Chapter Text
The silence had never been so loud as when they left the Spectral Lands.
It was the void that follows the last echo of a bell. Depthless and hollow. Settling like ash between clumps of petrified grass.
It clung to them like static as they dragged their battle-worn bodies back up the incline to where Wyldfyre had parked the Temple Bounty. Their steps grew heavy with the weight of it, but it couldn't stop the commotion from ringing in Arin's memory. Tortured wails of spectral dragonians. Ravenous crackling of chaos storms. The earth-shattering roar of an Arc dragon stirred from eternal slumber.
It was defeated, that primordial being of chaos and retribution. Punished and obliterated by beams of Focus energy, the spectral souls of the Forbidden Five dissipating into the mist, hopefully for the last time. But there was no joy in the triumph. No warmth in the sunbeams that broke through the ethereal cloud cover. The images were just too fresh.
At the front of the sombre procession, Wyldfyre led the way uphill. The static silence that could never have touched her seemed to crumble from her shoulders. Her dampened spirit set the tone.
Riyu's anxious warbles had long succumbed to it. Even Jay seemed to be feeling it, his steps sinking deeper into the marsh from Nya's unconscious weight. Nya, who had been cornered by the shock and passed out as the full cost of the battle had truly come into focus. Behind them, Sora walked with an arm around Lloyd, who looked as if he would not be standing without it. He had taken a nasty slash to the side in a battle Arin hadn't seen, and even through the thick strips Frak had torn from the hood of his gi, it was still bleeding badly. But Arin had known him long enough now to understand that it wasn't the physical pain that had him leaning so heavily on Sora's shoulder. It was so much worse than that.
Arin swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat and forced his gaze forward. He had known, the moment they had laid eyes on the spectral apparition of Thunderfang, that they were not going to leave this battle unscathed. The showdown in the First Realm had been a precursor. A fleeting glance in the mirror of fate. A glimpse of the price that would have to be paid all too soon. He just wished the cost weren't so obvious.
Far ahead of them, Frak had spurred the last remaining mech to a sprint. It was the one Arin had edged across the slim shadows of the Spectral Lands, and it had taken quite a beating when the spectral Nokt had sensed living movement. A blast of brute force had shattered the control panel, sent the soul egg flying, and consequently thrown an unnecessary wrench in their concise plan. The wires were still sparking and sputtering now, but it continued to function, and it was by far the fastest transport to the Bounty. Mechanical hands that had cupped the soul egg, bearing a much more precious burden.
"Kid," a voice came from behind him. Jay's voice, though Arin could not place the tone. He wanted to say it was more morose than usual, but he couldn't be sure. "Climb up and hoist the anchor. Most of us can't get up there."
Arin didn't want to climb up. Didn't want to rise to the waiting arms of reality. The battered mech had landed on the Bounty and turned just far enough that he could see it. Golden claws streaked red. Droplets that struck the railing and ran like tears. Kai's signature spikes, thoroughly rumpled and stiffened with blood.
He turned to gauge Jay's expression, for what reason he couldn't say. It was a mistake regardless. There was a distinct red-brown smear covering half his face, though Arin knew the blood wasn't his own. His stomach twisted at the sight, but he couldn't let his gaze drop an inch because that was where Nya was. Muscles slack. Head slumped in crook of the shoulder of a man who did not remember loving her. Face stained with tears that had crossed the divide of consciousness.
Arin wanted to protest but he had no voice, and they had no time. Mechanically, he scrambled up the anchor, through the hallways, to the control deck. His hands trembled as he hit the button to raise the anchor. They trembled as he steadied himself against the railing to make sure they were all on board. They trembled as he pushed off the railing to run below deck, as he reached out to help them into the ship. First Lloyd, whom Sora immediately began helping toward the stairs. Then Wyldfyre, who had apparently retained enough heat in her blood to snatch Nya away from Jay before the bounty hunter had a moment to react.
Jay opened his mouth to snap at her, but Frak skated around the corner from the hallway before he could.
"Kai?" Arin questioned, taking a half step toward the door in his last shred of hopeful anticipation.
Frak wiped the sleeve of his gi across his face. No one wanted to comment on the way that it stained his cheek red. "Alive," he breathed. "But barely. I've done what I can and I've sent a message to Zane and Pixal. They're going to meet us back at the Monastery, but we've gotta hurry."
