Henrik didn't respond right away. Instead, he stared uselessly at her as he took slow, heavy breaths that rattled his thin frame. His fingers twitched against the gun barrels mounted on his chest, a nervous habit Rhett had never seen before.
The words hung there, heavier than the frost-laced air. His posture stiffened—not in defiance, but in guilt. The gun barrels on his chest clicked faintly as his muscles tensed, then released, then tensed again like a heartbeat. Rhett, still groggy and barely standing, turned his head slowly to look at Henrik's face.
He had never seen the boy look so human. So breakable.
A distance away, in the tunnels where they had run from, the battle with the Ice Queen and BeastMaster raged on. The Colossus that had been dominating with ear-splitting roars and growls were now turning to shrill screeches and low moans of pain. Each cry echoed through the tunnels like a death knell.
The BeastMaster was losing that fight. And when the Ice Queen was done, she would come for them next.
Their lives depended on what Henrik's response would be to Marina. But he was still staring blankly at her, slack-jawed, like he was in a daze. Like he couldn't believe she was here. Like seeing her had torn something open inside him that he'd spent weeks trying to seal shut.
"Henrik." Marina's voice cracked slightly. "Henrik!" She repeated more forcefully as he snapped out of his daze, blinking rapidly. "We thought you were dead! The last thing we saw was you being thrown against a wall with a sickening crack! Akira ran to check on you before that Slave kid came in."
She stepped closer, her hands reaching toward him before stopping mid-air, unsure. "Why are you running through sewers and abandoned subways instead of reporting back to base? To your team?"
"My team..." Henrik said tentatively, as if it was a foreign word. His voice was barely above a whisper. "Is Mateo okay? And Akira?"
The hope in his voice made Rhett's chest tighten. This wasn't the cold, calculating Henrik he'd been traveling with. This was a boy desperate for news about people he cared about.
"I don't know..." Marina said, running her fingers through his deep blue hair frantically, the gesture achingly familiar. "The last thing I saw was Alex abandoning ship and carrying Mateo's broken body back to base, though I don't blame her—"
Sounds of shrieks and animalistic groans echoed through the tunnels, closer now. Rhett almost forgot they had the BeastMaster's freakish hybrids to contend with too. His regeneration wouldn't help against being torn apart by a pack of those things.
Marina ignored the sounds completely, like they weren't even worth her attention. "—But you, Henrik, are not supposed to be here. Crawling through empty subways, fighting villains on your own with random freaks like—"
It was then her eyes found Rhett's face, since she had been wholly focused on Henrik. Her expression shifted from concern to shock to something that looked almost like... recognition? Her eyes widened and she held up her palms, clasping them together exactly how she had done when she shot that powerful beam of water at the Colossus.
Rhett instinctively closed his eyes and raised his arms uselessly, bracing for the impact. That beam had left an incision in the monster that Henrik had almost died fighting. That beam would reduce Rhett to a kit-kat, regeneration or not.
After a moment, he didn't feel the familiar sensation of his body being torn apart. He awkwardly dropped his arms and opened his eyes to see Marina cautiously lowering her attack stance, something like exasperation replacing the killing intent.
She stopped the attack? Why? And why did she launch into attack mode the moment she saw his face?
"I forgot you were impossible to kill," Marina sighed as she continued addressing Henrik, but her casual dismissal only left more questions buzzing in Rhett's head like angry wasps.
She knew him. He was certain he had never seen her before, but she talked not like she had merely observed his abilities as data, but like she had personal experience watching him die and come back. They had fought. He didn't think himself to be exceptionally smart, but he would at least remember if someone had killed him. Wouldn't he?
"Come back, Henrik." Marina's voice broke slightly on his name. "We need to be a team. We're heroes, for crying out—"
"I'm not a hero." Henrik interrupted, cutting Marina short. His voice was flat, emotionless, but his eyes were cold and quivering at the same time, like this was the first time he had spoken the words aloud.
Marina stared at him for a long moment, her face cycling through disbelief, anger, and something that looked almost like grief. "What the fuck do you mean 'not a hero'?" she growled, and large bodies of water rose menacingly at her sides like liquid serpents. Rhett knew they could turn into deadly jet streams at a moment's notice if they didn't tread carefully. "You got in the vehicle when Reeves gave us the option to abandon the hero title! All that talk about following orders no matter what..."
