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“In the interest of being honest, there’s something else I should probably mention, and I need you to not react until I’ve finished fully saying everything,” Scott looked off the mountain top, waiting for Legs to give him some sort of sign that he understood what he’d said.
“What else is there besides Boa being corrupted? I thought you said you were fine?” Legs walked up beside him, worry evident in his voice as he looked over Scott again.
“And I promise that I am, it’s something mostly unrelated,” Scott looked over to Legs, “Or, more unrelated to Boa, it’s related to Pyro. He doesn’t know about this, really nobody does. Do you know about the thing in the crypt?”
“Graecie said that it couldn’t be let out, no matter what. That it was way too dangerous,” Legs took another step towards Scott, grabbing the side of his arm, “Scott where is this going?”
“I went back to the crypt, for answers. The last time I was there the entity had tried to kill me, even draining all my mana to do it. It’s how I found out about my ice block ability,”
“You went back alone?! Do you know how dangerous that was? It could’ve killed you,”
“It didn’t. It didn’t even try to kill me this time. It doesn’t like my ice, for whatever reason, and I can get cold enough to keep it away from me. That didn’t keep it from talking,” Scott took a second. He needed to tell somebody about this, but he was still trying to wrap his own mind around what the thing had told him. “I went to see it before Pyro told the quartet about his corruption, and it told me that it could save Pyro. It could heal him, in return for a body,”
Legs went still next to him, pulling on his arm so Scott would look at him, “It needs a body?”
“I think it’s the only way it can get out from behind the door, and for some reason it’s desperate to have me. I don’t know why. I know it apparently has a connection to whatever is in the dragon crypt, it might have been sealed in order to seal what’s in the other crypt, I don’t know,” Scott admitted.
“I’m not considering it, at least not yet. We have time to find a different way to save him. But I also want someone else to know, just in case,” Scott looked down to the ground, waiting for Legs to say something or react to anything he’d just said.
“It sounds like it’s desperate then,” Legs took a step back, giving Scott space before he continued to talk, “It realized it can’t kill you, so it’s turning to other means. It’s scary that it’s trying to make deals though, who knows what it would offer to the next person, or if it can even do what it’s offering,” Legundo had begun to pace while thinking allowed, trying to wrap his head around what Scott had just said.
Scott grabbed his shoulders, forcing Legs out of his thoughts and to look at him.
“Legs, I know this is really worrying, but as long as nobody goes down there alone, we should be fine. It seemed to only do anything when it was alone with someone, so as long as people avoid it, we should be fine,”
“Are you going to avoid it?” Legs questioned, staring up at Scott, “If it comes down to it, and we can’t help Pyro-”
“We will, we’ll find a way. You’re one of the smartest people we have working on this and I’m sure you’ll find something. This won’t have to be an option, I just needed someone else to know about it,”
“If you say so,” Legs grabbed Scott’s hand, giving it a slight squeeze before they wandered off to a different topic of conversation.
Legundo didn’t trust it. Not that he didn’t trust Scott, he did, but he also knew that when Pyro started to get worse, Scott would make that deal. He didn’t blame him at all, how could he? In that same situation, if it were Scott, or Graecie or Zam or Sausage corrupted, he would make that deal.
Legs had decided to do what he did best, and go study in the library in the hopes of finding an answer. The books didn’t have much on the spirit who was trapped behind the door, which he had expected. All he could find were a couple journal entries speaking about ‘The One Who Sleeps’ and to never let him free. That, and apparently there was some connection between it and the thing in the dragon crypt.
So, he changed his approach. He couldn’t find anything on the entity, but maybe he could find something on possession. He was at least hoping that was how the thing took over bodies, at least the alive kind. The library had a lot more information on possessions than it did corruption, and Legs found himself occupied for hours just trying to sift through the books.
“Watcha up to?” It was during one of these reading binges that Shelby and Drift had walked in on.
