4

With Ayah translating for a sober, but frost-eyed glaring Eiden, the mystery of the hunters intention for hunting down their kind and killing their family came out.

All the grand inventions of the last century or two, in which the human race had managed to invent and discover more than they had in their entire existence cramped into a small century, hadn't been because of an accumulation of human ingenuity. Rather, it had been because of the cooperation of Ayah's and Eiden's grandfather, a denizen of light who believed himself to be alone on the planet and, in a fit of desperate loneliness, gave his power and knowledge of, not only the light, but all that he had retained from other elemental strands of his kind that had long been extinct. From lightning came electricity. From water came steam and an explosion in farming productivity. From sound, radio and, eventually, internet. From light came computers, and much more, such as the ability to learn about the atom.

And inevitably, knowledge from fire combined with that to create the atom bomb.

By then he had found their grandmother, a lone daughter of sound, and appalled by the ways humans were using his power to kill and destroy, he went into hiding. Their parents, brother and sister, who had been born amongst humans who hid the secret of their existence, went into hiding during the last days of their grandfather's life.

"But he also discovered in his tenure with the humans that they had been using the spirits of our dead for war long before he came along," said Ayah, now calmed with a mug of tea in her hands. Only the Leskov boy, Gregory, remained to listen to her talk, even though he couldn't understand a word of the Japanese. The mother had come in to herd the girl back to her chores and Yegor had yet to return with his estimate.

"Bit beasts," said Ray quietly.

Ayah nodded.

"Dragoon was in a sword," said Tyson. "And there was that guy in Europe whose bitbeast was from his family's armor."

"It wasn't just him. That entire team's bitbeasts came from weapons. Or did you forget the hokey costumes they dressed up in for the tournament? Draciel came from a shield," said Max, who had come over to slump against the couch during the story, and the Leskov kid hadn't been too inconspicuous with hiding his desire to be as far as he could from the turtle.

"Humans have been taking advantage of our ancestors remaining desire to protect their descendents since the beginning," continued Ayah, almost monotonously. "Now they wish to use this power again to do as our ancestors did: escape this world and create another. They didn't for a minute believe that humanity could find their way to eternal peace."

Tyson frowned. "That's a little defeatist, don't you think? There's always hope."

"There will always be war," said Kai. "There is opposition in all things. In order for there to be light, there needs to be dark. For pleasure, pain. Virtue and vice. Sadness and joy. For peace, there has to be war."

"Once again, you amaze me with your depth, captain."

"More like common sense." Kai stretched his shoulders and put his ears to each shoulder. His spine gave a satisfying cracking.

"He's right, it's the basis of most philosophies in the world," added Ray, who had turned his chair about from the table to face them. "In order for there to be no evil in the world, you have to take away man's ability to make a choice, because how can one choose to do good if there is no evil to choose it from?"

Tyson threw his hands in the air. "Okay, fine, whatever. But what's wrong with hoping we won't blow ourselves up? I mean, come on, a little faith please?"

Without meaning to, an old wound pushed the words from Kai's mouth.

"Faith in what? What's the point of doing good if it's so much easier for people to be selfish, greedy assholes? Haven't you seen the world, Tyson? Weren't you around for all the times we were nearly killed over the past few weeks?"

Tyson's face flamed. "The only point to being good is, I don't know, not blowing up the entire planet!"

Max let out a humorless, loud laugh. Tyson glared at him, but continued. "Being a crappy human being never made anyone happy! We do the right thing because it makes us and those we care about happy! I can't believe you're even asking this, Kai. What are you, some kind of sociopath?"

"I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about humanity as a rule, and I've been trying to get you to understand this from the day I met you that not everyone sees and thinks the same way as you. Everyone has their own belief in what will make them happy." Kai pulled up a leg onto his chair and leaned against a knee. His wings felt cramped. "Everyone has their own definition of what is the right way, even if it's wrong."

"Besides, it's never the big things," added Ray softly. "It's the little things that people justify themselves that eventually lead up to these big things."

Tyson opened his mouth to continue arguing, but Kai cut him off.

"Humanities debate aside, we need to get out of here, fast. Once Yegor is back we need to convince him to get us out, now, before we become a hazard to his village. If they're keeping an eye on us, they should follow."

Max gave another groan and folded over himself. "Oh God, we're going to race an army again."

"Whoa, deep breaths, man," Tyson pushed up and came around the table to Max's side, where he put a hand to his hunched, armored back.

Max just bent lower till his head hung between his worn, dirty knees, bandaged arm hanging off the seat of the couch.

