Chapter 29 - (Un)Worthy

All of them were confused at Ryo's statement of 'confessing for his mistakes', and almost none of them would doubt that they were slightly nervous as to what his 'mistakes' entailed. Even more so because of the more knowledge that he apparently had of the situation than they did, whatever that was really supposed to mean. But from the grave expression that had settled onto the man's face, they could only guess at what it was that Ryo had to talk to them about. Everything was still so surreal at the moment, what from traveling to what almost seemed like a different dimension entirely to Ryo using Ren to speak to them, that they knew they could expect just about anything at this point.
"W-what do you mean, Ryo?" Madoka asked, her voice shaking lightly from nerves. Ryo's golden-brown eyes turned to her, a strange look in their depths that was hard to identify.
"I mean that I've made some choices I'm not proud of." The man said solemnly, "And, chances are, I may have been the one to cause all of this in the first place, even if I didn't mean too... Which is why I have to explain everything."

"How could you cause all of this?" Zyro asked, confused. Ryo smiled somewhat bitterly.
"You'd be surprised..." He commented, "Frankly, you'll probably all be more than surprised, really... It won't be anything easy to take, but you all deserve to know despite that."
Several glances were exchanged between the group. Although many of them didn't really know Ryo, they could tell that this kind of attitude from him probably wasn't usual, considering how Madoka and Benkei were reacting. Which was probably why so many of them were as nervous about it as they were, from the way Ryo had made it sound. But whatever he had to tell them, there really was nothing to do but listen. It wasn't like they could really go anywhere at the moment - at least not without Ren.
"I've seen all of what Alcorin's been doing to all of you for the past month or so..." Ryo began, "And I'm able to understand you're sorrow over what you know he did to Gingka.."
Several faces dropped slightly at this; Madoka looking down slightly towards her feet, Zyro's shoulders visibly tensing, Benkei's deepened frown, and Maru's small side-step behind her teacher were all evidence that they were most certainly not comfortable with that subject. Even Kira seemed to shift uncomfortably at the topic, though he evidently did his best not to show it. Ryo simply nodded before continuing.
"But there is a lot of things you don't know about all of this. I was what was going on before I brought you here, and I'll admit that Alcorin - or some look-alike of him - was right about something. I've seen many destructive people on this earth, and I know for a fact that he especially probably would have destroyed everything by now..."

"Yeah, he did say that..." Madoka said, knitting her eyebrows together slightly and looking up towards the redhead, "But what is that even supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, if he didn't want to do something like Nemesis did," Maru said, agreeing, "Then what did he want from us?..." Ryo's eyes narrowed a bit, though he didn't seem to do towards anything in particular.
"Like I said before..." The former Director continued solemnly, "There's a lot more to this than you really think their is.. There's a lot you don't know about Alcorin, and also a lot that you don't know about Gingka that started all of this.. And I will have you know that Alcorin did come to Metal Bey City because of Gingka, but for way different reason than you think."

