Bills ran. He tore down the shore, bounded up on the rock, and dove into the air. The warm water engulfed him. A boiling heat knocked the wind from his lungs. The shock alone might kill him. But it was pleasure that surged through his body, not pain. The sensations coursed through his bones in great unrelenting waves. Lyon. How he was certain, he did not know. But he knew. Lyon was in this lake with him. Bills opened his eyes. Gold light drifted by. He lost all sense of direction. The water pressed in on every inch of his body, as intense as any acid, but one that burned with pleasure instead of pain. He sank into the water, opened his mouth and laughed. He wanted more, much more. Furthermore, he wanted to suck the water in and drink it. Without thinking, he did just that. The liquid hit his lungs. Bills pulled up, panicked. He tried to hack the water from his lungs, but inhaled more instead. No pain. He carefully sucked more water and breathed it out slowly. Then again, deep and hard. Out with a soft whoosh. He was breathing the water! Bills shrieked with laughter. He swam into the lake, deeper and deeper. The power contained in this lake was far greater than anything he'd ever imagined. "I made this, Bills." Bills whipped his body around, searching for the words' source. "Lyon?" His voice was muffled, hardly a voice at all. "Do you like it?" "Yes!" Bills said. He might have spoken; he might have shouted--he didn't know. He only knew that his whole body screamed it. Bills looked around. "Lyon?" "Why do you doubt me, Bills?" In that single moment the full weight of Bills's foolishness crashed on him like a sledgehammer. "I see you, Bills." "I made you." "I love you." The words crashed over him, reaching into the deepest folds of his flesh, caressing each hidden synapse, flowing through every vein, as though he had been given a transfusion. "I choose you, Bills." Bills began to weep. The feeling was more intense than any pain he had ever felt. The current pulled at him, tugging him up through the colors. His body trembled with pleasure. He wanted to speak, to yell, to tell the whole world that he was the most fortunate person in the universe. That he was loved by Lyon. Lyon himself. "Never leave me, Bills." "Never! I will never leave you." The current pushed him through the water and then above the surface not ten meters from the shore. He stood on the sandy bottom. For a moment he had such clarity of mind that he was sure he could understand the very fabric of space if he put his mind to it. He was chosen. He was loved.

Renegade