The 'place the Origin is first recorded being' is deep, deep into some wilderness. Rowan parked the Jeep on the side of the road, and notified Dew that they'd have to hike the rest of the way. Dew was less than pleased, and the hike was about twenty minutes of uneventful walking and dodging branches until they finally came to a small clearing.

It doesn't take long for Dew to notice that there is only one direction this could be going, and that's into the massive spooky cave right there.

He's proven right when Rowan begins making his way in the direction of said spooky cave.

"Hang on," Dew immediately objects, "we aren't really going in there, right?"

Rowan stops, and turns to look at Dew. "Yes we are, is that going to be a problem?"

Dew blinks, then walks the few paces to catch up with Rowan. For some reason he doesn't want to make a lot of noise. "Are you crazy?!" He whisper yells, once he's within two feet of the man. "What if there's a bear in there?!"

"There's not."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

Dew leans forward a bit, keeping his voice down. Rowan doesn't move away, which leads to the two of them being only a few inches apart. "I don't like this, Captain Rowan. This place is spooky."

Rowan just responds, "it's fine. Trust me."

Dew examines the man's face. The freckles on his nose, the birthmark on his neck, the mole on his cheek. The stupid goddamn sunglasses. His face is so angular and symmetrical, it's almost off putting. After a moment, Dew finally gives in.

"Whatever." He responds, feeling his cheeks color a bit, for no reason. Sorry, but he plans to stick very close to the captain.

The two make their way inside, and Rowan pulls out a flashlight. He lights up the way as the two of them make their way deeper and deeper into the place. After a few minutes, the cave ends. Dew frowns, and examines the area. It's not very grassy, mostly just dirt and sticks. There are a few rocks and such, but it's otherwise a pretty clean cave.

Dew looks around, wondering if this is where the Origin came from. The sky lit up when the abnormalities appeared, so how would that happen if the Origin was in this cave?

Dew's eyes wander around the cave, and he finds Rowan pressing his hands against the slightly moist walls. He seems to be feeling around for something in particular.

One thing that catches Dew's attention, though, is this subtle beeping sound. It seems to be coming from somewhere in the cave, and Dew can't help but to wonder what that is. How are there man made objects in here? This deep in the woods?

Suddenly, a loud crack catches Dew's attention. He looks up and finds that Rowan has his hands on a portion of the wall. Except, he's pushing it in. It also appears to have some sort of glowing orange outline to it. Rowan pushes it in further, and suddenly it clicks in place.

Then, the ground gives out from underneath them.

Well, it doesn't really give out, per se. More like it just gives, and suddenly Dew falls and slides down the portion of the floor that just dipped. It's at a slant, and when Dew finally reaches the bottom, he finds that he's in a whole new room. Not only that, but the beeping is considerably louder.

Dew looks up, and finds Rowan just simply walking down the now slanted floor. He continues until he finally reaches Dew's side. Then, he holds out his hand to help Dew up. Dew takes it, and almost pulls his hand away at how hot Rowan's hand is. Like, it's hot. Hot enough that when Dew is finally on his feet, and he pulls his hand away, there is still a dull stinging.

Damn.

Dew looks around the little cavern that they found, and notices something in the very middle of it. It's a pile of something. At first, Dew thought they were leaves, but as he advances on it, he finds that he was wrong.

No. That's a pile of ashes. Huh.

Dew frowns, finding the rest of the cavern spotless. It's all just smooth, glowing rock.

"Well, what do you think happened to the Origin?" Rowan inquires.

Dew looks up, and finds the man just standing there, staring at him.

Dew honestly has no idea what to make of this. Why is there just a pile of ash in the middle of the floor? Why is there some sort of secret passageway—that Rowan somehow knew—to get here? How does this place somehow seem so... strangely... magical?

Rowan, suddenly, walks towards the middle of the cavern. Then, he starts to shuffle through the ashes.

Ew.

"What are you doing?" Dew asks, and Rowan doesn't answer him.

Dew just watches him, until minutes later when Rowan doesn't find what he's looking for. Then, he begins examining the walls of the cavern. He starts pressing his hands against the stone, much like he'd been doing before the floor opened up.

