EXCUSE ME? 1000 REVIEWS? Wake me up, somebody. Wow. I hope you guys like this little gift. The first of three coming your way pretty quickly here. You guys are awesome.

I have mixed feelings about this one-shot. Some of you will like it, and some of you won't. But don't worry, there will be other one-shots coming later this week and next week, so I'm sure at least one of them will pique your interest!

So, not-so-quick explanation for this non-cannon one-shot. (*coughIwasonbreakanddesperateforsomethingtowritecough*) Besai is killed by Overlord. Cole (not a stone warrior) escapes, dragging Sage and a broken Kai behind him. But Overlord follows, alone, and attacks by the lake. Kai refuses to fight, even going as far as to demand that Overlord kills him right then and there. Overlord was happy to oblige and, though Cole fights to the best of his abilities, Sage is a liability and Kai is working against him. Overlord takes Kai and throws him with a tremendous burst of power into the lake.

And, fighting his intense fear of the water, Cole dives after him. The reason this isn't cannon is...well, I just couldn't bring myself to kill Besai. So naturally, Kai wouldn't want to die, so the emotional power of this scene would be practically zero, so I just went another course entirely, as we saw in chapter 96. But I couldn't let this little drabble go out with at least a little attention. Seriously, it was so hard for me to let this go. D:

Without further adieu, here is Return the Favor! (No slash, by the way. Duh. (: )


Return the Favor


Down, down Cole swam. It hurt. The pressure in his ears, his head. Suffocating him.

The fear was strong. It demanded that he stop swimming; that he let the waters of the lake consume him forever. His arms ached, too. He forced his eyes open, but as he paddled it was too black to see his hands before his face, let alone his dear friend.

Kai's feeling this, too, Cole realized. He's sinking. His arms are growing heavy, his mind is thick and misty. His fear is crippling him.

Cole's own fear came to a screaming crescendo. Stop swimming. You're going too deep. You're going to drown. Stop. Stop! STOP!

Why was he fighting, anyway? Kai was right. This was hopeless. They would never win. So why were they trying?

…It was hopeless.

Cole obeyed his fear, ming working mechanically. The gears slowed. His legs stopped kicking. His arms, like hands on a waning clock, ground to a halt. He could hear water whooshing past his ears: the calls of the dead, begging him to join them.

And then…blissful silence.

This was better, wasn't it? It was over. He didn't have to fight for his life anymore. This last moment of pain…it wasn't the pain of dying, it was the claws of life in his skin, clinging to him, wounding him, dragging out his final seconds as long as possible.

The end was near. He could feel it, he could see the light. Like the candles in his stone dungeon: feeble, but determined to keep on until someone blew out their light; their hope.

He could see the wave, cresting over his dying mind. Powerful, large, white: His final lucid thoughts; his memories.

It crashed into him a moment later, like a tide against the rocks. Phantoms of emotions he once knew, flying about like droplets of water expelled by the force of the collision.

"You are one of the prophesied Knights, are you not?"

"I know of no such prophesy."

Two opposing forces of nature that refused to bend. Hate, mistrust.

"So…we're going to fight?"

"Isn't that what you wanted? Your move, weakling."

Fire and earth. Two forces of nature that could not be opposed; nor could they defeat each other.

"What do you want, weakling?"

"I heard a noise and was wondering if you were dead."

"You heard a noise and thought I might be…dead?"

"Okay! So that wasn't the greatest excuse. I uh… wanted to apologize for hurting you during our match earlier."

"I don't need your sympathy,"

"Did I say I was sympathetic?"

Fire and earth. Trust that was slow in coming.

"Don't mind the tropic weather, eh? Growing up in the South made the narcissistic nobleman immune to the effects of heat? Or was that humility?"

"I might be able to give you a witty answer if I knew what 'narcissistic' meant. And Humility? Nope. Never heard of it."

Fire and earth. They worked together. Elements of nature that were continually in flux, breaking each other down, building each other up.

"…Kai…so…they haven't killed you yet. I'd get up from the stretcher and slap your face, but…I'm a little occupied."

"Heh. Thanks. I'd love to slap you, too. But I've got a sleeping person on me."

"Oh, for the love of… Look, Cole, you don't have a baby!"

Together they kept the world in balance.

"He's gone, Kai. Even the best doctors fail."

