Felix kicked a stone idly, walking down the devastated streets. It was even more empty than usual, considering how All For One slaughtered about eighty percent of the city’s population to absorb their magic for himself.

Not like he cared though. He was already a dead man walking.

The cold wind blew bitterly, ruffling his robes as he came face to face with a greyish white headstone. Silence prevailed, and not even the trees bothered to rustle in the weak breeze. The boy knelt down at the entrance of the city cemetery, laughing softly at the irony of the situation.

Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade

Around the tomb where Pagonis is laid.

Sweet ivy wind thy boughs and intertwine

With blushing roses and the clustering vine.

Then shall thy lasting leaves, with beauties hung,

Prove grateful emblems of the lays he sung.

His eyes flashed briefly, and the dried leaves cleared away from his own tombstone. Felix laughed again. He was already dead. Dead to his world, dead to the other world… Dead to himself.

What was the point of all that?

The boy picked up the build-up of white lilies in front of his grave. Some of them still smelled fresh, which meant someone had been paying respects to him recently. The revelation almost shocked him. He didn’t think anyone would even remember him after his execution, much less visit his empty grave.

“My eyes… Do they deceive me?”

Felix turned around, staring at the red haired man holding another set of lilies in his bulky hand. It had been so long since he heard his voice.

“Warlock Vulcan,” he greeted his superior casually, almost as though he had forgotten the fact that Vulcan was the one who arrested him in the first place.

The man rushed forward, putting a hand on his face. Felix resisted the urge to flinch away from him.

“You… You’re corporeal.” Vulcan’s voice was wavering. “You’re not a ghost, and yet… But how? I thought-”

“What’s the matter? Shocked that you couldn’t get rid of me?’ Felix’s voice hardened instantly. “It’s going to take more than a black hole to kill me.”

“Never. A hundred times, never.” Warlock Vulcan shook his head. “I didn’t order your execution, Pagonis. You have contributed so much to our country. Why would I ever call for the death of a hero like you? I tried to appeal for your sentence, but the constitution overrode my decision. I…”

Felix remained silent, staring at the man whose voice trailed away with guilt.

“I’m sorry, Felix. A thousand times over. I wasn’t competent enough to secure an appeal for your case back then,” Vulcan whispered. “The constitution simply feared your powers too much and sentenced you to death without a second thought. I was powerless to do anything about it. I’m sorry. It’s all my fault…”

The boy breathed heavily, but it was too late to do anything now.

“How’s the Guardian Council doing?” Felix changed the topic mindlessly.

“Everyone else is dead. I barely survived with my life, but I can hardly produce more than a weak flame with my magic now,” Vulcan replied solemnly. “Perhaps all this destruction is just retribution for our gross mistakes.”

“Perhaps it is. Take care, Warlock Vulcan.”

Felix burst off into the clouds without a further word.

~ ~ ~

Home sweet home.

The psychic landed on the ground gently this time, although the abandoned street was already devastated anyway. The doors opened for him as though there were invisible butlers waiting for his return. His memories surfaced yet again as he took in his painful surroundings.

Nothing sweet about that.

The moonlight guided him past the broken shards of glass to the rubbish bin, where confetti lay at its bottom. Sounds of his sister congratulating him on a successful mission came flooding back to him, and his ears pricked up, almost as if he could still hear her voice.

Darkness swarmed him as the empty house greeted him once more. He forced his body away, heading up the stairs.

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Felix paused with his hand hovering over the doorknob, his stomach tying itself into a knot. Maybe she’d still be there, fast asleep and tuckered away in her small blanket. Maybe if he turned away, she’d still be alive in her room.

He put his hand down.

The doors swung open anyway, wrapped in a pink glow. Pictures of his family greeted him, but his sister’s room was empty, of course. Felix paced the room, taking his time to look at every single photo as though he was a tourist in a museum exhibit.

His mouth curved down uncontrollably as the family of four eventually turned into a pair of siblings. Their smiles were bright, despite their circumstances. Their bond was tight, despite everything they had to go through.

And now they were separated between the realm of life and death.

Felix put the last photo back on the shelf before the first tear drop stained it. He pulled up the chair beside the bed and closed his eyes. It wasn’t too long ago when he used to read bedtime stories on this chair. It wasn’t too far back when Marcia insisted that she was a ‘grown up nine year old’, and didn’t need any bedtime stories.

