[b]Title:[/b] Catching Up

[b]Characters:[/b] Audrey and Cheryl

[b]Summary:[/b] Old friends and allies, Audrey Jones and Cheryl Mason, temporarily meet up to catch up on things missed in the past three years.


Audrey and Cheryl sat at the ledge of the clock tower of Twilight Town, having met up not long ago. The Holy Mother had come down to talk to the Dream Mage, upholding her promise to catch up with her. So there the two women sat, each with a sea-salt ice cream bar. They sat in silence for a moment, staring out at the sunset and biting into their ice cream every few moments.

"...so what's with the new look?" Cheryl broke the silence first, having noted the bright red and pink get-up the girl now wore. "Didn't really think you liked to play dress-up."

Audrey giggled a bit at the comment. "I didn't choose to wear this. Not that I don't like it; it just came to me after I learned what my powers can really do."

Cheryl gave a small smirk, not wanting to let up the chance. "Magic, huh? As if you didn't already look like a magical girl now."

Rather than look offended, Audrey just laughed again. "Yeah, says you, Princess Heart." At the confused look, she answered, "It's an unlockable in your game. You become a magical girl, coupled with shooting laser beams out of your eyes."

For a moment, Cheryl frowned. But after thinking about it for a minute, she smiled again. "That'd be something. Me with laser beams; monsters wouldn't be able to stand a chance."

"Trust me, they wouldn't."

The two women laughed for a bit, before going back to silence. They tried to think of what to talk about next; funny, two friends who haven't seen each other in years, and they couldn't think of what to say.

Eventually, a topic came up. "What exactly [i]have[/i] you been doing all this time?" Audrey asked. "I mean, with all that time off, you had to have done something for yourself, right?"

Cheryl shrugged her shoulders. "Besides fighting off Heartless on the way to the market and back, helping out the RGRC whenever I can, and getting a bit of training to at least hold my own against the Heartless? Not much; just trying to live a normal life after all the crap I've been through."

The healer blinked. "Wow...that's...incredibly dull."

"Maybe to you, it might've been," the Canon Internal replied with another shrug, "but I honestly felt safe for the first time it years. Didn't really have to worry about anything going down the drain...until recently, anyway. And I'm not talking about what's going on in the worlds."

Audrey had to frown at that. She didn't know that it was true, but she felt the Otherworld was still a problem for her. She didn't know for sure, but she decided not to ask about it. The Dream Mage didn't want to bring up her own Silent Hill experiences, though she knew Cheryl could tell that her old summon was gone.

"Well, it's good to have you back, anyway," Audrey then said with a small smile. "That's all that matters, right?"

Cheryl responded by giving a bit of a harsh laugh, unlike a few minutes ago. "I really wish I could say the same." Taking a bite of her ice cream, she decided to change the subject, "By the way, how's Sorin holding up?"

"Oh, he's doing alright." Audrey looked back out at the sunset, her mind already on the Solar Samurai the minute he was brought up. "He's still training with his new powers like I am. Heck, because of that, he doesn't even call himself Sorin No Yami anymore. He's just Sorin now."

"I see..." The Mason daughter frowned a bit, looking down to the Station Plaza below them. "To be honest, I'm kind of surprised you guys are still together. I mean, I really thought--"

"That we'd end it off over a stupid obsession I had with a man who almost destroyed my life?" Audrey finished with a scoff. "Hardly; we know better than that now."

The venom in Audrey's tone when she said that honestly shocked Cheryl. After having to deal with her constant whining and going on about how she 'couldn't help her feelings', to hear that sort of hatred about that particular man almost threw her off. "Yeah...uh, I heard he died a hero--"

Once again, Audrey cut her off. "A hero? Are you kidding? The bastard died a lovestruck idiot who didn't think I'd fly out of the way of a stonespike missile from a boss who already came out of nowhere not that long ago. How is that anything at all 'heroic'?"

Cheryl would have defended that, that there were many things about what happened that would be heroic. But she realized who she would be defending in the first place and just left it. "...it still hurt you though, didn't it?"

