***
{Outside The Projection}
"..."
"..."
"..."
...Hm.
How... exactly... were they supposed to react to that?
They'd seen Malik go through Hell before. Hell. Not literally, but close enough.
They saw him Fall over and over... fail over and over... die over and over... crawl over and over, his body shattered... just to save his family, to rewrite the tragedy...
Only to find them dead.
Only to find his little brother with a sliced neck. Only to have his little sister taken away.
Only to witness a flower's final bloom.
Only to accept a father's sacrifice.
Only to make a sacrifice of his own.
They saw him repeat that crawl... again... and again... and again.
Indeed, they watched him kill himself... hundreds of thousands of times just to absorb an Aether core. Watched him do it over and over to kill a Roc. Watched him do it way more times... to save his flower.
Then again... even more... to save his new family. Only for Rehan to die. Only for his Layla to leave him.
