A/N: Hello all

Song: Tom Day - Who We Want To Be

I'll admit that I've been waiting to destroy Bolin since Vivid.

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Chapter Twenty-One: Frozen Flame

I'm surrounded by the dissonant chunks of the broken void that was once Tower crystal not too long ago; scattered like a makeshift wall around us and the now empty broken throne. I feel the burning afternoon sun on my skin, forcing me to realise that the ceiling of the Tower was barely holding itself together. The spider webbing cracks are ready to split apart if anyone took a breath. Some fragments fall, sounding like heavy glass, just to confirm that it was going to shatter.

The Tower God is dead. There's nothing left to keep it together. There's nothing left to keep it standing. I became fully aware of how unstable the Tower is right now. But I'm also consumed by the shock, the all too familiar paralysis gripping my legs, trying to pull me down with the Tower. I couldn't shake off the feeling I would deserve it too. Not that having two buildings on my to do list today. I barely manage to steal another glance at Seth's unreadable expression.

Bolin was little more than sludge literally slipping between his fingers, landing on the cold crystal floor shimmering like oil slick. What came next would have made my jaw drop but instead I just stand there stupid, leaning heavily on X who has basically almost all my weight on his shoulder.

Seth lets out a pained yell, close to the memory of him losing the target on that bridge all those years ago. He hammers a fist into the liquid, but it erupts in the life consuming fire that feels far hotter than the sun already hitting my skin. He was gonna cook me into a chicken tender. I wouldn't blame him.

I next see his eyes, they had changed to a dark burning orange, his fists extinguishing the fires just as soon as he ignited it with so much pain that it was making my heart ache. He held a destructive fire inside. It kinda explained why he never had to look for a lighter for his smokes now that I think about it.

Not the point.

I stupidly force myself away from X, coming closer to him. If he wanted to get his revenge. Let him. I place myself in front of him. I was expecting him to do something like scream abuse, throw a fire punch or something stupid...like a water balloon. I brace for it, my body stiffening but instead he wraps himself around my waist. His embrace is a shocking coolness compared to the hellfire he just raised five seconds ago. I feel his body shudder.

Or was that the Tower?

No it's him. He's been dragged back to the past and through all the hints he didn't see. All the memories that were taken and covered up. Only for them to click as his friend who remembered him before everything literally falls from his grasp. I could feel the pain and the long-buried suffering he experienced that forced him to close off that part of him. That the methods of torture spent on him should have broken his very soul into shattered pieces. Ut his soul wasn't whole either. It was cracked. That behind his joking exterior was a small fragile child who just lost his only friend. Again. That there was no way to undo this. ...any of this.

"There's no time left,' X's voice was almost lost to the sound of a deep cracked rumble from beneath us and I feel it vibrate. Not in a fun way either.

"We won't make it out fast enough before the collapse," Seth pulls himself up, turning his head away as his sniffs. His voice was shaky and even I could tell he was holding back tears.

"Seth!"

I frown at the sound. Not because it was Oz's voice but because I could hear it outside. The familiar soft hum of the Hollow Kite was heard before I could see it's sleek body pop up into view between the cracks in the ceiling and around to where...I guess I crashed throw the front of the damned room.

The Kite just barely levitates on the edge, lowering a ramp to let us in, though it looks sketchy to start with. I feel the ground groan under the sudden additional weight and the twist as if we were playing Jenga and not winning by the sounds of it. Seth gathers himself and forcefully turns away from the throne. He had to turn his back on Bolin once again.... for the final time.

I feel myself bite my lip as X helps my sorry ass move towards the Kite. We shuffle onto the ramp in time I hear the last piercing wail of glass as it crashes into a heap on the city below. It was so surreal to watch. The dissociation floods my brain as the once living battery that made this little bubble breathe was so much more brittle than anyone made it out to be. The sky was paling to a mix of oranges, pinks and reds as time didn't stop for anything. Even the crashing of a city into literal rubble.

The awkward jutting teeth of obsidian obelisks was taking on more of the city than the last time I looked. Many of the buildings were suffering from the sudden weight of a Miasma storm breaking it. I wonder...will the gate in the ocean continue to spew out the hell spawn....If Lady ever missed that plane of existence.

Lady!

I forcefully drag myself into the familiar seating area, even with X protesting at me to slow it down.

But I was determined to get to Oz. I needed to get out and back down to the city or atleast through its remains and the madness that was corroding through Bolin's dream. Just how many have died because of this?

No fear no empathy towards the consequence of destroying another's survival.

But Lady is still out there. I need to find her first. Then wallow in self pity.

I claw my way towards Oz and behind the last door, I come face to face with Hanna with a grim expression. I suddenly became acutely away that my pasty pale chest is fully exposed and that there is a weird draft in the rags that were my pants. I double check to see if anything was out of place. Nope. Still weirdly skinny and the familiar favourite claw is still there...but the monster claw had spread further up my arm, reaching under the collarbone. I clench it, making sure that it's really changed again. Not the priority right now.

She walks around me, looking at me from different angles, swatting away X and Seth as they protest to her. She grabs my face, pulling me to her eye level, "You are the second most foolishly reckless child I have met in my entire life." As she searches my eyes and seems to have found something she was searching for, she lets up and steps back for X to take me back.

"I need to find Lady," I realise my voice was hoarse and strained but I think Oz heard me well enough.

"Dangerous kid," he replies curtly.

"The entire fucking situation is dangerous!' I snap. "Let me find her first or at least let me off and you lot can go fly off to safety. I'll even let the back door smack me on the way out if you want but I need to find her. I get that I was stupid to run out here but if I didn't-" I cut myself off, turning away at the sudden rage already building my chest. "Let me off or I'll just jump out myself."

Let's add skydiving to the list. I turn back, feeling my vision sway but I shake off the oncoming weakness that's making the ground awfully shaky. Or is the Kite shaking? I don't know. I don't care.

I'll find her. One way or another. How the fuck did I just leave her behind? There was a serious gap in my memory from the last few hours. There was a serious gap in the back of my pants as well but that can wait. Did I have a tail? Bah.

"Should I sedate him?" Hanna's voice was a little distant.

Don't you fucking-

"No," X hisses.

"Leave him be," Siem materialised from the back of the room like fucking smoke. Which DeathEater did he eat this morning? He was probably there the entire time but my stupid brain didn't care to notice. "He'll probably feel better with his cat."

I see Oz shrug from the corner of my eye, "As you wish. We should do a sweep of the area anyway." He then adds as an after thought, "Bolin..."

"Was Bolin," Seth whispers in pain. He collapses in the closest chair. "He was a Queen to top it off."

I stare at him and back towards the door. "He's been fighting the corruption for a while," I finally say, almost so sure of it. The weird twisting and maddening melody that I've been hearing since the moment I was forced through the city's airspace. "But he also allowed it in."

"He was always stubborn. Kinda like you are, Kae."

"Not a compliment," I snap back but I see a lazy grin on his face.

As Oz finds a space to land safely, a thought appeared in my skull. "How is it that the Hollow Kite can still move?" I thought all power from the Tower would have cut it off.

"That's the magic, see. The Hollow Kite is it's own power source," Oz states.

So it was made from a core from the madness of the other side of the rift. That just raises more questions but as I feel that solid touch of the ground, it can fucking wait for the moment. I need to find Lady.

The guilt and the fear hurts me far more than what I had caused towards Seth right now.