Conscious, Conscientious

Warmth. Comfort.

An airy softness surrounded Deon. He was numb, but blissfully so. His body was relaxed, his mind filling endlessly with love–which seemed to flow in from an external source.

Clearly, this was heaven. He must have died, but he hadn't the ability to worry about it.

Deon's senses lazily surfacing from the fuzziness, he recognized someone was wrapped around him in a soft embrace. Her heartbeat's steady rhythm thumped in his head.

He smiled.

"Skrili…you know…we should do stuff like this more often…" he mumbled.

The lightest-hearted of giggles tickled his ear. The embrace lifted off of him, but a soft hand remained on his shoulder.

That voice wasn't Skrili's.

Confusion finally inspired Deon's eyelids to lift. The blur took a moment to subside.

He indeed found a cute face peering down at him, but it wasn't the one he was expecting.

Her round red eyes sparkled with a hint of green mixed in. Kotono’s mouth curled into an amused but mostly vindicated smile, as if he'd just confirmed a personal suspicion.

"You should really tell her that," she encouraged meltingly.

"Uh…what?" Deon mumbled. "Kotono? What are you doing?"

"Healing you. You could have died if I didn't," she replied as if it were obvious.

Her words shocked Deon back to reality.

That man…Wei…

How was he that powerful with such little effort?

Not to mention Irma and Benton…How were they all that powerful?

The last thing he felt was his entire stomach crushing in. Wei had done something to defeat him so swiftly, with such ease while Deon was at his strongest, and he didn't even understand what it was.

His senses improving, Deon finally noticed the green hue glowing from Kotono's body to his continuously. The dark fabric of a tent was above her.

He looked at her hand on his shoulder for a moment, and then back to her as she squatted over him closely. Deon tried to hold back a blush.

But apparently his reaction wasn't very subtle.

"I–uh…I have to hug or touch you to heal you best. Or at least I think so…I've only done this a couple times since the championship…it happens when I feel scared for someone else, and guilty and…" Kotono stuttered rushingly. "Well…P–please don't get the wrong idea. I don't even go that way…"

Heart growing warm, Deon smiled to dispel her concern. "Thank you, Kotono," he said. "Now I owe you big."

Kotono returned an endearing smile. "No you don't…I'm just happy you made it," she said. "Skrili took a lot longer. She was even worse off…she a–almost did die."

Deon's mind replayed his teammate's body bashing repeatedly against the concrete, and then falling motionless into his arms.

There had been blood dripping from her head.

"Wait–Skrili!" he cried, now too frantic for even the healing powers to quell. Kotono almost lost grip and balance as he turned to search for her.

"C–careful!" Kotono requested.

"But is she–"

Just beside him, Deon found the relief to his anxiety.

Skrili slept soundly on the grass floor, her body and face towards him as if she'd been watching him carefully before drifting off. Aside from frayed clothes, she no longer showed a single sign of injury.

"I healed her before everyone. It was the biggest emergency," Kotono said, her voice soothing as she repositioned her healing touch. "She woke up pretty healing-drunk and went outside to chat with Hiroko."

Again, Deon smiled as he watched her rest. "Yeah. The whole healing thing really does that to her…" he chuckled.

"Hiroko gave her some snacks to help sober her up. Then she came back in to make sure you were gonna be okay," continued Kotono. "She refused to leave you alone. But she's still recovering too, so I'm glad she fell back asleep."

Deon placed a hand on Skrili’s head gently. His serene smile gradually sunk away.

I didn't keep my promise, he recalled. I didn't protect her.

"I'll kill this one. See? I'm participating," Wei had said.

She was just a minor nuisance to him.

They all were.

"Wait…what happened? How did we get away? How long has it been?" Deon pressed.

Kotono shuddered, her green aura flickering red for just an instant. Deon felt the healing cut off briefly and then resume.

"We're outside the capital walls again, somewhere back in the field," she explained. "That man, Wei, brought everything to a pause after he stopped you. None of us could move…he had us all pinned in place with some sort of power. Then he just…made us all float away. We landed in the field a few minutes later. My powers went green, so I rushed to start healing. It's been almost a full day, I think."

"What?! Why did he just let us off the hook?" Deon wondered.

"W–well…it seems like he's serious about his offer to you," Kotono said.

"Offer?"

"Hey, kid. Wanna join Proscious?"

In his heightened fit of rage, Deon had dismissed those words as a passing tease. He'd only cared about killing Wei for what he'd done to Skrili, and to keep him from doing it to anyone else.