Ayah bit her lip, clenching her hands. She glanced over at her brother, just to look away on realizing he had been waiting for it. She didn't seem to like what silent words his eyes told her, as she stood up from the couch and went to the fire, away from him.

Kai leaned back, observing them one by one, inwardly glowering at the stupid Leskov kid who was obviously looking for an excuse to not look weird getting up and slinking over to Ayah. As he came back to the table, Ray met his eye, yellow eyes shivering, lightly striped arms crossed over the table. A weary sort of fierceness sharpened the amber, despite the shadows cast by the fire and the darkness it didn't reach.

"Say we do manage to fly off without being shot out of the sky," he said in little above a whisper. "What's to stop them from following us to Kenny?" Ray paused, taking a breath, but his eyes didn't move. His hands clenched. "What if…what if we just let them have us?"

Kai didn't glare, as he could see Ray expected him to. He just looked at him, reading every line of truth in his friend's face. In it, he saw Tala, smiling at him through the snow.

Eiden crossed the room to his sister's side and touched her shoulder. She knocked his hand off by curling her wings about her.

"I mean, when they had you and me, they kept us fed and just wanted to study us," Ray cautiously continued when no one rose to oppose him. "And they just left the others locked up like us, with considerably less tech to be sure, but they didn't hurt or kill them."

Kai didn't point out that those same men had been fine with him dying as collateral. No one had been too keen to keep him alive. After all, as the captain said, there were plenty of fire spirits to choose from that weren't unstable, Abbey-trained mankillers.

"They tried to kill Kai, Ray, or did you forget?"

For a moment, he wondered if he had accidentally said his thoughts without meaning to. He hadn't wanted to point that out, as he didn't see it as too important. He'd kill him if he had been in the scientist's shoes.

But then he stopped being stupid and saw Tyson straighten up from the side of the couch where he had his hand on Max. Every sign of the soft, silly boy of before vanished, and Kai once more saw the stormy, cold gaze of his old, immovable rival. There was war in Tyson's eyes, and that static was aimed at Ray.

"Of course giving up would be easiest. Of course it would be safer. But would you be happy? Giving up your freedom and sitting in a safe little box while the world screws itself outside? When have you ever been okay handing off your fate to someone else?"

"Since having that nearly killed me," said Ray, though not angrily. "And killed Tala."

"And might kill all of us if we lose." Tyson stepped away from Max, lifting his hand to straighten further, and for the first time Kai felt the full brunt of just how much taller Tyson had become. "There's always the risk of losing, Ray. But that's because winning is worth the risk. I can't let you hand us off to them. No after what they did to Kai."

"Then Kai can go on," Ray glanced at Kai as he said it. "That's what—"

"They killed my family."

Instant ice threw over the sparks Tyson had let off. Even the Leskov boy seemed to sense the sudden tension in the atmosphere. He mumbled some excuse about chores and scuttled from the room.

All of them looked to Ayah, who turned, her wings pulled back, the light dancing off the shine of her eyes.

"I can't let them do that to you. You guys…" she took a deep breath, then lifted her chin. "If we keep running, or if we stay, I'll do everything in my power to protect you. You…you are mine. I can't worry about the whole world, I don't have that power. But I can worry about what is mine. I can protect that. So…so you have my word. I'll die before I let someone else fall again."

This time, she looked at Kai, and his heart jerked. He couldn't see the blue in her eyes for the shadow. But it felt as though she pierced him.

"I won't let you get hurt like that again," she murmured. "Kai."

Now they looked at him. Tyson with his stormy, violent eyes. Ray with his cool uncertainty. Max through his blond bangs and fingers. Even Eiden, not kindly, though not maliciously either.

Tyson understood first.

"I'll protect us everyone with my life too, buddy, so you just focus on yourself, yeah?"

Max peeked his head up. "Wait, where did Tala…" his eyes widened. "Oh…Kai…"

On seeing the sudden sympathy shining from Max's eyes, Kai swiftly turned away and moved to stand, but Ray's hand on his wrist stopped him.

"I was just putting up the option so we could attend to the elephant in the room," he said, his grip tightening, and when Kai glanced to the side he swore the tiger's eyes glowed. "I'm with you, Kai. I'll keep what's mine safe too."

"Me too!" Max chirped.

Eiden just snorted and looked back to the fire.

Heat, and not the encouraging kind, pooled across his neck as Kai tugged his wrist from Ray's grip and hid his face.

"Worry about yourselves," he muttered, getting to his feet and praying to god he didn't trip on his damn tail feathers. That's all he needed now. "I don't need your damn oaths."

"There we go! That's the Captain we know!" cried Tyson. "So, airplane it is guys?"