Azik arrives a bit later to the graveyard, and witnesses Klein rising from his grave.
He takes it into stride.
(canon divergent oneshot set at Volume 1 end, ie Chapter 211)
Ten minutes. The difference between life and death was that short.
Klein, who asked for help in a desperate situation, and received none. The newspaper article made it out to be apprehending criminals; Azik had arrived late but had seen the dark signs, the traces of the horror that had unfolded in that building.
He put down the bouquet of white lilies, heart heavy with guilt, and turned away. He had only taken a dozen footsteps when he heard a sound like something being hit.
From right behind him.
Another second, and that sound was followed by that of pushing something heavy. Low and grinding.
He turned back.
Shrouded by the faint moonlight, tinted in crimson, was the top half of a suited young man on the soft dirt that had only recently been dug.
Only hours after his funeral, Klein Moretti had quite literally risen from the grave.
He wore a dazed expression as he blinked slowly and looked around. He didn't notice Azik, instead lowering his head and raising a hand to his chest.
It should have been a shocking scene, but somehow to Azik, it was entirely understandable. Memories flickered in his mind, of opening his eyes to a new world, confused and adrift alone. Sometimes lying on the ground, but sometimes rising from the ground he was buried in. Over and over, reaching a respectable old age, but always repeating the cycle.
The only thing he was concerned about was Klein's mental state.
Approaching him, Azik asked in his usual gentle tone, "Klein?"
The person in question looked up in surprise, speaking after a pause, "Mr. Azik..."
"Do you remember?"
"It's like I fell into a dreamless sleep. The last thing I remember..." Klein's expression twisted into something pained and mournful, and he didn't continue. He didn't need to. Azik wasn't aware of the exact details, and the experience wasn't the same as his own, but from that tone he was sure what Klein's last memory was.
He reached out a hand. Klein grasped it and pulled himself out.
"Your funeral took place today. A week from that day," Azik informed him, then added the words he had said to the grave when he wasn't aware the person in the ground would breathe again soon, "I'm sorry. I was ten minutes late."
"...I understand." Klein pressed his hand against his chest again, his thoughts clearly a million miles away.
Azik gave him a minute, then asked, "Are you going home?"
That startled Klein, who glanced away as he murmured, "I... I can't." He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but didn't reveal his conflicted thoughts in the end, instead looking back to Azik. "You're taking this easily, Mr. Azik... aren't you shocked?"
"I've remembered more. While not clearly, I know the cycle of my lives and deaths were similar. And it shouldn't be unprecedented for others."
Klein's eyes widened at that. Then he relaxed, though barely. "I... I don't know how I'm alive. I don't know why. I don't know where I'm going from here, but it can't be home. I've made dangerous enemies and with 0-08... I can't let Melissa and Benson get hurt."
Azik watched him dust off his clothes and rearrange his grave back into order, slowing as his eyes fell on the epitaph, and something lodged between his chest and throat. Barely three months ago, Klein had graduated from Khoy University, brimming with a bright if ordinary future. Then his friends had died and he had gotten into the dark side of their world.
Now... he had lost everything. Azik respected how he was still standing strong.
He couldn't help but worry though. While resurrection was indeed not impossible, Klein had newly become a Beyonder. That this was a mystery even to him... that could mean that something out there had its eye on Klein, and as brief as it had been since Azik let himself join the world of the extraordinary, he knew such attention meant nothing good.
Klein turned to him, reaching out a hand. Held in it was the copper whistle Azik had given him.
"You can continue to keep it, Klein," he said. "Its purpose is to stay in contact."
Even if it failed when it mattered the most... That regret reared, soothed by Klein's revived presence, but not removed.
"What will you do now?"
"I have to find the person who killed me." Klein looked like he had more to say, but stopped himself.
He didn't pry. Klein was his student, but he was also a mature adult and Azik trusted he had his reasons.
And so, without trying to talk him out of the danger, Azik revealed, "I have hints that that person is in Backlund. I was planning on investigating it myself."
"Backlund..." Klein toyed with the topaz pendant wrapped around his wrist. "I'll be heading there too then."
A short silence extended between them, which Klein broke by asking softly, "Mr. Azik... do you know where... where Captain— Dunn Smith... his grave is...?"
Klein looked at him, but with a faraway expression that Azik was familiar with himself, of recollection. He shook his head apologetically.
Accepting it, Klein murmured under his breath, eyes fixed to the swinging of his pendant. He followed it and made his way through the graveyard, to stand before another grave and pay his respects. Azik turned away and gave him privacy, ready to wait as long as Klein needed. He said nothing, not even when Klein returned with reddened eyes and tear tracks, only placing a firm hand on his shoulder.
Together, the two departed, and the graveyard returned to its empty silence.
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This was part of a bigger story I was working on with a lot more canon divergence, but completing that is too much work so I took this snippet out :p. I just crave Azik and Klein interactions.