“Nothing much, research, research, and more research, you?” Legs peaked up from behind a pile of books he’d already sorted through. Most of them had been fruitless, since they either only described possession or how to possess someone, not how to reverse it.
“Can’t complain much, what with everything happening. Did you find a new hidden shelf or something? I didn’t think the library had this much information on corruption,” Shelby had picked up one of the books, thumbing through the pages. Legs moved to take the book back, trying his best to think of an excuse as to why he wasn’t looking into the corruption. Scott still hadn’t told anyone else about the crypt and the deal, which was strange. He’d thought he’d at least tell the rest of the quartet besides Pyro.
“Uhh no. This isn’t about corruption actually,” Legs trailed off, still thinking.
“The many mysteries of possession and mind reading,” Drift read one of the titles out loud, almost puzzled by the words she was saying, “Why are you researching possession? Do you think it could help with Pyro?”
“Potentially,” Legs again skirted around the actual truth. Technically, he was right. If he could find a way to help, then they might be able to save Pyro. In a backwards kind of way.
“What aren’t you saying?” Shelby looked at Legs, reading him almost as well as the books in front of him. Legundo debated telling them, they were Scott’s friends, they’d want to help, right?
“I need you guys to not repeat what I’m about to tell you, not even to the people it’s concerning, ok?” Legs looked between the two girls, waiting as they nodded for him to continue, “There is a chance that we can cure Pyro, but it’s not great, and potentially has to be a trade like situation to do it,”
“What, like transferring the corruption?” Drift asked.
“More like a deal with the devil?” Legs offered, watching the idea dawn on their faces before continuing, “There’s a spirit, or something like a spirit, in the crypt. I can’t find anything on what it is or was, and all I know is that it may have been sealed down there to seal something else in the dragon crypt. The thing wants a body, and is willing to save Pyro in return for one,”
“Is that a good idea?”
“No?” Legs shrugged, “But we don’t exactly have other options right now, and besides, this is a contingency plan at best, I hope we won’t have to rely on it, but this is me doing research just in case,”
“So, who exactly is getting hurt by this? Like I know letting the thing out isn’t the greatest idea, but if all we have to do is find a body in the graveyard and bring it to the crypt, we can just burn it to ash once it cures Pyro. Problem solved,” Drift clapped her hands to emphasize her point, seemingly proud of what she’d come up with.
“From what I’ve been told, it’s not just going to take any random body. It seems to have someone in mind specifically, though I don’t know how indifferent it would be if it gets desperate enough,”
“It wants Scott,” Shelby looked straight at Legs, “Right? He told us it had tried to kill him before in it, to take over his body, and now it’s wanting to trade Scott’s body for his best friend's life,” He had to give Shelby more credit, she may not be in the library as much as some of them, but the girl was smart.
“Yeah…” Legs turned back to the books in front of him, “And he says he isn’t going to take it, that he isn’t even thinking about it but…”
“Push comes to shove he’s taking that deal, he’d do it for any of us, but for Pyro of all people,” Drift placed her arms on the desk they were standing around, bracing herself as she processed what Legs was saying. “So how do we save him?”
“I don’t know yet, but thankfully we have more on possession than corruption, so I’m hoping there’ll be something fruitful in here somewhere,” Legs motioned around him to the rest of the library.
“Then I guess we better get to work,” Shelby smirked, grabbing one of the books next to Legundo and started to read. He guessed that research might be a little easier when shared amongst a team.
Pyro had fallen quickly. At first he’d been able to keep the corruption at bay, but two weeks in he was already showing physical signs of it. His eyes had changed color by then, some of his veins were marred black with the corruption, and his skin was paler than it should be. The corruption was feeding off the fire mages mana, and there was nothing they could do about it.
He’d been put in a room at the base of Scott’s dragon tower, which is where he’d resided for the last three days. All Legs knew was that it apparently wasn’t going well. From what he’d heard from the few friends who visited Pyro, the man wasn’t himself anymore, almost fully claimed by the hive mind of the corruption.
