unforgiven ➽ a Halilintar-centric fic

01 | curb your attachment issues

The news came later that morning: Taufan and Gempa have been rushed to the infirmary, along with two dozen cadets that have been caught in in the accident. For the better or worse, the four had been spared, their dorms located far from the place of impact.

Cahaya would consider himself a rational person, but he had to admit he nearly dropped from a heart attack after the poor intern had to break the news to them. Fortunately, no one broke a fuse, so they were safe... for now.

They were awake when they finally made their way to the infirmary.

Cahaya frowned, arms folded over his chest. "Is it bad?"

Three heads snapped towards him as if he'd grown a second head, owlish eyes staring into his soul. It was a stupid question to begin with, considering Taufan was missing a whole arm and half his chest while Gempa had his entire right side scorched beyond recognition.

Taufan shrugged, raising his unharmed arm. It was horrifying to look at, but Cahaya can't bring himself to look away, even when his face began to turn green and bile pooled at the back of his throat. The surviving skin was blackened and raw, the exposed innards of Taufan's organs still squirming. If Cahaya looked close enough, he could see his fractured skeleton holding his pierced lungs, gallbladder, liver and maybe even his intestines, their pink flesh crackling and peeling.

Gempa didn't fare much better, resembling Two Face from the DC universe. Crackling sounds tormented their ears when he rolled his burnt shoulder, charred skin flaking off to reveal dried, jerky muscles underneath. He scratched his face, stiff flesh falling apart from his skull, exposing the entire right of his jaw. His ruined eye had completely melted in its socket, darkened goo clinging to the remains of bone.

Their gory states proved to be too challenging even for the most experience of healers, which was why their beds had been curtained off from the rest of the infirmary. Better that way, so no one can see Api puking into the complimentary paper bag.

Taufan was the only one left with a vaguely functioning throat, so he was the one to answer, but his voice was windy and rasped because of the gaping hole on his neck.

"Not our best day, but we experienced worse," Taufan breathed, struggling to talk. "Thankfully our heads weren't blown off like last time—that'd be much more difficult to regenerate."

Air gaped, face paler than usual. "This happened before?"

Gempa nodded, the char in his stomach snapping in half. Api began puking harder.

Taufan tried to hum, but it came out as a pathetic wheeze. Cahaya's palm began to sweat, knees shaking.

"I wouldn't worry about us," he assured them. One of his ribs snapped in half, falling off the bed and cluttered by Daun's feet. "I'm more worried for you all."

To Daun's credit, he didn't faint or make a sound, though he sounded closer to death's door than the two on the medical bed themselves. Cahaya shirked away, wary of the elemental fainting on him.

"I think you should rethink your priorities," Cahaya remarked dryly. Nobody but Gempa laughed, though the chuckle deteriorated into bone-chilling wheezes. His grin, half-burned skeleton and pristine skin, looked like straight roadkill-turned psychopath.

Taufan sighed. "If our calculations are right," he continued, "it'll take around three weeks for us to be fully healed."

Cahaya's face fell. "Oh."

Weeks ago, they had this lesson when Gempa had cut off his thumb by accident. Cahaya remembered that day as clear as crystal, only because Daun had cried out of panic when he saw Gempa's severed finger on the pile of garlic, cut bone jutting out from the flesh. (They stopped having homecooked meals for a while, preferring takeout over Gempa's cooking, much to his chagrin.)

Even for such a minor injury, his powers had redirected their all into reversing the damage, regenerating his thumb within minutes after he calmly reattached it to the stump. Though, in that period of time, Gempa revealed that he was unable to share any elemental energy, which essentially meant if anyone broke any fuses, they're screwed.

Gempa's missing thumb had been five minutes, and he had the missing limb instead of expending more energy to create it anew. Now their entire limbs and bones were blown off, and the others had to go three weeks without Taufan or Gempa's help to keep their powers under check.

Three. Weeks.

Api, in his delirium, seemed to have grasped and summarized the situation clearer than Cahaya could ever hope to: "We are going to die."

Taufan sighed along with them. "You are." Gempa promptly tossed his soot-coated pillow at him with his good arm where Taufan managed to block, the pillow falling to the ground between them. "No, he's not going to bother. He wants nothing to do with us."

In the time Taufan and Cahaya had their back-and-forth, Gempa had procured a cellphone from Air, typing slowly with one hand as he sent a barrage of messages to Api's phone.

Api held his screen for Taufan to see, the older's eyes narrowing at the texts. Cahaya, in spite of the gore and the smell of burnt flesh, leaned closer to satisfy his curiosity.

Ding!

Air: hes still out fren u idot

"No, he's not. We severed ties after he put salt in my chocolate milk."

Ding!

Air: sto beig drmatc

"I'm not! It's an appropriate reaction to having your milk sabotaged by a close friend."

Ding!

Air: we hv no other opto

"... I hate it when you're right. How are we even supposed to tell him? We don't have our phones and I can't remember his number."

Ding!

Air: sed tem w a msg

"He's going to kill them."

Ding!

Air: Angin.

"Alright, alright! You win."

Taufan ran a hand through split ends and dried scalp. "I'll draft a report for the Laksamana later. We deal with this now."

It took Daun three seconds of reading Gempa's messages to start tearing up. "You're sending us away?" he rasped, hiccupping. "You don't want us anymore?"

Api shoved him. "Curb your attachment issues. I don't even want him," he snarked, jabbing a finger at Air's direction. "It's just three weeks in—um, where, exactly?"

Cahaya frowned at Api. He chewed his lip, but he remained quiet. There was a larger issue at hand, and he could see from his peripheral vision that Gempa had tensed the moment the first teardrops left Daun's eyes.

If they had an outburst here, they were essentially putting a wing full of patients at risk.

"On Earth," Taufan answered coolly, but anyone could see he was wary of Daun's sudden shift in mood. "Cahaya, Daun, I know you two have never been to Earth, but Air and Api has. You will be perfectly alright and left in good hands—I hope."

He'd whispered the last part to himself, but Cahaya heard it as clear as day. It did not help his confidence one bit.

"Who are we going to?" Cahaya asked. "I thought only elementals can help with our... condition."

"He is one," Taufan assured him, "and he knows just about as much as me and Gempa. If there's anyone else in the galaxy that can help you, it's Halilintar."

Halilintar? This is the first he's heard of that name. Judging by the confused expressions that have risen onto the others' faces, it would appear that he wasn't alone. Neither Gempa nor Taufan had brought up that name before - and it only raised more questions for the fact that there was an elemental out there that was left completely unchecked.

"'Thunderstorm,'" Cahaya translated, realization dawning on his face. "He's the lightning elemental."