Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sol slams the last of the Alexandrite beasts on his side into the ground and turns to see--

Glenfyr, with his mechanical bow pointed straight at Cure Rainstorm. 

Sol catches Calder’s eye across the battlefield. Calder raises his ice sword and takes a step forward. Sol does the same with his gauntlets. 

“I’d stay where you are, unless you want an arrow straight through her,” Glenfyr says flatly. 

Cure Rainstorm’s eyes dart between Calder, Glen, and Sol. “Icicle. Lilypad.” Her voice is low, urgent. 

Sol and Calder both stop. 

Glen smiles. “Step away from the egg, C--”

“Glen,” Rainstorm interrupts. She doesn’t step away, instead moving to stand more firmly between Glen’s arrow and the silver scaled egg behind her.

Glen’s grin turns even sharper. “Oh,” he says. “Do they not know?” 

Sol remembers the way Rainstorm had told him that she knew Glen, before-- nervous and halting and not-quite-meeting-his-eyes. 

“That’s n--not it,” Rainstorm says. Her eyes flick towards Sol, and in the second before she looks away again he catches the fear in them. 

Because Calder knows. It’s just Sol who she’s always been afraid of telling.

In an instant, he’s become the one thing Glen has to hold over Rainstorm’s head. The thread that Glen can pull. 

Glen seems to notice it, too. “Just him, then.” His bow remains trained on Rainstorm, but he turns his attention towards Sol. “If that’s true, I don’t think it’s a very fair arrangement, wouldn’t you agree… what was it? Cure Lilypad?” Glen cocks his head. “Or do you prefer Solum?”

“We get it, you saw me when we were fighting Todd,” Sol says, clenching his gauntlets at his side. His chest throbs, an echo of the feeling of Todd’s horns impacting his chest and shattering right through his transformation. “She was there the first time I transformed. You’re not special.” 

“Mmm.” Glen looks thoughtful. “Your identity was the least interesting thing I learned in that fight. No offense, of course.” He looks back towards Rainstorm. “Would you like to know the most interesting?” 

“You’re gonna tell us either way,” Sol says. 

Glen scoffs. “I wasn’t asking you,” he says, without looking Sol’s way again. 

Rainstorm, for her part, looks frozen. There’s a long moment where she and Glen just… stare at each other. It’s broken by Calder, who throws one of his ice swords at Glen’s head and forces him to jump back. 

“Enough games,” Calder calls, throwing another. “You’re all out of beasts.” 

Glen jumps back again, smiling as he lands and training his bow right back on Rainstorm. “You’re quite the little nuisance. Always playing her knight.”

Sol takes his distraction as an opportunity, edging closer to Rainstorm. He can tell Calder notices, because he steps to the side to draw Glen’s attention even further away from Rainstorm and Sol.

“You’re quite the little nuisance,” Calder shoots back, missing Glen with his next sword to keep his attention firmly fixed on him. “Seems like you can’t take a hint. She doesn’t want you around anymore.”

Sol’s close enough to Rainstorm to hear the strange, choked noise she makes at that. He takes another step forward, not daring to speak to her yet until he can really whisper. 

“Hm,” Glen says, whipping his bow around to shoot an arrow at Calder, who dodges it as easily as Glen had been dodging his swords. It embeds itself in the tangle of wires from one of the beasts he’d defeated before. “We’ll see about that. I’ll ask her once you’re out of the way.”

Sol takes another step.

“Then you should get better aim,” Calder says.

“Sure,” Glen says, “let’s go with that.”

There’s something in Glen’s tone that makes Sol look towards the pair of them as he creeps closer to Rainstorm. 

Glen still has his bow trained on Calder, but he seems to be staring past Calder, not at him. Sol quickly spots why, as the wires behind Calder start to slightly shift, bright green energy from Glen’s arrow spiraling through them. They’re starting to take form, one bigger than any of the beasts they’ve faced yet. 

Sol glances towards Rainstorm, who is visibly trembling. She’s taken a step back towards the egg, reaching back to rest one hand on top of it. 

She and Calder both haven’t noticed the motion in the wires, yet. 

Rainstorm has the egg. Calder can handle whatever this beast is, as long as he sees it coming. 

Sol knows his role. 

He charges forward towards Glen, clapping his gauntlets together to build a ball of fiery energy between them as he runs. “Icicle,” he yells, immediately drawing Glen’s attention. “Behind you!” 

Calder’s head snaps Sol’s way. He nods, quickly spinning around to face the beast behind him.

Sol sees Glen drawing his bow. Before he can fully react, Sol throws the ball of energy into the air and leaps up to kick it his way.  

He hears Glen whistle, but it’s too late. Sol flips around and kicks the ball of fire, driving it towards Glen. 

A moment later, wires wrap around him, the impact and the strength with which they immediately constrict him making him cry out. 

“Lilypad!” Rainstorm yells, her voice breaking with fear. 

“Stay with the egg!” Sol manages to call back. Even he can hear the strain in his voice. He looks back towards Glen just in time to see him loose an arrow and drive it straight through Sol’s attack, dispelling it.

“You little…” There’s a sense of satisfaction that swells in Sol’s chest as Glen shoots him a look of genuine distaste and annoyance. He struggles against the wires holding him. 

Behind him, he hears Rainstorm gasp. The mass of wires that Glen had animated takes shape, spreading the scaffolding of giant wings, the gaps filled with green light. A neck rears up next, and-- oh.

A giant dragon bears down on Calder. Sol sees Calder add more ice to his sword, the size doubling in his hands. 

The moment of pause gives Glen enough time to gather himself, his annoyance being replaced by satisfaction as he looks between Rainstorm and Sol’s faces. 