"I don't know, this doesn't give me a lot of information." Dew answers his earlier question. "It's just a cave and some ashes. Maybe something burned in here?"

But the question is what burned?

Suddenly, another click, in the direction that the beeping is coming from. Rowan presses into another part of the wall, and slides a piece of it out of the way. It reveals a small hole behind it, and then the beeping starts to speed up.

The next events happen so fast, that Dew can hardly even comprehend them minutes afterwards.

"Dew! Get down!" Rowan shouts, turning around and running at him.

Rowan grabs Dew, completely wrapping the empath's body in his own. Dew feels something soft brush his cheek, as a loud explosion rings throughout the cave.

Dew sees the entire place get lit up, and the air gets overwhelmingly hot as the two are propelled upwards and through the air. They sail all throughout the area they just covered, before finally landing on the grass right outside the cave. Dew just clenches his eyes, allowing Rowan to shield him.

Wait... Rowan! He just... he just got burnt alive!

Dew stumbles back, the Captain falling from where he'd previously huddled himself over Dew. Dew is almost afraid to look at the other man. To his shock, though, he finds Rowan in perfect condition. Yeah, there isn't a single burn on him. He looks just fine, laying there... unconscious.

Holy shit. How did that even happen? How is the Captain not burnt to a crisp right now? What in the world?

Dew is so unbelievably confused, pulse still through the roof. The adrenaline in him from the previous events hasn't died down, and it probably won't for a few minutes.

Dew leans over the Captain, who is lying flat on the ground. He pats the man's cheek, no response. Wow, his skin feels like it's on fire. Well, it was.

Dew frowns, shaking the captain's arm, to no avail. He's not used to waking people up, ever, so this is unfamiliar territory. He spends a good few minutes just staring at the Captain, waiting for him to wake up, before he finally realizes what he needs to do.

Dew half-straddles Rowan, then pulls back his hand, and slaps Rowan across the face. Hard.

That does the trick. Rowan suddenly jumps, and it's difficult to tell through his sunglasses (which somehow remained on through all that) but Dew is pretty sure his eyes open. Then, before he knows it, their positions are reversed and Dew is being pinned to the ground.

Dew eyes widen, staring at Rowan's lack of expression as the man crouches above him, keeping Dew's hands pinned above his head with one hand as he holds... a gun... under Dew's chin. Dew, in turn, is frozen in fear.

"...Rowan?" Dew asks hesitantly.

It takes a few moments, but Rowan finally lets go of him. He takes a few steps away, putting his gun back in the holster. Then he finally catches sight of the cave. It has now completely caved in, leaving no room for the two of them to go back inside anymore during this trip.

"Fuck!" Rowan shouts, and that's about the most emotion that Dew has seen on his face. Rowan begins to pace back and forth, running a hand through his hair as he swears.

"God dammit. This close... Fuck!"

Suddenly, Dew gets the sensation that the two of them didn't have the same reason for coming here.

Dew slowly gets up, watching Rowan pace and just generally be stressed. After a few minutes, the Captain finally stops, eyes landing on Dew.

"Come on. It's time to go." He states, brushing past Dew and leading the way through the forest, back in the direction of their jeep. Dew just follows him without really thinking about it, remaining silent as the two of them reach the Jeep twenty minutes later.

Rowan gets in the drivers seat and Dew in the passenger seat, and they drive the whole two hours back to their hotel. There isn't a single word said, as the two pull up to the hotel.

Rowan leads the way back inside, and as soon has they enter their room he goes and brushes his teeth and washes his face. Dew just sits on his bed the whole time, watching as Rowan finishes in the bathroom and comes back out. It isn't until Rowan is changing, though, that Dew finally snaps.

He's been spending this whole trip trying not to look too deep into what Rowan does, because he didn't want to make anything into a big deal. He's had enough, though. Shit about Rowan just doesn't fucking add up and Dew is at his breaking point.

He stands up from where he was siting, watching as Rowan turns away from him, shirtless. Dew takes in the tattoo of wings that take up the entirety of the man's back, before he goes the fuck off.

"That's it! I've had enough!" Dew shouts, and watches as Rowan turns to look at him in confusion. "What the fuck is with you? What just happened? You should be burnt to a fucking crisp! You should... you... what the fuck?"