Arin nodded. His hands were still trembling incessantly, so he clasped them tightly together. "Okay," he said, gaze darting around the room. It took him a moment to realise he was waiting for someone else to take the lead, and a further moment to see that no one was going to. Wyldfyre had sunken to the ground with Nya's head in her lap, her eyes cold as coals and fixed to the deck at her feet. Sora was halfway across the room, struggling under Lloyd's weight and pleading with him beneath her breath. Jay was leaning against the far wall, picking at the crescents of blood beneath his nails in distaste. And Frak... Frak was looking to Arin, fists bunched in his gi in an effort to hide his own shaking hands. There was expectation in that look. A weight so unfamiliar, so disproportionately present. Frak was waiting for orders. He was waiting for Arin to give those orders.
Arin's throat was uncomfortably dry. Any attempt to clear it only brought forth a pain as raw as if he had been screaming. Maybe he had. The time on the battlefield had blown by like leaves in a storm, faster than memory. Whatever pieces he could grasp were dulled by shock, and fragmented beyond recognition. For now, at least. Tonight, he knew, he would find those leaves scattered through his nightmares. They all would.
Frak hadn't let up, but still Arin couldn't speak. He didn't want the authority here. After everything he had done, he was the last person who should ever have the authority. But as the seconds went by and Frak's expectant look began crushing his chest, he took a breath. That creature of inferiority that thrived in his soul growled a warning, but he didn't have the luxury of feeding it. Not now. Not when Kai was clinging to life upstairs in the medbay. Not when Nya and Lloyd were out of commission. Not when the soul-shattered Jay Walker was the only other adult in the room.
"Okay," he said again, and cast around for the first plan he could think of. "Okay uh, Frak, do you know how to drive the ship?"
"How hard could it be?" Frak said.
Arin nodded. He kept nodding. "Do that. There should be navigation we can tap into. Set it on autopilot if you can. Um..." He spun on his heel, glancing from Nya to Lloyd and back to Nya. "Wyldfyre," he said, utterly unsure if the girl was in any state to even listen. "Is Nya -"
He was drowned out by a guttural cry of pain, poorly stifled, and coming from the direction of the stairs. Operating on pure adrenaline, Arin swung around to find that Lloyd had collapsed halfway up the stairs. Sora swore, loudly, and cold washed through Arin's veins when Lloyd did not even attempt to reprimand it. He was conscious, Arin noted with a needle-prick of relief, hand clutching his side and face contorted in pain he could not hide as Sora tried lifting him back to his feet.
Arin knew he should help. But the sight of his teacher so devoid of life sent a chill through his entire being, a frost so thick it rooted him to the ground. He reminded himself, harshly, that just a few weeks ago he had watched Lloyd's soul be ripped from his body. He had caught Lloyd's lifeless body out of the air. He had laid him down, hollow and still, dead on the ground in the First Land.
Lloyd had retained his life, this time. But there was more than one way to rip out a soul. And somehow, this was so much worse.
"Arin," Sora said, and the subtle spike in her tone suggested it wasn't the first time she had called for him. She didn't say anything further, and though she had managed to get Lloyd back to his feet, it was clear his weight was dragging her down.
Selfish as it was, Arin hesitated. He and Lloyd had both apologised in the Land of Lee, but they were far from okay. Arin had been so horrible to him for something that he had had no control over, then abandoned him twice, and then caused Sora to abandon him too. Sora, who had been ostracized by her homeland, neglected and abandoned by her parents. Sora, who had once admitted to Arin that Lloyd was probably the first genuinely positive adult influence she had known. That he was like the dad she had never had. Lloyd, who had rescued them and taken them in, saved their lives, come to their rescue more times than he could count, and just cared about them when nobody else had.
And how Arin had repaid that kindness.
Lloyd didn't hold it against him, he knew. He had made it abundantly clear that he never would. But that didn't burn out the guilt. That didn't make it any easier to bear whenever he was near.
Stop it, Arin chastised himself, and ran to help Sora. Night had fallen eternally in the Spectral Lands, and the only lantern in the room was low-lit, swinging haphazardly as the engines rumbled to life beneath them. In the shifting half-light, Arin hadn't noticed the blood leaking over the steps where Lloyd had initially collapsed. His steps quickened in panic the moment he did.
"Shit," he breathed, ducking beneath Lloyd's other arm.
"You shouldn't swear," came a voice from across the room behind him. Jay, having given up on his nails in favour of staring blankly at the opposite wall. The sentiment sounded unfinished, as if Jay wanted to add something more but had bitten it back.
"Don't tell him what to do." That was Wyldfyre, rising out of her misery just long enough to snarl at him. Her hands were bunched in the sleeve of Nya's gi, knuckles painfully white. They were still on the floor, Nya gray and unconscious, Wyldfyre nursing her temper like the last embers of a bonfire. "This was your fault," Wyldfyre snarled in Jay's direction. "If you had just done what you were told, he wouldn't have been hurt at all!"
