“How dare you,” Feather seethed, glowing particles of energy amassing in his open palms, swarming over his arms and along his shoulders as he stepped further through the broken glass, passing Kya in her dazed condition to corner the two scientists he’d blasted with fury in his eyes. Who did they think they were, experimenting on and endangering his companion like that? Had Cirrus let this happen?
It wasn’t until he felt a familiar, comforting hand on his back and a nervous laugh did he turn around to see Leocadies, the man stepping in front of him to shield the two cowering scientists while he took hold of Feather’s shoulders. “Hey, hey! It’s alright, boss! I gave them permission, it was necessary.”
“And what exactly was necessary about it?” he glared in return, Cirrus watching with anxiety no matter how unphased Leo seemed.
Feather wouldn’t actually attack him, would he? He’d always seemed generally protective over his teammates, treating them both like his family. But Cirrus saw how incredibly angry he seemed, and could only watch, barely hiding his nerves as Leo kept rubbing Feather’s shoulders while explaining what had happened while he was unconscious. “Kya was telling us about those leeches you guys encountered, and how they didn’t work on you. But apparently, Kallan went on an expedition and brought a bunch back, so we were going to try and sample some of the black blood circulating Kya’s body to see if it would match the leeches we found. They really weren’t trying to hurt her, and I think it’d be valuable knowledge if we could learn more about it, yeah?” he smiled, everyone in the room watching Feather process that information with wariness.
But it was pretty simple to guess what was on most people’s minds. Cirrus had never heard of unbreakable glass being broken so easily. It was referred to as unbreakable for a reason, and that was because almost nothing could break it. And he could only imagine the fear these scientists must be feeling to see a wall that was supposed to keep them safe shattered into pieces so easily. It stirred something in Cirrus’ gut, and he felt truly amazed with everything Feather could do. Though, of course, he could also imagine how scary he must appear to others, with his volatile personality that only ever acted on his whims…
Though, luckily, Feather seemed to listen to Leo, and he merely shook his hand off before kneeling down to step in front of Kya. She looked confused on the ground, hands rubbing under her mouth where her gums were, as if she were still getting used to having normal teeth again. And Feather brushed a gentle hand over her ruined hair, restoring the patches that had fallen out with a graceful touch as Kya stared at him.
“I’m… okay?” she mumbled, almost questioning herself as her hands moved to her head, touching her cheeks and caressing her own hair that was now perfectly silky and smooth as Feather smiled at her.
“You are! Everything’s okay now! You’re welcome,” he grinned cheekily, Kya’s red eyes shifting into one of recognition before she smiled as well, an airy laugh escaping her as her entire body seemed to relax.
“Yeah. Thanks,” she sighed, taking Feather’s hands as he helped lift her to her feet, Leo shifting his gaze towards the broken glass as they all moved away from it. The scientists were quickly picking up their things and samples of blood and moving to hide behind Cirrus, as if they were expecting him to do something to protect them, but Leo just kept squinting at the broken glass with tired orange eyes full of remorse.
“Uh, Cirrus, will we have to repair that ourselves?” the lion-like man asked the prince, looking entirely worried as he began fumbling with his pockets. “Kya, do we have enough money for that?”
“Can’t Feather just return it to its original state?” the woman suggested, the two of them turning to stare at their leader as Feather’s grimace returned.
“You’re kidding. They can fix it themselves. I refuse to fund this,” he snapped, walking past Cirrus without another word as he opened the door for himself, walking his way through as if nothing had happened to head over to Jayce’s room nearby. And Cirrus waved to the scientists to keep them working, before he quickly followed suit.
“It’s okay, you won’t have to pay for that, my family has more than enough money to fix it,” he comforted Feather’s two companions, shuffling into Jayce’s room as he kept watching Feather, trying his best to catch sight of more clues on how many concepts he must have.
The big one he seemed to use the most had to be some form of energy manipulation, right? He felt like that would be an easy concept for Feather to have developed, with how energetic he was and how in tune he was with his own energy and the energies around him, choosing which ones to harness and which ones to ignore. But there was also, well… everything else he could do, too. He already seemed to perfectly know the layout of the castle, or at least this very part of it, as he was guiding himself through and towards his target without a worry. Cirrus could also do stuff like that with his all-seeing eye, so did Feather have a similar concept? The maximum number of concepts a person could develop was six, but honestly, after everything he’d seen this miracle man do, Cirrus was positive he could count much more than that. It felt unnatural, and he didn’t know how Feather’s mind hadn’t been completely overloaded yet. Using more than six concepts would always cause your brain to be overwhelmed and would turn you stupider and stupider, until you forgot all of your memories and couldn’t even feed yourself, inevitably dying thoughtless and dumb. So he wasn’t certain what kind of trick Feather had pulled to bring this into reality and to prevent his brain from turning to mush… but either way, it was amazing.