Audrey sighed, calming herself just a bit. She tossed her stick to the side, having finished her ice-cream, and replied, "Yeah, it did. But that was back when I was a hormonal teenager; looking back on it now, it was stupid of me to react the way I did before." She then looked to Cheryl again and said, "You should be happy, though. You hated him more than I do now."

The Holy Mother sighed, tossing her own ice cream stick away. "And I still do. But you of all people should know why I feel bad."

Audrey just nodded slightly, again not asking further. She knew what Cheryl had to go through with the loss of her father, first game protagonist Harry Mason. She knew she would understand the pain of loss because of that.

It was for the best for them to drop that subject for now. However, the next one wouldn't be happy daisies either.

"That reminds me..." Cheryl started, still with a grim tone to her. "I also heard that you had another enemy targeting you..."

And again, the hate began to rise in Audrey. Except this one was a different sort of hatred. "Ignis..." she whispered. "Already faced that bastard twice...just when I was about to beat him, the coward just falls back and retreats at the last moment..."

Cheryl just frowned once more. Besides what she had been told, she really didn't know much about this guy. "Yeah...he used to be a mental counterpart to your brother. I met him once, when he was still in his head."

"Then you should already know why he wants me dead." Audrey had directed her scowl towards the sunset as she spoke, "He was born out of my brother's long gone hate over me, exaggerating that single trait of his. That's understandable...but there's no excuse for what he does along the way."

Now that had caught Cheryl by surprise. She had never expected the girl to have gotten caught into some form of sibling rivalry, and she had not been told of the reason behind this guy's existence. She did, however, know of the deeds he's done. "Heard about that, too. He's some sick rapist, as far as I was told."

The Dream Mage's scowl sharpened. "You were told correct. He's attempted it on a few of my friends and Sorin, he's stalking a friend of mine just so he can have a replacement of someone he'd rather have...he even tried to take me as well." Her head turned downcast. "And last time...he had the gall to proposition me..."

Cheryl had to give a grimace. Even if this wasn't all the details, she knew this was a guy she had to watch out for. "Yeah...any heads up in case I run into this creep?"

Again, Audrey took a moment to calm down. "Besides his black fire and illusions, which I'm sure you've been told about already? He has a tendency to underestimate, so you could catch him off guard that way. But he might try to teleport, or trick you with an illusion, so keep an eye out for that."

"Roger."

Another round of silence. Though this time, it didn't last too long before Audrey turned to Cheryl once more. "By the way, I think Isaac wanted to ask something about you."

Cheryl looked up and blinked at this. "Huh? Wh-what for?"

"Dunno. He left before he could even ask." Looking at her friend in the eye, Audrey asked, "Was there something going on between you two?"

Cheryl just shrugged her shoulders, trying to keep a straight face. "We were just traveling together for a bit. That's all."

"You sure? Absolutely nothing else?"

Now the older of the two had to frown. "What are you trying to get at?"

Audrey shrugged herself, allowing a small smirk of her own to cross her face. "I dunno...maybe I'm just looking for the chance to get back at you for making fun of me and Sorin before."

"..." Okay, Cheryl knew exactly what she was implying now. She had almost lost it there...but she managed to keep calm and give a scoff. "Well, you're outta luck. We're not in any kind of relationship like that."

"Oh sure." Audrey's smirk widened a bit. "One of these days, I'm gonna walk in on you two making out; I just know it. Try to deny it then."

"Good luck with that. It's not gonna happen." With that last thing said, Cheryl stood up from the ledge. "Anyway, I think that's enough. Gonna head out of here, I think."

"Okay, say hi to your boyfriend for me."

Cheryl rolled her eyes, not bothering to retort. Before she left around the corner, she looked at Audrey once more. "...thanks...for giving me the chance to talk..."

Audrey smiled back at her old friend. "Hey, had to get some things covered. Besides, I can't stay mad at you forever...Heather."

"Heather" gave a small smirk to that. With that, she walked off to leave this world via Save Point. For the time being, it seemed that a once broken friendship had been repaired.