Chapter Text
Saps was forced awake by the loud noises outside, his eardrums ringing, eyes still half asleep. He forces his mind up, dreading his sister’s relentless nags about sleeping in again.
“Jophiel—what’s going on?!” Saps whined, finally stepping out of his warm mattress. He awaited for a response, only to receive silence, just him and the people outside creating a ruckus. “Did Lord Ish descend down into the mortal realm?” He mumbled to himself, dragging his feet across the floor, hand rummaging through his morning hair.
Theria was in chaos, Jophiel wasn’t at home and Fluixon is probably dead at this rate. It was just Saps and his unsent letters to Flux.
Reluctantly, Saps rolled up his curtains made from beige wool, the sunlight flash banging his pupils. “What the actual fuck is going on?” He cursed, looking around the large gathering of Therians outside holding signs as if they were protesting.
There has been no reported protest ever in the history of Theria, the people loved the leaders—there’s no way this protest was about Theria.
Saps brushed his teeth, changed into appropriate clothing and made his hair look decent enough for the public. Stepping outside of the house he could finally see what the people were protesting about. ‘Justice for Turkey’ was written all over the protesters’ signs, what could have possibly even happened?
Saps was no man interested in politics, heck, the only reason he still stayed in Theria unlike his twin brother was because he had no friends in Theria at all to move away with. Flux was actually his only friend in the world. He still thought about what if he actually followed Micro to the plains island daily, Theria and Jophiel’s affairs were burning him out.
Last he heard from Micro and his crew was them owning an RV and selling some shit which he couldn’t care less about.
What were they called again? Oh yeah, self-proclaimed Canadian Cartel—where’d they even get that from?
“Justice for Turkey, Elanuelo is a tyrant!” The crowd yelled, giving Saps more reasons to run away from Theria. Last he heard about Turkey from the snow island was that he was going to have a meeting with Emperor Elanuelo in Aculon. It doesn’t matter what happened, it won’t affect Saps at all anyway—all he needs to do right now is find his sister and get the protesters to stop.
A flicker of panic sprouted through his mind, Flux was an Aculon prince and this was Aculon they were protesting about. Now he has more reasons to find out what the heck is going on.
He pushed through the sea of bodies, slamming person to person. “Sorry!” He shouted, breath shaky and in a panic, rushing through the hundreds of people. When he reached the front row, his eyes widened in horror.
Jophiel was instructing the military, the military—this was serious, serious enough to make the peaceful nation of Theria go to fucking war! She wore a commander uniform with a cap having the symbol of Theria sown onto.
“Soldiers of Theria, today we have gathered here to activate our military force to fight against the tyranny of Aculon, Elanuelo!” Jophiel barked, stern and sharp, unlike her usual gentle nature. She was a whole new person.
“Yes ma’am!” The soldiers saluted, armed with heavy equipment and eyebrows furrowing furiously. The crowd cheered, holding up their signs higher. “Exterminate tyranny, uphold democracy!”
Saps’ jaw dropped, from Jophiel’s tough attitude to knowing that his own nation was going after his best friend’s, he was at a loss for words. He had a thousand yard stare, so obvious that even Jophiel could see him in a distance.
The soldiers marched their way onto the shores, heads held high, arms carrying their weapons. Saps rushed over to Jophiel, as she expected.
“Jophiel—what the fuck is going on?!” Saps asked, frantically shaking her shoulders for an answer.
Jophiel sighed, staring straight towards Saps’ obsidian eyes, her cold determined glare sent chills down his spine.
“Yesterday, Duke Turkey from the Aculon Empire alongside many high ranking officials were massacred. We as the allied nations promised Duke Turkey that no matter the situation, we would have his back.”
Saps’ heart stopped beating for a second in that moment, there was only one person in the world he cared about.
Flux.
“W-what about the descendants of Aculon?!” He stuttered, tears welling up in his eyes.
