Lloyd was startled out of his sleep by someone banging on his bedroom door.
"Come on, Blondie!" Phoenix yelled. "Y'all don't got time to sleep in! I'm going home tonight, gotta make sure y'all are ready before I go!"
While waiting for his heart to return to its normal place in his chest, Lloyd looked at the time on his phone – it was 10am. He was very, very confused. Last he remembered, he fell asleep downstairs after hijacking another video call between Phoenix and Magpie. It sounded bad when he thought about it like that, but Magpie was singing for Phoenix, who'd fallen asleep; he was just keeping her company for a little bit.
Oh my gods, you simp… He thought to himself as he got out of bed.
Wandering over to the closet to get dressed, he noticed that his muscles were much less sore than they were last night. Phoenix's prime posing workouts were killer; Lloyd never imagined that being a stripper would require more physically demanding training than being a ninja, but here they were. Not even a nice hot bath after dinner seemed to do much for his soreness. Magpie's singing on the other hand...
That video call definitely happened... He told himself. I remember her music soothing my whole body...
Lloyd finished putting on his usual training clothes, grabbed his phone and left the room. More memories of the 1am video call flooded back as he ambled down the stairs, and saw Phoenix sitting on the couch.
"Bout time you got up!" Phoenix playfully scolded. "Having a nice dream, were you?"
"Not exactly; I woke up in the middle of the night and it took a while to get back to sleep, that's all." Lloyd insisted.
"Okay, let's get on with it then, yeah?" Phoenix said, picking up a large piece of satin fabric and smoothly pulling it across his bare chest and over his shoulder.
"I gotta warn you Phoenix, Sensei is due back sometime soon, so we won't have time for anything too risqué…" Cole mentioned.
"Bloody hell, he doesn't hang around much, does he?" Phoenix snickered. "You said he came back while I was calling my sisters, but I didn't see him at all – I didn't even know he'd gone out again!"
"We probably should've introduced you after your phone call, but he was meditating and he doesn't like being disturbed," Cole elaborated. "we'll introduce you when he returns, but we can't risk giving the old guy a heart attack as he walks in the door."
"Aw c'mon, he can't be that old." Phoenix joked.
"He's pretty old," Kai confirmed. "he definitely would've had an aneurysm if he saw some of the yoga poses you had us doing yesterday..."
"Besides, the girls are practicing their own stuff in the meditation room and could walk in on us at any point." Jay sheepishly added.
"I also would like to vote for doing something less... ambitious..." Zane chimed in. "I'm aware that you do not like to be scanned, but I am also concerned by how high your internal temperature is getting."
"Okay, okay, how about we just go over what you've learned in the past couple days?" Phoenix conceded. "Anything specific you wanna go over? Or have clarified?"
"We've done a lot of workout stuff, but apart from the yoga, we haven't really done much posing," Kai pointed out. "mind if we practice doing actual modelling poses just to get a feel for it?"
"Sure!" Phoenix smiled. "Okay, so most male poses are pretty static, there's a lot more emphasis on the 'mood' of the pose than the pose itself; observe."
Phoenix leaned against the wall, put his hands in his pockets and relaxed his shoulders. His head was tilted up, but his eyes were looking down, and a thin smirk played on his lips, creating a reserved but fierce appearance.
"See what I mean?" Phoenix baited. "What vibe did you get from that?"
"Honestly, you looked like Kai," Cole chuckled. "a smug ladies' man with way too much confidence."
"Good, because that's what I'm like too," Phoenix smirked, turning to look at Kai. "why do you think I call you Sonny?"
"I'm only a few years younger than you, ya know?" Kai stated firmly.
"Yeah, yeah… Modelling is the physical expression of personality; you need to be able to project your personality through pose alone," Phoenix clarified further. "female models have more methods of projecting personality – nails, hair, hips, heels – but males need to rely on hair and hips mostly."
"I didn't know you were a model as well." Cole stated, surprised about Phoenix's level of understanding.
"Not officially, but pose is a big part of pole and strip performance..."
Phoenix suddenly turned away and covered his mouth as a coughing fit struck. Zane patted Phoenix's back, trying to make him feel better.
"Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm just a little off, that's all," Phoenix asserted. "anyway, where were we... Oh yeah, pose equals personality, so who wants to go first?"
The ninja kind of looked at each other, silently wondering if anyone would volunteer. No one did.
"No takers? Come on guys!" He sighed. "You gotta show confidence, sass, determination! Sparky, you go first."