“Icicle!” Rainstorm calls, sounding worried.

“I’ve got it,” Calder yells back. “You heard Lilypad. Protect the egg.”

Rainstorm makes a strangled noise, as Glen takes a step towards Sol. The wires holding him constrict tighter. 

“Be a good little frog and just listen, alright Solum?” Glen asks. 

“Why would I listen to you?” Sol scoffs back. He knows he’s in trouble here, knows that Glen could easily hurt him or just take him. Still, it’s better if he takes Sol than the egg. Rainstorm and Calder could handle that dragon together, especially with Glen gone. 

Glen doesn’t look too bothered, just waves a hand, the wires turning Sol so that he’s facing Rainstorm instead of Calder. 

“I thought you were just working with her,” Rainstorm says, her voice wavering. “You-- you’ve become one of her hybrids.” 

“You say it like it’s such a bad thing,” Glen says. He walks forward, closing some of the distance between him and Rainstorm. Sol can see, even from behind him, green light lacing its way through his veins as some kind of illusion drops. “She offers power, little mouse. A few sacrifices are needed.” His eyes flick towards Sol for just a second, and Sol can see that one of them is a glowing ring of green now. 

“I-- I told you where to find this because I thought you wanted to heal the Living Wood. Bring back the dragons.”

“I do,” Glen says plainly. “I want to lead the Living Wood back to greatness.”

Sol struggles against the wires holding him as Glen and Rainstorm talk. Every time he thinks he gets an inch of space, they squeeze him tighter. 

Glen keeps talking. “You could still join me again--” he leans forward to say something more to Rainstorm, and in the same instant the wires holding Sol send a shock through his body so intense he sees white. He feels himself scream, but he doesn’t hear it. 

He misses whatever Glen says, but not the look of horror on Rainstorm’s face as her eyes snap to Sol. 

“See?” Glen says to Rainstorm. “I’ll still protect you. If you don’t want him to know your name, he doesn’t have to. Just give me the egg, and you can even come back with me. We can lead the Living Wood back to prosperity together.”

Rainstorm looks like she’s about to cry. “This isn’t what I want.” She’s just staring Sol’s way. He tries to give her a reassuring smile.

“Give me the egg, come with me, and it all stops,” Glen says. “Your friends are harmless. I don’t want to hurt them any more than you want to see them hurt.”

“Rainstorm,” Sol says. He can feel his voice shaking. “Don’t listen to him. Remember--” the wires squeeze him tighter, driving the air out of his lungs. “Remember my promise,” he chokes out.

[“Cure Rainstorm! Wait! I-- I know you don’t like me, b--but I promise you! I’m gonna become the best partner you ever wanted. I won’t ever hold you back. So you don’t have to worry about me! Promise!”]

Rainstorm gasps, and Sol can see the tears in her eyes spill over. He feels Foster land on his head.

“You… you idiot,” Rainstorm says, just loud enough for him to hear. “Thanks.” She turns towards Glen. “That’s not what I want either. And you haven’t been honest about what you want. You don’t want to bring the Living Wood back.”

“I do.”

“No. You want to rule it.” Rainstorm plants her feet firmly, pulling her umbrella in front of her and opening it with the tip pointed towards Glen. Energy charges at its point. “And I’m not gonna help you.”

Rainstorm sends a blast of energy towards Glen, using the moment of distraction to grab the egg and jump away from him, tucking it under her arm. She holds her umbrella back towards him like a shield. 

Glen, having only been partially prepared for the blast, stumbles as he jumps out of the way of the beam. He catches his footing quickly, drawing his bow again. 

“Fine,” Glen says, sounding displeased. “I gave you a chance.” He glances Sol’s way. “Remember what I was saying, Solum? About the things I learned from your failures when facing Todd?”

Sol doesn’t give him the satisfaction of a response, just glaring his way.

Glen sighs. “If I hit one of you hard enough,” he says, enunciating each word. “You’ll show who you really are.”

Sol feels his stomach drop. If Glen’s goal is just going to be hurt Rainstorm bad enough that her transformation breaks…

“You’ll have to hit me first,” Rainstorm calls, leaping forward to stab her umbrella at Glen. He jumps back, firing arrows her way that she deflects easily. 

As she and Glen clash, Sol turns his attention to getting out and helping Rainstorm as quickly as possible. 

He tries to glance up at Foster resting on his head as he squirms against the wires. “Any bright ideas?” he asks the duck.

“Weh.” 

Sol feels a surge of energy in his manastone. At the same instant, there’s a crash from behind him, where Calder is fighting the dragon. 

“Was that Icicle,” Sol asks, feeling his anxiety twisting in his chest.

Foster is quiet for a moment. 

“Was it him, Foster?” Sol asks, struggling harder against the wires. He pulls at the power from his manastone, feeling warmth gather in his palm.

“… weh.” It’s a nervous, affirmative quack. 

“Go help Icicle,” Sol says quickly. “Take the power back if you need. He’s fighting a dragon. I’ll figure out how to get out of some stupid wires.”

“Wek.” 

“Foster, go.” 

He feels the weight of Foster lift off his head, and Foster’s wings flap as he flies towards Calder’s end of the battlefield. The power surging in his manastone dims. 

Now he just needs to figure out a way out of here. For all his struggling, he’s managed to pull his arms mostly free enough to start grabbing at the wires around him, pulling them off of him as he steals glances at Rainstorm and Glen’s fight. 

They’re somewhat evenly matched, Rainstorm darting close while Glen tries to keep back to fire his arrows. Rainstorm always keeps her umbrella between them as a shield. 

The more they fight, the harder it is for Sol to see everything going on. Rain from Rainstorm’s abilities and the heat from the mechanical wires Glen is manipulating is kicking up steam, obscuring his view. 

