Work Text:
i.
Waking up had been... unexpected.
Hang Kasa never doubted his powers - he knew his crystals would protect him, just as they had all this time, but emerging from their depths to find himself a century into the future was still a thought he was getting used to. The presence of miners helped; they were wary, though not wary enough to resist poking at the pile of crystals he had offered them earlier.
It was kind of amusing. Greed was as excellent a motivator as fear and one much easier to work with, and Hang Kasa did try not to use violence too often.
He clenches his fist at the memory of his last fight. A hundred years may have passed but the betrayal still burns, the wound of it left open and bleeding. Retak'ka had no right. The man was wrong, he should have joined him, they were supposed to save everyone—
A multitude of curses snap him out of his thoughts, and he blinks back to the sight of a new crystal poking through the ship.
"Hey!" one of the miners glares at him - the only female of the crew. "Watch the ship, or else we're all in trouble."
"My bad." He raises his hands and paints a disarming smile on his face. "My control is a little, uh, shaky."
There's a few grumbles but they leave him be, and Hang Kasa finds himself back to watching the stars as they head for TAPOPS station.
It doesn't matter, he thinks. He'd prove to his friend that this was the right path, the one that would make sure that everyone they cared for would be safe, and he'd start by finding Boboiboy and taking back what was his.
No one deserved to wield that power.
No one but him.
ii.
When you've lived your life as a spy, you're quick to analyze what kind of person your enemy is.
Koko Ci does not like Hang Kasa. The moment the man lands his ship on their doorstep - is it even his ship, he thinks as he eyes the miners - he knows the man is dangerous. Not the kind of dangerous that could level an army, though he will admit to seeing multiple and alarming signs of that.
(A part of him sighs at the impending battle this meeting will likely lead to. They just finished repairs, damn it, and he's getting tired of having to rebuild headquarters every time some villain decides to use them as target practice.)
No, the man is dangerous in the way traitors are, and it sets Koko Ci on edge the way nothing has for a very long time.
It's what makes him stay back, what makes him get enough time to send Boboiboy the message before he's forced to cut it when the man tears the doors open, grabbing him by the throat and asking, in a tone so gentle it's almost cold—
"Where's Boboiboy?"
"I don't know."
"Come now, Commander," the man laughs, and it's warm and friendly and downright terrifying. "You don't have to be so difficult."
"Maybe if you weren't choking me," he manages to wheeze out. The smile that gets him sends a chill down his spine, and Koko Ci barely catches himself when the man drops him and begins his advance.
"I suppose you only had to ask..."
Koko Ci takes a breath and braces himself for the pain.
iii.
"You think you can protect people like this?"
Hang Kasa's words echo in his head, quiet but vicious. Boboiboy tries to ignore it, tries not to let it get to him but then all that does is make him think about his friends, how he didn't want to leave them behind and how it was probably his fault anyway, because if he just listened to Fang, if he just listened to the commander, then maybe—
"You're weak."
Boboiboy drops Eggabot and mumbles a quick assent to his companions' want for a break. Except they're suddenly surrounded, dozens of eyes glowing in the dark with matching sets of razor-sharp teeth, and it's all Boboiboy can do to squeeze the last bits of his energy turning into Blaze.
(There's a weight in his chest that wasn't there before. Breathing around it feels like trying to breathe underwater, slow and difficult and painful. Something feels different, feels wrong in a way Boboiboy can't put into words, but trying to sort it out just makes him remember how everyone's—
No. Stop thinking.
He's fine, this is - everything's fine.)
(It's not.)
Darkness comes for him, and the last thing he sees is a sliver of pale sky.
iv.
The brat is too stubborn for his own good.
Retak'ka had a plan, you see. Take the crash-landers, offer them some food and whatever help they needed, then boot them off the planet as fast as possible. Quabaq was as peaceful as any place with sentients could get; he wasn't about to stand by and let it be ruined by some mismatched group of heroes and villains.
But then this damn kid...
"Mister Retak'ka–"
"For the last time," he growls, trying to shove Boboiboy - stars help him, but the kid was strong - back out the door, "I am not training you."
"But–"
"No! Now get out of my house!"
"Only if you train me!"
It takes everything in Retak'ka not to slam his head on a wall. Why did the kid keep insisting on this? He'd already helped them recover their message - something about finding him and getting information on how to defeat Hang Kasa, who apparently wasn't dead - hell, he even offered his old ship to get them off this ancient rock.
