92 Two Messes

Nala was the only one able to think with clarity at the moment as she watched the two boys losing all spirit in their eyes.

Kurt wouldn't stop cursing while scratching the floor with his metal claws in an attempt to vent out his anger after being humiliated by his sister. And Trevor simply dropped onto his knees completely frozen in time as the severity of the situation continued to weigh down on him.

The girl could understand his feeling. Despite trying so hard to escape from his traumatic past, just as Kurt was finally managing to help him overcome it, Anomalia showed up again, and just like before, turned him into the boy that survived while two others ended up losing their lives.

Nala didn't really hold any positive feelings towards Park, but she wasn't excited about his death either, especially considering how much this affected Trevor. The last thing her brother needed to see were more dragons getting killed.

She finally came closer to him and tried to lift him up by the arm, "Let's go!"

"Go...?" Trevor whispered without even looking at her, "Go where...?"

"As far away as possible!" she stated, "We shouldn't even be here in the first place! We shouldn't have to put up with the royal dragons and their stupid games! Let's go back to our family and leave all this behind! For good!"

Trevor finally looked at her, "You... You wanna run away?"

"Yes!" she shouted, "Don't you?? What good has ever come from getting involved with this family?? They bring nothing but bad memories for you! Let's just forget about the prince, his mother, and all his crazy siblings! We should be taking care of our own family!!"

Trevor considered the option for a moment. Nothing she said was wrong. Ever since he got involved with the emperor's family he had to endure torment after torment. Being forced to consider sacrificing his own life in order to spare his sister, leaving behind other young dragons and living with that guilt, having to guard the prince and getting involved in all the problems he would bring, risking his life to keep him safe, basically abandoning anything remotely close to resembling a normal life for someone his age, and now, being forced to watch hopelessly as others die yet again.

Just when would this non-stop punishment end?

"Maybe you're right..." he admitted, "But if we leave... The empress..."

"We are already on her bad side!" Nala argued, "We just allowed her precious son, the thing she cares about most on this planet, to challenge his sister for the throne! In front of everyone!!"

Trevor glanced at Kurt who sensed they were talking about him and began to glance back.

"Once she hears about this, she is going to shred us into pieces!! Let's leave before-"

The ground suddenly began to tremble, forcing Nala to interrupt her speech.

The three kids suddenly looked over the pile of rubble surrounding them and watched as a tall shadow approached from the distance coming towards the school with long leaps.

It appeared to be some sort of four-legged tailed being of the size of a truck with a long neck and covered in metal that reflected the light of the moon. Once the beast reached the walls of the school, of which barely half of it was still left standing, it jumped over it with barely any effort and landed on the middle of the arenas causing another small earthquake to take place while more piles of dust started to rise.

Trevor, Kurt, and Nala all stared at the creature. It was clearly a dragon, about as tall as Hugh in his transformed state. Blue spikes covered its head with two others placed around its long tail. Its scales were made of some sort of protective metal and made it look as if the dragon was wearing armor.

It began to march towards the trio and held an intense glare at them, although, somehow, at the same time, while Kurt stared at it, the way it looked wasn't nearly as intimidating as the usual gaze other dragons would have.

"Well then..." the dragon spoke. The voice sounded like that of a female adult, and it was a voice all of the kids recognized very well, "I hope one of you can provide me with a very good explanation!"

Kurt stood up and continued to observe as the dragon started to shrink in size, the metal scales around its body started to disappear and reveal a set of red clothing under it. Soon the tail and spikes on its body also began to shrink until they vanished, and what was once a four-legged being turned into a blond woman standing on two legs with her arms crossed as she glared at them.

"Mom??" Kurt whispered.

""Empress!!"" the two brothers gasped.

Sabiri simply gazed around her. A good portion of the academy was in pieces, a massive hole leading to a strange dungeon was placed in the middle of the gymnasium, several recording devices were scattered all over the ground completely destroyed, and all three of them looked like a mess with bruises on their bodies and parts of their clothing about to rip.

The empress simply glanced at Kurt, who in return just scratched his hair while thinking where to even begin with his explanation.

"It's... A long story."

"I can imagine..." the woman replied, "You can tell me all about it at home. Your friends are waiting for you."

Kurt raised an eyebrow, "My friends...?"

***

After Sabiri transformed into her dragon form one more time and placed each of the kids inside her mouth, much to their displeasure, she made her way back into the mansion and finally dropped each of them into the staircase of her front doors.

"Mom, was that really necessary...?" Kurt groaned while trying to get rid of the amount of dragon saliva that was all over his clothes.

"I'm faster than all you three combined. It just was the most logical option" she explained.

"Right..." Kurt mumbled, "As if the word 'logical' still even mattered in this world..."

The three kids hurried inside and after a quick bath and a change of clothes, they followed Sabiri through the hallways of the mansion as she continued to show a very displeased look on her face.

"So, is anyone going to tell me why a group of strange kids suddenly appeared in thin air in my entrance hall while I was in the middle of my reading?" she asked while walking in front but occasionally glancing back to glare at them.

Kurt finally began to understand what had happened, "Strange kids...? Wait... You mean?"

