Listen.

Alex paused, his eyes tracking the ruins before returning to his crew. While they all were haggard and worse for wear, all of them had survived. Even Wen, who lay cocooned in green energy beside Erin, was alive. He couldn't help but smile. In everything, the people around him were strong enough to contend with the dangers he dealt with while not being babysat. That was something he could trust.

"Once we have Wen up, we'll go check on Ikal and the village," Alex said, noticing the burnt man nearby. "Isn't that one of their crew members?"

"Erin took him out with my cuffs," Jean smiled at him, tipping the man over to reveal a pair of cuffs on his wrists.

"Surely, you must have a good reason to keep him in chains," Sayed whispered, looking down at the man but not moving forward.

"He had a curse that allowed him to breathe fire," Artur said, and Alex noticed his freshly pink skin that added more weight to his words. "Having him free to do it again is not a good desire."

"Yeah, I get it," Alex said, stepping up next to Jean and leaning down.

The man was still breathing, though burns covered his entire body. Alex looked closely at him, noticing that his glasses had fused around his eyes. If he was in a pitying mood and didn't know what Benbeck's crew had tried, he might have cared enough to help him. However, Benbeck had made the entire night far too close to have any empathy left.

"We can't just leave him here," Alex stood up, looking over the rest of the crew. "I don't want to take him with us either."

"Is he even long for this world?" Jean asked. "His fate rests as a string on a knife's edge. All he needs is the final tug to be cut."

Alex looked at Erin but immediately vetoed the idea of asking her to heal him after noting her newly pink skin. As Jean would put it, whether the man died or not would be left to fate. However, that still left the problem of where to leave the man. Alex looked out into the jungle and back toward the village.

"I don't think we'd get any useful information out of him," Alex sighed. "Considering that they caused some damage to the village, I figure we can leave him in their hands, though we'll lose the cuffs."

"They seem like a horrible tool to lose," Jean said. "Though I shudder to remember their touch, they did some good here tonight."

"Well, let's see if he survives that long," Alex said, reaching down, picking up the man with one arm and positioning his body in a fireman's carry. Sayed, can you handle Wen, and we'll get a move on?"

"That I can, brother," Sayed said, kneeling down in front of Erin. "Is it okay if I move her?"

"Just be careful and don't get too far ahead of me," Erin said, looking up from Wen for the first time. "She's hurt bad, but I handled most of the frostbite."

"Her curse," Jean said, nodding. "It seems she drove herself hard. I've never seen an aura like the one she has now."

They started walking away from the ruins together, and Alex couldn't help but ask. "What do you mean?"

"I thought at first that her curse was growing, but what I see now makes me doubt it. It is like she is frozen on the cusp of greater power."

"So she's in between the levels?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow at Jean.

"She is caught in between worlds," Jean nodded, raising up one bony finger. "She must have pushed herself much in that fight, and that caused her body to try and reach the next level. I wonder if her mind was ready for it."

"You know more about it than any of us," Alex shrugged, adjusting the limp man's weight on his shoulders. "What should we do?"

"I can't say until she wakes," Jean said.

"That might be a while," Erin said from the back, where she walked beside Sayed with her hands outstretched toward Wen.

"Curses and evolution," Artur said, covering the rear. "It inspires resolution."

"What about Artur, can you see the level of his curse?" Alex ignored the man's rhyme.

"First level," Jean said. "His spirit blazes a bright sky blue, but it isn't the intensity of the second level."

"So, your average cursed person," Alex said, stopping and turning on Artur. "Tell me, Artur, why you would be so interesting to a group of mobsters?"

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"Mobsters?" Artur asked. "Lobsters?"

"I just had an encounter with a plant woman called 'Miss Glory," Alex said, cracking his neck from side to side. "We beat her, but she said she was looking for you. She would let us all walk if we were to hand you over to her. Why would that be?"

"A troubling detail to know," Artur said. "My last duty was to flee from Miss Malone."

Alex knew that much from their conversations in the text at Dry Turtle. Artur wasn't bound by his rhyming oath when writing, and he had written about why he had left his home of Grim Aegis. Alex also understood they were in a criminal network of Hands, Fingers, and Knuckles who served the Underground Lords. However, no matter how he looked at Artur, he didn't understand why Artur was so valuable.

"I get all that," Alex sighed. "But I don't understand why they want you so badly. What is it that you are that makes them willing to give up so much to come after you? The raiders weren't even after us. They were after you."

"I know that my purpose isn't clear," Artur said, clasping his fist close to his chest. "But all will be understood when Grim Aegis we are near."

Alex had half a mind to kick Artur out of the crew, but the reality was that Artur was their ticket into the Twelve Kingdoms. While they might have a way forward without him, Alex couldn't just turn down that path through. He frowned but turned to walk again. He'd figure it all out before the journey was over.

