Never As It Seems

The Meeting

Flames and Annmarie walked on without, thankfully, meeting any more guards after the first five feet. The entire room continued to be as dark as ever, and the walls twisted and turned in strange directions along a path they could not discern. After they had reached the fifth right turn since they had walked through the entrance, Flames was struck with an idea.  

"Hey, Annmarie." 

"What?" she replied, not looking away from the path directly in front of them.  

"Do you think we're in some sort of maze?" 

She stopped and peered at him, her eyes widening. "You know, I kind of think we are. Huh." 

"'Cause I was just thinking. This path we're taking - it doesn't really go anywhere, does it? It just keeps going on and on. And the walls keep twisting and turning and such - and look." He pointed to a mini hallway diverging from the main one that abruptly ended after about three feet. "This is the kind of stuff you see in mazes. And those are everywhere, we just didn't notice. Or we ignored them, one of the two." 

"Didn't one of the guards say something like this?" she said. "Something about... a puzzle that his boss set up. This would be it, wouldn't it?" 

"Yeah, that's what the Fuzzy Guy said!" said Flames with a sudden burst of remembrance. "He said he was setting up a puzzle for me, and I tried to ask him about it and the only clue he would give me was that the penthouse wasn't the top floor. Well, obviously we know that part's true. I guess this is it." 

"If this is a puzzle," said Annmarie, "then what are we solving?" 

"He'll probably be in the center of it all," said Flames. "He'll expect me to find him, I bet... he would. So I guess we have to find him." 

She groaned. "I don't want to." 

"I don't either, but we have to find him anyway, don't we? To take him to AY5 for the psychological thingy?" 

"I guess," she said. They continued walking on.  

"What are we going to do when we get back?" she asked after a minute or so. "They better recognize us for this. I'm not saying I want an award ceremony or anything, but I don't want them to just... brush this under the rug like it's just another mission. I mean, this alone -" She indicated her surroundings with a sweep of her arm. "They better say something about this." 

"They will," said Flames. "They're not that horrible." 

"I don't know," she said. "They can be. I mean, look at you. Look what they've done with you while we were away. They made you into a flipping wanted murderer." 

"I see what you mean," he said.  

"Yep." 

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't really care if they recognize us for this, though. I would rather have them just say I'm not a criminal than have this whole story on how I'm a hero or whatever. I'm kind of over that, really." 

She punched him on the arm. "No, you're not. That's who you are. You love being a hero." 

He sighed. "I don't know anymore." 

"Well, it's better than being hated for supposedly killing someone, anyway."  

"Yeah, that's true." He laughed.  

"Maybe just an announcement," she said. "Like, hey, look at these guys, they did something cool, also Flames Pond didn't kill anyone and he's actually a very sweet and lovely guy and Annmarie loves him even when he's a dork. And the Fuzzy Guy's locked away so we don't have to worry about him ever again, and these guys did it all so you should be happy for them, the end."