Luckily, the more they fight, the less Glen seems to be focused on keeping Sol in place. At first, when he’d pull them off, they would tighten again a second later. Now, there’s a moment of pause before they do, and some of them just stay in the new position Sol has wrenched them to. 

When he’s gotten himself about halfway free, the fight moves back his way. Glen leaps past him, flipping in the air to fire a few arrows towards Rainstorm as she chases him. When she spins her umbrella up to deflect them, however, one of the Alexandrite wires whips up and strikes at her hand, sending the umbrella flying up into the air. Another wire catches it.

Rainstorm is left standing, holding the egg, as Glen levels his bow her way. 

“Now,” he says. “The egg.”

She shakes her head, and jumps out of the way of the arrows he fires in response. She lands on top of a tangle of wires from one of the beasts they’d defeated earlier. 

“I’ll take you without my weapon,” Rainstorm says. 

Glen smirks. Sol immediately realizes what he’s doing, and pulls against the wires as he yells out. “Rainstorm, jump--” 

It’s too late. The wires from the beast wrap up around her feet, anchoring her in place. She tries to jump away anyway, but the wires hold firm. She wraps her arms around the egg even tighter. 

“What now, little mouse?” Glen asks. “You’re trapped.”

Rainstorm looks Sol’s way. There’s a look in her eyes he can’t quite read. “I’m sorry,” she says. 

Sol struggles even harder against the wires. He’s making progress, but it won’t be fast enough. “Rainstorm, don’t, we can-- we can figure it out.” 

“Give me the egg,” Glen says, “or I’ll show him who he’s been trusting all this time.” 

“No,” Rainstorm says. She crouches down, still held in place by the wires, and curls her body around the egg.

Sol surges forward, feeling the last of the wires starting to give. 

Glen draws his bow. “Fine, then.” He lets the arrow fly. 

Sol hears Rainstorm call out in pain. 

“No!” he screams, pulling against the wires holding him. There’s a flash of light as her transformation shatters, steam billowing up around her and Glen. Sol feels himself finally breaking free of the wires in the same instant he manages to find Rainstorm again. 

The same instant he sees her face.

[“Lilypad?” 

They’re staring out into the bay, the monsters of the day defeated. It’s the longest Rainstorm has stuck around, after. They haven’t talked properly since Rainstorm fled from Sol’s plea to be her partner. 

“Y--yeah?”

“You… you don’t actually want to know who I am.”

“Of course I do!” 

“No.” Rainstorm looks weirdly… sad. “It’s better this way. I’ll work with you, so… just forget about that part, okay?”

“O--oh.” Sol looks down at his gauntlets. They’re doing a good job of hiding his shaking hands. “Okay.”]

It takes until he hits the ground to process what he sees. His shoulder hits first, and it knocks his breath out of his chest as he tumbles forward. He pulls himself halfway up, trying to find her and Glen again in the steam. 

The last thing he’d seen before he started falling was the look of pain on Callie’s face as Rainstorm gave way to one of Sol’s best friends. 

“C--Callie?” he yells, struggling to his feet. 

There’s no answer. 

There is, however, the faint green glow from Glen through the fog. 

Sol doesn’t have time to try to figure out what Rainstorm being means. Instead, he haphazardly rushes towards the green glow, drawing his fist back to punch at Glen. 

He almost connects, fiery energy from Sol’s fist singeing the front of Glen’s shirt as he jumps back. 

Glen grins at Sol as he does. “Is it really me you’re angry with?”

“Y--Yeah,” Sol says. His body hurts, even with the increased resilience from his transformation. Still, he lays into Glen with punches, forcing him to use his bow to block. “You hurt Rainstorm. You hurt Callie,” he says between punches. 

“She lied to you.”

“You hurt her!” Sol manages to land a punch on Glen’s shoulder, sending him sliding back. They burst from the fog, and Sol immediately spots Calder, still fighting the giant dragon creature. 

“Icicle!” he yells, as Glen recovers from the punch. 

Calder doesn’t fully glance his way-- he’s too busy dodging attacks from the dragon. It’s much smaller than it had been when it first formed, as if Calder’s been carving chunks off of it. Instead, he yells over his shoulder to Sol. “Is Rainstorm okay?”

Sol hesitates, seeing Glen smirk. 

“Lilypad,” Calder yells, sounding desperate. 

“I--I don’t know. I couldn’t see.”

Calder dodges a blast of air from the dragon’s wings and looks up towards something in the sky. “Foster, go find her,” he calls. “Lilypad, keep him busy.”

It hits Sol suddenly that Calder knew. 

He knew. 

Calder knew, and he and Callie knew who Sol was, and they both decided it was better not to tell-- 

“Sol,” Calder’s voice is low-- he’s suddenly beside Sol, and Sol can see the dragon trying to blast a small blizzard away with its wings. “I’m sorry. We need to talk after, but can you handle Glen?”

Sol doesn’t have time to have feelings about this. They’re fighting. He nods. “I’ll distract him as long as I can,” he says, hopping away from Calder and chucking a ball of energy towards Glen before Calder can get another word in. 

Glen shoots it away, and Sol gets in close, grabbing for his bow with one gauntlet while deflecting an arrow with the other. Glen grits his teeth as he wrenches the bow back from Sol. “She was so scared about you learning who she was,” he says, as he continues to dodge and block Sol’s hits. “You know, when I looked you up in Mothership’s databases, it seemed like you were close.” 

He jumps back and fires a pair of arrows. Sol catches one, but the other hits him in the shoulder, the light dispelling a second later as Sol gasps in pain. 

Glen grins. “Which begs the question as to why Calliope didn’t trust you.”

