Chapter 15

Allie saw him fall.

She screamed, long, loudly, unsure of how to--

how to react.

Catharsis saw him fall, through fuzzy eyes and exhaustion.

She tried to scream, and couldn't. She was too tired.

"Will..." she whispered, and blacked out.

Liberis saw him fall, and the words slipped from her, and her knees slipped from under her, and she was staring, staring at the fireball as it sank into the ocean....

Caesar saw him fall, and stood.

"No," he whispered.

The Oracle jerked as she left her body momentarily and dived through the image. A human girl with dark curly hair and glasses fell beside her.

You get the dark one, I'll get the light one. The human girl--the Power--gathered up a miserable ball of shuddering red and gold in her arms and rocketed back into the sky. The Oracle followed with a matching ball of black and blue.

As the Oracle re-entered her body, both phoenixes appeared beside her. They jerked simultaneously as the air about them chilled, and twin men appeared in their places, shivering. One was garbed all in black, and the other, in a white waistcloth with a small pocket on the side.

Get the lighter out of the pocket, I'll make it light.

A tiny tongue of flame licked up as the Oracle watched her thumb turn the wheel and press down. Through no will of her own, she put the flame first to one, then the other, on their eyes, bright with oil. The fire roared up on both of them in a healing pyre.

Slowly, the red one faded, as well as the small rectangle the Oracle held.

Time to put him back where he belongs, the Power said.

A burning body falling through the sky flicked over into a burning bird that took wing and landed on the lighthouse.

Idiot.

Allie saw the stream of fire land on the lighthouse.

She grabbed Alexander's hand. "Come on," she said. Her voice was hoarse with ash. "He'll need our help."

--------------------------------

Liberis saw the fallen rug, and let Caesar help her up. The flame streamed towards the lighthouse, and she glanced in its direction.

"Get Catharsis and Will to the apartment," she told him. "Ekai's gonna need help after that."

"You think?" said Caesar.

Mookie scuttled out of an ash-ridden crevice and up to Caesar's shoulder. He patted the chinchilla fondly.

If he were human, he'd have panted, but he didn't quite have the energy for that.

Instead, he just pulled in what fire remained and sat in a corner of the lighthouse with his eyes closed.

It worked.

YOU NEARLY DIED AGAIN DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT MADE ALL OF US FEEL?

...All of us? Ekai blinked, then blinked again.

Wha?

Thank God Will was too out of it to see you fall. But he was the ONLY one of us who didn't see you. Caesar's getting Will and Sis to the apartment--they're absolutely wiped out from the rescues they did. And even then, yes, those who were in Inferno's immediate vicinity DID die. But congratulations, the Library was saved, so were the people. Oh, there he goes.

Ekai had fallen asleep while she talked.

Allie and Zander rushed up the steps, caught their breath, ran, caught their breath, ran.

When they found him there, half-dead and sleeping, they didn't even try to move him back. Allie sat down next to the sleeping firebird, smiling, and Zander sat next to her.

They waited for him to wake up.

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Caesar dragged the rug into the middle of the flat and left them there.

They were still naked, he noticed. That could get awkward. But what the hell, he wasn't dressing anyone and Ekai probably needed more help than the lovebirds did.

He strolled off towards the lighthouse.

---------

Liberis got lost.

There's no more delicate way to put it. She'd never been to Alexandria before, and she didn't have Caesar's amazing sense of direction.

This meant that she and Caesar arrived at basically the same time, only to find Ekai fast asleep.

Ekai drew on the body heat surrounding him while he slept. Then he untucked his head stiffly, blinked and realized he was surrounded by...

Your friends, Ekai.

His friends. Wow. He'd never had a friend that wasn't directly linked into his head before.

That's right, isn't it? Well, congrats. Now get out into the sunlight where you can get some more heat, before you relapse. Because if you die, I'll kill you.

That so?

It's not cliche, it's true.