Jayce, apparently, didn’t share the same sentiment, and they found him pacing back and forth within his cell with a half-devoured buffet filled with all different kinds of meats in the corner, several large bones seeming to have been gnawed clean as he glared at them, though it was mostly directed at one person in particular. “Sure took you long enough to wake up, eh, sleeping beauty!” he snipped at Feather, the blond’s face immediately shifting from annoyance to smug pride at such provocation. It really didn’t take much to switch Feather’s mood around, did it?
Because now he was chuckling, cupping the side of his fair face with a soft hand, Feather giving Jayce his sweetest smile as he spoke with a voice dripping with honey, “Aw, you think I’m a beauty? That’s sweet of you, Jayce.”
“Hah, well maybe if your personality matched your looks, more people would like you.”
“Really? But why would I want people to like me in the first place? I’m not some attention seeker,” Feather retorted, Jayce looking very offended by that statement, only to be completely alarmed when Feather started approaching him with that same sweet smile. “Now stay still, let me heal your arm, m’kay?”
“No way! Hands off!” the beast-like man snarled while he backed further away, Feather grinning as they started playing a little game of catch me if you can.
“You want to keep that monster arm forever?” the blond laughed, lunging forward to grab Jayce’s white shriveled wrist that contrasted so greatly with his usual toned, olive complexion, no one moving to do anything to stop him. And Jayce was fully ready to start a fight with him just for the sake of it, because no way in hell was he gonna start groveling and praising Feather for being the miracle worker along with the rest of these wackos… when he suddenly found it better to just let himself be touched the moment Feather’s face twisted into something oddly serious when he made contact with Jayce’s infected arm.
“...um. What. Am I gonna die?” the werewolf asked bluntly with only slight hesitation, nose scrunching as he let Feather bring his arm up for closer inspection, almost like he didn’t know what he was looking at.
It made the whole room feel uneasy, Cirrus desperately resisting the urge to bite at his nails as Feather rubbed over Jayce’s skin. “No, you’re fine. This isn’t even permanent,” he eventually conceded, running his thumb over the man’s pale veins as Jayce flinched. “Your arm will turn back to normal on its own within a week. I mean, I’m going to heal it right now anyways, but just know that this infection isn’t permanent and should be diluted out of your system completely within four months max, but the effects will disappear much faster. That should comfort you, I think.”
“Huh? But I don’t get it,” Jayce retorted, watching with narrowed eyes as Feather quickly healed his arm with an expert touch before letting it go, rubbing over his newly restored wrist while he flexed his claws. “What’s the difference between the white blood and the black blood anyway?”
“Mm… I don’t know for certain, but I have a guess,” Feather suggested, the room quieting to listen to him as he began staring off into space in between the gap of Jayce’s chest and the buffet that was sitting on the ground half eaten. “Honestly, I’m not very familiar with the white-blooded monsters, so I’d like to get a closer look at them before I say anything for certain. But just judging from the white blood in Jayce’s arm and the black blood we’ve seen in other beings, I think only the black blood could be considered an infection.”
“But the woman we fought was very clearly trying to turn us into those white-blooded monsters,” Cirrus spoke up, Leo nodding along with him as he began catching Feather up to speed.
“Yeah boss, that lady they fought seemed to have the ability to turn people into those things through touch. That’s what happened to Jayce’s arm, it’s because she grabbed him.”
“Oh? So a concept that turns people into monsters?” Feather blinked, taking that in slowly as he began throwing multiple ideas around in his head.
There were several ways he could take this. The monsters were clearly similar and had similar origins, but the differences were all within their blood. One black, the other white. One evil, the other neutral. And as he listened to Leo and Cirrus go back and forth recapping the fight that had taken place with Sinika, Feather slowly began to develop a better idea of what might be going on.
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“So it’s like the black blood is a separate entity all on its own,” he suggested blandly, not an ounce of hesitation in his voice as the group all stared at him.
“I mean… how exactly can blood be an entity?” Jayce frowned, continuing to flex his resorted arm back and forth as he kept working it out. “It’s just blood.”
“Yeah, you could say that, but I think it makes more sense when you think of it as its own separate being with its own motivations,” Feather supplied further, his thoughts already beginning to run at indescribable paces as he began slipping back into his crazed mindset. His smile widened, his eyes blaring open as he turned to Kya and Leo for approval, his voice moving faster than before as he waved his hands around. “I mean, just think about it!” he grinned, hands clenching and unclenching into fists as he let out an odd cackle. “The black blood essentially has a mind of its own because of how it’s embedded with the concept of evil! That’s why it has such infectious properties! The white blood can’t grow or consume you the way the black blood can specifically because it doesn’t have the evil drive behind it! So you can think of the white blood as regular monster blood, right?! Sinika’s touch might have the ability to infect you, but the blood itself doesn’t, so if she doesn’t finish infecting you herself, it’s no good! Haha, isn’t that brilliant?!” he gleamed, nearly shaking with his thoughts as his hands trembled in front of his face. “But the black blood can infect you because it’s been created to have a purpose. That’s why, that’s why, isn’t it great?!”