Sol can feel the tightness in his chest as he leaps forward to punch at Glen again. The questions Glen is asking are the same ones that are burning him up from the inside. Except-- 

“Shut up,” Sol says. He punches towards Glen’s stomach with one hand, and when Glen lowers his bow to block, drives the other up, half-colliding with Glen’s cheek and forcing him to lean back. “You’re just trying to hurt her through me. I’m not gonna let you do that!” 

With his last word, he jumps over Glen, flipping through the air and then kicking Glen’s back with both feet. Glen grunts as he stumbles slightly, then jumps away, turning to face Sol as some of the wires from the Alexandrite beasts come up to support him. 

Glen wipes away a trail of blood from his nose with a grimace as he glares back at Sol. Sol realizes, suddenly, that his half-Alexandrite form is straining him. He can’t maintain this long-- he’s already struggling. One solid hit, and… 

“Icicle,” Sol yells, “let’s duo attack!”

“What about the dragon?” 

“It’ll fall apart if he leaves,” Sol answers, and the look on Glen’s face tells him that he’s right. 

Calder nods, jumping away from the dragon and landing next to Sol. Sol feels their manastones connecting as Calder picks him up, tossing him up and forward, and then hurling a plate of ice for him to leap off of. 

“Skyward Snowy Shot!” they chorus, as Sol bounds higher into the air on Calder’s ice plates, each one shattering into snow that flies up to join the ball of sun fire forming in Sol’s hands. 

Glen wavers slightly, moving to dodge, but Sol’s manastone locks his attention in as he tosses the ball forward and kicks it with all his might towards where Glen will land. 

Calder catches Sol out of the air as the shot hits Glen, a burst of snow and fire and smoke exploding from the impact. 

When the smoke clears, Glen’s clothes are singed and his hair is disheveled. He’s slid back from where he was, and Sol can see his bow is damaged from using it to block. 

Sol smiles, still in Calder’s arms. 

“I’ll be back for that egg,” Glen says. He waves a hand towards some of the wires and they open into a gate. “Try not to fight too much. I’d like a bit of a challenge when I do.”

Glen steps through the gate. There’s a crash from behind them as the dragon collapses into a pile of wires.

Sol feels his face fall. Without Glen there to posture towards, he deflates, squirming in Calder’s arms so that Calder puts him down. 

“Sol,” Calder says softly. 

Sol looks away. “Let’s go check on-- on Callie.”

Foster lands on Sol’s shoulder. “Wek.”

Sol has been so… stupid. Whenever Foster had appeared to them in their non-transformed forms, he’d always been weirdly attracted to Callie, while she tried to push away every shred of his affection. 

It wasn’t that Callie didn’t like Foster. It’s that she didn’t want Sol to learn who she was. 

Calder rests his hand on Sol’s other shoulder. “Sol, I know what you’re thinking but--”

Sol looks up at Calder. He feels tears stinging his eyes. “Do you?” he half-yells. “Do you really? Yeah, I didn’t tell you who I was at first, but that was ‘cause I didn’t-- you both knew. You both knew it was the three of us, and neither of you-- she never trusted me. I’ve never been--” good enough for her trust. Sol shrugs Calder’s hand off his shoulder. “Glen shot her. We need to make sure she’s not… I couldn’t see her, after.”

Without waiting for Calder’s response, Sol leaps towards where he’d seen Callie. Some stupid part of him wishes Albin was here. He’d know how to calm Sol down. Then again--

[“Sol, look, if she-- if she doesn’t trust you, why don’t you just prove yourself to her? If you become a really good partner, she won’t be able to deny working with you.”

“You… you’re right, Albie! Yeah. I’ll become the best partner Cure Rainstorm could ever wish for! And then she’ll accept me as her friend!”]

-- Maybe it’s best Albin isn’t here. Sol’s let him down, too.

He can hear Calder calling for him as he follows behind. On his shoulder, Foster pecks his cheek lightly. “Weh.”

“Oh, come on Foster,” Sol mutters. 

Foster pecks him again, harder. 

“Don’t act like--” Sol stops, suddenly coming to a wall of steam, right around where Callie had been. It’s definitely strange, Sol thinks. Most of the other mist and steam on the battlefield has cleared up, especially with Glen’s departure.

Foster jumps off of Sol’s shoulder to fly in front of him. There’s a strange red glow to his eyes. “Weh.” He starts trying to flap the steam away.

Calder catches up, landing beside Sol. Sol doesn’t meet his eyes as Calder raises a hand, holding it out towards the steam. 

“Icicle Blizzard,” Calder murmurs, a blast of cold air dissipating the steam. 

The first thing Sol sees is a flash of silver. It takes him a moment to realize that it’s not Alexandrite’s wires, but a silver-scaled serpent. 

The serpent is coiled around something, rearing its head up to hiss as the steam dissipates. Sol sees wisps of steam from its mouth, too, like it had been creating it. 

There’s no sign of Callie. 

Foster flies towards the serpent. “Wek.”

“Foster!” Calder calls, rushing forward. Sol follows him, suddenly unfrozen and processing that he had been frozen in some kind of… fear? at the serpent. 

The serpent hisses as Foster gets close, but doesn’t strike. Calder slows as he gets closer, then--

“Callie,” he says. He steps closer. 

The serpent hisses again. 

“Wek.” Foster flies up and lands on the tip of its nose, the red glow of his eyes reflected in the serpent’s starry ones. They stare at each other for a long moment, and then the serpent uncoils slightly. 

Sol is able to see what Calder could, now. Callie, curled up and nearly unconscious around an eggshell. Her transformation is almost fully dispelled, the fact that she’s wearing a dress made of white light instead of her school uniform the only sign that she was transformed.

