All evil. There was no way. He entertained the idea in his head though, who would've thought, Finnian Kinoa, destroyer of all evil. That sounded way to cool for him.

In the distance surprisingly, he saw that silver hair he knew so well come bounding towards him. Ash was wearing a loose fitting vest and shorts that had rips in them all over them, and he noticed as he got closer that he had no shoes on.

"Hey what on earth are you doing out here?" asked Ash, concern thick in his voice.

"I could say the same to you," he replied coldly.

"Well, you know when you hear your best friend screaming in the middle of the night, and when you go to his house and find that he's not there, you tend to fear the worst, so I kind of followed the noise until I saw the dip in the grass and here you are!" He seemed angry that Finn had the front to say that to him. "Now, why are you out here?"

"Please go away Ash," he said harshly before he could stop himself. He did not have a single clue as to why he said that, because what he wanted right now more than anything was for Ash to be there for him, as he always was. A look of hurt spread on Ash's face briefly, but was quickly replaced with anger.

"...Not until you tell me why you're out here," he said firmly.

"I mean it Ash, please, I- I'm too angry to talk to anyone right now."

"Isn't that the point of a best friend though? They're there for each other no matter what. So hey, if you're angry feel free to let it out on me becau..." He was cut off by a sharp and hard punch to the face from Finn. He regretted it was soon as he'd done it and quickly knelt over Ash who was lying on the ground gripping his chin.

"I am so super unbelievably sorry, jeez I had no idea why I did that I'm sorry! Here punch me back, do it," Finn urged him, even picking up his fist and putting it next to his face.

"Hey, Finn, calm down, when I said take it out on me I meant talk to me about it, not flat out punch in me in the jaw," he laughed as he slowly stood up straight again. "And don't be stupid I'm not gonna hit you back, who do you think I am eh?"

Finn slumped, uselessly. He was so overcome with emotions he didn't know what he was thinking or doing. Ash knelt down opposite him and put a hand on his shoulder, like he had on the rock at his house, but softer this time. "You can talk to me about it."

After a moment of thought (or arguably not) Finn burst out, "let's join the rebels."

Ash seemed taken aback as his eyes widened and his frown deepened. "What? But... What about your da-?"

"Don't. I don't wanna talk about him. This is something I want to do, seriously I do. Besides if I'm with you there's little that could go wrong, right?" Ash couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but he genuinely hoped the former of the two.

"Um, look Finn, whatever's happened between you and your dad, whatever that scream earlier was for, don't you think you should wait, talk it out with your dad and stuff before you make any rash decisions? I mean we're hardly going to go sneaking off at the crack of dawn without so much as a word of goodbye are we now?" he asked rhetorically. Obviously not. They both sighed, as Ash continued, "you're obviously exhausted over what you've gone through this evening, and you don't have to tell me about it, not yet anyway, of course I will get it out of you eventually, but maybe you should just go home? Get some sleep?"

Finn considered this. He considered that he'd heard God a little while earlier talk to him. He considered that his father, however angry he was with him, was probably worried sick right now. So he accepted Ash's suggestion.

"Stay with me?" he asked suddenly.

Ash beamed at him. "Of course."

They walked close next to each other, finding comfort in each other's warm radiance, and Finn had to resist the urge to rest his tired head on Ash's shoulder. This was all he needed right now, his best friend being there for him, he was always so understanding. He was so eternally thankful for Ash's bubbling presence in his life. He had other friends sure, friends who he got tutored with, and people he'd met in the village centre. It's not like the village was huge, but there were kids his age who lived around. But none of them came close to what Ash was. Ash was his rock.

They were half way home when Ash spoke up softly. "You can throw one hell of a punch you know," he chuckled. Damn, Finn had forgotten he'd done that.

"Oh, God, yeah sorry about that, I was just upset," he said awkwardly, not being able to look at Ash in the face. He could already see a bruise forming and immediately felt guilty for it.

"Did you just say... 'Oh, God'?" he asked with smirk, "No one says that anymore you know."

He didn't even realise he'd said it, but he laughed nervously, not sure if it was even allowed. "Aha yeah I guess I did."

"I reckon we'd do well with the rebels," he said. "Like you said earlier, if we stick together, nothing could go wrong," Ash was grinning widely, and Finn give him a questioning look. "Ah, so that was sarcasm then."

"Glad we established that."

"But really, we'd do great. I could be brawn and you could be brains. Or actually you could be both if you kept that punch power of yours that consistent."

"Yeah... I think that was more of a one off though. Sorry to disappoint you," he said as insincerely as possible, smiling for the first time since Ash had arrived. They neared his house and both slipped in quietly. His dad had blown out all the candles and was nowhere to be seen or heard of at first instance. The boys crept to Finn's room, where Ash got out the spare futon and set it up so easily as he had done many times before and placed it next to Finn's leaving the smallest of gaps between them.

"Hey, um, gimme a second would you?" he said to Ash, going for the door of his room. Ash nodded, and so Finn slid his door shut smoothly and went in search of his father. It didn't take long to find him, sat in his room on the edge of his bed with a single candle flickering beside him.

