pfffft this chapter is a mess lol i am so sorry xD
also! happy late christmas, and new year and stuff! and happy late other holidays/general holiday season if you dont celebrate christmas and yeah!
anyways xD
enjoy, my be-ay-yoo-tiful Rulers!
Scapegoat
Six: Anagapesis
"They're targeting us now," I realize as the Dark Mages surround us.
"Because of you," Brice groans, looking over at Seto, who rolls his eyes and turns to glare at the oncoming Dark Mages.
"Then they'll die because of me, too," Seto growls, and Brice's "bamf" observation from six years ago suddenly has a lot more credibility.
"Excuse you," Payten slurs, slowly sitting up. "I was sleeping."
"Good thing you stopped," Danielle laughs nervously.
"Now would be a good time to follow through!" I shout to Seto, because, okay, maybe there are a whole lot of Dark Mages slowly surrounding us, wielding magic staffs and hands full of fireballs. Maybe.
"Surrender peacefully," commands one of the Mages.
Seto snorts and crosses his arms. "Here you are, a small army of Mages, and not a one of you knows the magic word," he sighs.
One of the stupider Mages squints and says slowly, "Please surrender peacefully?"
"What a comeback! Truly inspiring, here we've come to find out that one of the Mages does, in fact, know basic manners."
"So are you... gonna surrender?" asks the Mage.
"No," says Seto, splaying out his hands and knocking every Mage within a ten foot radius unconscious.
"We may have overestimated the limits of Light magic," one of the remaining Dark Mages mutters, and Brice glares at Seto. Meanwhile, Payten and I look at Seto and internally applaud him.
"I'm not one for one liners, but," Seto begins.
"Yes you are," Payten sighs.
"Yes I am!" Seto laughs, snapping his fingers and sending the rest of the Mages to their knees. He glances over at Brice for no more than a second, likely looking to see if he's impressed him, but when he sees Brice's glare, his smile turns forced. He turns his attention back to the one last standing Mage, who has somehow dodged Seto's overpowered attack.
"Ahem," Seto coughs, and the Mage falls dead.
"That was cool," I comment passively.
"That was terrible!" Brice yells. "And cool," he mutters. Seto's eyes light up, but he doesn't say anything.
"Bloody tea crumpets," Danielle giggles.
"Rekt," Payten agrees.
"I can't believe you all!" Brice huffs, crossing his arms and jutting out his bottom lip. "I mean- Dark magic, guys! Super dangerous." He looks over at Seto and frowns. "Don't encourage him." Seto rolls his eyes.
But then, suddenly, Seto goes stock still for a moment, and then he falls to his knees with a pained groan.
"Seto!" Brice shouts, carefully pulling him back to his feet, and Seto grinds his teeth together as he leans into Brice's hold.
"Apologies," he grits out. "It'll pass."
"Why won't you stop casting?" Brice asks, almost angrily. "I- I get that it isn't easy to stop. I get that! But you won't even listen to me when I try to help you, you always just push me away, and-"
"Double apologies," Seto replies, and Brice doesn't seem to catch the way Seto's eyes roll up a bit as he casts what must be a mental spell. Dark magic doesn't require such an action. But Brice doesn't catch it, so when Seto's artificially dark purple magic swirls around them both, Brice freaks and jumps away, leaving Seto to stumble forward a few steps in his absence.
"No! I don't want it to touch me!" Brice practically screeches.
"Oh, calm down," Danielle says, rolling her eyes, but Brice frantically shakes his head.
"No. Don't touch me."
"Don't let my magic touch you, or...?" Seto trails off, raising his eyebrows as though merely amused.
"Neither! Just- Don't touch me," Brice says quietly, looking down. "It's like you don't even hear me when I talk anymore. It's like you don't even see me, you don't even care."
Seto opens his mouth but then clamps it shut before Brice can see it, and my heart hurts for him.
"You're not gonna say anything?" Brice asks in barely a whisper, looking back up at Seto through his drooping hair. "Please say something."
Seto shrugs carelessly, but Payten and I can see him digging his nails into the palm of his other hand behind his back, forcing himself to keep his pokerface up. "What is there to say?" he asks.