Calder hurries over to her. “It’s okay,” he says to the serpent as he gets close. Foster quacks softly, and the serpent lets Calder get close, its tail coming up to wrap around him, too. 

Calder kneels next to Callie. “Hey,” he says softly. “Calliope.”

Callie makes a soft noise. 

Sol edges closer, peering around the serpent to watch. He can’t bring himself to interrupt them. 

“It’s okay,” Calder says, smoothing Callie’s hair back. “The egg hatched, and it’s okay. You can rest.” 

There’s a soft burst of light as Callie’s transformation fully breaks, and she slumps into Calder’s arms. He closes his eyes for a moment, eyebrows furrowed, and then picks Callie up and turns to Sol. The serpent coils around both of them, and Foster stays perched on its nose. 

Sol remembers Glen calling Calder Callie’s knight. 

They make a heroic picture. One Sol doesn’t fit into. 

“Sol,” Calder says, and Sol looks away. “We should talk.”

Sol hops past him and picks up the eggshell from where Callie had been holding it. It’s probably best if Alexandrite didn’t get ahold of anything from this serpent, even something discarded. Sol’s pretty sure she could use it to create… something. Something bad. 

“Okay,” he says, now that he’s behind Calder and his face is hidden.

He hears Calder sigh softly. “Let’s find somewhere to rest,” he says. 

They’ll have to wait for Callie to wake up to go back to town, so instead they find a cave in the cliff-face far enough away from where any of the Alexandrite beasts had been. Calder carefully lays Callie down, the serpent immediately coiling around her. Sol sets the eggshells nearby, and then walks out of the cave entrance to sit on the edge of the cliff. 

He lets his transformation fall away. 

He knows he’s being petty about this. He knows he should just suck it up and accept that Callie didn’t trust him (her friend) enough to tell him who she was, but--

“It’s not that she didn’t trust you,” Calder says, coming to sit next to Sol. He’s also let his transformation go. 

Sol stares down at his feet. He’s not surprised that Calder knows what he’s thinking. “She really didn’t want me to know.” He feels tears stinging his eyes. “You knew before you were even a Cure.”

“Yeah,” Calder says. “Minutes before.” 

It’s enough to make Sol look over at him curiously. “I thought…”

Calder leans back, staring up at the sky. “Do you remember the day of that attack? How you arrived before Rainstorm did?”

Sol nods slowly. 

“I was what held her up. When the attack happened, Callie and I were getting ice cream. We ran and found somewhere safe, and then she tried to make some kind of excuse to leave, and I wouldn’t let her.” He shakes his head. “She had to transform in front of me to get me to stop arguing. And then she left me on a rooftop and told me not to follow her.”

“But you did,” Sol says. 

“I couldn’t leave her.” Calder looks back Sol’s way. “I didn’t know you were… you. Until the Todd fight.” 

“I know,” Sol says softly. He’d been trying to befriend Calder without giving himself away, back then. 

“Callie knew. You know that. But she protected your secret from me. I asked her once, and she wouldn’t tell.”

“What did she… say?” Sol asks. 

“Lilypad deserves to tell you if he wants. When he’s ready.” Calder reaches over to put a hand on Sol’s shoulder, then seems to think better of it, putting it on the ground next to Sol instead. “Once I found out who you were, I kind of understood.”

“You weren’t… upset? That I didn’t tell you?” It’s been weeks, since that fight, and they still haven’t talked about it. Calder knowing Sol’s identity was just… part of the new normal. 

“No,” Calder says. “I was…” he sighs. “It definitely made the reason you approached me make sense. But I think Callie protecting your identity was her way of… apologizing.” 

“For…”

“Not telling you.” 

Sol chews his lip. “Do you know why she didn’t tell me?”

“M-hm. I asked her. After I learned who you were.” 

“Why, then?” Sol asks, so softly he can barely hear himself. 

“I don’t think it’s… Well, you should ask Callie,” Calder says. “But I thought you might spiral if I didn’t at least clear a little bit up.”

“What? By saying that she didn’t hide it from me because she didn’t trust me? That there was some other reason she didn’t want me to know?”

“There is some other reason. She trusts you, Sol. She respects you a lot.”

Sol shakes his head. “Then…” He sighs. “You already said you weren’t gonna tell me. Nevermind.”

Calder reaches over and takes Sol’s hand, squeezing it once. “I’m sure she’ll be up soon and you can talk,” he says. “But… until then…” Calder hesitates for a moment, then squeezes Sol’s hand again. “What does Sol think of Cure Rainstorm? I think you’ll find some answers there.”

“What do I…” Sol frowns. 

“What would Callie know that Sol thinks of Cure Rainstorm,” Calder adds. He drops Sol’s hand and rests it next to him again.

Sol frowns deeper. He’s always loved Cure Rainstorm. He’s never hesitated to say that. Why would Callie not want to tell him?

[“You really want to know, Sol?”

“Of course! If something’s got you down, I wanna help! We’re friends now, right?”

Callie puffs her cheeks out, then exhales heavily. “I have a… friend. And there’s this thing we both do, right? But he’s like, way better at it than I am. Even though he’s been doing it for much less time.”

“If he’s looking down on you just point me his way! I’ll take him for you… or I can help you prove that you’re better at… what was it again?”

“He doesn’t look down on me,” Callie says, instead of answering. “That’s the problem. He actually… really seems to look up to me.”

“Oh,” Sol says. “But you’re sad about it because…”

“I don’t want to let him down.” There are tears in Callie’s voice.

“Why would you be letting him down?”

“Because I’m not who he thinks I am.” 

“Ah! Callie, no, don’t cry, hey-- If he looks up to you, I don’t think you could let him down.” 

