Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 142: Ch140. Home, sweet home (5) - One year

Chapter 142: Ch140. Home, sweet home (5) - One year

The world around and beneath Miles broke as soon as Mara’s words reached his ears.

"W-what...?" His voice cracked.

Before Mara could say anything else, though, Miles was sprinting, his mind reeling through memories and desperation.

"MILES!?" Mara’s voice echoed behind him, but Miles did not listen. He turned and turned, faster, wilder, confused and terrified.

The hallway around him blurred, Miles’ heart loud in his ears. Somewhere in the distance, lanterns flickered, casting dancing shadows against the rusted walls. His boots dragged as he moved, each step heavier than the last.

’No! It can’t be!’ He slammed into a wall, too fast to stop, but he barely flinched. He just kept going until he finally saw the first of those glyphs, glowing in red and eerily familiar.

One more turn, two, then three, and he was at the door of the Archivist’s study once more, after that long month he spent both in the Horizon and Wonderland.

Without even thinking, he slammed the door open, and Sarissa turned as fast as one could blink, her sword at the ready, prepared to face anything that could come at her – like she always had been.

By her side, Diego turned along, slightly slower than her, and the entire room was drowned in deafening silence.

Miles felt like his heart was being mercilessly crushed within a vice, and before anyone could do or say anything, he fell to his knees.

"I-... Dee, what happened to you...?" He muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. "I-I should’ve been here... I should’ve never left..."

The Diego in front of him...

He was still Diego, but...

He did not look like the Dee Miles knew before he left.

He looked older, like the weeks had stretched into years. Taller, maybe. His shoulders broadened. His stance was firmer, and there was no longer the hint of boyish softness in his face.

It had been carved away and replaced with something sharper, more deliberate. Like a sword that had been reforged under pressure.

His hair was longer, brushing the line of his jaw in messy waves. His eyes were still dark and bright, but beneath the light, there was something heavier. A quiet, steady gravity that hadn’t been there before.

It was in the way he held himself. Not weak. Not worn.

Just... Weathered.

He looked tall, present. Alive.

But he said nothing.

Diego stared at Miles like he was a ghost. Like he was not real. His lips parted slightly, but no sound came out. There was bitterness there, deep and cold, but also confusion. The kind that came from expecting a wound to stay open and finding it suddenly closed without explanation.

He did not move, did not blink. He just stood there, silent and unmoving.

Sarissa, however, was not silent.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She snapped, her voice cutting through the tension like a blade. "You think you can vanish for a year and just waltz back in like nothing happened?"

"What...?" Miles blinked.

She stepped forward, sword still in hand, as though she wanted to strike him down. Her posture was all tension and heat.

"A year, Miles! One. Full. Year!" She spat. "While you were off... Wherever the hell you were, we were here, picking up the pieces. Fighting. Surviving. Trying to keep this place from collapsing on itself after Shinji showed his fangs and began raiding everywhere."

"That’s... Not possible." Miles murmured, his eyes darting between her and Diego. "It... It was a month. Maybe a little more. But, a year?"

"Save it!" Sarissa snarled. "You could’ve come back sooner, but guess what? We did not need you back then, and we still don’t need you now!"

"I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know-" Miles recoiled as if struck, but before he could add anything, Sarissa cut him mid-sentence.

"Of course you didn’t know. You never do." Her eyes narrowed. "But here’s the thing, Miles. While you were gone, things changed. Dee changed."

She pointed at Diego.

"And you don’t just get to walk back into his life and expect it to be like you left it."

Miles looked at Diego again, and his throat tightened. There was so much he wanted to say, but the words just would not come. All he could do was breathe, slow and shaky, the weight of her words crashing down around him.

That was when Diego finally moved.

It was slow. Careful, like approaching something fragile that might vanish if he moved too fast.

He stepped closer, one hand slowly rising, and then, he touched Miles’ face.

His fingers were warm. Steady, but unfamiliar.

Miles flinched.

He did not recognize the touch. It had been so long.

Too long.

And then the tears came.

They welled up fast and heavy, no time to prepare or hide. Miles crumpled forward, burying his face in Diego’s hand, his shoulders shaking with quiet sobs.

"I’m-sorry..." He whispered. "I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to leave you behind..."

Diego knelt with him, still silent, eyes locked onto him like if he looked away, Miles might disappear all over again.

Sarissa stood off to the side, watching them. Her glare never softened, her eyes never peeling away from Miles. Her jaw remained tight, her arms crossed, but her sword now, rested in her sheath.

Diego did not speak. He just knelt there, his hand still on Miles’ cheek, like anchoring himself to something he did not trust to be real. His brow furrowed, as if holding back something. Grief, maybe, or anger.

Or both.

Miles could not stop the tears. Not after seeing Dee again, different, older, like life had beaten lessons into him while Miles had been gone, chasing ghosts in places that did not follow the same laws of time.

He wanted to say more, to apologize properly, to explain, but the weight in his chest would not let the words come.

Sarissa let them have a few more seconds. But only a few.

She rolled her eyes, the sharp sound of her boots clicking against the floor as she stepped forward, slicing through the quiet like a blade.

"Touching," she muttered, arms still crossed. "Really. My heart’s practically melting."

Her tone was dry enough to blister steel.

"But unless the two of you are planning to cry your way into fixing the mess out there, I suggest we move this along."

"Sarissa..." Miles looked up, blinking through wet lashes.

"No!" She snapped, eyes locking on him. "You don’t get to look at me like a puppy that fell out of the wagon. Not after everything that’s happened."

She turned away for a beat, her jaw clenched tight. Then she turned back, stabbing a finger toward him.

"You left us. For whatever self-fulfilling, enlightenment-chasing, soul-searching reason you thought justified it. You vanished. And now you’re back, stronger, hopefully. Smarter, maybe. So, here’s the deal."

She stepped closer, her glare hot enough to sear him.

"You went looking for something. Strength, truth, answers, I don’t care. If you found it, if you’re stronger, good. Great. Because we need it."

She gestured around them, to the walls, the rust, the old wounds left open in the world above them.

"You don’t get to sit here and cry over what’s changed while the world keeps burning. You’re back. So, either you tell me what you’ve brought with you, or you get the hell out of the way, because some of us don’t have the luxury of falling apart anymore."

Her voice cracked just slightly at the end, but she masked it well enough so that Miles did not notice it – or so she thought.

The room went silent again, the only sound the faint hum of machinery somewhere beyond the walls. Diego looked at her, then at Miles, then slowly pulled his hand back, sitting on his heels.

Sarissa’s tone did not soften.

"Well?" she demanded. "Tell me you didn’t come back empty-handed, Miles."

Miles swallowed hard. His hands trembled in his lap, but then he forced himself to breathe.

The Horizon, the Last Verse, Alice, Wonderland.

He didn’t know where to begin.

But he knew he had to.

"I didn’t." He finally said.