Brice gapes at him, opening and closing his mouth over and over again as tears begin to drip from his eyes. "Seto."
"Anagapesis," Seto says simply.
"W-What?"
"Anagapesis," Seto repeats. "Noun. 'No longer feeling any affection for someone you once loved.'"
"Oh my Notch," Danielle whispers, utterly horrified. To be honest, I'm horrified, too, and Payten looks like they're about to punch someone - whether it's Seto or Brice, I can't be sure, but - let's be honest - it's probably Seto.
"Well- Well-" Brice clenches his fist and stomps his foot. "Well, then, fine! I don't wanna be with you anymore, anyways!"
"Good. Then it's official," Seto says calmly. He drags his nails down the palm of his hand and then pulls both hands out from behind his back, smiling genially. "We've broken up."
"Yeah. We have," Brice chokes out.
"Wait, you should talk about this," I beg, stepping forward. Seto glares at me out of the corner of his eye, not even bothering to turn to face me as I speak. For a moment, I convince myself to shut up.
"This is too much," Payten says, speaking for me. "I don't care what either of your intentions are," they say, glaring meaningfully at Seto, "this is not the way to go."
"What are you on about?" Seto asks, still playing innocent. He looks like he's seconds away from flat-out growling at us. He looks... desperate.
"What are you on about?" Brice mocks him, imitating his accent quite terribly even as he wipes away tears. "Jeb, that's so annoying. I swear you just do it to be special."
"What- the accent?" Seto asks, actually caught off guard.
"Yes, the accent," Brice sighs in exasperation. "Ugh. It's so obnoxious."
"Oh," Seto says quietly, so quietly that I doubt Brice even heard it. He clears his throat. "T-Then-" He clears his throat again and begins magnifying his own accent. "Then I hope you are thoroughly annoyed."
"Ugh!" Brice throws up his hands and then shoots me and Payten a look as if to say, 'Can you believe him?' "Whatever. Screw you. I'm-" He glances around, peering far into the difference and eventually allowing his eyes to lock onto a small fort-type-thing. "-going to find the missing children."
Brice stomps away, toward the fort.
"I think that went quite- rather- pretty well," Seto says, sounding small. It sounds wrong, and it isn't until a few seconds later that I realize he was forcing an American accent.
"It went terribly," Payten deadpans.
"Don't take sides," I remind them gently, and they sigh.
"W-What just happened?" Danielle asks, looking up at Seto with wide, teary eyes.
"Oh, dear," Seto mumbles, and a bit of his accent slips through even though I can tell he's trying very hard not to let it. "Ah- Well, you see, Danielle, it's- sometimes things just don't work out between two people, and so they- they break up."
Danielle crosses her arms. "But you and Brice have always worked out just fine," she argues.
"Yeah," Seto whispers, squeezing his eyes shut. "We have."
"Then why did you break up!?" my sister practically shouts at him.
"I don't want him to- I don't want to hurt him," Seto breathes as though each word causes him pain. "And before you reprimand me for hurting him regardless, I- I know Brice. I know him like I knew Dark magic - that is to say, very, very well. And Brice is sensitive - so sensitive - and he wears his heart on his sleeve, it seems- and- and-" Seto's eyes fly open. "I can see how much he's hurting right now. Good Notch, I can see. But I'm thoroughly convinced that... that it is the better of two bad things for him. Once he moves on, starts hating me instead of missing me- well, then everything will be better."
Danielle is very good with words, and she loves Seto as though he were a second father. But right now, she chooses to be horrifyingly blunt - perhaps because she is still only a child, and children make mistakes, or perhaps simply because Seto has angered her more now than he ever has before. Regardless of the reason...
"He already hates you," she says with a smile. "I know because he told us so."
"Is that so?" Seto asks, equally calm - or so it seems. His eyes turn glassy, and when he speaks, his voice is raspy as though he is trying to keep from crying. "Well! Isn't that wonderful."
"Seto," I begin, quietly, regretfully.
"No, no explanation is needed," he informs me kindly, forcing a smile.