But then the kid somehow got it in his head that Retak'ka had to train him, and now he just. Wouldn't. Leave.
"Why do you want this so much?" he snaps, patience all but evaporating after hours of being pestered. "I already told you what I know, what more do you want?"
From the corner of his eye, he can see the other humans hover anxiously by the window. It seems that he isn't the only one who thinks this is a terrible idea. Retak'ka might have appreciated that if they actually did something to stop it, but that's Boboiboy for you - loyal and good and stubborn to a fault.
(For a moment, his vision flickers, and it's another elemental user standing in front of him.
Arms wrapped out of habit, the green and gold of his armor glinting in the sun, with a grin that was equal parts reckless and trusting—
Retak'ka furiously shoves the memory away. Now is not the time.)
"I can't beat him."
The confession is quiet, ashamed; Retak'ka frowns at the way Boboiboy makes it sound like a crime but keeps his gaze even as the other continues. "Not yet, at least. But you did. You fought him, and you won, and you know there are better ways to fight with my elements but I don't really get it yet, so maybe if we–"
"Kid."
Boboiboy stops, looking at him nervously. Retak'ka sighs.
"If," he starts, already knowing he'll regret this, "You can answer my question, then maybe - maybe I'll consider it."
"Okay," the kid nods. Absolutely no hesitation whatsoever, why is he surprised. "What is it?"
"If you had to pick between your friends and some random strangers, who would you save?"
Retak'ka watches as the boy hesitates, eyes gone wide and unsure. He's conflicted, that much can be seen, but he's also taking the question seriously. Good. Retak'ka would have kicked him out otherwise.
"I..." Boboiboy frowns, eyes dropping to the ground. "I'll save both of them. My friends–"
"Also have powers, I figured that." Retak'ka crosses his arms and keeps looking at him, gaze hard and calculating. "But what if something happens and they're helpless, too? What if there's no time and you can only save one group, what if you have to sacrifice something– what then, kid?"
"It won't happen," the kid says, and he sounds like he believes it, too. "I - we'll make sure something like that never happens, I swear."
Retak'ka looks at him, really looks at him now and it hurts, because Boboiboy has so much of Hang Kasa in him and that's terrifying. He sees the same kind of belief in this kid as he once did in his friend, and to know what could happen if the universe ever decided to push a little too much...
Softly, he says, "You can't save everyone, Boboiboy."
You'll tear yourself apart trying to.
Just like he did.
v.
"Mister Retak'ka?"
"What?"
"May I fix your hair?"
"...what's wrong with my hair?"
"Nothing!" Pipi pouts, indignant on behalf of the soft, white strands. For someone who lived alone on an alien planet, Mister Retak'ka had very nice hair, one that he usually kept in a bun or braid. "You just get a lot of leaves in it after you train."
The man glowers at the comment. Pipi doesn't cower because that's just how Mister Retak'ka's face is, and this expression either means that he's confused or that he's thinking she said something weird again. She decides it's the latter and huffs, crossing her arms and pouting more.
Mister Retak'ka narrows his eyes at her.
Pipi blinks back and waits.
It takes a couple of minutes but then the man bites out a reluctant, "Fine. But no funny business, you hear me?"
"Yes, sir!" Pipi tries not to sound too excited, though if the wary side-eye is anything to go by, she probably failed. Mister Retak'ka finds a nice rock for her to sit on - one that's mostly flat and is under the shade - and then he drops himself in front of it, shoulders stiff and glaring like the world is out to get him.
Pipi clambers up the spot and starts to work.
She takes the leather band out first, winding it around her wrist for safe keeping. Then she unravels the braid, gently combing through it to get the stray leaves and occasional twig out, careful to keep the motions light. Mister Retak'ka never looks away from where Boboiboy and Gopal are still chasing the funny tree, but that's okay.
Pipi can feel the way he relaxes, bit by painful bit.
She really does like his hair. But more than that, she likes Mister Retak'ka, because he's helping Boboiboy and Gopal become strong enough to help everybody. She knows she doesn't understand a few things but she can see when people are sad, and Boboiboy had been sad ever since they arrived on the planet.
But then Mister Retak'ka agreed to train him.
And Boboiboy smiled.