But apparently, Wei meant it. He wanted Deon to join his overpowered group of bullies, 'Proscious…' whatever that entailed. He was even willing to abandon their entire purpose in Azvaylen, and fake Zayza and Lammy's deaths to give them back safely.

Just what about Deon joining his group was so significant that it overrode whatever they were trying to accomplish here?

Deon had way too many questions for a still-foggy mind, but he already had at least one answer:

"Ha. Yeah, right. Why the heck would I join them? They're the ones hurting everyone we love!"

He eyed the slim opening in the tent.

"Speaking of that…" he growled.

Against Kotono's insistence, Deon rushed to his feet. But instantly, everything spun and contorted in his vision and ears. The ground seemed to rise up and meet him.

Recovering woozily, he found himself on the ground again, back in Kotono's arms.

"S–sorry Deon, you have to wait," she pleaded. "The healing effects take time to wear off."

Deon gritted his teeth, but he couldn't protest as Kotono guided him back into a lying position.

"It's just like the TeamTrack healing app, so it affects everyone differently," Kotono shared. "Hiroko gets really grumpy. She says I get all philosophical for some reason. You just have to give it time before you try going back to face him."

"We don't have time," Deon stressed.

Kotono's face alone said all he needed to hear. He fell silent and didn't try to move again.

He could tell she wanted to storm back to the castle just as badly as him, but it was an impossible ambition right now. Deon and Skrili were in no position to put up the fight of their lives.

Even powered up, they were no match for Wei. And Kotono, Hiroko, and Phillip were barely a match for Irma and Benton.

Despite their sheer passion and strength, this group–Proscious–had humiliated them.

The healing sensation vanished from Deon's body as Kotono removed her hand and stood. The numbness subsiding, he felt intact from head to toe.

"P–Please, try to rest for now," Kotono urged. "Wei told you to come back to him in two days with your choice. That buys us a little time."

Right…two days, Deon remembered. Does he really think I'll change my mind by then? He must seriously believe our odds against him are that hopeless.

Wei's casual smile haunted Deon's mind as he tried to block out more returning memories of Skrili's twisted and battered body.

Maybe he's right.

But screw him.

Regardless of Wei's reasoning, this window of reprieve gave them a free opportunity to recalibrate before death would threaten their friends again. Even if Deon's confidence was uncertain at best, they had to take this chance.

"O–okay, Deon?"

He observed Kotono as she stood there checking on him for a moment. He couldn't help but admire her. Despite being so dainty and gentle, when pressured enough, she had the ability to entirely destroy, or entirely restore. It was wrath and creation wrapped in one.

Her power was almost godlike.

"Fine, yeah, I'll wait…" Deon agreed, "only on one condition, though."

"Hm?"

"You have to go rest, too," he insisted. "You said it's been a full day? That means you spent this whole time saving our butts. Go take care of yourself, too."

A weak smile pushed her dimples. "I'll try," she said. "And…we'll find a way…t–to beat them."

With that, Kotono exited the tent. Deon caught a glimpse of the evening sky outside, which looked drearier in this reality than any other he'd seen.

Then, he and Skrili were alone.

He turned his head to her again.

Our first fight after Skip's training, and we almost get killed, he thought.

Everything felt heavy.

What would Skip say? How do we beat a bunch of murderers with impossibly strong consciousness powers–and with multiple consciousness powers?

Wait…

Unusually strong consciousness powers. Multiple types in one person.

Skip.

Suddenly, Deon felt even heavier.

It's them.

Those 'wrong eyes.'

Not even a day after leaving, Deon and Skrili found the very people Skip warned them to stay away from at all costs.