Scott looked as if he hadn’t slept for the last week. Legs tried to help where he could, trying to find some magic cure or anything that could slow down the corruption from fully taking over Pyro, but his iron wheel could only do so much. Legs hated it, but they were finally being faced with the idea that their friend might not make it.
On day four of Pyro’s stay in Thawdale, Legundo and a couple others had gone to visit the fire mage. There were rumors that the crown had caught wind of Pyro getting corrupted, and now the dragon riders were trying to figure out what they could do to keep their friend alive.
The idea of treason had been thrown around a couple of times, always in an almost joking manner, but most of them knew they would do it in a heartbeat.
Trying to have this meeting in front of Pyro’s room was hard to say the least. He would either go quiet for eerie amounts of time, just staring into nothing, or start using his fire on the door. It never worked, but the noise of the flames dying out on the iron was enough to spook anyone in the group.
They’d decided to wait for Scott before talking any further, having not seen the ice mage yet that day. He’d said he’d be there soon, but that was twenty minutes ago and Legundo was getting nervous. Scott was fine, he was more than capable of taking care of himself, and the guy was probably taking a moment to himself before having to see Pyro in this state again. Legs knew that if he had to keep seeing and hearing Pyro in this state he probably would’ve gone mad, and he hadn’t known the guy for twenty years.
Legs felt his iron rings vibrate in his pocket, which was probably Amber telling him she was on her way back from Scott’s house. She’d gone to check on him, and he was really hoping she was heading back with the ice mage in tow.
Before he could pull the rings out to check, he heard a thud from inside Pyro’s room. It didn’t sound like the usual noises Pyro had been making, almost like a body hitting the ground. Legundo peered through the slits of the iron door to check on his friend, only to be met with Pyro laying on his side, back facing the door.
“Pyro?” Legs called out, trying his best not to panic at the sight. Pyro was fine, right? This could just be a trick from the corruption, luring them in to open the door and free him.
Pyro didn’t respond, remaining still against the floor.
“What’s wrong?” Amber called out from the stairs. She’d made it back from Scott’s house, though there was no Scott to be found.
“Did he pass out?” Shelby asked.
“It could be a trick,” AJ offered.
Legs ignored both of them, scanning the room for any clue of what had made him collapse. The place looked mostly untouched, nothing out of the ordinary, the only thing even a little askew was a chair at the table, which Pyro had been sitting in earlier.
Then he saw it. On the other side of Pyro there seemed to be tendrils of black slithering away from him. He’d never seen corruption without a host before, but if he had to guess, it would look like that. How was it leaving its host though…
Legs didn’t think about it for much longer, opening the door to Pyro’s room and throwing down his iron wheel over his friend. It had kept the corruption at bay before, he was hoping it could do it again.
Pyro was unconscious on the floor when he got to him, though his skin already looked like it had gotten some color back and the before darkened veins were nowhere to be seen. Legs tried shaking him by the shoulder, though got no response. He was still breathing though, so that was good at least.
The corruption was still in the room, almost circling around his iron wheel, waiting for it to quit before it could reclaim its host. They needed dragon fire, now.
“Somebody get a dragon down here!” Legs called out, keeping an eye on where the corruption was moving. It was creepy how life like it could get without a host to inhabit. His yelling seemed to cause Pyro to stir below him, as his eyes slowly opened. His eyes were back to normal too, and Legs could’ve cried with joy if they weren’t in their current situation.
It didn’t take long to hear the noises of dragon paws on the stairs, nor for Cindermeare to peer her head into the room and start lighting the place up. Before he could drop his iron ring to protect himself, he felt himself being pulled down as Pyro placed himself in between Legs and Cindy’s flames. The man still looked insanely confused as to what was happening, but he was glad some instinct to protect his friends had taken over at that moment.
The room was torched within a couple of seconds, but along with the room went the corruption. Cindy let out a small little huff as she finished, still scanning the place from her perch at the door, unable to get through the smaller frame to her rider.
