Rebellion: Prince of Dawn

Chapter 22.4: Walk This Way

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ILIAS VAN PAYNE

Eighteen days until the rings dissolve.

Joji's Glimpse Of Us ability could deconstruct any non-living thing back to things it had been and construct them into things they could become. To simplify it, if he had the raw ingredients to make a cake, he could use his right hand to construct them into one without any need for prep or baking. And if he had a baked cake, he could use his left hand to revert it back to its raw ingredients.

This ability didn't work on living things because as much as our appearance changed, we were still the same person deep down. Our bodies were always in a constant form of the present.

Riko's Stand, Comfortably Numb, could heal any wound by removing them from people and manifesting them as red balloons that got darker the deadlier the wound was—black being near-instant death. These 'wound' balloons must be absorbed by at least one person. If this didn't happen within ten minutes, the damage they carried would be applied to Riko. A balloon could be divided into as many equal pieces as Riko wanted and be absorbed by multiple people.

Because the people Uncle Salty had turned into statues bordered the line between animate and inanimate, neither Glimpse Of Us nor Comfortably Numb's abilities had any effect.

We had no choice but to leave them and seek refuge on the rock formation close by.

Trebor's suggestion of keeping Uncle Salty alive was an unpopular one. But as much as we hated it, the words his mouth formed were right. This highwayman wouldn't choose this desert to be his board if he didn't know how to traverse it.

Using Comfortably Numb, Riko manifested Uncle Salty's gunshot wounds into balloons and had a desert worm we lured to the surface absorb them. What we didn't heal were his eyes.

"You'll live," Trebor told him. "And don't be an idiot and activate Walk This Way. You can't see who has their back turned and who can beat you an inch from death."

Using the ropes that once bound Clint, Uncle Salty was kept tied up and inside the cart.

Jaime, Clint, and I sat by the campfire while everyone else slept. Trebor joined us not too long after, staring into the fire as if wanting to throw himself in for causing so much trouble.

During our tussle earlier, Clint had won over the right to move freely. Though Jaime and I still remained wary of him, we couldn't help but show respect for the way he took gunshot wounds for me knowing he might die.

He may have stolen our money, but his reasons for it were something I could get behind. In fact, we were both technically facing the same enemy, weren't we?

After a long while, Joji and Riko had gotten up from their sleepless spots and joined us around the fire.

"Mr Liar," Joji broke the ominous silence, "you've never crossed the desert before, huh? What's done is done, but I believe you owe us an explanation. You got a good number of us killed and have condemned most of us to wander this hell until we die. You owe us the reason why, at least."

Trebor didn't answer for a while. He continued to stare into the flame thinking of the right words. "Back when we met, I said you and I are the same person. We're both doing things to try and heal deep wounds. What's your deep wound, Joji?"

"I'll tell you why I'm here and what I'm doing. In fact, I believe we all owe each other the truth. But you got us into this situation and I did ask the question first."

Trebor grinned unsurely. "Have any of you ever been in love?"

Jaime began to raise her hand but I slapped it down. Joji caressed the locket around his neck.