He looked up to his son briefly, looking very tired in his old grey eyes. He had deep laughter lines around his eyes and mouth, making him look older than he really was, and seeing him like this felt unnatural for Finn. His father was always happy, well not always – he was human, but still, it was odd to see this side that he showed so rarely. The sad side.

"Dad?" Finn asked cautiously. He was still angry, very angry, but he had to reassure himself that his father was ok. He didn't move at first, but slowly got up and wrapped Finn into a tight hug and was gripping on to his son so tightly he thought he might burst. Finn didn't return the hug, instead he stood, feeling slightly adrift and out of place under his father's touch. After a moment, it got too uncomfortable for him to bare, so he gently pushed his father away. Rei looked down in disappointment, and went to sit back down on his bed.

"I understand," he started quietly, "if you're upset. I understand if you don't want to talk to me."

Finn felt like there was a 'but', but none came.

"I'm joining the rebels. With Ash."

His father didn't seem to react much, as if he'd been expecting it, and small smirk spread across his face.

"Of course. What else would I expect? You're your mother's son," he smiled fondly to himself, and Finn had to try and control his tears from surfacing. He thought suddenly about mentioning God, feeling like he ought to tell someone about it.

"Father... I've had an epiphany of sorts recently and, I need to do something about it."

Obviously he couldn't just bring up God out of the blue, so Finn tried desperately to phrase it in a way his father wouldn't question, but at least understand.

"I have to join the rebels, if nothing else but to avenge mother. I could get to King Leo. The man who ordered her death. I could find out why he did it, why he's done all of this. Maybe even make some peace. You spoke about trust, and well, if I have Ash, he's all I'll really need anyway, and we'll be careful together, we'll get through things as civilised as possible." He paused, trying to think of what else to say, but his father stopped him by raising his hand.

"You don't have to explain to me son, you really don't. I haven't changed my mind, of course I still don't want you to go, but if you feel it's what's right then I don't suppose I can stop you. You're old enough to know how to handle yourself now, and I'm sure with Ash be your side, you'll find a way to survive. But be careful. If the day comes that you ever come face to face with the King... You stop and think about it. It's a well-known fact that he's a manipulative bastard, there's little chance of making a peace deal with him."

They stopped, exchanging a glance of... Finn wasn't sure; a huge mix of emotions he supposed. He took a step closer to his father and held it out expectantly. A little confused, his father looked up to him from the bed he was sitting, and reached out as well, clasping Finn's hand firmly, and they shook.

"I'm so proud of you," he said suddenly with a squeaky voice that sounded like it was on its way to becoming broken, as he pulled his son in for another hug. This time Finn returned it, his anger seemed to fizzle out under the overwhelming warmth of his dad's arms. He savoured it, this feeling of safety and security, he wasn't stupid, he knew that would all end as soon as he teamed up with the rebels. "So when will you be leaving?"

It was a good question, Finn didn't really know, but he wanted it to be as soon as possible.

"In the morning I suppose, I'll talk to Ash about it, he seems to have done his research on them, he'll know what to do."

"Research eh?" his dad chuckled, "I think you mean a fair amount of spying and guessing."

Finn laughed. His father was probably right, that did seem to be the extent Ash ever went to when 'researching' stuff he was interested in. Wordlessly, Finn felt the smile fall from his lips as he backed away towards the door.

"Goodnight Father," he said.

"Goodnight Finn."

Finn shut his father's bedroom door before exhaling a huge breath he didn't even know he'd been holding and lay his forehead against the cool surface of the door. He lingered for a moment, but then waddled back to his room, which as he entered he saw Ash standing there shirtless but still wearing his shorts.

"It's damn hot in here huh," he said sliding open one of Finn's windows.

"Yeah sure is," he replied weakly, flopping down his bed and shutting his eyes as the pleasant cool breeze flew over him. Ash crawled into his futon beside Finn's but didn't bother pulling the covers up over his body. They both lay flat, staring up at the wooden rafted ceiling.

Finn had always hated the way the beams jutted out, as he child he used to be petrified of them in the darkness of night, they appeared to making faces at him as the moonlight danced across them. The engraved markings on the wood from its previous use meant that tiny distorted shadows would form, and stare down at him, haunting him. But now, as he'd gotten older, and grown out of his silly and childish fear, he almost took comfort in them. It suddenly struck him this could be his last night ever looking up at them. That made him feel unbelievably sad. But he was finished with feeling sad that evening, he'd had enough of it to last him a long while now.

"Night Ash," he murmured out. He waited for a reply but got none and turned to look at Ash, who unsurprisingly had fallen asleep with no grace whatsoever, mouth wide open, and already dribbling out the corner, body turned in the direction of the window that lay above Finn's head. Finn had to restrain from laughing, and placed both hands over his mouth. This was one of those moments he would've called himself lucky, as he so often did, but he remembered what he'd learnt today, about the truth behind his mother's death. It dawned on him that, maybe he wasn't so lucky.