“W--What?” Callie says between tears. 

“I mean, he looks up to you, right? So you couldn’t let him down by being yourself.” He thinks of Cure Rainstorm, and all the times she’s protected him. Her sometimes-unstable magic. “I think it’s kinda special when the people you look up to trust you enough to show things like that. It’s like… you can finally do something to help repay them, you know?”

Callie sniffs. “Maybe… Thanks, Sol.”

“Anytime! And if you want me to beat that guy up for you, just say the word!”]

“Was it me?” Sol murmurs, pulling his legs up to his chest and resting his chin on his knees. 

“It really wasn’t your fault, Sol, it’s--”

“No,” Sol interrupts Calder, shaking his head. “Callie and I. We talked about this guy sometimes.” 

“Hm?”

“He-- he joined her. In doing something. And he looked up to her, but it just made her feel bad about her ability to do the thing, because he was so much better at it naturally. But I-- I thought it was a poetry class or… something. I didn’t think she was talking about…”

Calder sighs. “Callie…” he mutters. “I’m sorry Sol, she probably shouldn’t have been--”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Sol says quickly, thinking about how lucky he’d felt to be Callie’s confidant. “It’s… it’s just, if that’s true, then she-- she thought she’d be letting me down, if I found out Rainstorm was her.”

Calder says nothing, which makes Sol feel like he’s on the right track. 

His eyes sting again. “I never wanted to make her feel like that.”

Next to him, Calder makes a strangled noise. “Sol, it’s not-- it’s not your fault.” 

“Isn’t it?” Sol gets up, pacing the rocky area in front of the cave. “I made her feel like--“

“You didn’t make her.” Calder turns to watch Sol, but doesn’t stand. “Callie just… Glen hurt her. A lot.”

Sol stops pacing. Glen. Of course. There was another person Callie talked about, an ex-boyfriend who lied to her and then dropped her when it was convenient. She’d moved to Ezry because of him. Sol had promised, on many occasions, to kick that guy’s ass, too.

He thinks of Glen, singed as he fled the battlefield. In a way, Sol kept his promise. 

Then Sol remembers what Glen’s goal was, and…

“Calder?” Sol asks. 

“Mhm?”

“Glen wanted… me finding out was his way of hurting Callie.”

Calder nods. 

“If I’m upset about it, he’s won. You-- you can’t tell her.”

Calder raises an eyebrow Sol’s way. “That I’m not going to do.”

“Calder, please.”

“The two of you need to talk about this.” Calder stands, dusting his pants off. “It’ll be worse if you don’t.”

“But…” Sol looks down at his feet. 

It’s easier if he and Callie never talk about it, right? It’s easier if he just accepts that he made Callie feel like she couldn’t tell him, and they all move on. It’s easier if he never makes Callie feel like she hurt him, because--

Calder puts a hand on Sol’s shoulder. “Your feelings matter just as much as Callie’s,” he says.

Sol doesn’t meet his eyes. “Okay.” 

If Sol pretends everything is normal, Calder won’t know if he doesn’t actually talk to Callie. And then they can just go on like everything is okay, and it will be.

Calder gives Sol a strange look, but squeezes his shoulder once and steps past him. “We should check on Callie.”

Sol nods, and follows Calder into the cave.

Callie takes a little over an hour to wake up. 

The serpent barely lets Calder get close enough to check, let alone Sol. Foster stays perched on Sol’s shoulder, as if he feels bad for him. 

Calder, who has carefully positioned himself next to Callie and the serpent, notices her stirring first. 

“Hey,” he says softly. Sol looks up his way, and he nods towards Callie. 

“H--Hey Callie,” Sol says. 

“Calder.” Callie pauses, then shifts to peer over the serpent. “S--Sol.”

Sol waves, doing his best to smile. 

“You okay, Callie?” Calder asks, shifting closer. The serpent narrows its eyes Calder’s way.

Callie strokes the serpent’s nose. “Shh,” she murmurs. “It’s okay.” 

The serpent settles a little. 

“I’m okay,” Callie says, sounding almost shy. “I… I’m sorry, Sol.”

Sol sees, for a moment, her face as she prepared to take Glen’s arrow. I’m sorry.

“You already apologized,” Sol says. He shifts closer, keeping an eye on the serpent just in case. “I just wanna know if you’re okay.”

“Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, I’m okay. He didn’t…” she rubs her shoulder. “He didn’t hit anything important.”

“He wasn’t really aiming to hurt you,” Sol says. The arrow Glen had fired had one purpose. “Well… not like that.”

Callie nods, hesitating. “Sol, are you… I mean-- are you okay with…”

“Am I okay with you? Being Rainstorm?” 

Callie nods again.

“Of course!” Sol very deliberately doesn’t look Calder’s way. “One of my best friends and my really cool partner are the same? Yeah, I’m okay with it! It’s really cool, even!”

Callie’s face crumples. She buries her face in her hands, nodding. “Okay,” she says, voice small. “Okay.” 

Over Callie’s head, Calder catches Sol’s eye, giving him a disapproving look. “Callie,” he says, none of the disapproval bleeding into his tone. “Can you walk?”

“Oh, yeah, um-- Licorice healed me.” 

The serpent hisses proudly. 

“Licorice is… the serpent?” Sol asks. 

Callie nods. “I saw him while I was out,” she says. “I should… we should make plans. There are others.”

“After you’ve rested,” Calder says firmly. “I’ll go set up our way back.”

As bad as Mothership is, their transporters are convenient when protected by cure magic. Sol nods. “I’ll help,” he says.

Calder sighs. “Will you be okay in here, Callie?”