Jophiel grimaced, seeing an emotion Saps had never shown before.
“Only the crown prince was exiled,” she replies flatly.
Saps let out a sigh of relief before patting Jophiel’s shoulder.
“You sure Theria is going to do this?”
“We never break promises, Saps.” Jophiel assured, removing Saps’ hand.
“I hope Micro is doing well,” Jophiel added, her tone returning to the usual.
Saps smiled, she was still the kindhearted and gentle elder sister whom he has known for his whole life.
“I’m sure he is definitely living his best life.”
Jophiel could feel something was off of her younger brother, he was acting way too much—it’s concerning.
“Ender.”
“Burney…”
Burney held Ender’s palm tightly, “what’s the matter? You can tell me anything.”
Ender hesitated. “I don’t want my siblings to be hurt because of tensions between me and Elanuelo.”
Burney turned to face him, his fingers dug into his skin. “It’s alright, our main priority is Elanuelo not them.”
He didn’t know what to say actually, he just wanted to comfort him even with empty promises. It was pretty obvious to Ender too.
“The jungle… what do you think of it compared to Aculon?” Ender asks, trying to switch topics.
“It’s lively, much more than Aculon.”
“I agree.”
Burney leaned in closer to his ear, “after all of this, is there something you want to do together?”
“You… don’t have to lean in so close to ask something like that.” Ender flinched, ears redder than a red star.
Burney chuckled. “I know, I just prefer it between us.”
“Ah, well… maybe we could watch the next Aculympics together, just like last time.”
“It’s a deal then, after everything we’ll go watch it together again.”
Ender smiled, even after facing a situation near death—he couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he’s with Burney. Pure and genuine.
“Don’t let go, ever… alright?” He said, intertwining their fingers.
“I won’t,” Burney assured wholeheartedly.
Footsteps behind were getting louder, the two turned behind finding a man staring straight ahead. “The other nations have their armies on standby for battle.” Seth informed, arms at his back.
“The target is Elanuelo, leave my siblings out of this.” Ender requested, hands trembling and palms sweaty.
“Aren’t you afraid that they’ll flee and come back for revenge, isn’t it just better to annihilate them all?” Seth questioned.
“They have been under Elanuelo’s tyranny for just as long as I have been! Even if they could become like him, they’re still my siblings.”
“Suits you, we’re only here to eradicate tyranny from Aculon—pretty sure nobody cares about them anyway.”
Seth walked away without another word, it was pretty clear that the Allies hatred towards Elanuelo even surpassed Ender’s.
“I sure hope so,” Ender muttered under his breath.
Cynikka burst through the door, panting heavily, eyes wide and open. Flux was lying on his bed, staring at the broken golden laurel wreath pieces as if it were some magnificent treasure. “Flux!” She shrieked, voice echoing throughout the hallways.
Flux was forced back into his senses, blocking his eardrums to prevent Cynikka’s noise from harming his ears. He glared at his shaken sister, annoyed and angered. “What is it? Infernus erupting?” He scoffed, shoving the golden pieces back into his clothing.
Cynikka rushed in, forcibly pulling Flux out of his bed by his wrist and dragging him out. “Ender’s dead!” She screamed, voice shaky and uneven.
Flux raised his eyebrow. “Ender died?” He said, “that guy never lost a single time when we dueled!”
Cynikka finally let go of Flux, causing him to drop flat on the ground. “Duke Turkey’s dead too! And many other more officials!”
“What the fuck?! What even happened?”
“A purge on the rebellion.”
“There’s going to be a war Flux!” Cynikka continued, pointing towards the iron torch monument.
The iron torch had a layer of lava above, with Aculon knights visibly guarding and watching. It was an impenetrable design of the Aculon Empire defence force.
“You think the greatest empire in the world is going to be that easily taken out?” Flux scoffed, rising up from the floor.
“Do you even know what’s going on?” Cynikka shouted. “Aculon is severely outnumbered!”