"I'm sure he didn't mean it," I insist.
"It's all right! This is what I wanted, isn't it?"
But not like this. He wanted Brice to hate him because of the break up - learning that Brice supposedly hated him long before that is something painful and wrong that Seto should not have had to experience.
I don't say anything.
"Well. We ought to catch up to him, I suppose," Seto says, turning to go after Brice. "Can't have him going in alone."
"Be there in a sec," I call after him, and Seto nods and continues on his way.
Once he's out of earshot, I immediately turn on my little sister. "What the Nether was that!?"
"He deserved it!" Danielle protests, throwing her hands up, and I try not to growl at her.
"Of course he didn't! He's Seto, he's Brice's number one fanboy!"
"Not anymore, apparently! He basically told Brice he didn't love him anymore!"
"Yeah, but he didn't mean it!" I huff in exasperation. "Are we talking about the same Seto, here? That man is so in love that it actually physically pains me to go anywhere near him on Valentine's Day because I just know he'll ask me to help him prepare some weirdly elaborate surprise for Brice!"
"Well, it's not Valentine's Day, now, is it?" Danielle snaps. "Seto was a total jerk back there, and he deserves every consequence that comes his way because of it!"
"He's doing it for Brice!" I fume, stomping my foot and getting right up in my sister's face. "He's dying and he doesn't want Brice to mourn him!"
Her face falls. "What?"
"Crap," I blurt, quickly glancing at Payten for help. They just sigh and shake their head. "Uh."
"Please," Danielle whispers, letting her eyes fall closed. "Please tell me you weren't being serious."
"I- I-"
"Jenny," she begs, sounding pained. "Please."
I sigh and look down. "... He's dying, Danielle."
"No," she chokes out.
"I'm sorry, I- He didn't want us to tell anyone. He wanted to make Brice - and, as a result, the rest of Our City - hate him, so that when he died, it wouldn't- we wouldn't be-" I shake my head and look back up at her. "He doesn't have much time left."
"Seto," she cries pitifully, and then she lurches forward and throws her arms around me. "I don't wanna lose my Seto!"
Payten, over in the corner, looks down as though not to intrude. It may be a private moment, but I wish it weren't. I wish Seto, at least, were here - to comfort Danielle.
And I wish Brice were here, too.
To comfort Seto.
"I'm so sorry, Danielle," I begin. "That's why we've been rushing so much, I- We were trying to find Miss May, because she kind of has a history with Seto, and we thought maybe she could help us find a cure, or something, and-"
"We'll find her," Danielle says suddenly, pushing me away. When my eyes meet hers, I can actually see how determined she is to save Seto. Her fists are clenched along with her teeth, she's got her eyebrows tilted downward like she's ready for war, and I'm pretty sure I'd be dead right now if I were the thing standing between Seto and his health. With a couple powerful blinks, her tears are gone. "We'll find Miss May, I swear we will. I won't let him die."
"Danielle-" Payten butts in.
"No, I mean it! We're gonna save him!" Danielle shouts, stomping her foot just like I did. I think we both got it from Brice. "Come on. We'll find Lizza and the others and stop the person who's been taking them, and then we'll find Miss May and save Seto!"
I can't help but smile, especially after Payten smiles first. "Okay," I give in. "Okay. We'll save him."
"Yes! It's never too late!" Danielle shrieks, and then she darts toward the fort after Seto.
"It's never too late," Payten shrugs.
"Guess not."
☼☼☼
Just before we reach the fort, Seto's pocket buzzes, and he glances warily at Brice, who just throws his hands up. Sighing, Seto takes his phone out of his pocket.
The hologram appears before Seto even drops the phone. "Louis' gone," Ty says almost immediately.
"What? How?" Seto asks with wide eyes.
"We don't know, he's just gone," Jason says helplessly, leaning into Ty.
"No," Danielle breathes sadly, "not Louis..."
"We'll find him," Seto says to her before returning to the conversation. "When?"
"A few minutes ago. He was just... Here one minute, gone the next," Ty answers. "Right now we've got everyone huddled in a corner. Waiting for instructions."