She gestured wildly at the tunnels around them. "And now I find you here? Running around Brookside like some low-tier mercenary, dragging this freak kid around?"
Rhett felt just a little offended at being called a freak, but he also felt like he was intruding on something private. Something he wasn't supposed to witness. Then he noticed that even though the air was getting colder, and both his and Henrik's breath were condensing to white vapor in front of them, Marina seemed completely unaffected by the temperature change.
She arched her torso and pointed toward the tunnel where they came from, where the battle with the Ice Queen and BeastMaster was still raging. "I know we were never 'real friends' even back when we were a team, but your uncaring attitude is part of the reason Sera was pushed to... that!"
She jabbed her finger toward the sounds of the icy-cold queen devoid of any emotion fighting with that behemoth. The monstrous screeches were getting louder, more desperate. Was it possible she could actually win on her own against something that powerful?
Henrik only clenched his fists at his sides, his knuckles white. "I can't be a hero anymore, Marina." Each word seemed to cost him something. "I made a mistake. You don't know what the villains are really doing. There's no way to fight them!"
"So you know what they're really doing then?" Marina raised her eyebrow at what Henrik had revealed, then shook her head as if dismissing the thought. "You still need to join us. I have no idea whether Team A is still alive, but we need to regroup and find them anyway. Sera thinks you're a traitor since you never came back, but I can try convincing her if you just—"
"No, Marina." Henrik's voice was steel wrapped around broken glass. "I am not going back." He took tentative steps backward, his eyes shaking despite his resolute tone. "I can't do this. I have to leave. I have to get out of here. I have to—"
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Marina practically screamed, her voice cracking like ice under pressure. "You were that stoic kid who didn't flinch! But the moment something bad happens to you, you fucking desert us?!"
Her water constructs writhed with her emotion, reflecting her internal turmoil. "You know what they call that, don't you? You're a fucking-"
"—Coward!" Henrik yelled back, stretching out his arms in an admission of defeat. "I know what I am!" His voice broke on the last word. "I thought I could win. I thought I could defeat them and stop the horrible things they're doing, but all it took was one fight with King's experiments and we were crushed. Crushed like insects."
He wiped a nosebleed with the back of his hand, breathing heavily as if on the brink of collapse. "I can't be a hero. I would be better off with the citizens at the Capital, living life until the inevitable end comes. At least then I wouldn't be responsible for anyone else getting hurt."
Marina didn't move, only stared at Henrik with something that was slowly transforming into disgust. "The way you talk," she said slowly, "almost like you have first-hand experience with the King."
Henrik's face went pale.
"You were always stubborn," Marina continued, her voice dropping to something dangerous, "but this? Abandoning the people you swore to save?" She stepped closer, her presence suddenly overwhelming. "You're worse than any villain."
Her words seemed to have no effect on Henrik's exterior, but Rhett could see the subtle ways they shattered him. His breath became shakier, his eyes grew glassy, but he didn't relent. He was still an unmovable wall, but hairline cracks were spreading across its surface.
Silence settled over them while the battle behind them reached its crescendo. Rhett couldn't see the fight directly from their position around the bend, and he was almost glad he couldn't. It sounded completely gut-wrenching—the kind of violence that would haunt his dreams.
He could hear the sound of ice cracking like gunshots and screeches that were turning into dim wheezes. The monster was dying, and he could deduce that Sera's quirk was freezing the very atmosphere around her target, turning the monster into a popsicle that would shatter from the smallest movements.
The power was more terrifying than anything Rhett had encountered so far. Even more so than the Iron Knight, who Rhett had thought was the strongest opponent he had faced until now. Brett's projectiles could be dodged if you were fast enough, tanked if you were strong enough.
You could do none of that when the weapon was the atmosphere itself. The monster's rocky carapace was useless when the cold froze the flesh underneath. He could hear the BeastMaster yelling commands to his Colossus, but his voice was turning from cocky to fearful to outright terrified. And then, mercifully, the voices and grotesque groans ended.