And now they were threatening Deon, with the blood of his cousin, to join them.

~~~

Lammy stared at the bulky chains wrapped around the gate to his cell. He doubted even Raznizu's sharpest knife could carve through them.

Then there was the even deadlier problem just beyond the cells. If Layla's magic worked, they'd still have to somehow slip past every member of Proscious, and every royal guard. Was this escape really possible?

"The gates will just…unlock?" Lammy checked.

Layla's projection nodded. "All of our cell doors will open at some point. I enchanted them so even if I ended up locked in here with you, we could still escape without exterior assistance."

Lammy's attempt at wrapping his mind around this foreign ability must have been written all over his face.

"The enchantments are based in manipulation of the written-word," Layla clarified, taking on an informative tone odd for someone their age. "Our native language holds innate magical ability within the Lanmuraarch reality. But it's ever-evolving."

This girl really thought of everything, thought Lammy, appreciating her patience with his inexperience. And I thought I was a good strategist…maybe there really is a chance.

The separated group all glanced at their own cell doors, awaiting the slightest hint of them opening, but nothing changed. All Lammy could hope was that nobody would come back to interrogate them when it happened–especially if the unlocking process proved obvious whenever it were to occur.

If timing was on their side, this could work.

But if they failed, Deon and Skrili were still on the way. He knew it.

He watched them give everything to try and reach him and Zayza before Najinzu snatched them in Fiction Country. They wouldn't simply give up; Deon was far too stubborn, and far too protective.

Lammy could only guess how much stronger Deon was by now after all this time in the Multiverse. Surely his ability would be an even match for Proscious, especially with a finalist like Skrili on his side.

Perhaps Hiroko and Kotono were still doing all they could to save them, too.

Help was coming. And it was the best help Lammy could hope for.

"When did you learn all of this complex enchanting?" Zayza asked her sister in amazement. "I couldn't manage anything nearly this complex."

"Once you started telling me about your suspicions of Proscious," Layla said. "I studied with the Master Enchanter, but didn't tell him my reasonings. Now that I’ve unveiled my intents…I'm sure Proscious will kill him to weaken my resolve."

Her fingers squeezed at her dress as a shaky frown formed, full of mourning and fury.

"That's who Proscious really is," she murmured unsteadily. "And there will be others…innocent people who have assisted me without knowing…They will die as punishment for my resistance."

"Layla…you can't save everyone, no matter how hard you try," came Zayza's voice softly. Her eyes stared into something unseen. "Believe me."

The others fell silent. They knew the tragic truth backing her words.

Eventually, Raznizu shifted.

"Zayza is right, my Queen," he assured. "You've done unbelievably well, bringing nothing but honor to your royal bloodline. You've prepared our next move, so now, we wait."

Everyone nodded. But Lammy noticed Layla's gaze linger on Zayza after her last words, eyes practically reaching out. There was a reluctance keeping her from speaking whatever she clearly wanted to say.

Thanks to months of traveling alone with Zayza, he was certain Layla was holding back a question. Her face was remarkably similar to her sister's, even down to the slightest mannerisms.

But he turned away, realizing he'd probably been staring too long. This was between them.

"So…you really did do it, then," Layla's voice finally echoed.

She didn't elaborate, but she didn't need to. And while Zayza didn't respond, her eyes now fixated on the filthy cell floor, Layla knew the answer.

"Did…did they suffer?" came Layla's voice. "Daddy, Mommy, and Vayva…did they suffer long?"

Her sister couldn't bear to return eye contact. A sigh escaped her, but it turned into more of an empty sob. Tears forced their way down Zayza's cheeks.

“I wish I could say ‘no,’” Zayza muttered, “without lying.”

Layla's own sobs began. Raznizu leaned toward both of their projections, as if to embrace them, until he remembered they were all in entirely different places.

"Ever since my memories returned, I haven't stopped hearing their screams and their begging for death. Now…I understand why I tried to forget it all," Zayza struggled out. "When I saw you in the balcony, Layla, and thought Proscious had claimed you too, it crushed everything left in me. Because…I knew what was going to happen to you. I've seen it."

Lammy’s fists clenched so hard he thought his skin might split. He didn’t want to speak or react—this was between two sisters who had lost their entire family. But he couldn’t hold it back. His love for his companion made it impossible.

He was disgusted.

“How…” he uttered, his head shaking as if in attempt to ward off their suffering. “How could Proscious do this? WHY? They’ve hurt and taken everyone from you…just to get your Dreamer powers??”

"They seek access, and authority, over our powers," Layla confirmed solemnly.

“That can’t justify all they’ve done,” denied Lammy, his head still shaking. “It just…can’t.”

“You’re right,” Layla agreed quietly, “But…we don’t know anything beyond that.”

“Actually, we do. I do.”

Everyone looked to Zayza. Her expression was pointed yet contemplative, about to elaborate to her now curious listeners.

Then abruptly, her eyes jumped to what Lammy assumed was her cell's gate.

Is…is something happening over there? he worried.

But the Princess’s focus returned to the projections of her three companions, now even more determined than before.

Her mouth opened.

"I discovered evidence of Proscious's deeper motives just before I tried one more time to save our family," Zayza revealed out loud.

"Zayza, princess," Raznizu quickly intervened. "You're speaking with your mouth now, not just through the magic…"

"I don't care if someone hears me. They need to understand," Zayza said flatly, defiance in her eyes. "I'm not running away from this anymore."

She glanced over at her cell gate again, as if she'd addressed everyone beyond it.

Layla shifted her weight, her eyes widening. "You…uncovered their purpose?" Layla repeated. "Then…what is it?"

"They don't merely want our powers," said Zayza. "They want to use them…to create something far worse."