A/N: You ever heard of the term "crash and burn"? This would be "crash, burn, spontaneously combust, disintegrate into dust and then blow away in the wind while taps plays sweetly in G minor" with all honesty.
Over the next two weeks, Hector conversed in secret with his friends, not really leaving his bedroom often, eager to hear what they had to say. It seemed like the silver lining on the darkest storm cloud this side of Seattle, and it did help him with the grief. They talked about their studies, about the masters, about how Takahashi and Toji had daringly attempted to face on a whole squadron of Injured Order cronies, and only lost when one of their creatures panicked out of fear, severing Toji's leg. He felt sort of bad for not being there to witness it, but he knew that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
Meanwhile, with his personal life, things had stagnated to a halt. He couldn't tell anyone about anything that had happened without lying to them directly, and it seemed like everyone on the streets had something to say about the untimely death of Miss Rojas. He knew that there were bound to be rumors spread, and it just made him wish he was back in San Campion, away from all of this and near friends and support. The gauntlet, which was now collecting dust beneath his dresser, had all but been forgotten, overshadowed by more important things.
But, it was about to make itself a bit more relevant, as Hector readied his suitcase for his return to the boarding school. There had already been a replacement called in, a distant cousin of Rojas' who would definitely take some time getting used to. After the boy had finished with putting his clothes in the case, a sudden soft metallic ringing sounded in his ears. His gaze darted around, wondering where the noise had come from, and the gauntlet seemed to shimmer in an attempt to get him to notice it.
He yanked it from under the dresser, and saw that it still remained shiny and glossy as ever, even while covered in two weeks' worth of dust bunnies. He sighed deeply, and put it in his backpack. As soon as he got to the school, he'd sneak down straight to the way line in the basement and deliver it to the masters to be dealt with once and for all. And, with that last thought, he yawned deeply and crawled straight into bed.
When he opened his eyes next, he noticed that he was in a weird sort of forested village, which looked ancient as ever and quiet as can be. It was completely dark out, with only the stars and moon to give any illumination. But, he could see that in one of the houses, a young girl around 6 or 7 was staring out her window at something. She quickly looked behind herself to see if anyone was watching her, and jumped out her window when the coast seemed clear.
"Hey, wait!" He called after her, following her into the deep forest. This chase contained for a short while, until she suddenly stopped with a small gasp. Hector, catching his breath, tried to tap her on the shoulder, but his hand went straight through her and nearly knocked him down. Confused and scared out of his wits, he lifted his gaze to see what she was staring at and saw a young boy around his age with Master Jaha's creature, Blackfeather of Shadow Abyss.
{Brother?} The young girl asked. {What… what's that thing? What are you doing?} Even though Hector previously had no understanding of Japanese in the slightest, he somehow could know every word the girl said.
The boy looked up, and then smiled gently. {It's alright, Aoi. She won't hurt you.} The boy patted the Specter on the snout, and then waved his hand (which Hector had noticed had no gauntlet) towards the girl. She filched at first, but then embraced the creature, giggling a bit.
{I guess she likes you already!} The boy laughed, walking over to the girl and kneeling down to her height. {Aoi, do you remember the stories our great-grandfathers used to tell? About monsters?}
Clutching tighter to Blackfeather's snout, the girl nodded, her eyes growing wide. He continued, obviously trying to calm her down. {Well, Blackfeather used to be one of these monsters. But, she's good now. And there are others like her that want to help us fight the evil ones.}
She looked up at him. {I don't want the monsters coming back.} She whispered softly.
{And they won't, not as long as we guardians are here to protect the world.} He said. {Now the, you need to get back to bed, our parents will get worried if we're both out this late.} She released Blackfeather's snout and waved goodbye as the boy proceeded to send her back into the darkness realm with a quick flick of the wrist. And, before he knew what had even happened, Hector woke up in bed.
"I can't believe this!" Kimora yelled. "This can't be happening, not right now!" He sniffled loudly, the angry tears only helping to further his rotten mood. Nadia herself had never seen him this angry, and was beginning to think that even he hadn't seen himself this angry. Her voice cracked a bit as she said "Look, it's not his fault."
"I know that!" he nearly screamed back in response. "But-but he should've said something sooner! He shouldn't have waited until now! I mean, Rojas dies, Hector gets suspended, Toji gets mauled, and now Aaron's moving away come summer vacation?!" He slammed his head into the table and groaned loudly, the rock muffling his sobs and slight regret from practically head-butting solid granite.
Nadia was quiet for a moment, not sure how to process anything happening at the current moment. She rested her head on her hand as she leaned on her elbow, deep in thought about how to smooth things over. A half-baked idea formulated in her head, which wasn't much, but just enough. She cleared her throat and gently tapped Kimora on the head form where he'd painfully rested his head. "What," he asked, still face down and borderline melancholic.
"Now, look here. You know summer vacation isn't for another 3 months," she said, matter of fact-ly. "So, why don't you two try to smooth it out before then? I mean, it logically makes the most sense, you can't hold this grudge forever, right?"