"Could you please stop being so cryptic and get to the point?" Kira asked, putting emphasis on the one word so as to not wholly disrespect the elder redhead - he was smart enough to know that the rest of them, Madoka and Benkei especially, would scold him terribly if he ever did such a thing. No one said anything, however, except for a few glances that went his way, and Ryo just smiled a bit.
"Yeah, of course, sorry.." The redheaded man said apologetically with a bit of a dorky look on his face, before going back to his previous somber self, "But, really, for any of you to understand anything, I'm going to have to tell you what started this in the first place, which is something I've never spoken of to anyone - not even the other people who were involved. It was over 20 years ago, when my wife, Asuna, was still alive - this was also a long time before Gingka was born, but... Yeah. Asuna was always a sickly person, and she suffered from a lot of chronic illness, to the point where Isha, Hyoma's mother and the medic of our village, told her she would never be able to have her own children. But, as you can guess, she did eventually get pregnant, which Isha always saw as strange, all things considered with her surgeries."
Half of the young bladers' faces either paled or flushed at the very vague indication of what the elder redhead was talking about, but nobody said anything.
"But we all brushed it aside, since, really, it wasn't as uncommon as most would think." Ryo continued with a light shrug before a frown settled itself on his face, "We were all happy for her, but it didn't last very long. Shortly after, she came down with the incurable disease that's taken the lives of so many of the villagers, which we call Termina. All things considered, we didn't think she was going to live for very long, but she proved us wrong. She managed all through 9 months, even with the worst of the symptoms that she had. And, miraculously, she lived long enough to be able to deliver, but her heart gave out mid-way through..." Ryo halted for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed in subdued pain and grief - of which had no effect on Ren, who still continued to stand there motionlessly, a puppet that Ryo had reluctantly made -, before he went on, "However, there was something that happened during that process that none of us could have expected, and not even Isha had been able to known it before then since it had somehow eluded even her... Although we barely even knew it until halfway through, Asuna had been carrying twins."
There was a stunned silence that passed between all of them, and nobody could really blame anything when they all found themselves nearly completely speechless.
Of all things that they had expected Ryo to want to tell them, they most certainly hadn't expected it to be anything like that. Well, maybe there had been the thought that he had somehow known Alcorin, or that he knew what he was all about, but... Not anything to do with twins. And if Gingka's mother had had twins, then... When nobody said anything, communication just being being withheld through several glances and silent words that seemed to go unnoticed, Ryo nodded in understanding.
"Yeah, I know..." The redhead said with a small sigh and weary smile, "That's not what any of you were suspected, and I don't blame you. But there's more too it than just that..." The former Director could see the expressions in their eyes, but went on anyway, "When the two of them were born, there was nothing that showed any sign of what they look like now... They were born entirely without pigment, except for their eyes and the markings that covered their bodies... They weren't even anatomically correct at the time, and the only real color they had at all were their eyes, but even those were unsettling. I and the priests of our village knew from the moment that we saw them that there was no way they could've been human, and we were proven right once they actually looked them over for long enough. I didn't believe it myself at first when they really told me about the power they felt from them.."

"What power?" Zyro questioned, even though he had a feeling they all already knew the answer.
"The power of the God of Destruction, who Gingka destroyed 7 years ago..." Ryo answered, although his tone seemed just barely reluctant and his face held a hint of grief.
"Nemesis..." Maru said in a subdued tone, looking down slightly towards the ground. From the moment Ryo had mentioned the twin thing, practically all of them had expected that to be the case. After all, Alcorin really couldn't have been lying about that, all things considered on his part. Ryo nodded.
"Yeah." He said, "And it was because of that, and the power that they could feel from them, that we knew we couldn't keep them together. So we separated them, which was slightly more complicated than it should've been, considering they were conjoined, but Isha took care of that... After that, we decided that we would keep Gingka in the village, while the head preacher of the monastery at the time took the other one somewhere else."