"No! I won't stop until his body is hard and cold. Don't you dare leave us, Cole. Come on! Come back."

Together, nothing was impossible.

"Stop it! Cole, can you hear yourself? We aren't going to give up! I don't care if we have to hide in the Caves of Despair. You will be safe, all right?

"Don't make a promise you can't keep."

Together they changed lives, for better or for worse.

"…Why did you save me?"

This one made Cole pause. It disturbed his flow, brought him back to a state of semi-lucidness in the deep, dark, disturbing lake. Why had Kai saved him? Cole was a nobody; the one who had gotten them into this mess in the first place. He was unworthy of being saved. Anyone in their right mind would have stepped away from the table and let the poison steal his life. Anyone with a speck of sense would hate him for what he had done.

And yet, Kai had moved past that, and…

"Ah, good idea, Cole."

The despair, the loneliness. The bottle of wine, the knife.

"Yeah, you know, that's smart. But wine? Tsk. No, we'll need something more substantial."

The wave of light was passing. Staying awake got harder with each passing second.

"…Why, Kai?"

"Because you're my brother. And brothers mess up. That doesn't make me love you any less. You shouldn't love yourself any less, either."

Why was he trying to stay awake, anyway? He thought he'd agreed to stop moving; stop thinking. Stop remembering the pain.

Because… I love him.

The words surprised him. But once the significance of the thought hit him—once he realized the truth, the weight of these words, he felt a spark; that single candle in his dungeon of darkness, that feeble whisper in his mind, springing back to life. A candle is all it takes to stand out; a candle is all it takes to give sight to those wandering in darkness.

Determination.

It coursed through his exhausted, oxygen-deprived body, like water like a mouthful of water to a parched throat, filling him with new strength. Not a lot—like a mere mouthful of water for a man dying of thirst. But when he tried hard enough—with enough of that determination—he found that his clockwork could restart. It did, proverbial gears spinning faster and faster with each thought, each motion.

"But I'm so weak."

"You're not weak."

"I'm tired of this."

"I'm not letting you die."

"But I'm so tired!"

There, surrounded by his worst fear, Cole finally understood. He felt hope—like delicate butterfly wings, brushing against his consciousness. He felt love in its truest form: passion, sacrifice; an all-consuming rage: to think that something as petty as grief thought it could rob Kai of his life! That grief thought it could steal such a wonderful, beautiful soul as Kai from the world forever.

So Cole fought his fears. He fought with a bitter determination that would have rattled the Overlord's immovable countenance. He swam for all he was worth—for all Kai was worth—until his hand caught a fistful of hair.

Kai's hair.

And then—tapping into his final reserve of strength—he let out a scream. Trapped for far too long in his lungs, bubbles flew from his mouth and shot for the surface, leaving Kai and his desperate rescuer behind.

Kai had done so much for his loved ones. He had made so many impossible sacrifices; displayed countless impossible acts of loyalty, bravery, and selflessness.

It was time for someone to return that favor.


After this, I was going to do a short scene from Overlord's POV where he watches- dumbfounded- as Cole drags both himself and Kai out of the water and collapses on the beach, unconscious. It was going to be an intense moment- dark, stormy, Sage and Chedva trembling nearby. Overlord would look at his Blade and consider finishing Cole and Kai off then and there.

It's difficult to explain what Overlord does next, though. He was afraid. The boy he'd been pushing around for years was actually a man. A man that demanded respect. And Overlord found, to his horror, that he respected Cole. And so, he called a truce and let them go. (Another reason why this didn't work in the story: Overlord wouldn't do that, I think)

So...yeah. That's it! Thank you SO MUCH for 1000 reviews, y'all. I hope you enjoy this little gift. Next, I'll do something from Cole's POV. I'll take care of that tomorrow sometime, because it's really late right now. But after that, as the icing on the cake, we'll have a much longer one-shot from Varasach's POV. That'll come your way next week, probably, because I'm only about halfway done with it. And I want Kira to give it a good look before I post it. It's gonna be awesome. You'll see some Kyle and Josi in it, too.

Come on. Admit it, you want to see some Kyle. Josi and Varasach are just a little bonus. :3

Okay, I'm outa here. Good night, and thanks to ALL of you for being so loyal. Without your kind words throughout this year and a half, I might have given up on writing long ago. [::] Cake for my besties! Bye!