Kael never forgot the taste of blood and rust on his tongue.
It wasn't just pain. It was a failure.
Not heroic, not cinematic, just stupid, avoidable, lonely.
He'd fallen hard. The subway station had been nothing but a crumbling death trap, his scan pinging false hope through static. He'd gone in alone, figuring he could grab the salvage, make himself useful, come back with something the others would thank him for.
He was always better at pretending than planning.
The ground gave out beneath him. A jagged pipe tore through his leg. Fire choked the air with melting plastic and corrupted signal smoke.
He didn't scream.
He just thought, Of course.
Because that's what he did he messed things up.
And then came the footsteps.
---
They were quiet, but they didn't hesitate.
A figure emerged from the swirling haze tall, calm, and stupid enough to walk into hell for a stranger.
Jaden.
He wasn't glowing. He wasn't divine. He didn't even look surprised.
He just crouched beside Kael and said, "I'm not here to hurt you."
Kael had tried to lift his makeshift weapon. His arm shook. He failed.
Then Jaden asked, not with impatience but a calm professionalism that cut through panic:
> "Can you walk?"
Kael's pride kicked in before his brain did. "Not far."
Jaden nodded, already reaching for his kit.
> "Then we'll carry you if we have to."
No hesitation. No "why were you alone?"
No judgment. Just: we'll carry you.
Like Kael already belonged.
---
Now, in the present, Kael crouched by a cracked wall in the shelter's ruins, that memory crashing over him like a second collapse.
He hadn't thought about it in detail for days.
He hadn't needed to.
Because it had lived just under his skin ever since.
He pressed his hands into the cold ash.
> "He didn't have to save me," Kael muttered. "Didn't know who I was. But he came anyway."
The others weren't listening. Not yet. Rowan was fussing over coordinates again, eyes moving too fast. Aya was tending to her vines. Silas was leaning against a wall, arms crossed and wings flickering with half-contained glitch energy.
But the air shifted.
Like the ash around Kael heard him.
Heat surged beneath the ground, lacing up his arms like breath.
His fingers sparked.
Then caught fire.
---
It wasn't wild or chaotic it was controlled.
Blue flame, alive and quiet, flickered along his arms like it was listening to the beat of his heart.
Not destruction.
Expression.
Emotion, shaped.
---
Rowan looked up. "Kael?"
Aya turned. "Are you—?"
"I'm fine," Kael said, breath catching. "I just—"
He didn't know how to say it. That this wasn't rage. That this wasn't him snapping.
It was a memory.
It was the weight of being chosen when he thought he was nothing but extra noise.
---
> SYSTEM NOTICE:
User Kael Zhen – Talent Registered: Ashfire
Skill Type: Volatile Elemental | Emotion Reactive
Status: Active
---
He stood slowly, the fire curling around his hands like a scarf made of heat and guilt and gratitude.
Silas watched from across the room, one eyebrow raised, expression unreadable.
"I remember that day," Kael said, quietly now. "I went in thinking I could prove something."
He flexed his fingers, and the flames twisted into small dancing shapes—like birds, like claws, like laughter.
"I thought if I brought something back, it would mean I belonged. And I nearly died instead."
Aya stepped closer, her eyes soft. "You never had to prove anything."
Kael chuckled, bitter and fond. "Try telling that to the guy I used to be."
He looked up, meeting her gaze.
"He carried me. Just like that. No speech. No expectations. Just... help."
Rowan's voice came from the side, quiet but pointed. "He saw through all of us before we saw ourselves."
Kael nodded. "And he made room for us anyway."
---
The fire burned steady.
Not hot. Not hungry.
Alive.
---
Kael turned to the map Rowan had stabilized. "If he's out there if he's still fighting we have to reach him. Not because he needs us…"
He looked down at his hands, the flames finally fading.
"…But because we need him."
---
Silas finally pushed off the wall, wings fading to a dim, steady shimmer.
"You burn better when you're honest," he said, voice low.
Kael smirked. "Try not to fall in love with me. I'm spoken for by my trauma."
Silas rolled his eyes. "Perfect. You'll fit right in."
They stood in silence for a moment longer Kael, Rowan, Aya, Silas.
A broken group.
Holding their broken pieces like torches.
---
End of Chapter 15
Author's notes:
I also need a Jaden with Silas humor
ಠ﹏ಠ