"Took him where?" Shinobu asked. Ryo shook his head.
"I was never sure, and, frankly, I never really cared, as long as I knew the two of them were far apart from each other... Thinking back on it, it was probably more childish than anything to believe that that was the best choice. But at the time, I really believed it was..."
Another period of silence fell over all of them, and nobody could really think of anything to say. What was there to say to that? They had known that it would probably be something that would change their views on at least a part of all of this, but they didn't expect that it would change those views that much... There was only one other thought that lingered in the air, and it wasn't exactly something that any of them wanted to say, but everyone that stood present knew that, eventually, it would have to be spoken. Because even though Ryo had placed a name to that long lost sibling, it was very clear who he was talking about. Now it was just a matter of who would say the fact that they now all knew out loud. They were all thinking it, but no one said anything, not even Ryo, who looked somewhat absently towards the ground while Ren, of whom was still under his possession, never said anything of her own accord anyway.
Only after what felt like an eternity of that silence, the quiet almost peaceful and yet daunting all the same, someone finally did speak - and that was Madoka.
"Gingka and Alcorin are twins..." She said, her voice flat and her face just as solemn, though the confliction of emotions and thoughts were clear in her sad eyes. Slowly, Ryo looked over towards her with an expression just as forlorn, and nodded.
"Yes." He said, confirming what they had all been thinking and what they had all known from the moment he had spoken of it, "Alcorin is his younger brother, who, somehow, managed to find him against all odds. The only reason I was really able to recognize that he was his brother was because I've... Seen him when he was far younger, for several different reasons... Of all the things that I expected to have happened with him, or either of them really, this definitely wasn't one of them." Ryo shook his head absently, eyes straying down to the blue sand beneath them again. "So, to answer you from earlier, Zyro," Golden brown eyes that were painfully similar to Gingka's own looked back up towards the Ifraid Blader, "I really am the cause of all of this, as much as it pains me to say it. I didn't mean for any of this, and I really am sorry for all of it."

"You shouldn't blame yourself." Benkei said, his voice somber and his face just as so, "You couldn't have known any of this would've happened."

"Maybe not..." Ryo said, only his eyes looking towards the Manager, "But I still caused it nonetheless, whether or not I knew it at the time.."

"Okay, but exactly how much does any of this matter?" Kite asked, one eyebrow quirked, "Just because they were brothers doesn't change what Alcorin did. He hated him for what he did to Nemesis anyway, so why does all of this matter?"
Once again, glances were exchanged between the group, knowing that Kite did have a point. The fact that Gingka and Alcorin had been brothers, let alone even remotely related, was definitely a shock that none of them had ever expected, but why Ryo had really told them at all in relation to the whole thing just... Wasn't all that clear. Of course, he was probably guilty after that - who wouldn't be? But even still... It changed nothing about all that Alcorin had done, and it certainly didn't change the fact that they were still determined to go after him, a relative of Gingka's or not. But their unspoken questions were soon answered once Ryo spoke again.
"I've seen what Alcorin's like behind closed doors, trust me." The elder redhead said gravely, "And I can tell you that even though he didn't know him personally, Alcorin cared about Gingka... Even if it is in his own sick way. He loved him as much as anyone..."

"Then why would he kill someone he... 'Cares' about?" Madoka questioned, a slightly unsettled look on her face, "If he really did 'love' him or whatever, then why not just leave him alone? Why would he kill him for no reason?" Eyes knowing and face grave, Ryo looked over to the brunette.

"That's because he didn't." The former Director said, almost as if it were obvious, and all of them fell silent. It seemed to take a moment for all of them to actually comprehend what it was that Ryo had just said, or... whatever it was supposed to imply which, from what Madoka had been saying previously, was pretty easy for them to guess at.
"Um... What?" Kira questioned bluntly, his only eyebrow slightly raised.
"What do you mean he didn't?" Eight questioned, a concerned and confused expression on his young face.
"Alcorin didn't kill Gingka." Ryo said bluntly to all of them in response, "He never did, as hard as that seems to believe."

"B-but we saw..." Zyro started, before the words got stuck in his throat with an expression that nobody was able to make out despite the pure emotion on it, "W-we saw... Him.. He..."

"I know what it looked like..." Ryo said gently, his eyes sorrowful with a hint of pity towards them all - and Zyro especially, "And I have to admit that it was very convincing, but you should all know that Alcorin has a fairly diverse set of abilities... Considering his motives, it's only reasonable that he would go well out of his way to make it seem as convincing as possible."