"So, just pose? Like, now?" Jay stammered.
"Pose to show your personality, dude," Phoenix nodded. "so, you're going for a pose that says 'sweet, funny, quietly confident' – go!"
Jay had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do, but since he'd been singled out, he might as well try. As he began to position his body, his mind drifted to Nya. He was curious to know how the girl's training was going; all he knew was that Phoenix's sister Magpie had been guiding them. He wondered if Magpie was as extravagant in her methods as Phoenix was in his, and he tried to imagine the kind of stuff she would be teaching the ladies if Phoenix was teaching them this way.
"Not bad…" Phoenix noted aloud, breaking Jay's train of thought.
In the haze of his mind wandering, he had managed to get into a good pose without thinking. One hand was hooked into the waistband of his hakama, and the other was lightly touching the back of his neck. He had shifted his hips, so the weight was mostly on his left leg and when Phoenix disrupted his thinking, he glanced over at him with a slightly tilted head.
"Ah, that head tilt!" Phoenix praised. "My gods, I love it!"
"That's definitely you," Cole agreed. "nice one, Jay."
"Okay now…"
Phoenix didn't get to finish his sentence, as he suddenly wobbled and collapsed onto the floor. Cole immediately knelt down and patted Phoenix's cheek, trying to get his attention. Phoenix's eyes slowly opened and were staring off into the distance at first, but then they widened, and he hurriedly sat up; coughing violently into his hands.
"Is that blood?" Lloyd panicked, seeing the large dark splatters on Phoenix's palms.
"It's nothing, I'm fine." Phoenix insisted as he tried to stand up, only to be stopped by Cole.
"No, you're not fine," Cole said firmly. "Lloyd, call an ambulance."
"NO!" Phoenix shouted, which triggered another round of raucous choking.
"Phoenix you need to go to hospital, you just collapsed and now you're coughing up blood!" Cole declared.
"No… No hospitals…" Phoenix growled. "Blondie; call Magpie…"
"But she's a vet nurse, not a doctor, I-."
"DO IT!" He snarled.
Lloyd unlocked his phone and was about to ask Phoenix for her number, until he went into call mode and saw that her number was already in his phone. With no time to question it, he pressed the call button and left the room to wait for her to pick up.
"Make sure you tell her it's started." Phoenix shouted after Lloyd.
"Wait, what's started?" Kai questioned.
Phoenix couldn't even reply, as he had started hyperventilating. Suddenly, Kiku came dashing in, followed by Nya and Pixal.
"What's going on?" Nya wondered. "We heard shouting and-."
"Fireball!" Kiku squeaked in panic and ran over to Phoenix. "What happened?"
"He's burning up inside," Zane worriedly replied. "his blood glucose levels are dangerously high, his temperature is 110°C, his organs are starting to fail – he needs to be hospitalised."
"I said… No HOSPITALS!" Phoenix bellowed.
Immediately his wings emerged and spread out threateningly, only to drop down as he no longer had the energy to control them. The room went silent. Even Kiku was stunned by this revelation, and she reached out to touch the glittering feathers, only to retract her hand because of the heat radiating from them. Each layer of feathers descended into a fiery gradient – red to orange to yellow to white – and every individual feather was subtly shining from the quill downwards.
To add to the ensuing drama, Sensei Wu walked in through the front door.
"I'm home again, dear students," He announced, strolling into the living room to see everyone gathered together, and promptly dropped his staff when he saw who was at the centre of it. "Uncle Phoenix…? Is that really you?"
Phoenix weakly opened his eyes and saw Wu approach him. He smiled nostalgically.
"Hey, Pipsqueak, long time no see…" He half-heartedly chuckled before wincing in pain.
"Where… where have you been all this time?" Wu queried, his eyes welling up.
"Hiding…" Phoenix breathed as he touched the scar on his collar bone. "You're looking old, little 'un."
"Not everyone has your luck with looking young." Wu joked.
"Sensei… uh… why did you call him 'uncle'? And why did he call you 'Pipsqueak'?" Jay questioned, looking at Wu. "What's going on?"
"…Okay I got hold of Magpie, she's already on her way and she'll be here as soon as she-," Lloyd paused as he re-entered the living room to the absolute chaos that was going on. "What did I miss?"
"Students, help him up onto the couch." Wu requested.
