"And... You're sure it'll be safe there?" Colin asks May from across the kitchen table.
The woman nods. "It should be. J says it's safe and as far as we know, the Imperium doesn't know about it. Should be as good a place as any to lay low now that all hell is breaking loose over the continent," she says with a careless shrug.
Edith's face deadpans. "'J says it's safe'? That's not exactly reassuring."
"Not even a little?" May asks.
"Nope. If anything, I'm more worried now than I was before I asked," Colin states.
May sighs and rolls her eyes. "Well, it's either this or stay here and wait for the Imperium to find us. Or really, to find you. Lemme remind you, I'm now harboring three wanted criminals of the Imperium. One of which that just turned all of Eutria into a chaotic hell pit," she motions her thumb towards Regan.
"So, I'm going to the island whether or not you're coming with. Not gonna risk my hide and hair to save you assholes."
Cree shrugs and looks between Edith and Colin. "I mean, it sounds reasonable enough. Whoever this 'J' is, she can't be that bad."
Edith and Colin, in unison, frantically shake their heads with a look of downright terror.
Regan sighs. "It's better than sitting still. If this place is more or less off The Director's radar, I'd say we go for it. We need somewhere to go to start thinking of a plan without having to constantly look over our shoulders. This island sounds like it might just fit the bill," he states.
"Who even is this 'J' anyway?" Cree asks.
Colin winces and shakes his head again. "Careful... don't say her name too loud, or else she might—"
"If you have a problem, the solution is J! And J is here to save the day!" The pink explosion of smoke poofs out on the table and J appears in the center with her hands above her head and a proud gleaming smile.
She flips off the table to place herself between Regan and Cree, wrapping her arms around them both and looking between them.
"OooooOoo are these the new members of our merry little band? Delightful! Are y'all ready to take some ass and kick some names?"
May sighs and stares deadpan at her. "Wrong order, J."
"No it's not, bend over boys!" she claps Regan and Cree on their backs.
Regan squeaks and looks back at her. "Wait, what?"
J giggles and boops him on the nose. "Aw, I like this one. He's adorable and innocent. I would very much so like to fix that!" she winks at him.
Edith snorts and rolls her eyes. "You may wanna rethink that, J."
"Why?" J takes another look at Regan and the flustered look on his face. She steps back, looks him over slowly, examines his hat, then grabs his face and squishes his cheeks, her own scrunching up in confusion. She steps back and places her hands on her hips, then she snaps her fingers and her energetic expression returns.
"Ooooh! He's a fruity little cutey!" she pinches his cheek and giggles when he flinches back and lowers to Cree's side.
"Cree, she scares me," he whispers.
Cree pats him on the back. "We survived Aramora. We can survive this."
Colin looks to J, trying desperately to keep the topic on their next step. "Before this deescalates any further into madness, J, May says that you've got an island that we can lay low on while we work out a plan?"
J flicks her top hat and nods enthusiastically. "Indeed I do! We've gotta take a boat there, though! So, I hope you're all ready for—"
"No!" Edith whines, but it's too late.
J poofs out in a puff of pink and reappears as the form they first saw her in.
"Harold of the Seven Seas!" Harold exclaims.
Edith lowers her head to the surface of the table, groaning in agony.
Cree points at J – or Harold – while staring at Colin. "What the fuck is this thing?"
"A Hex," Colin mumbles. "An insufferable one."
Harold winks at him. "C'mon, Loverboy. You love me and you know it."
"You abandoned me at the shipyard and left me to get caught by Jane, and your justification was that you did it 'because you were bored.'"
"It's a valid excuse!" Harold huffs.
May pinches the bridge of her nose. "So, you have a boat, J?"
"Harold!" he corrects.
May shakes her head. "Yeah I'm not doing that," she deadpans. "Do you have a boat?"
Harold rolls his eyes and nods. "Yes I do! Quite a beauty, at that! In fact, I can show you guys!" he claps his hands.
"You're going to summon a boat in the middle of the kitchen?!" Edith exclaims.
Harold shakes his head and grabs the table that they are all gathered around. It takes them a moment to understand what he's doing, when all of them suddenly see nothing but pink.
When they can see again, they're still sitting at the table, only outside and by a small wooden dock on the edge of Nerawin and into the Orinas Sea.
Cree jumps from his seat and looks around, patting himself to make sure he's not dead before whipping his angry glare to Harold, but he seems to have vanished.
He goes to question where he went, when they all see Harold sitting in a plastic bucket holding a cracked wooden paddle, rowing towards the dock.
"All aboard!" he shouts.
Now both Edith and Colin lower their heads, and Cree and Regan just stare down at Harold in raw unbridled confusion. And May just sighs.
