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"The firefish… Khun! Where's the firefish!?"
Bam's hands trembled.
His entire body shook with the weight of what he had done.
He grasped at Khun's torn and ragged clothes only for the remnants of material to slip between his fingers, leaving bloody stains on his skin.
The world was falling apart.
The floor was in shambles.
Rubble falling from the shinsu sky and crashing all around them.
The wails of their - no, Bam's - teammates falling on deaf ears.
A blood stained hand unsteadily pushed blue strands of crimson dyed hair from the ghostly face and Bam waited for the freezing cold skin to heat up.
He waited for the warm glow of the life-saving creature to appear and bring breath back to the unmoving chest.
A hand placed upon Bam's shoulder but he felt nothing.
" My God. "
" Don't " every word scorched Bam's throat, " call me that. "
Venom tainted his tone and if his aura could kill, the redheaded girl next to him would surely be dead.
Betrayal.
The burn in his eyes wouldn't fade and the splashes of his tears added to the blood soaked clothes of the one in front of him.
He reached out again, ignoring the agonising pain in his knees as he knelt on sharp rocks and debris. He picked up the limp, lifeless body and cradled it close to his chest.
An ear to the shell's chest and there was no rhythm.
Two fingers to the bruised and battered neck and there was no pulse.
" Th-the firefish… where is it? "
Weak.
Barely there.
That was Bam's voice as he asked no one in particular.
"Gone."
" Gone? "
An echo.
Confirming what Bam didn't dare to believe.
His hands clutched the ripped jacket of his once teammate, tearing it further.
Hwaryun watched on, as her God slowly lost his last shreds of sanity.
She cursed silently; damning the person that lay a lifeless husk in her God's arms.
Yes, she thought, Khun's plan had worked, but at what cost?
Staring down at her God cradling his ex-lover turned traitor, Hwaryun, for the first time in her life, felt lost.
"Gone." A quiet whisper and she confirmed once more what they all already knew.
Her hands fisted at her tattered robe ends and she couldn't see anything.
All roads were blank.
She couldn't see her God's future.
If she had known the road to her God's victory would end like this, maybe she would have looked for a different route.
A route where she didn't listen to the smart and deceitful son of Khun Edahn.
A route where she had no part in his plans for betrayal.
As it stood, Hwaryun didn't know how he managed it.
Up to the very second before her God had released that devastating ball of shinsu, the plan was perfect.
It would have hit their old team member, dealing a wound that would only lead to death, for anyone other than Khun Aguero Agnis that is.
The firefish.
The firefish was still there at the moment the attack was formed.
So why?
Why?
Why did its presence vanish the moment the attack was unleashed?
It was not part of the plan.
Now, Hwaryun could only watch as her God cradled the lifeless body of his enemy in his arms, rocking it back and forth and gently whispering to it as if Khun hadn't abandoned him all those years ago; as if Bam hadn't been the one to deal the lethal attack that stole his last breath.
" Khun, honey, baby, wake up, okay? Wake up. "
How was Hwaryun supposed to tell Bam now that Khun hadn't betrayed them?
How was she supposed to tell him that Khun had planned all of this?
How was she supposed to tell Bam that Khun must have planned his own death?
It was the only logical answer.
Khun must have planned to die.
For Bam.
For Bam.
Her God wouldn't accept it.
Hwaryun knows her God.
She knows that if she tells him she knew about Khun's fake betrayal for all these years, after watching him suffer and drown in his loneliness and abandonment, she will not be able to watch over her God's safety anymore.
If only Khun had stuck to the plan.
Hwaryun remembers.
She remembers what transpired decades ago.
When Khun approached her in secret, informing her that he had gained some intelligence from a great family head.
The family leader had an ability similar to that of the guides, they could see the future.
They had warned Khun that Bam would lose everyone, lose everything , if he continued on his path.
If Bam defeated Jahad and became God of the tower as per their original plan, all of their teammates would die.
Hwaryun would usually not care for the lives of those she planned to use for her God's purpose, but she was wise enough to know it would tear her God apart.
Admittedly, she had watched it happen anyway as part of Khun's plan.
Khun had spoken to the wise family head and he formed a plan, one that he confirmed would keep their teammates alive and make Bam the God of the tower.
He approached Hwaryun with the plan and, initially, she had been apprehensive.
For one, why should they trust this family leader?
But, what concerned Hwaryun the most was Khun's own lack of self awareness.
His plan involved a betrayal of her God.
Khun would abandon his lover and climb the tower alone.
He would always be one step ahead of them, cutting down the biggest threats, relying on the firefish to keep him alive.
Hwaryun knew this was a dangerous risk, that her God would be greatly affected by his lover's betrayal.
However, faced with the option of her God losing every single person he cared about to be left alone, or losing the one person that he loved most…
If the others were alive, they could keep her God sane, if everyone died, he would undoubtedly lose his mind.
And so she agreed to the plan.
The plan for Khun to betray the team, climb the tower ahead of them and thin out the forces, to take Jahad down and crown himself the new God upon reaching the top of the tower, all whilst sending back useful information which would aid in his previous team's climb.
With Hwaryun on side, no one would question how she obtained the information, and, if they did, it was a simple matter of, I'm a guide, of course I know.