“You back with us?” Legs asked, moving to sit up after the flames had stopped flying and Pyro had let go of his arm.
“Y-yeah, pretty sure at least,” Pyro moved to sit up, struggling a bit before Legs moved to help him. His friend was ok, he was him again, no longer a mindless host to that horrible corruption. The others had begun to try and get to Pyro, though were blocked by a very unhappy dragon who was still trying to get to her rider. “It’s ok girl, I’m alright,” Pyro huffed out a laugh, holding out his hand for Cindy to nuzzle against before moving out of the way. Legs helped Pyro out of the room and to the stairs outside, helping him sit down before he was swarmed by the rest of the dragon riders, all trying to figure out what had happened.
“How are you cured though? We didn’t do anything,” AJ pointed out, which seemed like the obvious, but she was right. They hadn’t done anything. Pyro had just been cured out of nowhere-
He made eye contact with Shelby as they both seemed to reach the same conclusion. Legs pulled out his iron rings, checking the message that had just been sent through moments before Pyro was cured.
I’m sorry - Scott
No, no, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. He wouldn’t, surely he wouldn’t, right?
Legs ran up the stairs, calling Gadget to his side. He had to get to the crypt. Shelby and Drift were both hot on his heels, calling their own dragons and following after him. They’d probably left everyone else confused, but time was now something that they couldn’t waste. They’d send a message explaining everything later.
The crypt was a longer flight, but for Legs it took mere minutes. He didn’t even tell Gadget to sit before he was running down the steps, trying to figure out where the door Scott had described was.
Shelby wasn’t far behind, grabbing him and Drift before throwing the three down the rest of the stairs and stopping their fall with her wind magic. He couldn’t take the time to thank her before they’d all split up to search the winding halls. Legs had followed a couple of the higher walking paths before he came across a smaller alcove, almost a separate cave from the crypt itself. Along the wall stood two large spruce doors, wide open and revealing nothing but the cave wall behind them.
Legs’ stomach dropped. This had to be the door, and they were open. They were open, whatever was behind them had gotten out.
Scott had made the deal.
“Shit!” Legs yelled, echoing across the rest of the smaller cave and out into the crypt. He heard quick steps approaching as Shelby and Drift appeared and the mouth of the cavern, both realizing what he had immediately.
“So plan B then,” Drift tried to shrug as if she wasn’t also panicking, but it was hard to cover up fear like this.
“What is going on?” Amber demanded from behind the two, having caught up to them after their mad dash out of Thawdale.
“Yeah, I’d like that explanation too- are the doors open?!” Pyro’s voice almost rose an octave as he stared at the spruce doors behind them.
“Yep,” Legs was doing his best to just breathe. Breathe. This was what all the research had been for. They could still hopefully save Scott.
“It would probably be heading for the dragon crypt,” Shelby spoke, already turning on her heels to get out of the crypt again.
“It’s probably flying there right now, we’re not going to be able to get there before hi-”
“Ok, great, what is it exactly? And why the hell is Aurora sitting at the entrance to the crypt with no Scott?” Pyro interrupted. Legs hadn’t noticed Aurora up there. That was good. That meant it was forced to travel on foot to the crypt. Even if it could use Scott’s ice path ability, they’d be able to catch up with their dragons easily.
“We can find him then.” Hope filled Drift’s voice as she started to head for the entrance of the crypt.
“Again, what’s going on?!” Despite how tired Pyro had seemed earlier, the man was now back to his old self.
“Scott made a deal with the devil, and if we’re fast enough, we can hopefully stop it from hurting him or anyone else,” Legs put simply, pushing past him to head back up the steps of the crypt. They could still save Scott if they were fast enough.
“If we’re right in assuming its possession, we should be able to wake him up. From what we found, possession is like being put to sleep in your own body, just with somebody else steering the ship. Hopefully, Scott is still in there enough for us to wake him up, whatever means possible,” Shelby was filling in the rest of the people who had caught up to them, letting the dragon riders know what was happening.