Will blinked. He blinked again. Had he fallen asleep? He didn't think so. He remembered running into buildings, dragging people out... he remembered Inferno in the sky...

~Ekai are you okay where are you did you win are you alive what happened?~

~Whoa, whoa,~ came a tired voice, ~slow waaaaay down, little brother. I'm okay. I did something a bit stupid, but I'm okay. Or at least, I'm gonna be. Everyone's with me.~

Will was about to ask more questions but Ekai was so exhausted it made Will yawn. ~Okay.~

Then Will opened his eyes again, realized he was wrapped in a rug absolutely buck naked with Sis next to him, equally naked. He flushed and scrambled out, snagging the blanket from the bed and wrapping it around him.

~Other clothes...in th' closet,~ Ekai mumbled.

Right. Will skirted around the rug bundle and looked in the closet. There were his modern clothes, a formerly-black grey t-shirt with formerly-red pink flames on the sleeves, and ragged cutoffs. No underwear, but he'd done without underwear before. He was dressed in no time flat.

"I hate to say I told you so, Ekai," said Caear Ensalada, reaching out a hand. "But I do believe I did."

"You're an idiot," Allie felt the need to add. "An absolute moron. You nearly killed yourself. Nice job."

"You now have absolutely no right to call yourself a murderer," Liberis pointed out.

"He has every right to call himself a murderer," Caesar said. "He killed himself. That's murder."

"He didn't die," said Zander.

"Pah," said Caesar. "Attempted, then."

"You're all insane," said Liberis.

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Catharsis woke up slowly, rolled around on the floor a bit.

Why was she so cold?

Oh. Naked.

Catharsis went back to sleep.

Now that he himself was dressed, Will didn't feel so... embarrassed. He spread out the rug, and for a moment, Sis woke up. But then she fell back asleep, and Will tucked the blanket around her, picked her up, and put her on the bed. Then he sat on the end of the bed and watched her sleep, with a smile on his face.

Ekai blinked, and tottered over onto sunwarmed stones, that cracked when all the heat was drawn out of them in an instant. Ekai took his human form back. "Inferno's still alive, Caesar," he said. "Just elsewhere."

"No," said Caesar. "Ekai's alive. And elsewhere. Not Inferno."

Ekai remembered now, remembered the rest of it, the red-tinged memories of another personality.

"With respect? No. Inferno calmed, but he was still angry, lashing out at anything and everything. It wasn't until he finally attacked the one who save his life that he was sedated, enchanted into a copper statue, and sent back to his home plane of existence." Ekai shuddered, and manifested wings just so he could cup them around him and preen them with his fingers. So he was watching his fingers when he said, "But it was me who woke up."

"Which says a lot about who you are," Allie said. "Granted, I'm not sure what. That you're stronger than he was, perhaps, although if that wasn't proven to you a few minutes ago then you're denser than I thought."

Catharsis felt warm and safe and...

warm...

hot...

fire...

She sat up, inhaling sharply and wildly looking around. Will sat on the end of the bed, wearing new clothes--nice shirt, Catharthis thought absurdly.

He was there. That made her smile. Will was okay, so that meant everything was okay, because when his face was that serene than nothing coudl have ever gone wrong.

"Did we win?" Catharsis asked. She already knew the answer.

Will nodded.

She smiled.

"And Ekai's alright. I can tell by your face. You wouldn't be that serene if he'd--" She frowned. "How on Earth did he survive? Did his Author save him?"

He would have died otherwise. A featherbrained idiot of a flaming flufflehead, I believe Casey called him. Couldn't put it better myself. But a noble flufflehead. So I suppose that makes up for his stupidity, somehow.

Catharsis sat up.

Her chest was hit with a blast of cold air. She glanced down and turned bright red. "Crap. Um."

Catharsis pulled the blanket up to cover herself, mortified until she remembered he'd been naked, too.