“So what? The iron torch itself is enough to defend against our enemies.” Flux rolled his eyes, pulling out his desk’s drawer filled with letters from Saps.
“What if it’s the worst case scenario?”
Flux stopped what he was doing, turned to look at Cynikka with a cheeky smile on his lips. “You overthink too much,” he says, standing up and walking to the front of his bed. “Check this out!” Flux gushed, pulling a hidden lever on the ground causing the bed to be pulled upwards.
Cynikka gasped, underneath Flux’s bed there was a pile of red stone modified boats able to travel at speeds a normal boat couldn’t.
“What the fuck? Where did you even get these?” Cynikka asked, dragging a boat out.
“Thomas isn’t called an engineer for no reason, obviously.”
“Wait, why do you even have these in the first place?”
Flux paused. “I-I was going to use them to escape from Aculon!”
Cynikka smirked confidently, “you’re lying.”
“Why—why would I lie to you?”
“Sudden anxiety, stuttering, excuses. All signs of that Saps boy.” Cynikka explained, “you had these boats so you could go to Theria to see him.”
“I—I would never degrade myself to such a person!”
“Say what you want, the truth is obvious.” Cynikka laughed, figuring out her brother’s behaviour.
The siblings were interrupted mid conversation with Thomas, Snowbird, Rotation, Gotoga and Newkids barging in. Flux clicked his tongue, “what the fuck are you guys doing here?”
“You idiot, why are you two still here—there’s hundreds of fully geared soldiers charging straight towards the castle!” Thomas yelled, “the castle is literally unguarded!”
“Yeah, if we didn’t come here for the boats you two are probably going to die.” Rotation added, pulling a boat out.
“Aculon is going to win, it’s fine!” Flux huffed, crossing his arms.
“Are you kidding? Aculon has no chance against all of the allies!” Thomas argued back, going against Flux for the first time.
Flux was confused and admittedly, shocked. If loyalty was named after a person, that would be Thomas. It was unusual for Thomas to act like this, it’s totally not like him.
He hesitated, he really did want to believe Thomas but he’s not the easiest to convince nor change, he can’t deny it.
Cynikka pinched Flux’s arm. “Flux, we need to get out of here.”
Flux didn’t know what to do or what to believe in, he was lost it was either himself or his loved ones.
“I…”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, visibly shaking and distraught.
“We have to go Flux, this is for the best of us.” Snowbird said, serious and sharp a total 180 from his goofy personality.
“How many boats do we have?” Newkids asked, looking at the pile of adapted boats.
“Like six.” Gotoga answered.
“There’s seven of us, it’s not enough for all.” Rotation said, looking around the room.
Cynikka frowned, biting her bottom lip. “I thought a boat could fit at least two people, why can it only hold one?”
“The red stone compartment takes up half of the space of a normal standardised boat, hence, the only downside of a modified one is its limited space.” Thomas explained. “You guys, we do not have time—start the E.A.P Flux!” Snowbird nagged, practically about to rip his scalp off.
“E.A.P? You and Ender with these stupid acronyms.”
“It means Escape Aculon Protocol,” Flux sighed, reluctantly lowering his head. “We… Screw it, let’s get out of here.”
Elanuelo’s gaze sharpened seeing the hundreds of soldiers charging into his land, they looked like tiny ants in the distance—ready to be crushed in one go. Elanuelo loaded his bow, fingers shaking and arms sore. He hasn’t slept in quite a while, his eyes are on the brink of closing. Paranoia was the only energy keeping him awake, when he accidentally dozed off he would see visions of Turkey and that hurtful expression of his. He hated it, hated how much he regretted killing him, hated how he still clung to him dearly.
Seeing hundreds of soldiers marching into the snowy lands of Aculon, to avenge Turkey made it even worse. It wasn’t his fault, he was doing all of this to protect his children. Ender was a lost cause the moment he viewed Turkey as his real father and Elanuelo had to get rid of him too to shield his children from the corrupted. He deeply regretted it, he wished he didn’t have to do all of this—spying on them using personal squads to find out their rebellion and taking them out.