----------------------------------------

Ikal stood at the edge of the village with James, watching the darkness from the bonfire's edge. Around them, the other villagers were still on alert, bows nearby and spears in hand as they watched the jungle around them. While they had been happy to have Ikal back, they weren't going to let down their guard until they were sure that Alex and his friends were victorious.

Errn. Whoosh. Thump.

From the sky, a round object landed on the outskirts of the light. All around Ikal, people immediately tensed their bows, knocking arrows and aiming them out into the darkness. Silence followed as the object rolled to a stop before moving no more. James held up one hand, squinting out into the night.

"Wait," he said.

Rustle.

Black shadows sprouted from the object, and it shuffled off into the trees. James brought down his hands, raising an eyebrow at the spectacle. Ikal resisted the urge to run out into the forest and see what it was. He had already gotten in enough trouble for one night and didn't want to cause any more.

"I want to go out and find them," James said, trying to push himself up from the chair he leaned on.

He immediately gasped and reached for his lower back. Ikal stood between wanting to check on him and his anger toward James. Ikal bit his lip but held his ground just a little away from James, looking down on the old man. Even though he hated James, at the same time, he wanted to know that James was okay.

"Don't worry, Ikal," James smiled at him as he regained his hold on the chair. "It's just part of getting old. You go your entire life feeling invincible, then you get old and find out it was all a lie."

"You're not old, James," Ikal stuttered through it as if the words were being forcibly extracted from him.

"Wha—?"

Despite everything, James had been there for him, for the Zoan, for most of his life. While James would never be his father, even Ikal couldn't deny the good he did. Ikal knew that if it hadn't been for James's back, he would have saved Ikal in the ruins. Ikal clenched his fist.

"You're not old, James!" Ikal's voice shook through him with the force of a full-fledged warrior. "You'll be here for a long time!"

"Ikal," James whispered, his eyes wet as he looked down at Ikal. "Thank you."

"It's nothing," Ikal looked away, crossing his arms.

He didn't want to look at James anymore. He felt like he would run and hide if that wouldn't make him seem like a coward. Instead, Ikal focused on one piece of dirt nearby and pretended he didn't hear a few of the other tribesmen behind him laughing.

They waited for what seemed like hours before another disturbance riled up the men.

"Here they are," James said after some time, pointing to the dark forest beyond.

Rustle. Crunch. Crack.

Ikal looked up, peering along the path the massive metal man had carved through the jungle earlier. In the distance, five figures approached the village through the downed trees. Ikal's eyes widened as he tried to squint into the darkness. A few of the shadows barely looked like the outlaws who had left the village.

"Is that them?" Ikal stepped forward, just wanting a better look.

"Yeah," James said, forcing himself to stand with a grimace. "Welcome back!"

"I would say that it's good to be back," Alex stepped out into the moonlight, a dark figure resting over his shoulders. "However, considering what happened, I'll settle for 'I'm sorry for what happened."

"It's not like you controlled them," James said, eyeing the figure draped over Alex.

Ikal didn't know if it was a human or a lump of coal. The entire thing was blackened, and it didn't move at all. Ikal felt his hand reaching for one of the knives on his belt. He knew that whatever it was, it had to die. That would be the best thing to do if it was still breathing. Otherwise, it would just subsist in that pain.

It was no different than finding an injured animal out in the jungle.

"Who's that?" James asked, holding out his hand to block Ikal.

"One of their crew," Alex said, dropping the body on the ground between them. "We got some cuffs around him that disrupt his curse, but he's still breathing. Considering the attack on the village and the hostage situation, I thought it would be better for you all to decide what to do with him."

"You didn't just kill him?" James asked. "Surprising for an outlaw. They usually like the idea of taking justice into their own hands."

"Not my business," Alex shrugged. "My crew is alive and mostly intact. That's enough for me."

"Hah," James laughed before waving back at the rest of the Zoan. "Aaopo, will you do the honors?"

"Gladly," Aaopo stepped out from the crowd, waving two others to help him pick up the man and carry him off. Ikal watched them without blinking. He just wanted to see if the man was breathing. He had no idea how anyone could survive with that many burns across his body.

"The last thing I need to know is if you would mind us being your guests for another night?" Alex turned to James after the man was taken away. "I know we brought a problem to your door, but I hope our actions have also shown that we can be trusted."

"At least for one more night," James smiled, reaching out and grasping Alex's hand.

As they stood there, Ikal heard Alex whisper one thing to James and saw James nod slightly at the words. Ikal tilted his head, unsure of what was going on between the two, but he resolved to find out. Alex and his crew had been the most interesting thing to happen to the island since James had arrived. Ikal wasn't about to be left out of a secret between the two.