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"Freeze, criminals! You're not going anywhere."
Lukas stares as the Blaze Rods are escorted from the water by the Sky City guards. Maya catches his gaze, and he turns away quickly.
"Now, this is just speculation... but I’m guessing they have some regrets. I knew they wouldn't get away," says Petra. He glances her way and sees her face light up when she sees him. "Lukas!"
Lukas gives her a tired smile. "I knew you guys could stop them. Nice work."
She walks over to him and pats him on the shoulder. "Jesse said Aiden got you pretty good. Sorry I wasn't there."
"It wasn't your fault, Petra," Lukas replies with a shrug, then winces when his left shoulder stings with pain. "Augh… I really did think I could take him, though."
Petra rolls her eyes.
"Oooh, I bet the Blaze Rods are in for a bad time. These Sky City people are not happy with them," Jesse comments. They walk towards the two of them with Ivor and some of those other Sky People.
"Yeah," Lukas mutters under his breath, leaning towards Petra. "Hopefully they dig a deep hole, bury them in it, surround it with lava and- What?"
Petra is giving him a stare of slight bewilderment. Ivor has heard him and is grinning maniacally in his direction.
"Sorr-y, got a little carried away there," Lukas sighs. Then he turns to Petra and grumbles, "You're the invincible nightmare warrior who slays withers in her sleep, quit looking at me like that!"
"Oh, uh... hi, Jesse," an all too familiar voice says, and Lukas' chest morphs into bubbling hot magma swirling with icicles. There is a lump in his throat and he can't swallow. It's him. "I’m... I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry to cause all that trouble. I can see where it all went wrong. I've... got some regrets, to say the least."
Lukas' arms are locked to his sides. Aiden. Oh, Aiden. Now Aiden decides to apologize, of course, when the irreversible damage has been done and he needs so desperately to redeem himself.
"I hope you learned a lesson, Aiden," Jesse says, their tone sharp but almost apologetic. Almost. "This didn't have to happen like this."
Because it really didn't.
"Don’t worry. I’m gonna keep out of trouble. The world’s all yours."
We could have still been friends now, Aiden.
"I'd say you have a lot to think about," Petra snorts, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, that's for sure…" Aiden replies softly, then his eyes grow wide when he sees Lukas. "Wait- wait, Lukas! Let me speak to Lukas."
Petra immediately steps in front of Lukas, defensively. The guard tugs him away, saying something like, "Now, now, he clearly doesn't want to…"
"Wait," Lukas cries, and the guard stops, looking over his shoulder with a confused frown. "I want to hear it."
Petra sighs. He turns to her with a pleading expression. "Please, Petra. We were friends only two days ago. I need to see him one last time."
She inhales slowly, carefully. Then gives in. "Well- fine. But if he even TRIES to-"
Lukas does not wait for her to whip out her golden sword and shout something threatening and malicious. He nods quickly and runs over to Aiden, who is standing under a tree with the guard.
"Yeah?" He asks quietly. The guard seems to take the hint and backs away a little.
Aiden takes a deep breath. And then he says, "Oh, Lukas, I don't even know where to begin."
His shoulders are trembling, and he realizes he's staring silently at the ground. "Neither do I."
"I am so, so sorry."
"Me too."
"Lukas-"
"I know, I should have-"
"Lukas, look at me."
He lifts his head and stares into Aiden's glowing lime green eyes. They're filled with remorse and regret, a side of himself he'd only shown Lukas before today. This is the Aiden he remembers every time he hears his name. The Aiden he befriended in the first place.
"I'm sorry. For everything." Aiden's voice is so small. "For shoving you off that island and everything else I did to you, everything I did to your friends-"
"You could have been my friend," Lukas interrupts abruptly. The guard who has pretended to not be listening to their conversation flinches. "You didn't have to leave. I could've helped you. This wouldn't have happened."
"You can't control me Lukas," Aiden huffs. "Did you see what I did up there? I can send a city- an entire city, Lukas! -into chaos and destruction and maybe even death just to get revenge on the one person I've always hated. You," he says with a pointed look, "can't hold a grudge for five minutes."
"That's not true-" Lukas tries to argue.
"You know we can't be friends anymore."
A beat of agonizing silence.
Lukas' gaze shifts back to the ground.
"And that's the one thing I'm not sorry about."
Lukas doesn't speak.
"Leaving you with Jesse. Because they always get their way."
Even Aiden could sense the bitter tone in those words.
"I- I'm sorry. Again. It's just… you don't deserve this," Aiden sighs, holding Lukas' forearm in a comforting manner. "If you'd been dragged along with us, and they'd arrested you too…
I would never forgive myself."
Lukas blinks rapidly.
"I already don't."
…
Aiden wraps him in a soft hug, and Lukas buries his face into the shoulder of his Blaze Rod jacket. He isn't going to start crying. Aiden is the Villain here, he shouldn't be sad. He shouldn't be upset. This man is not his friend. Not at all. Oh, great, now he's crying.
His not-friend brushes the tears off his face. "Ah, you've always been the soft one."
"I hate you," Lukas hisses, but he doesn't really mean it. Aiden knows he doesn't really mean it.
"I'll miss you too, Ocelot," he says, shoving Lukas in the shoulder. It's his bad one.
Lukas stiffens in pain, grabbing his arm. Aiden's expression falters once again. He apologizes softly, backing away towards the guard.
And then he's gone.
Lukas blinks at the ground to make sure there aren't tears before he turns to walk back to Petra. Jesse has been staring his way suspiciously, but when he starts walking back, they look away instantly and pretend to chat with a rather confused Ivor.
Petra nods at him. "Well?"
Lukas shrugs with his good shoulder. He doesn't want to talk.
"Okay, then," she hums, knowing better than to pry. "Hopefully that was the last we'll ever see of that sociopath."
"AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN THINK TO SAY ANYTHING?"
Both Lukas and Petra flinch in alarm at Ivor's preposterously loud exclamation.
"What? What is it?" Petra demands.
"THIS one," Ivor says, waving his arms wildly at a rueful Jesse, "found a portal that leads back home, and they didn't say anything until just now!"
"You did?!"
Ah. The portal. Lukas totally forgot about that…
Oh, well. He can drown in his tragic sorrows at home. It's been a very long day.