"W-what does that..." Madoka started, the tears clearly starting to well in her eyes, "...Wh-what do y-you mean, that doesn't make sense." Maru placed a hand on her teacher's leg, gently grasping the seams of her jeans in her small fingers, her face filled with concern as she did her best to silently comfort the older woman. Ryo closed his eyes for a moment, pain and grief etched into his face before he spoke again.
"You already know that Alcorin came to Metal Bey City because of Gingka." The elder redhead stated, "But it most certainly wasn't because he hated him for killing Nemesis... In fact, I doubt he even remotely cares about Nemesis ever wanted. He came because he wanted Gingka, and you know very well how far he would go to get what he wants."
Shinobu glanced worriedly over to Zyro, his lush green eyes filled with concern for his friend as he saw the Ifraid blader look down slightly towards his feet. Although the other boy's expression was filled with all sorts of emotions, it was practically unreadable. There was no one emotion to identify, and, truly, Shinobu didn't blame him for feeling whatever which way. Oh, they knew how far Alcorin would go for the things he wanted. He had killed and deceived people they held dear to them just to obtain what he wanted, even if that was something far different than what they had originally thought.
"O-okay, but if he's not dead, then where is he?" Benkei asked, a slightly fearful look in his eyes as though he was afraid of the answer. However, from the way it sounded, they more than likely knew exactly where he was.
"Alcorin's had him in his possession for the better part of 2 weeks." Ryo explained, "He's still comatose, of course, but... Alcorin doesn't care about that, as you can probably guess."
That piece of information didn't do any of them any better - least of all Zyro and Madoka. Nobody looked like they really knew what to say at the moment - which they definitely didn't - and even Kira looked slightly comfortable with the whole explanation they were having handed to them.
Gingka was alive, apparently... He must be, if Ryo - or at least his spirit or whatever was going on - was saying so after watching everything that had been going on for so long, and... Alcorin had him.
Alcorin had him for two weeks and they had never expected a thing. It was probably reasonable, since who expected something like that in the first place, but... It was also more clear to them right now than anything had really been since Alcorin had first made himself known to them. Alcorin had tormented them, and 'killed' Gingka after cleverly deceiving them in more ways than one, before he simply left Metal Bey City with one last blow to them and then not doing anything else. He had wanted Gingka, and he had gotten him... And maybe that was because they were too stupid to think anything else.
"I'm sorry about all of this..." Ryo said sorrowful, "But I assumed that it would be better to hear from myself than in any other way... And, maybe, now you can at least partially understand why you felt so compelled to come after Alcorin in the first place, Zyro."
Slowly, Zyro looked up towards the redheaded man that resembled Gingka so much, despite the fact that they somehow weren't even related, with a confused expression, his face far paler than it originally had been when they had first arrived in this place and tears trying to will themselves to be fully present in his eyes.
"What?..." He questioned, his eyebrows knit together in confusion. Everyone else was slightly confused at that statement from Ryo as well - though it wasn't really all too surprising that they would be. Everything Ryo had said so far had been far too surprising for their tastes at the moment. Ryo's eyes simply softened slightly, and his eyes glanced over to the side for a brief moment as though he spotted something, before looking back to Zyro with a solemn expression graced with kindness.
"That's fine." He said, "Neither of us really expected you to realize it right away."

"'Neither of'... What?" Madoka questioned, her mind befuddled with all of this stuff that Ryo kept spewing and she actually very much agreed with what Kira had said earlier; she wished Ryo could stop being so cryptic at the moment and just get on with what he had to say! But she - nor anyone else - was given the chance to voice their confused or frustrated or concerned thought before-

"When you know your friends well enough, you're able to feel them... Know where they are... Even feel their emotions... That's what he told you. Right?... Zyro?.." From their right came a voice that none of them had expected to hear, expecting only to be alone in this world of mystery and beauty with no one else but each other and Ryo, and also of whom some of them realized - Zyro especially - that they recognized.
Almost as soon as the voice came to them, everyone turned in the direction from where they had heard it, all eyes (except for Ren's and Ryo's) widening in shock as they were met face to face with someone that they had would have otherwise never expected to see. And after the few brief seconds of shocked and tense silence that took over, Zyro was the first to speak.

