Steel

He ran. His feet hit the ground when his heartbeat got so fast he couldn't keep himself flying; he was breathing so hard he couldn't keep himself up in the air. He stumbled when he landed, but he ran. Oh, he ran like hell.

"You failed again, didn't you, Hyde?"

Oh, shit.

"Hyde." In any other situation, he would say Agri was trying to calm him down. But Agri wouldn't be doing any of this; Agri wouldn't have told him to kill anybody. And yet there he was: Agri, as if nothing had ever happened to him, body unharmed, the only difference being the steely grey shade his eyes now were. Agri, appearing suddenly in front of Hyde, catching his jacket sleeve and pulling him to a halt.

"Get away from me," Hyde got out breathlessly, trying to tug his arm free, but the monster held fast, until Hyde yanked one direction and he let go, the momentum sending the blue angel collapsing onto the gravel.

"How lame could you possibly be?" the monster grinned, using that forceful tone that Agri would have reserved for the enemy, and Hyde didn't even try to get up, instead shrinking back onto the ground.

"I give you a job that was so damn easy. You try beating five or ten of you at once, and you'll see that just one is the easiest thing in the world. And you couldn't even do that, Hyde." He made it look so easy — saying things that would never come out of Agri's mouth, and yet making them seem so natural. Like he would say them anyway.

"Hyde!" Eri's voice. Alata's. They'd all caught up to him.

The monster knelt down, gripping Hyde's jacket collar and pulling him to his feet. "It took you this long to figure it out. Although, I suppose one of you figured it out sooner. And you're looking at what happened to him."

Hyde could see the realisation dawn on his friends' faces — Hikari's, in particular; he could see the green ranger quickly putting the pieces together in his head, and he scrambled to say something, twisting himself free of the monster's grip. "Alata. Takeru. That was me; I hurt you guys. I swear I didn't touch Agri." It was his fault though. If he had been more careful, Agri wouldn't have been killed in the first place.

Moune took a step back as he said this, and Hyde could see something changing in her eyes. From shock to horror.

"I know you have to kill this monster," he continued quietly. "But I made him promise. He said...he'll bring Magis back to life."

There was a quiet laugh behind him. Agri's laugh. "Bringing a body back to life. Please." The monster shrugged, spreading his hands in front of him as he went on. "I can possess a body whenever I want. I can heal their wounds. I can reanimate them. I can let them go. I never said anything about bringing someone back to life once I let them go." A brief grin slipped onto Agri's face, and Hyde choked, suddenly unable to breathe.

It was starting to feel like forever — every moment dragging by, because the adrenaline was causing him to see every detail, even through the tears that were starting to form in his eyes. And he'd known, ever since the night they'd buried Agri, that this monster didn't care what Hyde asked him to do. Even so, the words wouldn't stop coming. "I don't even care if he's alive anymore," he said, as simply as he could. Promises wouldn't do any good now; he was resorting to desperation, and it was showing. "Just let me have Magis."

"You still think I'm going to listen to a word you say."

Hyde was shaking by now, so hard it was difficult for him to move. Somehow, he managed to face his teammates. Stumble towards them. The tears were starting to blur his vision — not running down his face yet; they stung though — but he kept going. Whatever happened now was going to happen. It would be for the best.

His eyes were sad as he reached Moune. She said nothing, but her eyes were distrustful, and she took a very small step backwards. "Agri was… I didn't kill him, Moune, but I promise...there's a way to bring him back. Try...try to bargain for him."

"You're an idiot!" Chiaki's voice pierced his ears, somewhere off to his left, and Hyde flinched. The green samurai was right, but that was the whole reason things were the way they were.

"Think of this as... This is my way to say sorry." Hyde reached out for Moune's hand — she didn't move away this time — shoving something small into her palm before returning to his position between the monster and the teams standing before him.

His bowgun shifted into view, and he heard the Seaick melody echo in the distance. He could see his teammates tense, and he wanted to tell them it was going to be okay.

"You can't destroy this monster until I see Magis again. Not some braindead imitation. So...destroy the monster. Get Agri back, okay?"

He didn't even wait for an answer. "Blue Check," he whispered, his voice finally cracking and failing him as he pulled the trigger.

The blue shots fired up — and then straight back down at their owner. Moune looked away as a flash of light signaled they had hit their target, down at what Hyde had given her: a strawberry candy, slightly melted, the wrapper stuck to itself with melted chocolate. The same type she'd found crushed into her brother's chest. She glanced back up, just in time to see Hyde fall to the ground, and her brother grinning like the world was coming to an end.

She supposed it was, for Hyde.

There was screams from over at her right. Screams of "Hyde!" and "No!" But there were shouts over on her left. "Ippitsu Soujou!" and "ToQ Change!"

Her hand was sticky with chocolate, and her Change Card felt heavy in her hands as she brandished it along with the remainder of her team. (She wanted to fight Hyde. Tell him he was stupid for doing this. But even she knew the laughing monster behind his unconscious body came first.)

"Tensou."

If only the clockwork could speak
I wouldn't be so alone
We burn every magnet and spring
And spiral into the unknown

—"Shatter Me," Lindsey Stirling ft. Lzzy Hale —