A Scripta

Lodestar stormed over to Nate, who was sleeping at the base of a leafless gray tree, and picked him up by the scruff of his neck. "Wake up pretty boy, rise and shine!" he said with a joyous leer, and slapped Nate across the face.

Nate blinked in total surprise. Then Lodestar changed before his eyes into Daisuke, who looked at him with eyes full of anguish. "Look at me, Mase," he said in Daisuke's pain-filled voice.

Stepping back, Nate focused on Daisuke.

"Why did you put our love away?"

"Because it's feeling. I can't feel it. It will bring up hate."

"This . . ." He turned into Fyre, her eyes blazing red, the area around her all aflame; "is not this. . ." He turned back into Daisuke in his cowboy outfit, what Nate considered his favorite outfit.

"You saw I was angry at him - "

"You didn't feel him." Lodestar as Daisuke stepped back. "I know your memories. You were able to comfort people. You felt their pain. You understood them. You cared."

"It was a sham."

Daisuke faded, and Lodestar appeared with a knowing smile on his face. "Liar," he said. "Lies upon lies, upon lies. Expose one lie, another is there." Lodestar looked around. "I can't lock you away. I can't lock you out. I can't rightly lock myself out because there are too many things going on around you that I will need to know about and possibly intervene."

Nate's eyes narrowed. "Oh? Now you're going to intervene? I thought that you, as a guide, don't do that."

"A guide needs to know the direction. He needs to be the leader and knows where he's going."

He paused a minute to let Nate think about what that meant. Nate's eyes widened slightly. "You don't know where you're going."

Lodestar gazed at Nate. "It means, Nate, we need to walk this path together. It also means that I never, ever, want to see that look of anguish on his face again." He pointed. "Go out there."