Chapter Text
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"I didn't tell them about the force control that you taught me, I didn't tell them anything." Jiwoo is currently limp in his arms his chest slowly rising and falling his breath coming out in stutters.
"It was bound to happen eventually, just keep your eyes open."
"I'm never going to tell anyone even if that means I die."
Kaydens eyes narrow.
Jiwoos arms are limp even he can tell there's not much he can do to help when every bone and ligament had been torn apart by that crazy bastard he'd electrified minutes earlier. He does what he can to patch him up before picking him and rushing back to Jiyoung who'd be able to get the healers he needs.
"I had never worried about that idiot."
He refuses to acknowledge the gash through his apprentices chest, cutting far too deep to be anything but fatal even with awakener abilities. He's been through a lot, survived through so much he refuses to believe this might be his last moments with his first very own student, with the one person who'd never asked a single thing of him.
Seo Jiwoo smiles up at him and he picks up his pace.
"I'm sorry Mr Kayden." his voice sounds strained and he's blinking his eyes desperately to stay awake for him but he knows it won't last.
-
Jiwoos eyes close and his body finally relaxes into his hold, and Kayden feels a chunk of himself wither away in that moment.
He's still in his arms as he backtracks to their house, ignoring the mewls of the surrounding cats as he places his body onto the comfort of his bed.
He collapses at his bedside, his throat feels clogged up as he chokes back what he assumes what were going to be tears.
Kayden clasps his face in his hands skin already cold to the touch.
His vision blurs for just a second blinking away his tears.
"Why, just as I'd finally found someone who didn't have a single expectation of me, someone who could make me happy just with his company, this is how it ends?"
The world of awakeners, is a cruel dog eat dog kind of world where only the fittest survive, he knew that and yet... it all seemed too cruel, too soon. Finally a piece of happiness just for where he could indulge himself and finally take a breather from the constant battles and uprooting of different organisations and groups, and just as fast as it came, it's all gone.
Having valuable companions in an environment like this is just one of gods many cruel jokes on human kind.
All because he'd been too slow on the uptake.
He'd known he'd been gone for hours with no response and yet he sat idly by, as his own was being slowly tortured on his own turf by some nobodies who thought they were worth his time.
His wipes his face and takes one last look at him with a fond smile. He speeds down the stairs pouring what might be the last bowl of cat food into their bowl with a sad smile.
He shares a look with his scarred brethren and nods "watch the house for me, I'll call someone to come get you guys, under no circumstances do you go upstairs okay?"
The gray cat nods and Kayden finally exits the house the phone in his hands vibrating for less than two seconds before it's answered.
"Jiyoung, he's at his house."
"Huh? Kayden wh-"
He'd been too late and now he's being thrown back into the throws of battle without any time to mourn.
—
Everything is burning and no one is able to contain it or even try to stop the cause.
Kayden had stopped caring for reason a long time ago and with no Jiwoo to hold him back no one can even get close to him.
To ordinary people it would look as if Zeus had descended Olympus just to smite the world with lighting strikes and mass devastation.
But to an awakener it was their worst nightmare, a rampaging world ranker indirectly harming innocents and exposing the existence of awakeners as he screamed about the injustice of his apprentices death and making those responsible pay.
Kayden has to put it simply, given up. There had been a month long period when he'd gone back abroad in a vein attempt get back to his old way of life, but he'd soon realised with his power at an all time low and no Jiwoo in his life there was nothing left for him here.
So he'd given up what his own student had died for in a trade with Kartein.
He'd provide healing for him, in return he'd give up his Force control.
And so here he he's in the present, back in Korea with Kartein by his side and unleashing his full power at any person in sight.
Of course Baekdu was the first to respond and therefore the first to fall though many others soon follow. Shinhwa had fallen too, after many failed attempts to cool his rage he remembers Jiyoungs resolve to stop him and her subsequent death after the fact.
It'd been the battle he would've wished for at the beginning but now it left him with a bitter taste in his mouth.
"He wouldn't have wanted this." She whispers as her eyes closed.
He knows that and yet he can't stop.
They're both wounded, her much more than him but at the end of the day he's the one who lived. He watched her as the life slowly drained from her body before making his move to leave.
Her brother finds out and follows after her.
He finds cold comfort in the fact that Jiwoo now had friends in the afterlife, even if Jiwoo would've hated it with his whole being.
By the end of it all nothing had changed, his apprentice remained dead and all he'd done was add to the destruction (with some maybe justified kills here and there but it was mostly slaughter of innocents and past allies) and as the top ten world rankers came to finally take him out he'd gone out guns blazing taking as much as he could from them before he met his eventual end.
Because, even if he'd lost the meaning in his life, he was no one if not a fighter even when on his deathbed.
-
That is why Kayden is very confused.
He was under the impression that when you die you don't tend to wake back up, unless some bastard revives you but that's another can of worms.
However, right now he's back, splayed out on the couch , back as a fat cat in front of his previously dead apprentice who's feeding his cats with big tears welling up in his eyes.
He watched as Jiwoo sniffled rubbing his face into his sleeve as he poured them each their food.
Kayden groaned as he rolled over sitting himself up his body seemed to be in even worse condition than he’s used to, but he’s back and he’s here and Jiwoos here with him again.
Jiwoos head whips around as he fumbles the bag of cat food dropping it on the flooring and leaping over his furniture to reach him.
"Mr Kayden?!" Jiwoo looks up to him eyes brimming with tears. Not a second is wasted before Kayden is scooped up onto his students arms wet tears dribbling down his face as he sobbed, "Ahhh I was so worried about you Mr Kayden, you were so cold I thought you had died!”
Kayden ignored the tears welling up in his own eyes as he stared, if only he knew. Hell he'd tried to destroying the world for this kid.
He managed a chocked laugh.
“Me? Die don’t be so stupid.”
Jiwoo nodding clutching him tighter in his grasp, and if Kayden had nuzzled closer no one else would dare to mention such a thing.
He blinked up vision blurred by his tears.
If this was another one of gods cruel jokes please let him be the fool, the butt of the joke for as long as it takes to make up for his past mistake and save this absolute dumbass.