"You?..."

A small and sad smile etched itself across their face, something that was genuinely sweet and forlorn, and which looked more human now than it could have ever been.

"Me." He said simply, and the silence took over once again.

It wasn't certain how old he was, but he was small; just a boy, maybe around the age of 12. He was short, too. Shorter than Zyro by at least a few or so inches (not counting the hair) but definitely much taller than the other two children of the group. He stood there calmly albeit timidly, his expression clearly showing uncertainty, touched lightly by a bit of fear, as though he were intimidated by them. Which was rather ironic in all senses, since, naturally, they should probably be the ones to be afraid of him. Considering who he was, if the shoulder-length, indigo hair, golden-brown eyes, and face that they had come to loathe (but it was so much softer...) were anything to go by, it would practically be only natural by this point.
But even though he looked every bit the part, this wasn't Alcorin.
Or at least maybe not exactly. After several more brief moments of silence, Madoka brought herself to speak in her shaking voice.
"W-who..." She began, "W-who are you?.. Exactly?" The boy that looked like Alcorin, albeit younger, looked down slightly, an ashamed and disappoint look on his face that they could only guess was directed towards himself. He shook his head.
"I'm sorry..." He said in a voice that was as soft as many of them remembered from hearing it so many times before, small, delicate, just like he appeared to be, "If I could actually remember.. I'd tell you..." His shoulders slumped softly, "But... I guess most of you would know me as Alcorin now, right?" A few glances were exchanged within the group, even more conflicted emotions and views swimming around in the air as they gazed at what appeared to be a version of Alcorin before he was, well, Alcorin.
Whoever he was, he seemed rather pitiful. When the boy looked up, his eyes went to Zyro, and the Ifraid blader felt something in his memory click, but he wasn't sure what.
"He's been waiting for you..." The blue-haired boy stated, looking straight at the seemingly older boy. Zyro's eyes widened slightly, though he was still confused.
"What?" The raven questioned.
"Gingka..." The boy said simply, his voice subduing itself as he said the name, "..You can feel him, can't you?... That's why you're here... Why you haven't given up yet."
Zyro's eyes widened slightly, because he knew he had heard those words elsewhere, and knew exactly why he was hearing them from this boy now. Several eyes glanced over at the raven-haired boy, but he did nothing to respond to them as the other kept talking. "You can feel it, too... He's fading."

"W-wait, what are you talking about?" Madoka asked, confused at all the things that this boy was saying.
Who even was he, exactly?
"...My brother.." The younger version of Alcorin muttered softly, his voice so small that they practically had to strain their ears to hear him, "..Alcorin knows that Gingka, the way he is now, will never return the love he has for him... He's waiting for 'him', and I'm afraid that Gingka might not last too much longer at this rate..."

"Who's 'him'?" Shinobu asked. The boy was silent for a moment, his eyes very interested in the blue sand beneath him for a moment before looking up again.
"I can't really say myself... But he's not someone you want walking this earth.."
Kira rolled his eye slightly. "Great, now we have another one who's into talking in crypts." The multicolor-haired teen mumbled irritably, and Shinobu jabbed him in the arm slightly. Kira sent him a brief glare of a single golden eye, but otherwise did not respond.
"I'm sorry." The boy said sincerely, his hair falling in his face slightly as he looked down, shameful, "But there's only so much I can really say for sure. Even as much as saying now, Alcorin will have my head for it either way..." The boy rubbed his right arm uncomfortably, and the aforementioned arm seemed to be jerked back slightly when he did so - perhaps that was because of the thin braces on his upper arms, which appeared to have a cord coming out from the back of either and connecting them.
"You talk about Alcorin as if he's a separate person.." Benkei observed, "What's that about? You're technically the same aren't you?"
The boy looked up again.
"In a way, yes..." He said softly, "All I really am is just the shadow of who he used to be... Or what I used to be. I can barely even properly exist in the physical world anymore, after how long he's been around..."