Sabiri then opened the doors to another room and revealed a group of kids around Kurt's age all resting in a series of beds while being treated by the mansion's butlers and maids.

Gaby, Leon, Gabriella, and her ponytail friend, all were dozing safe and sound without moving while Saramin was seated in her own bed with a light attire made for sleep with a strange device in her hands.

"Hey, apple head" she greeted as the trio walked in.

"Sarah!? Wha- What are you doing here??"

"That's what I want to know as well..." Sabiri grumbled.

Saramin just laughed while scratching her hair and avoiding their gazes, "My bad... I didn't know where else to take everyone while the place was falling apart. I kinda panicked."

Sabiri heard the words 'place falling apart' and began to want even more to know what happened.

"But, why here??" Kurt asked again.

The white-haired lass just shrugged and answered with a blunt expression, "What can I say... It's the only place where I feel welcomed. Pretty sure if I appeared at my mom's she would just toss them all out."

The empress and her son exchanged a small glance as if thinking she did make the right decision after all.

"Is everyone okay?" Kurt asked while checking their states.

"They are all fine. I used the healing flames I memorized from Hugh to make sure they would be out of danger" Saramin explained while putting her device down and approaching Gaby's bed.

She gently pulled her sheet and revealed that the girl had Dorothy in her arms while she continued to sleep. The owl herself also seemed to be resting peacefully.

"What a relief," Kunt commented while releasing a deep breath.

Saramin then came closer to her brother, as well as Trevor and Nala, and began to hold their hands.

"I... I saw how things went down from my device... I... I'm so sorry."

The mood instantly dropped as she was clearly talking about the two boys that ended up dying.

"I know this is a stupid question but... Are you guys okay?"

Trevor's expression suddenly became worse, causing Nala to start to worry over him again. Kurt also wasn't looking so good.

This was the first time he had seen someone die right in front of his eyes. Even in his old life, he never had to experience something like this. To see another being, someone around his own age, just stop moving completely while looking like he was in so much pain, so scared.

Just the idea caused the boy to hug his own shoulders and nearly drop on his knees.

Now that the adrenaline of the moment was finally gone and Kurt was able to process everything, he finally realized that someone had actually died right next to him.

He had been kidnapped many times growing up, and had his life being in danger during many of them. But somewhere along the way, due to his healing flames, he simply began to feel like danger was something that didn't apply to him.

If he got hurt, he could just heal himself. If someone got hurt, he could just heal them.

But this time, his flames were completely useless, and was forced back to reality. The reality that he was not invincible nor were those around him.

Today, Park and Evans died. But that could have been him, or one of his friends. That could have been anyone.

In case the worst did come to happen, would he be able to endure it?

And what was worse, he couldn't stop thinking about how Trevor was dealing with all that. He had to come face-to-face with this mentality ever since he was a kid while also being under the impression that he was partly at fault for it.

Kurt really thought he would be able to help him overcome this sensation by simply telling him to be a doctor? He nearly slapped himself just from thinking about how stupid that sounded. To think he offered such a simple solution when he clearly had no idea what the boy was really suffering through.

"Trevor..." Kurt mumbled. His voice was weak and yet soft, as if he was trying to comfort his friend despite showing that he clearly was in need of comfort himself, "I'm sorry..."

"Sorry...?" Trevor repeated trying to understand the meaning from his words, "For what?"

"For... For everything... For dragging you into my problems, for not being aware of your struggle, for trying to help you without properly understanding you... I... I really have not been a good friend to you..."

Sabiri, Saramin, and Nala just kept glancing at the two boys while the empress kept holding a look of 'Will someone just tell me what happened already??'

Trevor simply gazed at Kurt's face. The red-haired prince looked so big a few hours ago, ready to change the world, ready to try and help out everyone, ready to make a difference. But now he seemed so small.

It was getting hard to tell who needed to be consoled and who needed to do the consoling.

The sight of Kurt from before, the sight of someone that could help Trevor escape from this tormenting past that continued to haunt him. Trevor wanted that sight back. He wanted to see the Kurt that inspired hope in others back.

"Don't be sorry," Trevor finally spoke while grabbing his shoulders, "Remember what you said, back there?"

"Wha- What I said...?"

"You said it wasn't my fault! And that you had my back! And now I'll return these words to you!"

"Bu- But-"

Trevor stepped away from him and simply offered his hand, "We are both a mess... I know that... But while we can't fix who we are right now, maybe we can fix each other!"

The two girls and the empress then stared at Kurt waiting for his reply, as the boy just kept gazing at his friend's palm and with a little bit of hesitation finally grabbed it.

"You mean you don't blame me? For everything?"

"I could never blame you. You were the first friend I ever made!"

Kurt finally couldn't hold it in any longer and began to tear up while hearing someone referring to him as a friend with honesty in his words. Not because he was a prince he needed to protect out of duty, but because he simply wanted to.

As the two continued to enjoy their moment Sabiri simply turned her hands into metal claws and grabbed both Nala and Saramin by their heads.

"Seriously, someone explain to me what's going on. Now!"