Inverse System

"Save… me?" The boy stopped shivering and stared Lance in his teary eyes.

Lance could feel the atmosphere in the room lighten as the boy stopped trembling, though his grey eyes remained silent and still.

"How do you… know my name?" He emotionlessly spoke, his quiet voice stumbling across the echoing room.

"Your friend, Lagurin told me. He's the one who sent us to save you," Lance began to lower his voice to the boy.

"Lagurin? My friend… Mom's friend..." The boy uttered.

Lance's mouth gaped open, speechless, not knowing what to say. He snapped out of it and remembered what he came to do. He realized that he had to be extremely cautious about what he said around him, and he'd have to try and get him to open up before he could ask him to leave.

"Hey King, is there anything you like doing? Anything that makes you happy?" Lance tried showing enthusiasm, but his voice was drowned by his shivering despair.

"Happy? I don't know how that feels. I like it when I'm not hurting. When it's quiet and calm…" He informed Lance, who instantly sprung up.

"Quiet huh? I love it when it's calm too! When you can hear the sounds of the birds chirping, with a warm cup of draconic tea in hand. Doesn't that sound interesting?" He gushed, trying to get King interested.

"Birds..? Draconic tea..?" The boy curiously turned his head.

"That's right! Birds are amazing creatures who can fly in the wind and soar through the skies. Every person wishes to have that kind of freedom," Lance smilingly spoke as King sat there attentive listening.

"Oh! And draconic tea is especially soothing! It has healing properties that calm the mind to absolute serenity! It comes from this place called Draconica, directly north from here," that was when King's interest piqued as he finally sat up from his curled position.

"Draconica…" He uttered, his dead eyes widening.

"That's right! Do you know that name?" Lance enthusiastically asked.

"Mom… Wanted to take me to Draconica… Lagurin said so…"

"That's right! Your mother wanted to go there!"

"Is mom waiting there now..?"

That was when Lance stopped talking, hearing what King just said. King didn't know about what happened to his mother. He was probably too young when she was killed and thus didn't remember a thing.

"You're mother…" Lance didn't want to say anything after that.

"Is she? Is mom there?" The boy exclaimed with excitement, yet somehow emotionless at the same time.

"No… Your mother… Is not with us anymore," Lance decided against lying to the boy, as he thought it would cause further complications in the future, though he still tried making it as vague as possible.

"Not with us? Does that mean she died?" The boy, still emotionless, asked Lance, who stayed silent at his question.

"Hey, what did you mean..? Hey, what did you mean..? Hey, what did you mean..?"

"Yes, she's dead…" Lance reluctantly blurted out, the boy not flinching at all to his outburst.

"Oh… I see…" King looked back at the ground, the room's silence growing as time passed, Lance unable to say a word.

Suddenly, the boy's dead eyes began blinking readily, a singular tear streaming down his cheek, his face still emotionless as he sat there, bewildered.

"I'm… So sorry…" Lance began weeping with the boy, hugging him tightly as he patted him on the head, King still showing no emotion as his eyes were overrun with tears.

"Hey, King…" Lance pulled away.

"I'll take you to where your mother couldn't. Let's leave this place together, and in Draconica we can have all the tea we want!"

"Will there be birds..?"

"Yes! We can look at all the birds we want!"

"Will mom be... 'happy' if we do?"

"... We're going to get rid of that curse, which will make you happy. Parents are happy when their kids are happy," Lance reassured.

"But if we leave… Dad won't be happy… They'll hurt me again…" King began shivering again, recoiling into the corner of the room as he was when Lance entered.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Lance equipped his shield and activated his spring, extending his shield out with a near-impenetrable energy barrier.

"My Spring was made for protecting people. If I fail in that, then what am I even good for?" Lance laughed, King's eyes glistening in the orange light that Lance's shield produced.

King stopped shivering when he was behind Lance's shield, giving him the courage to stand up from the corner.

"Whaddya say? Should we open the hatch?" Lance asked one last time.

"I want to… I want to leave!" King sternly spoke, his voice beginning to gain emotion as Lance hastily took out his tablet to inform Rein and Reggie.

As soon as they received the message, they ran over to Lagurin who was in the mayor's office and told him to open the hatch. He opened it for 5 seconds then closed it immediately as to not catch any attention from the other workers. He found it weird that nobody had questioned it so far, and that the mayor had taken so many of his special agents with him. Nonetheless, he was happy with the opportunity.

The three ran out to the grassy field and saw Lance holding the hand of a little boy, who was cut and bruised all over his body. Lagurin dropped down in front of King and hugged him as soon as he reached him, clearly happy to see him.

"How'd you do it, kid?" Lagurin stood up and asked Lance.

"I was just honest with him. After I told him about his mother, he began opening up to me," Lance explained to Lagurin, who then looked downwards at the ground in contempt.

"So you told him, huh?" He smiled at the ground, which confused the group as to why he looked sad.

"Hey…" King tugged on Lance's shirt.

"Yeah? What's up?" He happily replied.

"Is that a bird?"

King pointed up into the air, before Lance could get a chance to look, Rein gasped and erected an earth wall as the group heard a loud splash of water impact with the wall, deflecting to their sides like a parted tsunami.

"Tsk tsk, take the boy to Draconica eh? Now that wouldn't be good for us," the 'bird' in the sky remarked as Rein released the earth wall, revealing the grey-haired young man Rein was very familiar with.

"Luther! The hell are you doing here?!" Rein yelled, making the floating man drop on the ground, Lance putting up a shield to protect King.

"Oh come on Rein, you know what I'm here for," Luther looked at the boy behind the shield as his smile disappeared, replaced with a look of pity.

"Hold up, what's with all the bruises on the kid? Don't tell me..." Luther stood there, semi-surprised and confused, then shaking it off and readying his glaive.

"Ah hell, I'm not here to question this shit. How 'bout you make this easy and gimme the kid?"

"Of course we wont! I will protect him until the end! I will help him escape this nightmare!" Lance righteously proclaimed, strengthening the shield on the boy.

"Lagurin, please get out of here. Lance, whatever you do, you can't let him get his hands on King. I can't stress this enough, if he gets his hands on him, it's over. Don't try and run either, he'll catch you in an instant. You understand?" Rein thoroughly instructed him, stressing out the importance of his orders to the maximum.

"I understand!"