Chapter Text
Owen was expecting the loud, rash arguments of his own clearing when attending the meeting about himself. He was used to meetings going nowhere, and every attendant ending up at each other’s throats about the petty thing of the day. He’d expected copious amounts of yelling and accusations, especially from the more rash of the group, like the blonde man and the man who had yelled at him earlier.
What Owen was not expecting was the stiff, quiet awkwardness of the meeting. It seemed that no one- himself included- wanted to be there. There were a few whispers around the room as everyone gathered themselves and prepared for the meeting itself. Most of the whispers were from the ashy-brown haired man who’d accused him, ‘he’s presumably whispering about me’, Owen thought to himself. Suddenly, Legundo cleared his throat, drawing all attention to him.
“Firstly, I’d like to apologise to you, Owen.” Legundo began, bringing half the attention back to Owen, “I mentioned earlier that we know someone else named Owen, and it would seem that most everyone- for some reason- assumed you were him. I think you’re owed an apology for how they treated you because of that.”
Owen was at a lack for words for a moment, no one had really apologized to him in the maze. At least not to a substantial amount that actually meant anything. After most of the group begrudgingly muttered out something along the lines of an apology, Owen spoke up.
“It’s alright, really. I’ve certainly been through worse verbal abuse.” He said, a small smile on his lips as he spoke. He almost remembered his time as gatekeeper fondly at least in comparison to waking up somewhere else unknown and surrounded by strangers again.
“Now, could everyone go around and introduce themselves. I’m sure you’d appreciate that, Owen”. Legundo continued. Owen nodded in return, he really needed to know these peoples’ names, it’d make things so much simpler. One by One, each person went around and introduced themselves to him. Similar to their apologies, some were more reluctant to give their names than others. Eventually everyone had given their names (with Abolish and Legundo saying theirs again, to keep the flow going.), expect Apo. Owen was fine with this, as he obviously already knew her name and who she was. After a few moments of silence from her, the doctor accepted she wasn’t going to speak and began to address the group again.
“Great now that that’s done, before we get into what Apo, Martyn and Cleo wanted to discuss, I think it’d be best if you introduced yourself to everyone, Owen.”. Owen agreed, his introduction was clearly needed as the only stranger to most of the group. What he didn’t agree with was the level of attention that this would bring him. Whilst he was obviously good at public speaking, having ran for leadership of the maze and won, Owen didn’t enjoy the attention of the citizens of Oakhurst.
“Well, I’m Owen.” He began, despite the fact that everyone in the dimly lit room already knew his name. “And I’m from clearing one, and I think before that District Fifteen.” Owen paused for half a moment, wondering just how much he should relay to these strangers.
“About what you mentioned earlier, Martyn and Apo, I can only vaguely recall events from before I was put inside the maze alongside… everyone else. I do know that I was a solider, however. That much I am sure of.”
“Like Legs?” Martyn attempted to whisper, turning all attention to his question.
“Martyn!” Legundo hissed, ‘probably trying to direct the attention away from his own past and back to me,’ Owen thought.
“Maybe,” Owen continued, “I don’t know if our circumstances would be all that similar, I don’t really remember a lot of my past outside of, mainly, my father teaching me how to shoot and the basics of my training, but most of my memories of that time are lost to me.”
“When you talk about your memory loss, what exactly do you mean? Like do you not remember anything before like a few weeks ago or what?” Pearl spoke up, likely asking the question that most people had on their mind.
“No, no I can recall a lot more than the last few weeks, from my own knowledge,” Owen gave a pointed look to Legundo, “I’ve been in the maze for a year or two now. I don’t remember much before that, other than small moments from my childhood. I can’t recall how old I am, my last name or really anything from adulthood before the maze.”
There were murmurs around the room at that, obviously assessing his answer to Pearl’s question. Owen could assume that most of them were sceptical of him, if he was in their situation, he’d be sceptical of himself too. The loud whispers about himself were bothersome, however he did his best to ignore them. ‘I’ve faced worse abuse before.’ Owen thought to himself. Although most criticism and scepticism had come from only one body (mainly just from Mohwee and Oeca) and not a group as large as this one.
“I have a theory” Abolish spoke up, cutting through both Owen’s thoughts and the groups murmurs. “This may sound crazy but let’s be real, we’ve dealt with much more insane concepts so far. Owen could be from another reality. I mean, how did he even get past the barrier, let alone appear in the middle of town out of no where?”
“It could explain why he only knows me, without really knowing me, or what’s been happening.” Apo spoke up softly.
“Yeah, that and him looking suspiciously like one of the vamp-” Martyn began speaking before suddenly being cut off by a loud grating laugh from outside the building. The noise made the air within the tower chill and raised the hairs on the back of Owen’s neck. Whoever, or whatever this was, was clearly a threat. He, alongside most of the others, reached for their weapons. Owen had no luck however, his quiver turning up empty for both his bow and arrows. This caused a sharp feeling of panic to course through his body which was only intensified by whatever was antagonising them speaking again.
“Talking about us again! God you’re all obsessed!” Whatever was speaking was seemingly floating around the room, their taunting voice echoing from outside. It was not unfamiliar from when Ash had spoken inside his and Magic’s head, the sound reverberating around the tower. Owen did not feel entirely terrified, he was trained and could hold his own after all, but a frightened feeling was creeping in. Whatever or whoever this was did not seem humane.
“Perhaps if you stopped terrorised us me laddie we would have less to discuss!” Renhardt heartedly yelled, clutching onto a sharpened stick of wood like it was a lifeline. Owen noted that it was a strange, weak choice of weapon. An iron -or even stone- weapon would do much damage to what was taunting them. Looking around at his surroundings, Owen noticed that around half the group were using sharpened wood as weapons. He could’ve understood it as a lack of resources, if not for the remainer of those carrying weapons having swords or daggers created from what looked like silver. ‘I’ll have to ask about it later, to try and supply with better weapons for them.” He thought to himself.
