KEREN

Metal paneling scratched his cheek as the men drove him to another location. Pain coiled around his shoulders as the mask continued to push the sweet scent through his nose. Fiery rage washed into weak blood as the streetlamps betrayed their movement from the slight gap. It cast their faces in shadow, their words rolled around in his temples, but Keren blinked out the rest of his tears.

I'm going to die. Keren closed himself from their appraising expressions. I'm going to die.

"We're close to south side," the driver said. "Boss wants us to head straight for the safehouse."

"Let's not dawdle then," the guard said across from him, then peeked out the tiny window. "We weren't tailed." He poked his foot into his side, and Keren steadied his breathing. "At least this one has lost all the fire from before." He narrowed his eyes, then leaned to the passenger beside the driver. "We couldn't hear what they were talking about in that safehouse. You can bet they're going to move locations, though."

Gorgots snarled in the shadows, set aflame. Keren clenched his fists, drawing the man's words through his mind. He lost all the fire. He was weak. There was no point squirming.

You're a failure, Father's voice chided him for his weakness. Ethan will die, and it'll be on your hands... Keren squinted. At least... at least I didn't get Ethan killed.

Ethan.

Ethan.

Ethan.

It sparked against his soul born in the bones. He rolled his wrists in the cuffs, an obstinate refusal to lay down and die. If there is no escape. If I can never be free... what else do I have to lose other than my life? Ethan got up, time and time again against all odds. All he ever needed was a moment, an opening, a chance. Flames burnt the wetness against his skin as he inched his hand into an awkward position, trying to reach the connection he had to his wall of an older brother. He gauged the rusty gap on the transport door, and braced his shoulders.

"We just need to get through the tunnel ahead—"

No.

Keren hauled himself up with the wall, shoving his thumb through the flare's activator, but it needed a bigger spark. A larger supernova. Shadows gasped when Keren lunged himself into his guard, using the back of the truck as the riptide in life. The flare cracked, and a green nebulae smoked the entire back of the transport as he used his bound arms against the guard's throat to shatter the rusty hinges on the door. Wind poured through the opening as the flare screeched in his hands.

"Fuck!" the guard snapped.

The flare slipped out of his hands, on the edge of the opening when the door snapped off a single hinge below. He aimed his heel against the flare as it rippled with malcontent, and shoved it through the gap. It bounced along the street, sending further sparks into the air and through the small window at the top of the transport truck. Wheels swiveled. Tighter. He lost his breath every vital second. Bile slammed into his stomach with the guards fist when he tossed him back to the ground.

"Celestials." His guard coughed through the flare's smoke and wiped his face, then sent another kick into his stomach. Coils of heat wrapped around his ribcage, and Keren bit down on his tongue.

"What the fuck did he do?" the driver demanded.

"Set off some sort of starsdamned flare," the guard complained with another cough, waving the smoke out of his face as they drove into the tunnel which separated the north side of Roxton from the south. Keren frowned when the guard said. "Stop the transport. We need to fan this place out and make sure no one caught sight of that flare. We can wait for the second pick-up. Bring him."

Huh.

Keren flinched when the guard dragged him by his arm outside the transport, the intercity tunnel dim of its lights. Another prodded kick sent into his stomach, he whimpered when his guard dropped him against the slope of the wall. "All you had to do was sit still," the guard bit as the others joined him. His foot pressed against his knee, and Keren held on tight to his flames when he lowered his weight inch by inch, a threat to crack his bone.

"Boss didn't specify what condition he had to be in, he just has to be alive," the other shadow said, a swirl of confusion when the sweet mist dragged itself through his system.

But why me? I'm not worth anything.

"Transport's too smoked," the driver reported.

The guard considered them both, then leaned closer to him. "You're more trouble than we expected, Malakai. You and yours have caused so much trouble that we have the mind to put you right back where you belong," he commented.

Road silent and ready for violence, Keren tucked his knees closer to himself when the guard drew out a knife, a curious snarl on his lips. "So, we're just going to have a little bit of fun with you since you wanted to have some fun with us," he said. "And then we'll be taking you to the boss."

Keren frowned when the four surrounded him on all sides, the entire world swallowed. He pushed his wrists against the cuffs, gasping for an escape and the sense of safety his family brought. Fuck. He tightened himself when the guard slipped an elementium cartridge into the hilt of the blade, and it glowed red-hot. On his useless knees, Keren refused to look away, where Ethan refused to back down.

What else can I do? I don't want to die.

He trembled when the knife drew closer to his arm once more, and the malice blasted against his face.

Something clattered down the dark tunnel, causing the four to follow the source.

"Go check what that was," the guard said. "Make sure we're not about to get unexpected company.

Doomsday forestalled, Keren frowned at the guard as the fourth one wandered over to the dark.