“Hm. I don’t think that’s very great, boss,” Kya spoke up neutrally, Feather’s mania suddenly being channeling towards her as he grabbed onto her shoulders.
“No, it is! It is great! Because you can always treat infections! You can view me like disinfectant!”
“I feel like that kind of dehumanizes you though, boss,” Leo pointed out boldly, Feather shaking his head in upset as he began to feel ready to physically combust at any moment.
“No, no, no, you don’t get it! What I’m saying is a good thing!” he pleaded, shaking Kya back and forth by her shoulders as the woman let him do whatever might make him feel better. He did tend to get pretty agitated after getting killed from overusing the concept of anything, so something like this had been bound to happen, she thought.
But Cirrus just smiled a bit from where he watched, slowly raising his finger up to put in his own two cents. No one else seemed to really understand what Feather was attempting to articulate, but he wanted to try and see how good he was getting at being an interpreter for this adorably crazy man, and suggested pleasantly, “I think I get it. You’re saying it’s a good thing because if we know more about it and how it works, we’ll be able to treat it better, right? You’re saying that having the knowledge is what’s good.”
“Huh? How did you even get that from whatever nonsense he’s spouting,” Jayce tried to protest, but no one could deny the way Feather’s eyes glowed at Cirrus’ words, dropping Kya’s shoulders as he moved to smile widely at the prince.
“Exactly! It’s a good thing! It’s a good thing we know! The more knowledge we have, the more ways we can think of to combat it! So I’ll be the disinfectant, and you guys can be the tools I need to figure out even more! It’s great!” he exclaimed proudly, Cirrus inexplicably happy to have made him smile like that before Feather pushed past him. “But alright, I healed everyone I needed to, so I’m outta here. Come on Kya, Leo, let’s go find Kylan and get out! Cirrus, where is Kylan? My powers are still kinda recuperating, so I have certain limits. Hurry up and gimme directions so I can leave.”
“I… um, what?” the prince blinked, his brief happiness shifting into more anxiety as he suddenly began to fumble. “I, um… you’re leaving? Right now? But—”
“Obviously I’m leaving,” Feather snapped impatiently, smile slipping off his features just as quickly as it’d surfaced so that he could give Cirrus a fresh glare. “I don’t like castles. They’re all stuffy and I hate it.”
“Um, but… we still need your help…” the prince stuttered mindlessly, not even sure what he was trying to get out of his mouth as he met Feather’s unregistering stare, like he didn’t even understand what Cirrus was asking for. “Please…”
“But I already did help you? I healed Jayce, didn’t I?” Feather frowned, turning around to face the prince with a hand on his hip, raising his chin high so that he could look down on him, despite Cirrus being much taller. “What more do you want from me? I’m not some slave.”
“Uh, no, that’s not what I meant,” Cirrus wavered, moving his hands up in the air as if to prove he meant no harm, anxiety stripping him of his normal ability to navigate people, because the thought of losing Feather as an ally scared him more than he knew how to process. “I just… well…”
“Why are you stuttering? Speak up,” Feather snapped, clearly annoyed with him and wanting him to get to the point, before Kya let out a sigh.
“Hey, why don’t you hear him out nicely?” she suggested, grabbing onto Feather’s hand as she squeezed it, moving her other behind his back to trace at his spine. “Cirrus doesn’t mean you any harm, you know that. So you should treat him a bit more patiently, yeah?”
Though, Feather didn’t openly respond to that, and merely turned back to Cirrus with his dazzling blue eyes, giving him a neutral look. He didn’t seem like he was expecting much, but somehow, Cirrus needed to convince this miracle worker to stay and keep helping him. How could he get Feather to stay? How could he get him to listen? How could he get him to want to help the cause that Cirrus was fighting for? How could he…? He was wracking his brain, scanning through all the memories he’d made with Feather and which ones had impacted him the most. The things this wonderful man had said to get him to realize his weaknesses and inspire him to overcome them, how incredibly smart he was and how he seemed to catch onto every little thing no matter what it was, his undeniable sense of justice that showed in how much he was determined to help people, just on his own terms. All of those memories, all those things he knew about this miracle man… if he put everything together, how could he get him to see what he saw… how could he get him to… oh.
“Feather,” Cirrus’ gaze hardened, amber eyes turning to stare at the blond with careful sincerity. He knew that if he blew this or said the wrong thing, the mighty blond would be gone before he could so much as blink. But for some reason, he felt like this might work. “You told me that if I don’t try to save the people in front of me, I’m no good, right? That’s what you said.”
