172 Seas and Skies (2)

***

Colin went along quietly. He originally thought of fighting his way out, or running, but considering that he didn't know where the Cultists were, and the fact that anyone dying meant they respawned in Cult hands, he kept his peace. {If I die, I'm toast. If Rita or Henry dies, they get captured by the Cult. I'm not going to risk either of those happening.}

Alicia agreed. [I can kill you once the barrier is down.]

[And if they don't let you?]

[Then I'll kill myself and we respawn at Burrow Hollow.]

Colin felt queer relying on Alicia, queer to feel so relieved and so assured that she was looking out for him. What was even queerer was that he found himself smiling.

[How nice.] Alicia noted sardonically. [You finally get your childhood wish. You get to be friends with me. Yay. Now all you need is to be friends with Jonah and Larry.]

Colin's smile slipped. Behind him he heard Alicia burst out in merry laughter.

[Very funny.] he grumbled, but he hadn't the heart to put any sting in it.

"Maximum guard. Put the two lovebirds together." The knight on duty ordered with a growl.

Colin blinked, glancing at Rita and Henry in surprise. "What did they do?"

"Not us, silly. You and Katrin." Rita snapped.

{Katrin…?} Colin's eyes widened when he saw where they were taking him. {They're taking me to her… no way… the 'lovebirds' are US?!}

Behind him, he heard Alicia roaring with laughter.

Katrin was staring at him. Her eyes were as wide as they could go, her face pale. She looked like she wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out.

"Hi." Colin said.

He didn't expect to sound so… cold. So sarcastic. But his face was in an expression that was quite unfamiliar. Colin didn't even know how he looked or what his face was doing, but whatever he looked like, it made Katrin flinch. Visibly flinch, and cringe.

"Wow. Lovers' quarrel?" Henry snorted.

"Quit sneering, Colin." Rita snapped. "Sit down and start talking."

"About what?" Colin asked.

"What happened?!" Rita demanded. "Why did you attack us?"

"Attack…?" Colin paused.

That's right. He promised Asblar he would take responsibility for what happened. All he'd asked her was for shelter, but she wanted the humans off her island. That meant the Knights as well as the Cult. She had wiped out everyone until a great many Comrades went Frenzied… and he had promised to take the blame.

"It was more like a slaughter." Colin managed, turning away in case his face made some other queer expression he couldn't recognize. He looked up at the sky, turning his back to everyone else deliberately. "Nobody stood a chance."

Henry clenched a fist, but Rita said, "Don't! He's just provoking us into killing him! Nice try, Colin, but you're not getting away THAT easy!"

{Why is Rita so angry? Why is she and Henry… oh.}

Colin remembered then. They had been there and they'd been multi-killed. He dared himself to speak. "How much did you lose?"

"Practically everything!" Rita burst out.

"Half Frenzied, almost everyone else Desolate." Henry added grimly.

{I'm sorry.} Colin already knew as much, but hearing it from them now, addressed to him in such tones, it felt different. {I've just lost two friends.}

Alicia mused. [I'm pretty sure you've lost a lot more than two.]

"So that call for help... you wanted me to come here..." Colin stared. "It was a trap. You used Katrin and Henry as bait."

"Yeah. It was about time {someone} brought you to stand trial. I saw my chance and I took it." Rita snapped.

"So you can prove yourself as a good coordinator?" Colin snapped back.

Rita flinched, and was about to say something, but Henry laughed at that and she turned her anger on him instead.

"And what did {you} do?" Colin asked Katrin. He tried to sound casual, but it came out like a scoff.

Katrin's pale face went even whiter. "I… I don't know."

{Her memories were wiped.} Colin realized. He felt a glimmer of sympathy, but it was only a glimmer, a great deal smaller than he expected. {She doesn't remember what she's done. She doesn't remember that she betrayed me.}

"We're going to hold an Emergency Trial." Rita announced. "Patching in to HQ now. We have the criminal Colin Rivers in custody. It is time to find out {how}…"

"Rita!" a girl on a Helijet came racing out the side lane. "We're in trouble! The Cult's got an army and they're headed this way!"

"They've lost their troopers. No more guns!" Rita shouted back. "And even if we die, we can respawn, they can't. We can take them!"

"They're not {using} guns!" the helijet girl yelped. "They're using Comrades!"

"How many?" Rita demanded. "How strong?"