Pipi liked Boboiboy's smile. It was like the sun - it made you wanna smile too, and she was glad he wasn't so sad anymore because it made her upset when the people she cared about were hurting. Boboiboy wasn't hurting as much now, and neither was Gopal, and Pipi believed that they would all be okay.
Well... most of them.
As she starts braiding Mister Retak'ka's hair again, she wonders a little about him. She knows he looks mean but he isn't. He helps people, just like them, and he doesn't show it a lot but he cares about people, too.
She wonders what he sees in Boboiboy. Her big brother hasn't noticed it, but something about him makes Mister Retak'ka sad, and Pipi doesn't like it because her big brother is good. Which means something about him reminds Mister Retak'ka of something else, and that something must still hurt.
Pipi wishes she knew what it was so she could help.
Just as she ties the end of the strands, something taps at the top of her head. Pipi looks up to find a shiny stick, and Mister Retak'ka looks back at her, eyes almost soft as he says, "Might be good if you put it in a bun. Keeps the leaves out better."
Pipi beams at him and does just that.
"Thanks," he mutters afterwards, standing up to brush himself off. He eyes her for a moment before giving her a single pat, fleeting but warm, and then he turns and starts barking orders at Boboiboy and Gopal.
Pipi giggles and hopes that she can braid his hair again.
vi.
Gopal doesn't know what to do.
Clutching Ochobot, he watches as Mister Retak'ka fights Hang Kasa, the two of them meeting in a shower of light and debris. Even after all this years, they're evenly matched, although Gopal isn't sure how long that will last after the last conversation Mister Retak'ka had with his friend.
He doesn't get it. Hang Kasa fights for the same thing they do - he heard the speech - and yet he still seems to want to hurt people, Mister Retak'ka being the first of them. He saw the betrayal on the man's face when their mentor refused to join him, but after hearing their story...
Gopal flinches when he hears a crack, eyes widening when he sees one of Mister Retak'ka's swords fall shattered to the ground. The other one quickly unfurls into a whip, but even Gopal can see the way the fight has shifted, and he realizes with a pang of horror that Mister Retak'ka is going to lose.
"Gopal, let me out of here! Please!"
And that's the other thing.
"But he said–"
"I have to help him!" Boboiboy cries, and Gopal wavers at the desperation in his voice.
He'd frozen when their mentor had trapped Boboiboy in the plasma shield. Wondered, for the briefest of moments, if the man was still working with his friend, but then Mister Retak'ka stared them down and told them that he wouldn't let kids fight his battles for him. He watched as the man walked away, placing Ochobot in his hands as Boboiboy yelled for him to stop, that he could help, they both could—
There's another ominous crack.
Gopal sees the broken red armor and this time, he listens to Boboiboy's pleas.
vii.
"The universe could use more people like you."
Boboiboy fights with those words in his heart, tucked beside the ice-cold rage that burns like a star in his very being. There are still tears in his eyes, from when Mister Retak'ka had tried to apologize but Boboiboy grits his teeth and keeps going, keeps fighting back even with all the odds stacked against them because that is what he promised himself and he will see it done.
Your elements, his mentor had said one bright afternoon, are just a medium. The ability to manipulate it, the core of that power - it all comes from you.
And so Boboiboy looks at himself, takes all the parts of him that make up who he is and shoves it at the front of his mind, letting it mold his powers into what he needs. First with Frostfire, and then with Glacier; his duty and protectiveness, a whole ocean of it but balanced.
Hang Kasa needs to be stopped. It doesn't matter what the man has planned, Boboiboy will stop him. He has to, for all his friends, for all the people he could hurt, for Mister Retak'ka–
Mister Retak'ka, who didn't want to train them but did it anyway because Boboiboy asked, who was strict but patient with every exercise, who cared for them enough to want to protect them even if it meant sacrificing himself in the end.
(Mister Retak'ka, who once spoke of Hang Kasa with the kind of grief you had when you lost your best friend.)
Boboiboy knows he can't save everyone.
But he also knows that he can damn well try.
viii.
It takes several days for the visit to happen.
Retak'ka blames it on the kids and he wouldn't even be lying. Boboiboy had been insufferable when he found out he wasn't dead - he'd lived past a century; it took a bit more than a fight to kill him - and the kid refused to stop hovering, which was slightly amusing but mostly annoying
Then there was the whole rebuilding thing, with him offering his planet to those who still didn't have a home and long story short, he was now expecting a few new neighbours, dozens of kids, and the inevitable chaos of a slowly growing town.
