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“You speak like your name, Snake!” Nithel shouted, his voice reverberating through the room like a real cry. Alessio couldn’t remember ever hearing him raise his voice, even in the worst parts of their adventures. His gentle manner made it all the more passionate and…terrifying. “True friendship gives without expecting to be given back. It does what is best for its friend, not itself.”

But that was…mostly an ideal?

Alessio didn’t know what was going to happen and he didn’t know what to do. Nobody was going to get hurt, please. He didn’t know what to do, how to protect his friends…

Nithel seemed to think deeper, as if giving the man a chance to explain, the cautious benefit of the doubt.

“But of course…we all fail…” Or maybe that was for him. No, Nithel believed it for everyone. Then he looked at Alessio, and it wasn’t that painfully sympathetic look when they’d first met or whenever he did something stupid. There was pride in his eyes.

“Alessio is my friend.” He said, “He is faithful. I want what’s best for him, whether that serves me or not.”

Alessio was used to people saying they wanted what was best for them, but somehow those words always focused on the virtues of the person who were fighting a stubborn kid who didn’t really know what he needed or wanted so he couldn’t have a say. Nobody had ever said kind things about him.

Nithel was proud of him…Alessio blinked rapidly, not sure what to do or think or say at all.

Pointing at him, Nithel continued.

“You are a snake and a liar.” He said, and his voice cracked. “Are you the one who hurt him?”

 

The dice clitter-clattered in his pocket, repetitive, methodic.

Liar. Wasn’t that just such a common accusation? But whether he’d ‘hurt’ Alessio, now that was a new one.

“You don’t know anything about survival…” Nathair whispered it as a thought outloud. When people are starving, you either become the predator or the prey. If they had a problem with his methods, well, he’d kept Alessio alive and well. If that required force, terror – that was how you survived.

“Hey! Where’d all the monsters go?!” Burn was yelling with abandon in the background.

“Exactly how much do you ‘want what’s best for Alessio’” Nathair challenged softly “So many people claim that, but kind people aren’t very willing to go that far. Kind people only give enough kindness and love to make you hope, before they realize you’re too much to handle and throw you away. Or find someone more important and forget about you.”

‘We’re weapons now, you get that? You don’t know how to do anything else’

No one would accept a weapon as human, and no one ever accepted them really. It was just a stupid ideal.

The boy was hovering in front his ‘friends’ like the loyal little pet he’d always been taught to be, who wouldn’t leave his post no matter how frightened he was. He’d tried to teach Alessio how to free himself, he really had.

“I’m just telling you what you don’t have the guts to accept now. I haven’t lied once here,” He looked at the fiery human lie-detector, “have I, Alessio?”

 

Alessio stumbled back a step before he caught himself, and tensed, grinding his feet into the floor determined not to run.

Nathair really believed every word he’d said. Except he was lying, to himself.

Someone kept shouting really loud…

“Kind Punk! Notice me!” That sounded both very pathetic and relatable. “But Snake Punk can ignore me.”

…

…what?

Nathair glared back at Nithel. “If you care for him at all you’ll do him the courtesy of not leaving him to think you’ll stay.”

He gave Alessio one more meaningful glance before turning away like it was over for now.

Alessio closed his eyes, his breathing still audible. There was something wet splotching his cheeks. He hadn’t noticed he was crying, he was just so scared. His other hand was bleeding too, he’d been gripping the glass too tight this whole time.

“KIND PUNK!” The strange, loud stranger yelled at an even higher decibel than Alessio thought possible from him, chasing after Nithel. “You need to meet my friend.”

He’s…still talking like none of this violence or drama was anything more than an annoyance…while dragging his exhausted, now-disgruntled friend along.

Many emotions filled Alessio. Was it admiration or just sheer horror at the man’s oblivious audacity…??

His breathing was a little slower now, he consciously didn’t look anywhere now until he couldn’t hear Nathair’s footsteps anymore. The fire around them began to dwindle some. Alessio wasn’t sure where Nathair was now, but he couldn’t think either. He could’ve killed them, he could’ve killed them all, he decided not to attack this time.

“And Snake Punk, stop scaring people, and whoever brought the fire, you are a life-saver!” The…blind terror with red streaks in his hair just kept talking… Brought fire, uh… You’re…welcome?? “Behave. For like, five rotations, m’kay?”

Alessio’s eyes widened as the smoke over his fire suddenly solidified and rammed toward Nathair. Nathair just barely flicked his hand before he tilted to the side, casually missing the projectile. Nobody would’ve noticed the motion it was so quick, but he’d frozen the smoke to give him time to dodge but not so much it wouldn’t look natural and effortless.

Nathair stole those powers, and every individual’s powers were intrinsically bound to their souls.

He could’ve killed them all, he could’ve taken Alessio’s powers a long, long time ago, he could have…

 

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