We all waited on bated breath as Tyson scratched his head and laughed the questions off.

"Yeah, I really wish I knew! But I really couldn't tell you exactly how I came back or why I'm mostly the same."

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "You made sure to say, 'mostly'. What's different?"

"Sheesh, where do I start?"

Tyson then recounted his experience from the moment he had been impaled by Buchanan and effectively died. He described feeling desperate, tired, and out of strength to continue, having recently acknowledged the fact that he didn't really know who he was. Tyson's memories only went back as far as 5 years. In that time, he only knew of his work with Mr. Travers as a teacher's assistant and how others treated him differently and that he always knew there had to be some sort of reason why.

"I specifically remember having a huge amount of rage that I wanted to dump out on Buchanan and the guy with the pinky ring. But once I got ran through, I kind of just gave up. I thought about the chance of me... not really being me if that makes sense. Then I thought, if I was so replaceable, maybe everyone would be better off if I had stopped trying, maybe the next 'me' to come along could help more. I feel stupid saying it out loud, but that's when everything went really dark. Then I woke up in this weird kind of like soul-y space?"

He tried to make a bunch of hand gestures; I think he was going for a nebulous feel.

"Now that I'm thinking about it, it kind of felt akin to how Wyatt just spoke to all of us in our heads. When I was there, I felt like I was hearing and seeing things, but it was more like, I just had an instinctive understanding of what was going on in there. I followed those senses until I felt a presence that was in what felt like unending misery, and I met a past iteration of myself. "

His eyes flitted to both Travers for a moment, I'd make sure to ask him why later. "He was never named by the people he knew, so I call him Lornas. He was brutalized day in and day out, and these memories were repeating in a loop. I watched until I couldn't stand it anymore and reached out to him. Then I experienced what he went through firsthand."

Hank twitched at the description of what took place. He knows about this one for sure.

"Long story short, I helped him work through his regrets and final moments and made him want to stop sulking in those bad memories. That's when it really clicked for me, that I was on the same path as him with how I went out. I guess that moment of clarity at the time I bonded with Lornas brought me back? That's the best guess I can give you."

Velora threw up her hands. "Well at least it wasn't a boring explanation. Still wasn't the clearest, I'm afraid. So this, Lornas. Is he there right now?"

Tyson scratched at his head. "Yeah? He's definitely in there. Syncing up with him gave me a feel for how he fought when he was alive, and now I can do that too. I've been thinking, if I can somehow induce that state again, I could explore more past lives, and learn to be stronger from them. If they all had similar fates to Lornas, I would be helping them out and figuring out more about my abilities."

I nodded at that, not having any better assumptions to throw in. "So, if you dive deeper, then you'll end up running into..."

"Yeah, your old brother 'me'. For reference I'm just gonna call him Tyson Thompson. I'm already conflicted about meeting him, but I feel like this goes way, way deeper than that. That Inclination magic you and Hank were talking about before. I think this whole thing where my own magis refused to let me stay dead, it has to originate from whoever the first 'me' was."

For the second time since I'd gotten to know him, Tyson was truly vulnerable in front of me. It's making my nerves wrack up just watching him sit there and tremble at something he's thinking about. "What's with you? This isn't like you at all."

Alina shot me a look, but I ignored her. "Remember what you told me when we decided to work together to get one over on old man Travers? You're a different person now. You're our friend, we're really happy to have you back with us, and it would be super lame for you to come back just to be lost again through some stupid 'ego death'. You're real and you're here. You're just helping a bunch of ghosts who owe you rent for holding out on you with their skills."

He just sat there with his mouth hanging open like an idiot until he burst out laughing. "That's one way to put it, Wyatt! Geez pal I didn't know you had gotten all sweet on me so quickly."

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I sucked my teeth at that. "I don't make just anyone custom focuses you know. I heard you had quite a first showing with that vent club I made you."

Almost like he was waiting for his cue, Tyson whipped out the focus with a gigantic grin on his face. "Oh man it's like you know me so well. Of course I would use a bat! I'd always wondered what kind of focus or weapon I'd use if I ever got the chance, and nothing has ever made more sense to me. I'm thinking I'm gonna call her 'slugger'." He closed his eyes and stroked his chin as if checking for resonance. "Yeah, she's a slugger for sure. Thanks again Wyatt!"

It's good to see him bounce right out of that funk, even if it's just for the moment. "So, what's your game plan for the moment?"

