Heroes in the Shadows

Chapter 34 Second Chance Pt. 3

"What did you do?" Dustyn asked, refusing to tear himself away from his hands. Garmadon didn't respond. How could he? His body still felt like a part of him was ripped away, and technically, something was. His limps were numb while his head pounded. He was finally able to sit up and watch as pebbles danced around Dustyn's hands. However, rage slowly built up in the older man as he stood up, eyes pulsing with violet anger.
"What did you DO TO ME!?" Dustyn shouted. The ground around the two rumbled and shook. The villager nearly fell over again by the impact.

"Dustyn, you need to calm down. My powers--"

"You gave me your powers!?" Dustyn spat while he threw his hands back.

CRACK!

Both men turned their gaze behind Dustyn. The canyon wall carried giant cracks. The split ends continued all the way up to the top until chunks of rock catapulted off the wall and started raining down towards them. Dustyn dashed away from the line of fire. He raced past Garmadon with such speed. It wasn't anything to really gloat about, but it was the fastest he could ever run in years. However, instead of escaping, Garmadon stood back on his feet and lifted his hands up in the air, trying to concentrate. Despite his previous situation, he still tried summoning rocks beneath him to destroy the chunks of canyon. Before Dustyn was completely safe from the falling debris, he stopped to notice Garmadon still stayed where he was. Panic consumed the villager's gaze before glancing back down at his hands.

Meanwhile, Garmadon carried zero success is summoning anymore rocks. He stared down at the ground. No longer feeling the earth below his feet made the young man empty. Scared.. Alone...

"Garmadon!"

BAM!

The Master of Destruction's eyes stared up at the chunk of canyon only a foot away from his head. He then turned to his right to nearly jump at the sight of Dustyn. The older man puffed out quick breaths of air while sweat poured down his face. Despite the look of struggle, his hands were holding up the giant rock all by themselves.

"How did you..." Garmadon muttered, gawking at the sight.

"I have your earth powers, IMBECILE! Why in all creation did you still try to stop the rocks!?" Dustyn screamed while his arms shook from the strain.

"I thought maybe I still could--"

"Argh!" Dustyn spat before chucking the rock a few yards away from them.
The older man fell to his knees, gasping for air. Garmadon walked over to him. He reached his hand out.

"Are you alri--"

"I'm fine!" Dustyn said while smacking Garmadon's hand away.
"Now, take this power back." Garmadon looked down at his hands. Silence consumed the two of them.

"I... I can't," Garmadon mumbled.

"What?!"

"I don't kn-now how to. This has never happened before..." Garmadon trailed off with shaky breath.

"So, you're saying I'm stuck like this?" Dustyn asked. Anger built further inside him, but he bit his tongue, trying not to start another avalanche.

"No, no, my father has a library filled with ancient books and scrolls. I'm sure I can find something to fix this. Just... stay here..."

"What! No I'm not--" Dustyn stopped once the ground shook beneath them again. Garmadon held up his hands, padding the air as if it was going de-escalated the situation.

"Look, I can't have you come with me. My home is on top of a mountain, and you're not use to my powers yet. You could send the whole thing crashing down. The safest thing right now is for you to just go home and wait a few days... maybe a few weeks, okay?" Garmadon asked, nearly pleading with the man. Dustyn stared at the elemental brother for a few seconds, processing his words, before backing down.