“Uh, yeah?” Feather shrugged, brows furrowed as he kept frowning at Cirrus, who only took that as his cue to continue.
“Right. You said that, and I truly believe it helped me. It felt like I was waking up from being paralyzed, and I mean that. Because I agree with everything you told me in that moment. If I don’t save the people in front of me, then what worth am I as a prince and the bearer of this prophecy? But I don’t think that’s all people should worry about,” he conceded, and he could tell Feather was listening, his interest caught by Cirrus’ words and the references he was making, eyes pinned on the prince like a hawk’s. So he continued bravely. “I think you’re being rather ignorant of lives that you have the ability to save, as well. Because honestly, if you put us both side by side, we’re two different extremes. I tend to ignore the people in front of me to focus on people who will be in danger in the future, and you ignore the future and future problems in order to focus on saving the people right in front of you. So what will you do when the next apocalypse inevitably hits a planet? Since it’s not right in front of you, are you just going to ignore it again? How many apocalypses have you missed when you could have been there, how many lives have you failed to save because you didn’t try to look a bit into the future to see when they’d need you? What about those people?” Cirrus questioned, Feather’s sky blue eyes now entirely laser focused on him with all of their raw intensity. It was now or never.
“I know you care deeply about people, and I’m not saying you don’t. I just don’t think you’re thinking this through enough. The apocalypse is bound to happen, and you said it yourself that you’d get involved if it looked like you needed to. But what you don’t realize is that you already are needed. Because you’re stronger than me. Hell, you’re probably stronger than my grandmother, and she’s the strongest person I know,” Cirrus pleaded with him, Feather’s expression softening as his eyes flickered to the ground, delicately processing the words he was being told. “I know you could help. You would be a brilliant help. You could do amazing things, and I just know you’d save so many lives. So why don’t we just do both? Why don’t we focus on the people in front of us, and also the people who will need us in the future? We don’t need to choose one extreme over the other, do we?” he finished, his question echoing in Feather’s mind as the blond slowly turned up to look at him once more.
“So you want me to stay,” Feather spoke smally, his voice sounding awfully disappointed as Cirrus gave a sincere nod.
“Yes, I do. I need your help.”
And it was silent. Kya and Leocadies were shocked. Not once had they ever managed to get Feather to even think about joining forces with nobility, but here he was, considering it because Cirrus had managed to reach him. Jayce was proud, of course, as this was one of the reasons his prince was so formidable when it came to diplomacy. He could almost always get what he wanted if he put in a few pretty words. Sure, Feather was a wildcard, but the fact Cirrus had already figured out how to reach him didn’t surprise Jayce one bit.
Feather, on the other hand, was still processing. Because he did want to help people. He didn’t want people to die. Not if he could prevent it. He’d never killed a person, but it did hurt to think of all the people who might have died when he could have done something about it had he been there. And if he’d prioritized it, he could have been. And now that there was the possibility he could have started the apocalypse weighing on his mind… did he really have the right to run away at this point? Was that even an option he had left?
It felt tiring, but he eventually gave Cirrus a reluctant nod of agreement. “Alright, I understand,” he conceded seriously, irritation boiling in his chest as his brow twitched. “I get it. I’ll stay. But I’m not gonna like it.”
“Ah, that’s okay! Don’t worry, I’ll try not to put you in too many political situations,” Cirrus brightened, immediately walking closer to Feather to shine him his princely smile. “Here, I’ll organize a meeting with you, my mother the Queen, as well as my family and other important generals of my planet. Since it’s you, and since I’m the one asking for it, I’m sure I can organize it to be tomorrow. So that way we can get one meeting out of the way and then you can do whatever you want here until we develop a plan. How does that sound?”
“...a meeting?” Feather winced, already beginning to regret the decision he’d made as he stared at the shining smile Cirrus wore. What was he so happy about, anyways? The last thing Feather had ever wanted was to be back in the hands of royalty and nobility, and yet here he was. Why did Cirrus get to look so happy when he was so miserable? It wasn’t fair! He didn’t want to be here! He didn’t want to do this! Wahh!
Ah, but… to save people, this was the necessary path. To stop the apocalypse… because who was he kidding. Feather might try to deny it, and he’d been trying his best to forget about it for centuries, but he was part of that prophecy too. He was destined to help Cirrus stop the Udimeia’s destruction one way or another, so of course his fate was catching up with him. Perhaps Feather should have expected that. He just didn’t understand why it had to be him to do it… surely there were other people more suited to being Cirrus’ companion. Why did it have to be him? Why did even the stars try to piece them together, like they were two complementary pieces to the same inevitable whole?