“M-hm.” Callie pats Licorice. “We’ll be alright.”

Foster flutters off of Sol’s shoulder to rest on Calders as he stands. In a flash, Calder transforms, and Foster quacks softly in approval. 

Sol follows Calder out of the cave. 

Or, goes to follow him.

As Calder-- a few steps ahead of Sol-- reaches the entrance, he turns back suddenly, raising a hand like he’s telling Sol to stop. Sol, half on instinct, does, and then a second later a wall of ice springs up between him and Calder.

“C--Calder?” Sol rushes forward to press his hands against it. There’s a panic building in his chest. “What are you… doing?” Nothing about Calder’s appearance suggests Alexandrite, but what if she… 

“I’m not letting you out until you talk,” Calder says, voice muffled by the ice.

Oh. 

“Calder, come on, that’s not--”

“You’re just going to pretend everything is fine.” Calder sits down, leaning back against the ice wall. 

Sol can just transform, and burst through the ice. Once he’s out of the cave, Calder will have no reason to keep Callie inside, and they’ll go home and Calder will forget his suspicion that Sol is pretending and everything will be okay.

Sol reaches for his manastone. 

Nothing. 

“Weh.” Foster turns around on Calder’s shoulder, Sol’s manastone clutched in his beak. 

“Foster!” Sol stares at the duck in disbelief. 

“Everything okay, Sol?” Callie calls.

“Yeah!” Sol replies. He leans close to the wall to speak softly to Calder. “I’m not pretending,” Sol says. “I am glad. Really. That Rainstorm is my friend. That’s all I wanted from the start. Didn’t I tell you that? As Lilypad?”

Calder, in response, holds up Callie’s manastone so that Sol can see it. 

Sol’s only ever seen Calder act like this when Albin is bickering with him. 

“Is it really that bad to not let Glen win?” Sol asks. 

Calder turns at that. “Ignoring it is letting Glen win. You need to talk.”

“And so this is your answer? This isn’t…”

“Mom used to do this when me and my brothers were really going at it. She’d make us talk it out in the meat shed.” Calder taps the wall. “If I didn’t think the two of you could talk it out, I wouldn’t do this.” 

Sol glares at him, just a little. He lightly (lightly) punches the wall, just to see. 

It hurts. It doesn’t even crack. 

Sol makes a frustrated noise, turns, and sits down with his back to the wall. 

If Calder’s going to be stubborn, two can play at that game.

“Sol?” 

Suddenly, Callie is shaking Sol’s shoulder. Sol blinks sleep from his eyes, the cold of the ice wall behind him making it hard to cling to consciousness. 

Oops.

“Did I… fall asleep?” Sol asks softly, looking around. Licorice is curled up on the other side of the cave, both eyes fixed firmly on him, cautious but not aggressive. Sol scoots to the side, away from the ice, leaning instead against the rough cave wall and pulling his knees to his chest.

Callie smiles sadly. “Just for a bit.” 

Sol glances towards the wall, seeing no sign of Calder on the other side. Callie isn’t asking why they’re trapped, so… “What did he tell you?” 

“That we need to talk,” Callie says. She stands, putting both hands on the wall and then resting her forehead against it. Sol can see a frosty pattern creeping across her skin where she’s touching the ice. It seems to help her steel herself, and she looks back down at Sol. “You’re not really okay with me being Rainstorm, are you, Sol?” 

“That’s not!… I…” Sol bites his lip. “I don’t have a problem with that,” he says softly. “I like that you’re Rainstorm.” 

“Sol, even I can tell--”

“I’m not lying!” Sol half-yells. He doesn’t look at Callie. “I’m not mad that you’re Rainstorm. I’m not even mad that you didn’t tell me it just-- Calder talked his way around it fine. I made you feel like you couldn’t tell me who you were. I get it. If I had been a better friend to you, you might’ve been able to tell that I-- I think Callie and Rainstorm are both-- I couldn’t have been disappointed.” 

Sol can’t stop the words falling out of his mouth. He’s not sure he wants to. “But I was… I made you feel bad about yourself and about our friendship. I gave Glen ammunition. But it’s fine, really! I took care of him! And now I know, and I’m okay with it, so he can’t use that against you more. I won’t be a weak link, so just--” his voice breaks. He buries his head in arms to hide the tears in his eyes from Callie. 

He hadn’t been letting himself think about this part. About what it meant if Callie rejected him here, really rejected him here. About what he’d lose if she decided he was more trouble than he was worth. 

But he can’t stop himself, now. He’s thinking about the study nights at Calder’s, the way Mira always heaped his plate with extra food even though he was a fraction of her family’s size. The room at Krugen’s that was suddenly fixed up and ready for a guest after Sol admitted he didn’t have anywhere other than the dorms, with Krugen grunting something to Sol about how it was a shame no one was using it right now and he’d really like to see it go to use. 

Lunch in the classroom, with four desks pushed together-- Callie and Calder and Albin and Sol, chatting and laughing and sharing food. How hanging out with Callie and Calder brought out things in Albin Sol had never seen before. How fun it was to keep learning about his best friend. How fun it was to have more than he ever thought he would. 

And Calder and Callie. Icicle and-- and Rainstorm. Calder insisting on walking Sol back to the dorms whenever Albin couldn’t. Icicle’s frosty magic helping Lilypad take to the sky. His cool hands on Sol’s back. 

Rehearsing with Callie for the spring musical auditions. Rainstorm saving Sol’s life, and then Lilypad’s time after time. The sharpness of her smile, the way it made lightning crackle through her hair.

“Let me keep being Lilypad. Let me keep being your friend. I don’t-- I can’t lose this.”

His words echo lightly through the cave, bouncing against the ice. 