Once more, nobody was really able to get what he was talking about, except apparently for Ryo, who had an understanding look in his eyes though said nothing towards the situation.
Whoever this boy was, he wasn't Alcorin - even if not entirely, they could say that for sure. And Zyro, although not fully, knew exactly who he was.
It was fairly hard not too after staring in a face that you had seen so many times, even though it was shadowed over by the hood of a black raincoat.

"That doesn't matter, though..." The boy continued, looking up to the group again, "You can still save Gingka... As little time as he has, he's still here.. We both are..."

("He's still here...")

Maru's eyes widened slightly as a short gasp escaped her lips, and she could swear once more that she felt the soft brush of an ethereal hand against her cheek, with a voice so captivating ringing in her ears.
"So you've been watching us too, huh?..." Kite questioned, the lenses of his glasses reflecting off a non-existing light.
"In a way, he never really had the choice not too." Ryo answered for the small boy, drawing the group's attention, "But, all this time, we've both been doing everything we possibly could to help you with this at any point that we could. I tried doing so at Ren's last battle as well in that tournament of yours... Me and her share the same power of the Phoenix, so she was the only one I could really get to, as much as it made her frightened of me for awhile."

(".. The voices won't stop!...")

Zyro remembered Ren's words from back then, after she had been defeated in her battle with Genjuro because she had heard 'voices'.
He had somewhat thought of her as just delusional at the time, but now... It sort of made sense. It also made sense to quite a few of them with how this boy had supposedly been helping them, because they knew that they recognized that voice, however delicate and small, from somewhere. So, clearly, none of them were delusional. That was a pretty good insight.
"What do we have to do?" Madoka asked the smaller version of Alcorin, a more determined look on her face that had replaced the paleness and the tears.
The boy looked over at her, his sad eyes seeming to have at least the smallest glimmer of hope in them.
"You just have to find him... I can send you to where they are, but Alcorin won't be happy about it."

"We kind of figured that already." Shinobu said with a slightly reassuring smile, "We've dealt with him once before, I'm sure we can do it again." The boy didn't look so convinced of that, practically just as he had looked the entire time they had been speaking with him.
"Not yet you haven't..." He said simply, looking down towards the ground again for a moment before looking over towards Ren - or at least the body of her.
Ryo seemed to catch on to the message, and nodded with a smile. The redhead looked towards Madoka and the others.
"I think is my call to go now." He announced to the group, drawing their attention once again, "I can't keep Ren forever, after all."

"But, what will happen to you?" Eight asked, concerned about the former Director of the WBBA. Ryo just grinned with a reassuring look on his eye.
"Don't worry. I'm just a spirit, remember?" He said, "I'll be fine... And just one last thing." Ryo's eyes went straight to Madoka, who stood there with an expression that held more life than it had in weeks - and Ryo was glad to see that. "When you get Gingka out of there... Just tell him I'm sorry for everything I've done... And also that I'm not angry at him, either."

They never got to the chance to respond to Ryo before his translucent form disappeared, along with the fiery aura that surrounded Ren, before the blonde he had used as a host fell forward as though in dead faint.
Shinobu, who was nearest to the Phoenix blader, quickly stepped forward and caught her in his arms before slowly lowering her to the ground. The rest of the group somewhat crowded around, all of them looking towards the blonde to see if she was alright.
All of them (though Kira would probably deny it altogether) were immediately revealed when a groan escaped the female teen, who gently squeezed her eyes for a moment before the brown orbs fluttered open. She looked slightly dazed, her eyes glassy with apparent fatigue and confusion before she finally became aware of his surroundings.
Looking up, she saw both Shinobu and Zyro with Kite peering over both of them, and groggily raised an eyebrow.
"It's not nice to stare..." She croaked softly. Most of them smiled - she was okay. With that comment, she had to be.
"Are you okay?" Zyro asked, watching as Ren slowly brought herself to her feet with a few grunts and groans along the way, her joints obviously just as stiff as there's had previously been when they had first arrived.
"Yeah." She said with a brief stretch of her legs, "Kind of feels like I got hit by a truck, though..."