His mind couldn’t think straight, all it could do was keep on replaying Turkey’s final words to him over, and over again, like a relapsing thought he wanted to forget about. Turkey’s shocked and vulnerable voice, him calling Elanuelo’s name for one last time with the same tenderness as they first met each other in Acuri.
Get out of my head. I’ve disposed of you long ago, leave my mind will you? Elanuelo’s eyes wanted to cry, every cell inside his body was screaming at him to cry, to feel remorse for his own actions and to care for Turkey but he shut it all down. He didn’t want to regret, he knew the consequences the moment he made those decisions. The early memories of Turkey and him kept flooding in, making him unable to focus properly.
It was Elanuelo’s first day in Acuri Elite Institute, he was extremely nervous to the point where he was repeatedly rolling around his bed thinking about what he should do or say as a result, he barely had any sleep. His heart was beating, accelerating with the seconds passing. Walking into the classroom with all eyes following him, he wanted to run—hide or just anything to get away from people. His legs were shaking, hands fidgeting, he was nothing like a prince more like a socially awkward boy.
He was assigned to sit next to Turkey, a boy on a scholarship with a very open personality. He could tell everyone in the room liked Turkey, he actually did too.
“Elanuelo, right?”
“…Yeah.”
Turkey smiled, his warmth and enthusiasm relieving Elanuelo a little. His father kept on nagging him to go out and make some friends, using this free chance—Elanuelo decided to strike first.
Elanuelo tapped Turkey on the shoulder, startling him in the middle of class. “W-what is it?” Turkey asked, his voice soft as a whisper.
“I…” Elanuelo tried, but words couldn’t form out of his mouth. All he did was stupidly stare at Turkey in the eyes without saying another word, he wanted to sink into the ground and never crawl back up into the surface.
Elanuelo’s hand began to shake from nervousness, his breath ragged and shaky. He didn’t know how to say it, he was acting like a damn fool—a prince being unable to communicate, which sounded like an unfunny joke.
Turkey noticed the tensed shoulders of Elanuelo and his behaviour, he held Elanuelo’s trembling hands firmly carrying an addicting warmth to him.
“You’re my friend, Elanuelo.”
Turkey giggled seeing Elanuelo’s cute flustered facial expression, it made him like him even more.
“Turkey…” Elanuelo mumbled to himself, lost in his thoughts.
He stared at his hands, now bloodstained with the blood of the man that gave him warmth. Water flowing down his face, he was gone, forever.
Turkey’s last ‘Elanuelo’ was the only thing he could hear, haunting him for the rest of his life.
The blade shoving into Turkey’s guts, the pool of crimson tears everywhere, and Turkey’s final breath. He could still see it clearly, Turkey’s lifeless corpse clinging onto Elanuelo’s shoulders for one last time. It was an unrequited hug, on Elanuelo’s side.
No.
Not right now.
He cannot dwell on his feelings.
Right now, he has Aculon to defend.
I’m sorry, Turkey.
The forces managed to infiltrate into the iron torch, setting off bombs and fighting against the Aculon knights. Many have already fallen into their deaths or lava, it was clear who was going to win and lose. Elanuelo was finding it hard to catch up, charging his bow up for another arrow—his hands found it tougher than before, they were shivering, they were cold, they were lacking the warmth from him. He struggled loading in the arrow, his finger tips had frostbite and he could feel his circulation getting slower. Even with lava directly above him, his hands were freezing cold.
They had no more warmth.
He missed him, missed him way more than he expected. He couldn’t fight properly without him, he couldn’t think properly without him. He couldn’t properly function without him by his side. He needed him.
The floor Elanuelo was standing on broke, he was too out of his mind to try and fight back.
