With wearied hands, Morden fixes the sticks he put on Tucker's grave. It'll likely fall over with heavy storms, but maybe he can make it better in the future.

He has been working ever since the escape. Carrying Tucker's body into the boat, rowing the boat away to nowhere, bringing his body here, digging the grave— and he still has much more to do, like attending to his other friend who passed out during their escape and was left in his rowboat.

The other friend still had some pulse left when he last checked, but who knows if he had already died by the time he just buried Tucker. He just doesn't have the energy in him to bury another body. He's damned tired of it all, both physically and mentally.

Only if he could stop feeling anything. It'd be much easier for him to get through all this.

It's been a while ever since his hunger pangs became a background noise, as he fixes the grave. What does he even have left, after all these losses? He would've been more at peace by now if he were to not escape...

He can't afford to eat or fall asleep now. He has to keep going. He can't go back anymore.

Just as Morden turns back to check on his other friend...

"Hello?"

He has already made his way to Morden, gazing down on him from his unscarred eye. It still leaves him unnerved even after all this time, as familiar as it feels.

Morden stares up at him, taking notice of his red hair that's gotten even more unkept. "I thought you'd be out for longer."

"What happened?"

"..."

They both went through the same thing, right? Did he not remember? Wait, actually, he might not be in the right state of mind, especially after everything.

"...Tucker's dead."

"Who?"

"What do you mean, who?" Morden aggressively gestures at the grave. "He's a friend! Our friend!"

"...Were we friends?"

No fucking way. He couldn't end up this bad. Did he hit his head when he passed out?

"Stop joking around. I don't have time for this shit."

"I'm not?" At Morden's accusation, his eyebrow twitches as he sits down to Morden's level. "I can't remember anything."

Morden is left stunned at the response. Nothing? Not even Tucker? "...Not even me?"

"Nope, sorry. I just feel like I've known you somewhere before..."

After everything they've gone together, really?

Morden collects himself, as he tries to understand him better. "Do you remember your name, then?"

"Nope."

"I see... It's Ben. Ben Adler." A problem with that, is Ben didn't go by this name before. But he has been wanting to go by Ben once they escaped together, so Morden might as well do him a service. It's a nice name, too.

"Ben, huh... And you?"

"Morden would be fine." Not like this is his actual name either.

"Morden... sounds nice." Ben smiles—an opposite of the reaction he had when Morden told him about the name. Really? Morden?

Still, Morden holds onto this name nevertheless. It's something he can finally have for himself, and to think Ben would actually like it...

"What were we?" Ben nonchalantly asks.

All the memories between them return to him. Ben pulling him into his arms after a grueling experiment. Ben letting Morden take his frustrations out on him. Ben treating his wounds while cussing out the wardens. Ben leaning him a shoulder for Morden to cry on. All the moments they used each other as emotional punching bags and napkins. All the moments their bond seems to go beyond two strangers using each other as survival clutch. All the moments their touches linger on one another...

"...Friends, yeah." Morden can't bear to describe their relationship with anything else.

"Hmm..." Ben leans closer to him.

Morden has never been good with eye contacts, so he averts his gaze away. "What?"

"I don't think I have all the pieces. Mind telling me everything betwern us?"

"Uh... We were experimented on together, yeah. We're all captives. Everyone around us were dying every night, friends and family alike... So it's just a few of us survivors who gathered together, trying our best to get through shit together, you know? Then you, Tucker, and I barely escaped together..." He hopes everything he just said in his weak, shaky voice would get through Ben.

"How long has this been happening?"

"Felt like forever, but I'd say it's probably a few months. We just escaped together yesterday— or was that another day? Or just hours? Look, I'm not in a good shape either. Just stop asking me about this..."

"I see."

Ben's stomach growls, and he pulls out some bananas he probably grabbed along the way to eat. He also hands one of them to Morden.

After Ben wolves down the bananas with the intensity of a starving man, he eyes the banana he just gave Morden.

"Just take it, I don't mind." Morden shrugs. "I'm not that hungry anyway."

Ben shakes his head. "Keep it."

"If you keep rowing to Redwake over there..." Morden turns to the spires—a distance away from the island they're in. "You should be able to find something nice to eat. Just take a rowboat from here and go."

"Are you coming too?"

"...No. Not now."

"Why?"

"I'll be fine. I have my own places to go." Morden lies through his teeth—he has to think about it longer. "I'll mourn him for a little longer too... He's a good friend."

Between Tucker and Ben, Tucker was more of an anchor to his sanity and survival back then. Someone who gives him advice. Someone he can lean into for wisdom. Someone who made the plan for the three of them to escape in the first place. Surely, Ben thought of Tucker just as dearly back then too...

As much as he has been relying on Ben too, it isn't wrong for him to mourn for Tucker first, right?

"I see. So that's how it is..."

Morden flinches at his words. Did he piss Ben off again?

"I'll just leave, then. I hope I'll see you around."

Ben didn't explode or anything. He just looks more worried about Morden...

"Have a safe travel out there..." Morden bids his farewell, knowing that his decision to leave Ben to his own might come back to bite him later.

"You too." There was a smile and fondness in Ben's expression—a rare sight, that he could only see when Ben felt safe enough around him.

Morden prays that he'll be happier and freer out there.

"Just leave already..." Morden turns away, flustered from seeing him like this for this long.

Ben takes Morden's hands in his, instinctively rubbing his thumbs against the back on Morden's hand like a muscle memory—before pressing a kiss at the back of his hand.

That, too, should be a mere muscle memory. It shouldn't mean anything—Morden thinks to himself, as much as he begins to tremble.

"I'll find you again, I promise."

"I hope." Morden doubts the possibility. The seas are vast, and the two of them are mere small pawns to its grand scheme. "Just enjoy your new life out there. Please."

"I will, Morden." There was a soft affection in the way Ben says his name.

Was this a muscle memory too? He doesn't recall Ben calling him this way. They've kissed and all, yeah, but being this familiar around each other?

"Just leave already..." Morden nudges Ben off him.

Ben stares at him like he still has some business left.

"What now?"

Ben leans closer to him again, his gaze clearly on his lips.

Shit. He isn't in the mood for it, or even want to sort his feelings after this time. He should be kicking Ben off...

"Eh, I'll save it for later." Ben backs away from him. "Make sure to eat, and see you around!"

"W-wait!" This is all too sudden. Both of them seem to never really have the same rhythm with the way of things. "Before you leave... Here, take this. I have a spare one with me."

Morden shoves a dagger's handle in Ben's hand.

Ben stares at the dagger for a moment, before smiling. "I'll take a good care of it."

"Just replace it or whatever, if you find something more wieldy than this."

Ben looks as if he's about to argue one last time, but he says nothing. "See you around, then."

And just like that, Ben rows away to Redwake. Thank god he still has some muscle memory for that.

His eyes are set on the shadowy organization that captured them. One day, he'll find them, and he will tear them down from the insides.

He only hopes that he'd never have to see Ben be roped into those people again. This mission should be just him, all alone.

He doesn't want to lose any more friends.