"I'm fine, I can get up…" Phoenix attempted to stand, only to be foiled by the dizziness and flop down. "Okay, maybe I can't…"
Cole and Jay carefully lifted Phoenix from both ends and gently placed him on the couch, then quickly retreated their hands as the heat from Phoenix's body was utterly scorching.
"I'm so confused, what is happening?" Pixal wondered, her droid mind trying to take in all the information available and unable to comprehend what was going on.
"This is a dear friend of my father, and he's one of the original elemental masters," Wu explained. "I haven't seen him since I was in my late teens…"
Again, there was an intense silence, broken only by Phoenix's whimpers of pain.
"I'm sorry… what?" Lloyd stammered.
"An original elemental master?" Jay blurted out. "That's impossible! That was hundreds of generations ago!"
"I can't believe it…" Kai gasped in astonishment.
"You should, Kai, his older sister was the original Master of Fire."
"WHAT?"
"Surprise…" Phoenix choked out feebly. "We're related, Sonny."
Kai promptly fell on his backside, dazed and confused and wondering what the hell was in his cereal this morning that would cause him to hallucinate this. But it wasn't delirium, it was real. Phoenix started coughing again, so hard that they could hear a wheeze in the back of his throat, and more blood came up as he struggled to breathe again.
"There are two kinds of fire in this world; destructive and restorative," Wu described. "Sienna was gifted the damaging type and became the first Master of Fire, while Phoenix was gifted the healing type and became the first – and apparently only – Master of Regeneration."
"Is that what's happening now?" Cole worriedly looked at his friend. "He's regenerating?"
"I'm sorry… you shouldn't have to… see this…" Phoenix apologised breathlessly. "I was hoping… it would happen… when I … got home…"
"Don't apologise," Cole insisted. "Zane, can you come and keep him cool until Magpie gets here?"
Zane nodded and knelt by the couch. He placed his hand on Phoenix's mid-section and attempted to fight the internal fire raging inside with his ice powers. Phoenix was still in a lot of pain and struggled to breathe properly, even as Zane's ice slowed down the degradation of his physical form.
"Is this the same Magpie that was mentioned yesterday?" Wu asked of Lloyd.
"Yeah, it's one of his younger sisters," Lloyd paused. "much, much, much younger."
"She must be adopted…" Wu theorised.
"No… I brought her… back to life…" Phoenix corrected. "she was… a normal magpie… and- agh!"
Phoenix flinched and cried out in pain before he could finish.
"You can tell us later." Zane assured in his most soothing tone of voice.
Kiku was absolutely in bits over seeing her friend in so much anguish, and Kai, now out of his stupor, approached to hold her. Phoenix endeavoured to give her a reassuring smile, but the pain was too much, and he couldn't hold it for long. She looked away from Phoenix and cried a river of tears as Kai tried to comfort her.
"Come on Flower, it's gonna be okay…" Kai said in a hushed tone. "he'll be alright."
"He's right Kix…" Phoenix muttered. "…I'll be good soon…"
"When was your last regen cycle?" Wu asked calmly.
"About… 20-30 years ago…" He flinched as he felt the ice in his body fight against the fire. "but… it got interrupted… complications…"
"Your diabetes?" Jay hinted, and Phoenix nodded back.
"I knew the internal damage was not from fire performance," Zane surmised. "the scarring on your organs must be from rushing your last regeneration."
"Got it in one, Avalanche." Phoenix managed to chuckle, only to continue coughing up blood soon after.
Kiku couldn't take it anymore and left the room, with Kai following immediately behind her so she didn't have to deal with this alone. Lloyd kept checking his phone to see if Magpie had sent any updates on how close she was to the temple, but so far there was nothing. Cole leaned over the back of the couch to wipe the fever sweat from Phoenix's face.
"Should… should we tell Aruna for you?" Nya offered, finally able to form a verbal sentence after absorbing such shocking disclosures.
Phoenix shook his head furiously.
"No, please don't… it'll frighten her…" He refused.
"Yeah, she was worried enough about his blood sugars," Lloyd agreed. "if we tell her about this, she'll probably have her own medical emergency."
"Are you saying she doesn't know about your element?" Pixal enquired. "But you know about her element; this is most confusing."
"Another element?" Wu stated, completely shocked.
"Master of Beasts." Pixal clarified.
"Ah, yes," Wu noted sadly. "the original master of that element had a nasty run in with Aspheera, and we never saw them again…"
"Aruna… she's from… the Never-Realm…" Phoenix exhaled. "her mother… a formling… elemental power… from her dad…"
"Formlings can only transform into one animal, but the Master of Beasts can shapeshift into any animal at will," Wu cited. "they would've been like a deity to the formlings – no wonder they didn't try to find a way back to this realm."