All evil. The voice of the God was repeating itself in his head over and over as he lay there for what felt like hours, thinking about things. That inhuman, humming voice that seemed to have buried itself in his head. He'd been arguing with himself over the source of it for a while, considering how unfit he was to think about it when he'd first heard it. He'd come to a point now where he was convinced it must've been a God, or at least some sort of unearthly being, maybe even his own imagination or conscience. But all the same, the task it had given him felt undeniably important, impossible as it may seem, and he felt obliged to obey it. After all, if he really could get to King Leo, that would certainly be a start in finding the cause of a true evil that had been cast upon the world he lived in. Maybe to be rid of all evil he was meant to kill the King? He didn't know, that sounded a bit pointless to him. Surely killing him would just ignite a new flame of violence and evil amongst the people, who knew?

In truth, he didn't know all that much about the King. Other than how one day he was a small but charming nobody, who quickly gathered enough strength to overthrow the corrupted government that was active at that time, and then the next he became so enthralled with himself and how far he'd come that he decided to take it a step further. By becoming the ruler, himself. He also knew that the majority of people who served King Leo served out of fear, worrying about what would become of them if they were to stand against him. He was best known after all for the speed at which he could carry out the death sentence. For traitors within the guard, he often liked to behead them himself. News had spread fast about how cleanly his katana sawed through the necks of the men who had served him so fervently up to that point. Finn shivered at the thought. What a ghastly, inhuman creature. Part of him almost didn't want to meet him, out of sheer disgust for the man. But he had to, he felt it, he knew it would happen. This, he knew, was exactly what the God wanted.

The next morning came around, and the sunlight of dawn woke him up harshly as it splayed across Ash's body next to him. That boy still wasn't awake, and was in fact seemingly in the exact same position as he was when he'd fallen asleep, mouth still wide open. No doubt it was dry as a desert in there, he was gonna fun with that when he woke up, Finn smirked to himself as he rubbed his eyes. He knew he'd gotten little sleep, but he didn't actually feel too tired, which he was thankful for.

He could hear his father shuffling about through the thin walls of the house, probably a bundle of nerves, trying to release all his anxiety in private before putting on a brave face for waving off his son. Ash stirred beside him, opening and closing his cracked lips like a fish.

"Woah," he let out sleepily, "oh wow thi' i' reawy uncomfable," he stuttered out, wildling moving his tongue around his mouth to try and get rid of the dryness. Finn laughed quietly at him, and eventually stretched up his arms and stood.

"So, care to explain how we're supposed to actually do this?" he asked Ash sincerely, feeling a little annoyingly clueless about what the actual plan of the day was and how they were supposed to get wherever they needed to go.

"Oh it's quite simple really," he said clearly, having regained the ability to speak properly. Finn felt sceptical. "Well, yesterday, when I mentioned it at dinner, it really only came into my head because that day I was talking with Cobby in town, you know Cobby right?"

Finn nodded, vaguely picturing the oddly smelling, ragged old man in his head. He ran the fish stall at the market, if he remembered correctly. He couldn't help but wonder why Ash was talking to him in the first place, but quickly realised, this is Ash he's talking about here, there was probably no reason other than he felt like making friendly conversation with the trader.

"Well, we were talking about it, and he suddenly started filling me in on all this information. He told me that he was actually in on their movements, and that because he's as old and unfit as he is, they gave him a position of basically just acting as their eyes and ears, listening out for any activity or information from the guards that pass through here from time to time. Of course he's just one of their many eyes and ears and-," he laughed suddenly, "wait that sounded weird, but you get my point." They both giggled a little, but he continued.

"So I asked about recruitment and the process on how to get in, and he said it was tough, they run a few trials on you to see if you're good enough to stay with them, nothing very formal of course, but he mentioned there was a sort of hierarchy structure to it. There are those who lead the attacks, those who focus on the more tactical side of things, those who train to fight with force, and the poor sods in the middle who just have to do what they're told. I imagine that's where we'll end up."

Finn didn't really like the sound of that, and a part of him suddenly worried that maybe Ash would be separated from him, if the people higher in command recognized that he had a talent for fighting. But Finn tried not to think about it.

"So where do we go today?"

"Well, we are very lucky my friend. Cobby said there were some of the rebels in the village at the moment, only passing through, apparently they only came to check with him for any updates he may have heard. But he said if we wanted to join, now would be the time to do it. They're staying at the pub, in the upstairs lodgings, all we should need to do is find them and talk to them about it."

Ash was right, it did seem simple enough, and right now he didn't feel like doubting the validity of the information Cobby had given him.

He felt wide awake now, and went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. It was mildly warm, which was a little frustrating as Finn had been hope for a splash of cold reality to shake him from his decision. But he guessed there was no going back now. He felt scared, but comforted at least at the fact he was going with Ash. Also, he figured that having lay in bed awake for the majority of last night, clearly trying to sort through his thoughts, he must be doing something right if the God hadn't made a reappearance to protest against his ideas. He wished it'd given him a little more guidance, been a little more specific. But he supposed that was to be expected. The God's from the Tasiman Era were known for being elusive, they often encouraged the humans they'd communicate with, mage or otherwise, to figure out their purposes for themselves. That was what he'd been told anyway.

He looked up from the sink basin and gripped on to it tightly. Today was the start of something completely different. A life he wasn't expecting, but had no other choice right now but to accept.