“Yeah, why don’t you just leave us alone, Pyro!” Martyn called out to the thing- seemingly named Pyro. He began to move to chase after it, causing everyone to follow suit. Weaponless, Owen positioned himself in the middle to the crowd. He assured he had the doctor in view in case of an injury and stayed almost glued to anyone who had an actual weapon.
What they were met with when they stepped outside was a flurry of bats, creatures Owen recalled only seeing once in his time in the maze (and embarrassingly having to ask Soup exactly what they were.). The towns folk began attacking at the creatures as if they had done something wrong. The voice began to laugh again, mocking them. Pyro’s voice seemed to grow more distant as his laugh continued, it sounded like he was backing off from the group. Apo must’ve noticed this, as she pointed up at the sky away from the bats that the majority of them were swinging their weapons at and yelled out.
“He’s over there! They’re trying to make a run for cover in the forest!”
Owen’s eyes followed where she was pointing at. She was pointing at a rogue bat, flying erratically and faster than the flock. It was, as she’d pointed out, flying past the gatehouse and towards the dark, endless forest. The bat was moving swiftly away from them all, on a mission to slip away from the attack it had started on himself.
“What are you all doing, go after him!” Avid screamed before chasing after the lone bat. The townsfolk moved as one mass, following the bat with their weapons raised and ready to kill. Owen felt that this was familiar. Sure, it was similar to trips in and out of the maze, but there was something about the hunt after the bat that made him feel like he’d done it a hundred times before. As they ran past the palisade that enclosed the small village, Owen found himself lost in his own head, focusing intently on the familiar feeling of the hunt. He was dragged out of his mind by a yell from Drift, snapping him back to reality.
“He’s back to normal now!” she yelled out before presumably chasing Pyro deeper into the woods. Emersed in the feeling in the chase, Owen found himself following her. He couldn’t think of a real reason why he felt so content to do so, ‘I just need to protect them’ was something he was trying to convince himself of. He was failing to do so.
Breaking through stray branches and leaves, filled with adrenaline and chasing the shadowy outline of Drift’s body did nothing but remind him of his time in the maze. The last time he’s been this eager to chase anyone in the dense forests of the clearing -and with this much adrenaline- was when he didn’t know if Rasbi had survived the creature’s attack. Regardless he kept running, like a dog chasing after a rabbit. That was until the forest broke out into a clearing. It was a break in the tree line with a rough path lying in between what was most likely Oakhurst and the next town. There were three figures in the clearing: Drift, Avid and someone that captured his entire attention.
They had striking white hair. Their skin was pale and even from a distance they looked emaciated. They wore a think, chunky black coat that almost seemed too big on them, Owen could not tell if this was out of necessity or a stylistic choice. The person did seem dishevelled and was clearly panicking. What garnered Owen’s attention most was that this person looked like Rasbi. Yes, their hair was significantly shorter and Rasbi looked a lot more put together but the resemblance was striking. ‘Am I playing tricks on myself, is this some strange dream?’ he thought to himself.
This Pyro person must be a demon he had concluded, after spotting his eyes. Exactly like Rasbi’s. They had bright blood red pupils and black sclera that heavily contrasted his pale skin and hair. Pyro must be a half-demon. He had no noticeable horns, something that threw Owen at first, but there was no other answer to his strange appearance other than him being a half-demon like Rasbi.
“What are you going to do now, Pyro?!” Avid’s voice echoed throughout the clearing, “There’s no sire to run to!”. The boy’s tone was mocking with a twinge of hatred breaking through his attempt at a threat.
Pyro let out a strange noise in return, something between a pained laugh and a gasp. They were about to open his mouth to speak, presumably to antagonise Avid, Drift and himself again, when he locked eyes with Owen. A strange silence fell over the clearing and it felt as if the air had been sucked from Owen’s lungs. He could not understand the reason for this feeling. It seemed as if Pyro was also experiencing this strange feeling, if the shocked look on his face was anything to judge by.
“Owen?!” Pyro yelled out across the clearing after another painful moment of silence. Owen inwardly sighed, ‘of course Pyro was just mistaking me for this other Owen’, he thought to himself.
“I don’t think I am the person you are thinking of.” Owen stated as he began to carefully tread towards the supposed demon. The atmosphere was tense, with Drift and Avid standing ready to attack to Owen’s left and Pyro looking prepared to dash if things got out of hand. Owen remained calm, he always had to in tense and even dangerous situations like this one- at least to some extent. As he got closer to Pyro, they kept looking around clearly looking for an out around him.
“I’m not going to hurt you Pyro, there’s no need to be so tense.” He said slowly and calmly to get his point across. This got some scoffs from the two towns people behind him, who were definitely trying to hurt Pyro. “I’m new here,” Owen continued, “they said I look somewhat like someone here, who is also named Owen. But I am not going to hurt you Pyro, not without any good reason.”
Before any real conversation could be achieved, a loud crash came from the brush to his right. The rest of the town who were chasing Pyro had appeared at just the wrong moment. This allowed for a distraction that the presumably terrified half-demon used as an opportunity to run once again. Everyone must’ve been exhausted from the previous chase because no one ran after him.
“Wow, Owen!” A light-hearted voice from his right spoke up. “First encounter with a vampire! I will say, much better than my first encounter!” Sausage commented, joyfully.
“But Pyro was a half-demon, surely?” Owen said without thinking.