Ask him to get you some clothes from the closet. That's where he found his. And I know you were asleep, but he's a sweetheart, you know that? He didn't oogle you or anything--put you in the bed, admittedly, but tucked you in and made sure you were comfortable. Casey and I had an aww-fest behind your backs.

Gee, thanks.

"Um, Writer says there's some clothing in the closet for me. D'you mind...?"

Ekai reached over and ran his fingernails lightly over the feathers in the 'elbow' bend of the wing. He could straighten his feathers with a thought, but it was soothing to bring his wings out with the feathers mussed, and then set them aright by hand.

Are you ignoring what Allie said?

"I'm sorry, I'm trying to figure out what to say to that. My personality... see, I woke up with the vaguest of memories. I knew what I was, I knew it had something to do with the Oracle of Aietha, and that it had been something like my choice. And there was Will, and I could talk with him, and later, help him. And then my early memories started coming back--my real name, my childhood. I was a total brat as a chick. So, this Ekai," he flicked his fingers at himself, before setting them back on his wings, "is someone entirely different from the first Ekai, and also entirely different from Inferno, and I don't really know where he came from."

Think of it like this, Ekai. The 'first Ekai' died, and Inferno rose from his ashes. Then Inferno died, and you rose from his. So you're not quite who you were born as, and you're not quite Inferno either. You're yourself, a different person than either, but having learned lessons from both. I wouldn't have it any other way, and I'm sure Will and everyone else agrees.

Allie shrugged, leaned down, and gave him a quick hug. "Doesn't matter. This Ekai's a great guy."

"Wouldn't change him for the world," added Caesar.

Ekai snerked. "Casey was right. She said you'd say that."

Allie smiled. "Then she knows us well. Shall we return?"

Ekai put his wings back and used the wall to pull himself up. "Sure."

Will shook his head--he didn't mind at all. He got up and peeked inside the closet. Before, when he'd been in a frenzy of needing to get dressed before Sis woke up, he'd not noticed the neat pile of cloth that sat beside where his clothes had been. He picked it up and carried it over. Then he hopped up onto the bed, and sat crosslegged on the end with his back to Sis.

Okay, Ekai put my modern clothes in there after he made me dress like an Egyptian. But where did hers come from?

Beats me.

Yeah, no real reason for the clothes. Catharsis was wearing normal clothing, I wasn't expecting her to lose 'em. So they're a gift from God, enjoy.

Er. Only I'm not a god, don't call me that.

Surrrrre.

Will handed her a light blue tunic, which Catharsis smirked at. Fashionable.

You'll be leaving Alexandria soon, but it's cute, thought you'd like it.

Catharsis sighed and stood. She noticed Will's blush. "I don't care if you look, Will. Not like it's anything you haven't seen."

He cared, though. She was right, he'd seen it before, but it was Sis, and she was awake, and they weren't too busy to dress.

Will still turned away, and Catharsis smiled. She'd thought he would. Not many guys would do that.

Catharsis pulled the tunic on, and let it hang down around her legs. Then she turned around and kissed Will full on the mouth. "You scared me," she said. "When you fell asleep like that."

Will smiled into the kiss, and hugged her tight, to say he was sorry. Then he heard footsteps in the hallway leading to the apartment, and broke off the kiss. When the door opened and the adults walked in, the pink shade to his skin could easily have been explained by the leftover 'sunburn' of the rescue. He still had an arm around Sis' waist though.

Catharsis noticed Will was embarrassed, so as soon as the adults walked in she pulled him in and kissed him again.

Zander made sure that he gave Will a stern look, just for kicks, but Allie smiled in approval.

Will's facial expression said "eep", when he saw Zander's stern look.

Zander smirked.

Will edged behind Sis. Ekai, meanwhile, was in conversation with Casey. So where are we headed next? Considering we seem to be done here.

You'll see.

Writer smiled.

She flexed her fingers and dodged the flying teddy bear that her friend threw mercilessly at her, smirked, and put her fingers to the keys.