"Is Michael okay? He was with Louis," Brice says worriedly.
Jason's eyes go wide. "Is Michael here!?" he calls out, looking over in the direction of what must be the crowd. "We haven't seen him-"
"He's here," Ty breathes, relieved. "He was in the back, comforting some kid."
"Dear Jeb," Brice huffs, throwing his head back in exasperation. "Had me worried."
"Okay, we- we're on our way, we've just got a base to get around," Seto promises. "Give us an hour or so." He hangs up.
"We're not going around the base," Brice guesses, sighing in defeat.
"Did you think we would?"
"No."
"Good for you," Seto says tersely, looking up at the base as though sizing it up. There's a moat-type thing - I think it actually qualifies as a chasm, and there's nothing but abyss inside of it - surrounding the place, but I guess that won't be a problem for Seto. "We will skim the place for information. Then we must be on our way."
"What if it isn't empty?" I ask nervously.
"Then we'll make it empty," Seto replies, smiling politely. I am suddenly very aware of how glad I am to be on his good side.
"Psycho," Brice mumbles as he peers over the moat and through a slat in the wall, and Seto frowns and crosses his arms.
"I believe you need this psycho's help in order to enter," Seto says, raising an eyebrow. Brice wavers under the weight of all that sass.
"Whatever," he eventually huffs, stepping out of the way.
Seto teleports us all the few yards to the other side of the moat, and then, rather unceremoniously, he blows up the door. The blast sends Brice jumping back (and hiding behind Seto, but he quickly recovers and jumps away again, pretending to be disgusted), and Seto rolls his eyes and strolls on through.
"Um, okay, ignoring what just happened, what kind of 'fort' has a normal door?" I ask as I cautiously follow after Seto.
"I suspect it is less of a fort and more of a meeting area," Seto replies, peeking around a corner. "It looks like it was adapted from some old ruins, possibly from a previous fort used during the Dark War."
"So, one of the ones you obliterated?" Payten asks.
"Precisely," Seto laughs. He glances around the fort-thing and nods. "I believe it's empty."
"So we can explore?" Danielle asks.
"Go at it," Payten replies.
The place is pretty big. Like... really pretty big. Because of this, I guess it's a little understandable that whoever built this place didn't bother putting in any flooring. The walls, weak and an interesting mix between previous ruins and cheap wood, are scattered across the place like a maze.
"I'm lost," calls Brice, confirming my analysis.
"One moment," Seto calls back in response, likely rolling his eyes. He eventually walks off in the direction of Brice's voice, and I trail after him, not sure what I should be looking for. I nearly run into one of the silly walls.
And that's when I see it- something flashing red, tiny but still visible, hanging from the wall. It's got a black sort of case, but I don't think that'd matter much if it went off. "Uh, Seto..?" I ask nervously.
"That is a bomb," Seto confirms bluntly. "And I'll bet it's here so they can set it off if they're alerted of our presence here."
"Why are they always after us?" Danielle pouts.
"Apologies, that might be my fault," Seto laughs. He's doing a surprisingly good job of pretending the break up and the events after it never happened. "Regardless, we ought to be extra careful from now on. If any of you see anyone coming, alert me immediately so that we can evacuate."
"Sir, yes, sir!" I reply, saluting jokingly, and Seto rolls his eyes.
"Hey, guys?" Brice calls from farther out in the maze. "I, uh, I think I found something."
We jog around the maze, following his voice until we finally locate him. And when we do arrive, what we see is a one hundred percent blessing. "Is that what I think it is?" Danielle asks.
"Finding Louis, Lizza, and the others might be easier than we thought," I comment, staring up at the map. It's a crude drawing of some super secret building, and, while the rooms aren't labeled, it's obvious that this place is important. I'm ninety-percent sure that whoever's kidnapping the kids (in Our City or not, regardless)is keeping them in a safe, secret, guarded place - and this definitely fits the bill. Even if we didn't find Lizza and the others there, we'd definitely figure out where they went and who's been capturing them inside Our City.
"Louis's gonna be okay!" Danielle cheers.