"My… precious diamond…" Phoenix flashed a lovestruck smile and passed out.
Suddenly, Zane started shaking and doubled over.
"Zane!" Pixal gasped. "Are you alright?"
"The internal fire is spreading much faster than I can stop it!"
"It cannot be delayed anymore; you'll have to let it take its course." Wu stated factually.
"But Magpie isn't here yet!" Lloyd added.
"Everyone needs to step back," Zane warned. "I'm going to stop fighting it and this could be explosive."
Lloyd, Jay, Wu, Cole, Pixal and Nya all created some space between themselves and the deteriorating Phoenix. Zane removed his hand from Phoenix's abdomen and hurried backwards. The feathers in his wings suddenly glowed even brighter. Thin lines of smoke rose from his feet and the scar over his right eye, and there was a universal flinch as several small fires suddenly flashed to life. Starting at the hem of his pants, the fire curled around his legs and started to consume him. His wings also set alight, and Nya was so horrified that she clung to Jay and buried her face into his torso. Pixal and Zane were morbidly curious and watched intently, taking several bodily readings to try and establish how this regeneration worked. Lloyd covered his eyes with his hands and peeked between his fingers; Cole turned away, feeling a bit nauseated by the smell of flaming death, while Wu calmly observed the overwhelming fireball that existed where Phoenix once did.
For all the singeing of Phoenix's skin and hair and clothing, there was no damage being done to the couch, but the smell of burning flesh and fabric soon became more noticeable. It was easily one of the weirdest, most gruesome things that had ever happened in the Airjitzu temple; even in the hundreds of years that the temple existed before they exorcised it and moved in themselves, it was unlikely that anything this macabre had occurred. The fire raged on for a few minutes, confined to the spot where it started, before eventually dying down. Lower and lower the flames got, until there was nothing but a shining fire opal egg resting on a small pile of silver ashes.
"Fascinating…" Zane stated, as he and Pixal approached the glittering remainder of Phoenix.
"That was disturbingly beautiful…" Pixal admired, conducting a scan of the egg and gasping in shock. "Zane, there's a baby inside!"
"Seriously?" Nya asked as she finally looked over at the couch.
Pixal placed her hand on the outside of the gemstone shell, and through the speakers behind her ears, there came a heartbeat. Wu was the only person not shocked by this revelation; he was aware of how the regeneration cycle worked and had witnessed it a couple of times as a young adult when Phoenix was testing his element. As they all got closer to the sparkling, football-sized object, Pixal sat down beside it and gently moved it into her lap to cradle it in her hands.
"This is just astounding! I've never seen anything so remarkable!" Pixal mused. "Is this usually what happens?"
"Sometimes," Wu chuckled at Pixal's preoccupation with the egg. "he obviously felt safe here if he's returned to this state – when his mother died, he swore to her he'd never regenerate to an underage form unless he was around people he could trust."
"Underage?" Jay stammered. "He's literally an egg now, he couldn't get any younger!"
There was an excited knocking on the front door. Expecting it to be Magpie, Lloyd left the others and approached to invite her in. He couldn't see Kai or Kiku anywhere, and figured they had gone upstairs, so he paused at the bottom of the staircase and shouted up to them:
"Kai, Kiku! The regen's over, you can come down now!"
He took a deep breath and grabbed the door handle, nervously opening it. There she was – the cute girl who had sung for him in the middle of the night; twice. Her eyes were as glittering in real life as they were on the video calls, and her long raven hair looked incredibly soft and had an iridescent shimmer. She was wearing denim shorts, knee-length black boots, and a black high-necked tank top, complete with a faux leather biker jacket. Her smile was warm and made his heart skip a beat. In her hand was what looked like an EMT's kit bag.
"Good morning!" Magpie chirped. "Oh, hello Lloyd, how lovely to finally meet you in person! Did I hear you say the regen has finished?"
Completely red-faced, Lloyd nodded and gestured for her to come in.
"Thank you."
She strolled past him, and he closed the door, then leaned on it for a minute. Kai and Kiku soon came down the stairs as Kiku wiped the last of her tears away, and Lloyd smiled at her sympathetically. The three of them went into the living room, where Magpie was just introducing herself to the others.