(It's not too bad, he supposes. Retak'ka is fine with people but after living alone for so long, he thinks he'll miss the solitude. He'd done alright on his own, and having people who actually worry about him around is...
It's weird. A little uncomfortable, but - good.
He thinks he could get used to it.)
When he finally gets the chance to go down to the cells, he's blessedly alone. He walks through rows of empty spaces before reaching the last one and there, in all his fallen glory, is one brooding Hang Kasa.
Retak'ka would find it funny if it didn't hurt so much. Back then, he'd always been the more cynical one, a lifetime pain and bitterness shoved into one tiny kid who had been tossed aside like worthless filth. They'd been so desperate, both of them stuck in that planet of despair.
Kasa always had hope, though. He'd wear that stupid smile and say that one day, they'd get out of there, that they'd escape all the bad things that plagued the lands of Gugura and then they'd be free.
And somehow, it did happen.
But it didn't last.
Neither of them thought of being heroes. Even now, Retak'ka doesn't think of himself as one, but both of them grew up knowing too well what it was like to suffer. It seemed only right to help when they could.
And so they did, offering aid to whatever planet they ended up in and for years, life was okay.
But if the universe ever thought him anything, is that life was never fair.
"Are you here to gloat?"
Retak'ka crosses his arms and meets the other's disdainful gaze head-on. "No. Gloating is for kids; I'm not His Highness."
Kasa's lips twitch at the familiar joke. "His Majesty, actually. Balakung is very serious about his title."
"And you'd know that, wouldn't you?"
The words come out less sharper than expected. Hang Kasa tilts his head, and it's only years of knowing him that lets Retak'ka see the faintest hints of regrets buried behind a mask of detached curiosity.
"I had to do it," he says quietly, and Retak'ka fights not to flinch at the look in his eyes. "You know I did."
"Not like this," he grits out, fingers digging into his arms because how can the other still believe he's right when their friends– when he had–
Pyrapi always joked that if any of them were going to turn into villains, it would either be him or Retak'ka. Kasa had punched him for that comment but privately, Retak'ka agreed; he couldn't speak for the pyro, but he knew he was a little too violent, a little too jaded or mistrustful or just plain hateful.
Maybe that's why none of them expected this.
Kasa cared a lot about people. A little too much, Retak'ka used to sigh, but he always thought it was a good a thing because more often than not, people didn't care enough.
(When people fall, they always say that it's greed or power or anger that breaks them.
They never say that love could do the same.)
"Did you even mourn them?" he whispers.
Hang Kasa rears back as if Retak'ka just stabbed him. And then he's standing, fist clenched and eyes blazing with a wealth of rage and pain enough to drown, saying, "Of course I did! I mourned them and all the people we couldn't save, every last one of them–"
He stops, chest heaving in the wake of his outburst and Retak'ka keeps silent, waiting for the rest.
"I know their names." Hang Kasa drags the words out, kicking and screaming. "Did you know that? Every single one of them. They come to me at night, with their stories and dreams and families–"
A harsh laugh bubbles up from him, and Retak'ka wonders how they never saw.
"And then I see them die. Over, and over, and over, until I finally gave them all the strength I was left with and the rest of my life."
I'm sorry, he wants to say. I'm sorry we couldn't save you, too.
But Retak'ka sighs because he knows he can't say it, not just yet.
Hang Kasa needs time. To think about the past, to realize what he did was wrong, and... and to come to terms with the fact that he made his choices, but that he doesn't have to keep making the same ones if he would just take a look and see.
(It took him a century to do it.
Half of it wondering if Kasa was right, to call him a traitor—)
(When the attack happened, most of them hesitated.
Retak'ka didn't, and that is what saves - and ends - his life.)
(—and the other half, realizing where they went wrong, and realizing that not all the blame was theirs.)
You can't save everyone, Retak'ka always told himself. And to an extent, he was right, but then he met a kid who was all stubborn words and faith and he thought–
Maybe it's never too late.
"He's a lot like you," he says on a whim, then clarifies at the other's frown, "The kid."
Hang Kasa blinks at that, and then he scoffs.
"The galaxy is going to eat him alive, then."
"Maybe," he nods, but he remembers Boboiboy, who's strong on his own but is stronger with his friends and knows it, and well.
Retak'ka has hope for him.
And somehow, he has hope for Hang Kasa, too.