Planet: Eteran, Kalto

JAMES

Debris clattered in dust waterfalls. It broke him out of the crimson haze he lost himself in when he burned in the flames and avoided the fire of the metal forest. He groaned and kicked metal beams off himself. Grime settled from the collapse, but his world spun on a twisted axis of cruel gravitational pulls.

Knives pierced his heart when Rayan drove it into his chest.

Streams of twilight splattered smoke danced across ruined architecture and torn catwalks. He narrowed his eyes when his thoughts plagued him with dissonance, and then he jolted.

Wait. Rayan... he pushed me out of the collapse.

Trees slammed into the ground.

Fog filled his mind in Rayan's embrace, and he dragged himself out of the rubble on shaky knees. He spotted a blood trail dragged through the worst of the debris, and he followed it to its dying source. Rayan Falae leaned against the wall, oozing his life among the scaffolds. Crimson matted his black hair and joined the dance of tears.

James shambled over to stand in front of him, before kneeling on his broken level. He froze when Rayan tilted his head at him, where his eyes remained closed, sewn shut from the blood. Red tears fell down his cheeks though his expression remained calm. James glanced at his arm, swollen from the debris and his shot.

He sucked in a breath, then shook his head. Everything... for this.

He primed his pistol and stood up, but frowned when Rayan whispered, "Jamie?"

"Yeah."

Rayan winced and went limp. "You're safe..." James stared down at him when he coughed and blood pooled into his pale lips. Each shallow, death-defying breath shook his body and tore into his soul. "Good..."

He dug his fingers into the grip of his blaster while he pointed it at the man he once shared everything and all with — who he shared his dreams and viewpoints without judgement — who he once sat with to capture frozen moments in time by the starlit river and stole into all of his shots. Both of them saw the beauty in a captured moment in time. His best friend. His first, cruel kiss. Everything.

He had to let go, or the flames would never leave him alone.

He had to let go.

Let go.

His finger rested on the trigger, and Rayan relaxed.

There's a moment in life where we have to decide if it's worth the consequences. In that moment of time, what do you do? His chest in sputtered words given to him by someone who tried to save him from the dark. Do you despise yourself? What are you willing to do to protect who you love?

He tried to press and end the flames, but it stuck with the fervent words of his own body and fought against his mind of stone. No matter how hard he tried to follow someone else's goal, he struggled to take the first step.

"Why?" he asked through a sob. "You could've escaped the collapse."

Rayan frowned, then lifted his head to him with a soft scoff. "I'm sentimental," he whispered. "I wasn't... willing to lose you."

James drove forward in his anger. "That's not a good enough excuse for me!" His voice echoed through the dusty space. "Give me a reason! Give me something better than that!"

Let go.

A soft noise escaped Rayan as he shook his head. "No excuse will be good enough." He sighed through another death-defying breath. "What are you waiting for, James? It's over. End it."

Let. Go.

James took a small step back when a half-laugh, half-sob escaped Rayan's bloody lips.

"It's finally over," he rasped through his own sobs. "Kill me. Kill me and the nightmare ends — all this bloodshed and pain will stop." James loosened his grip on the pistol and his own scorched heart when Rayan gave him a genuine smile. It shone with the power of a thousand setting suns disappearing into the night. Golds faded with the torn happiness and picked every beautiful landscape. "It'll stop. These flames, they'll go away, Jamie... for both of us."

Let go. Let go.

Please let go.

Rayan's smile of pure acceptance never left while the flames outside dimmed, but the damage left its mark. James glanced outside the fallen walls, where Eastpoint swallowed Kalto.

His blaster clattered to the floor with his strangled choke, and Rayan followed the source of the noise.

I can't...

James' heart skipped several beats at the writhing bubbly flesh he saw through the ashen mist. He sucked in his lips, but turned when Rayan sighed, then crawled his fingers through the dirt to find the gun he dropped with weak fingers.

And raised it to his own blood-caked head.

Instinct controlled him, and the sound of a clock rewound through the symphonic world and couldn't let go.

Edevium blazed through his veins as he lunged for Rayan, who pulled the trigger without hesitation. His force shuddered the debris where the missed shot ricocheted off the standing beams and sizzled out of life. James caught himself when the broken piece of thin wall Rayan sat himself against folded underneath their added weight.

He leaned over Rayan and tossed the gun into the flames.

Rayan struggled further to breathe as he finally opened his eyes, and James frowned at the dead, cloudy golds full of blood. "Ow," he mumbled under his breath.

James straightened himself out for a moment, but then crawled over to Rayan's side and pulled him into his arms. "You know..." James whispered. "This won't stop. I can't watch you die... I can't..." He shuddered with old pain while Eastpoint burned for his rage.

I can't let you go.

He broke into tears while Rayan frowned. "I couldn't save my sister, my family, or my friends." Truth slammed into his heart. "I couldn't save anyone but you and Aelius at the hospital." He sucked out a sob. "If I can save one more life, even if it's yours, even if people believe that you'd be better off dead..." He tightened his grip on Rayan. "If I can save your life then the sacrifices I've made... the things I gave up..." He broke down into tears. "It'd be worth what I've turned myself into."

I can't let you go.