"... obviously Pixal and Nya know me from the practice session we had," She began. "but for everyone else, I'm Magpie Akane, younger sister of Phoenix and older sister of Sagittarius; vet tech, part time cabaret performer and bird whisperer – I'm sorry I took so long to get here, Phoenix's dragon came to me half an hour ago; poor Inferno flew as fast as he could."
"We're just glad you could come," Wu smiled. "I didn't know Uncle Phoenix had any younger siblings until now."
"Yeah, me and Sagittarius are relatively new to Phoenix's life," Magpie sheepishly mentioned. "wait... Uncle Phoenix? You're not Pipsqueak, are you?"
Wu nodded somewhat proudly.
"Wow... I had no idea you were here with the ninja! It's a pleasure to meet someone from Phoenix's past," She bowed deeply. "I'm sorry I missed the regeneration; I could've warned everyone what to expect."
"It's quite alright," Wu raised his hand forgivingly. "it was nothing I have not seen before."
"Speak for yourself, that was the scariest thing I've ever seen!" Nya asserted.
"Yeah, it was pretty gruesome," Cole agreed. "I never want to smell burning feathers ever again."
"You tend to get used to it; but for what it's worth, I threw up the first time I saw him regenerate, so I understand how you feel," Magpie concurred as she walked around to Pixal and knelt down with the bag next to her. "wow, you seem pretty attached to my brother's current form."
"It was a peculiarly miraculous thing to witness," Pixal mentioned. "I wish to protect him."
"How kind of you! Mind if I take a look?" Magpie asked politely and took off her jacket, putting it on her lap with the silk lining facing outward.
Pixal hesitated and looked up at Zane, who silently encouraged her to give the egg up. She gently handed it to Magpie.
"Thank you," She beamed, gently tucking the egg into the waiting jacket and glancing down at it. "so, 'you're fine', huh Phoenix?"
"Were you expecting this?" Kai wondered.
"The regen, yes; this form, no," Magpie responded. "I knew he was sick, he kept dropping hints that needed a 'restart', but as usual, he put it off until it took over."
She reached into the bag and pulled out a stethoscope. Inserting the ear-tips, she ran the chest piece across the egg slowly. As it glided over the glossy surface, she paused in certain areas, and nodded to herself. She draped the stethoscope around her neck and sighed.
"If I'd known he'd revert this far I'd have brought my portable ultrasound machine," Magpie tutted. "still, his heart rate is fine, and it sounds like he's doing well – I'd like to stay and keep an eye on things if you don't mind?"
"Not at all," Wu nodded. "do you need to pick up anything from home?"
"Yeah, but I can do that later," Magpie stated, softly holding the egg up to Pixal. "could you take him for me?"
Pixal enthusiastically nodded and gratefully took the egg back, keeping it close to her chest while she adjusted her body to sit in the lotus position. She cradled it and put it in the space created by her crossed legs. Magpie rifled through the bag, and pulled out a small fleece blanket, then handed it to Pixal.
"He should be fine on his own, but just in case…"
"Thank you." Pixal wrapped the blanket around the egg and put her arms around it.
"Sorry to cut your posing lessons short guys, but my brother will be out of commission for at least 2 weeks," Magpie informed them. "I can pick up where he left off if you like-."
"2 weeks? To get back to being 26 years old?" Cole asked in bewilderment.
"Once he's hatched, he'll regain his physical years at a rate of 1 per 12 hours," Magpie elaborated. "so, if he hatches tomorrow, he'll be back to his current age in 13 days."
"You've done this before, haven't you?" Wu baited.
"I've been Phoenix's little sister for a while; I've seen this a couple of times." She tilted her hips and leaned to the right.
"Perhaps you will join me for some tea, so we can become better acquainted?" Wu suggested.
"That would be lovely, thank you!" Magpie packed the stethoscope and her jacket into the bag and zipped it closed, lifting it onto her shoulder. "Are you gonna be okay, Pixal?"
She nodded happily.
"Well, if you need me, just shout – I'm not far."
"This way my dear," Wu smiled. "may I call you Auntie Magpie?"
The two of them had chuckled as they walked away, leaving the ninja completely stunned. Zane sat next to Pixal and put his arm around her shoulder as she curled around the bundle in her lap. She smiled at him in a way she hadn't before; it was a soft, doe-eyed expression, one of serenity and peacefulness.
"Well," Kai said. "that happened."
"Sure did, Sonny." Jay teased, as Kai thumped him.