"Ridge, get over here!" Xephos's frantic cry echoed and bounced through the canyon. The air shifted as the summoned man floated down beside him.
"You found him?" Ridge's calm and smooth voice was both comforting and annoying as he showed little emotion for the lost dwarf.
Xephos swallowed hard. "Down there," he said weakly as he gestured down into a crevice still remaining from the red matter fiasco. Honeydew was caught on an out jetting ledge, limbs sprawled out, only semi-conscious. He was held beyond the reach of climbing ropes and pulleys, and really anything that wasn't flying.
Ridge reached out a hand, stretching it out over the jagged hole watching as it began to jump and waver in the remnants of the red matter. He pulled it back and stared as his hand flickered back to normal. It almost seemed a symbol of his struggle; do nothing and remain unharmed or help and lose control. His contemplation was broken by the sound of Xephos's voice.
"Ridge, op me. Now." Ridge blinked as he recognized the replacement of the baker having a nervous breakdown with the diamond-edged soldier.
"Xephos, you know what that will-"
"I don't care! Do it!"
"Xephos, going in will…"
"I'm mortal Ridge. It can't hurt me like it will you."
"Xephos, no."
Something snapped in Xephos, some lost animalistic side twisting the grimace on his face, growling out the words, and shredding the last clinging remnants of control.
"Whadda ya mean you can't?! That's my best friend down there! I can't just leave it to luck this time, I have to do something! It has to be enough this time!" His emotion seemed to die with his last words, the sharp spines of memory deflating his anger. "Please, Ridge… Please."
Ridge hadn't been planning to do it, he hadn't even been considering the possibility, but his body moved without his mind and his hands were on the spaceman's shoulders, magic flowing like water between them. He could see the ecstasy of godly energy flow through blue eyes before it was overcome with sharp mortal determination. Xephos hovered in the air momentarily, his body singing with power, before walking to the edge. Ridge caught the whispered words 'Wish me luck, friend' just before the man dived into the abyss.
As he had promised, the wavering form of Xephos floated out moments later, tugging the now very much awake form of the dwarf over the rocky lip before collapsing, twitching and flickering violently.
"What the bloody hell is going on?!" Honeydew blurted out the words but didn't resist as Ridge shoved past him. The dwarf watched with anxious curiosity as practiced hands wove a complex pattern above his friend's shaking body, drawing out a sparkling stream of lightly coloured blue magic that dissipated like a silent sapphire firework.
Xephos's image solidified the more magic Ridge drew from him, until the light shivers were the only movement left. He hesitated with the last bit of glimmering blue power hovering still connected to the nearly still form before continuing. Xephos had known the consequences.
As the last sapphire droplet released its grip on Xephos, his body convulsed, back arcing as a piercing scream burst from parted lips. The scream reverberated with pain and despair before cutting off as its producer fell limp and still. The unresponsive man was pale and panting weakly, but it appeared to Ridge he would survive.
Honeydew's eyes flickered wildly between his unconscious friend and the man who had appeared to both save his live and risk taking it away. He waited until Ridge had backed away before rushing to his fallen friend, but he gave a grateful nod.
"He'll live." Ridge assured the dwarf calmly. "Get him somewhere warm and he'll wake up soon enough."
"I beg your pardon?" Honeydew's bushy ginger eyebrows shot high on his forehead. "That's all?! But..but… That can't just be it!"
A small smile glanced over Ridge's lips. "He spoke wrong about you. He called you simply a friend, but I think it was only because he was afraid to call you brother." And then he was gone.
Honeydew shook his head at the ripple in space where the god had been, before turning to arrange his much taller friend's limbs awkwardly in his arms.
"I think you were the one who balls it up this time Xeph. He he he. Just wait until I tell you how I carried you home like a little babby."
Xephos woke with a start, yelping as jets of pain wound their way through his body as he jerked upwards. Leaning back, he lay huffing as pain from wounds and nightmares drifted off momentarily. Still wincing slightly and opening his mouth to call for Honeydew, he found the dwarf already pushing him further into the soft pillows of the bed.
"Easy there big guy." the ginger murmured, quiet for one of the few moments of his life but still practically exuding relieved happiness. "You balls it up good this time, Xeph. Had to carry your sorry ass home like a little babby. Nearly ran out of jaffas waiting for you to wake up this time too. Your voice is probably shot; ya spent most of your time screaming your pantsy little head off."
Xephos's stomach clenched. As light-hearted as the dwarf sounded, he knew he had probably scared the shit out of him.
"Thanks…Dew. I…owe ya…one." The words came as cracked wisps of sound as exhaustion replaced the syllables. He struggled fruitlessly to resist the oncoming storm that was sleep, and only just caught the words that wound their way into his retreating conscious.
"Nah, ya don't mate. It's just what brothers do."
Epilogue?
When Xephos's breathing had deepened and he had fallen into an easy sleep, Honeydew collapsed against the sturdy back of his chair and sighed. Though it was the third time Xephos had woken without remembering doing so previously, this time he had at least spoken, and had understood his words. But while signs were at last beginning to show that his brother's body was crawling its way back to health, Honeydew had misgivings about what had been given up to get him out of that notch-damn hole.
The dwarf had noticed the new cold blue sparks in the spaceman's eyes and the barely noticeable flickering in them when memories terrorized his dreams. He had noticed the blows swung at imaginary enemies flashed quicker and stronger than what history told him they should.
He had noticed the terrors of his dreams advance in waves of increasing frequency and strength. He had noticed how Xephos, though unconscious, jumped at even the creaking of the wooden bed beneath him. And he noticed how his friend's face, though never peaceful in sleep, now twisted itself into a rictus of pain and despair.
But Honeydew could not figure out how he could tell this to Xephos, so he decided he wouldn't. His brother didn't need any more burdens than he had already. And he didn't need any more pain.