"Well, that's what we all felt like when we first got here.." Benkei said with a dorky grin.
"Yeah, I guess." The blonde said in agreement.
"How much to do remember, exactly?" Madoka asked. Ren just shrugged her shoulders a bit.
"Well, I remember that whole conversation, so... I think we're good on explanations." The Phoenix blader explained, and all of them were glad to hear it. Considering who Ryo was, even though some of them really didn't know too much about it, it would've been highly doubtful anyway that he would allow any harm to come to Ren.
Considering how much Ren seemed to be getting possessed in someway during the last few weeks, they were most certainly grateful.

"Zyro..." The sound of his name in that voice he knew so well brought the raven's attention back to the boy that stood off to the side, and caught the others' attention as well.
Zyro turned back towards his old friend who simply stood there, his expression as calm and sad as it always had been. The small chatter in the group quickly faded as everyone turned their attention back upon the small boy, who seemed more interested in Zyro than anything else at the moment. As he always had for all of the years, Zyro got the message, and stepped forward slightly to be closer to the unnamed boy.
The blue-haired boy looked down slightly, a guilty expression once more making itself present on his young features.
"I'm sorry for all of this..." He apologized in a small voice, "I never meant for any of this to happen to you... To any of you.."
Zyro's blue eyes softened slightly, gazing with slight pity at the boy he had known all his life, and yet, at the same time, had only just met.
"Why are you blaming yourself? It's not your fault..." The Ifraid Blader said reassuringly. However, the other was anything but reassured.
The smallest hint of a smile just barely pulled at the blue-haired boy's lips, showing that he appreciated Zyro's kindness even after everything, but was not convinced by those words. He simply shook his head and looked up once more, just barely standing eye-level with the raven.
"All of this always has been, because I've never been able to control my powers..." The smaller child spoke, once more breaking eye contact, but this time seeming to absently center his attention somewhere by Zyro's neck, where his eyes would probably be anyway if they were standing chest to chest, "It's always been that way... And that's why I was never able to control Alcorin, and why he's able to get rid of me..." There was a brief silence, but then the boy spoke again, once more looking into Zyro's eyes with his own golden-brown ones, "...We've always known each other. I've always been the one there beside you, even if not directly... I'm the reason for all of this, because I've never been able to control what I have, or what I had. But you..."
There was another brief moment of silence, and the indigo-haired boy looked like he was searching for what to say, even though he didn't have too.
Zyro knew that as well, for a part of him seemed to anticipate the words that would come, as if he had come back from the past and knew them already.
But that wasn't the reason why... No.
A part of him - though he had never been sure which part that was - knew why.

"Simply because of who you are... Because of who you are..." The boy said, hesitating for a moment before continuing, "... You'll be able to control it far better than either of us ever could.. And you know why I'm saying that..."
Another moment of silence, though this one was dragged out. Somebody probably would've said something about the frequent pauses (most likely Kira) by now, probably in an attempt to break the almost uncomfortable silences that continuously followed, but nobody did.
Somehow, it felt like they were unable too as they watched Zyro and the other boy nearly stare at each other, sky blue into golden-brown, unsaid meanings and words passing between them as silent messages that nobody but the two of them could hear.
And as Zyro looked into those eyes that resembled Gingka's so much that it was hard to tell the difference, he realized.
But then again, hadn't a part of him always known?
His eyes widened anyway, a look of surprise and almost disbelief coming onto his features.