Staring at the floor he was going to crash on, he knew that this was the end of his regime. The seconds that passed by with him in the air, only one person could he think of for one last time.
Turkey.
“Turkey…”
He didn’t know why he uttered those words, it just came out of his mouth forcefully.
His back slammed into the ground, everything went black in a split second.
Elanuelo was carrying a baby Ender in his arms, hugging him closely as Turkey watched with pride and happiness.
“This is the future king of Aculon? So adorable just like his father when he was younger.” Turkey cackled, drawing him some unwanted stares.
“Turkey…”
“Okay, okay, alright—I’ll stop.”
Elanuelo chuckled, looking at his son with his unique coloured eyes.
These were his last few seconds of consciousness.
Flux stared in horror, eyes blank and heart racing. His father was just a pulp of blood on the ground with hundreds of people rampaging on it as if it were a wild beast. His blood went cold, throat squeezing together and words slurring.
“F-father…”
Cynikka was just as mortified as Flux, her palm covering her mouth to stop herself from regurgitating.
“Flux…”
“We have to go, they’re after us.”
“W-what?!”
Flux forcibly pushed Cynikka into the last boat with all his strength left.
“Flux, what are you doing?!” She screamed, tears overflowing her mouth.
“Goons, protect princess Cynikka with everything you have!” Flux ordered, pushing Cynikka’s boat into the water.
“Flux you can’t take them all!” Thomas fretted, trying to persuade his friend even though he was already in the water.
“Now!”
Flux took out his sword, a random one, one he found from a deceased soldier. It had blood stained on the blade and handle.
He swung fighting against soldiers that were probably way older than him, his blade slashed multiple soldiers at once—sending them back.
Flux turned to see the red stone boats accelerating away from the shores of their homes, good, they got away.
An unfamiliar shadow loomed over him, Flux barely had time to dodge the strike, his left arm taking the slash. Flux’s eyes widened seeing his left arm on the ground, looking away even for a mere second was deadly. Flux stood no chance, he could only run.
He ran towards the direction of the desert, his only hope left was Saps—he wanted to see the Saps now before he died.
Flux hesitated, seeing the icy cold waters—he didn’t know how he was going to reach Theria with one arm and adrenaline rushing through his blood vessels. He was helpless, he had no boats and he didn’t even know if this water was swimmable. The enemies were closing in on him, he had to choose fast now.
“Flux!” Ender shrieked seeing the state of his baby brother, missing an arm with blood all over his face. He quickly jumped into action, swinging at anyone daring to hurt his brother.
“You better not be the reason he’s dying for,” Burney hissed, pushing the injured Flux into the boat he was on. “Thank… you…” Flux said, using his torn up clothes to stop his bleeding around his arm.
Burney kicked the boat into the water before jumping in to help Ender fight, “what the fuck are you doing?!” The soldiers yelled, desperately trying to defend against Ender’s attacks.
“Those who hurt my siblings are not considered my allies.” Ender barked, swinging his blade faster.
Flux’s whole body felt like it was burning, his boat passed by so much sand to the point where he’s totally lost in directions. All he could think of was his friends and sister, the reason they were in so much of a rush was him—he felt guilty about that.
Flux’s pulse was getting weaker, his vision was getting more blurry. He didn’t want to pass out on a boat, he’d prefer it be on land instead.
His boat crashed onto the shoreline of somewhere he didn't even know, all he saw was sand everywhere. Flux crawled out of the boat groaning in pain as his legs were giving out, he saw someone in the distance—white hair and black eyes, was it really Saps?
The man was rushing over towards Flux, it must be Saps, nobody else would have noticed him.
Flux moaned, legs buckling to the surface, head spinning and vision going dark.
Why must it be him, out of everyone.
He doesn’t want him to see him in such a miserable state.
Flux’s body crashed into Saps’ arms, weak and limp. Saps couldn’t care less of the mess, blood was everywhere yet his eyes were fixated on Flux.
“I got you, Flux.”