Then, Rowan begins to walk towards him. "What?"

Dew is shaking, that's how upset he is. "What the fuck aren't you telling me, Rowan? What the hell happened back there? No, that's it. Tell me the real goddamn reason you brought me here. Now."

Rowan stops a few feet from Dew. "It doesn't matter. We didn't find anything, and we're going back tomorrow."

That does nothing to ease Dew's rage. "What? Why?!"

"There's nothing left for us to do here."

You know what? Whatever. That's not the point.

"There's something off with you, Rowan Lux. There's something seriously wrong here. You're weird. You're strange. You don't make sense—and it's driving me fucking crazy. I want answers!"

"I think you need to lie down." Rowan says, and begins reaching out to Dew. Dew just slaps his hand away.

"No! Why the fuck aren't you a block of goddamn coal right now? Why did we come here? Why do you act so boring all the fucking time and why, why can't I feel your emotions?"

Well, here we go. Guess that's out there, now.

"You can't empathize with me?" Rowan clarifies, brows furrowed in thought.

"That's not the fucking point, is it?!" Dew shouts. "Answer me! Why?!"

Rowan sighs, examining him for a while. "I think it's best you let this one go."

"No. We're coworkers, right? I have the right to get some answers."

"There are no answers." Rowan replies, beginning to turn back around. "Just go to sleep."

Dew reaches out and grabs Rowan's (insanely muscular, what the hell?) arm, pulling the man backward towards himself. This seems to snap something in the Captain, as Rowan spins around and slams Dew flat against the wall. He pins Dew against it, hands grabbing his wrists as he stares down at Dew disapprovingly. There is at least a good foot's difference between the two of them, and Dew is 5'9", so...

"You should mind your business, Mr. Price."

Great, now they're back to Mr. Price. One step forward and two steps back with this guy, huh?

"And why," Dew growls, "do you wear those fucking sunglasses all the time?"

"Why do you wear compression sleeves on your arms?" Rowan fires back, and that causes Dew to halt. Man, this guy has a point. Maybe Dew shouldn't be so demanding, because it's not like Dew wants to answer that question.

You know what? Fuck it. If it gets him answers...

Dew hysterically laughs. "Really? Okay, fine. But you have to answer my questions."

"I'll show you my eyes, how about that?"

You know what? Fuck it. Dew is starting to get the sense that that's about all he's going to get from Rowan tonight. It's better than nothing.

"Fine."

Rowan lets go of Dew's wrists, and he probably expects Dew to actually show him the scars. Dew is not particularly keen on that, though, as he keeps his arms covered.

"I tried to kill myself," Dew states. Rowan raises his eyebrows.

See, Dew doesn't like to tell people because they always get this look of pity on their faces. They walk on eggshells around him like he'll break any minute. Rowan, though, seems to take it in stride, as the only way he responds is;

"Why?"

Dew shrugs, wanting to get off this topic. "I just got sick of feeling so much. All the time. But it was a long time ago and I have Spikes and my art so I'm fine."

I few moments of silence go by, and Dew can't tell what Rowan is thinking. He has a furrow to his brow, like he wants to ask more questions. That's the last thing Dew needs, so he says;

"Now let me see your eyes."

Rowan nods, expecting this, then reaches up and removes his glasses. Then, he looks back up, eyes on Dew.

Dew almost does a double take.

Rowan's eyes are black. For a moment, Dew thinks that it's the whole socket, but then Rowan looks to the side, and Dew realizes that his eyes are just really big. His pupils blend in with the iris, that's how jet black they are. It seems at though his irises are just twice the size of a normal human's.

Then, they shrink a bit. It's then that Dew realizes, Rowan can control the size of his iris.

Dew can't help but to stare into them, feeling almost hypnotized.

"So... you're abnormal."

Rowan doesn't give him an answer, just responds. "You should go to bed," before turning around and walking away.

Dew blinks, staring after him as the man turns his lamp off and gets into his bed.

Dew doesn't even draw that night, too shocked by everything that happened. He just nods his head, doesn't even brush his teeth or anything, and gets in bed. He just stares at the ceiling for hours, thinking about the events of the day, before exhaustion hits him and he finally loses consciousness.