"Hundreds!" Helijet girl said. "Too strong!"

"How?" Henry asked. "How did the Cult get…"

"Remember Ian?" Rita hissed. "He's a Gaian."

Colin remembered, all right. Ian had {dragons}.

"Ian's here." Alicia finally spoke out loud. Colin turned to see her two feet behind him, the nearest of the others by far. She was pointing. "See?"

They saw. Ian's dragon and assorted draconic Comrades were flying toward them.

"Let's kill him." Henry said then, sounding harsh. "Let's kill Colin and let them have him. We can get away while they're fighting him."

But then he hesitated.

Others acted quicker. Rita and Alicia grabbed Colin by either arm and started running. Katrin watched them go, still gaping. Henry was so surprised, he just blinked as they left the dockside square.

"R-Rita?" Colin gasped.

"Come on!" Rita tugged. "We need to get to a boat!"

"That one!" Alicia pointed to a familiar looking vessel.

Colin found himself looking at Captain Courageous' vessel. "Wait… wasn't that destroyed last night?"

"He must have had insurance." Alicia said. "MOVE!"

A wyvern swooped down at them. Alicia tapped her badge. "Dirge Squad!"

"Get down!" Rita pulled Colin behind some crates.

Colin hunkered down as Alicia started battling the wyvern. Rita popped her head up and shouted a warning. "There's more!"

"Go!" Alicia yelled. "Get out of here! I'll hold them off!"

Colin protested. "But…!"

"They have a barrier! They're after you, not me!" Alicia shouted, dodging fire.

"Come on!" Rita tugged at him urgently. "Neither of us have any Comrades capable of fighting! I only have…"

Colin started running. Rita ran with him, still talking. "…newly transferred and they're all Desolate! I can't call them out like this…"

"I thought you hated me!" Colin pointed out, as they neared CC's ship.

"We'll figure that out after you tell me the truth!" Rita said. "I figured it out just now! I mean, at first I was angry too, because Henry was angry, but then I was looking at you and I was thinking, and thinking and thinking… and I remember! I was there! I saw it! You didn't do anything! You didn't say anything! Your swan never attacked us! You just sat there!"

"You were {watching} me?" Colin spluttered.

"Down!" Rita shoved him as fireballs rained down on the docks. Colin had a moment to yelp "WHOA!!" before he went into the sea with a painful splash.

He surfaced a few moments later, in time to hear Rita shout "Man overboard!"

CC raised his head over the side of his boat cautiously. "What?"

"We're buying passage! Get us out of here!" Rita shouted. "And one of us is overboard!"

"He wasn't even on board!" CC protested.

But Rita leapt on his ship and said, "A thousand Clira!"

CC gulped and dashed to the nearest lifering. He threw the tyre-like floater into the water. "Grab on!"

Colin looped both arms around it as CC started his boat's engines. Rita started pulling him in.

Even in the middle of that, she wasn't done talking. "Spit it out, Colin! Tell me what you were really doing!"

Colin took a deep breath, legs kicking, trying to reach her. "I can't! I…"

"Tell me! You went there to run away from the Cult, didn't you? And the Frenzieds attacked us, but you didn't have anything to do with that, right? You just happened to be there! I know it! You're not a bad person!" Rita went on non-stop. "You're just blur! You probably didn't even know what was going on! You can't be a bad person! The guy who'd come rescue me that second night just {couldn't} be…"

It hit Colin, then. {Maybe Rita calling me for help wasn't entirely a trap. Maybe somewhere inside, she felt afraid, because of the Cult. And somewhere inside, she remembered. When they first came for us and she was deathly afraid of the Cult, the one who helped her was me. Maybe she still feels that. Maybe that's why she called me for help and then didn't even know why... but even so... right now, I...}

{I gotta do what I gotta do. Now, before it's too late.} Colin gulped. "Rita, you're a knight! You can't think like that! You have to think like a detective, consider every possibility…"

"You're not a bad guy!" Rita yelled. "I thought about it! I remember now! Someone who'd come with me all the way to Hot Sands on foot just to tell Henry's brother about… about…"

"Rita, stop!" Colin shouted. "You have to stop trying to defend me! You have to tell everybody that I did it! You have to tell everybody that it was my fault!"

"But… but why?!" Rita spluttered. "How do I know if it is or it's not?!"