"The worst part is that she's not joking... This is her boat," she says impassively.
"We're fucked," Cree groans.
Regan gets up from his chair. "If only Giovanni left the boat with us before she went off on her mission to find help on the five minor continents of Aramora..."
Harold huffs and glares up at him. "Excuse me?! This is a fine sea vessel!"
Edith sighs and looks over at May. "I don't suppose you've got a boat just laying around."
May shakes her head. "'Fraid not."
"Great..." Colin mutters.
Cree stares past them all, over the sea, with a quizzical gaze and he tilts his head. He taps Edith's shoulder without looking away from whatever has caught his attention.
"Is that..." he squints to look closer. "...A pirate ship?"
Not just Edith, but all of them turn and look at what he's talking about, and they see that he's not insane. Coming from around the bend of the shore is a massive ship bearing a black skull and crossbones flag.
Colin's eyes widen and he lightly chuckles. "That's... from Aramora."
Harold scoffs and flips off the massive ship. "Little bitch boat! Kiss my ass!" he slaps the side of his bucket. He picks up a small rock and chucks it towards the ship but it's way too far away to hit. "Eat shit, piss ass!"
"Is it... coming towards us?" Edith questions.
Regan stares at it, and he feels a faint buzz in his neck that's gone just as soon as it was there, but the feeling resonated with him in a way he can't explain.
Cree narrows his eyes to try getting a better look once the ship gets a bit closer, but until it docks it'll probably be impossible to make anything out.
Colin just watches it, feeling his heart racing but not understanding why.
The ship finally pulls to the shore, and luckily they are far enough into the forest to not be drawing attention to themselves with a huge pirate ship stopping in front of them.
Regan and Cree look ahead and feel their hearts leap at the sight of the brown-haired Tus'Felnis swinging down from the deck on a rope, elegantly landing on the shore and looking forward to see the group watching her.
"Damn. Didn't realize I had an audience," she smirks and opens her arms. "Miss me, boys?"
Regan and Cree bound towards her and Regan pulls her into a hug that lifts her off the ground.
"Nisha! You're alive!"
Nisha laughs and pats his back. "Hey, not much can kill me," she winks and he lets her go, and she turns towards Cree. "Good to see ya again, Lefty."
"And there it is," Cree grumbles and Nisha playfully punches his metal shoulder.
"C'mon, lighten up. We've got enough doom and gloom lately to get on even the grim reaper's nerves."
"How did you find us?" Regan asks.
"We had a guide," she shrugs and looks back at the ship.
Regan looks up and his heart swells as his eyes land on the orange furball standing over the bow of the ship.
"ROMEOW!"
He looks around the ship, trying to find a way to get him down but the fall would be too great.
The cat looks down at him from his high perch, and the moment he sees Regan and the beaming smile on his face, he jumps off the edge.
"NO!"
Regan sprints towards the falling cat and dives to catch him before he can hit the ground, but Romeow jumps off his head and lands gracefully on his feet, sitting on the shore and cleaning himself, going through a full-on cat yoga session.
Regan scrambles to get up and he rushes over to Romeow, grabbing him mid standing-tree and pulls him into a hug.
"Romeow! I am so so so so sorry for leaving you! I never meant to! I promise that I will never leave you again!" he cries.
The cat huffs over his shoulder. "Dammit. If you wanna make it up to me, just kill me now."
Regan shudders and hugs him tighter. "Oh, I missed you too!"
"Please. End me."
Regan sprinkles kisses all over Romeow's face.
"Don't worry! I vow to make it up to you with more quality bonding time together!"
"The gates of hell are awaiting me with welcoming arms."
Edith sighs as she watches the 'touching?' moment between Regan and his cat. "I think he's more happy to see Romeow than he was to see any of us," she deadpans, and then chuckles lightly.
Cree rolls his eyes, but smiles at Regan and walks over, resting his hand on his back to join the moment.
Nisha tilts her head at them. "Say, where's the kid?"
Cree gasps and looks back at Harold, who is now sitting in his bucket on the tiny dock.
"Fuck! She's still at the station!" he shouts.
Harold hops out of the bucket and poofs back into J, sprinting over to him and Regan and patting both of their heads. "My bad! Quick U-E! Les go grab the gremlin!" and they all poof out in a pink explosion.
Nisha throws up her hands and turns away. "Alright, so that was a thing!" she exclaims and sighs, crossing her arms and looking over the remainder of the group.
"So... You're Regan and Cree's friends," she says, not quite as a question, but as a statement that almost sounds like she's making it to herself.