"I want to see what's going on with Alina and her dad. If she'll have me, and then go from there. There's not as much of a point to this if I'm not going to be helping her in the long run. Once I have an idea of what's in motion, I might try to see if I can dive deeper without having to get axed first."

"Tyson." Alina interjected, her voice shaky. "I don't need you teetering back and forth between life and death for the sake of helping me. I didn't find out about this maiden stuff until right after I had already watched you die. It was too much. Then the time I spent trying to stay focused while you were gone... I realized all of the times I saw you stressing out about not being good or strong enough. That was all for my sake, right? I never asked for you to put yourself through any of that for me, did I? So why are you going so far to the point where you're shaking in a chair just talking about what you might have to do next? I've grown really attached to you, but we haven't even been friends for that long. What you're going through doesn't make sense at all."

By the time she was through with all of that yapping, she sounded angry with him. I'm staying out of this one.

He locked eyes with her, a half-smile stapled on. "You're completely right. I can't explain why I felt-... feel this compulsion to protect you. I figured that's just how it goes when you have friends and you care for them, but with the stakes at large here, for all I know it might be an inherited trait from a past life to obsessively strive beyond what's reasonable to protect something I value. I just care about you. I'd do the same for anyone else here. Including Velora who I think has said like three words to me." Velora didn't react at all.

"Let's just chalk it up to me being weird, either way it's my call how I do things. Just like it's your decision to do whatever you want. If you want to go in hiding with your family, I support that." He drooped a bit. "Even if it means I can't see you anymore."

Alina starts frantically waving Tyson away while using her other hand to cover her face from blushing. "That's enough, that's enough. I feel the same way. I'm just worried about your health in general and don't want you to overextend or do something you regret for my sake."

" I thought this was a strategy meetin'. If you two wanna get all goopy and gushy with each other, do me a favor and leave me out of it will ya?" Kurt sighed, clearly being as uninterested in this exchange as the rest of the room.

Tyson put his hands up in defense. "It's not like that! Feelings are just hard sometimes, alright? I've never said that kind of stuff before, but I feel that way about all of you here, I promise!"

Alina joined in on the protest. "R-right! He stole the words from my mouth."

Velora stood up from her seat and dusted off her clothes. "Well, if we're quite finished, I'll be heading back home to work on my designs. Carla dear, I'll need you to accompany me."

Carla perked up. "That usually means I'll get some free stuff somewhere down the line, so I'll be seein' y'all later!" She skipped after Velora, with Luchi in tow.

"Alright Al, looks like you and me are gonna be learnin' about inclines!"

Alice gave Kurt the look of and executioner. "Alice works just fine. I hope you're ready for this."

I heard Kurt gulp before he she switched her gaze over to me. " Wyatt you'll come with, right? I'd like to make a proper investment of my time if I'm going to be teaching something like this. It'll be great!"

I stood up and activated the recall runes on my belt, equipping my new and improved bolter focus. "I'll see how much I have in the tank after I teach your old man a lesson." Attempted to stare a hole through Travers, but he kept his cool.

" I do hope your performance today maintains this level of vigor, young Master Thompson." I hate when he says that cheesy shit to me.

"Tyson?"

He looked to me. "I wouldn't miss it, my guy." He looked over to Alina before following me out. "Let me know what you and your folks end up deciding, whatever it is. I'll do what I can to help if that's okay."

Alina didn't say anything back, and Grey stared at him intently. "It's none of your business what my sister does. I'll keep her safe no matter what."

Tyson didn't turn back. "I'll hold you to that, Grey. Thanks."

Tyson and I agreed to meet Travers at the school's training hall and use the walk to talk more while he waited for us there.

"So, were you completely serious back there about just watching?"

Tyson nodded, "Yeah Hank's bag of tricks isn't really all that deep when you think about it. I figure with all the new experience you've gotten under your belt since last time we tried it, you can probably beat him with a bit of effort."

He sounded like he was stating something obvious. "Your time on the bench give you some sort of insight on how to take down Hank or something?"

He laughed and stretched, interlocking his hands behind his head as we carried on with the stroll. "Funny enough, yeah I had myself a crash course. I might fill you in on some of the details. In an arrangement like this one where we were initially supposed to work together, I figure coaching you wouldn't be out of the question, right? So, let's talk strategy until we get there."

I had fun going back and forth during our walk to the training room. For the first time since the Buchanan incident, things finally felt like they were back on track for us.