Legs wasn’t paying attention, instead focusing on Aurora as she flew with the rest of them, trying to find her rider. She got more frantic the longer they flew, and Legs couldn’t tell if that was because something had happened to Scott, or if she was anxious to see her rider. Eventually she perked up, nosediving down into the forest below. Legs followed right behind her, followed by the rest of the dragon riders. They couldn’t fly in the forest, but hopefully they were close enough that they wouldn’t be chasing him for much longer.
Standing in the forest, as if waiting for them was Scott, or not Scott. His back was to them, and he didn’t seem to pay them any mind as they landed. Aurora didn’t get any closer, instead rearing back and letting out a growl, not trusting the form of her rider in front of them.
“Scott,” Drift called out, slowly approaching the figure.
“Guess again,” Scott- no, the thing wearing Scott’s face, slowly turned towards them, brandishing a sickly smile that felt like it stretched too far on its face. His voice sounded like Scott’s, but not quite right, almost breathier, and like it was surrounding them rather than coming from the body. The scariest part was his eyes. They were almost pure white. The temperature in the forest dropped almost immediately as a blizzard started, blinding and separating the riders. Legs could hear the sounds of battle surrounding him, but couldn’t tell what was happening. He’d occasionally bump into Pyro or Drift as they threw rocks or fire, trying to hit the entity.
It didn’t help whenever they hit it, they could hear Scott’s cries of pain. No matter what they did, it would hurt Scott.
“Hitting him isn’t waking him up!” Shelby called out, having found a downed tree to duck behind. It gave a little reprieve from the blizzard, but Legs wasn’t going to complain, his outfit was not built for winter.
“Not like we can get close enough for a heart to heart!” Pyro sat next to them, launching fire blindly into the blizzard, hoping to dull it some.
“What else are we supposed to do then?” Drift had joined them, along with AJ and Amber as they braced against the blizzard.
“I can’t find him long enough to drain his mana, and even if I did he still can use some of his spells,” Legs commented, running a hand through his hair to try and think. Amber inhaled sharply, looking straight at Legs as if she had solved it.
“We need something really surprising then right? We’ll only get one shot to get close,”
“If we can get the entity to separate enough, we could likely destroy it outside of Scott. Once he wakes up it should get booted out of his body…hopefully,” Shelby added.
“We’re running on a lot of ‘hopefully’s here,” Pyro commented.
“Not any different from when we were trying to cure you,” Legs commented under his breath.
“Hey Legs, you know that thing you wanted to talk to me about before,” Amber commented. Legs looked at her, trying to figure out where she was taking this. There was no way she was suggesting him doing something about that.
“Amber no-”
“It would maybe work, we need something shocking right? And like a good shock?” Amber’s wings fluttered behind her. Legs was silent as he contemplated what she was saying. There was no way that this would work…right?
Legs groaned, looking up over the tree to see Scott walking straight towards them. They didn’t have much of a choice, it was either this or nothing. Legs sprung up and over the tree, throwing his iron wheel at Scott’s feet to try and cancel out his mana before grabbing the taller man's collar.
Here goes nothing.
Legs met Scott’s lips and didn’t let go, even at the initial frost that tried to spread to him. Legs squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the kiss as he moved one of his hands up to cradle Scott’s jaw. He held onto him as Scott tried to jerk back at the impact before slowly leaning into the kiss. Legs could hear something unearthly cry out from in front of him, but he didn’t care, his only care right now was Scott.
He opened his eyes to violet ones staring back at him. Legs laughed as he finally relinquished from the kiss looking at Scott, trying to figure out if it was him or it still.
“Legs?” Scott questioned, seemingly disoriented. His eyes flickered over him before sliding shut as the ice mage collapsed to the ground. Legs caught him as best he could, landing his head in his lap before focusing back on the world around them.