Edith is staring at her with quizzical eyes. "You... You have—"
Nisha holds up her hand to Edith and glares at her. "Shh. Tus'Felnis. Cat-people race. I'm tired of explaining."
Colin shrugs and softly chuckles. "I've found that the 'cosplay' excuse works wonders."
Nisha's eyes land on him, and her irritated glare fades into a cunning grin and narrowed eyes, her ears slightly flick to the side. She notes his appearance. "Black hair. Green eyes. Pale. Tall and sci-fi looking," she smirks and slowly nods to herself.
"Colin Lee. Nice to finally meet you," she snickers.
Colin tilts his head. "Finally?"
"You're quite a hot-topic back home. A real 'golden goose', aren'tcha?" Nisha bites her lip slyly.
Colin stares at her in question. "What do you mean? You've been looking for me?"
Nisha wavers from side to side. "Well, yes and no. Look, the situation's pretty complicated but I'm sure you know that at this point. There's a lot to cover, but first," she walks over to him and grabs his arm.
"You're coming with me. Let's go. Now," she states and starts trying to drag him away, but he resists.
"Wait what? I'm not going anywhere. I was advised to not get in cars – or pirate ships – with strangers," Colin pulls his arm out of her grasp and steps back to Edith's side.
Nisha rolls her eyes and irritably taps her foot as she glares at him. "Hi, Hu'Nisha Moraan. Seventeen. Pirate. Ex-agent of the Dev'al Ordon. Badass cat-tailed warrior who will drag you onto my ship if I have to. There. No longer strangers. Now let's go," she grabs his arm again and resumes pulling him towards the ship.
He looks back at Edith. "Edith, help!"
Edith chuckles and bites her lip. "Actually, I'd like to see where this goes," she says.
Nisha waves her on to follow. "If it'll get him to move, then sure, come with. But one way or another, you're getting your ass up there, Colin."
"But—"
"Nope. Let's go," Nisha interrupts. Edith hurries to follow them, staring up at the pirate ship with big eyes as she joins the cat girl in dragging Colin towards the shore. Once again, weirder things have happened.
May tilts her head as she watches the scene go down, when the pink poof returns at her side and J reappears with Regan, Cree, Romeow and Reela, who is still holding Toya in her arms.
Nisha looks back and smiles at them. "Hey, pinkie-pie," she calls to J.
Regan tilts his head at Nisha. "How do you even know what that is?"
The Tus'Felnis ignores him and just focuses on J. "You can teleport people with your weird, magic, sparkly thingy, yeah?"
J bows enthusiastically. "Oh, yes I can! Do you request a delivery?"
Nisha shakes her head. "Get us up on the ship."
May clears her throat and looks at the Tus'Felnis curiously. "Are you a murderer?"
"No," Nisha answers simply.
"Cool. Mind if we all hop on that ship? We kinda need a lift," May asks.
Nisha groans and nods. "Yes! Sure! If it gets this guy," she points at Colin, "up there," she points up at the ship. "I'll take you all the way to fuckin' Letroseli if you want!"
J beams and grabs hold of May, Regan, Cree and Reela again and they poof onto the deck of the ship. She reappears beside Nisha, Colin and Edith and they poof up next, dropping to the wooden deck.
Nisha stumbles a bit and shakes her head. "Okay, that was fucking unpleasant," she grimaces and sighs, grabbing Colin's arm again and pulling him to his feet.
The door that leads down to the cabins opens up and Naomi steps out, looking quizzically at everyone on the deck. She goes to question it, but she sees Nisha's determined spunky glare and her hand gripping Colin's arm as she drags him in her direction.
Naomi watches them quizzically. "Wait, Nisha... Is he—?"
"Yep," Nisha doesn't stop before bringing Colin to the door and shoving him through. "Down the hall, just follow the scent of booze," she points past his shoulder.
Colin questioningly looks around before meeting her eyes again.
"What—"
"Have fun," and she slams the door in his face.
"Hey!" Colin sighs and steps back from the door, looking around again. He's had lots of questions throughout the day, but getting forcefully dragged onto a pirate ship by a teenage Tus'Felnis pirate somehow manages to top everything he's witnessed from J today.
He turns around, figuring that if he wants to get out he might as well see what this is all about. Nisha seemed pretty adamant about whatever this is, so he decides to humor the girl and slowly start walking down the hall.
As he makes his way towards the back of the hallway, he believes he hears faint sounds of a pen scrawling on paper and occasional scratching across a wooden desk, as well as gruff sighs.
The sounds are coming from the furthest door on the left, at the end of the hall. The door is open a crack, so he carefully nudges it open a bit more to look through the dimly lit space, seeing a man sitting with his back to the door, sitting across the room hunched over a desk, writing in a notebook.
