Lalna was still in shock by the time Rythian reached the castle.
"You're coming with me. Now," Rythian snarled. Lalna tore his eyes away from the mushroom cloud growing in the distance.
"Why should I?"
"I said now! You're going to help me fix Zoey, and it's going to happen now!" Rythian screamed. With those words, the scientist's world fell apart. Zoey? What had happened to Zoey? He didn't realize he had stopped flying until Rythian grabbed his arm and hauled him upwards again. Lalna let himself be dragged through the air to the rubble that was once Blackrock. At Rythian's instruction, he searched through the wreckage coating the bottom of the crater until he came across the body of Zoey. She was crumpled in on herself, curled around a life stone. One of her arms was entirely gone, and blood was pooling around her.
Rythian choked back a sob when he saw her, but he set to work immediately. Together, he and Lalna moved Zoey out of the blast zone and onto some grass quite a bit away. Every so often Lalna would need to get supplies from his own castle or help with wiring (if he pretended it was just another machine, the situation almost seemed normal), but for the most part, he had to stand by and watch the consequences for something that was never meant to happen.
It took the better part of a day, but Zoey was alive and she was going to stay that way if Rythian had anything to say about it. Lalna had set up a small shack with a bed and some basic life-monitoring equipment for Zoey in a nearby desert, built exactly to Rythian's specifications. It was far enough away from the blast zone that there would be no ill effects on anyone from radiation, and no one had to see the crater left. He helped carry Zoey there and watched as Rythian hooked her up to the machines.
Even though Lalna would insist it wasn't his fault the nuke went off, he still felt terrible. He made a mental note to cover up the hole later. Perhaps he could convince Sips and Sjin to help, or at least give him some dirt to work with.
Lalna was pulled from these thoughts by the feeling of cold steel on his temple. Rythian slowly moved to the front of Lalna, never once letting the mining laser move from his forehead.
"Lalna," He said through gritted teeth, "I want you to look at what happened. Look at her. This is your fault. You can press that fucking button all you want, Blackrock Castle is gone. I hope you're happy," He paused to draw a shaky breath. Was it Lalna's imagination, or were tears forming in his eyes?
"The only reason I haven't pulled this trigger and given you the fate you deserve," he continued, "As beautifully satisfying as it would be, it wouldn't do anything. Killing you won't bring back my castle, it won't heal Zoey, it won't do anything. So instead, how about this—I leave you alone, you leave me alone, I won't come after you, and you won't come after me. Your choice is that, or I pull this trigger,"
"Deal," Lalna said. Secretly, he was relieved to officially be done with their ongoing war. He didn't want to see Rythian's retaliation to what had just happened.
Rythian's shoulders sagged, and he looked relieved. "Good. Now get the hell out of my sight," He spat, but there was a certain sadness to it that made him seem older, more tired. He was truly done trying to avenge the Old World.
Lalna flew back to his castle, exhausted. All thoughts of the missing remote had escaped him while at the blast zone, but now he realized it was something he should look into. He was convinced he still had it somewhere. He didn't want to find the remote so he could keep it, but destroying it would provide some much-needed closure to the ordeal.
A week had passed since the explosion. Zoey was doing considerably better than before, however she still wasn't able to leave her bed. She was asleep most of the time, but when she was awake there was no stopping the seemingly endless questions about her new mechanical parts.
Rythian was by no means happy with what had happened, but he was relieved things seemed to be going normally. Even with his new surroundings, he had managed to pick up a routine. Wake up, check on Zoey, hunt for food, check on Zoey, gather materials, and check on Zoey one last time before bed. He had spent a long day mining, and was about to retire to his bed when he decided to go talk to Teep. Conveniently, to get to Teep's hut he had to pass the infirmary where Zoey was housed.
He shouldn't have seen a flash of silver in the sand. He shouldn't have felt the ground lurch beneath him. He shouldn't have been on his knees in front of the infirmary, digging at the ground. He shouldn't have been angry enough to destroy anything in his path when he found the source of the flash.
None of this should have happened, but happen it did, and now the only thing on Rythian's mind was destroying Lalna for leaving him the nuke remote.