The One Who Sleeps had been separated from Scott, barely a visible ghost and riddled with wounds as Pyro, Drift and Shelby all attacked it, letting out a little rage on their friends behalf. Amber had landed next to Legs, checking Scott over for injuries as he put down his protective iron ring around them.
“He’s going to be ok,” Amber whispered, triggering her healing magic to start healing the wounds that he’d gained from his friend’s earlier attacks. Legs breathed out a sigh of relief, resting his forehead against Scott’s.
“We should get him back to the academy, let him rest there,” Legs commented. Amber nodded, waiting for the last of the dragon riders to finish destroying The One Who Sleeps before asking for help in getting Scott back to the academy. They’d get him home, and hopefully, Legs would have the chance to explain what had happened to Scott. He hoped he hadn’t just messed up one of the best things he’d had in a while.
Scott woke up warm. He hadn’t been expecting that, especially with how cold he naturally ran. Groaning, he slowly tried to pry his eyes open, being met with a very bright room and someone curled in against him. So that was the source of the heat…
Blinking away the rest of the fuzziness in his vision, Scott found Pyro curled into his side. Pyro, who looked completely normal and was warm again.
“Looks like sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up,” Pyro smirked at him, pulling him a little closer, “I swear, if you ever do something like that again I will kill you myself. Don’t you ever do that again Boralith,”
“Don’t get corrupted again and I won’t,” Scott joked back, tucking his chin over Pyro’s head, happy to be able to hold his best friend again and not have to worry about the corruption or whether or not he was even able to understand what he was saying, “I’m just glad you’re ok.”
They laid like that for a couple more hours before the nurse came in to check on Scott and kicked Pyro out. He’d apparently been asleep long enough for Pyro to have been fully cleared of any corruption and to be in an almost perfect bill of health. Scott himself was mostly fine, and cleared to walk the halls of the academy as long as he didn’t over exert himself at all.
He didn’t have many memories of his time being possessed. He’d run into Shelby and Drift, and after getting almost squeezed to death he was filled in on everything that had happened. Including the part where Legs had apparently told both Shelby and Drift about the deal, which he was kind of glad about. He hated keeping secrets, and he’s glad Legs hadn’t kept his alone.
Speaking of the blue haired man, Scott couldn’t find him anywhere, which was distressing since the only memory Scott had of the whole ordeal was kissing him. He’d checked the library, his dorm, and even the kitchen, but he couldn’t find him anywhere.
Scott decided to check at the top of the towers just in case, knowing it was a place a lot of them went to as students to clear their heads. He found Legs standing on a small balcony overlooking the rest of the academy.
“You’re finally awake!” Legs called out, moving to hug Scott before hesitating, checking with Scott to make sure it was alright. Scott opened his arms, inviting the shorter man into a hug that he never wanted to end.
“Listen, I know you probably have questions, and I know I had no right to do any of that, but we were desperate and trying to figure out how to wake you up and Amber made a comment and I kind of ran with it-”
“Legs,” Scott cut him off, “Did you mean it?”
“Yes and no?” Scott’s heart sank. Amber had told him about the crush Scott had been developing, and while he was glad it had gotten him out of that possession, he had really hoped it meant Legs liked him back.
“Like I wanted to kiss you, and under different circumstances. I mean, for one I would’ve wanted it to be you, and not it. I meant it after you were back, but not when I was still kissing that thing, trying to get you out,” Legs admitted, rushing to explain as he watched Scott visibly deflate.
“You wanted it to be me?”
“Yeah? I mean, you don’t have to feel the same way, I don’t want to force you into thinking a certain way or anything, but I wanted you-” Legs was cut off by Scott kissing him, drawing the smaller man towards him, his hands finding his waist. Legs’ hands found their way up to his face, one cupping his jaw familiarly while the other moved to his hair.
“Better this time?” Scott whispered, forehead pressed against Legs’ as they separated to breathe.
“Definitely.”