“I know it’s selfish,” Sol whispers, not even sure Callie can hear it. “I know. I just…” 

He doesn’t want to go back to when he and Albin were alone. He’s never seen Albin this happy. He’s never been this happy. 

“Please.” 

Sol keeps his head buried in his arms. He doesn’t dare look.

Callie is quiet for a long moment.

Then, Sol hears her footsteps as she comes over to Sol. “When I became Rainstorm,” she says softly, sinking down next to him. “I thought I was doing everything wrong. I could barely control my powers. I couldn’t stop collateral damage during attacks. I wasn’t a very good Cure.”

Sol wants to argue, but his throat is too tight.

“But then, there was this classmate of mine. Every time I would go to class after I’d done something as Rainstorm, he was at his desk a few rows ahead of me, loudly telling his friend how cool and wonderful and inspiring Rainstorm was.” Callie chuckles softly. “I’d have to bury my head in my arms to hide how hard I was blushing.” 

After everything he’d just said, she’s trying to-- “Calder already explained,” Sol manages. The regret is catching up to him. He shouldn’t have said any of that. “It’s fine, Callie, I--”

“And one day,” Callie interrupts, forcefully enough to make Sol stop talking entirely. “That classmate got attacked. It was-- it was my chance. To do one thing to help the person who always seemed to say the things I needed to hear, even if I couldn’t quite handle them.”

Callie leans towards Sol, bumping her shoulder into his. Sol doesn’t move away. 

“But when I told him to run, he didn’t. Almost got himself killed, in fact. If it wasn’t for Foster, and the fact that that classmate of mine… his will, his desire to help was strong enough to unlock the power laying dormant in one of Foster’s Manastones. And then suddenly I didn’t just have a classmate, but a teammate. There was this moment, you know. When this new cure stepped in front of me and protected me. For the first time since becoming a cure myself, for the first time as Rainstorm, I felt safe. I wasn’t terrified.”

Callie sighs. “And then I fucked up. After the battle, I realized… I was supposed to save him. And he saved me instead. Surely, the illusion was broken now. He realized how weak Rainstorm was. So I-- I ran away. And I kept running. Even after I heard him talking to his friend about how he was going to try to become my friend. Even after he begged me to let him be my teammate. Even after our team became three. Even after we became friends. Even after he told me, clearly, that he thought that someone you look up to relying on you was an honor. I was scared.” 

Sol can feel his lip quivering. He tries to fight the tears, tries to say something-- he should reassure Callie here, but…

“I didn’t want to lose you, Sol,” Callie says, her voice wavering now. “I’d never had someone who believed in me like you did. I didn’t want to ruin it, and so instead I let myself hurt you because it was easier. Because I k-- I knew you would stay.” 

“It’s okay,” Sol manages. “It’s okay, Callie, you don’t--”

“I’m sorry,” Callie says firmly, even though Sol can hear the tears in her voice. “I’m sorry, Sol. I was wrong. I should’ve told you. You shouldn’t be the one having to ask if we can still be friends. I should. I-- I want to be your friend. Will you give me a chance to do it right?”

Sol wants that. More than anything.

He turns his head to peek at Callie. She gives him a small smile, tears streaking her face. 

“W--what if I’m upset at you?” Sol asks softly, surprising himself. 

“You can be,” Callie says. 

“Okay,” Sol says. “I’m not.”

Callie’s relief is clear on her face. She nods, wiping at her eyes. “Can I give you a hug, Sol?”

Sol nods, and Callie leans forward and pulls him into her chest. Sol uncurls to hug her back, balling his fists in the back of her shirt.

“Callie?” 

“Mhm?”

“Can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything,” Callie says, rubbing his back lightly. 

“Will you transform for me? Now that I know? I-- I wanna see.”

Callie is quiet for a second. “I mean, yeah, but why?”

Sol smiles against Callie’s shoulder. “So I can gush over how cool it is. It’s your punishment.” 

“Sol--”

“Nope.” Sol pats Callie’s back. “You have to let me make up for lost time.”

Callie sniffs. “Okay.” 

Sol clutches Callie for another minute before pulling back, reaching up to wipe a tear from her cheek. “I am glad you’re Rainstorm, Callie.”

Callie looks frozen for a second, but then breaks into a smile. “I’m glad you’re Lilypad, Sol. I’m glad you’re my friend.”

“That makes two of us,” Sol says with a grin. “And I’m glad Calder’s Icicle,” he says softly, then raises his voice to add-- “but I’m not glad Calder’s Icicle right now, because someone needs to let us out of this cave.”

Callie giggles. “Calder!” she calls.

“Calder!” Sol stands, offering Callie a hand up. She takes it, not dropping it as they walk over to the barrier.

“We’re good,” Callie adds. 

A few seconds later, Foster waddles up to the barrier. He squints up at each of them, considering. 

Sol nods to Callie. “You gotta give her her manastone back,” he says. “She owes me a transformation.”

“Wek,” Foster replies knowingly. He pecks at the barrier, shattering the ice. 

As it breaks, Sol can see Calder, sitting next to the transporter he set up with a knowing smile. “Transporter’s ready,” Calder says. “Took you long enough.”

Callie rolls her eyes, looking down at Sol. “Don’t let his cool demeanor fool you, Sol,” she says. “He’s a little shit when he wants to be.” 

“No, I’m a little shit,” Sol says, grinning. Callie is still holding his hand. He feels so… free. “He’s a big shit. A log, even.”

Callie giggles. “You’re right. Do you remember that time he--”

“Transporter’s running out of power,” Calder interrupts, even though they all know it’s not. “We better hurry.”

With a laugh, Callie pulls Sol towards Calder, Licorice and Foster following close behind.