Bygone

7

Duty

"Got you."

The atmosphere was still around the circle, embedding the five of them in a silence that only a soldier would describe. Jaclyn's pairing of words concluded the violence before it could've truly begun. Strangely, all of them were thankful that she'd done so; including Robin himself.

Her words were followed by tense, terse inhales and exhales consisting of rush and a hefty adrenaline. They won. They managed to beat an impetuous hellion that others have lost more than their honour in doing so.

Yet, they were unable to come to the realisation. Each of them were frozen affixed in place, as though Robin's actions had still rendered them immobile. The boy stared into the misting ice, coloured swirls and curtains as cosmic rays shrouded the glacier. Magic, preferably his mind came to assume.

It was the only way to draw his attention from the events that have unfolded before him.

The wind blew gently through them once more, the breeze originating from the open streets of a once beautiful city. Mere seconds were as asphyxiating as dozens of minutes passed. Both their perceptions kept to one another, observing each other's expressions as the realisation came to be.

It was over, for now.

Chloe rose from her bevelled posture on the old ash, keeping a hand on her chest as she stood on both boots as best she could in the moment. She was torn from the pain, feeling Moira's presence behind her.

Quietly, her helmet clicked off of her collar as she gently pulled it from her head. Her hair remained in its lingering style, sweat trickling down her cheeks and onto the surface of her cuirass. Even the slightest inch in movement stung, and curled her body up.

But she couldn't bother about the pain.

She clenched down her jaw tight, restraining herself from every sting and bruise. And she looked to the Feurno. It wasn't fear anymore, nor was it anger. Chloe saw the hurt in his eyes, and the boy saw the same in Robin's. A hurt that has reciprocated to a decades old rivalry between the speedster and the boy's far gone facade. A character that was real, meant that his story was real. There was little to understand, yet she couldn't find the means to do so.

Deep down, their conflict; the unknown words that he used against the speedster, was an infliction to him as it was to the victim.

She hoped to understand it. For his sake.

"We did it.." Moira spoke, excitement and the same adrenaline composing in her melodious accent.
"You three actually did it.." her once darkened voice chanting in a brighter, invigorating tone. The girls watched as she built up a smile, not of mockery against the Sedited Prime; but of a renewed optimism.

Her eyes filled with tears, turning to the rest of the region; to the rest of the elementals that have sacrificed themselves for her cause. This was the next step. A restored resolve that brought upon a chance that could accomplish what was once deemed impossible. She looked to the three of them, the sharp ice that encapsulated Robin in the midst of her view. A tear streamed down her cheek as she saw the light burn bright in each of them. Though, it wasn't what seemed to be for all of them.

The path was still long. And she knew the three of them were all willing, in their own personal ways, to walk the rest of it.

It was all but a blur once again. Sounds regressed to nothing but muffled intonations that drifted in the midst of the afternoon breeze. Marcus' eyes couldn't tear away from Robin's deadpan expressions, despite having hid underneath a plastered mask. He felt as he did; the strains and the aches of long lost memories. Memories that now hold dear to the hearts of either of them. Memories of a supposed hero, and a villain forged.