"You betcha, babe," Payten says, smiling fondly.
"Seems simple enough," Seto mutters, and I'm actually not sure if he's being sarcastic or not. The actual directions to the place are written in weird, indecipherable scribbles that can't possibly be a part of the normal English language.
"They're coordinates, written phonetically in a fairly uncommon dialect of a fairly common sorcerer's language," Seto explains when he sees us all looking at him strangely. The brunet then summons a pen and, when it drops into his hands, grabs Payten's hand and scribbles a set of numbers on their palm.
"Why mine and not your own?" Payten asks, squinting suspiciously.
"Ah..." Seto smiles and shrugs. "No reason."
Payten squints so much they might as well fall underground and land on a patch of golden flowers, and Danielle catches on and pouts a little.
Seto simply rolls his eyes in response, likely trying to stay distanced, and strolls further into the base, which turns out to be very, very big. When we finally reach what seems to be the middle of the base, it feels like we've been walking for ages.
When Seto first turns around to offer us all a rest or perhaps a teleport, his eyes narrow a little. "You've... not exactly been subtle with the fact that we've been here," he says slowly, taking in the mess of a trail we've left. And, admittedly, our trail is definitely a mess.
"You were walking too fast, we couldn't keep up," Payten says, shrugging carelessly. "So we blasted holes through the maze walls so we could just go in a straight line towards you."
"... Interesting tactic?" Seto tries, eyebrows going up a little.
"Oh crap," Brice squeaks.
"Yes, it is a bit of a problem," Seto admits, awkwardly trying not to offend us. "Because if the Mages who frequent this place and-or live in it were to suddenly show up, our presence would be terribly obvious-"
"Seto!" Brice hisses, standing on tip-toes and pointing over the short walls, past the moat, ages away. "The Mages did suddenly show up!"
Seto curses under his breath.
"Let's just run!" I beg, glancing around nervously.
"Through the maze to the 'closest' exit, or through the rubble you four have left behind?" Seto asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine, what about a teleport? You could do that, right?"
He opens and closes his mouth, wincing slightly, and I groan. He's weak. The constant 'crashes' plus his bamf move with the Mages from earlier - he can't teleport us all such a large distance.
"I can literally see their entire army marching toward us," Payten says worriedly. "If they see their place in pieces, they're gonna set off the bombs."
"We're doomed," Danielle groans.
Seto breathes out slowly, looks at Danielle's sad face, and shakes his head. "No, we're not. I can cast an illusion so that the Mages see their base as perfectly assembled and uninvaded. Meanwhile, you four can use the extra time to find a way out of this place."
"This base goes on in each direction for at least a mile," Brice says, his tone laced with concern. I think he's purposely ignoring the last bit of Seto's idea. "That's a huge illusion. There's no way you can do that."
Seto shoots him a glare. "Never doubt me. I am perfectly capable," he says, even though a few minutes ago he wordlessly admitted to being too weak for a teleport.
"Oh, really?" asks Brice, crossing his arms and steeling his gaze. "That isn't what you tell yourself at night in our home, when you're collapsed on the floor gasping about how you're totally worthless. Let's be honest, you've got more doubt for yourself than I ever could."
Seto opens his mouth and then closes it again, briefly glancing over at Danielle, Payten, and me. Then he snarls and shakes his head and holds up his hands to begin the illusion.
It's amazing to watch it begin, watch it slowly spread out in front of us like a wall painted with a terrifying mural. But the moment it's up, Seto is struggling - whether he wants to admit it out loud or not, the whole crash thing has been taking a toll on him, and his power isn't what it could be.
"Seto, you can't keep this up," I say, watching him tremble with the weight of the spell.
"Yes, I can," he argues, pushing his hands higher as though to lift the spell's weight better. "Go! I'll catch up."
"No, you can't!" Payten joins in, ignoring the instruction and stepping forward to climb the stairs to the platform Seto is settled on.
"I can keep this up!" Seto yells, falling to his knees but keeping his hands in the air. The artificial darkness drains from his purple magic as he focuses all of his power on the illusion - even the tiny color illusion spell is too much to keep up.