The sound of something massive hitting the ground reverberated through the tunnels like thunder. Soon after, white, icy shards and frost particles rushed through the passages like an avalanche, coating everything in a layer of crystalline death.
Rhett knew, without a doubt, that the corpse of the beast Henrik had almost died fighting had just been defeated by Sera in what couldn't have been more than a few minutes.
The silence that followed was somehow worse than the battle sounds.
"So," Rhett said, stepping slightly in front of Henrik, "what are you going to do now?"
Marina shot one more disgusted look at Henrik before shaking her head. "I can't force you to stay. I've learned that lesson already." She glanced over her shoulder, checking for any sign of Sera's approach. "So I have no choice but to let you go."
Rhett's heart skipped a beat. Freedom? Finally! But Marina wasn't finished.
"I need to ask you something before you leave." Her voice was tired, worn thin. "Henrik, do you know where Reeves is?"
Confusion flickered across Henrik's face before he shook his head once. "I haven't seen or heard from her since she went on her 'reconnaissance mission.' You haven't seen her either?"
"Nothing. No way to track her down. Her GPS is out." Marina folded her arms, her posture defensive. "And Sera is too concerned with eliminating villains to focus on finding her."
Her eyes tightened with exhaustion. The villain hunting clearly was taking its toll, even if she showed no physical injuries. "So since you're leaving, if you see her, please tell her to come back to her team. Tell her to follow the frost lines if she wants to find me and Sera. We need her."
Then, in a much smaller voice: "Maybe she can finally calm Seraphine down."
Henrik nodded slowly. Something they could actually agree on.
They were about to leave when something nagged at Rhett's mind. The way Marina had acted like she knew him, the casual mention of his immortality—he had to ask.
"Have we met before?"
Marina shot him a confused, slightly distasteful look. "What do you mean, have we met? You're that freak kid who can't stay dead from last week. You were with that vigilante girl with the smoke quirk."
The words hit Rhett like a physical blow. She did know him—but that was impossible. He was absolutely certain he had never seen her before. He had only gained his regeneration quirk three days ago, and this was the first time he had ever laid eyes on her.
But she spoke with the confidence of someone who had not only met him but had witnessed his abilities firsthand. And she mentioned a girl with a smoke quirk. Rhett only knew one person with that power—one of the people on his list that he was working so desperately to save.
"You know Casey?" The question came out strangled, disbelieving.
"Casey. That's what she called herself, right?" Marina spoke hesitantly, as if unsure why this was important. "You two said you were heading to a city where the villains hadn't reached yet. Otoku, I think? That's why I'm surprised to see you here instead."
"That..." Rhett's voice was barely a whisper. "That didn't happen."
The words felt wrong in his mouth. He had absolutely no recollection of that encounter, of traveling with Casey, of going to Otoku. But Marina's certainty was unshakeable, and it gave him a crucial piece of information despite his confusion. Casey was most likely in Otoku, a small coastal town to the east.
That was progress, wasn't it? Even if it came wrapped in a mystery that made his head spin.
He wanted to pursue the conversation further, to understand what had happened to his memories, but the sounds of growling came from the tunnel ahead of them. The split in the passage revealed horrifying silhouettes moving in the darkness—more of the BeastMaster's creations, drawn by the scent of blood and battle.
Marina visibly tensed. She clasped her hands together in that familiar ritual, and a jet stream the size of a pencil burst forward into the darkness. Rhett didn't need to see the impact—the sounds of flesh tearing and a brief, cut-off yelp told him everything he needed to know.
"I can handle them," Marina said without a trace of fear. "Get the fuck out of here. I'll cover for you by telling Sera that the beasts got to you before I did."
Henrik nodded, his eyes filled with reluctant gratitude, and the two of them began moving toward the exit. As they walked away, Rhett could hear the water-fueled massacre continuing behind them, Marina methodically eliminating the approaching threats.
He also heard her mutter, barely audible: "Besides, I can't leave Seraphina alone."
When Rhett heard her words, and considering how she had described Seraphina as some broken Ice Queen hell-bent on destroying all villains, he initially thought she meant she couldn't abandon her teammate in such a fragile mental state.
But her next sentence, spoken in a tone so somber it made his skin crawl, changed his understanding completely.
"She won't allow it."