A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

"Of course," He said but his voice wheezed ever so slightly, "To prove it to you, we'll go on ahead!"

Tony nudged his horse hard with the spurs of his boots and they galloped, leaping over the down and prone horses that Henry had decided to spare and over the green mist that would have paralyzed them to get back on the road and find their way back to the Hadron Mansion.

Despite the Healing Potion, Tony still looked like he was flitting in and out of consciousness, so his ability to ride was slightly surprising. He directed his horse properly on what path to take (which was easier to do now that they were not being chased) and stayed on horseback so well, that he was hardly swayed by the gallops.

Henry and Nyx caught up quickly enough and they made their way back together.

"Morgan, huh?" Tony said suddenly.

"What?" Henry asked.

"Back— Back there, you introduced yourself to them as 'Henry Morgan'… I've just *wheezes* I've just never heard you call yourself that name before."

'Of course you haven't,' Henry thought, 'The Henry of this world didn't have it.'

"You should save your strength," Henry told him, "We'll be at the mansion soon. Yelena will patch you up."

"Ah, I doubt I'll make it," Tony said.

"You will," Henry said confidently.

'The Healing Potion should be enough for the ride,' he added in his mind, and then something dawned on him;

He had been thinking of Tony's situation like he thought of his own.

Healing Potions for Henry were emergency kits to keep his Hit Points up but that was not the same for everyone else. Everyone else bleeds out and remains in constant pain for as long as they have their injuries.

"Tony, here!" Henry said suddenly and held out another Healing Potion.

Tony eyed it,

"What— What for?" He asked.

"To help you," Henry said.

"You already gave me one," Tony said with a sad smile, "You should save the rest for yourself."

"No," Henry insisted, "You need it."

Tony just eyed the potion for a few seconds before he nodded and took it,

"Thank you," he said and he drank it.

Again, he seemed rejuvenated. His skin became more rosy but as Henry watched, it quickly became pale again.

'No,' Henry realized. The Healing of the potion wasn't keeping up with the Blood loss.

Tony noticed the look on Henry's face and smiled,

"You can tell, can't you?" He said slowly, "It's not working all that well."

"No, you just haven't drunk enough," Henry said and held out a third Healing Potion.

"Don't waste that stuff," Tony said, shaking his head.

"Drink it!" Henry insisted.

Tony eyed him for a few seconds and then took the Potion and drank it.

The effect was the same. A brief betterment of his symptoms before it got worse again.

His shirt which was already red with his blood, got even redder as the bloodstain got wider. His wounds were still bleeding and the worst of them, Henry could gather, were internal.

"See?" Tony said with a sad chuckle, "I told you not to waste it."

"I have another," Henry said and pulled out a Fourth Health Potion.

"There's no use," Tony said.

Henry kept the potion held out and only pulled it back when he realized Tony was truly not going to take it from him. To learn how ineffective Elminster's Healing Potions actually were and to learn them now… Henry wasn't sure how to feel.

"You'll be fine," he said confidently, "The Potions will hold till we get back to the Mansion. To Yelena.

Tony laughed,

"Liar," he said with a kind smile, "You— You know already."

Henry said nothing.

He did know.

Tony laughed again and coughed blood onto the back of his horse's neck. He wiped excess blood off the corner of his mouth as he said to Henry,

"Well, if this is the last conversation we're ever going to have… I gotta ask, Morgan? Really?

That was the best you could do for a made-up last name. You had the chance to pick something cooler there. In case they lived to tell the tale.

Something cooler like— like Shadowhawk or something."

"I didn't make it up," Henry said quietly, "It was my father's name."

"Oh," Tony said, "I didn't know you had a Father."

The history Tony and the rest of the Gang had learned about Henry was about how he was kicked out of an orphanage. Nothing in that story had ever hinted at him having parents. Not parents he had ever known, at least.

"Yeah, I don't talk about him much," Henry said but what he actually meant was, that the Henry of this world never talked about his parents because he never knew them.

He, Henry Morgan, in his past life, had known his Parents and had lived with them years before the start of his life of crime.

Tony managed to clear his throat which only brought more blood to his mouth,

"Well, you can forgive a dying man for being insensitive, can't you?"

"Sure," Henry told him with a small smile, "But you're not dying."

"Bah! It's not tasteful to give a dying man false hope," Tony let out and grinned a bloody grin.

"Correction, It's ALWAYS tasteful to give a dying man false hope," Henry said.

"You admitted I was dying there," Tony said quietly.

Henry bowed his head,

"A slip of the tongue."

"Ha," Tony let out and in a laugh, "It was a pleasure knowing you, Henry Morgan."

Henry paused and said nothing for a minute and then nodded,

"It was a pleasure knowing you too. Tony Shadowhawk."

Tony chuckled in appreciation of the name and leaned against his horse as he whispered,

"See how much cooler it sounds? Well, I'm— I'm going to rest now…"

They were closer to the Hadron Mansion now when Tony closed his eyes, slipped off into a slumber, and went silent.

•••

—Ten Minutes Later—

Henry directed Nyx to cross the threshold into the Hadron Mansion courtyard, and spent a few seconds stunned at the sheer number of tents pegged down all over until he remembered the Gang's numbers had swelled in the past week.

Angus hadn't gone the Doran Langlot route by having them separate into different bases for convenience. He didn't seem to think it was necessary.

Despite the new faces all around, Henry was able to spot the actual members, at least the ones he had grown used to.

Charles, Devon, and Dana had their arms folded as their eyes surveyed the cluttered courtyard while talking among themselves but whatever they were discussing took a sudden pause when they spotted Henry's black horse trot in.

When Henry got down from Nyx's back, they had already hurried over,

"What happened?" Dana asked her eyes going from Henry's bullet-holed body to Tony's bleeding one.

"We need to get him to Yelena," Charles said as he calmed Tony's horse to stop moving and made to get Tony off its back.

"It's no use," Henry said quietly. He had had minutes to let the thought of it settle and marinate so he knew for sure and decided he might as well spare the others from fussing over a dead man they had no chance of bringing back to life,

"He's gone."