"Woah," Brice breathes, watching the color-changing, wisping magic in awe.
"I can keep it up!" Seto repeats, squeezing his eyes shut, and Brice gently pushes Payten aside to take their place on the steps. "Go!"
Brice glances over at Danielle, Payten, and me. "Did you guys see tha-" His eyes widen when he sees our guilty faces.
"I can, I can, I can," Seto cries, his magic fluctuating quickly between light and dark purple.
"Have you been faking the re-addiction?" Brice asks, still awe-fully as he moves closer still.
"I can keep it up!" Seto cries out, his hands slowly shaking lower. "Seven more days, I can keep this up!"
"Seto," Brice whispers, now close enough to touch. "Why would you fake it?" He pauses as Seto frantically shakes his head. "You've been faking all of it, haven't you? You still love me - you just don't want me to know."
Seto lets out a sob, curling in as if the weight of the spell is crushing him.
Brice lowers himself to his knees, putting a careful hand on Seto's cheek. "You faked it all... but why?"
"Seven days left," Seto chokes out. "Seven days left, I told myself I could make it."
"Seven days left until what?" asks Brice, and Payten and I have to fight not to shield our eyes.
"Until I die," Seto sobs out, and the illusion falls.
There's instant chaos from the Dark Mages, who have come so far as to be right outside the base. Seto is full-out sobbing now, his body wracked with something awful, and Brice's eyes are wide with unsurety. "What do we do?" asks Danielle.
"The Mages sound close enough that they wouldn't risk setting off the bombs for fear of hurting themselves," Payten says. "So now we just need to run."
"I can't," Seto gasps, and Brice frantically shakes his head.
"I'll carry you," he says firmly, without giving Seto so much as a choice.
"N-No-" Seto begins, pretending he has a choice anyways.
"Shut up, Seto. You're as light as Danielle, you hardly eat anything," Brice complains, lifting Seto up bridal style quite easily.
"Hey! I eat everything!" Danielle protests despite our situation.
"Yeah, but you still manage to be tiny," Brice mumbles.
"Mortem," Seto manages to say, but the target of his spell - a Dark Mage that had found our position - only stumbles back a little despite the fact that I know that was an instant death spell.
"Run!" Payten commands, and I grab Danielle's hand and yank her forward ahead of Brice and Seto to catch up to Payten in the maze.
Danielle keeps glancing behind us, slowing us down but also buying us time as she wards off the Mages with spells from her free hand. Meanwhile, Brice is actually moving very quickly, with Seto whispering tiny spells whenever a Mage gets too close. Payten is up ahead, peering around corners and checking for any Mages that might be waiting to ambush us, and so we actually make it to the edge of the destroyed base quite easily.
But then we come to the chasm we were all Seto-teleported over to get to the base in the first place. And maybe we'd still be able to cross it - maybe Brice could magic us up an easy bridge or something!
... If a powerful Mage weren't standing right in front of us, blocking our way.
"If you know anything, you know who I am," the Dark Mage says haughtily. "I'm the general of this base. I fight better than anyone here." He laughs evilly, which in my opinion is a little bit over the top, but I guess he can do whatever he wants when he's general. "The only one out of any of you who could've possibly defeated me is the fabled Dark Sorcerer, and even he is now incapacitated, unable to perform anything but the weakest of spells!"
"Mortem," Seto replies with all the sass of a man not currently held helpless in his ex-boyfriend's arms.
As expected, the Dark Mage general merely stumbles back.
Right into the chasm.
He screams as he falls, and Brice lets out a sigh of relief and awkwardly twists out a hand for Seto to high-five. Seto looks like he's about to pass out, so Brice high-fives Danielle instead.
"Bless you, Seto," Payten laughs, and then they build a small magic bridge across the chasm for Brice to run over.
We run. We run a lot, and not a single one of the Mages chases us, and I'm ninety percent sure it's because they got lost in their own maze. Regardless, we're nearing Our City.
Brice has cast at least ten strength spells on himself. Seto is passed out. Danielle and Payten are scouting out up ahead while I stay behind with Brice.
We're almost home.