Gina closed this distance before anyone else could even process what they had just seen tackling Shawn with full force as she held him as tight as she could, burying her face into his jacket. Unsurprising to the rest of the group, Shawn twirled with her, wrapping his arms around her tenderly, the cigar let out a trail of smoke that helped to hide his attempt at stealing a kiss from her as he did so. As he broke it, the two stared tenderly into each other’s eyes before Douglas arrived seemingly out of nowhere, “You one-eyed bastard! Are you done wasting our time?!?”

  Shawn laughed before walking over to Douglas with a swagger in his step, “Not quite, but I have a few minutes to spare.” Douglas growled and Shawn spoke softly to the Supreme Commander, as if talking to a little brother, “Welcome back. I hope you got to spend time with you famil-” He took Douglas’ punch with hardly any movement, “-family.”

  The Supreme Commander growled, “You are happy… like actually happy… what are you up to?” He paced a circle around Shawn with intense scrutiny. It was only here that Anisa saw it. As the rigidity faded some from Shawn’s body, his eyes spotted Argenta still smiling from the roof where Anisa had left her. When he thought no one was noticing, his eyes drifted to Sienna and a weight briefly appeared in his eyes. And yet just as swiftly, she saw him swallow it and grab Douglas’ shoulders and force eye contact. And in this moment, Douglas’ suspicion drained. His body relaxed… and then he reeled back and punched Shawn directly in his face, this time getting a smirk out of Shawn. “You left me a mess of paperwork, broke every bit of protocol we have about manipulating time, and even just fired the Ziegfried’s cannon at full power without the consensus of the rest of us! You had no clue if that would punch a meaningful hole in space and time or not!”

  Shawn shrugged as he took a step back from him, “Technically, I did this time. Cause I was firing it INTO a hole in space and time… so really no harm done.” Shawn didn’t react when Gina rushed in to take a few swings at Douglas, seemingly knowing that Douglas was in no real danger of being hit. As he watched her lash out, he continued his conversation with Douglas as though nothing was happening at all. “That said, give Leithan Special Detective clearance. We had a heart to heart while I was-”

  The villain growled, “I don’t recall agreeing to your little cadre of ideological thugs!”

  Shawn continued as if he said nothing. “He and I had a heart to heart while in The Silence. He will get it once he is on board.”

  Douglas held his head and grumbled, “You can’t just start barking orders like you are already back in the driver’s seat! We just got used to me being here!” Shawn opened his mouth to speak when it began… The light returned to the skies, the color to the stones… but the shift in the breeze was sudden and unnatural. As the clouds began to slowly flow one direction, Douglas asked with hesitation and a growing uncertainty, “What did you do, Shawn?”

  Shawn laughed nervously, “I suppose it was only a matter of time before you noticed that.” He waved his hand and chained Douglas to the ground with his golden chains, everyone tensing at the shift of tone. Shawn laughed softly, “Yeah… that’s… the last person on my list to save. You know that brother that Corvana said Emperor Visto stole? The one he was holding over her head… that’s him.” As the wind picked up and all the clouds above them began to flow at great speed towards the same direction, he said without humor or mirth, “And I promised her I would save him… That may have been last timeline, but I had already killed him before I ever met her. And right now, is feeding on all the grief he managed to rip from my body before our little therapy session.”

  Leithan laughed in a weak attempt to sound confident, “And he thinks he can handle taking all of us on? We are each more than his equal.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Shawn laughed playfully for a time at Leithan’s words, much to the annoyance of his former foe. “Yeah… Yeah, sure… but I want him alive and to go home to his sister. So all of you stay here…” He started to walk in line with the clouds, “I’ve got this one on lock.” Gina ran out and tackled him from behind, and glared at him with concern. He laughed softly and kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry. I am more than enough for him. I have a few tricks I’ve been keeping to myself, so I’ll be fine.”

  Anisa walked up and sighed, “We all came here to save you and let you know you aren’t alone and now your running off to do things yourself again.”

  Shawn laughed and admitted, “Guilty as charged. But I promise it is for a good reason.” And for the first time in a long time she saw him grow serious without an ounce of remorse in his eyes. “In fact, you are probably the only person that can come with me on this one. If he absorbed all my grief and regrets of the last thirty years or so, then most of you will just be erased and I don’t like the idea of my family vanishing in the wave of someone’s ‘driven mad by isolation’ hands.”

  Gina growled and looked ready to dig in her heels before Shawn kissed her forehead again and she sighed, releasing him. “Fine… but if you don’t come back alive I’ll kill you myself.”

  Gina’s eyes followed Sienna suspiciously as the doctor approached in her unarmored state. She said firmly, “You are going to need this.” she placed Cyrus’ Crystal in Shawn’s palm and he laughed and rolled his eyes. She then said, “Well, if you are going against an Enzelur steeped in both your pain and his own then-”

  Shawn jolted and asked in disbelief, “You actually read my reports?” She sighed with annoyance and shook her head as though it should have been obvious. As Sienna reached for a part of her attire and ripped a strip of it off, Gina stared in disbelief and scandal. It wasn’t a risque portion, only an outer edge, but Gina’s mind was clearly getting the better of her.

  Sienna tied it around his bicep and said firmly, “Second hand grief is the only sure fire way for the Cosmic Phoenix to reach the heart. You go keep your promise. We will deal with the rest when you get back.”

  Her final words seemed to bring a grim certainty to Shawn’s eyes… but when he looked at Anisa that grim and dark look in his eye faded. He laughed and started walking towards the danger ahead of her, seemingly confident that she would fall into step in his shadow as they walked. When they were far enough away from everyone he began the inevitable banter, “So… We have now learned that Null Resonance isn’t really my thing. So I’ll be dealing with this another way.”

  Anisa laughed harshly, “Yeah. You care too much about whether you hurt people or not. Sometimes it’s a part of life, Shawn.”

  He gave a sad laugh before nodding, “Figuring that out, Ani. Still… I’m glad you are feeling better. You think you can still give this guy the fight he deserves after the beatings I gave you when you first got here?”

  “Oh, Please, Hemmingway. I got the better of all those exchanges. You can’t tell me your throat and shoulders aren’t aching from all that.”

  He took another puff off the cigar before letting out a dry heave. When he recovered he asked with genuine annoyance, “How in the hell did you ever smoke these things?”

  “I… That’s not… You do know that cigarettes and cigars are two different things, right?”

  “One has the other in their name and they are both the same plant. You can’t tell me that these are not the same thing.”

  “My god, you aren’t literally inhaling it, right?”

  “That’s how smoking works, Ani!”

  “You are supposed to puff! Cigars are not meant to be- You are a complete moron!”

  “YES! But I LOOK super fucking cool! Now tell me how to do this properly because I promise you, this is for a thing!”

  And as they walked towards the next challenge together, it felt like walking home for the first time in years.