When Khun intercepted their climb, capturing them all with his army, she didn't fail to notice how her God's eyes became alive.
She knew at that point that the part of Khun's plan she was extremely concerned about would be needed.
Once Bam reached the top of the tower, he would need to slay the God to replace him.
Hwaryun had already deemed it impossible for her God to be able to kill Khun, his ex-lover. Regardless of his betrayal, her God's devotion to the son of Edahn was quite clear in its recklessness.
Bam would stop at nothing to get Khun back.
As they had climbed without their light bearer, it had become increasingly obvious that, although the other team members had kept her God grounded, he was slowly losing his sanity, chasing after yet another person that had supposedly left him in the dust to rot.
So, with her God unreasonably determined to steal back his lover, how could he be expected to kill him?
Yet another trick was up the intelligent and wily Khun child's sleeve.
When they were captured by Khun's army, Bam and Hwaryn were the only two team members released.
They were challenged.
Dared to reach the top of the tower, to meet Khun there; and to save their friends.
Another dastardly plan by the Khun boy.
For every day it took them to climb, one of Bam's team members would be publicly executed.
One of their friends would die.
Surely this would be enough to incite Bam's rage, to crush his devotion to his once lover and encourage him to seek his death.
If Khun wanted to destroy Bam's soul, then he succeeded.
By the time Bam met Khun at the top of the tower, to his knowledge, all of his friends were dead.
Killed by Khun.
Murdered by the person he had sworn himself to.
Taken by the one he loved most.
Erased by the man in front of him .
Hwaryun had to hand it to the Khun child.
His plan had succeeded.
Her God was seething, an unmistakable deadly rage rattling inside him, and he wanted nothing more than the death of the one who had stolen everything from him.
A battle ensued.
It was completely one sided.
Khun didn't even fight back, only defending enough to make the fight at least somewhat believable.
Hwaryun watched from the sidelines, everything going perfectly to plan.
There weren't even any words spoken between the two ex-lovers, so great was Bam's rage that he only unleashed his emotions in the form of his shinsu bangs.
And Khun wore a delighted smirk on his face throughout the entire, short lived battle.
When Bam formed that last, deadly bang, Khun's expression changed.
It warped from that arrogant smirk and shifted into something more emotional.
Soft.
Caring.
Heartfelt.
Loving.
An apology.
The bang was released and everything happened in a split second.
The grin that appeared on Khun's face.
The spear that fell from his hands and left him defenseless before the shinsu even reached him.
The presence of the firefish that had been humming in the background vanished.
And the quiet, whispered words of " I'm sorry, Bam. I love you. "
The entire floor crumpled.
A body flowing warm blood dropped unceremoniously to the ground.
Shouts and screams of supposedly dead teammates flooded the space around them as they pooled in from whatever hiding place Khun had them observing from.
Bam froze.
The strained focus in his face contorted into deep set shock and horror.
He flew to his once lover's side.
And now Khun is dead.
Hwaryun ran over the plan in her head, a meticulous plan that had spanned decades and she wondered where it had all gone wrong.
Her God kneeling on the floor, cradling his own God, blood seeping into his almost perfect clothing as not even a scratch had landed on his body during the battle.
He rocked his God back and forth, his voice soft and loving and distraught.
" Wake up, baby. " He murmured, " I'm sorry, Aguero. Can you wake up now? "
Hwaryun almost laughed.
Her God apologising to the Khun child that betrayed him, set him up and tricked him.
Her God didn't even know that it was a stupid, ridiculous plan; that he had never been abandoned in the first place.
That everything Khun ever did was always for him.
And yet he was still there, praying for his God to wake up, as if he had known all along that his Aguero would never leave him.
Or was it that his sanity had finally snapped.
Or, maybe, Hwaryun considered, her God had most likely banked on the firefish to keep him alive.
That he could deal out his punishment and, once his God was revived, everything would fall into place and go back to the way it was.
Khun would return to him.
If not willingly, then he would force him.
But his plan had failed.
The firefish was gone.
Khun wouldn't be revived.
Hwaryun cursed at the falling shinsu sky.
Her head was full of the panicked cries of their team members who couldn't even get close to them thanks to Bam unconsciously summoning a barrier.
Her head was full of the gentle yet threatening whispers of her God telling Khun he should wake up or else.
Or else.
Or else, what?
The plan that was so thoughtfully pulled together, all to keep her God alive and to sustain minimal casualties.
It took away the life that mattered most.
The future was a blank canvas.
Hwaryun couldn't see.
For once, she was blind, left in the dark.
A hollow, empty thrumming in her chest.
A rising surge of fear.
Fear?
Hwaryun had never felt that before.
Death.
It was only one death.
Admittedly, one she had not seen coming; but one to save countless other lives.
The death of an old comrade.
The death of an old friend.
The death of a supposed traitor.
But a death that, in reality, actually saved them all.
And now, who was meant to pick up the pieces?
The pieces of her God shattered on the ground refusing to let go.
The pieces of the team members that were assumed to be killed by the betrayer but had been observing the final battle from the shadows.
Nothing.
Hwaryun saw nothing.
There were no paths out of this.
So, where do we go from here?