Her face faded from sight when Felix opened his eyes, but her voice remained. It felt like it was only yesterday when she successfully persuaded him to join the Guardian Council.

~ ~ ~

“Felix, have you applied yet?”

“Right, I forgot about it.”

The young girl pouted and folded her arms disapprovingly. Felix laughed sheepishly and opened his hands, pulling the document from his school bag on the bottom floor.

“I don’t know, Marcia. This is a huge responsibility,” the brother sighed. “If I’m accepted into the Guardian Council, the entire city is under my care. Who’s going to take care of you when I’m stuck out there catching criminals?”

“I can take care of myself, brother. This isn’t about me; it’s a rare opportunity for you!” Marcia insisted. “You’re officially a Tier Five Meta, the most powerful of our kind. You should use your powers to fight for the good of our world.”

Felix rolled his eyes at his sister’s naivety. “What has the world ever done for us anyway? Have you forgotten how we are treated? We can’t wield magic, sister. We’ll always be second class citizens, no matter what we do. Even if we save the day, the public won’t appreciate us.”

“No! Don’t you see?” Marcia shook her head vigorously. “Bad guys win because they have stronger people on their side. And even now, the bad guys are still winning! But you can change that, Felix. Don’t let them win anymore. If we’re strong, it is our responsibility to take action.”

“Why should I save them? I don’t know all these people.”

“Not for them. For me.” The girl looked up at him with her perfectly round eyes, her lips quivering. “If I were them, I would sleep well knowing someone as strong as you is out there protecting me.”

Felix narrowed his eyes for a brief moment, before releasing a loud sigh again. A pen flew into his hand, and he began filling up the application form. Marcia squealed in delight and hugged him tightly.

“Just to be clear, I’m not doing this because I listen to you, okay?” Felix was trying his best to keep a neutral face, despite the warm smile spreading along his face. “This is the first and the last time I’m doing this.”

~ ~ ~

The bed was empty again when his mind returned to the present. Although sadness still lingered in his expression, determination shone right through it like a fog light in the dark. It was true that the world was messed up. It was true that the definition of good and evil have been so muddled that it seemed like they were in opposite places instead.

But his sister’s words also rang true.

What counts as ‘good’ is defined by the powerful, which means that he had a duty to fight for it and take responsibility for his actions. Felix may no longer be a hero, but the least he could do was atone for his mistakes.

The ex-Guardian opened the window, taking in the night breeze serenely. The time had come for him to fight for the good of the world, and no longer against it.

“I’ll set things right, even if it costs me my life,” Felix muttered to himself. “This I promise to you, dear sister.”

He leapt out of the window and disappeared into the clouds with a shockwave.

~ ~ ~

It did not take long for Felix to reach his destination. After all, the ruined city made it easier to locate the building constructed with the sturdiest material this planet could offer. He pushed open the doors to the only place that was still standing despite the destruction wrought around it.

He would be lying if he said this place did not leave a sour taste in his mouth.

Treading carefully over the copper Arcani strings, he ran a hand over the circular device. It was almost completely intact, except for the depleted container on the side. Felix bent down, examining it carefully.

The copious amount of Arcani used to power this warp gate was gone, that was for sure. But another part of the device seemed to be missing. He traced every nook and cranny, until a large hole greeted his fingers. Felix sucked in a deep breath as realisation dawned on him.

The receiver part was missing.

Felix left his head hanging, deep in thought. No, it made sense. In order to travel between both worlds, the transmitter and receiver must be on opposite ends. This machine was designed to simply toss its victim into the abyss, which was why they kept both parts intact during his execution. There was only one explanation why the receiver would be missing now.

He closed his eyes, sensing the lingering ambient magic in the air. His postulations were correct; another warp was created not too long ago. All For One must have taken the receiver to make his future world-hopping more convenient.

Felix quickly attuned with the machine. With such technology, there was nothing stopping that supervillain from coming back to his world and sucking his planet dry. All For One had to be stopped quickly, before his insatiable hunger for power destroyed both worlds.

A set of coordinates blinked in the yawning abyss of the now-humming machine. It wasn’t strong enough to pinpoint his exact destination, but it was good enough to send him back to that world. After all, this device relied on Arcani to triangulate its user’s destination. And there was only one place, or rather, one person, who had some traces of Felix’s Arcani still in him.

Felix looked back at his world for the last time, before flipping a switch. He closed his eyes, feeling the immense gravitational pull one last time.