"It is!" Colin insisted as he reached the boat's railing. "Maybe that wasn't the plan, but that's how it happened! I was the one who asked them for help! And I have to take responsibility!"

Rita stopped and stared. She just stared at him. "It… it really is your doing?"

"I'm sorry." Colin told her. He meant it.

Rita threw him off the boat.

As he went into the water for the second time in as many minutes, Colin sighed inwardly. {I'm going to need something a lot bigger than a Traveler watch to apologize this time.}

For some reason, he was reminded of a different place, a different girl… a certain cliff at a different island where another annoyed girl shoved him into the sea. {Katrin. She's still back there. But there's no need to worry about her any more. The Cult already got her, and they won't be after her any more.}

Submerged in water, Colin paused to think.

{What did they want from her, in the end? A name, they said. One of the others. But there were only two of us left. Phillip or me.}

What else did they ask…? Something about… about…

[Colin!] Alicia's thoughts broke through his.

[What?] Colin asked, alarmed at the urgency in her mind.

[I'm in trouble! I can't hold out much longer! Get away from the barrier, FAST! If I die, you might respawn with me in the capture zone!]

Colin gulped. [But what about you?!]

[They're not after me! Besides, if you died outside the zone, maybe I'll respawn with you back at your Home Base!]

Colin didn't think so, not with that barrier in place. From the feel of her mind, Alicia didn't think so either, but she was just saying that to get him to hurry up.

[Okay.] Colin hated to go along with it, but he didn't see any other choice.

More to the point, CC started the boat up and Colin was still clinging to the floater. The boat towed him away before he could do more than blink in surprise.

After a few minutes of struggling just to breathe and keep his head above water, Colin managed to yell. "Hey! Am I even supposed to come along on this ride?"

"{She} said to get you away from there." CC pointed.

Colin turned to see the most amazing thing.

Rita hadn't come along on the boat. She stood on the docks, with her back to him, her new Comrades looking very miserable but in full battle mode.

{She's trying to hold them off. Buying me time to escape.} It didn't make sense to Colin. He felt sure she was rather put off with him. Pushing him into the sea was a pretty good indication of that. But there she was fighting alone with unprepared Comrades so he might escape.

"Rita...?" Colin gaped, and then spluttered as seawater got into his mouth.

Colin thought he couldn't be any more surprised, but once more, he was proven wrong. His Traveler Watch started beeping.

"Huh?" Colin gasped. The Watch understood that to mean 'take the call'.

Mom's voice came over the Watch. "Happy Birthday, Colin!"

"Wha-?!" Colin got another mouthful of super-salty seawater and gagged.

"What's wrong?" Mom asked. "It's midnight. You're twelve years old now. In fact, I thought that maybe..."

"Mom... I'm in the middle of something..." Colin spluttered.

"What's going on?" Mom suddenly sounded concerned.

"Seawater... boat..." Colin choked. "Pulling me... I need to hold onto the... rope..."

"You're water-skiing?!" Mom laughed. "Wow. You really know how to enjoy."

"Something like that." Colin coughed. "I'll um... call you back..."

"Better yet, come meet me at Gardens Dreamworld. I've got a present I think you'll want right away. How long more will you be water-skiing?"

"Um..." Colin gasped. "I'll get there as soon as I can! But... glurgh!" he spat out more water. "I need to... get to a Gate..."

"I thought Nakama World only has two Blue Gates." Mom observed. "Are you far from one...?"

{Two? I only know of one. The one at Midway Metro, the Space Elevator to the Higher Plane and OSS Nakama. But come to think of it, that first night when Dad brought me here, I came through a Blue Gate as well...}

{But where? All I remember is coming here in dad's gravcar... and we came through at...}

{An airport. Colin froze. That ride from the Gate to the Comrade Home where I started wasn't long. Minutes, in fact. That means it had to be close. It had to be either Maro Airport or Lynn Airport.}

{I have to go back to the Crescent Continent.}

{That is, IF I want to go to Gardens Dreamworld tonight. It would be much easier to find Mom tomorrow night. I can go straight there as soon as I sleep, and Gardens has a lot of Gates. Many of those Gates lead to peoples' personal Garden or to a shared Meadow or park. Once, we even found a water park...}

Those weren't very happy memories. Colin had been so busy trying to keep up with Jonah, Alicia and Larry that he couldn't remember where those Gates were. {But I bet Alicia does. She wouldn't begrudge me their locations now, would she?}

{...Would she?}

[Colin!] as if his thoughts had been a summons, Alicia contacted him. [Are you out of the barrier yet?! I can't hold out any more!]