An even longer silence permeated the room as Kimora thought it over. And then, prying himself off of the table, he gave a deep sigh and sniffled back the tears. "Sure, why not? I'll give him a call or whatever…"
"I will take care of the call," Nadia said, not wanting to ruin this before it began. "You just get your stuff or whatever, and wait for me outside. And no gauntlets, this is a normal talk." Kimora nodded, and slid off the bench to trudge out to the main storefront of the used book shop. Meanwhile, Hector was racing to find a duel master to take care of his little problem, and his prayers were shortly answered when he bumped straight into Master Ezra.
"Wh- Acolyte Chavez?" She asked, a look of extreme concern and confusion on her face. "What- why- what brings you here? I thought-"
"It is a very long story," Hector said, shifting his backpack off his shoulders, and beginning to open it. "But there's something I…" All of a sudden, something inside of him froze. It almost felt like every fiber in his being was telling him to stop, to run away, to get as far from the dojo as possible. "I… wanted to tell Nadia! Is she here?" He asked, suddenly changing the subject.
"In the library, as she is normally," Ezra said, pointing in its direction. Hector cheerfully nodded and skipped off to meet her. The Nature Master watched him as he left, wondering what on Earth was into him, and what had caused him to return? Nadia upon seeing Hector was thrilled and rushed to hug him. But when she released from the hug, she had only one thing to say. "I'm so glad you're here! Listen I have a bit of a favor to ask for you."
At Aaron's house, things were starting to reach a tense head. Kimora was sitting on one side of the couch, leaning his entire boy as far as he could to his side, still blinking the tears away. Aaron sat on the other, his arms crossed and his attention diverted to anything else other than Kimora. Hector sat in the middle, feeling extremely uncomfortable as Nadia attempted to settle the mood by bringing out snacks.
"Is everyone cool with Diet? If not, I can get more-oh!" She yelped, nearly dropping a six pack of diet cola and an entire bowl of popcorn all over the floor as she tripped over one of the many boxes that was in the middle of the floor. Quickly regaining her composure, she sat them on the table in front of them with a nervous chuckle. "Oops, I'm so clumsy."
"Well, if you didn't have the box in your way, you'd probably be a little more... not that…" Kimora said, too overcome with annoyance to think up a good comeback. "If you hadn't have come, you wouldn't have tripped either," Aaron retorted, still looking at the floor. Hector sheepishly extended a hand to reach for a can of cola, but retracted it when he noticed that the two of them were still refusing to even acknowledge each other's presences.
"Well, you are all very welcome!" Nadia said, taking a soda can and a handful of popcorn. Hector once again reached out, and slowly pulled a can loose from the pack, still looking back and forth from the two boys on either side of him. Aaron sighed deeply, and then looked over at Nadia.
"Thank you," He said softly, and then went back to staring off into space. "Nice that you all could drop by, I guess."
"Not like we'll be able to for much longer," Kimora responded incredulously. Hector gulped softly and tried to take a sip of his drink to avoid any possible involvement in the brewing storm that was an argument.
"Look, I get it, you're mad at me."
"Mad? Mad?! I'm so much more than mad, what you seriously had to wait until now to tell me this?!"
"Uh, w-well, it seemed fitting, y'know, I thought if I told you this after then-"
"Then I'd take it in stride because I've dealt with worse! That's how it works!"
Well, Christ forbid I'm a bad friend for not being a psychiatrist!"
"I never said you were! I never even said you were a bad friend!"
"Then what am I to you?!"
"That is enough!" Nadia screamed. And then, a huge seismic wave rattled through the house, knocking everyone around. Her eyes went wide as she whispered "Oh, seriously, right now?!"
"Guys, don't worry! Aaron said. "My gauntlet's upstairs, I'll just get it!" He darted towards the stairs, but the creature that had caused the little eruption wasn't having any of that. It burst through from the basement, knocking him straight down. A sickening crunch was heard as Mistivine Quartz's jaded fist broke Aaron's arm. Kimora screamed in horror, and ran over to him, starting to drag him away from the beast.
Nadia, immensely regretting that she'd told Kimora not to bring his gauntlet and left hers, was currently hiding behind the couch with Chavez. She desperately dialed the store's number as she tried to slow her breathing down. Hector couldn't take watching his friends suffer, he had to do something! And then, it hit him.
The First Gauntlet.
He grabbed his bag, nearly ripped it open, and put it on. Nadia gasped when she saw the familiar silver glow. "You- you've kept it?!" He didn't respond, only extending his hand towards the beast as it noticed him and took a running charge. And, as it bounced off the shield, Kimora noticed the gauntlet as well, gasping loudly, unable to form any words out of shocked terror.
Hector slowly began to goad the creature back into the hole that it had made, the gauntlet hissing with mana as he did. But, just as he was about to get it to fully retreat, it grabbed him by the arm and plunged back first onto the cold cement floor of the basement, banishing away to the Kaiju Realm, leaving the three kids to helplessly watch.
Master Ezra waited in the Nature Realm, pacing back and forth impatiently, until she saw the familiar green glow of her partner creature's return. In his arms, he held Hector Chavez, who had been knocked unconscious by some force. With a gentle tug, Ezra removed the gauntlet from his hand, and grinned widely.
"Oh, Hector," She said softly. "I have never been more proud!"