Keren twisted his head around at the shadow drawing out of the wisps of the night. Smoke plumed out of their fingers as they gripped the flare Keren released, ever tighter and causing it to spark with their force. Greens brightened into an eerie glow, and mists breathed out clouds of tranquil rage when they tossed the flare to the side, sending it bouncing on its own dead embers. The stealth sheen ripped apart when they came into the light, a mask of ferocity covering any familiar features as the guard swung out an electrified leash at the sudden arrival.

The shape grabbed it with his gloved hand, dragging himself forward before shoving his blaster straight into his captor's face. Keren widened his eyes when the release unloaded its power straight through their head. Blood sprayed across the wall when the figure dropped them to the ground without hesitation.

"You want to have fun with him?" the masked figure said, and Keren's heart dropped when they lifted their forearm past their brow, and the mask followed suit. The inevitability of the black hole filled the greens. "Well, get your hands off him and let's have some fun."

The guard scowled. "Ethanius Malakai."

Ethan stepped over the body and approached closer, his empty cartridge clicking out of the way of its replacement, a chain locked on an anchor of zero-gravity. Keren swiveled when another blaster clicked, and pointed it not at him, but at Ethan.

No, Ethan, no!

Keren inched forward, then kicked the guard in the shin.

A single moment.

Ethan ran forward, blade at the ready. He threw the chain forward on the burst of momentum, and Keren found himself without a voice when it slammed straight into the driver's face. It cut across his cheekbones, and Keren pressed himself against the wall when Ethan sent the heel of his foot straight into the damage he left.

The guard stepped back.

Ethan straightened himself out. "You're not going anywhere."

He grappled with the next, throwing both chains around his neck to act as a garrote, with the guard stupefied by his brother's violence. He dropped the next, as if he was nothing more than a flea meant to be squashed. "What's the matter?" he hissed on the flames Keren threw out of the transport. "Are you not having fun anymore? Come on." Ethan came closer. "This is what you wanted."

...Ethan.

Gorgots bared their teeth.

Ethan, wait.

Ethan ducked out of the way of a released shot. He drove the blade through his ribcage, and Keren scrambled out of the way when him and the guard tussled against the wall. Gorgots gnashed him apart when Ethan sent a foot into the wound, then leaped on top of him with a snarl of rage.

Ethan... stop...

A black hole collapsed the foundation of the family when Ethan drove his other boot on top of their ribcage, and Keren trembled when a horrific crack sounded throughout the tunnel, all the noise draining out of his ears.

"I'm going to send you a message," Ethan growled in time with the Gorgot. "And I will make it crystal fucking clear."

Unable to flee as the Gorgot ripped apart jaws.

One shot into the head.

It nicked his heart.

Another into the chest.

Why is this hurting me?

Several more into the heart.

Stop.

One more into the head.

Just stop, Ethan...

The Gorgot retreated back into his memory.

Ethan stepped off his overkilled opponent with a deep exhale, before rushing over to him. His older brother, who protected him, and came to protect him over and over again.

From danger. From their family.

Always.

Keren coughed when Ethan twisted the mask off his face. "Keren—"

He fell into the dark asphalt.

A vita-monitor beeped to his left.

"Keren," Ethan insisted once more.

"Ow." Keren tore himself back into the blood-soaked reality, where Ethan held his shoulder. Chalen breathed deep into a cigar, stress lines revealed his age as he swayed in his corner, trembling. "Ethan?"

"Good." Ethan sighed, vibrating himself, but his breath left in the continuous hiss of rage. "Good. I am sorry it took me so long to catch up with you to get those bastards." Keren frowned when Ethan dug his fingers into the edge of the mattress.

"What?" Keren rasped. "Ethan, where—"

"We're in a safehouse," Ethan said, with Mother's warmth and their promise. "I'm having Urto take you back home."

What?

Every image. Every memory. It battled for dominion over the truth. Keren sat up to hold onto Ethan, to cling onto his last safety when Mother was ripped away from them. I'll never get to hug her again. I'll never get to talk to her.

Ethan pushed him out of the attempted embrace, and the nick across his heart grew into a gaping hole, and Keren found himself back on the bed. "Rest." He lifted himself out of the seat and stomped closer to Chalen. "We have something to do, and you're going to help me do it. Let's go. Father already knows, and I will not give him another chance to change his mind. We're settling this, tonight."

"Ethan—"

Wait! Don't do this! I just want you to stay!

Keren reached out to the space between them, but wings burned.

He had no escape from the weight of the family.

His only safety splattered the world crimson. His security shattered with the crack of a rib-cage, with his older brother long gone to his rage, intent, and spite where nothing could ever make him happy and satisfied again. It crawled across his spine when he tried to grab Ethan's arm, but he slipped out of his reach time and time again.

But he was there for me. They were going to kill me. He was there time and time again. No one else was... Ethan, no... No! Kellzoro, no!

Ethan and Chalen left without another word, and he found his voice to sob.