"Wait, you..." He began, unsure of what to say as words seem to fail him, "Y-you don't mean... That..."
The small boy gave him a small smile, sad and apologetic, his eyes speaking far more lengths than he himself likely ever could.
"You've known me..." He said softly in that quiet voice of his, "I don't lie to you... You should go now, before something really bad happens.."
Zyro looked like he wanted to ask more questions, get more answers than he had, but he didn't. He knew that now wasn't the time, and a part of him knew that he already had all the answers he was looking for from his friend - a being that he had known for longer than he had even known himself.

"W-wait, how do we leave, exactly?" Ren asked, a confused look on her face.
"Yeah, this place doesn't look like it has an exit door..." Benkei said in agreement, glancing around at their surroundings briefly.
"I can send you where you need to be..." The boy said simply, "I'm capable of that much.. And I owe you far more than I can give..." Madoka looked upon the blue-haired child with pity and sorrow in her turquoise orbs, unable to help the forlorn feelings that were directed towards the boy.
Despite having the face that most of them had very well learned to be afraid of, there was nothing about this boy that spoke anything of the Alcorin they knew but the appearance, and even that was nothing like him.
"If we can save Gingka, than maybe we can help you too." The brunette suggested, somewhat to the surprise of everyone else, "There has to be-"

"No." The boy said suddenly, his small voice firm and resolute though still that quivering shyness that had been talking to them this whole time.
Still, it surprised most of them, and Maru even jumped slightly as though in fear that the sheep before them would turn out to be the wolf. They did know that that couldn't be true, considering how much had been explained to them about all of this from the boy, but it was still surprising nonetheless.
The blue-haired boy looked at no one, his forlorn eyes aiming themselves downward slightly, somewhere around their feet, or at least Zyro's, who stood only about 3 or so feet away from the other. It was a moment before he spoke again.

"Don't even try..." He said, his soft voice still firm and giving off a vibe that he wasn't up for arguing about it, "After everything I've done, I'm not worth that... I'm not worth being saved, but Gingka is. He's worth more than I could ever be, which is why you need to leave me..."
His voice broke briefly, and Zyro almost felt as if his heart did too. No one knew what to make of all of this, how to react to this boy in general, how to speak to him, how to behave towards him. But, either way, he was a sorrowful sight to say the least.

"We-"

"No, Zyro." He said firmly, though his voice cracked, the broken sound becoming even more broken than it already was - re-broken, perhaps, but no one could say that for sure - as he looked down towards the ground, "I'm already beyond saving at this point, after all of these years.. It doesn't matter what happens to me. You can throw me to the flames for all I care, just.. Please... Don't abandon him..." Voice tearful, he looked up quickly, a pleading look on his young face as tears rimmed his eyelashes, "Don't abandon my brother!.."
Though he had those words before so many times in his head, Zyro still felt like his heart stopped when he heard them this time.
Even still, he kept himself calm, and nodded.
"We won't." He said, a promise made without gestures, and everyone else seemed to agree with him.
The plan now was to save Gingka anyway, so it was a promised hopefully kept either way. Besides, it wasn't like they could really say no to someone like him - with a face that they had previously found so frightening reduced to nothing more than that of a quivering child.

At that answer, the boy simply nodded, taking a moment to wipe at his eyes with sleeve, dampening the white fabric.
He sniffled slightly before looking back up, regaining his calm composure as best as he could because he knew it was probably stupid to cry in front of them. Nobody said a thing as they let him, many of them looking at him with slightly softer expressions than they had probably started out with, before he looked back up to them. He scanned their faces for a few moments, as if checking to assure that they were truly ready for what he was about to throw them into.
In truth, they probably never would be.
But that didn't matter.
Breathing evenly, he closed his eyes a moment and then opened them again, the formally golden-brown irises having turned red, the light that formally reflected off of them nowhere to be found.
He raised his hand to them, as though to hold them in their place, before speaking in a voice that they had heard many times before, resonating with the power he had been born with, and, strangely enough, they didn't find themselves afraid.

"Go to him." He commanded.

And before they had the time to register anything further, they were gone.