Colin glanced around. He was quite a way from the island. [I don't know! Maybe! I'll have to try and see.]

Which brought him to the next question. How was he supposed to kill himself? He didn't have any weapons or any Comrades or anything...

{There are Wilds under water, right? So if I just let go of the floater and swim down, I should be able to get into a fight pretty quick... Colin thought. I should tell CC about it.}

"Captain! Hey, Captain!" Colin yelled. "I need to get myself killed!"

"What?!" CC protested. "Then what's all this effort rescuing you for?"

"I had to get away from the Barrier! Once through, if I die..."

"You respawn somewhere safe?" CC shouted, which was odd, because he was looking thoughtful. He only shouted so Colin could hear him over the sound of the engine. It wasn't a very noisy engine, but he still had to shout. "Are you sure you're away from the Barrier?"

"I don't know!" Colin yelled. "But I have to risk it!"

CC paused. "Now?"

But then he saw. In the clear waters around Turtle Island, he saw them.

Phillip was there, and he had an army. Or a fleet. Or whatever it was you called a whole lot of fish and such. Big fish.

The new Ocean Prince was about to wage war and he looked mad.

Colin surfaced with a gasp and yelled, "No, wait! Get out of the water!"

"What?" CC stared at him.

"Get out of the water, right {now}!" he shouted.

But it was too late. With the sound of a thousand fountains exploding into the sky, the forces of the Ocean Prince burst into action.

**

Colin didn't see it at the time but the trigger to Philip's action was, in a word, Katrin.

She had allowed herself to get caught by the cult without too much fuss. Like Henry and Rita, she believed that once the Cult was done with her, it was done. Like them, and like Alicia, she thought, {they're after Colin. It's not me they want. They're not coming after me any more.}

She was quite surprised therefore when they turned a camera on her and made a public broadcast of her surprised face. She was even more surprised when they shot her, point blank.

Red light barred her from respawning where she should. Katrin respawned right back in front of a camera.

The Cult Priest said, "Surrender or..."

They shot her again. Right in front of the cameras, for a second time, before she could even fully feel the enhanced sickness of anchored respawning. They broadcasted publicly the way she respawned exactly where she died, and the way she not-so-elegantly vomited at once.

And they broadcasted publicly when they shot her a third time.

That was the moment that Philip acted. He knew exactly what they wanted, and he knew exactly what they threatened. He knew exactly what the stakes were and exactly what he was risking.

But he would not stay silent. Philip could not, would not let the Cult torture Katrin any longer. The moment of truth had come, and he took action.

**

At that exact moment, six voices screamed.

Michi, far away and quite awake, shrieked, "NO!"

But Philip did not hear her, would not listen if he heard. He knew exactly what she would say, and he chose not to heed her. No matter the risks.

Tsion, a lot nearer to Philip but still in no position to do anything, shouted, "WAIT!"

But Philip did not hear him, would not listen if he heard. He knew exactly what Tsion would do, and he chose to act anyway. No matter the cost.

Casiphia, totally vexed about her newest assignment, was brooding as she left the mountains in Sora's hands. She, too, got an instant of realization of what exactly was happening and in a rare tantrum, let out her steam in a voice that shook the snows off Southern Crown's peak. "WHYYYY?!"

Philip just might have heard that one, or so the new Mountain Prince would evermore claim. Regardless, it was Sora who acted on that scream. He headed north at once, toward Turtle Island.

CC, on the boat trying to kill or save Colin (he wasn't quite sure which), most definitely let out a yelp. He almost shot himself in the foot with his harpoon. He was, in truth, the nearest screamer to Philip at that point, and Philip probably heard it, but Philip didn't act on his scream either.

And then there was a sixth. A voice which screamed in delight, not in fright or fear or anger. A sixth voice high in orbit over Nakama World who shouted forth in triumph. A voice of a man robed in green and purple and gold, in a command center that held authority over most of the Cult forces on Nakama World.

That voice shouted in exultation. It was the voice of a man who had finally found success after a long and very difficult hunt.

That voice shouted; "THERE!"

And all Nakama World heard it.