

By Cookie

* * * * * * * *

Teep's wordless, angry glare.

Nilesy's disgust.

Ravs's sudden cutoff from his closest friend.

Those things depressed Rythian, more than could be imagined. Now, he went to great measures to keep things close to him. The mage checked Ringo's cage, making sure it was locked, three times a day. He always had extra pumpkins and snow blocks on supply, in case Gilbert ever decided to commit suicide again. There was enough iron to create one-hundred iron golems, let alone rebuild the two he already had. Fishton was locked away in a chest. Hell, even the mushrooms were still in place. Just how she left them.

Even all of the science was still there.

Rythian was scared to touch the lever. It was going to hurt him. It was going to sting, greater than anything in the world. Greater than the Ender Bane, which scarred him. Science was evil. Science was not natural. Science took Zoey from him. Science was Duncan. Rythian was not, nor would he ever be, anything like Duncan. The scientist was cruel, cold. He didn't care about anything living. The only science he allowed was the kind Zoey did, even if it was a mix of magic, as well. If Duncan or Sjin came around and did science, they would not live to see another day.

Science destroyed Rythian's home, Blackrock. Science took Zoey's arm. Science would be the death of him. It destroyed nature, while magic could rebuild it. Science depended on natural resources, to operate. Once they were out, however, he would laugh. He would laugh and laugh until he fell over, then he would keep laughing. Magic was first, and it will be last. It didn't matter how many machines they built, or forests they cut down, magic would be a constant variable. Their machines would break, and the forests will grow back.

But, for now, there was still science.

And there was still magic.

There wasn't, however, a girl. A girl with red hair. A girl with one arm. A girl who would cheer his name, and smile as she did. There was not a girl who would hug him when he felt sad, or to hug when she did. Nobody was there to make Rythian feel like he was worth something, like he could do anything. All there was was a radioactive sheep, a couple mushrooms, a dead fish, two iron golems, a suicidal snowman, and a depressed alchemist. No girl.

There would never be one again. Her laugh would no longer echo for miles. Her voice was not there for him to hear, to be comforted by. She would never share stories as they ate dinner around the fire, or go swimming in the nearby river. There would never be a Zoey Proasheck again, and Rythian was fine with it.

She was dead, anyway.

Surviving an explosion once is a miracle. There's no chance it would happen again.

The screens Zoey had set up in their desert base surrounded Rythian. If he pulled the lever, not saying he would, he might be able to tell if the beautiful girl was still alive, on the off-chance she was. They would tell him where she was, and if she was okay. It would give him status conditions, where she currently was, how she was feeling, what her thoughts were. There was just one teeny-tiny problem.

Science.

The screens were science.

That had been a word nobody was allowed to even mutter before Zoey revealed herself to be a Technomage. The very idea almost gave Rythian a heart attack. Zoey liked science. Zoey liked science. When she showed him the lab, when Teep had gone missing, he didn't believe it. The then two-armed vegetarian had created an entire lab, full of 'mushroom workers,' and chemicals. Full of science. He had felt sick, just looking at what she'd done. A chamber for killing pigs, with 'volunteers.' Why hadn't she told him this was here, under his own house? How could he not have known?

The alarms in there screamed science. She screamed science. He couldn't believe his ears when she told him that she actually enjoyed this kind of thing. Science destroyed, magic created. You can't be both. You can't be Duncan. It was absurd to think she could be a... Technomage, without him even knowing. Sure, he was fine with letting her do what she wanted, but not without telling him. She couldn't just build a lab on her own! How could she have done such a thing, in the past? It had completely shattered his trust for her, at the time!

When Zoey came back from the Mushroom Rebel Base, they talked about it, and came to a conclusion. She could do whatever she wanted with her science, as long as she told him, first.

Duncan had already placed the nuke under their base, then, and Rythian was aware of it.

Zoey said she had it under control, that she could disarm it, but she seemed unsure of which wire she had to cut. At one point, she said the yellow one, but not five minutes later, she said the red. Ringo, the sheep, had run off after Ravs visited them, and let him loose. He had later mused if he was a ninja sheep, as Ringo had disappeared almost instantly.

Ravs had left, and Rythian had gone off with all the animals, trusting that Zoey could save their home. He'd just been trying out the Lever Game with Teep, which was a game where one person placed the lever down, and you hit it back and forth until someone gives up. Ravs was better at it. Then, they were interrupted.

BOOM!!!

The nuke had gone off, and Zoey was still there.

That day, Rythian panicked. For the first time in forever, he really panicked. She landed in the water, exactly where she had at the start of their adventure. Ignoring how much it hurt, Rythian pulled her out. There wasn't a left arm attached to her body, anymore, and a now mutated Ringo floated nearby. He hadn't gone far, after all. As fast as he could, Rythian poured his magic into keeping her alive. They would go to Sick Bay, a desert village later to be renamed Cabertown, where Zoey would make a full recovery thanks to the doctors there.

And now, here we were. Months after, no Zoey.

Rythian gulped, before reaching for the lever. He closed his eyes, and pulled it towards himself. The screens instantly illuminated, and he looked through them.

Not, not Sips...

Simon, not even close...

Lewis...

Hannah...

Ravs...

...Tee

There we go.

Name: Zoeya

Codename: Mushroom

Danger Level: Medium

Status: Alive, Sad

Thoughts: This place is nice, but...

Notes: Not in this world

Location: Equestria

"Wait, where?!" Rythian exclaimed.