James jolted when Rayan rested his hand against his chest with a soft laugh. "You're not... I'm sorry," he managed out. "There was nothing you could've done, James... not at Eastpoint. I couldn't save them either..." James drove his tongue into his teeth when Rayan's grip slacked. "I'm glad it was you right to the end who came." He breathed deep and slow. "And I'm just... happy that you're alive."

James used his freehand to slip out an injector, which hissed full of regenerative regent. "I won't let you leave me again."

Rayan closed his eyes again with a smile. "I'm sorry."

No, I won't let you.

He readied the regent, but froze when Rayan's breathing went silent and any tension left in his body disappeared with a wave.

"Rayan?" James asked.

Nothing. He focused his senses and everything melted at the lack of a strong, stalwart heart.

"No." James slipped the injector into his abdomen, then holstered it once more to cup Rayan's cheeks, who no longer responded. "No, come on... that regent won't work if you..."

No, not again... I can't do this again.

"Ray," he insisted and held him closer. "Ray, don't give me this... you have to stay."

Stay with me.

James pressed his head into Rayan's still chest. He kicked his senses, for a hint, for a promise. He shook when he heard nothing, then lurched to shake Rayan instead. James sat there with his best friend dying in his arms, unable to make him stay. He rested his hand against his cheek, and sucked in his lips. "Come on," he begged. "You're the one who told me you wanted me to stay."

It's my fault.

He sucked in his tears, then lifted his head when debris cracked with the bark of a tree.

Roots kept him in place through space and time as he struggled to breathe underwater. A beam clattered to the ground ahead of him and dropped its weight to the floor.

Ava... I was so close...

The cracking of support intensified.

He brought Rayan closer, then jolted at the last remnants of his heartbeat, where his hand lifted and wound around his forearm without another word.

It's just us... at the end of it all.

He readied himself to be crushed by the same tree General Falae dragged him out from.

Walls crumbled.

Waves of protective energy formed into a white shield when a phaserushing shape bloomed from the ash and pushed away the debris which fell around them.

Maia...?

The dust settled, and the protective energy faded.

"James?" she asked.

He trembled, stolen from death again. Her voice, dissonant and distant. He tensed up when she rested a hand on his forearm, and frowned at him. "James?"

I can't... move...

He tried to push out the image of Eastpoint burning to flames with Kalto's screams. He tried to shove the image of Rayan Falae drawing a blaster to his own temple. Ready to end his own life without hesitation and with nothing but an accepting smile on his face.

"Fuck," Maia hissed through an echo. "James?"

Her voice, too far away in the reverb.

"We need to get out of here," Maia said through the wailing. James held onto Rayan and her when they phased out of the building as one. Out of the danger zone, they sat in the scorched street, while Maia lifted Rayan's eviscerated arm into her gloved hands. "James?"

I can't...

"James, I need you to talk to me," Maia said, strong, firm.

Still so distant, fading with every moment.

James lifted his head when Maia tapped her compearl and went silent save for the spitting flames. He flinched when a dark-coloured emergency ship burst out of the ash cloud. On its side, a wolf bared its teeth in protective fury.

In a frozen moment, his sister came back to life.

In his hands, he was losing Rayan.

It landed in front of them, and Aelius leaped out of the back in slow motion.

Maia indicated to him and Rayan with incessant worry, he could almost hear her squeaking.

But I... just want to go back.

Aelius rushed to him. "James," he said, clearer. "I know you're overwhelmed. I just need your assistance for a couple minutes. Meryn—" His voice faded as he followed Aelius to lift Rayan into the back of the emergency transport. Aelius returned his attention to him when Maia closed the doors, with Aelius wrapping a warm blanket around his shoulders. "Okay, James? Support him," he said with more strength than he had.

He allowed Rayan to be set against his chest, with his arm's underneath Rayan's to support his injury. Ice melted with the blanket Aelius set over Rayan.

He held Rayan tighter when the ship bumped for lift-off.

"I'm going to get him stabilized to the best of my ability," Aelius explained and pressed a vita-mask over Rayan's nose and mouth, where it hissed, but he barely drew breath. "We're heading for a safe area. We can get you both settled there, for now..." He injected another dose of the regenerative regent into Rayan's abdomen. "Let's just try to get him steady with what we have. He's in critical condition."

James breathed deep, and found his raspy voice, "His arm and eyes..."

"I'll do what I can... but with their damage there's not much I can do," Aelius admitted.

James blinked and sank deeper into the blanket around his shoulders.

"James?" Maia asked. "You want me to support him?"

"No," he said. "He's my responsibility." He sighed, which Rayan echoed with the Vita-mask's effort to provide him with sufficient life. "I'm... I'm okay, Maia. Don't worry about me."

James waited while Aelius cleaned off Rayan's face of the dirt and grime which revealed the pallor of ash and death.

"We'll get him cleaned up when we reach our destination," Aelius clipped the blanket around Rayan, but came closer to him. "As for you..." He pulled out a tool.

"I didn't sustain any injuries," James mumbled.

"Not what I'm worried about, James."

"Aelius?" Meryn called from the pilot's seat. "We're almost there."

He swallowed on pain when Aelius left his side for the moment, and Rayan gripped him with his uninjured hand but without a word. His breath faltered with time he couldn't freeze in place.

I can't let you go... so stay with me.