Arin had been too far from that side of the battle to see for himself whether Wyldfyre's assessment of the situation was accurate, but that did explain the hostility with which she had taken Nya from Jay. After the last time they had defeated Thunderfang, Lloyd had predicted that the dragon would mercilessly target Arin in a bid for revenge, and, as per usual, he had been right. As consequence, he had told Arin to stay out of Thunderfang's sight, to slip between the husks of the Spectral buildings and plant the soul egg whilst the others provided distraction.
But Wyldfyre had been there, and Arin didn't doubt her point, or the validity of her fury. Sometimes Arin had to remember that Lloyd was her teacher, too.
"Hey, I don't take orders, and especially not from him," Jay sniped, kicking off the wall to match Wyldfyre's glare. "Greenie shouldn't have jumped in to save me when I didn't need saving."
"Didn't need saving?" Sora echoed incredulously. She and Arin had set Lloyd down where they were on the stairs, his weight falling heavily on Sora's shoulder. "Are you joking? You were hanging by your fingertips from the back of the shatter dragon!"
"I had everything under control," Jay snapped. "It's not my fault he panicked and jumped ship. Neurotic much. What a loser."
Arin rose to his feet in disbelief. Wyldfyre took a sharp breath. Her fingers unclenched from Nya's gi, fists erupting in flame.
"Wow," Frak said coldly, having reappeared in the doorway at some point with Riyu at his heels. "That's a really weird way to say thanks."
"Maybe you are as stupid as you look," Jay said, and thrust a finger in Lloyd's direction. "No doubt you get that from him. This guy has no one to blame but himself."
Arin flinched. It was still surreal, sometimes, to imagine that the person standing haughtily before him now had once been one of his greatest idols. The one famous for his freckles and quips, that lightning energy, and the fact that there wasn't a single photo of him out there where he wasn't grinning like an idiot. This same person, who had tracked him and Ras across the merged lands, who had brought their jet spiralling out of the sky, who had bashed Ras brutally against the dashboard and who had very nearly sent Arin to his death in the World Forest. This same person, who had swapped out quips for silence, grins for cheap balaclavas, lightning for control. The freckles were all that remained, the only parts of him that Arin could reconcile with that long lost legend. It was uncanny to think about it. Could a person really change this much?
"You're supposed to be a hero," Arin said through his teeth. "And that guy is supposed to be one of the closest friends you have ever had. You're supposed to be his brother. Not a liability. He jumped in to protect you because he loves you, and you're supposed to love him. He didn't want to lose you. The only loser here, is you."
Jay angled his glare toward Arin. "Green ninja," he spat. "Source Dragon Conduit. Grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master. All these damn titles. He only came to my aid to prove that he's better. He's a fucking demigod. He doesn't care about me, or any one of you and if he does, then he's even stupider than I imagined."
Sora's eyebrows dipped dangerously low. Wyldfyre growled a warning.
Arin recalled the day Lloyd had first saved him, when the Merge storm had flung him out of his front yard and buffeted him high into the air. He remembered the all-consuming terror, swiftly quelled with a blur of green, a bad joke, and steady ground beneath his feet. He recalled when he had first properly met Lloyd, how he had rescued them from Imperium before they had even realised just how much of a threat the place was, how he had taken them in, given them a room in the Monastery, and sat patiently through the thousands of questions that had come from Arin's hype. Sure, Arin and Lloyd had had their fair share of problems over the last couple years. But to hear this goodness-shattered phony wearing the face of his fourth favourite idol speak about Lloyd like that made the blood boil just beneath his skin. He took a step forward, but he wasn't entirely sure what he would have done if Frak hadn't spoken up.
"Before you insult Lloyd again," Frak said before Wyldfyre could find the strength to blast Jay through the wall, "We'll give you the chance to remember that your only company right now is four of his very well trained and fiercely loyal students."
Riyu nudged Frak's leg with an indignant squawk.
"My mistake," Frak said and crossed his arms. "Five."
Jay's eyes, devoid of any thoughts, took them all in with a single sweep across the half-lit room. The harsh set of Frak's jaw. The daggers in Arin's gaze. Sora's white-knuckled grip around Lloyd. The sputtering flames in Wyldfyre's fists. Riyu's bared teeth.
Jay was ruthlessly cold, but he wasn't stupid. He seemed to recognise the threat for what it was. "Whatever," he muttered, and started toward the stairs. He stepped past Nya - pale, bloodstained and still - without so much as a blink. He brushed past Arin on his way up the stairs, sparing a single glance toward Lloyd, who had fallen entirely against Sora's side. There was disquietude in that glance, and for a moment Arin could almost believe that he was actually worried. A notion that lasted only as long as it took for Jay to open his mouth.
"Don't let him die," Jay said, and turned on his heel to stalk above deck. "He hasn't paid me yet."