Colin eyes the man curiously, feeling his heart beat faster but not understanding why. Who is this old man? Is he who Nisha wants him to see?
He stays where he is, cautiously keeping his distance.
"Hello?" he calls into the room apprehensively.
The man at the desk freezes, stopping whatever he was doing.
Colin remains at the door, keeping his hand on the wooden frame as he sees the man take a moment, then slowly turns his head back to look over his shoulder.
His eyes land on Colin.
It takes him, Colin, a moment to understand why the old man's face lit up but with a look that closely resembles hesitation, as if he doesn't want to move or act on anything he's feeling out of fear that he'll only wake up and realize it's just a dream.
It's not.
Malachi slowly pushes out from his chair, never letting his eyes leave Colin as he turns around and merely stands in front of the desk, still trying to convince himself that he's not dreaming.
"...Colin?" he quivers, his gruff voice just breaks a whisper.
Colin doesn't know how or why, but as he looks into his eyes and hears his voice, despite all the years it's been since he last stood face-to-face with this man and how different he looks, he knows deep down exactly who he's staring at.
"Malachi..." he breathes out almost silently, but Malachi heard him.
His hand falls from the doorframe and he takes a shakily unconscious step into the room, but he freezes in place. All he can feel is guilt. He ran. He could have stayed and just risked getting stuck in Aramora, but he ran. He let Malachi believe he was dead for over a century.
All because he was scared.
He wants to hug him and tell him how sorry he is, but he can't bring himself to speak. It seems he's not the only one. Malachi is staring at him, taking in his face like he's still trying to wake up.
Even if he is asleep, why not let himself dream.
Without a word, they step towards each other and Malachi roughly grabs Colin's shoulder, snatching him over and casing him in his arms, and Colin automatically returns the embrace and closes his eyes, feeling the old man shaking against him as he rests his chin on his shoulder.
All those years. All one hundred and twenty-one years of never knowing what really happened. Never letting themselves fully believe the other was still alive. Since the moment they each saw the fires raining over Eelry, they could feel in their hearts that was the end. That those fires in that night would be the last time they would ever see each other.
But here they are.
Colin lets himself smile when he hears Malachi start softly laughing under his breath like he's trying not to seem crazy but at the same time not really giving a shit if he is.
The old man pulls back, holding Colin tightly by his shoulders and looking over his face, too delirious to fully register the glowing eyes and wires in his cheeks. He huffs, still with a subtle chuckle in his brusque tone that's the most alive he's sounded in decades.
He shakes his head as he examines Colin, scoffing in disbelief over what he's staring at.
"I..." he laughs a bit more. "One hundred and twenty-one fucking years... and you haven't aged a goddamned day," he states breathlessly, having forgotten to breathe since the moment their eyes met.
"And you've... aged many."
Malachi scoffs and punches his shoulder, then wincing and recoiling, holding his hand and staring at his shoulder quizzically.
"Ow! What the hell are you made of?"
"Alloy steel and silicone resin," Colin chuckles nervously.
Malachi angles his head sideways at him with his mouth agape, and Colin sighs.
"Long story."
"Clearly..." the old man lowers his hand, still staring at him in astonishment.
Colin bites his lip, still feeling the guilt tainting his heart but he sets it aside due to the overwhelming feelings of joy he's experiencing in this moment. He knows Malachi has never really been the sentimental type, and talking about feelings isn't high on his list of favorable pastimes.
He smiles sheepishly and motions back towards the door. "We could... talk over drinks, if you want," he offers, still with that anxious chuckle and Malachi nods slowly.
"Yeah... It's getting late though," the old man says.
Colin grins and cocks a brow. "That's never stopped you before."
"I'm old now, cut me some slack," Malachi shrugs. "Ale?"
"Gods no," Colin jokingly grimaces. "Wine."
"Pansy."
"Yep, absolutely," Colin sighs and scratches the back of his neck.
Malachi snickers and grabs him again, throwing a brotherly arm around his shoulders as they walk out together.
When his soul was split, he constantly felt as though a part of him was always missing. And even after he was whole again, the feeling lingered. Something always felt off. Like he didn't lose his sense of self in just the sense of literally having his heart and mind broken apart, but in the sense of holding memories of a life that never really felt like his own.
But having Malachi Wood, his best friend from all of those memories of who he used to be, now here with him and staring at him with that look that he always remembered, he's finally found it. This is what he was missing. What he needed to find in order to truly feel alive. Not as a machine, but as a human with trials and tribulations, love and loss, friends and family who still love him after a century of being apart.
He's finally. Finally, whole.